Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1940-08-22
my friend and l"

GOMETIMES ONE HEARS the sor-
~ rowful expression, "My friend and
l have separated Notwithstand-
ing the possibilities of mutual aid and
happiness in friendship, too often has
this bond been broken by self-seeking
or ambition on the part of one or both
of those concerned Hearts have been
hardened and distrust of mankind en-
tertained as a.result of such ruptureS.
Without the knowledge that God is the
one infinite Friend, human friendship
lacks the only foundation on which
fidelity and affection can be secure.
In "Retrospection and Introspection"
Mary Baker Eddy says Up. SO): "There
are no greater miracles known to
earth than perfection and an unbroken
friendship. We love our friends, but
ofttimes we lose them in proportion
to our affection. The sacrifices made
for others are not infrequently met by
envy, ingratitude, and enmity, which
smite the heart and threaten to para
lyze it's benefcence."
The desolation and loneliness of the
human heart are healed when Love is
found to be the divine Principle,
God, who creates and maintains all
that is lovely and good. The UNDER
standing of God as the one Friend,
forever reflected by man., is Of the ut
most Importance; for the proving of
this truth requires that each one shall
in his own thinking and living reflect
the one Friend, express the Love which
is universal and impartial. This view
of Friend, as Principle, removes the
longing for personal friends, waking
rather the desire in oneself to be
friend to all through rejecting in ones
life the universal Love which is God.
This true loving and living fills the
waste places of seemingly lost friend
ships or aloneness with the rich salts
faction of communing with God and
rejecting Him, as Friend, to all. In
this true view, the concept expressed
in the phrase, "My friend and l." il
exalted beyond the finite personal
sense to the conscious realization that
since God is Friend, then each one, as
Gods child, expresses Friend. When
one, instead of seeking how he can
win personal friends, thus seeks to
manifest what he knows of God, he
will find his experience being enriched
with many lovely manifestations of
Christ Jesus said (John 12:32), 81,
Il l be lifted up from the earth, will
draw all men unto me-" And near the
close of his companionship with his
disciples he said, IT have called you
friends; for all things that I have
heard of my Father / have made
known unto YOU" And he had just
told them, ''This is my commandment,
That We love one another, as have
loved your John 1912, 15). Here he
made plain the true way Of friendship,
each sharing with others what he has
learned of the Father. AS he had
shared with these friends what he
knew of God, the Father, so after his
departure they continued with one an
other in close bonds of Christly affec-
ton.
In Science and Health with Key to
the Scriptures Mrs. Eddy writes Up.
266): "Would existence without per-
sonal friends be to you blank? Then
the time will come when you will be
solitary, left without sympathy; but
this seeming vacuum is already filled
with divine Love. When this hour of
development comes, even if you cling
to a sense Of personal joys, spiritual
Love will force you to accept what
best promotes your growth" This need
not mean to us that we should not
have friends, for indeed we should
have many of them; but we should not
believe that existence can ever be
sblank" or Vacuum" since infinite
divine Love is ever present, protecting
us and making manifest to us all that
is beautiful and good, as we look for
all that is real in Spirit. -.
,xs.. The Christian Science Monitor