they trust, they know not why or whither, through danger, and hunger, and fatigue, and death itself; the feeling which, in its highest perfection, made the Apostles forsake all and follow Christ, saying, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life'which made them ready to work and to die for him whom the world called the Son of the Carpenter, but whom they, through the Spirit of God bearing witness with their own pure and noble spirits, knew to be the Son of the Living God. Ay, a blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend; one human soul whom we can trust utterly; who knows the best and the worst of us, and who loves us, in spite of all our faults; who will speak the honest truth to us, while the world flatters us to our face, and laughs at us behind our back; who will give us counsel and reproof in the day of prosperity and self-conceit but who, again, will comfort and encourage us in the day of difficulty and sorrow, when the world leaves us alone to fight our own battle as we can. If we have had the good fortune to win such a friend, let us do anything rather than lose him. We must give and forgive; live and let live. If our friend have faults, we must bear with them. We must hope all things, believe all things, endure all things, rather than lose that most precious of all earthly possessions, a trusty friend. And a friend, once won, need never be lost, if we will only be trusty and true ourselves. Friends may part-not merely in body, but in spirit, for a while. In the bustle of business and the accidents of life, they may lose sight of each other for years; and more-they may begin to differ in their success in life, in their opinions, in their habits, and there may be, for a time, coldness and estrangement between but not for ever, if each will be but them trusty and true. For then, according to the beautiful figure of the poet, they will be like two ships who set sail at morning from the same port, and ere nightfall lose sight of. each other, and go each on its own course, and at its own pace, for many days, through many storms and seas; and yet meet again, and find themselves lying side by side in the same haven, when their long voyage is past. And if not, my friends; if they never meet; if one shall founder and sink upon the seas, or even change his course, and fly shamefully home again: still is there not a Friend of friends who cannot change, but is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever? What says the noble hymn : 'When gathering clouds around I view, And counts and treasures up my tears.' Passing the love of woman was His love, indeed; and of him Jonathan was but such a type, as the light in the dewdrop is the type of the sun in heaven. He himself said-and what he said, that he fulfilled- Greater love hath no man than this -that a man lay down his life for his friends.' In treachery and desertion; in widowhood and childlessness; in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment, when each soul must stand alone before its God, one Friend remains, and that the best of all. SERMON XII. SOLOMON. ECCLESIASTES 1. 12-14. I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. ALL have heard of Solomon the Wise. His name has become a proverb among men. It was still more a proverb among the old Their hero, the man of whom they delighted to talk and dream, was not David, the Psalmist, and the shepherd-boy, the man of many wanderings, and many sorrows: but his son Solomon, with all his wealth, and pomp, and magic wisdom. Ever since our Lord's time, if not before it, Solomon has been the national hero |