ife of man. Modern ideals are wider and more impersonal, just as the
modern conception of the state is wider. The Christian ideal of love
even for enemies has swallowed up the narrower ideal of philosophic
friendship. Then possibly also the instinct finds satisfaction
elsewhere in the modern man. For example, marriage, in more cases now
than ever before, supplies the need of friendship. Men and women are
nearer in intellectual pursuits and in common tastes than they have
ever been, and can be in a truer sense companions. And the deepest
explanation of all is that the heart of man receives a religious
satisfaction impossible before. Spiritual communion makes a man less
dependent on human intercourse. When the heaven is as brass and makes
no sign, men are thrown back on themselves to eke out their small
stores of love.

At the same time friendship is not an obsolete sentiment. It is as
true now as in Aristotle's time that no one would care to live without
friends, though he had all other good things. It is still necessary to
our life in its largest sense. The danger of sneering at friendship is
that it may be discarded or neglected, not in the interests of a more
spiritual affection, but to minister to a debased cynical
self-indulgence. There is possible to-day, as ever, a generous
friendship which forgets self. The history of the heart-life of man
proves this. What records we have of such in the literature of every
country! Peradventure for a good man men have even dared to die.
Mankind has been glorified by countless silent heroisms, by unselfish
service, and sacrificing love. Christ, who always took the highest
ground in His estimate of men and never once put man's capacity for the
noble on a low level, made the high-water mark of human friendship the
standard of His own great action, "Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends." This high-water mark
has often been reached. Men have given themselves to each other, with
nothing to gain, with no self-interest to serve, and with no keeping
back part of the price. It is false to history to base life on
selfishness, to leave out of the list of human motives the highest of
all. The miracle of friendship has been too often enacted on this dull
earth of ours, to suffer us to doubt either its possibility or its
wondrous beauty.

The classic instance of David and Jonathan represents the typical
friendship. They met, an