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Expositor's Bible Commentary Exodus 23:1 Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. 1 CHAPTER XXII. THE LESSER LAW (continued). PART IV. Exodus 22:16 - Exodus 23:19 . The Fourth section of this law within the law consists of enactments, curiously disconnected, many of them without a penalty, varying greatly in importance, but all of a moral nature, and connected with the well-being of the state. It is hard to conceive how the systematic revision of which we hear so much could have left them in the condition in which they stand. It is enacted that a seducer must marry the woman he has betrayed, and if her father refuse to give her to him, then he must pay the same dower as a bridegroom would have done ( Exodus 22:16-17 ). And presently the sentence of death is launched against a blacker sensual crime ( Exodus 22:19 ). But between the two is interposed the celebrated mandate which doomed the sorceress to death, remarkable as the first mention of witchcraft in Scripture, and the only passage in all the Bible where the word is in the feminine form--a witch, or sorceress; remarkable also for a far graver reason, which makes it necessary to linger over the subject at some length. SORCERY. "Thou shalt not suffer a sorceress to live."-- Exodus 22:18 . The world knows only too well what sad and shameful inferences have been drawn from these words. Unspeakable terrors, estrangement of natural sympathy, tortures and cruel deaths, have been inflicted on many thousands of the most forlorn creatures upon earth (creatures who were sustained in their sufferings by no high ardour of conviction or fanaticism, not being martyrs but simply victims), because it was held that Moses, in declaring that witches should not live, affirmed the reality of witchcraft. No sooner did the argument cease to be dangerous to old women than it became formidable to religion; for now it was urged that, since Moses was in error about the reality of witchcraft, his legislation could not have been inspired. What are we to say to this? In the first place it must be observed that the existence of a sorcerer is one thing, and the reality of his powers is quite another. What was most sad and shameful in the mediaeval frenzy was the burning to ashes of multitudes who made no pretensions to traffic with the invisible world, who frequently held fast their innocence while enduring the agonies of torture, who were only aged and ugly and alone. Upon any theory, the prohibition of sorcery by the Pentateuch was no more answerable for these iniquities than its other prohibitions for the lynch law of the backwoods. On the other hand, there were real professors of the black art: men did pretend to hold intercourse with spirits, and extorted great sums from their dupes in return for bringing them also into communion with superhuman beings. These it is reasonable to call sorcerers, whether we accept their professions or not, just as we speak of thought-readers and of mediums without being understood to commit ourselves to the pretensions of either one or other. In point of fact, the existence, in this nineteenth century after Christ, of sorcerers calling themselves mediums, is much more surprising than the existence of other sorcerers in the time of Moses or of Saul; and it bears startling witness to the depth in human nature of that craving for traffic with invisible powers which the law prohibited so sternly, but the roots of which neither religion nor education nor scepticism has been able wholly to pluck up. Again, from the point of view which Moses occupied, it is plain that such professors should be punished. They are virtually punished still, whenever they obtain money under pretence of granting interviews with the departed. If we now rely chiefly upon educated public opinion to stamp out such impositions, that is because we have decided that a struggle between truth and falsehood upon equal terms will be advantageous to the former. It is a subdivision of the debate between intolerance and free thought. Our theory works well, but not universally well, even under modern conditions and in Christian lands. And assuredly Moses could not proclaim freedom of opinion, among uneducated slaves, amid the pressure of splendid and of seductive idolatries, and before the Holy Ghost was given. To complain of Moses for proscribing false religions would be to denounce the use of glass for seedlings because the full-grown plant flourishes in the open air. Now, it would have been preposterous to proscribe false religions and yet to tolerate the sorcerer and the sorceress. For these were the active practitioners of another worship than that of God. They might not profess idolatry; but they offered help and guidance from sources which Jehovah frowned upon, rival sources of defence or knowledge. The holy people was meant to grow up under the most elevating of all influences, reliance upon a protecting God, Who had bidden His children to subdue the world as well as to replenish it, and of Whom one of their own poets sang that He had put all things under the feet of man. Their true heritage was not bounded by the strip of land which Joshua and his followers slowly conquered; to them belonged all the resources of nature which science, ever since, has wrested from the Philistine hands of barbarism and ignorance. And this nobler conquest depended upon the depth and sincerity of man's feeling that the world is well-ordered and stable and the heritage of man, not a chaos of various and capricious powers, where Pallas inspires Diomed to hunt Venus bleeding off the field, or where the incantations of Canidia may disturb the orderly movements of the skies. Who could hope to discover by inductive science the secrets of such a world as this? The devices of magic cut the links between cause and effect, between studious labour and the fruits which sorcery bade men to steal rather than to cultivate. What gambling was to commerce, that was witchcraft to philosophy, and the mischief no more depended on the validity of its methods than upon the soundness of the last device for breaking the bank at Monte Carlo. If one could actually extort their secrets from the dead, or win for luxury and sloth a longer life than is bestowed upon temperance and labour, he would succeed in his revolt against the God of nature. But the revolt was the endeavour; and the sorcerer, however falsely, professed to have succeeded; and preached the same revolt to others. In religion he was therefore an apostate, and in the theocracy a traitor against the King, one whose life was forfeited if it was prudent to exact the penalty. And when we consider the fascination wielded by such pretensions, even in ages when the stability of nature is an axiom, the dread which false religions all around and their terrible rituals must have inspired, the superstitious tendencies of the people and their readiness to be misled, we shall see ample reasons for treading out the first sparks of so dangerous a fire. Beyond this it is vain to pretend that the law of Moses goes. It was right in declaring the sorcerer and the sorceress to be real and dangerous phenomena. It never declared their pretensions to be valid though illegitimate. And in one noteworthy passage it proclaims that a real sign or a wonder could only proceed from God, and when it accompanied false teaching was still a sign, though an ominous one, implying that the Lord would prove them ( Deuteronomy 13:1-3 ). This does not look very like an admission of the existence of rival powers, inferior though they might be, who could interfere with the order of His world. Sorcery in all its forms will die when men realise indeed that the world is His, that there is no short or crooked way to the prizes which He offers to wisdom and to labour, that these rewards are infinitely richer and more splendid than the wildest dreams of magic, and that it is literally true that all power, in earth as well as heaven, is committed into the Hands which were pierced for us. In such a conception of the universe, incantations give place to prayers, and prayer does not seek to disturb, but to carry forward and to consummate, the orderly rule of Love. The denunciation of witchcraft is quite naturally followed, as we now perceive, by the reiteration of the command that no sacrifice may be offered to any god except Jehovah ( Exodus 22:20 ). Strange and hateful offerings were an integral part of witchcraft, long before the hags of Macbeth brewed