4. Reproof - a Christian duty
Thou shall in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not
suffer sin upon him. (Leviticus 19:17)
The whole verse reads thus: "Thou shall not hate
thy brother in thy
heart: thou shall in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and
not suffer sin
upon him." In the margin, as those of you who have
Bibles with
marginal notes can see, the last words of the verse are
rendered, "that
thou bear not sin for him."
And this, I am
satisfied, is the correct
translation. The idea is this that men are bound to
reprove their
neighbors for sin, lest they become partakers with
them, or accessory
to their sin.
In speaking from these words, I design to pursue the
following order:
I. To show the reasons for the rule laid down by and in
the test.
II.
Show to whom the rule is applicable.
III. Mention
several exceptions
which God has made to the rule, or classes of persons
who are not to
be reproved for their sins.
IV. The manner of
performing this duty.
V.
Several specific applications of the principles
established.
I. I am to show the reasons for the rule.
1. Love to God plainly requires this.
If we really love God, we shall of course feel bound to
reprove those
that hate and abuse him and break his commands. If I
love the
government of the country, should I not reprove and
rebuke a man
who should abuse or revile the government! If a child
loves his parents
will he not of course reprove a man that abuses his
parents in his
hearing?
2. Love to the universe will lead to the same thing.
If a man love the universe, if he be actuated by
universal benevolence,
he knows that sin is inconsistent with the highest good
of the universe,
and that it is calculate to injure and ruin the whole
if not counteracted;
that its direct tendency is to overthrow the order and
destroy the
happiness of the universe. And therefore, if he see
this doing, his
benevolence will lead him to reprove and oppose it.
3. Love to the community in which you live, is another
reason.
Not only love to the universe at large, but love to the
particular people
with which you are connected, should lead you to
reprove sin. Sin is
a reproach to any people, and whoever commits it goes
to produce a
state of society that is injurious to every thing good.
His example has
a tendency to corrupt society, to destroy its peace,
and to introduce
disorder and ruin, and it is the duty of every one who
loves the
community to resist and reprove it.
4. Love to your neighbor demands it.
Neighbor, here, means any body that sins within the
reach of your
influence; not only in your presence, but in your
neighborhood, if your
influence can reach him, or in your nation, or in the
world. If he sins he
injures himself, and therefore if we love him we shall
reprove his sins.
Love to the intemperate induces us to warn him of the
consequences
of his course. Suppose we see our neighbor exposed to a
temporal
calamity, say his house on fire.
True love will induce us to warn him and not to leave
him to perish in
the flames, especially if we saw him inclined to
persist in his course,
and stay in the burning house, we should expostulate
earnestly with
him, and not suffer him to destroy himself, if we could
possibly prevent
it. Much more should we warn him of the consequences of
sin, and
reprove him, and strive to turn him, before he destroys
himself.
5. It is cruel to omit it.
If you see your neighbor sin, and you pass by and
neglect to reprove
him, it is just as cruel as if you should see his house
on fire, and pass
by and not warn him of it. Why not? If he is in the
house, and the
house burns, he will lose his life. If he sins and
remains in sin, he will
go to hell. Is it not cruel to let him go unwarned to
hell? Some seem to
consider it not cruel to let a neighbor go on in sin
till the wrath of God
comes on him to the uttermost. Their feelings are so
tender that they
cannot wound him by telling him of his sin and his
danger. No doubt,
the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Instead of
warning their
neighbor of the consequences of sin, they actually
encourage him in
it.
6. To refuse to do it is rebellion against God.
For any one to see rebellion and not to reprove it or
lift his hand to
oppose it, is itself rebellion. It would be counted
rebellion by the laws
of the land. The man who should know of a treasonable
plot, and did
not disclose it or endeavor to defeat it, would be held
an accessory,
and condemned as such by law. So if a man sees
rebellion breaking
out against God, and does not oppose it, or make
efforts to suppress
it, he is himself a rebel.
7. If you do not reprove your neighbors for their sin,
you are
chargeable with their death.
God holds us chargeable with the death of those whom we
suffer to go
on in sin without reproof, and it is right he should.
