seas; and yet meet again, and find themselves lying side by side in
the same haven, when their long voyage is past.

And if not, my friends; if they never meet; if one shall founder and
sink upon the seas, or even change his course, and fly shamefully
home again: still, is there not a Friend of friends who cannot
change, but is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever?

What says the noble hymn:--


'When gathering clouds around I view,
And days are dark and friends are few,
On him I lean, who, not in vain,
Experienced every human pain:
He sees my griefs, allays my fears,
And counts and treasures up my tears.'


Passing the love of woman was his love, indeed; and of him Jonathan
was but such a type, as the light in the dewdrop is the type of the
sun in heaven.

He himself said--and what he said, that he fulfilled--'Greater love
hath no man than this--that a man lay down his life for his
friends.'

In treachery and desertion; in widowhood and childlessness; in the
hour of death, and in the day of judgment, when each soul must stand
alone before its God, one Friend remains, and that the best of all.