" HOU SHALT love thy neighbour as thyself" (Lev. xix. 18).
NEIGHBOR
1. LOVE FoR ONE's NEIGHBOUR
" HOU SHALT love thy neighbour as thyself" (Lev. xix. 18). We often wrong ourselves; but we soon forgive ourselves those wrongs and do not at all lessen our love to ourselves. In like manner we should love our neighbour. Our Saviour has made this the second great commandment of the law (Matt. xxii. 39); and the apostle shows how it is the summary of all the laws of the second table (Rom. xiii. 9, 10; Gal.
v. 14). We must love our neighbour as truly as we love ourselves, and without discrimination. We must give evidence of our love to our neighbour in the same way as we give evidence of our love to ourselves, preventing his hurt, and procuring his good to the utmost of our power. Nay, we must in many cases deny ourselves for the good of our neighbour, as St. Paul (1 Corsix: 19):
This second great commandment is /zke the first (Matt. xxit. 39). It is like it, for it is founded upon it and flows from it. A right love to our brother whom we have seen is both an instance and an evidence of our love for God, whom we have not seen (1 John iv. 20). Of course, it is implied that we do and should love ourselves. There is a self-love which is corrupt, and the root of the greatest sins, and it must be put off and mortified. But there is a self-love which is natural and the rule of the greatest duty. This must be preserved and sanctified. We must love ourselves. That is, we must bare a due regard to the dignity of our own natures, and a due concern for the welfare of our souls and bodies.
2. Wuo 1s My NEIGHBOUR?
In the same way we are to love our neighbours, as we have seen, sacrificing and suffering for our neighbours, even though our neighbour be a stranger or an enemy. This is the teaching of the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke «x. 25-32). A lawyer had been asking Jesus a series of questions, passing from one