Exodus 20
RileyExodus 20:3-6
FIRST AND SECOND VERSUS Exo_20:3-6IN beginning this series of nine chapters on the Ten Commandments, I am keenly sensible of presenting certain laws which all admit to be ancient and honorable, but which are reckoned by not a few as out of date. There are many who deny inspiration to this decalogue, and then there are other men who suppose that the Gospel displaced the Law, and that, as we live under the former, we have nothing whatever to do with the latter. But all such forget that Jesus Christ Himself said,“Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil; for verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17-18).Joseph Parker expressed the truth when he said, “We cannot get rid of Sinai in human education. * * Sinai is in every life. Let us part with as much as we can of the merely external, and still there remains the fact that in our lives are lightnings and thunderings and great trumpetings of power, as well as solemn claims and urgent appeals to every quality and force in our nature.”Never in this world, at least, could we live without law, and even when men have been regenerated by the Holy Ghost, they do not escape the law, but are made willing to receive the law in its entirety, and to find in that law their own liberty.The Psalmist said of the laws of God, “I will walk at liberty for I seek Thy precepts”: and God’s promise to Israel with reference to the coming day of her blessing is, “After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:33).Ezekiel, referring to the time when the Spirit of God should be poured out upon His people, said, “I will put a new spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh: That they may walk in My statutes, and keep Mine ordinances, and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God”.And thus it comes about that the Law of God, as written in the Ten Commandments, is the very liberty in which the Christian is to walk, and for nine evenings we will give ourselves to the study of its mandates.In the first verse of our textP IS “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”. It means either, thou shalt have no other gods in preference to Me, or, thou shalt worship no other gods before My face, or both.To American Christians, this command seems scarce essential. We are unused to any other thought than that of monotheism; we are unaccustomed to the sight of men bowing before stocks and stones; and we are so trained from infancy that the thought of a multiplicity of gods is offensive to our reason.
But when we review the history of Israel, or the history of nations in general, we find the absolute need for this first commandment, for man has been prone always to make for himself a multiplicity of gods. Heathen nations have their gods by the hundreds and thousands, and to keep the people of Jehovah from imitating them in this matter was one of the most difficult undertakings of the ancient day; and, in fact, is not easy at this present time.There is little danger in this country, at least, that men will make golden calves, and bow before them, or worship Baal, or Ashtoroth, or Dagon, or such like.
But, alas, this does not secure us against this ever-present disposition to depart from Jehovah and dethrone Him by exalting another to His seat. To my mind, many Americans are in direst need of the first commandment.There are many among us who would unseat God and put man into His place. One characteristic of the nineteenth century is its disposition to exalt man above his Maker. We hear a vast deal in these days of “the humanity of God”. We hear even more of “the divinity of man”.It is just as Robert Eyton of St. Paul’s—subalmoner to Her Majesty the Queen—once said, “Many of the most accurate of the materialists * * * * have, so to speak, constructed a God—a being immense and eternal—Humanity.
The Positivist sees that there are certain instincts in man’s nature, a craving for reality, a passion for the infinite, which nothing purely physical can satisfy. He sees that man cannot live without religion, so he sets up his God—the great being, Humanity.
He asks us to prostrate ourselves before the sum and total of human flesh and blood.” But, as Eyton replies, “We men know man too well to care to worship him. What satisfaction could there be for our best aspirations? What power to rid us of our bad selves in the worship of the totality of human being? Even the cynic is wiser than the positivist.”When Conte assures us that the only religion is the religion of Humanity by which, as Dr. Lorimer said, he means “a religion without a revelation, and even without a God, making man at once the worshiper and the object worshiped”, he utterly repudiates the first commandment and attempts to transfix with the spear of his positivism the faith that is in God through Jesus Christ; and he needs to hear again the thunder of Sinai, and read in the light of her lightnings, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”.By some, Science has been exalted to God’s seat. More and more am I amazed at the number of people who are devotees of this term “Science”.
I find that very many of those who have a smattering of knowledge, a semi-education, believe that Science is everything—the solution of all mysteries, the divinity of all graces; and I discover that if such people happen to have a close relative who occupies a professor’s chair, then there is no question in the minds of such that every knee should bow: at the altar of “Science”, and every tongue confess to her glory.Men of such attainments as Sir Henry Drummond and Prof. Simpson, Jr. made no such pretentions in the name of their special study.
Simpson did not hesitate to say of his science, that in ten years practically all its previous claims had been disproved; while Henry Drummond, in his booklet, “The Greatest Thing in the World”, said, “The Apostle is right in declaring, ‘Whether there be knowledge, it shall pass away’,” and quoted approvingly from Simpson’s statement to illustrate the fact that the science of today will be discarded tomorrow. The Editor of the “Journal of Education” lately affirmed that Science text-books over eight years old were either comedy or tragedy.Dr. Henry Van Dyke, in his volume, “A Gospel for an Age of Doubt”, said, “We observe that in those departments of science where the knowledge of the magnitude and splendid order of the physical universe is most clear and exact, namely, in astronomy and mathematics, we find the most illustrious men of science who have not been skeptics, but sincere and steadfast believers in the Christian religion. Kepler and Newton were men of faith. The most brilliant galaxy of mathematicians ever gathered at one time and place was at the University of Cambridge, in the latter half of last century. Of these, Sir Wm.
Thompson, Sir George Stokes, Profs. Tate, Adams, Clerk-Maxwell and Cayley, not to mention a number of lesser lights, such as Roth, Todhunter, Ferrers, etc., were all avowed Christians.
They wrought with science. They worshiped only God. And when I hear small men and women talking loudly about “Science” as if she were the only god before whom the thinking men of this world should bow, I wish that all such were slightly familiar with history so they could see how Sir Isaac Newton had an hypothesis that he supposed to be perfect until Tyndale turned it upside down, and Dolland proved it to be wrong. Aristotle and Descartes had a philosophy of nature which the people of their time thought indisputable, but Newton published his “Principia”, and that philosophy was forever at an end. Then John Hutchinson proved Newton to be wrong, and the wise men of the time went with him for a While, only to learn eventually that Hutchinson himself was mistaken.I don’t wonder that the great Gladstone, in his book, “The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture”, held to ridicule Mr. Huxley’s fine speech, when speaking of the contest between Christianity and Science, he describes it as a fight which has on the one side “the old-fashioned artillery of the churches”, and on the other “the weapons of precision”; for Mr.
Gladstone easily shows that Mr. Huxley himself had employed in his further arguments claims that are utterly false from a scientific standpoint.Ah, it is time that many of us joined in Dr.
Myers’ warning, “Beware of the man who professes himself to be too deeply versed in the science of the day to believe in the Bible and ridicules those who do. It is an easy thing to ask a question that might take days of teaching and instruction to answer. Destructive criticism is child’s play. Any fool can fire a cathedral which would take centuries in building, and any street Arab may smash a window which neither modern wealth nor art can reconstruct.”And again, let us see that Nature is creation, not Creator.I believe in speaking well of the natural world. I rejoice in the beauties of the heavens above and the earth beneath. I think he would be a dead soul, indeed, who could walk abroad at this season of the year, when the throat of every bird is filled with sound; the blossom of every tree with perfume; the beauty of every rose with sweet aroma, and the azure of the sky and the verdure of the earth vie with one another, and not rejoice. He needs to have “God teach his heart to bear its part, and join in the praise of spring”.But, when my Theosophist friend, my Buddhist friend, my Pantheist friend, ask me to agree with that representative hymn of “The Veda”, “The wise man views that mysterious Being In whom the universe perpetually exists,Resting upon that sole support,In Him is the world absorbed,From Him it issues.In creatures is He twined and wove in various forms”,I dissent.For nature has no mind, and notwithstanding all the beautiful and pathetic things said about nature’s heart, she has none. The man who employs the term is perfectly conscious of the fact that he is making use of the poet’s license.I listened one day to an ex-soldier of the Civil War relate his experience in the bloody angle of Spottsylvania, and tell how in that corner, with only a few feet of earthworks between their faces, the boys in blue and the boys in grey stood face to face in deadly combat for hours, fighting almost hand to hand so that when the battle was over and this comrade was detailed to burial duty, he found in a little spot, not larger than my church, 1600 dead men. And yet, the next morning, nature smiled on the scene; the birds about sang as merrily; the trees that had not been wounded themselves by bullets waved their arms with the old glee as the breath of the winds blew upon them. The very earth itself drank in the blood of the dead and dying, and rejoiced to be thus enriched. No care; no concern! Save me from worshiping such a God!Some years ago we had in our home a girl caring for our little ones who was a member of my church—a very Christian spirit.
One day when Mrs. Riley and I were away from home, a thunderstorm came up and the children became frightened, and this girl took them into the bedroom and prayed the Lord to take the storm away.
Shortly, the sky cleared and the children rejoiced in what they believed to be an answer to prayer. Some months after that, when they were in charge of another girl, who was not informed as to this procedure, a second severe thunderstorm was on, and when a particularly loud crash of thunder came, the older boys were filled with fear, but the baby said, “Oh, I’s goin’ to pray,” and dropping down upon his knees, he repeated his table thanks, “Heavenly Father, thank Thee for this food, Amen,” and when I got home, the bigger lads told me in triumph that the Lord had heard the prayer of the baby and had taken away the storm. Be that as it may, It is certain the storm cared nothing about the prayer, and did not so much as know that that little fellow existed, and if the prayer were heard at all, it was heard not by nature (which would as soon strike an innocent babe with her thunder-bolt as the most hardened criminal), but by that God who keepeth watch above His own, who numbers the very hairs of our head, and who cares for us with an affection above any earthly father.In the second verse of our text, IS “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing 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”.The images of art are inhibited. No painting nor piece of sculpture is entitled to the prostrations or praise of men. Romanism is full of rank violations of the second commandment. There are those among our Catholic friends, who, if you charge them with idolatry, will answer, “You don’t suppose we worship because we bow before the image of Mary.
We only pray to Mary to pray to the Father, or Son, for us, to intercede, that is all.”But suppose it is so, what do the Scriptures say?“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness that is in the 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”.It is in vain that men repudiate the charge of Mariolatry so long as they both make images of her for their sanctuaries and bow down before the images.
It is in vain that men repudiate the charge of worshiping the Cross, so long as they both make images of it and bow down before the image. It is in vain that men repudiate the charge of saint worship so long as supposed representatives of the Apostles and others have the chief pedestals of the sanctuary, and men and women and children prostrate themselves at sight of them.When Israel worshiped the golden calf, they insisted that they were not idolators, for they were worshiping God, Jehovah, under that image. But, you remember that God’s wrath was not restrained by such excuse; He charged them with having “turned their glory into the similitude of the calf that eateth hay”, and His servant Moses was greatly angered at the sight of such behavior, and the judgment was one of grinding the calf to powder and strewing it upon the waters and making the people to drink thereof.Charles Dudley Warner once told of his surprise and his shocked amazement, when, having made a trip around the world, he came back to Italy, a country called Christian, and entering the Cathedral of Brindisi, he looked about him, and lo, there was a crucified Christ upon whose form the dust of a dark corner had gathered, and two men were prostrating themselves there; but back of the chancel railing and above the head of the priest was the flaming figure of Mary, clad in the latest French millinery, and all the people had their eyes upon her, and were prostrating themselves before her.Every such cathedral needs to have thundered into it the second commandment,“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing 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”.The images of the imagination are debarred. Man has no more right to make a mental picture and bow before it than he has a right to pencil one on canvas, or carve a figure from stone, and bow before them.There are people, not a few, who live in the lightest possible literature; who are always reading about imaginary heroes and heroines, and who, out of such thought, have evolved a hero or heroine for themselves, in search of whom they go through the world.Rebert Eyton says, speaking of the image that is impressed upon the mind by certain frothy books, that it results in “daubing hideous pictures on the inward temple”, and insists, also, that “the best romance becomes dangerous directly it creates such an interest as to make the ordinary life uninteresting, and to increase the morbid craving for scenes in which we shall never be called upon to act.”There are women walking through the world who are not content with their husbands and sweethearts, but are in search of the hero to come; and there are men indulging the same deception touching the heroine of imagination; and the result is that those of earth to whom we ought to be bound by the tenderest ties are ill-treated, and the God of Heaven is practically dethroned.Do you remember what Ezekiel wrote in the 14th chapter of his Book, the 4th verse (Ezekiel 4:4),“Thus saith the Lord God, every man of the House of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of iniquity before his face, and cometh to the Prophet; I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols; that I may take the House of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols”.I know nothing in this world more to be desired by the man, the woman, the child, who would be Christ like, who would know God and come into the experience of His love, than an imagination void of idols, cleansed from them every one, and every one of whose activities go up to the everlasting God.The images of affection are also disallowed. There may be such a thing, I think, as giving to wife, or child, the place appointed for God, and Him alone.
But the danger here is not great since God rejoices in and approves of all holy affection. But, alas, for the affection of a Caesar for Cleopatra, or a Mark Anthony for that same sweet-faced but evil woman, or a Felix for Drusilla.If you could walk through the streets of the city of Minneapolis tonight, and by some spiritual power sound the recesses of the hearts of men and women, you would find hundreds of them without God and without hope, because their hearts have been inhabited by an unholy affection.John McNeil tells us that when Mahmoud, the Conqueror of India, had taken the city of Gujarat, he proceeded, as was his custom, to destroy the idols.
There was one fifteen feet high which its priests and devotees begged him to spare. He was deaf to their entreaties, and seizing a hammer, he struck it one blow, when, to his amazement, from the shattered image there rained down at his feet a shower of gems, pearls and diamonds, treasures of fabulous value which had been hidden. Had he spared the idol, he would have missed all this wealth. Let us not spare our idols.It is to our interest to demolish them. If we shatter them (even the most precious) there will rain about our hearts the very treasures of Heaven—the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit.In the third and fourth verses of our textTHE TRUE GOD IS We learn, in the first place, that He is Lord over all.“For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God”. One of the fundamentals of true religion is the personality and lordship of the mighty God.Henry Van Dyke says, “If it be true that a person is a fact, it is no less true that a person is a force.
The world moves by personality. All the great currents of history have flowed from persons.
Organization is powerful, but no organization has ever accomplished anything until a person has stood at the center of it and filled it with his thought, with his life.”Dr. Swing, a short time before his death, preaching an Easter sermon, said, “Heaven rests wholly upon one power, one wisdom, one love—that of God. This life has its roots in God. The upper blossoms of immortality are also there. If the top of life’s tree waves high, it is because its roots are deep.” Man is not the solution of mystery, but God is the answer of everything, and His Lordship over all, He asserts in our text, and all history attests the truth of His claim.His judgments are just.“He visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him”.At this point many people stumble. Why cannot we keep cool long enough for a sensible interpretation of God’s Word?
It does not say God is angry with the innocent children of sinful men. Cain was not driven from the presence of the Lord because Adam had tasted forbidden fruit, but because he had stained his hands in his brother’s blood.
