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THE BIRTH OF CHRISTIANITY
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the sun rise on the good and the evil, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. The inhumanity of man has extinguished all hope in the heart of man that erring humanity can ever be redeemed. Jesus consoles man that all hope is not lost. God can help man in his woe, if only man has faith in God. For, says he, faith can accomplish what verges on the border of impossibility. It can move the mountain and cast it into the sea. Let man love God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind, and with all his strength, and let him love his neighbour as himself and all will be well with the world. Love for God and love for God's children are the two fundamental commandments, says Jesus. Love is the fulfilment of the law. Humanity's salvation lies in its faithful practice of universal love. The Kingdom of Heaven, says Jesus, is at hand and he exhorts his disciples to preach this gospel of hope throughout the earth.

Men and women, says Jesus, are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in them. The world would be a paradise if they remained true to their noble inheritance and lived godly lives. But given freedom of action, they have gone astray from the path of equity and made life upon earth full of suffering and sorrow. Avarice and envy, jealousy and hatred have split the world of human beings who began life upon earth on terms of equality as children of the common Father, into two antagonizing factions of the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor. The strong and rich own and rule the world, the weak and poor toil and suffer, and the number of the weak and poor is legion. Jesus comes as the friend and saviour of the weak and poor. He consecrates weakness and poverty in his own person and lives his life as the weakest and the poorest of mankind. He extols the virtues wedded to weakness and poverty and preaches a philosophy of life for the rescue and uplift of the weak and poor, the sorrowing and suffering.

The philosophy of life that Jesus teaches us has love for its basic principle. To love one's neighbour as one loves one's self, is the chief commandment. Love is the binding force, the bond of unification between man and God, and man and man. This sphere of love knows no limits. It is neither tribal, nor communal, nor national. It is universal. Wherever man meets man, there love should be. If a man loves God, but hates his fellow-