And no man loves as Christ would have him love who does not bear in
his heart affection which has so conquered selfishness that, if need
be, he is ready to die.

The expression of Christian life is not to be found in honeyed words,
or the indolent indulgence in benevolent emotion, but in self-
sacrifice, modelled after that of Christ's sacrificial death, which
is imitable by us.

Brethren, it is a solemn obligation, which may well make us tremble,
that is laid on us in these words, 'As I have loved you.' Calvary was
less than twenty-four hours off, and He says to us, '_That_ is your
pattern!' Contrast our love at its height with His--a drop to an
ocean, a poor little flickering rushlight held up beside the sun. My
love, at its best, has so far conquered my selfishness that now and
then I am ready to suffer a little inconvenience, to sacrifice a
little leisure, to give away a little money, to spend a little
dribble of sympathy upon the people who are its objects. Christ's
love nailed Him to the Cross, and led Him down from the throne, and
shut for a time the gates of the glory behind Him. And He says, 'That
is your pattern!'

Oh, let us bow down and confess how His word, which commands us, puts
us to shame, when we think of how miserably we have obeyed.

Remember, too, that the restriction which here seems to be cast
around the flow of His love is not a restriction in reality, but
rather a deepening of it. He says, 'Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' But evidently He
calls them so from His point of view, and as He sees them, not from