Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: I. The belief in one GOD GIVES REST TO THE ACTIVE MAN; it satisfies his intellectual, his moral, his emotional, his spiritual being. II. In the field of scientific research this faith INSPIRES US WITH A CONFIDENT HOPE OF REDUCING ALL PHENOMENA TO LAW, since all proceed from one hand, and express one creative will. This faith supplies that which physical science lacks and yet requires — namely, a prime mover and a sustaining power. III. In morals this faith ACTS MOST POWERFULLY UPON OUR WILL, and rouses us to exalt the higher nature and repress the lower. Polytheism deifies the human passions. But if there be only one God, then our highest aspirations must give us the truest image of Him. IV. Faith in one God BRINGS PEACE TO THE MOURNER AND TO THE SUFFERING, for we know that He who now sends the trouble is the same God whose kindness we have felt so often. Having learned to love and trust Him, we are able to accept suffering as the chastisement of a Father's hand. If there were gods many, we could regard the troubles of life only as the spiteful acts of some malevolent deity; we must bribe his fellow gods to oppose him. V. UPON ONE GOD WE ARE ABLE TO CONCENTRATE ALL THE POWERS OF THE SOUL, our emotions are not dissipated, our religious efforts are not flittered away upon a pleasing variety of characters, but the image of God is steadily renewed in the soul, and communion with God grows ever closer. (F. R. Chapman.) Parallel Verses KJV: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: |
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