The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-07-22
Gods Work For Man.

What is written in the law? How
readest thou?-Luke 1926.
Macaulay in one Of his reviews
says, The deeper and more complex
parts Of human nature can be exhib-
tied by means of words alone, To
many of us they are mirrors, histo-
ries. Every new science adds many
new words to our language. Every
new discovery, every war adds a few
more. Each one of these new words
enlarges our knowledge.
But words do not increase our
knowledge of men morally or in the
language of the heart. Moral science
may have become more elaborate, but
the vital and instructive principles
which are for the guidance and de-
velopment of manhood and character
have not been improved. All those
words called the Ten Commandments,
spoken at least 1000 years ago, de-
scribe man just as fully and exhaust.
lively to-day as they did then.
So also is this true of the laws OF
the heart. If n of the Pharaohs
looked in upon US he would be Devil.
dered at the multitudinous changes
in social, civic, commercial and indus.
trial affairs; yet what a CLEAN Of in.
telligent recognition and appreciation
would come into his eyes the moment
he looked upon two lovers, or a moth
er nursing her baby, or into the. faces
of sorrow by an open grave! These
are the same throughout all ages,
They are like the physical laws OF
steam and of air and Of electricity and
of motion; they are always there
man does not invent them; he is their
discoverer.
Thus it is that man never pro.
crosses by trying to invent moral
truth. When he seeks to discover 1t,
follow it, live it, make it the supreme
object In life, then he finds himself
close to the divine. Presence, touch.
ing the things of God, breathing the
spirit of God. And he needs not to
go far afleld, for he finds 1t in himself
in his relationship with his fellows,
and in Gods word.
It Is too often assumed that moral
laws are restrictions, fences, guards,
but the truth Is that 1t Is sin that Is
the restriction, it Is sin that retards
manhood growth, it Is sin that causes
the retarding complications in life, IT
is sin that perverts mans ambitions
clouds his vision, dulls his ear, con.
fuses and blights his affections.
Whereas his hearty, loyal response to
the moral and spiritual laws of God
gives him freedom. 1t is in them that
he finds his true self, his manhood,
the joy of living, calling into play his
noblest powers.
The nations laws are not restrfc.
lions, fences curtailing personal lib
erty; they may be that to the GRIM
inal, but to the good citizen they are
the means by which he reaches his
best citizenship. We cannot imagine
a citizenship without laws any more
than we can imagine a manhood with
out laws, and so moral law is an es-
sential part of every human life. This
may be proved by looking upon man
hoods failures as well as upon man
hoods successes. They have come by
breaking through the provisions God
has provided.
Therefore Jesus did not merely ex-
press a religious truth, but one Of the
profoundest, deepest, furthest reach
ing of all moral principles, when He
said to the young lawyer, How read
est thou? = y This do and thou
shalt live" Through that doorway
he would find abundant life, he would
find his true self, for just within it he
would find God the source of truth
and life, he would find Christ the
Ideal, the remover, the pattern, the
inspiration to the only life worth liv-
ing-the life of God in the human
soul. - The Rev. John r. Mackay,
North Presbyterian Church, New
York, in the Sunday Herald.