Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/464

 while the  Gentiles,  on  the  other  hand,  despised  the Jews for  their  observance  of  the  obsolete  customs  of the  Old  Law. Hence St.  Paul's  epistle  to  them  is primarily  a  plea  for  Christian  unity,  wherein  he  recommends the  study  of  the  Scriptures  as  the  great  unifier of  Christianity. And taking  his  own  epistle  as  an example,  especially  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  chapters, I  know  no  more  appropriate  reading  for  the  two great divisions  of  Christianity  at  the  present  day. " But  thou,"  he  says  to  one  party,  "  why  judgest  thou thy  brother;  or  thou,"  to  the  other,  "  why  dost  thou despise  thy  brother?  For  we  shall  all  stand  before the  judgement-seat  of  Christ." From St.  Paul  and from the  Scriptures  generally  we  learn  a  Christlike spirit of  forbearance,  so  that  the  most  erring  Judas receives from  us  not  the  Pharisaical:  "What  is  that to  us;  do  thou  see  to  it,"  but  rather  a  hearty  greeting as friend  and  brother. And it  is  characteristic  of  the foresightedness of  Leo  XIII. that he  gives  this  power of the  Scriptures  for  Christian  unity  its  true  value. In one  of  his  latest  encyclicals  there  is  a  logical  sequence wherein,  beginning  with  the  subject  nearest his heart — the  working  man,  the  labor  question — he advocates  a  union  of  Christendom  as  the  only  means of solving  that  problem,  and  recommends  the  study of the  Scriptures  as  the  surest  method  of  bringing disunited Christians  together.

" What  things  soever  were  written,"  says  St.  Paul, "were written  for  our  instruction." In this  age  of the  writing  mania  and  cheap  literature,  there  are books innumerable,  not,  unfortunately,  all  written  for