Jesus, however, teacheth the matter most perfectly. Accepting the love of God for man as assured, then the great commandment for man is—
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."[A] "Love is the fulfilling of the law"[B]—
"All's Love, yet all's Law."[C]
[Footnote A: Matt. xxii.]
[Footnote B: Rom. xiii:10.]
[Footnote C: Browning.]
Love exists in the earth-scheme of things, in the moral government of the world, as we have seen, in harmony with the universal reign of law. It is not born of some caprice, or mere impulse, howsoever beneficent; but interwoven it is into the very web of things, and is immanent in them, an indestructible Presence. It is because love reigns in harmony with law that we mortals can be so sure of it; and rest so secure in it. For as it was not born of caprice, so, too, it will not depart from the world, nor from individuals on caprice; but will endure as space itself endures—from the very nature of it; as truth abides; as law itself subsists; as God lives; for it is of the Eternal Things—the Things that do not pass away.
APPENDIX.
Other Views of the Atonement.