No limit to it, as to time or to extent, is given in Scripture. In childhood this obedience must be entire, with but only one exception, and that is when the parental commands manifestly oppose the law of God: in such case the course of duty is plain, "we ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts v. 29); but such an issue can only arise, when children have attained the power of self-government, which to all of us is next in order to that of God himself. In any case in which a child from this motive hesitates to do a parent's bidding, it will be done humbly, with diffidence, not without the reason and motive being lovingly urged in excuse, not without prayerfulness and sorrow of heart. And if in mature years it should be the affliction of the earnest Christian to see sins, follies or infirmities multiply in his aged parents, it will be his duty and his care to screen them from the reproach of men; to pray more constantly on their behalf, to endeavour, by loving entreaty and example, to win them to the right way; and if, in outward circumstances or inward feeling, they should need help or sympathy, to endeavour then to requite, by gentle affection and service, some of the many obligations which he owed to them in his own early days of helplessness. The "honour" due to parents, although commanded by God as a duty, is, like that which He requires to be rendered to Himself, to be based upon the foundation of love and gratitude. Thence will spring the reverence of thought, word, and action-the submission of will,—the outward honour and respect, the readiness to obey, to help, to defend, to serve in all ways possible which filial affection can suggest. In extending the principle to a wider circle, these feelings will lose much of their deep personal interest, but yet will find scope for fitting exercise. As dwellers in the same land, we are under the Sovereign, who is "the father of his people;" and governed by the magistrates and administrators of the laws he gives for the good of the community, and by all who bear rule in his name. This is the principle of patriotism and loyalty taught by St. Peter, 1 Pet. ii. 13, 14, 17, and by St. Paul, Rom. xiii. 1-5, 7. In another relationship, equally recognised by Scripture, are those who hold the sacred office of God's ministers, who are "ambassadors for Christ." They feed us with the bread of life, " milk for babes," and "strong meat for men," and we are enjoined to regard them as our spiritual fathers, and to esteem them highly in love for their work's sake (1 Cor. iv. 15; 1 Thess. v. 12, 13; Heb. xiii. 17, 18). Reverence for teachers who instruct our minds, masters who show us the way to labour with our hands, superiors in age or station, ability or gifts, is also taught on the same principle (Prov. v. 13; Ephes. vi. 5, 7; Titus ii. 9, 10; Phil. ii. 3, 4; Lev. xix. 32; 1 Kings ii. 19.) Especial judgments are threatened against those who violate this first law of the second table (Prov. xxx. 11, 17); but, on the other hand, it is "the first commandment with promise" (Ephes. vi. 2, 3), an expression referring, in the case of the Jew, to the long possession of the land of Canaan as his inheritance, and in that of the Christian, as St. Paul explains it, to the prolongation of life and temporal prosperity, so far as these can be enjoyed by us without hindering our growth in grace, or injury to the eternal felicity of our souls. Following this precept is the Sixth Commandment, by obedience to which we should indeed render to all their due, whether our superiors, equals, or inferiors; it is the first of those prohibiting all the forms of injustice and wrong, opposed to the spirit of the preceding one. In it the chief place is given to the bodily life of our neighbour, as his most precious possession, which we are expressly forbidden to take, or injure, or to cause to be destroyed. Murder was early committed in the world; and the terrible sentence first pronounced upon it (Gen. ix. 6) was repeated under the law (Exod. xxi. 12), and renewed under the Gospel dispensation (Matt. xxvi. 52; Rom. xiii. 4). But while this law was a merciful protection framed by God to check, by its severe punishment, the repetition of the sin of Cain, yet we know also from the explanation which our Lord gave of it (Matt. v. 22), that it has a spiritual as well as a literal meaning, and refers not only to the act of murder, but to all the steps which lead to it: thus teaching us, who, perhaps, never fear that we can be guilty of taking the life of any of our fellow creatures, that it is needful to control the first impulse and desire of the heart, the angry, jealous or revengeful feeling, by which wrathful words might be suggested, and a deadly act of wickedness brought about. Love is the fulfilling of this law, as of all the rest (see 1 John iii. 14, 15), for by avoiding strife, and cultivating a spirit of charity and peace, we may, by God's help, check the pas sions which accumulate into murder in the category given by St. Paul (Gal. v. 20, 21; Ephes. iv. 31, 32). The meek and humble spirit of our Divine Master in submitting to injury without resentment,—not taking into his own hand the vengeance which belongeth to God (Rom. xii. 20),-is set before us as an example of the spirit of forgiveness and patience which we are to cultivate as his followers (1 Pet. ii. 19-24; Matt. v. 38-48; Col. iii. 13). So the Catechism teaches each of us the meaning of this law to be that "I should hurt nobody by word nor deed; and bear no malice nor hatred in my heart." The circumstances under which the sin of murder does not attach to the act of taking the life of another, are so distinct from those under which the same act would become a heinous crime, that they need only to be briefly mentioned. The civil magistrate has authority to punish evil-doing, according to God's law, in such a way as may be needful for the good and safety of society. Thus death follows the murderer (Numbers xxxv. 33), and the rebel against the king, who is the cause of many lives being lost in the anarchy and violence attending his act. But if, in self-defence, when attacked, we take the life of our opponent, when no means of escape, or any other way of overcoming him is possible, then it would be justifiable rather than to surrender our own life to him. In seasons of merciless persecution martyrs have chosen to die rather than break this law in defending themselves; and in the battle the soldier has sacrificed his life to preserve that of his commander or his sovereign, deeming the life he saved of more value to the community than his own. In such cases, as in that of all just and necessary wars of