Article April 30, 1990 Issue

Man's inherent brotherhood

Humanity often feels enclosed by walls and isolated by divisions. But spiritual reformation brings the love that knocks down these walls and unites us.

William A. Gough

One race pitted against another. Developing nations and developed nations in confrontation. East versus West. This world of ours is the scene of many conflicting groups, economies, cultures, languages, and ideologies. Malachi's Biblical cry "Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?"^{Mal. 2:10.} may seem a far-off, Utopian ideal.

Is there any realistic basis on which to expect a more prevalent brotherhood? After all, many of the conflicts we face seem deeply rooted and intractable. The Bible, though, does provide a workable basis when the Science underlying it is understood.

In the Bible we read that God created man in His own likeness, and Christian Science enables us to see in ever-increasing measure that this creation is wholly spiritual, independent of material forms, classes, and boundaries. Speaking of God's spiritual universe, Mrs. Eddy writes, "Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the mental molecule to infinity." She goes on to speak of the nature of this creation and of humanity's failure to recognize it: "Creation is ever appearing, and must ever continue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source. Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas material. Thus misinterpreted, the divine idea seems to fall to the level of a human or material belief, called mortal man."^{Science and Health, pp. 507-508.}