THE BROTHERHOOD OF LIFE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3618, 17 July 1923, Page 61

THE BROTHERHOOD OF LIFE.

By

Unity.

“Thou slialt speak for those that are dumb.” We are beginning to realise i n this twentieth century the meaning of the words “the brotherhood of man.” Perhaps the t-errible war we have just gone through, and the suffering which all nations have undergone, to a greater or less degree, have been needed to teach us that we are all “members one of another.” We have not yet fully learned that lesson, but the spirit of brotherhood that prompted the League of Nations is a living and growing one. All men have a right to live in peace; all rnen have a right to the joy of life, according as they understand it. It is for the Family of Nations to help one another to realise this. The strong must help the weak, for we are our brothers’ keepers. Yet true brotherhood is greater and wider than the brotherhood of man. ft is the brotherhood of life. Man, of course, is on a higher plane, in that he lias grown in consciousness and power, and is aole much more fully to express himself, but many of his powers are visible, too, in his “little brothers,” as St. Francis d’Assisi used to call the living things among us. They, too, suffer pain and 'ey. and hope and loneliness —but they cannot speak to us in words. We must help our brotherhood to understand this wonderful unity that is found in all variety of life. When he comes to realise that the living creatures that are round us are as we are—-only in a lesser degree —he will treat them with the consideration that fuller understanding brings. To starve and cruelly treat man's everwilling friend and servant, the dog (as, alas! is the case in many country farms), because he cannot voice his wrongs is not the act of an understanding man. To deprive a dog, for many days at a time, of freedom—think what it must mea,n to a wild creature, whose greatest jov is to bound over the wide spaces and follow its loved master ! Cold, wet, hungry, thirsty, over-worked, ill from neglect—is this how we care for our “little brothers?' “Only a dog, von say, and yet God has endowed the doc; with two of His divinest attributes—unchanging constancy and unpurchaseable love. How strange it is that man thinks he is the only one of God s creatures that matters in the scheme of things. Animal life is not called on to justify itself to man; it has as much right here as humanity. Its little life, in its own way, is just as important as ours. The bee was created, not for the purpose of giving man honev, but to work out its destiny in that wonderfully complex, co-operative colony which we call a hive ; the ant can, and does, teach us many things; from the heavers engineers have learned the fundamental principles of bridge building : the birds consruct their nests, perfect in everv detail, to withstand enemies and storms, that their little ones may survive. Every living thing on this earth lias its own niche. .. Man can help his “little brothers by rrfurninr help to them for the help they give to'"him. Especially is this true of our “beasts of burden,’ as we call them. For the service they give to man thev are rewarded in many cases with . Need I say more? Ruskin says: “Unless we are deliberately kind to every creature we are often cruel to manv.” Many of us who would not be guilfcv of an act of great cruelty offend m little ways which cause much suffering. Lack of water or food, improper housing, and want of freedom cause very real suffering to those dumb creatures that are in our care. Let us guard against offending the i-zast of these little ones.” The thought of the brotherhood of life as we realise the mean ing of it more fully must awaken in our hearts a greater interest in all living things—a desire to enter into their lives, and ~ not to use them solely for our “^Mav a we grow in the knowledge which brings understanding, and realise each one of us as far as he. is able this eternal brotherhood of all life. “We cannot sin alone, suffer apart; Because we each live not our best Someone must suffer for the rest, Bor we are one.