It was the "Christmas rush." The vast parking lot of the shopping mall was filled with rows upon rows of cars. The last traces of a cold winter sunset disappeared from the western sky and the orange sodium floodlights of the mall began to cast an unearthly glow.

Looking up, you could see the distant blinking lights of various jets and a helicopter overhead. The river of headlights and traffic on the surrounding highways flowed on endlessly.

People on the move. Masses of humanity. But people still feeling empty and alone even when pressed and crowded by others.

No wonder there's a desire to fill the void, the emptiness, with something loving, something constant—a friend who understands and who will always be there to listen. The words of an old hymn express a sentiment that has comforted millions: "What a Friend we have in Jesus..."

One can certainly understand the feeling. There's another hymn, written by Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, that also answers the heart's need. It's called the "Communion Hymn" and includes the words

Christian Science teaches that it was this Christ or divine idea with which Jesus was at one that made him the friend of man. This same Christ is still with us now and continues to touch our heart and thought with God's infinite love—His message of sonship and saving and healing.

Jesus once said to his disciple Philip: "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." ^{John 14:10.} The New English Bible puts it this way: "I am not myself the source of the words I speak to you: it is the Father who dwells in me doing his own work."

As we listen to and obey the Christ, we know in some measure what it must have been like to have been with Jesus as he walked the roads of Galilee. His example shows us how the Christ, Truth, transforms human experience, and how our own life is to be lived. We don't love the human Jesus any less but a great deal more! As we do some of the healing work that Jesus told us to do, we understand more of what he said and why he acted as he did. We come to understand the magnitude of his sacrifice and the extent of his unparalleled love for mankind.

Mrs. Eddy says it with great freshness when she writes: "The talent and genius of the centuries have wrongly reckoned. They have not based upon revelation their arguments and conclusions as to the source and resources of being,—its combinations, phenomena, and outcome,—but have built instead upon the sand of human reason. They have not accepted the simple teaching and life of Jesus as the only true solution of the perplexing problem of human existence." ^{Unity of Good, p. 9.}

Probably no age since the beginning of time has been more perplexed, more sensitive to the empty feelings that are the end product of mere human reason and a busy material sense of things. But when we make room to receive the Christ, these bleak feelings are taken away. In their place comes the constant sense of being understood and loved and uplifted, of having a friend at hand, which is the Christ. And then we are able to share this overflowing Christ-love with others.

Jesus made infinite Love known to humanity. He demonstrated the goodness that is the true center of being, the divine Love that is Principle.

He was so sure of God's love at hand that he could reject the pictures that confronted him of disease, sin, and even death. He insisted on what he knew was so—man loved by God and therefore whole and well and innocent—and healing followed. We too can feel the continual companionship and healing of this Christ, Truth.

So here amid the technological wonders and the fast-paced demands, the all-too-frequent facelessness and loneliness of crowds, we pause. We remind ourselves of our own basis or approach to life, which is Biblical, which takes the life of Christ Jesus as its supreme example. Here on the verge of the last fifteen years of this onrushing century we choose to grow quiet, to learn from "the simple teaching and life of Jesus."

We celebrate again the birth of Christ Jesus, the coming of the Christ. We look to the "friend of the friendless." And we feel embraced and cared for by that divine Love which is our very Life and Principle.

Happy Christmas!

ALLISON W. PHINNEY, JR.