Love Your Neighbor by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. This sermon was originally preached on August 9, 1857. It comes from the book of Matthew, chapter 19, verse 19. Love your neighbor as yourself. Our Savior often preached on the moral principles of the law. Many of the sermons of Christ do not have what is now currently called the Gospel in them at all. Every time our Savior stood up to preach, he did not always declare the doctrine of election, or of atonement, or of effectual calling, or of the final perseverance of the saints. No, he very often spoke on the duties of human life and on those precious fruits of the Spirit which are created in us by the grace of God. Note carefully what I have just said. At first you may have been startled by it, but on a diligent reading of the four Gospels in the Bible, you will find that I am correct in stating that most of our Savior's time was occupied in telling the people how they ought to treat one another. And many of His sermons are not what our critics would call pleasing and comforting sermons. For certainly they would be far from pleasing to the emotional Christian who did not care about the practical part of religion. Beloved, it is as much the business of God's ministers to preach man's duty as it is to preach Christ's atonement. And unless he does preach man's duty, he will never be blessed by God to bring man into the proper state to see the beauty of the atonement. Unless he sometimes thunders out the law and claims for his master the right of obedience to it, he will most likely never produce conviction, certainly not the conviction which later leads to conversion. This morning I am aware my sermon will not be very comforting and pleasing to you that are always wanting to hear the same old doctrines. But I do not care too much about that. This rough world sometimes needs to be rebuked. And if we can get the people to listen to us, then it is our business to reprove them. And I think if ever there was a time when this text needs to be preached, it is right now. It is so often forgotten, so seldom remembered, to love your neighbor as yourself. First of all, I will show the command. Secondly, I will give some reasons why you should obey it. And lastly, I will draw some suggestions from the command itself. First, the command. It is the second great commandment. The first commandment is, love the Lord your God. And there, the exact requirement is to love the Lord your God more than yourself. The second commandment is, love your neighbor. and the requirement there is a little lower, but still preeminently high. Love your neighbor as yourself. There is the command, and we can split it into three parts. First, who am I supposed to love? My neighbor. What am I supposed to do? I am to love him. How am I to love him? I am to love him as myself. First, who am I supposed to love? I am supposed to love my neighbor. By the word neighbor, we are to understand it to be any person who is near us. It comes from two old words, ne, which means near, and geber, which means dweller. That is, persons residing or being near us. Therefore, if anyone in the world is near us, he is our neighbor. The Samaritan, when he saw the wounded man on the road to Jericho, felt that he was in his neighborhood, and that therefore he was his neighbor, and he was obliged to love him. Love your neighbor. Perhaps he is rich and you are poor, and you live in your little house right next to his majestic mansion. You see his estates, You note his fine linen and his elegant clothing. God has given him these gifts, and if he has not given them to you, do not covet his wealth and do not think evil thoughts concerning him. There will always be differences in the circumstances of man, so let it be. Be content with your own circumstances if you cannot make them better, but do not look on your neighbor and wish that he was as poor as you and do not help anyone who would remove his wealth, and thereby help you to become instantly rich. Love him, and then you will be unable to envy him.

Perhaps, on the other hand, you are rich, and near you resides the poor. Do not hate to call them neighbors. Do not despise the fact that you are compelled to love even them. The world calls them your inferiors. In what way are they inferior? Really, they are your equals, though not in social standing. God's word says, from one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth. You are by no means better than them. They are men, and what are you more than that? They may be men dressed in rags, but men in rags are men. And if you are a man arrayed in the finest of clothes, you are still nothing more than a man. Be careful that you love your neighbor, even though he is dressed in rags, and do not despise him, though he is sunk deep into poverty.

Love your neighbor, even though he is of a different religion. You believe that your religion is the nearest to the truth. and you have hope that you and your fellow believers who believe likewise will certainly be saved. Your neighbor thinks differently. You say his religion is false and deceptive, but you need to love him in spite of that. Do not let your differences keep you away from each other. Perhaps he may be right or he may be wrong, but the person who is most correct in practice is the one who loves most. Possibly he has no religion at all. He disregards your God. He ignores the Lord's day. He claims to be an atheist, but you are still commanded to love him. Harsh critical words will not convert him. Cruel acts towards him will not make him a Christian. Simply show him love. His sin is not against you, but against your God. Your God takes vengeance for sins committed against Him, so leave Him in God's hands. But if you can do an act of kindness for Him, if you can find a way to serve Him, then do it, be it day or night. And if you still want to make a distinction between you and Him, then make it this, because you are not of my religion, I will serve you even more.

that you may be converted to the truth even though you are a heretic Samaritan and I am an Orthodox Jew. You are still my neighbor and I will love you with the hope that you may give up your false worship in your temple and come and bow down in the temple of God in Jerusalem. Love your neighbor despite differences in religion.

