ns (the only means by which we know our fellow-men); and the
combined terror and loving-kindness of these at once warned him against
revolt, and appealed to his loyalty for obedience.

In relation to the second table, the prologue was both an argument and
an appeal. Why should a man hope to prosper by estranging his best
Friend, his Emancipator and Guide? And even if disobedience could obtain
some paltry advantage, how base would he be who snatched at it, when
forbidden by the God Who broke his chains, and brought him out of the
house of bondage--a Benefactor not ungenial and remote, but One Who
enters into closest relations with him, calling Himself "Thy God"!

Now, a greater emancipation and a closer personal relationship belong to
the Church of Christ. When a Christian hears that God is unthinkable, he
ought to be able to answer, 'God is my God, and He has brought my soul
out of its house of bondage.'

Moreover, his emancipation by Christ from many sins and inner slaveries
ought to be a fact plain enough to constitute the sorest of problems to
the observing world.

It must be observed, besides, that the Law, which was the centre of
Judaism, does not appeal chiefly to the meaner side of human nature.
Hell is not yet known, for the depths of eternity could not be uncovered
before the clouds had rolled away from its heights of love and
condescension; or else the sanity and balance of human nature would have
been overthrown. But even temporal judgments are not set in the foremost
place. As St. Paul, who knew the terrors of the Lord, more commonly and
urgently besought men by the mercies of God, so were the ancient Jews,
under the burning mountain, reminded rather of what God had bestowed
upon them, than of what He might inflict if they provoked Him. And our
gratitude, like theirs, should be excited by His temporal as well as His
spiritual gifts to us.

_THE FIRST COMMANDMENT._

"Thou shalt have none other gods before Me."--xx. 3.

When these words fell upon the ears of Israel, they conveyed, as their
primary thought, a prohibition of the formal worship of rival deities,
Egyptian or Sidonian gods. Following immediately upon the proclamation
of Jehovah, their own God, they declared His intolerance of rivalry, and
enjoined a strict and jealous monotheism. For God was a reality. Races
who worshipped idealisations or personifications might easily make room
for other poetic embodiments of human thought and feeling; bu