THE SABBATH.

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20635, 22 October 1938, Page 20 (Supplement)

THE SABBATH.

TO SPRING O thou 'with dewy locks, who lookest Through the clear windows ot the morning, turn Thine augel eyes upon our western isle, Which in full choir hails thy approach, 0 spring ! The hills tell each other, and the listening Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turned Up to thy bright pavilions; issue forth, And let they holy feet visit our clime ! Gome o’er the eastern hills, and let our winds Kiss thy perfumed garments; let us taste Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls Upon our lovesick land that mourns for thee. —William Blake FRIENDSHIP In Che life of pagan Greece and Rome peculiar value was attached to friendship, which was a frequent subject of literary and philosophical discourse. In the ancient world the individual found in friendship an escape from the dominance of the State, and a soil for the cultivation of moral ideals. This worth attached to friendship added a grace to life, and provided sanctions for conduct. The OJd Testament, and particularly the Book of Proverbs, has much to say about this virtue; and it opens up depths which were hidden from the classical writers. The whole Old Testament is pervaded with the sense of the Living God; human life in its pages is viewed in the light of that illumination, and is seen to be capable of Rich Spiritual Possibilities. The Hebrew writers dared to speak of Abraham and Moses as “friends” of God. Man’s fellowship with God ccnuld not but give to human friendship a deeper significance because it provided it with a regulative standard.

Friendship ranges all the way from mere acquaintance to that complete harmony of souls where the devotion of the whole personality is involved. But in any friendship worthy of the name certain factors are always present, such as sympathy, respect for personality, and a measure of commun-

ity of interests. Friendship is a peculiarly personal tie, arising from mutual appreciation, but strengthened by the trust which each reposes in the other. Without this trust the friendship 'has no sure foundation and will not endure.

With its varied possibilities of intercourse friendship provides opportunity for the development of personality, for that losing of a life that it may be found again deepened and enriched. “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.’’ In the give-and-take of mutual association friends not only learn to know each other but win a clearer knowledge of themselves. An unerring test of friendship is the readiness of the friends to accept criticism from each other. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” No friendship based merely on flattery or mutual admiration fulfils the highest purpose. Friends should be able to speak the truth in love together and to accept criticism or reproof without offence.

In Christianity friendship as a fact of the natural order merges into the w’ider conception of fellowship in the Kingdom. This does not mean that Christianity abolishes friendships; but that it does not regard them as ends in themselves but as means for the service of 1 God and man, and for the promotion of the interests of the Kingdom. Human friendships, viewed in the light of | Christ’s teaching, are associations within the larger unity of brotherhood \ ! created by Christian love. “I have ■ called you friends,” said our Lord to His disciples. He was referring not 1 simply to the fact that they had been His companions in His ministry but that | He had revealed to them the purpose !of His Father. “The servant knoweth ! not what his Lord doeth”; but the dis- ! ciples had been admitted into the mind ! of their Master, and knew that His pur- : pose was to create a fellowship of | believers, co-extensive in ideal with All Humanity, 'Bound Together by ties of personal loyalty to Himself. | Within that larger common life the i natural relation of human friendship | received a fresh consecration, j Aristotle said that the perfect friend- ' ship was that between good men who 1 resembled each other in virtue. In I such a friendship there was a high pur,'pose; and good men would not go ; wTong them:.»«ves, nor suffer their J friends to dn go. The will to good, j which the Greek moralist saw to be esl sential in friendship, has received a | new meaning since Christ taught the sacredness of personality and made love the supreme principle of living.