Love your neighbor. even though he opposes you in the world of business. Even though he opposes you in the world of business. This will be a motto that will be hard to introduce at the stock exchange or in business. But nevertheless, it is one I am obligated to preach to you that are merchants and businessmen. A young man has recently started a new business, which you are afraid will damage yours. You must not hurt him. You must neither think nor say anything to injure him. Your business is to love him. Even though he opposes you in your business, he is still your neighbor. There is another competitor living near you who is indebted to you. And if you would demand from him all that he owes you, you will ruin him and his business. But if you let him keep your money for a little while, he may weather the storm and succeed in his endeavors. It is your business to love him as yourself. Let him keep your money. Let him try it again. And perhaps he will be able to return your money and he will also be helped. Whoever you have dealings with in business, he is your neighbor. Whether he is greater or lesser than you, he is still your neighbor. And the Bible commands that you are to love your neighbor. Note that the Bible does not merely say that you are not to hate him, but it tells you to love him. And even though he hinders your business plans, even though he prevents you from obtaining wealth, even though he steals your customers, yes, even though he should obscure your fame, yet you are still obligated to love him as yourself. This law makes no exception. Is he near you? and have you any dealings with him? Then the command says, you are to love him. Love your neighbor. Love your neighbor even though you are offended by his sin. Sometimes our spirits are overwhelmed and our hearts are grieved when we see the wickedness in our streets. The common tendency with the prostitute or the degenerate is to consider them a curse and to drive them out of our society. That is not right. That is not Christian-like. We are commanded to love even sinners, and not to drive them from the land of hope, but to seek to reclaim these. Is a man a cheat, a thief, or a liar? I cannot love his cheating, or I would be a cheat myself. I cannot love his lying, or I would be untrue. But I am still commanded to love him. And even though I am wronged by him, yet I must not harbor one vindictive feeling. And just as I desire God to forgive me, so I must forgive him. And if he commits sins against the law of the land that causes him to be punished, and rightly so, even so I am to love him in the punishment. For I am not to condemn him to imprisonment vindictively, but I am to do it for his good, that he may be led to repent through the punishment. I am to give him an amount of punishment that will be adequate, not as an atonement for his crime, but to teach him the evil of it and induce him to forsake it. Let me condemn him with a tear in my eye, because I still love him. And let me, when he is thrown into prison, ensure that all his guards treat him with kindness. And although there is a necessity for sternness and severity in prison discipline, let it not go too far, lest it merge into cruelty and become reckless instead of useful. I am commanded to love him, even though he is submerged in depravity and degraded. The law of love knows no exception. It demands my love for him. I must love him. I am not commanded to take him into my house. I am not commanded to treat him as one of my family. There may be some acts of kindness which would be imprudent, seeing that by doing so I might ruin others and reward wickedness. Justice demands that I set my face against him, but I should not set my heart against him, for he is my fellow man. And though the devil has smeared his face with evil and spits his venom into his mouth, so that when he speaks, he speaks blasphemies, and when he walks, his feet are swift to shed blood, yet he is a man. And as a man, he is my brother. And as a brother, I am commanded to love him. And if by stooping down to love him, I can lift him up to something like moral dignity, I am wrong if I do not do it. For I am commanded to love him as I love myself."

Oh, I pray to God that this great law were fully carried out. Yes, my friends, you do not love your neighbors. You know that you do not. Why, you hardly love all the people who go to the same church as you. Certainly you would not think of loving those who differ from your opinion, would you? That would be too strange a love. Why, you hardly love your own brothers and sisters. Some of you today are at odds with those that nursed on the same breast as you. Oh, how can I expect you to love your enemies if you do not love your friends? Some of you have come here this morning angry at your parents. And there is a brother here who is angry with his sister because of something she said before he left home to come to church. Oh, if you cannot love your brothers and sisters, then you are worse than heathen men and tax collectors. Therefore, how can I expect you to obey the high and mighty command to love your neighbors?

