hould
begin to give any adequate view of the subject which here opens before
us, or follow out fully a single one of the many trains of thought to
which it gives rise.

At Horeb, Jehovah, amid fire and smoke, and in that voice which so
filled with terror all that heard, first inculcated the duty of filial
piety on all the future generations of men. Filial piety! how much it
implies. It stands at the head of the duties enjoined from man to man.
It comes next in order to those which man owes to his Maker. It
inculcates on the part of children toward their parents feelings akin to
those which he has required toward Himself, and far surpassing any which
he demands toward any other human being. It speaks of reverence, of a
love superior to ordinary affection, of unqualified submission and
obedience. "Honor thy father and thy mother" is the solemn command, and
the comments which infinite wisdom has made on it, scattered up and down
on the pages of inspiration, throw light on its length and breadth, and
on the heinous nature of the sin which is committed in its infringement.
"Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father, and keep my
Sabbaths; I am the Lord." In the Jewish law, a man who smote his
neighbor must be smitten in return; but "he that smiteth father or
mother shall be surely put to death." "He that curseth," or as it more
exactly reads, "he that disparages or speaks lightly of his parents, or
uses contemptuous language to them, shall surely be put to death." "If a
man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of
his father or the voice of his mother, and who when they have chastised
him will not hearken unto them, then shall his father and his mother lay
hold of him and bring him to the elders of the city, and unto the gate
of his place. And they shall say unto the elders of the city, This, our
son, is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice. And all the
men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die; so shall thou
put away evil from among you, that all Israel shall hear and fear."

Still more fearful is the practical commentary upon this solemn command,
given in Ezekiel 22:7, when Jehovah, in enumerating the crying sins
which demanded his vengeance on the people, and brought upon them the
terrible calamities of long captivity says, "In thee have they set light
by father and mother."

But some one will say, You profess to be speaking to parents, and this
command is