""I worked for men,' my Lord will say When we meet at the end of the King's Highway. 'I walked with the beggar along the road. I kissed the bondsman stung by the goad. I bore my half of the porter's load. And what did you?' my Lord will say, 'As you traveled along the King's Highway?' "I made life sweet,' my Lord will say When we meet at the end of the King's Highway. I mended the children's broken toy. And what did you?' my Lord will say, 'As you traveled along the King's Highway?' "I showed men God,' my Lord will say, When we meet at the end of the King's Highway." Comradeship with the good and great.-One of the inspiring things about this religion of comradeship is the fact that we find ourselves in most illustrious company. The world's best and noblest share with us the comradeship of Jesus. It is something to know that "The glorious company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, the noble army of martyrs acknowledge him to be the Lord." It is something to know that the great souls, both in the past and in the present, have found Jesus a kindred spirit. They will be our comrades if we follow him. There is nothing petty or belittling about such a comradeship. It is grand and ennobling. It will make us strong, it will make us great in purpose, it will make us grow and outgrow ourselves, by the sheer greatness of our friendships. Is all this worth while or not? Would you rather enjoy lighter, more superficial company? Would you rather live your life on a lower plane, where ideals are never troublesome nor challenging? It is simply the choice between the higher or the lower life, isn't it? But having once faced the heavenly vision which the ideals of Jesus bring you, can you disregard it, and be really happy afterward? Turn back now to p. 102, and read the poem at the end of Chapter X, and remember "To every man there openeth A High Way and a Low, And every man decideth The Way his soul shall go." POINTS FOR DISCUSSION 1. What would your life be worth without chums? What is comradeship? How does comradeship help the efficiency of a school? Of a home? of a factory or store? of a church? 2. What is there in the religion of Jesus but the practice of friendship? Can you show that the power in your religion comes from your comradeship with God? What opportunity for usefulness does religion find in comradeship with men? 3. What do you think of Christ's promise to make his home with us? What conditions did he set? (John 14: 23.) Find another similar promise (Matthew 28: 20). In what way have you found a real comradeship with Jesus? 4. How does our Christian religion work out in comradeship with the unfortunate and discouraged? If you have ever tried to show your sympathy for anyone, what response did you get? Try it this afternoon and see. That young fellow just starting in at the shop, who is having trouble with his machine-put in fifteen minutes with him after hours and see what happens. 5. Does it mean anything to you that most of the good and great characters of history have been Christians? How should comradeship with noble spirits affect our own lives? If a church is really Christian, how will the older members help the new recruits? Is your church doing this for you? FOR FURTHER STUDY AND HONOR WORK 6. Study carefully Paul's teaching about being a fellow worker with God (1 Corinthians 3:6-). What is the great Cause for which God is working? In what ways does he need our help? Why doesn't he compel the world to be better? 7. Do you find it hard to feel God to be a Person, so that you can really love him? Study Chapter V in Fiske's Finding the Comrade God, which will show you how to find the God-who-is-near, by the help of Christ. 8. Take the morning paper and make a list of the news items to-day that show how many people in our world are making a partial failure of life, just for lack of comradeship. CHAPTER XXIX CHRISTIAN FRIENDSHIP IS DEMOCRATIC Ir will be interesting to see how Christian friendships are different from the friendships of people who are not Christians. All kinds of folks, of course, have their friends. And there are some very noble, unselfish friendships among people of other religions; but the followers of Jesus naturally tend to adopt his ideals of friendship. We shall find his ideals in this important sphere of life fully as revolutionary as his ideals of forgiveness, of service or of social justice. People among us who are not Christian are too apt to try to make capital out of their friendships, and to make friends only with those of the same social class or higher. Jesus had very different ideals, as we shall see. How many kinds of friends have you?-One great value in our public-school system is the opportunity to form friendships with young folks from a variety of homes. Children in private schools lose this opportunity. Have you found it worth while? Are you on friendly terms with boys and girls from homes different from your own, both richer and poorer? Young people ought to free themselves from some of the foolish prejudices of their parents. Do you find interesting friends among other races in your school or shop-Irish, Italians, Russian-Jews, Canadian-French? Do you think of them all as Americans, or are you inclined to be snobbish toward them? A bashful girl named Esther entered a certain high school late in the term, and for awhile attracted no atten tion, she was so retiring and quiet. There was a timid look in her face that showed how unaccustomed she was to the lively and rather noisy American young folks that made up most of the school. She used English stiffly and cautiously at first, and with occasional funny errors that made the thoughtless laugh. This made her sensitive and increased her bashfulness. She seemed to have no chums and came and went usually alone. She had not been in that city long, and it was still quite strange to her. In a few days though, it was evident that she was the star of the French class, in fact, she could speak the language more fluently than the teacher! Then the girls who had snubbed her began to notice her quiet strength and ability. It was discovered that she could speak five languages and read several more. She had little musical talent, but her needlework was exquisite. That bit of lace was her own, one of the girls found out by rather persistent questioning. After a term in school the little Jewess was leading her class and had made many friends. They found her experience in life much broader than theirs. She had many wonderful travel stories to tell them, when most of them had never been out of their own State. It seemed very foolish that they had been so slow in befriending her, those first few weeks in school. Jesus was not snobbish.-Jesus made friends apparently less for his own sake than for theirs. Just as he came "not to be ministered unto but to minister," he seems to have cared more about befriending folks than being befriended. So we find him mixing socially with all classes. Among people whose social standards were set by rich, clannish Sadducees, who looked askance at any who were below their social level, Jesus broke right through the social conventions, smashed the un-Christian |