SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 299, 21 January 1911, Page 10

SUNDAY READING

THE FRIENDS OF THE LORD. (By Bev. J. 11. Jowett, M.A.) '.'YE ABE MY' FRIENDS." What a title to have! In that imperial day when the title was First conferred, when honors were lavishly bestowed and ostentatiously worn, was there any honor to compare with this? And, in our own time, what can we place by its side? All parchments, and diplomas, and dignities are the mere flummery of the hour compared with this, which shines amid all the tempestuous vagaries of circumstances, and is independent of popular w,him and caprice. "My friends!" What a biography, and what a glorious epitaph! OBEDIENCE—THE CONDITION OF FRIENDSHIP. What is the path which leads to this friendship? "Ye are any friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." Let 'us quietly think what this condition implies. First of all, it implies an exploration. A man who wishes tc be a friend of the saviour must diligently consult his will. What says the Master in His Word? tf I would be in his intimate circle, I must ''meditate in his law day and -night." This will give me principles, which will illumine the mind, ajid exercise the. judgment and make me sensitive to his approach. And what says my Master in the conscience? I must steadily consult its guidance as being that of a 'Mam]) unto my feet and a light unto my path." Hhus must I be an explorer in the King's desires, and I must seek for them as for hidden treasure. In the second place, it implies painstaking discrimination. I do not always find that the will of the Lord becomes clear and obtrusive in a moment. The balance does not .tilt violently and make it immediately clear when- the weight of revelation falls. More frequently the balance seems to turn with a hair, and I have to watch, mast .scrupulously to recognise the turning. Now and again the case is so clear that my jury can give a verdict without leaving the \>ox. At other times the jury retire to consider their verdict, and judgment is temporarily stayed. Now it is in those emergencies, when I have to exercise delicate discrimination, that I find moral discipline and moral growth. My Lord puts this responsibility upon me in order that I may be exercised in spiritual discernment, ■ and may become more and more sensitive in the perception of His will. And still a third thing is implied, and .that is a determined approbation. Once I know the will, once the road is clear before me, I must walk it with unwavering and unhesitating decision. Once I know the King's commandments, I must concentrate every power to chivalrous obedience. And now I can bring this reasqning to bear upon the great words of ifiy Ixwd. He graciously tells me that if I thus seek to do His will, the very obedience will be instrumental in the creation of vital ties of friendship between the soul and Ilim. It is not merely tihat my obedience is labelled friendship; it is tlmt obedience creates friendship, generating those wonderful intimacies which are the richest and sublimest treasures of the soul.

Xow let us .glance at some of the primary characteristics of friendship, in order tliat we inav see something, of the fair realm in which our souls may find an entrance in the home. Let us survey some, of the outstanding things which are significant of excellent friendship. First of all, there are kindred tastes. Can two walk together except they be agreed t There must he some identity of inclination if the intimacy is to be one of vital union. There is enough similarity among the Lake school poets to enable them to come together and sit at the common feast. And yet, even in this intimate school, there are wide differences in the scale of friendship. The fellowship of Wordsworth aiul De Quinev might be placed in. the outer circle of associates; that of Wordsworth' and Coleridge comes mucli nearer the centre; that of Wordsworth and Dorothy Wordsworth dwells in the innermost heart. Their tastes were so akin that the two beings almost constituted one soul. And so it is with the mends of the Lord. l!v a sacred obedience we are introduced into the innermost realm of fellowship, where we feast upon common delights, and drink of the river of his pleasure. SPIRITUAL COMMUNION. And surely another characteristic of friendship is the readiness of one friend to catch the other's point of view. It is quite possible to do this with an author with whom. \v,p. have bad intimate communion. We can become so familiar with his mental attitude, with his spiritual pose, that we can tell in any new set of circumstances how he will confront them. And so it is with a personal friend; we can so enter into the biases ami inclination of his soul that we can apprehend his attitude before he has expressed it. ''l know how he will look at it!" We are able to make his deductions, to draw his inferences, and to arrive at his conclusions. And are wc not justified in applying this reasoning to the friendship of the soul and the Lord? It is one of the characteristics of high spiritual communion that it possesses a fine appreciation of the Lord's point of view. "We have the mind of Christ." By obedience the deliberate becomes the instinctive, and ''we know, even as also we sire known." And going further in our survey, may we not say it is one of the priceless privileges of friendship that it carries the keys to sacred doors and private rooms? We have acquaintances who are never permitted to advance beyond the doorstep: We have others who are permitted to enter the hall. Others, again, have liberty to enter the public rooms. But a few hav« the freedom of the living rooms, and sit down with the family at the common board. And the friends of the Lord are this last sort, and they have the keys of "the secret place." ''No longer do'l call you .servants!" The liberty of the servant is circumscribed: the intimate friends have the run of the house. SURRENDERED TO MUTUAL SERVICE. And finally, there is this gracious characteristic of all true friendship, that the friends stand ready at mutual call. One is no sooner sick than his friend is at the gate. So it is between the soul and the Lord. T stand at attention, and if He calls T answer. And if I call upon Him, He. too, makes speedy reply. "Before He calls T will answer Him." True friends are surrendered to mutual service. , . . All tliis is trim of our friendship with tlie Lord. And, tlu*rofore. you see, I am not dealing with abstractions. I am not describing some ethereal to a radiant and passive ideal. Nor is our Friend, the Lord, a mere posthumous influence, a dumb. deaf, blind energy, living in smils made better by His unconscious presence. Nor am we dealing with the influence of some radiant spirit in the I world of spirit* who is absolutely noncognisant of thee and me. If I can be His friend. He can lie my friend, and out from my great Companion there is an intelligent radiation of personal energy directed to me and to thee and to all who seek to do His will. _ t And what will be. the issues of a friendship like this? Let me quote a very beautiful paragraph from Professor Raleigh's great book on Wordsworth: "To know Wm is to leam courage; to walk

with him is to feel the visitings of a larger, purer air, and the peace of ivn unfathomable sky." I dare to take these words, and reverently apply them in infinitely richer significance to the friendship of the soul with the Lord. CHRIST'S FRIENDSHIP MAKES US BRAVE. "To know him is to learn courage." Aye, Christ's friends are very brave. '■" When they so/w the boldness of Peter!" That chivalrous soul was one of the Lord's creations. The friends of the Master have courage to plan, and to do, and to dare, and to die! "Perfect love castotih out fear"; it departs like a fearsome spectre hurrying away in the bright light of the morning. "To walk with him is to feel the visitings of a larger, purer air." Does not this suggest the opening of a window and letting in the breath of boundless moors? There is nothing small and petty and confined about the friends of the Master. They are inclusive in thought, broad in sympathy and generous in service. "Thou lrast set my feet in a larger place." "And the peace of an unfathomable sky." And such is the wonderful experience of the true friends of the Lord. To become His friend as to pass out of the restless, irritable shallows into the still, cool depths of ,th.e infinite. "My peace 1 give unto you."