imself and provided it for His disciples and the
people to eat.

It does not forbid the killing of burglars, etc., in self-defence.
Directly after the giving of the Ten Commandments, God laid down the
ordinance that if a thief be found breaking in and be smitten that he
die, it was pardonable. Did not Christ justify this idea of
self-defence when He said: "If the goodman of the house had known in
what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not
have suffered his house to be broken up?"

It does not forbid capital punishment. God Himself set the death
penalty upon violations of each of the first seven commandments, as
well as for other crimes. God said to Noah after the deluge--"Whoso
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed;" and the reason
given is just as true to-day as it was then--"for in the image of God
made He man."

What it does forbid is the wanton, intentional taking of human life
under wrong motives and circumstances. Man is made in God's image. He
is built for eternity. He is more than a mere animal. His life ought
therefore to be held sacred. Once taken, it can never be restored. In
heathen lands human life is no more sacred than the life of animals;
even in Christian lands there are heartless and selfish men who hold
it cheap; but God has invested it with a high value. An infidel
philosopher of the eighteenth century said: "In the sight of God every
event is alike important; and the life of a man is of no greater
importance to the universe than that of an oyster." "Where is the
crime," he asked, "of turning a few ounces of blood out of their
channel?" Such language needs no answer.

THE VALUE OF A MAN.

Let me give you a passage from H. L. Hastings: "A friend of mine
visited the Fiji Islands in 1844, and what do you suppose an infidel
was worth there then? You could buy a man for a musket, or if you paid
money, for seven dollars, and after you had bought him you could feed
him, starve him, work him, whip him, or eat him--they generally ate
them, unless they were so full of tobacco they could not stomach them!
But if you go there to-day you could not buy a man for seven million
dollars. There are no men for sale there now. What has made the
difference in the price of humanity? The twelve hundred Christian
chapels scattered over that Island tell the story. The people have
learned to read that Book which says: 'Ye were not redeemed with
corruptible things as silver and