“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the 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 showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” Exodus 20:2, 4-6.ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.2

The First Commandment forbids the having of any other god than the Lord; and so calls upon all to have God alone, and Him with all the heart, and all the soul, and all the mind, and all the strength.ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.3

Thus the First Commandment requires all creatures to worship only the true God; and the Second Commandment forbids the worshiping of Him in any but the true way.ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.4

The First Commandment forbids the having of any false gods; the Second Commandment forbids the having of the true God in a false way.ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.5

It is thus forbidden to worship God, or to think of Him, under any form or representation of any kind whatever. This is made clear by the word of the Lord in Deuteronomy 4. Having described how God came down upon Mount Sinai and spoke to the people out of the midst of the fire, declaring the Ten Commandments, it is remarked especially: “Ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude.”ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.6

It is not suggested that there was no similitude there. There were similitudes: multitudes of the host of heavenly angels were there; four-winged and four-faced cherubim were there; six-winged bright seraphim were there; Christ was there; and the glory of God, which was like devouring fire, was there.ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.7

But all this glory, and all these similitudes, were completely hidden from any eye of man by the “blackness, and darkness, and tempest: that enveloped the whole mount. For “Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke;” and “the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace,” which formed a “thick cloud upon the mount,” a cloud of “thick darkness;” and the voice of God was heard “out of the midst of the darkness.”ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.8

Now, why was it that this wonderful scene of glory, even the brightness of the glory itself, was so completely hidden from the eyes of the people? Here is the answer: “Ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, the likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them.” Deuteronomy 4:15-19.ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.9

If the people had been allowed that day to see any similitude, or any figure, on Sinai, they would inevitably have formed a likeness of it, as a means of their worshiping God. If they could have seen but the wings of the cherubim or seraphim, they would have used winged creatures, or the likeness of them, as a means of their worshiping God. And even though they had seen no figure or similitude, yet if only they had seen the brightness of the glory, then they would have employed the brightness of the glory, then they would have employed the brightness of the sun or the moon, or the stars, as symbols, representations, by which they would offer worship to the true God.ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.10

Nor would they have taken these representations which they would have made as of themselves gods, so as to worship the images or representations themselves; but would have used them as visible symbols, as aids in fixing their attention upon God, the better and more exactly to worship Him. And they would have claimed all the time that, in this, they were worshiping the true God, and that such worship was true worship of God.ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.11

But all such idea as this, even all possibility of such idea, was utterly excluded by the Lord himself, in enveloping the whole grand array and glorious scene in impenetrable darkness. And then, by this fact, and in telling them why He did it, He gave His own clear interpretation of His own Second Commandment, and the plainest possible instruction to men as to how to observe it. In this the Lord himself has given, in the plainest and most forcible way, instruction to all people, that in the worship of God no conceivable form or similitude can be used in any way, or to any extent whatever. And thus there was said at Sinai precisely what Jesus said to the woman at the well, neither more nor less: that “God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.12

God is Spirit, and is to be only spiritually discerned, and, therefore, can be worshiped only in spirit and in truth.ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.13

He can be worshiped only in truth as in spirit, because it is only by His word, which is the truth, that men can know what is true and acceptable worship. No man can know God except by revelation; and God must be worshiped strictly according to His own revelation: otherwise He is not worshiped at all.ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.14

This will be further considered next week.ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.15

“Decadence of Religious Papers” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 78, 14, p. 216.

ANY one who has had any opportunity for extensive notice of the religious papers of the United States in the last ten or fifteen years, can not but be struck with the general drift away from religion. Papers which formerly were distinctly religious and deservedly the leading ones, are now distinctly secular; and, where religion is touched, it is in a merely perfunctory way, rather than from any deep conviction of the real value of religion.ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.1

This change has now become so marked that the secular papers themselves are commenting upon it. The New York Sun of February 10 discusses “the decadence of the professionally religious paper.” The Sun takes this up because other papers had remarked the same thing. It says that “denominational organs which once were powerful and of great prosperity give every evidence now of sadly declined fortunes; and magazines devoted especially to religious and theological discussion have lost their attraction even for the most serious public.”ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.2

Further, the Sun says: “This is the more remarkable because interest and inquiry concerning questions of religion were never more active than they are now. Of the voluminous correspondence coming to us, the subject which engages the greatest part devoted to any single theme is religion.... It appears, then, that the decadence of the professional paper and periodical can not be due to any lapse of interest in the subject of religion. It would be easy for us to fill the whole Sun with manifestations of the deepest and most earnest interest and solicitude.”ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.3

And then the Sun, in its own vigorous way, exposes the true cause of this notable decadence, in the following truthful words: “Unquestionably the old foundations of religious faith have been shaken or completely destroyed in many minds thoroughly imbued with the religious sentiment. In place of that faith has come in a critical spirit, even in those who were most alarmed at its approach and most earnest in combating it, provoked by the scientific method of treating the Bible, and the miracles, whose denial as facts of history leaves Christian theology without a basis on which to stand. This method, too, is now pursued by other than avowed enemies of the religion which it undermines so completely. It is adopted and cultivated in the theological seminaries and in pulpits of Christian churches. All the other infidels since time began have not done a tithe of the damage to religious faith, to faith in the supernatural, which has been accomplished during the last generation by this school nurtured in the Christian Church itself.”ARSH April 2, 1901, page 216.4

March 26, 1901

April 9, 1901