utal appetites, who in his early childhood had wandered away and been
lost,--brought up, men say, by the strange compassion of some lower
creature, and now sunken well-nigh to its level. To this degradation we
should all come, if it were not for the transmitted inheritance of our
fathers. And so vast is the upward force of this grand law, that it is
steadily though slowly upheaving the whole mass; and the lowest of
to-day, visited for ancestral failings by sinking to the bottom, is
higher than if he had been left absolutely alone.

This over-weight of good is clearly seen by comparing the clauses, for
the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children to the third and
fourth generation, but mercy is shown in them that love God upon a
wholly different scale. Even "unto thousands" would enormously
counterbalance three generations. But the Revised Version rightly
suggests "a thousand generations" in the margin, and supports it by one
of its very rare references. It is plainly stated in Deuteronomy vii. 9,
that He "keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His
commandments unto a thousand generations."

Lastly, it is to be observed that in all this passage the gospel is
shining through the law. It is not a question of just dealing, but of
emotion. God is not a master exacting taskwork, but a Father, jealous if
we refuse our hearts. He visits sin upon the posterity "of them that
hate," not only of them that disobey Him. And when our hearts sink, we
who are responsible for generations yet to be, as we reflect upon our
frailty, our ignorance and our sins, upon the awful consequences which
may result from one heedless act--nay, from a gesture or a look--He
reminds us that He does not requite those who serve Him only with a
measured wage, but shows "mercy" upon those who love Him unto a thousand
generations.

_THE THIRD COMMANDMENT._

"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."--xx. 7.

What is the precise force of this prohibition? The word used is
ambiguous: sometimes it must be rendered as here, as in the verses
"_Vain_ is the help of man," and "Except the Lord build the house, their
labour is but _vain_ that build it" (Psalm cviii. 12, cxxvii. 1). But
sometimes it clearly means false, as in the texts "Thou shalt not raise
a _false_ report," and "swearing _falsely_ in making a covenant" (Exod.
xxiii. 1; Hos. x. 4). Yet again, it hangs midway between the two ideas,
as when we rea