, namely, Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"; "Love worketh no ill to his
neighbor"; "Love is the fulfilling of the law." Every word in this
epistle lesson proves Love mistress of all law.

9. Further, no greater calamity, wrong and wretchedness is possible on
earth than the teaching and enforcing of laws without love. In such
case, laws are but a ruinous curse, making true the proverbs, "summum
jus, summa injustitia," "The most strenuous right is the most
strenuous wrong"; and again, Solomon's words (Ec 7, 17), "Noli nimium
esse justus," "Be not righteous overmuch." Here is where we leave
unperceived the beam in our own eye and proceed to remove the mote
from our neighbor's eye. Laws without love make the conscience timid
and fill it with unreasonable terror and despair, to the great injury
of body and soul. Thus, much trouble and labor are incurred all to no
purpose.

10. An illustration in point is the before-mentioned incident of David
in his hunger. 1 Sam 21, 6. Had the priest been disposed to refuse
David the holy bread, had he blindly insisted on honoring the
prohibitions of the Law and failed to perceive the authority of Love,
had he denied this food to him who hungered, what would have been the
result? So far as the priest's assistance went, David would have had
to perish with hunger, and the priest would have been guilty of murder
for the sake of the Law. Here, indeed, "summum jus, summa
injustitia"--the most strenuous right would have been the most
strenuous wrong. Moreover, on examining the heart of the priest who
should be so foolish, you would find there the extreme abomination of
making sin where there is no sin, and a matter of conscience where
there is no occasion for it. For he holds it a sin to eat the bread,
when really it is an act of love and righteousness. Then, too, he
regards his act of murder--permitting David to die of hunger--not a
sin, but a good work and service to God.

11. But who can fully portray this blind, perverted, abominable folly?
It is the perpetration of an evil the devil himself cannot outdo. For
it makes sin where there is no sin, and a matter of conscience without
occasion. It robs of grace, salvation, virtue, and God with all his
blessings, and that without reason, falsely and deceitfully. It
emphatically denies and condemns God. Again, it makes murder and
injustice a good work, a divine service. It puts the devil with his
falsehoods in the place of God. It institu