Ecclesiastes chapter number four. I'd like us to read verse four through to verse number 11. Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. Father, we ask now that you would send your spirit to open our eyes to the truth of your Word, that we might be changed, Lord. How we long to be more like our Savior. How we long to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So come now, we pray, and bless Your Word to our ears and to our hearts, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. We've been working through a series on spiritual depression and looking at various aspects of the struggle that we have in our soul, which is common to us, a dark night of the soul that comes to those even who believe in Jesus. And there are times of difficulty that the child of God faces that seems as though that he is quite alone and God seems quite distant. And we've considered various ways in which we as the people of God are to apply ourselves to His word, to believe certain things, to go out and live in accordance to His will by faith in order that we might, as it were, weather this storm by God's grace that exists in our lives. But this morning, I want to take some time to help us consider, in light of the depression and darkness that our souls often face, I want us to consider the value of friendships as designed by God for humanity. The world in which we live is suffering from an epidemic of loneliness. It's strange, in one sense we're more social than we've ever been with the rise of the internet and, you know, all these kind of interactions that are happening now which couldn't have happened so easily before. Yet, recent surveys show that one in three people report that they feel lonely. That's in 2025. One in six experience severe loneliness, which basically means that they often or always feel lonely. And what might be indicative of the effects of social media is that the age groups of 15 to 24 are currently the most loneliest people. Now you would think they'd be the oldest ones, but the statistics show that the 15 to 24-year-old age group suffers from loneliness the most. Now, how should we measure loneliness? Well, we don't measure it by how many people are around you, because there are a lot of people around you this morning and you might be quite, well, lonely. But we should measure it by the quality and depth and the strength of those relationships that we share. You can be in a space with 5,000 people or 2,000 people or 100 people or 20 people and still be lonely. But you're not lonely if you have, as it were, that one friend that is there, that you share a measure of intimacy with and fellowship with. Now, meaningful friendship is actually more important than we realize. A review of 38 studies show that high-quality friendships that provide deep companionship and emotional support are direct predictors of mental well-being. And another study showed that a lack of quality friendships increase our risk of heart attack, stroke, premature death. Can you believe that? I had to look at this study a couple of times to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding it. People with no or poor-quality friendships are twice as likely to die prematurely, and a risk factor, they've calculated, that is even greater than the effects of smoking 20 cigarettes a day. Now, that's not an advertisement for smoking cigarettes. The tobacco industry, if they get their hands on this one, would be making a killing. But I, I, the point that I'm trying to make is we don't realize how severely problematic loneliness is for our spiritual and physical well-being and our mental well-being. Meaningful friendship is so important. You know, if you saw your friend smoking cigarettes at 20 cigarettes a day, you say, "Mate, you got to stop this, it's going to kill you." But what if you knew someone who didn't have a friend? Well, in fact, according to the statistics, some of us don't really have friends like this. One in three, lonely, one in six, severe lonely. There's more than six of us here. It indicates that this is a relevant subject to the day for us as the people of God, particularly as it relates to how we bear up with the struggles that we experience in our lives. And it really just shows us the wisdom of what God said at the very beginning when He created the world, doesn't it? He created Adam in His own image, and Adam could not find a companion out of all the animals. And that's why dogs are not men's best friend. That doesn't classify, by the way, as a close friend. So when God said, "It is not good that man should be alone," He knew exactly what He was saying. And so He says, "I will make him a helper fit for him." Now, when He speaks about making a helper fit for him, what God is showing here is primarily not man's need for marriage, but man's need for companionship, of which marriage is the most, is ought to be anyway, the most deepest and most intimate expression of. And so God was dealing primarily with Adam's aloneness. And as Tim Keller wisely put it, he says, "Adam was not lonely because he was imperfect, but because he was perfect. The ache for friendship is one ache that is not the result of sin. This is one ache that is part of his perfection." God intended to make man so that man might not only share fellowship with Him. Understand this, God was in the garden with Adam. In one sense, not even in one sense, Adam truly was a friend of God. But in that very condition, God still says it's not good for man to be alone. Meaning that God's design goes beyond you having a personal relationship with Him, believer. It goes into the realm of you having a personal relationship with one another. It's about you having that intimate fellowship