and bad lives love us as they love themselves; for they love that
which, if accepted by men, would lead to deep corruption of character.

Jesus Christ well put it that God must first be loved, with all the
heart, soul and mind, before a man is ready to love his neighbour as
himself. This loving of God, first, implies an acceptance of the
standpoint of God in regard to man and the looking upon one's fellow
man as God looks upon him. This standpoint of God is best seen in the
words and acts of Jesus Christ. A man in order, then, to love his
fellow man aright must be thoroughly imbued with the principles of the
Master. A man must look upon other men as having souls of eternal
value. A man who would do as Jesus would have him do must first have
His spirit of self-sacrificing love (Matthew 23:8-12; John 17:19;
Philippians 2:5-7; Isaiah 53:3; John 13:12-15).

Application of the Law.--The beauty of this law of love is that it may
be universally applied. There is no condition of man that it cannot
meet and satisfy. The crying wrongs of the home, society, the
industrial world, the state, arise out of its neglect and
condemnation. Men seek to make good their claims for things which
they think belong to them, they fight for them, gain them or lose
them, fight again or are fought, and in consequence race hatred, class
and industrial hatred embitter the hearts of men.

This law applied to the life of the individual, sweetens it in its
lowest depths and makes the strongest kind of a character. Paul is an
example of an able yet impetuous man, who let the gospel of the love
of Christ have its supreme way with him. We find in him no shrinking
from difficulties or death itself (2 Timothy 4:6-8). In the midst of
sore trials he wrote that remarkable classic (1 Corinthians 13) upon