Am I my brother’s keeper? Hymn 16

1 ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ The muttered cry was drowned by Abel’s life-blood shouting in silence from the ground. For no man is an island divided from the main; the bell that tolled for Abel tolled equally for Cain.

2 The ruler called for water and thought his hands were clean. Christ counted less than order, the man than the machine. The crowd cried, ‘Crucify him!’ Their malice wouldn’t budge. So Pilate called for water, and history’s his judge.

John Ferguson 1921- © Stainer & Bell Ltd 3 As long as people hunger, as long as people thirst, and ignorance and illness and warfare do their worst, as long as there’s injustice in any of God’s lands, I am my brother’s keeper: I dare not wash my hands. John Ferguson 1921- © Stainer & Bell Ltd