ALTHOUGH many deny it, an underlying sense of brotherhood is usually to be found, in some measure at least, between all individuals and in all communities. Persons who have professed dislike for one another, under circumstances in which friction and disagreement have appeared dominant, will in a time of stress and urgent need be found ready to help one another; and not alone to give a helping hand, but to share their substance. In times of financial loss, of flood or shipwreck, earthquake, famine, or bereavement, there will always be found someone, and often many, to come forward with courage, compassion, and consecrated effort, seeking to aid those in need, until the trouble is overcome. And this is done with no thought of self or of reward, but in brotherly love, with a readiness to share the burden, to lift the trouble, with the desire to help and save in so far as this is humanly possible.
Such effort is Christlike. It is, consciously or unconsciously, in accord with the example of the Way-shower, who healed and saved mankind, and who, in his awareness of divine power, saw man as spiritually created, forever in the Father's likeness. Thus he was able to prove the saving omnipresence of God, the Father, who "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Those who recognize the divinity of the Christ will also recognize the spiritual man's oneness with God, who is Life. To see our fellow men thus in the true spiritual light is the first and most important step in helping to eliminate trouble of any kind for ourselves or others.
It is recorded that when Christ Jesus healed the demented boy he "took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose." This might be accepted without further thought as being merely a natural act, common to all compassionate persons. But what was the power which enabled the Master to lift men above the sense of sorrow, sickness, death, despair? As used in the Bible, the word "hand" oftentimes stands for spiritual power. It also implies safety, as when Jesus said of his followers: "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."
