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 Some Thoughts On Judaism 
 
 By 
 
 Joseph R. Brandon
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 AT LOS 
 
 ROBERT ERNEST COWAN
 
 SOME THOUGHTS 
 
 J U D A I S M 
 
 T"\A7"O 
 
 DELIVERED MAY, 187!) 
 
 TIIK Y. M. H. A., SAN FltAXci.se u 
 
 JOSEPH R. BRANDON. 
 
 S A N FRANCISCO: 
 
 Ml ITHU- 
 
 1881.
 
 SOME THOUGHTS 
 
 ON 
 
 JUDAISM 
 
 DELIVEEED MAY, 1879 
 
 BEFOltE THE Y. M. H. A., SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 JOSEPH R. BRANDON, 
 
 SAN FKANCISCO.' 
 
 M. WEISS, PRINTER AND PUBLISHED BATTEUY ST., COR. COMMERCIAL. 
 
 1881.
 
 "SOME THOUGHTS ON JUDAISM." 
 
 TWO LECTURES 
 
 BY 
 
 J. R. BRANDON. 
 
 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : 
 
 THE subject which I have chosen for my 
 remarks this evening, is one which should be 
 interesting to most of you as Jews, and may 
 perhaps as disturbing their prejudices, be some- 
 what so to any Christian and non-Jewish friends 
 and fellow citizens who may be among my 
 audience. And to these latter I would here take 
 
 i 
 
 the opportunity of explaining, as I shall frequently 
 : have occasion to use the word Christianity, that 
 I in doing so I intend to refer to dogmatic Chris- 
 i tianity, to the Christianity of the Church whether 
 == Protestant or Catholic, and not to that religion 
 which it, is the fashion now-a-days for many 
 3 Christian clergymen to preach to their congre- 
 gations and call Christianity. I do not refer, for 
 instance, to that Christianity so called which the 
 Rev. Mr. Beecher preaches, when he intimates 
 that we Jews may be very good Christians, by 
 fulfilling the teachings of Judaism ; for that 
 necessarily I conceive must be Judaism. My mind 
 realizes what I think the world is beginning now 
 fully to realize, and that is, what Auerbach in his 
 
 304796
 
 [4] 
 
 little novel of "Poet and Merchant" puts into 
 the mouth of Lessing, whom he makes say: "The 
 religion of Christ, and the Christian religion are 
 two quite different things. The religion of Christ 
 is that which he himself, as man, also recognized 
 and practised, which every man can have in 
 common with him, and that is love and humanity; 
 the Christian religion is that which assumes it as 
 true that he was more than man, and which 
 makes him as such the object of its worship." 
 
 With so much of introduction and explanation 
 then our subject is "JUDAISM," a word perhaps as 
 much misunderstood as any word in our language. 
 It will be my endeavor to-night to expose some 
 of the misconceptions which have been formed 
 concerning it, to clear it somewhat from the 
 mist of prejudice which has surrounded it, and 
 to place it in that clear light and favorable 
 position, to which I believe its merits entitle it. It 
 will be scarcely possible within the limits of two 
 short lectures to do more than treat the subject 
 in a somewhat general and discursive manner, 
 and you will hardly expect from me, a mere 
 layman, that learned, profound, and authoritative 
 exposition that the subject would be apt to 
 receive from some of our learned ministers, 
 upon whose manor you may perhaps think I am 
 trespassing in my selection of a theme. It may 
 still however not be inappropriate to discuss it. 
 The more simple mode of treatrnent may have its 
 advantages, as being addressed to a class of minds 
 not open to, or a frame of mind not prepared for 
 the more elaborate and profound one : even as 
 the light musketry of an army will often reach 
 where its heavy artillery cannot operate, and 
 I shall certainly not exhaust the subject, for the
 
 [5] 
 
 misconceptions are numerous enough, and the 
 prejudices deep seated, and wide extended enough 
 to warrant and need the services of all the light 
 musketry and heavy artillery, volunteers and 
 regulars, that can be brought to bear for their 
 eradication and removal. 
 
 I have often read in books of travel of a 
 peculiarity of the residences of our co-religionists 
 in those lands where religious persecution has 
 not yet died out, and where the fear of the 
 fanaticism of an ignorant multitude which ever 
 and anon vents itself in the sacking of the 
 Jewish quarter, yet haunts the minds of our 
 brethren in faith. The peculiarity I allude to, is 
 the striking contrast that exists between the 
 exteriors and the interiors of the houses of Jewish 
 families ; the former frequently exhibiting a 
 poverty and meanness utterly at variance with the 
 wealth, the elegance, and the luxury disclosed 
 within. Something very analogous to this will be 
 experienced in our contemplation and examination 
 of Judaism itself, which exhibits very different 
 features as seen from without, and as seen from 
 within. Different, if viewed even through v a 
 mental atmosphere clear of the mist and fog of 
 prejudice; and how much greater must the contrast 
 prove, when the exterior view is taken through the 
 deceptive media of sectarian bigotry and hatred, 
 through which it has been too frequently the 
 custom of the world to regard it. 
 
 The views entertained of Judaism will of course 
 very much depend on the amount of intelligence 
 possessed by the holders, but in all they will be 
 found to be more or less warped and distorted by 
 sectarian animosity. If I were asked to give a 
 somewhat popular idea of Judaism as conceived
 
 [6] 
 
 by one class of people, I should say it was sup- 
 posed to consist of a horror of swine's flesh, the 
 exaction of exorbitant rates of interest, with a 
 grand religious festivity about the time of Easter, 
 at which the shedding, and some mysterious 
 use of Christian blood were indulged in. That 
 would be certainly the lowest idea entertained 
 by some Christian people in the old world ; 
 emigrants from whom however may even now be 
 in process of assimilation among us in cosmopol- 
 itan America. We are all familiar with the sup- 
 posed crucial test of Judaism that seems to suggest 
 itself to the mind of the ordinary gentile, which 
 takes form in the popular taunting rhymes that 
 we hear frequently addressed to the Jew. It is 
 not long ago that I replied to a communication in 
 the Evening Bulletin of this city wherein was the 
 following remark in reference to the Jews: "It will 
 be remembered that in their dealings they are 
 governed by the law of Moses, in which they 
 are commanded to be usurious only with strangers 
 and gentiles." And within the last few months, 
 aye, within the last month, I have read an account 
 of a revival in some place in Europe of the blood 
 accusation, and of the publication of two works in 
 Russia by Christian priests, the one gravely 
 making, the other as gravely refuting the charge. 
 
