tation, of
circumstances, of position. It does not do to lay down a hard and fast
line as to this. For instance, in a "young men's guild" men of all
stations and social conditions meet on an equality. They are a
brotherhood bound together by ties of a very close description. To
them this rule does not apply. Among members of such an association, a
young man may always fitly find a friend. It is friendships formed
outside such a circle, and in general society, that we have in view;
and, in regard to such society, we are probably not far wrong in saying
that we do well to choose our intimate friends from those who are
neither much above us nor beneath us. If a man is poor, and chooses as
a friend one who is rich, the chances are either that he becomes a
toady and a mere "hanger-on," or that he is made to feel his
inferiority. Young men in this way have been led into expenses which
they could not afford, and into society that did them harm, and into
debts sometimes that they could not pay. Making friends of those
beneath us is often equally a mistake. We come to look upon them with
patronizing affability. "It is well enough to talk of our humble
friends, but they are too often like poor relations. We accept their
services, and think that a mere 'thank you,' a nod, a beck, or a smile
is sufficient recompense." [2] Either to become a toady or a patron is
destructive of true friendship. We should be able to meet on the same
platform, and join hands as brothers, having the same feelings, the
same wants, the same aspirations. We should be courteous to the man
above us, and civil to the man beneath us; but if we value our
independence and manhood we will not try to make a friend of either.

IV. We should not make a friend of one who is without reverence for
what we deem sacred and have been taught to deem sacred.--The want of
"reverence for that which is above us" is one of the most serious
defects in man or woman. We should be as slow to admit one to our
friendship who has this defect as we would be if we knew he had entered
into a church and stolen the vessels of the sanctuary. We should
consort only with those who honor the sacred name we bear, and treat it
with reverence. We should especially beware of admitting to intimacy
the sceptic and infidel. There are those who have drifted away from
the faith of Christ, and to whom God and eternity are mere names. Such
are deserving of our most profound pity and