Friendship Inn

On Lees Road in Oldham is the Friendship Inn, or at least that is what it is officially called, despite its sign having lost its R and its I. At least it did not just lose its R, which might have cast a rather different light on the establishment’s affairs. Friendship is good and wholesome, and is one of the few earthly relationships, unlike marriage, that will survive death and flourish in heaven. Yet there are friendships against which the scriptures warn:

Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go… Proverbs 22:24

Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4, both NKJV.

Choose your friends and your affections carefully. 

Shun evil companions, bad language disdain,

God’s name hold in rev’rence, nor take it in vain;

Be thoughtful and earnest, kind-hearted and true;

Look ever to Jesus, He will carry you through.

-Horatio Palmer, 1868