 A higher, and somewhat more flattering view is 
 that charitably indulged in by a class, whereof 
 the Pacific Churchman, a newspaper in this city 
 would seem to be the spokesman. That accords 
 to Judaism at least the recognition of its being 
 a sect, although as thinks the writer of the article 
 I refer to, we are not a people. "The Jew thus 
 proceeds the article has no faith. He has neither 
 altar, priesthood, nor sacrifice. He can perform
 
 [ 7 J 
 
 the writer you will observes omits the 
 ly no, not ornits, I should rather say misplaces, 
 for I have found the syllable pretty generally 
 distributed over the entire article from which 
 I extract. "He can perform scarce a single 
 religious service which his own law requires, and 
 without which that law tells him, there is no 
 remission for his sins. His religion, as written 
 in his law, passed out of existence, and all possi- 
 bility of existence eighteen hundred years ago, 
 and he has been living since on a bundle of 
 dry and dusty Rabbinism." A flattering picture 
 truly of our glorious religion, but painted by the 
 hand of a churchman what can we expect? 
 
 A more favorable view yet, and perhaps the 
 highest entertained by those stranger to us, and 
 who have not carefully examined the subject, is, 
 that it is a religion having some monotheistic veiws, 
 but overlaid with a gross anthropomorphism ; 
 having very little spirituality, a rigid and tiresome 
 ceremonial, and above all being the religion of a 
 tribe or sect, particularly exclusive, and not 
 a religion of humanity. To very much this effect 
 wrote lately -Professor Goldwin Smith in so 
 enlightened a magazine as the Cotemporary. He 
 says, "The monotheism of the Jew, like that of 
 Islam is unreal;" even our monotheism would 
 seem to be begrudged us. ''The Jewish God, 
 thongh single, is not the father of all, but the 
 Deity of His chosen race." As I speak the verse 
 from Isaiah, Ch. 54, may perhaps suggests itself to 
 your minds. "The God of all the earth shall He 
 be called." The morality embodied in the Mosaic 
 code though distinctly tribal, and sanctioning a 
 difference of principle between the rule of deal- 
 ing with a Hebrew and that of dealing with a
 
 [8] 
 
 stranger, which the civilized conscience now con- 
 demns, was in its day a nearer approach to human- 
 ity than any other known tribal law. The noble 
 part of the Jewish nation, the real heirs of David 
 and the prophets"- the writer refers I suppose to 
 the fishermen of Galilee and the motley crowd 
 of communists who followed them " heard the 
 gospel, and became the founders of a human 
 religion. The less noble part led by national 
 pride and ceremonialism embodied in the Pharisee 
 rejected humanity, and themselves fell back into 
 a narrower and harder tribalism then before." 
 
 There is no exaggeration then I think in the 
 statements I have made concerning the views 
 entertained of Judaism. They are, if not true, 
 certainly consistent with the ideas concerning 
 Jews, prevalent at a time within my own memory, 
 as may be illustrated by the following incidents. 
 
 My sisters when I was a boy attended a young 
 ladies' seminary in the suburbs of London. It 
 was an establishment situated in a location where 
 one might expect that persons of some intelli- 
 gence would reside. While there they made the 
 acquaintance of a young lady who resided next 
 door to the school. In a conversation had with 
 the youug lady in question one of my sisters 
 informed her that she was a Jewess. The infor- 
 mation seemed quite to surprise the young lady. 
 "What," exclaimed she, "you a Jewess? why I 
 thought all Jewesses had beards !" Another 
 instance was that of a Jewish captain yes 
 mirabile dictu a Jewish sea captain who was 
 running a schooner between Jamaica and some 
 of the neighbouring islands. I had the tale 
 from himself. He had on one of his trips a 
 passenger, to whom in the course of conversation
 
 [9] 
 
 he disclosed the fact of his being a Jew, which 
 would certainly not be surmised from his vocation. 
 Some nights after he was disturbed by the 
 passenger creeping up to his berth, and passing 
 his hand over it as if feeling for something. What 
 on earth do you want, cried the captain jumping 
 up, hunting round my bunk in this manner ? 
 Well, said the passenger in reply, to tell you the 
 truth captain, I had always heard that Jews had 
 tails, and thinking you were asleep I was 
 determined to satisfy myself. Probably many of 
 you from Europe may recall similar foolish and 
 absurd ideas prevalent among the Christian popu- 
 lations, which might well provoke a smile were the 
 ignorance which they bespeak not so fraught with 
 danger. If that was the idea concerning Jews 
 possessed by some people not utterly unen- 
 lightened within the British dominions not much 
 more than thirty-five to forty years ago. we need 
 hardly be surprised at the conceptions formed of 
 Judaism at the present day. Association with 
 the Jew, which has of late years become much 
 more intimate, would certainly correct such foolish 
 conceptions, and disclose to the gentiles that the 
 Jewess was not a bearded prodigy, nor the Jew 
 Mr. Darwin's missing link, but that they were men 
 and women in all respects like themselves. But 
 the association has not been intimate enough to 
 remove their prejudices, and the false ideas 
 entertained concerning Judaism. 
 
 It may however in all candor be asked whether 
 we Jews ourselves have sufficiently understood 
 what Judaism really is ; and it may also be 
 remarked as to some of the popular conceptions 
 concerning Judaism, whether it is not possible 
 that they may have been in some measure in
 
 [10] 
 
 fluenced, if not originated by a class among our 
 nation unfortunately through the crushing perse- 
 cutions we have undergone not a small one who 
 are not very highly imbued with the grand prin- 
 ciples of our faith, but whose expression of it 
 consists of the merest empty ceremonial, or the 
 practice of some foolish superstitions, represent- 
 ing Judaism very much as the dregs of wine 
 represent the rosy sparkling juice, 'that gladdeneth 
 the heart of man.' We do not however form our 
 opinion of generous old wine from the dregs; nor 
 is it just to judge of Judaism by the lowest 
 stratum of the Jewish people, however favor- 
 able it may compare, and statistics show that it 
 does compare very favorably with the like class 
 among the surrounding populations, although in 
 the seething cauldron of modern civilized life it 
 should occasionally change its position and come 
 near the surface. But that is but a small element 
 towards the formation of the false ideas and im- 
 pressions concerning Judaism, which I have quoted 
 and shown to exist. The true reason for them lies 
 deeper, and is in a great measure, I think, the 
 following. Mankind as a rule are not too fond 
 of mental exertion, and it requires frequently 
 considerable mental exertion to form opinions on 
 any subject which shall be correct and true; if 
 even men have the time to devote to the neces- 
 sary examination. It is a great deal easier to 
 accept opinions ready made to hand, or rather T 
 might say to head, as most men do their hats, 
 furnishing the lining as they do the covering of 
 their heads with the ready made article. I may 
 pursue the analogy and say, that there are 
 factories of opinions as there are of hats from 
 which the mass of mankind obtain their supplies.
 