It is only when the sons are equally guilty with the fathers that they are condemned, and if they have to suffer in some respects for the father’s sins, it is only because God is keeping to the best law of His universe, namely, that in which He declared of every seed, “It shall bring forth after its kind”. And the very fact that righteous law, when broken, imposes penalties, makes it self-corrective. So I am persuaded that of this law we must say with Paul, “The Law is holy, and the Commandment holy and just and good”.But thanks be to God, the same Scriptures that declare His justice voice His mercy; for e’er we have finished there is added, “And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments”.It is no pain for me to preach “justice”, for I can preach “mercy” over against it. It is no pain to me to preach “damnation on account of sin”, because when one feels his condemnation and cries out, “Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the bondage of this death”, I can point him to the “Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world”. I can say to him, “Go there and in His Name God will give you mercy”.It is not such an intolerable sorrow to me when I see men and women crying out under the mental and heart torture of conviction, because I know that for all such there is escape by the mercy of my God.And I plead with any here tonight, who are condemned by the Law, that you receive the Gospel and go free; you who are condemned by conscience, that you turn to Christ who says, “I do not condemn thee; go and sin no more”; you who feel that all their best behavior is as filthy rags before His face, remember that in Him is an infinite heart of love, and your rags may be your commendation.Dr. Bernardo of London, the great philanthropist, was standing at his front door on one bitter day when a ragged chap came up to him and asked for an order of admission to his home.
To test the boy, he pretended to be rather rough with him. “How do I know,” he said, “if what you tell me is true? Have you any friends to speak for you?” “Friends?” the little fellow shouted, “No, I ain’t got no friends, but if these here rags (and he waved his arm about him as he spoke) won’t speak for me, nothing else will.”So you may be sure your very needs stir the deepest recesses of the great Saviour’s heart, and if you come to Him tonight and lay your finger upon every ugly sin, and showing it fully to His eyes, say, “Master, You see my need, oh, help my soul”, you may be saved.
Exodus 20:7
THE THIRD VERSUS Exo_20:7A WEEK ago this evening we gave ourselves to the study of the first and second commandments versus idolatry; and saw polytheism prohibited, idolatry inhibited and God’s character revealed.There were those present who expressed surprise at the treatment given to that text, saying they thought the preaching would take up the popular amusements and the common fleshly indulgences, and present them as the idols before which men bow. But I wish to get at the larger truths in these texts and see what God meant when He gave these commandments to Moses.It is not necessary, therefore, to put upon them any strained interpretation, but by a study of the circumstances under which they were uttered, we may learn what God meant by these commandments.It would be natural to expect that the sermon tonight should be wholly given to condemning profanity and pleading with those who are guilty of that useless and iniquitous practice to cease therefrom. But such an interpretation of the text would be narrow, and, from the preachers standpoint, extremely unsatisfactory.I want to get at the very meat of this commandment and see its greater truths. I cannot, therefore, limit this discourse to an invective against what Sam Jones called “cussing”, for there is other profanity equally bad, against which God here certainly means to speak.Truly, as one has said of this third commandment, “It was a safeguard of outward reverence. Its literal interpretation kept the Jews safe as a nation from that shocking profanity which has sometimes disgraced the conversation of nominal Christians,” and, as we shall see tonight, it was intended to go beyond the question of righteous speech and cover the very sentiments of the heart, control the professions of men for righteousness’ sake, and make us careful concerning every speech that passes one’s lips. Perhaps, however, the first prohibition is againstP“Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain” (Exodus 20:7),But we must see that there are other ways of taking God’s Name in vain than that of oaths.There is the idle speech.
Beyond all doubt, such speech is a species of profanity. You remember what Jesus said,“I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment, for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned”.We have fallen into a bad habit in America, namely, that of idle speech.
I doubt if there is a country in the world where slang is so popular as in this. From the tiny children toddling about the house to the aged grandfathers and grandmothers, Americans are much given to this slang method of expression. There are so-called slang phrases that express certain ideas in the strongest, and possibly in the very best way, but a great deal of such speech is both meaningless and silly, and, to say the least, is a waste of words. I doubt if a man has any more right to throw away his words than he has his time, his talents, or his money.You may search the New Testament record as long as you will, and never once will you discover Jesus Christ squandering human speech, saying meaningless nothings. Never did He open His lips but there came out a word worth one’s attention, a thought calculated to impress and improve mankind.Of his auditors it was said, “All bare Him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth”, and if we would be like Christ, we do well to pray the prayer of the Psalmist, “Set a watch, oh Lord, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips”.Then there is the profanity of false swearing.
Many men try to make oaths stand as the substitutes of truth. There is something false which they would have people believe and they confirm it by an oath, for the sake of deeper impression.Poor Peter was guilty of such swearing.
When, on the day before the crucifixion, the Master was under arrest, and was before the Jewish authorities for examination, Peter followed as far as the porch, and when the damsel came unto him, saying, “Thou wast with Jesus of Nazareth”, he denied before them all, saying, “I know not what thou sayest”. And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him and said to them that were there, “This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth”, and again he denied with an oath, “I do not know the Man”, and after a while came unto him they that stood by and said to Peter, “Surely thou also art one of them, for thy speech betrayeth thee”. Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, “I know not the Man”.Whenever one finds it necessary to make his declaration emphatic by an oath, there immediately arises a doubt as to its truth, for strong speeches are commonly employed to cover up falsehoods. A truthful man has little need of such terms. He knows that the plainest, simplest way of stating a thing is sufficient, and no matter how important the thought expressed, nor yet how anxious he is to have it received, he does not think it necessary to seal it with an oath, for his word is as good as his oath.When Louis, the French King, was taken prisoner by Meletisika, the Sultan, and conditions of peace having been concluded between them, the Sultan proposed that they take an oath touching the fulfillment of these conditions. For his own part, he was ready to swear that if he failed in performing what he had pledged, he would renounce his Mohammet, and if the French king should in any respect fail, he was to deny his Christ.
But Louis replied, “I have given my word and no oath could possibly add to its worth,” and so the league was published without it.Jesus Christ brought out this same idea when He said,“Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But J say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: Nor by the earth; for it is His footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever be more than these cometh of evil” (Matthew 5:33-37) Then there is the profanity of cursing. It may be a matter of surprise to you to know that this iniquity is more common to so-called Christian countries than to those that are regarded heathen. There is a greater reverence upon the part of the devotees of false gods for their deities, than many people who know of the Heavenly Father show for Him.When the old Dr. Scudder returned from India, he was upon a steamboat with his son, and a man on board was indulging himself with profane language. The old missionary approached him and said, “My man, this boy of mine was born and brought up in a heathen country, in a land of idolatry, but in all his life he never heard a man blaspheme his Maker until now.”Profanity is one of the sins to which my youth was a victim, but I confess only shame upon every memory of it, and today nothing that I hear hurts more deeply than the profane words that so easily pass the lips of thoughtless and indifferent men.Wherever you go, well-dressed men, men that have at least the semblance of gentlemen, men that move in fairly good circles, are pouring out a volume of oaths that strongly suggest Satanic possession. They seem to feel no shame touching such speech, nor confusion at putting their tongues to such employment.Recently I have had trouble with the end of my tongue, arising out of the habit of touching my lead pencil to it in the common uses to which I put that pencil daily; but I wonder indeed that men whose tongues are compelled to toss out such vile words are not blistered and burned.Dr.
Meikel, a surgeon at Carnwath, Scotland, was once called to see a gentleman who had been stung in the face by a wasp. When he arrived the patient was very impatient and was pouring out a volume of oaths on account of his pain.
The doctor tried to relieve him, but he continued to swear. At length the doctor, being annoyed by his oaths, said, “Well, my friend, I see nothing the matter with you except that the bee ought to have stung you in a different place.” “Where might it have been?” “Why, sir, on the tip of your tongue.”I would like to say to the young men and boys here tonight that it is no mark of a man to be always using profane oaths. It is known, of course, that no lady will swear. It ought to be known that no gentleman will. I do not say that a profane swearer may not be a man of some good traits of character, but I do not hesitate to say that he is not a gentleman. The word loses its old meaning—gentle-man—the moment you think of applying it to him whose mouth emits fire and brimstone.
Never in the world would I permit my boys to be associated with such a man if I could help it; and surely he is not fit company for my wife and daughter.” In the lowest walks of life you will meet the most profane. Not one hobo in a hundred but swears; gamblers are commonly adepts in this matter; drunkards go about the world damning everybody; and yet James wrote,“Above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath; but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay, lest ye fall into condemnation” (James 5:12).And God has written it once for all into His unbreakable law,“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” (Exodus 20:7).But this third commandment rises equally againstPRETENCEThe man who is making a mere profession and employs the Name of God in doing it, violates the third commandment, for surely he takes that Name in vain.
Much of what men call worship is purely and simply profanity.There is cursing in some religious ceremonies. I doubt if the world ever saw a more punctilious lot of religionists than the Pharisees of Christ’s time. The high churchmen of the present day—Roman and Anglican—are not up to the high churchmen of that day, the Pharisees. They out-robed Romanism. They made broad the phylacteries; their ceremonials, prostrations and genuflections were of the most elaborate kind. But, as Jesus Christ looked upon them, He said,“Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:7-8).And to the people to whom He spoke in the Sermon on the Mount, He said,“Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:20);and His charge against them was,“Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. * * Ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God; these ought ye to have done and not leave the other undone” (Luke 11:39; Luke 11:42).Of the scribes He said,“Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts; which devour widow’s houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation” (Mark 12:38-40).One of the saddest things that comes into the Church of God is the hypocrite—the man who prays aloud and practices low things; and all such employ the Name of God in vain.
They are a reproach to the profession. They retard the progress of Christ’s cause.
They become stumbling blocks to them that seek the light, and every word of religion they utter is a violation of the third commandment.The offering of the pretender is profanity. Banker Dwiggins was one of the liberal men of Chicago. The very time he was wrecking a bank, he was showing himself benevolent to a fault; and the world has in it not a few people of this same stamp —men of whom Mr. Spurgeon said, “They will come to you with money in their hands, like Peter’s fish with the silver in its mouth. They will be so helpful in the work. They speak so softly.
They are such perfect gentlemen. Yes, I believe Judas was a man of exactly that kind, very clever at deceiving those around him.”You remember on one occasion, when Mary broke the ointment upon her Lord, anointing Him for burial, Judas complained, and his splendid self-sacrificing spirit (?) showed itself. “Why was this waste of the ointment made?
It might have been sold for three hundred pence and give to the poor”. There are men like that. No matter what good work you are doing, they are always ready to object, and in the Name of the Lord plead for something which seems more necessary, in which they have not the slightest interest save to make a subterfuge. It was of this class that the Lord spake through the mouth of His Prophet Esaias,“Give ear unto the Law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah! To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me, saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before Me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread My courts? Bring no more vain oblations.
Incense is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and the sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with it. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting”.The faith many profess is a pretence. I meet people who are very proud of saying, “I believe in God”. I met a man a few days since who said, “Believe in Jesus Christ? Well, I should say I do. You don’t suppose I am a heathen, do you?” Well, such a profession of faith is not sufficient. “If thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well; the devils also believe and tremble”.
And, though your profession is so extended as to take in the creed of a reputable church, still everything depends upon whether your conduct is in keeping with your profession.On the old farm where I grew up there was a fruitful orchard covering some acres of ground, and near to the house, close to a magnificent spring, was a beautiful apple tree; its roots were always well watered; its bows more spreading than any other tree beside. In the springtime its bloom was a thing of beauty, and if you looked upon it in April, you would imagine that the autumn would bring the richest harvest therefrom.
But it was a hypocrite; it only cumbered the ground, casting a shade that killed other things, and producing nothing but blossoms and leaves; and in God’s garden, the church, there are not a few such. Who shall say that such profession is not profanity, and that when they relate their faith, they employ God’s Name in vain?They want their names inscribed upon the church-roll, and they are angry unless you give them constant honor; but all their praises to God are for the purpose of self-exaltation.Cnidius, the architect, was employed by the king of Egypt to build a watch-tower for the benefit of mariners. When it was going up, he caused the workmen to engrave his own name in large letters upon the great stone, and afterwards he covered this stone over with lime and water, and upon the outside wrote the name of the King of Egypt in gold letters, and in an inscription below, ((For the king’s honor and glory”. Very well did he know that the dashing of the water in a little time would carry away the plastering and the king’s name and glory with it, while his own carved in the rock would remain to be honored in after generations.And, beloved, there is occasion for us to ask whether, when we are pretending to seek only the glory of God and the good of His Church, we are sincere; or, whether back of that pretention there is a hypocritical spirit which seeks the glorification of self and becomes thereby a transgression of the Law of God.“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” (Exodus 20:7).There may be profanity also in a PLEDGEMen are always taking the Name of the Lord on their lips in pledge-making. Sometimes these pledges are made when it is not the purpose of people to keep them. There is danger when men take unto their lips the Name of the Lord as a talisman, hoping to be saved thereby, but not purposing to keep the pledge made.I remember to have read a year or two ago about an old man who was walking in the woods in Canada, and he heard some one speaking. Following the path he came to an open space where a great crowd was assembled, and a young man standing on a stump was delivering himself of an infidel discourse, sneering at the Bible, denying the existence of God, etc., a la Ingersoll.The old man listened until he had finished his discourse; then mounting the same stump, he looked on him, and addressing the audience, said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I will make no argument in answer to what this young man is saying, but if you please, I will relate an incident. But two days ago I was wandering by the Niagara, walking along the shore just where the rapids start above the falls, and I heard a cry for help; looking I saw a young man who had been bathing caught in the current, and he was being carried down. He was calling upon the Lord for help and making promises to God for a better life, if saved.
I went to his rescue. Wading into the waters as far as I could, even to the point of risking my own life, I stretched out a helping hand, laid hold upon him as he swept by and assisted him to the shore.
Imagine then my surprise to discover here today that same man speaking to you in the speech of a scoffer, denying the Bible and decrying God!”The wickedest men among us, when danger’s hour is on, take the Name of the Lord in their lips and are ready to make pledges to Him, but upon their escape from danger they forthwith forget that such pledges were made, because they never truly purposed to keep them.You remember what Jesus Christ said of these in that same wonderful Sermon on the Mount.“Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name? and in Thy Name have cast out devils? and in Thy Name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21-23).Such taking unto the lips the Name of the Lord is profanity. A promise made to God without a fixed purpose to keep it is a violation of this third commandment.Again, a man who makes a pledge to the Lord and breaks it, has taken His Name in vain.This is the most common and by much the most serious profanity. Every time the Gospel is faithfully preached, the Holy Spirit is present to convict men of sin and show to them their lost estate; and every time a man so sees himself, he calls upon the Name of the Lord and makes promise of repentance and reformation. But out of every hundred who do so, there are not half a dozen that keep this covenant with God.There are a hundred here tonight who are saying to God, “I will forsake sin.
