INVIOLABLE ATTACHMENT There is
a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18, verse
24 Close is the tie which binds
brother to brother, the companions of infancy, sharers of one another's
joys and sorrows, cast in the same human mold, having engraved
on their heart of hearts the same hallowed associations of
life's early mourning. But the time for separation at
last comes. The birds must leave the parents'
nest and try their pinions beyond their native valley. The world's
call to work and warfare is imperious. The old homestead, like a dismembered
vessel, is broken to pieces, and the inmates, like the vessel's
planks, are strewn far apart on life's ocean. The world's
duties sever some, unhappy estrangements, at times, may sever others, but
death, at some time, must sever all. But there is one whose friendship
and love circumstances cannot estrange, distance cannot affect,
and death cannot destroy. The kindest of earth's relatives
may say to us regarding this true elder brother, as Boaz said
to Ruth, It is true that I am your near kinsman. However, there
is a kinsman nearer than I. He is a brother, yes, more than
a brother, friend, counselor, portion, physician, shepherd,
all combined, happy for us, when the old avenues of comfort are
closed up, to hear him, whose faithfulness is unimpeachable,
saying, I will not fail you, nor forsake you. Happy for us,
when the old moorings give way, To have one safe anchorage that
cannot be removed or shaken. I shall now go to sleep, said
a remarkable saint, Who, driven about with storm and tempest,
At last found the safe shelter. I shall now go to sleep on the
Rock of Ages. Tried Believer, he has never
failed you, and never will. With him are no altered tones,
no fitful affections. The reed may be shaken, but the
rock remains immutable. He is Himself the true rainbow
in the cloud. The promises of Scripture, like
the varied hues in the natural rainbow, are manifold, but all
these promises are in Him. Yes, and it is in the cloudy
day that this divine encircling rainbow most gloriously appears. Never would we have known Christ
as the Brother born for adversity, unless by adversity. It is trial
that unfolds and develops His infinite worth and preciousness. When the love of earthly friends
is buried in the grave, the love of the heavenly friend shines
forth more tenderly than ever. as Jonathan of old, wandering
faint and weary in the woods, found honey distilling from a
tree, and was revived by eating it. So, faint and weary one,
wandering among the tangled thickets, the deep glades of affliction,
seat yourself under your beloved's shadow with great delight, and
let his fruit be pleasant to your taste. This Tree of Life
distills a balm for every broken, wounded, bleeding heart, every
faint and downcast spirit. Yes, Jesus will make, in this
hour of your loneliness and sorrow, His own life-giving, life-sustaining
words and promises, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Though now, exalted on the throne, inhabiting the praises of eternity,
He still manifests the brother's heart and the brother's tenderness. He is not ashamed to call them
brethren.