 [11] 
 
 There are now-a-days two great factories of 
 the interior furnishing spoken of : one is the 
 Church, the other the press. Eat formerly, and 
 until very recent times the Church was the 
 originator of all opinions having any reference 
 to, or bearing on, or in any way connected with 
 religious topics. It too often indeed sought 
 to extend its jurisdiction, and endeavoured to 
 control those having reference to science and 
 philosophy; but science and philosophy have 
 fortunately for mankind emancipated themselves 
 from its control, and no longer think and speak 
 at the command of the priest. But this by the 
 way ; we are now only concerned with the Church 
 as the great opinion factory concerning Judaism: 
 for it is from it I think that all those prejudices, 
 and false impressions concerning Jews and Judaism 
 have .mainly emanated. 
 
 The principles of Jesuitism existed before the 
 time of Ignatius Loyola, and long before his time 
 the justification of the means by the end proposed 
 was a principle of the Church. It did not 
 scruple, therefore, where its interests were con- 
 cerned to use the vilification of the Jew, and 
 the misrepresentation of Judaism as the means 
 towards advancing those interests, or strengthen- 
 ing its power. 
 
 When Christianity no longer a mere Jewish 
 sect, cut loose from Judaism and allied itself with 
 paganism, the contrast between the followers of 
 the two religions was a striking one. The ignor- 
 ant, the illiterate, the vulgar, the poor were 
 mainly the followers of Christianity. The 
 learned, the cultured, the wealthy, the refined 
 of the Jewish nation remained true to Juda- 
 ism. Everywhere, in Palestine, in Babylon,
 
 [12] 
 
 throughout the captivity, academies and houses of 
 learning were established and supported. These 
 continued to exist, and nourished with the ac- 
 companying enlightenment among the Jews all 
 through the middle ages. "Many of them, says 
 Prof. Schleiden, soon became so favorably 
 known that they were attended by Christians, 
 and even Christian theologians, who almost 
 lacked opportunities for intellectual training." 
 What meantime became the condition of the 
 Christian world under the rule of the Church? 
 We will confine our view solely to education, 
 disregarding its teachings as regards commerce, 
 government, etc. Its attitude towards education 
 and science was that of an enemy. Reason and 
 intellectual light were not favorable to its dogmas. 
 They were consequently denounced and opposed 
 by the fathers of the Church ; to what extent, 
 and how successfully, let the burning of the great 
 Alexandrian library by a mob of Christian priests, 
 afterwards falsely attributed to the Caliph Omar: 
 let the destruction by Torquemada the Inquisitor 
 of the great library of Cordova containing 200,000 
 volumes : let the darkness of the middle ages, 
 to a great extent the effect of the work of 
 the Church illustrate. Mr. Lecky in his History 
 of Rationalism describing this condition says: 
 "The constant exaltation of blind faith, the 
 countless miracles, the childish legends, all 
 produced a -condition of besotted ignorance, 
 of grovelling and trembling credulity that can 
 scarcely be paralleled except among the most 
 degraded barbarians." 
 
 With light then opposed to darkness, intelligence 
 to gross ignorance, was it not natural that the 
 Church should fear the influence of Judaism as
 
 [13] 
 
 represented by the Jew, should look upon the 
 Jew as the foe of the Church, the protestant against 
 its idolatry, its paganism into which primitive 
 Christianity had been absorbed, its priest-craft. 
 And what was natural took place. It did fear 
 its recognized foe, and sought by every means in 
 its power to crush and destroy it.. It made war 
 upon. Judaism as it made war on science, reason and 
 philosophy. It expurgated and sought to destroy 
 our religious writings. It burned by the cartload 
 our Talmuds. It fraudulently interpolated our 
 histories. It would have burned and crushed the 
 Jew and the intelligence he then represented, out 
 of existence, but that the hand of Providence 
 preserved him. How strenuous were its efforts to 
 this end let the annals of history, and the sad, 
 sad story of Israel's persecutions, martyrdoms, and 
 consequent degradation attest. Association with 
 the Jew was to be prevented by the instillation 
 into the minds of the people of a religious hatred 
 towards him. The teachings of Judaism were to 
 be misrepresented, and Judaism maligned that 
 those of Christianity should appear in a more 
 favorable light. The light it had borrowed from 
 Judaism was to be passed off as original. Its sup- 
 posed spirituality and brightness were to receive a 
 foil in Judaism. Judaism was to be background 
 of the picture painted in darkness and shade to set 
 off the bright coloring of the foreground. Like 
 the victim of the highwayman who is beaten and 
 maltreated after being robbed, Judaism despoiled 
 of its ethics by the Church was maltreated, 
 maligned, crushed, persecuted, and crowded out 
 of all social contact, and was glad to hide away 
 in holes and ghettos, and preserve there amidst 
 every difficulty the flickering, but undying flame
 
 [14] 
 
 of which it was the custodian. Meanwhile the 
 misrepresentations of the Church concerning Jud- 
 aism were industriously propagated. The opinions 
 that the Church deemed most for its interest to 
 be entertained were diligently disseminated, and 
 with the power of falsehood to maintain its life 
 have continued to exist until the present day. 
 Truly has it been said by a very pleasant .writer, 
 Professor Matthews of Chicago : " When once 
 the world has got hold of a lie it is astonishing 
 how hard it is to get it out of the world. 
 You beat it on the head, and it seems to have 
 given up the ghost, and lo the next day like 
 Zachary Taylor who did not know he was whipped 
 by Santa Anna it is alive and as lusty as ever. 
 Hence it is, I think, that we have the false and 
 erroneous conceptions concerning Judaism that 
 we see prevailing in the world. We read them in 
 the earliest Christian writings when the compilers 
 of the Gospels put into the mouth of Jesus their 
 first recorded misrepresentation of Jewish doctrine, 
 making him say, "Ye have heard that it hath been 
 said, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, but I 
 say unto you, resist not evil." Who among the 
 adherents of Christianity even in these days, and 
 how much more in olden times, hearing this would 
 not imagine that Judaism taught revenge and 
 retaliation, instead of these feelings being utterly 
 repugnant to it? We have here one of those 
 hydra-headed falsehoods that would require 
 another Hercules to destroy. I have frequently 
 had occasion to beat in on the head, but expect 
 to meet with it as lively as ever shortly, so I will 
 even put the stick into your hands that you may 
 assist in its destruction whenever you may meet 
 with it.
 
