6TH REASON." Obedience is the essence of the law;"* but there can be no obedience or disobedience to law in cases of necessity. 7TH REASON." An act of law injures no man ;”† but nothing could be a greater injustice than to hold a man amenable for actions over which he has no control. SIMILES. HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. QUOTATIONS. Cowper. - A necessary act incurs no blame. There is no virtue like necessity.-Shakspeare. There is nothing older than God, greater than space, quicker than spirit, more lawless than necessity, or wiser than time, which discovers all things, and makes those wise who observe it.- Serj. Palmer's aphorisms and maxims. Necessity, that great refuge and excuse for human frailty, breaks through all laws; and he is not to be accounted in fault, whose crime is not the effect of choice but force.-Serj. Palmer's aphorisms and maxims. Necessity will have its way.-Ray's proverbs. Necessity makes unlawful things lawful.-Seneca. Necessitas non habet legem. Ultimum et maximum telum necessitas est.-Livy. Adversum necessitatem ne Dii quidem resistunt.Homer apud Erasmum. Nihil necessitate dira fortius.-Euripides apud Eras тит. * Obedientia est Legis essentia Ingens telum necessitas.-Cicero. Figit adamantinos Summis verticibus dira necessitas Crimen necessitatis non est criminosum.-Cicero CONCLUSION. . THEME XCVI. A guilty Conscience is the worst INTRODUCTION. Accuser. 1ST REASON.-Because its evidence cannot be invalidated or gainsaid. 2ND REASON. silenced. -The voice of conscience cannot be 3RD REASON.-Conscience is the worst accuser, because it knows more than any other witness; it has been privy to the whole transaction, and has even seen the 'animus," as well as the overt act. 66 4TH REASON.-Conscience is both Accuser, Judge, and Tormentor; relentless and unflinchingly severe. 5TH REASON.-The witness of conscience is within the heart; there is, therefore, no need of a subpœna," no possibility of "shoving by" its evidence; no cunning device can outwit its testimony; and there can be no "riding off" upon some erroneous or exaggerated statement. 6TH REASON. It allows no excuse, no palliative, no extenuation, no compromise. Every thought and word is weighed in the even balance, and pronounced right or wrong according to its exact measure. There is no mean between these two awards,-nothing but right or wrong in the court of conscience. 7TH REASON.It is ever present to give the lie to every unfaithful witness, and fills the heart with sleepless terror and distress. QUOTATIONS. Though no terrible thing did fear them (i.e. the Egyptians), yet being, scared, . . . they died for fear: for wickedness, condemned by her own witness, is very timorous, and being pressed with conscience, always forecasteth grievous things.- Wisdom, xvii. 9-11. Whether it were a whistling wind, or a melodious noise of birds among the spreading branches, or a pleasing fall of water running violently, or a terrible sound of stones cast down, or a running that could not be seen of skipping beasts, . . . or a rebounding echo from the hollow mountains, these things made them (i. e. the Egyptians) to swoon for fear. . . . Over them was spread a heavy darkness: . . . . yet were they unto themselves more grievous than the darkness.- Wisdom, xvii. 18–21. Give me any plague but the plague of the heart.— Eccles. XXV. 13. O, it is monstrous ! monstrous ! Methought the billows spoke and told me of it; Better be with the dead, Whom we, to gain our place, have sent to peace; In restless ecstasy; ... O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! Shakspeare, A guilty conscience needs no accuser, and a clear one fears none.-Maunder's proverbs. An evil conscience is the most unquiet companion.— Maunder's proverbs. A guilty conscience is a perpetual torment. It is always term time in the court of conscience. Rive their concealing continent, and ask The dreadful summoner grace.-Shakspeare. There is no man that is knowingly wicked but is guilty to himself; and there is no man that carries guilt about him, but he receives a sting into his soul.-Tillotson. An evil conscience breaks many a man's neck.-Ray's proverbs. Magna vis est conscientiæ.-Cicero. Mea mihi conscientiæ plenis est, quam omnium sermo. -Cicero. Animus conscius se remordet. Maxima peccantium pœna est, peccavisse.—Seneca. THEME XCVII. Swear not at all. INTRODUCTION. 1ST REASON. It is contrary to God's most holy law. 2ND REASON.-It shows a want of self-respect; as if the hearer doubted your veracity, and could not believe your word till confirmed by an oath. 3RD REASON.-Swearing is never a solitary vice, but one of a battalion; and he who opens the gate to profanity will not be able to exclude its companions in sin. 4TH REASON.-The consequences are most fatal. God has declared the swearer 66 shall not be held guiltless;" and the prophet Zechariah adds, "Every one that sweareth shall be cut off."-Zech. v. 3. 5TH REASON.-Ordinary oaths are either direct false hoods, impious curses, unmeaning nonsense, or profane prayers. 6TH REASON. The common swearer shows a defiance of God, a degraded heart, and an utter contempt for religion. 7TH REASON.--Oaths are indicative of bad taste, they are an insult to the hearer, and a grief to every rightthinking mind. 8TH REASON. They are a violation of the law of the land, which authorises any magistrate to fine the profane swearer a crown for the first offence, and imprisonment for future delinquencies. SIMILES. HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. QUOTATIONS.-Swear not at all; neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool. . . . . Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.-Matt. v. 34-36. Let your communication be yea, yea; nay, nay; for whatoever is more than these, cometh of evil.-Matt. v. 37. He that shall swear "By Heaven !" sweareth by the throne of God, and by Him that sitteth thereon.-Matt. xxiii. 22. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither "by heaven,”. . . . neither by any other oath, . . lest ye fall into condemnation.-James, v. 12. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. Col. iv. 6. I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.-Matt. xii. 36, 37. |