means. This opposition, however lawful, is scarcely ever compatible
with any high degree of charity or affection. But whatever of aversion,
antipathy or even hatred is thereby engendered, it is not of a personal
nature; it does not attain the individual, but embraces a category of
beings as a whole, who become identified with the cause they sustain
and thereby fall under the common enmity. The law that binds us unto
love of our enemy operates only in favor of the units, and not of the
group as a group.

Hatred, aversion, antipathy, such as divides peoples, races and
communities, is one, though not the highest, characteristic of
patriotism; it may be called the defect of a quality. When a man is
whole-souled in a cause, he will brook with difficulty any system of
ideas opposed to, and destructive of, his own. Anxious for the triumph
of what he believes the cause of right and justice, he will rejoice
over the discomfiture of his rivals and the defeat of their cause. Wars
leave behind an inheritance of hatred; persecution makes wounds that
take a long time to heal. The descendants of the defeated, conquered or
persecuted will-look upon the generations of their fathers' foes as
typifying oppression, tyranny and injustice, will wish them all manner
of evil and gloat over their downfall. Such feelings die hard. They
spring from convictions. The wounds made by injustice, fancied or real,
will smart; and just as naturally will men retain in their hearts
aversion for all that which, for them, stands for such injustice. This
is criminal only when it fails to respect the individual and become
personal hate.

Him who has done us a personal injury we must forgive. Pardon drives
hatred out of the heart. Love of God is incompatible with personal
enmity; therefore such enmity must be quelched. He who says he loves
God and hates his brother is a liar, according to divine testimony.
What takes the place of this hate? Love, a love that is called common
love, to distinguish it from that special sort of affection that we
have for friends. This is a general kind of love that embraces all men,
and excludes none individually. It forbids all uncharity towards a man
as a unit, and it supposes a disposition of the soul that would not
refuse to give a full measure of love and assistance, if necessity
required it. This sort of love leaves no room for hatred of a personal
nature in the heart.

Is it enough to forgive sincerely from the heart? It