| The Every Day of Life |
Chapter 17 |
Page 7 |
These are illustrations enough to show what it may cost to be a friend. When we receive another into this sacred relation, we do not know what responsibility we are taking upon ourselves, what burdens it may be ours to being faithful, what sorrow our love may cost us. It is a sacred thing, therefore, to take a new friend into our life. We accept a solemn responsibility when we do so. We do not know what burdens we may be engaging to carry, what sacrifices we may unconsciously be pledging ourselves to make, what sorrow may come to us through the one to whom we are giving our heart’s love. We should choose our friends, therefore, thoughtfully, wisely, prayerfully; but when we have pledged our love we should be faithful whatever the cost may be.
“If thou’rt my friend, show me the life that sleeps
Down in thy spirit’s deeps;
Give all thy heart, the thought within thy thought–
Nay, I’ve already caught
Its meaning in thine eyes, thy tones. What need
Of words? Flowers keep their seed.
Many there be who call themselves our friends;
Yet, ah! if heaven sends
One, only one, so mated to our soul,
To make our half a whole,
Rich beyond price are we.”
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