n our early years, and by the
"troops of friends" who accompany us during our pilgrimage, and by the
fellowship of the Christian Church, in proportion as that fellowship
is not a mere name, but expresses the intention of Christ in gathering
His people into a society,--there are, nevertheless, innumerable
drawbacks here to anything like its full gratification. Take away the
time consumed in the necessary and often absorbing labour of life, and
during the unavoidable separations and partings from those we know
and love, how little is left for the cultivation here of the truest
friendships. We are, moreover, severed as yet by death from all
congenial minds among past generations, and from those who are yet to
come. Of the many now alive whose hearts would beat to ours, could we
only meet and know them, how few can stand together on the small space
allotted to us on the earth's surface. Then, again, of those whom we
know best and love best on earth, and who know and love us best too,
oh, what mutual ignorance must necessarily exist of innumerable
thoughts and feelings lying deep clown in our inner man, half hidden,
half revealed, even to ourselves, but altogether incommunicable and
unutterable by word or sign to others! We may at times be conscious
that we stand with them on the same lofty summit, and gaze on the
same prospect, but the atmosphere is too rare to permit of any heard
communication between us. And thus in no case can there be, not the
meeting, but that blending of soul with soul by which one being,
without losing his individuality, seems completed in the being of
another. Add to all this the granite walls that rise up between us
during our wanderings in this desert--the differences, not only from
intellect, pursuits, rank, education, but also from character, and
those sins and infirmities of which all more or less partake, such as
pride, vanity, prejudice, envy,--one and all making sad drawbacks from
the fulness of joy which we are capable of deriving even now from
intelligent and holy society. We are made to realise this fact in
reading the history of the holiest society that ever was on earth,
that of Jesus Christ and His apostles. Only three years together,
often separated during this brief period by dark nights, stormy seas,
long journeys, and the sin and ignorance OR their part which made Him
exclaim, "Nevertheless I am not alone, for the Father is with me,"
intimating that, without this Divine sympathy, He