True sympathy draws us very close to the sufferer. It also gives us that thoughtfulness, and that delicacy of feeling and touch, which makes us gentle in all our treatment of grief; for no other ministry is refinement of spirit so essential as for that of dealing with pained or wounded hearts. A wrong touch, or a harsh word, or the quick flash of an eye, may do irreparable harm, only opening afresh, with new pain and torture, the wound it was meant to heal. We need the most delicate gentleness for the office of comfort.