The promise is this: "That thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

This promise did not mean that an individual Israelite, if he honoured his parents, was sure to enjoy a long life, and that if he did not honour his parents he would be cut off in his youth.

The promise was made to the whole nation collectively, and was to this effect, that if as a nation, the Israelites honoured their parents, as a nation they should enjoy a long life in the land which God had given them.

And the same is true of us. It is a law of God's government that a nation, in which due honour is paid to parents, shall continue long in the land; and on the other hand, that a nation where parents are not honoured will have its national existence cut short.

Nor need we hesitate to apply to ourselves the words of the Commandment-" the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." God has given this land of England to us English people, just as truly as He gave the land of Canaan to the Israelites.

"If we honour our parents, if we revere the memory of our ancestors, if we worship their God as our God, then the whole earth, and especially that portion of it which God has given us, our father-land, will be dear and sacred in our eyes," and it will be our earnest endeavour to maintain its true honour, and, when our time comes, to leave it a little better than we found it.

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THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT.

Thou shalt do no murder. Thou shalt not kill.

CCORDING to the division of the Ten Commandments which is now generally adopted, this Sixth Commandment stands at the head of the Second Table.

In this Commandment, as in the last, it is necessary to bear in mind that the Ten Commandments are not merely addressed to individuals, but to the nation collectively; in other words they are the Divine Rules which are to regulate civilized society.

The Commandments of the Second Table lay down the principles which are necessary to hold Society together. They are the foundation stones on which the social fabric, or the nation's life as a nation, rests.

The first of these great foundation stones upon which human society is built is the SACREDNESS OF HUMAN LIFE.

If this foundation stone is loosened the whole fabric will be shaken; if it gives way, if human life ceases to be held sacred, society cannot hold together; it relapses into barbarism, a condition in which there is no law but the law of the strongest.

Now I want you to see how this Commandment is connected with the preface, which, as I have said, belongs to each Commandment.

I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, therefore thou shalt do no murder.

As Israel's life was sacred and precious in God's sight, therefore the life of the humblest Israelite was to be sacred and precious to all Israel.

The evil of murder is not confined to the actual killing, but is seen in the effects which it produces upon society. It has produced and still produces, suspicion, distrust, hereditary blood-feuds, and tends to scatter and divide brethren from their brothers.

There are two sorts of social murders, direct and indirect. (1) Direct. Such ghastly murders as from time to time thrill the hearts of a whole nation.

(2) Indirect. When people are killed in accidents that might have been prevented by ordinary precautions. As when, for instance, a ship which is suspected to be unseaworthy, is insured for a large sum of money, and then sent to sea, that the owner may reap his profit regardless of the lives of his brethren. Or when a railway company, in order to cut down its expenses, and so to increase its dividends, keeps a pointsman so many hours on duty, that from sheer fatigue, he loses his presence of mind, and sends a train crashing into another train, and causes death and wounds to many innocent people.

It is possible that when you are grown up, you may be placed in a position in which the lives of many people may depend upon your care and steadiness.

And even in cases that seem very different, it might be that some carelessness on your part might be the cause of great loss of life.

Some slight flaw, some piece of scamped work, in a piece of iron-work might cause a fatal and terrible accident.

In any case it will be well for us all to have firmly impressed upon our minds the sacredness of human life.

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT (continued).

THE THE Commandments are to be understood in two ways: first, as applying to the nation as a nation; and secondly, as applying to individuals.

So with this Sixth Commandment. I spoke to you last Sunday about its application to the nation collectively, that it laid down as the first foundation stone of society-the first stone of the great breakwater against vice and lawlessness, this great principle-the sacredness of human life.

To-day we must consider it in its individual and personal application.

To each one of us it is said, Thou shalt do no murder.

It might be thought that there was no need to press the literal sense of this commandment upon Christian children. And yet when one comes to think of it, the worst murderers, whose deeds strike horror into every heart, were once children, were once boys and girls like you; some, I dare say, at one time or other, scholars in a Sunday School. And indeed some of the most horrid murders have been committed by quite young persons.

Yet you may be sure that those boys and girls who have grown up into murderers, did not become so all at once. Instead of mastering anger and covetousness, they allowed covetousness and anger to master them. And so with you. If you allow anger or love of money to get the mastery over you, or if you accustom yourselves not to mind giving pain to others, not to recognise their rights as well as your own, who can tell what opportunity and temptation combined might bring you to?

Let us be sure, then, to be on our guard against those passions that lead to murder. Let us take care to close the door of our hearts against hatred, anger, jealousy, love of money, and all other forms of selfishness.

But this Commandment, like the others, is not only negative, but positive in its application. It not only tells us what we ought not to do, but also what we ought to do.

It is not enough not to hate, we must love our brother.

We must not only not be jealous, we must learn to rejoice in another's success : we must not only not covet what is another's, but learn to find our pleasure in sharing our advantages with others. We must not be content with not doing harm to our brother, we must strive to do him good. S. John tells us in his Epistle (1 John iii. 14, R.V.), “ We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us : and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." And our Lord Himself declared in the Sermon on the Mount: "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgement. But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement" (S. Matt. v. 21, 22).

One thing more I must say about this Commandment.

We may murder souls as well as bodies. To lead another astray, to lead another into sin, to induce another to give up some duty or religious observance, this is to do his work who was a murderer from the beginning.