The Rule of Life and LOve

Front matter

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Class f 7 / . a4 Book, 73 General Theological Seminary Library Chelsea Square, New York

Chapter II The History Of The Decalogue

HisTORY OF THE DIFFERENT VERSIONS : I The Mosaic origin of the Decalogue discussed Reply to various objections.

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PAGE II The charter of Jehovah’s covenant with Israel. 32 III Substance and Contents of the Decalogue . ee 7 Its function as an instrument of moral education . 37 IV The Decalogue in Christian teaching . re ees V_ And in Liturgical Use. = : : 2 2 43 VI Arrangement and division of the Commandments. 47 Additional note (see p. 47). 2 - : = = §o CHAPTER III

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT RELATION OF RELIGION To Moratirty ° 3 _ : . 53 I Doctrinal truths implied in the Commandment. 54 (i) The Divine personality . e = : rere. (ii) The grace of Jehovah . ; . 2 ~ g6 (iii) Individual responsibility . . : : “i es8 (iv) The true end of man . 3 : : 2 II Relation of the first to the second ‘ Word’. 63 The knowledge of God the basis of duty. cog OS (i) The obligation of repentance . : : 20 (ii) The obligation of faith . 2 : ; : 71 (iii) The call to devotion 3 4 < : : 75

III The Life of devotion: means thereto— Thanksgiving 5 : : c : Ra is: Detachment z a : . = : ee Active lovingkindness . - ‘ ‘. = ee Prayer . R : : : : : oe aS,

CHAPTER IV THE SECOND COMMANDMENT THE USE oF IMAGES IN WorsHIP K : 3 st BE

CONTENTS XV PAGE Brier SURVEY OF THE USE OF IMAGES, ETC., IN THE CURIS- TIAN CHURCH 83 I The sin denounced in this Commandment— Unworthy conceptions of Deity 85 II Positive duties implied in the Commandment— (1) The duty of holy fear 88 (2) The duty of acceptable worship 93 CHAPTER V THE THIRD COMMANDMENT THE Duty or Hoty FEAR AND THE SACREDNESS OF SPEECH 99 The Title ‘ Logos’ and its bearing upon Christian Life IOI Practical Duties in regard to the Use of Speech— ' (i) The right use of an oath 103 (ii) The offence of profan> swearing . : , 105 (iii) The duty of reverence 33: .he things of God 107 (iv) The sin of unrestrained critic'sm . 108 The Warning which closes the Commandment 109 CHAPTER VI THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT JHE GROUND OF THE FouRTH COMMANDMENT 113 Jewish Observance of the Sabbath Ii4 The Christian View : 115 Elements in the True Life of Man— (i) The law of work : - : 3 118 Modern social conditions: the duty of the State 119 (ii) The law of consecration or worship 121 (iii) The law of recreation . 124 (iv) Sunday a day of bounty and beneficence 127 The Promise Attached to the Commandment 128 National Aspect of Sunday Observance 128

XVI CONTENTS

CHAPTER VII THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT

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PROMINENCE IN Curist’s TEACHING OF THE SECOND TABLE OF THE DECALOGUE . . 4 ‘ , "| ea I Reciprocal duties of parents and children . - 133

II Extension of the idea of parentage. : - =a

III The principle of Authority— Its ground . 2 : - = “ 2 a Its essential character in the Church and in the State 139

IV The sacredness of national life— Deference due to the State. - é 3 - Jae Were the first Christians ‘ unpatriotic ’ ? ; . Tag Reasons for their antagonism to the State é i 4 The true functions of the State . : . - * tag And of Christian citizens . - . : : 146

CHAPTER VIII THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT

TWoFoLp ASPECT oF THE LAW OF JUSTICE : - + 150 THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST . . 5 : . ° «| 35a I Different degrees of anger reproved by Christ > I5n% The function of resentment. : - 5 «> 5 II The discipline of anger ‘ . A . + 152 - Its due measure and rightful objects . 2 + 154

III Questions raised— The lawfulness of war. S . ° : - 156 And of capital punishment . : ° . eee HY. / The sin of suicide , ‘ gees» : + 157

Contents

IV Christ’s exposition of the Commandments

Three typical forms of Christian endeavour .

