Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1912-08-02
The Law Of God TO Man.
Exodus $780, Sl

An infant crying for the light.
With no other language but a cry, q"
vet prophets foretOld the coming, stars stirred into
lsAded brllliancy by the reflected light of His glory,
Travelled to his birth place. angels sang an annuncia
ton bymn. wise men came from far to worship Hin
and the world heart beat with the quickening throt
ola new hope.
Again He descended-suddenly with the sound Of
rushing wind and cloven tongues as of fire, and men
spoke with other tongues as the spirit gave them ut
~terance.
Again He will come in his glory and all the Holy
angels with Him descending with a shout, with the
voice Of the arch angel and the trumpet of God
when the dead in Christ shall rise.
All these historic appearings or visitations Of God
from heaven marked the progress of the divine move.
ment for the saving of man and are inseparably linked
in the economy of redemption. They are all eternal
and universal in their application. One is as essen
TALLY a part of the Divine plan for human redemp-
ton as the other-an inseparable whole. You can no
more get rid of Sinai in human history than you can
of Calvary. You can no more get rid of the law of the
World in human redemption than you can the light
of the world. There has been repeated efforts to d.
vorce the ten words of Sinai from the Christian creed
but the effort, if ~effectual, would greatly impoverish
society and threaten its dissolution.
The need of modern social order is to 20 back to
Sinai and amid the smoke and fire of Gods speech re-
learn the Decalogue. The semi .idolatry, the irrev.
erence and profanity, the widespread disaster of a
neglected Sabbath, the ever,increasing flow of human
blood to satiate human anger and revenge, the steal
ing in high circles and low, precipitating a period of
universal distrust the lust which desolates homes.
destroys manhood, and feeds the nav of divorce
courts the craven cOvetOusness which aSSaSSinates
friendship and destroys Brotherhood will never be
checked until we hear again the Sinatic thunders of
the law against these vices.
The enforcement of the church from these ever
lasting principles of righteousness greatly hinder. the
millineum.
The Ten Commandments are eternal. They grow
out of the very constitution or God. There were
three collections of the laws for the governing of the
Jews. 1. The civil law which was the penal code for
the state and which lasted as long as the Jewish
state existed. 2. The m on law, lasting to the
time of Christ at which time in Christ the signs and
symbols were fulfilled. 3. The moral law, which like
the God who announced it is s'the same yesterday,
today, and forever! This law was not invented on
Sinai, it was only announced there. 1t was ever true,
it is true now, it ever will be true.
The eremOnial and civil codes served a temporary
end and were abolished, but the moral code must nee
essarily enter into the Christian dispensatiOn and
pervade it through every period of existence. It
emanated from heaven and there it governs the ser.
vice of every gloriied spirit and ministering angel.
If God has living creatures upon Mars then this code
governs the inhabitants of Mars. If God had never
said "ThOu shalt have no other God before mel il
would have been a sin to worship any other God.
Fourteen hundred years before God said 'thou shalt
not kill" Cain was suffering all the marks and pun
ishments of a wilful murder. Until God changes and
human nature changes there will be no repeal of thu
Decalogue. Christ in his teaching has greatly ex
allied them. He raised them from the low level O
the letter to higher plains of spiritual application ant
declares He who breaks them in motive breaks then
in fact. 'Yeh have said, Thou shalt not kill, but
say unto you, he that hateth his brother is a muir
der. Thou hast said, thou shalt not steal, but l 50,
unto you, he that whispereth the word of Islander
stealing away the reputation of a good man is
thief"
So He raises the whole Decalogue into the realm
of the spiritual. He concentrates them in his an
I swer to the question "What is the greatest command
ment" he said "ThOu shalt love the Lord thy Coz
with all thy heart, " and the second is like unto it
"Th0u shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.n
The new Testament unifies the commandments
, Christ congresses ten into two. James, the practi
cal, declares "He that offendeth in one point i
guilty of the whole" James regards the law as
golden circle for the protection of human character
He who takes one step over the ring is entirely out
q side of the ring. Here is the basis Of this plea. Sin
fulness is a greater evil than sin. The breaking q
p one commandment is a sin, but the eternal rebellio
Of heart which makes a man break that command
ment is sinfulness. He has projected sin out of him
self to be q black fact in Gods universe, the sinful
ness remains in him to be the black parent of othe
acts. The sins are accidental outcroppings. Th
sin is in the heart.
The State Auditor has issued SO 'near beer,
license at $500 each, under the law passed nv tn
line. up legislature unbeknowst to itself, thew brin
$34 500 Of easy money into the State treasury,
that legislature had been awake, and prophetic in il