Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Apr 22, 1880
General Articles.
By Mrs. E. G. White
ISRAEL ARRIVES AT SINAI.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
The children of Israel, obedient to the onward movement of the pillar of cloud, left Rephidim, having tarried there some time, and journeyed on toward Sinai. Their line of march had been across open plains, over steep ascents, and through narrow defiles. Again and again, when they had crossed a sandy waste, and their further progress seemed impossible because of the huge piles of massive rocks which lay directly in their way, a narrow passage would appear, and when this was passed, another barren, uninteresting plain would open to their view.
It was through one of these deep, gravelly passes that they were now called to pass. What a scene was this! Millions of people walled in by abrupt cliffs of granite rocks which rise hundreds of feet on either side, following a moving cloud by day, and guarded at night by a pillar of fire, as if the eye of God were fastened directly upon them. Christ in this wilderness school is here giving his people their first lessons in faith and trust in God.
Finally they come to a long range of mountains, upon which the cloudy pillar rests. The people encamp beneath its shadow, and while locked in slumber, the bread from Heaven gently falls upon the encampment. In the early morning, as the sun begins to brighten behind the dark ridge of eastern mountains, its soft, golden tints penetrate the dark gorges, seeming to those weary, almost discouraged travelers, like golden beams of mercy from the throne of Heaven.
Anxious eyes often turn in wonder upon the pillar of cloud hanging over the mount. The immense, rugged piles of granite rocks, with their irregular shapes and peaks, seem thrown together in the wildest confusion. The whole country seems strangely solemn to the weary travelers. They frequently contrast the verdant valleys of Egypt with these dark, and cheerless ravines, and the bustling activity of their former home, with the mountain solitude.
Here the Lord had gathered his people to himself, that he might talk with them. There was nothing here that they chose to worship, nothing to divert their minds, and nothing upon which they would fasten their affections. Everything was calculated to make man feel his nothingness in the presence of him who has "weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance."
Soon after their arrival at Sinai, Moses received a divine summons to ascend the mountain. Alone he climbed the steep and jagged rocks, placing his feet in steps made without hands; and far up on those solitary heights, God informed him that Israel was now to be taken into close and peculiar connection with himself, and that they were to become an organized church in the wilderness, and a nation whom he would govern. These are the words which he spake:—
"Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel."
Moses came down, and having assembled the elders of Israel, he repeated to them the message of God. When it was made known to them, they answered: "All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do." Here they entered into a solemn covenant with God to accept him as their ruler, by which they became, in a special sense, the subjects of his divine authority.
Again Moses ascended, and the Lord said unto him, "Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee forever." When the Hebrews met with difficulties in the way, they were disposed to murmur against Moses and Aaron, and accuse them of leading the host of Israel from Egypt to destroy them. God would now honor Moses before them, that they might be led to confide in his instructions.
The Lord was about to come near to his people; they were to hear his law spoken, not by angels, but by himself; and Moses was now commanded to prepare them for that solemn event: "Go unto the people, and sanctify them to-day and to-morrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day; for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai." The people were required to refrain from worldly care and labor, and to possess devotional thoughts. God required them also to wash their clothes. He is no less particular now than he was then. He is a God of order, and requires his people to observe habits of strict cleanliness. Those who worship God with uncleanly garments and persons, do not come before him in an acceptable manner. He is not pleased with their lack of reverence for him, and he will not accept the service of filthy worshipers, for they insult their Maker. The Creator of the heavens and the earth considered cleanliness of so much importance that he said, "And let them wash their clothes." Some who profess to be followers of Christ, call order and neatness, pride. They seem to consider it a virtue to leave their houses and premises in a disorderly, unimproved condition, thinking that they will thus give evidence of their disregard for temporal things, and their high estimate of spiritual things. But this same neglect and slothfulness which characterizes their business life, will be imparted to their religious life. Their religious experience will be defective. Says the apostle: "Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." God requires his people to be neat and orderly. All his directions to the children of Israel were of a character to establish habits of order and cleanliness in their dress, and in their surroundings. This was essential in order for them to preserve health, and to exert a proper influence upon other nations as a people adopted by the living God.
The Lord continued his instructions to Moses: "And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it. Whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death. There shall not a hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live. When the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount." This command was designed to impress the minds of this rebellious people with a profound veneration for God, the author and authority of their laws.
Three days the people were before the mount. During this time, they had ample opportunity to review their past course of murmuring and impatience, and to repent. God had given them his gracious promise that they should become a peculiar treasure unto him, on condition of obedience; but if they were disobedient he would reject them, and choose another people.
