ou gave Chrysanthus." No good man's money is
ever worth so much as his love. Certainly the greatest honor of this
earth, greater than rank or station or wealth, is the friendship of
Jesus Christ. And this honor is within the reach of every one.
"Henceforth I call you not servants ... I have called you friends."
"Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you."

The stories of the friendships of Jesus when he was on the earth need
cause no one to sigh, "I wish that I had lived in those days, when
Jesus lived among men, that I might have been his friend too, feeling
the warmth of his love, my life enriched by contact with his, and my
spirit quickened by his love and grace!" The friendships of Jesus,
whose stories we read in the New Testament, are only patterns of
friendships into which we may enter, if we are ready to accept what he
offers, and to consecrate our life to faithfulness and love.

The friendship of Jesus includes all other blessings for time and for
eternity. "All things are yours, and ye are Christ's." His friendship
sanctifies all pure human bonds--no friendship is complete which is not
woven of a threefold cord. If Christ is our friend, all life is made
rich and beautiful to us. The past, with all of sacred loss it holds,
lives before us in him. The future is a garden-spot in which all
life's sweet hopes, that seem to have perished on the earth, will be
found growing for us.

"Fields of the past to thee shall be no more
The burialground of friendships once in bloom,
But the seed-plots of a harvest on before,
And prophecies of life with larger room
For things that are behind.

Live thou in Christ, and thy dead past shall be
Alive forever with eternal day;
And planted on his bosom thou shall see
The flowers revived that withered on the way
Amid the things behind."

CHAPTER II.

JESUS AND HIS MOTHER.

Sleep, sleep, mine Holy One!
My flesh, my Lord!--what name? I do not know
A name that seemeth not too high or low,
Too far from me or heaven.
My Jesus, _that_ is best!
* * *
Sleep, sleep, my saving One.
MRS. BROWNING.

The first friend a child has in this world is its mother. It comes
here an utter stranger, knowing no one; but it finds love waiting for
it. Instantly the little stranger has a friend, a bosom to nestle in,
an arm to encircle it, a hand to minister to its helpl