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us learn, like Paul, to profit by our very infirmities. That apostle, for our instruction, has thus recorded his experience: "There was given to me a thorn in the flesh"-some sore outward trial or grievous inward temptation "lest I should be exalted above measure," and "I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me." The answer was,—not the removal of the thorn, nor any promise as to its removal, but the mere general assurance,-"My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." "Therefore," adds the holy apostle, "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong"-weak in the feeling of my own utter helplessness; strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

"Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint" (Isaiah xl. 27-31).

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XIV.

THE FRIENDSHIP OF PETER AND JOHN.

PART FIRST.

"A FRIEND loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.-A man that hath"-or would have"friends must show himself friendly; and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.-Faithful are the wounds of a friend.—Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart; so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel.—Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend" (Prov. xvii. 17; xviii. 24; xxvii. 6, 9, 17).

Such are the maxims of inspired wisdom concerning friendship; and they must surely impress us with the conviction of its being-if not a necessary duty-at least a privilege, whose value can scarcely be overestimated. The conditions, also, of a profitable friendship, are pointedly indicated in these proverbs. To love at all times, and especially in adversity; to give open manifestations of a friendly spirit, and abound in all friendly offices; to stick close-even closer than a brother; to be faithful in inflicting necessary wounds; to refresh with hearty counsel as with the fragrance of

a grateful perfume; and to stimulate and sharpen the whole inner man by the collision of mind with mind and heart with heart, as the eye is kindled into brightness by the quick sympathy of a congenial glance :—such are the qualities of a friend according to the inspired standard. Love-constant, active, and close ;-honest in reproof, kind and cordial in advice, keen and spiritstirring in converse;-such is the essence of scriptural friendship. For an example of it, we have Jonathan's love to David, "wonderful, and passing the love of women." And a greater than David-David's Son and Lord-" loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus;" and, as has been well observed, from among the twelve whom he ordained to be apostles, chose out one"the disciple whom he loved."

That disciple was surely formed for the cultivation

* It may not be out of place to quote, in full, the passage in Boswell's Life of Johnson here referred to. It is a conversation with a Quaker lady, about Soame Jenyns' book on the Internal Evidence of Christianity. "BOSWELL. You should like his book, Mrs Knowles, as it maintains, as you friends do, that courage is not a Christian virtue.' MRS KNOWLES. —Yes, indeed, I like him there; but I cannot agree with him that friendship is not a Christian virtue.' JOHNSON.- Why, madam, strictly speaking, he is right. All friendship is preferring the interest of a friend, to the neglect, or, perhaps, against the interest, of others; so that an old Greek said, "He that has friends has no friend." Now Christianity recommends universal benevolence; to consider all men as our brethren; which is contrary to the virtue of friendship, as described by the ancient philosophers. Surely, madam, your sect must approve of this; for you call all men friends.' MRS KNOWLES.-' We are commanded to do good to all men," but especially to them who are of the household of faith."' JOHNSON. Well, madam; the household of faith is wide enough.' MRS KNOWLES.— But, doctor, our Saviour had twelve apostles, yet there was one whom he loved. John was called "the disciple whom Jesus loved.” JOHNSON (with eyes sparkling benignantly).— Very well indeed, madam. You have said very well.' BOSWELL. A fine application. Pray, sir, had you ever thought of it?' JOHNSON. I had not, sir."—Vol. iv. p. 147, 148.

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of friendship;-for loving and being loved. His writ– ings breathe throughout a spirit prone to friendship; and, if we may believe the traditions of history, he was wont to have upon his lips, in his extreme old age, the one precept-"Little children, love one another." The relation between him and his Divine Master is full of an interest almost too sacred to be rudely handled. But we seem to have a reflection of that relation in his intimacy with his brother apostle, Peter. The indications of that intimacy, slight and incidental as they appear to be, suggest a study full of profit. The two disciples were men of very different temperaments; and their ages, also, differed much. Peter, probably, was a man comparatively advanced in life when our Lord's ministry began; while John did not reach the limits of the human term of existence here, until nearly half a century had rolled on after that ministry was closed. But they were "a pair of friends, though" one "was young;" and the other might be verging on "seventy-three." And the circumstances which originated and matured their friendship may be traced, without much difficulty or doubt, in the evangelical histories.

We shall notice, at present, the successive stages which, as we think, may be observed in the rise and progress of this Christian and apostolic friendship; reserving for separate illustration those more affecting instances of it that occurred towards the close of the Lord's ministry on earth.

The earliest hint of any connection between Peter and John, is to be found on the occasion of their first introduction to Jesus.

The two apostles are brought before us together, as fellow-disciples of the Baptist, on the day when he personally and publicly identified Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, the Saviour, whom he had been announcing as about to come. "Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God" (John i. 35, 36). Of the two disciples here referred to as in attendance on the Baptist, one was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother (ver. 40); the other was the Evangelist and Apostle John himself. Such, at least, is a very general impression among interpreters, who gather from John's ordinary manner of writing in his gospel-in which, whenever he points to himself, he is careful to write without intruding his own name--that it was he who was Andrew's companion on this occasion. Andrew's first impulse is to find his own brother Simon, and announce to him with eager joy the discovery they have made: "We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ" (ver. 41).

And here it would almost seem that we might detect the old man's complacency-for John wrote his gospel in extreme old age-as, looking back along the line of half a century of toil and woe, he recalls that scene of his early youth, and with fond and affectionate pride records-what he alone notices-the very marked reception which he saw Jesus give to his friend, when they were as yet both strangers to him. For it is John who tells us, that when Andrew introduced his brother to Jesus-the Lord said, "Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is, by interpretation, a stone."

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