 [15] 
 
 These words, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for 
 a tooth," as read in the English Bible, read in the 
 original Hebrew, " eye against eye, tooth against 
 tooth, hand against hand," in one place. In two 
 others literally "eye under eye, tooth under 
 tooth, hand under han$." The expression would 
 seem to be the Hebrew equivalent for the 
 expressive English phrase 'evenhanded justice.' 
 As one eye is like the other, as one tooth is like 
 the corresponding one, as one hand is like the 
 other, so exact shall be your administration of 
 justice. The phase is never used in any other 
 sense. In the instances in which it is used it re- 
 fers to cases of judicial punishment ; one where 
 punishment is meted out to the false witness ; 
 Deut. Ch. 19, v. 16-21; another where damages 
 are to be awarded by the judge for injury suffered 
 by a woman: Ex. Ch. 21, v. 22-29; the third 
 where damages are to be awarded for personal 
 injury, or blemish inflicted; Lev. Ch. 24, v. 20. 
 Where redress of one's own wrongs is spoken 
 of. a very different doctrine is announced. "Thou 
 shalt not avenge nor bear a grudge," Lev. Ch. 19. 
 And our sages commenting on this have given so 
 beautiful an explanation that [ repeat it hero for 
 the benefit of those to whom it may be new, and 
 judging from my experience it will be new to very 
 many of my Christian friends. "If some one has 
 denied thee a favor, says the Talmud, and desires 
 at any time thereafter any service from thee, thou 
 shalt not refuse it to him ; for it is said : Thou 
 shalt not avenge! Neither must thou say to him, 
 'Behold I serve thee now, although thou didst 
 refuse the favor I asked of thee.' As soon as thou 
 speakest thus, thou hast transgressed the com- 
 mandment, 'Thou shalt not bear a grudge.' ' In
 
 [16] 
 
 what light does this place the words of the 
 Gospel imputed to Jesus? 
 
 Another more transparent falsity imputed to 
 him, I say in each case imputed, because it is 
 impossible to believe that he was either so 
 ignorant as not to know, or so disingenuous as to 
 misrepresent the true meaning, cr the facts is 
 ''Ye have heard that it hath been said, ye shall 
 love your neighbor and hate your enemy." An 
 expression the like of which is not to be found in 
 any known Jewish writing ; but on the contrary we 
 have besides the injunction just quoted as to the 
 non-indulgence of revenge, the express commands. 
 'If thou meet thy enemy's ox or his ass going 
 astray, thou shalt surely bring him back to him 
 again. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee 
 lying under his burdpn, and would'st forbear to 
 unload him, thou must not do so, but thou shalt 
 surely unload with him," Exod. Ch. 24, v. 4-5. 
 Again; u At the fall of thy enemy do not rejoice ; 
 and at his stumbling let not thy heart be glad, 
 lest the Lord see it and it be displeasing in his 
 eyes." Prov. Ch. 24. v. 17-18. And the spirit 
 of Israel's sages on this subject is thus beautifully 
 illustrated. On all our festivals there is appointed 
 to be read a certain psalm service, called the 
 Hallel or Praise. This is completely read on all 
 the festivals excepting the Passover. And why 
 not then? In deference to the overthrown 
 Egyptians, say the Talmudists, lest our rejoicing 
 over a fallen enemy should seem too great. 
 
 That we read of men in the Bible history who 
 disregarded these precepts, as they did even more 
 important ones, and indulged in the most vindic- 
 tive and revengeful conduct, is certainly no incul- 
 cation of a contrary doctrine; although I have
 
 [17] 
 
 heard some people seriously argue so, as if the} 7 
 thought every character in the Bible history was 
 an example to be followed, and never one to be 
 avoided. 
 
 With such misrepresentations, and misstatements 
 to start with, read continually throughout Christen- 
 dom in its churches, taught to the young in their 
 Sunday schools, with other similar and equally 
 false representations of Jews and Jewish doctrine, 
 can it be wondered that the intelligent laity 
 misapprehend Judaism? that even Christian 
 clergymen are often equally ignorant on the 
 subject of Jewish doctrine? I remember once 
 surprising a Christian clergyman very much by 
 pointing out to him in Leviticus Ch. 19, v. 18, as 
 Jewish doctrine that had been appropriated by 
 Christianity the text "Thou shalt love thy 
 neighbor as thyself." He had cited it to me as 
 a principle entirely new in Christianity for which 
 it was not indebted to Judaism. 
 
 Can it be wondered in view of such ignorance 
 and misapprehension, that we see the glorious 
 principles of Judaism taken verbatim et literatim 
 from our sacred writings, quoted in the pages of 
 general literature as Christian doctrine and Juda- 
 ism therein entirely ignored ? Can it be wondered 
 that seen through all this fog and mist of prejudice, 
 these clouds of ignorance that the views of Juda- 
 ism should have been so distorted? Can it be 
 wondered in view of all this misrepresentation, 
 misapprehension, prejudice, and ignorance, that 
 Christianity should have been exalted on high, 
 and Judaism degraded in the world's eyes ? 
 
 The veil however is lifting. In the words 
 of an eminent American poet lately deceased
 
 [18] 
 
 Truth, crushed to earth will rise again. 
 The Eternal years of God are her's; 
 But error, wounded, writhes in pain, 
 And dies amid its worshippers. 
 
 The triumph of Christianity over Judaism is 
 drawing to a close. There is a vivid picture in 
 the ''Life Drama" of Alexander Smith, which 
 so admirably applies to this triumph, and may 
 represent the rise of Christianity, that I am 
 tempted to quote it. The scene he paints is the 
 setting Sun and the rising Moon. 
 
 " What image " asks Violet, 
 ' ' Would you draw from this ? " 
 
 " Why this 
 
 The Sun is dying like a cloven King, 
 In his own blood, the while the distant Moon, 
 Like a pale prophetess whom he has wronged, 
 Leans eager forward with most hungry eyes, 
 Watching him bleed to death, and as he faints, 
 She brightens and dilates; Revenge complete, 
 She walks in lonely triumph through the night." 
 
