Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-02-14

fore me-" If Jehovah be God, .he
must command the prerogatives of
the solitary, supreme Deity. No
thinking man would care to worship
god who did less.
Nobody doubts this. Real infidel-
ity is rare. The dangerous, wide
spread and subtle practical infidel-
ity is this, however: 1t assents to
Gods godship, and this disregards
him. Now a God believed, but dis
obeyed, may or may not visit pun
ishment hereafter, but he certainly
works. moral disaster to the charac-
ter of the individual. Hypocrisy is
the deadliest sin, for it atrophies the
soul. Better an honest, heaven-de-
lying atheist than processing
Christian deliberately living a life
at variance with the moral law.
A wholesome revolt against this
sort of SHINING, especially in high
places, is sweeping over the world
Thy cry of one analyst, "Too many
men are spiritual who are not
moral is commanding serious
thought. Society increasingly per-
ceiVes the incongruity of such not
uncommon spectacles as one which
myself have witnessed: A famous
churchman's name cheered in an
ecclesiastical gathering, but actu-
ally hissed by his own employees
The war has aroused all mankind
to the conviction that righteousness
must come first.
Because Jehovah is not a little
god, but the Great God, deserving
and desiring direct worship and
allegiance, and Jealous of aught that
would come between him and the
hearts Of his people, his finger wrote
on the stony tablet the second great
Commandment, Thou shalt not
make upon thee craven image, nor
the likeness of any form that is in
heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water un-
der the earth; thou shalt not bow
down thyself unto them nor serve
them: for ] the Lord thy God am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquities
or the fathers upon the children.
upon the third and upon the fourth
generation of them that hate he;
and showing mercy unto thousands
or them that love me and keep my
commandm ments."
That is spoken like a God sure of
himself and his rights, and one of
ALIEN bracing vision and large pur-
Voses. Whoever stoops to idolatry-
be it idolatry of the golden object
of worship - is bound to have a
reckoning with the. Almighty, who
is beyond all power of representa-
tion, and who will share his throne
with none.
Religious" Profanity
In the army there has been a
great deal of profanity; most of il
thoughtless and not Intentionally
irreyerent, but profanity none the
less. thinking man has no need
to swear; he has a vocabulary of
definite, meaningful and appropriate
words. He is able to express his
own thought, in all the intended
shades, without borrowing from the
battered and street-worn speech of
the tough and rowdy. Profanity is
more than immoral; it is vulgar and
ineffective. IT is not the clustering
man that swears who impresses his
ideas upon the world or makes
things move; it is the quiet self
respecting man of ideas. who chooses
words as a mechanic chooses tools,
each fit for its own special task.
If the man of the street is hit by
this third Commandment, scarcely
less is the man of the prayer meet
ing. Says Bishop Chadwick: THE
name of God q. is abused when
the insincere and hollow professor
joins in the most solemn act of wor-
ship, honors Him with the lips when
the heart is far from Him-nay,
when one strives to reclaim his fell
low sinner by the use of good and
holy phrases in which his own belief
is merely theoretical"
Quite as cutting is this further
extract from the same meaty writer:
There is large and powerful
school of religion in our own day.
whose disciples talk much more of
their own emotions and their own
souls than st. Paul did, and much
less about God and Christ. Some
day the properties will be restored"
There is profanity that is born of
reIigiosity as truly as profanity
which springs from unthinking ir-
reverence; both alike violate the
third Commandment. Neither his
friends nor his foes may trifie with
Jehovah's majesty.