The Ministry of Sympathy

Mark 10:49

"And Jesus stood still." Do we not need, in reading the life of the great Exemplar, to note how His ministry was without haste. In these busy lives of ours, we are so apt to miss this part of sympathy in ministering to others, which is more especially Christlike. He never came across suffering, but He gave it calm, patient, concentrated attention. "He stood still" yet if ever He might have passed by or given but hurried consideration to a case of distress, surely it was then, when the weight of anticipated woe lay heavy upon Him, but He had still a heart at leisure from itself: for the need of a poor blind beggar. Let us seek to do likewise: to be able to turn from our own cares and sorrows to soothe the grief of another, to be unruffled amid plans upset and projects delayed, that we might minister a cup of cold water, as Jesus would have done it. Better be content with a small service done thus after the Master's example, than let much effort and activity so overcrowd our lives that there is no time for "standing still."