But whether you obey it or not, it is mine to preach it and not allow the command to be negated by the opinion of society. First, we are commanded to love and honor all men simply because they are men. And next, we are to love all those who live near us, not for their goodness or usefulness towards us, but simply because God's word demands it. And they are our neighbors. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Now secondly, what am I to do to my neighbor? I am to love him. It is a hard word, love him. One person says, well, I believe that I never speak an unkind word about any of my neighbors. I do not believe that I ever hurt a person's reputation in my whole life. I am very careful not to harm my neighbor in any way. When I conduct my business, I do not let my spirit of competition overcome my spirit of charity. I try not to hurt anybody. My dear friend, That is true as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. It is not enough for you to say that you do not hate your neighbor. You are to love him. When you see him in the streets, it is not sufficient that you keep out of his way and that you do not knock him down. It is not sufficient that you do not annoy him at night and disturb his rest. It is not a negative, it is a positive command. It is not what you don't do, it is what you do. It is true that you must not injure him, but have you fulfilled the command simply because you have not injured him? You must love him.

Well, says another, when my neighbors are sick and if they are poor, I take a portion of my dinner and send it to them. that they may have a little food and be refreshed. And if they are extremely poor, I give my money and see that they are cared for. Yes, you may do this and still not love them. I have seen charity thrown to a poor man the same way a bone is thrown to a dog, without a bit of love in it. I have seen money given to those who needed it with not one half of the politeness with which hay is given to a horse. Often a beggar will come to our door and we reply, there it is. You want it? I suppose I must give it to you or people will think that I am not charitable. Take it. I am sorry you came here. Why don't you go to somebody else's house? I always have beggars hanging all over me. Oh, friends, this is not loving our neighbor, and this is not making him love us. If we had spoken a kind word to him and refused him, then he would have loved us more than when we gave to him in such an unkind manner. No, although you feed the poor and visit the sick, you have not obeyed the command unless your heart goes with your hand. And the kindness of your life testifies to the kindness of your soul. You must love your neighbor.

And now someone here may say, sir, I cannot love my neighbor. Perhaps you may love yours because yours are better than mine. Mine are such an odd set of neighbors. I try to love them. And despite all that I do for them, they give back nothing but insults. Well, my friend, so much more the room for courage. Would you be a timid warrior instead of a courageous soldier in the rough fight of love? Friend, remember, he who dares the most will win the most. And if your path of love is rough, then tread on it boldly, but still move on, loving your neighbor through thick and thin.

Keep coals of fire on their heads, And if they are hard to please, then do not seek to please them, but seek to please your master. And remember that if they reject your love, your master has not rejected it, and your deed is acceptable to him as if it had been acceptable to them. You must love your neighbor.

Now, if this love for our neighbor were carried out, love, real love, It would prevent all rash anger. Who is ever angry with himself? I suppose all wise men are angry now and then at themselves, and I suspect we would not be righteous if we were not sometimes angry. A man who is never angry is not worth much. He cannot be a good man, because he will often see things so evil that he must be angry at them. But remember, You have no right to be more angry with your neighbor than you are with yourself. You are sometimes annoyed with yourself, and you may sometimes be annoyed with your neighbor if he has done you wrong. But your anger towards yourself is very short-lived. You quickly forgive your own dear self. Well, you are obligated just as quickly to forgive him. And though you speak a stern word, If it is too stern, then apologize. And if it is just stern enough, then do not add more to it to make it too much so. State the truth, if you are obliged to do so, as kindly as you can. Do not be any more stern than you need to be. Deal with others as you would deal with yourself.

Above all, harbor no revenge. Never let the sun set on your anger. It is impossible to love your neighbor if you do that. Revenge makes obedience to this command entirely impossible.

