faults, hiding the virtues, and while the beam is in their own eye exposing the mote in another's eye. One half of the conversation of ordinary life is made up of the reflections on others, and much of the pleasure men take in such other's society would be lost were they to avoid free judgment of their neighbours. But it is written "Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour him will I destroy." Rejoicing in another' misfortune. The arrow, says S. Jerome, never fixes itself in a stone, but bounding back strikes him who shot it. So let the detractor learn while he sees thee unwillingly listen, not easily to detract. It is, indeed, a miserable spirit to disguise a fact which would benefit or attribute a motive which would injure another, to distort the truth so that it ceases to be the truth, to exaggerate for the sake of selfimportance or to extenuate a sin, to be inaccurate and from a loose habit of talking or a fatal craving after p pularity in telling what is called a good story, to talk for the sake of talking and fritter away time and words in empty nothings, to give way to the habits of society and revel in the news of the day, all this while it lowers fatally our moral tone brings us within the warnings and penalties of this command. If a man bridleth not his tongue his religion is vain, into the treasure of the Church; and if thou doest what thou art able, be it little or great, corporal or spiritual, the charity of alms or the charity of prayers, a cup of wine or a cup of water, if it be but love to the brother or a desire to help all or any of Christ's poor, it shall be accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not. For love is all this and all the other commandments and it will expend itself, where it can; and where it cannot, yet it is love still, and it is also sorrow that it cannot. (Jeremy Taylor.) On the question of giving and of the blessing which abundantly comes to the liberal heart, there can be no doubt, for if thou cast thy bread on the waters thou shalt find it after many days; but a word may here be said on the rule which God seems to lay down for us. The "Judicious Hooker" says: "Ten being the number of nature's perfections (for the beauty of nature is order, and of number ten the highest we can rise unto without iteration of numbers under it), could nature better acknowledge the power of the God of nature than by assigning unto Him that quantity which is the continent of all she possesseth_?" Abraham gave tithes of all to Melchisedek (Gen. xiv. 17, 20). Isaac also paid tithes. Jacob's vow was the tithing of all that he had (Gen. xxviii. 20, 22). Tithes were the rule under the Mosaic dispensation (Ex. xxiii. 15, Num. xviii. 24, Lev. xxvii. 30, Deut. xii. 6); and the neglect of this duty is denounced by Mal. iii. 9, 12, as the threatening of a curse, while to the fulfilment of it is promised that all nations shall call men blessed, for " ye shall be a delightsome land saith the Lord of Hosts." Our Lord's example and His teaching confirm the ancient rule (S. Matt. xvii. 24, 27, xxiii. 23); and His declaration, about the righteousness that is the justice and rectitude of the Pharisees who gave largely, in verse 23, seems to settle the matter. Whatever be the justice of comparing, as some well meaning people do, the cost of an ironclad with the income of our Missionary Societies, or the expense of an ordinary season in London to those whose duty it may be to spend it there with what is given in alms or for religious purposes. There can be no doubt that we fail terribly in this respect, that men do not give to God what God has a right to, and does, require. We are surely bidden to put by as God hath prospered us, and are surely told that we cannot be just or honest if we rob Him and do not pay to Him what is His due. Observe the beauty of 2 Chronicles xxx. Assuredly to do good and to distribute we must forget not, for with such sacrifice God is well pleased. Whatever, Lord, we lend to Thee, To Thee, from whom we all derive CHAPTER X. COMMANDMENT IX. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." It is here as the God of Truth that the Eternal speaks to us of the power and of the need of truth. It is also as the God of love that he calls on us to remember the royal law of charity and tenderness to another's faults, and to be careful to see that we are without sin ere we presume to cast the stone. From the blessed peace of the inner sanctuary of Heaven He teaches us the secret of peace on earth, the government of the tongue. There where He is all is harmony, and the voices of the angels, as they rejoice over the recovery of penitent souls and sing the eternal song of praise to Him that was, and is to come follow out the order 4 of His will when He made the tongue and taught Adam how to use it. But here on earth all is discord, and the abuse of this precious gift of speech has required a law which shall regulate its use and make it contribute to the happiness of man. Speech is, indeed, one of God's most precious gifts. Let us think how much of the pleasure of human life depends in the mutual intercourse and communion of thought, on the delight of conversation (using the word not in the scriptural sense, but in the language of common life), and the higher we ascend, and the nobler use we put that to, how more exquisite is the enjoyment, enabling us to read each other's souls and know each other's inner life and be to each other in some sort what He is to us. For in the tenderness of human sympathy, in the loving consolations which are administered in the chamber of sorrow, in the sweet converse about holy things and in holy places we become sensible of another Presence not our own and another voice, even that which spake as never man spake. Let us think of how He spake, of the effect His words and His language had on the minds of those who heard Him so that they said we have heard strange things to-day, of how when He opened the book and read and then closed it and spoke they wondered at the gracious words which came out of His mouth. Let |