h death. The capacity
they have gained by the use of their powers they will have for the
beginning of their activity in the new life. There can be no doubt
that they shall find work commensurate with and fitted to their trained
powers.

So heaven will be a far more natural place than we imagine it will be.
It will not be greatly unlike the ideal life of earth. We probably
shall be surprised when we meet each other to find how little we have
changed. The old tenderness will not be missing. We shall recognize
our friends by some little gentle ways they used to have here, or by
some familiar thoughtfulness that was never wanting in them. The
friendships we began here, and had not time to cultivate, we shall have
opportunity there to renew, and carry on through immortal years.

Even at the best, human friendships only begin in this life; in heaven
they will reach their best and holiest possibilities. There are lives
which only touch each other in this world and then separate, going
their different ways--like ships that pass in the night. There will be
time enough in heaven for any such faintest beginnings of friendship to
be wrought out in beauty. Friendships with Jesus here touch but the
shore of an infinite ocean; in heaven, unhindered, in uninterrupted
fellowship, we shall be forever learning more of this love of Christ
which passeth knowledge.

CHAPTER XV.

JESUS AS A FRIEND.

"Long, long centuries
Agone, One walked the earth, his life
A seeming failure;
Dying, he gave the world a gift
That will outlast eternities."

The world has always paid high honor to friendship. Some of the finest
passages in all history are the stories of noble friendships,--stories
which are among the classics of literature. The qualities which belong
to an ideal friend have been treated by many writers through all the
centuries. But Jesus Christ brought into the world new standards for
everything in human life. He was the one complete Man,--God's ideal
for humanity. "Once in the world's history was born a Man. Once in
the roll of the ages, out of innumerable failures, from the stock of
human nature, one bud developed itself into a faultless flower. One
perfect specimen of humanity has God exhibited on earth." To Jesus,
therefore, we turn for the divine ideal of everything in human life.
What is friendship as interpreted by Jesus? What are the qualities of
a true friend as illustrated in