How true it is also in the matter of companionship that the things which happen to us may fall out to the progress of the gospel. Our friends determine the quality if not the course of our history more than we can tell. If we be really knit to any true friend, there is an unfathomable element in our redemption. These invisible ties keep us right sometimes when we are absent one from another. And there are men we have never seen who become our friends; poets, novelist, artist, teachers, heroes---these often fall our to the progress of the gospel. They have contributed to the sum of the world's pity, insight, charity, tolerance; they have continued the spirit of the Son of Man. Is it not wonderful and beautiful to think that a sentence from the writings of one who lived, long perhaps before we were born, can kindle light in our minds and shed abroad love and sympathy in our hearts, and make us friends for ever?

Whatever our experience has been---light of dark---it may be the providence of God fall out to the progress of the gospel. We do but see the surface of things. Life is complex, interrelated, intertwined: no man lives or dies to himself. Some of us who think we are doing but little for God may be high up on the list. It is not for us to judge or to be harsh critics of one another. Let us play well our own part.

Timothy.c