IVINE teaching is, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Here lies the key to all good action, to all profitable intercourse. The measure of love for our fellows is love for self. This is the least we are permitted to give. The patience, the charity, the service due our neighbor, is thus easily determined. Whatever one would do for himself, he should be willing to do for his neighbor,not for the next-door resident, but for the man who is needing help. The Master does not condemn self-love, but simply asks that the same respect, the same love, which one cherishes for himself be given to his neighbor also. Now, if self-love or self-respect be small, how little of glory would there be in the Christian religion, how little would it accomplish for mankind. That natural, universal principle which moves us in seeking comfort, happiness, education, wealth, position, is made the line by which we may ascertain our duties to our fellows.

Self-respect is not exactly self-love, but very akin to it. Self-love, inordinately developed, becomes selfishness, and self

ishness is the mother of self-indulgence. But self-love manifests itself thus only when the love for mankind is not thus correspondingly developed. Respect precedes love. It is hardly possible to love without respecting. Yet respect may exist without love. The maiden says, and may say truly: "I respect you, Mr. Jones, but I can not love you." Mr. Jones, though a very ordinary man, knows what that means. A says: "I know B is a good man. I respect him, but I have no love for him." C says: "I know my obligation to D is great, but I do not even respect him; how then can I love him?" Even the filial spirit sometimes dies out as one loses respect for a parent.

What is it to respect another? It is to honor him, to esteem him worthy of favor, to have regard for him, to have consideration for his feelings, his opinions, his age, his idiosyncrasies. We respect a judge when we have due regard for his decisions, a leader when we obey his commands, a neighbor when we recognize his rights. We may respect the office and yet have little regard for the man who occupies it; may respect one simply for his discoveries, his inventions, his genius, his service to his country. When, however, self is the object of the respect, it is impossible to lose sight of the whole of one's life and character. Memory, judgment and consciousness are too faithful to permit a partial view. In spite of all that can be done, too often some "damned spot will not out" and selfrespect becomes a loathing. We know ourselves thoroughly, -our thoughts, our desires, our envyings, temptations, ambitions, though we know very little of others. Perhaps 'tis well! Byron protests against lifting the veil from off our fellows, for it is best to remain ignorant of

"The hell that's there."

Frankly, is he not a rare man who could respect and love

and confide in a neighbor, did he know that he possessed such a history as his own self? The importance of intelligent moral training from earliest childhood becomes alarming. Though one may carry his own secrets through life, though mother, sister, wife be blissfully ignorant of them all, how surely do they return in hours of triumph to dim its brightest glories, in hours of devotion to disturb its most hallowed reveries!

That only obtains true respect and genuine homage which has the semblance of virtue. Virtue only retains such respect. This is true of self as well as of others. Few men become so degraded that they do not have some regard for that which they conceive to be pure and holy. The selfish boor becomes generous and tender to the mute appeals of the blue-eyed babe. The coarse jester plays not with the name of a sainted mother. The heartless libertine trembles before the indig nant remonstrance of innocent beauty. It is equally true that few become so dead to the perception of the hideousness of sin that they really respect it, even though it welcomes them to gilded palaces and sumptuous feasts. The wild mobs that sometimes assume to vindicate the majesty of the law are not composed entirely of the most immaculate of citizens.

It is now well recognized that the desire for the esteem of our fellows is natural and commendable. It is, however, like all other desires, liable to gross abuse. It may become an absorbing passion, and every noble sentiment may be throttled in the effort for its gratification; and yet, it may be the means by which one may be kept in the paths of probity and virtue. The desire brings true happiness only when the consciousness of merit is well defined, and the applause of the multitude becomes sweet music only when the highest tribunal, the human conscience, joins in full accord. Conscience, then, is the arbiter, and self-respect is based upon its judgments.