Editorial October 6, 1923 Issue

"My brother's keeper"

Albert F. Gilmore

From that distant day when Cain, in an effort to hide his crime, asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?" the question of men's responsibility for one another's welfare has recurred with an insistence that would not be denied. To determine one's obligation as to the welfare of his fellow-man has been and still is a pertinent problem, which can be solved only in accordance with the Nazarene's precepts, as elucidated and applied through the teachings of Christian Science. It involves the relationship of individuals, one with another, as well as the problem of national relationships. Christ Jesus made no difficulty of the situation. "Love one another," even your "enemies," was his direct and insistent admonition. Surely, to love one another is something more than to declare affection; it is the exemplification of that affection through practical application of it, thereby proving its genuineness.

The familiar Biblical story of the good Samaritan is highly pertinent. A priest and a Levite went by the wounded man "on the other side;" but the Samaritan's heart was touched. He responded to a sense of brotherly love and accepted responsibility, which prompted him to look to the needs of the stricken one and to meet them in the spirit of compassion and true brotherliness. The fact that the parables of Christ Jesus and his associates appear to relate to a definite period in no degree impairs the importance of their lesson. Is not the same necessity to be benevolent and kind incumbent upon mortals to-day? In what particular has the individual been relieved of his responsibility?

Christian Science answers these questions directly and practically. It points out that the student of this teaching is in duty bound to deny and correct the false beliefs with which mankind seems to be beset, whenever confronted by them. On page 452 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says, "When error confronts you, withhold not the rebuke or the explanation which destroys error." Here, then, is a definite rule to govern the action of Christian Scientists, whenever confronted by a claim of error or evil manifested in whatever type of discord. To know the truth about any apparent inharmony, to deny every vestige of error's claim to reality,—is not that the very essence of true humaneness? Is it not performing the most valuable service that one mortal may render another? The rebuke, however, is not administered to a person, but to a belief.

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