HEN the people whom God had selected to be the inheritors of many blessings, and the race through whom the Messiah should come, were gathered in the wilderness of Sinai, he gave them a law by which they should be guided while they remained apart from all the other families of mankind. This law is embraced in what we still recognise as the Ten Commandments. It warns man, as his duty to his neighbour, that he must not wrong him, hurt him, rob him, or kill him: he must not even injure him in his heart by coveting what he possesses. It was a divine law, and therefore still remains holy, and binding on all men. But when God himself appeared among men as the man Christ Jesus, he summed up all the old commandments in one perfect law" Love the Lord with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself." "A new commandment," said he, "I give unto you, That ye love one another;" and in that perfect law of love is summed up all the second table of the law. The New Testament abounds with maxims in accordance with this new law, which all hearts recognise to be true-" Perfect love casteth out fear "Love thinketh no evil "- "Love never fails;" and then that beautiful summary of its full expression and unlimited extent: "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; so shalt thou heap coals of fire on his head." We all know the force of this method of overcoming evil with good, however little we may practise it. No triumph can equal that by which we overcome an enemy with love; and did people only sufficiently consider even the mingled feeling of humiliation and shame which fills the mind of one who has received good in return for evil, they would know it to be by far the noblest revenge that man can have. We see, in the spiritual world, the Supreme Being perfect in benevolence and love, as in all other attributes; while opposed to him is a spirit of evil, instigating to crime and to all sinful passions, which result in misery to those who take this enemy of all good for their guide. So is it with the human race. Love is the one characteristic of men which shows their likeness to God, and revenge and hatred are the passions which prove them to be the servants of the devil. Many men have been beautiful examples of the power of love. It is this spirit that carried Elliot away to spend his life among the poor, ignorant Red Indians, and induced the benevolent Howard to expose himself to danger and to pestilential contagion, that he might rescue the most depraved and outcast class of human beings. It was love that instigated the good apostle John, and led him, in his old age when all the other apostles were gone to their rest, to exclaim, as he entered the assembly of primitive Christian disciples, "Little children, love one another." He was the disciple that Jesus loved, because he most resembled himself. But the only perfect example of love ever seen on earth was CHRIST. Love constrained him to leave heaven and dwell with men; love induced him to bear human contempt and wrong, to endure humiliation, suffering, and scorn, while he went about continually doing good; and love alone at length led him to do what none other ever did-to lay down his life for his enemies. No example of human love can ever equal his; yet it is the pattern that we must follow, and strive to imitate, if we would wish to be his disciples. "Thou shalt not kill!" is one of the old ten commandments, which still remains, like all the others, in force. But he whose heart is full of love, and who is guided in all his actions by the law of kindness, will |