If we see them sin,
and make no opposition, and give no reproof, we consent
to it, and
countenance them in it. If you see a man preparing to
kill his neighbor,
and stand still and do nothing to prevent it, you
consent, and are justly
chargeable as accessory; in the eye of God and the eye
of law, you
are justly chargeable with the same sin. So if you see
a man
committing any iniquity, and do nothing to resist it,
you are guilty with
him. His blood will be upon his own head, but at whose
hand will God
require it? What says God respecting a watchman?
"Son of man, I
have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel;
therefore thou shall hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
When I say
unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shall surely die;
if thou dost not
speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man
shall die in
his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy
hand." This is true of all
men. If you suffer a neighbor, who is within reach of
your influence, to
pass on in sin unwarned, he will die in his iniquity,
but his blood shall
be required at your hand.
8. Your silence encourages him in sin.
He is authorized to infer from your silence that you
approve his sin, or,
at least, that you do not care for it. Especially if he
knows you are a
professor of religion. It is an old maxim that silence
is consent. Sinners
do regard your silence as a virtual sanction of what
they do.
9. By reproving your neighbor who sins, you may save
him.
What multitudes have been reformed by timely reproof.
Most of those
who are saved, are saved by somebody's rebuking them
for their sins
and urging them to repentance you may be instrumental
in saving any
man, if you speak to him, and reprove him, and pray for
him, as you
ought. How many instances there are, where a single
reproof has
been to the transgressor like the barbed arrow in his
soul, that rankled,
and rankled, the poison whereof done up his spirits,
until he submitted
to God. I have known instances where even a look of
reproof has done
the work.
10. If you do not save the individual reproved, your
reproof may save
somebody else that may be acquainted with the fact.
Such cases have often occurred, where the transgressor
has not been
reclaimed, but others have been deterred from following
his example
by the rebukes directed to him. Who can doubt that, if
professors of
religion were faithful in this duty, men would fear
encountering their
reproofs, and that fear would deter them from such
conduct, and
multitudes who now go on unblushing and unawed, would
pause and
think, and be reclaimed and saved? Will you, with such
an argument
for faithfulness before you, let sinners go on
unrebuked till they
stumble into hell?
11. God expressly requires it.
The language of the text is, in the original,
exceedingly strong. The
word is repeated, which is the way in which the Hebrew
expresses a
superlative, so as to leave no doubt on the mind, not
the least
uncertainty as to the duty, nor any excuse for not
doing it. There is not
a stronger command of God in the Bible than this. God
has given it the
greatest strength of language that he can. "Thou shall
in any wise
rebuke him," that is, without any excuse,
"and not bear his sin," not be
accessory to his ruin. It is a maxim of law, that if a
man knows of a
murder about to be committed and does not use means to
prevent it,
he shall be held accessory before the fact. If he knows
of murder
which has been done, and does not endeavor to bring the
criminal to
justice, he is accessory after the fact. So by the law
of God, if you do
not endeavor to bring a known transgressor to
repentance, you are
implicated in the guilt of his crime, and are held
responsible at the
throne of God.
12. If you do it in a right manner, you will keep a
conscience void of
offense in regard to your neighbor, whatever may be his
end.
And you cannot do this without being faithful in the
reproof of sin. A
man does not live conscientiously, towards God or man,
unless he is
in the habit of reproving transgressors who are within
his influence.
This is one grand reason why there is so little
conscience in the
church. In what respect are professors of religion so
much in the habit
of resisting their consciences, as in regard to the
duty of reproving sin?
Here is one of the strongest commands in the Bible, and
yet
multitudes do not pay any attention to it at all. Can
they have a clear
conscience? They may just as well pretend to have a
clear
conscience, and get drunk every day. No man keeps the
law of God,
or keeps his conscience clear, who sees sin and does
not reprove it.
He has additional guilt, who knows of sin and does not
reprove it. He
breaks two commandments. First, he becomes accessory to
the
transgression of his neighbor, and then he disobeys an
express
requirement by refusing to reprove his neighbor.
13. Unless you reprove men for their sins, you are not
prepared to
meet them in judgment.
Are you prepared to meet your children in the judgment,
if you have
not reproved nor chastised them, nor watched over their
morals?
"Certainly not," you say. But why?
"Because God has made it my duty to do this, and
he holds me
responsible for it." Very well. Then take the case
of any other man that
sins under your eye, or within reach of your influence,
and goes down
to hell, and you have never reproved him. Are you not
responsible?
