Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ... III. THE DECALOGUE. a. UNITY OF GOD. b. HIS SERVICE. "I Am Yahve, thy God, who brought thee forth from Egypt, out of the house of bondage," etc. The starting-point of the new faith and new morality is not the external world, is not the work of creation, but a purely historical event, a divine act of justice and merciful deliverance. The ways of Yahve are henceforth to be sought in the dealings of his righteousness with man. His laws reveal themselves in the unfolding of the highest moral powers. His will manifests itself in the godward development of the human race which for the time being is represented by the people redeemed by him and consecrated to his service. The worship of any other god is forbidden. For such worship can mean only the adoration of some soulless part of nature, of some brute force, of beastlike powers. It is a crime to worship the Divinity under the form of anything that is in the heavens above, on the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth. Such worship is a degradation of the soul of man and a denial of the spirituality and unity of God. Yahve is the sole and absolute Lord and Ruler of the people he had saved from bondage and taken unto himself. Out of gratitude for having been redeemed by him from the degrading service of Egypt, the tribes covenanted to serve him, to obey his voice, to observe his commandments and statutes. In what does Yahve's service consist? Is it in principle and practice like that enjoined by the pagan gods? As far as the east is from the west, as far as brutal savagery is from enlightened humanity, so different is the service to be rendered to Yahve from that which the gods of the heathen were believed to require at the hands of their worshipers. The pagan divinities were one and...
