The examiner., 1886-03-13

| joices, the others rejoice with it.; if one is I in sorrow, the others must sorrow with 1t This is just as true of humanity as it is oi the individual. Suppose man in partial 1 of his own organism. Suppose, by some
 mental confusion, he should regard his foot
 as separate from himself, and let this foot
 be in severe pain He would not regard il l as part of himself, of his own body; yet, | without so regarding it, he would feel the pain, he would suffer. Every one of the | evils of the world under which we are suf- 1 fering springs out of the fact that we are I linked together perforce, whether we will or not. And, whether it is the foot, some tribe in South Africa, or the hand in Eng land, or the eye in Germany, or whatever organ it may be, that is diseased, disorgan- ized, and therefore in pain, we must suffer with it. Even if we do not locate the pain, even if we do not think of the troubles that aff1ict us as having anything to do with those far-Qff causes, that does not make it any less asEaet This world is an organism; and it is 4hterly impossible for any one to attain comFEete perfection and happiness. He who is capable of going off by himself, and having his little selfish enjoyment all alone, shows that he is only half a man, in the first place; and then he loses thous- ! and-fo more happiness that might come to him sympathetically, as the echo of the | joy of the world, than all that he thus self l ishly gains. So, whether you try or not, through selfshness or any other motive, to ignore this fact, to outwit this law, you will only fool yourself. The world is an or ganism; and we need to learn the fact, and to get over our prejudices, our misconcep- tions, our stupid ignorance in regard to the welfare of other people as related to our own welfare We need to learn that, wherever there is health, prosperity, any where round the world, there is our health and our prosperity in all literalness.
 Suppose the wheat crop utterly fails throughout Europe. Our farmers straight way rejoice, and think they are all going to get rich. But they forget that that which makes Europe poor makes it at the same time unable to buy. And if, per- force, they are compelled to buy wheat at any sacrifice, in order that they may live, they are just in so far iacapacitated for buying anything else; and so the markets of the world must suffer-. And while this may temporarily help the farmer, it at the same time cripples him indirectly, because the farmers prosperity is bound up with the pl osperity of his neighbors, with the cattle dealer, with the manufacturer, with all classes of industry. If Europe, in the markets of the world, is unable to buy their products, then his neighbors suffer; and the farmer suffers with them, in spite of himself. You might just as well suppose that you could be in mid-ocean when ths tide begins to fall, and keep your ship up while all the other ships fall with the tide. Your interests physical, mental, spiritual -are linked together; and you must go up or down together.
 We need, then, to study this problem, until we understand it. We need to re enforce all those influences which tend to break down these barriers of the world. We need to help the sense of a common humanity.
 Now, wish to trace few of the things that have tended to break down these bar riers. In the ancient world there was time when war was one of the great civiiiz- CTS. When people came into conflict with each other, they learned to recognize the fact of common humanity; and, by this process, nations were bound together. The conquests of Alexander and of Rome tended to develop, as nothing else, perhaps, in the ancient world, this sense of the community of nations, the brotherhood of races, for the reason that they brought people face to face with each other and dispelled their old illusions. They had the most gross and crude misconceptions concerning other peo pie. They believed that there was race of men who carried their heads under their arms; that there was a race of pygmies; one of giants, whose heads almost touched
 
 azonss in race of centaurs, and in all manner of monstrosities until they thus met each other in conflict
 Another thing was instrumental in break ing down these barriers; and that was commerce. Commerce has done more, perhaps, to develop sense of community than even instituted and organized relig- ions themselves. This is not an irreligious statement; for commerce, if it be rightly E taA lo &I, and principles of that which is divine, and therefore is, whether it thinks of it or not, part of the religious life and development of the world. People began to trade with each other, sending their ships down the rivers, then across narrow inlets, and at last trusting themselves upon the sea; they founded colonies. as did the ancient Phosni- clans; and thus nations learned to know each other. Then came the great mission ary religions of the world ,-another influ- ence that tended to break down these bar riers. The older religions, as have said, were not only not missionary religions, but were antagonistic to the very idea. But there sprang up, about the sixth century before Christ, the first great missionary re- ligion of the world the Buddhist. Be. ieving that they had found the truth, that they were right, they felt it incumbent on them to preach their doctrines of human salvation to all the world. And they did it so successfully that to-day that body has more followers than any other name under heaven.
 Then came Christianity, and then Islam ism; and now the world is full of these missionary enterprises And, however out of sympathy I may be with the feeling that prompts many of them,-the feeling that everybody who is not converted to the par ticular faith preached is going to be lost,- still I believe that they are doing great work in civilizing the world, by coming face to face with these other peoples and religions, and so leading to mutual ac- quaintance.
 Then there was the growth of modern science coincident with the discoveries of modern tlmes,-the sailing of Columbus, the finding of new continent. What has all this done2 It has fired men with de- sire to explore the world, in order to dis cover the physical facts of the planet. It has developed the science of comparative religion. It has discovered widely-sun- dered tribes in different parts of the world that tell themselves the same fairy stories. They have learned that this humanity must have come from some common human centre, that there is kinship of nations and of religions. We have found that all the great Aryan races can trace themselves back to one centre, one common home. All these things have helped develop the sense of the community of the world.