and connection with another human being also made in the image of God like you. The Edenic scene does not call for all of us to be married. Marriage is honorable in all, the scripture teaches. But remember, the Apostle Paul does talk about the blessing of singleness. And so single people must not be thinking, "I will never have an intimate companion until I'm married." And therefore, "I will never have a close friend until I put a ring on someone's finger." In fact, it is, it is actually a problem in our day that because, perhaps not in our day, but in our church culture, is perhaps that we think that marriage is the place where we find friendship, and therefore we don't pursue friends outside of our marriage. But the truth be known that the strength of your marriage could be directly tied to your close friendships outside of your marriage. And as you'll see, you'll, as you'll probably realize, your wife and husband desires you to have friends that can speak into your life and strengthen you and encourage you in times of difficulty. What is friendship? Well, friendship is a voluntary, mutual relationship of love, of affection, of nearness, of trust, and loyalty. It actually rises above involuntary relationships like, you know, a father and son or a mother and daughter or brother and sister. As interconnected that relationship is biologically, friendship is voluntary. You don't choose your brothers and sisters, so you just got to learn to live with them. But but when you, you choose your friends. And therefore, there's this mutual, voluntary decision, and it is not built upon, or healthy friendships are not built upon, true friendships are not built upon selfish gain or particularly what I may derive as a benefit from that other person, although the immense benefit of friendship is inestimable, you cannot weigh the value of it. But friendship and true friendship includes also shared goals and interests. And the friendship described to us in the book of Ecclesiastes teaches us of a depth of relationship where there is commitment, where there is two people sticking it out together through times of difficulty. There's an old story from Aesop's fables called "Two Travelers and a Bear." Two men were traveling together through a forest when suddenly a huge bear burst out of the bushes nearby. One man, thinking only of his own safety, quickly climbed a tree. The other, unable to fight the fierce animal by himself, threw himself to the ground and lay perfectly still, pretending to be dead. He had heard that a bear will not touch a dead body. This proved to be true, for the bear sniffed around the man's head for a while and then, seeming satisfied that he was dead, walked away. The man in the tree climbed down. It looked like just as if the bear whispered something in your ear," he said. "What did he tell you?" "He said," answered the other, "that it was not at all wise to keep company with a fellow who would desert his friend in a moment of danger." Take the advice from the bear. Don't be that kind of friend. Ecclesiastes tells us of a friend that does not flee in moments of danger, but one who is a true companion of the other. Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse number 1 says, "Again, and I saw the oppressions that were done under the sun, and behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them. On the side of the oppressors, there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. And I thought that the dead were already that were already dead were more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not yet seen evil deeds that are done under the sun." The preacher sees, as it were, all the evil and oppression that is done under the sun, and he wonders to himself, "What's the point of living?" Better, as it were, to be dead than alive if this is the case among men. And better yet is the person who's not yet born because of all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And then he goes on in verse number three and verse number seven to say, "And again I saw, and again I saw," and he speaks about oppression and isolation, but also about the pursuit of work and how meaningless work is is when you're really just working alone and for yourself. And then he goes on to talk about the slothful one, that even the slothful one who doesn't work as he ought to work, you know, his life is still also meaningless. But in in in in the midst of all this meaninglessness and in the midst of all this oppression that is done under the sun, in the dark and dreary view of the corruptions of the world, Ecclesiastes then goes on to speak about the value of friendships in the midst of the darkness. And in verse number nine, he says, "Well then, two are better than one." God has designed companionship to help us face trouble and oppression and work and all these things together and not to go at them as it were alone. And two are better than one, he says, because in verse number nine, he says, "They have a good reward for their toil." That that companionship changes the way that we experience work. Collaboration produces much better results than going at it alone. The sharing of ideas, the engagement of minds, the sharpening of our thoughts, the sharing of our troubles, when we come at it, as it were, in our projects or in our business, into various difficulties, to have one beside you who cares for you and is intimately invested in you, who will share things with you, is very helpful and fruitful. It creates meaning to work, and not only does it create meaning to work, what it does is it, it, it produces better work. The joy of celebrating together over successes in life. It's an amazing thing, isn't it? I was watching on the