without devotion in the soul (Ezek. xxxiii. 30, 31; Isa. xxix. 13). Oh, the number of times we lrnvo been on our knees and have used the Name of God in" indolent vacuity of thought" 1 "Who is able lo stancl before this holy Lord God?" 8. We may break thiB commandment by vowing unto God, and then not fulfilling the vow. When at the Lord's table, wo tako the sacramental oath of obedience to our Great Commander, and if we nrc not true to tha.t, we add sin to sin by "taking the Name of God in vain." II. How IS THIS PRECEPT oi;AnDED? "The Lord will not hold him guiltless," etc. God may or may not mark this sin by visitations of temporal judgment; there are many cases in which levity has been the ruin of a man, even temporally. But the probability is that the more occult and deceptive forms of this sin will leave no appre- ciable mark on a man's earthly career. The marking of the guilt will be between God aml a man's own soul. Hollow prayers bring no blessing; empty worship no growth in grace. Violated vows will bring down the displeasure of God. If God were to visit upon us all the sins of unreality and formalism, of mechanical routine, and of heartless work in his service, we should be lost men! " God often sees more in our prayers to disgust.him than to please him," says Charnock. The Lord parclon the iniquity of our holy thmgs ! • Ill. How SHOULD THIS PRECEPT BE USED? 1. AB a probe. Possibly, when a preacher takes this text, some may say," We don't need that. We never break God's law so!" Possibly not, in the conventional sense in which the text is often used now. But what about that conversation laden with frivolity? What about that lesson which had more of self than of God in it? What about the songs of the sanctuary, enjoyed for the sake of the music, without a thought of the words? What about the forgotten vows? Surely we can all recall so many breaches of this third commandment that, if we had not a pardoning God, we should be shut up in despair! 2. To quicken to peni- tence. By so much as our conviction is deep that we have broken this commandment a thousand times, by so much should our penitence be deep and definite before God. 3. To lead us to earnest entreaties for forgiveness. If we were not permitted to ask this, it would be all over with us, even if the third commandment were the whole of the Law. 4. To lead to fervent prayer for daily heart-renewal. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." If the heart is right the tongue will be right. "If a man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man." Well may we pray that every word we speak may be conformed to truth (for in each of the eight ways named above there is a violation of truth). When our heart, thoughts, words, and deeds are in harmony with God',; nature and will, then shall we be true to the duty implied, and free from the sin forbidden, in the third commandment.
Vcrs. 12-15.-The sabbath, or a, rest-day for man. (For a notice of the variations between the wording of this command in Exod.·xx. and in this chapter, see Exposition.) No Christian preacher could wisely deal homiletically with the question of the Divine intent in the appointment.of a seventh-day rest, without noting, in connection with our text, the teaching of our Lord and his apostles thereon. In developing the true doctrine and use of our rest day, let us- I. INDICATE SEVERAL PRINCIPLES FROM WHICH OUR CONCEPTION OF THE HEBREW SADDATH MUST START. 'l'he Hebrew sabbath has a far-back look. "The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God." What spaces of time the "six days" represent we. may perhaps never know in this life. One thing is clear-a "day" of Divine action must be indefinitely longer than one of man's days. 'l'his far-back look, more- over, reveals to us a method of Divine work, after which ours is to be modelled. As man's nature is mado in God':1 image, so our time is to be portioned out after God's order. Further, the basis of the right observance of the day is that of "rest." The wo1:d "sabbath" means th11t; whatever else may have been connected with the day, the notion of rest lay beneath all. While the Hebrews were to regard the observance of the day as a part of their covenanted duty ns n nation, yet the rest was not for them as Hebrews only, but as men. 'l'he sabbath was made for man. Work was to be laid nside, tha_t man might give himself up to a hol,y and happy day of rest and worship. With a view, moreover, to seeming 111! this, the work of the six other days was to be arranged, II. 'l'm:: BIJDBEQUJW'f PBE0EPTS ABE ALL IN 'fHE BAME DIRECTION, Never is thera 'M THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY, [OH, V, 1-33,