Article August 20, 1904 Issue

Brotherhood

W. W. ROOKS.

Through long centuries of possible development, mortals have been awakening to the larger meaning of brotherhood. The devastation of war and of strife between families and nations has called forth those influences which make for peace and amity. To-day it is the wish of all peoples to have peace. Roads of steel and ocean greyhounds make distant peoples our near neighbors and reveal a community of interests not realized centuries ago. The idea of man's brotherhood must ever expand until all peoples live together in unity and all carnal warfare has ceased.

In Christian Science we discover the fuller significance of brotherhood. Mortal man, conceived in sin and governed by erroneous mortal belief, is not man, but only the counterfeit of the real or spiritual man. The thought of this mortal man is evil and corrupt. He hates and he cheats; he lies and is unjust; he suffers and he dies. His senses testify to evil, accident, and misfortune through his short span of life, which ends in oblivion. Can such a man have a common brotherhood? Brotherhood means unity. Evil, hate, and jealousy separate and destroy. The spiritual man alone can express brotherhood, and he is the only man. Is not brotherhood the expression, through man, of all good? Man as the image and likeness of infinite Life, Truth, and Love is the expression of all. The brotherhood of man points to the unity and expression of all Life, Truth and Love. When a kind act is done to another, or a generous thought entertained, these are but the expressions of ever-present Love.

The belief in many minds or personalities destroys the true sense of brotherhood. This belief is the prolific source of all selfishness and separation. Brotherhood suggests common parentage and common interest. As the real man is never born, but is forever the divine idea, expressing the allness of Mind, so the countless ideas of Mind are the perfect children of infinite Principle, God. As we gain a truer conception of God and man, we rise higher in demonstration of our brotherhood in Truth. Brothers live together in harmony. He who does the will of God is our brother. He who does not the will of God is not our brother, for only as we bring health and harmony into our experience do we realize true brotherhood.

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