my last sermon, the friends here are the same as 'the enemies' for
whom, the Apostle tells us that Christ laid down His life. Since He
has thus by the blood of the Cross changed men's enmity into
friendship, it is true universally that the amity between us and
Christ comes entirely from Him.

But there is more than that in the words. I do not suppose that any
man, whatever his theological notions and standpoint may be, who has
felt the love of Christ in his own heart in however feeble a measure,
but will say, as the Apostle said, 'I was apprehended of Christ.' It
is because He lays His seeking and drawing hand upon us that we ever
come to love Him, and it is true that His choice of us precedes our
choice of Him, and that the Shepherd always comes to seek the sheep
that is lost in the wilderness.

This, then, is how we come to be His friends; because, when we were
enemies, He loved us, and gave Himself for us, and ever since has
been sending out the ambassadors and the messengers of His love--or,
rather, the rays and beams of it, which are parts of Himself--to draw
us to His heart. And the purpose which all this forthgoing of
Christ's initial and originating friendship has had in view, is set
forth in words which I can only touch in the lightest possible
manner. The intention is twofold. First, it respects service or
fruit. 'That ye may _go_'; there is deep pathos and meaning in that
word. He had been telling them that He was going; now He says to
them, 'You are to go. We part here. My road lies upward; yours runs
onward. Go into all the world.' He gives them a _quasi_-independent
position; He declares the necessity of separation; He declares also
the reality of union in the midst of the separation; He sends _them_
out on their course with His benediction, as He does _us_.