While serving in the Army, two men became friends. One was black and the other white. They enjoyed each other's company during off-duty hours. They liked doing the same things and discussing the same subjects. It was a pleasant companionship. But sometimes the white man found he had opportunities open to him in places where his friend was not welcome. It was a situation he could not comprehend or tolerate. Why should his friend not be welcome wherever he would be himself?

The black man was not resentful. He wanted his friend to enjoy all the opportunities open to him and did not stand in his way. Sometimes he even attempted to persuade him to go along without him. But without success. The friend valued him highly as an individual. A student of Christian Science, he had learned to open his thought to the grandeur of all God's manifestations, their individual ownership of the ideas and qualities of divine Love, and their equal right to participate in the joys of Soul. "No," the white man said, "where you cannot go, I will not go either." So they continued to spend their off-duty time together, and neither felt deprived as their friendship grew.

When the time came to leave the Army, each man went his way to his own hometown. But their unity in Spirit has developed. They are now both active Christian Scientists, members of The Mother Church and of branch churches in their own localities. They both subscribe to the six Tenets of Christian Science, written by Mrs. Eddy, which, if practiced, will eventually destroy earth's injustices and prejudices and bless the human race by bringing to light a true sense of the brotherhood of man under God's law.

When they entered the Army, only one of these two men was acquainted with these important healing statements, but his practice of them—particularly the last one—brought great spiritual blessing not only to himself but to his friend, for it awakened in him also a desire to accept it as a guideline in his own life. This sixth tenet reads, "And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure." ^{Science and Health, p. 497;}

It is easy and a joy to keep this promise when we remember that God is expressing Himself in various forms in all His sons and daughters. Each one has special value to us. Their interests become our interests, and it is natural to love our neighbor as ourselves.

We see variety whichever way we look. The animal and plant worlds are rich in different manifestations of life and activity. The various classes of aquatic and land life are divided into a multiplicity of different types with individual forms, characteristics, and appearance. Sizes range from the massive whale to the microscopic, single-called amoeba. Colors and textures vary from the soft, red breast feathers of the English robin to the shaggy, black fur of the Himalayan bear and the tough, green-toned skins of the African crocodile.

Amid such variety, and knowing that within the different animal, bird, and reptile classes, as well as in the plant world, there are often many hundreds of species, it is illogical for men and women of one particular race or color to be intolerant of people of any other. If everyone looked and behaved the same, the world would be a poorer and a duller place. Together, they hint at the endless variety that exists in the spiritual kingdom where the individual ideas of God, the divine Mind, dwell in harmony as witnesses to the infinite nature of the one divine creator who expresses himself through them.

Referring to the vastness of the true universe of God, Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, "Infinite Mind is the creator, and creation is the infinite image or idea emanating from this Mind." ^{ibid., pp. 256–257;} And elsewhere in the same book, "Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love." ^{ibid., p. 477;}

Christian Science explains that man is the generic term for God's manifestation of His own being. And it maintains that every individual spiritual entity comprising this infinite manifestation reflects the divine qualities and ideas that constitute Deity. Each one is distinct in form and expression, the image of the one creative Principle. While reflecting the same divine Mind, or Life, no two are similar. They each express the love of God, the vitality of Spirit, the intelligence of Mind, the colorful beauty of Soul, but in a way that is uniquely individual.

Everyone with whom we come in contact must, in his real being, bring to us a fresh view of God's nature. He can reveal to us an aspect of divine intelligence, truth, and substance we would be unable to discover in anyone else. He can enrich us mentally—that is to say, he can if we are willing to accept and value what he is as God's idea and what he has to express. As the Bible says, "A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly." ^{Prov. 18:24.} Naomi Price