The Liberation from Legislation

Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances, and nailing it to His cross.” — Cot. ii. 14. ‘No man ever hated his own flesh.” — Hpu. v. 29,

HERE are some mothers who have had

a handwriting of rules hung upon the wall of the nursery, which were designed to regulate the conduct of the children. Among these rules you would find a vast variety of precepts. But I feel quite sure that there would be one conspicuous by its absence. You would find no precept forbidding a boy to strike himself. Why would such a precept be absent? Because it would be useless. No man ever hated his own flesh, and so there is no need to put up a rule prohibiting self-hurt. Now, this is Paul’s idea of the abolished handwriting. It is abolished because it has become useless. As long as each man believed his neighbour to be a different being, it was essential that there should be rules as to his conduct towards him, But when a man comes to Christ he feels that his neighbour is a part of himself — he loves his neighbour as himself. Any gain to his neighbour would be a gain to him; any hurt to his neighbour would be a hurt to him. Accordingly, there is no need to hang up rules — “Thou shalt not kill,” “Thou shalt not steal,’ “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” That would be saying to the boy, “Do not strike yourself.” When my neighbour is a part of myself, the rules are taken down from the nursery wall and nailed to Christ’s Cross. Law merges into love. Even as the light of the separate planets merges in the morning sun, so do the Ten Statutes melt in one blaze of glory which comprehends and transcends them all — the fire of the heart. Enlarge my self-nature, O my Father! What I need to make me unselfish is not fewer rooms, but more. Give me more rooms in my dwelling, O Lord! Help me to feel that the life of my brother man is a part of my life! Unite me to him by a common centre! Give me the sense that he is a member of my body! Let me experience his pain as my pain, his joy as my joy! When I speak of my self-interest, may I mean his interest as well as mine! May every disappointment to him be felt by me as against my interest! When I hear of his impoverishment, may it be to me the tidings of a personal loss; when I hear of his promotion, may it be to me the tidings of a personal gain! Help me to understand the tears of Thy Christ over Jerusalem! Help me to understand the tears of Thy Christ over Bethany! Help me to understand that He wept for His own flesh, wept for the members of His own body! Help me to realise that the wounds of Jerusalem wounded Him, that the griefs of Bethany grieved Him! Help me to see that His sympathy came from the rent in His own heart! Help me to know that, when He saw the wheels of life bring hunger and thirst and cold and sickness to others, He said by Divine telepathy, “They did it unto Me”! When I have comprehended that Life of Love, there will be no need any longer to inscribe the rules upon my nursery wall.