1 Thessalonians 2:7-8 But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children:… After all, it is only the sympathetic person who is fit for the office of nurse. There are born nurses, as there are born artists or poets — gentle, soft stepping creatures, who let in the sunshine with their very presence, just with their cheerful voices and beaming eyes, and all-embracing charity, which, Christ-like, places no blame on jangling nerves for the extorted word of impatience, when flesh and heart are fainting, and the silver cord is well nigh loosed, but with softest touch and pitying eyes soothe in place of condemning, and help the poor sufferer just as a mother's warm breast lulls her babe to forget its pain. A cheerful inflection of the voice is often worth more than a whole apothecary's shop. Your dull, silent croake is a walking hearse in a sick room. After all, in this, as in every other successful profession, intelligence must rule; but, alas! intelligence is the rarest of gifts. We may buy jellies and hothouse fruits, but who has intelligence to sell combined with kindness, though the mines of Golconda bid for it? (Fanny Fern.) Parallel Verses KJV: But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:WEB: But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother cherishes her own children. |
    |