band, or the tender, affectionate, believing wife, meekly and patiently endure, weeping and praying in secret, without murmur or complaint, knowing that it is the Lord's yoke, and He will strengthen them to bear it. Such a trial as this is peculiarly heavy, but the duty is plain. God Himself hath taught us His will concerning us in these painful circumstances, 1 Peter iii. 1 and 2, "Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear."

Thus you perceive that the love which ought to animate the believer, in this tender relation, is no common love, no mere natural affection. It is a sanctified, a holy love, not leading his heart away from God, but drawing out his affections more warmly to that God from whom he has received his wife, and to whom he strives, and trusts, and prays he shall at last be able to present her "holy and without blemish." For her sake he watches over his own heart and his own conduct, that he may be an example to her in all holy conversation and godliness, and it is his heart's desire and prayer to God that his wife and children may, along with himself, be privileged to join the happy family of the redeemed in glory, and unite in fervent ascriptions of praise to Him who sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever.

SECTION III.-THE THIRD COMMANDMENT.

MAT. V. 33-37.

It seems to have been the chief design of our blessed Lord, throughout his Sermon on the Mount, to vindicate the law of God from the perverse interpretations of the Scribes and Pharisees. For this purpose He selects three specific commandments of the Moral Law, the Sixth, the Seventh, and the Third. The two first-mentioned we have already considered in the two previous sections, and it only now remains that we consider the last, which He introduces to the notice of His hearers in these words:

V. 33. "Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths." In the two cases in which, as we have already seen, our Lord has exposed the erroneous views of the Scribes, the very words of the Moral Law were plainly quoted, "Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt not commit adultery," so that we might have some difficulty in ascertaining whether the quotation was to be understood as made directly by our Lord himself, or as taken from the mouth of the Pharisees; but in the present instance there can be no such difficulty.

--

The express words of the Third Commandment are not even referred to, and the erroneous tradition of the Elders is substituted in place of the Word of God; and the presumption therefore is, that in all the three cases in which our Lord adverts to the Moral Law, He quotes the very language of the Scribes in their instructions to the people.

There is no doubt that

In this view it may perhaps appear strange, that the Third Commandment should have been interpreted as meaning nothing more than, "Thou shalt not forswear" or perjure "thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oath;" but let us examine the matter a little more minutely. The words of the Divine Law run thus "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," or, rendering it more literally, "Thou shalt not take up the name of the Lord thy God to vanity or a falsehood." the leading idea conveyed by these words is, Thou shalt not swear falsely by the name of the Lord thy God; and, indeed, it is thus rendered by three of the ancient versions. The Scribes, accordingly, adopting the narrowest and most restricted view of the commandment, interpreted it as prohibiting all false swearing by the name Jehovah; and, in support of this view, they quoted Lev. xix. 12, "Ye shall not swear by my name falsely; neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God." An oath by the name Jehovah was sacred or binding, according to the teach

ing of the Jewish Rabbins; but an oath by any creature, with the exception of the ornaments and offerings of the temple, they regarded as of little or no importance.

Perjury or false swearing is no doubt primarily forbidden by the Third Commandment; for what does this sin amount to but an open insult to the God of Truth by calling upon Him to bear us out in testifying to a falsehood? In such a case we are appealing to Him as the Searcher of Hearts, to vindicate the truth of our testimony or the sincerity of our promise, at the very moment when we know that we are swearing to a lie. Such a crime is at once an outrage against the God of heaven, and a violation of the fundamental obligations of human society. For by the common agreement of mankind an oath is to them, for confirmation, an end of all strife. This is the strongest evidence that can be given or is ever demanded of the truth of our testimony. But when a man has shewn himself capable of trampling under foot the sacred obligation of an oath, he has given the most lamentable proof that his heart is utterly depraved, and his conscience seared as with a hot iron.

And the same remarks which we have thus made in reference to oaths in transactions among men, may be considered as applicable to vows and voluntary engagements which we solemnly promise to fulfil. Observe in what striking language the Israelites speak

of their engagements in reference even to the accursed nations of Canaan,—Josh. ix. 19 and 20: “But all the princes said unto all the congregation, we have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel: now, therefore, we may not touch them. This we will do to them; we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them." And it is well worthy of remark that there is no sin against which the righteous judgments of God have been more frequently and more fearfully manifested than the sin of false swearing. Thus, indeed, He hath expressly threatened, by his servant Malachi, iii. 5 ; "And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me the Lord of hosts."

But while the Scribes were no doubt justified by the very language of the Third Commandment in considering it as prohibiting the heinous sin of swearing falsely by the name of God, they diluted and destroyed the force of the holy statute by the introduction of a distinction for which there is no warrant in the Word of God, that oaths are to be considered, some of a serious and some of a lighter description. In the view of a Scribe, an oath became serious, solemn and sacred by