The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-09-11

the folly of it. Besides its ingrati-
tude and its wickedness, it is also I'M
speakably foolish, an insensate stu
pidity at which the heavens might
we'll be astonished, not only that a
nation should change its God who had
taken them by the arms and in end
less love and pity taught them to
walk, but that it should change Him
for such other gods-that Israel
should have given Jehovah such pitt
full rivals. This is the folly at which
the heavens may be amazed, that My
people "have forsaken Me, the foun-
tain of living waters, and hewed them
out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can
hold no water" To monotheist who
had grasped the principle of the One
God, and who had experience of spir-
itual communion, polytheism with its
lords many and gods many must have
seemed a system almost beneath con-
tempt. Intellectually, it introduced
confusion instead of order; morally,
it meant that life would be lived on
a much lower plane; religiously, it
was the degradation of the pure spir-
itual worship to which the prophets
pointed the people.
This is why the prophets always
speak of the shame of idCiatry. 1t
seemed incredible that men in their
senses should prefer what appeared
to them to be brutism superstition.
Both intellectually and morally it was
disgrace. Especially the prophets
of the exile and after it, who had
come into close connection with
heather idolatry, had this sense of
superiority, and withered the stupid
ity of polytheism with their most
mordant irony. 1t was a shame, at
which they blusbed, to think of Jews
descending tosuch puerile worship and
practices. 1t was folly for the heather
who knew no better; it was shame
for Israelites to grove before a stock
or stone. The prophets confidently
predicted that experience would prove
the folly and vanity of idolatry
They shall be turned back" says the
prophet of the exile; "they shall he
greatly ashamed that trust in craven
images. that say to the molten i'm
ages, Ye are our gods" The proph-
cts with their spiritual insight al
ready saw the disgrace and vanity of
such worship; but the people who
were seduced by the lower and more
sensuous rites of idolatry would have
to learn their folly by bitter expert
ence. When the pinch came, when
the needs of life drove them like
sheep, when in the face of the great
necessities, they would find out how
futile had been their faith. "As the
thief is ashamed when he is found
out, so the house of Israel will be
ashamed; they, their kings, their
nrin
prophets, saying to stock. Thou
art my father; and to stone, Thou
hast brought me forth; but in the
time of their trouble they will say,
Arise and save us. But where are
thy gods that thou hast made thee?
Let them arise if they can save thee
in the time of thy trouble"
All, in the time of trouble they
would find out their folly; and the
vanity of their trust in idols would be
found out! They should feel already
the disgrace; but, though they are m
sensible to that now, they will yet be
convicted and the hot blush of shame
will cover them with confusion of
face. They are not ashamed of the
ingratitude and wickedness and folly
of their conduct, but their sin will
find them out, and then surely the
conviction of theft foloishness and
guilt will abash them, and then at
last they will know the sense of
degradation and self-contempt which
should be theirs now. GAS the thief
is ashamed when he is found out, so
the house of Israel will be ashamed "
The same dizziness of mind and
darkening of heart and obtuseness of
conscience can be paralleled among
ourselves. Is it not true that in
social ethics the objectionable sin is
to be found out? In many cases ii
is not the thing itself that men fear
and condemn and are ashamed of
but anything like exposure of it.
There is keen enough sensibility to
disgrace, but not for the thing itself
which is the disgrace. Men will dc
things with an easy conscience fol
which they would be ashemed-ii
they were found out. Our moral
standard of judgment is so much just
that of the community. Our con.
science is largely social conscience
merely; not individual and personal
and vital, but imposed upon us BY
society, a code of manners and rules
which We must not transgress. 1t is
no exaggeration to say that we live
more by this code, by the customs anC
restraints of society, than by the holy
law of God as light to our feet and s
lamp to our path. Much of this il
good, and represents the accumulated
gains of the past, a certain standard
of living below which men are not ex
pected to fall, a moral and even {
Christian atmosphere which affects u!
all and which is responsible for mucl
of the good that is in us. One only
needs to live for little in a pagan
community to realize how much WI
owe to the general Christian STANDARD
of Dur country, such as it is. AT thu
same time we must see how insecure
this is as a guard and guide to life.
A man might have a corrupt heart
and be filled with all evil passions
BUT it stands to reason that society
cannot take him to task for that, un
less it gets something on which it cal
lay a finger. And apart even from
such deeper moral depths Of charac
Ter, there may be actual transgres
sions, but, until they are discovered
and proved, society must treat then
as if they did not exist. A man Nigh
De thlef, not only In desire aht
neart. but in reality, but until he i!
found out, he rubs shoulders witt
honest men everywhere as on7 O
themselves. Society is not ashamed
Of him, and he need not be asha met
IF himself.
The shame of being found out may
If course, induce this better feeling
and be the beginning Of nobler ant
more stable moral life. 1t is one o.
he blessed functions Of punishment
% offer us this point of departure as
he house of Israel through the shame
If idolatry reached a loathfng Of il
hat ultimately made it impossible il
Israel. Welcome the retributior
which brings US self-knowledge vel
come the detection which makes US
ashamed and makes us distrust our
selves at last; welcome the punis,'
ment which gives reDSntance of sin