e had a passion
for His Father. He had compassion for us. The two dovetailed perfectly.
The Father had an overwhelming compassion for us. The passion for the
Father in our Lord's heart included the throbbing, sobbing compassion for
us. The compassion was the manward expression of the passion for the
Father.

It was this compassion that controlled Him those human years. It drove Him
hard along the road we've been looking at. He was driven into the
Wilderness, through the years of sacrificial service, out into the grove
of the olive trees, up the steep hill of Calvary, down into the depths of
Joseph's tomb. Step-by-step He pushed His way along, for He was thinking
of His Father and of us. The passion for the Father meant a compassion for
us. Things proved worse in realization as He came up close to them, as
they began to touch His very life. But He never wavered. He never
flinched, for He was thinking of us. He was our Friend, our Friend in our
desperate need. A friend in need is a friend indeed. It was by deeds that
He met our needs.

But friendship is mutual. It has two sides, its enjoyments and its
obligations. That word "friendship" has two meanings. It means fellowship.
Two who are congenial in thought and aim and spirit can have sweet
fellowship together as they make exchange with each other of the deep
things of their spirits. This is one meaning, and a sweet, hallowed
meaning, too. Then there is the other. You are in some sore need. It is a
desperate emergency in your life, and out of the circle of your friends
one singles himself out, and comes to your aid. At real cost or sacrifice
to himself perhaps, he gives you that which meets and tides over your
emergency.

This is the deeper, the rarer meaning of the word, rarer both in being
less frequent and in being very precious. Fellowship friends may be many;
emergency friends very, very few. And if circumstances so turn out that
this man who has so rarely proven himself your friend, is himself in some
emergency, and you are now in position to help him, as once he helped you,
you count it not only an obligation of the highest sort, but the rarest of
privileges. And with great joy you come to his help without stopping to
count the cost in the doubtful, questioning way. Friendship is mutual.

Now this second, this deep, rare meaning, is the one we're using just now.
It comes to include the fellowship meaning, so enriching the emergency
friendship yet more. But the