THE LAW by H. W. REED.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 14, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 24.

THE LAW.

By H. W. REED.

THE fourth commandment lies in the bosom of the divine law. It is there just as the finger of the Artist carved it in the enduring slab. The ten heaven-born precepts photographed the character of the Infinite One. It can no more be destroyed, or made void, than can its Author. We know that all the efforts of man to do either will be a miserable failure.

Will not man in this take warning from the fate of Uzzah? He did not touch the sacred precepts, but only the depository of these God-given words; and for his heaven-daring sin God justly smote him that he died. This ought to serve as an everlasting warning, to those who, with impious hands, dare to touch the living oracles of God and rudely mar the photograph of God's character, by defacing one or all of them.

Since the ark that concealed the perfect law was so holy, as the case of Uzzah shows, what may be said of the holiness of the precepts themselves confined within its sacred walls? Whatever can be said of the holiness of the ark, it is sure that much more can be said of the holiness of the divine tracings inscribed upon the tables within this sacred chest. And as the punishment was severely met by death upon the offender for touching the receptacle of the law, who will look for the punishment to be less upon one who tears from the bosom of the law the fourth commandment, and teaches others to walk upon it with unhallowed feet? Can any one reason thus except at the peril of his soul? H. W. REED.