I can conceive of no better rule for the Lord's day,
than that each person so spend it as to interfere as little as
possible with its fitting use by others, and to make it as availing
as he can for his own relaxation from secular cares, and growth in
wisdom and goodness.

12 It was the malignity displayed toward the children of divorced wives
by the women who succeeded them in the affections and homes of their
husbands, that in Roman literature attached to the name of a
stepmother (_noverca_) the most hateful associations, which
certainly have no place in modern Christendom, where the stepmother
oftener than not assumes the maternal cares of the deceased wife as
if they were natively her own.

13 When Jesus forbids swearing by heaven, because "it is God's throne,"
and by the earth, because "it is his footstool," the inference is
obvious that, for still stronger reasons, all direct swearing by God
himself is prohibited. The word {~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}, which introduces the oaths by
inferior objects specified in the text under discussion, not
infrequently corresponds to our phrase _not even_. With this sense
of {~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}, the passage would be rendered, "But I say unto you, Swear
not at all, not even by heaven," etc.

I find that some writers on this subject quote in vindication of
oaths on solemn occasions the instances in the Scriptures in which
God is said to have sworn by Himself. The reply is obvious, that no
being can swear by himself, the essential significance of an oath
being an appeal to some being or object other than one's self.
Because God "can swear by no greater," it is certain that when this
phraseology is used concerning Him, it is employed figuratively, to
aid the poverty of human conceptions, and to express the certainty
of his promise by the strongest terms which human language affords.
In like manner, God is said by the sacred writers to repent of
intended retribution to evil-doers, not that infinite justice and
love can change in thought, plan, or purpose, but because a change
of disposition and feeling is wont to precede