CHAPTER 97.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Levi
The Sermon on the Mount, continued. Jesus unfolds to the twelve the spiritual aspects of the fifth and sixth Commandments.
God is not force alone; for wisdom is his counterpart.
2 When cherubim instructed man in wisdom’s ways they said that wisdom is the Mother of the race, as force is Father of the race.
3 The man who honors the almighty and omniscient God is blessed, and in the tables of the law we read,
4 Pay homage to your Father and your Mother of the race, that your days may be prolonged upon the land that they have given you.
5 The letter of the law commands; You shall not kill; and he who kills must stand before the judgment seat,
6 A person may desire to kill, yet if he does not kill he is not judged by law.
7 The spirit of the law avers that he who shall desire to kill, or seeks revenge, is angry with a man without sufficient cause, must answer to the judge;
8 And he who calls his brother soulless vagabond shall answer to the council of the just;
9 And he who calls his brother a degenerate, a dog, fans into life the burning fires of hell within himself.
10 Now, in the higher law we read that if your brother is aggrieved by something you have done, before you offer unto God your gifts, go forth and find your brother and be reconciled to him.
11 It is not well to let the sun go down upon your wrath.
12 If he will not be reconciled when you have laid aside all selfish pleas, have waived all selfish rights, you will be guiltless in the sight of God; then go and offer unto God your gifts.
13 If you owe aught to any man and cannot pay; or if a man shall claim a greater sum than is his due, it is not well that you dispute his claims.
14 Resistance is the sire of anger; there is no mercy and no reason in a wrathful man.
15 I tell you it is better far to suffer loss than go to law, or call upon the courts of men to judge of right and wrong.
16 The law of carnal man would say, Eye for eye and tooth for tooth; resist encroachment on your rights.
17 But this is not the law of God. The Holy Breath would say, Resist not him who would deprive you of your goods.
18 He who would take your coat by force is still a brother man and you should gain his heart, which by resistance cannot be done;
19 Give him your coat and offer him still more and more; in time the man will rise above the brute; you will have saved him from himself.
20 Refuse not him who calls for help and give to him who asks to borrow aught.
21 And if a man shall strike you in a fitful, or an angry way, it is not well to smite him in return.
22 Men call him coward who will not fight and thus defend his rights; but he is much the greater man who is assailed, is smitten and does not smite;
23 Who is maligned and answers not, than he who smites the smiter and reviles the one who slanders him.
24 It has been said in olden times that man shall love his friend and hate his foe; but, lo, I say,
25 Be merciful unto your foes; bless those who slander you; do good to those who do you harm and pray for those who trample on your rights.
26 Remember, you are children of the God who makes his sun to rise alike upon the evil and the good, who sends his rain upon the unjust and the just.
27 If you do unto other men as they do unto you, you are but slaves, but followers in the way to death.
28 But you, as children of the light, must lead the way.
29 Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
30 When you do good to those who have done good to you, you do no more than other men; the publicans do that.
31 If you salute your friends and not your foes, you are like other men; the publicans have set the pace.
32 Be perfect as your Father-God in heaven is.