debts, as
we forgive our debtors." The commercial terms here used show this to
be the completion of the law as touching the creditor and his released
debtor.

3. Again, he broke down the artificial barriers, the distinction of
Hebrew and Gentile, Greek and Barbarian, bond and free.

The love and sympathy and helpfulness among men was no longer to be
limited to such narrow bounds, but must be wide as the race. "Who is
my neighbor?" is so answered that every man must be neighbor to every
other man, and the object of his care and help. All are of one blood,
and all God's children. He gave one law for all classes and conditions
in all times. He so expounded the old commandments and so condensed
them, that they became the one law of love. Whosoever is governed by
supreme love to God, and loves his neighbor as himself, has fulfilled
the law. He would thus bind all men together, and all to the throne of
God, by the one bond of love.

But he further intensified the obligations of love, by his own special
command. John 15:12: "This is my commandment, that ye love one
another, as I have loved you." And he adds it to the decalogue, John
13:34: "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as
I have loved you that ye also love one another." This new command
requires that men shall love their brethren above themselves and be
ready to sacrifice for their welfare. As he gave his life, so also he
commanded that men should sacrifice for their fellows.

Those who hear his voice and have the spirit of obedience go to the
ends of the earth, and make any sacrifice that may be required for the
uplifting of fallen men.

The law forbidding the Hebrews exacting usury of their brethren, of
the stranger who had accepted their faith and kept the passover, of
the stranger, sojourner who dwelt among them, of everybody except the
Canaanite who was under the condemnation of God, could not have been
annulled or suspended by the divine Master who thus draws together and
embraces as one family the whole race. The ties of Christian
brotherhood are not less strong than the ties of Hebrew blood. The
converts from heathen to Christian faith are not less dear to the
missionary than the proselytes to the Hebrew faith were to the
Pharisees. The foreigner who comes into a Christian community must not
be treated with less justice and kindness than the wandering Arab who
strolled into Jerusalem for a trade. It cannot be that the relation
betw