Closer Than A Sister

Jeremy Taylor

READING A GREETING SERIES

Some friendships are made by nature, some by contract, some by interest, and some by souls.

CLOSER THAN

A SISTER The Gift Of Friendship

On the occasion of ...............................................................................................................................

From ...............................................................................................................................

Date ...............................................................................................................................

Closer Than a Sister: The Gift of Friendship Copyright Š 1998, 2014 by Ben Alex A co-production from Scandinavia Publishing House, Drejervej 15, 3. DK-2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark info@scanpublishing.dk Scripture quotations are taken from The New International Bible.

Used by permission Printed in China ISBN 9788771324785

Also in this series: Comfort in Sorrow: Your Way to Recovery Carpe Diem: Today Is Your Day A New Beginning: Celebrating Your New Opportunity

CLOSER THAN

A SISTER The Gift Of Friendship

By Ben Alex

To

A friend like you “I will lead the blind by ways they have not know, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them.”

-ISAIAH 42:16

have a friend like you is worth more than having fame or many treasures res in the world. Friendship with you is a treasure in itself.

Most friends come naturally, even easily, in youth. Those Disraeli called “magic school friendships.” Some come not so easily, especially in later times of transition and trouble. Fewer come during the mature years.

Our friendship contains them all.

Once, on the phone, when I elaborated on the beauty of our friendship, you just remarked, “Yeah, someone needs to be deluded enough to think you’re terrific!” We laughed with 10,000 miles between us. Another time you wrote, “May God keep you from being any more foolish than absolutely necessary.” Friendship is not hindered by language or geographical borders or social barriers. Sometimes friends are their best at a distance. You are.

Why are we friends? Neither of us is especially great or virtuous. I guess it’s because we have walked some miles of adversity together and then been able to hold each other up. We have struck a common chord, a language of soul that makes our present separate journeys more bearable.

There have even been times when we have managed to convince each

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other of what great geniuses we were, and sometimes we have taken the risk of telling each other how annoying we were.

Friends can be totally honest with each other. And they are free to set personal boundaries.

Let’s continue to bring out the best and most real in each other. I promise to be a friend to you the same way you have been a friend to me. Let’s continue always standing up for and believing the best about each other. A friendship is a mighty defense, and as long as we stick together, we can take on the world.

“No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen friendship of those who are thoroughly persuded of each other’s worth.”

-ROBERT SOUTHEY

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Definitons of friendship

A FRIEND IS A PERSON WITH WHOM YOU DARE TO BE YOURSELF.

-Frank Crane

A TRUE FRIEND UNBOSOMS FREELY, ADVISES JUSTLY, ASSISTS READILY, ADVENTURES BOLDLY, TAKES ALL PATIENTLY, DEFENDS COURAGEOUSLY, AND CONTINUES A FRIEND UNCHANGEABLY.

-William Penn

A FRIEND IS SOMEONE WHO’S DELUDED ENOUGH TO THINK YOU’RE TERRIFIC.

-David Kopp -6-

A friend is unique ONE FRIEND IN A LIFETIME IS much, two are many, THREE ARE HARDLY POSSIBLE.

-Henry Adams

TO THE RARE FEW who, early IN LIFE, HAVE RID themselves OF THE FRIENDSHIP OF THE MANY.

-J. MacNeill Whistler

THE SOUL selects her own SOCIETY THEN -SHUTS THE DOOR.

-Emily Dickinson

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Freedom THERE CAN BE NO FRIENDSHIP WHERE THERE IS NO FREEDOM. FRIENDSHIP LOVES A FREE AIR AND WILL NOT BE FENCED UP IN STRAIGHT AND NARROW ENCLOSURES.

-William Penn

FRIENDS WILL BE MUCH APART. THEY WILL RESPECT MORE EACH OTHER’S PRIVACY THAN THEIR COMMUNION.

-Thoreau

NOTHING MAKES THE EARTH SO SPACIOUS AS TO HAVE FRIENDS AT A distance. They MAKE THE LATITUDES AND LONGITUDES.

-Thoreau

WITHOUT A HORSE AND A DOG AND A friend, MAN WOULD PERISH.

-Rudyard Kipling -9-

Freedom WE FORCE NO DOORS IN FRIENDSHIP. BUT LIKE THE CHRIST IN Revelation, we STAND REVERENTLY AT THE DOOR without, to KNOCK. AND ONLY IF THE DOOR BE opened from within, MAY WE WELCOME IN TO SUP WITH OUR FRIEND AND HE WITH US. THE GLORY OF FRIENDSHIP IS NOT THE OUTSTRETCHED HAND, NOR THE KINDLY SMILE, NOR THE JOY OF companionship. It IS THE SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION THAT COMES TO ONE WHEN HE DISCOVERS THAT SOMEONE ELSE BELIEVES IN HIM AND IS WILLING TO TRUST HIM WITH HIS FRIENDSHIP. MY FRIENDS HAVE COME UNSOUGHT. THE GREAT GOD GAVE THEM TO ME.

-Emerson

NO ONE CAN LAY HIMSELF UNDER OBLIGATION TO DO A WRONG THING. Pericles, WHEN ONE OF HIS FRIENDS ASKED HIS services IN AN UNJUST cause, excused himself saying, “I AM A FRIEND ONLY AS FAR AS THE ALTAR.”

