# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1900_S10
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

(For the LUTHERAN PIONEER.)
The First Commandment.

Which is the First Commandment?
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

What does this mean?
We should fear, love, and trust in God above

"all things.

The First Commandment is the greatest and
most important of all the commandments; it
is, in fact, the sum of the whole Law. He that
keeps this Commandment will keep all the
others, too; while he that sins against any of
the others sins also against the First Com-
mandment. As long as a person does not un-
derstand the First Commandment, so long he
will not be able to understand the others; for
it is a key to the whole Law of God.

The First Commandment is given us in the
form of a prohibition: ‘‘Thou shalt have no
other gods before me.”” He that says this is
the true God—'‘‘the Lord thy God,’”’ He calls
Himself. The Lawgiver is Jehovah, the eter-
nal, almighty Lord over all; it is the kind and
loving God, from whom all goodness flows; it
is our God, of whom we sing:

“Now thank we all our God
With heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom His world rejoices;
Who from our mother’s arms
Hath kept us on our way
With countless gifts of love,
And still is ours to-day.”*»-~—~—

Let us now enter somewhat upon the con-
sideration of this Commandment.

God forbids us to have other gods before
Him. Now, it goes without saying that in
reality there is only one God, and that is He
who says: ‘‘I am God, and there is none else’
(Is. 45, 22); yet, ever since the fall, men have
taken things and given them thatjhonor and
service which belongs to God alone, and thus
have made such creatures their gods. This
some have done and still do openly, others
secretly; by some it is done in a gross, by
others in a fine manner. But one is just as
much forbidden as the other, whether a man
openly bows his knee before an idol made of
wood, stone, silver, or gold, which he sin-
cerely believes to be a god, or whether he only
in heart gives divine honor and service to
some creature, and thus actually makes it
his god. ; ;

It would be a great mistake, were we to
think that only the blind heathen commits
idolatry. Idolatry is committed by everyone
who fears, loves, or trusts in any creature as
he should fear, love, and trust in God alone.
Luther says: ‘Whatever thy heart clings to
and trusts in, that is really thy god;” and if
now your heart clings to or trusts in any crea-
ture, then that creature is your god. There-
fore’ the Roman Catholic with all his worship
“of Mary and the saints and with all his trust
in ‘‘blessed’? statues, crucifixes, scapulas,

holy water, etc., is just as well an idolater as

the poor heathen who prays to his idol or trusts
in his fetish. The one as well as the other is
condemned by the words: ‘Thou shalt wor-
ship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt
thou serve’ (Matt. 4, 10). So also is idolatry
practiced by the Jews, Mohammedans, and
Unitarians, as well as by most of the so-called
**Secret Societies;’’ such as the Free Masons,
Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Daughters
of Rebecca, Daughters of Ruth, and many
others; for they all deny Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, and *‘whosoever denieth the Son,
the same hath not the Father’’ (1 John 2, 23).
Therefore, despite all their avowals to the con-
trary, the god of the Jews, Turks, Unitarians,
and ‘'Secret Societies’’ is not the true God,
but a creation of their own imagination.

Another gross form of idolatry is the denial
of God; for when God forbids us to have
other gods before Him, He thereby implies
that man shall worship Him as the Lord his
God. Ps. 14, 1, in speaking of this form of
idolatry, says: ‘‘The fool hath said in his
heart, There is no God. They are corrupt,
they have done abominable works.”’

Many examples of gross idolatry are given

in the Bible. Thus immediately after the giv-
ing of the Law, the Jews had Aaron to make
them a golden calf in imitation of the sacred
bullock whose worship they had seen in Egypt,
and when it was finished, they sacrificed to it
and worshiped it (Ix. 32). During the reign
of the wicked king Ahab, the Jews worshiped
the idol Baal (IKings 18). “Other idols men-
tioned in the Bible are: Moloch, Dagon, As-
tarte, Diana. 2

The old Egyptians and Phoenicians wor-
shiped the sun, moon, and stars, as well as ani-
mals of different.kinds. The ancient Greeks
and Romans had a whole host of imaginary
gods and goddesses to whom they prayed. —

But there is also a fine, secret kind of idola-
try. A man may, namely, outwardly confess
the true God and yet be an idolater at heart;
he may seem to be a good Christian and yet
in his heart worship an idol. Thus money is
an idol worshiped by many a so-called Chris-
tian. Oh, how many put their trust in the
power of money and love it more than they
do God and His will! Others trust in their
own wisdom and strength. Others seek their
happiness in the joys and pleasures, glories
and honors of this life. How often do not
parents idolize their children! How often
does not the fear of man crowd the fear of
God out of the heart! How often does not
the desire for man’s favor cause men to cast
away the favor of God!

But this is all idolatry; for in doing these
things man sets God aside, and fears, loves,
and trusts in creatures as he should fear, love,
and trust in God alone.

The rich young man who loved his riches
more than Jesus could have no part in Christ
(Matt. 19, 16). The rich man who only lived
to eat, drink, and dress, whose belly was his
god (Phil. 3, 19), lifted up his eyes in hell

(Luke 16, 19). Of the covetous man, the man
who craves after money and riches, we are
told that he is an idolater, and has no inherit-
ance in the kingdom of Christ and of God
(Eph. 5, 5). In condemnation of the inordi-
nate fear and love of man, Christ says: ‘Fear
not them which kill the body, but are not able
to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is
able to destroy both soul and body in hell....
He that loveth father or mother more than
me, is not worthy of me: and he that loveth
son or daughter more than me, is not worthy
of me’? (Matt. 10, 28. 37). The wise man
warns: ‘Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart; and lean not on thine own understand-
ing’’ (Prov. 3, 5). And of those who rely
upon the favor and strength of man and not
upon God, Jeremiah declares (17, 5): ‘‘Cursed
be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh
flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from
the Lord.’’ —

And now, dear reader, how about us? Are
we free from idolatry? Alas, no! We have
sinned and gone astray! But our comfort is:
‘The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth
us from all sin’’ (1 John 1, 7). ¥.J.L.

—_—_- o~<am> oo - =

(For the LUTHERAN PIONEER.)

From One of Our Colored Mission Schools.

In every school, as the reader will remem-
ber from his .own experience,. but especially
in a school attended by dear little colored
children, an endless variety of humorous in-
cidents occur, the color of the young humorist
often lending color to the witticism. The fol-
lowing are a few examples of recent occur-
rence:

In connection with the story of Abram, whom
the Lord bade to lift up his eyes and count the
stars, the question was put: ‘‘What did God
command Abram to do?’’

‘Dunno, sir!’’

“Well, what did He bid him lift up?’’

‘*His foots !”’

As the story proceeded and came to the point,
where God promises Abram that his seed shall
be as numerous as the stars, so that he could
not count them, it was asked: ‘‘God promised
Abram so many children and children’s chil-
dren, that he could not do what with them?”

‘“Reed them,’’ was the answer of an under-
fed little urchin.

While endeavoring to illustrate in a practi-
cal manner the fundamental truth, that 5 —1
equals 4, the following dialogue ensued be-
tween teacher and pupil:

“‘Suppose a farmer had five chickens in one
coop, and during the night a wicked man
would steal one, how many chickens would
the farmer yet find in the morning?”

“None !’” i

““None? How do you make that out?”

“Cause he’d done gone stoled them ane

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