vii.How to think about our Fellow-men - Chambers, Oswald

A new commandment i give unto you, that ye love one another; as i have loved you, that ye also love one another. John 13:34

There is no subject more intimately interesting to modern people than mans relationship to man; but men get impatient when they are told that the first requirement is that they should love god first and foremost. The first of all the commandments is, . . . Thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. In every crisis in our lives, is god first in our love? In every perplexity of conflicting duties, is he first in our leading? And the second is like, namely, this, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Remember the standard, as i have loved you. I wonder where the best of us are according to that standard? How many of us have turned away over and over again in disgust at men, and when we get alone with the lord jesus he speaks no word, but the memory of him is quite sufficient to bring the rebuke as i have loved you. It takes severe training to think habitually along the lines Jesus Christ has laid down, although we act on them impulsively at times. How many of us are letting Jesus Christ take us into his school of thinking? The saint who is thoughtful is like a man fasting in the midst of universal intoxication. Men of the world hate a thoughtful saint. They can ridicule a living saint who does not think, but a thinking saint i mean of course, one who lives rightly as well is the annoyance, because the thinking saint has formed the mind of Christ and re-echoes it. Let us from this time forth determine to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.