A great deal is written and said nowadays about the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. These two phrases, so often upon the lips of religionists and thinking people, when rightly understood, are full of beauty and power, but misinterpreted, they drift easily into vain repetition and meaningless cant. In the eternal reality of our being we are all members of God's household, — His children, constituting one unbroken family, created and sustained by the one Father-Mother, God. Such being the eternal reality, it is the true statement now, and is made manifest in proportion as the real nature of God and man appears. A knowledge of the Truth of being in Divine Science discloses the true sense of the fatherhood of God, and so leads to a right apprehension of the brotherhood of man, and of our real relations and obligations to each other. (See Science and Health, pp. 572, 444, 541.)
The false sense of man, physical and material, is the Cain thought that slays the innocent brother, and then, when asked to give an account of its victim, denies all knowledge of him and indignantly asks: "Am I my brother's keeper?" There is a large element of self-justification, as well as deception, in the question. It is as though we were to say, Man has no duties, no obligations to his brother man, which he is bound to fulfil. Let us see if this is true.
In explaining the scientific relation of the members of God's family to each other, our text-book shows the necessity for knowing the Father, Spirit, before the duties and obligations of brotherhood can be properly understood and fulfilled, and, at the same time, it insists that none can be truly blessed who do not recognize and fulfil these obligations to the full extent of their understanding of the truth. (Science and Health, p. 518.) This is an advanced interpretation of the teaching of the prophet of old, who said, "Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the Covenant of our fathers?" The Covenant established with the fathers was predicted to remain in force to a thousand generations, that is,—forever. By its provisions they were to possess and enjoy the Land of Promise, on condition of their continued faithfulness and obedience.
