It was probably a hard saying to the Pharisees, that 'there is more joy
in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine just
persons that need no repentance.' And certain ingenious philosophers of
our own day must surely take offence at a joy so entirely out of
correspondence with arithmetical proportion. But a heart that has been
taught by its own sore struggles to bleed for the woes of another--that
has 'learned pity through suffering'--is likely to find very imperfect
satisfaction in the 'balance of happiness,' 'doctrine of compensations,'
and other short and easy methods of obtaining thorough complacency in the
presence of pain; and for such a heart that saying will not be altogether
dark. The emotions, I have observed, are but slightly influenced by
arit
