the life of Jesus?

It is evident that he lifted the ideal of friendship to a height to
which it never before had been exalted. He made all things new. Duty
had a new meaning after Jesus taught and lived, and died and rose
again. He presented among men new conceptions of life, new standards
of character, new thoughts of what is worthy and beautiful. Not one of
his beatitudes had a place among the world's ideals of blessedness.
They all had an unworldly, a spiritual basis. The things he said that
men should live for were not the things which men had been living for
before he came. He showed new patterns for everything in life.

Jesus presented a conception for friendship which surpassed all the
classical models. In his farewell to his disciples he gave them what
he called a "new commandment." The commandment was that his friends
should love one another. Why was this called a new commandment? Was
there no commandment before Jesus came and gave it that good men should
love one another? Was this rule of love altogether new with him?

In the form in which Jesus gave it, this commandment never had been
given before. There was a precept in the Mosaic law which at first
seems to be the same as that which Jesus gave, but it was not the same.
It read, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." "As thyself" was
the standard. Men were to love themselves, and then love their
neighbors as themselves. That was as far as the old commandment went.
But the new commandment is altogether different. "As I have loved you"
is its measure. How did Jesus love his disciples? As himself? Did he
keep a careful balance all the while, thinking of himself, of his own
comfort, his own ease, his own safety, and going just that far and no
farther in his love for his disciples? No; it was a new pattern of
love that Jesus introduced. He forgot himself altogether, denied
himself, never saved his own life, never hesitated at any line or limit
of service, of cost or sacrifice, in loving. He emptied himself, kept
nothing back, spared not his own life. Thus the standard of friendship
which Jesus set for his followers was indeed new. Instead of "Love thy
neighbor as thyself," it was "Love as Jesus loved;" and he loved unto
the uttermost.

When we turn to the history of Christianity, we see that the type of
friendship which Jesus introduced was indeed a new thing in the world.
It was new in its motive and inspiration. The love of the