I will accept Thy Son.” I doubt if there are half a dozen here tonight who are now willing to perform this pledge. The other ninety-four take the Name of God in vain, and the Lord will not hold them guiltless.Some years ago, when Mr.
Moody was holding meetings in Chicago, a man arose and requested prayer. In the after-meeting, Mr. Moody found that while under the deepest conviction he did not have the courage to confess Christ. He was afraid of his companions, and so he went away as he came, unsaved. Sometime after this, a messenger came to see Mr. Moody, telling him the man was sick and had sent for him. When Mr. Moody arrived at his bedside, the sick man said, “Mr.
Moody, do you think there is hope for me in the eleventh hour?” Mr. Moody told him there was, and presented to him Christ in His great mercy and love, and prayed the Lord to raise him up and redeem him. Pretty soon he began to improve, and when Mr. Moody found that he was going to get well, he said, “Now, my friend, you will be going to confess Christ. You will be taking your stand for Him at once, won’t you?” “Well, Mr. Moody, I promised God on my sick bed that I would, but I think now I will wait a little. I am going to Michigan to buy a farm and settle down. When I get that all straight, then I will become a Christian.” Mr.
Moody was greatly surprised, tried to show him the folly of such delay and the danger as well, but the man said, “Well, I will risk it till next spring, at any rate. You need not trouble yourself. You have done your duty, and if I die without Christ, the fault will not be yours,” and Mr. Moody went away from the house with a heavy heart. Just a week from that day, on Thursday, at noon, a messenger came for Mr. Moody again to go to this home, and when Mr. Moody reached there the wife met him at the door, and Mr. Moody said, “How is the husband?” “Oh, he is very sick.
He has had a relapse.” “Did he send for me?” “No, he said he did not want you to come. He said there was no hope, but I cannot bear to see him die in that condition.” Mr. Moody went into the room, but the man turned his face to the wall. Mr. Moody said, “Are you not going to speak to me?” He turned on Moody a deathly look and said, “There is no use for us to talk now. It is too late. There is no hope for me. I made a promise to Christ and I broke it.” “Well,” Moody said, “Christ is merciful,” and he got down on his knees to pray for the man.
The man said, “You need not pray for me. It is too late,” and Moody said, “God is merciful!” A husky whisper came back, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended and I am not saved!” He was gone!
Exodus 20:12
THE FIFTH VERSUS Exo_20:12OUR text is a turning point in the table of the Ten Commandments. The commandments treated heretofore in this series of sermons have every one pertained to our obligations Godward; the first urging upon us monotheism; the second warning us against idolatry; the third calling us back from all the vain uses of the proper employment of God’s day. But this fifth commandment, while not forgetting man’s obligation to God, does regard his obligation to his brother man; and so, as George Dana Boardman suggests, “The fifth commandment is the link joining these two tables looking both Godward and manward. As such, it is the centerpiece of the Decalogue, the keystone of the Sinaitic arch.”We do not forget that Christ Himself regarded this division of duties. When, on one occasion, a certain Scribe asked Him, saying “Master which is the greatest commandment in the Law”? Jesus said unto him,“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind; this is the first and greatest commandment; and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).By this reply it is not difficult to see that Jesus summed up the first, second, third, and fourth commandments by what He termed the first and great commandment, while putting the remaining ones under His second.And yet we are more and more disposed to feel that the Law is a unit, and that Christ voiced the very truth when He taught that if we break one of the commandments, we have violated the whole ten.There is little occasion, therefore, for making distinctions between obligations Godward and man-ward, for a man may not discharge the former without also doing the latter, and vice versa.From this text then we look up toward God and out toward man, for it is God who says, “Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Exodus 20:12).In this text we haveA “Honour thy father and thy mother”. It is needless to remark that Americans are in need of the fifth commandment. We have departed so far from the heathenism of ancestral worship that our very national life is tottering on the precipice of parricide; and we have every need that this fifth commandment call us back to that reverence for parents which becomes any people. There is a natural and yet none the less dangerous tendency on the part of children to forget their obligations to father and mother, and for a little time this evening, I want us to think upon some of the obligations to parents which are most patent.First of all, we are obligated to them for life itself. Who can measure this obligation? There is no one here who does not appreciate life and does not feel that even at the worst, life is the most precious of all possessions.A writer remarks, “Accidentally no doubt the pessimistic influences of this or that age may cause some to depreciate the gift of life and to say that their birth was a calamity; there may be times so wearisome; there may be times when hopes seem so blighted, and life’s purposes so disastrously defeated; when the past is so charged with regrets, or the future so overshadowed by fears that we may wish that we had never been born; but in the long run, with most men the conviction will always prevail that such a discontent is the product of ignoble or unworthy moods.”The noblest sons of earth and her noblest daughters will answer the complaining pessimist in the high speech of Longfellow: “Tell me not, in mournful numbers,‘Life is but an empty dream!’For the soul is dead that slumbers,And things are not what they seem.“Life is real! Life is earnest!And the grave is not its goal;‘Dust thou art, to dust returnest,’Was not spoken of the soul.“Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,Is our destined end or way;But to act, that each tomorrowFinds us farther than today.“Art is long, and Time is fleeting,And our hearts, though stout and brave,Still, like muffled drums are beating,Funeral marches to the grave.“In the world’s broad field of battle,In the bivouac of Life,Be not like dumb, driven cattle!Be a hero in the strife!“Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!Let the dead Past bury its dead!Act,—act in the living Present!Heart within, and God o’erhead!“Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime,And, departing, leave behind usFootsteps on the sands of time;“Footsteps, that, perhaps another,Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,Seeing, shall take heart again.“Let us then be up and doing,With a heart for any fate;Still achieving, still pursuing,Learn to labor and to wait.”And, in proportion as one appreciates his life; in proportion as that life unfolds into beauty and experiences pleasures which can never be adequately expressed; in proportion as it rises on the wings of hope, and facing toward another world, feels the unspeakable thrill of the eternal joys, the obligation to the father and mother who gave us being grows until no amount of gold can pay the debt and no gratitude can be too deep.The parent love has laid us under still larger obligation. There are those who speak lightly of love and who seem to regard it as a mere sentiment which may be encouraged or discouraged at one’s pleasure, and for the proffer of which we are put under no obligation. But God’s Apostle had another, a higher and an infinitely better notion of this grace, for, when comparing it with what men had commonly supposed to be the greatest things in the world, he gave it a higher place by saying, “And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love”,When God would reconcile the world to Himself, He voices as His reason for that reconciliation, “For God so loved the world”, and on that ground simply, He expects and demands the gratitude of men. And in all the world there is nothing so like the very love of God as the mother’s love and the father’s love, unless indeed they be very unnatural parents. And to receive this in the extended measure in which it is commonly given, to live by it in infancy, and to be its subject in maturer years, is to be under the gravest obligation. The man or woman who forgets the obligation gives occasion to Shakespeare’s words in King Lear, “Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend, more hideous when thou showest thee in a child than in a sea monster!” And again, “How sharper than a serpent’s teeth it is to have a thankless child!
Away! Away!”The true son will write of his mother as Tennyson in “The Princess”: “Yet was there one through whom I love her, one Not learned, save in gracious household ways Not perfect, nay, but full of tender wants,No Angel, but a dearer being, all dipt In Angel instincts, breathing Paradise,Interpreter between the gods and men,Who looked all native to her place, and yet On tiptoe seem’d to touch upon a sphere Too gross to tread, and all male minds perforce Sway’d to her from their orbits as they moved,And girdled her with music, Happy he With such a mother! Faith in womankind Beats with his blood, and trust in all things highComes easy to him, and tho’ he trip and fallHe shall not blind his soul with clay.”Parental sacrifices swell our dues. Sometimes children talk as if they had no obligation to a father who is plain, ignorant, and possibly harsh; none to a mother, because, forsooth, she is not attractive, and does not meet their ideal of what a mother ought to be. But these are not the determining questions. The deep relationship we sustain to our parents can never be destroyed. The fact that we bring our life from them should never be forgotten. The debt of gratitude due on receipt of their love, can never be discharged, while the sacrifices they have made for your sake settles forever the righteousness of the fifth commandment, and plainly discovers your duty and your privilege.Many a time my old father said to me, “My boy, you don’t appreciate what your parents have done for you,” and almost as often I thought he was trying to manage me by arousing a false sense of obligation.
But the time comes when one knows from the experience of paternity the truths his father told him; and it would seem indeed that we might learn the lesson earlier, if only we were watchful for those expressions which represent so much sacrifice.Dr. Chapman says that he was talking with his friend, E.
P. Brown, senior editor of the “Ram’s Horn”, in Dennizen Hotel, Indiana, in 1894, and was listening to his experience in getting out of infidelity; how he had been converted under Mr. Moody’s preaching in Chicago. On that day he told Dr. Chapman about an experience he had when he was eighteen years of age that brought him for the first time to appreciate his father’s love. The father had seldom expressed any affection for Brown when he was a boy, and in consequence the boy came to doubt whether his father loved him, and ran away from home.
But he was taken sick and out of sheer necessity had to return. His father gave him a friendly welcome, but he ‘found his parents very poor and also in ill-health, and soon he discovered that there was not bread for all and only a few crumbs for each, and he came to feel that all he took of this increased the hardship of the members of the house, and so he decided to leave again.
As soon as he grew a little stronger, he told his father his purpose, and the old man said, “No, my boy, stay a while longer. Times will brighten up.” But he was determined, and so the father had to consent; and when the boy was ready to go, the father started with him, intending to go a short distance, and have with him his last talk. After they had gone a half mile or so, the father was too weary to proceed and said he would have to go back; so he took the boy by the hand, and with trembling voice said, “I never wanted to be rich before, my boy, as I do today. God knows it almost kills me to see you leave home because your father is so poor. * * I cannot bear to see you go in this way while you are still almost sick. Come back! As long as we have a crust, there is a part of it for you, and while we have a roof over us, there is no need for you to be without a home.” “But when he saw that my mind was fixed, and nothing he could do would change my decision, he said, oh, how sadly, ‘Good-by, good-by; God bless you!
If we never meet in this life again, I hope we will meet in Heaven.’ Then as he softly and reluctantly let go of my hand, he turned and started to go home, but he only took a step or two and then stopped and spoke my name, and, as he did so, I turned and I saw a tear leave his eye and wind down his cheek. It was the first tear I had ever seen my father shed for me, and coming forward, he pressed a piece of money into my hand, and then turned without another word and walked away.
I watched him as far as I could see him with something in my heart that had never been there before, and then went on my way happier than I had ever been in all my life, for now I knew that father loved me. I knew that gift was every cent he had on earth, and I knew what great pain and labor it had cost. It was all he could do for me, and in the gift I saw my father’s heart.”It would seem indeed that most children receive gifts that show the parent’s heart and are such that the mandate of this text, “Honour thy father and thy mother”, ought to commend itself.I am in agreement perfectly with what Dr. Boardman said, when addressing the students in the University of Pennsylvania, “I believe, young gentlemen, that when a son is disobedient to his parents, he is guilty of something more than undutifulness; and that when he insults them, he is guilty of something more than insolence; and that when he is unkind to them, he is guilty of something more than cruelty; and that when he wrongs them, he is guilty of something more than injustice.” No words can accurately express the conduct that disregards the author of life, that despises the proffer of life, and treats with contempt the sacrifices which come from the inmost heart, and I don’t know but Talmage was right when he said, “Other sins may be adjourned to the next world for judgment, but the ill treatment of parents will be avenged in this.” But I turn from the mandate to considerTHE PROMISE“That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Exodus 20:12).This is a promise of long life. I believe that a proper interpretation of the text means that. History seems so to teach.
In Europe, in England, and in America, those sects who are noted for reverence to parents are equally exceptional as a long-lived people. I refer particularly to the Jews and Quakers, and those who, in a similar way, reverence their parents.A Philadelphian says, “Respect for parental authority tends to longevity; filial reverence is itself an admirable hygiene.
Recall the story of the Rechabites. Because they had for centuries obeyed the commandment of Jonadab, their ancestor, and kept all his precepts, therefore Jehovah promised, through the mouth of his Prophet, Jeremiah, that the house of Jonadab, their ancestor, the son of Rechab, should stand before him forever. And the promise has been wonderfully fulfilled. As late as the year of our Lord, 1862, Signor Pierotti met a tribe of Rechabites near the southeast end of the Dead Sea, who still observed the precepts and maintained the organization enjoined by their ancestor, Jonadab, in the time of Elijah, the Prophet. What was it that gave to Rome its long-continued tremendous power and majesty? It was the patria protestas, or paternal authority, before which every Roman youth unquestionably bowed; for loyalty is the sire of royalty.
Even China herself, although her civilization was long ago arrested and petrified, owes, I doubt not, her preservation through millenniums to the fealty of her children to their ancestral commandments and traditions. But why cross the ocean for examples?
Behold the Quakers of our own Pennsylvania; the unwrinkled brows of their octogenarians placidly testify that the honoring of father and mother is a healthful, life-promoting habit.” I know the truth of this statement touching these Pennsylvanians. I had a dear old Quaker great-uncle who pressed hard his centenary. The wife of his bosom did not leave him until in her nineties, and those old people with hundreds of others of their faith, were testimonies to the fact that a strict keeping of this fifth commandment means long life.It also means goodly possessions.“That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Exodus 20:12).What more frugal people, what more financially successful people than these same Quakers? They grow rich where other people have a bare existence, not simply because they revere their parents, but because such reverence for old age is always associated with other phases of conduct that are both comely and competent.I have seldom known a young man who honored his father and his mother, and was more than differential, was affectionate, but I have found in him also the very traits of success. When George Washington was a youth, he made ready to go to sea as a midshipman. His trunk had been taken on board a vessel, and he was bidding his mother farewell.
But wheft he saw her great sorrow at giving him up, he called a servant, and said, “Go and bring my trunk back.” His mother learning this decision said, “George, God has promised to bless the children that honor their parents, and I believe He will bless you.”Cornelius Vanderbilt was an obedient son. In his youth, on account of poverty, he often worked all night, running a ferry-boat by day between New York and Brooklyn.
He accepted a government contract to carry provisions to the military stations near the metropolis and filled it at night, and Sweat Marden says, “The boy who gave his parents all his day earnings, and half of what he got at night, was so prospered at the age of 35, that he was worth $30,000, and when he died, he left his thirteen children one of the largest fortunes in America.”But one thing more before I finish. This commandment can beKEPT ONLY IN CHRISTThe New Testament is our authority for such teaching. Paul was perfectly clear upon this point.He insisted that parents should be such “in Christ Jesus”. He wrote, “Ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).The question of discipline is one of the most difficult the parents of the present day have to deal with. On the one side we are confronted with Solomon’s advice not to “spare the rod”; on the other, we are charged by Kindergarten ethics not to use it; and one wonders whether the wisdom of Solomon has been surpassed and hesitates to “lay on”, as our fathers used to do when there was occasion.We are told to nurture the children in the chastening and admonition of the Lord, and we believe if one will not lay too much stress upon the “chastening”, nor yet overestimate the “admonition”, the best results will be achieved, namely, those of playing the part of the parent “in Christ”.It has never seemed to me in the least likely that children go to the bad because the rod has been used, or because it has not, but for other reasons instead. If I was asked today what the great deficiency of parents is, I should answer, “Their lack of exalted views of life.”Too many live upon a low level and start their children upon a similar plane.
