The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1880, Page 26

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‘The Lutheran Pioneer.

(For the ‘‘Lutheran Pioneer.’’) | Prayer to saints supposes them to be almighty
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me;” | 2nd all-knowing, in fact, like God. But they
are not. God only can hear and answer our
(Exodus 20, 3.) a ae z . sons i
prayers, even the most secret sighings of our
Oo} hearts.—It is heathenish and abominable to
The First Commandment. worship pictures of saints, or the so-called
sacred relics of their bodies, such as heads,
‘ hands, hair, teeth, all of which are a fraud.
There can be no doubt concerning the sin| Even God we should not worship by means of
forbidden in this commandment. ‘Thou shalt! pictures. He has forbidden the use of all
have no other gods before me,’’ saith God. As/ pictures and images for worship. ‘Thou shalt
there is but one true God, therefore we should} not make unto thee any graven image, or any
give to no thing, extepting the true God,| likeness of anything that is in heaven above,
either the whole or a part of that honor, | or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the
worship, service, praise, fear, love, and trust} water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow
which belong to God and which He justly} down thyself to them, nor serve them’ (Exod.
claims for Himself alone. These “other gods’’} 20, 4. 5.).
spoken of in the commandment are not true} Thirdly, we should not outwardly seem to
gods, but are various things considered and/ worship and serve the one true God and yet,
chosen by men to be their gods. Indeed, there|at heart, secretly seek and have other gods.
is no end to the number and variety of things | Most of those that are guilty of this sin are not
that may become the ‘‘other gods,” that is, | aware of their idolatry, and most of those that
idols of men. know it make light of this sin, though in wicked-
First, we should not reject the true God andj ness it is equal to the idolatry of the most
lace ‘‘other gods’’ in His stead. This is done} ignorant heathen. God is not content with the
y the heathen. The works of God and their} outward actions and appearance of man. He
own conscience convince them that there must will have man’s heart above all. It should
be a God, but they know Him not, or will not| have no other gods. Thus everything, beside
know Him. Hence, they either make unto|God, if we trust in it as we should in God
themselves gods of all shapes and sizes from} only, or if we fear and love it more than God,
different materials, from stone, wood, gold,|straightway becomes a god, an idol of the
silver and the like; or they consider the sun,}heart. Such things are money, friends, pa-
moon, and stars to be their gods; or they| rents, children, honor, pleasure, health, knowl-
choose certain animals, trees, or rivers to be/edge. Every thing of which man becomes
their gods. To these manufactured gods and} proud, and of which he boasts, is his idol. If
ds of their own choice they pray, make sacri-} riches, honor, or pleasure, become the joy and
ce, erect altars and temples, ascribing to them} treasure of man’s heart, and God and His
the works, power, and goodness of the true| word be not its only joy and delight, then the
God!—Other gods are placed in the stead of| former are his idols. Ifa man claims credit
the true God by all those that deny the exist-| and praise where they only belong to God; if
ence of a God. If we deny that there is a/he ascribes to his own wisdom, labor, skill, or
Creator of the world, then the world, or Na-| fortune what he owes to God’s mercy and en-
ture as they call it, must be its own maker, or} joys as a favor of divine goodness; if he for-
else be eternal. In both cases, the world, or} gets to ask God for every protection and bles-
Nature, must be divine, a god. If we deny
that there is a God to whom we owe life, every
blessing, all we do and accomplish, then all
honor and praise for our welfare and success
must be given tows, we become our own gods.
If God does not rule the world, nations and
men; if there be no God, whose command-
ments we must obey at the peril of being pun-
ished eternally, then man may live and do as
he chooses and is responsible to himself only.
Then the end of man’s life is only to serve
himself. In short, man must then be a god.—
The Mohammedans, the Jews of the present
time, the Unitarians and their kin, place an-
other god in the stead of the true God by deny-
ing the Son and Holy Ghost in the Godhead
and pretending to worship the Father only.
But they cannot porate. the Father without
also worshipping the Son and Holy Ghost.
Whosoever denieth the Son, hath not the
Father also’ -(1 John 2, 23.). ‘‘There are
three that bear record in heaven, the Father,
the Word (the Son), and the Holy Ghost: and
these three are one’’ (1 John 5, 7.). Accord-
ingly, their god is but a Fed of their fancy,
not the true God of the Bible.
Secondly, we should place no other god or
gods beside God and worship both. We should

to God for his mercies,—such a man makes
himself a god.

