New Britain herald., 1924-01-07

these could be summed up under one heading, that of Love. When Jesus was asked which was the greatest or the commandments His reply was: Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God. with all thy heart and with all thy strength. and thy neighbor as thy self Therein you have His whole teaching in a nut shell. And when He was giving final instructions to His disciples, not long before He was to leave them, how did He again sum up His teachings? Again it was in the word 'Tove.' And this is my commandment that ye love one an- other, even as I have loved you How simple it all is, and yet if it is lived out in all of ones varied rela- tionships it is not any easy formula, for it means hardship and pain and sacrifice and suffering. In his own experience it meant death, and in the case of most of those to whom her was speaking it meant death.
 And not only was this the supreme teaching of Jesus, but His very life was its highest and noblest embodi- ment. Jesus rose to His loftiest and sublimest in the very life that He lived here among men. Even if He had given us no teachings, the rec- ord of His life of kindliness, strength, patience, hope, faith and love would be sufficient. His very deeds and at titudes speak volumes more than His teachings. Jesus lived supremely the life of love. It was His love for men that sent Him to the outcast and the moral derelicts of His time. It was
 His love for men that sent him to the homes of the poor and the tables of the well to do. It was His love for men that made him hate the things which made mere animals of them. It was his love for men which made him so patient with those disciples who were so misunderstood ing of Him and His real deepest pur- poses. You know it is one of the hardest things for men even today to understand that some one has done them a real favor just out of the goodness and love of their hearts, exemplifying the Christ spirit This spirit of love which Jesus showed for all men and which enabled Him to understand them so perfectly was misunderstood by those of Jesus day. and is it surprising, therefore, that it is also misunderstood today?
 "The spirit of love is not weakness and softness. It is the essence of strength. It is that which the world needs more than anything today, if A ,-a,tn means doing unto others as we would like to have them do unto us." And that is not an easy thing. To put ourselves in the position of the other fellow and imagine ourselves under the particular circumstances in
 which he finds himself, that is ex- tremely difficult. To do that means sympathy and sympathy means love. i And unless this very thing is done in international relations we are go- i ing to find ourselves in the same po- sitlon that Europe found itself in 1914. The national mind must be
 replaced by the international mind.
 The spirit of love, sympathy and un-
 derstanding must rise above and
 sweep away the natural barriers Of
 racial and color antipathy, or diner-
 ence in language, custom and tradi-
 ton. In short the religion of love
 as taught and lived by Jesus must be
 the great panacea for the worlds HIS And how are we going to have
 their spirit Of love and perfect un-
 derstanding among the nations of the
 earth unless we have it first in our
 individual relations? And that is
 where each of us can have very
 direct part in helping to bring about
 world understanding, for the spirit oi love is too often sadly lacking in oui
 own personal relations and attitudes Now love, as Jesus taught It,
 not passive. It is active, as is Godi
 love for us. 1t was so active and sS vital that He gave His only son. No
 if love is a force it is active. It Il love which will not give peace to th' father Of the prodigal until tha prodigal has returned to his fatherl ! house. It is love which sends fortl the shepherd out into the night anC inc storm to find the sheep which ha . been lost from the fold.
 : "Oh, my friends, how simple, then is the faith and religion of Jesus Perhaps because it is so simple tha , it is so constantly misiudged and mis l understood. We who are about C gather about the Lords table Il [ memory of Him, and who call our | His disciples, let us at this time, ol ! the very threshold of a new calenda year. make sure that as our religioi v we are not carrying about lot o creeds and ecclesiastical customs an traditions. If we are doing this I an sure that we are finding the burde 2 extremely heavy. Let us, then, dro ! al lof these extra trappings and le us put in their place the religion 0
 love which is the religion and fait
 of Jesus. Such a religion is not
 burden, but it rather helps us . bear our own and the burdens C !, others. It sends US forth with smile . upon our faces and with heart tha r are full Of joy and peace.
 "Iyet us, then, at the beginning ( y this new year. open wide the portal i of our hearts and let the love ( i, Christ take full possession of then d And in the spirit of His love let | IT labor and live right here upon tn e earth the fife which is eternal.
 e And this is my commandmeI ,t that ye love one another, even as e have loved you
 |. Si,5Oo,0OO FIRE LOSS