MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 20:16
THE NINTH COMMANDMENT: THE POWER OF THE TONGUE FOR EVIL
Human codes take cognisance of theft and of murder, and seek to repress them by severe punishment; but they do not punish for theft and murder committed by the tongue. We acknowledge the power of the human hand, but too often forget the power for evil of the human tongue. In this the Divine code is for the most part superior to human codes. The tongue can steal and can murder. It may kill a neighbour’s reputation. It may rob of that the loss of which makes him poor indeed and does not enrich the thief.
I. The violation of this command destroys the witnesser’s moral manhood. This is a species of lying. All falsehood is base. It is the outcome of baseness. and increases the baseness. Every man who bears false witness does himself more moral damage than he does to the neighbour of whom the false testimony is given.
II. The violation of this command does injustice to our neighbour. It may do him no moral harm, but does him great social damage. It places him in a false position. The court may disbelieve and reject the false testimony, but the man has been injured by being subjected to an examination. It is extremely difficult for a man to clear away all the dirt which has been thrown by the false-witness bearer. Many a man’s reputation has been darkened all his life by the malicious tales of the bearer of false-witness.
III. The violation of this command prevents the course of justice. The administrators of law cannot move with certainty when witnesses are not reliable. Witnesses are not likely to tell a false tale, if appearances are not against the accused. It requires great sagacity to separate the true from the false, to get above mere appearances, and discover the correct state of the case.
IV. More generally notice that the violation of this command degrades. The tale-bearer revealeth secrets; and depraved human nature loves to hear evil secrets revealed. The slanderer may be welcomed, but is not respected. And ultimately his tales are received with suspicion. He is in danger of being cast out as an evil spirit. The man who to me slanders my neighbour, will in turn slander me to my neighbour; and if we are wise we shall not lend him our ears.
V. The violation of this command robs the slanderer of his capital. In modern society especially reputation is as much capital as the current coin of the realm. It is true that character remains when reputation is destroyed. This may be some consolation to the man sitting amid the ruins; but when reputation is gone a man’s social position is gone. It may also be true that a man’s well-known character will tend to preserve his reputation; but if sufficient dirt is thrown some of it is sure to stick. Slanderers are the bane of society. What suffering they inflict! They have embittered the lives of the purest and the holiest. We must pray God to hide us safe in His pavilion from the strife of unruly tongues.—W. Burrows, B.A.
Bearing false witness covers the whole case of those sins which transgress more or less of the whole truth; and one who fails in a given case to tell the whole truth is more or less amenable to this law. Observe apart from deliberate lying—
I. That we may bear false witness by equivocation.
II. That we may bear false witness by the suppression of any essential element that goes to make up the whole truth; e.g., in revealing an incident which affects our neighbour’s character.
III. That we may bear false witness by putting a wrong connection on and giving a wrong emphasis to the words of another.
IV. That we may bear false witness without the utterance of a word.
(1.) By neglecting to defend a slandered character, silence implying consent.
(2.) By a shrug of the shoulders, a compression of the lips, a motion of the hand, is quite enough to ruin a reputation or a soul. To avoid this and its heavy condemnation; (i.) Seek to become like Him who is “the Truth;” (ii.) be open and candid in all your ways; and (iii.) give others credit for what you demand for yourself.—J. W. Burn.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
THE REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
False-Witness! Exodus 20:16. This commandment requires us to keep our tongues from evil-speaking, lying, and slandering. In the garden of Eden, Satan bore false witness against God by telling Eve that she would not die if she ate of the forbidden fruit. Every one, therefore, who lies, slanders, or speaks evil of his neighbour, is becoming like Satan. It is said that there is one place in India where, when a person is found guilty of false witness, he is taken to a public place, and in the presence of a multitude of people his mouth is sewed up. It is to be feared that such a penalty inflicted impartially on such offenders in England would produce startling stillness of speech. Still greater would be the silence, were the mouths of all who gave ear
“With greediness, or wittingly their tongues
Made herald to his lies, around him sewed.”
—Pollock.
Scandal-Seed! Exodus 20:16. The story is told of a woman who freely used her tongue to the scandal of others, and made confessions to the priest of what she had done. He gave her a ripe thistle-top, and told her to go out in various directions and scatter the seeds one by one. Wondering at the penance, she obeyed, and returned and told her confessor. To her amazement, he bade her go back and gather the scattered seeds; and when she objected that it would be impossible, he replied that it would be still more difficult to gather up and destroy all the evil reports she had circulated about others. Any thoughtless, careless child, can scatter a handful of thistle-seeds before the wind in a moment, but the strongest and wisest man cannot gather them again. And the “thistle-seeds” need not be of the tongue. False witness is too often borne by
“The hint malevolent, the look oblique,
The obvious satire, or implied dislike,
The sneer equivocal, the harsh reply,
And all the cruel language of the eye.”
—More.