Oh, how many are now groaning in hell, that you have
seen commit
sin, and have never reproved, and now they are pouring
curses on
your head because you never waned them. And how can you
meet
them in judgment?
14. Unless you do this, you are not prepared to meet
God.
How many there are who profess to love God, and yet
never so much
as pretend to obey this command. Are such people
prepared to meet
God? When he says, "Thou shall in any wise rebuke
thy neighbor,"
that is, without any excuse.
II. To whom is this command addressed?
Manifestly, to all men that have neighbors. It was
addressed to all the
people of Israel, and through them to all who are under
the
government of God to high and low, rich and poor, young
and old,
male and female, and every individual who is under the
government
of God, or bound to obey his commands.
III. Some exceptions to the universal application of
this law.
He that made the law has a right to admit of
exceptions. And the rule
is binding in all cases, unless they come within the
exceptions. There
are some exceptions to the rule before us, laid down in
the Bible.
l. God says, "Rebuke not a scorned, lest he hate
thee."
There is a state of mind, where a person is known to be
a scorner, a
despiser of religion, a hater of God, and has no regard
to his law, and
is not to be influenced by any fear or care for God,
why should you
reprove him? It will only provoke a quarrel, without
any good resulting
to anybody. Therefore God makes such a character an
exception to
the rule.
2. Jesus Christ says, "Cast not your pearls before
swine, least they
trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend
you."
Whatever else this passage means, it appears to me to
mean this, that
sometimes men are in such a state of mind that to talk
to them about
religion would be at once irrational and dangerous,
like casting pearls
before swine. They have such a contempt for religion,
and such a
stupid, sensual, swinish heart, that they will trample
all your reproofs
under their feet, and turn upon you in anger besides.
It is lawful to let
such men go on; and your not meddling with them will be
greater
wisdom than to attack them. But great charity should be
used, not to
suppose those of your neighbors to be swine, who do not
deserve it,
and who might be benefited by suitable reproof.
3. Men who are in a settled state of
self-righteousness, it is best to let
alone.
Christ said of the Scribes and Pharisees, "Let
them alone, they be
blind leaders of the blind." That is, they were so
full of pride and
conceit, so satisfied of their own wisdom and goodness,
that they
cannot be reached by any reproof, and it seems best to
let them
alone; for if you begin to reprove them, you might as
well face a
northwester as think of making an impression on them.
They will face you down, and are so full of arguments,
and cavils, and
bullyings, that you gain nothing.
IV. The manner in which this duty is to be performed.
1. It should be done always in the name of the Lord.
It is important when you reprove your neighbor for sin,
always to make
him feel it is not a personal controversy with you, not
a matter of
selfishness on your part, or claiming any right of
superiority, or to lord
it over him, but that you reprove him in the name of
the Lord, for the
honor of God, because he has broken his law. If, by
your manner, you
in any way make the impression on his mind that it is a
personal
controversy, or done for any private motive with you,
he will invariably
rise up against you, and resist, and perhaps retort
upon you. But if you
make the impression on his mind that it is done in the
name of God,
and bring him right up before God as an offender, he
will find it
exceedingly difficult to get away from you without at
least confessing
that he is wrong.
2. It should always be done with great solemnity.
Above all things, do not make him think that it is just
a little thing that
you hint to him, but make him feel that it is for a sin
against God you
are reproving him, and that it is what in your view
ought to be looked
upon as an awful thing.
3. You should use more or less severity, according to
the nature of the
case, and the circumstances under which the sin was
committed.
(1.) The relation of the parties.
Your relation to the person who has been guilty of sin,
should be
properly regarded.
If a child is going to reprove a parent, he should do
it in a manner
suited to the relation he stands in. If a man is going
to reprove a
magistrate, or if an individual is about to rebuke an
elder, the apostle
says it must be in that way, "entreat him as a
father." This relation
should enter deeply into the manner of administering
reproof. The
relation of parents and children, of husbands and
wives, of brothers
and sisters, should all be regarded. So the ages of the
parties, their
relative circumstances in life. For servants to reprove
their masters in
the same manner as their equals is improper. This
direction should
never be overlooked or forgotten, for if it is, the
good effect of reproof
will be all lost. But remember, that no relations in
life, or relative
circumstances of the parties, take away the obligation
of this duty.