their charm, or the child in Horace famished to yield a spell. CHAPTER XXIII. THE LESSER LAW (continued). Exodus 23:1-19 . The twenty-third chapter begins with a series of commands bearing upon the course of justice; but among these there is interjected very curiously a command to bring back the stray ox or ass of an enemy, and to help under a burden the over-weighted ass of him that hateth thee, even "if thou wouldest forbear to help him." It is just possible that the lawgiver, urging justice in the bearing of testimony, interrupts himself to speak of a very different manner in which the action may be warped by prejudice, but in which (unlike the other) it is lawful to show not only impartiality but kindness. The help of the cattle of one's enemy shows that in the bearing of testimony we should not merely abstain from downright wrong. And it is a fine example of the spirit of the New Testament, in the Old. "Thou shalt not take up a false report" ( Exodus 23:1 ) is a precept which reaches far. How many heedless whispers, conjectures lightly spoken because they were amusing, yet influencing the course of lives, and inferences uncharitably drawn, would have been still-born if this had been remembered! But when the scandal is already abroad, the temptation to aid its progress is still greater. Therefore it is added, "Put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness." Whatever be the menace or the bribe, however the course of opinion seem to be decided, and the assent of an individual to be harmless because the result is sure, or blameless because the responsibility lies elsewhere, still each man is a unit, not an "item," and must act for himself, as hereafter he must give account. Hence it results inevitably that "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil, neither shalt thou speak in a cause to turn aside after a multitude to wrest judgment" ( Exodus 23:2 ). The blind impulses of a multitude are often as misleading as the solicitations of the bad, and to aspiring temperaments much more seductive. There is indeed a strange magnetism in the voice of the public. Every orator knows that a great assembly acts upon the speaker as really as he acts upon it: its emotions are like a rush of waters to sweep him away, beyond his intentions or his ordinary powers. Yet he is the strongest individual there; no other has at all the same opportunity for self-assertion, and therefore its power over others must be more complete than over him. This is one reason for the institution of public worship. Men neglect the house of God because they can pray as well at home, and encourage wanton subdivisions of the Church because they think there is no very palpable difference between competing denominations, or even because competition may be as useful in religion as in trade, as if our competition with the world and the devil for souls would not sufficiently animate us, without competing with one another. But in acting thus they weaken the effect for good of one of the mightiest influences which work evil among us, the influence of association. Men are always persuading themselves that they need not be better than their neighbours, nor ashamed of doing what every one does. And yet no voice joins in a cry without deepening it: every one who rushes with a crowd makes its impulse more difficult to stem; his individuality is not lost by its partnership with a thousand more; and he is accountable for what he contributes to the result. He has parted with his self-control, but not with the inner forces which he ought to have controlled. Against this dangerous influence of the world, Christ has set the contagion of godliness within His Church, and every avoidable subdivision enfeebles this salutary counter-influence. Moses warns us, therefore, of the danger of being drawn away by a multitude to do evil; but he is thinking especially of the peril of being tempted to "speak" amiss. Who does not know it? From the statesman who outruns his convictions rather than break with his party, and who cannot, amid deafening cheers, any longer hear his conscience speak, down to the humblest who fails to confess Christ before hostile men, and therefore by-and-by denies Him, there is not one whose speech and silence have never been in danger of being set to the sympathies of his own little public like a song to music. That Moses was really thinking of this tendency to court popularity, is plain from the next clause--"Neither shalt thou favour a poor man in his cause" ( Exodus 23:3 ). It is an admirable caution. Men there are who would scorn the opposite injustice, and from whom no rich man could buy a wrongful decision with gold or favour, but who are habitually unjust, because they load the other scale. The beam ought to hang straight. When justice is concerned, the poor man's friend is almost as contemptible as his foe, and he has taken a bribe, if not in the mean enjoyment of democratic popularity, yet in his own pride--the fancy that he has done a magnanimous act, the attitude in which he poses. As in law so in literature. There once was a tendency to describe magnanimous persons of quality, and repulsive clodhoppers and villagers. Times have changed, and now we think it much more ingenious and high-toned to be quite as partial and disingenuous, reversing the cases. Neither is true, and therefore neither is artistic. No class in society is deficient in noble qualities, or in base ones. Nor is the man of letters at all more independent, who flatters the democracy in a democratic age, than he who flattered the aristocracy when they had all the prizes to bestow. Other precepts forbid bribery, command that the soil shall rest in the seventh year, when its spontaneous produce shall be for the poor, and further recognise and consecrate relaxation, by instituting (or more probably adopting into the code) the three feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. The section closes with the words "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk" ( Exodus 23:19 ). Upon this clause much ingenuity has been expended. It makes occult reference to some superstitious rite. It is the name for some unduly stimulating compound. But when we remember that, just before, the sabbatical fruit which the poor left ungleaned was expressly reserved for the beasts of the field, that men were bidden to help the overladen ass of their enemies, and that care is taken elsewhere that the ox should not be muzzled when treading out grain, that the bird-nester should not take the dam with the young, and that neither cow nor ewe should be slain on the same day with its young ( Deuteronomy 25:4 , Deuteronomy 22:6 ; Leviticus 22:28 ), the simplest meaning seems also the most probable. Men, who have been taught respect for their fellow-men, are also to learn a fine sensibility even in respect to the inferior animals. Throughout all this code there is an exquisite tendency to form a considerate, humane, delicate and high-minded nation. It remained, to stamp upon the human conscience a deep sense of responsibility. 6 THE LESSER LAW. Exodus 20:18 - Exodus 23:33 . With the close of the Decalogue and its universal obligations, we approach a brief code of laws, purely Hebrew, but of the deepest moral interest, confessed by hostile criticism to bear every mark of a remote antiquity, and distinctly severed from what precedes and follows by a marked difference in the circumstances. This is evidently the book of the Covenant to which the nation gave its formal assent ( Exodus 24:7 ), and is therefore the germ and the centre of the system afterwards so much expanded. And since the adhesion of the people was required, and the final covenant was ratified as soon as it was given, before any of the more formal details were elaborated, and before the tabernacle and the priesthood were established, it may fairly claim the highest and most unique position among the component parts of the Pentateuch, excepting only the Ten Commandments. Before examining it in detail, the impressive circumstances of its utterance have to be observed. It is written that when the law was given, the voice of the trumpet waxed louder and louder still. And as the multitude became aware that in this tempestuous and growing crash there was a living centre, and a voice of intelligible words, their awe became insufferable: and instead of needing the barriers which excluded them from the mountain, they recoiled from their appointed place, trembling and standing afar off. "And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die." It