Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/138



of our neighbor is the principal commandment. It is the commandment of commandments, the law of laws, the virtue of virtues. There is no other virtue like it, neither in heaven nor on the earth. No other possesses the hundredth part of its perfection; and in saying this, I do not mean to depreciate existing laws and commandments, but only to give love its full value.

And now, I ask yon, which is the most useful to man and the most agreeable to God, labor or love? Labor beyond a doubt. But there is only one labor that is more useful than love, and that is the labor that is done by virtue of the commandment, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou knead bread." This is the only labor that is more useful to man and more agreeable to God than love. Without it all others are useless, and even hurtful.

But it has never happened that any one has labored by virtue of this commandment, that is, 134