Article March 16, 1935 Issue

"Unbroken friendship"

MARJORIE N. BUFFUM

On page 80 of "Retrospection and Introspection" Mrs. Eddy writes, "There are no greater miracles known to earth than perfection and an unbroken friendship." It is not difficult to see that, viewed from the mortal sense of things, perfection is indeed a great miracle, but it is striking and thought-provoking to notice that our beloved Leader classes unbroken friendship with perfection. It is natural that those who are likeminded should feel a strong sense of friendship for each other, but until humanity bases its understanding and practice of friendship upon an accurate view of God as the eternal Friend of man, and upon the reflected love of each for his neighbor, friendship appears subject to much discord. In order to be maintained in human experience it must rest upon a secure foundation.

In Christ Jesus we have the greatest exemplification of friendship the world has ever seen. He so thoroughly understood his own spiritual completeness in the God-created universe that, oblivious of human self, he reflected true friendship to his fellow men, even to yielding up all sense of man as mortal. In our own day Mary Baker Eddy, that faithful follower of the Master, clearly discerned the divine Principle, Love, as the creator of man and the universe, and maintained an attitude of unbroken friendship toward all mankind in the face of stupendous oppostion and ridicule. Out of the fruits of her own experience, glowing with the riches of Love's abundance, she gave continually, thereby helping to offset the world's mental barrenness.

The greatest pitfall to friendship is the getting rather than the giving attitude, the thought of what another owes one, rather than one's own debt of gratitude to God for His supreme gift of friendship to His ideas. Frienship is not merely a getting together of individuals; it is the attraction and association of spiritual qualities. In order, then, to be a true friend, one must reflect Godlike qualities, prominent among which are purity and constancy, "both of which are immortal," as Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 60 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." Purity neither looks for evil nor sees it; and constancy remains faithful in expressing love, no matter what conditions appear to be present to material sense.

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