and eternal Being. No Christian can watch this spectacle unmoved or without a certain feeling of compunction or self-reproach. If that narrow and arid

conception of God, which is all that really meets the student in the pages of the Koran, can draw forth from the heart of these poor Moslems this utter, this passionate devotion, what ought not to be the case with us who know God in His blessed Son? . . . who, if we only could understand our privileges, are flooded with light, since we are at His feet in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

7. "The desire to worship is an essential element in the believing life. It is impossible for the true Christian, enjoying grace, to forget to adore the Giver.

Let us accustom ourselves to the holy mood of worship. Christian men who fail to cultivate reverence even when full of spiritual joy need to be warned. They have whole aspects of God yet to discover. And they have yet to experience some of the deepest, while most solemn, joys of the soul.. On the other hand, let the Christian take reverent heed against formality in worship. What is formality? It is not form. Form means a true shape and order. This is natural and fit in almost all acts of worship. Formality

Is to rest in the worship, in the thing said, in the act done, and not really to speak through it to the living and present Lord. 'They that worship

Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.' Such is the inexorable and holy law of Christian worship. . . . Let ceremonial be impressive but simple. Let it give, as it were, true shape and body to great Scriptural truths, and it may be a mighty aid to the spiritual worshipper. But ceremonial becomes a dangerous hindrance to spiritual worship the moment it steps into the first place, while the truth which it embodies drops into the second."-(Rev. H. C. G. Moule.)

8. "Worship (1) places us face to face with the greatness of the Creator . . . the very first effort of true worship implies that God is resuming, that He has resumed, His true place in our thoughts. (2) It obliges us to think what we are ourselves. When we worship we pass inside the veil of sense, we cross the threshold of the unseen world, we enter upon an exercise which is itself a preparation for the life which lies before us after this is over. (3) Worship is a stimulus to action. It not only illuminates the understanding and kindles the affection; it braces and invigorates the will."-(Canon Liddon.)

Collect-First after Trinity.

261. What does the Third Commandment teach us?

The Third Commandment teaches us reverence for God's name, and also for His Word, His house, and all else that He has put His name upon (Ps. lxxxix. 7).

262. Name three sins which the Third Commandment forbids.

The Third Commandment forbids profanity, perjury, and hypocrisy.

263. What is profanity ?

Profanity is putting the sacred things of religion to a common or bad use, as when people joke about the Bible (2 Tim. ii. 16; Lev. xix. 8).

264. What is perjury?

Perjury is taking a false oath, swearing by God's name to what is untrue (Lev. xix. 12).

265. What is hypocrisy ?

Hypocrisy is pretending to be good, and bearing God's name, whilst we take no heed to pray thoughtfully or to get rid of evil within us (St. Luke xii. I).

266. What does "will not hold him guiltless " mean?

"Will not hold him guiltless" means that God will look upon him as a guilty man at the Judgment.

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267. What is God's own name? God's own name is Jehovah, which means "I am or I live." It is found shortened as part of the name Jesus (Exod. iii. 13, 14; Ps. lxviii. 4; Phil. ii. 9). 268. What follows when we use God's name solemnly and in faith?

When we use God's name solemnly and in faith we are stronger and better for it, as when David told the giant, "I come to thee in the name of the Lord,"

(i.) What is the Name, and why given to Christ?

(a) We go to the burning bush (read Exod. iii. 1-5). Why Moses to take off his sandals? God there; Angel of the Lord (called "Lord and God," ver. 4); thought to be the Holy Christ Himself in the burning bush. Now see the great Name spoken of, ver. 13, 14, "Jehovah " or "I am." How strange a Name! Its meaning? I exist, I live. [Something like this: if all living things were to die, angels, men, beasts, trees, He would still live, and could make millions of new creatures live; if, however, He could die, then all would die. "Jehovah " means "I am"; "I live."] The great Name written very short, "Jah" (Ps. lxviii. 4). This is part of the name "Jesus," which means Jehovah, Saviour."

(b) We go to Rome; St. Paul's prison-room; the prisoner chained to a soldier; faithful friend writing a letter for him to Christians at Philippi; St. Paul dictating it. Tells why Christ had the great Name given to Him (read Phil. ii. 5-11). Why given? Because though God, yet He came down to be born as a Babe, to grow, die on the cross; from glory of heaven going down, down, down to death on the cross. So the Father raised Him to the highest, gave Him the Name. [See ver. 10. "At the name of Jesus" means "At the name which Jesus bears."] Every knee bows.

