r given
itself the trouble of trying to 'understand' others, or of showing the
sympathy for which it says that it thirsts. And many of these
complaining spirits might take a lesson from the lonely Apostle. There
never was a man, except Paul's Master and ours, who cared more for human
sympathy, had his own heart fuller of it, and received less of it from
others than Paul. But he had discovered what it would be blessedness for
us all to lay to heart, that a man who has Christ for his companion can
do without others, and that a heart in which there whispers, 'Lo, I am
with you always,' can never be utterly solitary.

May we not take the further lesson that the sympathy which we should
chiefly desire is sympathy and fellow-service in Christian work? Paul
did not want like-minded people in order that he might have the luxury
of enjoying their sympathy, but what he wanted was allies in his work
for Christ. It was sympathy in his care for the Philippians that he
sought for in his messenger. And that is the noblest form of
like-mindedness that we can desire--some one to hold the ropes for us.

Note, too, that Paul does not weakly complain because he had no helpers.
Good and earnest men are very apt to say much about the half-hearted way
in which their brethren take up some cause in which they are eagerly
interested, and sometimes to abandon it altogether for that reason. May
not such faint hearts learn a lesson from him who had 'no man
like-minded,' and yet never dreamt of whimpering because of it, or of
flinging down his tools because of the indolence of his fellow-workers?

There is another point to be observed in the Apostle's words here. He
felt that their attitude to Christ determined his affinities with men.
He could have no deep and true fellowship with others, whatever their
name to live, who were daily 'seeking their own,' and at the same time
leaving unsought 'the things of Jesus Christ.' They who are not alike in
their deepest aims can have no real kindred. Must we not say that hosts
of so-called Christian people do not seem to feel, if one can judge by
the company they affect, that the deepest bond uniting men is that which
binds them to Jesus Christ? I would press the question, Do we feel that
nothing draws us so close to men as common love to Jesus, and that if we
are not alike on that cardinal point there is a deep gulf of separation
beneath a deceptive surface of union, an unfathomable gorge marked by a
quakin