Editorial October 31, 1942 Issue

"The perfect Friend"

Alfred Pittman

Bible students are familiar with the challenging statement in the thirty-third chapter of Exodus that God spoke to Moses "as a man speaketh unto his friend." In her Communion Hymn, Mary Baker Eddy addresses the Christ, the manifestation of God, as "friend of the friendless," and elsewhere in the Christian Science Hymnal, God is referred to as "our God and Friend," "our heavenly Friend," "my best, my ever Friend," and "the perfect Friend."

It is clear that God is not a friend in the ordinary human sense of the term, because He is not human or corporeal. He is the divine Principle, Love—infinite Mind, Life, and Spirit. But it becomes evident to the student of Christian Science as he progresses in understanding and demonstration that he has discovered in this divine Principle something surpassing human friendship, even at its best.

This is by no means disparaging human friendship, which is clearly something to be desired and cultivated, and which can be a very beautiful and worth-while thing indeed; but the joyful fact is that such friendship in its highest form only points to the still better reality in the relationship of God and man, a reality which can be demonstrated and enjoyed more and more in human experience. Its demonstration, incidentally, takes nothing of value from human friendship, but rather purifies and enriches it; and this process goes on until friendship ceases to be human and is found to be identified wholly with divine being.

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