"That is the fourth commandment.
"The fifth commandment is that in your oW loA»4V-*i-i>s.
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said: 'Love the people of your own nation, and hate the people of other nations,'
"But I tell you that you must love everybody. If men think themselves your enemies, and hate and curse you, and attack you, you should still love them and do good to them. All men are sons of one Father. Alt are brethren; and therefore you must love every one the same.
"That is the fifth and last commandment."
Matt. V. 21-48.
VII.
And Jesus went on to tell alt who were listening to him what would happen if they obeyed his commandments.
"Do not think," said he, "that if you do not get angry with people, are peaceable with everybody, live with one wife, do not swear, do not defend yourselves against those who offend you, and give away all you are asked for, and love your enemies—do not think that if you live like that, your life will be harder and worse than it is now. Do not think so; your life will not be worse, but much better than it now is. Our heavenly Father has given us this law, not to make our lives worse, but that we mi^t have true life.
"Live according to this teaching, and the Kingdom of God will come, and you will have all you need,
"To birds and beasts God has given their laws, and when they live according to those laws things go well with them. And things will go well with you, if you obey the law of God. What I say, I do not say from myself, but it is the law of God, and is written in the hearts of all men. If this law would not bring welfare to men, God would not have given it.
"The law, in a few words, is that we should love God,
and our neighbor as ourselves. He who obeys this law behaves to others as he would wish them to behave to him.
"And therefore every one who hears these words of mine, and fulfils them, does as a man does who builds his house on a rock. Such a man fears neither rain, nor floods, nor storms, because hts house is built on a rock. But every one who hears my words, and does not fulfil them, acts like a thoughtless man who builds his house on sand. Such a house will not stand against the waters or the storms, but will fall down in ruins."
And when Jesus had finished speaking, the people were astonished at his teaching. Matt. VI, 26-33; VII, 24,-8.
VIII.
And after that Jesus began to explain to the pe<^1e, in parables, the meaning of the Kingdom of God.
Here is the first parable he told them:
"When a man sows seed on his field, he does not keep thinking about it, but sleeps at night, and gets up in the morning, and goes about his business without troubling how the seeds come up and grow. The seeds swell and sprout, the green appears, stalks form, then ears, and the grain swells. And only when the corn is ripe for harvest does the master send laborers to reap it.
"So also God does not establish the Kingdom of Heaven among men by His own power, but leaves it to people to establish it themselves."
Jesus told them a second parable, to show that men who have not the Kingdom of Heaven within them, and whom, therefore, God does not take into His Kingdom, He leaves in the world for them to make themselves worthy to enter the Kingdom of God.
He said:
"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a fisherman who casts out his nets in the sea and catches all sorts of fish. Having caught them, he sorts them, keeps those he needs, and puts back into the sea those that are no good."
And he told a third parable about the same thing:
"A master sowed good seed in his field; but when the seed began to come up, weeds grew up too among it. And the laborers came and said to the master, 'Did you sow bad seeds? Many weeds are growing in your field. Send us, and we will go and pull them up.' But the master said, 'No; you had better not, or in pulling up the weeds you will tread down the wheat; let them grow together, and when harvest-time comes, I will tell the reapers to gather up the wheat, and to throw away the weeds.'
"So also God does not allow people to interfere with the lives of others, and does not interfere Himself. Only by his own efforts can each man come to God."
Mark IV, 26-9; Matt. ХП1. 47, 48; 24-30.
IX.
Besides these parables, Jesus told another about the Kingdom of Heaven.
He said r
"When seeds are sown in a field, not all of them grow up alike. This is what happens: some seeds fall on the road, and birds come and pick them up. Others fall on stony ground, and though they grow up, it is only for a short time, for they have no soil into which to strike their roots, and so their shoots soon dry up. And some seeds fall among thorns, and the thorns choke them. But there are some that fall on good earth, and grow, and one grain bears thirty or sixty grains.
"So it is with men. There are some who do not re-
ceive the Kingdom of Heaven into their hearts; and temptations of the flesh come to them and steal away what was sown: tliese are the seeds sown on the road. The seed on the stony ground is, when men at first accept the teaching gladly, but afterwards, when they are insulted and persecuted for it, turn away from it. The seed among thorns is, when people understand the meaning of the Kingdom of Heaven, but worldly cares, and greed for riches choke it within them. And those that are sown on good ground, are those who understand the meaning of.the Kingdom of Heaven, and take it into their hearts, and these peofJe bear fruit, some thirty, and some sixty, and some a hundredfold.
"So that he who has kept what was given him will receive more; but from him who has not kept what was ^ven him, all that he has will be taken away. Therefore try with all your might to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Do not grudge anything, if only you can get in.
"Do like the man who, when he found out that a great treasure had been buried in a field, sold all he had and bought that field, and became rich. You should do the same.
"Remember that a little effort for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven brings much fruit; just as a small seed grows into a big tree."
"Every one can by his own effort gain the Kingdom of God, for the Kingdom of God is within you."
Matt. Xm, 3-8. 12, 19-23, 31, 32, 44-6; Luke XVI, 16.
And, hearing -these words, a Pharisee named Nico-demus, came to Jesus and asked him how he was to understand that the Kingdom of God is within us. And Jesus
said, "That the Kingdom of God is within us means that to enter it we must be bom again."
And Nicodemus asked: "How can a man be bora again? Can a man go back inside his mother, and again be bom?"
Jesus said to him: "To be bom again does not mean to be born in the flesh, as a baby is bom of its mother, but for the spirit to be born. For the spirit to be bom, means, to understand that the spirit of God lives in man, and that besides being born like every man of his mother, he is also bom of the spirit of God. What is bom of the body is of the body; it suffers and dies. What is bom of the spirit is spirit, and lives by itself, and can neither suffer nor die.
"God put his spirit into men, not that they should suffer and perish, but that they should have a glad and an everlasting life. And every man can have that life. That life is the Kingdmn of Heaven.
"So the Kingdom of God must irat be understood to mean that at some time and in some particular place, the Kingdom of God will come to everybody; but tfiat if people realize the spirit of God in themselves, and live by it, then they enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and do not suffer or die; but if people do not realize the spirit that is in themselves, and live for their bodies, then they suffer and perish." John Ш, 1-21. XI.
More and more people followed Jesus and listened to his teaching; and the Pharisees did not like this, and they began to consider what they could accuse Jesus of, before the people.