Mexico weekly ledger., 1884-01-03
A SERMON
BY Ed. Alexander Proctor, Delivered
af the Christian Church.

SdlH. ii tIth OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES 4 WING aAso 9Sus ~.
'hich thing is true In Him and in you; because -
he darkness is past and the true light shineth."
/. John, ell. ii, yer. : and g.
This paragraph is one of the many
of a great principle that
inderlies religion. 1t ought to be
for one, who can recall the lang
lage of Jesus in His last interview ~.
With His disciples, to understand pa
what the apostle means; and yet l "
that when l was commencing Sc
to study the Bible, 1 had to search la
long and earnestly to find out what nj
was new in this commandment. 1t Al
was not till / re-read the parting fr
words of Jesus to His disciples and "
considered that, as He was leaving 81
them, lie impaired to them a new D
principle, which was to be a new de- P
parture, that l comprehended what
was meant to he conveyed by the !
text. 1t had heen said to the Jews '
centuries before, 'tThou shalt love Z
thy God with all thy mind, with oil t
thy heart, with all thy soul and with ,
all thy strength, and thy neighbor as
thyself." And when a certain indl-
vidual came and asked Jesus which
was the greatest commandment, seek
ing to find some way by which to en-
tangle or emharrass Him, the Savior
replied: The greatest commandment
is, thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart. with all thy soul
and with all thy mind. And the
second is like into it: Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as myself"
The difficulty was to understand
how this loving God and the brethren
could be a new commandment, when
it was in the world so many centuries
before, and had descended from the
lips of God himself, and that difficulty
was dispelled solely by insight into
the spirit of christianity. The statute
of God through Moses vas ar ALSO.
lutte command but it was not in the
heart of man to bestow love accord
ing to requirement. God never made
man so that he could love On account
of a law. A man does not love his
wife, because he is commanded to do
SO; but Jesus came to enable man to
keep the statute, to reveal Gods
character, so as to take hold of the
human heart, and to show by the ex-
ample Of a voluntary life, that man
could and should love God. We are
commanded to love God because He
first loved US.
The Jewish law was summed up in
the fear of God. The Israelites were
to fear God and keep His command
ments. There is nothing of that sort
in the New Testament. The require
ment of Jesus IS 10 love God ant
keep His commandments. The Ole
Testament made provision for officer:
to watch after the keeping of the law
If a man violated 1t, he was to b,
punished. There is yet a great dea
of Judaism in the church; but M
police to punish q man for not loving
God. True, some people 60 tt
church because they fear the minis
ter, or the elders, or tue deacons, vii
get after them, if they don't. Who
even goes to church from such mo
tives. might as well stay at home. /
there is not love to God and TIL
brethren; if happiness is not to b
found in christian fellowship; if pee
pie go to church because they fee
compelled to, they had better moi
1t is love of God that constitutes tn
law of life. By this new command
ment Jesus enabled US to see thai
In the love which God has manifesto
in Jesus Christ, we learn how to love
A life of love is life in Jesus.
When Christ gave this new con
mandment, he made it new by I'll
new motive he attached to it. II
commandment had been in exlstent
for fifteen centuries, but the Savit
shed new light and lustre upon j
IAN eye for eye, and a tooth for
TOOTH was the way the Jew live'
and the Pagans initiated them. II
motto in Pagan life in Horace i
dot let anyone overcome you
acts of friendship or acts of hostilit,
If be is your friend beat him
friendship, and if he is your enen
beat him in enmity;" but since tt
great Ideal came, all are commando
to live by the law of love, as He ma
ifested that love. His words wer
"That We love one another, as l ha
loved you" Here Christ's love
made the measure of our love.
we lived in u world where everybot
did something to make every 9th
human being happy because tin
loved and were loved of Hun,
should then realize how far Ii ext
rience of the christian religion is fire
lifting us UP to the standard of t
new commandment, that great divi
straight edge that God has lain
human life to show how crook
ii Is
| am very hopeful; and yet,
sometimes get distrnstful, hecat
We are so far from where this IL
commandment would have us GO a
especially when l behold one-haf
the American people going agsil
the other half, aud when a Presid,
is to be elected and when l see