-Thomas Fuller -10-

Self-love I HAVE BEGUN TO BE A friend TO MYSELF.

-Hecato BE A FRIEND TO thyself, AND OTHERS WILL BEFRIEND THEE.

-Scottish Proverb THE ONLY WAY TO HAVE A FRIEND IS TO BE ONE.

-Emerson

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Love A FRIEND LOVES AT ALL TIMES.

-Proverbs 17:17

FRIENDSHIP IS LOVE WITHOUT WINGS.

-Anonymous

THEY WHO HAVE THE GIFT OF MAKING friends, it INVOLVES THE POWER OF GOING OUT OF ONE’S self, and APPRECIATING WHATEVER IS NOBLE AND LOVING IN ANOTHER.

-Thomas Hughes

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

-John 15:13

ONLY A LIFE LIVED FOR OTHERS IS A LIFE WORTH WHILE.

-Einstein 12-

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Truth

BETTER A NETTLE IN THE SIDE OF YOUR FRIEND THAN HIS ECHO.

-Emerson

IF I HAVE NOT A friend, God SENDS ME AN ENEMY THAT I MAY HEAR OF MY FAULTS.

-Benjamin Whichcote

WHEN FRIENDS QUARREL THE TRUTH COMES TO LIGHT.

-Cahier

REPROVE YOUR FRIENDS IN SECRET. PRAISE THEM OPENLY.

-Publilius Syrus -14-

Forgiveness A FRIEND SHOULD BEAR HIS FRIEND’S INFIRMITIES.

-Shakespeare UNLESS YOU BEAR WITH THE FAULTS OF A friend, you betray YOUR OWN.

-Publilius Syrus (JESUS WAS) A FRIEND OF TAX COLLECTORS AND SINNERS.

-Matthew 11:19 INSOMUCH AS ANY ONE PUSHES YOU NEARER TO GOD, HE OR SHE IS YOUR FRIEND.

-Anonymous

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Adversity A FRIEND WILL PROVE HERSELF IN TIMES OF TROUBLE.

-Jewish Proverb

FRIENDSHIP IS MADE MORE SACRED BY ADVERSITY.

-John Dryden

IT IS GOOD TO HAVE SOME FRIENDS BOTH IN HEAVEN AND IN HELL.

-George Herbert

TRUE FRIENDSHIP IS A PLANT OF SLOW growth and MUST UNDERGO AND WITHSTAND THE SHOCKS OF ADVERSITY BEFORE IT IS entitled TO THE APPELLATION.

-George Washington

WE HAVE BEEN FRIENDS TOGETHER IN SUNSHINE AND IN SHADE.

-Caroline Norton -15-

A great treasure

A FRIEND IN THE MARKET IS BETTeR THAN GOLD IN THE CHEST.

-Jewish Proverb I AM WEALTHY IN MY FRIENDS.

-Shakespeare FRIENDSHIP IS LIKE A TREASURY: YOU CANNOT TAKE FROM IT MORE THAN YOU PUT INTO IT.

-Jewish Proverb -16-

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Soulmates A FRIEND IS A SINGLE SOUL DWELLING IN TWO BODIES.

-Aristotle

WHAT IS LOVE? TWO SOULS AND ONE FLESH. FRIENDSHIP? TWO BODIES AND ONE SOUL.

-Joseph Roux

One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

-Proverbs 18:24

IN DEATH THEY WERE NOT PARTED.

-2 Samuel1:23

Friendship is unnecessary. Like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.

-C.S. Lewis -19-

Old friends WITH YEARS A RICHER LIFE BEGINS. THE SPIRIT MELLOWS: RIPE AGE GIVES TONES TO violins, wine and good fellows.

-John Townsend Trowbridge

A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults.

-Charles Kingsley

IT REDOUBLES JOYS AND CUTS GRIEFS IN HALF.

-Francis Bacon

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Old friends A MAN DIES AS OFTEN AS HE LOSES HIS FRIENDS.

-Francis Bacon

A TRUE FRIEND IS FOREVER A FRIEND.

-George MacDonald

LET THE SOUL BE ASSURED THAT SOMEWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE IT SHOULD REJOIN ITS FRIEND. AND IT WOULD BE CONTENT AND CHEERFUL ALONE FOR A THOUSAND YEARS.

-Emerson

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Advice Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.

-Thomas Aquinas

FRIENDSHIP IS NOT TO BE BOUGHT AT A FAIR.

-Thomas Fuller

If I do not give a friend “The benefit of the doubt,” but put the worst construction instead of the best on what is said or done, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

-Amy Carmichael

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

-John 15:13

Okay, here’s how to do relationships - be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God, in Christ, also has forgiven you.

-Chip Ingram

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Friends forever

KEEP YOUR FRIENDSHIPS IN REPAIR.

-Emerson

Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence though it MAY BE INCREASED BY SHORT INTERMISSIONS.

-Samuel Johnson

GO OfTEN TO THE HOUSE OF YOUR FRIEND. FOR WEEDS CHOKE THE UNUSED PATH.

-Emerson -24-

Friends fore ver