‘FRIENDSHIP. ”’ 
Subject of Interesting Sermon by 
Prof. N. B. Sargent at Congre- 
gational Church, Manchester 
Last Sunday morning Prof. N. B. 
Sargent of Haverhill, preached a 
most interesting sermon at the Con- 
gregational church, Manchester, on 
“Priendship,’’ taking his text from 
Proverbs 18:24—‘‘A man that hath 
friends must show himself friendly ; 
there is a friend that sticketh closer 
than a brother.’’ He said in part: 
‘“Ag I stand in this place, my 
thoughts go back to the years | 
spent in that gallery and it seems 
like awakening from a dream of the 
days that have passed, bright, but 
shadowed sometimes by dark clouds 
that passed, leaving the sunshine. 
It was like a long march, sometimes 
in the valleys, sometimes on the 
hills, but always toward the goal. 
I miss from this congregation those 
with whom I talked and held sweet 
communion, and who helped me and 
inspired me by their friendship and 
their words of kindness. Those who 
have gone make a long list and it 
is growing longer. They have left 
their work to you. How strange it 
‘seems with so many gone to still 
love and live on. 
 *T have brought to you this morn- 
ing a subject which I believe will 
be of interest to each one of us who 
still live on. That subject is 
‘Friendship.’ I have thought a 
great deal of this subject. I tried 
some years ago to find expression 
to my thoughts in a little song, but 
I failed. I cannot express my soul 
conception of this theme. Lois OF 
God, hence eternal. I long for noth- 
ing more than this, I would rather 
be homeless and even lifeless than 
friendless. To be without a friend 
is to be lost. 
‘But what is friendship? Friend 
and ship. Ship is the condition of, 
and friend means to be free to love. 
Hence friendship means freedom to 
love. I want to state plainly that 
I mean love, not those things some- 
times called love, such as passion, 
ete. One form is death dealing, the 
other life giving. Love means puri- 
ty, unselfishness, it is high and holy 
and eternal. Love is of God, for 
God is love. We are free to love, 
but we chain ourselves. The friend- 
ship of Christ is broad, deep and 
free and so must ours be. We soil 
friendship when we try to chain it 
by our wills. Its subjects must be 
free. Make a friend your slave and 
you have lost your friend. 
“Priendship is another name for 
Christianity. It is the fulfillment of 
its requirements. Christ is different 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
from other men in being a better 
friend. His life work was to make 
us friends with God and each other. 
That is salvation. We do not prize 
friendship as we ought. Let us love 
our friends better and not be asham- 
ed to let them know it. If we rec- 
ognize the true value of friendship, 
we shall admit the importance of 
how to win friends and also how to 
hold them. There are many men 
who make friends but cannot keep 
them. Others make few friends, but 
never lose them. Happy is the man 
who can win and hold them. So 
much of our happiness and success 
depends on our friends that we 
should give careful attention to this. 
‘Who should we win for friends? 
Not all men are worthy of our re- 
spect, trust and love. You will be- 
come like your friends and the 
world will know you by them. ‘Tell 
me with whom you associate and I 
will tell you what you are.’ It 
makes a great difference whom we 
select as friends. Christ said ‘Follow 
me.’ Seek for your friends the 
good, true and wise. Look up, not 
down for your friends. True friends 
are sharers of our jovs, sharers of 
our burdens, comforters in our sor- 
rows and sympathizers in all condi- 
tions of life. 
‘Do not win your friends by pres- 
ents. Some will cling to vou as long 
as you buy their friendship, but they 
will not be there in time of sore 
need. Beauty has attractions, but 
do not try to win friends by it. 0 
not win friends by position. None 
of these things will win friends. A 
bitter tongue repels rather than at- 
tracts friends. Some do not have 
friends because they do not deserve 
them. I think we all know now why 
Christ came to earth in such a way, 
why he refused earthly power. None 
of these things could win human 
hearts to be loyal and true. Some 
are always talking about winning 
hearts for Christ. Let us win hearts 
for ourselves first. You cannot win 
hearts for Jesus unless you have 
the ability to attract rather than re- 
pel. To have a true friend, you must 
first be one. 
“There are presents we must 
make our friends. We must give 
freely our heart’s affection and love. 
I told you you could not win friends 
by power, but there is a power of 
character that will win friends. I 
told you there was no need of posi- 
tion to win friends, but there is a po- 
sition you can hold and without 
which you will never make friends. 
That is nearer Him, the friend that 
sticketh closer than a brother. 
‘How to keep friends and how to 
hold them? As the magnet holds 
9 
the steel, by attraction. Draw all 
men unto you. They will not be 
driven or frightened. We must be 
lifted up by Him. By his life, by 
his death and by the sympathy of 
his heart, he is drawing all men ws 
to Him. So must we. If our friends 
abide in us forever, it will be be- 
cause we possess attractions that 
draw them to us and not repel them. 
We learn in pain and anguish that 
there is no abiding friendship ex- 
cept in truth. If we hold our 
friends, it will be by the attractions 
of a Christ-like character. [ive in 
Him and you cannot fail. Christ 
said, ‘Henceforth I call you not ser- 
vants, for the servant knovweth not 
what his Lord doeth, but I have 
called you friends.’ Let us cal each 
other friends.’’ 
Sunday evening Prof. 
gave an interesting talk on “The 
Story of my Prayer Life.”’ During 
the services he sang several of his 
compositions, ‘‘Now, I lay Me 
Down to Sleep,’’ ‘‘There is Nothing 
Can Help Us Like Prayer,”’ and 
<< TMs That Secret Place of Prayer.”’ 
Sargent 
The Boston Journal Closes a Big 
Contract for a Page-a-Day.’’ 
One of the biggest—perhaps the 
very biggest—contract ever made by 
any Boston newspaper is that which 
The Boston Journal has just closed 
with Shepard Norwell company. It 
is for a page of advertising a day 
every week-day of the year, to run 
for an entire year without cessa- 
tion. In some other cities a few 
big stores, like Wanamaker’s, have 
carried out this page-a-day idea, giv- 
ing the store news daily, so that 
readers could follow all the new 
bargains and all the new offerings 
of all kinds put on sale each day. 
Shepard Norwell company has re- 
cently been reorganized, and Mr. 
John Shepard, jr., in developing 
the well-known, long-established 
store, selected for the page-a-day, 
The Boston Journal, as the home 
paper of New England and the pa- 
per, therefore, best adapted for car- 
rying out this unique plan. These 
daily store announcements, there- 
fore, will appear exclusively in The 
Boston Journal and will undoubted- 
ly prove of great interest to the 
army of shoppers who are readers 
of The Journal. 
This morning’s mail brought to 
the editor’s desk a copy of the “‘Rex 
Edition’’ of the Carnival Bulletin, 
eiving a full account of the Mardi 
Gras celebration at New Orleans. It 
was sent, presumably, by Selectman 
Fred K. Swett, who was there for 
the celebration. 
