ambition, selfishness, worldliness; if we withdrew ourselves, as we
ought to do, from the Babel of this world, and 'hid ourselves in His
pavilion from the strife of tongues'; if we took less of our religion
out of books and from other people, and were more accustomed to
'dwell in the secret place of the Most High,' and to say, 'Speak,
Friend! for Thy friend heareth,' we should more often understand how
real to-day is the voice of Christ to them that love Him.

'Such rebounds the inward ear
Catches often from afar;
Listen, prize them, hold them dear,
For of God--of God--they are.'

III. Thirdly, notice how Christ's friends come to be so, and why they
are so.

'Ye have not chosen,' etc. (verse 16).

Our Lord refers here, no doubt, primarily to the little group of the
Apostles; the choice and ordaining as well as 'the fruit that
abides,' point, in the first place, to their apostolic office, and to
the results of their apostolic labours. But we must widen out the
words a great deal beyond that reference.

In all the cases of friendship between Christ and men, the
origination and initiation come from Him. 'We love Him because He
first loved us.' He has told us how, in His divine alchemy, He
changes by the shedding of His blood our enmity into friendship. In
the previous verse He has said, 'Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.' And as I remarked in