Intent – a sure test of friendship – Sunday May 04, 1958
One sure test of friendship is to seek the welfare of him whose company we keep. Since this is so, a reasonable question to ask of everyone is this: “What do you intend?”
The inner intent of the hearts of men is a matter of surpassing importance. Do they intend good or evil? honesty or dishonesty? sincerity or deception? Do they intend to serve and to safeguard others, or do they intend selfish self-service, selfish self-indulgence at the expense of others?
At a time now sometimes called Victorian, and sometimes referred to as old-fashioned, fathers inquired concerning the intentions of those with whom their daughters kept company. And whatever we may call it, old-fashioned or otherwise, we cannot safely fail to consider the motives of men.
The motives of everyone are important. The intent of the heart is important. It is the blueprint of what will likely be built. It is what a man will likely do, when he can, if he can. Intent is the desire that leads to the doing of the deed. For some well-known words as to intent we turn to Proverbs: “Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.”1
We must look to the motives of men. We must look to their real intent. And while some may say “old-fashioned,” and contend that times have changed, the nature of men has not, nor has God, nor have the commandments we must keep if we are to preserve honor and honesty, virtue and chastity, cleanliness and self-respect, and happiness and peace inside ourselves, which, by all the experience of all the ages, are paramount among things most precious to be preserved.
It is never wise to yield a principle to save a supposed friendship, to save an association; and anyone who does is either deceiving or is deceived.
No matter what date the calendar has turned to, even in such a time as the Twentieth Century, it is still essential to know the nature and motives of men and to safeguard the most precious and irreplaceable things—for with all our modern talk and so-called modern emancipation, we haven’t left behind the commandments of God, nor the consequences of not keeping them.
1Proverbs 23.6-7
May 04, 1958
Broadcast Number 1,498