saving truths. Again, we honour and venerate the name of God when from a sense of religious duty we celebrate his praises, and under all circumstances, whether prosperous or adverse, return him unbounded thanks; saying in the language of the prophet: " Bless the Lord, O my soul, and never forget all he hath done for thee." [1] Amongst the Psalms of David we have many, in which, animated with singular piety towards God, the Psalmist chants in sweetest strains the divine praises. We have also the admirable example of Job, who, when visited with the heaviest and most appalling calamities, never ceased, with lofty and unconquered soul, to give praise to God. When, therefore, we labour under affliction of mind or body; when oppressed by misery and misfortune; let us instantly direct all our thoughts, and all the powers of our souls, to the praises of God, saying with Job: " Blessed be the name of the Lord." [2] The name of God is not less honoured when we confidently invoke his assistance, either to relieve us from our afflictions, or to give us constancy and strength to endure them with fortitude. This is in accordance with his own wishes: " Call upon me," says he, " in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me;" [3] and we have illustrious examples of such supplications in the sixteenth, forty-third, and one hundred and eighteenth Psalms, and also in many other parts of Scripture. Finally, we honour the name of God, when we solemnly call upon him to witness the truth of what we assert; and this solemn appeal differs much from the means of honouring the divine name already enumerated. Those means are in their own nature so good, so desirable, that our lives, day and night, could not be more happily or more holily spent than in such practices of piety: " I will bless the Lord." says David, " at all times, his praise shall be always in my mouth:" [4] but with regard to oaths, although in themselves lawful, they should seldom be used. The reason of this difference is, that oaths are constituted as remedies to human frailty, and a necessary means of establishing the truth of what we advance. As it is inexpedient to have recourse to medicine, unless when it becomes necessary, and as its frequent use is most pernicious; so, with regard to oaths, we should never recur to them, unless when there is weighty and just cause; and a frequent recurrence to them, far from being advantageous, is on the contrary highly prejudicial. Hence the excellent observation of St. Chrysostom: " Oaths were introduced amongst men, not at the be ginning of the world, but long after; when vice had overspread the earth; when the moral world was convulsed to its centre, and universal confusion reigned throughout; when, to complete the picture of human depravity, man debased the dignity of his nature by prostrating himself in degrading servitude to idols: then it was that God was appealed to as a witness of the truth, when, considering to what a height perfidy and wickedness had
