LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 150, 26 June 1937, Page 26 (Supplement)

LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR.

THINK KINDLY OP HIM.

The "New Zealand Congregational, Monthly" devotes a page of each issue to informative and helpful note* by Violet Lane. Here is one in the current issue of the magazine on loving one's neighbour: — I don't know why it should be easier to love one's enemy than to love one's neighbour whom one cannot like, but it often is, don't you thinkt An enemy is frequently a most likeable person if one can only go on loving him or her long enough to turn enmity into friendship, often strong and lasting friendship. But a neighbour (in street, business, church, or home) may be one with whom we know perfectly well we eould never be on really friendly terms. No amount of adjustment eould make him an easy fit with you, your tastes do not agree, your disposition* clash, your temperaments are as ice and Are, you loathe each other's manners, polieh, or lack of it, you can feel your "aura" (or whatever it is called) fighting his long before you get near enough to shake hands or say "Good morning." Yet you must love him! Certainly, with a love that seeks to do good and not evil to him, to help him and think kindly of him. But it was with much relief I learnt recently from two undeniable authorities that I did not have to like such a person, nor he me. It is good to feel one can be sincere without being unkind or prickly.