Many regard the Jewish economy as an age of darkness. They have received the erroneous idea that repentance and faith had no part in the Hebrew religion, which they claim consisted only of forms and ceremonies. But the children of Israel were saved by Christ as virtually as is the sinner of to-day. By faith they saw Christ in those types and shadows which pointed forward to his first advent and death, when type should meet anti-type. They rejoiced in a Saviour to come, typified by sacrificial offerings, while we rejoice in a Saviour who has come. That which was expectation to ancient Israel, is certainty to modern Israel. The world's Redeemer was in close connection with his people then, being enshrouded in that cloudy pillar. Let us not say, then, that they had not Christ in the Jewish age. The inspired apostle writes: "By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter," "esteeming the reproaches of Christ of greater riches than the treasures of Egypt."
The command given to Moses to sanctify the people, brought responsibility upon him. He was to faithfully point out their past errors, that they might, by humiliation, fasting, and prayer, purify their hearts from the defilement of sin, as well as cleanse themselves from all outward impurities. When the children of Israel were doing all they could to remove from them all defilement of the flesh and spirit, they were doing the same work that God requires us to do if we would be brought into close communion with him. However severe and close the battle to overcome wrong habits, and sinful indulgences, it must be fought and the victory gained. After the power of the will is brought into activity, then there must be a firm reliance upon Christ. When Israel thirsted in the wilderness, and yielded to sinful murmurings, Christ was to them what he is to us, a compassionate mediator, and he pardoned their transgressions. After man has done what he can to cleanse the soul-temple, then Christ's blood alone will avail for us, as Christ's typified blood availed for ancient Israel.
FOLLOW THOU ME.
HAVE ye looked for my sheep in the desert,
For those who have missed their way ?
Have ye been in the wild waste places,
Where the lost and the wandering stray ?
Have ye trodden the lonely highway.
The foul and darksome street ?
It may be ye'd see in the gloaming
The print of Christ's wounded feet.
Have ye folded close to your bosom
The trembling, neglected lamb,
And taught to the little lost one
The sound of the shepherd's name ?
Have ye searched for the poor and needy
With no clothing, no home, no bread ?
The Son of man was among them,
He had nowhere to lay his head.
Have ye carried the living waters
To the parched and thirsty soul ?
Have ye said to the sick and the wounded,
Christ Jesus makes thee whole ?
Have ye told my fainting children
Of the strength of the Father's hand ?
Have ye guided the wandering footsteps
To the shores of the "golden land?"
Have ye stood by the sad and weary,
To smooth the pillow of death,
To comfort the sorrow stricken,
And strengthen the feeble faith ?
And have ye felt, when the glory
Has streamed through the open door,
And flitted across the shadows,
That I had been there before ?
Have ye wept with the broken hearted,
In their agony of woe ?
Ye might hear me whispering beside you,
'Tis a path I often go.
My disciples, my friends, my brethren,
Can ye dare to follow me ?
Then wherever the Master dwelleth,
There shall the servant be. —Sel.
Humility Before God
No man is humbled and sincere with God, till he is willing to know the worst of himself.
UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY.
By U. Smith
BY ELDER U. SMITH.
THE MARK OF THE BEAST.
Such a work as this, then, the papacy must accomplish according to the prophecy; and the prophecy cannot fail. And when this is done, what do the people of the world have. They have two laws demanding from them obedience: one, the law of God as originally enacted by him, an embodiment of his will, and expressing his claims upon his creatures; the other, a revised edition of that law, emanating from the pope of Rome, and expressing his will. And how is it to be determined which of these powers the people honor and worship? It is determined by the law which they keep. If they keep the law of God as given by him, they worship and obey God. If they keep the law as changed by the papacy, they worship that power. But further, the prophecy does not say that the little horn should set aside the law of God and give one entirely different. This would not be to change the law, but simply to give a new one. He was only to attempt a change, so that the law as it comes from God, and the law as it comes from the hands of the papacy, are precisely alike, excepting the change which the papacy has made therein. They have many points in common. But none of the precepts which they contain in common, can distinguish a person as the worshiper of either power in preference to the other. If God's law says, "Thou shalt not kill," and the law as given by the papacy says the same, no one can tell by a person's observance of that precept whether he designed to obey God rather than the pope, or the pope rather than God. But when a precept that has been changed, is the subject of action, then whoever observes that precept as originally given by God, is thereby distinguished as a worshiper of God; and he who keeps it as changed is thereby marked as a follower of the power that made the change. In no other way can the two classes of worshipers be distinguished. From this conclusion, no candid mind can dissent; but in this conclusion we have a general answer to the question before us, "What constitutes the mark of the beast?" THE MARK OF THE BEAST IS THE CHANGE HE HAS MADE IN THE LAW OF GOD.
