s teaching
is inexorable: "If ye love them that love you, what thank have ye? for
even sinners love those that love them. And if ye do good to them that
do good to you, what thank have ye? for even sinners do the same. And
if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? even
sinners lend to sinners, to receive again as much. But love your
enemies, and do them good, and lend, never despairing; and your reward
shall be great, and ye shall be sons of the Most High; for he is kind
toward the unthankful and evil."

The good Samaritan is our Lord's answer to the question, "Who is my
neighbor?" and the good Samaritan's neighbor was a bitter enemy, who,
in other circumstances, would have spurned him from his presence.
Other people may not be beautiful in their character, nor congenial in
their habits, manners, modes of life, or disposition; they may even be
unkind to us, unjust, unreasonable, in strict justice altogether
undeserving of our favor; yet if we persist in being called Christians
ourselves we owe them the love that thinketh no evil, that seeketh not
its own, that beareth all things, endureth all things, and never
faileth.

No doubt it is hard to love the other people who hate us. It is not so
hard just to let them alone, to pass them by without harming them, or
even to pray for them in a way; but to love them--that is a sore test.
We are apt to ask:--

"Dear Lord, will it not do,
If we return not wrong for wrong,
And neither love nor hate?
But love--O Lord, our souls are far from strong,
And love is such a tender, home-nursed dove--
How can we, Lord, our enemies bless and love?

"Fasting--Oh, one could fast--
And praying--one could most pathetic pray;
But love our enemies! Dear Lord,
Is there not unto thee some easier way--
Some way through churchly service, song, or psalm,
Or ritual grand, to reach thy heaven's calm?"

But there comes no answer of Christly indulgence to such questions.
Other people, though they be our enemies, are not thus taken out of the
circle of those to whom we owe love. Our part is always pictured for
us in the example of the good Samaritan.

That is, we owe other people service. Service goes with loving. We
cannot love truly and not serve. Love without serving is but an empty
sentiment, a poor mockery. God so loved the world that he gave. Love
always gives. If it will not give it is not love. It is measured
always b