The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-09-14
FRIENDS.
DR.. Talmage Advises Everybody
to Do So.
First Get Your Heart Right and the Rest
is Easy When a Man Does Well Tell
Him SO-The Friendship Between
Christ and Believing Soul,

ton. The text chosen is Proverbs 1S:
"a: "a man that hath friends must
show himself friendly"
About the sacred and divine art of
making and keeping friends l speak
u subject on which 1 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 phophets.
1t seems all a matter of hap-hazard
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 "just happen So any more
than the tides just happen to rise or
fall, or the sun just happens to rise
or set. 1t is a science, an art, a God
given regulation.
Tell me how friendly you are to 9th
ers, and / will tell you how friendly
others are to you. 1 do not say you
will not have enemies; indeed, the best
way to get ardent friends is to have ar
dent enemies, if you get their enmity
in doing the right thing. Good men
and women will always have enemies,
because their goodness is perpetual
rebuke to 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 bet
ter your coadjutors will think of you.
The best friends we have ever had
appea 1 at some juncture when we
were ecially bombarded. There
have been times in my life when un-
just assault multiplied my friends, as
near as l could calculate, about fifty
minute. You are bound to some peo-
pie by many cords that neither time
nor eternity can break, and l will war
rant that many of those cords were
twisted by hands malevolent.
If, when set upon by the furies, you
can have grace enough to keep your
mouth shut, and preserve your equi-
poise, and let others fight your battles,
you will find yourself after awhile
with a 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 tortuous
cross, Christ would not have been the
admired and loved of more people than
any being who ever touched foot on
either the eastern or western hemis-
!phere. Instead, therefore, of giving
up in despair because you have enc
mics, rejoice in the fact that they
rally for you the most helpful and en-
thusiastic admirers. In other words,
there is no virulance that can hinder
my text from coming true: "a man
that hath friends must show himself
friendly"
1t is my ambition to project espe-
cially upon the young thought which
may benignly shape their destiny for
the here and the hereafter. Before
you show yourself friendly you must
be friendly, I do not recommend a
dramatized geniality. There is such a
thing as pretending to be en- rapport
with others, when we are their dire
destructants, and talk against them
and wish them calamity. Judas COW
cred up his treachery by resounding
kiss, and caresses may be demoniacal
Better the NEUROLOGICAL Cerberus, the
three-headed dog of hell, barking al
us, than the wolf in sleeps clothing
its brindled hide covered up by decep.
tive wool, and it's deathful howl ca.
denced 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 into a semblance of this virtue
but the grace of God can sublimely
LIFT you into it. Sailing on the river
T ha nes two vessels ran aground
The owners of one got one hundred
horses, and pulled on the grounded
ship, and pulled it to pieces. The
owners of the other grounded vesse
waited till the tides came in. and eas
lily floated the ship out of all trouble
so we may pull and haul at. oul
grounded human nature, and try tC
get it into better condition; but there
is nothing like the oceanic tides o.
Gods uplifting grace. If when under
the flash of the Holy Ghost, we see oul
foibles and defects and depravities, we
will be very lenient, and very easy
with others. We will look into theil
characters for things commendatory
and not damnatory. If you would rul
your own eye little more vigorously
you would find mote in it, the extrac
tion Of which would keep you so busy
you would not have much time Il
shoulder your broad-axe, and go fortl
to split up the beam in your neigh
boris eye. In Christian spirit keel
on exploring the characters of thos,
you meet, and / am sure you will finC
something in them fit for a foundation
of friendliness.
You invite me to come to your coun
try seat and spend few days. Thanl
you'll arrive about noon of beauti
full summer day. What do you do
AS soon as l arrive yau take me ou
under the shadow of the great ielms
You take me down to the artifcia
lake, the spotted trout floating in ant
out among the white pillars of tn,
pond-lilies. You take me to the STALL
and kennels where you keep your fin,