Sensuality has its refined phases, I grant you, but even with them, is none the less deserving its old name. And when parents put before the child the spirit of greed, the spirit of worldliness, the example of lust, the coarse life, it is hardly to be expected that the children will be models of moral excellence, of mental acumen, and of spiritual attainment.I have read somewhere of a woman, who, sitting by her window on one spring day, saw a bird building her nest, but she was putting together the sticks and straws on the branches of a little bush that hung near to the ground. “Ah, my tiny friend,” said the lady, “you are building too low,” and with that she went out and tore it down.
But the bird’s heart was set upon the situation, and so she patiently put piece to piece until she had wrought her nest again, and the woman had not the heart to tear it down a second time. After a season the nest was filled with fledglings. But one day the woman heard a cry from the mother bird, and going to the window, she saw a serpent had found out the home and was devouring the young ones one after another. And I want to tell you who are fathers and mothers that I believe more homes are broken up today for this same reason than for all other causes combined. Parents build too low. They themselves go with the godless.
They have been over-ambitious to push their sons and daughters into what they deemed the first circles, irrespective of the fact that these same circles have often forgotten God; and the result is an eventual victory for Satan, that old serpent who delights to destroy the young. Oh, for fathers and mothers “in Christ Jesus”!Children also must be such “in the Lord”.
That is what Paul says, “Children obey your parents in the Lord”. The apostle did not deem it possible to be obedient by any other!Strive as we may to be good, our efforts will be in vain until we have seen the Lord, until we can say with the Apostle, “I can do all things”.A few days since I went to see a mother regarding a son who had confessed Christ in our meetings, and who desired to join our church. Her charge against him was “disobedience”, but she admitted that lately he had been more ready to obey her words. In that fact I thought I saw some evidence at least that lately he had received the Lord.I wish I could tonight properly impress upon all the young people here the necessity of accepting Jesus Christ, that you may obey this fifth commandment. For, the same power that would bring you victory at the point of reverence and obedience to earthly father and mother, can also give you success in every time, and under every circumstance of temptation. I wish I could properly impress you also with the dangers of disobedience to parents.Near the top of one of the loftiest summits of the Rocky Mountains, 10,000 feet above the level of the ocean, there rises two fountains: one of them goes off to the North and, passing through the mouth of the Columbia, pours into the bosom of the great Pacific; the other takes its course in the opposite direction and never rests until through the channel of the father of waters, it has reached the Gulf of Mexico.
These two fountains start from almost one point, but when the end is reached for them, a continent is between.And I want to tell you that of the two young men, or if you please, young women, who are walking together today, one of them disobedient to parents, the other affectionately obedient to elders, the time is almost sure to come when not a continent, but a gulf will stretch between them—that great, impassable gulf which Christ described in the parable of Dives and Lazarus.But after all, true obedience means first allegiance to the Heavenly Father.It is not a fact that the child must always obey, in letter, the word of father and mother. So long as that father or mother commands what is right, they should have a ready and hearty response.
But even disobedience to them may be the best obedience, and in fact, the only true obedience, if the act be one of allegiance to God who is the great Father, and whose right to command is over all.To illustrate: Every now and then I come upon some one convicted of sin, some one who is desirous of confessing Christ as Saviour, but some one who is opposed by parents, either because they are not Christians themselves, or else are members of another denomination than that to which their children are led by an understanding of the Word. And the question is often asked, “What shall we do?” The Bible commands us to be obedient to our parents, but Jesus Christ is calling us to Himself.I am grateful that Christ, who was Himself obedient unto His mother, and yet who, on one occasion, told her that He must be about His Father’s business, has answered this question: “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me is not worthy of Me”. When there arises a question between father and God, remember, that after all, there is but one Father, and that Christ has said, “Call no man your father upon the earth, because one is your Father, even your Father which is in Heaven”, and your first, last, and largest allegiance is to Him.A year or two ago, our Baptist Young People’s Union published a story of a young girl who was the daughter of a wealthy, worldly house, but, who, in passing a mission one evening, was attracted by the singing. Going in, she heard the Gospel. The Holy Spirit convicted her of her need and she sought salvation. When the parents learned of it, they were greatly disappointed, and decided to try to win her from the association of this common mission crowd.
One evening, they invited to the home a festive company, hoping by card table, dance, and winecup to dissipate her religious impressions.During the evening, her father called her to the piano and requested her to play. She knew what he expected and responded in confusion and uncertainty of mind.
On the one side was the father’s request, attended as she perfectly understood, by his desire for the lightest and newest things of the opera; on the other, her longing to sing the praises of her Lord. Nervously she ran her fingers over the keys, debating a while which she should do, and then she touched the chord and put her soul into the playing and singing of “Jesus, I my cross have taken”.When it was finished, the father was under conviction for sin, and the house of gayety became the house of God.
Exodus 20:13
THE SIXTH VERSUS MURDERExo_20:13THEN Christ said, “He that offendeth in one point offendeth in all”, He affirmed a great fact concerning the consistency of the Ten Commandments. It is practically impossible to violate one of them, and yet, to keep the other nine, for they are a chain, and the strength and value of a chain depends upon the integrity of each link. For instance, the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”, cannot be kept apart from the second, namely,“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing 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 I the Lord thy God am a jealous God”.It is quite impossible also to keep the first or second commandment while violating the third, since the man Who takes the Name of the Lord in vain is not worshiping Him at all, but profaning Him instead. The fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy”, is a proof of one’s allegiance to the Lord, his recognition of God’s sovereign right in time, and of His proper reservation of the seventh day for worship.But the fifth commandment is also closely related to all that goes before, as well as all that follows after “the Sinaitic arch”, so to speak, since no man who truly worships God and Him only, who reverently employs His Name, and righteously regards the holiness of the Sabbath, could or would refrain from honoring his father and mother. And to say that a man who violated the sixth commandment would be proving his contempt for the five that preceded it, is to speak a truism.The sixth commandment—“Thou shalt not kill”, deals with the divinest of all subjects, namely, life. Christ Himself expressed that thought when He said, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own life, or what shall a man give in exchange for his life?”Of all conceivable possessions, life holds the supreme place. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17), but of His gifts, life is the incomparable one.
Nature itself can develop the live thing, but life itself is God’s direct gift, and it is also the highest expression of His creative power; hence, the sacredness of the same.The shortest of the Ten Commandments is the supreme one of them all, as men uniformly admit. Society can and will forgive the man who is an atheist, or an idolater, or profane, or a Sabbath breaker or non-filial; it will even condone adultery, theft, false witness, and covetousness.
But murder is everywhere regarded as the chief of all conceivable evils, and in all ages and countries, it has been so treated.We believe that the proper interpretation of this text would involve The Murder of the Body, The Spirit of Murder, and The Murder of the Soul.THE MURDER OF THE BODYThis is the murder commonly thought of when the word is employed. If one were to follow the dictionary, it would include at least three definitions of positive crimes: Homicide, infanticide or foeticide, and suicide.The one uppermost in the mind when murder is mentioned is homicide.And just at this present moment in America and, for that matter, in many portions of the world, this arch crime in human conduct is cursedly common. Banditry in heathen lands, robbers and hold-up men in America, have made murder a veritable, and in many instances, a financially profitable employment; so far, in fact, has this disregard of life eaten like gangrene into modern society that the question today before American people is that of capital punishment.Many states which have at some time abolished capital punishment are now being compelled, by the course of history, to revive the same. There are those who try to make this commandment a proof text against capital punishment. On the contrary, it is basal in its defense. We will find in this selfsame Book God’s own prescription of death against certain and definite diabolical deeds, and among them murder is chief.
In our youth, we engaged in a debate and were assigned the side of opposition to capital punishment. The preparation made with a view to victory, produced its prejudice, and for years we opposed the same, but wider observation and, still more certainly, a deeper search into Scripture sufficed to convince us to the contrary.
We believe that in this, as in practically every other subject, the Scriptures speak the last word and that the science of anthropology will be more and more compelled to consent to the utter justice of death for the man who, with malice of forethought, or out of an utterly godless greed, despises and dares to take away human life.The study of the physical, mental and moral sciences have sufficed to make us see that many a criminal is such by reason of circumstances over which he had no control. The physical constitution of a man often accounts for his moral and mental makeup. It is now known that a pressure on some nerve, particularly in the brain region, may render a man utterly abnormal and bring him to deeds that are a dire result of this physical infirmity. In view of that fact, the educated are more sympathetic with crime than since the world began, and medical science seeks more and more to determine the degree of responsibility for each moral derelict, and often discovers that he needs medical treatment rather than penal justice. But, while the upper classes in society have marked progress in humane sentiment through scientific knowledge, the lower and more brutal classes have worked up a morbid sentimentality in favor of every man who chooses a criminal career, and they are increasingly disposed to treat him as a hero. While I write, the morning paper reports that Whittemore, leader of one of the most desperate gang of robbers known to modern times, was set free by a Buffalo, New York, jury, which disagreed, and, in spite of the fact that he had been a murderer more than once, according to charges, the announcement of “no verdict” by the jury foreman, brought from the spectators a burst of cheers.
In this particular instance, there was nothing brave about the crime, and nothing romantic in the person or course of the criminal. He offered, on condition of being let off, to make a confession that would implicate his pals, and probably send them to the noose.
He stood ready to betray those that trusted him, if thereby he could save his own skin, and yet the ignorantly sentimental vociferously cheered his undeserved escape, and a Buffalo newspaper asked, “Has murder become popular?” The simple fact is that many a man can be found who, if he were only sure that his name would be in the newspapers daily for a month, and an admiring crowd would gather in the court room, to give audience to his trial, would well-nigh commit murder for the sake of the public attention it promised. One would search the Scriptures in vain for a confirmation of such sickly sentimentality, of a condoning of such basely inspired crimes. The Law of the Lord is, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed”, and that Law is defined in this language,“If a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die. And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death” (Exodus 21:14-15).But from homicide, we are compelled to pass to the consideration of another subject now looming large in the evil practices of the world.We speak of foeticide and infanticide. Modernism is not a matter of theology only. The terms expresses the customs of the day as well as of its crooked theological thinking. Among those custoths, foeticide and infanticide are increasingly common. Children are not always, now, regarded as blessings from the Lord. Quite as often, they are considered domestic nuisances and social inconveniences. Men and women alike have so far yielded themselves to the love of ease, and the passion for pleasure, that parenthood is often an unwelcome experience, and thousands and tens of thousands of children never survive the gestation period.
Our boasted modern inventions compass not only the knowledge of steam and electricity and gasoline and radio, but also hundreds of agencies and employments of destruction that can be used both against the unborn and the new-born, and so used that the crime itself is covered and the criminals are nonsuspected.It is said that Charles the Ninth, who murdered the Hugenots, afterwards lost his mind as he brooded over his own brutality, and that his deepest grief was in consequence of his slaughter of innocent babes. It is a strange fact, and yet fact it is, that many a woman living in the marriage relation, rather than endure the pains incident to giving birth, or experience the cares essential to successful child-culture, will destroy her own innocents, staining her hands with their blood.
Whatever may be said by way of sympathy for the unfortunate girl whose misplaced confidence has brought her to choose between abortion and a life of personal shame, and a never-ending disgrace for her fatherless babe, certainly little sympathy could ever be felt for the married woman who murders her own, and only the judgment of God could naturally be expected against a deed that is a clear violation of the sixth commandment.The evolutionary hypothesis has brought too many to feel that man is only an animal, and society needs to have thundered into its ears the sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill!” and the pulpit needs to so interpret this clear, concise law of God, that conceived children shall be privileged to come to the birth, and parents who beget the same shall accept the solemn responsibility, yea, even the high privilege of bringing them up to be citizens of the commonwealth; and, better yet, to be consistent patrons of the Christian faith.But we take another step in the discussion of this commandment when we remind men and women that suicide is also murder. There is a philosophy abroad to the effect that a man has a right to do what he pleases with his own life, but it is a philosophy false alike to the source and sacred interests of life itself. Life, as we have already seen, is not a matter of man’s option, and consequently, it is not to be disposed of at his pleasure. Life is a direct gift from God, and He alone has the right to take it away. The Prodigal Son, who demanded of the father a portion of goods that was to fall to him, was granted the same; but when he went away into a far country and squandered his substance with riotous living, he not only proved his own personal wickedness and folly, but he wronged the father whose gifts the goods were. The man who takes the more precious dowry of life itself and dissipates or destroys it, becomes thereby the chief of sinners, and for that dissipation or destruction, there is, as there should be, a day of judgment.
It is bad enough to waste ones substance with riotous living. It is infinitely worse to throw away the highest wealth known to the world—God’s greatest grant to man— life.Society ever shows its sympathy for the insane, and there is a growing disposition to admit that suicide is commonly the act of insanity.
In such an instance, we may trust that “He who knoweth all things” and “whose compassions are exceeding great”, will judge the offence in mercy. But, that sin more often fruits in suicide than does insanity, and that self-destruction repeatedly results from that form of infidelity that doubts God and immortality, and derides the common judgment, no observing man can question. The Scriptures nowhere distinguish between the man who takes the life of another, and the man who takes his own life, in such a way as to condemn the former and excuse or even condone the conduct of the latter.Some years ago, there was fished out of the Chicago river the body of a suicide. In his clothes was found a poem describing the various and multiplied steps leading from promising youth to this suicidal plunge. Every line of the poem illustrated the solemn and awful fact which history has repeated ten thousand times, that “sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” and justifies the law of God written into the sixth commandment.But we pass from the actual deed of destruction to discussTHE SPIRIT OF MURDERas also in violation of the sixth commandment. The certainty that such a spirit is brought under condemnation by this law, is discovered in the study of the Scriptures themselves.
They condemn as murderous, indifference to life, unsuccessful attempt to take away the same, and anger that wishes evil.Indifference to life! Deuteronomy means a second giving of the Law, and in that Book, indifference to life is under dire condemnation.
It is written (Exodus 22:8),“When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence”.The reference is plainly to the flat roof that has long characterized the orient, upon which men sleep, and, in the cool of the day, sit; from which, without battlements, they might fall and be maimed or killed. There was some expense in putting a battlement or guard around the roof, and men would be tempted to neglect the same in the selfish interest of saving, and God’s Law plainly warned them that such a failure to protect life invited judgment.This Old Testament legislation is the sad need of the day. In America we kill thousands of people at grade crossings. In England, such an accident is almost unknown. The difference is in the single circumstance that England’s crossings are guarded and America’s are ignored. It may be a saving to corporation, but it justly brings them under the sentence of God against murder.Many years since, the railroad running from Chicago a few hundred miles south was in difficult financial straits.
