The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1963-05-31
Law Of The Lord
Lesson for June 2, 1868

If you believe in God at all,
there are only about three ways
in which you can think of God S
laws. One is to think that God
may have a law for Himself
or for angels, but not for us hui
man beings He depends on us
to find the right trails by in
stinct, He trusts us to the extent
that He will not dictate to us.
He will not intrude upon our
freedom. This is not the Bible S
way of looking at it. God knows
us too well. We are His children,
to be sure, and just as parents
who may not try to run" their
neighbors' children may have
good rules for their own, so God
would be a poor Father if He
actually did not care what His
human children do.
The Handwriting of God
But among those who believe
that God does require obedience
of men, there is a difference OF
opinion. Some think that right
and wrong are like the rules Of
a game, they can be changed at
will. Children often do this. They
will play with chesS-men but
they will move the pieces in
ways that the rules forbid.
There was a little girl once
who was the pest of the neigh
borhood. She was always asking
people to play some game or
other with her, but whenever
she found herself being beaten
she would suddenly change the
rules of the game. No one could
ever win a game from her, be-
cause if everything else failed
she would kick over the card
table. God is not like that little
girl, making rules for no reason
to speak of except that He wants
to have His own way.
The Bible knows of no such
crazy, selfish God. Right is not
right merely because He COM
mandS it; He commands it be-
cause it is right. His laws are
not arbitrary rules that can be
changed any time He pleases.
They are the pattern of the uni
verse. A carpenter knows the
difference between cutting with
the grain and against it. God IS
laws are just the grain of the
universe, His universe. His laws
are expressed in the way He
made it. The handwriting of God
is to be seen not in some mys-
ferrous secret document but in
the laws of mathematics, of
science, and of human life. They
are written in the reason and
justice of all good human laws.
they are written in the con
science of all men with a spark
OF goodness in them.
Rejoicing in the Law Of God
The poet who wrote the long
est Psalm, the longest chapter
in the Bible, wrote it about
Gods law. That psalm psalm
1l9O has .176 verses and only two
or three fail to speak of the law,
perhaps using various o Their
words meaning the same thing,
such as ordinances, commands,
statutes and the like. But this
longest psalm not only speaks of
the divine law. which for him
was summed up in the laws of
Moses, it sings of the law. This
is a poem of joy. The laws of
God are felt to be, not a fence
to shut us out from happiness,
not a grim discipline like an OBJ
for soldiers, but of an express
sion OF the will of the God who
wants only the best for His
creatures. Years ago Walter
put the matter quite
simply: Morality - he said-is
nothing to crush vitality; mo-
rallty is what vitality would
choose if it knew what it was
doing. Put that into Christian
terms: Right thought and action
is what human beings would
choose if we knew what we are
doing. Gods laws are not chains,
they are wings. The law of God
is the will of God.
Laws for Body and Mind
People wonder sometimes why
the church is so interested (for
eXample) in the liquor business,
why in fact many churches
simply make it a rule: No drink
ing! Christians who stop short
of total abstinence speak much
OF temperance. And this not
only in alcohol but in all things.
life of excess excess of
emotions, of eating or drinking,
yes, too much work or sleep or
play = an unbalanced life, this
the Christian church knows to
be harmful. The church hangs
out warning signs along here
not to destroy innocent pleas
ures but because, as Christ's
voice and hands on this earth.
the church is concerned to see
that life ~ Of the body, the mind