Great Utterances on the Brotherhood of Man Mr. Nolan R. Best, Editorial in The Continent, Oct. 13, 1921: Science offers no license for holding in contempt any man on earth. With your advantages he might easily be you. This reminder religion reinforces doubly and triply. God made the black man and the yellow man as well as the white man. And if the white man has enjoyed more · of the good things of the common earth that their Creator gave to them all, that blessing confers neither ground nor right to boast himself above others. Instead, by the very central presumptions of the mission of Christ and the message of the apostles, it makes the white man "debtor both to the Greek and to the barbarian," bound to aid and bless all humanity out of his abundance-with loans of his strength. The translation of this obligation into deeds of mercy and encouragement is among the most immense Christian duties of today. But no part of the translation can be in "raca” and "moreh" (Matt. 5:21). If ever you are tempted to speak contemptuously to any human being, remember the hell of fire-and bite your tongue. Charles Coke Woods, in Central Christian Advocate: If I can stand when all around my post are falling, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, in poem on "Titanic" wreck: The old world jogs along, Our little colored flags we vaunt, And jealousy, and greed and pride And this round lovely world divide 146 Sound from the tower of time, Then consciousness of brotherhood No swarming insects of the night Self fades before love's radiant light, Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., address to U. S. Chamber of Commerce, 1918: Is it not true that any industry, to be permanently successful, must insure to labor adequately remunerative employment under proper working and living conditions, to capital a fair return upon the money invested, and to the community a useful service? It is frequently maintained that the parties to industry must necessarily be hostile and antagonistic. I am convinced that the opposite is true; that they are not enemies but partners, and that they have a common interest. Moreover, success cannot be brought about through the assumption by any one party of a position of dominance and arbitrary control; rather it is dependent upon the co-operation of all four. Partnership, not enmity, is the watchword. Rev. George A. Gordon, D.D., Old South Church, Boston, 1921: A league of the more powerful nations in favor of peace would make disarmament, up to a certain considerable extent, safe and practicable. But the only sure preventive of war is a revolution in the mind of the world; that instead of an enemy, man is to be regarded and treated as a friend. In the strength of this Christian idea, we sing: "It's comin' yet for a' that, That man to man the world o'er VIII. THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN Patriotism is not the largest love of which the human heart is capable. Indeed, the most beautiful definition of patriotism is, that it is love for mankind. manifesting itself especially towards those who are nearest to us. Patriotism is the Amazon's mouth, passing into the ocean, which reaches out helpfully to all shores. There is neither East nor West, Border nor Breed nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends of the earth. Kipling. For Mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along, Round the earth's electric circle, the swift flash of right and wrong; Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity's vast frame Through its ocean-sundered fibers feels the gush of joy or shame; In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal from the ends of the earth. - Lowell. There is a counterfeit patriotism called "jingoism," which has no such outlet. It is a blind alley. Richelieu is represented as saying. "Beyond the map of France, my heart can travel not." What if Jesus Christ had said: "Beyond the map of Palestine my heart can travel not; Jesus for the Jews." If he had said that, we should never have heard that there was a Jesus Christ. He would have been forgotten, like the anonymous Scribes and Pharisees who loved their own country in a way, but hated everybody else, and have been hated by every body else. We never think of Jesus as a Jew. "Behold the man" the international, uninational man. And if you think more of Jesus because he was not only the greatest of Jews, but most of all, a man, be yourself not merely an American, a Frenchman, a German, a Briton, but most of all a man-a brother and friend of every man, and especially of every boy and girl the world over, black and white and red and brown and yellow-ready to help in clearing from their path every hindrance to their right development. Whatever any one thinks about the future condition of heathen souls, the present sufferings of their bodies and minds from quackery and superstitious fears put the emphasis where Jesus puts it, on their "lost" condition in this world. “The Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost." The children of pagan lands, who, as travelers have noted, seldom smile, and even more seldom play-in most of whose countries toy shops are unknown -are "lost" now. They have "lost" the heaven below of a happy childhood, and they will grow up to lose the peace of a true home, and the crowning joy of true liberty unless Christianity displaces their religions of superstitious fear, as day displaces night. Snags in Brotherhood in Our Own Land In our own country there have been of late five social hindrances to brotherhood. One of these is industrial strife, which is considered elsewhere.1 Another is the Japanese issue, which in 1922 became less acute than it had been for many years, partly through decisions of California courts setting aside unjust State 1 See "Labor" in Alphabetical Index. laws intended to cripple Japanese industry in that State; partly because the Washington Arms and Far East Conference had in that year made treaties which, if ratified, would make a war in the Pacific Ocean almost impossible; partly also because the smuggling of tons of American morphia into China through Japan, which had created great indignation in the United States against Japan, had been nearly if not quite terminated. This should not be taken to imply that Japan's adoption of the worst faults of "Christian nations" in dealing with weak national neighbors had also been terminated.2 The Negro issue was also greatly eased of the strain that had shown in race riots both in Washington, D. C., and Chicago by the brave statesmanship of President Harding when he devoted nearly all of his first formal speech in the South as President, at the Semi-Centennial of Birmingham, Alabama, October 26, 1921, to a straightforward discussion of the Negro question. The following is the Associated Press summary in part: The right of the American Negro to broader political, economic and educational advantages, based on a pride of race, but never on an aspiration of social equality, was championed by President Harding here to-day in a plainly worded enunciation of his views on the whole American race problem. These are some of the principles on which the President appealed to the nation to "lay aside old prejudices and old antagonisms," and give support to a constructive policy of racial relationship. "Politically and economically there need be no occasion for great and permanent differentiation, provided on both sides there shall be recognition of the absolute divergence in things social and racial." 2 One can always get the latest word about conciliation in cases of Japan versus China, and Japan versus United States, by writing for latest Oriental bulletins to Federal Council of Churches, 105 E. 22nd Street, New Yory City. |