"More than my brothers are to me," — Let this not vex thee, noble heart! I know thee of what force thou art To hold the costliest love in fee.
But thou and I are one in kind,
As moulded like in Nature's mint; And hill and wood and field did print
The same sweet forms in either mind.
For us the same cold streamlet curl'd
Thro' all his eddying coves; the same All winds that roam the twilight came
In whispers of the beauteous world.
At one dear knee we proffer'd vows,
One lesson from one book we learn'd Ere childhood's flaxen ringlet turn'd
To black and brown on kindred brows.
And so my wealth resembles thine.
But he was rich where I was poor, And he supplied my want the more
As his unlikeness fitted mine.
2 SAMUEL I. 26 295
So it is, I think, in all the best friendships. David sought and found his closest friendship outside his own family; in one from whom he was severed by antagonism, and conflicting interests ; and such friendship was true and unbroken.^
(2) Disinterestedness. — Jonathan was heir-apparent to the throne, but David had been anointed king by Samuel. The kingdom was to be taken from the house of Saul, and given to the house of David. Very naturally, the young prince Jonathan might have felt first envy, and then hatred of David, who was to supplant him ; but instead of that, he said to him one day, very touchingly, " Thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee." He meant to be his friend, and his helper, taking joy in seeing David wear the crown which might have adorned his own brow.
Contrast Jonathan's love with Eliab's suspicion and envy. Smarting under a consciousness of his inferiority in faith and courage to his young brother, Eliab taunted him with forsaking his duty, and coming away from the farm to enjoy the excitement of camp life. " I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart ; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle." That is how his own mother's son greeted David. But the king's son loved him as his own soul.
^ I have no great expectations of the permanence of a friend- ship that is sought definitely and distinctly for purposes of gain. Friendship that lasts is nearly always, I think, in its origin, disinterested. It is a spontaneous outgoing of the affection and sympathy towards some other personality. And I want you to remember that there are few burdens heavier to bear than the burden of thoughts, desires, hopes, sorrows, intentions, ideals, which we can share with no one because we have no friend in life to share them with. Lord Bacon warned us, in his striking way, against being " cannibals of our own hearts." *
^ Friendship by its very nature consists in loving rather than in being loved. In other words, friendship consists in being a friend, not in having a friend.^
^ " If I have not succeeded in my friendships," Thoreau says in his journal, "it was because I demanded more of them, and
^ C. Silvester Home, Eelationships of Life, 133.
» C. Silvester Home. « H. Clay Trumbull.
296 FRIENDSHIP
did not put up with what I could get ; and I got no more partly because I gave so little.^
^ By entering fully into the lives of others he freed himself from much of that painful self-consciousness which is the curse of a sensitive character. In proportion as his friendship was deep was his imagination penetrative into the characters of his friends, and that to such a degree that he took their lives into his own. And for all in whom he became interested, he was untiring in effort. He invented new plans for their lives, new interests, new pursuits. He sought ceaselessly for remedies for their trials, and means of escape from their perplexities. There never lived a truer friend.^
(3) Loyalty. — Jonathan clung to David through good report and through evil report. It might be alleged that when David had, at one bound, leaped into the first place in the affections of the people, it was politic for Jonathan to pose as his friend ; or it might be urged that Jonathan allowed himself to be carried away by a rush of emotion, and that that was why he abdicated so readily in favour of David. But Jonathan loved David equally when he was in adversity. When king Saul had turned against David and was hunting him as a partridge on the mountains, then it was Jonathan's loyalty and courage that kept David from despairing. This is forcibly brought out in tha incident at Keilah. David had done great things for the men of Keilah; for in obedience to God's command, but in defiance of all counsels of prudence, David had attacked the Philistines and delivered Keilah out of their hands. Before long, however, Saul came to take David prisoner, and the men of Keilah had agreed to give up their champion, and deliver him into the hands of Saul. So David fled and took refuge in the wilderness of Ziph. It was a time of sore darkness and trial, and David's faith was in danger of giving way. Now if David's faith had failed, Jonathan might have regained the succession to the throne. What, then, did Jonathan do ? He went to visit his friend in adversity, and strengthened his hands in God. " Fear not, thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee." So on another occasion : " Whatsoever thy soul desireth, I will even do it for thee." Jonathan was loyal to the core.