news, you know, SpaceX and, you know, Elon Musk is quite an awkward guy in my opinion, but he's standing there smiling like this and all these people are around him and they're all really excited because, you know, the share market and all these things. And and I thought to myself, what friend, you know, he's sharing that with his colleagues and it's very nice. They collaborated together to get this done. But I wonder what friends he would go to and in the intimacy of their fellowship and connection and in their sharing of life, he will talk about and rejoice with in a very, open up his heart about all those things. It's very different, as it were, to be rejoicing in a number of people, and then to share in that rejoicing. It's very different to be sorrowing in the midst of a community that's sorrowing, but to go and sorrow and cry on someone's shoulder is a vastly different experience. Two are better than one. It changes the way that we experience life together, particularly in relationship to our work. But it goes on to say in verse number 10 to 11, "For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up." Help when fallen. Companionship provides support, a support that lifts us up when we've fallen, that warms us as it were when we're cold, that speaks to us in this passage of the presence of a friend. A friend is someone that needs to be near, someone who observes the trouble. You see, there's a falling, and this person observes the falling and they help one up. You know, there is here cold, an experience of cold, and there's a nearness to know that there's an experience of cold, and then there is one to come and help the other feel warm. To observe and to assist. And then he goes on to say that that in verse, in verse number 12, he says, "And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken." And here you have the blessedness of companionship that provides us with protection. In the face of an imminent threat, there is the companion to strengthen the other and to fight the battle as it were together. A two-fold cord, a two-stringed cord, or rope, is easily, is not as easily broken as a single rope cord. And a threefold cord, which means more than just two, and this is the, the point is more closer companionships, the stronger that relationship is. You can break one stick, I give you two sticks, it's harder to break, I give you three sticks, it's harder to break. I give you that closeness, that nearness, that intimacy that he shared, bears the pressure of that together. Right? It takes the stress and shares the stress of that situation together. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken is wonderfully talking about Christ, even applies to Christ's relationship with us. But the emphasis of Ecclesiastes is to demonstrate the value of friendships and intimate friendships. We must turn the heater off so that you don't blame me for sleeping in the in the in the preaching. Sorry, brothers. Let me keep going here and look at this Ecclesiastes what it is describing. Ecclesiastes does not describe acquaintance. It is futile for us to look at a passage like this and says that it's just describing acquaintance. No, it is not describing acquaintance. It is describing an intimacy of friendship. Here in this is the integration of life. Here in this passage is vulnerability, seeing one fallen, right? Seeing one cold. And here in this passage is the commitment and sacrifice that bears each other up in times of difficulty. This is a friendship that is very much like David and Jonathan's friendship, whose hearts were knit together. The Bible tells us in 1 Samuel 18:1-3, "I, as soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul." This is the intimacy of their love. Covenant, relationship, loving. Look, these are two men. Some people, this is awkward. This is not to be awkward. Okay, the Middle Eastern men. I understand. But it's still not to be awkward for the western. Love. Love. To feel love for another man. To, to, for a woman to feel love to another woman. Why is our culture so erotic? Why is our culture so sexualized that this is awkward? This should not be awkward. To bear each other up. To know I need you in my life. Let's do life together. Let's share in life's trials. I want a heart that's knit, as it were, not only as it were to my wife, as if that's the only relationship that's valuable to be knit to and it should be knit to your wife, but even to others that love the Lord Jesus and will help me in my life. A relationship that was marked by honoring each other through sacrifice. In verse number four of 1 Samuel chapter 18, "Jonathan strips himself of his robe that was on him and he gives it to David. He gives him his armor, and even his sword, and his bow, and his belt." You see this sacrifice. The robe, his weaponry, his armory. He's basically saying, "These are my possessions of honor, and I take them off to give them to you, my love, my brother, my soul's friend." And he does this showing that he is one who would honor him through sacrificial giving, as all true friends ought to do. But then we also see in the relationship of David and Jonathan that there is this emotional vulnerability. In 1 Samuel 20:41-42, "And as soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times, and they kissed one another and wept with one another, David weeping the most. Then Jonathan said to David, 'Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, "The Lord shall be between me and you and between my offspring and your offspring forever."' And he arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city." And here you see emotional vulnerability. A crying, a weeping, an embracing of each other because they will not see each