TEXT: Thou shalt not covet.... Exodus 20, 17.
For He knew that for envy they had delivered Him." Matthew 27, 17.
OOKING back over the ground we have covered during the 4 past few weeks in our studies of the commandments, one cannot but be struck by their marvellous breadth and comprehen-sivaness.
It is surprising how few subjects there are on which men need laws to guide them which do not fall under one of these nine heads. So far, we have seen that each of the commandments refers to a definite action, each defends some fundamental right, but the tenth commandment is different.
This commandment takes us behind the word or deed to consider the motive and purpose which actuated it and as such it forbids a merely mechanical morality.
In a very real sense this commandment is the key to the true interpretation of all the others. It may be seen as the revelation of a deeper righteousness which flings its pjercing light back upon all that has gone before. It does not come to regulate a new department of life or conduct. We have had laws vindicating marriage rights and parental authority. Laws regulating public worship. Laws protecting property and person and reputation. The tenth introduces no new province. So far as it specifies your neighbour's wife it overlaps the seventh commandment. So far as it enumerates his items of property. house, field or cattle, it repeats the eighth. What is new about it is not the matter with which it deals, but ite introspective and deeper handling of fundamental principles. In this sense it gathers together the other nine and demands for them a more positive interpretation than men feel at first disposed to give. It teaches that,—It is not enough to refrain from taeft—you must also refrain from geed. It is not enough to refrain from adultery—you must refrain from evil desires. This commandment brings out the spiritual content of a law which might otherwise be interpreted in mere mechanical terms. It recognizes that mental states must be considered in determining the value of words and deeds....that there is in inner as well as an outer life.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.