ye? do not even the publicans the
same? 47. And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than
others! do not even the publicans so? 48. Be ye therefore perfect,
even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.'--MATT. v.
43-48.

The last of the five instances of our Lord's extending and deepening and
spiritualising the old law is also the climax of them. We may either
call it the highest or the deepest, according to our point of view. His
transfiguring touch invests all the commandments with which He has been
dealing with new inwardness, sweep, and spirituality, and finally He
proclaims the supreme, all-including commandment of universal love. 'It
hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour'--that comes from Lev.
xix. 18; but where does 'and hate thine enemy' come from? Not from
Scripture, but in the passage in Leviticus 'neighbour' is co-extensive
with 'children of thy people,' and the hatred and contempt of all men
outside Israel which grew upon the Jews found a foothold there. 'Who is
my neighbour?' was apparently a well-discussed question in the schools
of the Rabbis, and, whether any of these teachers ever committed
themselves to plainly formulating the principle or not, practically the
duty of love was restricted to a narrow circle, and the rest of the wide
world left out in the cold. But not only was the circumference of love's
circle drawn in, but to hate an enemy was elevated almost into a duty.
It is the worst form of retaliation. 'An eye for an eye' is bad enough,
but hate for hate plunges men far deeper in the devil's mire. To flash
back from the mirror of the heart the hostile looks which are flung at
us, is our natural impulse; but why should we always leave it to the
other man to pitch the keynote of our relations with him? Why should we
echo only his tones? Cannot we leave his discord to die into silence and
reply to it by something more musical? Two thunder-clouds may cast
lightnings at each other, but they waste themselves in the process.
Better to shine meekly and victoriously on as the moon does on piled
masses of darkness till it silvers them with its quiet light. So Jesus
bids us do. We are to suppress the natural inclination to pay back in
the enemy's own coin, to 'give him as good as he gave us,' to 'show
proper spirit,' and all the other fine phrases with which the world
whitewashes hatred and revenge. We are not only to allow no stirring of
malice in our feeling