 But the darkness and the night which she ruled 
 with the reflected light of the sunken orb is 
 passing away. A new day of Judaism is dawn- 
 ing, and her light is paling. The mind of man 
 awakening at the dawn is passing from the con- 
 trol of the Church. The highest intelligence of 
 humanity like the mountain ranges first reflect- 
 ing the light, no longer accepts its dogmas. An 
 apparent conformity doubtless exists even among 
 the intelligent, and many there are outside of the 
 mass and multitude still accepting uninquiringly 
 the old doctrines, who having abandoned all belief 
 in the dogmas, yet have not braved public opinion 
 in announcing their desertion, and who are not 
 prepared to meet the petty persecution with which 
 the Church and its followers invariably visit 
 those who fall away from it. My assertion may
 
 [19] 
 
 perhaps surprise some yet credulous minds who 
 are not aware of the progress of human thought. 
 I will therefore substantiate my assertion with 
 the following extracts from the works of writers 
 who are familar with the subject. 
 
 I quote first from a work of W. B. Alger, 
 entitled ; ' Rocks Ahead." "I believe it to be true, 
 writes he, that the strongest mental power, the 
 purest thought, the highest intelligence among us, 
 is yearly diverging more and more from Chris- 
 tianity, is discarding all faith in it, assuming 
 towards it not so much a hostile, as an isolated, 
 neutral, almost supercilious attitude which may 
 perhaps best be described as one of silent renun- 
 ciation and disapproval of looking and passing 
 by on the other side. The preponderant intellect 
 in every line, statesmanlike, legal, scholarly, 
 scientific, literary, industrial is no longer be- 
 lieving-, is as a rule distinctly unbelieving, and 
 I venture to say this in the face of such flagrant, 
 and splendid contradictions as are offered by the 
 names of Gladstone, Selborne, Acton, Faraday 
 and Wordsworth, well knowing also, that the still 
 greater names I might, if it were not unseemly, 
 quote in proof of my assertion., would in many 
 cases not be ready to avow their disbelief, and 
 in some would resent its being attributed to them. 
 In a country like England where conformity to at 
 least some form of Christianity is enforced by 
 still extant legal penalties of a very harsh 
 character, and by social penalties nearly as 
 intolerant and severe, it is not easy to avow entire 
 dissent to the national creed, and therefore the 
 weight and numbers of such dissenters will never 
 be accurately known till they have become 
 predominant."
 
 [20] 
 
 Again, "A very large proportion, probably the 
 majority of the operative classes in towns are 
 total unbelievers ; and these are not the reckless 
 and disreputable, but on the contrary, consist of 
 the best of the skilled workman, the most instructed 
 and thoughtful as well as the steadiest. The hard 
 headed, industrious, reading engineers and fore- 
 men, the members of Mechanics Institutes, the 
 natural leaders of the artisans, are sceptics 
 intellectually not morally ; they disbelieve because 
 they have inquired, argued ; and observed, and 
 have been unable to obtain from their inethodist 
 fellow workmen, or even from ministers of the 
 Gospel satisfactory answers to their doubts. 
 Among manufacturing artisans, and the highest 
 description of citizen laborers, it may be stated 
 with even more confidence than of the ranks above 
 them in the social scale, that the intellect of the 
 body is already divorced from the prevalent 
 creeds of the country." 
 
 From a work of Moncure D. Con way entitled 
 "Idols and Ideals," among much to the same effect 
 as the foregoing! extract the following. ''Thus, 
 whether we listen to the conclusions of science, 
 philosphy, and literature on the philosophy and 
 authentication of Christianity, or whether we 
 listen to the voice of the people, as uttered in 
 actions that speak louder than words, we receive 
 a cumulative verdict that Christianity has a name 
 to live, but is dead." It might seem perhaps 
 more correct to say dying, but a reference to 
 what follows in the work will explain the use of 
 the word. "The reality of it, says the same 
 thoughtful writer, has passed away. Its name now 
 represents the effort of a lucrative institution to 
 survive into and though a civilization built up
 
 [21] 
 
 point for point against its protest and its errors. 
 That effort may continue for a while, but it is 
 hopeless." 
 
 If we required further proof of the decay 
 of dogmatic Christianity, we need only let 
 our mind's eye look back for a thousand years at 
 the conflicting doctrines of the two faiths as at 
 two supposed parallel lines, and what do we see? 
 Do we see any concession on the part of Judaism? 
 None. In spite of the most grinding and terrible 
 persecutions, in spite of inquisitions, racks, 
 banishments, auto-da -fes, massacres, ghettos, 
 gaberdines, social ostracism, none. But we see 
 the line representing Christianity at the period 
 of which I speak, diverging towards Judaism. 
 We see every shade of religious opinion between 
 the old Catholicism, and pure Jewish theism. 
 Some of the sects diverging from the old church 
 which -are almost Jewish in their doctrines ; with 
 whom the Jew non-observant of the ceremonial of 
 his religion almost meets on common ground; who 
 represent religious ideas and opinions such as were 
 entertained by those who were known in the Jew- 
 ish Church as "proselytes of the Gate." The 
 following as a sample of these ideas, is from 
 a sermon preached in London on Easter Sun day of 
 last year by the Rev. Charles Voysey, minister of 
 a religious denomination which has abandoned 
 the errors of the Christian Church, and is known 
 as Moral theism. 
 
 "For my part I cannot but wholly endorse the 
 pious, and wise reflections of the Rabbi Cohen, 
 (he has been reading from the Deicides pp. 252- 
 255. 288-290,) which I have already read to you 
 as lessons this morning, and regard Christianity 
 like every other movement which has influenced
 
 [22] 
 
 the world, as one out of many agencies by which 
 an ever ruling Providence is ever leading men 
 from stage to stage, nearer to the truth and to 
 Himself: that Christianity was a bridge from 
 paganism to Judaism, and that while it was 
 pursuing its path of conquest in much darkness of 
 mind, and unworthiness of purpose, it was doing 
 Divine work in clearing the way of our benighted 
 forefathers towards the attainment of the best, 
 truest, and purest faith which the world has ever 
 seen. Christians may dream of their coming mil- 
 lennium when the Jews will be converted to 
 Christianity. Sooner shall the sun retrace his 
 steps from noon to dawn, or the moon forsake her 
 parent earth for an orbit around Jupiter, than 
 God's chosen people forsake their ancient and 
 most sublime faith for the meretricious idolatries, 
 and the half-pagan mysticism of the Christian 
 faith. Christendom, if I am right, is now on the 
 eve of a new and grander reformation, and will 
 soon fling its idols to the moles and the bats, and 
 cast itself in grateful adoration before the Living 
 God r the God of Israel, the only Lord and God of 
 the whole earth." 
 
