y) to the general
consent which creates it; he whom I would assail is doomed in any case
to speedy and complete extinction; his longer life is possibly
burdensome to himself and to society; and there exists no higher Being
to resent my interference, or to measure out the existence which I think
too protracted. It is clear that such a view of human life must prove
fatal to its sacredness; and that its results would make themselves
increasingly felt, as the awe wore away which old associations now
inspire.

_THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT._

"Thou shalt not commit adultery."--xx. 14.

This commandment follows very obviously from even the rudest principle
of justice to our neighbour. It is among those that St. Paul enumerates
as "briefly comprehended in this saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself."

And therefore nothing need here be said about the open sin by which one
man wrongs another. Wild and evil theories may be abroad, new schemes of
social order may be recklessly invented and discussed; yet, when the
institution of the permanent family is assailed, every thoughtful man
knows full well that all our interests are at stake in its defence, and
the nation could no more survive its overthrow than the Church.

But when our Lord declared that to excite desire through the eyes is
actually this sin, already ripe, He appealed to some deeper and more
spiritual consideration than that of social order. What He pointed to is
the sacredness of the human body--so holy a thing that impurity, and
even the silent excitement of passion, is a wrong done to our nature,
and a dishonour to the temple of the Holy Ghost.

Now, this is a subject upon which it is all the more necessary to write,
because it is hard to speak about.

What is the human body, in the view of the Christian? It is the one
bond, as far as we know in all the universe, between the material and
the spiritual worlds, one of which slopes thence down to inert
molecules, and the other upward to the throne of God.

Our brain is the engine-room and laboratory whereby thought, aspiration,
worship express themselves and become potent, and even communicate
themselves to others.

But it is a solemn truth that the body not only interprets passively,
but also influences and modifies the higher nature. The mind is helped
by proper diet and exercise, and hindered by impure air and by excess or
lack of food. The influence of music upon the soul has been observed at