Answer-What is the great Name, and why given to Christ?

(ii.) How is the great Name powerful? (a) We go to Temple gate called "Beautiful" Gate. Crowd round poor lame beggar; St. Peter, St. John, talking to him; using that which has power to heal him. What? (Read Acts iii. 1-8, iv. 17, 18.) The Name powerful in working miracles; miracles of another kind now worked by it, souls won from sin. [San Bernardino, in the square in

front of the great Church of the Holy Cross, at Florence, used when preaching to the crowd there, 400 or 500 years ago, to hold a tablet with the Holy Name upon it. To this he said his success was due. Over the church door to this day are the words he put there in Latin: "In the Name," &c. (Phil. ii. 10).]

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(b) Go to another place in Jerusalem, 'upper chamber," night of last Passover; see another way in which the great Name to be powerful (read St. John xvi. 23, 24) in prayer. Through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Illust.-A cheque filled in with large amount, its value depends on the name put to it, whether the person signing it be rich or poor.) Christ tells us to ask for large things, and at the end to put the great Name. This Name, rightly used, will bring down great blessings.

Answer-In what two ways is the great Name powerful?

(iii.) How is the great Name to be used ?

(a) Truthfully. Go to the streets outside high priest's house early morning of Good Friday. Peter crying bitterly. What has he done? Look how he did (St. Mark xiv. 71) "" curse and swear," i.e., bring the great Name into a lying story. He had heard what the Lord had said about this on the mount (St. Matt. v. 33-37). When the Lord was put upon His oath He must speak out all He knew of the truth, even though it cost Him His life. "Art Thou," &c. (St. Matt. xxvi. 63, 64). Simon Peter and our Lord at the same moment were, one breaking, the Other keeping, Third Commandment. You may have to give evidence in law court on a trial; Gospels given you to kiss, which means taking the great Name, then how you must speak all you know, whatever it cost you. Two Commandments of God will guard you then. Which two? (Ninth and Third.)

(b) Trustfully. With faith, as you would use a powerful weapon. Go back to near the Beautiful Gate. Crowd grown larger, excited. St. Peter talking about the miracle; tells how he had felt

when he was using the Name (Acts iii. 16: "through faith in His name "). The great Name only profits when used trustfully, in faith. See some profane vagabonds" who dared to use the Name wrongly (Acts xix. 13—17). Think how the "vagabonds" suffered for it; naked, wounded, terrified. The Name must only be used by reverent lips, and in faith. Often people use it in hymns and prayers without thinking of it-"in vain." Sometimes nothing comes though we put the Name at end of prayers. Why? Not in faith.

Answer-How is God's great name to be used? . . . and . . .

(Illust.-Years ago two young men in a room together at Islington. On the table lay a Bible and other things; to make a place on the table the younger moved some chessmen, placing them on

III. THOUGHTS

1. Four broad lines of thought are opened up by the Third Commandment. (a) Concerning oaths, that oaths are lawful under certain circumstances; perjury is one form of the breach of the Commandment. (b) The use of the sacred Name in ordinary conversation; profanity is another way in which this Commandment is broken. (c) The use of God's name in prayer, the power which this carries with it; the thoughtless use of the Name in prayer is the way in which, more than any other, the Commandment is broken. (d) The reverent use of all things to which God's name is attached. Irreverence is frequently the sin of youth.

The

2. "Swear not at all' (St. Matt. v. 33-37). Not a few interpreters, and even whole Christian communities, as e.g., the Society of Friends, see in these words, and in James v. 12, a formal prohibition of all oaths, either promissory or evidential, and look on the general practice of Christians, and the formal teaching of the Church of England in her Articles (Art. XXXIX.), as simply an acquiescence in evil. first impression, indeed, made by the words is so strongly in their favour, that the scruples of such men ought to be dealt with (as English legislation has at last dealt with them) with great tenderness. This conclusion is, however, it is believed, mistaken (1) because were it true, then in this instance our Lord would be directly repealing part of the moral law given by Moses, instead of completing and expanding it . . He would be destroying, not fulfilling. (2) Because our

the Bible. The elder said nothing, only quietly put out his hand and took the chessmen off the Book. Why? He felt it was God s Holy Bible; God's name on it, it must be kept-like God's house, God's day-most sacred; things of play, though innocent, must not even touch it. Was this right? The younger in all the years since has never forgotten that small thing. Was the elder one right? Was his feeling right? Will you try to be thus reverent with God's things, and especially in using His name? (Mal. iii. 16.) One day the great Name will be set upon us if we have learned to use it truthfully, trustfully (see Rev. iii. 12), gleaming upon us in some way the Holy Name, as on gold plate of mitre of high priest. [If time permit, use the illustration Note 4 of "Thoughts for Teachers."]