other again because of the trouble because Saul is after David. And when Jonathan dies, we hear David say these words, "I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant have you been to me. Your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women." That's 2 Samuel 1:26. This is a deep relationship. Emotional vulnerability is present in this relationship. A relationship deeper than blood, a relationship built upon the truth. Jonathan's commitment to David surpassed even his commitment to his father's waywardness, who was king over Israel. Jonathan loved the Lord and he loved David. And so he was backing David even to protect him against his own father. This is the friendship that the Bible speaks to us about that God has created humanity for. You can't have everyone as your friend like this. You don't have enough time and energy and effort to have friendships like this with everybody. But we ought to have friends like this. And that doesn't mean that there's not different varying degrees of friendship that we are to share with one another. Of course, that is that is what the Bible teaches us as well. But this is the kind of friend that will bear you up in your deepest depression that you can spill out your guts and pour out your soul to when you have the deepest questions of life and struggles in your soul. This is not a superficial friendship like the number of friends you have on your Facebook or Instagram account. This is not the superficial friendship of just meeting, seeing your colleagues at work. This is not even a superficial friendship that we share together as brothers and sisters in Christ more generally and broadly, when we say hello, how are you, and things like that. That's not superficial to the point, I'm not saying it's not valuable, but I'm saying this runs much deeper than that even. And I'm not saying we shouldn't have all that range of friendships, we ought to. But I'm asking the question this morning, do you have a friend like this? This is the kind of companionship that lets people close enough to you to sharpen you. Iron sharpens iron as one man sharpens another. Who do you come to when your knife is blunt and your life is dull and you say, "I'm not doing too well. I need some sharpening." Who is it that is close enough to you so that when they rebuke you and tell you off or correct you, you don't take personal offense thinking, "You don't love me," but you realize that this person really does care about me so much so that they're willing to tell me what I need and I'm going to take what their word as as I need it. You know, Proverbs chapter 18 verse 24 says, "A man of many companions may come to ruin." A man, listen to this, a man of many companions may come to to ruin. But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. You can have many companions and many acquaintances and your life will still come to ruin. But if you have a friend that sticks closer than a brother, a friend that is like Jesus to you, as it were, He's close and He is near you, but he's visible and he's speaking truth into your life. You have a friend like that, you'll keep yourself from ruin. You know, Jesus had friends. Tom just, we had the scriptures read to us and explained that the disciples of Jesus Christ were His friends. And he says, "I do not call you servants because a servant doesn't know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all things that I've heard of My Father, I have made known to you." You know what he is simply saying? He's saying, "I have let you in to as it were intimate things and true things that a master would not tell his servant. But because you are not my servants merely, you are also my friends, I am bringing you into this intimacy of truth and things that I've heard from my Father, I have told them to you." The secret of the Lord, as it were, with the disciples of Jesus Christ. And even among the 12 with whom Jesus shared friendship, he had even a closer inner circle of friends among the 12: Peter, James, and John. And John is referred to in the scripture as the disciple whom Jesus loved, who leans upon His chest, who, who is taken with him into, as it were, intimate places. Peter, James, and John are taken by Jesus up to Mount Transfiguration to see, as it were, the the transfiguration of the Lord of glory, and to behold things that the other disciples would not behold, and to see things that the ordinary people, as it were, below, would not know about Jesus and His glory, but would later hear about from the mouth of Peter, James, and John. He brought them into these intimate experiences of his. In Matthew chapter 17 verse 9, it says, "And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, 'Tell no one the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.'" You know what? Tell no one the vision, even the other disciples. Here is Peter, James, and John, Jesus sharing something quite of a secret with them that he wanted them to share after he had raised from the dead. You see that trust and loyalty and that intimacy of relationship that Jesus had even with Peter, James, and John. In fact, Jesus took these same companions into the Garden of Gethsemane in his darkest night. When Jesus, as it were, went through his dark soul of the night, when he was burdened down by the by the weight of bearing our sins and and and and realizing how the his experience with the Father would be at the cross because he would, he would stand in our place as our redeemer. He took with him Peter, James, and John into the garden. And he opened his soul to them. And he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even unto death." Imagine telling someone that. We we find it hard to say to someone, "I'm