3. Is that all?

He is also bound to bear with their infirmities, and to relieve their wants.

of obedience is commensurate with the right of command. That the parent possesses such right, and that it is of course the duty of the child to obey, as long as the latter is incapable of judging and providing for himself, will not admit of dispute. But after that period, particularly in the present complex and artificial state of society, the authority of the parent is considerably circumscribed. The child grows up to man's estate; he leaves his father's house, has perhaps an establishment, a family of his own; engages in business, and acquires rights independently of his parents. In such case the parent may, perhaps ought, to advise and such advice should be received with respect; but he can have no pretence to command, where the right of judging resides in the breast of the child.

3. To bear with their infirmities.-Son, support the old age of thy father, and grieve him not in his life. If his understanding fail, have patience with him, and despise him not when thou art in the fulness of thy strength. (Eccus. iii. 67.)

To relieve his wants.-The relieving of thy father shall not be forgotten. In the day of thy affliction it shall be remembered, and thy sins shall melt away as the ice in fair warm weather. (Eccus. iii. 16, 17.) This duty of relieving the wants of parents is supposed by our Saviour, when he condemns the conduct of those Jews who persuaded themselves that by consecrating a part of their property to the temple, they were exonerated from it. (Matt. x. 3-6.)

4. Why is it added, "that thy days may be long in the land"?

To show that God will give a blessing to dutiful children.

5. Are respect and obedience due to parents only?

4. Will give a blessing. The blessing here mentioned is of a temporal nature: but the commandment was given to the Israelites, to whom temporal rewards and temporal punishments only were proposed. The Christian should remember that he is taught to look forward to a higher and better reward in heaven.

This commandment treats only of the duties of children to their parents. Have then the parents no duties to discharge to their children? Undoubtedly they have, and those too of the highest import. As long as the child is unable to provide for himself, or to govern himself, it is the duty of the parents to supply his wants, to watch over his health and safety, to fashion him and fit him for his future station in life, and to provide for him instruction in the doctrines and the practice of religion. Above all, they must be careful that there be nothing to corrupt his mind in his domestic education, that is, in their own example, or in that of their family, or of his companions. The speculative lessons which he may receive from others will have little influence in the formation of his character, if his own home prove to him a school of immorality or irreligion.

5. Whether spiritual or temporal.-He that despiseth you, despiseth me. (Luke x. 16.) Obey your prelates, and be subject to them: for they watch, as being to render an account of your souls. (Heb. xiii.

No: we are bound to pay to all persons ín authority, whether spiritual or temporal, that respect and obedience, which is due to them in virtue of their office.

THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT.

1. Which is the fifth commandment? "Thou shalt not kill."

2. What is forbidden by this?

17.) Let every soul be subject to the higher powers: wherefore be subject, of necessity, not only for wrath, but for conscience sake. (Rom. xiii. 1-5.) See also 1 Tim. ii. 1-2; 1 Pet. ii. 13, 14, 17. 1. Thou shalt not kill.-Of all the temporal injuries which one man can inflict upon another, murder is the chief: 1o. because it deprives its victim of life, and consequently of every temporal blessing connected with life; 2°. Because it often occasions the loss of the immortal soul, by sending him to his account at a moment when he is unprepared; 3°. Because it frequently plunges parents, relations, wife and family, into the deepest and unmerited distress, by depriving them of protection or support. Hence God provided the severest punishment for this crime. Whoso sheddeth the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. (Gen. ix. 6.) Ye shall not take money of him that is guilty of blood: but he shall die the death.... for blood defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed thereon, but by the blood of him that shed it. (Num. xxxv. 31-2.) 2. Without authority. The two texts just mentioned authorize the taking of life in punishment

To take away without authority the life of any human being.

3. Does this prohibition include self-murder? Undoubtedly it does, whether the murder be committed at once, or slowly by degrees. 4. Is nothing else forbidden by it?

Yes: all duelling and fighting accompanied with probable danger of loss of life.

of crime. Whence St. Paul says of the civil magistrate, that he beareth the sword as the minister of God. (Rom. xiii. 4.)

3. Committed at once.-Self-murderers may be divided into two classes: the men who, through impatience and despair, put an immediate end to life, because they are weary of it; and voluptuaries who consume life slowly by long courses of debauchery and intemperance. The first ought to know that it is their duty to bear with submission the evils of life, be they what they may, having assurance that such evils will work for them above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. iv. 17); the second have still less excuse, because to abstain from the indulgences in which they delight, cannot be so difficult a task as to submit with resignation to the afflictions with which the others are visited. 4. Duelling. The duellist cannot justify himself by pleading that he must send or accept a challenge or else be dishonoured. No man can be dishonoured by obeying the command of God. To think so, or to act as if you thought so, is to be ashamed of him and of his words, and consequently to entail on yourself the punishment which he threatens, of his being also ashamed of you when he shall come in his glory. (Luke ix. 26.)

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT.

1. What is the sixth commandment? Thou shalt not commit adultery. 2. What do you mean by adultery?

The breach of the marriage covenant by, or with, either of the married parties.

:

Fighting with danger, &c.-Fighting is akin to duelling, and experience shews that it is often accompanied with loss of life. Hence the combatants themselves incur the danger of committing murder and those who provoke or encourage the fight, the danger of aiding and abetting it. None of the parties may probably contemplate a fatal result: but those who engage in unlawful acts are answerable for every conseqnence which they know, or ought to know, may follow from them.

This commandment forbids murder only but we are not hence to conclude that other personal inflictions are not also forbidden. To wound, to maim, to bruise, to weaken, to render a man unable to support himself or his family, are injuries, less, indeed, than murder in enormity, but yet of considerable magnitude before God, in proportion to the malicious intent or culpable negligence of the perpetrator In the Jewish code they were forbidden under pain of retaliation: in the Christian, by the rule of our blessed Lord, that we should do to others as we would be done by.

2, 3. Adultery, &c.-Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. (Heb. xiii. 4.) Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, immodesty... of which I foretell to you, that they which do such things shall not