IIH^ 
 
 
 
 
 
nf n (innfr Untne. 
 
 FUNERAL SERMON, 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 THE MEDRASH OF D"H |7 
 
 OS 
 
 SUNDAY, llth KISLEV, 21st NOVEMBER, 5624, 
 
 DURING 
 
 gi Aerial Iwuitie held in JjRmorjj of 
 
 THE LATE 
 
 REV. BARNETT ABRAHAMS, B.A. 
 
 DAYAN OF THE SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE JEWS' CONGREGATION. 
 BY 
 
 THE EEV. A. P. MEKDES. 
 
 PRINTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE TREASURER, PARNAS, AND 
 GOVERNORS OF THE D n H V 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY S. MELDOLA, 24, ARTILLERY PLACE, 
 FINSBUEY SQUAEE. 
 
FUNEEAL SEEMON, 
 
 WE are met to pay a tribute of respect to departed 
 worth. The Eternal, in His wisdom, has summoned 
 from our midst a revered teacher, and so suddenly 
 has His will been done, that we are hardly yet 
 awakened to a sense of the loss which the com- 
 munity has sustained. We hear the plaint of the 
 widow, bewailing her husband gone from her ; we 
 hear the infant voices of children asking for their 
 father ; we hear the regretful accents of disciples 
 lamenting their instructor called away, and through 
 all ranks of our people there are men exclaiming to 
 their neighbours 
 
 : SKTO'I n?n nvn Ssj Sm TO ^ ijnn K^n 
 
 " Know ye not that a chief and a great man is 
 prostrate this day in Israel T 
 
 All are full of sorrow, rich man and poor, high 
 and lowly; and though the first period of ritual 
 mourning has reached its close JTDlS D^P! 73 13W1 
 1FYIN " all the people continue to weep for him." 
 But it is our province to restrain that grief to still 
 the voice of mourning by drawing instruction from 
 
 2071 s?r\ 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD NAME. 
 
 the judgment of the Lord, and by displaying those 
 lessons which none loved more to teach than the 
 departed 1lS Stf |IV Tim " so that the living may 
 take it to heart," and be comforted and improved. 
 
 nva ni&n on nits ppa DB> 
 
 "A good name is better than good oil, and the day 
 of death than the day of one's birth." (Eccl.vii. 1.) 
 
 In these words, brethren, the Preacher propounds 
 one of those doctrines so peculiar to him, doctrines 
 which startle by their apparent incongruity, but 
 which \vhen subjected to mature reflection, present 
 the very concentration of truth. lie is anxious to 
 celebrate the praises of a good name, and to establish 
 its pre-eminence above every thing besides; but he 
 compares it not with rich gems, or costly treasures, 
 or vast possessions, he simply compares it with good 
 oil, and declaring that it is superior thereunto, he 
 proceeds to the not less startling assertion, which 
 closes the text nSlH DVfc HlOn DVI " that the day of 
 death is better than the day of one's birth." Let us 
 devote to both these assertions, that deep reflection 
 which is demanded by their importance, and seek to 
 discover : 
 
 1. In what consists the excellence of a good name 
 
 above good oil. 
 
 2. What is tJie advantage of the day of death above 
 
 the day of one's birth. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OP A GOOD NAME. 
 
 I. 
 
 A good name is a possession dear to the heart of 
 every man who fears God and respects society. It 
 is the prize for which the greatest of our kind con- 
 tend, the rich reward which impels the labour and 
 challenges the hopes and aspirations of all grades 
 and conditions of mankind. Ask the statesman 
 wherefore he sacrifices the ease and comfort of his 
 station to spend his energies in the senate of his 
 people, and waste his vital powers in the cares and 
 anxieties of public life. If his answer be the truth 
 he will say it is for the good name with which pos- 
 terity will reward him. See the soldier who woos the 
 field of danger, and risks both life and limb in foreign 
 climes to fight the foe. Regard him as he mounts 
 the ramparts of the enemy over the bodies of his fallen 
 comrades, heedless of the shafts that fly around him 
 winged messengers of death. Ask him what is 
 the source of his heroism, and he will tell you the 
 love of fame, another word for the good name which 
 will reward his deeds of daring. And rightly, 
 brethren, is a good name the prize among mankind. 
 It is our credential in the sight of God and man. It 
 proclaims in unmistakable accents that we have 
 done our duty as God appointed us to do it. It is a 
 foretaste on earth of the reward that awaits us here- 
 