 The Rev. Bishop Simpson preached a sermon 
 lately in this city, wherein speaking of the 
 conquests of Christianity as proof of its truth, 
 he eloquently referred to the breaking down of all 
 the pagan religions prevailing in Greece and Rome, 
 a favorite and standard argument with the church- 
 men. But hear what says the Rev. Mr. Voysey 
 on this subject. 
 
 "But we shall miss the whole force of this 
 argument, from the fact of the spread of Chris- 
 tianity among the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians, 
 if we do not notice also by whom, and by what
 
 [23] 
 
 manner of people Christianity was rejected. 
 There was one section at least of the Roman 
 Empire that steadfastly refused to accept Chris- 
 tianity whom no bribes, no threats, nor the bitterest 
 penalties and persecutions, could ever compel to 
 profess the Christian faith. A people historically 
 often unfaithful, changeable, prone to wander, 
 nevertheless immovable as the everlasting hills to 
 all apostolic inducements to idolatry. This people 
 actually gave heed for a time to its founder and 
 his immediate followers, and suffered even in 
 Jerusalem the establishment of a Christian bishop; 
 but the moment they saw what Christianity really 
 was, and what it involved, they shook it off from 
 them like a leprous garment, and from that day 
 forth would not for very love of God allow 
 themselves to be perverted by its claims. If you 
 look for a marvel in connection with Christianity, 
 it is to be seen in its pitiable weakness in its 
 fiercest encounters with Judaism. If persistence 
 under "the most frightful disadvantages be any 
 token of Divine favor, or supernatural aid, these 
 are to be seen in all their brilliancy, not in the 
 history of Christian triumph over a pagan world, 
 but in the unbroken line of Jewish fidelity, 
 by which they have to this day defeated the 
 assaults of Christianity." 
 
 How the light is spreading when we hear such 
 enunciations as these proceeding from the pulpit 
 of a dissenting church in protestant England. 
 Do you recall my friends the prophecy of Jeremiah 
 (Ch. 16 v. 19) "Oh Lord, my strength and my 
 fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble ; Unto 
 thee shall the gentiles come ff om the ends of the 
 earth, and they shall say; verily our fathers have 
 inherited falsehood, vanity, things in which there 
 is no profit."
 
 [24] 
 
 And would you learn my friends the effect of 
 these preachings on the English mind. Let me 
 read you an extract from a letter writen by a non- 
 Jew, by one who calls himself a member of the 
 church of England, although not a believer in the 
 dogmatic Christianity. "I know too, writes he, 
 to an English paper, that at least one large 
 and liberal section of the Church is making 
 a steady development towards Mr. Voysey's 
 advanced position, which it is certain eventually 
 to reach. His printed sermons are read every 
 week by thoughtful clergymen in different parts 
 of the country, some of whom have been thereby 
 induced to modify their own teaching, and greatly 
 to the public advantage. Instead of defending 
 any longer the supernatural claims of Christianity, 
 which they know to be utterly indefensible, and 
 afflicting their congregations week after week with 
 tedious discourses on the Trinity, the Atonement, 
 and justification by faith, they direct themselves 
 as a good journalist would do, to exposing the 
 worst diseases of modern society, and to pointing 
 out the special requirements of our times." 
 I am not wrong then, I think, in speaking of 
 the concessions of Christianity to Judaism. Aye, 
 we see lines divergent from the old Catholicism 
 which have gone beyond Judaism in their dissent, 
 and represent that rationalism and Deism so 
 prevalent in the present day. Our age is an age 
 of skepticism and inquiry. Intelligent man no 
 longer accepts his religion on the ipse dixit of the 
 priest. Intelligent man demands, and searches 
 for a religion which shall appeal to, and be 
 accepted by his intellect as well as by his 
 emotions. One that shall satisfy his reason as well 
 as his heart. One* that shall feed his whole nature,
 
 [25] 
 
 and not unnaturally develop one part, and dwarf 
 and stunt the other. What Professor Blaikie 
 says in his late work on the Natural History of 
 Atheism, may well apply to other faiths than 
 Buddhism. "So long, indeed," writes he, "as 
 thought is suppressed and education neglected, 
 such a religion may continue to satisfy the masses, 
 and dominate the popular sentiment without 
 serious question ; but the moment a cultivated 
 reason is stirred to the exercise of its legitimate 
 functions, such a religion droops. The nobility 
 of its moral inspiration is forgotten in the absurd- 
 ity of its intellectual assertions, for a man will not 
 envy the position of moral saintship in a system, 
 ' where to be an orthodox believer implies that he 
 is intellectually an ass." 
 
 The rationalistic spirit which is abroad attacks 
 not Christianity alone. Judaism too has to meet 
 it ; aird it must be met, my friends, fairly and 
 squarely in honorable combat. We cannot better 
 our cause if a bad one, by refusing to recognize the 
 presence of the enemy, if enemy indeed it be, for a 
 man may wrestle with one who is not an enemy. 
 We must meet and repel, or failing to repel, or only 
 partially conquering, must accept our defeat or 
 our partial defeat, as our ancestor Jacob in his 
 wrestling with the angel, by exacting a blessing 
 from the minister of light with whom we have 
 contended. 
 
 In the light of the demands of the intelligence 
 of the age then, let us ask what is Judaism? Is 
 it that religion of mere ceremonial that some have 
 painted it? Is it that unspiritual regard of mere 
 precept that some have considered it, that mere 
 carnal observance that the church has represented 
 it? Does it really possess those exclusive features
 
 [26] 
 
 that are so after imputed to it? Is it true that it 
 is a mere tribal religion teaching a difference of 
 principle towards the Jew and the gentile? Are 
 its conceptions of Deity so anthopomorphic and 
 irrational as some of the new schools of rationalism 
 have stated tnem? Or is it, or does it contain the 
 elements and principles of that rational religion 
 for which the awakening world is craving, that 
 universal religion which will eventually embrace 
 within its fold all mankind? Let us dispassion- 
 ately examine. It may be somewhat difficult to 
 convince those who are so prejudiced against 
 Judaism that they are not accessible by reason ; 
 but it may at all events satisfy ourselves to see 
 our loved,, ancient, and glorious faith in its true 
 light. 
 
