The Yale expositor., 1898-09-16

My four-year-old child got hurt and
dill not cry until hours after, when her
mother came home, and then she burst
into weeping, and some of the domes-
tics, not understanding human nature,
said to her why did you not cry
before?" She answered: There was
no one to cry to-" Now. have to tell
you that while human sympathy may
be absent, Divine sympathy is always
accessible. Give God your love- and
get his love; your service, and secure
his help; your repentance, and have
his pardon. God friend? Why, that
means all your wounds medicated, all
your sorrows soothed, and IL some sud
den catastrophe should hurl you out OF
earth 1t would only hurl you into
heaven.
II God is your friend, you cannot go
out Of the world too quickly or sud-
denly, so far as your own happiness is
concerned. There were two Christians
who entered heaven; the one was
standing at a window in perfect health,
watching a shower, and the lightning
Instantly slew him; but the lightning
did not fash down the sky as swiftly
as his spirit flashed upward. The Chris
tian man who died on the same day
next door had been for year or two
falling In health, and for the last
three months had suffered from a dis
ease that had made the nights Sleep
less and the days an anguish. Do you
not really think that the case of the
one who went instantly was more de-
sirable than the one who entered the
shining gate through a long lane OF
insomnia and congestion? In the one
case 1t was like your standing YEARLY
at door, knocking and waiting, and
wondering If ii will ever open, and
knocking and waiting again, while in
the other case 1t was a swinging open
OF the door at the first touch Of your
knuckle. Give your friendship to God,
and have Gods friendship for you, and
even the worst accident will be vic
tory.
How refreshing a human friendship;
and true friends, what priceless treas
ures! When sickness comes, and trou-
bic comes, and death comes, We send
for our friends first of all, and their
appearance in our doorway in any
crisis is reinforcement, and when they
have entered, we say: Now it is all
right" Oh, what would we do with
out personal friends, business friends,
family friends? But we want some
thing mightier than human friendship
in the great eXigenc.es. When Jona-
Il. 10,
given the last goodbye to all his
earthly friends, he turned on his pill
low and closed his eyes, confidently
saying: Now where is Jesus of Naz-
areth, my true and never-failing
Friend?" Yes, admire human friend
ship as seen in the case of David and
Jonathan, Of Paul and Onesiphorus, OF
Herder and Goethe, of Goldsmith and
Reynolds, of Beaumont and Fletcher,
of Cowley and Harvey, of Erasmus
and Thomas More, of Leasing and
Mendelssohn, of Lady Churchill and
Princess Anne, Of Orestes and Pylades,
each requesting that himself might
take the point of the dagger, so the
other might be spared; of Epamin-
ondas and Pelopidas, who locked their
shields in battle, determined to die to-
gether; but the grandest, the might
TEST, the tenderest friendship in all the
universe is the friendship between
Jesus Christ and a believing soul. Yet,
after all / have said, ! feel l have
only done what James Marshall, the
miner, did in 1S4S in California, be-
fore its gold mines were known. He
reached in and put upon the table OF
his employer, Captain Suffer, a Thin
bleful of gold dust. Where did you
get that?" said his employer. The re-
ply was: II got it this morning from
a mill race from which the water had
been drawn off," But that gold dust,
which could have been taken up be-
tween the finger and the thumb, was
the prophecy and specimen that re-
vealed California's wealth to all ma
tons. And today have only put be-
fore you a specimen Of the value OF
divine friendship, only a thimbleful
of mines inexhaustible and infinite,
though all time and all eternity go on
with the exploration.