19 Give him your coat and offer him still more and more; in time the man will rise above the brute; you will have saved him from himself. 20 Refuse not him who calls for help and give to him who asks to borrow aught. 21 And if a man shall strike you in a fitful, or an angry way, it is not well to smite him in return. 22 Men call him coward who will not fight and thus defend his rights; but he is much the greater man who is assailed, is smitten and does not smite; 23 Who is maligned and answers not, than he who smites the smiter and reviles the one who slanders him. 24 It has been said in olden times that man shall love his friend and hate his foe; but, lo, I say, 25 Be merciful unto your foes; bless those who slander you; do good to those who do you harm and pray for those who trample on your rights. 26 Remember, you are children of the God who makes his sun to rise alike upon the evil and the good, who sends his rain upon the unjust and the just. 27 If you do unto other men as they do unto you, you are but slaves, but followers in the way to death. 28 But you, as children of the light, must lead the way. 29 Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. 30 When you do good to those who have done good to you, you do no more than other men; the publicans do that. 31 If you salute your friends and not your foes, you are like other men; the publicans have set the pace. 32 Be perfect as your Father-God in heaven is. CHAPTER 98. _The Sermon on the Mount, continued. Jesus reveals to the twelve the spiritual aspects of the seventh, eighth and tenth Commandments._ The law forbids adultery; but in the eyes of law adultery is an overt act, the satisfaction of the sensuous self outside the marriage bonds. 2 Now, marriage in the sight of law is but a promise made by man and woman, by the sanction of a priest, to live for aye in harmony and love. 3 No priest nor officer has power from God to bind two souls in wedded love. 4 What is the marriage tie? Is it comprised in what a priest or officer may say? 5 Is it the scroll on which the officer or priest has written the permission for the two to live in marriage bonds? 6 Is it the promise of the two that they will love each other until death? 7 Is love a passion that is subject to the will of man? 8 Can man pick up his love, as he would pick up precious gems, and lay it down, or give it out to any one? 9 Can love be bought and sold like sheep? 10 Love is the power of God that binds two souls and makes them one; there is no power on earth that can dissolve the bond. 11 The bodies may be forced apart by man or death for just a little time; but they will meet again. 12 Now, in this bond of God we find the marriage tie; all other unions are but bonds of straw, and they who live in them commit adultery, 13 The same as they who satisfy their lust without the sanction of an officer or priest.