is the same instinct that we have already so often recognised, the dread of holiness in the hearts of the impure, the sense of unworthiness, which makes a prophet cry, "Woe is me, for I am undone!" and an apostle, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man." Now, the New Testament quotes a confession of Moses himself, well-nigh overwhelmed, "I do exceedingly fear and quake" ( Hebrews 12:21 ). And yet we read that he "said unto the people, Fear not, for God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not" ( Exodus 20:20 ). Thus we have the double paradox,--that he exceedingly feared, yet bade them fear not, and yet again declared that the very object of God was that they might fear Him. Like every paradox, which is not a mere contradiction, this is instructive. There is an abject fear, the dread of cowards and of the guilty, which masters and destroys the will--the fear which shrank away from the mount and cried out to Moses for relief. Such fear has torment, and none ought to admit it who understands that God wishes him well and is merciful. There is also a natural agitation, at times inevitable though not unconquerable, and often strongest in the highest natures because they are the most finely strung. We are sometimes taught that there is sin in that instinctive recoil from death, and from whatever brings it close, which indeed is implanted by God to prevent foolhardiness, and to preserve the race. Our duty, however, does not require the absence of sensitive nerves, but only their subjugation and control. Marshal Saxe was truly brave when he looked at his own trembling frame, as the cannon opened fire, and said, "Aha! tremblest thou? thou wouldest tremble much more if thou knewest whither I mean to carry thee today." Despite his fever-shaken nerves, he was perfectly entitled to say to any waverer, "Fear not." And so Moses, while he himself quaked, was entitled to encourage his people, because he could encourage them, because he saw and announced the kindly meaning of that tremendous scene, because he dared presently to draw near unto the thick darkness where God was. And therefore the day would come when, with his noble heart aflame for a yet more splendid vision, he would cry, "O Lord, I beseech Thee show me Thy glory"--some purer and clearer irradiation, which would neither baffle the moral sense, nor conceal itself in cloud. Meanwhile, there was a fear which should endure, and which God desires: not panic, but awe; not the terror which stood afar off, but the reverence which dares not to transgress. "Fear not, for God is come to prove you" (to see whether the nobler emotion or the baser will survive), "and that His fear may be before your faces" (so as to guide you, instead of pressing upon you to crush), "that ye sin not." How needful was the lesson, may be seen by what followed when they were taken at their word, and the pressure of physical dread was lifted off them. "They soon forgat God their Saviour ... they made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the work of their own hands." Perhaps other pressures which we feel and lament today, the uncertainties and fears of modern life, are equally required to prevent us from forgetting God. Of the nobler fear, which is a safeguard of the soul and not a danger, it is a serious question whether enough is alive among us. Much sensational teaching, many popular books and hymns, suggest rather an irreverent use of the Holy Name, which is profanation, than a filial approach to a Father equally revered and loved. It is true that we are bidden to come with boldness to the throne of Grace. Yet the same Epistle teaches us again that our approach is even more solemn and awful than to the Mount which might be touched, and the profaning of which was death; and it exhorts us to have grace whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe, "for our God is a consuming fire" ( Hebrews 4:16 , Hebrews 12:28 ). That is the very last grace which some Christians ever seem to seek. When the people recoiled, and Moses, trusting in God, was brave and entered the cloud, they ceased to have direct communion, and he was brought nearer to Jehovah than before. What is now conveyed to Israel through him is an expansion and application of the Decalogue, and in turn it becomes the nucleus of the developed law. Its great antiquity is admitted by the severest critics; and it is a wonderful example of spirituality and searching depth, and also of such germinal and fruitful principles as cannot rest in themselves, literally applied, but must lead the obedient student on to still better things. It is not the function of law to inspire men to obey it; this is precisely what the law could not do, being weak through the flesh. But it could arrest the attention and educate the conscience. Simple though it was in the letter, David could meditate upon it day and night. In the New Testament we know of two persons who had scrupulously respected its precepts, but they both, far from being satisfied, were filled with a divine discontent. One had kept all these things from his youth, yet felt the need of doing some good thing, and anxiously demanded what it was that he lacked yet. The other, as touching the righteousness of the law, was blameless, yet when the law entered, sin revived and slew him. For the law was spiritual, and reached beyond itself, while he was carnal, and thwarted by the flesh, sold under sin, even while externally beyond reproach. This subtle characteristic of all noble law will be very apparent in studying the kernel of the law, the code within the code, which now lies before us. Men sometimes judge the Hebrew legislation harshly, thinking that they are testing it, as a Divine institution, by the light of this century. They are really doing nothing of the sort. If there are two principles of legislation dearer than all others to modern Englishmen, they are the two which these flippant judgments most ignore, and by which they are most perfectly refuted. One is that institutions educate communities. It is not too much to say that we have staked the future of our nation, and therefore the hopes of humanity, upon our conviction that men can be elevated by ennobling institutions,--that the franchise, for example, is an education as well as a trust. The other, which seems to contradict the first, and does actually modify it, is that legislation must not move too far in advance of public opinion. Laws may be highly desirable in the abstract, for which communities are not yet ripe. A constitution like our own would be simply ruinous in Hindostan. Many good friends of temperance are the reluctant opponents of legislation which they desire in theory but which would only be trampled upon in practice, because public opinion would rebel against the law. Legislation is indeed educational, but the danger is that the practical outcome of such legislation would be disobedience and anarchy. Now, these principles are the ample justification of all that startles us in the Pentateuch. Slavery and polygamy, for instance, are not abolished. To forbid them utterly would have substituted far worse evils, as the Jews then were. But laws were introduced which vastly ameliorated the condition of the slave, and elevated the status of woman--laws which were far in advance of the best Gentile culture, and which so educated and softened the Jewish character, that men soon came to feel the letter of these very laws too harsh. That is a nobler vindication of the Mosaic legislation than if this century agreed with every letter of it. To be vital and progressive is a better thing than to be correct. The law waged a far more effectual war upon certain evils than by formal prohibition, sound in theory but premature by centuries. Other good things besides liberty are not for the nursery or the school. And "we also, when we were children, were held in bondage" ( Galatians 4:3 ). It is pretty well agreed that this code may be divided into five parts. To the end of the twentieth chapter it deals directly with the worship of God. Then follow thirty-two verses treating of the personal rights of man as distinguished from his rights of property. From the thirty-third verse of the twenty-first chapter to the fifteenth verse of the twenty-second, the rights of property are protected. Thence to the nineteenth verse of the twenty-third chapter is a miscellaneous group of laws, chiefly moral, but deeply connected with the civil organisation of the state. And