Sixteenth Day
We are not to swear: Christian simplicity. -Matt. v. 33-37.
I CONSIDER this passage one of the most touching in the whole of Christian teaching, because the Son of God here inculcates the most lovable of all virtues, which is sincerity. The Christian never lies. He says, ' That is, that is not’; and this word of his takes the place of all oaths. For instead of swearing either by heaven or by earth, or by the Holy City, or by his head — or in any manner whatever — he is ordered, for sole reply, to say, 'This is, or is not: — yea or no.' Falsehood can find no place in so simple a form of expression; it allows of no disguise, for it gives the affirmative or negative answer without subterfuge or equivocation. The sincerity of a Christian ought to be so perfect and so taken for granted that his bare word will be believed as if he had taken oaths of many kinds.
