dealing, who do not make it the law of their life to be ever doin" to other; as they would that others should do unto them. " THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. False witness in a court is but rarely given. We most of us pass our lives without having once to appear in a court, either aR p~o~ecutor, witness, or accused. The false witness against which the generality have especially to boon their guard, is that evil speaking which is continually taking place in society, whereby men's characters are blackened, their motives misrepresented, their reputati,m8 eaten away. It is dull and tame to praise a man. We get a character for wit and a,hrewdness if we point out flaws in his conduct, show that he may have acted from a selfish motive, "just hint a fault and hesitate dislike." It is not even necessary in all cases to establish our character for shrewd insight that we should say anything. Silence when we hear a friend maligned, a shrug of the shoulders, a movement of the eyebrows, will do. Again, false witness may be given in writing a.swell as in speech. The re- viewer who says of a book worse than he thinks of it, bears false witness. The writer for the Press who abuses in a leading article a public man whom he inwardly respects, bears false witness. The person who vents his spite against a servant by /rivinu him a worse character than he deserves, bears false witness. We can only be secure against daily breaches of this commandment by joining the spirit of Jove with a deep-seated regard for truth, and aiming always at saying of others, when we have occasion to speak of them, the best that we can conscientiously say. • THE TENTH COMMANDMENT. The tenth commandment is supplementary to the eighth. Rightly understood, the eighth implies it, covetousness being the root from which theft springs. The command seems added to the Decalogue in order to Jay down the principle that the thoughts of the heart come under God's law, and that we are as responsible for them as for our actions. Otherwise, it would not be needed, being im- plied in the eighth and in the seventh. 8ince, however, it was of the greatest importance for men to know and understand that God regards the heart, and " requires truth in the inward parts;" and since covetousness was the cause of the greater pcrtion of the evil that is in the world, the precept, although already implied, was given ex- pressly. Men were forbidden to covet the house, wife, slaves, cattle, property of their neighbour-in fact, "anything that is his." They were not forbidden to desire houses, or wives, or cattle, or property generally-which are all, within limits, objects of desire and things which men may rightfully wish for-but they were forbidden to desire for themselves such as were already appropriated by their fellows, and of which, therefore, they could not become possessed without their fellows suffering loss. A moderate desire for earthly goods is not forbidden to the Christian (Matt. xix.. 29; 1 Tim.. iv. 8); though his special covetousness should be for " the best gifts "-the virtues and graces which make up the perfect Christian 1.:b.aracter (1 Cor. xii. 31; xiv. 1).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 1.-The moral law-Preliminary. The law given from Sinai is the moral law by pre-eminence. The principles which it embodies-are of permanent obligation. It is a brief summary of the whole compass of our duty to God and man. It is a law of supreme excellence-" holy, just, aud good" (Hom. vii. 12). God's own character is expressed in it; it bears witness to his unity, spirituality, holiness, sovereignty, mercy, and equity; truth and righteousness are visible in its every precept. L1stenmg to _its " thou shalts" and " thou shalt nots," we cannot but recognise the same stern voice which speaks to us in our own breasts, addressing to us calls to duty, appro~ing us in what is right, condemning us for what is wrong. These ten precepts, accmdl.llgly, are distinguished from the judicial and ceremonial statutes subsequei:tly g1ven~l) .As the moral is distiuguished from the merely positive; (2) As the Uillversally obh~ato_ry is distin"uished from what is local and temporary; (3) As the fundan1ental 1s d.is- tinguish;d from the derivative and secondary. The judicial law, e.g., not only draws its spirit, and derives its highest authority, from the la~ of the ten co=andments, but is, in its own nature, simply an application of the maxims of this law to the problems of actual government. Its binding force was confined to lsrnel. The ceremonial la:v, a~ain, with its meats and drinks, its sacrifices, et.c. bore throughout the chil.rader ol • 140 'l'HE BOOK OF EXODUS. [ell. XX, 1-18.