6 THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD NAME. 
 
 after. Possessed, then, of such excellence, how is 
 it that the sage compares it to what is apparently so 
 ignoble and valueless, good oil? Because good oil to 
 ancients was the best artificial means of illumination, 
 and it therefore formed a faithful type of all that is 
 instructing, all that is ennobling, all that is improv- 
 ing, in a word it symbolised light the light of 
 wisdom, the light of virtue, the light of religion. 
 And yet, my brethren, the sage says, a good name 
 is superior to it. Though wisdom, virtue, religion 
 can abstractedly teach mankind, and the light they 
 diffuse can cheer, encourage, comfort, and assist, 
 still they never attain so much efficacy, they never 
 achieve so much success as when they are presented 
 in the life of a great and good man, and shine forth 
 with the radiance of a good name. The living 
 example is the best light. To it men turn with 
 confidence, assured not only of warning and exhorta- 
 tion, but also of counsel, aid, and succour. The way- 
 worn traveller is attracted by the distant light which 
 promises shelter, rest, and comfort; but let his hope 
 remain unfulfilled let In'm meet inhospitality where 
 he looked for aid, and he will ever after shun the 
 light which attracted but cheered not, which invited 
 but welcomed not. Thus though the influence of 
 religion, virtue, and wisdom, as developed by the 
 teachings of sage and seer, invite the wander- 
 ing minds of men, unless they be received and 
 
THE INFLUENCE OP A GOOD NAME. 7 
 
 entertained, aided, and encouraged by the labours of 
 a good pastor who diffuses the radiance of a good 
 name, men will avoid as inhospitable the light shin- 
 ing from temple and from college which attracts 
 only to disappoint. 
 
 Here, however, brethren, there blazed a light, now 
 unhappily extinct for ever, which used to cheer 9 
 more than it attracted, which warmed and comforted 
 even beyond its promise. The teacher whom God 
 in His wisdom has summoned hence, shone among 
 us in every sense a light, diffusing knowledge, teach- 
 ing religion, and exemplifying virtue, in his deeds, 
 and thoughts, and feelings. As a teacher of men, 
 he was remarkable for the earnestness and burning 
 zeal which impressed his every word. He cultivated 
 not the graces of oratory, nor sought to charm the 
 ear with the music of his periods, but was terse and 
 vigorous in his teachings, and endeavoured in homely 
 language, to plant the truth in the very hearts of 
 his auditory. As a teacher of youth, he was patient, 
 kind, and gentle, and though the turbulent and un- 
 reasoning might have abused his mild authority, his 
 pupils loved him for his forbearing goodness. But 
 not only to the Synagogue and the school, were his 
 labors restricted. Here, in these precincts he came 
 to teach, a labor of love and piety. Collecting 
 around him those who longed for the waters of the 
 
8 THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD NAME. 
 
 living spring of truth, he brought them here to 
 drink, and as the guardian placed 
 
 y -pi 
 
 11 To keep the way of the TREE OF LIFE*" he taught 
 them of his wisdom, and showed them how to live. 
 And when at length, his arduous work completed, he 
 sought his home, it was not to share in the sweets 
 of his household joys, not to join in the amenities of 
 social communion, but still to teach, to teach with 
 his fertile mind and his ready pen ; to speak to the 
 humble child of toil, to cheer and comfort, enlighten 
 and instruct him by the tracts his industry supplied. 
 Thus it was, that while his good life was closing in 
 and his soul was yet hovering on the brink of 
 eternity, perhaps at the very moment his spirit was 
 soaring to his God in heaven, his beautiful lesson 
 was being read, the last lesson he was to give 
 us the lesson which inculcated self-control as the 
 source of godliness by showing how it was N HJ 
 71 TJD |H " that Noah found grace in the sight of 
 the Eternal." II 
 
 But who can describe how he taught by the light 
 
 * The institution of Heshaim, " The Tree of Life," under which 
 the " Medrash" is established. 
 
 " The Jewish Association for the Diffusion of Religious Know- 
 ledge," was founded by the Rev. B. Abrahams, who was also one of 
 the greatest contributors to its valuable publications. 
 
