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Show j FIRST COMMANDANT j Commandments Embrace God's Law His Right to Man's Service First Shows Him as Creator He Alone I Satisfies Faculties of Soul Rule Is t Needed to Direct Man's Actions To- . wards God Worship Means Faith, Hope and Charity Mind Unable to ; Originate Idea of God. : (Written for The Intermountain Catholic.) ! The ten commandments transmitted through ! o?c? embrace nian's relations to his Creator, family, fam-ily, frll-nv man and society. The first three mark the rotations between God and man. In these, re- ' nerved to Jlimself, He exacts faith in the first, reverence rev-erence for His name in the second, and in the third ; appoints a time when that faith and reverence are to lo expressed. lie is the law river, and all mankind are hissuh-jrcts. hissuh-jrcts. Obedience to these commands is due ,because it is the voice of Omnipotence that speaks in the I commandments. When He tells '4he is the Lord our ; Cod." He proclaims His universal sovereignty. But (iod, though omnipotent, stoops to help the weak, dos not wish to terrify, for He exercises his supreme su-preme control in mercy, gentleness and love, not in super and despotism. Before God established His hvc and demanded man's homage. He displayed His power thereby manifesting His Wisdom. In the tir?t commandment God consults for the dignity of ' the Sovereign, and well-being of the subject, for ' through it is declared the knowledge of the only fiod. a ray from whose divine countenance is sent to enlighten the darkness in which feeble reason ; wandered, and to dispel the night of idolatry that had for ages wrapped the world in its gloom. i Herein was displayed the Providence of the All Powerful. All Wise, who intervened between reason '. and the error which she called truth. Reason had proved itself, and always proves itself morally inca- pable of attaining truth or doing right. To dispel j the darkness, and to guide and direct reason, God ; pave to Moses the ten commandment-!, f The first shows God as our Creator, who must be adored, as a Father, who must be loved, as a Ruler, who must be obeyed. What is the nature of the warship due God? The homage due to God is universal uni-versal from his sway, divine from his nature and snprkme from his power. Man owes God all he pnse.se. Hence, every faculty has its duty to perform. Xot only this, but each faculty has a void, a want, that Ho alone can fill; a longing that He alone can s-atisfy. so that it becomes a requirement of one's nature, as well as his duty, to seek God and acknowledge ac-knowledge His supremacy. He has given an intelligence intel-ligence that man may know, and that intelligence is attracted towards the supreme truth by an insa-tiahlo insa-tiahlo thirst for knowledge. That thirst is quenched only in the fountain of truth which springs up by the throne of the Eternal God. He gave reason to di-oriminate between good and evil, but left it fee-Mo fee-Mo in its ray. in order that it might have recourse iho more quickly to the light of which alone supplies tlm unerring standard of morality. He has given foars and hopes that seek to unveil the future; but limited their penetration that man might feel more deeply hi insufficiency and dependence. For man aiono exists the future. He fears it for he is impotent im-potent to govern it. He hopes it will bring him mod. because his desires are always for happiness. In thi- lifo those who expect uninterrupted happing, happi-ng, ;.rp sure to be disappointed. Man's fears display dis-play hi insufficiency; his hopes show forth his ab-Hirr- dependence. Knowing God from the first ''omnmndment, and how He led his people from the '-ii d of slavery and bondage, his fears are tran-ciinzi-d. for he sees where his insufficiency is sup-j-hf-d. and his dependence becomes his strength when lie t:x- hj npes in God, and believes that they will he lidiy realized. r,,,rj ias; pivon hearts to love; hearts that always w-k ') beautiful; but he has so formed their de-sire de-sire ;,!;( tendencies ,that even this world, which In-linite In-linite Perfection beautified, can not satisfy their I 'upinj;-. This void is left so that it may be filled up l.y :k r,ve of God. 1 i;' n every faculty, every power and feeling finds i's e- inpietion and full satisfaction only in therCre-'nr. therCre-'nr. Iut since each faculty has its own special 'Tf i.,n. and tends or should tend toward God in manner proper to itself, there must be some rule direct. ihcm toward the proper object. What is hat vuh-; It j religion, which presents God un-d'-r his various aspects and different attributes. Re-H'.r Re-H'.r :: is the direction of homage and worshop. The f,f-tj-:i?ur-!its of worship are faith, by which one ',r,ws to God as the source of faith; hope, by which "no :i. kn.iwlcdges the certainty of God's promises. Hr! clarity, which sees in God infinite perfection. v f:ii:h the intellect is directed, by hope that faith '-''eii-ihr-nod and by charity it is kept alive. "All nrrc pSSential for that homage which the first 'orrnrundmont demands. All this Was embodied in the primitive religion, vhrr. Or,d revealed himself to our first parents. All "irn are more or less conscious of their dependence, :i,id i,p soul in its calm, deliberate moments, reaches r"Jt for jiid. This implies some object external to JC so :- a object that is real and which could not !'r- mere sentiment. All religions command a belief ") he divine, and the relations of the soul to this divine reality also demand an obligation to worship '"ell as the worship it gives. To admit this oblivion obli-vion and freely respond to it require the exercise "f 1Ho intellect and will. This being true, how rcc- -, "lei,, ;t wit'n modern unbelief tl religion is entirely independent of the faculties of the soul, being simply a spontaneous or blind product of human hu-man nature, an invention of man? But the human mind could not invent an object that is entirely independent, in-dependent, also above it. It is impossible for the human mind to seek and find its object, since it could not act without an object to think about. For every thought there is needed a subject that is capable capa-ble of thinking and an object that is thought of. If modern unbelievers and rationalists are to be cred-lted.the cred-lted.the human mind invented its object of adoration adora-tion and of which it had no previous conception, a theory as unphilosophical as it is illogical, as far as the workings of the faculties of the soul are concerned. con-cerned. The divinity, which means the infinite, is the object of all religion, and this the human could not possibly originate unless God first revealed himself him-self to man. But it will be asked: What of the many false religions, re-ligions, especially fetish worshipers, who identify the divinity with wood, stone, the elements and reptiles? rep-tiles? They are so many witnesses to the true religion, reli-gion, because without the true religion they could not exist. History, ancient or modern, is witness to the fact that men, fallible and subject to certain environments, may corrupt or falsify the belief of their forefathers, but they could not originate that false worship unless the true had already existed. Error is always subsequent to truth. Fetish worshipers wor-shipers could not identify God with their objects of worship unless they first believed in the existence of God. There must be some conception of God in their minds before they identified him with the sun. moon and stars, reptiles, wood or stone. Belief iu the gods, and all heathen mythologies must necessarily neces-sarily follow the primitive faith : "I believe in God. the Father Almighty, Creatoh of heaven and earth." F. D. |