The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 197

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vere. 1-10.-Doing justice and lomng mercy. In pursuance of its great require- ment of love to one's neighbour, the law next prohibits the raising of a. false report, the bearing of false witness in a court of justice, and the wresting of judgment. Recognising however, that "out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts,/alse witness, blasphemies" (Matt. xv. 19), the la.w, in addition to forbid,ling the outward acts, is at pains to warn against the motives and influences which most com- monly lead to these acts. Thie section naturally follows the catalogue of " rights" in previous chapters, BS dealing with CBSes of litigation arising on the basis of these "rights." Notice:- 1. THE SINS PROHIBITED. 1. The raising of a false report. This a.lso is a. species of false witness, though of a less formal character than the bearing of false witness in a court of justice. The forms it ma.y BSsume are innumerable. The three principal are: -{1) Deliberate invention and circulation of falsehoods. (2) Innuendo, or malicious suggestion. (3) Distortion or deceitful colouring of actual facts. In God's sight slander ranks as one of the worst of offences. It indicates great malevolence. It is grievously unjust and injurious to the person traduced. It is certain to be taken up, and industriously propagated. For a calumny is never wholly wiped out. There are always some evil-speaking persons disposed to believe and repeat it. It affixes a. mark on the injured party which may remain on him through life. Everyone is interested in the suppression of such an offence---the parties i=ediately concerned., the Church, society at large, the magistracy, God himself-of one of whose commandments (the 9th) it is a daring violation. It is a form of vice which should incur the emphatic reproba- tion of society, and which, where possible, should be visited with hea.vy legal penalties. 2. False witness in coort. This, as a deliberate attempt to poison the stream of public justice, is a. crime which admits of no palliation. It is a form of vice which, so far as we know, has never found a defender. All ages and all societies have united in con- demning it as an offence deserving of severe punishment. Yet many a privately-circu- lated slander may do more harm than a falsehood uttered in the witness-box. God judges of these matters, not by their legal but by their moral turpitude. 3. Wresting ofjudgment. The corruption of public justice here reaches the fountain head. The judge who gives dishonest decisions betrays the cause of righteousness. He misrepre- sents the mind of God. He inflicts irremediable injury on the innocent. He opens a floodgate to iniquity. Few men, therefore, are guiltier than he. God will not spare him in the day of his judgment. Even in private life, however, we need to beware of judging rashly, of judging with bias and prejudice, of judging so as to do wrong to indi- viduals, of judging so as to injure truth and retard progress and improvement. This also is " wresting judgment." II. MOTIVES LEADING TO THESE SINS. 1. The influence of the crowd (ver. 2). There ;i an infectiousness in the example of a crowd which only a firm back-bone of prin- ciple, and some independence of mind, will enable us to resist. The tendency is to follow the multitude, even when it is to do evil. (1) Men like to be on the side that is popular. 'l'hey dread the reproach of singularity. There are those who would almost rather die than be out of the fashion. (2) A crowd can ridicule, and a crowd can inti- midate. It may put pressure upon us which we have not the moral courage to resist. (3) A thing, besides, does not look so evil, when many are engaged in doing it. They .lo not, of course, call it evil. They put new names upon it, and laugh at us for our scruples. This may lead us to think that the comse in which we are asked to join is not so very bad after all. So we belie or dissem hie our real convictions, anu. <lo what the crowd bids us. To such influences we are certain to fall a prey, if we are governe,l by the fear of man more than by the fear of God (Acts iv. 19, 20), or if we seek the praise of man more than the honour which comes from God (John v. 4-t; xii. -!3). A:i coW1teractives to the influence of the crowd we do well to remember that the "vo'.l 208 THR 'ROOK OF RXOnlT~. rf"n '.'l'.:'.'l'.:TTT 10-20