What each one really is, what each one knows of good, what each one manifests of God, is alone companionable. As one knows himself to be the child of God, the reflection of Truth and Love, he has, and knows he has, the power to express good. He knows he has dominion over the propensities of mortal mind.

Human character governed, empowered, purified by spiritually enlightened thinking becomes worthy of human affection and trust; it becomes trustworthy. No one is trustworthy who is dominated by animality, deceit, carnal desire.

Genuine individuality has nothing in common with anything unworthy. By one's active, joyous expression of good, he rejects unworthy qualities and feelings. If anyone clings to those qualities instead of casting them out, he finds that they separate him from the company of those who enjoy good.

After World War I, many of us still in uniform did not have enough to do. Some of us were in mischief most of the time. One of the boys in my outfit was hardly ever out of trouble. One day the lieutenant said to him, "Jack, if I were you, I wouldn't get into mischief so promiscuously."

"Sir," Jack replied, "I don't get into mischief promiscuously. I aim at it."

We as Christian Scientists are learning to discern the good in our fellows and, like Jack, to aim at it. Material sense, of course, does not discern pure goodness or true individuality. Yet the human heart yearns for good. It yearns for happy companionship. "Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love," writes Mary Baker Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 57). And she continues, "It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it."

God is Love—that we know. Do we often pray to know more intimately the nature of divine Love? Is not divine Love that which gives and has no need to get? What is it that divine Love gives? Why, it gives good. How good is the good it gives? Perfect good. How much good? All the good there is. Divine Love gives itself, all of itself.

How much of God, how much of divine Love, then, does each one of us have? Why, all of God! For God is One and indivisible. He cannot partition Himself, giving a little of love to one and a little more or a little less to another. No one could be loved more than this; no one has less than all of Love's loving.

The Father who loves all, loves each one. So may we. Does loving all our fellows mean loving one particular individual any less? By no means. Our loving each one for what he is, for what she is, discerning clearly the distinct individuality of each one, prevents the loss of anyone in the crowd. It prevents shutting anyone out. It prevents the feeling that one is shut out or lonely.

How could we know this about divine Love if there were no love within us? "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God" (I Cor. 2: 11). "The Spirit of God" which is within us! This spirit of Love within us is the very likeness of divine Love, the loving and lovable likeness which is our true selfhood. Is this what we know ourselves to be? Is this what we know our fellow men to be? If so, we are obeying the commandment urged by Jesus (Mark 12:31), "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

Mortal man is not this likeness. Indeed, the mortal beliefs of life, sensation, and intelligence in matter which seem to be man are not man at all. We find the true identity and the true unity of manhood and womanhood when we know them to be the likeness of the Father-Mother God, of Spirit.

With false appetite, wrong desire, and immorality, true manhood and true womanhood have no fellowship. Christian Science enables us to distinguish between the true and the false, to repudiate the false and to love the true in each one. "The good man," Mrs. Eddy declares in her Message to The Mother Church for 1900 (p. 8), "imparts knowingly and unknowingly goodness; but the evil man also exhales consciously and unconsciously his evil nature—hence, be careful of your company."

How are we to know whether a man or woman is worthy of being trusted? How can we recognize good in another if we do not recognize it in ourselves? If someone offers companionship to us and we are not sure that it is genuine or that it is just right for us, we must wait and do nothing until we are sure. If we do not find the trustworthy qualities, the qualities which we have come to love as the manifestations of God, we must wait until we do find them. We must wait and pray. Divine Love will not leave us unsure, but will give us the answer we need.

Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 1), "Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds."

What we love in each other are Godlike qualities. Where these are, God is. Where God is, love is. And where love is, companionship is.