THE SECOND COMMANDMENT
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or tiny likeness of any thing that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in th$ water under the earth: “Thou shalt not bow
down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shew*
mg mercy unto tnousanas oj tnem that love me
and keep my commandmentsEx. 20:b*6.
The Second Com
mandment is repeated, in
substance, twelve times in
the Old Testament.
It occurs, in substance,
eleven times in the New
Testament.
The penalty for break
ing it was death. Paul
says: “Covetousness is
idolatry.”
He also says: “We
know that no idol is any
thing in the world, and
that there is no God but
one.”
The worship of
image, or of God through
an image, is forbidden.
John suys: “Guard
yourselves from idolatry.”
Idolatry played an im
portant part in the an
cient apostacy. — Romans
1:22, 23.
The folly of idolatry
is shown in Isaiah 44:9-20.
Idolatry thrives in the
human heart. It abounds
everywhere today.
The artist lets us into
a heglected portion of
this commandment.
The father meditates
behind prison bars — the
children gather firewood
from the street. .-o
Other children are
pointing at them unkind
v Iy with accusing fingers
of shame. • ' . , ^
The sad, lonely wife
works and weeps in a
little house around the
corner.
The iniquity of the
father is being borne by
the children.
The little girl feels
keenly the shame, her
brother feels her sorrow
and shares the shame.
The father repents
and weeps, but all too
late.
Right living prevents
such scenes. Think, fath
ers, think! For their
sake—for God's sake think
now—and turn.
“WE HID AS IT WERE OUR FACES
FROM HIM”
OECAUSE He was "a man of sorrows and ac
^ auainted with grief.” That is ever the way; men
do not want to be troubled with your woes. Laugh,
and the world wiiy^ugh with you, but do not im
agine that it will shed tears because you weep; in
stead it will turn its back upon you, hide its face
from you, and pronounce you a depression and a
bore. We fail, perhaps, fully to realize how much of
the sadness and loneliness of Christ was due to this
lack of human sympathy. Even His own disciples
thought more of the position they were to occupy in
the coming kingdom than they did of his declaration
of all the tragedy that awaited Him at Jerusalem.
The fact that “He was despised and rejected of
men” was very largely due to his being “a man of
sorrows;” had He been a successful clown, or a tri
umphant conqueror, the crowd would have been
eager for his society, but it had no use for the
troubled, weary Rabbi. There is a wealth of comfort
in this verse for those of us who have something oi
the like experience. When the world closes its ears
to the recital of our woes, when even our friends
prove cold and unsympathetic, we can turn to One
who understands, because He knows, the sense of
loneliness and the pangs of heartache which oppress
us; One who will never fail us in our hour of need;
One whose tender love and loving tenderness will
be ample compensation for the indifference and re
jection of men. Burdened soul, do not in thy sorrow
seek comfort of the worldling!
“Go, tell it to Jesus. He knoweth thy grief;
Go, tell it to Jesus, He’ll send thee relief.”
-o
Christian faith does not say that everything is
right; it does not deny that the night is real and
dark. What Christian faith does say is that the
morning cometh. The darkness shall be light. The
burden shall be lifted. The hard experience which
we cannot understand, which seems to contradict not
only our own best plans but the purpose of God, shall
somehow work out into a good which we never
imagined.—George Hodges.
-0
That was an acute saying of Horace Mann: “The
problem is not the founding of the school, but Hie
finding of the schoolmaster.”