October 8

"Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. — Rom 12:15

Strange as it may seem, it is easier to weep with those who weep; than it is to rejoice with those who rejoice. There is something in sorrow that makes its resistless appeal to every heart, touching it with tenderness, and calling out sympathetic expressions. Suffering in another, disarms all unkindly feeling, and bids a truce, for the time at least, to all bitterness, jealousy, and resentment. We weep even with our enemy, whom we find in pain or sorrow. No one is ever envious of another’s grief.

But when we see others rejoicing, it is not so according to nature to rejoice with them. The mood of gladness is not so sure to find sympathetic chords in the hearts of others. There are those who are envious of the happiness of others–and are made even more miserable by their joy! This surely is a most undivine spirit, and yet none can deny its existence in many hearts.

Gladness in others makes no such appeal to a heart, as sorrow does. It does not need help. Yet we should mark well the lesson that it is as much our duty to rejoice with those who rejoice–as it is to weep with those who weep. It is a close test of character, this being able to be glad because our friend is prosperous, even though at the time we do not have prosperity ourselves. It shows a wholesome spiritual condition.