"You are my friends if you do what I command you."—John 15:14
What a friendly world this is! Sometimes we think it is a hard, cruel, selfish world, but it is not. It is a friendly world, full of friendly folk, who are looking around for love and friendship and happiness.
The world is just like a mirror. It reflects our moods. We ourselves make the image that we see in the glass. There is a little lake I know, lying in the woods far up in the Canadian wilderness, and there you hear the echo of every noise you make. If you are rowing a boat, you think you hear someone else keeping stroke with you. If you sing, you hear some one else singing. If you shout and scold the fish that has gotten away from you, some one else scolds and talks loud. That is just the way with the world. We live in a sort of echo-world and as we speak and think and act, so we are answered back.
One very hot summer day I was in the city of Cleveland. It was so hot that people were cross and I noticed a sign at the hotel desk which read, “Keep your temper, no one here wants it.” It was a wise word to tired and irritable travelers. The city was filled with delegates from all over the country, who were attending a convention, and the streets were thronged.
In that hot and hurried city I came on three friendly things. The first was a little kitten, asleep behind the window of a barber shop. It was a little grey kitten, with little spots of white on each foot, on its nose and at the end of its tail. It was lying in the sun, asleep with its head resting on one of its front feet, just like a little child lying asleep with its arm under its head, and its hand over its eyes. It was very pretty and a lot of people gathered in front of the window and smiled and talked together about the little kitten with its head pillowed on its arm, as it were. I walked up to the public square and saw a young woman standing in the midst of about a hundred pigeons. They were perched on her head, her shoulders, and were eating some grain out of her hands and from the ground near by. She had come there to feed them because she loved them and they were unafraid. Then, best of all, I came upon a fine “black beauty” police horse. There was no policeman to be seen, so there was nothing to fear. The horse was standing with his front feet away up on the sidewalk, as if looking in on the turtles and alligators playing in the city fountain. But that was not what he was doing. I soon found that out. He was a friendly horse and wanted to talk to the folks as they passed. Old ladies came and patted his nose. Old men came and scratched his forehead. He seemed to like that. Little children came and looked into his big open eyes. Girls came and pulled his ears, and a big boy after putting his arm around his neck and whispering something in his ear put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a beautiful red apple and Mr. Black Beauty said “Thank you” and in two bites the apple was gone.
Yes, this is a friendly world. But it is our own friendliness that makes it friendly. We get just what we give. Jesus came to make the world a friendly place. He spoke of the lilies of the field, and the birds of the air. He took the little children on His knee and was kind to all, to the poor, the blind, the sick, the sinful. To be like Jesus, we too must live the friendly life. And the laws of the friendly life are given in these simple but great words of Jesus:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit:
“Blessed are they that mourn:
“Blessed are the meek:
“Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.
“Blessed are the merciful:
“Blessed are the pure in heart:
“Blessed are the peacemakers."
These are the laws of the friendly life. Kerr
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