Whatever be the relation, you are to reprove sin, and
are bound to do
it in the name of the Lord. Do it, not as if you were
complaining or
finding fault for a personal injury committed against
yourself, but as a
sin against God. Thus, when a child reproves a parent
for sin, he is not
to do it as if he was expostulating with him for any
injury done to
himself, but with an eye to the fact that the parent
has sinned against
God, and therefore, with all that plainness, and
faithfulness, and
pungency that sin calls for.
(2.) Reproof should be regulated by the knowledge which
the offender
has of his duty.
If the individual is ignorant, reproof should be more
in the form of
instruction, rather than of severe rebuke. How do you
do with your little
child? You instruct him and strive to enlighten his
mind respecting his
duty. You proceed, of course, very differently from
what you would do
with a hardened offender.
(3.) With reference also to the frequency of the
offense.
You would reprove a first offense in a very different
manner from what
you would use towards an habitual transgressor. If a
person is
accustomed to sin, and knows that it is wrong, you use
more severity.
If it is the first time, perhaps a mere allusion to it
may be sufficient to
prevent a repetition.
(4.) So, also, you are to consider whether he has been
frequently
reproved for the sin.
If he has not only often committed the sin, but been
often reproved,
and yet has hardened his neck, there is the greater
necessity for using
sharpness. The hardening influence of former reproofs
resisted,
shows that no common expostulations will take hold. He
needs to
have the terrors of the Lord poured upon him like a
storm of hail.
4. Always show that your temper is not ruffled.
Never manifest any displeasure at the transgressor,
which he can
possibly construe into personal displeasure at himself.
It is often
important to show your strong displeasure at what he is
doing.
Otherwise he will think you are not in earnest. Suppose
you reprove
a man for murder, in a manner not expressing any
abhorrence of his
crime, you would not expect to produce an effect. The
manner should
be suited to the nature of the crime, yet so as not to
lead him to think
you have any personal feeling. Here is the grand defect
in the manner
of reproving crime, both in the pulpit and out of it.
For fear of giving
offense, men do not express their abhorrence of the
sin, and therefore
transgressors are so seldom reclaimed.
5. Always reprove in the Spirit of God.
You should always have so much of the Holy Ghost with
you, that
when you reprove a man for sin, he will feel as if it
came from God. I
have known cases, where reproof from a Christian in
that state has cut
the transgressor to the heart, and stung like the arrow
of the Almighty,
and he could not get rid of it till he repented.
6. There are many different ways of giving reproof so
as to reach the
individual reproved.
Sometimes it can be done best by sending a letter,
especially if the
person be at a distance. And there are cases where it
can be done so,
even in your own neighborhood. I knew an individual who
chose this
way of reprimanding a sea-captain for intemperance in
crossing the
Atlantic. The captain drank hard, especially in bad
weather, and when
his services were most wanted. The individual was in
great agony, for
the captain was not only intemperate, but when he drank
he was
ill-natured, and endangered the lives of all on board.
He made it a
subject of prayer. It was a difficult case. He did not
know how to
approach the captain so as to make it probable he
should do good and
not hurt; for a captain at sea, you know, is a perfect
despot, and has
the most absolute power on earth. After a while he sat
down and wrote
a letter, and gave it to the captain with his own hand,
in which he
plainly and affectionately, but faithfully and most
pointedly, set forth his
conduct, and the sin he was committing against God and
man. He
accompanied it with much prayer to God. The captain
read it, and it
completely cured him; he made an apology to the
individual, and never
drank another drop of anything stronger than coffee or
tea on the
whole passage.
7. Sometimes it is necessary to reprove sin by forming
societies, and
getting up newspapers, and forming a public sentiment
against a
particular sin, that shall be a continued and
overwhelming rebuke.
The Temperance Societies, Moral Reform Societies,
Anti-Slavery
Societies, etc., are designed for this end.
V. I will mention now some of the cases in which the
principles are applicable.
They are peculiarly applicable to those crimes which
are calculated to
undermine the institutions of society, and to exert a
wide-spread
influence. Such sins can only be held in check and put
down by
faithfulness in reproof.
