ove for her child, for whose well-being she would
make any conceivable sacrifice, nay, were there need, would surrender life
itself? Have we not also sometimes witnessed, a filial devotion equally
entire and self-forgetting?

Nor are instances wanting, in which brothers and sisters, or friends who
had no bonds of consanguinity, have shown by unmistakable deeds and
sufferings that their love for one another was at least equal to their
self-love. This same love for others, as for himself, is manifested by the
self-devoting patriot, the practical philanthropist, the Christian
missionary. There is ample ground for it in the theory of humanity which
forms a part of our accustomed religious utterance. We call our fellow-men
our brethren, as children of the same Father. So far as sayings like these
are sentiments, and not mere words, there must be in our feelings and
conduct toward and for our fellow-men in general a kindness, forbearance,
self-forgetfulness, and self-sacrifice similar to that of which, toward
our near kindred, we would not confess ourselves incapable. Here it must
be borne in mind that the precepts of Christianity represent the
perfection which should be our constant aim and our only goal, not the
stage of attainment which we are conscious of having reached, or of being
able to reach with little effort.

*The love of enemies* is also enjoined upon us by Jesus Christ. Is this
possible? Why not? There are cases where one's nearest kindred are his
worst enemies; and we have known instances in which love has survived this
rudest of all trials. Were the Christian idea of universal brotherhood a
profound sentiment, it would not be quenched by enmity, however bitter.
Enmity toward ourselves need not affect our estimate of one's actual merit
or claims. If we should not think the worse of a man because he was the
enemy of some one else, why should we think the worse of him because he is
our enemy? He may have mistaken our character and our dispositions; and if
so, is he more culpable for this than for any other mistake? Or if, on the
other hand, he has some substantial reason for disliking us, we should
either remove the cause, or submit to the dislike without feeling
aggrieved by it. At any rate we can obey the precept, "Do good to them
that hate you;" and this is the only way, and an almost infallible way, in
which the enmity may be overcome, and superseded by relations of mutual
kindness and friendship.