Enduring friendship is a gift of God, a priceless treasure, which is found in the very heart of Love. Money cannot buy it, neither can it be purchased with flattery or human adulation. The caprice of mortal sense has never found or lost this rare gem, for it is purely a spiritual possession. Poets have named its brimming bliss; singers have cadenced its joys. The poet Coleridge wrote:
Flowers are lovely; love is flower-like;
Friendship is a sheltering tree.
With what ineffable tenderness our dear Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in the textbook, "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." Who has not at some time felt separated from the true sense of friendship and yearned to share fellowship with one of understanding? But has not this very experience been to him a blessing in disguise, for it has forced him to seek his true relationship with God and hence to find his true relationship with his fellow man? In demonstrating his friendship with God, he finds this relationship evidenced in sincere friendships with those around him, friendships based upon Principle, and not personality.
