# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1861_S336
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

336 Report on the Law.

this to the Galatians, of 1519 and 1523, in Buchenhagen's translation
of the year 1525: "He says: As thyself. The examples of all other laws
are to be taken from outside us, but this one is shown to us inwardly,
within ourselves; and further, since outward examples are not felt and
do not live, they do not move a man sufficiently. But this example is felt
inwardly, in the heart; it lives and teaches most powerfully — not by
writings or letters, not by voices, not by thoughts, but by the very sense
of feeling and experience itself. For who does not feel entirely within
himself how thoroughly he seeks, considers, and tries out the things that
are wholesome, honorable, and needful for him? And this same sense and
feeling is itself a living indicator, an inward admonition, and a present
teaching of what you owe your neighbor — namely, exactly the things you
yourself seek, and with just such a heart. What need, then, is there that
we burden ourselves with many books? Why do we seek many teachers? Why do
we trouble ourselves with many useless works and righteousnesses? For it
is to this inward sense and affection that all laws are to be directed and
turned, all books and all works are to be measured by it, and it is in
this that a Christian is to be roused through all his works and through
his whole life. So no more powerful example of this divine teaching could
ever have been given; for this we neither see nor hear, as we do the
examples of other laws, but rather experience and live within it; and we
are at no time without it, nor is it ever without us, but the two are
always together at once. It is therefore an idle and useless question when
you ask: What, or how much, do you owe your neighbor? Accursed be the
distinctions of the sophistical magistri. The word is very near, in your
heart, Rom. 10:8, written there in letters so coarse that you could even
grasp it with your hand — namely, in that you yourself live and feel this
rule within you. He says: As thyself shalt thou love thy neighbor, no less
than you love yourself. Now, just how you love yourself, no one can or may
tell you better than you yourself, who alone feel it, and which can only
be guessed at by another. Therefore, too, no one can tell you better than
you yourself what is to be done, left undone, said, or wished for your
neighbor. For here the proverb does not apply which says: to be one's own
master is the most shameful thing; no — in this matter you are the very
best master of yourself, and the one least able to deceive you, though all
others are given to deceit. So very easy and near at hand has God set his
commandment, that no one may excuse himself if he fails to live rightly...
You also learn from this rule, without any teacher, that you can tell the
difference between works and good works: you will clearly find that it is
far better to do good to your neighbor, to wish him well, to be favorable
to him, to speak well of him, to be helpful to him, and