 First, then, as to its exclusiveness, one of 
 the favorite and hackneyed charges against it. 
 Exclusiveness is supposed to mean debarring 
 from participation. It does not mean refusal to 
 blend with, to amalgamate with, or to associate 
 intimately with. Surrounded as the Jews were 
 by idolatrous nations, and with the tendency dis- 
 played by the nation to relapse into the idolatrous 
 practices of Egypt, or to adopt those of the 
 surrounding countries, they might well refrain 
 from association with, or amalgamation with 
 them, but were they exclusive? Did they deny the 
 right of citizenship or naturalization to strangers? 
 They certainly did not send out emigration agen- 
 cies to surrounding nations, to induce them to 
 come and settle in a country limited in extent as 
 was Palestine, and the land of which was already 
 entirely divided among the inhabitants ; but there 
 was no exclusion of the stranger from partici- 
 pation in all their privileges. What said the
 
 [27] 
 
 Jewish law on this subject? Referring to the 
 feast of Passover, the most national of all the 
 feasts ; the one celebrating the redemption from 
 Egyptian slavery, the anniversary of national free- 
 dom that would seem peculiar to the native born, 
 we find it written, that when a stranger should 
 sojourn in the land and would prepare the Pass- 
 over unto the Lord, in other words, become 
 throughly identified with Israel, he might be re- 
 ceived into the covenant and come near and 
 prepare it, and be as one that is born in the land. 
 "One law shall be to him that is home-bornand 
 unto the stranger that sojourneth among you." 
 (Ex. Oh. 12, v. 47-49.) 
 
 What is the teaching of the prophets on the 
 subject. Turn we to Isaiah Ch. 54, v. 3, and we 
 find, "And let not say the son of the stranger who 
 hath joined himself unto the Lord, Surely the 
 Lord will separate me from his people; nor, let 
 the eunuch say Behold I am a dry tree. For 
 thus saith the Lord, unto the eunuchs that keep 
 my Sabbaths, and take hold of my covenant. 
 
 "Even unto them will I give in my house, and 
 within my walls a place' and a name better than of 
 sons and daughters, I will give them an everlasting 
 name that shall not be cut off. 
 
 " Also the sons of the stranger that join them- 
 selves unto the Lord, to serve Him, and to love 
 the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every 
 one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, 
 and taketh hold of my covenant. 
 
 " Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, 
 and make them joyful in my house of prayer, 
 their burnt offerings, and their sacrifices shall be 
 accepted upon my altar, for my house shall be 
 called a house of prayer for all people.
 
 [28] 
 
 " The Lord God who gathereth the outcasts of 
 Israel saith ; yet will I gather others to him 
 besides his own gathered outcasts." 
 
 Does that sound like exclusiyeness? But let us 
 look further. In Ezekiel Ch/47, I find when he 
 is speaking of the future division of the land at 
 the promised restoration, as follows : 
 
 "And it shall come to pass, that ye shall divide 
 it. by lot as an inheritance unto you. and to the 
 strangers that sojourn among you. which shall 
 beget children among you : and they shall be 
 unto you as born in the country among the children 
 of Israel, they shall have inheritance with you 
 among the tribes of Israel. 
 
 "And it shall come to pass in what tribe the 
 stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give him his 
 inheritance, saith the Lord God." 
 
 This is the exclusiveness of the Bible. Have 
 our sages been more exclusive? Is proselytism 
 forbidden? No. Encouraged it certainly is not; 
 first, because there was no exclusive salvation 
 claimed by Judaism as is done by Christianity. 
 Judaism the exclusive has no Athanasiari creed 
 with a damnatory clause for all who do not accept 
 it. The righteous of all nations, say our sages, 
 -have a portion in the world to come." All that 
 is required of them is to renounce idolatry, which, 
 according to Jewish definition, is the ascription of 
 Divine honors', or rendering worship to any one 
 but God alone ; to worship Him alone, and to 
 follow the broad eternal principles of justice and 
 right as revealed to man. The ceremonial law 
 was not considered binding on them any more 
 than the laws peculiar to the priest and Levite 
 were binding on the general body of the Jewish 
 nation. What need then of proselytizing? Judaism
 
 [29] 
 
 has no need to purchase testimony of its truth to 
 parade before its votaries to strengthen their faith, 
 as would seem to be done by some of the so called 
 conversion societies of the rival faith. Judaism 
 has the common sense to realize that you cannot 
 force a man's eye to receive more light than it is 
 prepared for. It waits with a calm and confident 
 patience for the gradual dissipation of the clouds 
 of error before the sun of intelligence and general 
 education, and contents itself with its protest and 
 its example.' It realizes that you cannot convince 
 a man who professes to have no reason ; that you 
 must wait patiently till the faculty develops, and 
 then he will himself discover his error. It is 
 useless to attempt to make a blind man under- 
 stand that green is green, or yellow not red, if he 
 professes to be governed by faith, and has a faith 
 or belief in the contrary. You can only seek^ to 
 restore the sense which will disclose it to him. 
 Hence it is that Judaism is not a proselytizing 
 faith. But it refuses not communion to those who 
 awakening to the light would accept its teachings 
 in whole or in part. There were in olden times 
 in Israel two classes of proselytes, those who 
 entered into the fold and became to all intents 
 and purposes Jews ; these were the proselytes of 
 justice so called ; the others who not entering 
 into the covenant yet had abandoned idolatry, 
 worshipped the one true God, and followed the 
 general moral teachings of the Jewish law. With 
 both there was amalgamation and intermarriage, 
 the children of the latter being also recognized, 
 and brought up as Jews. After the dispersion, 
 however, the latter order seems to have been no 
 longer recognized ; probably from the tendency 
 that would exist towards estrangement from the
 
 [30] 
 
 ancestral religion through the dominating influ- 
 ence of the mass among whom the small minority 
 was scattered. 
 
 Exclusiveness then we see there is not in 
 Judaism ; that is exclusiveness in its true sense. 
 If it is exclusiveness for the minority to refuse 
 to amalgamate, and intermarry with a majority 
 that they must regard and esteem from their 
 point of view as idolatrous, then certainly must 
 the Jew be called exclusive. But it is the ex- 
 clusiveness of self preservation, of national life. 
 It is the exclusiveness of the serried squares of 
 Wellington at Waterloo, to break which would be 
 ruin, defeat, and destruction. Would one enter 
 to join us in the battle and strife for truth? our 
 ranks are open to him. Is he for our enemies? 
 the unbroken front is maintained. For how long 
 think you, my friends, it would require if a differ- 
 ent course were pursued, if this rigid refusal to 
 amalgamate were not persisted in, for Israel to 
 lose itself and be absorbed among the nations? 
 I have not time to pursue the subject, but let your 
 imagination picture the home training of children 
 in a house where a mother alien in religion to 
 that of the Jewish father controlled the religious 
 education of the child, or in the absence of the 
 father toiling for the family subsistence, surrend- 
 ered the tender mind of the child to be moulded 
 and impressed by her priest or religious adviser ; 
 he becoming the true spiritual father of the child, 
 and there existing thus a species of spiritual 
 adultery too sadly prevalent in the world, at which 
 the refined and sensitive mind revolts. Imagine 
 the condition of the Jewish mother allied to one 
 different to her in faith, meeting alone the bitter 
 prejudices against her faith, and the secret in-
 
 [31] 
 
 fluences with which she would be beset ; and al- 
 though she succeeded in preserving her own faith 
 and belief amid these untoward influences, seeing 
 perhaps her loved, and cherished little ones influ- 
 enced and led into what she must believe if a 
 consistent Jewess to be idolatry ; and then 
 advocate amalgamation, and a breaking down of 
 those barriers, that have been wisely set to 
 preserve intact our faith, and our nationality. 
 
