马太福音 7:12

All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets.

This is the Golden Rule. Since it is in this place connected with our Lord's teaching on prayer, the observance of this principle, therefore, becomes one of the conditions of acceptable prayer, along with a forgiving heart, importunity, and general submissiveness to the Father's will. There have been countless parodies on this. Westcott said, "Do unto the other feller the way he'd like to do unto you, an' do it fust!"[6] Mead has another, "Do unto others as they would do unto you if they had a chance."[7] Still, this verse haunts the human race; and, now and then, some wise man has caught a glimpse of its true importance. Millikan listed the idea of the Golden Rule first among those ideas that "stand out above all others in the influence they have exerted upon and are destined to exert upon the development of the human race."[8] Kossuth declared, "The era of Christianity - peace, brotherhood, the Golden Rule as applied to governmental matters - is yet to come, and when it comes, then and then only, will the future of nations be sure."[9]

[6] Ibid., p. 193, from Edward Noyes Westcott, Moral and Religious Aphorisms.

[7] Ibid., p. 191.

[8] Ibid., p. 192, from Robert Andrews Millikan, Forbes Magazine.

[9] Ibid., p. 192, from Lajos Kossuth.