The Brother’s Keeper

A great deal is written and said nowadays about the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. These two phrases, so often upon the lips of religionists and thinking people, when rightly understood, are full of beauty and power, but misinterpreted, they drift easily into vain repetition and meaningless cant. In the eternal reality of our being we are all members of God’s household, — His children, constituting one unbroken family, created and sustained by the one Father-Mother, God. Such being the eternal reality, it is the true statement now, and is made manifest in proportion as the real nature of God and man appears. A knowledge of the Truth of being in Divine Science discloses the true sense of the fatherhood of God, and so leads to a right apprehension of the brotherhood of man, and of our real relations and obligations to each other. (See Science and Health, pp. 572, 444, 541.)

The false sense of man, physical and material, is the Cain thought that slays the innocent brother, and then, when asked to give an account of its victim, denies all knowledge of him and indignantly asks: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” There is a large element of self-justification, as well as deception, in the question. It is as though we were to say, Man has no duties, no obligations to his brother man, which he is bound to fulfil. Let us see if this is true.

In explaining the scientific relation of the members of God’s family to each other, our text-book shows the necessity for knowing the Father, Spirit, before the duties and obligations of brotherhood can be properly understood and fulfilled, and, at the same time, it insists that none can be truly blessed who do not recognize and fulfil these obligations to the full extent of their understanding of the truth. (Science and Health, p. 518.) This is an advanced interpretation of the teaching of the prophet of old, who said, “Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the Covenant of our fathers?” The Covenant established with the fathers was predicted to remain in force to a thousand generations, that is,—forever. By its provisions they were to possess and enjoy the Land of Promise, on condition of their continued faithfulness and obedience.

The higher signification of this Covenant proclaims man’s perpetual and eternal unity with God, and consequently his heritage of freedom, of power, of dominion,—”an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” At the same time, this new and better Covenant emphasizes man’s accountability to God, and the necessity of his absolute submission and obedience to Principle, if he would consciously enter into and possess the Promised Land of liberty and peace.

We must obey all the commands of good if we would not profane the Covenant of our fathers and forfeit the promises. The apostle said, “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.” To believe on the name of His son means to understand the character of man as spiritual, pure, perfect, and immortal, as manifested by the Master, Christ Jesus. It means always to hold all mankind in that perfect thought, no matter if it be in direct contradiction to the mortal sense testimony concerning them. Mortal sense that sees not God, sees not His likeness, which is the real man, so it is not competent to testify,—and its false testimony must be denied and reversed in order to get the true sense of man as the divine image, the expression of good.

Christian Science has revealed many inconsistencies in our former habits of thought. It shows that we cannot, as was once supposed, believe in an imperfect creation and a perfect Creator at the same time. Faulty work implies a faulty worker. If we see error and deficiency in that which is made, does that not cast a like reflection upon the wisdom and power of the Maker? Paul said, “He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.” The Revised Version gives it even more strongly. It says, “He that rejecteth, rejecteth not man, but God.” Would any one wish to admit that by holding fast to the thought of an imperfect or a wicked creation, he is rejecting God? yet this is just what virtually, though perhaps unconsciously, he is doing. To dishonor the creation dishonors the creator. So, at the very outset, our allegiance to God requires that we see His work to be indeed His image and likeness,—as Rotherham has it, “the exact representation of His very Being,” perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect; and only in so doing shall we discharge our obligations to mankind, including ourselves, for one has obligations, even to himself, that cannot be overlooked. The words of one of our hymns, “Be true,” mean true to God above, to self, and to our fellow-men. If one would claim to have the Mind of Christ and to be a child or expression of God, he must substantiate that claim by admitting only such thoughts, motives, and feelings as have place in the Christly consciousness. In this way he is true to himself, to his real character, and continually reflects Truth; thus helping instead of hindering all those with whom he comes in contact.

By keeping his thought pure and free from all taint of sense-testimony, Christ Jesus really did express the divine Mind he claimed to be his Father, and he was thus enabled to fulfil his beneficent mission to mankind. He could heal the sickness and sin and death of mortal sense, simply because he knew God aright, and because knowing man to be His spiritual and immortal child, he refused always to know him in any other way. John said of Jesus that he “needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.”

Viewing man from the standpoint of the Science of being, and admitting no false outward testimony concerning him, he always insisted upon man’s divine nature as the real, and he was thus able to bring it out in demonstration, proving man to be whole and happy. Thus Jesus showed plainly that one sees in his fellow-man the reflection of his own thoughts, and that the work of bringing about a better manifestation of good is to be done in each individual consciousness. There it is that all thoughts of Life, or good, as material and finite, all thoughts of man as imperfect and mortal, are to be rooted out, and the pure and perfect ideal of being, including all creation, is to be implanted and cherished, despite all opposing theories of corporeal sense. Thus each is to keep in view the perfect model,—to keep a sense of trust, of confidence, of assurance, concerning the true character of his fellow-man, and let that true sense govern his estimate of all and his attitude toward them.

