Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-02-04

GLOBE, MONDAY MORN
subject being sThe School Of. Friendship"
Mr. y. began by saying that the bible is
book full of lines book of men praying
rather than book of prayer: of men be-
heylng rather than a book of doctrine. A
very large portion of it is human history.
Bible persons are persons under our own
conditions of joy and sorrow and struggle,
ana persons surrounded as we
are with homes and friendships
help them in, their sorrows and joys.
Like the procession pictures frescoed upon
rlch walls, the characters of the Bible came
trooplng by almost always in twos and
threes, or in little bands where We recognize
the central figure and take the others to be
some OF those many unknown friends whose
names are made immortal by the mention of
this book. Adam always walked along with
Eve IN the footpaths of our fancies; Abra-
ham goes with Sarah, and Rebecca at the
well always suggests an Isaac not far off; and
Rachael's presence brings to mind Jacob;
Ruth and Naomi; Saul and Jonathan: Job
sits In his ashes desolate, but not solitary.
One whole book in the Old Testament is
passionate love song about a king and one of
his royal brides; though modern interpreters
state that the s.Song Of Solomon commem-
crates the love Of the church for Christ.
And as we step from the Old to the New
Testament, all around us again we hear the
buzz Of little companies; we track Jesus
in and out of homes, children cluster around
Him, women love Him.: dozen men leave
net and pillow to bind their fortunes to His,
and Others go out by twos to initiate Him.
The friend of publicans and sinners is His
title. Is there any passage in the bible that
makes Christ more real-any words about
God or eternal life that makes Christ a helper
more than that which tells us that He wanted
friendship-any that we would not give up
sooner than those which seem to appeal to
us to be His friends?
So much for the friendship of the bible.
Now for our own. He is indeed a wretched man
who has no friends. It is happiness to have
some one glad you are alive. No wonder
that poor girls take their own lives when
they have come to feel that not one single
eye lights up at their being in the world.
We who have the friends know how
much of worth to us are certain
faces, and certain hands, and
certain voices. Fifty persons, or perhaps
but five, make the whole earth populous for
us and all life beautiful, and the sunsets and
springtimes, and the things grand and sweet
when serving as mere circumstances to our
love. Let the few hands vanish and the few
voices grow still, and the whole planet for
time would seem emptied of its beauty and
its warmth it would turn to dark, cold
graveyard, because it would no longer hold
the few friends who wanted us. The deep
est of our human longings is to be wanted.
And nature has provided that we should be.
What are our homes but wanting places?
We are sent into the world in utter helpless
ness, yet SO wondrously attractive that we
get more worship given to us than ever af-
forwards in our helplessness. We are prayed
for before we come; we are thanked for with
all the family's Thanksgiving at our advent.
In one word, if parents have been true to
their responsibilities, we are wanted in the
world.
It is certainly no low ambition to wish to
be wanted in the world, to long for love, to
try to be Noteworthy. If money be
worth trying for, if education be worth
trying for; if leisure, and books, and Europe
be worth trying for; if there be any praise or
reputation worth trying for, then above them
all comes friends as objects of ambition and
endeavor. In this hard world so. full of
problems never answered, and stru4 les that
avail not, what is there to make the seventy
years allotted to man really worth the having,
save goodness and friend? It is noble
ambition to want 'sto be wanted and in
the effort to make ourselves ~loveable some
of the finest human culture can be gained.
We cannot cross the laws of attraction OF
repulsion, much less can we fix or unGx
them. We can only attract to be attracted,
repel and be repealed. There is in nature a
great deal of that phenomenon called Glove
at sight," and there is, in nature that oppo-
site phenomenon of which DR.. Fell is the
typical victim:
Il do not love you, DIR. Fell,
The reason why, l cannot tell;
But this alone know full well.
l do not love you, DIR. Fell"
How often have we seen the poor doctor!
How often have we been the poor doctor?
There is both an art and science of friend
ship. Long ago old Ovid wrote a poem
called the cart of Loving and not in
any base or shallow sense, but in the WORTH
est and deepest sense he might be initiated.
The simple prose about nd-making
seems to be this: There are two elements
in it-a fascination that can hardly be ac-
quired, and an attractiveness that can be-.
The first is born in us, or very slowly ar
ranged in US. 1t is personal magnetism.
We are all ringed around with two circles
of friendship. The outer one is the circle
of our 'likers," the inner is the circle of
our ''lovers,' and the friendship
of each circle has it's laws
of attractiveness laws that any one can
learn and apply. Courtesy, kindness:
truthfulness and justice can all be acquired.
The receipt for friend-making takes no new
elements or rare ones. All need lies right
before me and around me-the opportunity
of doing right, kind things by those deal
with. There can be no hidden weakness and
we be safe in our affections. Perfect friend
ship casteth out fear, but only by having re-
vealed everything which maketh fear.
These must needs be humility and confess
sion in every helping friendship. To keep
a friend and at the same time our
ideal, we must keep ourselves his ideal. Thus
this inmost friendship is a constant provoca-
tive to virtue.
The father keeps the boy his son by MAX
ing him when young his friend; the sister
keeps the brother, the brother keeps the
sister, in love, not by the blood tie, but by
the works and words and trusts of friend
ship. In marriage, too, must not the early
love ripen into close, abiding, Utmost friend
ship. Do not the happiest marriages
take place gradually, and go on
deepening all through life together !?
Hardly are they begun when the presents
and congratulations come, and the minister
says: "Until death do you part
While friend has many functions, there
is One above them all. He comes as the
brightener into our lives, to double joys and
halye our griefs He comes as the counsellor
to give wisdom to our plans. He comes