Love your neighbor by not neglecting him. Love your neighbor by not neglecting him. He may be sick. He may live very near to your house. And yet he does not send for you to call on him. For he says, no, I do not like to trouble him. Remember, it is your business to know what is going on in their lives. The most worthy of all poor people are those who never ask for pity. Find out your neighbor's needs. Do not wait to be told of it, but find it out yourself and give them some help. Do not neglect them. And when you go, do not go with the arrogant pride which charity often assumes. Do not go as some superior person about to bestow a great donation, but go to your brother as if you were about to pay him a debt and sit down by his side and talk to him. And if he has a proud spirit, then do not give him your charity as a charity. Give it to him in some other way so that you do not break his head with the very bottle of ointment with which you had intended to have anointed him with. Be very careful how you speak to him. Do not break his spirit. In time, he will forget the amount of your charity, but he will long remember your kindness towards him in your speech.

Love to our neighbors puts aside every sin that is related to greed and envy, and it makes us at all times ready to serve them, ready to be their footstool, if it must be so. that we may be clearly seen to be the children of Christ.

Well, says one, I cannot always be expected to forgive my neighbor. You know a snake will turn on you if it is stepped upon. Since when are we to take a snake as our example? It is true a snake will turn on you, but a Christian will not. I think it is utter contempt to take a snake for my example when I have Christ for my model. Christ did not turn on people when they hurled insults at him. He did not retaliate when they crucified him and nailed him to the cross. Rather, he cried out, Father, forgive them.

Let love, unconquerable love, dwell in your heart, love which many waters cannot quench, Love which the floods cannot drown. Love your neighbors.

And now, how are we to love our neighbor? How are we to love our neighbor? It would be a good thing if some ladies loved their neighbors as much as they loved their lapdogs. It would be a fine thing for many a country squire if he loved his neighbors as much as he loved his pack of hounds. I think it might be a high point of virtue if some of you were to love your neighbors as much as you love some favorite animal in your house. What an inferior grade of virtue that appears to be, and yet it is something far superior to what some of you have attained to.

You do not love your neighbor as much as you love your house, or your estate, or your money. The gospel standard is very high. Love your neighbor as yourself. How much does a man love himself? None of us love ourselves too little. Some of us love ourselves too much. You may love yourself as much as you please, but take care that you love your neighbor just as much. I am certain you need no exhortation to love yourself. Your own needs will be seen too. Your own comfort will be your primary concern. You will line your own nest with downy feathers if you can. There is no need to exhort you to love yourself. You will do that well enough.

Well then, just as much as you love yourself, love your neighbor. And note by this is meant your enemy, the man who opposes you in business and the man of another class. You must love him as you love yourself. Oh, without a doubt, it would turn the world upside down if this were practiced. This would upset many things that have now become the custom of the land.

In England, we have a social class almost as strong as in India. My Lord will not speak to anyone who is a little beneath himself in dignity. And he who has the next degree of dignity thinks the businessman is infinitely below him. And he who is a businessman thinks the mechanic is scarcely worth his notice. And mechanics, according to their grades, have their own rank and classes too. Oh, for the day when all these will be broken down, when the impulse of the one blood will be felt, and when as one family each will love the other, and feel that one class depends on the other. It would be great if each person would strive to help and love the other as he should. My fine lady, in your silks and satins, you have gone to church many times and sat side by side with a poor old woman in her old red coat, who is as good a saint as you can be. But do you ever speak to her? Never in your life. You would not speak to her because you happen to be worth thousands, and she is only worth hundreds.

There you are, Sir John. You come to your place, and you expect everyone to be eminently respectful to you, as indeed they ought to be, for we are all honorable men. And in the same text that says, honor the king, also says, honor all men. And so we are obliged to honor every one of them. But you think that you, above all men, are to be worshiped. You do not condescend to men of low estate.

My dear sir, you would be a much greater man if you did not appear to be so great. Oh, I say again, blessed be Christ, blessed be his father for this commandment, and blessed be the world when this commandment will be obeyed, and we will all love our neighbors as ourselves.

And now, I will give the reasons why we should obey this command. The reasons why we should obey this command. We will begin with the best reason in all the world, which is, we are obliged to love our neighbors because God commands it. Because God commands it. To the Christian, there is no argument so powerful as God's will. God's will is the believer's law. The Christian does not ask what he himself will gain by it or what good will it do for others, but he simply says, does my father command it? Oh, Holy Spirit, help me to obey, not because I may see how it will be always good for me, but simply because you command it. It is the Christian's privilege to obey God's commandments, to obey his word.

