246 £SSAyS IN PHILOSOPHY 



fail to answer : Christ taugJit, and revealed in his 

 ozvn life, and above all in his death, the previously 

 unknozvn triitJi, that God is a Being of universal and 

 exhanstless love, zuho ^' zuoiild not that any sJionld 

 perish, hnt that all should have eterjial life." This 

 statement of Christ's peculiar doctrine is in so far 

 right that one cannot fail to find corroboration of it 

 on nearly every page of the New Testament, nor 

 can one state the real teaching of Jesus without 

 including this. The whole view held by Christ, 

 however cutting in its sharp contrast with the the- 

 istic views that went before him we may find it, 

 centres no doubt in this principle of universal love 

 — love of God for every soul alike, love due from 

 all souls to God, love owed by every soul to every 

 other. His single New Commandment only sums 

 this up: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 

 all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself." Never- 

 theless, when we leave the statement simply in this 

 general form, we fail to reach its real implications. 

 We need to go beyond the broad precept of uni- 

 versal love — benevolence that knows no limits of 

 number, race, sex, or other external conditions — 

 and ask searchingly what real love really implies, 

 love that without reserve can be called divine, or 

 suited to the nature of a Being of absolute good- 

 ness, of infinite wisdom and power. There might 

 well enough be a universal love that was full of 



