MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 20:14
THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
Among the various, the innumerable proofs, which God has given of His perfect goodness, the institution of marriage is one of the most beneficent; and it shows especially and abundantly His goodness to fallen man. Those who have not entered this endeared relation, feel in the midst of the world a solitude of the heart. In this relationship there is every circumstance calculated to promote human happiness. Other relationships are often interrupted and broken in upon by opposite interests; but, through the goodness of God, the interests of man and wife are one. Other relations are often separated by the circumstances of life; but a husband and his wife are united for ever. Yet man is so perverse and foolish that he will cast aside this happiness. An adulterous man breaks many vows, and destroys the happiness of an entire family.
I. In this command, God has forbidden unfaithfulness towards a husband or towards a wife; having attached to it, both under the law and the Gospel, the most fearful penalties. Then the adulterer and the adulteress were to be put to death. Now we are told that adulterers shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But this commandment forbids any previous step in a course of infamy,—any kind of incentive to impurity is forbidden by the pure morality of the Gospel. Indecent conversation. Immodesty in dress. All evil thoughts.
II. Rules favourable to moral chastity.
1. To mortify any evil propensity. We are commanded by the Word of God to put to death any corrupt inclination.
2. We must endeavour to strengthen the spirituality of our minds. “If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God; set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”
3. Seek the society and the friendship of those who are themselves good and holy. If a person loves the good he has a natural distaste for the society of the abandoned and the wicked. Just in proportion as virtuous affections obtain the dominion in our hearts, vicious passions are subdued.
4. Fill up lime with wholesome and right employments. Even those that are not in themselves of a high and elevating character, but are the lowest kind of duty to which any man can be called, have this excellent effect; they are calculated to occupy the thoughts, to interest the mind, and to prevent the thoughts becoming vagrant after that which is in itself corrupt.
5. Observe the rules of temperance in all things, in eating, sleeping, and drinking. We owe a duty to society at large. We must secure our personal purity and lessen the amount of vice found in the world. Society ought to frown upon vice. No government ought to employ an avowed libertine. The public journals ought to brand him with infamy.—W. B. Noel, M.A.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
THE REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Passion-Power! Exodus 20:14. One bright July morning, I was driving to town. As I came to the top of the hill just above the bridge, on the outskirts of the place, a little boy, from a cottage on the north side of the road, fired off a small cannon. He was so near the road, the cannon made so big a noise, and the whole thing came so unexpectedly, that my little bay pony took fright, and shied, with a spring, to the other side of the road. He not only overturned the carriage in doing so, but was with great difficulty reined in and prevented from running away. “You should not fire your cannon so near the road,” said I to the boy, after I had got the pony somewhat quiet; “you frightened my horse badly, and nearly made him run away.” “I didn’t mean to do it,” said he, “but it got agoing before I saw the horse, and then I couldn’t stop it.” I said no more, but drove on, thinking of the boy’s answer, as I have often thought of it since, though all this happened years ago. “Couldn’t stop it!” How often, when we start “lust,” there is no stopping. Do not begin, and the difficulty will not arise It will not get “agoing.”
“But if once we let them reign,
They sweep with desolating train,
Till they but leave a hated name,
A ruined soul, a blackened fame.”
—Cook.