Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1913-01-18
GUARDIANS OF ALL
Writer in the Christian Herald
Gives Answer to the Question,
"Am | My Brothers Keeper!"

WV yHERE shall we find training
NAV school in the business of be-
Wv ing a guardian? On all sides
we are beset with teachers or
personal efficiency who offer sure syn
TENS of self-improvement and for GAM
ing success in the battle of life. The
institution or the instructor who best
can equip the youth to meet competi-
ton, to rise above his fellows, to win
victories over his rivals, is sure OF
eager pupils day and night
The world is rightly grateful to the
successful teacher of personal efii-
cheney; we need more OF 1t in every
branch of business and religious work.
but we need something else with even,
greater urgency. We need more earn.
est attention to the study Of relation
ship and to the business of guarding
the interests of others. Individualism
must be merged into brotherhood. L ,
am my brothers keeper. If | am
faithful to my charge he will advance
with me. If he goes down to defeat.
or to a life of littleness and i'll favor
with God and man, it is partly my
fault.
mo! protest." exclaims the self
made" man and the man whose days
are strenuous with effort to make him
self. 81 want no guardianship, and
deny that it is my business to play
the guardian to any other man. This
is an age for forceful, independent per-
sonality. Every man must fight his
own way and win his own achieve
ments. No one will accept RESPONSE
bility for me if fail. / shall have no
one to thank but myself if | succeed.
l must struggle for every advantage l
gain and | shall snatch it when and
where | can. The other fellow ia do
ing the same thing" Such is the law
of "self-help," a law greatly exalted
by many teachers, but pitiless law.
which, when it operates alone, ere
ates a savage individualism, destroys
fellowship, forces some men up and
many men down, and postpones far :
into an unknown future the era OF
peace on earth, good will to men,"
None Entirely independent.
No one Of us is independent of the
guardianship of our brothers and sis
tiers. If they are faithful to us we
prosper and rejoice. If some one of
them forgets his obligation. immedi-
ately we suffer. The strongest man
in the community, with unquestioned
credit/and large balances in the bank,
may 5e ruined in a day if some hum
BILE brother, careless of the result of
his gossip, spreads a rumor which
Cttd-
den failure when a better sense Of his
responsibility to others would have
kept him silent.
We are guardians of our brothers
reputation as we'll as of his fortune.
Freedom Of speech gives us the right
to express our own views and to
spread our own beliefs; it does not
give us the right to destroy our broth
er's reputation. Why is it that ev-
erywhere we find so many men and
women who unhesitatingly denounce,
the integrity and the motives Of those<
whom they do not know, but who. they :
believe, must be guilty because they
have not submitted incontestible proof
to their unknown detractors that they
are innocent? Is it more popular to-
condemn the absent brother or sister
than it is to praise? Is it more in
teresting? Is it pleasanter? Does it
satisfy some inward lust for destruc-
ton? When our words have stabbed
the absent brother or sister through
and through and left reputation
bleeding and stricken down, can we
go on our way, guiltless and indiffer-
ent, saying, with Cain, Am l my
brothers keeper"
Some cosent Reason.
am my brothers keeper, therefore
l will make myself strong that | may
lend him hand when he is weak;
that | may carry my own burden I'M
falteringly and lift part of his when
he is weary.
am my brothers keeper. therefore
I will cheer him on the way; | will
show him that in storm and darkness
l am unafraid, so that he may be en-
boldened to walk through his own val
ley of shadow with brave heart and
head erect.
| am my brothers keeper, therefore,
I will be true and clean in my lifel
that as his life touches mine he may
not be soiled; that he may find in me
some example and incentive to keep
his own life clean, and his dealings
with men honorable and kind. -
am my brothers keeper. therefore
| will cherish his fame, and never, il
| can help 1t, cast slur upon his mo-
tives or his acts am not his Judge,
| am his brother.
am my brothers keeper, therefore
I will try to solve the problems of
life with view to his welfare, know
ing that in the rightful adjustment of
business, and society, and life in it's
truest expression, my brothers well
fare is my own, and mine is his. When
perplexing questions must be answer
ed by my voice, or my pen, or my