he friendship of Jesus was unselfish. He did not choose those whose
names would add to his influence, who would help him to rise to honor
and renown; he chose lowly, unknown men, whom he could lift up to
worthy character. His enemies charged against him that he was the
friend of publicans and sinners. In a sense this was true. He came to
be a Saviour of lost men. He said he was a physician; and a
physician's mission is among the sick, not among the whole and well.

The friendship of Jesus was not checked or foiled by the discovery of
faults or blemishes in those whom he had taken into his life. Even in
our ordinary human relations we do not know what we are engaging to do
when we become the friend of another. "For better for worse, for
richer for poorer, in sickness and in health," runs the marriage
covenant. The covenant in all true friendship is the same. We pledge
our friend faithfulness, with all that faithfulness includes. We know
not what demands upon us this sacred compact may make in years to come.
Misfortune may befall our friend, and he may require our aid in many
ways. Instead of being a help he may become a burden. But friendship
must not fail, whatever its cost may be. When we become the friend of
another we do not know what faults and follies in him closer
acquaintance may disclose to our eyes. But here, again, ideal
friendship must not fail.

What is true in common human relations was true in a far more wonderful
way of the friendship of Jesus. We have only to recall the story of
his three years with his disciples. They gave him at the best a very
feeble return for his great love for them. They were inconstant, weak,
foolish, untrustful. They showed personal ambition, striving for first
places, even at the Last Supper. They displayed jealousy, envy,
narrowness, ingratitude, unbelief, cowardice. As these unlovely things
appeared in the men Jesus had chosen, his friendship did not slacken or
unloose its hold. He had taken them as his friends, and he trusted
them wholly; he committed himself to them absolutely, without reserve,
without condition, without the possibility of withdrawal. No matter
how they failed, he loved them still. He was patient with their
weaknesses and with their slow growth, and was not afraid to wait,
knowing that in the end they would justify his faith in them and his
costly friendship for them.

Jesus thought not of the present comfort and pleasure of his frie