Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1886-01-16
A Friend.
Christian at Work.

Christian at Work.
How easy it is to write "My. dear
friend" or to sign ones self "Truly
your friend" And how little we
consider what that word involves
what is due to ourselves and to others
when we have used it. Let us dwell
upon the thought for moment, for
more of privilege and responsibility
hangs upon hight principle and right
living in the matter, than we are
wont to think.
To have really loved one friend
through life is to have been strength
ened, unconsciously, perhaps, to our
selves, in every grace of character
which we possess-self-denial and
self-fogettulness, patience, endurance
and forbearance, faith and trust and
tenderness. To have failed to love is
to carry Il lifelong burden of regret,
to be conscious of Il shadow which
dims the pure sunlight of life. The
love of a faithful friend-how power
full it is to plead with us, though ST.
iently, in our wrong doing; how
grateful in our weakness! The clear
eye that knows no shadow of deceit
or double dealing, the firm hand that
grasps our own, sending assurance of
help through every nerve, the strong
heart which knows no wavering,
which having loved us we know will
love us to the end-how empty life
would be without the knowledge and
the memory of such as these! Along
the shifting quicksands of ordinary
social life they make firm foothold
where we need not fear to tread ;
which cannot iail us.
We know, alas too well, how rare
are such friends; we who use the Ian
guage so glibly, and yet fail in chart
ty one to another so Systematically !;
we who easily speak i'll of one an
other, and are ever ready to resent a
!ancied slight or hasty word.
All, how many ruins of friendship
lie behind us aswe journey on Those
who trusted, and to whom we failed
to be true-those whom we protested
10 love, and have forsaken in impa-
tience, as some fault has been reveal
ed to our critical sense, which de-
mands perfection in all but ourselves,
those who needed us, and whom, for
our selfish ease or pleasure, we have
neglected-as well as the many to
whom we might have ministered,
who day by day and year by year
have called to us through the mani
fold opportunities of life and whom
we have disregarded. What, then.
IS the love we should bear those
whom we call friends? No foolish
sentiment, no temporary gush of feel
ing, no hasty, unconsidered impulse,
40 fancy of the hour born of some
charm of manner or some expressed
preference for us. Not one or all of
these, but an earnest, unSeltish prin-
ciple of affection going out with
yearning tenderness and strong help
fitness towards that in a fellow-being
which is noblest and highest.
Recognizing the possibilities for all
good, which all souls possess, love
is not daunted by faults and weak
nesses or by sins, but looking often
more to what might have been, and
to what yet may be, than to what is,
strives to raise and strengthen. A
friend is born to adversely, and it is
IN the hour of trial, in whatever form
it may come, that true friend is
most sorely needed.
A truce, then, to easy professions
which have no foundation in the re.
alities. Let us Gle not to one an.
other" Better no caresses, no pro,
testations, if they are not accompa.
MED by that concentrated, crystalized
essence of feeling, deeds.
Let us think well and seriously Of
all that word "friend' might come
to mean between us and those who
need us. And then, having set oul
seal to this, let us know how to bt
Saithful. Whatever Of failure OF
ehortcoming the past may have
known, in the future "let us love
Hot in word, neither in tongue, bu
in deed and in truth"