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JUSTICE
(Page 200) I. Justice is the second of the fundamental moral virtues, and enters into all our relations with God and our fellow-men. The basis of harmonious intercourse between intelligent beings consists in rights and duties. The fact of our being intelligent and masters of ourselves involves the right to certain things that are for the welfare of our life, and the right to act according to our will, except so far as this may conflict with the rights of mastery in others. To each right corresponds a duty upon others to refrain from encroachments. God possesses supreme rights of independent action and of ownership over all things. Our first duty then is to respect those supreme rights. Men, too, have rights either as individuals or in their corporate capacity, but not as against God. Many of these rights are assigned by Nature, i.e., by God as Author of the natural order; they accord with our natural needs, and so assert themselves spontaneously in us. All positive human law must respect these rights, and refrain from infringing them. Other rights rise out of the positive law of God, or are the creation of human law. Admire the moral and social harmony created by this system of rights and duties. Thank God for His wise dispositions. Remember that all rights rest on Him and are sacred; by respecting them you do homage to God and promote the general good order of the world.
II. The virtue which takes cognisance of rights and duties, and harmonizes the clash of contending interests is Justice. This virtue is so important, and enters so largely into all others, that its name is used as a general term that summarizes all virtues. Thus we are bidden to "accomplish all justice"; the commands of God are termed (Page 201) His "justices"; and sinners, of whatever kind their sins may be, are spoken of as the "unjust." Justice is manifested primarily in God's dealings with His creatures. He renders to each all that is its due according to His will, and all that it requires for the aim and object that He has appointed for it; and if we look below the surface of things and beyond the narrow span of the present life, we shall see that there is not only equity but a substantial equality in the dealings of the Lord with men. The justice of God is the rule of our relations with Him and with men. We enjoy a certain participation in it as one of our natural propensities; but beyond this, we receive with sanctifying grace a further supernatural infusion of it to perfect the natural virtue and make it current in the spiritual sphere. Pray that this justice may be accomplished in you, that it may influence all your actions, and become a leading quality in your character.
III. There are many forms of Justice, in accordance with the variety of persons who have rights, and of the debts which we owe of our substance, services, words, thoughts, esteem, love. We have duties of justice towards God, our parents, our country, our rulers, brethren, inferiors, those whom we have wronged, and those who have offended against us. There are duties of justice also which we owe to ourselves in the securing of our legitimate rights. Our law is to "render to all men their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour. Owe no man anything" (Rom. xiii. 7, 8). Violations of justice are abominable to God, whether we filch from the holocaust that we offer to Him, or from our neighbours by fraudulent dealings or false weights and measures of any kind (Prov. xx. 10). Injustice is anti-social in a very high degree. Injustice breeds injustice, and retaliation, and loss of confidence, and loosens all social bonds. On the other hand, "The work of justice shall be peace, and the service of justice quietness and security for ever" (Isa. xxxii. 17)
