A Ballad of Brotherhood – Sunday, July 29, 1984
One of the most persistent poetic themes is the “Brotherhood of Man,” the responsibility we have to love one another. The result of that love is beautifully expressed by the English romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, in the hymn we have just heard love results in affection that endures, affection that lives after us in the objects of our love.
Indeed, the result of brotherhood and sisterhood is neither temporal nor temporary; it is eternal in both its joy and its power.
Nor is such love merely a poetic convention, but a scriptural truth. The Savior taught us to “love one another,” even as He loves us.1 He called this a “new commandment,” not because love is new, but because Christian love is all encompassing.2 No longer are we able to love them that love us and hate them that hate us. As Christians, the responsibility of our faith is to recognize the common ancestry of all mankind, the brotherhood that binds us all.
True, we come from separate cultures. We have unique customs and traditions. The shape of our eyes may vary, and the color of our skins. But beneath these variations beats a common soul, a bonding more significant and eternal than any apparent separation. We are, in fact, brothers and sisters, and it is our responsibility to love one another.
The Savior made no exception to this exhortation. As God made us all, He made us all to be His children. And we cannot be His children without accepting those brothers and sisters whom He gave us to love. This is the “Brotherhood of Man,” and it is through this bonding love that we discover the Fatherhood of God and His love for us all.
Roses die, but their fragrance endures. Voices fade, but music continues. And each of us one day shall return to Him who gave us life, as surely as the family of which our love is a part shall live forever.
1 New Testament, John 13:34.
2 lbid.
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July 29, 1984
Broadcast Number 2,867