We now inquire what that change is? By the law of God, we mean the moral law, the only law in the universe of immutable and perpetual obligation, the law of which Webster says, defining the terms according to the sense in which they are almost universally used in Christendom, "The moral law is summarily contained in the decalogue, written by the finger of God on two tables of stone, and delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai."
If, now, the reader will compare the ten commandments as found in Roman Catholic catechisms with those commandments as found in the Bible, he will see in the catechisms that the second commandment is left out, that the tenth is divided into two commandments to make up the lack of leaving out the second, and keep good the number ten, and that the fourth commandment (called the third in their enumeration) is made to enjoin the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath, and prescribe that the day shall be spent in hearing mass devoutly, attending vespers, and reading moral and pious books. Here are several variations from the decalogue as found in the Bible. Which of them constitutes the change of the law intended in the prophecy? or, are they all included in that change? Let it be borne in mind, that, according to the prophecy, he was to think to change times and laws. This plainly conveys the idea of intention and design, and makes these qualities essential to the change in question. But respecting the omission of the second commandment, Catholics argue that it is included in the first, and, hence, should not be numbered as a separate commandment. And on the tenth they claim that there is so plain a distinction of ideas as to require two commandments. So they make the coveting of a neighbor's wife the ninth commandment, and the coveting of his goods the tenth.
In all this they claim that they are giving the commandments exactly as God intended to have them understood. So, while we may regard them as errors in their interpretation of the commandments, we cannot set them down as intentional changes. Not so, however, with the fourth commandment. Respecting this commandment, they do not claim that their version is like that given by God. They expressly claim a change here, and also that the change has been made by the church. A few quotations from standard Catholic works will make this matter plain. In a work entitled, Treatise of Thirty Controversies, we find these words:—
"The word of God commandeth the seventh day to be the Sabbath of our Lord, and to be kept holy; you [Protestants,] without any precept of Scripture, change it to the first day of the week, only authorized by our traditions. Divers English Puritans oppose, against this point, that the observation of the first day is proved out of Scripture, where it is said, the first day of the week. Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2; Rev. 1:10. Have they not spun a fair thread in quoting these places? If we should produce no better for purgatory and prayers for the dead, invocation of the saints, and the like, they might have good cause, indeed, to laugh us to scorn; for where is it written that these were Sabbath days in which those meetings were kept? Or where is it ordained they should be always observed? Or, which is the sum of all, where is it decreed that the observation of the first day should abrogate or abolish the sanctifying of the seventh day, which God commanded everlastingly to be kept holy? Not one of those is expressed in the written word of God."
In the "Catholic Catechism of Christian Religion," on the subject of the third (fourth) commandment, we find these questions and answers:—
"Ques. What does God ordain by this commandment?
"Ans. He ordains that we sanctify, in a special manner, this day on which he rested from the labor of creation.
"Q. What is this day of rest?
"A. The seventh day of the week, or Saturday; for he employed six days in creation, and rested on the seventh. Gen. 2:2; Heb. 4:1; &c.
"Q. Is it then Saturday we should sanctify in order to obey the ordinance of God?
"A. During the old law, Saturday was the day sanctified; but the church, instructed by Jesus Christ, and directed by the Spirit of God, has substituted Sunday for Saturday; so now we sanctify the first, not the seventh, day. Sunday means, and now is, the day of the Lord."
In "Abridgment of Christian Doctrine," we find this testimony:—
"Ques. How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days?
"Ans. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church.
"Q. How prove you that?
"A. Because by keeping Sunday they acknowledge the church's power to ordain feasts, and to command them under sin."
In the "Catholic Christian Instructed," again we read:—
"Ques. What warrant have you for keeping the Sunday, preferable to the ancient Sabbath, which was the Saturday?
"Ans. We have for it the authority of the Catholic church and apostolic tradition.
"Q. Does the Scripture anywhere command the Sunday to be kept for the Sabbath?
"A The Scripture commands us to hear the church (Matt. 18:17; Luke 10:16), and to hold fast the traditions of the apostles. 2 Thess. 2:15. But the Scriptures do not in particular mention this change of the Sabbath."
