Article July 6, 1940 Issue

Friendship

[Written Especially for Young People]

FLORA A. WATERBURY

Christ Jesus was the world's greatest friend. His love for his fellows was unselfish, a love which was based upon his understanding of and unfaltering loyalty to God's law of kindness. He helped those with whom he came in contact to discern more of their real selfhood, and thus destroyed for them that which was unlike God, good. Jesus thereby proved for all time that genuine friendship includes the desire to help others. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 4), "What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds." Christ Jesus abundantly exemplified this grace in meeting human needs.

Take the word "patience," which is listed as the first of the four requirements for growth in grace. A student who is a true friend is one who quietly and patiently helps to make the day a happier one for his fellow students, his teachers, or the members of his family. Sincerity is always recognized, even when deeds of kindness are done quietly and unnoticed. Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount said, "Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth."

Meekness, another requirement for growth in grace, denotes gentleness. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, classifies meekness as one of the fruits of the Spirit. When on one occasion Jesus said of himself, "I am meek and lowly in heart," he could not have meant servility. Could anyone have bound up the broken-hearted as he did without the spiritual quality of gentleness? Without gentleness Abraham Lincoln could never have brought the United States out of a civil war. Meekness, in the sense of gentleness, made him great.

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