Know ye not your own Selves?
By A. Thayer
"It was said by them of old time, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, Love your enemies." A Methodist communicant once said to me, "It is as much as I can do, not to hate my enemies, it is more than I can do to love them." But when the flesh is crucified, how easy then to love our enemies! How easy is the yoke of Christ! How light is his burden! They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with its affections and lusts. Hatred, anger, wrath, malice, with all other fruits of the flesh expire, when once the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, and love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness and meekness take their place. So if any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature; his old hatred has passed away, he can now bless them that curse him, without hypocrisy or guile, and laying aside all malice, envy, evilspeaking and guile, he desires the sincere milk of the word, that he may grow thereby. Let us above all things have fervent charity, for it is the bond of perfectness. — A. THAYER. Buckland, Mass., Dec. 3, 1858.