The second and fourth Commandments, in particular, are
in their literal significance obsolete for Christians: it is a false
Puritanism which would forbid sculpture and religious symbolism in the
adornment of a Christian church, nor is any one in the modern world
likely to confuse the symbol with the thing symbolized: while the
observance of the Sabbath is part of that older ceremonial "law" from
which S. Paul insisted that Christian converts should be free (Coloss.
ii. 16). There is, however, a spiritual idolatry which consists in
allowing any other object than the glory of GOD and the doing of His
will to have the primary place in the determination of conduct--there
are men who worship money, or comfort, or ambition, or their own
domestic happiness, or even themselves. And the Commandment about the
Sabbath, though it has no literal value to-day (and certainly no
direct bearing upon the sanction or significance of Sunday) may serve
to suggest the important principle that a man is responsible before
GOD for the use he makes of his time, and that it is a religious duty
(not confined to any particular day of the week) to distribute it in
due proportion, according to circumstance and opportunity, with proper
regard to the rightful claims of work, of worship, and of recreation
and rest.
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