THE MORAL CONSTITUTION OF THE UNIVERSE.
By G. T. Wilson
Nature of God and the Origin of His Law.
“God is love,” his law is love. “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” Rom. 13:10; 1 John 4:8. Jehovah “is a God of truth.” “Thy law is the truth,” and again, “All thy commandments are truth.” Christ said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Deut. 32:4; Ps. 119:142, 151; John 14:6. “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” John 1:17. The Father and the Son are alike in character, and so the moral law, or constitution of the universe, emanates from both. Of our Creator it is said, “Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments;” “thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness.” God declares, “My righteousness shall not be abolished.” Isa. 51:6, 7. Of the character of Jehovah’s law, we read, “All thy commandments are righteousness.” “Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.” “The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting.” “Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them forever.” Ps. 119:172, 138, 144, 152. That the “testimonies” here referred to are the Ten Commandments is evident from the language of Ex. 24:12; 25:21; 31:18; Deut. 10:4, 5: “And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there; and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.” “And thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.” “And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” “And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them unto me. And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me.” So the Ten Commandments are God’s testimonies against wrong, and in favor of right, and are everlasting in their nature as the character of Jehovah. Love is the foundation of those ten words, and love fulfils them. They spring from two great principles,—love to our Maker and love to our fellow-creature. “God is love,” and says, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” When God formed angels, and man, and created intelligences, for the habitation of all the worlds on high, Divinity put the principles of his own blessed character into them,—love to Creator and fellow-creature. These great mutual obligations are drawn out in ten precepts for the use of mankind, and have never been abolished, nor can they ever be set aside, for they are the moral attributes of the supreme Governor of the universe, and are the foundation-stones of his government. “For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.” “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” “Righteousness and judgment are the establishment of his throne.” Again, “All thy commandments are righteousness.” Ps. 11:7, 3; 97:2, margin; 119:172. Sin has5turned “all the foundations of the earth out of course,” but it can not shift the foundation of God’s moral government; it always will be our duty to love God with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves.