Article October 17, 1931 Issue

Friends

[Original article in German]

ELISABETH STEINER

"Friends : The Bible and the Christian Science text-book are our only preachers." This is the introductory sentence to the "Explanatory Note" in the Christian Science Quarterly read by the First Readers at Christian Science services throughout the world.

"Friends" is the first word of the "Explanatory Note"; and it would seem as though something of importance were to follow. Indeed, the word is more than a mere appellation; it is a declaration that, according to the truths which Christian Science teaches, all are in reality friends. And how could it be otherwise? The Bible teaches that man is the image and likeness of God; and in accordance with this Biblical statement Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 470), "Man is the expression of God's being."

John clearly recognized God's real nature and man's relationship to Him when he wrote, "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him;" and farther on when he said, "And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also." John's words signify that the immutable, infinite, ever present tenderness and goodness which constitute God's being must be continually expressed through man. Love is the sustaining Principle of man. As one reasons from this basis it is easy to understand that the relations of God's ideas one to another must be absolutely harmonious; hence every earnest seeker for Truth has to discover for himself the unity of good, which already exists, and let it be manifested in loving willingness to help his neighbor.

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