The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-09-06
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.)

It is that a nation cannot lose its reli-
slon without losing also it's virtue and
ats integrity; the fate of nation after
nation, in epoch after epoch, has shown
that the ages of mental disbelief are
ages also of moral iniquity.' So wrote
lean Farrar, in penetrating comment
upon the place of God in the affairs of
men.
Because man must realize that there
Is DEITY, the scene at Sinai was spec
tacularly staged. AS we observed in
last weeks lesson, the basic need of
the Hebrew nation was sense of Je-
hoVah. All the commandments that
Were to thunder from the mountain
were preceded by the great utterance.
Il am the Lord thy God" Without
this realization, no commandments are
binding. The Decalogue takes its force
from the character OF the Law-Giver
If we deny God, we may repudiate the
COMMUNICATIVE not until then.
Why Heaven Cares for Earth.
Anybody who starts to thinking
about the fundamental things will find
himself confronting the proposition
that if there is Il God, he must be in
terested in man. This is clear from
the nature of this world, and from the
character of human life and history.
In the long evolution of the race, the
time had come for the revelation OF
God by Himself to man. That is the
big truth concerning Sinai which must
be grasped. God spoke the command
ments. All the impulses and aspira-
lions that had been written in the heart
of humanity We're gathered up, articu-
lated and defined in the clearly uttered
words that were to be eternal law.
These ten words are not the vague in
SEPARATIONS and Examinations of the hu-
man heart: they are the distinct. def
mite utterance of the mind of the su-
preme Law GiVer.
AS the modern constitutional SOW
ereign formally addresses his people
only on rare and important occasions,
so Jehovah broke the silence of eter-
nifty in order to lay down the laws that
should govern the life Of mankind.
When we come to consider it. if any
thing concerning humanity is impor-
tant enough to command the attention
of God. this occasion was it. The race
. had progressed far enough to be able
to receive the great Code.
Laws Which Are Never OutgrOvn.
Grumblers say that legislatures are
enacting too many laws, since condi-
lions change and their legislation is
outgrown. Every statute book is cum
bered up with antiquated enactments.
The reason is that men lay down rules.
The Ten Commandments, on the other
hand. We're eternal principles. which
should run as long as the race of man
kind lasted. The Ten Commandments
are just as up-to-date in this year. 1913,
as they were fifteen hundred years be-
fore Christ. In this brief summary we
have the essentials of mans relation to
God, and of mans relation to man.
Any body of law that will be suf
ficient for the new time. must put first
humanity's obligations to God That
IS why the first utterance of Jehovah
on the mount was, 81 am the Lord
thy God. which brought thee out of
the land of Egypt" There is no more
contemporaneous need in our land
time than a vital apprehension of the
Supreme Being. After all the ills of
the time have been enumerated, they
may be summarized in the one short
phra Observation-Disclosures of God.
When a peoples perception of the
Supreme Being grows dim and
cloudy; when material considerations
bulk larger in the days ordinary
thinking than the eternal verities
of danger has come. Social solidarity
comes from a sense of dependence
upon God. When men realize that
they are all children of the Father.
they proceed to the cOrrolary of that
truth, which is that they are brothers
to one another. The shortest route to
social solidarity is a better understand
ing of God. In this day, when indi-
vidualism runs riot, we need to remind
ourselves often that the surest way to
serve our own day is to get right with
the Ruler of all. without God. we are
without hope in this social organiza-
ton called civilization.
Let preacher and teacher think
twice before turning his pulpit or desk
into a forum for the discussion of
particular social needs The all COM
pretending need is just-God.
IF the Ark Should Be Found.
On tables of stone the ten words
given in the mount We're written.
That story used to seem rather f1ShN
in childhood, for we thought that men
did not write on stone. Now that [
iy1S nri1l
lions on stone. the naturalneSs of the
Exodus record is clear Down inBaby-
lonia 1 had offered to me by the Arabs
Inscribed stone tablets which were
older than Moses: and of cuneiform
clay tablets, 1 brought home half a
peck.
ones imagination is appealed to
by the suggestion that perhaps at no
has come into possession of Jerusalem. |
the Ark of the Covenant, containing ,
these very stone tables of the law, !
may be discovered in the unexplored I
labyrinths beneath Mount Zion. There !
is no record of the ark having been +
carried away when the Jews were LED !
into any of their captivities. 1t might ,
be one of the crushing answers to ma !
terial SkepticismS such as God has ,
been reserving for opportune revela- /
ton throughout the century.
Tie DecaIogue was not the first !
code of laws formulated by man, but /
none that ever was written approaches |
it in completeness and majesty, and |
no other is so qualified to be written /
upon the fieshly tablets of the human
heart.
The Upward Looking Law.
Today we study the first four Com
mandments, which touch upon mans
duty to God; for good citizenship and
good neighborliness soon cease to ex-
list if God is lost from the reckoning
OF man. These four Commandments
are as follows:
Chou shalt have no other gods be-
fore me-