On the day I arrived at Haifa I was ill with a dysentery which I had picked up

On the day I arrived at Haifa I was ill with a dysentery which I had picked up in the course of my travels. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent His own physician to me, and visited me Himself. He said, “I would that I could take your illness upon Myself.” I have never forgotten this. I felt, I knew, that in making this remark ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was not speaking in mere terms of sympathy. He meant just what He said.  Such is the great love of the Kingdom, of which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke so often and so much. This is a love that is difficult, almost impossible, for us to acquire -- though we may seek to approximate its perfection. It is more than sympathy, more than empathy. It is sacrificial love.

Source: Some Warm Memories of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá -- by Stanwood Cobb Source

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: empathy).

Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/empathy