as Jesus passed by

171:7.1Je­sus spread good cheer ev­ery­where he went. He was full of grace and truth. His as­so­ciates never ceased to won­der at the gra­cious words that pro­ceeded out of his mouth. You can cul­ti­vate grace­ful­ness, but gra­cious­ness is the aroma of friend­li­ness which em­anates from a love-sat­u­rated soul.

171:7.2Good­ness al­ways com­pels re­spect, but when it is de­void of grace, it of­ten re­pels af­fec­tion. Good­ness is uni­ver­sally at­trac­tive only when it is gra­cious. Good­ness is ef­fec­tive only when it is at­trac­tive.

171:7.3Je­sus re­ally un­der­stood men; there­fore could he man­i­fest gen­uine sym­pa­thy and show sin­cere com­pas­sion. But he sel­dom in­dulged in pity. While his com­pas­sion was bound­less, his sym­pa­thy was prac­ti­cal, per­sonal, and con­struc­tive. Never did his fa­mil­iar­ity with suf­fer­ing breed in­dif­fer­ence, and he was able to min­is­ter to dis­tressed souls with­out in­creas­ing their self-pity.

171:7.4Je­sus could help men so much be­cause he loved them so sin­cerely. He truly loved each man, each woman, and each child. He could be such a true friend be­cause of his re­mark­able in­sight—he knew so fully what was in the heart and in the mind of man. He was an in­ter­ested and keen ob­server. He was an ex­pert in the com­pre­hen­sion of hu­man need, clever in de­tect­ing hu­man long­ings.

171:7.5Je­sus was never in a hurry. He had time to com­fort his fel­low men “as he passed by.” And he al­ways made his friends feel at ease. He was a charm­ing lis­tener. He never en­gaged in the med­dle­some prob­ing of the souls of his as­so­ciates. As he com­forted hun­gry minds and min­is­tered to thirsty souls, the re­cip­i­ents of his mercy did not so much feel that they were con­fess­ing to him as that they were con­fer­ring with him. They had un­bounded con­fi­dence in him be­cause they saw he had so much faith in them.

171:7.6He never seemed to be cu­ri­ous about peo­ple, and he never man­i­fested a de­sire to di­rect, man­age, or fol­low them up. He in­spired pro­found self-con­fi­dence and ro­bust cour­age in all who en­joyed his as­so­ci­a­tion. When he smiled on a man, that mor­tal ex­pe­ri­enced in­creased ca­pac­ity for solv­ing his man­i­fold prob­lems.

171:7.7Je­sus loved men so much and so wisely that he never hes­i­tated to be se­vere with them when the oc­ca­sion de­manded such dis­ci­pline. He fre­quently set out to help a per­son by ask­ing for help. In this way he elicited in­ter­est, ap­pealed to the bet­ter things in hu­man na­ture.

171:7.8The Mas­ter could dis­cern sav­ing faith in the gross su­per­sti­tion of the woman who sought heal­ing by touch­ing the hem of his gar­ment. He was al­ways ready and will­ing to stop a ser­mon or de­tain a mul­ti­tude while he min­is­tered to the needs of a sin­gle per­son, even to a lit­tle child. Great things hap­pened not only be­cause peo­ple had faith in Je­sus, but also be­cause Je­sus had so much faith in them.

171:7.9Most of the re­ally im­por­tant things which Je­sus said or did seemed to hap­pen ca­su­ally, “as he passed by.” There was so lit­tle of the pro­fes­sional, the well-planned, or the pre­med­i­tated in the Mas­ter’s earthly min­istry. He dis­pensed health and scat­tered hap­pi­ness nat­u­rally and grace­fully as he jour­neyed through life. It was lit­er­ally true, “He went about do­ing good.”

171:7.10And it be­hooves the Mas­ter’s fol­low­ers in all ages to learn to min­is­ter as “they pass by”—to do un­selfish good as they go about their daily du­ties.