The eighth commandment. The religion of the land.
There is much to be said in favor of the proposition that utility is the foundation of virtue; and provided that the sentence be well cleared up and guarded from abuse, and provided also that the word "utility" be lifted up to its highest, and spread over its broadest significance, the maxim is less objectionable than it would otherwise appear. While it, however, has been and win be discussed in the philosopher's classroom, for ages, we may safely go so far as to say, "That is right which renders the highest service to mankind, and by its having this tendency, we know it to be right." Now, among serviceable institutions is that of property, which, as men are constituted, is a necessity of social weal. If rightness consists in recognizing the rights of each, the necessity of property comes out of the equality of natural rights. If a man is alone in the world, he may call it all his own. If there is a brother man with him, they must divide it between them. Apart from the institution of property, one incentive to labor would be gone. Who would be likely to toil day by day for that from which he would obtain naught when the work was over? Now, it is the social law of the institution of property, Divine yet natural, yea, natural because Divine, the existence of which is here assumed, and the recognition of which is here enjoined: in the barest and most elementary form, it is true, yet in the very form best according with the circumstances under which it was given; in a negative form, too, like the other commands, but yet with a positive intent. Perhaps there is no one of the commandments which is more extensively commented on, and repeated in so many forms in the Old Testament, nor one the violation of which is so variously prohibited. Our simplest mode of treating it homiletically seems to be to point out in turn the negative prohibition, and the positive duty which is to be set over against it.
I. LET US INDICATE THE NUMEROUS FORMS INTO WHICH THIS PRECEPT IS THROWS IN SCRIPTURE. If we regard the spirit of it, and read it by the light of Old Testament teaching, we shall find it set in great variety of ways.
1. It forbids our depriving any man of any right whatever (Lamentations 3:35, Lamentations 3:36).
2. It is forbidden to gain an undue advantage at another's expense (Exodus 23:3, Exodus 23:6, Exodus 23:8, Exodus 23:9; Le Exodus 19:15; Deuteronomy 16:19, Deuteronomy 16:20).
3. It is forbidden to accumulate wealth by unlawful practices (Proverbs 10:2; Proverbs 15:6).
4. It is forbidden to take long credit (Proverbs 3:28; Le Proverbs 19:13).
5. It is forbidden to oppress a poor man in his cause (Exodus 22:26, Exodus 22:27; Deuteronomy 15:7, Deuteronomy 15:10-13, Deuteronomy 15:17, Deuteronomy 15:18; Proverbs 22:22, Proverbs 22:23; Micah 2:1-3; Micah 3:1-4).
6. It is forbidden to pay insufficient wages (Deuteronomy 25:4; Deuteronomy 24:14, Deuteronomy 24:15).
7. To lend money in any oppressive or exacting form (Exodus 22:25; Le Exodus 25:35-38; Deuteronomy 23:19). "The name 'usurer'—neshec—which is derived from biting, sounded badly, since no one chose to be likened to a hungry dog, who fed himself by biting others" (Calvin).
8. To take advantage of the stranger, the widow, and the fatherless (Exodus 22:21-24; Deuteronomy 10:17-19; Le 19:33, 34).
9. Unfair trading (Le 19:35, 36; Deuteronomy 25:13-16; Proverbs 11:1; Proverbs 16:11; Proverbs 20:10, Proverbs 20:23; Micah 6:10-12).
10. Imperiling another's property (Exodus 21:33-36).
11. Life-long slavery (Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12-18).
12. Connivance at wrong (Proverbs 29:24).
13. Respect of persons (Exodus 23:1-3).
14. Revengeful mischief even in war-time (Deuteronomy 20:19, Deuteronomy 20:20).
15. Removing a neighbor's landmark (2 Kings 19:14).
16. Withholding from the service of God (Malachi 3:8, Malachi 3:9). Whenever we withhold what is due to God, or keep back what we owe to man,—if the master is unjust to his servant, or the servant wastes the time or the goods of his master; if a man is guilty of trickery in trade, by adulteration of goods, or scant weight, or short measure; if a man is in any way deprived of his own right or freedom; if we take undue advantage of any one for our own benefit, we are guilty of breaking the command "Thou shalt not steal."
