FRIENDSHIP.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17008, 22 January 1927, Page 11 (Supplement)

FRIENDSHIP.

MODELLED BY EXPERIENCE.

(By “Darius”.)

Pitt in his famous “reply” refers to Age as always having one privilege “That of being insolent, and supercilious, without punishment.” That privilege, however, is but rarely eonceded and seldom taken advantage of, and is really more availed of by the young than the old. The pages of history, if not of romance, are beautiful with instances of kindly mature and charitable genius, that even like Charity herself, sought not its own, and was ever modest and unassuming, even while “still pursuing.” The great men of the world have grown old simply and unarrogantly and even beautifully, for there is nothing more delightful' than cultured age that has been modelled by experience.

One cannot, as yet, say much of the Georgian age, as it is too comparatively youthful, but one can say of the otherwise stiff and somewhat forbidding Victorian age that it wtis remarkable for a high class of gentleman, nor was the brief term of Edward’s sovereignly hiss remarkable. Whatever the faults may have been that were revealed in the fierce inquisitorial light that heat upon his throne, that king never did anything but honour to monarchy, nor could he in any way have transgressed the unwritten laws, the strictest of any, that govern the higher intellects in their association with each other: he was so innately regal and human. Of all the monarchs who have laid aside the crown, the orb, and the sceptrd’ for the sackcloth and ashes, that at the last must represent the contempt we pour upon all our pride, none has been more truly mourned than Edward the Seventh, not even his so faultlessly moral mother, the Queen. Although most truly Edward “warmed both hands at the fire of life,” ho warmed his heart there also, and kept within it the fine glow of friendship until the feast was finished and the lights had all expired. It is very fine to have such a royal example of age maturing in such a fraternal and paternal way amongst the fruitage of a noble humanity. I Have Kept IVJy Friends.

I would not say it is the truest lest of our lovableness that we have made hosts of friends, but that the test is in keeping those (it may only he a few) that we have made. To most of us the opportunity to make many friends has not come, but I say that if we have passed the great lest, that of all -granted to us we have lost none, no not one, then we have been greatly distinguished through life. I cannot think of grappling friends to us with hooks of steel. The language, of course, is figurative, but I think the ties, if any, should he more of the substance and quality of gossamer. All kindness exercised towards a friend is effortless: it is a privilege in performance. The little and big kindnesses we do must he surely and sacredly unobtrusive. I do not know any one so modestly delicate in his heart as a friend. Certainly no courtier is more so. To me the supreme act of kindness is in Christ washing the feet of his disciples at the long day’s end, and to the protest answering so gently that the Master might be permitted to perform the humble office of a friend. None should expect great service who are not prepared to render or have not rendered great service, and by a strange paradox, such expect less than all others. In all our Imperial relations there is nothing so binding as unobstrusive kindness, a delicate expression of the emotions that arc of the heart and,not of commerce. Our national kindness between men and women is the Imperial “Link Divine.” Friendships, on occasion, take us almost unaware, like blooms that were not on the meadow at night, but make it a glory of opened hyacinths in the morning. Others again arc of slow growth and gradual unfolding like a shy aurora tripping up with a first curtsey from the starry footlights of the Pole. How one’s memory loves to dwell upon all the incidents of the travelled way—the many places in which joy was found in company, and the few inns in which our host was Sorrow himself. Lot No Long Silence Come Between. No day, and rightly so, means more to humanity than Christmas Day. Yet, there is another great day, and that is New Year’s Day. We, often so shamefaced about expressions of human and divine love, find at these times of high festival excuse (may I he pardoned for having to use the word) for opening the heart and revealing the altarnook wherein we burn the sacred lamp fed by odorous oil of the heart’s delight. At such seasons much may he forgiven us because wo love much. We cannot doubt our friends for that would be dishonourable, and how could friendship abide with dishonour? One may have disappointment. Thc day perhaps did not fulfil the promise of the dawn. We may sadden a little at such memories, hut so long as we have been constant in hope and faithful i.o the unspoken pact, what more could we have done to keep a brother in the sanctuary of kindness? Perhaps a little more than we did, hut the result, would have been the same. It is still true that as the tree falls so must it lie. There is another law that is also immutable, “whatsoever a man soweth that also shall he reap.” It is scarcely possible for you anrl me, however far our charities travel from home, to intervene between Law and Consequences. The hands of the transgressor are inevitably pinioned and the noose is adjusted. There is no vengeance in the Law, but see to it that you have left nothing undone that might have been attempted by Mercy. This is as much a national as a Christian duty. We are not responsible to one but to a community. It must come about that the friendliest communities will be the most prosperous: in any case they cannot fail to he the happiest. There is no injustice or unkindness done that does not have its natural reaction. The law of the invisible world is as fixed and unalterable as the law of the visible. I am glad of the opportunity the new year affords to express without reserve a feeling of infinite loving kindness for humanity and a deeper feeling of personal affection for friends who have been constant through the years—the only friends. The Best is Yet to Come. Grow old along with me; the best is yet to come. How very fine is life in retrospect. Wc have given a lot and received more. It is not he who gives and dies that fails. I believe l (Continued in next columml-

that giving, not altogether material gifts which arc but symbols, is the seed of immortality. Yet do not neglect the symbols. The dearest remembrances reawaken through them, like a soul awakened from dreams and sweet sleep. At the sacramental table on which arc the elements you shall always hear the voice of friendship, saying, “This do in remembrance of me.” Believe me, age has much to give Jhat never was and never will he in the hands of youth to give. In old days I frequently saw the digger squatted by the pool turning and turning the sand in the dish and lapping it little by little to separate the sand from the gold. Presently there would appear a little band of yellow at the edge of the black diminishing grains. When these were all removed there remained only the pure gold. Standing here, between this day’s assured God-given strength and (he years to be, I am conscious only of the singing of immortal streams and birds which is the love of friends for me and my love for them making the melody unheard by any other, hut none the less sweet and real, while yonder is the blue and overarching sky like God’s great mercy over all.