The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-03-05
SERMON PREACHED
ON FRIENDSHIP
First Methodist Church Was
Crowded Last Night
SERIES TO YOUNG MEN
Rev. ]. A. Duncan Emphasizes the
Necessity of Friendship-"choose
Friends Who viii Make Up
SERIES TO YOUNG MEN

! the First Methodist church. preached ths
fourth of series of sermons there last
night. especially to young men. His sub
ject was Friendship" and he took his
text from John t5:15: Il have called you
friends"
The church was filed, and the number
of young men present was large. AS
was found necessary on the occasion OF
the preaching of the others of the series
chairs were brought in and all available
space used.
The speaker said in part:
| In all ages friendship has been sung and
has been valued as anpng the greatest
treasures. The man who really is d
friend and who has real friends, is more
to be envied than he who is rich. A
friend can no more be bought than a
pure heart can be bought.
Friendship must always be a gift and
because 1t is a rare gift, and in the truest
sense a rich gift. 1t is to be priced above
all other forms of wealth.
There are not few people in the world,
I presume it has ever been so, who in
weighed against friendship, saying that
1t cannot be. They tell us that the
disnterested affection, which is both the
root and vine of friendship, is a thing for
dreamers to dream Of for poets to sing
of. and for youth in it's ignorant enthusi-
assn to believe in, but that 1t is like many
other things we have thought to be real,
only a delusion, only a name.
| l confess that those that feel thus, have
my deepest sympathy. l have nothing to
say in condemnation for them, but have
for them genuine pity. They have never
been Logged with friendship love, and what
is sadder, they have never given them
selves without any qualifications to the
friendly love of another.
He who has never been friend, has
never gone to the bottom of his own
heart, has never sounded the depths oil
his own nature, has never learned the
privilege of believing in some one fully
or of feeling that highest of all senti-
ments. the willingness to lay down his
life that another life may bloom more
| gloriously
Records of Friendship.
| What would the world do without the
records we have of friendship. The OLD
Testament has much in it that Is very
sombre, here and there we find flashes OF
light, but they are usually scarcely suf-
fcient to do more than emphasize the
darkness. Among these flashes there is
one that shines with more than usual
brilliancy, and duration. 1t is the friend
| ship between David and Jonathan. 1t is
| one of the finest Illustrations of pure
| friendship in all history. Here is a younG
man who Is destined to occupy the throne
on which Jonathan would sit as ruler, but
for him. and Jonathan deliberately pre-
fers him above himself The soul of iona
than is knit to the SOU OF David, is the
strong way the writer of the record puts
it, 1t is an ideal friendship because II
shows how entirely self forgetful. and
self sacrificing true friendship is. Jona-
than will live forever in human hearts be-
cause he Illustrated friendship as he did
TheName Mephibosheth was fed from the
table of King David after the death OF
Jonathan because Jonathan had been
Davids friend.
Friendship has not only enriched his
| tory but 1t has enriched letters. The
greatest poem written by the greatest
poet of this country was the poem Tenny-
son wrote In memory of his friend.
Choosing Of Friends.
Since friendship means so much, and
| through friendship so much has been, and
can be accomplished, one of the most
important things In life Is the choosing
| of ones friends. We must not lose sight
| of the fact that unconscious influence Is
! the most powerful influence in life. 1t
| Is not what some one is to us, or asks
| ms to do 1t is some one elses asst that
| affects us.
II We are thrown with one who reads,
| he need never ask us to read his books,
| and 1t Is more than probable that from
time to time, we will pick them up,
glance over them, possibly read them,
and 1t may be, become so effected by
them that our entire future will be
| changed. man is not only known by
| the company he keeps, but his standing
| In a community is very largely deter
| mined by the character of those with
| whom he associates.
! IT is nearly impossible to make people
believe that we are any better than our
friends, hence We must be very careful
| with whom we are intimate, lest that
| intimacy destroys our influence.
'
| essity Man Is a social animal, and every
| normal man wants companionship. There
| is a. side of his nature that can never be
| developed unless he gives himself In
| friendship to some one else. Out of our
/ companions grow our friends. and youth
| IS the time for the forming of these inn
| portant ties. The heart Is warmer, 1t is
naturally generous and gives itself readily
| and unquestionably, and 1t Is well that
1 this is So Perhaps the most important
| question connected with this whole mat
| Ser Is whether any rule can apply.
| There are and there have been. friend
J ships between men and women. Such
| friendships are difficult. They are some
| times dangerous. The danger. however,
| often lies In the fact that the world is
| unwilling to believe that such a disinter-
ested relation as friendship can exist be-
| tween q man and a woman. Now when
! two people know themselves suspected of
wrong doings, there is apt to grow up
| between them a secret relation This
| turns what might have been a friend
| ship into purely personal channels, so
| that they begin to talk about them
| selves, their relation to one another and
| that which began In innocence and might
! have continued pure, having become
| poisoned by sufficient doubt, becomes,
perchance a wrong thing.
Friends Who Will Help You.
In choosing your friends among your
companions, for your friends must come
from those with whom you are thrown,
! as far as possible choose those who not
| only have similar tastes but who can
| supply your deficiencies, by such powers
| az this your friends strength becomes