It is related that in a poor district of one of our large cities, there is a certain hall in which mass meetings for temperance and other reformatory work are held. Among the decorations of this room is an illuminated motto, which says, “Trust in the Lord,” and immediately under this is another framed inscription, which reads, “Beware of pickpockets.” This mixture of trust and distrust is hardly in harmony with the teachings of the Master, whose eye was always single to the discernment of the one good, everywhere present and expressed in all. He said, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” We believe in God as Truth and Love,—as the perfect and only Mind,—let us then believe also in man as expressing such a Mind, as manifesting only Truth and Love. No matter what sense testimony says to the contrary, we should hold to the true estimate of our fellow-man, and act accordingly. Perhaps mortal sense will protest, and say that such a practice would be unsafe, that we would continually be imposed upon and deprived of our rights, but has any one tried it long enough to make a fair test? Let this higher, purer concept of man once become our habitual thought and basis of action, and we will soon find it to be the only safe practice. What if the first few attempts do seem to result disastrously? This only reveals the presence of a lingering fear and distrust. We should aim always to render to the brother his rightful due; namely, our clear recognition of his divine sonship and our positive adherence to that concept of him.

This attitude of mind does not imply a blind acceptance of evil as good nor a weak condoning of the faults of mortal man; neither does it interdict the honest uncovering and the uncompromising rebuke which are the just and legitimate desert of all that is reprehensible in the brother. The apostle points out the necessity of rebuking one another in love, and our Leader endorses and reiterates this statement in Science and Health, page 452. In “Miscellaneous Writings,” page 294, she, whose patience and love have been an example to the world, warns the kindly disposed against the representatives of persistent error, designated as “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

So long as we clearly and scientifically separate the error from the person, in our view of it, we cannot denounce it too emphatically, nor renounce it too absolutely. Only in this way can we practically aid in making its overthrow and annihilation complete and final. If we would bring out the order and harmony of being in ourselves and others, we must live ever in the thought of it. We must make the Mind of Christ our daily habitation, dwelling among its lofty ideals of purity and loveliness, instead of affiliating with the sordid objects of sense.

Every now and then the human mind is shocked and human history stained by the commission of some dastardly crime, and we may well consider what it is that makes such deeds even seem to be possible. Is it not the common habit of holding the thoughts of evil as realities, of first admitting them as actual elements in the character of mankind, and then gloating over the accounts of them, printed and spoken, and dwelling upon them as subjects of thought and conversation?

Is it not thus that the seeds of sin are sown? and when they spring up and bear fruit in the outward act, instead of harsh, un-Christian criticism and wholesale denunciation of the principal actors, is it not more fitting that each look within? that each see how far he has been responsible for this state of things, and whether his habit of thought would tend toward the perpetuation of such atrocities or toward their cure? Do we hold mankind and womankind in the thought of material, sensual life, tainted and burdened with impure, unrighteous desires, with motives so wicked and passions so uncurbed as to know no bounds in the carrying out of their evil impulses? Is such a concept of humanity as this the likeness of God, the infinite good, the divine Love who thinketh no evil? Or is it a distorted image of mortal belief, without foundation in Truth?

It is just this wrong thinking that, to mortal sense, mars and defaces all of God’s fair creation, that at last slays the brother or the sister; and in so far as we hold, perpetuate, and magnify such ways of thinking, are we accessory to the evil. We cannot dwell upon such thoughts and at the same time dwell in the “secret place of the most High.” We must hold perpetually to the presence of infinite good, the Mind of Christ, and see man only in that divine character. Then will we bring out the real order, the harmony, the immortality of God’s creation.

One of the strongest lessons ever imparted by the Master Scientist, was that one spoken on the eve of his departure from mortal sight. He said to his disciples, “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” Sin includes all error, in whose train follow sickness and death. Am I not, then, my brother’s keeper? If I say or think that my brother is material, instead of spiritual, and that he is held by this or that physical claim of suffering, or weakness, or pain, am I not helping to clasp the chains that bind him to invalidism? If I admit sense-testimony about him, and from that basis look upon him as selfish, or sensual, do I not aid in retaining those evil tendencies, and thus pave the way for those very acts that are so obnoxious to all? If I believe that his life is limited, material, and mortal, subject to all the adverse conditions of disease, danger, disaster, and that he is rapidly nearing its end, am I not accountable, in some degree at least, when he yields to the general belief in death? Further, if I cherish feelings of antagonism and hatred against any one, am I not sowing the seeds of all evil, whose sum total is death?

