nd therefore I am directly responsible to God
for due respect to their laws. It is not true that the statute-book is
inspired, any more than that the regulations of a household are divinely
given. Yet a Divine sanction, such as rests upon the parental rule of
fallible human creatures, hallows also national law. I may advocate a
change in laws of which I disapprove, but I am bound in the meantime to
obey the conditions upon which I receive protection from foreign foes
and domestic fraud, and which cannot be subjected to the judgment of
every individual, except at the cost of a dissolution of society, and a
state of anarchy compared with which the worst of laws would be
desirable.

This revolt of the individual is especially tempting when selfishness
deems itself wronged, as by the laws of property. And the eighth
commandment is necessary to protect society not merely against the
violence of the burglar and the craft of the impostor, but also against
the deceitfulness of our own hearts, asking What harm is in the evasion
of an impost? What right has a successful speculator to his millions?
Why should I not do justice to myself when law refuses it?

There is always the simple answer, Who made me a judge in my own case?

But when we regard the matter thus, it becomes clear that honesty is not
mere abstinence from pillage. The community has larger claims than this
upon us, and is wronged if we fail to discharge them.

The rich man robs the poor if he does not play his part in the great
organisation by which he is served so well: every one robs the community
who takes its benefits and returns none; and in this sense the bold
saying is true, that every man lives by one of two methods--by labour or
by theft.

St. Paul does not exhort men to refrain from theft merely in order to be
harmless, but to do good. That is the alternative contemplated when he
says, "Let the thief steal no more, but rather let him labour, working
with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give
to him that hath need" (Eph. iv. 28).

_THE NINTH COMMANDMENT._

"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."--xx. 16.

St. James called the tongue a world of iniquity. And against its
lawlessness, which inflames the whole course of nature, each table of
the law contains a warning. For it is equally ready to profane the name
of God, and to rob our neighbour of his fair fame.

Jesus Christ regarded verbal profess