lay their hands upon his head, probably thus to bear an open testimony that he was justly condemned, and then that all the congregation should stone him.

After this, a law was promulgated by the Almighty that he who blasphemed the name of the Lord should surely be put to death, whether he were a stranger or born in the land, "Whosoever curseth his God, shall bear his sin."

Such a sentence will, probably, appear to many, to have been unnecessarily severe; but we must remember that the Israelites were placed in a position totally different from all the nations of the world. They were the one chosen people who should preserve, until the coming of the promised Messiah, the knowledge of the true God, which had been obscured and ultimately lost by every other people under heaven. They were to be the depository of all the promises, and prophecies, and types, which should precede the glorious advent of which we have spoken. If this people had fallen into idolatry, or evinced their contempt of Jehovah, unpunished or unreclaimed, like the other nations of the world, every record of the wondrous deeds of the Most High, every anticipation of the coming of the Lord of life, would have been utterly blotted from the face of God's earth. To prevent this, therefore, the Almighty condescended to be their chief temporal ruler, guiding and directing them in all their political relationships, as well as their eternal and everlasting God; or, in other words, as the prophet reminded them, "The Lord their God was their King." Every act, therefore, in any degree offensive to God, was, at the same time,

high treason against the state, and its perpetrator, therefore, necessarily became the object of temporal punishment. The man who could wilfully and deliberately "curse his God," would, it is obvious, if he possessed the power so to do, have dethroned him, and if within the reach of his puny arm have destroyed him. For too truly did an excellent minister of our church, now called to his rest, remark, that "every sinner is not only a homicide and a suicide, but in heart at least, a deicide." It was, therefore, death to blaspheme the name of the Lord, as it was also to break his sabbath, or to commit any other open act of opposition to his kingly authority. And yet, with all these remarkable and powerful safeguards, with what extreme difficulty does this stiffnecked and perverse people appear to have been bound to any thing like obedience to their Almighty Ruler; always starting aside like a broken bow, and ultimately, when the great purpose of the Most High was accomplished, still continuing their opposition and rebellion until they were most deservedly cast away, and their glory taken from them, and they themselves condemned to be, at least for a season, what they have ever since remained, the most degraded outcasts of the world.

EXPOSITION LXIV.

CHAP. XXIV, 23.

23. And Moses spake to the children of Israel, that they should bring forth him that had cursed out of the camp, and stone him with stones. And the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.

Such was the fulfilment of the swearer's sentence, as pronounced by the Lord Almighty. Great reason have we to bless God, that in the dispensation under which we live, the extreme rigours of this law have been removed; but let us never forget that the law itself remains, like all the other commands of the decalogue, not revoked and abrogated, but explained and expanded by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Listen only to one of his many plain and express injunctions upon this subject; "I say unto you, swear not at all; neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. But let

your communication be yea, yea, and nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these, cometh of evil.”* And again, hear his apostle St. James, "Above all things, my brethren, swear not; neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath; but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation."+

Surely nothing need be, nothing can be, added to

* Matt. v. 34, 35, 37.

↑ James v. 12.

precepts so clear and so decided. Yet how many are perpetually forgetting their obligations! By a species of self-deception, they reason themselves into the belief that an oath which is intended to mean nothing, will, in the sight of God, pass for nothing. Do such men forget that the very act itself is what the Almighty has forbidden, not the motive with which it is committed. It is indeed impossible that any excuse can justify such disobedience, and least of all, the common though singularly foolish one, to which we have referred: that the words uttered with such apparent vehemence, earnestness, and sincerity, were intended to mean nothing. Some, indeed, there are, who would be shocked to suppose them selves guilty of this sin, and would absolutely shrink from the imputation of cursing and blaspheming, and yet who, when taken by surprise, or warm with anger, or too often, from the merest thoughtlessness, indulge in exclamations in which the name of the Lord or of heaven is trifled with in common conversation, as if the word of God had been entirely silent upon the subject. Surely, though no longer punishable with death, such language cannot but be highly offensive to the Almighty, and ought to be most scrupulously avoided, by all who profess his service. At the present time this sin, although certainly not exclusively confined to the lower classes, is perhaps more peculiarly prevalent among them, and especially among domestic servants. There are few things more painful to the master of a household, than the fear that some who regularly attend family worship, and are there taught to call devoutly and

reverentially upon the name of the Lord, may be found within an hour after, blaspheming that holy name, and thus "doing despite unto the Spirit of grace," and reminding us of the pointed declaration of the apostle," out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be."

Earnestly would we entreat any who may be prone to the committal of this sin, the guilt of which is so great, and the temptation to it so small, to seek constantly for strength from on high to overcome this most dangerous tendency, and to render their conversation such as becometh the Gospel of Christ. To quicken them to this great duty we would ask them to reflect; if the sentence of our Lord, when on earth, was "He that denieth me before men, him will I also deny before the angels of heaven," what is likely to be his sentence upon the throne of his glory, on every individual, of whom he is compelled to say, "He hath blasphemed me before men, and taken that holy name in vain, at which 'every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth?'" Can we hope that of such a one, if remaining impenitent, our Lord will add, "Him will I confess before the angels of

heaven?"