Joshua 22:16

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"What trespass is this that ye have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following the Lord, in that ye have builded you an altar, that ye might rebel this day against the Lord?" Jos 22:16

The children of Israel are here represented as coming unto the children of Reuben and to the children of Gad and to the half tribe of Manasseh, and challenging them respecting a certain action. Here is a great principle, the application of which is world-wide and time-wide: the principle is that men have a right to inquire into the trespasses committed by one another. There is no right of trespass; there is no chartered sin. Men are the keepers of one another, and ought to be severely critical as to the moral atmosphere which any man or number of men may create. It is worse than a fallacy to suppose that a man has a right to do even with himself as he pleases. There is a sense in which there is no mere "self" to be dealt with. In a sense, every man is a part of some other man, or part of the body corporate. There is no isolation in any sense that limits evil action. Even an infamous example may be doing untold mischief in society, though the man himself may be taking no direct or energetic part in the propagation of evil. Every householder has a right to inquire into the nuisances created by adjoining householders. No man has a right to vitiate the common air; it belongs to all the people, and they have a right to protect its purity, or to avenge any violation of its healthfulness. This principle is not sufficiently recognised; hence men are told to mind their own business and to let other people alone. The merit of this speech consists entirely in its brevity, for it is wholly without wit, sense, charity, or beneficence. The mother has a right to inquire into the nature of every road along which her child travels day by day. The parent is called upon to inquire into the character of the school in which he may place his child. He who detects any noisomeness in the air has a right to follow that noisomeness to its origin, if he possibly can, though in doing so he may have to trample down hedges and boundaries and land-marks. The public health is of more consequence than the temporary integrity of mechanical boundaries. If we had more challenging of one another in this matter of trespass, we should have a healthier state of society. The time will come when men will not only be anxious about nuisances that vitiate the air or throw disquietness into the social life; they will be still more anxious about thoughts that unbalance the mind, ambitions that fever the soul, and speculations that destroy the serenity and peace of the heart and mind. It is in vain to preach a doctrine of brotherhood or commonwealth, and yet to desist from the exercise of those rights which belong to community and fellowship. To preach that all the world is a brotherhood, and then to act as if every man had a right to do as he pleased, is simply to contradict preaching by practice. When man asks, Am I my brother's keeper? the answer should be a grand and solemn affirmation.