Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, asks this question in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 339): "Hast thou a friend, and forgettest to be grateful?"

Anyone who has known the warmth, the compassion, the forgiveness, the understanding love, the strength, the wisdom, the joyful companionship, of a friend can hardly fail to be appreciative of such a priceless gift, if he has the least sense of gratitude for good. The qualities of patience, unselfishness, helpfulness, tenderness, forgiveness, and compassion that constitute true friendship are qualities derived from divine Love.

Everyone surely wants to have friends, and in order to have friends, one must be a friend. To be a friend, one strives to develop in himself the qualities that attract him to others and others to him.

The Bible declares, "God is love" (I John 4:8). There is certainly no question about the power of divine Love. It is primal, supreme, infinite, eternal, and omnipotent because it is of God. Love is universal in its beneficence. It is a constant presence which is more apparent and effective to us than a material sense of presence either of ourselves or of others could be.

Humanly we feel Love's presence in the compassion of the Christ and in the healing power of Christian Science. In our lives and in our daily contacts, we strive to attain more and more of the spontaneity and ineffable joy that come from the consciousness of divine Love's presence. It is an impelling force in our lives to do better and to be better.

One day when Jesus was preaching, a lawyer questioned him about what he should do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him what he read in the law concerning this, and the lawyer replied (Luke 10:27), "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself."

Jesus told him that he had answered correctly, but the lawyer persisted, "And who is my neighbour?"

Jesus then related the parable of the good Samaritan, who had taken care of a man he found by the wayside, robbed and beaten; although a priest and a Levite had seen the man, they had passed him by.

Then Jesus asked this question: "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?"

The lawyer answered, "He that shewed mercy on him."

Jesus replied, "Go, and do thou likewise."

Do not we or our friends and neighbors sometimes fall "among the thieves"? Are not the suggestions of sickness, sin, lack, loneliness, and unhappiness thieves that would rob us of our God-given dominion over all the earth? We must bar the doors of consciousness against these evils that would make us believe that we are separated from God and from His loving care and protection. We need to be convinced, as Paul was, "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God" (Rom. 8:38,39). Nothing in all creation has the power to keep us from God's love.

To be a true friend, we must see each one as he really is—as the beloved son of the one Father-Mother God, the perfect expression of God's being. We can show no greater love for friend or neighbor than to know him as perfect, whole, and free.

The great work before us is the spiritualization of thought, and Love is the great spiritualizing power. As we heed the divine influence of this power, we not only become more loving and friendly, but we hasten the yielding of the human to the divine.

Christ Jesus said (Luke 6:31), "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." Would we want to be thought of as outside God's presence or power? Then we cannot allow any suggestion that someone is old or sick or a sinner to remain unchallenged in our thought.

"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." These words of Mrs. Eddy's in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 476, 477) point the way to the highest sense of true friendship.

To be a friend, one needs to express compassionate understanding. This is far from mere human sympathy. Human sympathy usually accepts difficulties as realities and suffers, more or less, along with the sufferer. Compassion, on the other hand, finds expression in helpful acts to relieve the suffering and in addition holds to the truth of being so that the cause of suffering is removed. Such friendliness leads the friend out of darkness into light.

As we gain a sense of at-one-ment with God, we realize our own completeness as His expression and find that each individual is a perfect reflection of the Father-Mother God— the male and female of His creating. In proportion as the Christ governs our consciousness, we shall express compassionate understanding and love. We shall have more opportunities to be a friend and shall find ourselves surrounded by those who love us.

Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 250): "Love cannot be a mere abstraction, or goodness without activity and power. As a human quality, the glorious significance of affection is more than words: it is the tender, unselfish deed done in secret; the silent, ceaseless prayer; the self-forgetful heart that overflows; the veiled form stealing on an errand of mercy, out of a side door; the little feet tripping along the sidewalk; the gentle hand opening the door that turns toward want and woe, sickness and sorrow, and thus lighting the dark places of earth."