Norwich bulletin., 1916-12-18
OLD FRIENDSHIPS AND
 THE NEW FRIEND
Practical Sunday Evening Address De- tivered By Rev. Joel B. Sloeum, D. b.

Old Friendships and the New Friend
 was the title of the practical Sunday
 evening address which Rev. Joel B.
 Slocum, D. D.. pastor of the Sentral
 Baptist church delivered this week. Alfred Edward kearney, pupil of Ira Holland of Sousa's band, rendered two cornet solos.
 Rev. Dr. SIouum in part said:
 One of the most bea utiful of the old friendships recorded in the old book is that of David and Jonathan. It came about in this way:
 Saul, the king, saw the young war rior David going forth to battle and he was struck with his appearance. Calling his chief of staff, Abner, he inquired IS to the identity of the young | man. Abner replied, T do not.' Then find out" commanded the king. So 1 on David's return from the slaughter l of Goliath-tf1e Philistine champion
 Abner brought David. flushed with his
 remarkable victory, into the presence | of Saul. David was still carrying | the head of Goliath. And Saul said: | Whose son art thou, young man ?' l And David modestly replied: T am | the son of thy servant ssE Jesse the | Bethlehemite' That was all he said, | for in talking with king you must not presume to talk beyond questions. | So David waited. But in that room l that day was one who from the first l had been devouring David with .eycs 1 that expressed the ardor of hero wor- l ship. It was young Prince Jonathan. He had been listening to the conversa- tion, and with a young mans wonder he had been looking upon the immense, | ghastly head that David bore as a ! trophy Then and there the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, for Jonathan loved David as his own soul. And these two made a sacred covenant of friendship-a | xI.& cole n
 trust through the lifetime of Jonathan,
 though it was tested by many trials. ]! This old friendship whose story told
 in the Bible is like the delicate aroma
 of pressed flowers. plucked in the long I ago and imprisoned between the leaves
 of some familiar volume-this old
 story of an undving devotion is typi-
 cal of a great many other. old friend ships.
 0, youth is the time for making life long friends. If you are forty or forty five or mo-~ go back to the old spot
 where you knew some people in other years. Perhaps it is the school or college. It is commencement time and alighting from your train you go by
 the familiar paths across the campus and find yourself deIuged with old memories in the persons of Tom and Bill and Ned and Jim and a lot of eth~fs who are forever bound up with you in unless friendship and with whom you now S1eeL -Dy the OlQ HECK names that nothing can dislodge.
 What matters it that these men have risen to places of erninence. they are boys again now and the old pranks ! come up in fond recollection. No mat
 ter how many new friends you may
 have met that day. it was the old ones
 that gave you the joy that words are powerless to express.
 But let me introduce a new friend
 whom I think you will enjoy. He is
 so different from most friends that you will be drawn to him at once. He is that mysterious character referred to in ProverbS: There is a Friend , that sticketh closer than a brother. Whatever and whoever other friends
 may be. He is the one altogether love- . ly and the chief among ten thousand When you have met Him it seems as l though you had known Him for a i. long time. While you are in Ills pres
 ence you feel that you are inspired to .. do your best. As you converse with
 Him you find that He tells you the
 deep things in your own life.
 The democracy of Jesus imp: essed
 the people of His time Without ex-
 clusiveness and with an evident ue- sire to be of the largest possible ser | vice to all people regardless of t.leir l station, He went into the homcs of the rich and the poor alike. " hile this must have pleased great many people of all classes, there were others who made it the occasion of criticism bitter and relentless which they tii- rected against Him, as they sneered ! at him: He has gone to be a friend t with publicans and sinners, Later while He hung on the cross, there were those who mocl1ingly said: He saved others, himself He cannot save" IT \ each of these criticisms there was g
 grain of truth. It was true trat He became friend of publicans and sin
 ners; but only that He might helr them. It-was not true that He asso- . ciated with publicans and sinners be- cause He admired their ideals. Tn the
 other sheer, it was true that He saved
 others; but it was not true that He . could not save himself. It was simply
 true that He would not save Himself
 because He was so eager to save ! verybody else. Another sentence hich sublimely sums up the whole