The law-mirror is used in conjunction with the text in James I:23-25: "For if any be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straig way forgetteth what manner of man he was. For whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, an continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."
Just as the purpose of a mirror is to reveal the 'true physical condition of a man, so the purpose of the moral law is to reveal the true spiritual condition of a man. The looking glass shows where the face is soiled. The law-mirror shows where the heart is sinful. (Rom. 3 :20; 4:15; 7:7.) One does not wash his face with a mirror ; neither does one cleanse sin by the law. The law of God is a mirror that reveals our defects. A man would not smash a mirror because it reveals his physical defects; neither would a sensible Christian attempt to do away with the law because it reveals his spiritual condition.
As water is the means to cleanse a soiled face, so the blood of Christ is the only means to cleanse the heart from sin. When the sinner discovers his need in the mirror of God's law, he goes to the fountain that was open "for sin and for uncleanness" (Zech. 13:1), and is cleansed in the blood of the Lamb.
MATERIALS.—Two pieces of looking glass 1/8" thick, 6" wide, 12" long are required, and one piece of 4" 3-ply fir 13" x 13".
CONSTRUCTION OF LOOKING GLASS.—The tops of the two pieces of looking glass should be cut in a curved manner to resemble the two tables of the law of God. The edges of the glass should be beveled. Hebrew letters or Roman numerals one to ten, one inch high, can either be painted or sandblasted on the looking glasses to give the effect of the Ten Commandments.
CONSTRUCTION OF PLYWOOD BACK.—The plywood should be shaped so there will be a half-inch margin on all sides when the mirrors are mounted upon it. Then the plywood should be sanded, stained in some dark color, and varnished. With special glue the two glass pieces should be mounted the plywood back.
