and fighting for our own hand, without doing dishonor and
hurt to our own nature. To be for ourselves puts the whole world
against us. To harden our heart hardens the heart of the universe.

We need sympathy, and therefore we crave for friendship. Even the most
perfect of the sons of men felt this need of intercourse of the heart.
Christ, in one aspect the most self-contained of men, showed this human
longing all through His life. He ever desired opportunities for
enlargement of heart--in His disciples, in an inner circle within the
circle, in the household of Bethany. "Will ye also go away?" He asked
in the crisis of His career. "Could ye not watch with Me one hour?" He
sighed in His great agony. He was perfectly human, and therefore felt
the lack of friendship. The higher our relationships with each other
are, the closer is the intercourse demanded. Highest of all in the
things of the soul, we feel that the true Christian life cannot be
lived in the desert, but must be a life among men, and this because it
is a life of joy as well as of service. We feel that, for the founding
of our life and the completion of our powers, we need intercourse with
our kind. Stunted affections dwarf the whole man. We live by
admiration, hope, and love, and these can be developed only in the
social life.

The sweetest and most stable pleasures also are never selfish. They
are derived from fellowship, from common tastes, and mutual sympathy.
Sympathy is not a quality merely needed in adversity. It is needed as
much when the sun shines. Indeed, it is more easily obtained in
adversity than in prosperity. It is comparatively easy to sympathize
with a friend's _failure_, when we are not so true-hearted about his
success. When a man is down in his luck, he can be sure of at least a
certain amount of good-fellowship to which he can appeal. It is
difficult to keep a little touch of malice, or envy, out of
congratulations. It is sometimes easier to weep with those who weep,
than to rejoice with those who rejoice. This difficulty is felt not
with people above us, or with little connection with us, but with our
equals. When a friend succeeds, there may be a certain regret which
has not always an evil root, but is due to a fear that he is getting
beyond our reach, passing out of our sphere, and perhaps will not need
or desire our friendship so much as before. It is a dangerous feeling
to give way to, but up to a certain point i