At that time, the labor unions were not strong enough to make and enforce demands. I lived ‘beside this railroad in the week in which nine engineers went to their deaths through accidents that resulted purely from being overworked.
These men Were kept in the service for such long hours that nature failed. Sleep, nature’s kind restorer, sought to lend them assistance, and selfish greed sent them, through sleep at post, down to their death. The owners of that railroad needed to have thundered into their ears, “Thou shalt not kill!” Their indifference to life was a flagrant violation of the sixth commandment.The unsuccessful attempt at murder!It will be remembered that Saul attempted more than once to take away David’s life. His failure in no wise exculpated him from the murder charge. The laws of every civilized land take note of “an attack with intent to kill” and treat the attempt with that severity which the same demands. People have laughed more than once at the story brought from the old world to the effect that an American, passing into the crypt of some cathedral and being conducted about by an Irish verger, was shown a skull and told that it was the skull of St.
Patrick. The man took it into his hands, felt himself honored to finger the same, and while he held and reflected upon the precious relic, the Irishman, absent for a few minutes, returned and proffered to the man, a second skull saying, “Here, your honour, is the skull of St.
Patrick when he was a boy.” The absurdity of this over-zealous papist was not so great as is commonly supposed. The simple truth is that Saul did slay David in spirit more than once, and there are men who never shed a drop of blood, but who murder some of their fellows daily, and who murder the same men a multitude of times in spirit. Such are under condemnation by the sixth commandment.The anger that wishes evil! That this is murder, the Bible puts past dispute in 1 John 3:15, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him”.In the Old Testament Scriptures (Numbers 35:16-24), a clear distinction is made, and with justice, between the man who kills, actuated by the spirit of murder, and the man who destroys without intent. Murder, then, in its last analysis, is not so much an act as an intent. Let all men and women who hate their fellows face the fact that without a single injurious act, they may be in clear violation of the sixth commandment, and fare little or no better in the last day than they whose hands are gory with human blood.There are those who live a life of hatred.
They get positive pleasure out of the spirit of hatred. They look their hatred into the face of the enemy when they pass him on the streets.
They feel that hatred every time they recall the hated one to mind. They wish him every conceivable hurt, but withholding their hands from what the heart prompts, they imagine they escape murder. In the eyes of human law, yes. It takes no account of intent or even desire. It treats the overt act only. Not so with God. He looketh not on the outward appearance. He looketh on the heart.
He deals not with conduct, but with character—not with reputation, but with the deeper thing that constitutes the man. In the judgment of Jesus, who knew man and whose word is final concerning any subject and all subjects, as one may be an adulterer without an actual violation of the seventh commandment, the adultery of a look of lust, even so one may be a murderer without the taking of life, because he carries in his bosom a heart of hatred.But, the final interpretation of the sixth commandment has to do with yet another subject.THE MURDER OF THE SOULThat such a thing is possible becomes clear upon the further study of the sacred word.A man may be a deformer of his fellows. This murderous act is dealt with in Matthew 18:6-7.“But whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on Me to stumble, (A. S. V.) it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!”If we rightly interpret this Scripture, it means that a man may take a child, and, by exercizing over him the evil influence of infidelity, cause him to stumble in matters of faith and become an ill-formed infidel himself.
Such deforming of one’s fellows Christ declared to invite a more dire judgment than even murder itself. Since death by a millstone about the neck was capital punishment, here is a crime demanding more dreadful judgment.
Modernists may imagine that their philosophy of life and faith is an academic matter. But if this statement of Jesus is accepted, it becomes a moral, yea, a fateful question. We candidly believe that the greatest destroyer of man living today is the faith-destroyer—the man who spiritually mutilates his fellow—the professor who takes immature young men and women who believe in God and in the Bible, and at the end of four years dismisses them to a life of schooled infidelity.It is said that when Pompeii was being exhumed, a slab was dug up that seemed to have a face upon the same, and thinking possibly it might be the likeness of some man of fame, the workman carefully picked away the dirt and cleansed the slab completely of the same, and discovered that it was a likeness of one of the great old kings; but while this slab was soft material, exposed to the sun for hardening, a dog had walked across it and the track of his feet had obliterated some of the finest features of that face. It is a severe speech, we know, but we honestly believe ourselves justified in employing it. It is the work of a hound of hell to destroy the features of the soul by instruction in infidelity. From such tracts, the souls of many men will never be recovered.
The finer features God meant to be found there were obliterated while life was yet youthful, while it was yet in a plastic state. This, also, is a violation of the sixth commandment.There are false prophets in present-day pulpits.
These men are soul murderers! Christ said they should come and that they would “deny the Lord that bought them” and thereby misdirect their fellows and send their souls to doom.Many years ago in North Dakota, a train was fighting its way across the prairie as best it could against a high and furious wind and multiplied flakes that blackened the way. A nervous woman asked the conductor two or three times to be very careful to get her off at her station, and he sought to quiet her with assurances of attention. A traveling salesman, sitting just back of her, became interested, and, prompted by a righteous motive, said, “Madam, be at ease, I know this road well. I will put you off at the right place.” A station was called, and, speaking to her, he said, “Your stop is the next!” The train ran a bit of a way and came to a standstill, and with the utmost kindness, he assisted her from the steps to the ground, and, pointing across said, “The station is right over there,” and climbed back upon the moving train. Ten minutes later, the conductor came through and called the name of the station.
The traveling man started up with wild eyes and cried, “My God, don’t tell me that! We stopped there ten minutes ago !” “No”, said the conductor, “the storm was so furious that the engineer feared to run at high rate over a crossing lest some one should be there and stopped to see if the road crossing his track was clear.” “Then I have doomed a woman,” answered the traveling salesman.
I put her off at that stop”. The train backed up, but the search for her failed. People tell me from time to time that “modernists are sincere men; that they believe themselves to be right.” It may be so; but misdirection, when sincerely made, sends people to their doom as certainly as though made in insincerity. That woman never reached safety but perished that day in that storm on the plain of Dakota, and her body was found the next spring, when the snow was melted.Hear the Word of the Lord,“Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then, whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand” (Ezekiel 33:2-6).The minister, then, who gives not the right sound, must answer to God for souls.The neglect of one’s own soul is a violation of the sixth commandment. If there is one thing made more clear than another by the Bible, it is the Divine provision for salvation, and that, “whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish”.
But while this is clearly the Divine provision and plan, the same Scriptures make it equally clear that certain men will not have it so, to whom Christ was compelled to say, “I will, but ye will not”. The ‘fate of such is written into the Epistle to the Hebrews 10:28-31,“He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the Blood of’ the Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know Him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I will recompense saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”.
Exodus 20:14
THE SEVENTH VERSUS Exo_20:14WE come, this evening, in our series upon the Ten Commandments to the consideration of the seventh—“Thou shalt not commit adultery”; and our theme is one that requires on the one side such a clear and candid presentation of the truth as to impress man with its Divine meaning and lessons; and on the other side such a phrasing of thought as to give little satisfaction to prurient curiosity, and no offence to the righteously sensitive.I am perfectly aware that these two things are the Cylla and Carybdis upon either one of which a man may run his speech aground and wreck it. Between them there is not only fair sailing, but a territory that ought to be traversed more often by the men who are set of God to pilot their fellows.Two or three considerations urge to a candid consideration of this text.First, it compasses one of the commandments. It was spoken by God, and“all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16).Second, the social vice against which this text sets itself is not only a growing one, but the particular vice that results in the worst conceivable moral gangrene.Again, if the minister of Jesus Christ shall not cry aloud against sin, sparing not, how shall the people be saved therefrom?It is one of the arts of Satan, which he has long played to his profit, to keep God’s spokesman silent about the sins which modern modesty (?) says should be unnamed, but against which God thundered His holy Law: for Satan understands perfectly what Solomon long ago wrote, “Where there is no vision the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he” (Proverbs 29:18).Henry Van Dyke says, “A Bible was once published in which, by a typographical error, the “not” was omitted from the seventh commandment. It was called the wicked Bible.” But what is the value of God’s Word upon this or any other subject, so long as good people and even preachers look upon the company of those who stand like Beckford’s inhabitants of the hall of Eblis, every one with his hand over the fire in his bosom, and yet like his supposedly faithful friend, are pledged not to speak of it.I believe there is more in the seventh commandment than a mere injunction against the sin to which it refers. I think with Dr. Boardman that it is the Divine Law Giver’s ordinance guarding the chastity of marriage, the sanctity of home, the blessedness of the household, the preservation of society, the upbuilding of mankind, and because I so think, I purpose the plain talk of the evening.The first thing of which I make mention isTHE POWER OF THIS Of course it is commonly understood that a disregard of the seventh commandment is a mighty power for the degradation of the individual, the down-pulling of society, the undermining of the state, and an overturning of the work of the Church of God.
But when I refer to the power of this iniquity, I mean some other things as well.First, it stands in the strength of centuries of evil custom.As we look back into history, one of the blackest’ lines that disfigure the pages that the centuries have turned is the one that lust has left upon them.Canon Wilber-force says, “Augustine is probably the originator of the theory that some fearful form of this sin necessitated the deluge; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the extirpation of the Canaanites were the direct consequences of this vice. The traditions of heathen mythology, the still-existing frescoes on the walls of Pompeii, and the locked room filled with obscene statuary in the museum at Naples, indicate the existence of this evil among the ancient civilizations.
The worship of Baal and Ashtaroth * * patronized by Jezebel, the Sidonian queen, was accompanied by the wildest sensual license which Elijah, the Tishbite, was raised up by Jehovah to rebuke; and it was the same vice in the king’s palace that Elijah’s great antitype, John the Baptist, so fearlessly challenged and condemned.“What has been termed the ‘self-repeating action of humanity’ has carried on the inheritance to our own time, and we find ourselves confronted with a grievous manifestation of the old evil.”Then, after having called attention to the fact that so-called high circles are almost as stained by this sin as are those who dwell among the haunts of squalor and misery, Wilber-force adds, “What blindness then can be imagined, more suicidal than the conspiracy of silence which would cast a veil over evil influences destructive to the welfare of a people?”It was reported in Chicago during the World’s Fair year, 1893, and was commonly believed by the most devout Christian men and women of that city —those who were carrying the Gospel to the outcasts—that 40,000 fallen women were added to the number already resident, and that this entire army of social lepers found a living in those days of increased population by plying their terrible trade.When one remembers the history of Babylon, the down-going of Greece, the out-rotting of Rome, he is a poor patriot indeed if he can see the same sin that sapped those cities from finial to foundation stone, and sent them to the Gehenna of God’s wrath, and yet be silent at the sight of this same cancer, fastening itself upon his own nation for its demoralization, decrepitude, and decay!We read in the Word that “righteousness exalteth a nation”, and we ought not to forget what God said to Israel touching this sin, “Thou canst not stand before thy enemies until ye put away the accursed sin from amongst you”.Again, the unparalleled growth of cities is proving a mighty impetus to this iniquity.Civic conditions foster every sin. Solitude has been commonly regarded as a great shield against many temptations, while it is perfectly well known that the multitude makes for immorality, because in the multitude immorality can hide itself.The young woman brought up in the small town, having been led astray, speedily takes her departure for the great metropolis. It may be only a little way from home she goes, but she knows that in the great city she will be almost as if she had taken to the heart of Africa. And if the loss were all, unspeakably sad as is that, still when the life came to an end, the ground would give a grave, and indifferent society would sweep on. But every such a wrecked one becomes a tempter in turn to draw others from their moorings, and drown them in immoralities.I think all those who know me will bear witness to my intense hatred of the saloon. I believe it was the parent of a great, viperous brood of iniquities; and yet, as I used to walk the streets of Chicago, where there were 7,000 licensed saloons and possibly as many more dealing in the deadly drug without license, it still seemed to me that the city was in greater danger ‘from the social virus of disregarding the seventh commandment.
For defilement of body, derangement of mind, degradation of morals, destruction of society, the sin that used to head up on Clark Street and Custom House Place, just as it heads up in certain sections of other cities, but spreads itself to the uttermost limits of city life, was indeed a great, if not the greatest of all civic dangers.When that wonderful man, W. T.
Stead, wrote “If Christ Came to Chicago”, after having argued the dangers from this source, quoted most effectively the couplet,“The harlot’s cry from street to streetMay prove the city’s winding sheet.”I do not propose tonight to enter upon any publication of the facts which students of sociology have expressed in figures. To do that might bring suspicion into sinless minds, and sorrow to mothers and sisters which might express itself in weeping, but still could not work reform.We know what facts the physical examinations in connection with our late world war brought out— thousands of men diseased and unfit. Such a note might well make the young men of our cities pause for a moment’s thought. Liquor, the cigarette, too much amusement, and the hidden vices, are making havoc with the physical manhood of all our towns and cities. Oh, the power of the iniquity against which our text is hurled!The second thing to which I call attention is theP OF THIS Satan knows how to employ all possible agencies to this end. He makes those which are rightful in themselves do his evil bidding when once he can subject them to his will.Perhaps the first that he employs is natural passion.
It belongs to the fallen estate of man that he is not always in control of himself, but yields to temptations that arise from within. Personally, I do not believe that the Book of God teaches that these dispositions to wrong are innate, but rather implanted.
They rise out of the heart, it is true, for Christ so taught, saying, “For from within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, etc.“ (Mark 7:21, f.).But the difficulty is that Satan has already carried the citadel of the heart; having entered in himself, he is able to make suggestion.Do you recall that in “Goethe’s Confessions of a Beautiful Soul”, there is a statement that goes to the very root of this problem of passion. It is this: “For more than a year I was forced to feel that if an unseen hand had not protected me, I might have become a Girard, a Cartouche, a Damiens, or almost any immoral monster that one could name. I felt the predisposition to it in my heart. God! What a discovery!”But it is better to make the discovery and guard the fact that lower passions exist, and that they must be put under the foot of a redeemed will or else those in possession of them will live in a daily danger of destruction.It is related that when the old line battleship, “Dougal”, lying on Portsmouth mud, was overhauled after being fifteen years off commission, they found in her a live shell with fuse attached, which, under the pressure of a child’s foot, or the gnawing of a rat’s tooth, might at any moment have blown her to atoms; and when we remember that every life is characterized by powers that under certain evil touches may bring us to destruction, we do well indeed to remember the inspired injunction, “Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fair; and also to copy Paul’s conduct and “keep under the body and bring it into subjection’.Again, woman’s wealth of affection is often made the secret of her temptation.A little tract referred to by Dr. Kerr Tupper, when some time since he was speaking on this subject, says, “Very often when a woman falls, she falls because of something best in her—her longing to give her best and love her best; she flings herself at the feet of him who tramples her into the mire, and laughs at his dreadful work,” and while it is always dangerous to speak a word that seems by implication even to condone sin, I have no doubt of the truth of this claim.But what folly for the confiding to suppose that there is the proof of love in parting with that which woman should hold dearest, or that there is occasion for love when such a sacrifice is acceptable to him to whom it is offered.