sorrowful." But imagine saying to someone, "I am sorrowful even unto death. I'm troubled." Really, the vulnerability is seen here, isn't it, in our Lord, as He pours out his heart to his disciples. And then he says to his disciples, "Remain here and watch with me," as I go over and pray. He calls them as it were to his aid. He's saying, "Remain with me and watch with me. Pray with me, intercede with me, be vigilant with me as I go into this time of testing." Jesus could have said, "Oh, just stay out there and I'll take care of this." He brought his friends in. Now, despite their failure to bear him up, nonetheless, the perfect Adam, Jesus Christ, the Lord, saw the value of friendships and himself had friends. Do you have friendships like these? You say, "Well, I've been hurt." Yes, that's true. Human relationships result in hurt, no doubt. Not every friend is faithful, not every companion lives up to their word, and many of us have the scars of broken friendships. But is that any excuse to ignore God's good design? That's like the person who's saying, "I never want to get married because people get divorced." Marriage is still honorable in all, whether people get divorced or not. Marriage is still God's good design. It's still good for a man not to be alone in companionship, despite the fact that many companions result in our hurt and in our pain. Better to be hurt at times than to be lonely, than to be alone. Better to to to submit and to be engaged in God's good design and to have a full experience of life as the people of God and have someone to bear you up. Two are still better than one, even though at times those two go through hardship and they end up parting ways. You say, "Well, I don't need friends." Are you better than Jesus? Look, but putting the pride of that statement aside that I don't need friends, let me ask you this. Don't you want to be a friend like this to someone else? Think about it. You say, "I don't need friends, I'm all good, I've got myself covered." That's a prideful statement that that we need, that needs to be dealt with on another occasion. But but understand this, don't you at least want to be that to somebody else? Are you that selfish that you don't want to share yourself with anybody? Are you that self-sufficient that you don't need anybody? That's the statement of pride. But what about just stepping down and and being a blessing to somebody else? You say, "Well, I'm afraid of exposure." Well, that's exactly why you need friends. We need friends so that we might be exposed, so that we might be accountable, so that we might have people who truly love us that will correct us, that will shape us, that we can share with, who will not judge us and write us off in our time of difficulty. We must be exposed in order for us to be fruitful. Mold grows in the darkness. Mold thrives in the darkness, and mold destroys. And so does hidden sin, and so does shame, that builds upon more sin and more shame as it's kept in the darkness and hidden in the corner and it spreads and grows like mold and infects your life and the lives of those around you. But exposure to the light, having someone who is in the light speak to you about the truth of God, which is the light, would help you deal with the darkness in your own heart. And God has designed friendships for this. And so to say that you're afraid of exposure, means you should press into that fear and find a friend that you can trust to open your heart with and share your deepest secrets with in order that they might help you out of the pit. Bear one another's burdens, says the scripture, and so fulfill the law of Christ. And there are some burdens that you will not share with anyone but your deepest and closest friends. But if you don't have a friend, who are you sharing it with? Who can practically hold you to account? You say, "Well, I'm too lazy." Well, you make time for exercise and other things that are beneficial. But laziness destroys, doesn't it? Laziness destroys. Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger. And your life will be empty. You will have a longing unfulfilled. And you will not reap the benefits of healthy friendships because you will not invest your time into the lives of others. "I'm too busy for friends." Well, then you're too busy for a healthy life of accountability where you can thrive to for the glory of God by making close friends. You say, "Well, I do want friends, but I can't seem to find any." Well, in one sense, you need to stop looking for friends, because friendship happens while you are pursuing the same thing as another. It was C.S. Lewis who said this, it was quite interesting, he said, "That is why those pathetic people who simply want friends can never make any." It's pretty harsh words, but hey, let's take them as a rebuke today. "The very condition of having friends is that we should want something else besides friends. Where the truthful answer to the question is, 'Do you see the same truth?' would be, 'I see nothing and don't care about the truth, I only want a friend.' No friendship can arise, though affection of course may. There would be nothing for the friendship to be about, and friendship must be about something, even if it were only an enthusiasm for dominoes or white mice. Those who have nothing can share nothing. Those who are going nowhere can have no fellow travelers." If you look at friendship just merely as an end in itself, but not as that which you need to to head in the direction that God has called us to head in, then you will find yourself not having friends. But not only do you not have friends perhaps this morning because you are looking for friends for the sake of friends, but you may not have friends