One party has said, You must love God first, and let love to man
come after as it can; and others have contradicted that and said, You
must love all mankind, and let love to God take its chance. But St John
says, neither of the two is before or after the other; you cannot truly
love God without loving man, or love man without loving God. St John
says so, being full of the Spirit of God: but alas! men, who are not
full of the Spirit of God, but only let themselves be taught by Him now
and then and here and there, have found it very difficult to understand
St John, and still more difficult to obey him; and therefore there always
have been in God's Church these two parties; one saying, You must love
God first, and the other, You must love your neighbour first,--and each,
of course, quoting Scripture to prove that they are in the right.
The great leader of the first party--perhaps the founder of it, as far as
I am aware--was the famous St Augustine. He first taught Christians that
they ought to love God with the same passionate affection with which they
love husband or wife, mother or child; and to use towards God the same
words of affection which those who love really utter one to each other.
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