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SERMON III.

SAINT MATTHEW, xxii. 39.

"THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THYSELF."

ONE of the Pharisees, we are told in the preceding verses, put to our Saviour this important question: "Which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." This is the root and spring of all religion; this is life eternal; this is salvation, happiness, heaven within the soul. "This is," consequently, "the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

The second commandment is, indeed, like the first, in many important features. They are both but varied exercises of love, the master-passion of the soul. They both centre in the heart, and fill the soul with tranquillity and joy. They both descend from above, and flow from a higher source than nature; and are shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.

They are alike, also, in the vastness of their

extent. The love of God is infinite, because God is infinite. The love of our neighbour is bounded only by the wide circle of the human race; embracing in its arms every child of man, and every rational soul that breathes the breath of life. True charity is narrowed by no selfish ends nor interests. It is not the mere love of family, friends, or party. The Christian can feel to none the cold indiffer

ence of a stranger. He recognises the whole family of man as of one blood, and as descended of the same parents. He knows and feels that, but for sin, one Paradise would have sheltered and have blessed them all; one tree of life have yielded its immortal fruit to all; one cord of sacred love have united all in everlasting bands.

With respect to personal injuries and wrongs, the man who loves his neighbour as himself, has a clear and simple rule to follow: he, freely, and from his heart, forgives them all. His enemy is his neighbour; he, therefore, love his enemies. He blesses them that curse him; does good to them that hate him; and prays for them that despitefully use him, and persecute him. This is hard, it may be said, to human nature. But Christianity is a new nature. It is the mind that was in Christ Jesus. And to those who have learned of him, the yoke of forgiveness is easy, and the burden light.

But some, perhaps, will say, we may forgive our own enemies; but how can we feel kindness towards the enemies of God? If we love the Lord Jesus in sincerity, can we love those also, who harden their hearts against him; who hate his purity, and despise his goodness, his forbearance, and long-suffering?

Such exhibitions, it is true, are painful and wounding to every serious mind. Nevertheless, it would ill become us to treat with harshness or resentment even these sinners against their own souls. Are we, now, through undeserved grace and mercy, reconciled to God, and walking as children of the light? Yet, alas! how much is there still remaining in the best of us, to humble us in the dust? Or, if we look to the past, what testimony does that bear? Were we ourselves, once, strangers in the land of Egypt, and captives in the house of bondage? Was there never a time when we ourselves were living as those that knew not God; walking in the vanity of our minds; glorying in our shame; enemies of the cross of Christ? And shall we have no compassion upon those who are out of the way; whose feet are stumbling, as ours were, upon the dark mountains?

But, moreover, can true zeal for God make us unlike God? And "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us." Are we holier, or more separate from sin, than the Divine nature is? And yet, when all had sinned, and come short of the glory of God; when the earth was filled with violence, and the hearts of men with thoughts and imaginations which God abhorreth; God so loved the world, that he delivered up his own Son; and that Son loved us, and gave himself for us, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

The most lost of men still retains, though darkened and defaced, some lingering traces of that glory, in which he was at first created. The soul still bears some lineaments of that Divine impression, with which it once was stamped; and makes its own darkness visible, with the dying embers of its native fire. It was, then, to rescue the image of God from the hand of those that hate it; it was to fan the last recoverable spark which lingered in the human soul, into celestial life and glory for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, and offered the price of his own blood upon the cross. Shall we, then, pursue with hatred, those souls for whom Christ died? Even in the case of sinners, who wilfully neglect so great salvation, and who are to remain for ever aliens from the joys of heaven, and from the face of God, should we not rather pity their infatua

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tion, than add, if we were able, to that insupportable weight of misery, which they are drawing down upon their own heads? But we cannot read the decrees of heaven, nor scan the rolls of hell. The outcast prodigal may at last repent. He may yet come to himself, arise, and go unto his Father: and God may wipe away his tears, cover his unrighteousness, and pardon all his sin. In spite of present appearances, he may be one day numbered with the sons of God, and his lot be amongst the saints. And over the sinner, whom we have loved in obedience to God's command, we may yet rejoice with the angels in heaven.

Such is the unlimited extent of this commandment, which is exceeding broad. The measure of it, also, is distinctly given to us in my text; "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Not, be it observed, with that entire affection—not with the whole tide of those vast desires-with the full flow of those boundless capacities, which can find their level and their rest in God alone. No: this love fulfils the first commandment. second, though like unto it, is limited in its nature. We should love our neighbour, not as we love God, but as we love ourselves. We should take a share in all his interests, in some sense, as if they were our own. We should feel the sympathy of a common nature, in his hopes and fears, his joys

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