“I HAVE CALLED YOU FRIENDS!”
By Rhetta L. Long
The friends of Christ! O honor far too great
For wavering weaklings, tossed by care and sin!
What if He came in our degraded state
And asked our inmost hearts to contemplate,
What would He find if He should enter in? He would find much of selfishness and greed,
He would find much of lust and love of ease,
He would find blindness to a brother's need,
And most religion but an empty creed,
With scarce a thought how each his God should please. But He would find in many an aching heart,
Sad spots made sore by failure and by pride,
By disappointment's keen and deadly dart.
Ah! each has much to make his memory smart,
And more his vanity would love to hide! For many, friends have had—but friends in name,
Who forced their confidence, but to betray;
And many suffer for another's shame,
Bearing the obloquy and bitter blame,
The cold world casts on those who go astray. But Thou, O Christ! wouldst find some saving grace,
Some slight desire to walk the upward way,
Some gentle thoughts in us do find a place,
Some tendencies not altogether base,
Some longing to grow like Thee, day by day. And Thou, O blessed thought! wilt sympathize,
For with our weaknesses and with our sin,
We are Thy friends, tho neither pure nor wise.
With Thee we need attempt no vain disguise,
Our hearts are open, and Thou hast entered in!
—Rhetta L. Long.