(5) Jesus also taught that the life of love was endless. The old friendships flourished under dark skies. Fears of an awful end haunted them, and when death came, ' They dreamed there would be spring no more.' But Christ has brought life and inmiortality to light through His gospel. He has spoken with certainty of the future, and has made the darkness beautiful. The Christian poet can rise out of the calamity of interrupted friendship into the repose of faith and self-control.
' Far ofE thou art but ever nigh, I have thee still and I rejoice : I prosper, circled with thy voice : I shall not lose thee tho' I die ' (In Mcmm-iam, cxxx.).
Human affection will pass through the cleansing stream of death, and puriiied of all selfishness and evil will be made perfect in the presence of God.
3. The friendship of Jesus.— Christianity is a life as well as a system of teaching ; and as each virtue or quality is best interpreted in the light of the highest example of its kind, so also human friendship becomes transfigured by the friendship which Jesus otters to all who will receive Him.
(1) T/ic friendship of Jestts as revealed in t/ie Gospels. — These narratives show how aijproachable .Tosus was. His readiness to accept social invita- (ioiis, to befriend all classes, to reveal His gracious ini'ssa^e, testifies to His genius for friendshii^, and accounts in part for the contemptuous title, 'Friend of publicans and .sinners.' He chose twelve ' tliat they might be with him ' (Mk 3'*), and to these He revealed what was dearest to His heart. On the Mount of Transfiguration He admitted three of them to the vision of His glory (Mt 17''" II): in Gethsemane He opened to the same three the door of His grief (26^'^-"') : He told His diseiples of the stern struggle with temptation in
FEIENDSHIP
FRUIT
tlie wilderness of Judoea. The house at Bethany was a second home to Him, and His love for 'our friend Lazarus ' was manifested in His visit to the sisters, and in the grief that overwhelmed Him at the grave (Jn 11).
In the second jjart of the Fourth Gospel the affection of Jesus is seen to lack the slightest 'grain of depreciation,' which Schopenhauer re- commends among friends. The constancy of the perfect Friend is the first theme of this intimate writing (Jn 13-17), a constancy unimpaired by sorrow or joy. The foreboding of death ( ' knowing that he would depart out of this world ') threatened to draw away His mind, as also the vision of a transcendent glory ('that he would depart unto the Father ') imperilled His attachment ; but neither the excess of grief nor the ecstasy of gladness availed to weaken His fidelity to those whom He had chosen ; ' having loved his own, he loved them unto the end ' (Jn 13'). In the following chapters the love of Jesus is unfolded with the eloquence peculiar to St. John's Gospel. Christ breathes about them the atmosphere of God's glory, lifts up their thoughts to the heavenly home, filling them with the fragrant truth of the endless love I A Ciiil, all of which is summed up in terms of fricnilship in Jn IS'^-'^ («) Jesus is a perfect fiiend lieoause of His perso7ial sacrifice: 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend' (v.'"). Sacrifice is the most convincing evidence in the world, and the suiTender of personal advancement for the sake of others is proof of the noble emotion of love. As there is nothing that a man can give in exchange for his life, the death of Jesus for us is the highest evi- dence of His perfect friendship. Sacrifice is also the food of love, and friendship is growth in self- sacrificing love. Each self-denial strengthens the bond of attachment, and when sacrifice is allowed its perfect work it forms a deatliless union. Jesus experienced every stage of self-denial, suppressing His own desires, until His love, perfected through suffering, received its crown and goal on the Mount of Crucifixion. The sacrifice which was the evi- dence of His perfect friendship was also the only sustenance by which perfect friendship could be nourished, (b) Christ's friendship is an ethical constraint : ' Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you' (v."). He is our kindest friend who makes us do our best, and who helps us to do what we thought we could not do. The conscious- ness of expanding power is purest joy. Christ arouses enthusiasm for the holy life, imparts new resolves to master temptation, and is the most effectual aid in the attamment of the ethical life. His friendship is our better self, our conscience, (t) There is intimate communion in the friendship of Jesus : ' Henceforth I call you not servants, but I have called you friends : for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you' (v.'^). Friendship is fellowship in which undue reserve is cast off. When Christ spoke out on the most sacred matters of religion, and shared with others His knowledge of the Father, He did the friendliest of acts. Christ's love was the most intimate relation into which any man could enter, and TTi- ii-im y, devotion, communion, and in- Kpinii I II I L t he first place among friends.