Who is mine enemy, that I should love him? Is it a creature or a thing outside my own creation? Can I see an enemy, except I first formulate this enemy and then look upon the object of my own conception? What is it that harms me? Can "height, or depth, or any other creature" separate me from the Love that is Good—that blesses infinitely one and all?
We may simply count our enemy to be that which defiles, defaces and dethrones the Christ-image that we should reflect. Whatever purifies, sanctifies, and consecrates human life is not an enemy. Shakespeare writes: "Sweet are the uses of adversity." Jesus said: "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my name's sake; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."
The law, with its "Thou shalt not," its demand and sentence, can only be fulfilled through the Gospel's benediction. Then, "Blessed are ye," in so much as the consciousness of good, grace and peace comes through affliction rightly understood; affliction sanctified in the purification it brings to the flesh, to pride, self-ignorance, self-will, self-love, self-justification. Sweet, indeed, are these uses of His rod! Well is it that the Shepherd of Israel passes all His flock under His rod, into His fold; thereby numbering them, and giving them refuge at last from the storm and the tempest.
