p. 6 | RESTORING THE KINSHIP

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 10, 1904

RESTORING THE KINSHIP.

THE Gospel of Christ has brought in the principle of brotherhood between persons who are not children of the same father and mother. Sin made enemies of brothers; Christ makes brothers of those who had been enemies. Where Satan put hatred even of brother against brother, Christ has put that feeling of brotherly love which reaches out far beyond the mere circle of the household, and grasps the hand of persons of every nation without regard to color, creed, or caste.

The first feeling of the natural heart toward a person of another nationality is to set up a wall of repulsion, especially if the outward appearance of that person is unlike that with which we are familiar, and the language which he speaks is different from our own. It is that feeling that prompts the Chinaman at home to denominate all foreigners “foreign devils.” It is that same spirit which prompts the unconverted in America or England, or any other country, to look down upon or torment or abuse a Chinaman or a foreigner of any other nationality. The truly converted man or woman will never engage in “amusement” of that order. The considerate regard for men, without regard to race or nationality, is one of the characteristics of Christianity. Christ brought the Gospel that brought men back into brotherhood with one another, and back to the acknowledgment of the Fatherhood of God. That united again the disrupted family, insofar as men were willing to reunite the severed ties—but only that far. The unwilling brother can not be forced back into harmonious family relation. He remains outside because he chooses so to do. He is still a member of the family, still under the same fatherhood; but still a prodigal, unwilling to return to the forsaken homestead. Persistence in that course disinherits him in the end; but the faithful brother never ceases to watch and pray for his return. If he does return, he becomes more of a brother only in that he acknowledges the brotherhood and the fatherhood, and brings himself into harmonious relations with the brothers and the sisters and the Father whom he had disowned. He brings in loyalty instead of disloyalty; love and interest instead of hatred and indifference.

As soon as he has come into full fellowship with the family of God, he begins to realize that he has other brothers and sisters who are astray on the bramble-grown moors of sin, or who, with calloused hearts, are wandering in dangerous ways of their own choosing, which must end on the dark precipice of eternal ruin. Then he begins to realize something of the burden of heart which others had felt for him while he was disowning those who were seeking after him in love. That true brotherly feeling takes possession of his heart, and the burden for souls rests upon him. Then he becomes a seeker instead of a wanderer, an advocate for God instead of a recruiting officer for the army of the evil one. The heat of the desert will then be nothing to him, if only he may find the wandering footprints of his brother there. The beasts of the forest, the fevers of the jungle, the terrors of wild men, will not deter him from following, even there, the path which the feet of his unreconciled brother have taken; and out of all such inhospitable places the searchers in God’s family are to-day seeking out—are finding—the brothers and sisters that are straying there, disheartened, bewildered, lost beyond any power of their own to find their way again. “Into all the world” the Head of the family is urging His children to go in search of the prodigal members of the household. It is a glorious work, an imperative work. The business is very urgent. When our neighbor’s son or daughter is lost in the woods, the whole neighborhood is intensely in earnest, and no time is lost in searching the hills and valleys till the lost one is found. We have brothers and sisters that are as truly and much more dangerously lost, who must eternally perish, unless some one shall go to the rescue. God is calling for such service. The time for rescue is short. Who will say: “Here am I, Lord, send me”? Have you found Christ? There are millions who have not found Him. You can help.