The duties of masters towards their servants are (a) To remember that they are responsible to God for their authority, and the use they make of it. (b) To remember that they also are servants, and therefore to act towards their servants with consideration and tenderness. (c) To treat their servants with justice. (d) To behave towards them with gratitude. (e) To allow them time on Sundays and holidays for the service of God. (f) To set them good examples. " a The duties of subjects towards the national rulers are respect and obedience. b с The duties of the faithful towards their pastors are to render them honour and respect, as ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God, and to obey them in spiritual matters, and to contribute to their support. f e d The duties of the young towards their elders are reverence and courtesy, and the same are due from inferiors to those above them in social position. Eph. vi. 9; S. Matt. xx. 25, 26; Ecclus. xxxiii. 31. b Rom. 1 Cor. iv. 1; Ecclus. vii. 31; a Heb. xiii. 7, 17. • S. Luke x 7; 1 Lev. xix. 32; Job xxxii. 4; 1 S. Pet. xii. 1, 2; 1 S. Pet. ii. 13, 14, 17. 6. Thou shalt do no murder. HIS commandment forbids all actions which may have, even a remote tendency, towards the destruction of life; and even the passions which lie at the root of, or are the mainsprings of such actions. This commandment forbids wilful murder, not only of persons come to maturity, but likewise of infants and of children unborn. Murder is a sin crying to God for vengeance." Some murders are more heinous than others, such as the murder of a father, a mother, or a near relative, or of a priest, or religious who are consecrated to God. Suicide is a murder of the worst description, as it is an audaucions rushing into the presence of God with sin unrepented of on the conscience. b Wilfully causing a miscarriage is also real murder. The taking away of life is justifiable (a) in magistrates passing sentence, especially on murderers; for, by God's command the penalty of shedding human blood is death; (b) in war, which is a necessary evil, and lawful when undertaken on legitimate grounds; (c) in self-defence. d с This commandment forbids contentions, quar Gen. ix. 6; Lev. xxiv. 17; * Gen. iv. 10. b Rom. xiii. 4. Exod. xxi. 23. . d Exod. xxii. 2. relling, fighting. Because (1) they tend towards murder, a (2) they are injurious to the person of our neighbour, (3) they are opposed to Christian charity.c d It forbids likewise anger, revenge, hatred, and malice. Anger is just in certain cases. It is just when the cause is just, the feeling moderate, and the desire of punishment proportioned to the offence.e It forbids all spiritual murder, or the destroying of souls. This may be done by deliberately teaching another to sin, or by giving scandal, or setting bad example. Scandal is any word or action, which, being in itself evil, or having the appearance of evil, is the occasion of sin to others. There are three kinds of scandal: I. Malicious scandal, or doing evil with malicious intentions of causing sin, as enticing to sin, ridiculing virtue, advising or encouraging what is sinful, flattering or praising those who have sinned, &c. f II. Scandal of weak brethren, or doing what has only the appearance of evil, from which ignorant or weak persons take occasion to sin. g III. Pharisaic scandal, or scandal taken but not given, as when an evil-disposed person without a Ecclus. xxii. 30; xxviii. 18. S. Matt. v. 21, 22; xv. 19; S. f S. Matt. xviii. 6, 7; 1 Cor. xv. 33. b S. Luke iii. 14. c Gal. v. 19-21. Mark vii. 21-23. è Ps. iv. 5. 81 Cor. viii. 11, 12. reason takes scandal at good actions. The sin is, in this case, in the person scandalized, not in the person who gives scandal.a This commandment enjoins the love of enemies, and doing good to those who injure us." 7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. с HIS commandment forbids all sins against purity, under any form; impure thoughts, and words, immodest behaviour, e intemperance, which provokes lust, and in a word all things which tend to inflame the passions either of ourselves or of others. f This commandment forbids fornication, or union between a male and female outside of marriage; h adultery, or breaking of wedlock by union with a man or woman married to another; incest, or union within the prohibited degrees of relationship, a table of which will be found in each Prayer-book a S. Matt. xv. 12. b S. Matt. v. 44; Rom. xii. 14, 19-21. < S. Matt. v. 28. d Eph. iv. 29; v. 3; Col. iii. 8. e Isa. iii. 16, &c. Prov. xxiii. 31, 33; Rom. xiii. 13. 1 S. Pet. iv. 3. h 1 Cor. vi. 18; Col. iii. 5. i S. Matt. v. 32; xix. 9; S. Mark x. 11, 12; S. Luke xvi. 18; Rom. vii. 3. on the last leaf. Unnatural lusts, beyond and against nature; which are sins crying for vengeance. This commandment forbids all luxury and self-indulgence, and pampering of the flesh, and the use of stimulants and narcotics as a habit. а It does not forbid foul thoughts which are not harboured, for the inspiration of the thoughts is often involuntary, but it does forbid the encouragement of them, the retention of them, and the taking pleasure in them. Consequently it forbids all reading of immodest books, contemplating lascivious images and pictures, listening to unseemly conversation. 8. Thou shalt not steal. b HIS commandment forbids all unjust taking away or retaining what belongs to another against his will. If this be done by secret fraud, it is called theft. If done by open violence, it is called robbery. Defrauding another is keeping back what properly should belong to another. Gen. xviii. 20, 21; xix. 13. b Lev. xix. 13, 35, 36; S. Mark x. 19; c 1 Cor. vi. 8-10. |