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Are you a man? Then you should have an human heart. But have you indeed? What is your heart made of? Is there no such principle as Compassion there? Do you never feel another's pain? Have you no Sympathy? No sense of human woe? No pity for the miserable? When you saw the flowing eyes, the heaving breasts, or the bleeding sides and tortured limbs of your fellow-creatures, was you a stone, or a brute? Did you look upon them with the eyes of a tiger? When you squeezed the agonizing creatures down in the ship, or when you threw their poor mangled remains into the sea, had you no relenting? Did not one tear drop from your eye, one sigh escape from your breast? Do you feel no relenting now? If you do not, you must go on, till the measure of your iniquities is full. Then will the Great GOD deal with You, as you have dealt with them, and require all their blood at your hands.

John Wesley#9

ReligionEthicsMoralityJudgmentCompassionHumanity

About this quote

What does it mean?
Wesley condemns a lack of compassion, urging the reader to feel others’ suffering or face divine judgment.
In plain terms
If you lack sympathy, you will be judged harshly by God.
What can you take from it?
Compassion is essential for moral integrity.

Where it applies

  • ethical dilemmas
  • humanitarian crises

Putting it to work

  • practice active listening
  • volunteer for aid

Questions to consider

  • What does true compassion look like?
  • How can societies foster empathy?

Another view

The warning assumes a specific theological framework not shared by all.

More from John Wesley

  1. In returning I read a very different book, published by an honest Quaker, on that execrable sum of all villanies, commonly called the Slave-trade.

    Permalink to quote #8
  2. No circumstances can make it necessary for a man to burst in sunder all the ties of humanity.

    Permalink to quote #10
  3. Passion and prejudice govern the world; only under the name of reason. It is our part, by religion and reason joined, to counteract them all we can.

    Permalink to quote #7

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