for a bnmt offering" (Judg. xi. 30, 31). What Jephthah appeared to contemplate as likely to meet him was either a non-sacrificial animal, which would then be handed over to the sanctuary (eh. xxvii. 11-13), or a sacrificial animal, which would be offered up. His daughter came under the first head (eh. :nvii. 9, 10). 8. Hannah's vow: "And she vowed a vow, and said, 0 Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head" (1 Sam. I. 11). 4. Absalom's pretended vow : " For thy servant vowed a vow while l abode at Geshur in Syria saying, If the Lord shall bring me again indeed to Jerusalem, then I will serve th~ Lord (offer sacrifices in Hebron) n (2 Sam. xv. 8). II. CHRISTIAN VOWS ARE PROMISES JUDE TO GoD, DIFFERING FROM THE JEWISH VOW BY BEING Th'"DEPENDE1'."'T OF ANY DELIVERANCE OR BENEFIT TO BE DECEIVED IN RETURN, Examples: 1. The baptismal vow, ratified and confirmed in Confirmation: "Wilt thou then obediently keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of thy life? I will." "Do you here, in the presence of God, and of this congrega- tion, renew the solemn promise and vow that was made in your name at your baptism; ratifying and confirming the same in your own person? I do" (Baptism and Confir- mation Services). 2. The marriage vow: "Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony?" " Wilt thon have this man to thy wedded husband, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony ? " " I will" (Form of Solemnization of Matrimony). 3. The ordination vow: "Will you then give your faithful diligence always so to minister the doctrine and sacraments, and the discipline of Christ, as the Lord bath commanded, and ns this Church and realm bath received the same, according to the commandments of God?" "I will so do, by the help of the Lord" (The Ordering of Priests). Ill. THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH VOWS A.ND OATHS ABE NOT, OB CEASE TO BE, OBLIGATORY. Jeremiah writes (iv. 2), "And thou shalt swear, 'l'he Lord liveth, in truth, in jndgment, and in righteousness." Isaiah speaks of those "which swear by the .Kame of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness u (Isa. xlviii I). Accordingly, any oath or Tow is void which was an unri"hteous oath or vow when taken; and the sin of breaking it, though a sin, !.s less than" that of keeping it. Therefore Herod ought not to have kept his oath to the daughter of Herodias (Matt. xiv. 9); and the observance of their oath by the forty con- spirators who had bound the.mselves to kill Paul, would have been a sin on their part (Acts xxiii 12--21). Further, a vow, as distinct from an oath or contract, ceases to be obligatory if the person concerned comes to regard it as unrighteous and wrong for him to fulfil with his changed mind or under changed circumstances. Thus, the vow taken at ordination to administer the sacraments in the form received by a special Church, is not binding if a man ceases on conscientious grounds to be a member of that Church, and the vow of celibacy taken by Luther and others, who have become reformers, no longer binds them when they have come to the conviction that the vow was unrighteous, and when they have i:ejected the. discipline of t~eir (:hurch. The marriage vow, however, stands upon a different b~1s, because marriage 1s a contract, containing not only a vow to God, but also a promise to man, by the non-fulfilment of which wrong would be done.1
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. On kuping vow,. Ch. xxvii. ; cf. Eccles. v. 4-, 5 ; Gen. xxviil. 20-22; uxv. 1-7. We have in this apparent appendix to the book an interesting chapter about keeping vows. Religious enthusiasm may very properly express itself in the dedication either of one's self, or a relative in whose destiny we have a voice, or a beast, or a house, or finally a field. Such a sense of special obligation may be laid upon us that we feel 1 The best treatise on this difficult BUbject is Bishop Sanderson's 'Seven Lectures Con• c.:ming the Obligation of Promissory Oaths,' delivered in Latin, at 0.11.ford, and translated by the command of Charles l CB. ll.VU, 1-34.] THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. 431