The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-07-12
MAKING FRIENDS.
Dr.. Talmage on the Friendships OF
This Life.
The Importance of Treating Others Prop
srly-Taking Part With the Abused
Friendship Begets Friendship
God the Truess Friend.

In Q recent sermon at Brooklyn upon
the subject: How to Make Friends, Rev.
l. Dewitt Talmage took his text from
Proverbs xviii. "a: "a man that hath
friends must show himself friendly" He
said:
About the sacred and divine art of max
ing and keeping friends l speak-a subject
on which never heard of any one preach
ing-and yet God thought it OF enough
Importance to 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 a matter Of haphazard how
MANY friends we have, or whether we
have any friends at al, but there is moth
ing accidental about it. There is q law
which governs the accretion and disper-
sion of friendships. They did not lust
happen so" any more than the tides just
happen to rise or fall or the sun just
happens to riss or set 1t is a science, an
art, God given regulation. Tell me how
friendly you are TO others and will tell
you how friendly others are to you. do
not say that you will not have enemies !;
indie ID, the best way to get ardent
friends is to have ardent enemies, if
you got their enmity in doing the right
thing. Good men and women will always
have enemies, because their goodness is a
perpetual rebuke to evil; but this antagon-
ism of foes will make more intense the
love of your adherents Your friends
will gather closer around you because OF
the at acks of your assailants.
Human nature was shipwrecked about
tha tai Of
that craft, one Adam. and his first maj 9
running the famous cargo aground on a
snaS in the river Hiddskel; Tut there was
at least one good trait Of human nature
that waded ashore from that shipwreck,
and that is the disposition to take the part
Of those unfairly dealt with. When it is
thoroughly demonstrated that soma one is
being prosecuted, although at the start
slanderous tongues were busy enough,
defenders finally gather ar und as thick
as honey bees on a trellis of bruised honey
Suckle. II. when set uron by the furies,
you can have grace enough to keep your
mouth shut, and preserve your equipoise
and let others fight your battles, you will
find yourself after awhile with a whole
Nordon Of allies Had not the world given
Christ on His arrival at Palestine a
very cold shoulder there would not have
been one-half as many angels chanting
glory out of the hymn books of the sky
bound in black lids of midnight. Hal it
not been for the heavy and jagged and
torturous cross Carist woul not have
been the admired and loved Of more peo-
pie than any being who ever touched foot
on either the Eastern or Western hemi-
sphere. Instead, therefore, Of giving up
in despair because you have enemies, re-
joice in the fact that they rally for you
The most helpful and enthusiastic ad.
mirers. In other words, there is no viru-
lence, human or diabolic. that can hinder
my t. xt from coming true: "A man that
hath friends must show him efficiently"
1t is my ambition to prof CT especially
upon the young thought which may be-
nignly shape their destiny for the here
and the hereafter. Before you show your
self friendly you must be friendly. l do
not recommend q dramatisad Senia.ity.
There is such a thing rs pretending to be
en- rapport with others when we are their
dire dsstructants and talk against them
and wish them calamity. Judas covered
up his treachery by resounding
kiss, and caresses may be demoniacal
Better the NEUROLOGICAL Cerberus, the
three-headed dog of he'll. barking at US
than the wolf in sleeps clothing, its
brindled hide covered up by deceptive
wool and its beautiful howl cadensed into
/ innocent bleating.
Before you begin to show yourself
friendly you must be 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
a semblauce 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 100
iorses and pulled on the grounded ship
and pulled it to pieces. The owners of the
other grounded vessel waited TIL the tides
came in and easily floated the ship out of
all trouble. So, we may pull and haul at
our grounded human natur-, and try to
get it into better condition; but there is
nothing like the oceanic tides of Gods up
lifting grace to hoist us into this K ndness
am euIogizing. II when under the fash
OF the Holy Gnost we see our own foibles
and defects and depravities. we will be
very lenient and very easy with others.
We will look into their characters for
things commendatory and not damnatory.
more vigorously you would find mote in
it, the extraction Of which would keep you
so busy you would not have much time to
shoulder your broadaxs and go forth to split
up the beam in your neghbor's eye. In
Christian spirit keep en- exploring the
character of those YOU meet and am sure
you will find somerh ng in them delight
Jul and fit for a foundal lion of friendliness.
he 81,
and eItol the virtues, and this habit once
established of universal friendliness will
become as easy as it is this morning for a
syringa to flood the air with sweetness, as
easy as it will be further on in the season
for a quail to whistle up from the grass.
When we hear something bad about
somebody whom we always supposed to
be good, take out your lead pencil and
say: Let me see. Before | accept that
baleful story against that mans character,
/ will take off from it twenty-five per
cent for the habit of exaggeration which
belongs to the man who first told the story:
then will take Off twenty-five per cent.
for the addit ons which the spirit of gossip
in every community has put upon the
original story; then Twill take off twenty
five per cent. from the fact that the man
may have been put into circumstances of
overpowering temptation. So l have
taken of seventy-five per cent. But l
have not heard his side of the story at
all, and for that reason take off the re-
ma ming twenty five per cent" Excuse
me, sir, don't believe a word of it
But here comes in a defective maxim so
often quoted: Where there is smoke
there must be some fire" Look at all the
smoke for years around Jenner. the intro
Queer of vaccination, and the smoke
around Columbus, the discoverer, and the
smoke around Martin Luther and Savona-
rola and Calico and Paul and John and
Christ and tell me where was the fire!