friend of a man and all is changed. Each act in his life, each thought
in his life, each word from his lips--they have not ceased to be a
problem, {89} they are ten thousandfold more wonderful than they ever
were before: they are still a problem; but there is, there must be, we
feel, a purpose running through the whole. We have but one object--to
understand him more, to see what divine ideal he is trying to work out in
all the details of his common life. Each detail is important; each
thought, however wayward, must be recognised and understood. All are
seen in the clear, dry light of eternity; each is seen in something like
its right proportion. We feel that his life is our life--nay, more
interesting than our own miserable life--that if we are ever to know
ourselves we must know him first. So, too, become a friend of Him who
alone is, and all is changed. Gradually, perhaps painfully, yet surely,
as we become like very little children, the meaning of the whole dawns
upon us. We see it all: we see that it could not be otherwise: we cannot
say why, but we are quite sure that we see it--at least, we see a little
way, and where the light ends and it begins to get dark, we feel that it
is all right beyond--that He who is with us in the light will be with us
in the darkness. We are no longer slaves, doing His will because we
must. We are friends, and we cannot help taking deep interest in all
that He does. His acts, His thoughts, His words, they are still a
problem--we cannot make them all out. But they are the same kind of
problem as a friend is--a strange exquisite torture. We do not know what
the whole of his life means; he can do things which we cannot, and which
we rejoice to know that we can never do. We only see one side of him
ever, and the rest is only known to God. {90} And yet we _do_ know part
of his life, and we are content to know no more; what we know is good,
and what we do not know or understand must also be good. We judge from
what we see what that must be which we cannot see. We do not wish it
otherwise. We feel that it would be impious to try and understand him
fully, for is he not connected with God Himself? So we see one side of
the life of the Eternal; but we are friends; we do not wish it otherwise.
We cannot understand Him--we never can. And yet 'I have called you
friends.' His main purposes we see: the plan by which He realises them
we see in part. And as we know Him better, we sha