The Friendship of Christ

“The friends that in our sunshine live, / When winter
comes, are flown; / And he who has but tears to give / Must weep those
tears alone.”

Precisely otherwise is the friendship of Christ. In our
days of affliction, when lover and friend have gone from us to the land
of darkness, He embraces us with His tenderest affection and is to us
then verily “the chiefest among ten thousand” and “altogether lovely”
(Song 5:10,16).

In our losses, reverses of fortune and desolation of
earthly hopes, He shows us the exceeding riches of His grace. When
former friends forsake us, He is to us the “friend that sticketh closer
than a brother” (Prov. 18:24). When our sins are felt pressing upon us
as a heavy burden, He kindly says to us, “Come unto Me…and I will
give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Where sin abounds, His grace much more
abounds.

When we are languishing on the bed of death, and all
earth-born hopes are dying out of our hearts, He plucks the thorn from
our pillow, dispels all fear, and enables us to sing, “Though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for
Thou art with me” (Ps. 23:4).

Finally, the friendship of Christ is all-sufficient.
He can do for us all we need, and no other friend can. The loving
parent often yearns in vain toward his suffering child. The fond father
would rescue his penitent son from the hands of civil justice, and the
judge would fain spare the relenting criminal, but justice forbids.

And not unlike these are the feelings of God himself,
when He is called, as the righteous Guardian of the universe, to
execute justice upon the wicked. “How shall I give thee up?” He
exclaims; “…my repentings are kindled together” (Hos. 11:8).

It is, then, no irreverence and no limitation of divine
power to say that, irrespective of Christ, God cannot in justice pardon
and save the repenting sinner. But Christ, by His sufferings and death
for us, has removed all obstacles to our forgiveness. The law is not in
His way; justice is satisfied and even smiles upon Him, when He lifts
the repenting sinner from the depths of his guilt, clothes him with His
own righteousness, and puts the song of salvation on his joyful lips.

No other being in the universe can do this. Hence the
Scriptures declare, “There is none other name under heaven given among
men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

And thus does Jesus Christ stand preeminently forth,
among all on Earth and all in heaven, as the Friend we all need. To
have the witness of the Spirit that Christ loves us and that we love
Him, to realize the blessedness of the life that is hid with Christ in
God, by the conscious “peace of God, which passeth all understanding”
(Phil. 4:7) is the very richest of heaven’s boons.

We make progress in the hidden life to the degree that we
learn to live upon the friendship of Christ. We are encouraged to bring
all our wants to Him and to expect sympathy and full supply from the
fact that He has himself personally felt them.

Are we bereaved? So was He. Are we poor? So was He. Are
our efforts to do good thwarted by the unbelief and opposition of men?
So were His. Are we spoken against? So was He. Are we tempted by the
adversary? So was He. Are we sometimes grieved by the unfaithfulness of
professing Christians? So was He. His deepest wounds were inflicted in
the house of His friends.

There is no trial to which He is a stranger, no sorrow He
has not felt. We should then feel the assurance of His sympathy, succor
and support at all times. To trust Him in prosperity requires only a
little faith; it is walking mostly by sight.

But to rest finally in His friendship—to feel that He is
all our salvation and all our desire, when all things seem to be
against us—this is the faith that carried the martyrs to glory.

I would then earnestly invoke the reader to make it his
first object to secure and to cultivate the friendship of Christ. Part
with all for this, like the merchant “when he had found one pearl of
great price” (Matt. 13:46).

Let there be no delay; do it now. What Christ demands of
you as the terms of His friendship is that you trust in Him alone for
salvation, renouncing every sin, and henceforth prize His friendship
above everything else. This is reasonable and right, and it must be
done, or you will perish in your sins.

If you will not accept Christ as the Friend you need to
save and bless you, if you will not love and trust Him, I know not to
whom you can go. Though an angel from heaven preach any other, let him
be accursed.

There is no other; you need no other. Then concentrate at
once on Him all your desires and expectations, all your faith and hope;
and, from this time, let it be your highest aim to enjoy His friendship
and promote His glory.

Hubbard Winslow, D.D. (1799-1864) was a Congregational
minister and the author of several books. He served as pastor of the
Bowdoin Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1832-1844.