this morning because you're not very friendly. Be friendly and you'll have some friends. You know, Christ-likeness is more attractive than you realize. But if you're a domineering gossip, insecure, clinging, demanding, callous, cold, uncaring, unthoughtful, selfish, concerned more about talking than listening, you're wearing a sign on your front and on your back saying, "Don't come near me." That's true. Think about it for a moment. Now, of course, we need friends to help us straighten out all these things and all of us bear and have many of these things in our own lives, but I'm saying if if you are a person that is prickly and so self-centered, then you will find that you will not have friends, or your friends will not last very long. And the beautiful thing about the gospel of Jesus Christ is this, is that it actually is the catalyst for true friendships. Think about what the gospel does and think about what the gospel calls us to. It calls us to a life of humility. It calls us to a life of brokenness, a confession of sin, realizing our own unworthiness, and depending upon the grace of God which saves us. And having received the grace of God, it makes us thankful and appreciative that all I deserve to be perishing at this moment, but I've been saved by God's good grace through the love of Jesus Christ. I've been reconciled to God. Life has meaning and it has purpose. Isn't that the kind of person you would want to be a friend with? Someone who is humbled by the truth of God, by the grace of God. So the gospel of Jesus Christ and the church of Christ ought to be the very place where we can find that most intimate friendships. It should be true of believers that we are humble people that care about others. That should be standard for the Christian people of God. And that is the great culture in which friendship breeds and grows, as we pursue together the kingdom of God, as we pursue together His righteousness, as we love the things that He loves. Then you walk on this journey with people beside you, both looking as it were to the same horizon and looking to Jesus Christ our Lord, and you have that which is in common and you should have holiness of life. That is the best cultivation for healthy friendships. And when they sin against you, the Christian should be like, "Well, I'm just as guilty as that person is." And when my time comes, I pray that they have the same mercy. Right? Be ye merciful, even as your heavenly Father is also merciful. But more than this, the Christian gospel not only is the catalyst for true friendship because it makes us humble and demonstrates to us our unworthiness, but it also has the example of a true friend, Jesus Christ the Lord, who by his self-sacrificing covenant love bore our sins in his own body on the cross and hung there as if he were a sinner like us, though He never sinned and was perfect in holiness. And he hung there dying on the cross to bear our sins, and he did it in sheer, pure, love, the glory of love. And this Jesus loves like a true friend. This Jesus is the one who pursues the good of another. This Jesus is the one who lays down his own life. He protects, he saves, he bears, he comes to the aid of. And you want to know how to be a good friend? Look at Jesus Christ and you'll know how to be a good friend. What He has done for you, so in one sense, you likewise demonstrate to others. Let me finish off just with this case of the friendship of Archibald Brown and C.H. Spurgeon. C.H. Spurgeon had a friend called Archibald Brown who his second wife had died, Archibald Brown's wife, and Spurgeon cared for him in the midst of his despair. Now, I just want you to think for a moment. Spurgeon is pastoring a church. There are thousands of people in this church that come every week. He is, he is very, very busy man. I think he preached more than 10 times a week, and he, there's a lot that he did. You can, he replied to 500 letters a week. But he still had time for Archibald Brown. His friend had lost his second wife at this point, and and and, um, he was he was struggling and he was depressed and he was down and he was in despair. And this is what Archibald Brown says, "Broken with sore grief, I went over to the Metropolitan Tabernacle. I could not preach, but I thought I could worship. And how amazed I was to find that he, Spurgeon, had prepared a sermon on purpose for me. As I turned round to come out of the close of the service, there was just one grip of his hand as he said, 'I have done all I can for you, my poor fellow.' I felt he had. I rode home with him that day and had his loving fellowship as he sat with me during the afternoon." Isn't that an amazing thing? Years later, when Spurgeon was just about to die, a few weeks from his own death, this is what he wrote to Brown. He said, "Beloved brother, receive the assurance of my heartfelt love, although you need no such assurance from me. You have long been most dear to me, but in your standing shoulder to shoulder with me in protest against deadly error, we have become more than ever one. The Lord sustain, comfort, perfect you. Debtors to free and sovereign grace, we will together sing to our redeeming Lord, world without end." And after Spurgeon's death, Brown spoke emotionally about his dear friend in the sermon the following Sunday. This is what he said, "He has been to me a very Elijah, and I have loved in any way possible to minister to him. Our roots have been intertwined for well-nigh 30 years. Is it any wonder that I feel almost powerless this morning to think of him as a preacher, or as an orator, or as an organizer, or as anything except the dearest friend I have ever known?" Don't you want friends like that? On your dying day? Let's pray.