The first Commandment, like the others, does
not only forbid a sin, but also tells us what to
do. What then will it have us do? ‘Thou shalt
have no other gods before me,” are its words.
While forbidding us to have other gods, these
words as strongly mean to say: Thou shalt
have me only as thy God. We should be no
infidels, but believe in the true God, the Maker,
Preserver and Ruler of all things. We should
not have many gods, like the heathen, but Him
alone.—Dr. Luther explains the commandment
in his Smaller Catechism thus: ‘‘We should
fear, love, and trust in God above all things.’’
To have God alone as our God we must, in the
first place, fear Him above all things. We
must avoid sin and do His will, so that God be
not offended nor His anger provoked. We
should fear God as our kind Father, as one
whom we love so much that we avoid sin, be-
cause sin displeases Him, that we hate the
mere thought of offending such a dear Father,
and that we do His will and bidding; because
it pleases our Father so. We should fear and
obey God more than men. We should suffer

¢ persecution, loss of property, honor, and life,

not, therefore, engage in the worship of saints, |rather than offend wl Ro fear God, how-

. however great their piety, faith, and usefulness | ever, is not the same as to be afraid of God, of

in the kingdom of may have been. We} His curse and punishment. we avoid sin
should not pray to the saints for any help, re- ‘

i and try to keep the commandments on account
lief, protection; blessing. We should not in| of the punishment threatened to all evil-doers,
rayer to them give them praise and thanks

0 ‘ mp) then we fear the lash and rod, not God, whose
r blessings received, thinking that they had | unwilling and useless servants we would be.
‘heard the prayers. We should pray only to} Four: uy, we should love God above all
' God.’ This is an honor belonging to Him only. | things. e should love Him, not because He

sing, and then in due season to return thanks

rewards those that love Him; nor should we
love Him only so long as He seems to be kind
to us and then cease immediately to love Him,
when afHiction, want and troubles set in. We
should love God, because He is in Himself’ our
highest good, our greatest treasure, the joy and
delight of our souls. To have Him as a Father
and to enjoy His favor and love is greatest
happiness, even heaven on earth. We should,
therefore, love God for God’s sake as our great-
est treasure, the greatest object upon which we
may bestow our love, and the greatest thing to
be desired in Heaven and on earth. Ps. 73,
25. 26. We should love God, because ‘“‘ He
first loved us,’’ 1 John 4, 9. ‘*God so loved
the world’’—all men, all sinners and rebels
against God—‘‘ that He gave His only-begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish, but have eternal life’? (John 3,
16.). He is willing to grant pardon of sins to
all believers in His Son. He gives them His
Holy Spirit and His Word and sacraments.
He has in store for them eternal life.—To love
God is to value Him above all things, to de-
light in pleasing Him, and to be pleased with
all that He does. Such true love of God will
make us willing to hear and learn His Word,
to praise and serve Him. It will make us dili-
gent in keeping God’s commandments (1 John
5, 3.), and make us love our fellow-men for
God’s sake (1 John 4, 20.).

Finally, we should trust in God above all
things. We should Jook to Him alone for every
blessing, protection, help, and all strength, in
prosperity and misfortune, in health and sick-
ness, in abundance and want, in honor and
shame. We should never forget that all we
have and enjoy comes from Him, and that we
have it only so long as it is His pleasure, giv-
ing all praise therefore to God and depending
on Him alone for the future. We should trust
in God, not only when it is an easy task and
we have all we want, but also when afflictions
and sorrows come heavy and in great number,
so that God seems to have forsaken us. Even
then we should not for once doubt God’s power
and mercy, and the truth of His promises.—
True trust in God docs away with cares and
worrying thoughts about the morrow, what we
shall eat, and what we shall put on. True
trust in God begets patience and happy con-
tentment in all the ills and troubles of this
valley of tears.

Reader, will you, in the face of this com-
mandment, still say that you never failed to
keep it? Will you assert that you are fully
able to fulfill all its requirements? Have you
always feared, loved, and trusted in God above
all things? If not, then you are lost. Be
candid, and, I beg you, seek forgiveness for
your sins with Christ, who so perfectly kept the
commandment and, also, paid the penalty of
your transgression by His suffering and death.

F. B.

——_s-_-<— oo

Ir is not the quantity of thy faith, that shall
save thee. A drop of water is as true water,
as the whole ocean; so a little faith is as true
faith as the greatest. A child eight days old
is as really a man as one of sixty years; a spark
of fire is as true fire as a great flame; 2 sickly
man is as truly living as a healthy man; s01t1s
not the measure of faith, that saves thee—it is
the blood that it grasps, that saves thee; as the
weak hand of a child that leads the spoon to
its mouth will feed as well as the strong arm
of the man, for it is not the hand, that feeds
thee, but the meat; so if thou canst grasp Christ
ever 0 weakly, he will not let thee perish.

o-_