THE SECOND COMMANDMENT AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
By Editor
THERE are a few good souls who object to the use of illustrations in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, tho many times the illustration, to many others, makes the subject treated plainer and the lesson more impressive. Some learn readily through the ear; some through the eye. Both methods of teaching, oral instruction and object-lesson, in pictures or figure of some sort, has been used from ancient times. To say nothing of what the monuments tell us, we turn to Holy Writ. When God's center of worship was established in Israel, the sanctuary was made according to His direction, the likeness of the things in the heavens, after a pattern showed to Moses. Upon the curtains of that sanctuary were inwrought figures of angels; and many other things might be mentioned. "But was not all this in transgression of the law of the second command of the Decalogue?" Some of our friendly critics ought so to say; but we know it was not. "But does not the command forbid the making of any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath?"—It does, and there were the likeness and image of things in both places in the sanctuary and temple. "But was not their making a transgression of the law?"—No, it was not. The explanation lies right here: That whole command forbids the making of anything to worship; for service is worship. Matt. 4:10. The sanctuary was not made to worship, but to worship in. The whole object lies in the motive, the purpose, the object of making, and the use to which the object is put. If the commandment forbids the mere making, manufacture, of "a graven image" or "any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth," then our friends ought to go houseless, shoeless, hatless, naked; for every garment, nearly, is made after another garment or pattern, hats after other hats, shoes after other shoes. Houses are likenesses of other houses. When the two and one-half tribes were settled beyond Jordan, they built an altar as a witness, patterned after the altar of the Lord. Joshua 22. Joshua thought they did wrong, but when he heard their explanation, he was satisfied. Moses made, at the command of God, an image, a likeness, of the fiery serpent which abounded in the wilderness, and set it upon a pole. Those having faith in God, who looked to it by faith in His word, lived. Did he transgress the Second Commandment?—No. But in Hezekiah's day the Israelites were worshiping that serpent of brass. Did they do wrong?—Yes; and the good king broke it in pieces, calling it "Nehushtan," "a piece of brass." When king Ahaz made an altar after the pattern of one he saw in Damascus, it was sin, because he did it for worship. Men may pervert the holiest thing to idolatrous use. They may make idols of the needed things of every-day life. Not a few women "adore" a hat or a bonnet, and men a watch or a horse. An artist may worship his picture or the people the artist through the picture, or the picture and the art may be made to teach a great moral lesson. If people worship the pictures in this paper, we are no more responsible than was Moses for the worship of the brazen serpent. The illustrations are used to make more attractive and clear the truth of the Gospel of Christ.