If one consulted Reason, or was guided by Revelation, she ought not to expect other than maltreatment from the man who willingly accepts such sacrifice, for he who holds you dear will under all circumstances conserve the greatest interests of your life, and guard them more jealously than he guards his own. And if, under any circumstances, your professed friend turns tempter, make up your mind in advance that a surrender of your own conscience can only result in the shame of sin, and such sorrow as only Satan can impose.It availed little to one that she was tempted to offer all in proof of her love, when afterward, finding herself deceived, degraded, and ready to die, she wrote just before she breathed her last in a wretched garret, some stanzas, a part of which reads like this: “Once I was pure as the snow, but I fell,Fell, like the snow-flake, from Heaven to Hell,Fell to be trampled as filth on the street,Fell to be scoffed at, to be spit on and beat,Bleeding, cursing, dreading to die,Selling my soul to whoever would buy;Dealing in shame for a morsel of bread,Hating the living and fearing the dead,Merciful God, have I fallen so low,And yet, I was once like the beautiful snow.”Again, unquestionably this iniquity is perpetuated by the poverty of present-day salaries.I am not sorry that woman has some privileges in the modern mart. I am saddened in the extreme that she has accepted her place there at wages that often look either to starvation or sin.In that same sermon to which I made reference a moment ago, the speaker said, “I feel deeply on this subject tonight, because of a little article which I read yesterday. It was an appeal by a young woman in behalf of young women, and in the appeal occurred these words, ‘Has it ever occurred to you, reader, that many of those whom you look down upon today as poor, degraded, wretched creatures, were, when they fell, very young and powerless?— that pretty girl in the store that has been working six or eight hours, who walks out in the evening to get a fresh whiff of air; that servant girl on her errand; that seamstress that is working against starvation on miserable wages.’ ” I confess that to me this last was the most potent appeal, and when I recall that many of our great stores today are paying to the girls that put in full hours, such poor wages as puts them within the power of the most evil-minded, I am not only ashamed of the sex to which I belong, and mortified by the customs of modern merchandizing, but I am made afraid for the future.And again, shall we merely mention to execrate him, the man who makes the downfall of others his social profession.I am sorry to call him a man—brute and beast instead—who cares to boast his success in sinking souls. For such a man I am compelled to feel as Henry Ward Beecher expressed himself, when he said, “Oh, Prince of Torment, if thou hast transforming power, give some relief to this once innocent child whom another has corrupted! Let thy deepest damnation seize him who brought her hither. Let his coronation be upon the very mount of torment, and the rain of fiery hail be his salutation.
He shall be crowed by thorns, poisoned and anguish bearing, and every woe shall beat upon him, and every wave of Hell roll over the first risings of baffled hope. If Satan has one dart more poisoned than another, if there be one hideous spirit more unrelenting than others, they shall be thine, most execrable wretch, who led her to forsake the guide of youth and to forget the covenant of her God.”And be it understood that for such an one, Satan cannot finish the judgment, for God has already declared that He will shut him out of Heaven and give him a place in a lake of fire that burneth forever.A few words touchingSOME OF THIS SINFirst, take care of the heart. “Out of the heart are the issues of life”. “Out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders”, etc.
Jesus Christ said a very searching thing when He declared,“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery already with her in his heart; and if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into heir” (Matthew 5:27-29).We do not forget that when that noble man, Archbishop Cranmer, was at the stake being martyred in the reign of the Bloody Mary, upon remembering that in a weak moment his right hand had signed the dogmas of the papal supremacy, he thrust that right hand steadily into the flames and held it there until it was burned to the bone, saying, “This unworthy hand hath offended.”We cannot justify his act because if there had been sin, that sin originated in the heart before it was expressed by the hand; and the member which needs to be thrust into the white light of God’s truth and purged and purified is the heart of man.Again, we must jealously guard the home. If any one institution has been a savor of life unto life of human society, it is the home; and that home can only be conserved by the strictest keeping of the seventh commandment.It is a dark day when any member of the house disregards it, for it is a day when the home is effectually and permanently undermined. There may be other sins in the home, and yet the house be worthy of the name, but when this sin enters, the term can never properly be applied again.The man and woman may live together; the brother and sister may dwell under the same roof, but the home is destroyed. There is no such thing as husband and as wife, and brother and sisters are misnomers. Well has Dr. Talmage said, that where there is no pure home, there are Vandals, and the Goths of Europe, the Numidians of Africa, and the Nomads of Asia—no home, no family, no church.
But when you have kept the heart, and have kept the home, you have not done enough.You must guard the mind. I believe today that the books published and put before our unsuspecting youth, are too many of them calculated to undermine character, exalt lust, and discourage virtue.
I never think of low art and vile books without remembering a story told by Dr. Dixon of how a man in a European library put up his hand to take a book from a shelf, and felt a prick in his finger. Soon it was so swollen and painful that he went back to see upon what he had touched it; and lo, they found a small but deadly serpent coiled upon a shelf among the books.And I tell you that today some of the books that have had the largest public patronage in years past have also had the largest conceivable evil effects, and many a young man, and many a young woman is poisoned in mind, soiled in heart, and smirched in character in consequence of their reading.A few words upon thePOSSIBLE FROM THIS SINand I am done.I plead for equal ostracism for each sex. There is no defense of that conduct which has characterized society, leading it to blame and put the woman who transgresses the seventh commandment, under bane, while condoning and receiving into first circles the greater sinner—her paramour.If there is one thing for which my sisters are responsible, and concerning which I cry for shame, it is the distinction they have made at this point, refusing to associate with the fallen of their own sex, and giving cordial reception to the fallen of the opposite sex. I am among those who believe that man and woman should stand upon a common social level, and should be guided by a common standard of social ethics.Charles Wesley said of the creation of Eve: “Not from his head he woman took As made her husband to o’erlook;Not from his feet as one designed The foot-stool of the stronger kind.But fashioned for himself a bride An equal taken from his side.”And I plead for that equality in judgment as surely as in mercy; in ethics as surely as in domestics. There is no law of God, no not even a word in all the revelation of His will, that can ever be made to approve the distinctions that have existed in the judgments pronounced against men and women who have alike disregarded the seventh commandment. The New York Graphic has written: “To the home of the father returning,The prodigal weary and worn,Is greeted with joy and thanksgiving,As when on his first natal mom.A “robe” and a “ring” are his portion;The servants as suppliants bow;He is clad in fine linen and purpleIn return for his penitent vow.“But, ah for the prodigal daughter,Who is wandering away from home,Her feet must still press the dark valleyAnd through the wild wilderness roam.Alone on the bleak, barren mountains,The mountains so dreary and cold,No hand is outstretched in fond pity,To welcome her back to the fold.“But thanks to the Shepherd, whose mercy,Still follows the sheep, though they stray,The weakest and e’en the forsaken,He bears in His bosom away;And in the bright mansions of Glory,Which the Blood of His sacrifice wonThere is room for the prodigal daughter,As well as the prodigal son,”The second step toward salvation from this sin is a whole Gospel for society. It is the light that can alone make immorality a shame, and it is the light that can alone show the sinner how to be rid of his scarlet.It is high time that men took the velvet out of their mouths and revoiced God’s law entire.I was reading many days since a book in which the author said, “One reason why certain sins are making such strides today, is that preachers have ceased to publish the Law of God.” I wish that we had more watchmen upon the walls of Zion who should never hold their peace, day or night; men, who like W. T. Stead, would be willing to go to prison for six months in order to save the inexperienced, tempted, and ruined among the young, by laying bare the facts of immorality and letting in upon them the flood of light of God’s Word.But last and best of all is to preach purity by the power of Jesus Christ.When He was in the world, and harlots came to Him, He forgave their sins and sent them away, saying, “Go and sin no more”, or else allowed them to become His followers, and proved Himself their ever faithful Friend.He is the same today, and whilst I have spoken so strongly tonight as to lead some to feel that God has only fiery indignation for this sin, I want so to speak as to have all see that God has only love for the sinner, and is crying, “Come now and let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool”.I believe that the seventh commandment covers one of the sins that stain the deepest; but I also believe that God’s salvation is adequate to even this. Go talk with Mother Prindle, and let her tell you the story of many of those upon whose pitiful state God has had mercy; to whom He has spoken His pardon; for it is a fact that of all men, no matter what are their sins, God stands ready to save. He says, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out”.But may I tell you, young men and women, tonight accept Christ as Saviour from all sin, and He will keep you from the dreadful transgressions to which this discourse has been directed. Commit yourself to Him and know that, with the Apostle, He is able to keep that which you have committed unto the day of judgment, and though you may live for many years in an evil society with temptations on every side, you may pass through it unsullied and unstained.Wilbur-force says, “There is a tiny aquatic insect that possesses the capacity for gathering around itself a bubble of air, incased in which, as in a crystal vesture, it can plunge into the foulest water and traverse the muddiest bottom unsoiled.”It is a parallel with the believer abiding in Jesus; hidden in Him with every thought brought into captivity to Him; living in His presence; the Christian is safe and can walk unharmed through the world’s wickedness.
Exodus 20:15
THE EIGHTH VERSUS THEFTExo_20:15IT is perfectly evident to all that any right consideration of the eighth commandment would lead to a discussion of the question of property: its ownership, its transference, its temptations, its advantages, etc.All of these questions should come into the light of this commandment, and still more into the light of God’s special revelations regarding them.The first thing with which the study of this text impresses one isTHE DIVINE OF It is because God owns all that He has a right to prescribe concerning property. If there is one Scripture doctrine touching possessions which has been persistently overlooked, and constantly neglected in these last days, it is that of divine ownership.David prayed, “Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins”, but the colossal sin is committed when man denies that what he seems to have is God’s. There are two or three facts of which we need to remind ourselves often.First, property belongs to God by right of creation.Have you ever thought of that wonderful sentence with which the Word opens, and how it covers and compasses this whole question? “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. Who then will dispute His ownership of them all, seeing that they are the product of the Divine will and word.The first offerings ever made. Abel’s lamb and Cain’s fruit, were presented upon the basis of Divine ownership. They did not bring the firstlings of the flock and the fruit of the ground because God had need of either, nor yet because there were the poor whose suffering excited their sympathy, or heathen whose darkened lives laid the children of light under tribute, but simply in recognition of God’s ownership of the flocks and of the fields.Some years ago, an acquaintance said, “A friend of mine was receiving some money at the hands of a bank officer the other day, when he noticed pending from one of the bills a scarlet thread.
He tried to pull it out, but found it was woven into the very texture of the bill and could not be withdrawn.‘Ah,’ said the banker, ‘you will find that all the government bills are made so now.’ ”So every dollar that we handle, whether it be the government note, silver, or gold, or whatsoever possessions, there runs through it and them, entering not only into the texture, but making up the texture itself, the threads of the Divine creation that tell us to whom it belongs.It is God who says,“Hear, oh My people, and I will speak * *. I will take no bullock out of thy home, nor he goats out of thy folds, for every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof” (Psalms 50:1-12).Again, property belongs to God by reason of reservation.Since He finished the work that flowered the earth and caused it to bring forth fruit, He has never signed to mortal man a quit-claim to one square foot of it.In these days, when men have taken to claiming the earth and have gotten unto themselves titles and what they term “warranty deeds”, it is well to trace back the ownership and see whether the title is clear. The attorney may learn that the Government granted this land to Paul Jones, who sold it to James Black, from whom Jane Adams acquired it, and through whose hands it passed to John Smith. But I want to know where the Government got it? God has never transferred His right to the earth to any government, and He never will until Jesus Christ, His Son, sits upon the world’s throne.Truly, as Dr. Talmage said, in speaking of the possessions that make life pleasant, “From the apples you ate in the orchard, when a boy, to the luscious fruit you ate last night upon your table, it all came from the same hand.
From the horn that called you out of the hayfield years ago, to the silver bell that tinkled on your table at today’s dinner, calling you in each instance to plenty, God was the Giver. Though you have consumed acres of corn, flocks of birds, droves of sheep, and herds of cattle, you have been living on what was God’s.”“Do not err, my beloved brethren.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:16-17).Again, we should learn from our text theHUMAN IN What a recent writer calls “a man’s original commission—humanity’s primal charter” is written into the very first chapter of Genesis. God said,“Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat” (Genesis 1:26-30).Whatever interest of a pecuniary and permanent kind a man has in the wealth of this world comes out of this “Magna Charta” with which God enriched man from the beginning.His is the interest of delegated possessions.
That which Jehovah created and which He must therefore own, He has, to a great extent, delegated to men for their uses, and for their advantages.Solomon wrote, “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord” (Proverbs 16:33). And the Psalmist sang, “Jehovah is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup.
Thou commandest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage”.I doubt if there is any worse infidelity known to these times than that which disregards God, while taking account of the wealth into which one has come. Men sometimes talk of giving in response to this call or that, as if their free offerings were putting God under obligation, making Him a debtor to them. But David did not so regard the gifts of man. When on one occasion thousands of talents of gold and of silver had been taken into the temple for its trimming and adornment, and when precious stones had been provided to the treasurer of the House of the Lord, and the people with perfect heart had offered willingly, we read,“David blessed the Lord before all the congregation; and David said, Blessed be Thou Lord God of Israel, our Father, for ever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all.
Both riches and honour came of Thee, and Thou reignest over all, and in Thine hand is power and might; and in Thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious Name.
But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee” (1 Chronicles 29:10-14).We moderns need to learn of the ancients touching the truth that what we own has been delegated to us by our God.And yet, ours is the interest of partners in profits. From the very first God gave promise of partnership in the profits of our so-called possessions.The grant in Genesis was so perfectly understood that the Psalmist long after voiced a kindred claim when he said,“Thou hast made man but little lower than God, and crownest him with glory and honour. Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put alt things under his feet; all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas” (Psalms 8:5-8).Jesus Christ emphasized this thought in the parable of the talents,“For the Kingdom of Heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.“But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money.
After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto pie five talents: behold, I have gained besides them five talents more.
His lord said unto Mm, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:14-23).Both of the men who took the lord’s money and properly employed it, received more than his enconium, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”, for the Lord never rewards His faithful ones with easy compliments, but in good cash instead, for He added, “Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord”.I remember to have read how in the days of the Evangelist Finney, a man professed conversion, and Mr. Finney knelt to pray with him, and the evangelist said, “Lord, here is a man that gives Thee his whole heart,” to which the penitent heartily responded, “Amen!” “Lord, here is a man that will share with Thee his home. He wants Thee to come into it and control it; claim the wife and children as Thine.” And again the response came, “Amen.” But Finney continued, “Lord, here is a man who wants to share with Thee his business, and invites Thee to come in as partner and conduct all the terms of trade,” and there was a silence, and Finney said, “Why don’t you say, Amen?” And the man replied, “Because I am not ready to take Christ into my business and consult and share with Him.” Foolish man!
