They were, in the highest sense,
Christians--not technically bound to creeds, but their hearts and
intellects were filled to overflowing with the good precepts that are
proclaimed as the foundation, aside from technical beliefs, of the
Christian doctrine; to love their neighbors as themselves; to do good
to all; to seek first righteousness in life; to uphold honesty and
honest dealing in _all_ earthly relations; to do unto others as we
would they should do unto us; to teach honor to parents; to make all
men love one another; to inspire a trust in God as a provident Father
who stands ready to reconcile all conflicts, with the way open and
plain for us, thus doing away with infidelity, unbelief, narrowness of
mind and spirit.
The doctrine they taught above all others was the _solidarity of the
race_. This was ever repeated. It was their religion that the human
race was one creation, bound together by indissoluble ties, links
stronger than iron and unbreakable. It was one body. It should be of
one heart, one brain, one purpose. Whenever one of its members suffered
all suffered. When there was a criminal all had part in his crime; when
there was a debauchee, all partook in his debasement; when there was
one diseased all were affected by it; when one was poor, all bore some
of the sting of his poverty.
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