thence to the end of the chapter is an earnest exhortation from God, introduced by a clearer statement than before of the manner in which He means to lead them, even by that mysterious Angel in Whom "is My Name." Exodus 23:9 Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 1 THE STRANGER. Exodus 22:21 , Exodus 23:9 . Immediately after this, a ray of sunlight falls upon the sombre page. We read an exhortation rather than a statute, which is repeated almost literally in the next chapter, and in both is supported by a beautiful and touching reason. "A stranger shalt thou not wrong, neither shall ye oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." "A stranger shall ye not oppress, for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt" ( Exodus 22:21 , Exodus 23:9 ). The "stranger" of these verses is probably the settler among them, as distinguished from the traveller passing through the land. His want of friends and ignorance of their social order would place him at a disadvantage, of which they are forbidden to avail themselves, either by legal process (for the first passage is connected with jurisprudence), or in the affairs of common life. But the spirit of the commandment could not fail to influence their treatment of all foreigners; and simple and commonplace though it appear to us, it would have startled many of the wisest and greatest peoples of antiquity, and would have fallen as strangely upon the ears of the Greeks of Pericles, as of the modern Bedouin, with whom Israel had kinship. A foreigner, as such, was a foe: to wrong him was a paradox, because he had no rights: kinship, or else alliance or treaty was required to entitle the weaker to any better treatment than it suited the stronger to allow. Yet we find a precept reiterated in this Jewish code which involves, in its inevitable though slow development, the abolition of slavery, the respect by powerful and civilised nations of the rights of indigenous tribes, the most boundless advance of philanthropy, through the most generous recognition of the fraternity of man. However sternly the sword of Joshua might fall, it struck not at the foreigner, as such, but at those tribes, guilty and therefore accursed of God, the cup of whose iniquity was full. And yet there was enough of carnage to prove that so gracious a commandment as this could not have risen spontaneously in the heart of early Judaism. Does it seem to be made more natural, by any proposed shifting of the date? The reason of the precept is beautifully human. It rests upon no abstract basis of common rights, nor prudential consideration of mutual advantage. In our time it is sometimes proposed to build all morality upon such foundations; and strange consequences have already been deduced in cases where the proposed sanction has not seemed to apply. But, in fact, no advance in virtue has ever been traced to self-interest, although, after the advance took place, self-interest has always found its account in it. A progressive community is made of good men, and the motive to which Moses appeals is compassion fed by memory: "For ye were strangers in the land of Egypt" ( Exodus 22:21 ); "For ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt" ( Exodus 23:9 ). The point is not that they may again be carried into captivity: it is that they have felt its bitterness, and ought to recoil from inflicting what they writhed under. Now, this appeal is a master-stroke of wisdom. Much cruelty, and almost all the cruelty of the young, springs from ignorance, and that slowness of the imagination which cannot realise that the pains of others are like our own. Feeling them to be so, the charities of the poor toward one another frequently rise almost to sublimity. And thus, when suffering does not ulcerate the heart and make it savage, it is the most softening of all influences. In one of the most threadbare lines in the classics, the queen of Carthage boasts that "I, not ignorant of woe, To pity the distressful know." And the boldest assertion in Scripture of the natural development of our Saviour's human powers, is that which declares that "In that He Himself hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted" ( Hebrews 2:18 ). To this principle, then, Moses appeals, and by the appeal he educates the heart. He bids the people reflect on their own cruel hardships, on the hateful character of their tyrants, on their own greater hatefulness if they follow the vile example, after such bitter experience of its character. He does not yet rise to the grand level of the New Testament morality, Do all to thy neighbour which it is not servile and dependent to will that he should do for thee. But he attains to the level of that precept of Confucius and Zoroaster which has been so unworthily compared with it: Do not unto thy neighbour what thou wouldest not that he should do to thee--a precept which mere indifference obeys. Nay, he excels it; for the mental and spiritual attitude of one who respects his helpless neighbour because he so much resembles himself, will surely not be content without relieving the griefs that have so closely touched him. Thus again the legislation of Moses looks beyond itself. Now, if the Jew should be merciful because he had himself known calamity, what implicit confidence may we repose upon the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief? In the same spirit they are warned against afflicting the widow or the orphan. And the threat which is added joins hand with the exhortation which preceded. They should not oppress the stranger, because they had been strangers and oppressed. Now the argument advances. The same God Who then heard their cry will hear the cry of the forlorn, and avenge them, according to the judicial fate which He had just announced, in kind, by bringing their own wives to widowhood and their children to orphanage ( Exodus 22:22-24 ). To their brethren they should not lend money upon usury; but loans are no more recommended than afterwards by Solomon: the words are "if thou lend" ( Exodus 22:25 ). And if the raiment of the borrower were taken for a pledge, it must be returned for him to use at night, or else God will hear his cry, because, it is added very significantly and briefly, "I am gracious" ( Exodus 22:27 ). It is the most exalting of all motives: Be merciful, for I am merciful: ye shall be the children of your Father. Again is to be observed the influence reaching beyond the prescription--the motive which cannot be felt without many other and larger consequences than the restoration of pledges at sunset. How comes this precept to be followed by the words, "Thou shalt not curse God nor blaspheme a ruler" ( Exodus 22:28 )? and is not this again somewhat strangely followed by the order not to delay to offer the first fruits of the soil, to consecrate the firstborn son, and to devote the firstborn of cat

Thou shalt not raise a false report. Exodus 23:1 Slander characterized, prohibited, and punished J. W. Burn. I. Slander is CHARACTERIZED. 1. Originating a false report. It may be from — (1) Envy. (2) Carelessness. (3) Hasty conclusions. 2. Listening to false reports. 3. Circulating a false report. II. Slander is PROHIBITED. 1. Affecting antecedents. 2. Affecting character. 3. Affecting family or social relations. 4. Affecting goods. III. Slander is PUNISHED. The slanderer is — 1. Excluded from religious fellowship ( Psalm 15:3 ). 2. Exposed to contempt of mankind ( Proverbs 10:18 ). 3. Object of Divine vengeance ( Psalm 10:5 ). 