The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-07-06
MAKING FRIENDS.
Dr. Talmage on the Friendships of
This Life.
Vhs Importance of Treating Others Prom
eriy-Taking Part with the Abused
~6Fiendship Begets Friendship
God the Truest Friend.

IN a recent sermon at Brooklyn upon
the subjects: How to Make Friends Rev.
!, dewitt Talmage took his text from
proverbs xviii. "a: "a man that hath
friends must show himself friendly.n He
said:
About the sacred and divine art of max
Ing ana keeping friends peak-a subject
ou "n'cn 1 never heard of any one preach
s-ahu yet Tod thought 1t of enough
im oortance to put it in the middle of tho
bit'ss these writings of Solomon. boundad
on one side by the popular Psalms of
David and on the other by the writings of
ISAIAH bhe greatest OF the prophets. II
seems all a matter OF haphazard how
MANY friends we have, or w neither wa
rave any friends at a |. but there is MOTH
ias accidental about it. There ia a law
whicn governs the accordion and disper-
sion OF friendships. They did not ',iust
happen so" any more than the tides lust
happen to rise or fall. or the sun inst
TO riss or set. 1t is q science. an
art a o d-given regulation. Tell me how
riendly you are to Others and [ will tell
You how friendly others are to Won. do
NOT say hat you will not nave enemies.
Indeed, the best way to get ardent
friends Is to have ardent enemies, II
VOC got their enmity in doing the right
thing. Good men and women will always
have enemies, because their goodness il a
perpetual rebuke TO evil; but This antagon-
lam OF foes will make more intense the
iove or Your adherents. Your friends
WA gather closer around you because IT
tine attacks OF YOU assailants.
una nature was shipwrecked about
nfty-nme centuries ago, the captain of
that craft, one Adam. and his first mate
running the famous cargo aground on a
snag in the liver Hiddekel; but there was
Ct least one good trait of human nature
mat waded ashore from that shipwreck,
and that Is the disposition to lake the part
OF those unfairly dealt with. When 1t is
thoroughly demonstrated that some one is
being prosecuted, although at the start
eieuderous tongues were busy enough,
defenders finally gather arJund as thick
~ honey bees on a trellis of bruised honey
suckle. II, when set uron by the furies.
you can grace enough to keep your
mouth shut, and preserve your e~quipoise,
and let others fight your battles, you will
nnd yourself after awhHee With a whole
60 Christ 81 4 nrpfes3 ~ palastina :
very cold % sEsr5 Assuid mot have
c11<Anif 90 many angels chanting
L-N MA& - ~ AfAhu DDOkb u buo SKY
&5an6 IN black lias of midnight. Had it
not been Tor the heavy n jagged and
torturous cross Christ would 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 mp
In despair because you have enemies, re-
3oics In the fact that they rally for you
the most helpful and enthusiastic adj
mirers. In osher words, there Is no viru-
lsncs, human or diabolic. that can hinder
my text from coming true: "a man that
hath friends must show him elf friendly.0
II II my ambition to prof ct especially
upon the young a thought which may be-
nignly shape their destiny for the here
and the hereafter. Before you show your
self friendly you must be friendly. 1 do
not recommend a dramatized genia. ity.
There Is such a thing as pretending to be
en- rapport with others when we are their
dirs destructants and talk against them
and wish them calamity. Judns covered
up his freachery by a ~resounding
kiss, int caresses may be demoniacal.
Better the NEUROLOGICAL Cerberus, the
thres-headed dog Of hell, barking at us
than the wolf in sleeps clothing, its
brindled hide covered up by deceptive
wool and its beautiful bowl cadensed into
an 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 inio
o semblence 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
horses and pulled on the grounded ship
and pulled It to pieces. The owners of the
other grounded vessel waited till the tides
came in and easily foated the ship out of
all trouble. So, we may pull and haul at
cur grounded human nature, aud try TO
get Il into better conditions; but there is
nothing like the oceanic tides of Gods up
grace to hoist us into thisk kindness
I an eulogizing. II when under the flash
Of the Holy Ghost We see our own foibles
and defects and ~depravities, we will be
very Ienient and very easy with others.
We will look into their characters for
things c-ommendetory and not d~amnatory.
n you would rub your own eye q little
more vigorously you would find a mote In
IL the extraction Of which would keep you
% busy you would not have much time to
shoulder your broadaxe and go forth to split
tbs beam In your neighbours eye. In a
Christian spirit keep~en exploring the
character OF those you meet. and 1 am sure
gou will find something in them delight
ful and ct for a foundation of friendliness.
Oh, my friends. better cover up the faults
and extol the virtue, and this habit once
established of universal friendliness will
bsccms as easy as 1t is this morning for a
syringa to flood the air with sweetness, as
Easy as IL will be further on in the season
Ill A. w-ls.AlA M frAr, The
When we hear something bad about
somsbody whom we always supposed to
be good, take out your lead pencil and
seyi "Lst ms see. Before ! accept that
balsful story against that mans character,
I will lake OF from 1t twenty-five per
sent for the habit Of exaggeration which
belongs to the man who first told the story:
hen I will take of twenty-five per cent
tor the additions which the spirit of gossip
In svery community has put upon the
original story; then will take Off twenty
ave per cent. from the fact that the man
nav have been put into circumstances of
overpowering temptation. So i have
taksn OF seventy-ive per cent. But /
have not Heard his side OF the story at
all. and for that reason l take Off the re-
manning twenty-five per cent" Excuse
me, sir. / dom believe n word of H.
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 Pau and John and
Christ AID tell me where was the freS
That IL one Of the satanic arts to make
smoke without fire. SANDER, like the
sorld, may De made out Ut nothing. III
she Christian, fair-minded, commoE.sens-
lcGl spirit In regard to others predomi-
mated in the world We should have the
millenn um in about six weeks, for would
mot that be lamb and lion, COW and LEOPARD
lying down togetherf Nothing but the
grace OF God can ever put us into such a
habit OF mind and heart as that The
Whole tendency Is In the opposite dlrec-
tion.
This 10 the way the world talks: I put
my name On the back Of a mans note and
\ had 70 pay 10 int l will never again put
ing lame on the bach of any mans note.
i gave q bsggar len cents and five minutes
after ! saw him enter ing a liquor store to
spend u. I will never again give a cent to
q beggar. / helped nat young man start
in business and 10, after awhile he came
and opened a store Amos next door and
stole my customers. | will never again
help O young man start Ia business. l
trusted in my neighbor promised to
do and he broke his word and the Psalmist
was right before he corrected himself, for
''all men are liars" So men become sus-
'picious and saturnine and selfish.
and at every additional wrong done
them they put another layer on the
wall of their exclnsiveness, and
anoeher bolt 10 the door that