Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-01-18
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
The Seventh of Rev f. w. Mer-
rell's Series Last Evening.
A Large Congregation at the First
nj. II. Churck-OuIIine Of the
Able aud Inter est ng
Discourse

or the series gathered at the FIRST Metho-
dist church to listen TO the presentation
of the Seventh Commandment" by the
pastor. Rev F. W. Merren. The text
was Exodus 20:14;
Thou shalt not commit soultcryn
After service of song in which the
whole congregation heartily Joined, the
regular service was taken up and the pas
tor said the sin of adultt ry is the most de-
testsble and loathsOme Of all sins. Christ
has included under this commandment all
| unchastity and the secret of the heart.
II is therefore broad theme. as broad AS
! Christian purity. Itdeserves to be ranked
with the sin of iutemperance in the nuns
beTs OF its victims. We will do best to
view this sin in the light OF Gods word. .
/. Take the temporal punishment in
tiicted on the adulterer under the Mosaic
law. The same penalty was visited upon
the adulterer as upon The murderer It
was regarded as being as deadly in its
effects on society as the crime of murder
to which 1t not infrequently leads. God
would have US regard chastity as dear as
lie itself. Our progeniJors the English
Ssxens, made this crime and fornication
also, punishable by death even as late as
$50 A D, when Rome abolished this
penalty as too rigorous. A code of
morals almost equally stern existed
among the red meu OF America when civil
llZ4uon found them. IL is one of the
vices attendant upon an imperfect ciyili
Zatlon. L. Is linked indisso1ubly with the
liquor traffic. The saloon and the brotheI
60 together.
,. Eternal punishment is also threat
ened upon the sdulterer. Neither for.
nicators, nor idolstors, nor adulteress shall
inherit the kingdom Cf God" They are
pictured as without the celestial CITY,
where is weeping and waiting and
gnashi, g of teeth. "
Note too the bible presents the
same standard of purity for man
and woman. 1t does not recog>
niZe the distinctions of society BY
which the aduterer is forgiven and the
adulteress is os,racised They are alike
and equally guilty before God There
vii! be day of final awards when all
there secret sins shall be revealed and the
darkness shall no longer cover them. I
do not wonder that such as persist in
these and other secret vices tIemble at
thought of the judgment, and would blot
out tie words God, Judgment, hell
from the vocabulary of man.
This sin. more than any other, is
heart or secret sin. Christ's words reveal
the real character of it in Matthew
V 27-32.
Christ first specifies heart adultery.
THIS commandment is often broken in
spirit by the lust of the eye" Heart
purity is the first requisite for seeing and
knowing God. Then he tells us that
proper attitude we are to assume toward
such sins. We are to regard life itself as
less sacred than the purity of inner life
Christianity stands for chastity. 1t is
the religion of purity. MohammadOnism
acquires its power by hattering the pas.
sinns of men, so " tn all false religions
Christianity alone antagoniZes human
passions and appettes. This is evidence
of its divinity. Strange that any man
should oppose a religion that demon
sTrstes its divinity in antagonizing sin
everywhere and always. Every phiian-
thropist must rejoice st the triumphs of
the gospel. The marvellous power of
Christianity is demonstrated in its effects
on society as on ancient Rome, gay, Ii
centious CoIinth and other corrupt cities
The sins that destroyed Sodon and Com
onot have been banished from Christians
dom through the influence of Christians
ity. They are found in heathendom, but
not where tie gospel is preached and
heard. The high ideal Of purity and
bravery seen in days of chivalrY was the
result Of Christianity operating on the
civilization of that period.
Christ stamps the fearful name of
adultery on divorce, except for one cause.
and on the remsrrage Of the divorced
Lust is the most fruitful cause of divorce
today, and Christ was right in thus
srragning it. Il may be easy to get
divorce in many slstes. but it is different
to get 1t recorded in heaven. 1t has re-
manned for the modern ipfidel to plead
for free loveism. One rash utterance
from the lips of Christ would have de-
stroyed all belief n his divine origin, and
such strains serve to indicate the current
of modern infdelity. Marriages may be
sometimes unhappy, but it is better that
one suffer than that the foundations of
the home and of government should be
shaken. The Nervousness of adultery is
seen liz that it is he most debasing of all
sins. Read Solomon's startling descrip-
ton of the Strange Woman" "her home
inclineth unto death, and her paths unto
the dead" 1t is the steepest way to
hell.
Again, it is stamped with the manifest
curse of God in this life, in the loathsome
diseases that wait like avenging angels
on the vio!stors of this eternal law.
These diseases point with thrilling fingers
toward the eternal judgments of God. It
has helped to ruin nations as Gibbon has
shown of Rome. 1t is blotting out the
criminal classes from existence. Whole
families are swept away by it in every
| generation. The hope of our country is
in the untainted blood IF the pure and
| chaste.
Again, it is a kind of sacrilege. Says