WHAT TEN CORDS COULD NOT DO
OBJECTS: Ten Cords Three Feet Long and a
Double Heart
When the children of Israel were tenting and wandering in the wilderness God called Moses their leader up into the heights of Mount Sinai. He wished to speak to him alone, and so Joshua, who had gone up with him, was left in the lower parts of the mountain to await his return, while Moses went up to the cloud-crowned top of the mountain to be alone, all alone with God. This conference with God continued forty days and nights, and when it was concluded Moses came down from the smoking top bearing two tables of stone, upon which were chiseled the ten laws or, as we say today, the Ten Commandments. In few and short words they were as follows:
1. Thou shalt have no other God before me.
2. Thou shalt not make graven images.
3. Thou shalt not take in vain the holy name of God.
4. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.
5. Honor thy parents.
6, Commit no murder.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Tell no falsehoods.
10. Do not covet thy neighbor's things.
These ten commandments instruct us in all the duties of life. Yet we may keep all these laws and not be a Christian. Once when Jesus was here among men a rich young ruler came to him asking what he must do to be saved, Jesus asked him about the Ten Commandments. He replied that he had kept them from his youth up, but when Jesus asked him to sell all and follow him, he then saw that the commandments had not gone through to his heart, for there he had the gold idol which he would not give up even to follow Jesus. He had not kept the first commandment. So we can all learn by this story that he was not a Christian although perhaps he had kept all the commandments, as he thought. They cannot change the heart. The law can never do that.
These Ten Commandments are like ten shining cords which may hold us back from evil-doing, but which can never change our heart and make us Christians.
To illustrate this point of the lesson secure ten strong cords, each of them at least three feet long; hang them over the back of a chair where the audience can see them. Call these ropes the Ten Commandments, and name each rope after one of the commandments. Then tell the following story. The ancient Greeks had a strange fable about the Sirens. These were bewitching little sea-nymphs who sat on a great rock in the sea called Sibylla, and as they sat there they sang such charming and wonderful songs that they lured the sailors to their destruction on the rocks. One day when the charming Ulysses was passing that way with his great ship, Circe warned him of the peril of these dangerous singers, and assured him that many a gallant ship had been lost in these stormy waters. So Ulysses took heed to the word of caution and ordered that the ears of the sailors should be filled with wax. Then he had himself fastened to the mast by many strong cords, so when their ship reached the place where the beguiling sea fairies worked, the sailors could not hear their music, and although Ulysses was enchanted by the music and struggled to break the cords which bound him, he failed to release himself, and so passed the temptation rock in safety and soon the music died away in the distance.
Some days afterward the brave and wise Argonauts were sailing over the same enchanted waters, but they had on the ship with them the famous Orpheus. He was a masterful player on the lyre, and when the ship came near to the dangerous rock he poured forth such heavenly music that the sailors had no ear for the tempting tones of the Sirens' songs, and so passed by in safety. The Sirens, seeing that their spell was broken, leaped into the sea, and their alluring tones were never heard again.
The Ten Commandments were like the ten cords which bound Ulysses to the mast but did not keep his heart from desiring to fly to the sinful song-makers. The cords kept him from sin, but did not take the love of sin from his heart.
The Ten Commandments may keep us from doing and saying wrong things, but they will never take the love of sin away or change our hearts. The two new commandments of Jesus are like the music of Orpheus; they fill our hearts with a holy spell, and we lose all love for the pleasures of sin, because the two new commandments have reached our hearts and made us Christians. To love God with all our heart and our neighbors as ourselves is the full teaching of Christ's two new commandments.
To illustrate this truth, make a double heart out of strong cardboard so it will open by a hinge. Call this the Christian's heart. Mark it on the outside with a cross. As you open the heart let them see the word "God" marked on one side and on the other side the word "Man."
In the heart of every Christian you will find love for God and love for man. This heart will keep us from evil by taking away the call to evil. This the ten cords could not do. The only way to get such a heart is to go to Jesus. He gives new hearts for old. This is the only heart he gives away. If you will take it he will take all your sins away to stay.
51