Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/395

 soever shall  say  to  his  brother  '  Raca '  shall  be  in danger  of  the  council;  and  whosoever  shall  say 'Thou fool'  shall  be  in  danger  of  hell-fire."  To  observe the  fifth  commandment,  therefore,  it  is  not enough  to  keep  our  hands  from  our  brother's  throat. No,  we  must  also  avoid  abusing  him  with  our  tongue, or  desiring  in  our  hearts  to  avenge  on  him  real  or imagined  wrongs.  True,  there  is  nothing  bad  in  an honest  indignation  at  wrong-doing  or  a  virtuous frown  or  a  severe  but  timely  reprimand,  but  if  vengeance be  our  motive  and  the  destruction,  not  of  the offence  but  of  the  offender  our  object,  we  simply commit  a  mortal  sin  against  the  fifth  commandment. And  the  more  we  allow  anger  to  develop  into  hatred — and  hatred  into  Raca,  i.e.,  open  contempt — and open  contempt  into  such  abuse  as  "  thou  fool " — and abuse  into  actual  murder,  the  greater  shall  be  our torture  in  hell  for  all  eternity. For just  as  among the Jews  there  were  three  grades  of  capital  punishment, (i)  sentence  of  death  with  right  of  appeal  in the  lower  court  or  judgment,  (2)  sentence  of  death without appeal  in  the  higher  court  or  council,  (3) stoning at  the  stake  without  trial,  by  the  mob,  so  also are there  different  degrees  of  torment  in  hell. But note the  difference. In the  Old  Law  the  punishment was temporal,  in  the  New  it  is  eternal  death;  in  the Old a  skilful  defence  or  renewed  appeals  could  do much,  in  the  New  there  is  no  defence,  no  appeal;  in the  Old,  only  downright  murder  was  punishable  by the  judgment  in  this  world,  in  the  New  the  vengeful incur the  judgment,  sneerers  the  council,  revilers