THE contemplation of existence without personal friends presents for most people a disconcerting and unhappy picture of loneliness. Yet Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 266): "Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love."
The word personal suggests that which begins and ends with persons, finite and limited. So-called friendships that are personal, therefore, involve limitations and may lead to domination, possession, and control. Surely no one would regard as desirable something which limits. Nevertheless, have we not all at some time in our experience come under the mesmeric spell of a personal friendship and regained our happiness only when we have been able to free ourselves? Have we not been "solitary, left without sympathy," when some shallow companionship, some limited and fickle sense of love, has transferred itself to another?
Such experiences are not limited to our time. The Bible tells of Job, who made many personal friends and possessed much personal wealth. Yet when his wealth and health were taken from him, he complained (Job 19:1 4), "My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me."
