The Lord be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy
seed for ever. And he arose and departed: and Jonathan went into
the city.'

And so the two friends parted, and saw one another, it seems, but
once again, when Jonathan went to David in the forest of Ziph, and
'strengthened his hand in God,' with noble words.

After that, Jonathan vanishes from the story of David. We hear only
of him that he died fighting by his father's side, upon the downs of
Gilboa. The green plot at their top, where the Israelites' last
struggle was probably made, can be seen to this day; and there most
likely Jonathan fell, and over him David raised his famous
lamentation:

'O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places. I am distressed
for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto
me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. How
are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!'

So ends the beautiful and tragical story of a truly gallant man.
Seldom, indeed, will there be seen in the world such perfect
friendship between man and man, as that between Jonathan and David.
Seldom, indeed, shall we see anyone loving and adoring the very man
whom his selfish interest would teach him to hate and to supplant.
But still every man may have, and ought to have a friend. Wretched
indeed, and probably deservedly wretched, is the man who has none.
And every man may learn from this story of Jonathan how to choose
his friends.

I say, to choose. No one is bound to be at the mercy of anybody and
everybody with whom he may come in contact. No one is bound to say,
That man lives next door to me, therefore he must be my friend. We
are bound not to avoid our neighbours. They are put near us by God
in his providence. God intends every one of them, good or bad, to
help in educating us, in giving us experience of life and manners.
We are to learn from them, live with them in peace and charity, and
only avoid them when we find that their company is really doing us
harm, and leading us into sin and folly. But a friend--which is a
much deeper and more sacred word than neighbour--a friend we have
the right and the power to choose; and our wisest plan will be to
copy Jonathan, and choose our friends, not for their usefulness, but
for their goodness; not for their worth to us, but for their worth
in themselves; and to choose, if possible, people superior to
ourselves. If we meet a man better than our