re not the poetical
souls who seek a sign, a mysticism in excess, but the prosaic natures
whose want is mathematical definition in details. Yet it is perhaps
not possible to reduce this problem to much more rigid elements. The
beauty of Friendship is its infinity. One can never evacuate life of
mysticism. Home is full of it, love is full of it, religion is full of
it. Why stumble at that in the relation of man to Christ which is
natural in the relation of man to man?

If any one cannot conceive or realize a mystical relation with Christ,
perhaps all that can be done is to help him to step on to it by still
plainer analogies from common life. How do I know Shakspere or Dante?
By communing with their words and thoughts. Many men know Dante better
than their own fathers. He influences them more. As a spiritual
presence he is more near to them, as a spiritual force more real. Is
there any reason why a greater than Shakspere or Dante, who also
walked this earth, who left great words behind Him, who has greater
works everywhere in the world now, should not also instruct, inspire
and mould the characters of men? I do not limit Christ's influence to
this: it is this, and it is more. But Christ, so far from resenting
or discouraging this relation of Friendship, Himself proposed it.
"Abide in me" was almost His last word to the world. And He partly met
the difficulty of those who feel its intangibleness by adding the
practical clause, "If ye abide in Me, _and My words abide in you_."

Begin with His words. Words can scarcely ever be long impersonal.
Christ himself was a Word, a word made Flesh. Make His words flesh; do
them, live them, and you must live Christ. "_He that keepeth My
Commandments_, he it is that loveth Me." Obey Him and you must love
Him. Abide in Him, and you must obey Him. _Cultivate_ His Friendship.
Live after Christ, in His Spirit, as in His Presence, and it is
difficult to think what more you can do. Take this at least as a first
lesson, as introduction.

If you cannot at once and always feel the play of His life upon yours,
watch for it also indirectly. "The whole earth is full of the
character of the Lord." Christ is the Light of the world, and much of
his Light is reflected from things in the world--even from clouds.
Sunlight is stored in every leaf, from leaf through coal, and it
comforts us thence when days are dark and we cannot see the sun.
Christ shines through men, through books, through history, t