Sermons of the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, Series 3

There is a frieLl that sticketh closer than a brother.” — Peoverbs, xviii. 24

Cicero has well said, “Friendship is the only thing in the Morld concerning the usefukiess of which all mankind are apjreed.” Friendship seems as necessary an element of a comfortable existence in this world as fire or water, or even air itself. A man may drag along a miserable existence in proud solitary dignity, but his life is scarce life, it is nothing but an existence, the tree of life being stripped of the leaves of hope and the fruits of joy. He who would be happy here must have friends; and he who would be happy hereafter, must, above all things, find a friend in the world to come, in the person of God, the Father of his people.

Friendship, however, though very pleasing and exceedingly blessed, has been the cause of the greatest misery to men when it has been unworthy and unfaithful; for just in proportion as a good friend is sweet, a false friend is full of bitterness. “A faithless friend is sharper than an adder’s tooth.” It IS sweet to rejjose in some one; but O! how bitter to have that support snapped, and to receive a grievous fall as the effect of your confidence. Fidelity is an absolute necessary in a true friend; we can not rejoice in men unless they will stand faithful to us. Solomon declares that “there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” That friend, I suppose, he never found in the pomps and vanities of Uie world. He had tried them all, but he found them empty; he passed through all their joys, but he found them “vanity of vanities.” Poor Savage spoke from sad experience when he said,

“You’ll find the friendship of the world a show!
Mere outward show 1 “lis like the harlot’s tears,
The statesman’s promise, or false patriot’s zeal,
Full of fair seeming, but delusion alL”

And so for the most part they are. The world’s friendship ia ever brittle. Trust to it, and you have trusted a robber; rely upon it, and you have leaned upon a thorn; ay, worse than that, upon a spear which shall pierce you to the soul with agony. Yet Solomon says he had found “a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” Not in the haunts of his unbridled pleasures, nor in the wanderings of his unlimited resources, but in the pavilion of the Most High, the secret dwelling-place of God, in the person of Jesus, the Son of God, the Friend of sinners.

It is saying a great thing to affirm that “there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother;” for the love of brotherhood has produced most valiant deeds. We have read stories of what brotherhood could do, which, we think, could hardly be excelled in the annals of friendship. Timoleon, with his shield, stood over the body of his slain brother, to defend him from the insults othe foe. It was reckoned a brave deed ot brotherhood that he should dare the spears of an army in defense of his brother’s corpse. And many such instances have there been, in ancient and modern warfare, of the attachment of brethren. There is a story told of a Bighland regiment, who, while marching through the Highlands, lost their way; they were overtaken by one of the terrible storms which will sometimes come upon travelers unawares, and blinded by the snow, they lost their way upon the mountains. Well nigh frozen to death, it was with difficulty they could continue their inarch. One man after another dropped into the snow and disappeared. There were two brothers, however, of the name of Forsythe; one of them fell prostrate on the earth, and would have lain there to die, but his brother, though barely able to drag his own limbs across the white desert, took him on his back, and carried him along, and as others fell one by one, this brave, true-hearted brother carried his loved one on his back, until at last he himself fell down overcome with fatigue, and died. His brother, however, had received such

/ warmth from Lis body that he was enabled to reach the end of his journey in safety, and so lived. Here we have an instance of one brother sacrificing his life for another. I hope there are some brothers here who would be prepared to do the same if they should ever be brought into the same difficulty. It is saying a great thing, to declare that “there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” It is putting that friend first of all in the list of loving ones; for, surely, next to a mother’s love, there is, and there ought to be, no higher affectioruin the world than the love of a brother to one begotten of the same father, and dandled on the same knee. Those who have “grown in beauty side by side, and filled one house with glee,” ought to love one another. And we think there have been many glorious instances and mighty proofs of the love of brethren. Yet, says Solomon, “there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”

To repeat our assertion, we believe that this friend is tha blessed Redeemer, Jesus Christ. It shall be ours, first, to prove this morning, the fact that he sticks closer than a )>rother; then, as briefly as we can, to show you tchy he sticks i loser them a brother; and then to finish up by giving you some lessons which may he draton from the doctrine that tfesus Christ is a fiiithfiil Friend. *

I. First, then, beloved, we assert that Ckrist is “a friend riiAT STICKETH CLOSER THAN A BROTHER.” Aud in Order to prove this fi-om facts, we appeal to such of you as have had him for a friend. Will you not, each of you, at once give your erdict, that this is neither more nor less than an unexaggerated truth? He loved you before all worlds; long eie the day star flung his ray across the darkness, before the wing of angel had flapped the unnavigated ether, before aught of creation had struggled from the womb of nothingness, God, even our God, had set his heart upon all his children. Since that time, has he once swerved, has he once turned aside, once changed? No; ye who have tasted of his love and know his grace, will bear me witness, that he has been a certain friend i-t uncertain circumstances.

“He, near your pide bath always stood.
His loving-kindness. O! how good”

you fell in Adam; did he cease to love yon? No; he became the second Adam to redeem you. You sinned in practice, and brought upon your head the condemnation of God; you deserved his wrath and his utter anger; did he then forsake f ou? No!

“He saw you ruined in the fall,
Yet loved you notwithstanding alL”

tie &ent his ramister after you: you despised him; he preached the gospel in your ears: you laughed at him; you broke ^irod’s Sabbath, you despised his Word. Did he then forsake f ou? No 1

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