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Article FREEMASONS' REPOSITORY. ← Page 3 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Freemasons' Repository.
There are friends enough to be found ,, who are born for prosperity , who will feed on our plenty , and share in our joys ; but it is the most deplorable fate of adversity , that when we are under the greatest need of friends , it often puts them farthest from us . While -prosperity shines upon a man , crowds . of insects will flutter about him , to bask in his heat , and suck the warm influence of his rays ; but those friends are too excellent to be manywho can stand firm and unshaken , and
, cling to us amid the storms and tempests of adversity . ' Give me a friend , ' saith Seneca , ' for whom 1 may die , whom I may follow into banishment , for the rescue of whose life I may expose my own ; ' and our blessed Safriour conceived so exalted an idea of friendship , that he said , ' a man may even lay down his life for a friend . ' True friendship , then , like that virtue on which it is founded , will
grow bri g hter and stronger by the conflicts of adversity , and encrease its love , as fire doth its heat , by the sharpness of the season . To see a worth y friend , bowed under the weight of an unjust oppression , will force modesty to speak in vindication of his innocence , and humility to contend for his just praises . It will arm the timorous in his defence , and instruct the modest tongue to be the most eloquent
advocate . Such , and so great is the admirable force of friendship ! Such a friend was Jonathan to David , whom neither the hatred of a father , nor the flattery of a crown , could corrupt ; who would not yield up his friend , though Saul , with armed fury , stormed the bosom that entertained him ; nor would he let go his friendship , though he knew it would cost him the reversion of a kingdom ; but , with an unshaken resolution , he persisted to plead David ' s cause , to the prejudice of his own ; to advance his praise , though to the diminution of his o ; vn ; and to secure his friend , though with the hazard of himself .
. Happy , thrice happy , is the man that is strengthened with such an alliance ; who is provided against an evil day ; who is secure of a faithful friend to adhere to him , when all others forsake him ; to . condole with him , when others insult over him ; to plead his cause amid the loudest calumnies , and solicit his interests when most desperate and deplorable . But to crown the glory of friendship , to set this , grand specific against every human evilin its true and highest light
, , let us add , that it is , as it were , an attribute of the Deity , an emanation of the Divine Being . God ' s friendship towards man is visible throughout his whole divine dispensation ; but , above aH , in that signal instance of friendship to mankind , so eminently shewn by sending down his beloved Son—that Son , who became man only that he might be a friend , that he might intercede for us , with his Almighty father ,
might bear our burthens , and suffer for our iniquities ; and , as he was a real friend to us , he expects us to be such to one another . The religion of Jesus is , indeed , so much a religion of love , that its divine Founder has established it as the badge , and distinguishing characteristic , of his genuine followers . A new commandment I give unto you , that as I have loved you ,- ye also love one another . Saint John , our patron saint , is described to us , as that disciple whom alone Jesus pavticulaily loved ; on whose bosom he leaned ;
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Freemasons' Repository.
There are friends enough to be found ,, who are born for prosperity , who will feed on our plenty , and share in our joys ; but it is the most deplorable fate of adversity , that when we are under the greatest need of friends , it often puts them farthest from us . While -prosperity shines upon a man , crowds . of insects will flutter about him , to bask in his heat , and suck the warm influence of his rays ; but those friends are too excellent to be manywho can stand firm and unshaken , and
, cling to us amid the storms and tempests of adversity . ' Give me a friend , ' saith Seneca , ' for whom 1 may die , whom I may follow into banishment , for the rescue of whose life I may expose my own ; ' and our blessed Safriour conceived so exalted an idea of friendship , that he said , ' a man may even lay down his life for a friend . ' True friendship , then , like that virtue on which it is founded , will
grow bri g hter and stronger by the conflicts of adversity , and encrease its love , as fire doth its heat , by the sharpness of the season . To see a worth y friend , bowed under the weight of an unjust oppression , will force modesty to speak in vindication of his innocence , and humility to contend for his just praises . It will arm the timorous in his defence , and instruct the modest tongue to be the most eloquent
advocate . Such , and so great is the admirable force of friendship ! Such a friend was Jonathan to David , whom neither the hatred of a father , nor the flattery of a crown , could corrupt ; who would not yield up his friend , though Saul , with armed fury , stormed the bosom that entertained him ; nor would he let go his friendship , though he knew it would cost him the reversion of a kingdom ; but , with an unshaken resolution , he persisted to plead David ' s cause , to the prejudice of his own ; to advance his praise , though to the diminution of his o ; vn ; and to secure his friend , though with the hazard of himself .
. Happy , thrice happy , is the man that is strengthened with such an alliance ; who is provided against an evil day ; who is secure of a faithful friend to adhere to him , when all others forsake him ; to . condole with him , when others insult over him ; to plead his cause amid the loudest calumnies , and solicit his interests when most desperate and deplorable . But to crown the glory of friendship , to set this , grand specific against every human evilin its true and highest light
, , let us add , that it is , as it were , an attribute of the Deity , an emanation of the Divine Being . God ' s friendship towards man is visible throughout his whole divine dispensation ; but , above aH , in that signal instance of friendship to mankind , so eminently shewn by sending down his beloved Son—that Son , who became man only that he might be a friend , that he might intercede for us , with his Almighty father ,
might bear our burthens , and suffer for our iniquities ; and , as he was a real friend to us , he expects us to be such to one another . The religion of Jesus is , indeed , so much a religion of love , that its divine Founder has established it as the badge , and distinguishing characteristic , of his genuine followers . A new commandment I give unto you , that as I have loved you ,- ye also love one another . Saint John , our patron saint , is described to us , as that disciple whom alone Jesus pavticulaily loved ; on whose bosom he leaned ;