2. We are all concerned in this question. Let us take it as addressed to ourselves individually.
(1) First of all, we may consider the question so far as it relates to all those who are near and dear to us ; all those whose names and faces are familiar to us ; all those who are connected with us by the bonds of kindred or affection ; parents, wife, husband, children, all that inner circle of friends and relations, all whom we acknowledge to have been, in some sense or other, committed by God to our safe keeping and care.
IF Tke family is our ideal of all love and service. Almost all our thoughts of affection and union begin and associate themselves with the family. The home, — the hearth, — the family altar,— the nursery, — the early childhood, — the far-off memories, — the
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sister's tenderness, — the brother's care,— the mother, — the father ; are any words so eloquent to the heart of man? The family is the cradle of love.
II The theme of Christina Rossetti's Gohlin Market is a sister's devotion, and if we want a picture of love in the home it would be difficult to find a more simple or more beautiful one than that of the closing lines of this poem —
Days, weeks, months, years Afterwards, when both were wives With children of their own; Their mother-hearts beset with fears, Their lives bound up in tender lives; Laura would call the little ones And tell them of her early prime, Those pleasant days long gone.
Then joining hands to little hands Would bid them cling together, — "For there is no friend like a sister In calm or stormy weather; To cheer one on the tedious way, To fetch one if one goes astray, To lift one if one totters down, To strengthen whilst one stands."
(2) Responsibility, however, reaches further out than this. Responsibility rests upon us, in some way or other, with regard to every one with whom we are brought into contact : the frienda and acquaintances of our life ; all those with whom we have business relations ; the various members of that circle of society in which we move; our more casual acquaintances; the fellow- travellers we meet on our journeys — there is a responsibility resting upon us with regard to them all. " Where is thy brother ? " Where is he, morally and spiritually, so far as the influence, however slight it may have been, which I have exercised over him goes ? To have laughed at the evil or profane joke ; to have spoken the thoughtless, the foolish, or the angry word ; to have exhibited irritability or impatience — to say nothing of far more grievous stumbKng-blocks than these — must have had some influence over others. Who is there that has not, at some time or other, said and done something the effect of which was evil
134 AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?
on some one else ? — something which tended to deface in the soul of another the image of God ; something which tended to lead that soul into temptation, if not into sin. What marvellous opportunities have been afforded ua in life of helping others to resist temptation, and to stand firm ! How have these oppor- tunities been used ? Have we used them at all ? " Where is thy brother ? " The question is a very searching one.
^ To an Englishman it seems a matter of little or no con- sequence who his neighbours are, and if he be a resident of a city he may occupy a dwelling for a year in ignorance even of the name of the family next door. But in China it is otherwise. If a crime takes place the neighbours are held guilty of something analogous to what English law calls "misprision of treason," in that when they knew of a criminal intention they did not report it. It is vain to reply, "I did not know." You are a " neighbour," and therefore you must have known. In a memorial published in the Peking Gazette a few years ago, the Governor of one of the central provinces reported in regard to a case of parricide that he had had the houses of all the neighbours pulled down, on the ground of their gross dereliction of duty in not exerting a good moral and reformatory influence over the criminal ! Such a proceeding would probably strike an average Chinese as eminently reasonable.^
I thought in my own secret soul, if thus
(By the strong sympathy that knits mankind)
A power untried exists in each of us.
By which a fellow-creature's wavering mind
To good or evil deeds may be inclined;
Shall not an awful questioning be made:
(And we perchance no fitting answer find:)
Whom bast thou sought to rescue or persuade?
Whom roused from sinful sloth? whom comforted, afraid?*
ii. Cain's Answer. •* I know not : am I my brother's keeper ? "
1. The first part of Cain's answer, " I know not," was a lie, as most selfish answers are, and behind the lie was the sin of irresponsibility. And do we not continually betake ourselves to these " refuges of lies " in the bitter hour of remorse, in the dreary