to God; that we may lift up the eye of our spirit to that one source of all holiness, and may breathe forth to Him from the ground of our hearts that NAME which contains all the wealth of His Holiness, that ASPIRATION which expresses the depth of this our own conscious poverty, OUR FATHER, WHICH ART IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE THY NAME.

At this stage of our enquiry it may be well to refer to that part of the Synoptical Scheme which presents this second Table of the Decalogue. We shall thus at a glance perceive, that so far as the first two Laws of the second Table, namely, those against murder and adultery, are concerned, the outward form of that Table, as given through Moses, coincides with the outward form of it adopted by our Lord on the Mount, and expanded by Him there into the fulness of its inward and spiritual import.

But at this point we seem to perceive a striking divergence in our Lord's final legislation, from that primal one by Moses, not only as to its inward spirit but also as to its outward form. For the outward Laws which in our Lord's order immediately follow that against adultery, are not the Commandments against theft and false witness, but two other Laws, having, indeed, rather the character of a single Law, in its negative form THOU SHALT NOT FORSWEAR THYSELF, and in its positive form THOU SHALT PERFORM TO THE LORD THY VOWS. The more inward and spiritual Law corresponding to the first of these, and given by our Lord in Matth. v. 34-37, inclusive, we have represented, for the sake of brevity, by the words, THOU SHALT DENY AND CRUCIFY ALL PROFANENESS AND LYING;

-that corresponding to the second, and given in Matth. v. 37; by the words, THOU SHALT SPEAK THE SIMPLE TRUTH.

On due consideration of this part of the subject in its fuller and more Christian bearings, we shall perceive that as the outward and visible Life of the Individual, now in Christ a very holy thing, is guarded in its roots from violation and destruction, by the negative Law, THOU SHALT DO NO MURDER, even so is the inward and spiritual Life of the Individual guarded in its roots from violation and destruction by the negative Law (as given by our Lord with its necessary practical developments), THOU SHALT DENY AND CRUCIFY ALL CAUSELESS ANGER. Further, that as the outward and visible Life of the Family is guarded in its roots from violation and destruction by the negative Law, THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, even so is the inward and spiritual Life of the Family similarly guarded from violation and destruction by the similarly developed negative Law, THOU SHALT DENY AND CRUCIFY ALL LAWLESS

LUST.

And again, that as the outward and visible Life of the full human Society is guarded from violation and destruction in its threefold root, by the law, THOU SHALT NOT FORSWEAR THYSELF; even so is the inward and spiritual Life of the same Society guarded from violation and destruction by the Law whose spirit is, THOU SHALT DENY

AND CRUCIFY ALL PROFANENESS AND LYING.

Lastly, that AS THE OUTWARD AND VISIBLE REALIZing of OUR FULL CHRISTIAN LIFE ON EARTH in each of its three constituent elements-the Individual, the Family, and the National Life-is provided for by the Positive Law,

THOU SHALT PERFORM TO THE LORD THY VOWS; even so is THE INWARD AND SPIRITUAL REALIZING OF THE SAME COMPLETE CHRISTIAN LIFE on Earth, in each of its three great constituent elements, provided for by the Positive Law, THOU SHALT SPEAK AND DO THE TRUTH, AS INWARDLY CONSCIOUS OF SPEAKING AND ACTING IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD.

In order that we may perceive that this is indeed so, it will be necessary to throw back a rapid glance on the Decalogue as given through Moses; and to compare its form and import as so given to them of old time, with its form and import as given to us by our Lord from the Mount-specially on those portions of it which have now from that greater Lawgiver than Moses, received their entire fulness and spirituality of meaning.

And if we carry this retrospect a little further back, to the formal beginning of remedial religion and of explicit Law in the Noachic dispensation (as given in p. 39), we shall see at once in what sense this second Table, as perfected by our Lord on the Mount, is the summing up, and simultaneous presentment, of those three fundamental guardian Laws of the Individual, the Family, and the National Life, respectively, which are the characteristic laws of each succeeding dispensation, taken in historical order; that is, of the Noachic, of the Abrahamic or Israelitish, and of that final Christian and spiritual Economy to which belongs the full unfolding, under God, of the now completely constituted human Life.

Such a retrospect will teach us that though the first Table of the Decalogue, like the absolutely Holy Being whose Name it is appointed to guard, is the same yesterday,

to-day, and for ever; it is not so with that second Table, ordained to guard this great and holy Name, not in its own abiding Objective Holiness, but as put upon man, whose Being, essentially variable and mutable, essentially capable, in God's order and under God's methods, of an everheightening degree of spirituality, requires at one period of its development a less spiritual, at another a more spiritual form and import to be given to the Law under which he has to live.

From that higher point of view on which Christ has placed us, from the Mount to which he has taken us up, but from no other, no humanly attainable elevation, can we make this retrospect. Only when the light of the day-spring from on high has risen upon us, on whom the ends of the world are come, does that light stream upward through the night of ages, to illumine and penetrate, to endow with a quickening spirit, that living body of Law which was given to them of old time. Only when thus brought within the offstreaming radiance of the Son of Man, are Moses and Elias, the Law and the Prophets, transfigured and glorified.

Under the brightness of this excellent light we discern, that in the primal form and import of the Decalogue as given by Moses, its ultimate form and import as given by Christ are implicitly contained; and that even as that earlier revelation of Holy Law, under forms and with an import which were at once symbolic and real, was ordained to guard in its threefold root THE LIFE, SYMBOLIC AT ONCE AND REAL, which it was a main object of that earlier dispensation to constitute under God; even

so was the full and final revelation of the same Holy Law by our Lord on the Mount, ordained to guard in its threefold root THE ABSOLUTELY REAL LIFE, which is now at length constituted on earth under the Holy Name of God, as in Christ revealed to us and put upon us; ordained so to guard in its sources that FULL HUMAN LIFE AND BEING, to the end that it might be enabled to receive real powers of communing with God, real and blessed energies of spiritually beholding Him.

And this principle will at once give a key to those modifications of the Decalogue which we find in the Sermon on the Mount. The first Table, the appointed guardian for us of the Holy Being of God in its Objective Reality, remains unchanged, remains of power to guard that Holy Being, IN WHATEVER FULNESS, BY WHATEVER NAME REVEALED, as the one great Object of all our religious affections and aspirations, of all our best and most spiritual energies; as the one great fountain of our whole religious Life. The second Table does also in a most important sense remain unchanged. For in its primal as well as in its Christian form, it is still of force; and in that primal form it still supplies those fundamental Laws on which must rest our genuine human Life, in each of its three leading manifestations. Still for us, as for the children of Israel, THOU SHALT DO NO MURDER, THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, THOU SHALT NOT STEAL, are the three great primary Laws without the actual enforcement of which, our human Life as Individuals, as members of a Family, and as Members of a State, cannot be protected from fatal violation: without the actual enforcement of which