In the "Doctrinal Catechism," we find further testimony to the same point:—
"Ques. Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept?
"Ans. Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her—she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no scriptural authority."
And finally, W. Lockhart, late B. A. of Oxford, in the Toronto (Cath.) Mirror, offered the following "challenge" to all the Protestants of Ireland; a challenge as well calculated for this latitude as that. He says:—
"I do, therefore, solemnly challenge the Protestants of Ireland to prove, by plain texts of Scripture, these questions concerning the obligation of the Christian Sabbath. 1. That Christians may work on Saturday, the old seventh day. 2. That they are bound to keep holy the first day, namely, Sunday. 3. That they are not bound to keep holy the seventh day also."
This is what the papal power claims to have done respecting the fourth commandment. Catholics plainly acknowledge that there is no scriptural authority for the change they have made, but that it rests wholly upon the authority of the church; and they claim it as a token or mark of the authority of that church; the "very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday," being set forth as proof of its power in this respect. For further testimony on this point, the reader is referred to a tract published at the SIGNS OF THE TIMES Office; entitled, "Who Changed the Sabbath?" in which are also extracts from Catholic writers, refuting the arguments usually relied upon to prove the Sunday Sabbath, and showing that its only authority is the Catholic Church.
"But," says one, "I supposed that Christ changed the Sabbath." A great many suppose so; and it is natural that they should; for they have been so taught. And while we have no words of denunciation to utter against any such for so believing, we would have them at once understand that it is, in reality, one of the most enormous of all errors. We would therefore remind such persons that, according to the prophecy, the only change ever to be made in the law of God, was to be made by the little horn of Dan. 7, and the man of sin of 2 Thess. 2; and the only change that has been made in it, is the change of the Sabbath. Now, if Christ made this change, he filled the office of the blasphemous power spoken of by both Daniel and Paul—a conclusion sufficiently hideous to drive any Christian from the view which leads thereto.
THE TWO COVENANTS.
By John Gottlieb Matteson
BY ELD. J. G. MATTESON.
(Concluded.)
3. What the new covenant contains. This we have already partly considered, but we will now more particularly notice each point which the Lord has introduced in the great sum of the new covenant. This contains four things:—
(1.) "I [the Lord] will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts."
(2.) "And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people."
(3.) "And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall [or they shall all] know me, from the least to the greatest."
(4.) "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Heb. 8:10-12.
The very first proposition in the new covenant is to love the law of God, the ten commandments. This proves clearly that those believers who preach or write against the holy law of God, or speak of it lightly, or set it aside have gone astray. They have turned aside from the true order of the divine covenant.
But how do you prove that the ten commandments are the law of the Lord, and that they are given to convince of sin under the new covenant?
They are the only law which the Lord has spoken publicly with his own voice and written with his own finger. Dent. 4:12, 13; 5:22. They were separated from all other laws. Ex. 25:10, 16, 21; 26:33. And they are that law which the apostles pointed to in the New Testament in order to convince men of sin. "Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." Rom. 7:7. "Behold thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, . . . which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. Thou, therefore, which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that teachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?" Rom. 2:17-22.
None can misunderstand that the apostle in these two texts speaks of the ten commandments. And this is the very law which even under the new covenant stops every mouth, and makes all the world guilty before God. Rom. 3:19, 20. The same is proved by James 2:10, 11.
This law the Lord now proposes to write in the hearts of his believing children, that they may be able to love the law of God. Then it is not a yoke of bondage unto them to obey the Lord; for they have "received the spirit of adoption," and183can say with the apostle, "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:3.
Those who thus with the mediator of the new covenant learn to say, "I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart" (Ps. 40:8), are the children of God. They are the children of the covenant; Acts 3:25; the Israel of God; Gal. 6:16; the people of God, and the Lord "will be to them a God." Heb. 8:10.
The next condition in the new covenant which is just as necessary to salvation as the first, is to know the Lord. So soon as our faculties are developed, and we have personal responsibility, so soon must we seek personal fellowship with the Father and the Son in order to be saved. 1 John 1:3. Thus testifies our Saviour: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent," John 17:3. And the prophet testifies of the children of the new covenant: "And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children." Isa. 54:13; Gal. 4:26.
With this agree the words of the beloved apostle: "I write unto you fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. . . . I write unto you little children, because ye have known the Father." 1 John 2:13. The children of the new covenant need not teach one another to know the Lord; for no one can become a member of the new covenant until he knows the only true God, and believes in his Son, our Saviour. Heb. 8:11.
