Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/115

 If there  was  one  thing  more  than  any  other  on  which the pagan  Romans  prided  themselves,  it  was  their strict sense  of  justice. In their  conquest  of  the  world this trait  is  continually  evidenced  in  their  harsh methods of  overcoming  opposition  on  the  one  hand, and on  the  other,  their  religious  toleration  and  general magnanimity  toward  the  vanquished. So selfwise  were  they  in  this  regard  that  Roman  converts  to Christianity  were  slow  to  believe  that  even  Christ could give  them  a  higher  ideal. St. Paul,  therefore, reproves their  vanity:  "  Be  not  wise,"  he  says,  "  in your  own  conceits,  for  worldly  wisdom  is  folly  with God,  and  what  is  foolishness  with  the  world  is  wisdom with  God.  Worldly  justice  is:  evil  for  evil,  an  eye for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,  but  the  law  of  God teaches  us  to  be  at  peace  with  all  men,  to  leave revenge  to  the  Lord,  to  overcome  evil  with  good,  to love  our  enemies,  to  do  good  to  them  that  hate  us and  to  pray  for  them  that  persecute  us."

Brethren, in  the  third  chapter  of  his  epistle  to  the Galatians, St.  Paul  says:  "As  long  as  the  heir  is  a child  he  differeth  nothing  from  a  servant,  though  he be  lord  of  all,  but  is  under  tutors  and  governors  until the  time  appointed  by  the  father." Not less  obstinate than  the  Roman  were  the  Galatian  converts, who, being  Jewish,  clung  tenaciously  to  the  observances of  the  synagogue. Accordingly St.  Paul  chides them, arguing  that  as  the  Old  Law  bears  the  same  relation to  the  New  that  childhood  does  to  manhood, therefore for  Christians  to  continue  in  Jewish  practices is  as  ridiculous  as  for  a  grown  man  to  find  amuse-