Remember that the spirit of God is the spirit of Christ, and that the
spirit of Christ is the spirit by which the good Samaritan helped the
poor wounded man, simply because he was a man. Remember that the
spirit of God, so far from making you unlike a man, comes to make you
more perfect men; so far from parting you from your fellow-men, comes
to knit you more to your fellow-men, by making you understand them,
feel for them, make allowances for them, long to help them, however
different in habits or in opinions they may be from you; that it is,
in one word, the spirit of humanity, which comes down from heaven
into your hearts to make you humane, as it descended on Christ, that
he might be the most humane of all human beings--the very Son of Man,
who knew, understood, loved, suffered for, and redeemed all mankind,
because in him all humanity was gathered into one.
That spirit is not far from any of you. Surely he is in all your
hearts already, if you be worthy of the name of men. He is in you,
unless you be inhuman, and that, I trust, none of you are. From him
come every humane thought and feeling you ever had. All kindliness,
pity, mercy, generosity; all sense or justice and honour toward your
fellow-men; all indignation when you hear of their being wronged,
tortured, enslaved; all desire to help the fallen, to right the
oppressed;--whence do these come? From the world? Most surely not.
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