The meaning, motive and pattern of almsgiving _V_ Bearing of the Commandment upon social problems

Chapter I The Rule Of Life And Love

HERE are two sayings of Christ which, taken together, seem to give us the right point of view from which the study of the Decalogue should be approached. The first is that injunction to imitate God which occurs in the Sermon on the Mount, Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father 1s perfect.1 Man’s true life consists in an ever-growing likeness to God: likeness in activity, likeness in character; and since this resemblance depends upon knowledge, and knowledge is impossible without love,? we learn that, for a Christian, life is love. It is love that imparts to man that God-likeness which is the goal of his development.* The second passage which claims attention is our Lord’s reply to the young ruler who asked Him concerning that which is good. Christ’s answer to the inquiry was, If thou wouldest enter into life, keep the commandments,* His meaning being further defined by a reference to the precepts of the second table of the Decalogue. We are thus led to think of the ten commandments as

3 Matt. v. 48. * z John iv. 8. 3 Augustine, de moribus ecclesiae, xxiii.: ‘ Fit per caritatem ut conformemur Deo.’ 4 Matt. xix. 17. 1 the divinely given Rule of Life and Love. The end of religion is a certain character, in virtue of which man draws near to God and is enabled to ‘ walk’ with Him. In the Decalogue God sketches, as it were, the main outlines of the life to which He calls man—the life of union or friendship with Himself. By keeping the commandments we enter upon the path of life. By keeping the commandments we manifest the reality of our love to God in Christ.!_ It is, in fact, by a resolute dedication of our will to goodness—by aiming at a certain character—that we respond to Christ’s invitation, Follow Me, His appeal is always directed to man’s will, rather than to his intellect or emotion. His benediction rests on them that hear the word of God, and keep zt. In days when there is a tendency to over-value knowledge and thought, and even to glorify mere impulse, it is well to remind ourselves that righteousness is the end of all God’s gifts to man—that on which He has set His heart, that for which He works in providence, that for which He has redeemed the world. The supreme end of religion is the formation of strong and holy character; and the mere fact that the Decalogue holds so prominent a place in the Bible is a challenge to us to inquire whether goodness holds the place it ought to occupy in our aims and endeavours ; whether in our religious life we are setting other things— the satisfaction of our intellect, the advancement of our church or even our party, the stirring of our emotions or the soothing of our perplexities—above the one thing needful; above character ; above godliness,

I

The Decalogue has had a history concerning which something will be said in the next chapter. In its present form it obviously contains much more than a mere outline of duty. The moral precepts comprised in it are rooted in certain revealed truths of religion. Accordingly they are to be studied, in the first instance, as a revelation of Almighty God: of His nature, His character, His purpose for mankind.

1. The Decalogue, then, is to be regarded as a Revelation of God. It proclaims what He is, what He loves, what He has wrought for the salvation of man, what He requires of His creatures.

Behind the Decalogue lies the history of the great deliverance of Israel from Egypt. The Exodus was a real intervention of God in human history, in which He manifested His character and His relation toman. Not merely through the spoken word of His accredited messengers and servants, but through action He made Himself known to the people ef His choice. As a matter of historical fact, He took Him a nation from the midst of another nation by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors.1 The Hebrew nation was the living and permanent monument of this divine display of grace and power. Israel was chosen out of the world and separated from the heathen nations that it might hear the voice, and learn the will, of the living God. The history of the deliverance, in fact, impressed upon the ransomed people three great truths of religion: the unity of God as the supreme and incomparable object of worship ; the holiness of God as the Source and Guardian of the moral law ; the redemptive grace of God as a Being in Whom are united infinite power and lovingkindness. These truths are taken for granted in the precepts of the entire law and

