News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-07-11
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGE'S
STERLING DiSCOURSES.
Subject: "How to Make Frien dis ;


and keeping friends l speak-a subject on
which never heard of any one preaching
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 all; but there is nothing
accidental about it. There is law which
governs the accretion and dispersion 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 rise or set.
1t Is science, an art, a God-given regula-
ton. Tell me how friendly you are to others
and viii tell you how friendly others are to
you l do not say you will not have enc
mics; indeed, 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 be
cause their goodness is perpetual rebuke to
evil; but this antagonism of foes will make
more intense the love of your adherents
Your friends viii gather closer around you
because of the attacks of your assailants. The
more your enemies abuse you, the better your
coadjutorS VIII think of you. The best friends
we ever had appeared at some juncture when
we were especially bonn barded. 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 l
VIII warrant that many of those cords were
twisted by hands malevolent. Human ma
tUre was shipwrecked about fifty-nine CEN
turtles ago, the Captain of that craft one
Adam, and his first mate, running the IA
nous cargo aground ON 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 a trellis of bruised honeysuclIle. If, when
set upon by the furieS, 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 a
while with whole Gordon of allies. Had
not the world given TO Christ on His arrival
at Palestine 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 Had it
not been for the heavy and jagged and tortur-
GUS cross, Christ would not have been the adj
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 enthusiast
tic admirers. In other words. there is no
virulence. human or diabolic 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, thought which may be-
nignly shape their destiny for the here and
the hereafter Before you show yourself
friendly you must be friendly do not rec
ommend a dramatized geniality. There is
such thing as pretending to be en- rapport
- y
ants, and talk against them and wish them
Judas covered up his treachery
by a resOunding kiss and careSses may be de-
moniacal. Better the NEUROLOGICAL Cerbe-
rus, the three-headed dog of he'll, barking at
as, than the wolf in sleeps clothing, its
brindled hide covered up by deceptive wool,
and its beautiful howl cadenced into an inno-
cent beating. Disraeh writes of Lord
who, after committing many
outrages upon the people, seemed suddenly
to become friendly, and invited them to
a 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
IN 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,
md there are now people whose smile is
IalsehOod. Before you begin TO show YOUR
elf friendly you must be friendly. Get your
leart right with God and man and this grace
<lH become easy. You may by your own
resolution get your nature into semblance
IF this virtue, but the grace of God can
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
{ to pieces The owners of the other
grounded vessel waited till tho tides
eame 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
s2!asAssASsSai S,IS there Is nothing like
hoist US into this kindIineSs I am eulogizing
If when under the fash of the Holy Ghost
we see our own foibles and defects and de-
pravities, we viii be very lenient and very
easy with others. We win look into their
characters for things commendatory and not
damnatOry. If you would rub your own
eye little more vigorously you would find
mote IN it, the extraction of which would
keep you so busy you would not have much
Tune TO shoulder your broadax and go
forth to split up the beam in your neigh
boris eve. In a Christian spirit keen on
exploring the characters of those you
meet, aud l am sure you will find
in them delightful and fit for a
foundation Of friendliness. You invite me
20 come 20 your country seat and spend few
days. Thank you'll l arrive about noon of
a 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
hoatng in and out among the white pillars of
the pond lilies. You take me to the stalls and
kennels where you keep your fine stock, and
here are the Durham cattle, and the Gordon
'etteTs, and the high stepping ste eds by paw
ng and neighing, the only language they can
peak, asking for harness or saddle and
hort turn down the road. Then we 90 back
o the house and you get me in the right
Ight and show me the Kensetts
and the Bierstadts on the wall
md take me into the music room, and show
ne the bird cages, the canaries in the bay
window answering the robins in the tree tops.
Thank yOui | 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
ourselves with the nuisances Oh, my friends,
better cover up the faults and extol
the virtues, aud this habit once
established of universal friendliness will
become easy as it is this morning for a
syringa to flood the air with sweetness, as
Easy it viii be further on in tn e season
FOR 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 Seel before L accept IQdB DaleIul story
against that mans character l viii 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 additions which
the spirit of gossip in every community has
put upon the original story. Then I will
take off twenty-five per cent from the fact
that the man may have been put into cir
cumstances of overpowering temptation. So,
have taken off seventy-ive per cent. But
have not heard his side OF the story at all,
and for that reason take off the remaining
twenty-five per cent" Excuse me, sir, don't
believe a word of it.
But here comes in defective maxim, so
often quoted: ''Where there is so much
smoke there must be some fire" Look at all
Queer of vaccination; and the smoke around
Columbus the discoverer; and the smoke
around Martin Luther. and Savonarola and
Calico, and Paul and John. and Christ and tell
me where was the fire? That is one of the
Satanic arts to make smoke without fire
Slander, ike the world, may he made out of
nothing. Ii the Christian, fair minded, COM
mon sensical spirit in regard to others pre-
dominated in the world, we should have the
millennium in about six weeks for would not
that be lamb and lion, cow and leopard lying
down together? Nothing but the grace of
God can ever put us into such a habit o.
mind and heart as that The whole tendency
Is in the opposite direction. This is the wav
the world talks; 'Iput my name on the back
Of a mans note, and had to pay it, and / will
never again put my name on the back Of any
mans note. gave a beggar ten cents, and
five minutes after l saw him entering a liquor
store to spend it l will never again give a
cent to a beggar. helped that young man
start in business, and 10, after a while he
came and opened a store almost next door to
me, and stole my customers. I will never
again help young man start in business.
trusted in what my neighbor promised to do
and he broke his word, and the Psalmist was