g re-Christian advocate for righteousness as the ighest form of ritual. In an age of the world's history when popular religion found satisfaction in an ethically indifferent ceremonialism, in a country where Mosaic sanction was claimed for an elaborate system of sacrifices and festivals, the D. excluded from the summary of duty almost every reference to this class of owigations, and made it clear that what God above all required was justice and mercy. Consistently with this, the one re- ligious duty, narrowly so called, which hnds a place in the code, is Sabbath observance ; for this commandment not only had in view tlie provision of an opportunity for meditation and wor.sliip, but was equally conceived, if we may follow Dt, as a beneficent institution founded in compassion toward the weary and heavy laden.
The limitations of the D. lie on the surface. Its brevity forbids us to expect exhaustiveness, and, as a fact, its ethical requirements may almost all be connected \\ith the single virtue of justice. Wisdom and fortitude, which figure prominently in the Greek scheme of virtue, are not recognized, and even in the prohibitions of adultery and covetousness it is less temperance or self-control than justice that appears to interpose to forbid the sin. Again, it followed from the undisciiilined character of the people to whom it was first given, that the D. should be elementary in its teaching. They were children who had need to be tauglit the first principles of the oracles of God. The demands accordingly are not very high-pitched : witli the exception of the tentli, tue moral precepts belong exclusively to the region of conduct where actions condemned by the conscience as sins are also punished by tne state as crimes. Further, of the ten, eight are prohibitions, two only are positive Injunctions. And herein lies the principal limita- tion of the D. In the main a condemnation of
superstition and crime, and as such of the highest value in the training of a primitive people, it does not meet the demand of the enlightened conscience for a positive moral ideal. For this we must ad- vance to Christ's interpretation or revision of the Decalogue.
Tlie frequent references of Christ to the D. are marked by two main features — (1) a hearty re- cognition of its divine authority (Mt 5"); (2) a purpose of so interpreting its precepts as to widen their range and exalt their demands. Its inade- quacy as an ideal, due to its preponderantly negative character, He rectified by condensing the law into the two positive commandments to love God with all our heart, and our neighbour as our- sel ves ( Mt 22''"*'). Indeed , so closely did the teaching of Jesus lean on the Mosaic form that it is possible to construct with scarcely a gap the D. according to Christ. The following are the principal addi- tions : C. 1. Thou shalt love the Lord witn all thy heart (Mt 22"). C. 2. They that worship, worship in spirit and truth (Jn 4^). C. 3. Swear not at all (Mt 5"). C. 4. The Sabbath was made for man (Mk 2"). C. 5. Duty to parents paramount over other religious obligation (Mt 15''"'). C. 6. Murder includes anger (Mt 5*"). C. 7. Adultery includes lust (5^). Of c. 8 we have not Christ's exposition, but the absence is readily explained by the fact that c. 10 had already extended the prohibition of theft in the spirit of the teaching of Jesus. Simi- larly, the false witness of c. 9 is referred to a foul heart (Mt 12**), while the idle is included in con- demnation with the calumnious word (12"). Of Christ's definite consciousness of a mission to handle the D. in the light of the final revelation there is further evidence in His announcement of the new commandment of brotherly love (Jn 13**), by which He re-emphasizes the nature of the positive ideal substituted for the warnings of the second table.*
Of the apostolic references to the D. those of St. Paul are most noteworthy. Like Jesus, he employs it as a standard to test conduct and measure wickedness. He supposes the law to have been communicated to Moses through angelic mediation (Gal 3'», cf. He 2^). What St. Paul held as to the p\ace of the D. in the Christian dispensation is a question of some difficulty. He nowhere draws a distinction between the ceremonial and the moral elements of the Mosaic law, and declares that, while the former are repealed, the latter remain binding: his general thesis is that the law as such has no longer dominion over the Christian (Ko 7'). But as certainly it follows for St. Paul that the Christian, while placed in a new attitude to the law, voluntarily and joyfully re-subjects himself to and obeys its ethical commandments. Filled by the Spirit and animated with gratitude, he exhibits towards his fellow-men a mea.sure of love to whicli it is a small thing to forbear from injustice, as re- quired in the second table of the ancient law (Ro 13").
In Christian theology the D. is commonly re- garded as a revelation, or as a republication, of the fundamentals of religion and morality. It is the most important part of the OT or legal economy, and as such was designed to show the path of duty, to deepen the sense of guilt, and to awaken a profound sense of human inability. The question of its continued validity for the Chris- tian, whUe capable of being diversely grounded, po.ssesses practical importance only in the case of c. 4, where the issue is whether the Sabbath is to be