4. Excluded from kingdom of heaven ( Revelation 22:15 ). ( J. W. Burn. ) Description of slander Massillon. The tongue of the slanderer is a devouring fire, which tarnishes whatever it touches; which exercises its fury on the good grain equally as on the chaff, on the profane as on the sacred: which, wherever it passes, leaves only desolation and ruin; digs even into the bowels of the earth, and fixes itself on things the most hidden; turns into vile ashes what only a moment before had appeared to us so precious and brilliant; acts with more violence and danger than ever in the time when it was apparently smothered up and almost extinct; which blackens what it cannot consume, and sometimes sparkles and delights before it destroys. ( Massillon. ) Envious slander Bacon. The worthiest persons are frequently attacked by slanders, as we generally find that to be the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at. ( Bacon. ) How to avoid slander The celebrated Boerhaave, who had many enemies, used to say that he never thought it necessary to repeat their calumnies. "They are sparks," said he, "which, if you do not blow them, will go out of themselves. The surest method against scandal is to live it down by perseverance in well-doing, and by prayer to God, that He would cure the distempered minds of those who traduce and injure us." It was a good remark of another, that "the malice of ill tongues cast upon a good man is only like a mouthful of smoke blown upon a diamond, which, though it clouds its beauty for the present, yet it is easily rubbed off, and the gem restored, with little trouble to its owner." Slander reproved When any one was speaking ill of another in the presence of Peter the Great, he would shortly interrupt him, and say, "Well now; but has he not a bright side? Come, tell me what have you noticed as excellent in him! It is easy to splash mud; but I would rather help a man to keep his coat clean." Listening to slander Leighton., Bishop Hall. Calumny would soon starve and die of itself, if nobody took it in, and gave it lodging. ( Leighton. )There would not be so many open mouths if there were not so many open ears. ( Bishop Hall. ) The progress of slander J. Spencer. It is AElian's observation, how that men being in danger to be stung by scorpions, use to place their beds in water, yet the politic serpents have a device to reach them: they get up to the top of the house, where one takes hold, the next hangs at the end of him, a third upon the second, a fourth upon the third, and so making a kind of serpentine rope, they at last wound the man. And thus it is, that amongst scandalizers and slanderers, one begins to whisper, another makes it a report, a third enlargeth it to a dangerous calumny, a fourth divulgeth it for a truth. So the innocent man's good name, which, like a merchant's wealth, got in many years, and lost in an hour, is maimed, and so secretly traduced, that it is somewhat hard to find out the villain that did it. ( J. Spencer. ) False reports The Rev. C.H. Spurgeon has given publicity to the following letter: "Dear Mr. Spurgeon, — As I see that you are still occasionally put to the trouble of answering inquiries as to the truth of various anecdotes, etc., concerning yourself, I thought the following brief statement might interest you, or some of your numerous readers, if you think it well to publish it. About seventeen years ago I was for some time at a well-known health resort on the south coast. At the table d'hote I sat next to a young married lady, who was, alas! consumptive, and of that temperament which is so common in such cases, tres spirituelle , and very learned and accomplished. You may be sure she never lacked auditors for her lively conversation. At dessert one day she was 'telling stories' (in the literal and juvenile sense of the phrase) about yourself. I let her go on for some time, until I thought the fun was getting a little too fast; and then I said, 'I hope Mrs., you do not believe the stories you are detailing, because I assure you, I heard nearly all of them in my boyhood, before Mr. Spurgeon was born, and that most of them were then attributed to Rowland Hill — doubtless with equal lack of authenticity.' She looked me calmly in the face, with a comical expression, and replied, 'Oh, Mr. — , we never ask whether such stories are true; it is quite sufficient if we find them amusing.' 'Well,' I said, 'so long as that is understood all round, by all means keep on.' The poor, brilliant, thoughtless woman and her husband also have many years since passed away; but she has many, many successors, who are without her wit, and not quite so goodhumouredly candid as to their practice. If only you can get it 'understood all round ' that such folk really do not consider whether their 'anecdotes' are true or not, it might save you some trouble. Yours faithfully." Mr. Spurgeon himself adds: "This is quite true, but it is a pity that people should lie in jest. The lady was let off very easily. Our friend has touched the root of the matter, It is not malice, but the passion for amusement, which creates the trade in falsehood, which never seems to decline." Description of calumny A. Tooke. Apelles painted her thus: There sits a man with great and open ears, inviting Calumny, with his hand held out, to come to him; and two women, Ignorance and Suspicion, stand near him. Calumny breaks out in a fury; her countenance is comely and beautiful, her eyes sparkle like fire, and her face is inflamed with anger; she holds a lighted torch in her left hand, and with her right twists a young man's neck, who holds up his hands in prayer to the gods. Before her goes Envy, pale and nasty; on her side are Fraud and Conspiracy; behind her follows Repentance, clad in mourning, and her clothes torn, with her head turned backwards, as if she looked for Truth, who comes slowly after. ( A. Tooke. ) False insinuations Often are the most painful wrongs inflicted through the medium of covert inuendoes and malignant insinuations. Half of a fact is a whole falsehood. He who gives the truth a false colouring by a false manner of telling it is the worst of liars. Such was Doeg in his testimony against the priests. He stated the facts in the case, but gave them such an artful interpretation as to impart to them the aspect and influence of the most flagrant falsehoods. It was through the same mode of procedure that our Lord was condemned. An unrighteous witness The duties of witnesses J. W. Burn. I. NOT TO CO-OPERATE IN AN UNRIGHTEOUS CAUSE (ver. 1). This "commandment is exceeding broad," and conveys a lesson — 1. To judicial witnesses. (1) Personal friendships. (2) The guilt of the accused on some other point. (3) A show of justice must not influence us. 2. To all partisans, controversialists, politicians. 3. To trades unionists, etc. II. NOT TO CO-OPERATE IN ANY UNRIGHTEOUS CAUSE BECAUSE IT IS POPULAR (ver. 2). 1. Because majorities are no test of truth. Multitudes may be roused by passion, prejudice, or self-interest. 2. Because men should be weighed as well as counted. 3. Because righteousness, from the constitution of human nature, is often unpopular and in the minority. III. NOT TO CO-OPERATE IN AN UNRIGHTEOUS CAUSE BECAUSE IT IS APPARENTLY BENEVOLENT (ver. 3; Leviticus 19:15 ). 1. Because we may be putting a premium on vice which is the source of all misery. (1) By endeavouring to conceal the crime. (2) By extolling other virtues, so as to minimize the enormity of guilt. But to what purpose is it if we extol a man's honesty, if he is lazy, or a drunkard; or his sobriety, if a thief? 2. Because justice is above mere sentiment, and for the well-being of the whole community, and not for the exclusive benefit of a class. 3. Because of its influence on the object himself. Let a man feel that you do this or that for him simply because he is poor, and he will see no advantage in helping himself.Learn then — 1. To entertain none but righteous considerations. 2. To pursue them at all cost. ( J. W. Burn. ) Thou shalt not fellow a multitude to do evil. Exodus 23:2 Following the multitude prohibited Sketches of Sermons. I. EXPLAIN THE NATURE OF THIS PRECEPT. 1. It is here assumed that the multitude do evil. This may be inferred — (1) From the review of past ages. (2) From the cruel persecutions which have been raised against the righteous in various ages of the world. (3) From the common conduct of mankind. Is not vice more general than virtue? 2. Secondly, the precept in the text supposes that we are in danger of copying the example of the multitude. We may infer this — (1) From the innate tendencies we have to evil. (2) From the prevalence of bad example. 3. From a variety of melancholy facts. The multitude who now do evil were not always such adepts in depravity; when they first entered into the broad way their feet were not swift to do evil; they proceeded with hesitating steps, but by practice became hardened in crime. II. URGE REASONS TO INDUCE US TO OBSERVE IT. The multitude doing evil should not be imitated, because they are — 1. Unlawful and unconstituted guides. 2. Bad guides. 3. Dishonourable guides. 4. Unprofitable guides. 5. Dangerous guides. III. IMPART ADVICE FOR THE DIRECTION OF THOSE WHO WISH TO ESCAPE THE ENSNARING WILES OF THE MULTITUDE. 1. Get your minds deeply and thoroughly impressed with the awfulness of your situation. Dangers unseen will be unavoided. 2. Seek the regenerating grace of God. 3. Be on your guard against the seductive wiles and insinuating influence of the multitude. Sinners will entice you; but come out from among them; have no communion with the unfruitful works of darkness ( Psalm 1:1 ). 