cs, or who being sworn on the New Testament, disclaim all belief
in Christ, there is nothing to be done, except it be to allow them to
attest by the blood of a rooster or by the Great Horn Spoon. Then,
whatever way they swear, there is no harm done.

CHAPTER XXXVII.
OATHS.

THE first quality of an oath is that it be true. It is evident that
every statement we make, whether simple or sworn, must be true. If we
affirm what we know to be false we lie, if we swear to what we know to
be false, we perjure ourselves. Perjury is a sacrilegious falsehood,
and the first sin against the Second Commandment.

If, while firmly believing it to be true, what we swear to happens to
be false, we are not guilty of perjury, for the simple reason that our
moral certitude places us in good faith, and good faith guarantees us
against offending. The truth we proclaim under oath is relative not
absolute, subjective rather than objective, that is to say, the
statement we make is true as far as we are in a position to know. All
this holds good before the bar of conscience, but it may be otherwise
in the courts where something more than personal convictions, something
more akin to scientific knowledge, is required.

He who swears without sufficient certitude, without a prudent
examination of the facts of the question, through ignorance that must
be imputed to his guilt, that one takes a rash oath--a sin great or
small according to the gravity of the circumstances. It is not
infrequently grievous.

Some oaths, instead of being statements, are promises, sworn promises.
That of which we call God to witness the truth is not something that
is, but something that will be. If one promises under oath, and has no
intention of redeeming his pledge; or if he afterwards revokes such an
intention without serious reasons, and fails to make good his sworn
promise, he sins grievously, for he makes a fool and a liar of Almighty
God who acts as sponsor of a false pledge. Concerning temperance
pledges, it may here be said that they are simple promises made to God,
but not being sworn to, are not oaths in any sense of the word.

Then, again, to be lawful, an oath must be necessary or useful,
demanded by the glory of God, our own or our neighbor's good; and it
must be possible to fulfil the promise within the given time.
Otherwise, we trifle with a sacred thing, we are guilty of taking vain
and unnecessary oaths. There can be no doubt but that this is highl