Lamentations 1:2

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"All her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies." Lam 1:2

Probably this was the keenest pang in all her agony. Men have a right to look for their friends when the clouds darken and the wind rises, but when it is found that even friends have abandoned us we may well begin to feel the misery of loneliness. We do not know our friends until we are in some extremity of suffering. Fair-weather friends are not to be implicitly trusted. You cannot know a man until you have had occasion to test him by some practical sacrifice; until you have opposed a man you do not know what his temper is; until you have disappointed a man you cannot tell the extent of his good nature; until you have seen a man in trial you know nothing whatever of his grace or his virtue. Many persons shine the more brightly because of the surrounding darkness; they have no genius for conversation, they cannot display themselves in public, they are but poorly feathered and coloured, so that they have nothing to attract and gratify the attention of curiosity: but how full of life they are when their friends are in trouble, how constant in watchfulness, how liberal in contribution, how patient under exasperation! These are the men to trust. As we should never see the stars but for the darkness, so we never should see real friendship but for our affliction and sorrow. In the case before us the friends not only abandoned Judah, they dealt treacherously with her; they not only assumed an attitude of indifference, they occupied a position of direct and bitter hostility "They are become her enemies." How poor a trust is human love if it be not sanctified and inspired from on high; how frail is our best affection, and how empty our truest confidence, if it be a matter of calculation or investment or mere policy: only that friendship is true, and therefore eternal, which is founded upon merit, upon a recognition of moral attributes and qualities, and upon an assurance: of moral worthiness. These are the circumstances which do not change with clime or temperature or circumstances. There is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. It is the very glory of Christ that when all others forsake us he appears to our soul in larger stature and in diviner loveliness than before. To him midnight is as midday; he does not walk with us only in the flowery garden or in the summer meadow, he is at our side when the hill is steepest, when the road is roughest, when the wind rises into storm and fury; we need not say to him, Abide with us, for the thought of leaving us never entered into his heart; if he were to leave us it would be in the summer-time, but in winter frost and snow his love is always round about us as a protecting robe. Have no friends but those who are friends of Christ. Let each human friendship express a still larger affection; then it will be without hesitation or reserve or self-regard, a living sacrifice, a beautiful, unselfish, Christianlike service.