4. Follow the happy few who strive to do good. Show that you are with Christ by being with His people. Oh, say, "This people shall be my people, and their God my God." Inferences —(1) That the measures of right and wrong are not to be determined by the majority. Good and evil are fixed immutable principles; and their natures are unchangeable, whether many or few follow them.(2) What gratitude is due to God for the revelation of His will, which marks the boundaries of right and wrong; and for the gift of His Son to redeem us from this present evil world: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. ( Sketches of Sermons. ) Individual responsibility J. C. Coghlan, D. D. There is, I suppose, no doctrine more clearly set forth in Scripture than the doctrine of personal responsibility. There is no doctrine more readily owned, no doctrine more insisted upon by men. Yet I think I can show you that, in its application to a great number of particular cases, you would not only act as though you disbelieved it, but you would unconsciously maintain in words doctrines directly opposed to it. The words which I have just read to you suggest one of the most universally employed modes of denying this universally received doctrine of individual responsibility. "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil," was said long ago by the Jewish law. I think you will find that the present condition of things, in whatever place or class we are thinking of, grew up from something very small, and that by degrees the sin acquired strength from the power and position, and then from the mere number of its perpetrators, until in time it acquired positive dignity and became correct, or according to the absurd modern phraseology, became "good form," from the multitude of transgressors. I will begin with the sex which since the creation of the world has almost uniformly carried its point against the opposite sex, and which, nevertheless, is still facetiously called the weaker. They will, I believe, if you ask them, readily own themselves responsible for their use of time and of money. Well, they certainly spend an excessive amount of the latter, money, as I daresay their husbands know, in purchasing; and of the former, time, as everybody knows, in adjusting those ever-changing and most cumbrous absurdities which they pile upon themselves, and with which they surround themselves to the general inconvenience of everybody and everywhere. They do this until I should think they must feel uncomfortable, and I know that they look deformed. Why do they do it? Ask any one, and you will hear it all condemned at once, solemnly, perhaps piously condemned at once, the responsibility being shifted immediately from the individual to fashion, and that is to everybody. What does all that mean? Their conscience is relieved by the multitude whom they follow. Let us go a little further and take another view of the matter. Public bodies, I believe, parliaments, ministries, corporations, town commissioners, Poor Law guardians, boards of all kinds, and committees of all kinds, are known — every one of you knows it as well as I do — to be guilty of neglect of duties and violations of honour of which none of their members singly, in private transactions, would for one moment be capable. Take another set of instances. Look at the recognized dishonesties of different trades and businesses. The man who keeps light weights for selling, and heavy weights for buying, as I once knew a most "pious" man do; the man who adulterates food; the man who puts bad work or bad material where it is not to be detected; the servant who robs his master "in the usual way"; "the workman who to no greater extent than others of his craft plunders his employer"; none of these desire by any means, I fancy, to have their children taught at school that the Eighth Commandment has no meaning. They like to hear it every Sunday. Why? Because they have an unwritten tradition in the craft or trade, by which it is dispensed with. But I am going into more dangerous ground now. In the present day, the multitude has come to be considered something more than an excuser of deviations from strict principles in the ordinary affairs of life. It is beginning to assume the functions of the highest authority on religious matters. To call in question its decision, or refuse submission to its commands, no matter how uninstructed it may be, is coming to be viewed in the light of standing up against an inspired prophet. It does not occur to the thoughtless throng, who will rush anywhere to hear anybody, or to see anything, that when the multitude appears to have taken a "pious" turn it can be wrong to follow it whithersoever it leads. It does not seem to occur to them that when the multitude is longing to take Jesus by force and make Him a king, it may have just as little perception of His mission as when it clamorously demands His crucifixion. No, they are afraid to gainsay what the multitude asserts; they are afraid to do anything but echo its assertions, and thus each one among a multitude perpetuates the delusion of the others as to his real opinion, by being afraid to say it out, and act in conformity with it. This is the very spirit by which multitudes are created, by which they are enabled to assume formidable proportions, to become powerful for evil. The silence of cowardice is regarded as satisfactory consent, and everybody's echo of what everybody else says is vaunted as the concurrence of numerous independent testimonies. Persons of this kind are the genuine followers of the multitude who are condemned in the text. ( J. C. Coghlan, D. D. ) The sin of following the multitude to do evil N. Emmons, D. D. I. IT IMPLIES THAT THE MAJORITY OR GREAT MASS OF MANKIND ARE UNIFORMLY AND CONSTANTLY ENGAGED IN DOING EVIL. II. THE PROHIBITION WHICH WE ARE CONSIDERING IMPLIES THAT EVERY PERSON IS NATURALLY DISPOSED TO FOLLOW A MULTITUDE TO DO EVIL. III. THE PROHIBITION IN THE TEXT IMPLIES THAT THOSE ARE ALTOGETHER CRIMINAL WHO, FOLLOW THE EVIL EXAMPLES OF EVIL-DOERS, THOUGH THEY ARE THE GREAT MAJORITY OF MANKIND. For — 1. They are free and voluntary in following the examples of those who do evil. 2. Every person acts contrary to his reason and conscience in following a multitude to do evil, which renders him altogether criminal and inexcusable.Conclusion: 1. If men are apt to follow bad examples, as has been said, then there is reason to think that bad examples are the great source of moral corruption in every part of the world. 2. If men are naturally disposed to follow the multitude to do evil, then the truly godly have much more concern in spreading moral corruption, and obstructing the cause of religion than they are apt to imagine. 3. Since men are naturally disposed to follow the bad examples of the multitude, it is easy to see why a people, declining in religion, are so apt to be insensible of their religious declensions. The minority are blended with the majority, and they are all imperceptibly declining together. 4. If all men are naturally disposed to follow the multitude to do evil, then the rising generation are always in a peculiarly dangerous situation. 5. If it be criminal to follow bad examples, it must be far more criminal to set bad examples. 6. If men are naturally disposed to follow the multitude to do evil, then every one in a state of nature has a great reason to fear that he shall live and die in his present unsanctified and impenitent state. Your belonging to the majority will not help you to turn about, but powerfully tend to hinder you. What will you say when He punishes you? ( N. Emmons, D. D. ) Multirude no prevailing argument T. Taylor, D. D. The Lord that made us knoweth our mould and how easily we are persuaded to taste of the forbidden fruit, and how prone to be carried headlong to error, and therefore gives us a caveat , and sets a bar and stop in our way, that we run not to evil because we see others run or lead the way before us. And we shall do well by the way to take notice of our own corruption, as the Lord doth, that in the same we may see the necessity of this precept; for first, nature corrupt is as attractive of evil as the adamant naturally draws iron; just as a spark to tinder or gunpowder. Secondly, evil is diffusive of itself, and such an acquaintance there is between it and us, as the plague cannot so easily infect our bodies as sin doth poison and suddenly infect our souls. Thirdly, our nature is social, and not as the brutes; we readily thrust into company, and therefore being naturally enemies to solitariness, we are ready to follow if any one lead us the way; but if many or a multitude (as here) then we run, and for haste never stay to reason the case, neither in what way nor upon what errand. And, therefore, the Lord would have His people to fence themselves with a rule of prudence, that they be not misled by the crooked steps of others and their own perverse inclinations. 