Christ was in the business before he was, and the greatest honor as well as the greatest advantage of life, was offered in that the Son of God was willing to share with him, if only he had come with whole heart and ready hand. And I say to you, beloved, that if in your business you have usurped first place and the whole place, putting God aside, you have dissolved a partnership at your own expense, and by starting on an independent life, have begun to describe a tangent to the bankruptcy of both finance and faith.Again, man’s interest in property is the interest of a steward.If the possessions have been delegated and the profits you are sharing, yet your office is that of God’s steward.You remember Christ’s parable of the ten pounds:“A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.
And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said, unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.
And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities. And another came, saying, Lord, behold, there is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.
And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds” (Luke 19:12-24).And God will call every one of us to give the steward’s account at last. It is common for those who act as stewards in this world to take even more care in their transactions than do the men who trade upon their own responsibility, feeling obligation to no others. Would that we could so realize our high office—an office that suggests at once dependence and privilege—as to stimulate us with proper sense of our stewardship.Spencer tells of a beggar who asked a six-pence of a wealthy woman, who, in handing it to him, said, “This is more than God ever gave to me.” “Oh, madam,” replied the beggar, “say not so. God hath given you all that you have.” “No,” she replied, “God hath not given me, but lent to me what I have that I might bestow it upon such as thou art.”And now having seen the Divine ownership of property, and having considered the human interest in property, we are prepared for theP OF THE EIGHTH “Thou shalt not steal”. There is more covered by this commandment than would appear to the inconsiderate.It sets itself against covetous desires.
The tenth commandment is touched upon by the eighth.Paul wrote to Timothy,“They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which, while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:9-10).Dr.
Parkhurst, of New York, in his “Talks to Young Women” on the passion of money getting, said, “The acquisition of wealth in the form and animus with which it is being currently conducted, is distinctly a passion, which is to say that it is an impulse so earnest and heated in its energy as to defy the results both of reason and conscience. It is at once a mental and a moral mania. It is a disease that feeds upon its own work of disintegration. It is like a flame of a candle, which wins support from the very wax which it consumes. A confidential friend of mine once told me that he felt himself just on the verge of breaking down with the malady. He had accumulated quite a fortune without having yet been made irrational or vicious by it, but he was beginning to detect the premonitory symptoms of such an issue.
He was still rational enough to know that he was becoming unreasonable, and principled enough to know that it would not take a great deal to make of him a rascal.”Oh, that men might more often see the danger of covetous desire before they have yielded to it to be destroyed. But of this we shall speak more fully in treating the tenth commandment.Our text sets itself against the cheating methods of the modern mart.“Thou shalt not steal”, is a commandment more needed today than ever before.
Men never stole from their fellows by insinuation, as they do now. Words of deceit never were so common to clerks as now. Dangerous weights are only kept down by the eternal vigilance of the state. Lying of a certain sort is sine qua non of most of the salaried offices. The ignorant must be taken advantage of. The dependent and helpless must pay exorbitantly for any assistance granted. The weak must consent to unfair wages. The unsophisticated must take a foreign coin in change.
The kindly disposed must call again and yet again to get their bills met. The public is drinking as much of false advertisement as of patent drugs. The benevolent are imposed upon by the indolent. The treasuries of the land, from that of the House of God up to that of the Bank of England, are peculated from by stingy spirits, itching palms, ambitious beaux, and belles, and would be “bulls and bears”; while corporate wealth is throwing away its conscience, and. government offices go largely to feed the godless greedy. Ah, we have been thinking that this text referred only to the highway robber, or to the purse-snatcher, or to the absconding bank cashier, but I tell you that every man that takes any advantage whatsoever of his fellow needs to have the eighth commandment thundered into his ear, “Thou shalt not steal”, for it is true, as James Russell Lowell says, “In vain we call old notions “fudge”,And bend our conscience to our dealing,The Ten Commandments will not budge And stealing will continue stealing.”It matters not how you have educated your conscience, or whether, instead of educating it, you have deadened it, so that you can go on and justify extravagance on the ground of sustaining your social position; justify unpaid debts on the ground of misfortune; excuse beggary as a result of being out of business. The fact remains that the whole tenor of God’s Word turns your acts under the light of the eighth commandment, and in that light they are condemned. “Thou shalt not steal”.Of course our text has special reference to clear robberies.The men who held up that train in the West some time since are spoken to by this text. The man who robbed that young woman of her purse the other evening is condemned by this text. The cashier who departed thirty-six hours ago, leaving the County Bank $100,000 short, is condemned by this text. The son, if he is guilty of slaying his father for forty acres of land, is condemned by this text. Every man, from the one who rides on the street car and dexterously escapes the conductor, keeping his fare, up to him who prefers the gains of the midnight assassin to a steady job, is condemned by this text.They are all condemned, and we can say with Beecher, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Riches got by deceit, cheat no man so much as the getter; riches, bought with guile, God willpay for with vengeance; riches, got by fraud, are dug out of one’s own heart and destroy the mine; unjust riches curse the owner in getting, in keeping, in transmitting.
They curse his children in their father’s memory, in their own wasteful habits, in drawing around them all bad men to be their companions. You may be rich and pure, but it will cost you a struggle.
You may be rich and go to Heaven, but ten, doubtless, will sink beneath their riches where one breaks through them to Heaven.”But if you are rich, see to it that not one cent is stolen; and if you are poor, let no pinches of poverty, e’en though they be such as goaded Jean val Jean to break the window and snatch a loaf, drive you to such desperate acts; for it is written, and the Word will not change to suit any circumstance, “Thou shalt not steal”.A few words now on thePLAIN DUTIES IMPOSED BY THIS Its first requirement is righteous living for all.George Washington said a noble thing when he uttered these words, “I hope I will always possess firmness and virtue enough to obtain what I consider the most envious of all earthly titles—the character of an ‘honest man’.”Paul penned to the Romans these precious words, “Provide things honest in the sight of all men” (Romans 12:17). And to the Corinthians, he said, “Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men”. Henry Clay was worthy of the office when he said, “I would rather be right than be president.”Some time ago, searchers through the old ledgers of a Scotch merchant, long since deceased, found one upon the back of which was written, “God blis this buik and kape me and it honest.” Oh, that all the ledgers of the land might be kept by men of kindred sentiment!From those who have departed from such righteous living, restitution is required.The Levitical law demanded of the one who had taken from his neighbor, unjustly, that he return the same increased by one-fifth. Zacchaeus, the Publican, was soundly converted to Christ, as is evidenced in the fact that wherein he had taken from any man by false accusation, he restored him fourfold. We believe, with F. B.
Meyer, that the men who have aught that belongs not unto them, must, by restitution, roll away this stone, or the dead joy can never arise, however loudly you may call it to come forth.Dwight L. Moody was preaching in one of our large cities when a nice-looking gentleman came up to him and said, “Oh, Mr.
Moody, I am a defaulter. I have taken $1500 in money that belongs to my employers, how can I become a Christian without restoring it?” “Have you got the money,” said Moody. “No, only $950! Cannot I take that and go into business and make enough to pay them back?” “No,” said Moody, “that would be dealing in a way that would please the devil.” “But,” said the man, “they would put me into prison.” “No matter,” said Moody, “you must do right. Go and give the money that you have, and confess your fault.” At first the man could not bring himself to do this, but he was so troubled in spirit, that he saw he must make restitution or never know joy or peace, and so he made an appointment with Moody to meet these men. He paid them over $950 and some cents, and told them if they would give him time, he would pay the rest. The tears trickled down the cheeks of the former employers.
They said, “We are glad to forgive you and will grant you this time,” and the four men got down on their knees and had a blessed prayer meeting, for the hand had made restitution and the soul was saved.But I don’t want to seem to make your salvation rest upon a single act without explaining what the one essential act is, namely, the repentance of all sin. It is not sufficient that the dishonest man be saved from his dishonesty any more than it is sufficient that the drinking man be saved from his cups.
What you want is the salvation from all sin, and I call you to repentance tonight.When the man Peter had charged the Jews with murder, and the murder of the very Son of God, men came and asked, “What shall we do?” and Peter said unto them, “Repent, for the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call”, and it is not mine to preach any other Gospel.The starting point of my sermon may be a commandment of the Old Testament, but the goal of it must be the commandment of the New Testament, “Repent”, the commandment John voiced; the commandment Peter urged; the call of Christ when He said, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”.I don’t know what your sins are; I don’t care. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon”. Forsake your way, and turn to God, e’er it be too late.At Columbus, Ohio, a man was imprisoned. For weeks he had been slowly wasting with consumption, on which account he had been moved to the hospital. By reason of his pitiable condition, the Governor was importuned to pardon him, and at last, on the 7th day of one July, the pardon was granted. In anticipation of receiving the pardon, the hospital attaches dressed the man and carried him down-stairs on a stretcher. The pardon was put into his hands and a smile came over his face; but, alas, it was too late, for a moment more and the poor fellow was breathing his last, and never able to pass beyond the prison gate.“Behold! today is the day of salvation. Today, if ye hear His voice, harden not your heart”.
Exodus 20:16
THE NINTH VERSUS FALSE Exo_20:16 Longfellow wrote: “I shot an arrow into the air,It fell to earth, I knew not where;For, so swiftly it flew, the sightCould not follow it in its flight.“I breathed a song into the air,It fell to earth, I knew not where;For who has sight so keen and strongThat it can follow the flight of song?“Long, long afterward, in an oak,I found the arrow still unbroke;And all the song, from beginning to end,I found again in the heart of a friend”.That was Longfellow’s way of saying that words are imperishable.No wonder then that the inspired James said,“If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses! mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be” (James 3:2-10).James and Moses are agreed then, for Moses, instructed of the Lord, said, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor”.I. FALSE WITNESS DEFINEDIt is necessary for us to define false witness in order that we may properly appreciate its evil character; and this can probably be best done by considering some of the elements that enter into false witness.Slander is certainly one of them. Of all the false witnesses who sting their venom into human life, few are so much feared, and so roundly hated as the slanderer—that evil genius who, with malice of forethought, pours out false speech, maligning the most innocent with as much relish as if they were genuinely guilty.Dr. Talmage, in an address delivered before the Chautauqua Assembly, said, “There are schools and colleges and seminaries and universities all over the land with large catalogues of students, and alumni by the ten thousand, but the largest school in all the world is the School of Scandal. Some are freshmen, some are seniors, some long ago took the diploma with the black seal and have been practicing their profession—scandals about ministers, scandals about doctors, about lawyers, about bank-officers, about state and national officials. Newspapers are, at times, surcharged with them.” Do you remember what the faithful Pisanio said to the noble Imogene, “What shall I need to draw my sword?The paper hath cut her throat already.No; ’tis slander,Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie All corners of the world: kings, queens, and states, Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave This viperous slander enters.”Among all the servants of the devil, I doubt if he has a one, even including the highest emissaries of the pit, who suits him quite so well as that man or woman who makes slander the chief business of life, and against whom God has thundered this commandment: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”, and it would seem indeed that some of these, like Judas, the deceiver, have had a devil from the beginning, for of them the Psalmist said, “They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies” (Psalms 58:3).Unwarranted speech also enters into false witness. There are many people who have never deliberately decided to defame their fellows, and are not altogether conscious of so doing, who, nevertheless, are found practicing the evil custom of unwarranted speech, such as Paul described when he warned Timothy against those who “wander from house to house, and are not only idle, but tattlers also, and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not” (1 Timothy 5:13).George Eliot in “Felix Holt”, speaking of a day in which Mrs. Transome had lost control of herself and said very unnecessary and unwise things, making herself disagreeable to no purpose, comments, “Half the sorrow of women would be averted if they would repress the speech they know to be useless; nay, the speech they had resolved not to utter”Down in New York City, in one of the prominent stores, a circle of small girls organized themselves into what was known as the “Doorkeeper’s Circle”. When somebody asked them why they took that name, they replied, “Because our motto is, ‘Keep thou the door of my mouth’ How many, well grown now, and how many in the middle life or past, were in need of just such a circle as a factor in their early education?The world would be rid of almost half of her miseries if the suspicious, the garrulous, the gossiping, the lying could be converted, for Shakespeare was right when he made Iago, the slanderer, to say, “Good name, in man and woman, dear my lord,Is the immediate jewel of their souls:Who steals my purse, steals trash;’tis something, nothing.’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands:But he that filches from me my good nameRobs me of that which not enriches him,And makes me poor indeed.”I understand that in a museum at Venice, there is a machine by which one of the old Italian tyrants used to shoot poisoned needles at the object of his hatred. It is now regarded as a relic of a barbarous age, the invention of a diabolical king. But the instrument is not out of date, and the user of it is not dead, for in every block you can find a man or a woman who has converted the tongue into such a machine, and human speech into such arrows, and even their best friends are not certain of escape from the sting and poison thereof. The ninth commandment then is not yet out of date—“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”.An evil insinuation is equally an element of false witness. One need not utter a word in order to be guilty of transgression of the ninth commandment. George Eliot, you remember, says, “There are glances of hatred that stab and raise no cry of murder.” There are speeches that sound well enough if you consider only the words employed, but when the air with which they are uttered is taken into account, the same discovery is made that the Psalmist expressed on learning the treachery of a friend, “His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war. His Words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords” (Psalms 55:12).Pope had evidently learned something of this same insinuator, for he said in the Prologue to Satires, “Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,Just hint a fault, a hesitate dislike?”It is perfectly amazing how easy it is for some people to find in their neighbors faults that ought to be uncovered; sins that ought to be exposed; and facts (?) which they regard as spoiling for publication! Of these people, Talmage said, “They can smell an imperfection fifty miles away. The crow has no faculty for finding carrion comparable to theirs for discovering defects.” They are what he styles “inspectors of warts and supervisors of carbuncles” and truly does he remark of the vicinity in which such an one lives, “Satan does not have to keep a very sharp lookout for his evil dominion in that neighborhood. He has let out to the tattler the whole contract. She gets husbands and wives into quarrels, and brothers and sisters into antagonisms, and disgusts the pastor with the flock and the flock with the pastor, and makes neighbors suspicious of each other. I have more respect for a poor waif who goes down under the gas light in a faded shawl, with no God, and no home, than I have for one of these respectable hags of society, with tiger claws covered up with a fine shawl, and the hell of her heart bolted with a diamiond breast-pin.” For God has said, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”.II.
FALSE WITNESS We have sought for a definition of false witness by considering the elements that enter into it. Let us now turn to God’s reasons for its condemnation.First of all, it evidences an evil heart.
One time after the Pharisees had been maligning Jesus, and had called Him the Prince of devils, Jesus said unto them,“O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man, out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment, for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matthew 12:34-37).It is condemned also because injurious to man. The man witnessed against is done an irreparable wrong.In New Albany, Ind., I had a friend whose father had excited the anger of a base fellow. One day, as this father was going aboard the Ohio steamer, he felt a sharp pain in the small of the back, but sup-posed that it was either from a wrench of muscle in walking or touch of muscular rheumatism, and he did not turn his head. But shortly there was a sensation as of blood trickling from the place of pain; and, on examination, he discovered that he had been stabbed to the vitals by a lance so sharp and small that his assailant had escaped undiscovered.
