The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-07-22
Christian Life Column.
rHE sECoND TABLE OF ZEE law.

12-1O.
While the first four commandments,
~ first table of the law, define the
nroper relation between man and his
Maker. the last six, or the second ia
HE. define the right or normal relation
between man and his fellows, the
snirit and sence of the first table be-
INC as follows: "Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind, and with all thy strength" and
the spirit of the second table in this:
GThou shalt love thy neighbour as
myself" "On these two command
ments hang all the law and the
PROPHETS" the entire scope of all sub
sequent revelation has for its object
the illustration and enforcing of these
two great principles. /"
The fifth commandment, "Honor
thy father and thy mother" is the
connecting link between the two and
has been by some ancient theologians
placed in the first table. To honor
the father and mother, the earthly
parents, is in a human way the nat
ural expressions of the reverence due
to the Father of all required in the
third commandment. He created US
and we owe Him the reverence due
Almighty power and infinite wisdom
and love. In the same spirit and for
q ike reason we owe honor and ODE
dience second only to that we owe to
God Himself to the parents to whom
under Him we W our being. We
share with them a common nature, a
common strength, a common weak
ness. We are branches of the family
tree; we are wholly dependent on
them in childhood: their experience
should be our guide in youth and our
wisdom in maturer years. To them
under God we owe everything; hence,
in all the higher civilizations and
among all right minded people, to
honor parents is ranked one of the
noblest virtues. The special promise
annexed to this commandment, while
Jewish in its form, is in its spirit
quite universal. The promise is "that
thy days may be long upon the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee ;"
-that-is, the permanence of the gov
eminent to be established in the land
and the prosperity and perpetuity of
the Jewish nation would depend on
the spirit of flial obedience and rev
erence to parents and all in authority
that should be developed. We can
see the meaning of this all the more
clearly if we adopt the broad inter
probation which Paul gives to this
Children, obey your parents in the
Lord" that is, in all things that are
not forbidden by the supreme law,
"for this is right" but it does not
stop here. He extends it to all in
authority, even to the heather rulers.
There can be a prosperous and per
manent nation only when the young
and inexperienced honor and trust age
and position worthily secured and fill
ed. Neither Moses nor Paul had a
very good opinion of what is popu-
larly called "young America" We
think either of them would think
much more of the boy who said "fath-
er" than the boy who speaks of his
father as clad" or the governor"
Neither of them would expect much
from the young man or woman who
spoke ~direspectfully to or of the moth
er who bore them.
The sixth commandment recognizes
the ~sacredness of human life and must
be interpreted in the broad sense
which Jesus has given it.. 1t is anger
without cause, the provoking and ir-
ritating word, the boarded enmity, the
desire for revenge, that often leads to
murder: hence, all these are breaches
Of the sixth commandment. The
man who, to use a popular expression,
"l:es in wait at the end of the lane
or has a knife up his sleeve" is a
gross v~ioIator of this sixth command
mont.
The seventh commandment throws
It's safeguard around the person and
The home. 1t condemns in its spirit.
all rs interpreted by Jesus, not only
open sin. but all un~cleanness even IN
look or thought CMatthew 5:27-28),
I. assumes the ideal home to be where