1. Sabbath-breaking.
If Christians would universally mark transgressors, and
rebuke them
that trample on the Sabbath, they would do more to put
a stop to
Sabbath-breaking than by all other means. If Christians
were united in
this, how long do you suppose it would be before this
sin would be put
down? If only a few were faithful, and constant and
persevering, they
might do much. If only a few do it, and these only now
and then, it
might not have much effect. But I believe if all
professors of religion
were to do it, every grocery and grog shop, and oyster
cellar, and fruit
stand, would be shut up. At all events, they are bound
to do it,
whatever may be the result; and so long as they neglect
their duty,
they are chargeable before God with all the Sabbath
breaking in the
city. If all the churches and ecclesiastical bodies in
the land were
united to remonstrate with the government, and would
continue to do
it, firmly, and in the name of the Lord, do you suppose
government
would continue to violate the Sabbath with their mail?
I tell you, no.
The church can do this, I believe, in one year, if all
were united
throughout the country, and could speak out fully, in
the fear of God,
and without any fear of man. No man who ever expected
to be elected
to office again, would ever again advise the breaking
of the Sabbath.
But now, while the church is divided, and not half in
earnest, there are
so few speak out, that government despises them, and
pays no
attention. Thus it is that the church connive at
Sabbath-breaking, and
they are without excuse, till they speak out and rebuke
their rulers, in
the name of Jehovah, for breaking his holy law.
2. Intemperance and rum-selling.
Suppose every man in this city that sells rum was
continually subject
to the rebukes which God requires; suppose every man
that passed
by were to reprove him for his sin; how long could he
sell rum? If only
the church were to do it; if that deacon and that elder
would do it, and
every Christian would follow him with rebukes in the
name of the Lord
for poisoning men to death with rum, he could not go on
and do it.
Such a strong and decided testimony would soon drive
him from his
trade of death. In self-defense he would have to yield
to the pressure
of solemn rebuke.
3. Lewdness.
This is a wide-spreading evil, that ought to be
universally rebuked.
It should be rebuked unsparingly, not only from the
pulpit, but by the
press, and in the street, till it be driven from its
strong holds, and made
to hide itself in the chambers of hell.
4. Slavery.
What! shall men be suffered to commit one of the most
God-dishonoring and most
heaven-daring sins on earth, and not be reproved?
It is a sin against which all men should bear
testimony, and lift up their
voice like a trumpet, till this giant iniquity is
banished from the land and
from the world.
VI. I shall consider some of the difficulties which are
sometimes raised
in the way of the performance of this duty.
1. It is often asked, Is it a duty to reprove my
neighbor when there is
no prospect of doing any good?
I answer, it may be very essential to reprove sin in
many cases where
there is no prospect that the individual whom you
reprove will be
benefited. As in cases where your silence would be
taken for
connivance in his sin. Or where the very fact of his
being reproved
may prevent others from falling into the like crime.
Where the offender
comes properly under the description of a scorned or a
swine, there
God has made an exception, and you are not bound to
reprove. But
in other cases, duty is yours, consequences God's.
2. It is asked, Should I reprove strangers? Why not? Is
not the
stranger your neighbor? You are not to reprove a
stranger in the same
way that you would a familiar acquaintance; but the
fact of his being
a stranger is not a reason why he should not be
reproved, if he break
the command of God. If a man swear profanely, or break
the Sabbath,
in your presence, his being a stranger does not excuse
you from the
duty and the responsibility of administering reproof,
or trying to bring
him to repentance and save his soul.
3. It is asked, Should we reprove a person when he is
drunk?
Generally not: for when a person is drunk he is
deranged. There may
be cases where it is proper, for the purpose of warning
others. But so
far as the drunkard himself is concerned, as a general
rule, it is not
expedient. Yet there are many cases where reproof to a
man even
when drunk, has taken such a hold on his mind as to
sober him, and
turn him from his beastly sin.
4. Shall we reprove great men, and those who are above
us in society,
and who may look down on us and on our reproofs with
contempt?
That does not alter your duty. "Thou shall in any
wise rebuke thy
neighbor, and not bear sin for him." You should
bear in mind the
relation in which he stands, and treat him accordingly.
But still, if he sin
against God, it is your duty to reprove him in an
appropriate manner.