When, some time later, he died, his daughter believed his decease the result of this stab.But what is his injury as compared to that of a friend in a neighboring state who had given himself to the ministry of the Gospel, and, though but a short time out of, the Seminary, was making for himself an enviable reputation, namely, that of an efficient worker for God, but whose professional death was accomplished a few months since by the slanderous tongues and pens of two or three people. Changing George Eliot’s language but a little, we may say, with dreadful truth, “Aye, there are words of hatred that stab and raise no cry of murder.”False witness is condemned as an insult to God.
In that first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, wherein the dark deeds of heathenism are pictured with the inspired pen, Paul speaks of those who had been given up of God to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, “who change the Truth of God into a lie”. This last sentence describes what every false witness does; by his every deceptious word, he changes the Truth of God into a lie. The time ought to come, my friends, when each of us shall realize, as David did, that every sin against our fellows is an affront to the character and will of our Heavenly Father. When David had been guilty of his greatest sin, that of pushing to the forefront in war where he was killed, one whose beautiful wife he coveted, he did not suppose himself guilty of wronging man alone, but still more guilty of an insult to God. And, after acknowledging his sin, he said to the Lord, “Against Thee, and Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight”. The ninth commandment then means more than condemnation of false witness against one’s neighbor.
It is also directed against insult to God, who is the Truth.But perhaps the greater reason still for this condemnation of false witness is the injury it effects for those who bear it.God, who is love, would save even the slanderer from that social, moral, and spiritual suicide, which is the inevitable result of the false witness. Some people are always alarmed for themselves when others speak against them.
The man who is righteous should be alarmed for the spokesman instead.The public is a wonderful judge for finding out the truth, and eventually condemning the real fellow. In the ancient time, the lepers of the East land, when they came near any of their fellows, were compelled to put their hands to their mouths and cry aloud, “Unclean! Unclean!” But that moral leper who lives by slander needs not so to do, for very speedily society, discovering his real character, will, at his approach, lift a thousand fingers, and pointing toward him, cry, “Unclean! Unclean!” And such a man or woman will find for himself and herself a broad walk through the world.All good people make room for the individual of evil speech.And we have said his moral and spiritual suicide is equally certain. A man who starts out to injure his fellows by false witness, will learn what Christ meant in the Sermon on the Mount, “Judge not, if ye would not be judged; for with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again”. I never yet knew a man to slander his neighbors, but the public shortly brought him to grief, and he ended his course by complaints that people had unjustly criticised and condemned him.
Evil speech is a boomerang and it strikes harder on its return than it did when going forth.It is reported that a Bishop persuaded Louis the XIth to make an iron cage so low that men could not stand up in it, and so short that they could not lie down, into which were to be put all the people who did not think as the Bishop and Louis the XIth did. About the time the cage was finished, the Bishop offended Louis, and the King immediately proceeded to put him into the tortures of his own invention.
Such is the practice of the mighty monarch, Public Opinion, toward those men and women who use their genius to the injury of their fellows.And if this were the end, false witnesses might endure it; but need I remind you that God has in reservation for such His own judgment. Some people seem to imagine that slander, unwarranted speech, wicked insinuations, etc., are small sins, almost, if not quite, compatible with Christian character! But have we never read the register of the pit?“The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).One might imagine that liars were put last here by mere accident, but for the circumstance that when the same inspired penman tells us who are cast without the gates of the City of God, he catalogues again, “Dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie” (Revelation 22:15).But our text impresses me with more than its prohibitions. By inference, at least,TRUE IS It is not enough to refrain from false speech. The silent man is not keeping the spirit as well as the letter of the ninth commandment.The truth should be spoken. Paul rightly interpreted this commandment, when, to the Ephesians, he said, “Putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour” (Ephesians 4:25).You remember that George Eliot speaking of an address which Felix Holt made in defense of his conduct on the day of the riot, says, “The sublime delight of truthful speech to one who has the gift of uttering it, will make itself felt even through the pangs of sorrow”.
Whoever met a truth-speaking man without being blessed by the acquaintance. “The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life” (Proverbs 10:11). Oh, that of each of us it might be said what Julia of Verona declared of her lover Proteus! “His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles;His love sincere, has thought immaculate;His tears pure messengers, sent from his heart His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.”The truth shall be spoken in love. To the Ephesians, Paul addressed the word of warning against the winds of doctrine with which men were carried about, and called upon them to “speak the truth in love, that they might grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).The secret of failure of many men is that they know not how to speak the truth in love. Dr. Gordan says, “Two chemical elements which are very mild and innocuous in themselves often have prodigious energy when combined. So it is with love and truth. Those who preach love alone are often the weakest and most ineffective witnesses for Christ; those who preach the truth alone not infrequently demonstrate the impotence of a soulless orthodoxy.
But the truth in love is vital, penetrating, and has the dynamic force which we seek.” “Pleasant words are as honey-comb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24).The more precious the truth, the more should it be published. When a man talks with his neighbor touching the news of the day, in what he says, he should strive to be truthful.
When a man discusses with his fellows politics, honesty should characterize his every word. But the truth of religion— the truth that Christ died for men; the truth that by His Blood our sins are washed; the truth that through His Holy Spirit we have salvation, peace that passeth knowledge, assurance, an earnest of the world to come—these are the things of which we must speak, publishing them more and more.Silence may be golden, but for the regenerated, dispossessed Galilean, silence would be sin—“Go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee”. Ah, that is the truth for which the world is dying today. Ye false witnesses, I call you to a better vocation in Christ! Come to Him and be forgiven and consecrate your tongues, telling how great things the Lord hath done for you. Oh, that of every professed Christian it might be said, as they who stood in the porch said to Peter, “Surely thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech agreeth thereto”.
It is the need of the hour— true witnesses to the Son of God, and many that are now in sin will be shortly saved if only those who know the grace of God would tell the truth of His power to save.V. H.
Oswald, once superintendent of the Rescue Mission work in Dubuque, Iowa, went into a saloon one night on Sixth Street of that city to get a drink of liquor; and lo, there he met S. B. Thomas, a Christian man who had given his testimonies to the patrons of the saloon and was now praying for them. Seeing Oswald come in, he went up to him and said, “God can bless you, young man.” The Spirit took that sentence and sealed it to Oswald’s salvation, and later he preached the Gospel and told that same precious truth to others. Oh, that men would witness to the truth that Christ saves!
Exodus 20:17
THE TENTH VERSUS Exo_20:17OUR subject this evening is the Tenth Commandment versus Covetousness. In discussing this commandment, it is not my thought to utter one word against those virtues of character—energy, thrift, frugality, economy, etc. I have an ardent admiration for the men who have ability at money making, and I believe with Guizot that no man at twenty is too ambitious. Money made honestly, and employed properly, must be as precious in the sight of God as are other material possessions of this present life. But those who would be rich need to constantly watch lest covetousness crowd out the more generous nature of the energetic. Jesus Christ Himself voiced this warning, when, on one occasion, He said,“Take heed, and beware of covetousness; for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
And He spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease; eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: Then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:15-21).There is always danger that the love of money, which is the root of all evil, will so worm its way into the heart of man as to eat out his noblest traits and practically destroy manhood itself. God saw this and, in consequence, spake the tenth commandment.In our study of this tenth commandment, three separate and yet somewhat related thoughts have impressed themselves.I. IT IS A MOTIVE- It is doubtful if any one of the Ten Commandments so sounds the deepest recesses of a man’s life as does this tenth. It illustrates what Paul meant when to the Hebrews he wrote,“The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”.This tenth commandment lays character bare and shows at once how deficient in the sight of God are most men’s lives, and yet how essential to righteous living here, and the well-grounded hope of the hereafter; how needful to the personal, social and political life of this world, and how indispensable to that Heaven into which we hope to come.Truly did one write some years since, saying, “True aristocracy is not an aristocracy of blood, not an aristocracy of fashion, not an aristocracy of talent only; it is an aristocracy of character.
That is the true heraldry of men.”Our text tonight inquires after character and practically asserts that so long as covetousness is found in the life, the character is deficient, and threatened with death; “Thou shalt not covet”.This searching commandment also invites self-investigation. One of the most insidious sins to which our life is subject is covetousness.
I have known men who left finger-prints upon almost every piece of money they handled, so tightly did they grasp, but I have never yet known a man who would confess that he was covetous; and men do not know that they are covetous. Men will not admit to themselves that they are close-fisted and guilty of greed.Ordinarily, the closer fisted one is, the more generous he imagines himself. I knew a man once who was worth a million or more, and who at one time made a small offering—an offering of a few dollars—to the Baptist church of his town, and he ever after remembered it, and often referred to it with mingled feelings of pride, that he had done so much and yet with evident regret that the gold had gone from him. He did not regard himself covetous, but generous instead. Insidious sin! This tenth commandment seeks to search it out and stimulates man to self-investigation to that end.There are tumors of the body that will never heal until punctured by a lance, and there are mental and spiritual disorders that can never be corrected until touched by the lance of a look, until brought to light by self-investigation. “Be watchful, therefore; beware of covetousness.”This searching commandment also impresses the thought of Omniscience.
One can scarce read it and reflect upon the fact that covetousness is in his life without remembering also Paul’s words, touching the All-seeing eye of God, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13).But after all such a sense is wholesome. Henry Van Dyke in “The Gospel for a World of Sin” says, touching one’s sense of guilt before God, “There is a passage in a recent story of human life that puts the truth very simply and beautifully.
A woman that was a sinner has come to a minister of Christ to confess her sin. The old man speaks to her as she kneels at his feet, weeping, ‘You have sinned and suffered for your sin. You have asked your Heavenly Father to forgive you and He has forgiven you, but still you suffer. Woman, be thankful that you can suffer. The worst trouble in the world is the trouble that does not know God and so does not suffer. Without such knowledge there is no suffering. The sense of sin in the soul is the apprehension of Almighty God!”But, to these words of Van Dyke, we need to add that an apprehension is not sufficient to save. Seeing the sin is the first step.
Realizing that God sees it is a greater step still, but putting it away by the power of God, that is salvation! “Thou shalt not covet”.The second impression borne in upon us by the study of this piece of ancient legislation, is this:II. IT IS AN ALL- It would not be difficult to show that if a man violates the tenth commandment, he will be tempted to violate the other nine.In fact, it would be near the truth to affirm that the covetous man cannot keep the other nine commandments.The first commandment sets itself against Polytheism. A violation of the tenth commandment is likely to lead to a breaking of the first.The Emir of Uz spake wisely when he said,“If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much * * this also were an iniquity to be punished by the Judge, for I should have denied the God that is above” (Job 31:24-28).The second commandment sets itself against Idolatry. The tenth commandment is intended to keep us back from a violation of the second also. Paul distinctly declares that covetousness is idolatry, for to the Colossians, he wrote,“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience?” (Colossians 3:5-6).When Horace Greeley first spoke of our current coin as the “Almighty Dollar”, people throughout the land held up their hands in protest, declaring that such use of the word “Almighty” was both irreverent and irreligious. But apparently, the public has come to feel that Greeley’s description had occasion, and for not a few men today the inscription on our silver dollar “In God We Trust” fails to lift their thought higher than the money itself, for they are mammon worshipers.Profanity also often results from covetousness.You will remember that when teaching from the third commandment, we reminded you that profanity was not simply employing what is commonly called “curse words”.
Any use of God’s Name in irreverent connections is profanity; and any employment of God’s Name for the sake of covering up sin is equally profanity. I have a good deal of sympathy with a certain writer who said, “The priests who accompanied the pirate ships of the sixteenth century to say mass and pray for the souls of the dead pirates for a share of the spoil, were not a whit more superstitious or guilty of human blood, according to the light of their preaching, than Protestant leaders who flatter the ghastly philanthropy of men who have heaped their colossal fortunes upon the bodies of their brothers”.And when I see a man getting money godlessly, and yet, by parting with some of it in the Name of the Lord, hoping to come into Divine favor, I say his very employment of God’s Name is profanity, and pray with Solomon when he said to the Lord,“Two things have I required of Thee; deny me them not before I die.
Remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me; lest I be full, and deny Thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal, and take the Name of my God in vain” (Proverbs 30:7-9).It is for love of money that men break the Sabbath. Many of our fellows are not satisfied with the gain of six days, but must snatch the seventh from Him who commanded that it be kept holy; and their greed often imposes upon others the necessity of either breaking the Sabbath or being out of employment, and in the grip of poverty. Such people either do not see the sanctuary, or else if they come to it, they leave their hearts behind where their treasure is, and the Sabbath is a day for bookkeeping, a day of balancing accounts. They are eager for one thing only—that is to know how rapidly the fortune grows, and how much additional has gone into the purse.Charles Spurgeon says, “Judas remained unconverted even in the company of the Lord, and we have some people still among us in whose ears the thirty pieces of silver chink so loudly that the sound of the Gospel cannot be heard by them.”The fifth commandment is also in need of the tenth.
One of the grievous sins of the age is that greedy spirit of children which often causes them to watch with eager eyes the last days of the aged and well-to-do parents.Henry Ward Beecher said, “I have known families where worthless children sat about the old father as vultures do around a dying deer, ready at the last breath to divide the spoils.” Shocking as that statement sounds, it is a scene upon which every one of us has looked, and if this world can ever furnish a sight that gives greater emphasis to the need of the tenth commandment, I cannot imagine it.Thou shalt do no murder is an injunction accentuated by the spirit of covetousness. We recall Naboth’s vineyard, which was hard by the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria, and upon which Ahab set covetous eyes.
But when Naboth refused to part with it, Ahab’s covetousness did not end, and he went to his bed sick at heart, so great was his desire. Shortly under the counsel of Jezebel, his wicked wife, two sons of Belial were charging him with having blasphemed God and the king, and they carried him forth out of the city and stoned him with stones till he died, and it came to pass when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth” (1 Kings 21:15). Half of the murders of the world have been for money or other possessions. “Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s”.See also how the seventh commandment is influenced. It was when David beheld the beauty of Bathsheba that covetous desire took possession of him, and in order that she might be his, he put his neighbor, her husband, in the forefront of battle, thereby causing his death. It was the great sin of David’s life.
It was the sin that cost him most of his sorrow. It was the sin that wet his pillow with tears.
It was the sin that effected the 51st Psalm and brought him so near to despair. It was the sin that, but for his penitence and pleading, would have sent his soul to hell, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife”.Touching theft, think of the Babylonish garment. When Achan saw it, he coveted it. You remember that when taken at last, he answered Joshua,“Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel. * * When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them” (Joshua 7:20-21).That is the old story of theft.He is a noble man who can say as Samuel did unto all Israel,“I am old and gray headed; and, behold, my sons are with you; and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day. Behold, here I am: Witness against me before the Lord, and before His anointed; whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? * * And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught of any man’s hand” (1 Samuel 12:2-5).“Thou shalt not covet” is indeed the all-inclusive command.