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back the prodigal son to his father, and the lost sheep to his fold. The master is to make provision for his servants, to remunerate them with liberality and exactitude, not to be more rigorous in judging their conduct than his own, and to take care that nothing shall be wanting on his part to maintain among them a knowledge and a faithful service of God. The elder, too, is to advise the younger with the more prudent counsel of grey hairs, to encourage them in what is right, and, as years subdue the vehemence of passion, to shew an example of circumspection to the impetuosity of youth. And those who are in higher station are to condescend to their neighbour of low estate; not to curl the lip with haughty disdain, or despise the poor; not to stand aloof in heartless pride, and look on selfishly insensible to the wants of others; but to remember that they are fellow-men and Christians; and that when we come before the judgment-seat of Christ, titles, and wealth,

and distinctions will be no more, except as we may be distinguished, each by the faithfulness with which we have served God, and kept his commandments. In a word, the obligation of superiors is, to remember for what purpose they have been, by God's good providence, set over those who are put under them :—that it is not for themselves alone, to gratify their vanity, or give them a profusion of the good things of this world, while others are in want; but that the object of their elevation is to promote the happiness of all around them; that they were made great for the sake of the humble, and exalted for the welfare of the lowly. "Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.”1

Time will not permit me even to enumerate other duties contained in the fifth Commandment: so ample a source

1 Matt. xx. 26.

is it to a stream of Christian morality, copious, and fertilising human happiness. In the retirement of your chambers, endeavour, my brethren, to fathom its depths, and drink of its pure waters. Examine your own lives in the reflection of its crystal bosom; and where negligence, temptation, or passion has left a spot, wash out the stain through the blood of the blessed Mediator, and restore the fair complexion of righteousness by the grace of the Holy Spirit, whom our Lord sent to supply his place in sanctifying and strengthening his disciples.

SERMON VII.

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT.

EXODUS, XX. 13.

Thou shalt do no murder.

REFERENCE is here made, not only to the actual destruction of man's life, but to all that concerns the safety of it; to any violence that can be offered it; and hence also to those passions that anticipate violence, to anger, hatred, and revenge. As the Catechism explains it in setting forth our duty to our neighbour; I am "to hurt nobody by word or deed; to bear no malice or hatred in my heart."

To constitute murder, man's life must

I

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be taken wilfully and unlawfully. This is the crime that Cain early introduced into the world, and his punishment was greater than he could bear. This is the crime again denounced after the flood, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." This is the crime that is at once a sin against God, who made man in his own image, and is sole Lord of all his creatures; against nature, which has bound men together by ties of reciprocal dependence and common fellowship; and against society, which is a combination to protect and secure the safety of all its members. Therefore it is again enjoined in the Law of Moses, "He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death." And to the same effect our Lord himself rebukes his Apostle Peter in the Gospel, "All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.""

1 Gen. iv. 13.
3 Exod. xxi. 12.

2 Gen. ix. 6.

Matt. xxvi. 52.

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