REMARKS
1. Do not talk about people's sins, but go and reprove
them.
It is very common to talk about people's sins behind
their backs, but
this is great wickedness. If you want to folk about any
person's sins,
go and talk to him about whom, and try to get him to
repent and
forsake them. Do not go and talk to others against him
behind his
back, and leave him to go on in his sins, unwarned to
hell.
2. How few professors of religion are sufficiently
conscientious to
practice this duty.
I suppose there are thousands in this city, who never
think of doing it.
Yes; professors of religion live in habitual
disobedience to this plain,
and strongly expressed command of God. And then they
wonder why
they do not have the spirit of prayer, and why there
are not more
revivals! Wonder!
3. See why so few persons enjoy religion.
They live in habitual neglect of this command, making
excuses, when
God has said there shall be no excuse. And how can they
enjoy
religion? What would the universe think of God, if he
should grant the
joys of religion to such unfaithful professors?
4. We see that the great mass of the professors of
religion have more
regard to their own reputation than to the requirements
of God.
The proof is, that sooner than run the risk of being
called censorious,
or of getting enemies by rebuking sin, they will let
men go on in sin
unrebuked, notwithstanding God says, "Thou shall in any wise rebuke
thy neighbor." But I shall offend him if I reprove
his sin. "In any wise
rebuke him," says Jehovah. It shows that they have
a greater fear of
men than of God. For fear at offending man, they run
the risk of
offending God. Yea, they absolutely disobey God, in one
of his
plainest and strongest commandments, rather than incur
the
displeasure of men by rebuking their sins.
5. No man has a right to say to us, when we reprove him
for his sin,
that it is none of our business to meddle with him.
How often do transgressors tell faithful reprovers,
they had better mind
their own business and not meddle with what does not
concern them.
And they are called meddlers and busybodies, for
interfering in other
people's concerns. At the south, they have got
themselves into a great
rage because we at the north are trying to convince
them of the
wickedness of slavery. And they say it is none of our
business, that
slavery is a matter peculiarly their own, and they will
not suffer
anybody else to interfere with them, and they require
us to let them
alone, and will not even allow us to talk about the
subject. And they
want our northern legislatures to pass laws forbidding
us to rebuke our
southern neighbors for their sin in holding men in
slavery. God forbid
that we should be silent. Jehovah himself has commanded
us to
rebuke our neighbor in any wise, let the consequences
be as they
may. And we will rebuke them, though all hell should
rise up against
it.
Are we to hold our peace and be partakers in the sin of
slavery, by
connivance, as we have been? God forbid. We will speak
of it, and
bear our testimony against it, and pray over it, and
complain of it to
God and man. Heaven shall know, and the world shall
know, and hell
shall know, that ye protest against the sin, and will
continue to rebuke
it, till it is broken up. God Almighty says, "Thou shall
in any wise
rebuke thy neighbor," and we must do it.
So the rum-dealer is all the while pleading, "It
is none of your concern
what I do; please to mind your own business, and let me
alone." But
it is our business to reprove him when he dispenses his
poison, and
it is everybody's concern, and every man is bound to
rebuke his crime
till he gives it up, and ceases to destroy the lives
and souls of his
neighbors.
6. We see the importance of consistency in religion.
If a man professes to love God, he ought to have
consistency enough
to reprove those that oppose God. If Christians were
only consistent
in this duty, many would be converted by it, a right
public sentiment
would be formed, and sin would be rebuked and forced to
retire before
the majesty of Christian rebuke. If Christians were not
such cowards,
and absolutely disobedient to this plain command of
God, one thing
would certainly come of it either they would be
murdered in the
streets as martyrs, because men could not bear the
intolerable
presence of truth, or they would be speedily converted
to God.
What shall we say, then, to such professors of
religion? Afraid to
reprove sinners! When God commands, not prepared to
obey? How
will they answer it to God?
Now, beloved, will you practice this duty? Will you
reprove sin
faithfully, so as not to bear sin for your neighbors?
Will you make your
whole life a testimony against sin? Will you clear your
souls, or will you
hold your peace and be weighed down with the guilt of
all the
transgressors around you and within the sphere of your
influence?
God says, "Thou shall in any wise rebuke thy
neighbor, and not bear
sin for him."
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