d--a brotherhood in
which every child will have a chance to grow to a noble manhood, and
every man and woman will have opportunity and encouragement to live a
free, wholesome, and useful life. That is the Christian ideal, and to
help towards its realisation is the duty laid upon every citizen of the
commonwealth. The problems of poverty, housing, unemployment,
intemperance, and all questions of fair wages, legitimate profits, and
just prices, fall under the regulative principle of social justice.
The law is, 'Render to all their dues.' The love which worketh no ill
to his neighbour will also withhold no good.[19]

(_b_) _Truthfulness_.--Justice is not confined to acts, but extends to
speech and even to thought. We owe to others veracity. Even when the
motive is good, there can be no greater social disservice than to fail
in truthfulness. Falsehood, either in the form of hypocrisy or
equivocation, and even of unsound workmanship, is not only unjust to
others; it is unjust to ourselves, and a wrong to the deeper self--the
new man in Christ.[20]

Is deception under all circumstances morally wrong? Moralists have
been divided on this question. The instance of war is frequently
referred to, in which it is contended that ruse and subterfuge are
permissible forms of strategy.[21] There are, however, many
distressing cases of conscience, in which the duties of affection and
veracity seemingly conflict. It must be remembered that no command can
be carried out to its extreme, or obeyed literally. Truth is not
always conveyed by verbal accuracy. There may be higher interests at
stake which might be prejudiced, and indeed unfairly represented by a
merely literal statement. {212} The individual conscience must decide
in each case. We are to speak the truth in love. Courage and
kindliness are to commingle. But when all is said it is difficult to
avoid the conclusion that in the last analysis lack of truth argues a
deficient trust in the ultimate veracities of the universe, and rests
upon a practical unbelief in the divine providence which can make 'all
things work together for good to them that love God.'

(_c_) Connected with truthfulness, and also a form of justice, is the
duty enjoined by St. Paul of forming _just judgments_ of our
fellow-men. If we would avoid petty fault-finding and high-minded
contempt, we must dismiss all prejudice and passion. The two qualities
requisite for proper judgment are knowledge