Our Brother's Keeper

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Jul 24, 1913

Our Brother's Keeper

WE shall find, even though we may find it out too late, as did Cain, that we are indeed our brother's keeper. The influence which goes forth from us affects for good or ill the lives of our fellows. We must meet at last not only what we have done, but the fruit which our doing has borne. Speaking of the influence which his daring achievements had upon young men, and the regret which he felt for this, Lincoly Beachey, the aviator, as quoted by the Northwestern Christian Advocate of April 23, says:—

I have defied death at every opportunity in the last two years. I have been a bad influence, and the death of a number of young aviators in this country can be traced, I believe, to a desire to emulate me in my foolishly daring exploits in the air. I have made a fortune in a little more than two years. I won the American altitude record here. This was the flight that earned for me a reputation for recklessness. I soared into the sky as far as my fuel would carry me; then, without gasoline, I volplaned to the earth a distance of more than 11,000 feet. There was nothing remarkable about this, but it gave me something I would give all I have made to lose—a reputation for supreme daring. This is the reputation others have tried to gain, and their ambition has cost them their lives.

How many besides Mr. Beachey will meet sometime the record of their lives and would give all that they possess if that record could be changed? We pass this way but once. Let us live today as we shall wish we had lived when we look back from the heights of coming experience.