The Decalogue by W. H. Arnoux

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 1, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 37.

The Decalogue.

By W. H. Arnoux

We hardly realize the greatness of that law, and at the risk of being somewhat trite, let me direct your attention to the wonderful character of this decalogue, which we know so well and ponder too little.

The first table of the law treats of man's relation to God. The second treats of man's relation to man. The last five commandments are negative. The first of the latter class forbids crimes against the person; the next forbids crimes against purity and virtue; the next, crimes against property; the next, crimes against reputation; and the last forbids covetousness, which the apostle declares is idolatry.

Thus these few comprehensive sentences embrace all sinful conduct, every phase and every thought of human life in its relation to its fellows, unerringly as the starry host above us declaring:—

“The hand that made us is divine.”

Whoever denies this defies Moses; for whosoever denying the inspiration of the Bible, asserts that any mortal being could have written in those few short sentences the whole law pertaining to the relations of man to God and man, a law which, with neither surplusage nor deficiency, has endured unchanged for three thousand years, establishes a greater miracle than that which he attempts to controvert.—Judge W. H. Arnoux.