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THE TENTH COMMANDMENT.

"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's." EXODUS xx. 17.

THIS tenth and last of the commandments seems as it were to strengthen and confirm the foregoing ones, those at least, which compose the second table. These had reference to the words or actions of a man towards his neighbour, but this one applies to his heart and thoughts. The eighth commandment forbids our taking what belongs to another, this tells us it is wrong even to wish it were our own. "Thou shalt not covet," or lust after anything that is thy neighbour's."

This demand on the obedience of the heart

seems also to remind us forcibly that these are God's, and not man's commandments. Man can make laws which bind or regulate our actions, but more than this he cannot do. God, to whom all hearts are open, and to whom all hearts belong, frames His laws with respect to those hearts, and by them gives rules for the

restraint and guidance of the very thoughts and desires of the inner man.

It is surprising how apt we are to forget this, and to think of God's laws, and to judge of His will with respect to us, as we do of man's laws and man's requirements of us. God is a spirit, and He rules the spirits of men. His law is spiritual. His commandment "is exceeding broad." His word "a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." He 'requires truth in the inward parts."

The law then that forbids our desiring what we have not, is exceedingly instructive in many ways.

In the first place, let it teach us, as it did the apostle Paul, something of the true character of sin. He says in one place, "by the law is the knowledge of sin." In another, "I had not known sin but by the law; for I had not known lust except the law had said, "thou shalt not covet." (Rom. vii. 7) It is by the law that we know what sin is, for "sin is the transgression of the law."

But more particularly the tenth commandment shows us what sin is by forbidding unholy desires. If God had not said this was sin, none of us would have thought it. We can easily conceive that to take away another's life or property or character, would be wrong, but

it would never have gone against any one's conscience, untaught by God, simply to wish for something that belongs to his neighbour. Nevertheless this is God's law and His account of what sin is. If men oftener judged themselves by this law, they would oftener plead guilty before God. How many are constantly pleading innocence on the ground that they have done no one any harm. They have been good husbands, good wives, good masters, or good servants, they have wronged no one that they know of, by word or deed. Such persons are indeed pleading a vain plea. They are judging by man's judgment and not God's. They are forgetting the spiritual nature of God's law. And even supposing they were innocent in respect of the first table which requires love to God from the ground of the heart, and supposing their lives would bear comparison with the spirit of the other commandments, and which require us to love our neighbour as ourselves, still we see they stand condemned on the ground of this tenth commandment, which finds fault with them for having desired in their hearts anything belonging to another. Thus we see the truth of that Scripture which says, " By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." And when we further recollect, how, "it is written,

cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them." (Gal. iii. 10.) And again, “Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, is guilty of all." (James ii. 10.) Surely we see how we must each one plead guilty before the Lord, and every mouth must be stopped, when He enters into judgment with man.

Yet, may it not also remind us of the inestimable value of that redemption which has ransomed the believing sinner from this curse.

One only upon this earth has lived without coveting anything, and kept whole and undefiled the spirit and letter of every one of the commandments. His obedience is counted to the sinner that believeth in Him, "for to him that worketh not, but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." (Rom. iv. 5.) O blessed and glorious doctrine! Most precious to him, who knowing his own shortcomings, has yet earnestly desired to attain to the glory of God, and the acceptance of his own person with a holy and most just God! How blessed, while looking at the commandment and seeing death, to be able to look at the Righteous One who hath kept the law, and see life. How blessed to be able to say, though I am guilty of all, yet am I, by

grace, counted guilty of none. Though I am in most just condemnation by reason of the laws I have broken, yet is there now "no condemnation to me who am in Christ Jesus, walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Though I deserve wrath by reason of my many transgressions, yet by reason of my Saviour's obedience, I inherit God's favour, and eternal life.

Let this commandment then serve to teach us how truly "blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not his trespasses!"

But let it in the next place remind us where sin begins, and how it must be successfully resisted. Every sin done against our neighbour may be said to take its rise in a breach of the tenth commandment. Nearly every such breach begins with coveting to the injury of our neighbour, what belongs to him; and all of them begin with an unchecked evil desire of the heart. The course of sin is well described by St. James.

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Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death." (Chap. i. 14, 15.) Would we keep free from the sin we must not let lust conceive. And to keep lust from conceiving we must keep lust from the heart altogether. Out of this evil treasury proceed all evil words and deeds; and all the

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