Friendship

A. LINCOLN ROTHBLUM

There is possibly nothing finer in our human relations than true and loyal friendships. Oftentimes they are established in childhood and while we are attending school, ripening and broadening into enduring and beautiful associations. Later years, too, may bring added opportunities to express genuine friendliness to many others.

It may be helpful here to note that the word "friend" comes from an Anglo-Saxon root meaning "to love"; and a dictionary defines a friend as "one who entertains for another such sentiments of esteem, respect, and affection that he seeks his society and welfare." Thus, it will be observed, permanent friendships involve mutual obligations. If we would be just to ourselves and others, these mutual obligations should be considered in the light of Christian Science.

The Bible contains wondrous examples of lofty friendships which are in spiritual accord with the above-quoted definition. Notable is the friendship of Ruth and Naomi. By returning with her mother-in-law to Bethlehem, voicing that memorable declaration of fidelity, "Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God," Ruth proved her steadfastness as a friend; and "friend" is the root meaning of that name in the original Hebrew. Jonathan and David will ever be remembered as loyal friends, it being written of them in the first book of Samuel that "the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David."

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Friendship

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