FOR TEACHERS.

Lord Himself answered, when He had before been silent, to a solemn formal adjuration (St. Matt. xxvi. 63, 64), and St. Paul repeatedly uses such forms of attestation (Rom. i. 9; 1 Cor. xv. 31; Phil. i. 8, &c.). (3) Because the context shows that the sin which our Lord condemned was the light use of oaths in common speech and with no real thought as to their meaning. The real purpose of oaths is to intensify the fear of God by bringing the thought of God's presence home to men at the very time they take them, and they are therefore rightly used when they attain that end.

In an ideal Christian society no oaths would be needed, for every word would be spoken as by those who knew that the eternal Judge was hearing them."-(Dean Plumptre.)

3. "False swearing is among the greatest insults that man can offer to God, and as being such is naturally forbidden in the first table, which teaches us our duty to God. It is also destructive of civil society, and hence it is again forbidden in the second table. The laws of all organised states necessarily forbid it, and generally under a very severe penalty. The Jewish law condemned the false witness to suffer the punishment which his evidence was calculated to inflict (Deut. xix. 18, 19). The Egyptians visited perjury with death or mutilation. The Greeks were content to punish it with a heavy fine, and ultimately with the loss of all civil rights. The Romans, in the more ancient times, inflicted the death penalty. It was generally believed alike in Egypt,

in Greece, and in Rome that the anger of the gods was especially provoked by this crime, and that a Divine Nemesis pursued those who committed it."— (Canon Rawlinson.)

4. Josephus says that Alexander the Great, when on his triumphal march, being met near Jerusalem by the Jewish high priest, on whose mitre was engraved the name "Jehovah," approached by himself, and adored that Name. The long array of priests in their white robes, the high priest in his purple and gold attire, his turban bearing the flashing plate of gold on which was the great Name, went forth to meet the conqueror. At sunrise on a winter's morning they met, having marched all night with flaming torches and clashing cymbals. There was astonishment when Alexander dismounted and bowed himself. He bowed, he declared, before the God Whose that high priest was. He had seen such a priest in a vision; by him he had been directed in his conquests. The high priest was a type of the Christ upon Whom is the glorious Name, before which all earth's conquerors are to bow.

5. If the Jews came to the Name in a sentence they would leave a blank, make a pause, or say something else; they would not say the word Jehovah, or Jah.

That great and good man, the Hon. Robert Boyle, who wrote 'Nature's Reflection'- he was a nobleman, a statesman, and an author-before he ever said the name of God he always made a hush, a pause."-(Rev. James Vaughan.)

6. Wandering thoughts coming into our prayers, so that we take the Holy Name in vain.' We thought we were speaking to God, and we start and find we were busy with some absurd trifle, so foolish that we are ashamed to think we could be drawn aside by it. Well,

what shall we do? Offer up a short prayer for pardon, and go on with our prayers. And this again and again. It is of no use wasting time in regrets and wonders. It is very troubling, because it shows how weak we are. But it is no wilful sin. So we must confess it as an infirmity, and cast it off as often as it comes, and go on in spite of it. Anyhow, we must not let Satan beat us by such a weapon as this. Nay, we may even turn it against himself. We may seize the wandering thought and make it do us good service, by making it itself the subject of new prayer. It may be the battle of our whole life to fight against these wandering thoughts. Be it so. We will fight on. Our Captain bids us fight. We leave to Him the victory." -(Bishop Walsham How.)

7. "It may be asked, What is the worst kind of swearing? Without any doubt it is that kind of swearing which involves taking in vain any of the names of God. And of the names of God, it is most terrible of all to hear the human name of the Son of God used as an oath or in swearing. I am not sure that we ought ever to hear this done without a remonstrance. Two years ago I was on the 'Kulm,' i.e., the top, of the Stanserhorn (a mountain near Lucerne), and the view was perfect and all was delightful and one felt in tune with Nature and in touch (if I may reverently say so) with God. Suddenly I heard voices. It was two Americans. One of them began to speak, and he could not admire the beauty around him without taking that sacred Name in vain, that Name at which every knee shall one day bow! A cloud had come over my beauteous scene; the day was spoiled to me." (Cecil H. Martin, in "The Brigade.")

Collect-Seventh after Trinity.