1. One reason is in the text: because a multitude may err and run to evil, and may decline to overthrow truth. 2. Multitudes cannot make that to be good which is evil in itself, neither in doctrine nor manners; well they may make an evil worse, but none better. 3. Multitudes cannot keep off the revenge of evil; one evil mate may help his fellow into sin, but cannot help him out of punishment, 4. Multitudes and most men are commonly the worst. The way to hell is broad and the gate wide that leads to destruction, and many go in thereat ( Matthew 7:13 ). "Hell enlargeth itself ( Isaiah 5:14 )." Tophet is large and wide ( Exodus 30:33 ). And therefore it cannot be the safest way which the most walk in. Contrarily, the fewest are commonly the best; pearls are rare; many hundred false prophets to one poor Micaiah; God's part in the world was ever but a gleaning and a small remnant; and the apostle ( 1 John 5:19 ) pronounceth in the name of believers, "We know we are of God, and the whole world lieth in unrighteousness." 5. It is better to walk the right way alone than to wander out of the way with company; better go to heaven alone, or with a few, than with multitudes to hell.Come we now to application of this point. 1. If it be so dangerous to follow a multitude to evil, what a fearful thing it is to lead a multitude to evil! as the magistrate that enacts and commands evil; like Jeroboam that made all Israel to sin. Or the minister that shall be weak as another man by whose example many are corrupted, through loose speeches, unseemly behaviours, libertine courses, fellowship with the abject, opposing the persons and strict courses of such as fear God. 2. See how desperately many men frame their courses while they live as if to do as the most do, were a good and warrantable plea. Because the most are irreligious, without the fear of God, and without conscience: so are they. The most scorn to attend God's ordinance: so do they. Commit a felony, riot, robbery, or rebellion with a multitude, and try if in thy trial before the judge it will be a good plea to say, "I was led, and followed the multitude." What then would you have us to do? In matters of faith build upon a surer foundation than upon numbers and multitudes, whom it was never safe to follow; nor was it ever a good argument either of the truth or true Church. In Christ's time the multitude followed the Scribes and Pharisees, but not Christ nor His apostles; and all the multitude cried, "Crucify Him." And how uncertain a rule this is the father tells us who observed, that in synods and councils the greater side doth oftentimes overcome the better; and another who saith, that in all Divine cases we must not number voices, but weigh them. What sure ground can be expected from the rude multitude, than which nothing is more fickle and uncertain? But we have a surer word, "Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone" ( Ephesians 2:20 ; 1 Corinthians 3:11 ). And we say as Hushai to Absolom ( 2 Samuel 16:18 ) "Nay, but whom the Lord and this people, and all the men of Israel chose, his will I be, and with him will I abide." ( T. Taylor, D. D. ) Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil James Logan. I. IMITATION IS ONE OF THE GREAT CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. The same passion that impels us to society, impels us to take part with our companions in their interests and inclinations. Insensibly and without thought we fall into their customs and their manners; we adopt their sentiments, their passions, and even their foibles, and follow the same course as if we were actuated by the same spirit. II. BY WHAT MEANS WE ARE TO KEEP OURSELVES FROM FOLLOWING A MULTITUDE TO DO EVIL. 1. Let us be early and firmly established in the principles of an holy faith. It is education chiefly that forms the human character; and it is a virtuous and religious education that forms the character. 2. Let us beware with what company we associate. 3. Let us acquire firmness and fortitude of mind. ( James Logan. ) The multitude an unsafe guide J. Spencer. It is said of the roes and hinds that they are most tender and fearful of all beasts, affrighted with any noise, checked with the least foil, turned out of course with the snapping of a stick, presently make head another way, and when they are once out of their wonted walk they run they know not whither, even to their own death. Such is the natural disposition of the multitude or common people, soon stirred up, quickly awry, sometimes running full head one way, on a sudden turned as much another, easily set agog, delighted with novelties. ( J. Spencer. ) The multitude not to be followed Said Horace Bushnell to his younger brother, who had been to a cheap show and came home crestfallen, "The next time that you see the whole world doing something, be sure not to go with them unless you have some better reason." That was the germ of manly independence out of which the sturdy manhood of that remarkable thinker grew. The sooner a young man learns that there are in this world more silly people than wise, more weak than strong, the better his chances of being a man. Custom not the standard of right T. Mantan, D. D. "Know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for Himself." Therefore it is no excuse for him to say, "I do but as others do." He is to reckon his hours by the sun, not the town clock; to take God's direction, not the vice of the multitudes, as one of their stamp and at liberty to comply with their fashions. ( T. Mantan, D. D. ) Thine enemy's ox. Exodus 23:4, 5 On duties to enemies J. W. Burn. I. THAT DUTIES TO ENEMIES ARE ENJOINED ( Proverbs 24:17 ; 1 Thessalonians 5:15 ). 1. It is our duty to protect the interests of our enemy. (1) If they are damaged, we should endeavour to retrieve them. (2) If they are in danger of damage, we should endeavour to prevent them ( James 5:19, 20 ). 2. It is our duty to help the difficulties of our enemy. (1) His mind may be in difficulties. (2) His soul may be in difficulties. (3) His material interests may be in difficulties. II. THAT DUTIES TO ENEMIES ARE DIFFICULT: "and wouldest forbear to help him." 1. Such duties are against the grain of human nature. 2. Such duties are apparently against self-interest. 3. Such duties require self-denials and sacrifices. III. THAT DUTIES TO ENEMIES ARE REWARDED ( Proverbs 25:21, 22 ; Matthew 5:44, 45 ; Romans 12:20 ). IV. THAT NEGLECT OF DUTIES TO ENEMIES IS PUNISHED ( Job 31:29 ; Proverbs 24:18 ). In conclusion — 1. Our text applies to all enmity, whether polemical, political, or national. 2. Its precepts should be obeyed, because we may be in the wrong and our enemy in the right. 3. Because God has Himself set us the sublime example. "When we were enemies, we were reconciled by the death of His Son." ( J. W. Burn. ) Neighbourly conduct The horse of a pious man living in Massachusetts, North America, happening to stray into the road, a neighbour of the man who owned the horse put him into the pound. Meeting the owner soon after, he told him what he had done; "And if I catch him in the road again," said he, "I'll do it again." "Neighbour," replied the other, "not long since I looked out of my window in the night and saw your cattle in my meadow, and I drove them out and shut them in your yard; and I'll do it again." Struck with the reply, the man liberated the horse from the pound, and paid the charges himself. "A soft answer turneth away wrath." A humane disposition Frances E. Willard. In one of my temperance pilgrimages through Illinois I met a gentleman who was the companion of a dreary ride which Mr. Lincoln made in a light waggon, going the rounds of a circuit court where he had clients to look after. The weather was rainy, the road "heavy" with mud. Lincoln enlivened the way with anecdotes and recital, for few indeed were the incidents that relieved the tedium of the trip. At last, in wallowing through a slough, they came upon a poor hog, which was literally fast in the mud. The lawyers commented on the poor creature's pitiful condition and drove on. About half a mile was laboriously gone over, when Lincoln suddenly exclaimed, "I don't know how you feel about it, but I've got to go back and pull that pig out of the slough." His comrade laughed, thinking it merely a joke; but what was his surprise when Lincoln dismounted, left him to his reflections, and striding slowly back, like a man on stilts picking his way as his long walking implements permitted, he grappled with the drowning swine, dragged him out of the ditch, left him on its edge to recover his strength, slowly measured off the distance back to his waggon, and the two men drove on as if nothing had happened. The grand and brotherly nature which could not consent to see the lowest of animals suffer without coming to its rescue at great personal discomfort was nurtured by years of self-abnegation for the great struggle, when he should be strong enough to "put a shoulder to the wheel," that should lift the chariot of State out of the mire and set a subject race upon its feet. ( Frances E. Willard. ) Thou shalt not wrest the judgment. Exodus 23:6-8 Duties of judges J. W. Burn. I. That judges should be IMPARTIAL. 