1 Deut. ive 34.

in the spiritual teaching of the prophets. They are expressly indicated in the preamble to the Decalogue: both in the divine Name which stands in the forefront, J am Jehovah, and in the reference to the historical deliverance which formed the foundation-stone of Israel’s national history. The ten commandments, then, are delivered to man by a Being Who has a supreme claim on his fear, his gratitude and his obedience ; the obligations which they impose are those befitting a people which has been ransomed from bondage, and lifted by an act of divine grace out of its natural condition into a position of liberty and sonship. The Redeemer Who claims allegiance is also a righteous God. If He condescends to visit man in his helplessness and lowliness, it is that He may raise him into spiritual fellowship with Himself. The call of duty thus comes to us with the force of a personal appeal—the appeal of love. He Who bids us be holy for He is holy reveals the glory of His character as a motive constraining us to obedience. Each of the first five commandments has a sanction, either prefixed or added to a moral precept, which recalls some aspect of Jehovah’s character and work. The first commandment is in form as well as in substance the appeal of the divine Deliverer to the people which He has redeemed and which He calls to holiness. I am Jehovah thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: He to whom thou must ever look for salvation and grace to help in time of need. The second ‘ word’ makes mention of the divine “ jealousy ’—that fire of outraged love which cannot witness unmoved the rebellion or aversion of those whom Jehovah has borne on eagles’ wings and has brought unto Himself.1 The third teaches that Jehovah is a holy God Who will not

1 Exod. xix. 4.

suffer His glorious and fearful Name,! His revealed character, to be lightly regarded or dishonoured. The fourth exalts Him as a gracious Being Who has thoughts of peace and refreshment for His ‘ desert-wearied people’; Who leads them gently by the hand of the shepherds of His flock to blessedness and rest.2 The fifth recalls the divine bounty and goodness which brought the seed of Abraham to their promised country, which is the glory of all lands.* Thus Israel’s call to service and obedience is founded on the character of Jehovah. He is not only a God of perfect holiness, but a God_(of infinite grace, requiring much of His creatures, but giving what He commands. In adopting the Hebrew people and liberating them from servitude, Jehovah was bringing an enslaved and degraded race into a filial relationship to Himself, and the Decalogue is a kind of symbol or sacrament of this change in Israel’s status. It is calculated by its references to the lovingkindness manifested in _ the Exodus to deliver men from the temper of servile fear and to train them in the spirit of devotion and love. The disclosure of Jehovah’s character appeals directly to the heart of man; it touches the springs of action and motive. Thus by the discipline of the law Israel was gradually prepared to receive the great commandment in which the whole jaw was briefly comprehended: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.4 In the events of the Exodus, then, we see the God of Israel educating His people for the life of divine triendship by manifesting Himself as the supremely worthy object of its love. This self-disclosure, recorded in the

1 Deut. xxviii. 58. ® See jer.*xxix’ rr; Isa. bxtit.. 7T.

4 Deut. vi. 5. Cp. Iren. iv. 16. 3, where God is described as ‘ praestruens hominem per decalogum in suam amicitiam.’

Decalogue, was, speaking historically, the starting-point of a higher religion.

2. The Decalogue may also be studied in its relation to the Law of Nature, which it presupposes and interprets. Its various precepts embody the leading and primary principles of natural piety, justice and equity. The existence of the Law of Nature is taken for granted in Scripture, and is attested alike by the universal consent of nations and by the consciences of individual men. By early Christian writers this Law is boldly identified with the Decalogue. Irenaeus, for example, declares that in His dealings with the Hebrew people, ‘ God did at first instruct them by means of those natural precepts which from the beginning He had implanted in men, that is to say, by means of the Decalogue; and He required of them nothing beyond this.’ ‘The patriarchs,’ he adds, ‘ had the righteousness of the Decalogue engraved on their hearts and minds, inasmuch as they loved the God Who made them, and refrained from all injustice to their neighbour.’1 The essential elements of morality, according to this view, pre-existed in the very constitution of man. The moral law, in its large outlines, was recognized by the light of reason; it was not a matter of express revelation or of social tradition, but was, as St. Paul points out, written in the heart and conscience of God’s rational creatures.2_ In the Decalogue these primary principles and duties, which had been sanctioned and attested by the universal consent of mankind, were re-pub-

