People who look long in the same direction cannot remain strangers. This truism is often illustrated when a number of tourists otherwise unknown to one another find themselves talkative and friendly as they contemplate together some spot of beauty or point of historic interest. Again, people are apt to be brought together in a brotherly way when emergency demands unselfish action, or when consideration of a good purpose provides an opportunity for men to see eye to eye.
That personal relationships are sometimes dissolved may be due, then, to a lack of unity in tendencies and interests. In such cases there is no lasting point of convergence, even as in roads that meet and cross one another. He who walks with his face towards the light cannot journey with him who turns back. Such observations may illustrate an obvious truth; and a further example is furnished by Mary Baker Eddy's words in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 76), "The spiritually minded meet on the stairs which lead up to spiritual love."
Christian Science promotes friendship and fellowship because it teaches its students to look in the same direction, namely, Godward. Where human focal points fail, this one endures, since God, infinite good, is changeless and eternal. Jesus said to his disciples, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." And he also said, "I go unto my Father." How natural it is that all who are making conscious efforts to go to the Father, to think spiritually, should meet along that exalted way! As when strangers, losing self in contemplating the colorful magnificence of a sunset, feel a kinship, so do pilgrims Spiritward find fellowship in looking together at the revealed glories of God.
