“ARE WE NOT ALL BROTHERS AND SISTERS?”

BY REV.  W.R.G.  MELLEN.

That the human race is one, bound together by the strongest and holiest ties, is one of the sublimest truths announced by the Master.  Indeed, so close and intimate is the connection subsisting between the various members of the common family, that to tear one from the body would be like following the direction of Solomon to his servant, and dividing the living child in two, leaving life’s purple current to spout forth from either half.  An appreciation of this truth is what the world, heart-sick and weary as it is, now needs above all things else.  And to illustrate and enforce the fact that it is not a vain shadow, but a solid reality, too solemn to be trifled with, and too important to be neglected,—­to illustrate this by deeds which bear joy to the joyless and hope to the hopeless,—­is the work which Christians, the young as well as old, are now called to perform.  Will it need the voice of duty, which speaketh as from the skies?  This is the great truth, also, which, with all its relations to life and duty, is to be impressed by the present, upon the minds of the rising, generation.  This is what my young readers are to learn,—­and not simply to learn, but to practise:—­that we are all brothers and sisters, no matter in what clime or country we may have been born, or with what complexion we may be clothed.

A little girl, some five years of age, whom the writer of this has often fondled in his arms, had well learned this most important lesson.  By pious parents and earnest Sabbath school teachers had she been taught, that to be like Jesus, who took little children in his arms and blessed them, she must love and do good unto all, as brothers and sisters.  This had sunk deep into her young and tender mind; and when, on a visit at the house of a friend, she was asked that familiar question, which is so often put to children,—­whom she loved,—­

After a moment’s hesitation she replied, that she loved everybody.  “Indeed!” said the querist; “how can that be?  You certainly do not love me as well as you do your own brothers and sisters; do you?”

After another short pause she replied, “Yes, I think I do; for you, too, are my sister.” “I your sister?” said the lady, in surprise; “how can that be possible?” Looking up with a countenance in which all heaven’s innocence and purity were mirrored, she exclaimed, “Is not God our Father? and are we not all brothers and sisters? and should we not love each other as such?”

There was no further argument to be used.  Though hid from many wise and prudent, yet the truth was thus revealed to babes.

Yes, we are all brethren and sisters, having a common origin, a common destination, and a common home.  And may all those children who read this short article ever recollect this important truth.  When you behold a poor, unfortunate man, with torn and filthy garments, and perhaps intoxicated, reeling through the streets, do not hoot after, and throw stones at him, as I have known many boys do, but think within yourselves, “He is our brother.”