Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-09-06
f26unoap SCHOOL lesson
n Bp &eb. .Nugb O.. @tebtnson.


| can fulfill the requirements of the law.
| Thou shalt have no other gods before
me-" Men seek by their laws to regu-
| late the outward conduct of life. At the
very commencement of His command
ments, God seeks to direct the thought,
! which is the source Of our conduct. ca
reer and character, for las a man think
| eth in his heart SO is he.
| Correct conception of our God is at the
| foundation of our fulfilling the require
ments of the moral, religious. social laws
laid down in the Covenant. These laws.
spoken by Jehovah to Israel, when they
were not highly civilized, were personal
requirements that all men should meet.
All have failed in keeping the saying
| that Jehovah placed first. We have all
sinned because We have allowed some
other god to come in our thought and
life before Jehovah, who in Holy love
has created, sustained and ordered all.
We have bowed down to the false gods
of this world and have waorshiped pleas
ure. popularity, power, fame. fashion and
fortune. We have been caught in the
meshes of idolatry. for we have loved
Obedience is the proof Of love. for Jesus
| has told US that IF We love Me We will
| keep my commandments
! Christ taught what Paul emphasized,
! that love is the fulfilling of the law.
The prohibitions recorded in the COM
mandments are not needed when our
| heart is filled with the love of God, as
| 1t will be when we know Him, and make
, to the will Of the loving and righteous
God. Jesus outlined the method by
! which We can comply with the first
| commandment when He said, Seek ye
righteousness" He revealed the motive
by which we could comply with this
| command in His summary of the law
; contained in our golden text. Thou
1o I ard nv u-ifh nj
| thy heart. and with all thy soul. and
with all thy strength and with all thy
| mind.
| Closely connected with the require
reality. unity and personality of God is
the necessity of worshiping Him as a
spirit in spirit and in truth. The glory
of man comes from his having been
| made in the image of God and through
| this endowed spiritual power by means
of his feeling. thinking and willing man
has the privilege and possibility Split, 20 Of
revealed to the world as Our Father.
| In this injunction thai summons man
! to a spiritual and sincere worship of
marvels of pre-christ.an history. The
prohibition against the use Of any image
of God in worship separated Israel from
all other religions of the age. L; was
worship that would not be satisfied
until the full meaning of That God.
which ever lives and loves" dawned
upon them. and they would come to
know the truth. later stated by Tenny-
son as
"One God. one law, one element,
And one far-Off divine event
To which the whole creation moves
Modern science. theology and philos-
ophy have added nothing to this law.
which does not, as some have held. forbid
the creation of art and sculpture, for
cd or6orod norod In
tabernacle but it does condemn the use
of anything as the representative of God
in worship. Man married by sin finds it
difficult today because of materialistic
conceptions to worship God without some
aids If We substitute that which pro-
notes our spiritual worship whether it
be song, sermon or service, into form
without which we cannot worship God.
then we are not offering an acceptable
worship to our Heavenly Father. We
must always remember that not only is
idolatry a caricature of God, but that
we cannot form by our mental picture OF
God a correct conception, because we place
Limitation upon God by our imagination
Of Him. The paintings Of Jesus are never
satisfactory, because they always present
to us an unreal Christ, even when they
satisfy all Of our ideals OF His personal
appearance, when upon the earth among
men, for such paintings separate US by
seer presence. power and purpose pene-
trate today through the thought Of HUI
uan.t,- ard determine the destiny OF men
and natioas. We all need the spiritual VI
sion of the living Christ like that which
Paul received upon his way to Damascus
that showed him the failure of his formal
religious life.
Later upon the Acropoiis Of Athens the
eloquent apostle to the Gentiles showed
cultured Greece that after their centuries
of culture now they. like him, had failed
in their worship of God because of its
falsity. Paul carried them back to Mount
Sinai and placed them upon an equality
with Che Hebrew slaves. who had just
escaped from bondage, as the proper
be sis for religious worship. Philosophy,
theology and science of our day support
the truth of this commandment and re-
affirm the teachings o. Paul that I'VE
ought not to think that the Godhead is
like unto gold or silver or stone craven by
mans devices.
They that make them are like unto
them and their iniquitous influence
upon posterity united with Gods love
for His own offspring is why He is
Jealous and demands that He alone shall
receive the worship OF men. The effect