June 26

1 And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, saying the in quity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments 7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work;

10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy mannervant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God give to thee. 13 Thou shalt not kill 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery. 15 Thou shalt not steal. 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's cause, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his mannervant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

The Decalogue stands alone as God's manuscript. Of it, it is said, "And the Lord gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, written with the finger of God." It is this fact which exalts the Decalogue to the very highest rank of all recorded truth. We cannot restrict its application to a single people, a single locality or a single age.

"Turn and listen to the simple universal rule given by our Lord, the rule which all can understand and all can accept—Keep the Commandments. If thou wouldst enter into life, if thou wouldst know the good, you need not hurry about the world after this rabbi, and you need not hunt up the secret in the baffling masses of wrangling philosophers; you need not run to and fro and waste yourself with trouble and anxiety, in terror lest you should have missed the true receipt or taken the wrong training; you need not lose yourself in endless disputes and inquiries. No, it is all perfectly plain how it is to be done.

"There is no royal road peculiar to the privileged, no doubt about it which can entitle you to defer it to to-morrow. Why ask concerning the good as if it were a curious riddle which lacked an answer? If thou wouldst enter into life there is one receipt, and that is open to you and to all—Keep the Commandments. The Commandments! They are points at which the will of man closes with the will of God. They are the moments at which this fusion occurs.

"The Commandments express the very nature and character which constitute the enormous goodness of Him who is the only good, and in keeping them we come into touch with Him; we are made one with Him! they embody the temper in which communion takes place. Whenever we loyally keep a commandment then our will is God's will, and we unite with the good and become one"—Canon Scott-Holland.

Closet Promise.—Great peace have they which love Thy law.—Psalm cxix 165.

When Thy will shall be my will, there shall be no more sea; when I have received Thee into the ship, I shall touch the summits of Ararat.—George Matthewson.