But there are some other reasons which may prevail more with others of you who are not Christians. Let me say then that selfishness itself would invite you to love your neighbor. Let me say that again. Selfishness itself would invite you to love your neighbor. Oh, strange that selfishness would preach a suicidal sermon. But yet if self could speak, It might, if it were wise, deliver a sermon like this. Self, love your neighbor, for then your neighbor will love you. Self, help your neighbor, for then your neighbor will help you. I tell you, use your worldly wealth to gain friends for yourself, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Self, You want a life of comfort? Then make yourself comfortable by treating everybody well. Self, you want pleasure? You can get no pleasure if those around you hate you. Make them love you, dear self, and you will bless yourself. Yes, even if you are selfish, I wish that you were so preeminently selfish and so wisely selfish that you would love others to make yourself happy. The shortcut to be happy yourself is to try to make others happy. This world is very evil, but it is not so evil as not to sense the power of kindness. Treat those under you well. There are some of them that you cannot improve at all, but treat them well. And as a rule, they will treat you well. Treat those over you well. Some of them are gruff and evil, but as a class, they appreciate good workers. and they will treat you well.

Now, if I really wanted to be happy, I would not ask to have the wealth of this world, nor the things that men call comforts. The best comfort that I would desire would be loving those around me, and also would want an understanding that wherever I went in life, I would scatter happiness and make men happy. That is the way to be happy, and selfishness itself might say, love your neighbor, For in doing so, you love yourself. For there is clearly a connection between him and you, that in loving him, the stream of your love returns back into your own heart again.

But I will not give you such a petty motive as that. It is too inferior for a Christian. It should be too degraded even for a man. Love your neighbor because that will be the way to do good in the world.

You are philanthropists. Some of you are members of missionary societies. You give generously to the Society for Orphans and other charitable organizations. I am persuaded that these institutions, though they are excellent and good, are in some respects a loss. For now a man gives to society one-tenth of what he would have given to himself. And where an orphan would have been kept by a single family, now 10 families joined together to provide for that orphan. And so there is about one-tenth of the charity.

I think the man who has the time is obliged to give nothing at all to charitable organizations. Rather, he should give it all away himself, personally. Be your own benevolent organization. If there is a charitable organization for the sick, Then if you have enough money, be your own sick organization. If you have the time, go and visit the sick yourself, and then you will know that your money is well spent, and you will spare the expense of a staff.

There is a charitable organization for providing soup for the poor. Make your own soup. Give it away yourself. And if everyone who gives his generous gift to the organization would just spend half as much time to give the soup away himself, there would be far more done.

Charitable organizations are good. God forbid that I should speak against them. Do all you can for them, but still I am afraid that they sometimes thwart individual effort. And I know they rob us of a part of the pleasure which we would experience in the giving of our own donations personally, the pleasure of seeing the gleaming eye and of hearing the grateful word when we have personally distributed our own gifts to the poor.

Dear friends, remember that in order to do mankind any good, you are required to be kind to your fellow creatures. The best way for you to make the world better is to be kind yourself.

Are you a preacher? Preach in an unfriendly way and in a grumpy tone to your church, and before long, you will have quite a miserable church. Are you a Sunday school teacher? Teach your children with a frown on your face, and they will learn quite a lesson about love. Are you the master of a household? Do you hold family prayer time? Then be sure to scream insults at your family, and then say to them, oh, come, let us pray. There will be no devotion developed with such a manner as that.

Are you a warden of a jail and have prisoners under you? Abuse them and ill-treat them, and then send the chaplain to them. Their hearts will surely be as cold as ice to the word of God. You have poor people all around you. You wish to see them lifted up and encouraged. You are always grumbling about the shabbiness of their homes and their inferior taste. Go and quarrel with them about how they should live and act. That would be a fine way to improve them.

Now, go, go and wash that black frown off of your face and buy a little essence of summer sunshine somewhere and put it on your face. And have a smile on your lips and say, I love you. I am not one of you, but I love you. And as far as I can, I will prove my love to you. What can I do for you? Can I give you any assistance or speak a kind word to you? I think I could watch after your little daughter. Can I go get the doctor for your sick wife? All these kind things would make the world a little better.

