Article February 6, 1984 Issue

For the convenience of some readers we will occasionally print an article in large type.

The power of friendship

HAZEL VALERY KNIGHT

Our periodicals are one of the many avenues provided by our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, through which we may share inspiration. It is always a joy to read them, but I gained a wonderful bonus in reading one the other day. After pondering a Sentinel article, I was filled with gratitude and felt I had shared something special. I thought, "Oh, brother, how I wish I knew you!" Quick as a flash came the thought, "But I do! We've just been introduced." Then I reasoned that each periodical serves to introduce friends—testifiers who care enough to share the joy of healing and their own deep gratitude, writers who impart, in poetry and prose, the gems of their inspiration. Some are not entirely new friends but have shared before. Others are old friends, met many times, and always with fresh joy.

My thought turned naturally to a friend who cared so much for God and man that she dedicated her life to sharing her discovery of the Christian system of healing. "Those who look for me in person, or elsewhere than in my writings, lose me instead of find me,"^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 120.} writes this friend, Mary Baker Eddy.

Mrs. Eddy speaks of Christ Jesus as "the meek demonstrator of good, the highest instructor and friend of man,"^{Science and Health, p. 49.} and she writes, "In the walk to Emmaus, Jesus was known to his friends by the words, which made their hearts burn within them, and by the breaking of bread."^{Ibid., p. 46.} In the gloom of the resurrection morning Mary recognized the Master only after he spoke to her.