Commandments Most Important

HELLO FOLKS! — If we abide the principles taught in The Bible, our country will continue to prosper.

True liberty consists of the privilege of enjoying our own rights, and not in the destruction of the rights of others.

—o—

THE WORLD literally makes a beaten path to one's mailbox. The great literature of all ages can be at our fingertips if we but will. Yet, prejudices, indulgences and taboos keep so many of us ignorant in many ways.

Of all the great literature in the world it is hard to pick out which is the best. As for me, I think the greatest piece of literature in the world is also one of the earliest — the Ten Commandments. The brevity clarity and forthrightness of The Commandments, make them easily the leader of all literature.

The Ten Commandments' negative laws were given to a chosen people, who had been kept in slavery for nearly 400 years. Laws given to them, had to be easily understood.

The Commandments are given in sequence to their importance. The first one: Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me, meant just that. Lest these poor ex-slaves tried to get around this one and so that they would better understand the significance of it, the second third and fourth Commandments were given. Thou Shalt Not Make Unto Thee Any Graven Image, Thou Shalt Not Take The Name Of The Lord Thy God In Vain and Remember the Sabbath Day To Keep It Holy.

The other six of the negative decalogue have to do with man's relations to himself: Honor Thy Father And Thy Mother. Thou Shalt Not Kill, Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery, Thou Shalt Not Steal, Thou Shalt Not Bare False Witness and Thou Shalt Not Covet. These are all given in relation to their severity.

Killing and adultery are listed in close proximity because they have to do with the taking and giving of life.

Cecil B. DeMille made the statement once, that "The Ten Commandments were given to be kept and lived by, and not to be broken." However, because men delight more in breaking them, than in keeping them, we have to have several other laws of the land to be used as guideposts.

As the next most important piece of literature, I would place the answer that Savior gave to the young lawyer who asked Him: "What is the greatest commandment?" He said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all the might, mind and strength. With the second being like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self."

This law is the positive supplementation of the decalogue. It is positive and all inclusive. It needs neither interpretation, nor explanation.

The Golden Rule, The Beatitudes, or any other are but furtherances of what Jesus called the "Perfect Law of Liberty."