connection with this Kingdom of God that the infinite worth of inwardness first comes into view. This is proclaimed in the language of enthusiasm, in tones so penetrating as to thrill the soul, and, as Hermes the psychagogue did, to draw it out of the body and bear it away beyond the temporal into its eternal home. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.”
Along with this elevation above, and complete abstraction from all that the world counts great, we everywhere find in Christ’s teaching a lament over the degradation of His nation, and of men in general. Jesus appeared at a time when the Jewish nation, owing to the dangers to which its worship had been exposed and was still exposed, was more obstinately absorbed in its observance than ever, and was at the same time compelled to despair of seeing its hopes actually realised since it had come in contact with a universal humanity, the existence of which it could no longer deny, and which nevertheless was completely devoid of any spiritual element—He appeared, in short, when the common people were in perplexity and helpless.
“I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.”
Accordingly, this substantial element, this universal divine heaven of the inner life, leads, under the influence of reflection of a more definite kind, to moral commands which are the application of that universal element to particular circumstances and situations. These commands, however, themselves partly apply only to limited spheres of action, and are partly intended for those stages in which we are occupied with absolute truth; they contain nothing striking, or else they are already contained in other religions and in the Jewish religion. These commands are comprised in the command of Love as their central point, love which has for its aim, not the rights, but the well-being of the other, and thus expresses a relation to its particular object. “Love thy neighbour