1. In particular towards the poor (ver. 6).(1) Because the poor are most open to the oppression of the powerful.(2) Because the poor are often at a disadvantage for the want of technical knowledge or means to procure legal assistance.(3) Because the poor are easily overawed. 2. In general towards the right (ver. 7, first clause). Not to aid or abet a wrong cause. II. That judges should be CAUTIOUS, particularly with regard to matters relating to capital punishment. "The innocent and righteous slay thou not." 1. The case must be clearly proved. 2. The accused to have the benefit of the doubt. 3. Because justice would be done. If the criminal escaped an earthly doom, God would "not justify the wicked" ( Proverbs 11:21 ). III. That judges should be INCORRUPT (ver. 8), either in the shape of direct bribe or indirect present. 1. Because the bribe may blind him to the true merit of the case; and — 2. Because the bribe may weigh down and pervert his judgment on the wrong side. IV. That judges should be CONSIDERATE (ver. 9), particularly in regard to foreigners. Because — 1. They had been foreigners themselves, and had suffered for the want of consideration. 2. They therefore knew something of the sufferings of foreigners.(1) Foreigners may be ignorant of the law and unwittingly break it.(2) When broken, they may know nothing of legal technicalities, or be unable to pay legal expenses. ( J. W. Burn. ) The administration of justice H. M. Field, D. D. There was a close connection between the civil and the military constitution of the Hebrews. The same men who were captains of thousands and captains of hundreds in war were magistrates in time of peace. In every Oriental state the point of greatest weakness is the administration of justice. Those who have lived long in the East testify that there is no such thing as justice; that no cadi, sitting in the place of judgment, ever pretends to such exceptional virtue as to be above receiving bribes. The utmost that can be expected is the hypocrisy which is the homage of vice to virtue; and even this is seldom rendered, for where bribery is universal no one is constrained by shame to conceal it. Against this terrible demoralization no rock can stand but that of the Divine authority. In the administration of justice a theocracy is an ideal government, for it is Divinity enthroned on earth as in heaven; and no other form of government enforces justice in a manner so absolute and peremptory. In the eyes of the Hebrew lawgiver, the civil tribunal was as sacred as the Holy of Holies. The office of the judge was as truly authorized and his duty as solemnly enjoined as that of the priest. "The judgment is God's," said Moses; and he who gave a false judgment disregarded the authority of Him whose nature is justice and truth. The judgment-seat was a holy place, which no private malice might profane. Evidence was received with religious care. Oaths were administered to give solemnity to the testimony ( Leviticus 5:1 ). Then the judge, standing in the place of God, was to pronounce equitably, whatever might be the rank of the contending parties ( Deuteronomy 1:17 ). He recognized no distinctions; all were alike to him. The judge was to know no difference. He was not to be biased even by sympathy for the poor ( Exodus 23:3 ; Leviticus 19:15 ). Magistrates were not allowed to accept a gift, for fear of bribery. ( H. M. Field, D. D. ) Bribery resisted Coleridge. Persuaded that Marvell would be theirs (the Administration's) for properly asking, they sent his old schoolfellow, the Lord Treasurer Danby, to renew acquaintance with him in his garret. At parting, the Lord Treasurer, out of pure affection, slipped into his hand an order upon the Treasury for £1,000, and then went to his chariot. Marvell, looking at the paper, called after the Treasurer, "My lord, I request another moment." They went up again to the garret, and Jack, the servant-boy, was called. "Jack, child, what had I for dinner yesterday?" "Don't you remember, sir? You had the little shoulder of mutton that you ordered me to bring from the woman in the market." "Very right, child. What have I for dinner to-day?"

23:1-9 In the law of Moses are very plain marks of sound moral feeling, and of true political wisdom. Every thing in it is suited to the desired and avowed object, the worship of one only God, and the separation of Israel from the pagan world. Neither parties, friends, witnesses, nor common opinions, must move us to lessen great faults, to aggravate small ones, excuse offenders, accuse the innocent, or misrepresent any thing. 23:10-19 Every seventh year the land was to rest. They must not plough or sow it; what the earth produced of itself, should be eaten, and not laid up. This law seems to have been intended to teach dependence on Providence, and God's faithfulness in sending the larger increase while they kept his appointments. It was also typical of the heavenly rest, when all earthly labours, cares, and interests shall cease for ever. All respect to the gods of the heathen is strictly forbidden. Since idolatry was a sin to which the Israelites leaned, they must blot out the remembrance of the gods of the heathen. Solemn religious attendance on God, in the place which he should choose, is strictly required. They must come together before the Lord. What a good Master do we serve, who has made it our duty to rejoice before him! Let us devote with pleasure to the service of God that portion of our time which he requires, and count his sabbaths and ordinances to be a feast unto our souls. They were not to come empty-handed; so now, we must not come to worship God empty-hearted; our souls must be filled with holy desires toward him, and dedications of ourselves to him; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. 23:20-33 It is here promised that they should be guided and kept in their way through the wilderness to the land of promise, Behold, I send an angel before thee, mine angel. The precept joined with this promise is, that they be obedient to this angel whom God would send before them. Christ is the Angel of Jehovah; this is plainly taught by St. Paul, 1Co 10:9. They should have a comfortable settlement in the land of Canaan. How reasonable are the conditions of this promise; that they should serve the only true God; not the gods of the nations, which are no gods at all. How rich are the particulars of this promise! The comfort of their food, the continuance of their health, the increase of their wealth, the prolonging their lives to old age. Thus hath godliness the promise of the life that now is. It is promised that they should subdue their enemies. Hosts of hornets made way for the hosts of Israel; such mean creatures can God use for chastising his people's enemies. In real kindness to the church, its enemies are subdued by little and little; thus we are kept on our guard, and in continual dependence on God. Corruptions are driven out of the hearts of God's people, not all at once, but by little and little. The precept with this promise is, that they should not make friendship with idolaters. Those that would keep from bad courses, must keep from bad company. It is dangerous to live in a bad neighbourhood; others' sins will be our snares. Our greatest danger is from those who would make us sin against God.