Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

408 THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMof Christ they had a common home and a centralhearth. The fact was not only new, but when itbegan to arise was treated by Celsus in his objectionsto Christianity as a pretension so unattainable thatit was deserving of ridicule. Yet this universalreligion became a fact. The gods of the nations,the standard-bearers of their petty jealousies, theirnational exclusiveness, their moral corruptions, wentdown before the Cross. But the Faith of Christ asan universal religion, raised by its very nature abovethe pettiness of nationalities, likewise establishedequality between all nations in the exercise of theirrights. It did away with all predominance arisingm superior force or size. This equality, agis a necessary condition for a law of nations. Thesmall must feel that they are respected by the great:that the fact of great or small in the parties concernedhas nothing to do with the justice of the case. Butone justice flows out of one religion; and more particularlyone justice flows out of men's brotherhoodin Christ. For it is much to be noted that thequality of fallen human nature had never been ableto construct a law of nations. The Stoic doctrine ofreason has never been so persuasive over the heartsand minds of men as to lead them to admit an universaljustice. It was only the equality of regencrahuman nature which had that power. But the spduty which touches man and man, and which bythe same movement directs the relation of the individualto the State, reaches also, and by the sameforce, to the relation between one State and another.Morals, politics, international rights, have one andthe same foundation, one and the same measure.What is wrong in morals can never be right in