"One might suppose, from the judge's remarks, that the world had but one sin—and only one virtue," said Mr. Jodderel.
"According to Scripture," exclaimed the judge, "there is but one virtue, for it includes all others. Its name is Love—will the gentleman remember that the assertion is Christ's, and not mine? There is more than one sin, truly; but not one of the dreadful number could exist were the one virtue practiced as it should be. And this brings me back to the leading idea of the lesson, from which I have unintentionally been diverted toward specialties. And yet, I know not how better to explain the nature of righteousness according to the law, than to continue in use the illustration that I have been using—the treatment, by each other, of men in their business affairs. For there are but few relations of men that cannot be classified under business heads. By implication, sins against self and nature belong in the same category, for the man who impairs in any way his own physical and mental capital, injures to a greater or less extent the whole community in which he resides. To save man and to bless him is the whole aim of the law, for it is only by man in his proper condition that God can be fully glorified. Thus regarded, the way of righteousness can never seem hard, tiresome, or narrow—it is rather the only highway which is always delightful. The promise given, therefore, in this beatitude is the most precious in the whole Bible, for there is no good it does not include, nor any evil which it does not help us to shun."
"That's the first satisfactory description I ever heard of the law," remarked Mr. Radley. "I wonder why other men—preachers, even—never talk about it in the same way."
"They'd lose all their wealthy pew-holders if they did," answered Captain Maile.
"Not all," said Mr. Buffle, "at least, not if I'm as well off in this world's goods as I think I am. And I don't propose to forget what I have heard."
"It is very evident, however," said President Lottson, "that Christ knew that this idea of the law—which I admit to be as sound as it is beautiful—could never be fulfilled by man, or he would never have considered it necessary to make an atonement for sin, and urge people to accept it, instead of trying to be saved by righteousness alone. The gentleman lays great stress upon the failings of business men. They exist about as he has painted them, but had he spent his own life in business instead of among the abstractions of a learned profession, he would see the other side of the case, which is that business is selfish, that it cannot be otherwise, and that man's only hope lies in Christ's promises."
"Only hope of what?" asked Squire Woodhouse.
"Of salvation, of course," replied the president.