Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 3.pdf/309

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unjust as well as on the just, so must he strive to do good to all.

The example of John, the beloved disciple, should be ever before him, and his advice should be retained and followed: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God."—"No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." (1 John iv. 7, 12.)


December Fifth.

FRIENDSHIP.

"There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."Prov. xviii. 24.

FRIENDSHIP between man and man, grounded in real affection, is one of the purest and most delightful of blessings. The dearest comfort of humanity is that soothing sympathy of feeling that participates in all the varied emotions of the heart, when his pleasures and his pains, his joys and his sorrows, find an echo in the generous breast of a faithful, loved, and loving friend. Many are the combinations of circumstances that will occur to disturb our progress along the rugged path that "marks the few and weary days of pilgrimage to man;" many an intervening cloud will overshadow the brightness of our horizon, and leave us groping our weary way in trouble and perplexity. But we have the sunshine as well as the shade—days of sweet tranquillity as well as darksome nights of trial and tempest—and in them we find every pleasure enhanced, every joy brightened,