FOR nearly two thousand years the world has had before it the example of the master Christian. To a considerable extent it has accepted the letter of Christianity, until a large proportion of the inhabitants of the earth have come to call themselves Christian. An analysis of the word "Christian" from the standpoint of the life and works of Christ Jesus, shows that to be a Christian requires putting into practice what Jesus taught and demonstrated, rather than mere adherence to the multiplicity of creedal forms that have represented Christianity since his time. A Christian, as defined by one of our dictionaries, is "one whose profession and life conform to the teaching and example of Christ." Then may we not ask, with a searching sense of our own responsibility, and profit withal, What has the world of Christianity been doing with the Master's command to love one's neighbor as one's self, which he said was like unto the great First Commandment?
Christians cannot plead that they do not know their neighbor, in extenuation of their indifference to the great needs of humanity; for in the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus answered for all time and for all people the question, "Who is my neighbour?" In the temple at Jerusalem, at various times the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the church gathered about him, quizzing him about religion and the trivialities of ritual law; asking about the tribute money, the resurrection, and the Sabbath; about clean and unclean food; and an astute lawyer of the Pharisees, less trivial than the others, perhaps, but no less anxious to confuse and entrap him, on one occasion asked, "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" Here, Jesus, recognizing his opportunity, accepted the challenge, and in answer to their inconsequential quibbling he propounded a statement of such vital import that the world has never been quite able to forget it, even though only a comparative few have understood it. He said: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. . . . Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
If the teachings of Jesus are to be accepted as the basis of Christian living, then must we not accept these commandments as the basis of human relationships? Human existence, judged from current events as recorded in the news of the day, our own experience, or the history of past events, would hardly prove that even the so-called Christian world has been very seriously considering the Sermon on the Mount as a basis for thought and action. The trouble lies in the world's great sense of material selfhood, and the seeming reality of material possessions. Whenever these errors predominate in human thought, there is always that accompanying brood of evils,—selfishness, greed, lust, avarice, hate, racial differences, jealousy, religious intolerance, pride of place and power,—all tending to disrupt harmony and peace among individuals, communities, and nations. They lead to indifference and neglect of another's need or right, and often to more serious conditions, where desire and effort are directed toward the destruction of whatever, or whoever, opposes them.