Then follows the last blessed proposition in the new covenant,—God "will be merciful to their unrighteousness." Heb. 8:12. This blessed promise belongs certainly to those who love the law of the Lord, and believe in his dear Son, those who "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12.
May the Lord bless his word in your heart, kind reader, and make it a living word by his good Spirit. And may you willingly open the door to Him who stands and knocks, that you may overcome, even as he also overcame (Rev. 3:20, 21), and soon with the "Israel of God" "receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." 1 Pet. 5:4.
IS THE DECALOGUE A LAW FOR CHRISTIANS?
By Leonard Bacon
I FIND, of late, among divines of good repute for learning and soundness in the faith, a new way—or what seems to me a new way—of talking about the Old Testament, and especially about the Decalogue. Perhaps I misunderstand the talk, but if I do there is some danger that others may misunderstand it also, and be led astray. It seems to be implied that those ancient Scriptures, though "given by inspiration of God," and authoritative before the coming of Christ, are now obsolete; and that no precept or principle which they hold forth is to be regarded as a rule of duty for Christians, unless it is distinctly reaffirmed by Christ or his apostles. The opinion which I have in view is something like this: Law characterizes the Old Testament; but the New Testament is love and liberty. The one is mandatory and condemnatory, the other is evangelical. The Old Testament prohibits and restrains, it has to do with overt actions, its tone is, Thou shalt not; while the New Testament is spirit and life, requiring positive love to God and to man, and leaving every disciple to work out, by his own judgment under divine guidance, all the details of duty. The Old Testament is Shemitic, national, temporary; while the New Testament is cosmopolitan and enduring—a revelation for the human race as needing to be redeemed.
I have not intentionally exaggerated the opinion which I have been trying to represent; though, for the sake of making my argument impersonal, I have abstained from attempting to quote anybody's language. Be it that nobody has expressed, be it that nobody holds exactly the opinion which I have stated, I may nevertheless express my own views of the Old Testament by setting them in contrast with views which seem to be coming into vogue, and against which I desire to protest. I have certain things to say concerning one distinctive and pre-eminent feature of the Old Testament religion; namely, the ten commandments; and I begin with a fundamental proposition.
1. The Old Testament Scriptures are the record of a revelation from God to men. I raise no question here concerning the nature or the extent of the inspiration which the New Testament ascribes to the Old. I do not undertake to whether certain narratives in those ancient books are to be regarded as history, or as apologue and parable. Take even the lowest ground consistent with our Lord's affirmation that "salvation is of the Jews," or with the common belief of Christians through all the centuries that the sacred books of the Israelitish nation are better and richer than the Vedas, or the Zendavesta—take the lowest ground consistent with the reverent esteem in which the church of Christ has always held these Scriptures—and my proposition will stand: The Old Testament is, in some honest meaning of words, the record of a revelation from God to men. Not to the Jews only, or the Hebrew tribes, but to all to whom it comes, it reveals God as a creative intelligence, and will. Not for one nation only, but for all nations, it recognizes and illuminates the fact of sin, and tells how sin comes into the world. Not for the Israelite only, but for Gentiles also—for the Greek, the German, the Chinese, the Zulu—it reveals God's hatred of sin, and his persistent designs of mercy to mankind. In Eden, in the story of the deluge, in the story of the fire that fell on Sodom, in the story of Abraham, in the story of Egypt, and of Israel's deliverance, there is a revelation of God not for Shemitic people only in the dawn of history, but for all people in all ages. The revelation is for us in the broad light of this nineteenth century, as well as for those who lived and died in the centuries before Christ's coming.
2. One characteristic of the Old Testament revelation is that it is Law, a revelation of duty. Long ago it was said by a Jewish defender of Moses against a scoffing Gentile (I quote from memory), "Other lawgivers have represented religion as one of the virtues; our lawgiver has taught us to include all virtue in religion." The revelation given to the chosen people was designed not merely to distinguish and separate them from all other people, but also to make them morally better than other nations. While it gave them the grand conception of a holy God, loving all that is right, and hating all evil, it was designed also to make them morally intelligent, discerning between the evil and the good. The Israelite "made his boast in the law;" God had given him a law to be obeyed, and obedience to that law was his religion. He could sing, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, . . . the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." To him the ecstasy of devout affection was: "Oh, how love I thy law!" Doubtless there is an evangelical element in that ancient revelation—many an intimation of divine forgiveness—many a prelusive beam of the light which streams from the cross of Christ, but law preparatory to the Gospel is distinctive of the Old Testament, even as Gospel, God reconciling the world to himself, is distinctive of the New Testament.
