Friendship   By: Hugh Black (1868-)

By HUGH BLACK

With an Introductory Note by

W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, D.D.

Chicago New York Toronto

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

London Edinburgh

Copyright, 1898, 1903, by

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

To MY FRIEND

HECTOR MUNRO FERGUSON

AND TO MANY OTHER FRIENDS WHO HAVE MADE LIFE RICH

Equidem, ex omnibus rebus, quas mihi aut Fortuna aut Natura tribuit, nihil habeo quod cum amicitia Scipionis possum, comparare.

CICERO.

Intreat me not to leave thee, And to return from following after thee: For whither thou guest, I will go; And where thou lodgest, I will lodge; Thy people shall be my people, And thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, And there will I be buried: The Lord do so to me, and more also, If aught but death part thee and me.

BOOK OF RUTH.

APPRECIATION

BY SIR WM. ROBERTSON NICOLL, D.D.

Mr. Hugh Black's wise and charming little book on Friendship is full of good things winningly expressed, and, though very simply written, is the result of real thought and experience. Mr. Black's is the art that conceals art. For young men, especially, this volume will be a golden possession, and it can hardly fail to affect their after lives. Mr. Black says well that the subject of friendship is less thought of among us now than it was in the old world. Marriage has come to mean infinitely more. Communion with God in Christ has become to multitudes the primal fact of life. Nevertheless the need for friendship remains. "British Weekly."

Friendship is to be valued for what there is in it, not for what can be gotten out of it. When two people appreciate each other because each has found the other convenient to have around, they are not friends, they are simply acquaintances with a business understanding. To seek friendship for its utility is as futile as to seek the end of a rainbow for its bag of gold. A true friend is always useful in the highest sense; but we should beware of thinking of our friends as brother members of a mutual benefit association, with its periodical demands and threats of suspension for non payment of dues.

TRUMBULL.

Contents

I

THE MIRACLE OF FRIENDSHIP

II

THE CULTURE OF FRIENDSHIP

III

THE FRUITS OF FRIENDSHIP

IV

THE CHOICE OF FRIENDSHIP

V

THE ECLIPSE OF FRIENDSHIP

VI

THE WRECK OF FRIENDSHIP

VII

THE RENEWING OF FRIENDSHIP

VIII

THE LIMITS OF FRIENDSHIP

IX

THE HIGHER FRIENDSHIP

The Miracle of Friendship

But, far away from these, another sort Of lovers linkëd in true heart's consent; Which lovëd not as these for like intent, But on chaste virtue grounded their desire, Far from all fraud or feignëd blandishment; Which, in their spirits kindling zealous fire, Brave thoughts and noble deeds did evermore aspire.

Such were great Hercules and Hylas dear, True Jonathan and David trusty tried; Stout Theseus and Pirithöus his fere; Pylades and Orestes by his side; Mild Titus and Gesippus without pride; Damon and Pythias, whom death could not sever; All these, and all that ever had been tied In bands of friendship, there did live forever; Whose lives although decay'd, yet loves decayëd never.

SPENSER, The Faerie Queene.

The Miracle of Friendship

The idea, so common in the ancient writers, is not all a poetic conceit, that the soul of a man is only a fragment of a larger whole, and goes out in search of other souls in which it will find its true completion. We walk among worlds unrealized, until we have learned the secret of love. We know this, and in our sincerest moments admit this, even though we are seeking to fill up our lives with other ambitions and other hopes.