 II The text of the Tract published on the 14th November, which 
 was the day the Rev. Dayan died. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD NAME. 9 
 
 of example, who shall tell how his inner life pre- 
 sented the holy calm, "which only the pious know ; 
 how, innocent as a babe, he scarcely knew the 
 semblance of guile and falsehood, when they came 
 before him, but drew all men to his capacious heart 
 and taught himself to love them. For the truthful- 
 ness of this portraiture, let the sorrow of the whole 
 community be guarantee; let the tears which copiously 
 flow from the eyes of all ranks and conditions record 
 their unerring testimony, and proclaim the worth of 
 the departed. 
 
 There are a widow, orphans, and kindred, mourning 
 for a loss irreparable, the loss of loving husband 
 tender father affectionate relative. There isa 
 whole community mourning for a national loss ; the 
 bereavement of one who was at once a chief, an 
 ornament, and an honour to their institutions. There 
 are the wise and learned mourning, because they 
 have lost a friend and an associate whom they loved 
 and valued. There are disciples sorely grieved, 
 because God has recalled a teacher, to whom they 
 were attached by the bonds of affection. And there 
 are the poor and needy mourning, because they have 
 lost an advocate in the day of adversity, a help in the 
 dark hour of sorrow, to whom they looked for comfort, 
 and counsel, and succour. All this universal grief, 
 my brethren, is only an emphatic confirmation of the 
 
10 THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD NAME. 
 
 first assertion contained in the text, that " A good 
 name is better than good oil." 
 
 n. 
 
 But we have also to discover the advantage of the 
 day of death over the day of one's birth. We have 
 called the proposition startling, and so it really is. 
 Think of the day, when in our happy homes it is 
 proclaimed 1j? T?V *!T " that a child is born unto 
 us ; " think of the gladness of heart and the thank- 
 fulness of spirit, of the loud merriment and the 
 joyous festivity, with which we welcome a new 
 claimant to our affection, and contrast with these the 
 solemn stillness of the house of death, the anguish 
 of spirit and the bitter sorrow, the wail of woe and 
 the groan of misery, which mark the presence of the 
 destroyer. Then ask how can the day of death be 
 deemed better than the day of our birth. The reply 
 will be simple : that in the moral world indi- 
 vidual feelings are absorbed in the general 
 advantage. Judged by this standard, when a child 
 is ushered into the world, what benefit accrues to 
 society ? what lesson can that birth originate ? how 
 can it improve and instruct ? The child must 
 become a man, ere society can draw advantage from 
 his life. But when that man has reached the day 
 of death, when his deeds arc before us to warn or to 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD NAME. 11 
 
 direct, to admonish, or to cheer, by the influence 
 of his example, for good or evil, it is then that 
 he becomes a teacher in the great school of the 
 world. It was in this spirit that the sages taught 
 
 jjT'naa TTYP jnjvan D'pnx o^nn "the righteous 
 
 are greater at their death than in their lives/' Those 
 sages knew that the spectacle of a pious man going 
 to his rest of peace, is one that will not fade quickly 
 from the recollection. They knew that after death 
 every foible in the character of a good man disappears 
 from view, eclipsed by his transcendent merits. And 
 they knew too, that all who loved and valued him 
 in life, would continue to cherish his memory by 
 perpetuating the lessons he taught, by accomplishing 
 the work he wrought. Thus, brethren, though the 
 example of the departed chief and master, for whom 
 we are mourning, is no longer before us; though we 
 cannot now see wisdom, virtue, and religion as deve- 
 loped in his daily life D'H^N ^HIK ftth ^ "because 
 God has taken him," yet let us ask shall his influence 
 terminate with death ? Not so, my friends. Though 
 gone from us he is not lost to us. His body has returned 
 to dust, but his spirit lives, and lives among us, too, in 
 his past teachings and in his past labours. D^*J 
 D^H I M np JJlJVtoi " The righteous even in death 
 are regarded as living.'' So ean he live, so will he 
 live in our memory, continuing to instruct and edify, 
 to improve and enlighten. But for this you must 
 
12 THE INFLUENCE OP A GOOD NAME. 
 
 keep his example before you always. Like him 
 practise a pure, simple, and unostentatious piety, 
 and make your rule of life the golden admonition 
 