3. Recognizing the Old Testament, then, as containing a revelation from God to men, and as having for its distinctive character the revelation of a Divine law, I recognize at the same time another fact equally obvious. That Hebrew Bible contains also a law, or rather an extended system of laws, which was never designed to be of universal obligation. Without detracting at all from the veneration due to those ancient Scriptures, we may freely admit that the civil laws given to that nation of which Moses was the divinely commissioned legislator, as well as the laws which established and guarded the peculiar system of national worship, were never designed to have the authority of law over any other than that peculiar people. Great mistakes have been made by attempting to interpret and enforce those laws as a rule of duty for all mankind.
Looking then for the universal and the permanent in what we may distinguish as the pre-Christian revelation, I find the story of Sinai, and of the ten commandments. Standing in imagination before the awful Mount, I ask myself, is this a revelation of God for man through all the ages? Does the voice out of the thick darkness proclaim what God requires of men as human, and what all men ought therefore to know and obey? Is there any such opposition between the New Testament and the Old, that we are required or even permitted to regard these commandments as having no authority over us?
Observe the place which the Decalogue holds in the pre-Christian religion, and judge whether it is not fundamental also to Christianity. There is no Gospel which does not pre-suppose a broken law; and these ten commandments, "summing up in their rugged sententiousness all human duty, and compelling every conscience to recognize them in their spirit and essence as the universal and immutable law of God," are what the distinctively Christian revelation pre-supposes. I may be permitted to repeat here what I said some years ago in another connection.
"All else in the Mosaic legislation, whether civil or ritual, is auxiliary to the fundamental and central law of those ten commandments. Those 'ten words' were the great 'testimony' which God gave to his own Israel; the tablets of granite from Sinai, on which they were graven for perpetual remembrance, were the 'tables of testimony,' the ark, or coffer, in which the records, not of perishable papyrus from Egypt, but of enduring rock, were laid up as the most precious and venerable of national muniments, was 'the ark of the testimony.' It was also 'the ark of the covenant;' for 'the tables of the law were the tables of the covenant,' and 'the testimony'—the ten awful words—was itself the covenant,' . . . The one design running through every precept, and every institution of the Mosaic system, is, that the chosen people, the kingdom of priests unto God, may be guarded against corrupting and debasing influences; may feel on every side, and in every movement the pressure of God's authority, and may be trained by habits of personal purity, and by all the significant ritual of the national worship, into obedience to the immutable and universal duties of which the ten commandments are the revelation."—[Boston Lectures, 1871, pp. 178, 179.
If, then, there is anything permanent and universal in the Old Testament—anything which Christianity assumes and incorporates into itself—it is the law of God in the Decalogue. Our Lord himself said to an inquirer, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments;" and, to show that he meant the ten commandments, he recited five of them. So the apostle Paul, writing to Gentile Christians, who had been before their conversion, "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise"—writing expressly to assure them that Christ had "broken down the middle wall of partition" between Jew and Gentile, and had "abolished the law of commandments contained in ordinances"—refers them to the ten commandments by citing one of them as "the first commandment with promise." Conversion to Christ from heathenism was conversion to the Decalogue. "Christian consciousness," through all the centuries, venerates the Decalogue, incorporates it into catechisms and liturgies, inscribes it on tablets in places of worship, and prays in solemn litanies for grace to keep each and every one of these commandments.
If anything in the Old Testament is a divine proclamation to all mankind, it is that "Law of the Lord" which was proclaimed from Sinai. Yet we are assured that one of the ten commandments was nothing more than the enactment of a statute for one nation, and is of no force under the Gospel. Is it so?—Rev. Leonard Bacon, D. D., in Christian Union.
The Path of Duty
The path of duty in this world is the road to salvation in the next.
Teaching Children to Read and Talk
The London Times very wisely says: "Young people ought to be taught to read with emphasis, and to talk with something like freedom and grace. Both these accomplishments are best acquired from parents and older friends—that is, if the said parents really are on true parental terms with their children, which is not always the case.
There are parents who neither converse with their own children nor allow them to talk in their presence. They leave their children to the school-room teachers, or to teach one another, and so acquire a community of family failings. Or they think they have done their best when they set a child down to pore for days together over some foolish tale. Bad tricks of reading and talking are thus early learnt, and scarcely ever quite got rid of."