Morning journal and courier., 1881-12-12
Wooster Place Baptist Church.

The Comm mandments-Last a Of Course of | Sermons by Rev. pr. Stifler-An Inter-
 esting Subject Ably Discussed.
 Wooster Place Baptist church was well filled yesterday morning by an interested and intelligent audience who gathered to hear the last in the course of sermons on the Ten Commandments by the pastor, Rev. Dr. Stifer, which was repeated by request.
 The tenth commandment Exodus xx chap ter, xvii verse, was the basis of tho preacher's
 remarks. In his opening remarks the
 preacher said: On this last command have
 the utmost fear that you may not agree with
 what is said, and I have this fear for two
 reasons, first because this is one of the most
 terrible of commands in it's requirement., and
 secondly and mostly, because no other com-
 mand is so utterly misunderstood. We know
 clearly what it means to steal, to kill, to
 break the Sabbath. We may not know some of the applications of these commands.
 ''Thou shalt not covet." Let anyone take up his concordance and learn how terribly
 say, fear is very prevalent in the church to- day, present because unsuspected. Hear
 some of the Bibles utterances Jesus said: Take heed and beware of covetousness He
 seems never to have thought it worth while to say, take heed and beware of stealing, take heed and beware of Sabbath breaking, take heed and beware of idolatry. He does not speak in this solemn style about other sins Take heed and beware of covetousness.
 Let us first inquire what Jehovah means when he forbids us to covet anything that is our neighbours. And first note the meaning that is usually attached to the word. I will first give you that of Rev. E. o. Haven,D. D., IL. D., whose work on the con- mandments, "Pillars of Truth" I have carefully consulted on each of the commands. He says: ''Covetousness seems generally to mean something like avarice; an unsuitable desire to get, to hold and to hoard irrespec- tive of the convenience and comfort of oth- ers." Now this definition-a sin like lava rice," an Unsuitable desire,'' is the best I have been able to find, and yet it is far from correct. But there are worse ones. For do not men generally mean by this word to so want thing that wrong methods will be en- ployed to get it? We generally make the sin consist in the method of gain. We say it is all right to want my neighbours OK or his ass if at the same time I want to pay fair | price for the OK or the ass. To get the ami | nal in some underhanded way is covetous- ness and so we make the sin to lie there in the method the way of acquisition. But | let us look at that. The command says Gin l Deuteronomy thou shalt not covet thy neigh | bors field. Now when Jew was given his | field it was given to him forever. It could | never go out of the family And so the | command could not mean you shall not desire | to get your neighbours field in wrong way | Any way and every way was wrong.
 Or to look again. The command said thou | shalt not covet thy neighbours wife. Could | that possibly mean that you shall not seek to | gain her in any way? Why any and every way by which man might gain his neigh | bor's wife is wrong The very desire to have | the word covet means. It signifies desire just that, no more, no less. Thou shalt not desire thy neighbours wife. We can easily see that is sin. Now, is not l the rest of the command the same? It is not equally sin to desire his man servant or his maid servant. Is not the command the same all the way through? It is the desire that is forbidden; the desire after things which we do not possess.
 Let me repeat, then, the command does not mean to desire to gain thing in wrong way. It forbids the desire after it at all. The thing may be in some cases really our own and yet we may not desire it. The young man came to Christ and said Speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me-" The older brother seems to have seized the whole patrimony, and the younger wanted his share. And Jesus said unto them. he addressed both saying, fsbe- ware of covetousness" It belonged to them, and yet he forbade their desiring it.
 A poor man is just as likely to be discon- tented with his little and want more, to want a different and easier calling as a rich man is to make his one million or two. Wherever there is 8 wanting it is sin, and where will you go that you do not find it
 How are we to keep this commandment or any of them? How is the frail heart of man to follow the mighty word of God? The very object of them is to show how impo- tent we are The laws mission is to con- vince us that we are depraved and lost. It is only the new man, the converted man, the man filled with Gods spirit that can ever make 8 show Of keeping the law.
 In conclusion the preacher said: Your fa- ther is king. He has a crown for you. He says to patiently wait for it just where you are. Seek only those things which will fit you to wear that crown. If you cannot wait, if you must break this tenth command, you will lose more than Absalom did. You can wait and joyfully wait if you get Christ's spirit You can do then just as he did; have it your meat and drink to do Gods will.
 The discourse, of which we give onlysa brief synopsis, was listened to with deep at teI1tiaO