The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1900, Page 18

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18

The Lutheran Pioneer.

(For the LUTHERAN PIONEER.)

The Second Commandment.

Which is the Second Commandment?

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord) trivial occasions.

thy God in vain.

What does this mean?

or, what is the same, His name to be taken
in vain. Yet how very frequently is this done
in the most thoughtless manner! Many people
| make use of God’s holy name upon the most

are expressions you may hear every day, ut-

“My God!” “O Lord!” |

| But do you think that it pleases God if you
|upon every occasion, so thoughtlessly and
| needlessly use His holy name?’? Mary took
| the lesson to heart. Let us do likewise.

Let us now proceed to the consideration of

| those sins against the Second Commandment,

tered with the least thought as to what is said. | mentioned in Luther’s explanation:
| God’s name is too holy to be thus thought- |

1. We shall not curse by God’s name.

We should fear and love God, that we may | jessly used. The holy angels give it utterance |2 Sam. 16, 5—13 we are told of Shimei that

not curse, swear, use witchcraft, lie or deceive |

by His name; but call upon it in every trouble,
pray, praise, and give thanks.

Before we proceed to the considera-
tion of the Commandment itself, permit
me to call your attention to the words:
“We should fear and love God,’’ words
with which the explanation of every
Commandment from the Second to the
Tenth begins. It is with these words
that Luther points us to the spirituality
of the Law. With these words the wrong
idea that the mere outward keeping of
the Law is sufficient is forcibly put
aside. ‘These words teach us that no
man can keep the Law unless he fear
and love God; that all our thoughts,
words, and deeds must be the outflow
of the fear and love of God. No work,
be it apparently yet so good, has any
value in God’s eyes if it be not a work
of love. As St. Paul beautifully says
(1 Cor. 18), a man might give his body
to be burned, and sacrifice his whole life
in the service of his tellow-man, yet
without love all his works would be
worth nothing. These words, ‘“‘We
should fear and love God,’’ however,
also teach us that the true fear and love
of God is not a dead thing, but wherever
found tliere will also be fruits. As the
sun can not otherwise than throw off
light and heat, so also the fear and love
of God must show itself in words and
works. We might briefly put it thus:
The fear of God keeps us from trans-
gressing God’s Commandments; the
love to God prompts us to fulfill
them. — r

In the Second Commandment we are for-
bidden to take the name of the Lord our God
in vain. What is God’s name? God’s name
is God, as He has revealed Himself to us.
But it is in His word that God tells us who
and what and how He is, and therefore His
wordis His name. Men also make themselves
known by names, but these names of men by
no means always tell who, what, how their
bearers are. Thus, for instance, John Little
may be a very tall, stout man, and James
Small may be a giant. Henry Shoemaker may
bea tailor, and Charles Smith may be a farmer.
Not so is it with God’s name. The several
names of God, such as Lord, Father, Jehovah,
‘and others, as well as His whole revealed word
tell us just who, what, and how He is.

_ But where God has thus revealed Himself,
He does not wish such revelation of Himeelf,

in tones of greatest awe and reverence. And
we should speak it thoughtlessly! It is really

a mockery of God to use His name in such a

|he followed David while on his flight from
| Absalom and cursed him; that is, he wished
| David evil from God.

Shimei hated David
and he wanted God to fulfill his evil de-
sires. Such cursing of others is often
done thoughtlessly. There is, perhaps,
no other country where so much thought-
less cursing is done as just in this
country. And such horrible cursing,
too! While in other countries the
curser, like Shimei, usually wishes his
fellowman bodily harm from God, the
most common curse in our country is
to ask God to damn the soul of one’s
fellow-creature! Awful!

Still worse it is when a man curses
himself, as did Peter (Matt. 26,74), and
the Jews (Matt. 27, 25) when they cried:
‘His (Jesus’) blood be upon us and our
children.’? Hard and unfeeling is the
heart that curses others, but what is to

be said of that man’s heart who calls

OUR LORD’S ASCENSION.

light manner. —I once read of a little girl who
also used God’s name upon every occasion.
Many a time her father had taken her to task
for it and shown her the sinfulness of her
doing. But all of no avail. Finally her father
told the servants that they should call his
daughter’s name—it was Mary —upon every
occasion. ‘This was done, and now all day
long, Mary heard her name ealled, now here
and now there, in the house and in the yard.
When Mary asked what they wanted, the in-
variable answer was: ‘‘Q, nothing. We only
spoke your name without thinking.”? With
tears in her eyes Mary went to her father and
told him of her trouble; for the abuse of her
name in such a manner hurt her. The father
thereupon said: “My dear child, you feel
hurt because your name is thus used by the
servants, and it does not surprise me at all.

down God’s wrath upon his own soul?

But the worst kind of cursing is spoken
of Lev. 24, 15. 16: ‘‘Whosoever curseth
his God, shall bear his sin. And he that
blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he
shall surely be put to death.” It seems
well-nigh impossible to think any man
capable of doing such a thing, and yet
it is done, not only by heathen, like
Goliath (1 Sam. 17, 43), who know not
the true God, but also by such as live
in Christendom. — But to every curser
God says: ‘‘Be not deceived; God is
not mocked.’’

2. We shall not use God’s name in vain
by swearing. Swearing must not be con-
founded with cursing, as is frequently
done. What cursing is, we have just now heard;
-but swearing or taking an oath,is ‘‘to call upon
God as the witness of truth or the avenger of
falsehood:’’ In swearing a person making 30
assertion calls on God as a witness that what
he says is the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth, and asks the Lord to
punish him if he speaks a falsehood. You
see, then, that taking an oath is a most solemn
thing. ;

When, now, isan oath sinful? Plainly then
when you swear to a falsehood, as did Peter
when he swore that he knew not Jesus and
was not one of His disciples (Matt. 26, 72):
That perjury, as this sin is called, is *
rible sin, must be apparent to everybody-—
But the very nature of an oath also condemns
swearing in uncertain things. ‘To swe! Bo
something of which you are not certain that