Article May 11, 1957 Issue

"AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?"

ROBERT TSCHAEGLE

Cain's defensive question (Gen. 4:9), "Am I my brother's keeper?" is the baleful protest of desperate humanity. The carnal mind, or mortal mind, of which Cain is the type, cannot know anything about brotherhood. Mortal mind cannot know anything, because it is outside Truth's omniscience. Since God never made mortal mind, it can only seem to be, can only suggest its limiting fables and justifications through material belief. Christian Science uncovers the false claims of material belief through the light of Truth. It shows us who our brother is and enables us to respond, "Yes, I am my brother's keeper."

But how are we to keep our brother? The parable of the good Samaritan brings out the lesson that a fellow being, whatever his race or creed, is entitled to receive, as well as to render, kindness. One of the meanings of "keep" is "to defend." With kindness we can defend our neighbor from the belief in bondage to sin, sickness, and death by seeing him as God made him.

"Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique," Mary Baker Eddy declares in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 475). Striving to understand and demonstrate this teaching, the Scientist attains an ever clearer realization of the non-physicality of himself and his brother. The challenge of daily living becomes joyous and full of promise as he refutes every claim that life and intelligence have a material basis.

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"FEAR THOU NOT"
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