The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1911-05-18
CHURCH PRESS Of AMERICA AGAINST
SHORTENING 1RE Tn COMMANDMENTS
Clergy of This Country Pro-
test Strongly Against
Abridgment

beled 'unbelief' cutting the leaves
from the holy book, which lie strewn
upon the floor like the leaves from a
tree in autumn.
Another religious editor hurled this
at the bishops in America and Eng
land, "Preach the Ten Commandments
instead Of revising them."
Again, the editor Of a religious pa
per wrote waggishly, paraphrasing
Kipling, "These bishops would better
go somewhere east Of Suez, where
there amt no Ten Commandments"
The Christian Evangelist said: 1T is
a difficult thing to edit an ancient
code. Obeying the spirit of the Deca-
1ogue is just as easy now as it would
be in an abbreviated form. Better let
it stand.'
The Congregationalist and Christian
World said, 'The proposal to shorten
the text Of some of the Ten Com
mandments as given in the twentieth
chapter of Exodus for iturgical uses
in the Anglican church has occasioned
alarm
The Right Rev. Daniel S. Tuttle of
st. Louis, bishop Of the Protestant
Episcopal church in Missouri, declared
that there was no need for any change
in the Decalogue. 1T has been in use
in it's present form in our church for
the last 300 years, and would oppose
any move to abridge it," he said.
Bishop David II. Greer of the Epis-
copal diocese of New York said, "Such
a change as proposed in the Ten Com
mandments is not desired here.''
The Signs Of the Times denounced
Bishop Williams and the other bishops
who would shorten the Decalogue as
"emissaries Of the DEVIL
The Proposed Changes.
The proposal of the convocation Of
Canterbury and Of certain bishops in
America is to abridge the first, second,
third, fourth and tenth command
ments. The fifth, sixth, seventh,
eighth and ninth would be left un-
changed.
shortened to, 'Thou shalt not have
any other gods before me-" In the
original it reads:
Il am the Lord thy God, which have
brought thee out Of the land of Egypt,
out Of the house Of bondage. Thou
shalt have no other gods before me-
The second commandment would be
shortened to the nine words, ''Thou
shalt not make to myself any craven
image"
In the original this commandment is
composed Of three verses, as follows:
''Thou shalt not make unto thee any
craven image, or any likeness Of any
thing that is in heaven above, or that
is in the earth beneath, or that is in
the water under the earth.
'"Thou shalt not bow down myself to
them nor serve them, for I, the Lord
thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity Of the fathers upon the chill
dren unto the third and fourth genera
lions Of them that hate me.
"And showing mercy unto thousands
Of them that love me and keep my
commandments"
The fourth commandment would be
shortened to, Remember that thou
keep holy the Sabbath day."
In the original it has four verses, as
follows:
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep
it holy.
"Six days shalt thou labor and do all
thy work.
"But the seventh day is the Sabbath
Of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt
not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor
thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor
thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor
the stranger that is within thy gates.
For in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea and all that
in them is, and rested the seventh day,
wherefore the Lord blessed the Sab
bath day and hallowed it,
The tenth commandment would
read, 'Thou shalt not covet." In the
original it is one long verse:
'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours
house; thou shalt not covet thy neigh
boris wife, nor his manservant, nor his
maidservant, nor his OK, nor his ass,
nor anything that is thy neighbours"
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