Tren. iv. 15.1; 16. 3. Cp. Tertullian, adv. Judaeos, 2: ‘Denique ante legem Moysi scriptam in tabulis lapideis, legem fuisse contendo non scriptam, quae naturaliter intelligebatur, et a patribus custodiebatur.’ T. Aquinas, Summa, i. ii®. 99. 2 ad 1: ‘Sicut gratia praesupponit naturam, ita oportet quod lex divina praesupponat legem naturalem.’

lished in a clear and permanent form, to serve as a kind of groundwork upon which human life might be built up anew and developed in accordance with the original purpose of the Creator. The life of friendship or communion with God was that to which all men, as men,.were called. Again to quote Irenaeus, ‘ it was by way of training men beforehand for such a life that the Lord Himself uttered to all mankind alike the words of the Decalogue ; and for this reason those precepts remain equally in force amongst us, receiving extension and enlargement, but not annulment, through His advent in the flesh.’!

The reasons for this solemn re-publication of the Law of - Nature are not far to seek. The Hebrews through the infiuence of their idolatrous surroundings in the land of Egypt, the heathen through continual unfaithfulness to the light of reason, had lost any clear and vital perception of the ivine Nature and Will. Knowing God, the Gentiles glorified Him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their yeasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened.2 Together with the knowledge of God, the apprehension of the law of righteousness gradually became dim and evanescent. In the language of Scripture, Sin entered into the world,’ and the consequence of sin was a widespread moral deterieration, which seems in part at least to have been promoted rather than retarded by man’s advance in civilization.‘

4 This is touched upon by Darwin, Descent of Man, p. 46. The following passage from the Discourses of John Smith, the Cambridge Platonist, well illustrates the point :—-

‘Reason in man being Lumen de lumine, alight flowing from the Fountain and Father of lights, and being, as Tully phraseth it, pariicipata similitudo vationis aeternae (as the Law of Nature, the law written in man’s heart, is participatio legis aeternae in rationals cycatuva) it was to enable man to work out for himself all those

Here we touch upon facts of universal experience ; facts which form the basis of the whole idea of a divine redemption. The entire movement of which the Bible is the record ——the divine movement towards man for his deliverance and renewal—was occasioned by the actual situation in which our race was involved. Accordingly, in an authoritative revelation of the divine will the foundation of the redemptive work was laid. Just as the events of the Exodus manifested the purpose and the character of Israel’s Redeemer, so the delivery of the Decalogue lifted once more into prominence that Law of Nature which was in danger of being ignored or forgotten, and vindicated once for all the supreme principle of religion that the moral law is the link that unites God to man, the essential condition for fellowship with Deity.

It is this which gives eternal significance to the ancient story of Israel’s redemption. ‘God brought the people out of Egypt with power,’ writes Irenaeus, ‘ in order that man’ _ (not merely Israel, but mankind in general) ‘ might once

more become a disciple and follower of God.’ At the same time the Decalogue supplemented the Law of Nature in three ways. It extended the range of morality so as to embrace the region of thought, motive and desire, demanding an inward and voluntary consecration as well as an outward conformity to law. Again, by thus raising indefinitely the standard of moral action, it necessarily kindled in man the sense of shortcoming and the longing for a power that would enable him to satisfy the divine requirement. Lastly it coupled with the requirement of obedience an express declaration of the redemptive love of Israel’s Redeemer, pointing, as it were, to Him Who gives the Law as the source of grace to fulfil it. i

3. Thirdly, the Decalogue may be regarded as essentially a Law of Love. This is explicitly declared by our Lord in His memorable reply to the question, Which is the great commandment of the Law ?* but it seems to be also suggested by the prefatory words, I am the Lord thy God—an expression which makes a direct and personal appeal to man’s heart. In substance the Decalogue anticipates the teaching of the new commandment of love. Just as it reenforces the Law of Nature, so it comprehends all moral duties that are involved in the love of God and of our neighbour. Indeed, since Love is the fulfilling of the Law,? the Decalogue in some sense comprehends those special precepts which seem to be added to the Law by Christ. Even the duty which seems most distinctive of the Gospel—the call to deny self, to take up the cross and to follow Christ—is implicitly contained in it, inasmuch as wholehearted love to God includes a perfect willingness to do and to endure whatever love enjoins. 'We must remember that in speaking of the Law of Love as thc great commandment, our Lord seems to teach that it is great not merely in respect of the Being Who claims man’s obedience, but great also in the illimitable range of its moral content. To love God with all

