Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-07-11
HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS.
WHEN THE DEFENDERS COME.


A Sacred and Divine Art Discussed
BY the Rev. DR.. Talmage.
TEXT: "a man that hath friends must
ShotO himself friendly" Proverbs xviii, a.
About the sacred and divine art Of making
and keeping friends l speak-a subject on
which never heard of any one preaching
and yet God thought it of enough Importance
20 put it in the middle of the Bible, these
writings Of Solomon, bounded on one side by
the popular Psalms Of David and on the other
by the writings Of Isaiah, the greatest Of the
prophets. 1t seems all matter Of haphazard
how many friends we have, or whether we
have any friends at all; but there Is nothing
accidental about it. There Is a law which
governs the accretion and dispersion Of
friendships. They did not 'just happen So"
any more than the tides just happen to rise
Or fall, or the sun just happens to rise or set.
It is science, an art, a God-given regula-
tion. Tell me how friendly you are to others
and will tell you how friendly others are to
you. i do not say you will not have enc
mics; indeed, the best way to get ardent
friends is to have ardent enemies II you got
their enmity in doing the right thing. Good
men and women will always have enemies be-
Causo JuOAI kOOuuceS Ib u perpetual I6Duk6 10
evil; but this antagonism OF foes will make
more intense the love Of your adherents.
Your friends will gather closer around you
because of the attacks Of your assailants. The
more your enemies abuse you, the better your
coadjutors will think of you. The best friends
we ever had appeared at some juncture when
we were especially bombarded. There have
been times in my life when unjust assault
multiplied my friends as near as l could
calculate, about fifty a minute. You are
bound to some people by many cords that
neither time nor eternity can break, and I
will warrant that many of those cords were
twisted by hands malevolent. Human ma
ture was shipwrecked about fifty-nine CEN
turies ago, the Captain of that craft one
Adam, and his first mate, running the IA
nous cargo aground on q snag in the River
Hiddekel; but there was at least one good
trait of human nature that waded safely
ashore from that shipwreck, and that is the
disposition to take the part Of those unfairly
dealt with. When it is thoroughly demon
Strated that some one is being perse-
cuted, although at the start slanderous
tongues were busy. enough, defenders
finally gathered around as thick as honey bees
on trellis of bruised honeysuckle. If, when
set upon by the furiea, you can have grace
enough to keep your mouth shut and pre-
serve your equipoise, and let others fight
your battles you will find yourself after
while with whole Gordon of allies. Had
not the world given to Christ on His arrival
at Palestine very cold shoulder, there
would not hive been one-half as many angels
chanting glory out of the hymn books of the
sky bound in black lids of midnight Had it
not been for the heavy and jagged and tortur-
Gus cross, Christ would not have been the ad-
mired and loved of more people than any be-
ing who ever touched foot on either the east
ern or western hemisphere. Instead, there
fore, Of giving up in despair because you
have enemies, rejoice in the fact that they
rally for you the most helpful and enthusias-
Tic admirers. In other words there is no
virulence, human or disbolic, that can hinder
my text from coming true: "a man that
hath friends must show himself friendly"
1t is my ambition to project, especially
upon the young, a thought which NAV be-.
nignly shape their destiny for the here and
the hereafter. Before you show yourself
friendly. you must be friendly. do not rec
ommend dra1natized geniality. There is
such thing as pretending to be en- rapport
with Others when we are their dire destruct-
ants, and talk against them and wish them
calamity. judas covered up his treachery
by resounding kiss, and caresses may be de-
moniacal. Better the neurological Cerbe-
rus, the three-headed dog 81 he'll, barking at
u.s. than the wolf in sleeps clothing, irs
br1ndled hide covered up by deceptive wool,
UAAA AVo NoRpuluI HOWL Cdu6uC01 lnUO an llnO-
cent bleating. Disraeli writes of Lord
MANFRED, who, after committing many
outrages upon the people, seemed suddenly
to become friendly, and invited them to
q banquet. After most Of the courses of food
had been served he blew horn, which was in
those times signal for the servants to bring
on the dessert but in this case it was the sig
nal for assassins to enter and slay the guests.
His pretended friendliness was cruel fraud,
SNH fhnr l.
falsehood. Before you begin to show your
self friendly you must he friendly. Get your
heart right with God and man and this grace
will become easy. You may by your own
resolution get your nature into semblance
OF this virtue, but the grace of God can
sublimely lift you into it. Sailing on the
River Thames two vessels ran aground. The
owners Of one got one hundred horses and
pulled on the grounded ship and pulled
1t to pieces. The owners of the other
grounded vessel waited till the tides
came in and easily floated the ship out of all
trouble. So we may pull and haul at our
grounded human nature, and try to get into
better condition; but there is nothing like
the oceanic tides of Gods uplifting grace to
@hoist us into this kindliness am eulogizing.
II when under the flash of the Holy Ghost
we see our own foibles and defects and de-
pravities, we will be very lenient and very
easy with Others. We will look into their
characters for things commendatory and not
damnatory. f you would rub your own
eye a lit.Is Alola vigorously you would find a
mote in IL, TINT extraction of which would
keep yoI So Gus you would not have much
time to shoulder your broadax and 20
forth to split up the beam in your neigh
boris eye. Iu Christian spirit keep on
exploring the characters of those you
meet, aud ! am sure you will find
something in them delightful and fit for q
foundation of friendliness. You invite me
to come to your country seat and spend few
days. Thank you! arrive about noon Of
q beautiful summer day. What do you do
As soon as arrive you take me out under
the shadow OF the great elms. You take me
down to the artificial lake, the spotted trout
6oating in and out among the white pillars of
the pond lilies. You take me to the stalls and
kennels wAsre you keep your fine stock, and
here are the Durham cattle, and the Gordon
settlers, and the high stepping ste eds by paw
ing and neighing, the only language they can
speak, asking for harness or saddle and
short turn down the road. Then we 60 back
TO the house and you get me in the right
light and show me the Kensetts
and the BierstadtS on the wall,
and take me into the music room, and show
me the bird cages, the canaries in the bay
window answering the robins in the tree tops.
Thank you! never enjoyed myself more in
the same length of time. Now, why do we
not do that way in regard to the characters
OF others, and show the bloom and the music
and the bright fountains? No. We say
come along and let me show you that mans
character. Here is green scummed frog
pond, and theresa filthy cellar, and guess
under that hedge there must be black snake.
Come, and let us for an hour or two regale