that is, well mixed. For at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder." Lastly. Jealousy, says the same wise 66 man, is the rage of a man." It has caused many a quarrel: it has caused many a death. It has caused many a woman to take the suspected unfaithfulness of an husband to heart, and to die: it has caused many a man to suspect his wife, where there was no cause, and to embrue his hands in blood. Beware therefore of jealousy and ye, who are husbands and wives, beware of giving cause for jealousy. "Can a man take fire in his bosom, and not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?" So the man or the woman, who admits jealousy into the bosom, knows thenceforward neither peace nor happiness. I conclude with the advice of the Bible: "Let us fear God, and keep his com mandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." And now to God, &c. LECTURE LVII. EXODUS XX. 14, 15. Thou shalt not commit adultery. THESE two commandments are called the seventh and the eighth. The seventh commandment is: Thou shalt not commit adultery.-I have so often spoken to you on the subject of adultery, that I have really nothing more to tell you than you have often heard already. This is a plain proof, that it is a sin, which the Holy Bible forbids in many places, and very frequently. I dare say, you all know very well what adultery means. Let me, however, refresh your memories. It is when a man having a wife, or a woman having a husband, has to do with another woman or another man. Of course, every one who, having one wife, takes up with another, is guilty of adultery. This is the meaning of the word: and as surely as I am now preaching to you, and you hearing me, so sure it is, that God, our Creator and our Judge, orders us not to commit it. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Can any thing be plainer? Thus it is, that God speaks. And do you suppose, that we can disobey God, and not be punished for doing so? What king ever makes a law, and then does not care whether his subjects obey it or not? What master ever gives orders, and does not punish, if his orders are disobeyed? And is the great God of heaven and earth-the King of kings and Lord of lords-the great Master of us all, to give his creatures commands, and then to leave it to those creatures to choose whether they will obey him or not? Has he not called us 4 from nothing, and can he not sink us into nothing again, or worse than nothing? Can he not thrust us down into hell? Are we stronger than he? When his thunder rolls over our heads, do we not tremble? Can we stop it, or say unto him, thou shalt not do it? And when the thunder of his wrath follows us into the next world, what will become of us? When our poor, trembling souls stand before him to receive their sentence, what can we say, when he puts us in mind of the commands we have broken, and orders us to hell for our disobedience? What shall we do? What can we do? What excuse can we make? Oh! my friends, the trembling sinner will confess his sentence to be just, and will look back on his past life, and wish that he had been wise in time-wise enough to escape the condemnation of hell. What hell is, none of us know. May none of us ever know! But the Bible and the author of the Bible, God, and Jesus Christ, |