The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-07-24
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
INTERNATIONAL LESSON COM.
MENTS FOR JULY Fl BY THE
REV. I. W. HENDERSON.
Subject: The Ten Commandments,
Duties Toward Men, Elk. 20:12-
17-Golden Text: Lev. 1915
Memory Verses, 12-17.

The commandments that impress
upon US our duties toward humanity
are the corollaries of the command
nents that tell ussof our obligations
toward God. We are ordered to have
a lasting love and reverence for God
not only because it is a good thing to
love God for His own sake, but also
because it is necessary that we shall
be ready to learn from Him how He
desires His children to be treated.
This lesson deals with out relation
ships to men, individually and col
lectively, in the light Of our ale
glance to God.
The fifth command, which enjoins
proper respect to our earthly parents,
is the basis upon which all social life
is reared. The sense of authority,in
the home and of obedience to paren-
tai control supplies the ground upon
which all sane and gound civil gov
ernments rests. 1t rests, to be sure,
on other principles. But 1t rests
hard on this. And the willingness
upon the part of the child to yield
obedience to the authority of the par
ent implies that the parent shall be
worthy of recognition and that the
authority Of the parent shall be wise
and sensible and intelligent, a control
fashioned after the sovereignty which
God exercises in the world and over
humanity. An obedient child pre-
supposes a parent who is worthy to
be obeyed. And many times parents
lose sight Of this utterly. A child
cannot be expected to obey an unrea-
sonable parent. We are under no OBJ
legation to have respect fol. parents
who have no respect for themselves.
God does not call upon a child to
have love for a parent, In f1lial fash
ion, who renders no need OF love to
the child that parent has brought
into this world. A child is not called
upon to stife it's own individuality
and. conform itself to the parental
pattern in every minute detail Of its
life. And yet some people seem to
think that their children are not hon
oring them simply because they re-
fuse to be. run into a prearranged
family mold. Honoring ones par
ents does not consist in. allowing
them to order one to do wrong, or In
allowing them to force q to do IN
reasonable things. Honor to ones
parents consists in giving them due
and. careful obedience along every
line that properly belongs to a par
ent's rights. And most of all it en-
tails upon the part of the parent that
he or she, as the case may be, shall
be worthy of honor and wise and in
telligent in the matter Of command
ment and control.
Thou shalt not kill" enjoins the
sixth commandment. And you must
not only not kill your brother, but
also you must not take your own life.
It further means that the nations
shall cease international murder and
that civil government shall a to
execute human beings, no matter
what their crimes may have been. It
means also that it is murder to sell
a~dulterated medicine, to sell whisky
or any other poison, to work men
and women and children to death, or
to be a party to any form OF murder,
be it long or short in its action, be 1t
refined or vicious.
The seventh commandment is es-
pecially in need Of enforcement. No
one who is at all solicitous about the
welfare of this country can contem-
plate the marital infelicities that are
so widespread and numerous In
America without a feeling of pro-
found fear for the harvest that soon
er or later we shall reap as a nation
except we are able to put a stop to
the criminality that Is rampant In our
midst. Humanity cannot long trife
with the highest and hottest relations
of human life without reaping the
whirIwind. The divorce record Of
America is Americas disgrace. Her
record of remarriages OF men and
women who, in the eyes Of God and a
decent society. are not entitled to re-
marriage Is Americas shame. And
these twin evils are a menac to the
health and %perpetuity of the nation.
Some very eminent gentlemen
some Of whom rent pews in high
toned churches and who are among
the of1ciary of the organized church
of Jesus Christ - are to-day under
the condemnation of the eighth COM
mandment. For stealing may be va
riously committed. 1t is not neces-
sary to become a common pickpocket
in order to be a common thief. 1t is
not necessary to lay ones self ope"
to conviction under the provisions &
the penal code in order to be a robbie
of the vilest type. The worst crimin-
ais in this land to-day are the ones
who are out Of jail. =
The ninth word of God to Moses
and Israel hits the liars. And the
liars are among the meanest people
In the world and among those who
are denied entrance into the new
Jerusalem of God. The liar Is Il OF
the hardest problems with which hui
! mainly is called upon to deal. Yot
may count on an honest man, but Q
liar Is an unknown quantity. And
lying is a habit. Rather l should
say it tends to become a habit. One
lie invites another. And the worst
of the lie is that sooner or later 1t so
! destroys the integrity Of the liar that
he doesn't know what he honestly
thinks or what the truth really Ia
composed OF.
The people who are indicated by
the tenth commandment are among
the worlds unfortunates very often,
They merit our pity. Jealousy ID an
unmitigated curse to the man VINO
falls into its grasp. God help the
people who are bitten with the venom
sting of Jealousy. They are indeed
cursed.