MEN have always sought for happiness. Christian Science teaches that happiness is our privilege and our right, for God has promised that He will not withhold any good thing "from them that walk uprightly." If, then, our present sense of companionship and happiness does not come up to our expectation, let us turn wholeheartedly to the Father for His aid in this as in all other problems. Let us ponder deeply the meaning of the significant passage in Mary Baker Eddy's Message to The Mother Church for 1902, where she gives us a working plan for happiness in these words (p. 17): "Happiness consists in being and in doing good; only what God gives, and what we give ourselves and others through His tenure, confers happiness: conscious worth satisfies the hungry heart, and nothing else can."

And when we are satisfied with the companionship of the Father-Mother God, then the understanding of true companionship becomes manifest in our experience in terms of God's outlining. When we understand that as God's perfect child we have all right companionship here and now and that nothing can keep us from giving and receiving the evidences of His love, this understanding is expressed in affection, tenderness, compassion, and unselfed love in our daily lives.

We must realize that in our true being we are immortal and always aware of our loving relationship to our Father-Mother God. This realization becomes manifest in the satisfying of all human cravings for companionship. In that is all possible peace and comfort, all joy. For God is Love—Love which encompasses and enfolds us so constantly and completely that there is no need of longing.

As God's reflection, man must of necessity manifest love. Secure in the unchanging love of his Father-Mother God, man joyously reflects this love to all. One who demonstrates this truth expresses love for all with whom he comes in contact. Then love comes to him in return as a result of his demonstration; but this actually is of less importance to him than the giving, for his primal necessity is to manifest the love, the wisdom, the life, the truth, the intelligence, and the other beautiful qualities of his Father.

When confronted by a claim of sickness, as Christian Scientists we turn resolutely from the evidence of the material senses and declare our possession of perfect health as the inherent right of God's child. With equal assurance we can turn from any belief of lost, unrequited, or misunderstood love or friendship and claim our birthright of love and understanding in the Father's care. If we hold to this unswervingly and in the teeth of any seeming maladjustment of relations, we shall realize an ever-increasing sense of closeness to the Father which brings a sweetness no human experience can duplicate and a consequent improvement of the seeming material condition.

Then we shall demonstrate the truth of these lines in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy (p. 60): "Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul." That point—of happiness being "more secure in our keeping"—is an important one. Going to the Father and earnestly desiring to manifest love in His way, we learn something of a more universal and impartial bestowal of affection. Thus we shall not be in danger of seeming to lose that which we love through a materially possessive sense.

The writer has carried in thought for years the picture of a little girl she saw pick up a rose one day on a subway platform. The rose had been dropped and had lost its entire stem, but none of its delicate petals had been marred. The child laid the glowing head of the rose tenderly in one outstretched palm. Then, with fingers curled over it ever so slightly to protect it from slipping, but in no way touching it, she walked slowly away, bearing her precious flower to safety. Oh, may we be as wise in our care of those we love! May we look out for their welfare tenderly, enjoy their presence and individuality, but leave them free to manifest their qualities of beauty and loveliness in their own way, unhampered by the strangle hold of false possessiveness or jealousy.

True companionship grows from being shared. And to give companionship its full opportunity to bless us and all who share it we must constantly turn from our personal sense of a loved one and see him as the perfect, spiritual, immortal reflection of God, who is Spirit, not matter. We must earnestly desire to grow in grace so that our love may become ever wiser and more unselfed.

John, the beloved disciple, lived up to his highest sense of love for Jesus and what he represented, in that he followed Jesus to the cross, unmindful of the possible consequences to himself. There we have the beautiful picture of Jesus, with the crucial test of his high mission immediately before him, compassionately considering Mary's human need of right companionship, and perhaps John's also. The account reads as follows (John 19:26, 27): "When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home."

Throughout his ministry—indeed, throughout his life, as far as we have any record—Jesus recognized no ties of the flesh as materially binding. He outlined his one requirement for companionship when he said (Matt. 12:48-50): "Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."

Today the same Christ-light illumines the companionship of all right ideas. As we travel the ascending pathway from sense to Soul, may our concept of companionship deepen and broaden into something of the compassionate tenderness, the sheltering, healing, unselfed love, with which the Master blessed all mankind. And may we never fail in gratitude to the one who gave us this great gift of Christian Science, our beloved Leader, whose tender mother-love for all mankind points out the sure road to right companionship. In Science and Health she writes (p. 518), "The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good."