national defence and honour, it is not murder to take or surrender life: not so, however, when the suicide, to avoid evils he cannot overcome, takes away the life God gave him, nor when rulers provoke unjust or unlawful wars, and thus unnecessarily sacrifice the lives of their subjects, or of those against whom they proceed. The Seventh Commandment forbids, primarily the breaking of that law of marriage appointed by God from the beginning (Gen. ii. 24; 1 Cor. vi. 16), by which a man and woman, united together by mutual consent, are made one, by God's decree, to live together in love and honour, and thus typify the mystery of the union between Christ and his Church (Eph. v. 22-33). The violation of this sacred law in the Mosaic dispensation was followed by a sentence equal to that which condemned the murderer to death, Levit. xx. 10. Our Lord, when expounding this law, as in the preceding, showed us that it embraced analagous offences, of the same character, having the same tendency to deprave and debase the body as the extreme enormity of which it speaks, although in a lesser degree. See Matt. v. 27, 28. Hence then, if we would avoid breaking this command, we must guard against impurity, in thought, or word, or deed, and "abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul (1 Pet. ii. 11), remembering that our bodies are the members of Christ, and temples of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. vi. 15-20). To keep the "body in temperance, soberness, and chastity" is therefore the first and general application of this law-for from neglect to control the senses and passions of our corrupt nature, from indulgence in impure imaginations, by listening to unchaste conversation, by joining company with those of immodest and light behaviour, by the reading of sensual and depraved books, the indulgence and pam pering of fleshly appetites, an idle pursuit of pleasure, and, above all, by wilfully running into temptation, and from the absence of a sanctified heart and a tender conscience to resist the first degrees of the sin:-by these we take the first steps towards that downward path of sin and uncleanness from which it is so rare that any return (Prov. vii. 24-27), and certainly none recover without suffering, even in this life, the consequences of their sin. How can we keep ourselves pure in heart? First, and chiefly, by seeking the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit by whom alone we can be sanctified, and then by taking watchful care that we do nothing by word (Eph. iv. 29, 30), thought (Eph. iv. 17-24), or deed (Eph. v. 1-12), by which to grieve Him, or dishonour our Divine Master, who has said that nothing that is unholy or defiled can enter into His presence, or behold the face of that God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. W. S. SCENES IN PALESTINE, AND THE LESSONS No. IV. THE SEA OF GALILEE. "And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nepthalim."-St. Matthew iv. 13. THERE are so many spots in Palestine which demand, by their importance in the Sacred Narative, the thoughtful consideration of the Biblical student, that whilst it has been a matter of no difficulty to select the earlier subjects of these papers, it becomes somewhat perplexing as we advance, to decide between rival claims, and to choose such scenes as will be most interesting, and at the same time most profitable to our readers. We cannot, however, greatly err in passing from the slopes of the southern Hebron (See third paper, Jan., 1862) to that northern sea, which is so replete with association, the lake of Tiberias, or as it is called in the Old Testament "The Sea of Chinneroth," Josh. xii. 3. Any view of the Holy Land would be incomplete which omitted a glance at Capernaum; and we should have but a very partial insight into the physical, as well as the historical, features of Palestine, if we should pass over in silence that inland sea which was the scene of so many marvellous events in the life of our blessed Lord, and near which He spent so large a portion of His public ministry. The plain of Esdraelon has been already described. It formed the debatable ground between the northern and more southern tribes of Palestine. Just as southwards of this plain the mountains of Judah and Ephraim extended, so along the northern side of the plain there rose the mountains of Zebulon and Napthali. This northern part of the Holy Land was the allotted portion of the four tribes, Issachar, Napthali, Asher, and Zebulon. These mountains differ from those which are situated in other parts of Palestine. "They partake of the jagged outline, of the varied vegetation, and of the high upland hollows which characterise in a greater or less degree the whole mass of the Lebanon range, in contrast to the monotonous aspect of the more southern scenery." It was therefore a land possessing great attractions of natural scenery, and yielding also a full reward to diligent labour. It was considerably wooded, and therefore but scantily inhabited, much less than other portions of the Holy Land, whilst its contiguity to the Phoenician coast, and to the other parts of Asia, on the north, contributed to give it an isolated character, and to obtain for it the name by which it was not unfrequently called "Galilee of the Gentiles," St. Matt. iv. 15. Indeed, we find from the history of the Kings, that as some as some compensation and mark of his gratitude twenty of the cities in this district were given by Solomon to Hiram, king of Tyre, after the completion of the temple, for the aid which he had afforded him in its erection, 1 Kings ix. 11; and from this and other physical causes already described, the people became more impregnated with Gentile habits, and were not regarded so truly by their brethren in the south as genuine Israelites. Bearing this in mind, and remembering the wide object of the Gospel, as contrasted with the more circumscribed teaching of the law, we shall understand how it was that these northern tribes occupy no prominent position in the Old Testament, but were the evident subjects of our blessed Lord's solicitude. nesareth. Leaving all general features, however, we must concentrate all our attention now upon one particular part of this semi-Gentile region, and strive to form some idea for ourselves of the lake of GenDescending from the Mount of the Beatitudes, St. Matt. v. 1, the waters of the lake lie open before you. better than transcribe mainly for our readers Canon Stanley's graphic words: or eminently beautiful, as others, there is no doubt that it has a We cannot do "Whether it be tame or poor, as some travellers say, * Stanley's Palestine, p. 361 Q |