in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us.'

Give me grace, dear Jesus, to love my neighbour truly, not for my own advantage, nor for my own pleasure, but for his sake, and because it is Thy will. I desire always to do Thy will and have it in my heart. May I give my brethren a love that is duly ordered in Thee; a love that will lead me to help them when I can, and to do them good. Let my deeds go with my words ; and let my tongue speak the truth. May this true affection from God be in my soul without change. May I love my brethren in justice and holiness; and may I be patient and humble for Thy sake.

My Jesus, Thou hast said, 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.' Give me grace to forgive from my heart all those who in any way trespass against me. I pray now, dear Saviour, for all who have in any way injured me, and for all who in any way wish me evil or seek to do me harm.

CHAPTER VI.

OF THE FIRST COMMANDMENT OF THE LAW.

THOU shalt not have strange gods before Me' (Ex. xx. 3). The whole law of Christ, as has already been shown, hangs on charity; while charity itself hangs on those two commands, of which one is about the love of God, and the other about the love of our neighbour.

We have considered these two commands, and we now go on to speak of the law which God gave to Moses. In giving that law, God gave him ten commandments, written on two tables of stone. Moses said to the children of Israel (Deut. v. 22), 'These words the Lord spoke to all the multitude of you in the mountain, out of the midst of the fire and the cloud and the darkness, with a loud voice, adding nothing more: and He wrote them in two tables of stone which He delivered unto me.' The three commandments written on the first table pertain to the love of

God; but the seven written on the second table pertain to the love of our neighbour. Thus the whole law is founded on these two commandments.

Now we must love God, in our hearts, in our lips, in our works. First, we must love Him in heart. It is therefore said, 'Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.' Secondly, we must love Him in our words. It is therefore said, 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.' Thirdly, we must love Him in our deeds. It is therefore said, 'Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day.' (These are the three commandments about God Himself. The Angelic Doctor speaks of the second and third in the seventh and eighth chapters. He goes on to speak of the first now.)

I. The first commandment about the way in which we are to love God is this, 'Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.'

To understand this command we must

call to mind four ways in which the ancient nations transgressed it.

1. Some of them worshipped devils. We read (Ps. xcv. 5), 'All the gods of the Gentiles were devils.' That was a fearful sin, and indeed the greatest of all sins. But even now there are many who break this commandment; that is to say, all those who use divinations or casting of lots. For these things, according to St. Augustin, cannot be done without leading us into some kind of bargain with the devil. Hear St. Paul (1 Cor. x. 20), 'The things which the heathen sacrifice they sacrifice to devils, and not to God. I would not that you should be made partakers with devils.' Then he adds (v. 21), 'You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord and the chalice of devils. You cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord and of the table of devils.'

2. Others worshipped the heavenly bodies. They believed that the stars were gods as we read in the Book of Wisdom (xiii. 2), 'They have imagined the fire, or

the wind, or the swift air, or the circle of stars, or the great water, or the sun and moon to be the gods that rule the world.' They thought that the sun and moon were rulers of the whole earth, and that thus they were gods; and therefore Moses forbade the Jews to lift their eyes to the sun and moon in the way of adoring them (Deut. iv. 15, 19), Keep, therefore, your souls carefully,.. lest, perhaps, lifting up thy eyes to heaven thou see the sun and the moon and all the stars of heaven; and being deceived by error thou adore and serve them, which the Lord, thy God, created for the service of all the nations under heaven.'

Astrologers sin against this commandment, for they say that heavenly bodies are the rulers of souls; whereas, we know that they were all made for man, and that man's only ruler is God.

3. Others worshipped the lower elements. They believed the wind and fire to be gods, as we have seen in the verse of the Book of Wisdom just quoted. There