falBe witness WB8 punished by ampute.tion of which the act proceeds. "Thou shalt not U,e noso and ears ( Records of the Past, vol. covet" lays it down again that we are not viii. p. 65). Private calumny may sometimes mr.re slaves of our nature.I desires and passions, involve as serious consequences to individuals but have a controlling power implanted with- 1111 fe.lso witness in a court. It may ruin a in llS, by means of which we can keep down man ; it may madden him; it may drive him pe.<1sion, check desire, resist impulse. Mun is to suicide. But. it docs not disorganise the lord of himself, capable, by the exercise of his whole framework: of society, like perjured free-will, of moulding his feelings, weakenin"' evidence bef.,re a tribunal ; and mtes gene- , or intensifying his pnssions, shaping h~ rally are content to leave the injured party to character. God, who "requires truth in the the reme.dy of e.n action-at-law. The Mosaic inward parts," looks that we should in all legislation was probably the first wherein it cases go to the root of the matter, and not be wes positively forbidden to circulate reports content with restraining onrsel ves from evil to the prejudice of a.uother, and where con- acts and evil words, but eradicate the evil sequently this was a crimino.l offence. feeling from which the acts and words proceed. Ver, 17.-Thou ■halt not oovet. Here the ThJ neighbour's house, etc. The "house " is Mosaic law takes a step enormously in mentioned first as being of primary necessity, adva.uce of any other ancient code. Most a.ud as in some sort containing o.11 the rest. A codes stopped short at the deed ; a few went man does not take a wife until he has a. home on to words ; not one attempted to control to bring her to, or engo.ge domestic servants. thoughts. " Thou sho.lt not covet " teaches or buy slaves, except to form part of a. house- men that there is One who sees the heart ; to hold. The other objects mentioned are whose eyes " all things are naked and open ; " placed in the order in which they are usually and who cares far Jess for the outward act vo.lued. The multiplication of objects is by tha.u the inwnrd thought or motive from way of emphasis.
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-17.-The ten commandments r,olleclively. The ten commandments form a summary of our main duties towards God, and towards ma.n.. They stand out from the rest of the Old 'l'esta.ment in a remarkable way. I. They were uttered audibly by a voice which thousands heard-a. voice which is ca.!led that of God himself (Deut. v. 26) and which filled those who heard it with a terrible fear (verse 19). 2. They were the only direct utterance ever made by God to man under the Old Covenant. 3. They were not merely uttered by God but written by him, inscribed in some marvellous way by the finger of God on the two tables of testimony (eh. xxxi. 18; Deut. iv. 13). 4. They have the additional testimony to their primary importance, that our Lord himself appealed tu them as laying down that which men must do to inherit eternal life (Matt. xix. 18, 19). We may observe of them collectively- !. 'l'HAT THEY ARE ALL-EMBRACING. They include our obligations to both God and man; they are both prohibitive and directive; they reach to the heart as well as to the outward life; they comprise both moral and positive precepts. According to the division adopted by the English Church, and by the reformed churches generally, the first four lay down our duty to our Maker, the last six our duty to our fellow men. Mostly they are prohibitive; but this is not the case with the fourth and fifth. The generality are concerned with I\Cts, but words form the subject matter of the third ; and bot.h the tenth and the fifth deal with thoughts. As the moral is much more important than the positive, they are naturally in the ma.in moral ; but, to show that tlie positive is an essential element in religion, they are also partly positive-no moral ground being assignable for the consecration of one Jay in seven, rather than one in eight. or J;ix, much less for the definite selection of "the seventh day " as the one to be kept holy. 11, '!'HAT THEY ARE SYSTEMATJC, BOTH IN llil.ATTER AND ARR~GEME~T. Tht Deralo(Tue takes as its basis the fact that all our duties are owed either to God or man It rega~·ds our duties to God as the more important, and therefore places them first. 'l'he du~ies consist: 1. In acknowledging his existence and unity, and in "having him" for our God and none other (first commandment); 2. In conceiving aright of his incorporeity and spirituality, and worshipping him as a Spirit, in spirit and in truth (second commandment); 3. In reverencing bis holy Na.me, and avoiding the profane use ofit (third coIIllilanuweut.); and, 4. In setting apart for his worship some stated porticu 136 Till!.: BOOK 01<' EXODUS. [cu. xx. 1-17.
of our time, since otherwi~e we sh;.ll be sure to neglect it (follt'th commandment). Our duties towards our fellow men are more complicated. First, there la a epecilll relation in which we stand towards those who bring us into the world Rnd support us during our early years, involving peculiar duties to them, analogous in part oo those which we o"·e to God, and so rightly following upon the summary of our Divine duties (fifth com- mandment). Next, with respect to men in general, we owe it them to ab:;taiu from injuring them in deed, word, or thought. lo deed we may injure their persou, their honour, and their property, which we are consequently forbidden to do in the sixth, the- i;eventh, and the eighth commandments. In word, we injure our neighbour especially by false wit.ness, public or private, both of which are forbidden in the ninth command- ment. We injure him in thought, fine.Hy, when we covet wha.t is his; hence the tenth commandment. III. THAT THEY ARE THE FIRST GERMS OUT OF '\\'TITCH THE WHOLE OF THE MORAL LAW MAY BE EVOLVED. The Deca.logue is a collection of elementary moral truths. Its predominantly negative form is indicative of this, since abstaining from evil is the first :,:tep on the road to virtue. Each command asserts a principle; and the principle is in e,•ery case capable of being worked out to a thousand remote consequences. The letter may be narrow; but the spirit of the commandment is in every case "exceeding broad." This will appear, more clearly, in the ensuing section, in. which the ten com- mandments will be considered severally. •