Suggestions of just ways of covering sin.
The contents of this verse and the following are, so far as they go, corroborating evidence of the supernatural origin and superhuman incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For if these things be not the truth respecting him, then will these verses also have to rank among the supposed cunningly devised fables; whereas in very truth their aspect is of the most opposite character. The aspect of these verses and their connection are strikingly of the real and the matter-of-fact. They present themselves and they speak so naturally. In those days of the Church's history which saw casuistry at its most flourishing, it may easily be imagined that the point would have been considered a most legitimately profitable one for argument, whether Joseph were more entitled or less entitled to the epithet of "a just man," in that he had it in his mind to "put away privily" his espoused wife rather than at once make a public example of what would too probably soon become a public scandal. And again, whether his intention to do this "privily" savoured most of regard for public advantage, or of self regard, or of regard for the supposed erring woman. From our point of view, any approach to the casuistical may be safely dispensed with. But in place thereof, we may fitly make this verse the occasion for inquiring what are some of the determining or guiding considerations which may be held to justify the disposition to shield human fault, sin, fall, rather than to expose it. We are on the safe side—
I. WHEN WE SEEK TO SHIELD A PERSON, THE SINNER, FROM PUBLIC EXPOSURE RATHER THAN SAY A WORD, EITHER TO HIMSELF OR TO THE PUBLIC, IN THE NATURE OF EXTENUATING THE SIN.
II. WHEN WE SEEK TO SHIELD ANOTHER RATHER THAN ONE'S SELF.
III. WHEN WE SEEK TO SHIELD THE PERSON WHO, EITHER BY NATURE OR BY INDIVIDUAL TEMPERAMENT, WOULD TAKE DISPROPORTIONATE SUFFERING; as, e.g.:
1. A woman, in anything that especially concerns the nature of woman.
2. Or any one whose known sensitiveness would render him liable to abnormal suffering.
IV. WHEN WE SEEK TO SHIELD FROM EXPOSURE CERTAIN KINDS OF SIN, VIZ. THOSE WHICH UNIVERSAL OBSERVATION TELLS US DO IN THE VERY ANNOUNCEMENT OF THEM SERVE TO EXCITE UNHEALTHY INTEREST, PRURIENT CURIOSITY. In not a few cases, notoriety undoubtedly attracts instead of deterring. It attracts also not in mere morbid and exceptional cases, but in virtue of a fascination not indeed otherwise explainable, but very easily explained when some of the radical vice of human nature is confessed. In the present instance, it is to be understood by the reverent reader of the history that Joseph, as "a just man," felt he had no choice but