Friendship
A. Clark. Proverbs 18:24 A man that has friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Man is a social being. Religion sanctions and encourages the unions to which nature prompts. Friendship has its inner and its remoter circles. The heart craves for intimate friends — those to whom it can confide its innermost thoughts, and to whom it can repair for sympathy and help in times of trouble. We have here the way to make friends and the strength of a true friendship. I. THE WAY TO MAKE FRIENDS. Reciprocity is the soul of friendship. No man can expect to be long cherished as a friend who does not reciprocate the feeling. At the basis of friendship must be confidence. You must place confidence in the man whom you desire to place confidence in you. Another essential ingredient of friendship is fidelity to the trust reposed in you. If you would wish others to be faithful to you, you must be faithful to them; you must never make that public which was intended to be private. Friendship involves the discharge of all the kind offices of sympathy and help. If you would wish others to sympathise with you in your troubles, you must be ever ready to sympathise with them. This is the way in which we are to make friends. We are to be to others what we wish them to be to us. II. THE STRENGTH OF A TRUE FRIENDSHIP. The words of the text are emphatically, but not exclusively, true of Jesus Christ. They here express a fact of ordinary experience. The ties of a true friendship are stronger than the ties of the closest natural relationship. In the absence of friendship the ties of nature are often very slender. 1. This is seen in times of adversity. 2. In times of moral delinquency and degradation. 3. A friend will encounter sacrifices and sufferings from which a brother will often shrink.All that can be said about friendship when it exists between man and man is unspeakably more true when applied to Jesus Christ. We may learn from this — 1. The reason why many men are without friends. It is because they do not show themselves friendly. 2. That the best friend you can have offers you His friendship. And He makes the first advance. 3. Next to having Jesus Christ as your friend, the best friendships you can form will be with those who are in fellowship with Him. Then strive to make friends. (A. Clark.) Parallel Verses KJV: A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. WEB: A man of many companions may be ruined, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.