_God spake all these words._ THE TEN WORDS OF GOD I. Those Ten Commandments were to the Jews the very utterance of the Eternal, and they hold in their grand imagination that the souls of all Jews even yet unborn were summoned to Sinai in their numbers numberless to hear that code; so that, in the E... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt have no other gods before Me._ THE FIRST COMMANDMENT I. This Commandment does not tell the Jews that the gods worshipped by other nations have no existence; it tells him that he must offer them no homage, and that from him they must receive no recognition of their authority and power.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them._ THE LAW OF WORSHIP I. A revelation of the will of God. 1. What is forbidden is not the culture of the plastic arts, but their abuse in furnishing symbols for purposes of devotion. Statuary is lawful, and painting is lawful; but sculptor a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain._ THE THIRD COMMANDMENT The name of God stands for Himself and for that which He has revealed of Himself, not for our thoughts about Him. It is not surprising that this great name was invested with a superstitious sanctity. Even the Jews us... [ Continue Reading ]
_Remember the Sabbath Day._ THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT I. The first word of the Fourth Commandment reminds us that the Sabbath Day was already established among the Israelites when the law was delivered on Sinai. That law created nothing. It preserved and enforced what God had already taught His peopl... [ Continue Reading ]
_Honour thy father and thy mother._ THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT I. The relationship in which we stand to our parents, a relationship based upon the fact that we owe our existence to them, that we are made in their image, that for so long a time we depend on them for the actual maintenance of life, and t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt not kill._ THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT I. That this Commandment was intended, as some suppose, to forbid the infliction of capital punishment, is inconceivable. The Mosaic law itself inflicted death for murder, Sabbath-breaking, and the selling of a Jew into slavery. The root of the Commandm... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt not commit adultery._ THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT I. What it forbids. 1. Unchastity in thought and desire (Matthew 5:28; Proverbs 6:18). 2. Unchastity in conversation (Ephesians 5:3). 3. Sensuality in all its forms and actions. II. What it requires. 1. To avoid temptation, by carefull... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt not steal._ THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT I. In this Commandment the institution of property is recognized and sanctioned by the authority of God. The institution of property is necessary-- 1. For increasing the produce of the earth; 2. For preserving the produce of the earth to maturity;... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt not hear false witness._ THE NINTH COMMANDMENT I. This Commandment is a recognition of those tribunals which are necessary to the peace and to the very existence of the State. II. In this Commandment there is a Divine recognition of the importance of the moral judgments which men pron... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt not covet._ THE TENTH COMMANDMENT I. The history of the world is stained and darkened by the crimes to which nations have been driven by the spirit of covetousness, Covetousness is forbidden not merely to prevent the miseries, and horrors, and crimes of aggressive war, but to train the... [ Continue Reading ]
_They removed, and stood afar off._ ISRAEL AND SINAI I. That all men as sinners must be brought into conscious contact with moral law. The guarantees of this conscious contact are found-- 1. In the law of our spiritual nature. 2. In the special Providence that is over us. 3. In the provisions o... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye shall not make Me gods of silver._ GOD’S VOICE, BUT NOT A FORM God’s voice. Indicative of the Divine personality. II. God’s abhorrence of idolatry. Our loftiest conceptions, embodied in the most costly and precious material forms, must fall short of Infinite perfectness. III. God’s love of s... [ Continue Reading ]
_In all places where I record My name, I will come unto thee._ THE GOSPEL IN EXODUS I. That God demands from His creature man reverent and intelligent worship. II. That such worship, to be acceptable to God, must always be associated with Divinely-appointed sacrifice. III. That such worship and... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt not build it of hewn stone._ THE ALTAR OF “UNHEWN STONE”: SIMPLICITY OF WORSHIP I. Ritualism is not a necessity of worship. There can be worship at the rough “altar of unhewn stones,” as well as in the temple where wealth has lavished its contributions and art exhausted its genius. Wor... [ Continue Reading ]