is capable of learning the distinction of right and wrong, and he
alone is placed under the control of moral law. Deriving his existence from a
Being of infinite purity, he was himself once innocent, pure, and upright. He was
the creature and the loyal subject of God, and God was the author of his
existence, and his rightful Sovereign. But God did not anything toward man the
position of saviour and redeemer; for man needed not pardon.
As a creature owing all to God, the author of his existence, it is self-evident
that he was under the highest obligation to love him with all his heart. The
existence of other human beings originates a second great obligation; viz., to
love our neighbors as ourselves. This precept is also one of self-evident
obligation; for others are equally the creatures of God with ourselves, and have
the same right that we also have. These two precepts are the sum of all moral
law. And they grow out of the fact that we owe all to God, and that others are the
creatures of God as well as ourselves.
In rendering obedience to the first of these two precepts, man could have no
other god before the Lord; nor could he worship idols; neither could he speak the
name of God in an irreverent manner; nor could he neglect the hallowed rest-day
of the Lord, which was set apart at creation in memory of the Creator's rest.
2
Equally evident is it that our duty toward our fellow-men comprehends our duty to
our parents, and the strictest regard to the life, chastity, property, character, and
interests, of others.
The moral law thus divided into two parts, and drawn out and expressed in
ten precepts, is of necessity unchangeable in its character. Its existence grows
out of immutable relations which man sustains toward God and toward his fellowman.
It is God's great standard of right, and after man's rebellion, the great test
by which sin is shown.
Where shall we look for the record of such a moral code as we have noticed?
In the earliest possible place in the Bible, certainly. And yet the book of Ge
