The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-09-23
.SOMEPRETTY TRUTHS
Rev. DR.. Talmage Says All Persons
are Bound to Have Enemies.
The Making and Retention OF Friends
Not a Matter of Happy Accident,
But the Result of Wise and
Intelligent Selection.


dent, is really matter of intelligent
selection. The text is: "a man that
hath friends must show himself friend
ly."-Proverbs xviii, "a.
About the sacred and divine art of
making and keeping friends l speak
subject on which / never heard of
anyone 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 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 science, an art, God-given regu-
lation.
Tell me how friendly you are to 9TH
ers, and / will tell you how friendly
pthers are to you. l do not say you
will not have enemies; indeed. the best
way to get ardent friends is to have
ardent enemies, if you get 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 antagonism of
foes will make more intense the love of
your adherents. Your friends will
II
the attacks of your assailants. The
more your enemies abuse you the bet
ter your conductors will think of you.
The best friends we have ever had
appeared at some jUncture when we
were especially bombarded. There
have been times in my life when I'M
just 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 will
warrant that many of those cords
were twisted by hands malevolent.
Human nature was shipwrecked about
fifty-nine centuries ago, the captain of
that craft, one Adam, and his first
mate running the famous cargo
aground on a snag in the River Hid
dekel; 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 demonstrated
that some one is being prosecuted, al
though at the start slanderous tongues
were busy enough, defenders finally
gather around as thick as honey bees
on trellis of bruised honey-suckle.
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 a very cold should
CT, 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 hemisphere. Instead, there
fore, of giving up in despair because
you have enemies, rejoice in the fact
that they rally for you the most help
full and enthusiastic admirers. In
other words, there is no virulence 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 hereafter. Before you
show yourself friendly you must be
l do not recommend dram
atized geniality. There is such
thing as pretending to be en- rapport
with others, when we are their dire
and talk against them,
and wish them calamity. Judas COW
cred up his treachery by resounding
kiss, and caresses may be Economical.
Better the NEUROLOGICAL Cerberus, the
e-headed dog of hell barking at
us, than the wolf in sleeps clothing,
it's brindled hide covered up by decep-
tive wool, and its deadful howl ca
1enced into an innocent bleating. Dis
raeli writes of Lord Manfred, who, !
after committing many outrages upon
the people, seemed suddenly to become |
and invited them to a ban
1uet. After most of the courses of |
food had been served he blew a horn, |
which was in those times a signal for !
the servants to bring on the dessert,
but in this case it was the signal for
81 l,a
His pretended friendliness was a cruel
fraud; and there are now people whose
smile is falsehood.
Before you begin to show yourself
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
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 hoated the ship out
of all trouble. So we may pull and
haul at our grounded human nature
and try to get 1t in better conditions;
but there is nothing like the oceanic
tides of Gods uplifting grace. If,
when under the flash of the Holy
Ghost. we see our own foibles and de-
fects and depravities, we will be very
lenient. and very easy with others
We will look into their characters for
things commendatory, and not damna-
tory. If you would rub your own eye
a little more vigorously you would find
A mote in it, the extraction of which
keep you so busy you would not have
much time to shoulder your broadax
and go forth to split up the beam in