very lightly. How comes it that it is certain that Christ's friends,
living close to Him and bearing fruit, will get what they want?
Because what they want will be 'in His name'--that is to say, in
accordance with His disposition and will. Make your desires Christ's,
and Christ's yours, and you will be satisfied.

IV. And now, lastly, for one moment, note the mutual friendship of
Christ's friends.

We have frequently had to consider that point--the relation of the
friends of Christ to each other. 'These things I command you, that ye
love one another.' This whole context is, as it were, enclosed within
a golden circlet by that commandment which appeared in a former
verse, at the beginning of it, 'This is My commandment, that ye love
one another,' and reappears here at the close, thus shutting off this
portion from the rest of the discourse. Friends of a friend should
themselves be friends. We care for the lifeless things that a dear
friend has cared for; books, articles of use of various sorts. If
these have been of interest to him, they are treasures and precious
evermore to us. And here are living men and women, in all diversities
of character and circumstances, but with this stamped upon them all--
Christ's friends, lovers of and loved by Him. And how can we be
indifferent to those to whom Christ is not indifferent? We are knit
together by that bond. We are but poor friends of that Master unless
we feel that all which is dear to Him is dear to us. Let us feel the
electric thrill which ought to pass through the whole linked circle,
and let us beware that we slip not our hands from the grasp of the
neighbour on either side, lest, parted from them, we should be
isolated from Him, and lose some of the love which we fail to
transmit.