There is in life a proportion of pain and jarring that is inevitable, probably, to the imperfect conditions with which the experience on earth is temporarily invested; and because of this, all the range of friendship should be held apart as divine, and any interchange of material gifts should not receive this undue emphasis, but be regarded as the mere incidental trifle of momentary convenience, while all the regard and devotion that may lie behind should give its mutual joy as free and as pure as the fragrance of a rose. Of all that a friend may be Emerson so truly says:-- "I fancied he was fled,-- And, after many a year, Glowed unexhausted kindliness Like daily sunrise there. My careful heart was free again. O friend, my bosom said, Through thee alone the sky is arched, Through thee the rose is red; All things through thee take nobler form." That alone is what all the loves and friendships of life are for,--that through their ministry life may take on nobler form. "I fancied he was fled." But a friendship that is true cannot flee; it is, by its very quality and nature, abiding. It may be silent forever; it may be invisible, inaudible, immaterial, impersonal; but once forged it is of the heavenly life, the heavenly language, and the Word of the Lord abideth forever! * * * * * [Sidenote: Love and Good Will.] The stress and storm of life, however, fade away very largely before the power of simple love and good will, which is the key to all situations and the solution of all problems. "How shall I seem to love my people?" asked a French king of his confessor. "My son, you _must_ love them," was the reply. When there is genuineness one does not need to engage in the elaborate and arduous labor of counterfeiting qualities and manufacturing appearances, and it is really easier--to say nothing of its being a somewhat more dignified process--to _be_ what one wishes the world to regard him, than it is to endeavor to merely produce the effect of it. Doctor Holmes had a bit of counsel for those who were out at sea,--that they should not waste any energy in asking how they looked from the shore; and the suggestion is not an infelicitous one in its general application to life. It is quite enough for one to keep his feet, as best he may, set on the upward and onward way, without concerning himself too much as to the effect of his figure in the landscape. The energy that goes towards attitudinizing is always wasted, while that which expends itself on the legitimate fulfilment of tasks contributes something of real importance to life. And so, any significance of achievement seems to be exactly conditioned by the degree of energy involved--the finer the energy, the more potent the achievement. It would seem as if all the noble order of success hinged on two conditions,--the initial one of generating sufficient energy, and the second that of applying it worthily.