Editorial August 5, 1939 Issue

Unbroken Friendship

Evelyn F. Heywood

"There are no greater miracles known to earth than perfection and an unbroken friendship," writes Mary Baker Eddy on page 80 of "Retrospection and Introspection." That such miracles as unbroken friendship are known to earth is because of the science and art of friendship; because the actual meaning of the word "friend," derived from the Anglo-Saxon, to love, has been understood and lived; because of trustworthiness; because that which is of the nature of the eternal has been expressed.

Abraham was called the friend of God, and this might well be because he dwelt continually in the consciousness of his intimate relationship with God. In so doing, in large measure, he showed forth the fatherhood of God.

To those with whom he was closely associated, Jesus gave the name of friend. In them he had been able to confide, "for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." In them he had found sympathy and support, and some measure of understanding. Three supreme ideals Jesus demanded in the fulfillment of friendship—love, which is willing to relinquish its own desires and human will; obedience to the Christ, Truth; and trustworthiness, whereby the status of servant and confidant are determined. Whatever their sins of commission and omission; though they had sometimes disobeyed his commands, those who had shared in his dangers and privations, in his triumphs and revelations, were his friends. It was thus, even to the end, that he spoke to the one who had betrayed him into the hands of his enemies. When Judas came to him, for the last time, in the garden, Jesus said to him, "Friend, wherefore art thou come?"

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