CHAPTER XXIII. LAWS AGAINST CALUMNY. EXCESSIVE DEFERENCE TO AUTHORITY. JUDICIAL RULES. FESTIVALS. THE ANGEL JEHOVAH.. I HAVE already observed, after reading the twentieth chapter of the Book of Exodus, that it contained a universal or moral law, obligatory upon all the nations of the earth, in all ages and at all times; but I took occasion to state, that immediately after the moral law, Moses received from God certain judicial laws, which were to be observed by the judges and public officers of the nation, the benefit and blessing of which, as just and equitable in themselves, that favored people were thenceforth privileged to receive. Each of the laws that we have read this morning, is full of equity, tenderness, and love, all breathing mercy, and indicating, unquestionably, that they were the inspiration and creation of the wisdom of God. In order to see the Divine origin of these laws, just consider what these people were. They had come out from Egypt, depressed, ignorant, illiterate. How could the Jewish nation, as I have already said debased, degraded, brokenspirited (Moses the only exception)-have conceived laws so full of justice, of equity, of mercy, of considerateness as these? The very truths that are here revealed are evidences that Moses wrote, not under the prescriptions of human genius, but according to the inspiration of God himself. No laws of Solon, or of any other ancient legislator, are for a moment to be compared with these. There is no basis of comparison there is contrast, instead of comparison. Yet these are the laws of a then barbarous people, just emancipated from the thraldom of Egypt. - Now, the first of these, as indeed all, are for the guidance of judges, and of all who have judicial functions to fulfil "Thou shalt not raise a false report' - that is, you shall have no malignant feeling towards your neighbor, and you shall not indulge that malignant feeling, if it do exist, by trying to take away his good name. People do not always estimate this offence as they should; but it really is one of the worst depredations. "He that steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis his, 'tis mine, 'tis everybody's; but he that takes away my good name, takes that which not enricheth him, and makes me poor indeed." Where did the great poet learn this true and beautiful thought? Either from the inspiration of human genius, which sometimes approaches near to divine grace, or he borrowed it as is most likely - from the word of God. "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do Then he says, evil." The word multitude is the translation of the Hebrew word Rabbim; and this word is the origin of the Hebrew term Rabbi, as applied to the chief teachers or instructors of the Jews; and some of the best translators hold, that we ought not to render it, "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil," but that we ought to translate it, "Thou shalt not follow the Rabbis, thou shalt not follow the greatest or chiefest teachers to do that which is evil." In other words, "If we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel, let him be anathema;" or, translated into modern language, if all the priests, and prelates, and popes of Christendom together, constituting the true or pretended teachers of the earth, were to tell you to shut your Bible, or to worship images of gold, and silver, and wood, and stone, or to command you to do any thing that this book declares to be evil, in such a case this is the law that must regulate your con duct, "Thou shalt not follow all the teachers of England, of Scotland, or of Rome, to do that which is evil;" in other words, you must take your directions from God's mouth, not from the Pope, or the most honorable or the greatest of men that give prescriptions of an opposite nature. He adds, "Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause." Now this seems, at first sight, very difficult to understand. One would think that we ought to countenance a poor man in his cause; but the meaning of it is this: If a poor man is accused of a crime, and brought before a judicial tribunal, then, just as you should not do any thing that is partial, because a great man has committed a crime, and is tried for it, so you are not, out of mere pity, to let a criminal escape, because he is a poor man. In other words, you are just to act upon the principle which prevails in our native land. If a man is brought before the tribunals of our own country, it is the glory of our land and a great glory it is that the poor man and the rich man will both have a fair trial and no favor. The poor man's poverty is not to make you so pitiful that you shall try to make him. appear innocent, when you gather from evidence that he is guilty; and a man's riches are not so to dazzle you, that you shall endeavor to shield his crime, because he is a great, and, as reputed, an honorable man. This seems also, in some degree, to refer to barristers and pleaders. Many persons have had doubts upon a subject connected with this profession; but it seems to me that there ought to be none. The law of our country requires that the greatest criminal shall have a fair trial. Suspicion shall not condemn him, and your own feelings shall not prejudge him; and, therefore, if a barrister is called upon to defend a great criminal, it is right that he should state what room for doubt exists that he should state every point that is favorable, if it be fact, to the establishment of the innocence of his client. However guilty a man may be, he should have a fair and impartial trial. Let proofs decide, and nothing less. clear law and conclusive We are not to let a man Neither our suspicions, escape punishment because he is great, nor are we to try to let a man escape because he is poor. nor his circumstances, should decide. partial justice to all, saying all that can be truly said for the worst, and nothing untrue for the best. Now, these laws were not merely for a certain age: they are the laws that ought to regulate judicial proceedings at all times and in all countries. How very beautiful is this regulation, "If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again." You are not to say, No, I am glad that such an one, who has injured me, has met with misfortune; but you are, if a Christian, not only to pray for your enemies, but to help them, if you can. "Thou shalt not wrest Again, in the sixth verse, he says, the judgment of thy poor in his cause that is, you shall not try to pervert it, because he is poor. And again: "Thou shalt take no gift; for the gift blindeth the wise." That does not mean a private person may not; but, referring to judges upon the bench, the law says, that they (the judges) shall not take a gift. 'I dare say many of you may have heard of the celebrated Sir Matthew Hale, that he was in the habit of receiving a present from a person annually; and it happened once, that about the usual time when this friend made him the present, that he was accused of some offence, and was to appear as an accused person before Sir Matthew Hale. On this occasion Sir Matthew Hale returned him the present, lest it should afford even the shadow of a suspicion that the purity of judicial impartiality should be disturbed, or seem to be disturbed, by a gift from one who was to appear before the court accused of an offence, and demanding a fair trial. And I believe still it would be thought the most scandalous outrage upon our constitution, and every judge would repudiate it with scorn and disdain, were any one, expecting to have his cause tried by that judge, to attempt to propitiate his favor by gifts. Now, this beautiful rule—so just, so reasonable, so proper - was anticipated and was known, you observe, three thousand years ago, and was first revealed by Him who is the Fountain of all wisdom and of all justice. We have, in the tenth and eleventh verses, a very important law of course inapplicable to us―viz., for six years they were to cultivate their land, and the seventh year they were to allow it to lie fallow partly for the sake of the land, and partly for the sake of the poor: and God made the harvests abundant in the sixth year, in order to compensate for the deficiency, or rather, utter cessation, of the seventh year, that followed. This law was national, peculiar, and is not obligatory upon us, though merciful to them, and adapted to the circumstances in which they were placed. But lest they should suppose that this seventh year Sabbath was to do away with the regular Sabbath, it is added, "Six days thou shalt do thy work; and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed." Now, this seventh year was for the universal physical rest and enjoyment of the people; and the Sabbath, or seventh day, was especially meant for the religious instruction and spiritual rest of the people. In addition to the Sabbath, therefore, you observe, there was a year during which the people were to have rest; and I think that, in our land, it would tend to the sacredness of the Christian Sabbath, as it would also tend to the substantial good of the people, if there were to be throughout the year, days, or even part of days, in which the mill should stand still, the hum of business |