 "p^s oy roS roSm ion ranKi tDSpa rwy 
 
 "to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly 
 with your God." Brethren, you all know what he 
 was to the poor, and what he did for them, how his 
 benevolent heart was touched with sympathy at 
 every tale of distress, and how his ready hand was 
 open to share his last shilling with the needy. 
 When, then, you thus remember his charity a 
 charity that hid itself from the gaze of men try to 
 imitate and delight to do as he did not only to give, 
 but also to comfort not only to assist but to deliver, 
 cheer, and support likewise. And while you thus 
 remember him as he shone with the light of religion 
 and the light of virtue, do not forget him in con- 
 nexion with the light of knowledge. Brethren, we 
 have already seen that he loved education. He 
 laboured for it, we may almost say he died for it, since 
 it was in that great and holy work his vital powers were 
 expended. Thus he felt a holy pride in rearing to 
 the study of the law the most promising of these 
 \Y) JV3 hw filpwri " the sucklings nurtured in the 
 school of the sages. " Brethren, do not suffer that good 
 and pious work to fail. Let the seed which he planted 
 and which, sprung up into healthy life, has surrounded 
 this court with vigorous saplings, be tended and 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD NAME. 1 3 
 
 nurtured. In other words, let not these children 
 upon whom he spent such care be neglected, for- 
 saken; but let their education become an institution 
 that shall at once ennoble your community, exalt 
 the character of your poor, and furnish a glorious 
 monument to the memory of him who commenced 
 the work in piety, and while he lived, conducted it 
 with zeal, and truth, and faithfulness. 
 
 And you too, my children, have lost a very 
 dear friend and benefactor. You, too, owe something 
 to the memory of the good man who has gone from 
 us. He has left you a legacy in his example. Your 
 duty is to receive it, to cherish it, to value it while 
 you live. It is a glorious example for you to imitate, 
 for you to emulate. Our revered teacher was once 
 a child like you, craving for knowledge that seemed 
 beyond his reach. He came here to the D"P1 T*J? 
 fed on the tree of life, and grew and rose to eminence 
 above us. He accomplished this first by his industry, 
 his love of learning, and his devotion to study; 
 secondly, by his virtuous and religious conduct, his 
 fear of God and love of man. You cannot all rise to 
 the same eminence, but you can all acquire the 
 learning he possessed, you can all become as good 
 and as religious as he was* Try to do all this and 
 you will succeed, provided you are faithful to what 
 he taught you by his precept, and what he shewed 
 you by his example. So shall you deserve the rich 
 
14 nn; INFU'ENVK OP A GOOD N 
 
 blessings of your God. and win the approbation of 
 your fellow men ; and by the moral influence you 
 will attain and exercise in your sphere you will learn 
 the truth which the wisest of men once taught, and 
 which the whole experience of the world confirms 
 }1tt |WD CB? lift " that a good name is better than 
 good oil." 
 
 Eternal God jwai TV&B " who causest death and 
 reanimatest," SjH SlNB> THIS " who bringest down 
 to the grave and raisest up,' 5 we humbly pray thee 
 to remember in love and mercy the spirit of thy 
 servant whom thou hast summoned to thy presence. 
 Forgive, Lord, the transgressions of his life, and 
 regard not errors that belong to frail humanity, but 
 receive his soul with grace and favour for the zeal 
 with which he laboured in thy cause, for the piety 
 with which he strove to serve thee. Let his good 
 works be arrayed before thee as a pure sacrifice, and 
 let their sweet savour win for him the treasure of thy 
 tender mercy, so that thy angels may welcome him 
 to thy courts of bliss, there to enjoy HX rflnot 
 *pS " abundance of joys in thy presence " 
 H3 "]y/bl " everlasting pleasures at thy right hand." 
 
 Upon the mourners, Lord, we also invoke Thy 
 compassion. Be with them in this bereavement, 
 which Thy hand hath inflicted, to pour into their 
 hearts Thy comforting Spirit, that they may bow 
 with meek and pious resignation to Thine all-wise 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD NAME. 15 
 
 decree. Let them find sweet consolation in Thy 
 sacred word, and lead them to the path of religion, 
 where humility bends the knee before thy will, and 
 amid all suffering proclaims nHK DH " that Thou 
 art just." 
 
 And upon all of us, Father, upon all Thy house of 
 Israel, send a spirit of wisdom and understanding, so 
 that we, like the departed, may here cultivate the 
 duties which are pleasing in Thy sight, and become 
 inheritors of the blessing, the peace, and the felicity 
 YK*vS rO *)fc?N "which Thou hast reserved for 
 them that fear Thee.'' Amen. 
 

 
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