Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1903-12-28


ing to me about a friends faults. If
my friends have faults they must be
told about them by some one else" o
my brother. you are wrong; you are en-
tirely wrong A friend a true friend,
should be able to come to a brother as |
a loving mother could to her hayward |
child and tell him of the moral mif- |
takes he is making. This does not /
mean. as some people suppose. that the !
true mission of friendship is to gather |
up all the mean and contemplate say |
ings which have been spoken about one
and then retell them to his brother. No
bouquet of fragrant beauties can be
collected from among the singing net
ties and the poisonous ivies growing
knee deep in the stenchful swamps. |
once had one of those so called friends
who thought the chief mission of his
life was to fling at me all the criticisms
and the hypercriticisms he ever heard
spoken against me and my work. He
kept me in hot water all the time. I'm
til stopped associating with him he
made me doubt whether did have any
one who ever loved me or my family.
Mission of Love.
But though the mission of true
friendship consists not in peddling evil
reports it does have a mission In low
ingly and tenderly correcting the
wrongdoings of our dear ones. Johann
Goethe, the most famous poet and dram
atist of German literature, once eX-
pressed this beautiful thought: when
we are young we think we shall build
| palaces for the gods, but at last we are
| glad if we have dug away some of the
| rubbish at our feet" All. that state
ment is true. When we are young we
| have an ambition to reform the whole
| universe. but when we grow older we
| have narrowed down the hope of our
| life to this simple desire: We hope that
we may live right ourselves. We hope
that we may be able to remove from
! our friends paths some of the impede
ments over which We ourselves have
| stumbled. We hope to do the same as
Forbes Mitchell did during the awful
siege of Lucknow. After he was near
ly blown to pieces by powder maya
zine concealed within the reSidency by
the sepoys he Immediately warned his
English friends lest they might heed
lessly run into the same danger. And,
my brother mark this: If you are not
gratefully willing to be corrected in a
moral fault by a true friend then you
are not fit to have any Christian man
for a close associate.
The true friend is one who rejOices
with us in our successes as well as
sympathizes with us in our failures
ooh" you say. that is a universal
self evident desire. There is no danger
. | of any friend not rejoicing with us
when we succeed in life. The only dan
ger is that these friends will turn theil
backs upon us when we are defeated
Steady, brother. steady. | am surpris
ed at your answer. | am amazed, first
, that you are such a poor analyzer OF
, human character and. secondly. tina
; you have not found out the error O
> your belief by personal experience.
The Demon of Envy.
s Ready are you to grant that enemie
O rejoice at our overthrow and are SOFT.
n at our triumphs. But in one sens
Y many of our acquaintance are actual
/. ed by the same motives. When trippe'
V up in the race of life many of gu
@ friends are ready to say: Poor fellow
d Is it not too bad that my friend So-anC
O so failed in business? Is it not too ba
O that John lost all the money he inheri
ed from his father?' But they ofte
sympathize with us in the self compli
J. cent way which, translated in the ord
Y nary language of life. means: 1T is to
\ bad, but if John had only been d
# smart as | am he would never hay
ir lost his money. Now he is just as poo
If | as the rest of us, and he can no lOngt
4 | live in a fine house or have his daugl
10 ter taking music lessons or his son G
"a to college," But let a man make su
o. cess; let him strike a big profit in
real estate investment; let him have
$1,000 income when we have on
k $1,000 and it will take a mighty o.
slaught of Christian grace in our hear
to throttle the demon of envy gnawir
within our breasts. Jonathan was
~, true friend Of David. He loved Il
"a poet-statesman. the shepherd boy wa
h. and not he. the natural heir. was to S
!, upon Sauls throne. Many poor ma
,o ceases to love his brother merely
CO cause that brother can now ride viii
-, he himself is compelled to walk. WI
% do | state this truth? Because. u
IL hearer. l want you to realize the reas,
10 you dislike some of the friends of 70
II. youth. 1t is not because they are u
10 true to you, but you are untrue to the
no 1t is not because you have made d ia
,oI ure that they refuse to have anythi
~, to do with you. 1t is because til
Too have made a success that you refuse
bo have anything TO do with them.
o. the poisonous fangs of Satanic eny
-oo 1t is a fiendish enemy. which does
-bo deadly work in the poor mans hut
70 well as in the rich mans palace.