II. LET US INDICATE THE PRECEPTIVE WORDS WHICH ARE SET OVER AGAINST THESE PROHIBITIVE ONES. In the fuller teaching of Moses there was not wanting an indication of an opposite duty, the cultivation of which would make a breach of the eighth commandment altogether out of the question. The people were to aim at cherishing a kindly feeling for each other, and instead of wishing to enrich themselves at another's expense, they were to seek to enrich others, and to find their joy in helping the needy (Exodus 23:4; Le Exodus 25:35; Deuteronomy 15:7-10; Deuteronomy 22:1-3; Deuteronomy 23:19; Deuteronomy 24:19). While in Proverbs, the contrast between sloth and industry is said to be one mark of difference between the righteous and the wicked.
III. THE TEACHING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IS STILL MORE EXPLICIT. (See Acts 20:35; 1 Corinthians 10:24; Philippians 2:4, Philippians 2:5; and specially Ephesians 4:28.) The words of our blessed Lord lingered in the apostles' ears as the strains of a lovely song. His life too seemed to say, "Be ever ready to give up what is your own, if thereby you can help another." So that not only is there to be such respect for the rights of others, that we do not infringe on them by abstracting from his property; but over and above the institution of property, which is recognized and guarded, there is the institution of labor, which is to be looked at, utilized, sanctified, so as to subserve the enrichment of others. So that we come at this specific rule: Labor, and sanctify your labor for others; then you will be in no danger of depriving them of the fruits of their labor! The political economist says, "Regulate labor so as best to subserve the production of wealth." So far, good. But Christian maxims go higher, and say, "Pursue and regulate labor with a view of promoting each other's well-being." Now, in this sanctification of labor there are four rules to be observed.
1. Labor as servants of Christ. This is a specific direction both for employer and employed. Both are amenable to him who is the Head and Lord of the human race. In his eye the interests of the human family are the supreme concern on this globe. Material wealth is to him as nothing. Men are his purchased possession; and if by labor we increased the material wealth of this country a thousand-fold, if thereby one soul were destroyed, his curse would rest upon such labor.
2. Labor with an eye to the glory of God: not only as his servants, but so that all our labor may promote that great end for which he lived and died; and just in proportion as this is the case, will Christ approve our toil.
3. Labor in accordance with and for the promotion of another's good. We are to let all our labors be in harmony with another's well-being. We may not make ourselves rich at the expense of others; but only as our weal accords with theirs. All this, of course, applies nationally as well as individually. It is as clearly wrong for a nation to steal a continent as for a man to steal a shilling! And if we so labor as to ignore the good of another, we shall find that "there is a God that judgeth in the earth!"
4. But it is not enough that there should be an absence of spoliation or greed, nor that labor should merely accord with human good; it is required of us that one direct object and aim of our labor should be the increase of our wealth that we may have the wherewith to give. As between man and man, the great God upholds our right to the produce of our labor. As between ourselves and him, he says, "Use for your brother's good, the wealth you get. You are but a steward. Nothing is yours absolutely. What hast thou that thou hast not received? Work, that you may get. Get, that you may have to give." "The poor shall never cease out of the land." If, by any sudden spurt, wealth could be equalized today, it would be unequal in twenty-four hours, and in twelve months scarcely a trace would be left of the readjustment. Some would be workers and some idlers; some spendthrifts and some misers; and any rectification of property, apart from the right-setting of men, would be of no avail. And, at any rate, so long as there are claims upon our sympathy, so long our labor is to have this stamp upon it: Labor, to gain the power of giving; and this is the antidote for any danger of breaking the eighth commandment. Yet, strange to say, there are not wanting those who object, on grounds of "political economy," to the withdrawal of a man's gains for the purposes of benevolence (see Mr. Herbert Spencer, Contemporary Review, 19.556). Now, no one would question that there is a large amount of unwise charity; but the proportion is insignificant between that and the vast amount of ill-gotten and ill-used wealth in our cities and towns. The former is not worth naming by the side of the latter. And the hearts of men are not so over-generous that they need to be dissuaded from giving, by arguments which could hold only if men were naught else but wage-getting animals! But whoever fulfils his labor in a spirit of loyalty to Christ and of kindliness to his brother, will find in labor so discharged, a holy and blessed discipline of character. Shall we live under the low, selfish calculations of earth, or under the higher regulations of heaven? There is a wealth—a wealth most to be coveted—which' comes not as a heritage of birth, but as the reward of giving to others according as they have need. Acting on worldly maxims, a man might live for a thousand years and he will never have it. Acting on Christ's rule, he will reap it as sheaves of golden grain. It is this: "The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy!"