76 QUAKER ASPECTS OF TRUTH 



my debts as I forgive my debtors, lead me not into 

 temptation, but deliver me from evih No ! He taught 

 them to say : *' Our Father, which art in heaven, give 

 us our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we forgive our 

 debtors, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from 

 evil ** ; and thus, in prayer. He taught His disciples to 

 recognise the solidarity of all mankind and the universal 

 brotherhood of man* And when we pray, as I fear we 

 oft-times do, for anything in which others cannot share ; 

 when we pray ** give me so and so '^ ; ** God help me ** ; 

 ** God bless me,^' we dishonour Him in Whose Name 

 we pray, by doing violence to the most fundamental 

 characteristic of His teaching. If we must think in 

 terms of / and me and mzne, let us not pray ** God help 

 me,** but rather ** God make me helpful/* Let us not 

 pray *' God bless me,** but rather ** God make me a 

 blessing to others.** 



But how much better it would be, could we carry 

 into practice our Lord*s teaching and think and pray, not 

 in terms of / and me and mme, but rather in terms of 

 we and us and ours. For if our Lord taught anything at 

 all, he taught that mankind is one great family, knit 

 together by the indissoluble bonds of a common 

 humanity ; with common needs, common feelings, 

 common weaknesses, common emotions. That indeed, 

 we are members one of another, and it is impossible for 

 any man to injure another without doing injury to the 

 community as a whole, and to himself as a member of 

 the community. And similarly, it is impossible for 

 any man to benefit another without himself being 

 blessed. 



After the Ascension of their Lord, the Apostolic 

 Church was by no means slow to put into practice this 

 fundamental teaching of the Master. The Church was 

 a communistic society, and students of Early Church 

 History tell us that a sense of brotherhood was one of 



