Do you have any friends?

Ecclesiasticus 6:5-17

A kindly turn of speech multiplies a man’s friends,  and a courteous way of speaking invites many a friendly reply. Let your acquaintances be many, but your advisers one in a thousand. If you want to make a friend, take him on trial,  and be in no hurry to trust him; for one kind of friend is only so when it suits him  but will not stand by you in your day of trouble. Another kind of friend will fall out with you  and to your dismay make the quarrel public, and a third kind of friend will share your table,  but not stand by you in your day of trouble: when you are doing well he will be your second self,  ordering your servants about; but if ever you are brought low he will turn against you  and will hide himself from you. Keep well clear of your enemies,  and be wary of your friends. A faithful friend is a sure shelter,  whoever finds one has found a rare treasure. A faithful friend is something beyond price,  there is no measuring his worth. A faithful friend is the elixir of life,  and those who fear the Lord will find one. Whoever fears the Lord makes true friends,  for as a man is, so is his friend.

Food for thought!

There is a saying that a friend is someone who walks in, when the rest of the world goes out. This is what the reading above is saying of the third kind of friend: will not stand by you in your day of trouble "when you are doing well he will be your second self,  ordering your servants about; but if ever you are brought low he will turn against you  and will hide himself from you."

To find a friend, one must close one eye; to keep him, close both eyes. In other words, be careful to all people but intimate with few and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. All of us, have failed in this; we hurry to trust people; we don't try them long enough. We all have seen many people who pose as our friends; they smile when they see us; they come to us when they are in need; they flee us when we are in need.

But we also have real friends. I mean people who stand by us, when we are thin and when we are thick; when we are down and when we are up; such friends are rare, and whoever finds one has found a rare treasure. Such a friend is like a fragile thing that require as much care in handling as any other fragile and precious thing.

By the way, do you have any real friend? A faithful friend is something beyond price,  there is no measuring his worth. A faithful friend is the elixir of life,  and those who fear the Lord will find one. Whoever fears the Lord makes true friends,  for as a man is, so is his friend. This means that you are your friends and your friends are you. If you are good, you have good friend; if you have bad friends it is because you are bad.