expressive terms, the elevated character of that piety which exempted the honoured patriarch from the painful stroke of mortality and the humiliation of the grave. "He was not, for God took him;"* the meaning of which declaration is explained in the comment upon it, contained in the epistle to the Hebrews. "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God."+

The interchange of the same delightful and hallowed fellowship was carried on between Jehovah and the father of the faithful. In the character of Abraham, the leading feature was the invincible strength of his faith in the promises made to him and his seed. His confidence in the veracity of God was maintained amidst circumstancès apparently the most unfavourable to his hopes. And the same principle which sustained his soul amidst all external discouragements, discovered itself in the spirit of ardent devotion, and in the most selfdenying obedience to the will of God. We find that he was therefore distinguished by many special tokens of the divine approbation. In virtue of a solemn covenant, he was made the channel through which the blessings of the gospel were to be con

* Gen. v. 21.

+ Heb. xi. 5.

veyed to his spiritual descendants, and which, in due time, are to enrich all the tribes and families which dwell upon the face of the earth. His interviews with Deity were frequent, close, and accompanied by the most extraordinary expressions of the divine condescension and love. The great progenitor of the Jewish people appears on these occasions to have felt little or nothing of that reserve and embarrassment, which others of the saints have betrayed in similar circumstances. There was a holy freedom in his manner and language which marked the peculiar sanctity of his character, and the uncommon strength of his faith. And while he unreservedly poured forth all the desires of his heart, and pleaded the cause of a devoted race with a boldness which cannot fail to awaken astonishment, his confidence was blended with that profound reverence which every mortal and immortal ought ever to feel in the presence of the divinity. But what is the appellation which is chosen to designate the extraordinary piety and privileges of this distinguished servant of the most High? He is called the friend of God, as if the best illustration of his eminent faith and blessedness were only to be found in the particular relation of friendship.*

But it is more particularly deserving of our

* James ii. 21-23.

notice, as a circumstance which places the subject in a most interesting light, that virtuous friendship is an alliance which has the indisputable sanction of Him who spake as never man spake, and who challenges our regard as the finished pattern of all divine and human excellence. It will not escape the recollection of the christian, that the blessed Redeemer has been pleased to advert with inimitable beauty and pathos to this connection, in order both to illustrate the wonders of his dying compassion, and to describe the privileged condition of the apostles, whose honour and unspeakable happiness it was to live on terms of close and personal intercourse with him. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what the lord doeth; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father, I Thus is friendship

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have made known unto you." * consecrated and endeared to us by the manner in which it is brought forward and applied by the Son of God. And such reference had not certainly been made to it, if there were any thing in its character hostile to the genius of Christianity, or if it did not accord with the will of the supreme

* John xv. 13-15.

Being. But the Saviour has not merely made it the subject of honourable allusion; he has done far more than this: he has given it the sanction of his own example, which addresses us on this and other practical topics no less plainly than the voice of his preceptive word. That Jesus of Nazareth possessed a mind exquisitely formed for the pleasures of exalted friendship is evident, not only from the perfect and transcendent excellence of his nature, but from the particulars which the sacred writers have recorded in the faithful and touching narrative of his character and life. Conformed to his brethren in every essential feature of human nature, he was yet altogether free from its moral imperfections. In him was beheld the fairest representation the world ever witnessed of uncreated excellence. The social affections, therefore, which enter into our common humanity, operated in him without any moral alloy, and blended tender sensibility, pure and seraphic benevolence, dignified humility, and in short every other lovely and substantial quality which is fitted to strengthen, adorn, and enrich the union of virtuous minds. Nor do we conceive that we transgress the limits of propriety, or forget what reverence is due to the contemplation of the Saviour, if, in viewing him merely as man, we suppose there were some discriminating traits in his character-some distinctive peculiarities which, apart from all other considerations, gave a

certain bias to the social principles of his nature. It would therefore have been somewhat remarkable had our Lord passed through the world without entering into the union, and participating in the pleasures, of virtuous friendship, in the strict and specific sense of the term. We find, accordingly, that he was no stranger to this connection, and that he indulged in it as far as could be expected, consistently with the more general and important objects which pressed upon his attention, and for the sake of which he was always willing to sacrifice, when it was necessary, every private feeling and inferior consideration. There were some, we are told, whose society he preferred, and whom he permitted to live with him on terms of special intimacy and confidence.

"The evangelist, in relating the miracle which Christ performed at Bethany, by restoring a person to life who had lain some days in the grave, introduces his narrative by emphatically observing, that 'Jesus loved Lazarus,' intimating, it should seem, that the sentiments which Christ entertained of Lazarus were a distinct and peculiar species of that general benevolence, with which he was actuated towards all mankind. Agreeably to this explication of the sacred historian's meaning, when the sisters of Lazarus sent to acquaint Jesus with the state in which their brother lay, they did not even mention his name; but pointing him out by a