Editorial July 31, 1926 Issue

"Friend of the friendless"

Albert F. Gilmore

The human heart yearns for true friendship, for that intimate relationship which insures sympathetic understanding of one's innermost thoughts, of one's aspirations and longings, of one's aims and ambitions, even of one's doubts and fears. Such friendship is precious beyond calculation; and friendship which makes possible such intimacy fills what is otherwise a great void in human existence.

In her Communion Hymn (Poems, p. 75), beloved of many, Mrs. Eddy reveals the Christ, the "Spirit that makes pure," as the "friend of the friendless," a friend who brings to the sad and sorrowing the very balm of life to solace and heal. What possibilities of blessedness do her words convey! "Friend of the friendless"—friend of him who, perhaps through a life of sin pursued to an extent that has destroyed the possibility of friends, has lost the sense of human friendship, and yet who finds a Comforter in the merciful Father! For God, through His Christ, reaches the lowly in heart, bearing comfort and healing even to those who seem to be wholly friendless.

The marvelously beautiful picture of the Christ set forth by the Revelator portrays this beneficent effect of the Christpresence: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." What possibilities of Christlike friendship do these words convey: the Christ, Truth, ever standing at the door of human consciousness; ever ready—even eager—to come in, to gain admission, in order to supplant the erroneous, deceitful, and altogether false guests entertained there; ever ready to substitute the healing message of divine Love for the hateful and unhealthy thoughts of mortal belief!

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