Your jails and executions and all that never made the world better. You may hang men as much as you like. You will never stop murder. Hang us all. We would still not be much better because of it. There is no necessity for hanging anyone. It will never improve the world. Deal gently. Deal kindly. Deal lovingly. And there is not a depraved man that will fail to be melted by kindness. And there is not a wicked, perverse woman that will fail to break down and beg for forgiveness if God should bless the love that is brought to bear upon her by her friend.

I say again, for the good of the world, love your neighbors. Love your neighbor, for there is a great amount of misery in the world that you are not aware of. We have often spoken harsh words to poor, miserable souls. We did not know their misery, but we should have known it. We should have found it out.

I tell you, my dear landlord, that yesterday you went to give a warrant to evict a poor woman who has three children. Her husband died a long time ago. She was three weeks overdue in her rent. The last time she was overdue, to pay you, she sold her late husband's watch and her own wedding ring. It was all that she had that was dear to her, and she paid you. And you went to her the next week, and she begged for a little more patience. and you think highly of yourself because you gave her that little bit of patience. But when she could not pay on time, you said, the woman is good for nothing, and it is no particular business of mine whether she's got three children or not. Rent is rent, and business is business. Out she goes immediately.

Oh, if you could have seen that woman's heart when she stood penniless and homeless after she was evicted. She did not know where to send the children for the night. You should have said to her, nevermind my good woman, stay here. I cannot turn a widow out of house and home. But rather you sent your agent to do the dirty work and the sin was still charged to you all the same. You had no right to do it. You had a right according to man's law, but God's law says Love your neighbor as yourself.

A young man called on you a little while back. He said, sir, you know the little business I own. I have been struggling very hard, and you have kindly let me have some things on credit. But because of the pressures of the time, I seem to be in a very difficult financial situation. I think, sir, if I can make it through the next month, I might be able to turn this business around. I have every prospect of having a successful business yet. If I could just have a little more credit, if you could possibly allow it. Young man, you said, I have had a great many bad debts lately. Besides, you did not bring me anything to secure your additional credit. I cannot trust you. The young man bowed and left you. You did not know how he bowed in spirit as well as in body. That young man had a poor old mother and two sisters in the house, and he had tried to establish a little business that he might earn bread and cheese for them as well as for himself. For the last month, they have eaten scarcely anything but bread and butter, and the weakest tea has been their drink. And he has been striving hard, but someone poorer than he is, did not pay him the little debt that was due to him, and therefore he could not pay you. And if you would have helped him, it might have been all that was needed for him to survive and begin to prosper. And now he does not know what to do. His heart is broken. His soul is aching within him. That aged mother of his and those girls, what will become of them? You did not know his agony or else you would have helped him, but you ought to have known. You never should have dismissed his case until you have known a little more about him. It would not be businesslike, would it? No, sir, to be businesslike is sometimes to be devil-like. But you should not be businesslike when things are like this. Out with your business, be Christian-like, If you profess to be a Christian, then seek to serve God and obeying his commands. Love your neighbor as yourself. No, says another one. I am always very kind to the poor. There is a lady here who has a lot of extra money to spare. And she goes to visit the poor. And when she gets there, they give her a chair to sit in. And she sits down. and begins to talk to them about economy and gives them a good lecture on being more economical with what they have. The poor souls wonder how they are to economize any more than they do, for they eat nothing but bread and they cannot see that they can get anything much cheaper. Then she begins to exhort them about cleanliness and makes about 50 impertinent remarks about the children's clothes. Now, she says, My good woman, before I leave you, I want to give you this gospel tract. It is about drunkenness. Perhaps you will give it to your husband. If she does give it to him, he will beat her. You can count on it. Come now, she says, here is a quarter for you. And now the fine lady thinks, I love my neighbor. Did you shake hands with her? No, sir. Did you speak lovingly to her? Of course not. She is my inferior." Then you did not obey this command, love your neighbor as yourself. Let me tell you what happened after you left. That woman, as soon as you were gone, began to cry. She went to her minister for comfort. She said to him, Do you know, sir, I am very thankful to God that I have had a little relief given me this morning, but my spirit was almost broken. Do you know, sir, we used to be in better circumstances? This morning Mrs. So-and-so came and talked to me in such a way as if I had been a dog or as if I had been a child. And though she gave me a quarter, I did not know what to do. I wanted the quarter bad enough, or else I really think I should have thrown it after her. She talked in such a way that I could not bear it. Now, if you come to see me, sir, I know you will speak kindly to me, and if you give me nothing, at least you will not abuse me and find fault with me. Oh, she said, my heart is broken within me. I cannot bear this, for we have seen better days, and we have been used to different treatment than this. Now, my wealthy lady, you did not love her. Your quarter, what was the good of that if you did not put a little love on it? You might have made it as good as a golden coin if you had spread just a little love on it. She would have thought far more of it. Love your neighbors. Oh, I pray to God that I could always practice it myself and that I could impress it into every one of your hearts. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. And now the last argument I will use is one that is especially appropriate to the Christian.

