Everyone is happy when hearing from a friend, whether one of long standing or one newly found; and rightly so, for God is Love, and therefore love is a quality inherent in God and in man, who is God's reflection. In Exodus 33:11 we read, "And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend."

Christ Jesus exemplified in his everyday contacts the beauty of true friendship. His words (Matt. 26: 50), "Friend, wherefore art thou come?" bespeak his attitude of love expressed toward him who was to betray him, even as it had been expressed in the raising of his friend Lazarus from the dead.

The Master's concept of friendship, however, portrayed a higher, more spiritual sense than the human, which loves friends and shuns enemies. To him, friendship was not the presence of a person who liked him and whom in return he liked. It was something far more vital, more Soul-inspired, than this. It was the demonstration of Christ-like love. He gives us his ideal in these words (John 15:13,14): "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you."

In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mary Baker Eddy, who is acclaimed by thousands today as being humanity's true friend and helper, inspiringly says (p. 306): "When angels visit us, we do not hear the rustle of wings, nor feel the feathery touch of the breast of a dove; but we know their presence by the love they create in our hearts. Oh, may you feel this touch,—it is not the clasping of hands, nor a loved person present; it is more than this: it is a spiritual idea that lights your path!"

This presence of love is the activity, or demonstration, of divine Love. Its influx is assured to the degree that one's obedience to God and adoration of Him, as divine Principle, not person, are maintained. It stills all strife, despair, or discouragement in human experience, confers peace of mind, and results in daily and hourly purified affections—in the overcoming of personal sense with Spirit.

The spontaneous manifestation of divine Love loves friend and foe alike. It sees man as God sees him, as His idea. This love is founded on the Scriptural record of the first chapter of Genesis (verse 31) that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." He who lives and demonstrates pure, unselfish love becomes mankind's friend and is helping to bring salvation to a burdened world. The demonstration of divine Love overcomes the barriers of ignorance and false systems.

The Master's demonstration of Love enabled him to behold with scientific clarity the real man and universe of God's creating. In our textbook (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 476, 477) Mrs. Eddy says: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick." "This correct view of man" is as practical and efficacious today in healing a sick world as it is in healing a sick body. Every man woman, and child may participate in this healing activity.

The exercise of pure, Christly affection creates a warmth within that radiates to all those about us. It does not make for coldness or aloofness. Christ Jesus expressed a natural eagerness to share in the joys of others as well as to remove their afflictions. His spontaneity and willingness to bestow love, as expressed in his ready response to the leper who came beseeching him to heal him (Matt. 8:3), "I will; be thou clean," brought to all who sought him the blessing for which they were seeking.

The power of true friendship was proved in the following experience. Each week it was the writer's duty to visit a relative in a home where there appeared to be an unfriendly person. Hoping to win this person's approval, she at first took a token of friendliness. But this met with no response. Later, a higher sense of friendship unfolded to the writer, and she began to practice it in this experience. She replaced a mere expectancy of love with actual love toward this individual. Soon the tension began to lessen, the severity relaxed, and a pleasant relationship was established.

The feeling of superiority or inferiority, of isolationism or loneliness, finds no abiding place in the experience of him who truly loves. Such a one is too busy for selfishness, and opportunities whereby he may express unselfishness are always finding him. What a happy experience it is to cultivate an ever broader, truer, more brotherly sense of love and friendship toward all!

Companionship when founded on the mutual understanding of true friendship will be continuous and permanent, for its motives and purposes are pure. Companioning with spiritual ideas gives everyone the power to increasingly reflect divine Love and to obey God's will. May we truly desire and pray to "feel this touch" of Christly affection, that its healing warmth may bless all mankind and establish the permanent friendship of true Love.