debt, which they cannot pay off otherwise than by theft. Such persons should be given to understand, that no debt presses more heavily than that from which, each day of our lives, we pray to be released in these words of the Lord's Prayer: " For give us our debts;" [1] and to swell the debt which we owe to God, in order to liquidate that which is due to man, is the extreme of infatuation. It is much better to be consigned to an earthly prison than to be cast into the prison of hell: it is far a greater evil to be condemned by the judgment of God, than by that of man; nor should it be forgotten, that, under such trying circumstances, it becomes our duty to have recourse to the assistance and mercy of God, that, in his goodness, he may relieve us from all our difficulties.
Other excuses are also preferred, which the judicious and zealous pastor will not find it difficult to meet; that thus he may one day be blessed with a people, " followers of good works " [2]
THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT.
"THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGHBOUR" [3]
THE great utility, nay the absolute necessity, of bestowing serious attention on the exposition of this commandment, and of impressing upon the minds of the faithful the obligation which it enforces, we learn from these words of St. James: "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man;" and again, "The tongue is indeed a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how small a fire what a great wood it kindleth, &c." [4] From these words of St. James we learn two salutary truths: the one, that the vice of the tongue is of great extent, a truth which derives additional confirmation from these words of the prophet, "Every man is a liar;" [5] whence this moral disease would seem to be almost the only one which extends to all mankind: the other, that the tongue is the source of innumerable evils. Through its wicked instrumentality are often lost the property, the character, the life, the salvation of the injured person, or of him who inflicts the injury; of the injured person, whose feelings, impatient of control, impotently avenge the contumely flung upon them; of the person who inflicts the injury, because, deterred by a perverse shame and a false idea of what is called honour, he cannot be induced to
