"against the body," and through the body they declare themselves. The pure may not know why they shun the impure, but instinctively they discern the signs of his impurity. His sin shows through him, as a lurid light shows through a lantern. 11. CAUSES wmcH OCCASION 'rHE SIN. 1. A l(Y/JJ ideal of womanhood. AcCQrding to the Divine ideal, " man" is "male and female;" it is in the union of the sexes that the "image of God" is reflected. According to the human irleal, woman i• rather man'~ play-mate than his help-mate; he choos(ls her as he would a picture, because he likes the look of her. She is in thought his to_v, his doll. In unchristian countries this low ideal of woman is universally prevalent, but even in Christian countries it is too often tacitly if not verbally accepted. Such an ideal cannot but be mischievous. [lllnstra- tion: Take lantern from summit of light-house and place it at the foot. It will still guide the ships, though no longer off the rocks but on to them.] Woman must exert influence; place her high and it will be ennobling, set her low and it will become degrading. 2. .A low ideal of manhood. If woman is a toy, then that part of a man's nature which can require such a costly toy, will be the most important. The animal nature will be uppermost. The desires will rule. 3. .A low level of life. This results naturally from 1 and 2. A man cannot live above the level of his own ideals. If man is a mere animal, woman a mere toy, then marriage is a mere convention. All its sanctity has evaporated. A man will marry if he can afford a wife, if not he will take some cheaper substitute. In the light of the Divine ideal, marrbge becomes a duty and a. privilege; the completion of that Divine idea of which man unmarried is a mere tOTso. Guard, of course, against impro- vident marriages; at the same time it is not improvidence to share, in co=on, sacri- fice and self-denial. One man has two hundred pounds per annum and cannot marry under four hundred pounds; another has four hundred pounds and requires one thousand pounds. If a man divides himself into his income and finds he goes once and nothing over, he may set to work and make his income larger, or he may try to make self smaller; many a man could so reduce his divisor, that, without any increase in his in- come, -the quotient should be two, with a fair remainder. Oonclusion.-All such evils spring no doubt from a corrupt heart; but a high ideal will guard the heart and tend to purify it if impure. By the help o.f God's grace, let man reverence woman, and woman reverence m.an, and each reverence in himself and in the other that ideal which is their co=on glory. Before the splendour of the Divine image as thus mirrored in their union, adultery and sins of uncleanness must be driven afar off.-G.
Ver. 15.-The eighth commandment guards the sanctity of property. Consider:- 1. PROPERTY AND THE RIGHTS OF PROPERTY. Property is that which gives expression to individual and family life. In some sort it is an extension of the bodily organism, an added possibility of self-revelation in the sphere of sense. Social usage allows a man's right, or the right of a corporation, to absolute possession of certain things. Primarily, probably, such right is founded on the right of the labourer to the product of his labour; a man's own is what he has made his own. Such limit, however, has come to be enlarged on grounds of general utility; we may say generally that a man's property is that which social usage allows him to consider such. II. OFFENCES AGAINST PROPERTY. 1. Stealing. Appropriating 3 man's property against the will of the owner. All condemn the thief, he is condemned even by his own -conscience; however much he may steal from others he can never think it right for them to steal from him I There are, however, various kinds of diluted theft which are equally offences against the eighth co=andment, though not so strongly stigmatised by society. 2. Cognate offences. Property in the old times con- sisted mainly of land, crops, and cattle. The principle involved in the eighth co=and- ment illustrated, as applied to them, by a number of cases in Ex. ::ui., =ii., all such acts as result in loss to one's neighbours, provided that loss was not inevitable, are condemned by it. Circumstances, nowadays, are somewhat different, but the principle of honesty still applies. Take a few instances:--(!) Acts of petty dishonesty. (a) When in a bargain one party takes advantage of the ignorance of the ~ther; e.g., " collector finds some rarity in the possession of a man who does not know its value, and secures it far below its proper price. (b) Borrowing without definite intention to return; e.g., books, money, or other property. (c) Leaving bills unpaid for a uc"'-1- THE BOOK OF EXODU8. (err. :n.. Hi, 10,
lessly lnng time. In ~uch case, e,•en though paid eventually, the creditor is defrand()1 of tlie prnfit which he might have made by the use of his money. (2) Mischievou• aclion~; e.g., marking books or scribbling in them. Cutting initials in trees and hnilding:s. No man has any right to depreciate by his actions the value of another man's property. (3) C,tlpable negligence. Must be &s careful with the property of othen- as with our own property. A pure accident is not a pure accident if it would not ha,·e happened had the property been our own. Ill. CoMPENSATJON FOR on'ENCES AGAINST PROPERTY. Cf. Ex. xxii. 9. Not enough to make good the original value, the law of restitution requires double and, in some cases, fivefold or fourfold. Such a law :-1. l,'mphasises the importance of strict hone.~ty. In view of it possible offenders will be more cautious as to how they offend. Should it be enforced now-a-days; how many struggling tradesmen and mechanics might find themselves rescued from the verge of bankruptcy I How might charity in a. thousand places spring up to banish and destroy suspicion I 2. &cures something like adeguak ato11em,ent. Defraud e. man of anything, and you defraud him of more than the rnlue of that thing. His loss occasions further loss; loss of time, loss of temper, auxiet~·. inconvenience, for all which the sufferer is entitled to a recompense. Fourfold restitution may sound generous, yet even that may be less than just. Conduswn.-Hooesty is by no means such a common virtue as some suppose. It behoves us to examine ourselves as to how far our conduct may bee.r strict scrutiny. Are there none to whom we should ma.ke restitution? If so, let us be thankful if we can make it. There are losses which we occasion others, dues which we owe to God and man, yet which now, it may be, we can never make good-no remedy now exists for the lasting evil they have occasioned. There are debts we can still pay, there are others which we can never pay; who has not need to join in the petition in the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our debt5" ?-G.