We find strong language in the Bible on this point. The gentle John, who was called the disciple of love, proclaimed in no uncertain manner that “He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” Because Life is Love, every thought of hatred that, in belief, deprives of love, is the death-dealing weapon that deprives of life. The thought that is liberated to Some extent from the bonds of materiality and taught to know something of mental methods is a stronger agent for good than ever before, but if its knowledge is perverted and turned into channels of selfishness or hatred, its seeming influence is equally strong for evil. Thus it becomes our duty to “remit”‘ every false claim of evil, knowing that it has no Principle, hence no power nor place; and to the extent that we fail to do this, we are individually responsible for the evil appearances that follow,—for the failure to bring out the continued expression of Life in health and goodness.

In the account of Joshua’s preparation for the priesthood, we read that he was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel; and the angel said to those who were about him: “Take away the filthy garments from him.” This same angel says to us, “Take away the false and unclean thoughts with which you have clothed your brother man, and free him to the full extent of your ability from the weight of sense testimony against him.”

Thus doing, we shall obey the apostle’s injunction, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” This does not interfere with the truth and justice of that seemingly contradictory statement that “every man shall bear his own burden.” Each one must do his share; as Matthew Arnold tersely puts it, “No man can save his brother’s soul, nor pay his brother’s debt.” The bearing of another’s burden is, in itself, the burden that each must bear for himself, and so long as he fails to do this, he cannot be conscious of any lightening of his own load.

While we are purifying and spiritualizing our thought in regard to our brother, and releasing him from material bonds so far as we are able, he, in his turn, is doing the same for us and for others who come to his notice. Thus is the divine law fulfilled that each shall love his neighbor as himself.

The great and only need of mortal mind is to be freed from itself,—to be released from thought which ever recurs to temporal and personal desires,—and to its embodiment in the mortal frame.

There is an old pagan fable that tells of a certain criminal who, in punishment for his misdeeds, was doomed to see all people as grim and ghastly skeletons,—the beauty and grace of their embodiment having been made invisible to his sight. Thus mortal mind, in paying the penalty of the sin of material sense, is blinded to the true grace and beauty of spiritual being, and sees only the bony skeleton of its own misconception of man. Oblivious of the real embodiment of Spirit, it is doomed to find only the ugly and angular outlines of some objectionable trait of character. The falsity of mortal mind has, however, been laid bare, and its vague conjectures and untruthful, unloving concepts are no longer the basis of interpretation. The apostle says, “We know that the Son of God has arrived, and has given us an insight that we may understand the Real One” (Rotherham’s translation). With this understanding we see that the brother needs no keeper, that he is safe in divine Love, where he is supported and sustained, with all his affairs adjusted in perfect order. When we cease calling him indolent, improvident, poverty stricken, and unfortunate, he will be much more likely to cease manifesting these conditions, and will the sooner begin to express the omni-action of divine Mind which is its own reward and supply. The more we desist from calling him untruthful and unrighteous, weak and wicked, the more his truthfulness, strength, and goodness will become apparent; in fine, the less we picture and repeat the illusive phases of evil, the more will Truth and Love be made manifest by all.

>Here our responsibility regarding the brother ceases, for he is not dependent upon any human agency for support, for admonition, or for judgment. Am I then my brother’s keeper? No and yes. I am not my brother’s keeper to the extent of one single anxious thought as, to his safety, his sustenance, his standing or advancement in Science, for divine Love is his Father and Mother, and is ever mindful of his highest good and abundantly able to achieve it.

I am not his keeper to the extent of passing one single word or thought of censure, condemnation, or criticism upon him, for I remember that he is accountable to God and not to man for all he is and does. I am his keeper to the extent that I must disarm and disown all sense of reality in the evil he may appear to express. I am his keeper in this, that I must keep my own thought concerning him free from material mixtures; free from beliefs of limitation and error in regard to his condition in every way, free from all elements of bitterness, of envy, of pride, of hate. I am his keeper also in that I am called to exhibit loving kindness toward him, playing the part of the good Samaritan with respect to his sense of need, while endeavoring, through spiritual ministry, to replace this sense with the true understanding of life and its possibilities of freedom.

In doing this I must ever keep in remembrance the unity of Mind, the unity of the Spirit, the oneness of purpose, of interest, which is the basis of brotherhood, and which binds all God’s children together in strong and indestructible bonds of fellowship in Truth and Love.

“Let us not therefore judge one another anymore: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.”