THE NEW LA W. 83 



ress from the brutal state. Was it not to a semi-barbarian 

 people, incapable of being governed by a higher and better 

 law, because they could not appreciate or, have faith in it, that 

 God permitted the law of an eye for an eye, and a tooth for 

 a tooth?&quot; 



&quot; Oh, certainly,&quot; said I ; &quot; I would not seriously argue that 

 we should govern ourselves by that law I was speaking 

 carelessly.&quot; 



&quot; I knew you were, and that you would not wish to leave 

 such an impression &quot; 



&quot; And may we not hope,&quot; continued our friend, in his mild, 

 serious way, &quot; may we not hope that nations, like individuals, 

 may take upon them a new and regenerated nature, and 

 be governed by the higher law, Do unto others as you 

 would that they should do unto you] It was faith in this 

 true law of wise and happy existence, both for God and man, 

 which moved Jesus Christ, in the midst of disgrace, agony, 

 and death, even in his last extremity, with fainting breath, to 

 desire and labour for the salvation of those to whose igno 

 rance of this law he owed all his suffering ; and in this com 

 plete victory over the old law of revengeful payment, it 

 should have passed away together with the brutal idea of 

 God with which it had been necessarily connected ; and now, 

 to us, with a higher revelation of God as our Father, there 

 should be a new and higher law.&quot; 



&quot; Right,&quot; said I, &quot; and just what I would have been glad, 

 if I had not got astray, to bring our argument to. It is 

 not the law of nature, which is selfishness, but the law 

 of God, which is love, that we should make the law of 

 nations.&quot; 



&quot;But, sir,&quot; answered the free-trader, &quot;is not the true 

 law of nature identical with the law of God ? It is in ig 

 norance that men have hoped to benefit themselves by 



