he worldly policy, to treat a friend as
if he might become an enemy, is of course to be friendless. To
sacrifice a tried and trusted friend for any personal advantage of gain
or position, is to deprive our own heart of the capacity for friendship.

The passion for novelty will sometimes lead a man to act like this.
Some shallow minds are ever afflicted by a craving for new experiences.
They sit very loosely to the past. They are the easy victims of the
untried, and yearn perpetually for novel sensations. In this matter of
friendship they are ready to forsake the old for the new. They are
always finding a swan in every goose they meet. They have their reward
in a widowed heart. Says Shakespeare in his great manner,--

The friends thou hast and their adoption tried
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel,
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade.

The culture of friendship must pass into the consecration of
friendship, if it is to reach its goal. It is a natural evolution.
Friendship cannot be permanent unless it becomes spiritual. There must
be fellowship in the deepest things of the soul, community in the
highest thoughts, sympathy with the best endeavors. We are bartering
the priceless boon, if we are looking on friendship merely as a luxury,
and not as a spiritual opportunity. It is, or can be, an occasion for
growing in grace, for learning love, for training the heart to patience
and faith, for knowing the joy of humble service. We are throwing away
our chance, if we are not striving to be an inspiring and healthful
environment to our friend. We are called to be our best to our friend,
that he may be his best to us, bringing out what is highest and deepest
in the nature of both.

The culture of friendship is one of the approved instruments of culture
of the heart, without which a man has not truly come into his kingdom.
It is often only the beginning, but through tender and careful culture
it may be an education for the larger life of love. It broadens out in
ever-widening circles, from the particular to the general, and from the
general to the universal--from the individual to the social, and from
the social to God. The test of religion is ultimately a very simple
one. If we do not love those whom we have seen, we cannot love those
whom we have not seen. All our sentiment about people at a distance,
and our heart-stirrings for the distresse