^ H. H. Henson. ' Isaac Barrow. • D. J. Burrell.
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are brought into close personal connection with ourselves through any of the natural relationships of life, seem to be marked out by the finger of God as the objects of special thoughtfulness.
^ The first step in the ascent of love rises in our own dwelling. From our very threshold it goes up to the eternal throne. Here, too, is " the house of God," and here " the gate of heaven." A heart unloving among kindred has no love towards God's saints and angels. If we have a cold heart towards a servant, or a friend, why should we wonder if we have no fervour towards God?i
^ The rabbis say that once upon a time there were two affectionate brothers who tilled the same farm. On a certain night, after the gathering of the harvest, one of them said to his wife, " My brother is a lonely man, who has neither wife nor children ; I will go out and carry some of my sheaves into his field." It happened that, on the same night, the other said, " My brother has wife and children, and needs the harvest more than I ; I will carry some of my sheaves into his field." So the next morning their respective heaps were unchanged, and thus it happened night after night, until at length, one moonlight night, the brothers with their arms full of sheaves met midway face to face. On that spot the Temple was built, because it was esteemed to be the place where earth was nearest heaven.*
4. There is no conceivable circumstance, no change in a man's inward character or outward condition, that ought to deprive him of this degree and quality of Love. Whatever he may be in himself, though degraded by every vice, — whatever he may be in his relations to us, though inflamed by every malignant passion, and clothed with an accidental power of wounding us where we are most vulnerable, it is impossible, without approaching to his level and partaking of his malignity, that the desire for his good, the best desire that we entertain for ourselves, should ever cease ; and the more imminent seems the utter wreck he is making of his peace, the more of earnestness will naturally be breathed into our wishes, and, if the way opens, into our efforts for his rescue.
(1) We are not to understand that God requires us to take
precisely the same interest in every other man's career that we
take in our own, for this would be to contradict our individuality.
But we are to regard our neighbour as equal with ourselves in
^ Cardinal Manning. 2 j) j Burrell.
328 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
the sight of God, and as therefore entitled to the same treatment at our hands tliat we should expect at his. This will ensure the observance of Christ's golden rule, "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them" (Matt. vii. 12).
(2) Moreover, we are to remember that our fellow-men are not only equal, but in a very true sense identified with us in Christ. We are one in origin, in nature, and in destiny, and one in the privilege and blessing of the great redemption. Their interests are the same as ours, their happiness is interwoven with ours, their future is blended with ours. Therefore we should look upon all men as brothers, and render to each a brother's love. This will inspire a devotion which mere justice could not prescribe. It will allow of tireless toil to promote their good, even when such good is undiscerned and unappreciated by them- selves ; of longsuffering patience, in the face of their resistance of good service and resentment of our love itself; yea, even of sacrifice for others, willing, cheerful, eager, like our Lord's (1 John iii. 16).i
Conclusion.
The Two Commandments and Christ.
1. The Christian who receives this commandment differs from the Jew of old, not in having another God to worship, or in having different demands made upon him, but in having the same God more fully revealed to him. The God whom we worship is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, — the Jehovah of the national Jewish covenant. But, under the new covenant, we do not call Him Jehovah. A Christian ought to have deeper and wider conceptions concerning God than were possible to a Jew. He ought to think of Him more habitually as the God of the universe and of the whole human race, loving His children impartially, and dealing with them equally. Such thoughts are in harmony with our wider range of knowledge, with the acquirements and habits of modern civilisation. But Christian views of the nature and character of God, such as recognise most largely the all-pervading operations of Divine love and justice, have not grown out of the science and culture of
' T. F. Lockyer.
ST. MARK 329
modern times. They are due to that revelation of the Father which was made in Christ. As the first believers studied the nature of God, not in books, however holy, or in commandments, however imperative, but in the person of the Son of Man, the horizon of their thoughts was inevitably widened. They saw all mankind embraced in the Son of Man. They discerned the lofty and spiritual character of the relation between God and men. They saw what a perfect fatherliness there is in the love of God towards men ; they saw that men's love towards God must be free, enlightened, and spiritual. To the Israelite of old God was known primarily as the Being who had given a promise to Abraham and to his seed, then as the Jehovah, or I AM, from whom the law proceeded. He gained his acquaintance with the name and nature of the invisible God through national forms and symbols, and through acts of providence and government which especially concerned his nation. Various limitations necessarily attended such a knowledge of God, and these limita- tions are associated with the Jewish name of God. But to the Christian, God is primarily the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of the Son of Man.