im as a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing
always before him.... Whoso findeth me findeth life."

* * * * *

But long before biologists perceived that love is the powerful force
which protects the species, and explains its survival, religion had
pointed to love as the force which preserves life. In order to live,
it is not enough to be created; the creature must also be loved. This
is the law of nature. "He who loveth not ... abideth in death." When
Moses gave the decalogue which was to guide the Hebrews to salvation,
he preceded it by the law: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." When the Pharisees came to
Christ, asking Him to declare the Law, He answered: "Do you not know?
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"; as if to say: the law is
evident and unique, it is the law of life, and for this reason must
always have existed, from the very beginning of the world. But to St.
Peter, who was to be the head of the new religion, love the transition
from the old to the new order was more fully explained: "Love," said
Christ, "even as I have loved you," that is to say, not as you are
capable of loving, but as I am capable of loving. There is a deep gulf
between the manner in which men are able to love themselves and that
in which Christ can love men. Men often rush headlong to their own
perdition; they are capable of confounding good with evil, life with
death, food with poison. Little confidence can therefore be felt in
the injunction: "Love thy neighbor as thyself." And it was in truth a
new commandment that Jesus gave, when He said: "Love even as I have
loved you."

Moses, indeed, had been obliged to supplement the law of love by a
decalogue of practical injunctions: "Honor thy father and mother, Thou
shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false
witness, Thou shalt not covet." Christ, on the other hand taught that
it will be enough if we do not demand measure for measure in love, and
that there will no longer be any need of the support of rules. We must
let the measure overflow; and behold! this in itself opens to man the
door of salvation. "If ye love them which love you, what thank have
ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to
them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do
even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what
thank have ye? for sin