* the heart and soul and mind demands the entire consecration of all faculties and all gifts: the regulation in accordance with a single principle of all life and action, As St. Bernard says, “The limit of love to God is to love Him without limit.’ 1

The appeal of love, I am the Lord thy God, is addressed in the first instance to the people of God’s especial choice, who (as their own prophets bore witness) were bound by so deep an obligation of gratitude to the service of their Redeemer. But the God of Israel is also the Hope of all nations and the Saviour of the individual soul. The fersonal form of the commandments ‘ Thou shalt,’ ‘ Thou shalt not,’ implies the call not only of all, but of each, into fellowship with the Creator. We find a marked approach towards this individualizing of religion and ethics in the Book of Psalms. Here the national and theocratic point of view tends to disappear and to give way to that of the individual soul. The Psalmist addresses the God of his fathers and of his nation as ‘ My God.’ To him religion consists in a personal relationship of love; it means the discovery that Jehovah cares for the individual soul in its frailty and solitariness ; the consciousness that God alone is the satisfying object of the soul’s thirst, its refuge, its portion for ever. Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and

1 Cp. John Smith, Discourses, ‘The Excellency and Nobleness of True Religion,’ ch, 2 :—‘ By self-denial I mean, the soul’s quitting all its own interest in itself, and an entire resignation of itself to Him as to all points of service and duty: and thus the soul loves itself in God, and lives in the possession not so much of its own being as of the Divinity ; desiring only to be great in God, to glory in His light, and spread itself in His fulness, to be filled always by Him, and to empty itself again into Him; to receive all from Him, and to expend all for Him: and go to live ee as its own, but as God’s,’

alae i

THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE Lz there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee ? The very’ word Thou in the Decalogue conveys an individual appeal; it places all men on a level, and testifies that all alike, whatever be their rank and condition, are dependent on God’s bounty and summoned to His service ; 1 it calls each one into the life of divine friendship, and opens to each the door of moral opportunity.

4. Finally we may study the Decalogue as a ae of Liberty. When it was first delivered to the Hebrew tribes it wore this aspect: it formed a kind of charter of their enfranchisement from the bondage of Egypt. The God Who made known His will and purpose in the moral law

-was He Who had brought them out of Egypt with a stretched out arm and with great judgments. When He laid upon His people the merciful yoke of the law and brought it anto the bond of the covenant,? He was actually educating men and leading them onwards towards the freedom of the Spirit. The New Testament never allows us to overlook the typical significance of the historic deliverance which welded the loosely organized tribes into a strong nation. The bondage of Egypt was a type of the slavery of sin. The redemption of Israel foreshadowed the spiritual deliverance which was destined to be wrought in Christ. The presence of the Holy Spirit in man constitutes the perfect law of liberty. In the school of Jesus Christ man learned once for all that true freedom consists in the harmony of his will with that of God; that ‘ freedom’ implies ° liberty not to sin:® liberty to be and to do all that God

2 Ezek, xx. 37. 3 John viii. 34; Rom. vi. 6. 4 Jas. i. 25.

5 Cp. Augustine, de civ. Dei, xiv. 11: ‘ Arbitrium libertatis tunc est vere liberum cum peccatis non servit,’

wills: to fulfil in the spirit of love that law which is the self-disclosure of love.

II

The foregoing survey of the Decalogue in its different aspects : as a revelation of God, a re-publication of the law of nature, a law of love, a law of liberty, leads us next to consider the principles which ought to guide us in our interpretation of the several commandments and in our application of them to the circumstances of modern life.

