Yet if this
position be really untenable, how is it possible to obey Christ's
commands?
The difficulty seems to admit of only one solution. We are not commanded
to create by an effort of will a feeling of love in ourselves which
otherwise would have had no existence; the feeling must arise naturally
or it cannot arise at all. But a number of causes which are removable
may interfere to prevent the feeling from arising or to stifle it as it
arises, and we are commanded to remove these hindrances. It is natural
to man to love his kind, and Christ commands us only to give nature
play. He does not expect us to procure for ourselves hearts of some new
supernatural texture, but merely the heart of flesh for the heart of
stone.
What, then, are the causes of this paralysis of the heart? The
experience of human life furnishes us readily with the answer. It
constantly happens that one whose affections were originally not less
lively than those of most men is thrown into the society of persons
destitute of sympathy or tenderness.
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