THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 23, 1858

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me," is the first of those precepts which God gave to man to guard his honor and his glory; and it may be, that, on the basis that the Psalmist lays down—that the commandment is exceeding broad,—its violation will be found to be involved in acts where we had little dreamed it. The justice of the command, none will question; for certainly the glorious Maker and Supporter of all things, is the only God that we should acknowledge and worship. He alone should be feared, loved, honored and obeyed; and all other beings in heaven or on earth should be subordinate, or as nothing, compare with him. And hence it follows that the worship we pay him must be fervent, sincere and spiritual, or such as he requires in his holy word. To forget, therefore, or neglect, to despise or hate him, to forsake his ordinances, and refuse to pray to, praise and love him, is to break this, the first of his commandments.

Again, we may not, in view of this commandment, substitute the creature, or created things in the place of the Creator, nor seek our happiness in them instead of him. Hence whatever is loved, feared, obeyed or followed, more than God, is to us an idol, and is our god. And this opens to us the broad field where lie all those innumerable objects upon which we are liable to bestow inordinate love; and here the commandment appears striking down the idols of our hearts, restraining our ambition and our passions, and directing our affections in the right channel, and to the right object.

Thus the covetous man makes a god of his wealth, It is recorded of John Jacob Astor, who died some years since the richest man in America, that when he had approached so near the hour of death that his eye-sight had entirely failed him, he called for money. The attendants placed in his hands a piece of tissue paper, thinking that in this low state he could perceive no difference, and it would answer every purpose. But his practiced fingers detected the deception, he tore the paper into shreds, and called again for money. They gave him a genuine bill, and he was satisfied; and so, with the sordid dollar in his clenched hand, he died. He had made gold his god through life, and it was but natural that he should cling to it in the hour of death.

And if the covetous man makes a god of his wealth, so does the ambitious man of his honors, and so does the voluptuous man of his pleasures and sensual gratifications. And here another broad field is opened before us, covered by the stern prohibition of this commandment. We here see that every sensual gratification, and unlawful appetite, as indulged in contrary to that love and obedience which God justly demands from his creatures to himself, is included in it, and consequently prohibited by it. One illustration on this point. The object to which we refer is the product of nature, and some foul manipulations of human art. The thralldom which it exercises over the race is various in form but alike in nature. Its name is Tobacco! The only reason for its use, is the pleasure arising from the gratification of a perverted and unlawful appetite; and this, too, in defiance of the deleterious effects which it is known to exert upon the system. If the principles here laid down are correct, those who thus bow at the shrine of Tobacco, can be regarded in no other light than as trespassers on the forbidden territory of the first commandment.

And now, brethren, how plead you? Guilty? or not guilty?