Christian, your religion demands your love. Christ loved you before you loved him. He loved you when there was nothing good in you. He loved you though you insulted him, though you despised him and rebelled against him. He has loved you fully and never ceased to love you. He has loved you in your backslidings and loved you out of them. He has loved you in your sins and in your wickedness and folly. His loving heart was still eternally the same and He shed His heart's blood to prove His love for you. He has given you what you need on earth and provided for you a home in heaven.

Now Christian, your religion demands from you that you should love as your master loved. How can you imitate him unless you love also? We will leave to the Muslims, to the Jew, and to the unbeliever cold-heartedness and unkindness. It is more in keeping with their views, but with you, unkindness is a strange aberration. It is a gross contradiction to the spirit of your religion, And if you do not love your neighbor, I do not see how you can be a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And now let me conclude with a suggestion or two. My text suggests first the guilt of us all.

The guilt of us all. My friends, if this is God's law, who here can plead that he is not guilty? If God's law demands I should love my neighbor, I must stand in my pulpit and confess my guilt. In thinking of this text yesterday, my eyes ran with tears as I called to mind the many harsh words I had spoken in careless moments. I thought of many opportunities of loving my neighbor that I had ignored, and I labored to confess the sin. I am certain there is not one person in this immense audience who would not do the same. if he felt this law applied by the Spirit in power to his soul. O, are we not guilty? Kindest of spirits, most benevolent of souls, are you not guilty? Will you not confess it?

If no man can be saved by his works, unless he keeps this law of love perfectly, then who can be saved by his works? Have any of you loved your neighbor all your life with all your heart? If you have, then will you be saved by your own works if you have not broken any other command? But if you have not done it and cannot do it, then hear the sentence of the law. You have sinned, and you will perish for your sin. Do not hope to be saved by the mandate of the law.

And oh, how this endears the gospel to me! If I have broken this law of love, and I have, And if I cannot enter heaven with this law broken, precious is the Savior who can wash me from all my sins in his blood. Precious is he that can forgive my lack of charity and pardon my lack of kindness, who can forgive my roughness and my rudeness, and can put away all my harsh words, my bigotry and unkindness, and can, through his all-atoning sacrifice, give me a place in heaven despite my sins.

You are sinners this morning. You must feel it. My sermon, if blessed by God, must convince all of you of your guilt. Well then, as sinners, let me preach to you the gospel. Whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. Though he has previously broken this law of love, God will forgive him and put a new heart and a right spirit into his body, whereby he will be enabled to keep the law of love in the future by the spirit to a certain degree and will, in time, attain a crown of life in everlasting glory.

Now, I do not know whether I have been personal to anybody this morning. I sincerely hope that I have. I meant to be. I know that there are a great many persons in the world that must have a hat made exactly to fit them or else they will never wear it, and I have tried as best as I could to do that. Do not say how well that sermon applied to my neighbor, but just for once say how well it applied to me.

I will hope that there will be some good coming from this exhortation, and though the antinomian a person who believes that Christians are not required to obey any law, scriptural, civil, or moral, although he may turn away and say, ah, it was only a legalistic sermon. My love to that precious antinomian. I do not care about his opinion. My savior preached like that, and I will do the same.

I believe it is right that Christians should be told what they should do. and that self-centered people should know what Christianity will lead us to do, that the highest standard of love, of kindness, and of law should be uplifted in the world and kept constantly before the people's eyes.

May God bless you and be with you. For Jesus' sake, amen.