comprehensiveness this command was new. It was now given in direct phraseology, and it developed the one principle to which all preceding enactments were to be traced. Incidental injunctions had contained some one or other of the features of this brother- love ; but all such commands were absorbed in this novel and engrossing declaration, " Love one another." Various practical elements had been previously delineated; but now, and for the first time, the theory was enforced.^
^ This new love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit dwelling in the Church. It is like the difference between carrying water with great exertion from a distant fountain and having a stream from that fountain flow by one's own door, from which he can drink copiously, by whose invigorating scent he feels his spirits revived, into which he can throw himself for a refreshing bath. The Holy Spirit comes with glorious blessings to the children of God under the New Covenant. They drink, not with scant measure, but from a full and overflowing cup. They revel in the fulness of eternal love. And He that creates this blessedness is the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, whom Jesus has sent from the Father.*
II.
The Old and the New.
1. There rest upon the follower of Christ two different commands to love. The old is not taken away ; the new is added to it. Thou shalt love thine enemies, thou shalt do good to them that hate thee, thou shalt bless them that curse thee, thou shalt pray for them that despitefully use thee. That is the great Mosaic command : " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Christ added nothing to it when He gave it to His followers. He simply pointed out its scope and intensity. Then, when the time came. He gave them another commandment to love, of a different scope and a different nature. And thenceforth these two separate commandments have lain upon every follower of Christ.
^ If we would take even the old commandment and live up to it, it would solve a great many perplexing problems. Lay it down along the line of life, and see in imagination how life's problems would find in it their solution. " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Let the slave-master simply apply that
* J. Eadie, The Divine Love, 214.
» A. Kuypcr, The Work of the Holy Spirit, 574.
ST. JOHN XIII. 34 31
rule, and will he not straightway manumit his slave and set him free ? Let us apply that rule to the perplexing problem of immigration. What if you or I were living under the harrow in Italy or Germany, and we saw the broad acres of America ready with fruitful juices to answer to our plow and our hoe, — what should we want America to do for us ? Apply it to the labour problem. Let all working men, banded together as Knights of Labour or any other organization, do to the employer as they would have the employer do to them ; and let the employers, the board of directors, the railroad managers, do to their employed as they would wish done to themselves, the relation being reversed : would there be any labour problem left ? Our labour ^ problem as it actually presents itself in real life is simply this : How can a community of men that are dealing with each other selfishly live peaceably ? And the answer is. They cannot at all. Peace can be brought about only when that law of justice which is expressed by the Golden Eule and the law, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," are inwrought into the industrial fabric of society. Why, if the girl in the kitchen would always act as she would wish to be acted by if she were mistress, and the mistress would always act to the girl in the kitchen as she would wish to be acted by if she were the girl in the kitchen, the greatest plague of life would be a plague no longer.^
2. But is it possible for the Christian to love in two different ways ? Yes ; it is not only possible, it is inevitable. Not only must he love the world out of Christ in one way, and his brethren in Christ in another, but he cannot help it. Mark Guy Pearse, in his inimitable way, tells a story which lends itself readily to illustration. " Said one of my little ones to the youngest, in that threatening tone which is usually adopted in teaching, ' You must be good, you know, or father won't love you.' Then I called him to myself, and I said, gravely and tenderly : ' Do you know what you have said ? It is not true, my boy — not a bit true.' * Isn't it ? ' said the little one, surprised and doubtful. ' No,' I said ; ' it is far away from the truth.' ' But you won't love us if we are not good, will you ? ' he asked. ' Yes,' I said, * I can't help loving you ; I shall love you for ever and ever, because I can't help it. When you are good I shall love you with a love that makes me glad ; and when you are not good I shall love you with a love that hurts me ; but I can't help loving you, because I am your father you know.'"