The forms C1f Egyptian worship, the names of Pasht, Osiri~, etc., must be done e.we.y ,,-itb. _Nc, representation of the object of_ worship was to he allowed, However much men might. have pleaded that sense was an aid to faith the stern "Thou shalt not" percmpto1ily barred the way. We know the reason why, ~s they in their childhood did not.. God is spirit. Ilcing spirit, it is only by spirit that he cnn be approached. No merely bodily act can possibly be worship. Further, neither God nor any one of his attributes can be represented by any physical form. \Vbatevcr idea of Jehovah may be gained or retained through impressions derived from beholding a sensible object with the bodily eye, will be an idea representing it, not him. It will be a thought of God formed by the image and limited by it-not the true thought given by r.eveh\tion. Ob,·iously, howcYer, this command did not forbid decorative designs in the tabernacle or the temple (cf. Exod. xxv.18, 20, 34; xxvi. 32; Numb. xxi. 8, 9; l Kings vii. 25; x. 20). But neYcr were any creature-forms allowed, either as objects of worship or as aids to it. Nor can we read through Hebrew history without seeing how much need there was of such a command. Ere long, the people were dancing round the golden calf! And in the days of Jeroboam two calves were set up--one in Bethel, another in Dan. Ilut surely the history of Christendom is even a sadder one than that of the Hebrews. Ere four ccnturiPs of the Christian era had passed away, how did the Christian Church lapse into repeated breaches of this law! "An enormous train of different superstitions was gradually substituted. in the place of true religion and genuine piety. . . . Images were not as yet very common. Ilut it is certain that the _worship of the martyrs was modelled by degrees according to the religious services that were paid to the gods before the coming of Christ." 1 It is true, indeed, that in 726 A.D. Leo III. issued an ordinance for- bidding the use of images in churches, as heathenish and heretical, and a Council of Constantinople, in 754 A.D., sanctioned that condemnation. Another Council, which met at Kice in 789 A.D., declared the previous. Council heretical, and ordained the worship of 11ictures in churches. The decisions of this Council were rejected at a Council in Frankfort, in 794 A.D. Also at another in Constantinople, in 815 A.D., all worshipping of pictures and images was forbidden. In 869 A.D. the iconoclasts were condemned. Thomas Aquinas, in the thirteenth century, affirmed a threefold use of images, and declared that like homage is due to the image of Christ as to Christ himself I And we know but too well what the later history' of Home has been, how pagan rites have become more and more mingled with Christian service. The Saviour is approached through the crucifix, and fed upon through the bread; and, as if blind to the warnings of history, ritualism openly proclaims that the best expoi;ition of doctrine is that which meets0 the eye rather than the ear. Perhaps it is not to be wondered at, th!it in Roman Catholic catechisms the second commandment is lift out; and not even Luther was sufficient of a reformer to restore the missing law in his catechism-an easy way, indeed, of blinding the people to the evil of a mistaken ritual, to leave out the authoritative com- mand, obedience to which would render such evil impossible! IL THE DOUBLE SANCTION ATTACHED TO THIS LAW. The first is drawn from the Divine nature, the second from the Divine administration. 1. llrom the Divine 11ature. "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." "They that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." God is jealous: (1) For truth in his worship. He would have us thinle of him as glorious in power, wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and love. Our thoughts of God can be but limited at the best. They need not be untrue. But untrue and dishonouring to him they certainly will be if we come at them through the means of any graven image. We do not even except the crucifix. It represents the bodily form of Christ. It may represent the nails, the wounds, the spear, the crown of thorns, the pain-crushed brow; and we confess it may be possible, by looking at these physical marks, to receive so vivid an impression of the physical suffering that we may be wrought up to agony in thinking of it I But even then th_is is only knowing Christ after the flesh; it is making an idol of his humanity; and 10 sympathy with the anguish of his bodily woes, we may altogether miss the acting of faith in that atoning sacrifice which lay among the things unseen and eternal! (2) For spirit in bis worship. The worship paid to a spiritual Being is nothing if it be not si,iritual worship. But in the endless bowioge and prostrations, genuflexions, cross-
1 Jlotihei.m, vol. i. p. 366. 'THE noo.It or DEUTERONOMY. 91