The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-20
FRIENDSHIP" WAS
 PASTORS SUBJECT The Rev. Dr. J. A. Duncan Breaches to Young People DUTY IS lLlfpS TEST
One of the Great Duties conslsts of Recognizing Relations to Others and Then Fulfilling Those
 Relations.

yesterday evening on "Friendship," the sermon being intended especially for the younger members of the congre- gation. The discourse WAS lesson on the beauty of friendship, but the pastor emphasized the II effects and infiu ences of the eli posing of the wrong associates and friends. He took his text from the 18th verse of the 18th chapter of John, "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not. what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends for all things that l have heard of my Farther I have made known unto you" pr. Dun
 can spoke in part as follows:
 We hear great deal of talk about the frailty of humanity and that tn ere
 is no such thing In the world as real friendship. We hear people say that friendship changes with the weath CT, that when the weather Is bright our friends stick to us and when 1t grows dark they abandon us. I believe no word of that. I do not believe that human nature is so bad as that, that there are no real friends. I do believe that there are people that are true and people who make real friends.
 Importance of Friendship.
 "There is nothing more important In the life of young man or young woman than friends Friendship means not only the outgoing of one heart to another but the outgoing of two hearts.
 When young man starts out in life he may leave home and then there may begin a life that is almost entirely new. Right then the most important ing in his life is the mixture with the proper people. The ruination of
 many young man can be traced back to the association with, bad friends.
 t'When young men are put out on their own resources there comes the test of what the child has learned at home. All of life's tests come through duties and one of the great duties consists in recognizing fhe relations of one to another, and then the fulfill ing of those relations. This relation to others begins from the time the young man leaves home; his life is growing broader and friendship be- gins to grow out of companionship. "we cannot live alone; no one is big enough to go through life alone We need true hearts as much-as anything else and there Is indeed nothing more valuable than a good friend. It Is not l easy to make friends, and l am not sure that they are made. You know | tkere is a difference between compan- T. ionship and friendship. We do not make | companions but they are thrust upon l us by circumstances as two clerks be- 1 come companions in working side py | side. But friends we take ourselves. | "One of the best things for young woman, I think, is for her to have the | friendship of some older woman if the older woman is judicious. If she IS worthy there ean be nothing better
 Her feet have travelled the path that I the feet of the young woman must travel, and from her the younger car
 get suggestions, strength and helpful-
 ness. But the young woman snoulo
 also have friends like herself; friends | of her own age but in forming these friendships beware of one thing. AS vou value yourself, your future, dc
 not form friendship with one whose | ideal is lower than your own.
 | Effects of Association.
 .sSome people scoff at life. Let me tel | YOU that you cannot handle pitch and moi 1 be defiled. If you go down into youl | cellar and grind charcoal, l don't care bovv tightly you stop up the cracks ane | the keyhole if you grind that charcoa fine enough the dust will get into the at l tic, despite of your precaution. so 1T | friendship you cannot associate with oth
 CTS without you yourself going along the | same level sooner or later.
 | "Young men whose stories are those l that could not be told to clean, pure man are bad friends do not know of a purer thing than a pure man, and tner
 why should you make friendship with 2 man who is not pure, and why should | pure man allow the putrid to come int9 l his life? You might have the temptation | to take off you~ shoes and wade In a clear, sparkling straain, but have you any temptation to wade ir sewer? Then why wade in a moral sewer? 1 have known brilliant men whose experience would be beneficial to me, and whom l would liked to have grown closer to, but for the fact that they always told of the pitch, the darkness, which they have come to
 by seeing the dark life, or rather by not
 seeing life-they see death.
 "You should always want something better and higher. Your association should
 be a holy thing. We meet with discour- agements such as a friend falling out with us because we will not tell them our secrets. It seems to me that friend should respect our silences as well as our speeches.
 Suppose one of you lived life con- trary to Christian ideals and you came to the point where you wanted to follow Christ. Is your nearest friend one to whom you can go with the holy aspiration to be d child of God-and say that you had had dream and had had vision of life you never saw before, and that you had given your life to God? If not, you have got the wrong friend.
 Beautiful Friendship.
 '.The friendship of Irving and Carlyle, and Carlyle and his mother were as beau tiful as any I have ever seen, and there are. l believe, still friendships of tha. sort. Then there were David and Jona- than, the one the rising star and tho other the son of ma wnose sun was about to set. Theirs was beautiful friendship The Daiiis ard Jona,hans are not all gone Make lricndskips and