7. The mere custom among rich men of addressing some people with familiarity and others with respect, of saluting some with a handshake and withholding their hand from others, of inviting some into their reception room and receiving others in the anteroom, shows how far they are from a recognition of the equality of all people.
8. But for the superstition of inequality men could never commit all those misdeeds which they have been in the habit of committing and still unceasingly commit simply because they will not admit all men to be equal.
II. Excuses for Inequali^
1. Nothing lends such a degree of assurance in the commission of evil acts as association, that is the combining of a few people who have separated themselves from the rest into a social group.
2. The blame for the inequality of people rests not so much on those who aggrandize themselves as upon those who admit their own inferiority before men who aggrandize themselves.
3. We marve! at the remoteness of what is now termed Christianity from the preaching of Jesus, and at the remoteness of our life from Christianity, Could it be otherwise with a doctrine teaching people true equality, teaching that all men are the sons of God, that all men are brethren, that the life of al! is equally sacred,—teaching this in the midst of people who believe that God divides men into masters and slaves, believers and unbelievers, rich and poor. Men accepting the teaching of Christ under these conditions could do only one of two things: either change their entire order of life completely, or corrupt the doctrine. They have chosen the latter.
III. All Men are Brethren
1. It is foolish for one man to count himself better than others; it is still more foolish for a whole nation to count itself better than others. Yet every nation, the majority of people in every nation, lives in this dreadful, absurd and harmful superstition.
2. A Jew, a Greek, a Roman might well defend the independence of his own nation by killing, and seek by
killing also to subjugate other nations, firmly convinced, as each of them was, that his was the one true, good, God-loved nation, while the others were Philistines or barbarians. The people in the Middle Ages could hold similar beliefs, or even recently, at the end of the last century. But we can no longer believe it.
3. The man who understands the meaning and the purpose of life can not but feel his equality and brotherhood with men not only of his own, but of all nations.
4. Every man, before he is an Austrian, a Serb, a Turk or a Chinaman, is a man, that is a rational loving being, whose calling is to fulfill his purpose as man in the short span of time allotted to him in this World. And this purpose is one and г very definite one; to love all people.
5. A child meets another child, irrespective of class, faith and nationality, with the same friendly smile expressive of gladness. But an adult, who ought to be more sensible than a child, before meeting a man wonders to what class, faith or nationality he belongs, and adjusts his attitude towards him in accordance with his class, faith or nationality. No wonder Christ said: "be ye even as little children."
6. Christ revealed to people that the division between your own and foreign nations is a delusion and an evil. And realizing this a Christian cannot harbor feelings of ill will towards foreign nations, nor can he as formerly, excuse cruel acts against foreign nations with the plea tli^t other nations are worse than his. The Christian can not help knowing that this distinction between his and other nations is an evil, that this distinction is an error, and therefore he can no longer, as formerly, consciously serve this error.
The Christian can not but know that his happiness
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THE PATHWAY OF LIFE 203
is interwoven not only with the happiness of his own nation, but with that of all the people in the world. He knows that his union with all the people in the world cannot be interrupted by frontier lines or proclamations about belonging to this or that nation. He knows that all people everywhere are brothers and therefore equal.
IV.
All Men are Equal
1. Equality is the recognition that all the people in the world have the equal right to enjoy all the natural blessings of the world, equal right to the blessings proceeding from social life, and equal right to the respect of their human personality.
2. The law of the equality of men embraces all moral laws; it is the point which no laws can reach, but which all of them strive to approach. E. Carpenter,
3. The real "I" of a man is spiritual. And this *T' is the same in all. How then can men be unequal ?
4. "Then came to him his Mother and his brethren, and could not come at him for the press.
And it was told him by certain, which said. Thy Mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee.
And he answered and said unto them, My Mother and my brethren are these which hear the world of God and do it." The words of Jesus mean that a rational man, realizing his calling, can not make distinctions between people nor recognize the superiority of any set of people to other people.
5. The sons of Zebedee sought to be as wise as Jesus Christ. He said to them: Why do you need this? You can live and be born again of the Spirit even as I; there-
fore if you seek to be as I am, you do so to become greater than others. But according to my teaching there are no great or small, no important or unimportant. Rulers who have dominion over people, require to be greater and more important than other people, but you have no need of this, because according to my teaching it is better for man to be less than others, rather than greater than others. According to my teaching he who is least is the greatest. According to my teaching, you must be the servant of all.
6. No one as well as the children carries out in life the true idea of equality. And how criminally wicked are their elders when they violate this sacred feeling of childhood, teaching them that there are on the one hand prominent men, wealthy men and celebrities who must be treated with deference, and on the other, servants, laborers and beggars who must be treated patronizingly. "He who shall offend one of these little ones. ..."
7. We are occasionally dissatisfied with life because we do not seek blessings there where they are granted us.
Therein is the cause of all errors. We have been granted the peerless gift of life with all its joys. And we say: the joys are too few. We are given the supreme joy of life—association with the people of the whole world, and we say: I want a peculiar blessing all to myself, to my family, to my nation.
8. Be a man of our day ever so well educated or learned, or be he a common laborer, be he a philosopher, a scientist, or be he an ignoramus, and be he rich or poor—every man in this present age knows that all people have an equal right to life and to the blessings of the world, that one set of people is no worse and no better than another, that all men are equal. Yet every man lives as though he did not know this.
So powerful is the delusion of the inequality of men which still persists in the world.
V. Why are АП Men Equal?
1. No matter what the people are, no matter what their fathers and grandfathers were, they are al! alike as two drops of water, because in them all dwells the spirit of God.
2. Only he who does not know that G6d dwells in him can count some men more important than others.
3. When a man loves some people above others, he loves with a human love. Before the love of God all men are equal.
4. The identical feeling of adoration which we experience at the sight of a human creature either newly born or passed into the Beyond, irrespective of the class to which it belongs, demonstrates to us our innate consciousness of the equality of men.
5. "Be careful in attempting to strike at the devil in man, lest you hit God within him." This means that while we criticize a man we must not forget that the spirit of God dwells within him.