Mosaic law
was inspired by Sinai; the love of the Christian law got its
inspiration from Calvary. The one was only cold, stern law; the other
was burning passion. The one was enforced merely as a duty; the other
was impressed by the wondrous love of Christ. No doubt men loved God
in the Old Testament days, for there were many revealings of his
goodness and his grace and love in the teachings of those who spoke for
God to men. But wonderful as were these revelations, they could not
for a moment be compared with the manifestation of God which was made
in Jesus Christ. The Son of God came among men in human form, and in
gentle and lowly life all the blessedness of the divine affection was
poured out right before men's eyes. At last there was the cross, where
the heart of God broke in love.

No wonder that, with such inspiration, a new type of friendship
appeared among the followers of Jesus. We are so familiar with the
life which Christianity has produced, where the fruits of the Spirit
have reached their finest and best development, that it is well-nigh
impossible for us to conceive of the condition of human society as it
was before Christ came. Of course there was love in the world before
that day. Parents loved their children. There was natural affection,
which sometimes even in heathen countries was very strong and tender.
Friendships existed between individuals. History has enshrined the
story of some of these. There always were beautiful things in
humanity,--fragments of the divine image remaining among the ruins of
the fall.

But the mutual love of Christians which began to show itself on the day
of Pentecost surpassed anything that had ever been known in even the
most refined and gentle society. It was indeed divine love in new-born
men. No mere natural human affection could ever produce such
fellowship as we see in the pentecostal church. It was a little of
heaven's life let down upon earth. Those who so loved one another were
new men; they had been born again--born from above. Jesus came to
establish the kingdom of heaven upon the earth. In other words, he
came to make heaven in the hearts of his believing ones. That is what
the new friendship is. A creed does not make one a Christian;
commandments, though spoken amid the thunders of Sinai, will never
produce love in a life. The new ideal of love which Jesus came to
introduce among men was the love of God shed abroad in human hearts.
"As I