A little while ago we learned from the birds the sweet lesson that we are all living in “the Father’s house,” and that our loving Heavenly Father is watching over all His children. He knows just what things we each have need of, and supplies them.

But if we are all the children of one Father, what must we be to each other? Jesus answers this question for us in these words: “All ye are brethren.” You know that all the children of one rather are brothers and sisters, no matter where they may live.

If your little sister should go away from home for a time, to live in a warm country, where the hot sun would make her cheeks very brown, you would not think, would you, that because of her changed appearance she did not belong to the family any longer?

Or suppose your father and mother were to travel into another country, where a little brother should be born to you who in that strange land should learn to speak another language instead of English. You know that he would be your brother just the same; you would love him and look forward to seeing him as much as though you could understand every word he said.

Yet those are the things that separate the members of the great human family one from another. In the beginning they were much alike, and all were “of one language and one speech.” But as the family has grown large, and spread out into all parts of the earth, the different climate and surroundings in the different parts of the earth have very much changed the outward appearance and the habits and customs of the people.

And besides this there are now hundreds of different languages instead of one, so that the different branches of the family cannot understand each other’s speech, and the distance between us makes us strangers to each other.

Yet the words of Jesus are still true, “All ye are brethren.” For God “hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” The blood is the life. There is one life in all, the life of the Father in whom we all “live, and move, and have our being.”

If you could see some of your dark-skinned little brothers and sisters from “India’s coral strand,” or the little Japanese children like those in the picture (see PDF for picture), they would look very strange to you, no doubt, and you would not be able to talk together. But if you could look, as God does, underneath the outward appearance, and we into their minds and hearts, you would be surprised to find how very much alike you all are, after all, and that this great difference is only on the outside.

One of Solomon’s wise proverbs says: “As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.” That is, we are all so much alike that what we see in others is just our own reflection, as you see your own face when you look into a mirror.

It is a good thing to remember this always; especially when we see in others some things that we do not admire, that make us perhaps inclined to despise them in our hearts. Remember then that you are but looking into a mirror which shows you yourself; and all the bad things that you see in others are hidden in your own heart, even though you yourself may know nothing about them.

But do you know, dear children, that many of your dear little brothers and sisters in other lands—yes, and even in this land, some perhaps living right in your neighbourhood—do not know anything about their loving Heavenly Father, who made them and keeps them alive?

They do not know about the Father’s house and the beautiful mansions that Jesus is getting ready for all who love Him. They have never read “the sweet story of old,” of the loving Saviour who called little children to Him. You some times sing:

“But thousands and thousands who wander and fall,
Never heard of that beautiful home;
I should like them to know there is room for them all,
And that Jesus has bid them to come.

I long for the joy of that glorious time,
The sweetest, the brightest, the best,
When the dear little children of every clime
Shall crowd to His arms and be blest.”

Then will you not begin at once to be a little missionary, to tell to these who do not know this loving Saviour what you know of Him? Every child can do this. You can also think of and pray for the thousands of other lands that you cannot reach in any other way, and give your pennies to help those who are able to go to them with the “good tidings.”

In this way you can help to hasten on the time when many shall come from “the East and the West, the North and the South,” and all sit down together at the Father’s table.

Then God will make “all things new,” and these old differences that separate us will disappear. To each of His children the Father will give “a new name,” and a new garment, the beauty of Christ’s own righteousness, so that we shall all be dressed in the same style.

We shall speak “with new tongues,” a pure language that all can understand. Then the little children from Japan, China, Africa, India, England, and every other land can all talk and play together without any difficulty. And we can all, from all nations, kindreds, peoples, and tongues, sing together “the new song” of praise to Him “who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.”

The Present Truth – May 17, 1900
E. J. Waggoner

Ye Are Brethren