Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1904-12-10
LOCAL CORRESPONDENCE.
Friendship.

Friendship.
To the MINING JOURNAL.
! Be very slow to choose friend, and
slower to change him. Be also courteous
to all, intimate with few. The luxury
and dissipation that prevail in genteel
| life, as it corrupts the heart in many re-
| spects, SO it renders it incapable of
warm, sincere and steady friendship. A
happy choice of friends is of the utmost
consequence to ALL as they may assist
you by their advice and good offices.
But the immediate qualification which
friendship affords to Il warm, open and
ingenious heart is of itself IA sufficient
motive to be courteous to all.
Scorn no man for his meanness, nor
humor any for his wealth. In the choice
of your friends have your principal re-
gard to goodness of heart and fidelity to
the right. If they also possess taste and
genius. these endowments will make
them more agreeable and useful conf
| paniOnS.
A sure friend is best known in advance,
for we know not who to trust until
after trial. In politics
But think what cause have to sigh
When SO many Christian people lie;
| These tind-yeS, every fall
|
Why should devout man be afraid
of devoting all his soul body, i'll the
Spirit. and in truth, to God? l say this
i count it a damnable error for those
who profess to love Christ to profess
with Il black veil over their faces-"We
are content; we are justified through the
righteousness and the blood of Christ !;
we are sanctitied wholly through His
Spirit
l do not like to judge, but man is
tempted greatly. HE that doeth
righteousness is righteous. even as He is
righteous.
Christ never lied, Christ never de-
ceived man; no, n0-nOr ever said
yes when He ought to have said no.
1t seems TO me that absolute submis-
sion is calculated to menace freedom of
thought. 1t thus imperilS the intellec-
tual development of the individual as
well as the general discovery of truth.
There are some who will keep your
company while all is clear and fair, and
| the Almighty dollars are rolling into
their pockets. Their time and their
labor-everything has got to be sacrificed
to help roll the dollars into their service.
But they are not friends when the
clouds gather over you-when you are
in distress or in need. Friendship i'll
need is the only friendship which is
stronger than death, and those are
friends whose fortunes are embarked in
the same bottom, who are resolved to
sink or swim together, as great and
exalted spirits undertake hazardous pur-
suits for the good of others. at the same
time gratifying their passion for glory.
So d., worthy minds i'll the domestic
way of life deny themselves many adj
vantages to dispense a generous benevo-
lence, which they bear to friends OPP
pressed with distresses and calamities.
Charity commands us where we know
no ill to think well of all But friend
ship always goes pitch higher. 1t gives
man peculiar right and claim to the
good opinion of his friend.
Choose not a friend suddenly, nor
make any one your intimate before You
have tested his integrity.
When you think you have friend
make use of him with great caution,
trust him not before you know him well,
for many that pretend to be friends use
fiattery as IL mask to hide their hearts.
You have particular reason to place
confidence in those who have shown af-
fection for you in your early days, when
You We're incapable of making them any
returns. This is an obligation you can
not too gratefully acknowledge.
Never purchase friends with money
or gifts, for when you cease to give they
will cease to love.
If you have the good fortune to meet
with anyone who deserves the name of
friend, unbOsom yourself to him with
the most unsuspiciOus confidence. 1t is
one of the worlds maXims-''never to
trust anyone with a secret the final dis
covery of which would give you pain.
But it is ii maxim cherished by little
mind and cold heart-unless where it is
the effect of frequent disappointment and
bad usage. An open temper. if re-
strained by tOlerable prudence, will
make you Oh the whole much happier
than if reserved and suspicious, although
sometime you may suffer by it. Cold
ness and distrust are the two certain
consequences of aye and experience, but
they are unpleasant feelings which need
not be anticipated before their time.
But however open you may be in talk
ing of your own affairs. never disclose
the secrets of one friend to another.
These are secret deposits which do not
belong to you, nor have you any right to
make use of them.
At the close, friend, let me speak to
you one of the most solemn injunctiOns
concerning three sorts of men:
Invite no serious friendship with the
ungrateful man, the multiliquous man,
nor the coward The first cannot prize
your favOrs, the second cannot keer
your counsel, and the third cannot vindi-
cate your honor. BOwERY OLD MAN.
GENERAL.