Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-13
The Lesson,

The Lesson.
When we See the .lideous little gods of
stone and wood of the heather and try to
imagine them sitting In row upon God g
great throne, set up by the puny and igno-
rantly daring children Of earth, 1t fills us
with great horror. We cannot understand
how human being can worship so foolish a
thing as god made of stone or wood and
carved by his own hands. We are sending
missionaries to all the heather lands to [ II
them Of the evil Of idol worship. and we
hope that before many more years have
elapsed such foolish gods will be abolished
throughout the world. But do we never
think, while We are sending out money to
convert the heather from the worship of
IDOLS, that we ourselves are sometimes set
ting up row of equally foolish, wicked
idols upon Gods throne: actually having
the audaCity to put them upon Gods throne
and TO be worshiped by us equally with
Him, and sometimes even in His Steadi
The children of Israel, to whom these COM
| mandments were first given did not always
worship the sun and the stars and the
powers of the air, nor the images they had
set up. equally with the Lord. They looked
upon them more in the way of awe and
superstition and felt that they might wor-
ship all the gods, only calling Jehovah the
greatest. But We sometimes pat our idols
In Gods very place upon His throne. These
idols of ours have various names and some
times our worship is so devoted and so
subtle that we never even suspect that we
have tried to displace God for these poor
things Of earth. the fashioning Of our own
hands. or brains. or wills. And they have
so many forms and names, Tn ase little mod
ern gods We put in the Lords place One
| IS Pleasure. another Money, another Appe-
ute, another Ambition. another Fashion
the desire To do they do, and so on
through the long list Of our PERSONAL loves
and vanities. The questions for each one
of us tn ask ourselves most earnestly are:
''WI If idol ] in,
Gods placer
IAN / cherishing any earthly thing be-
yond Him. or equally with Him.?
If so, these commands must be read in a
new light that they may if possible put one
Z in touch again with God, who loved enough
to send His Son to die and who therefore
has the right to say whether no.her shall
be put In His place DIR. Chadwick saws:
The truth is that with US jealousy is
dangerous and frequently perverted be
cause we are bad judges of the measure of
our own rights, especially when our af-
fections are involved. But some measure
/ OF jealousy Is the necessary pain of love
! neglected, love wronged or sighted by
! those upon whom II has claim. Jealousy
| Is the shallow thrown where the sunshine
| OF love Is Intercepted and 1t is strong in
| proportion 10 the strength o. the light 1t
! operates in the heart exactly like the sense
| OF justice in the reason. Justice expects
Il recompense where IL has given service
and Jealousy asks for love where it has
/ given affection. And therefore when God
! tells US that He Is jealous, He implies
| that He condescends to love US to look
/ for a return. to desire more from us than
| outward service. We cannot be Jealous
| concerning things which are Indifferent to
; us. Even the jealousy of rival compete
/ tors for business or for place may be
/ measured by the Gesire of each for that
which the other would engross. The poll
-tician is not jealous Of the millionaire
| nor the capitalist OF the prme minister.
| Now. If God is jealous when the enemies
| Of our soul would steal away our loyalty
! it surely follows that We shall not be left
| TO contend with those enemies alone. He
values us; He is upon our side; He will
| help us to overcome them. And now we
! begin TO see why this attribute IS connected
with the second commandment and not
| the first The apostate who betakes him
| self to another got is almost beyond the
| reach OF this tender and intimate emotion
! he is still loved, for God loves all men; but
| yet perhaps the responsive chord is I'M
strung which treInbleS responsive to this
plaintive note. When man who con-
! fesses God begins to weary of spiritual
: intercourse with the Lord of spirits, when
! he can no longer worship one whose actual
presence is realized because His voice Is
heard within, when the likeness of man
! or brute. or brightness OF morning. or
J marvel Of life or its reprOductiveness con-
! tents him as a representation of God the
, invisible then his heart is beginning to go
after the creature, to content itself with
aFIlsuc loH"ilnes5 or majesty, to let go the
grasp as upon living hand. by which
| 49,, - 80 Ii'S pc SuStalHel Wnell II
Stumbles or guided when il would err To
those who are within His covenant-to us
! therefore, as to His ancient IsraeI-Ue
says. 1 the Lord thy God am q Jealous
God Because L am thy God"
The third commandment seems almcrt
unn ncessary if one kept the first two nerl
fcctly, yet in this age of Irreverence we
ought not to find it hard 10 understand
! that God must impress upon us the d tngeI
| of lowering Him from His high place ir
our regard by even SO much a breath OF
| lis name.