Article April 16, 1921 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from William T. Ellis, John Foster Fraser

["Friends"—The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, U.S.A., Feb. 15, 1921]

If there is any one thing that has been a greater conundrum than all others in the general worldly experience of men it is this: "What is a friend?" Philosophers, sages, poets, and theologians have all busied themselves trying to solve this now–you–have–it–and–now–you–don't idea of the friendship of men, but they have made human friendship no more substantial nor true friendship more visible. Any individual who wonders at the vastness of this subject which has monopolized much time since time began, needs only to turn the light within and see if he is really immune from dependence upon earthly friends or if he has simply failed to recognize his subtle leaning and weakness in this direction. It is a point well worth uncovering and handling for all time.

There is the truth about friendship just as there is about everything else and the truth about anything is as stable, as real and eternal as Truth itself; consequently there can be nothing elusive, fickle, or unsubstantial about true friendship; it exists whenever and wherever Truth exists, now and always, here and everywhere. Does earthly friendship measure up to this standard? Then what friendship does? Truth is a synonym for God, Life, Love,—and, as necessarily as effect follows cause, so everything true is a direct reflection of God, Life, and Love. The truth about anything is the spiritual fact in divine Mind. Then who dares to refer to true friendship as less than something immortal, ever present, and divinely inherited? Napoleon must have had some conception of this when he said, "A faithful friend is the true image of the Deity."

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