A DAILY MESSAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 2 January 1929, Page 1

A DAILY MESSAGE

DON’T LOSE THAT FRIEND ! Havk you ever been a 'friend into whose heart, when the storms of life heat too heavily over them,- those who trusted you could creep and there find strength to go on ? Have you ever had a friend within wJio.se heart, should sorrow, disgrace, calamity, overwhelm you you knew you could shelter, and there find understanding and peace? Unless you have been that kind of friend—and have known that kind of ■friend—you know nothing of friendship, with its wondrous sympathy. God has forgotten you. When Death takes such a friend from us, Fate deals us a hitter blow. But when Life robs us of such a friend, the plummet lias sounded the very depths of luimnn grief. Life holds no greater sorrow. . And yet Life more often than Death destroys our friendships. Life—the perpetual struggle—compels us to search'for our material needs, to jostle each other, to compete with each other. Our paths diverge, we grow apart, cares corrode, time and change play their part, disillusionment enters ; and, ere we know it, the light of a great friendship is dimmed—sometimes for ever—and the beautiful voice which has chanted a perpetual communion in our soul is dead. Keep watch for the dimming influences. Don’t let the light of any great friendship go out; fight to keep it flickeringj then let the radiance nl von own sympathy strengthen it, until the flicker becomes a flame so warm and . steady, that if: lights again the fires of that wondrous sympathy, which is the heart of every great human friendship. Don’t let friends slip ! Don’t let small things destroy great Ifriendships ! Don’t let the gulf widen between you and that friend upon whom a shadow lias already fallen. Bridge it if you can. It may be hard to take the first strong step to bridge it. hut the hardest thing in life is to look hack upon a dead friendship, and know that you could have kept it alive. Don’t let Life sever your friendship. Keep them chanting a deep communion in your soul. Daath severs them all too soon!

—M. PRESTON STANLEY