“In the long run all love is paid by love;
Though undervalued by the hosts of earth,
The great eternal government above
Keeps strict account, and will redeem its worth.
Give thy love freely; do not count its cost;
So beautiful a thing was never lost,
In the long run.”
“The man who wins is the man who stays
In the unsought paths and the rocky ways,
And, perhaps, who lingers, now and then,
To help some failure to rise again.
Ah, he is the man who wins!”
Jesus called his commandment of love a new commandment. Why new? There was an old commandment which ran, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Some people suppose that this is the same as the commandment Jesus gave to his disciples. But there are two differences. The old commandment refers to your neighbour, that is, to everybody; the new refers to your brother, that is, your fellow Christian. The other difference is in the measure of the love – “As thyself”; “as I have loved you.” The world never knew what love meant until Jesus came and lived among men. “As thyself,” leaves self and others, side by side; “as I have loved you,” carries us away beyond that, for Jesus made a sacrifice of himself in loving his disciples.
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