WINNING ESTEEM AND FRIENDSHIP.
By S. S. Times
No MAN ever won the friendship of others by letting down in his own principles as a concession to them. He may have won their friendship in spite of such a lowering of his standards, but never because of it. If he wins their esteem at all it is because of some other trait or characteristic than that of disloyalty to his best,—for confessed disloyalty never attracts any one. Therefore the first thing that this young man needs to realize is that the dilemma that he thinks he is in does not exist, but is of his own imagining. The best way to make friends is to be a friend; and he can be a friend to his Sabbath-ignoring neighbors better by remaining steadfast in loyalty to his own Christian training and belief than by weakly following their example. And it is far more important that he should be chiefly concerned over how to be a friend than how to get friends. When he has proved himself really a friend to others, on the highest plane, he will not lack for friendly acquaintances. Does he realize that perhaps God has brought him to that community, and given him the moral support and encouragement of his recent Sunday-school election for the sole purpose of raising the standard of Sabbath observance among those people? Bigger changes than that have been brought about by individuals who dared to stand out for a God-ordained principle single-handed. The odds are all in favor of one who is thus single-handed,—if God is his single hand.—S. S. Times.