Chapter X.

JUSTICE; OR, DUTIES TO ONE'S FELLOW-BEINGS.

Justice, in the common use of the word, refers only to such rights and
dues as can be precisely defined, enacted by law, and enforced by legal
authority. Yet we virtually recognize a broader meaning of the word,
whenever we place law and justice in opposition to each other, as when we
speak of an _unjust law_. In this phrase we imply that there is a supreme
and universal justice, of whose requirements human law is but a partial
and imperfect transcript. This justice must embrace all rights and dues of
all beings, human and Divine; and it is in this sense that we may regard
whatever any one being in the universe can fitly claim of another being as
coming under the head of justice. Such, as we have already intimated, is
the sense in which we have used the term in the caption of a chapter which
will embrace piety and benevolence no less than integrity and veracity.

Section I.

Duties To God.

While we cannot command our affections, we can so *govern and direct our
thoughts* as to excite the affections which we desire to cherish; and if
certain affections must inevitably result from certain trains or habits of
thought, those affections may be regarded as virtually subject to the
will, and, if right, as duties. It is in this sense that gratitude and
love to God are duties. We cannot contemplate the tokens of his love in
the outward universe, the unnumbered objects which have no other possible
use than to be enjoyed, the benignity of his perpetual providence, the
endowments and capacities of our own being, the immortality of our natural
aspiration and our Christian faith and hope, the forgiveness and
redemption that come to us through Jesus Christ, and the immeasurable
blessings of his mission and gospel, without fervent gratitude to our
infinite Benefactor. Nor can we think of him as the Archetype and Source
of all those traits of spiritual beauty and excellence which, in man, call
forth our reverence, admiration, and affection, without loving in Him
perfect goodness, purity, and mercy. These attributes might, indeed, of
themselves fail to present the Supreme Being to our conceptions as a
cognizable personality, were it not that the personal element is so
clearly manifest in the visible universe and in God's constant providence.
But there are numerous objects, phenomena, and event