The farmer and mechanic., 1913-09-02
IN THE RELIGIOUS WORLD
What the Church Folk Are Thinking
About and Doing.


one imagination is appealed to by
the Suggestion that perhaps at no
aist9f day, when Christian power
mas come into possession of Jerusa-
lem, the Ark Of the Covenant. con-
tanning these very stone tables Of the
law, may be discovered in the unex-
plored labyrinths beneath Mount Zion. |
mere is no record Of the ark having |
been carried away when the Jews |
were led into any of their caDtiyities |
| II may be one Of the crushing answers |
to material skepticiSms such as God |
has been reserving for opportune rev
elation throughout the century.
The DecalOgue was not the first
| code of laws formulated by man, but
! none that ever was written approaches
| 1t in completeness and majesty, and
| no other is SO qualified to be written
| upon the f1eshly 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 il God is lost from the reck oning
of man. These four Commandments
are as follows:
Thou shalt have no other gods
before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee
any craven image, or any likeness of
anything 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 thyself to them,
nor serve them: for l the Lord thy
God am a jealous God, visiting the
iniQuity of the fathers upon the chill
dren unto the third and fourth gener-
alton of them that hate me; and show
ing mercy unto thousands Of them
that love me and keep my command
ments.
Thou shalt not take the name of
the Lord thy God in vain: for the
. Lord will not hold him guiltless that
. taketh his name in vain.
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.
thy manservant, nor thy maidServant,
nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is
!, within thy gates; for in six days the
> Lord made heaven and earth, the sea,
e and all that in them is, and rested the
: seventh day: wherefore the Lord
4 blessed the Sabbath day, and hallow-
). ed it.
The Competition Of Gods.
e Polytheism prevailed in Moses day.
: The conception of God was tribal and
s national. Even the Jews regarded
S Jehovah merely as the God Of the
: Jews This competition OF deities. II
y it may be so termed, is thought
i which runs all through the Old TeSta-
: ment. The sense Of the primacy OF
s this new law, that there should be but
l. one God worshipped. appeals less &c
g US in our monOtheistic day than 1t dio
y to the old Jews familiar with the Gods
e Of Egypt Arabia and Canaan.
e The history of the Jewish people
n throughout the Old Testament is one
a. long story, OF progress, with many
T. stumblings and backslidings toward
1t the truth that Jehovah alone is God.
L. The years have brought vindicatior
II in the very region where these event:
le occurred, OF that first commandment
,e It now owns but one God, although i
is is a territory divided among tie Mos
in lens, Christians and the Jews. Jeho
D. vah conquered the old gods; and hi
2. day is marching on in the new-olt
re world Of Asia, where the truth Of tn
a one God has in comparatively recen
r times come into conflict with the God
of the heather.
,e Obviously, the heart that yields frs
ID allegiance TO God has no room 10
ns the little idols OF selfshness. TIL
ry great loyalty is the secret of grea
es life.
ar One must know Judaism and Islam
ty to understand how fully the secon
ce commandment. against making
at craven image of God, has carried ou
r. There are no statues or sculptures i
at the Moslem world Scores of time
RS have l seen the face, battered o.
tie priceless Roman and Greek statue!
r. amid the ruins Of the East.
en- To that extent do the Moslems cal
to ry this teaching. Obviously, 1t wa
,st directed against mean thoughts {
ret God. When men try TO interpoSe
ut object between themselves and Deit,
o. to help make Deity near, they com
in time to worship the token itsei
nix Most Buddhists think of Buddah
or term Of idols, without any upreach
on the great saint and philosopher.
All One Of the old church fathers sal
God must be King in all, or ne WI
not be King at all He VIII not TO
.ds crate a divided loyalty. Half love
IN. no love Semi-aliegiance is close kl
nv to treason Inwrought in the vel
,at fibre of the second commandment
ow the truth that God is spirit an
N