afflicted. And, indeed, our own fallen nature, if we give way to it,
will tempt us to the same sin. But how did men begin to look not
only on the afflictions, but on the interest, on the feelings, on the
consciences of their neighbours, when they began to be led by the
spirit of Christ? Let St. Paul speak for himself, not in one text
only, but in a hundred--'Though I be free from all, I have made
myself a servant to all--a Jew to the Jews, a Greek to the Greeks,
strong to the strong, weak to the weak; all things to all men, if by
any means I might save some. Whether we be afflicted, it is for your
consolation and salvation; or whether we be comforted, it is for your
consolation and salvation. For the love of Christ constraineth us.
For he died for all, that those who live should henceforth not live
to themselves, but to him.'

And what did he mean by living to Christ?--'Living in weariness and
painfulness, in watchings often; in hunger and thirst, in fastings
often, in cold and nakedness; beside that which cometh upon me daily,
the care of all the Church. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is
offended, and I burn not?'--Oh, who does not see in such words as
these the picture of a new ideal, a new life for man; even a life of
utter sympathy with his fellow-men, utter love and self-sacrifice--in
one word, utter humanity; as far above that old heathen poet's
selfish notion, as man is above the ape, or heaven above the earth!

This is the spirit of God, even the Holy Ghost; the spirit of Christ,
which also is the spirit of humanity; because it is the spirit of
Christ, who is both God and man, both human and divine. This is the
spirit of love, by which God created mankind and all the worlds, that
he might have something which was not himself whereon to spend his
boundless love. This is the spirit of love, by which he spared not