| Week-Day Religion |
Chapter 26 |
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There is embraced in the thought of friendship the element of mutual helpfulness. There grows up between two friends a sort of holy communism. What one has the other must share, whether it be sorrow or joy. Whatever experience is passing over the chords of one heart is echoed also from the other. When there is a cup of gladness, two hearts drink of it. When there is a burden, there are two shoulders under it. Friendship knows no limit in giving. Its joy is not in receiving, but in imparting. It is not, therefore, exacting in its demands or quick to complain of seeming neglect. We want unselfish friends who shall care for us for our own sake. We want those who will never tire of bearing our burdens. We may have sorrow and adversity. We may become a great care in the future, unable to give anything in return save grateful love. He who becomes our friend takes upon himself many possibilities of sacrifice and unselfish service. It may cost him much. He must be one who will not grow weary of these burdens should they be imposed. He must be ready to share our infirmities and not tire of helping us.
There are friendships that do this. Holiest of them all is the parent’s. I have seen a child growing up deformed or blind or deaf, or mayhap weak minded, so as to be always a burden and a care, never a pride or a joy. And yet through the years the parental hearts clung to it with most tender affection, never wearying of the burden, ministering with almost divine patience and gentleness all the while. Then I have seen invalids who could never be anything but invalids, to be toiled for and to be watched over year after year, to be carried from room to room and up and down stairs like helpless infants. There was not a shadow of a hope that they could ever repay the toil they cost, or even lighten the burden they exacted from those who loved them. Even outside of home and family ties I have seen friendships that never faltered under burdens that were heavy and could never grow less. We know not what may befall us in the undisclosed years, and we want friends who will never tire of us should even the worst come. We want friends in prosperity and wealth who will cleave to us even more loyally if misfortune and poverty should strip us bare. Such friends are rare. Only purest unselfishness is equal to such tests.
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