FRIENDSHIP.
A friend loveth at all times.—Proverbs, xvii. 17.
A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.—Proverbs, xviii. 24.
The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.—Matthew, xi. 19.
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.—James, iv. 4.
O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn,
Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart;
Whose hours, whose bed, whose meat, and exercise,
Are still together; who twin, as ’t were, in love,
Unseparable, shall within this hour,
On a dissension of a doit, break out
To bitterest enmity: so, fellest foes,
Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep,
To take the one the other, by some chance,
Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends,
And interjoin their issues.
Shakspere.
Each friend by fate snatched from us, is a plume
Plucked from the wing of human vanity,
Which makes us stoop from our aerial heights,
And, damped with omen of our own decease,
On drooping pinions of ambition lowered,
Just skim earth’s surface, ere we break it up;
O’er putrid earth to scratch a little dust,
And save the world a nuisance.
Young.
Heaven gives us friends to bless the present scene;
Resumes them to prepare us for the next.
Young.
Celestial happiness! Whene’er she stoops
To visit earth, one shrine the goddess finds,
And one alone, to make her sweet amends
For absent heaven,—the bosom of a friend,
Where heart meets heart, reciprocally soft,
Each other’s pillow to repose divine.
Young.
A friend is worth all hazards we can run,
Poor is the friendless master of a world;
A world in purchase of a friend is gain.
Dr. Young.
Friend of the friendless and the faint!
Where should I lodge my deep complaint?
Where, but with Thee, whose open door
Invites the helpless and the poor?
Did ever mourner plead with Thee,
And Thou refuse that mourner’s plea?
Does not that word still fixed remain,
That “none shall seek thy face in vain?”
Cowper.
To bless mankind with tides of flowing wealth,
With power to grace them, or to crown with health,
Our little lot denies; but Heaven decrees
To all, the gift of minist’ring to ease:
The gentle offices of patient love,
Beyond all flattery, and all praise above;
The mild forbearance of another’s fault,
The taunting word suppress’d as soon as thought;
On these Heaven bade the sweets of life depend;
And crush’d ill fortune when she gave a friend.
A solitary blessing few can find;
Our joys with those we love are intertwined;
And he whose wakeful tenderness removes
Th’ obstructing thorn which wounds the breast he loves,
Smoothes not another’s rugged path alone,
But scatters roses to adorn his own.
Hannah More.
There is a Friend, more tender, true,
Than brother e’er can be,
Who, when all others bid adieu,
Remains—the last to flee;
Who, be their pathway bright or dim,
Deserts not those who turn to Him.
The heart by Him sustained, though deep
Its anguish, still can bear!
The soul He condescends to keep,
Shall never know despair;
In nature’s weakness, sorrow’s night,
God is its strength, its joy, its light.
Barton.
Friend after friend departs;
Who hath not lost a friend?
There is no union here of hearts
That finds not here an end;
Were this frail world our final rest,
Living or dying none were blest.
J. Montgomery.
Friendship, thou charmer of the mind,
Thou sweet deluding ill,
The brightest minute mortals find,
And sharpest hour we feel.
Fate has divided all our shares
Of pleasure and of pain;
In love the comforts and the cares
Are mixed and joined again.
But whilst in floods our sorrow rolls,
And drops of joy are few,
This dear delight of mingling souls
Serves but to swell our woe.
Oh! why should bliss depart in haste,
And friendship stay to moan?
Why the fond passion cling so fast,
When every joy is gone?
Yet never let our hearts divide,
Nor death dissolve the chain;
For love and joy were once allied,
And must be joined again.
Watts.
Christ had His friends—His eye could trace
In the long train of coming years,
The chosen children of His grace,
The full reward of all His tears.
These are friends, and these are thine,
If thou to Him hast bowed the knee;
And where these ransomed millions shine
Shall thy eternal mansion be.
Anonymous.
In yonder bright clime Christian friendships of earth
Shall live through eternity’s day,
Shall blossom like plants in the land of their birth,
But never to suffer decay.
W. J. Brock.