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

rem unto the third and fourth gener-
| alton of them that hate me; and shew-
| ing mercy unto thousands of them
| that love me and keep my command
ment:.
Thou shalt not take the name of
| the Lord thy God in vain; for the
Lord will not hold him guiltless thai
| taketh his name in vain
| Remember the sabbath day. to
keep it holy. Six days shalt thou la
| Dor and do all thy work, but the sew
enth day is the sabbath of the Lord
thy God: in it thou shalt not do any
| work, thou, nor thy son, nor tiny
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, and all that in them
is. and rested the seventh day;
wherefore the Lord blessed the sab
| bath day, and hallowed it.
The Competition of Gods.
Polytheism prevailed in Moses day
The conception of God was tribal and
Jehovah merely as the God of the
Jews. This competition of deities, if
it may be so termed, is thought
which runs all through the Old Tesla
ment. The sense of the primacy of
this new law, that there should be but
one God worshipped. appeals less to
us in our monotheistic day than it
did to the old Jews familiar with the
Gods of Egypt, Arabia and Canaan
The history of the Jewish people
throughout the Old Testament is one
long story, of progress, with mtny
stumblings and backslidings, toward
the truth that Jehovah alone is God.
The years have brought Vindication
in the very region where these events
occurred, of that first commandment
1t now owns but one God, although 1t
is a territory divided among the Mos
lens, Christians and the Jews. Je-
L al do n
his day is marching on in the new
old world of Asia, where the truth of
the one God has in comparatively re-
cent times come into conflict with the
Gods of the heather.
Obviously, the heart that yields
first allegiance to God has no room
for the little idols of selfishness. The
great loyalty is the secret of great
life.
Why Moslems Destroy Statues.
One must know Judaism and Islam
to understand how fully the second
commandment, against making a
craven image of God, has carried out.
There are no statues or sculptures in
have 1 seen the face, battered oil
priceless Roman and Greek statues,
amid the ruins of the East.
To that extent do the Moslems carry
their teaching. Obviously. it was di-
rected against mean thoughts of God.
When men try to interpose an object
between themselves and Deity, to help
make Deity near, they come in time to
worship the token itself. Most Budd-
hists think of Buddah in term of idols,
without any upreach to the great saint
and philosopher.
one of the old church fathers said:
God must be King in all. or He will
not be King at al" He will not toll
crate a divided loyalty. Half love is no |
love. Semi-allegiance is close kin to
treason. Inwrought in the very fiber |
of the second commandment is the |
truth that God is a spirit and they |
that worship him must worship him in |
spirit and in truth
This great second word represents |
Him as Showing mercy into thou |
sands of them that love me-" Thus |
early do we find God yearning for the |
love of men. That is the paradox of |
the infinity. How we'll He has kept |
faith we may see by looking around. |
Christian nations today rule the world. |
Christian civilization encompasses the q,
globe.
The Twentieth Century Defect.
Are we forgetting how to walk softly |
i'll these times? 1t seemed like a pic |
ture of our day when I behald a COM |
pany of American Protestant tourists |
in Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, clut- |
tering noisily into the midst of the de- |
votiOns of the wCrShipers, and seeming |
aggrieved when a verger sternly drove |
them out
Their lack of reverence was funda- |
mental They had not learned to I'M |
cover in the presence of worship of the |
Highest
The statement is scarcely too strong |
that the first and deepest quality in |
culture is the spirit of reverence.
Young America calls it's father 1.-The old |
man. or the governor 1t makes |
jokes about God and the eternal sane |
titles. 1t chooses the Sabbath for its |
day of sports. 1t considers religion old |
ia shioned and mollycoddleism. The |
twentieth century will have to learn. |
perhaps by calamity, a great lesson in
reverence.
To teach this truth, and to keep |
Himself in the minds of His people, |
God laid down the Fourth Comma nd |
ment. concerning the Sabbath day. |
Noltaire once said. Il despair of des-
troying religion while millions meet to- |
gether for worship on the first day of |
the week" He saw what was fore
Swallowed in the very nature of the in |
st1tution of the Sabbath. that without |
this memorial day. the thought of God |
would fade out of the life of mankind. |
Our times are freshly finding that
there are valid physiological and |
economic reasons for weekly rest
day. Man must have one day in sew
en- apart from the usual routine of |
life. But fundamentally and most |
essentially, the Sabbath is needed |
because it is the day that reminds |,
man of God. 1t puts thoughts of
Him, with all the uplift and sanctifi- |
cation which this implies, into the |
hearts of the people, for our basic
need is to remember God: or as the
summary of these commandments, /
given by Jesus, Thou shalt love the |
Lord they God with al lthey heart"
The Secret Springs of Life.
Terse Comments Upon the Uniform
Prayer Meeting Topic of the
Young Peoples Societies, Christian
Endeavor. ETC.. for September 4.