1. First, we must ever remember that the Law is spiritual} It is a self-disclosure of Him Who is Spirit, and Who is quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.2 It demands no merely external conformity to rules of conduct, but the submission of the heart and will to the living claim of truth. We should notice that in the Old Testament itself a spiritual fulfilment of even ceremonial ordinances is enjoined. The Book of Deuteronomy, for example, expressly declares the moral significance of circumcision. The outward rite is the symbol of an inward and spiritual self-consecration to Jehovah? Again, all the precepts that inculcate acts of neighbourly kindness or humanity point beyond the letter of the law to a certain disposition or spirit seeking to imitate the lovingkindness of the divine King of Israel Himself.4 Regard is to be had not only to the rights, but also to the necessities, of the widow and the orphan, the poor and the stranger, nor are the claims of the brute creation overlooked. This feature is chiefly characteristic of Deuteronomy, but the Book of Leviticus is by no means wanting in passages of similar

8 Deut. x. 16; Jer. iv. 4; Rom. ii. 28, 29. 4 e.g., Exod. xxiii. 6, 5. Cp. Prov. xxv. ar, purport, culminating in the comprehensive injunction of Leviticus xix. 18, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The Old Testament thus itself anticipates that extension of the moral law which is characteristic of the Gospel. The aim and tendency of the law is plainly evident in the spiritual affections which find utterance in the Book of Psalms : that spirit of boundless devotion to God, that entire delight in His commandments which is the theme of such Psalms as the cxixth. These embody the very soul and substance of spiritual religion; they display the matured fruit of that long and severe legal ‘schooling through which Hebrew religion had to pass before it could attain its appro- ‘priate climax and crown in the Christian character, in the mind and likeness of Jesus Christ.1_ In Christ was finally manifested the consummation towards which the discipline of the law tended from the first: the self-oblation of a perfectly filial will.

We are then justified in saying that in the Decalogue was laid the foundation of the religion of the Spirit: that inward devotion to God and to the cause of His kingdom which has its root in ‘the great fixed law of moral right, ruling with no reserves over the inner and unseen life.’ Faith in God putting forth its blossom in the fulfilment of duty and bearing its fruit in the life of love—such is in brief the best idea we can form of a spiritual religion, claiming for God human life in its entirety, and teaching that all

1 Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People, p. 9, observes that Ps. cxix. represents the high-water mark of the religious feeling of the most religious people of antiquity. It is ‘a magnificent declaration of conformity to the will of God, i.e., of the desire to be in right relation to Him.’

3 See Dean Church’s beautiful book, The Discipline of the Christian Character.

duties are to be done as unto the Lord: in dependence on His grace and with an eye only to His will.

2. The Decalogue, then, is to be interpreted spiritually as regulating not only outward conduct and behaviour, but the inner life of thought, feeling and motive.

Another principle of interpretation which appears to be sanctioned by New Testament usage, is that the negative form of the commandments is intended to suggest positive precepts. The evil to be eschewed implies an ideal standard of right to be embraced. Conversely, those precepts which in form are positive (the fourth and fifth) imply prohibitions. This principle seems to be clearly indicated by our Lord in His brief reference to some of the commandments. In the prohibition of murder, not only is the passion of hatred or resentment which leads to it excluded, but the law of active charity even towards enemies is inculcated.

In the same way St. Paul implies that the eighth commandment lays down the principle of Christian generosity or beneficence.t Moreover, if the commandments deal | with effects, it is to be understood that causes are included : e.g., murder includes all vindictive anger, adultery all inordinate appetites of the flesh, etc. By analogy, in a precept which regulates relationship, other sides of the relationship are included. The fifth commandment, for example, includes duties of parents to children, superiors to inferiors, etc. This may be called the principle of extension or inclusion (synecdoche). In fact, the general obligation implied in each single commandment is applicable to all possible relationships of an analogous kind in which man can stand to his fellows, for Homo homini proximus.?

2_ Tren. iv. 13, 4. So Cicero, de Officits, iii. 6. 27, Says it is a ‘law of nature’ that each man should consult the interests of each,