 The next charge that we have to consider, is 
 that of Judaism recognizing a difference between 
 the treatment of the stranger and the native born. 
 As utterly false, baseless, and preposterous a charge 
 as could possibly be invented. I say preposterous, 
 because the Jewish law and sacred writings are so 
 full of a doctrine entirely the reverse of this; the 
 care, protection, and love of the stranger is made 
 so prominent a principle, that it is perhaps one of 
 the most noticeable features of Judaism. I have 
 referred already to some of the texts that prove 
 no exclusion of the stranger. I need only cite a 
 few more to show how wicked a fabrication is this 
 charge, and to convince any one that the condition 
 of the stranger in Israel was certainly no worse, 
 but was even better than that of the native born. 
 
 We find him committed to our charity and care 
 even as the widow and orphan, and surely they 
 are cared for in Israel. There is not a text, 
 I think, that refers to the orphan and widow but 
 the stranger is included. I can recall one where 
 the widow is omitted, but never the stranger. 
 When the Jewish prophets denounce the crimes 
 of which the nation had been guilty, to provoke 
 the wrath and punishment of God, prominent 
 among them is the perpetration of wrong to the
 
 [32] 
 
 stranger. But I will merely read the texts and 
 let them refute the charge. 
 
 In Lev. Ch. 19 v. 33-34 we have "and if a stran- 
 ger sojourn with you in your land, ye shall not 
 vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with 
 you shall be unto you as one born among you, 
 and thou shall love him as thyself ; for ye were 
 strangers in the land of Egypt." 
 
 In Deut. Ch. 10 v. 18-19. "He, the Lord doth 
 execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, 
 and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and 
 ruiment. Love ye therefore the stranger for ye 
 were strangers in the land of Egypt." 
 
 Again Deut. Ch. 14 v. 28-29. "At the end of 
 three years thou shall bring forth all the tithe of 
 thine increase the same year and lay it up within 
 thy gates. And the Levite (because he hath no 
 part nor inheritance with thee) and the stranger 
 the stranger first mark you and the fatherless, 
 and the widow which are within thy gates, shall 
 come and eat and be satisfied." 
 
 Again it is written (Deut. Ch. 24 v. 17-21.) 
 "Thou shall not pervert the judgment of the 
 stranger, nor of the fatherless, nor take the rai- 
 ment of the widow to pledge. When thou cuttest 
 down thy harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a 
 sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to 
 fetch it; it shall be for the stranger the stranger 
 always first for the fatherless, and the widow. 
 When thou beatest thy olive tree, thou shalt not 
 go over the boughs again, it shall be for the 
 stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. 
 
 "When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vine- 
 yard, thou shalt not glean it afterward, it shall 
 be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the 
 widow."
 
 [33] 
 
 ;< And in Lev. Ch. 23, we have, "And if thy 
 brother become poor and fall in decay with thee, 
 then shalt thou assist him, yea a stranger, or 
 sojourner that he may live with thee. Thou 
 shall not take of him any usury or increase, but 
 thou shalt be afraid of thy God. 
 
 ''And when ye reap the harvest of your land, 
 thou shalt not cut away the corners of thy field 
 when thou reapest ; neither shalt thou gather any 
 gleanings of thy harvest, unto the poor and the 
 stranger shalt thou leave them, I am the Lord." 
 
 In Exodus Ch. 22 v. Ch. 23. we find, "And a 
 stranger thou shalt not vex, and shalt not oppress 
 him. for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." 
 When the basket of the first fruits is brought 
 as an offering as commanded in Deut, Ch. 26, the 
 injunction is li And thou shalt rejoice with every 
 good thing which the Lord thy God hath given 
 thee, ad unto thy house, thou and the Levite and 
 the stranger that is in the midst of thee." 
 
 Among the curses denounced on Mt. Ebal, 
 Deut. Ch. 27 v. 19, there is, " Cursed be he that 
 perverteth the judgment of the stranger, the 
 fatherless or the widow." 
 
 When the prophet Ezekiel shews the abom- 
 inations of the "bloody city" that is to bring 
 about the scattering and dispersion among the 
 nations, he says (Ez. Ch. 22 v. 7 ) " In thee 
 have they set light by father and mother, in the 
 midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with 
 the stranger again first in thee have they 
 vexed the fatherless and the widow." And the 
 prophet Malachi denouncing the punishment 
 of God against the wicked exclaims : "And 
 [ (the Lord) will come near unto you to judg- 
 ment, and I will be a swift witness against
 
 [34] 
 
 the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and 
 against the false swearers, and against those that 
 oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and 
 the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger 
 from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord !" 
 
 And when Israel's King is dedicating the house 
 of G-od, the national Temple, does he exclude or 
 forget the stranger? No ! But in that grand 
 dedicatory prayer he exclaims, " Moreover con- 
 cerning a stranger that is not of thy people Israel, 
 but cometh out of a far country for thy namesake. 
 Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do 
 according to all that the stranger calleth to Thee 
 for, that all people of the earth may know Thy 
 name, to fear Thee, as do Thy people Israel, and 
 that they may know that this house, which I 
 have builded is called by this name." Have I 
 adduced enough my friends to shew the tribalism 
 of Judaism? to shew how much it recognizes a 
 difference of treatment between the Hebrew and 
 the stranger ? If all the teachings of the 'church 
 supposed to be supported by the scripture are 
 as true as this misrepresentation of the Church- 
 man, it might well have sealed the book to its 
 followers. 
 
 There is one point perhaps on which I might 
 say a few words more, and that is that popular 
 misconception concerning the permission to take 
 usury from the stranger. A misconception which 
 arises from a mistranslation of a versa in Dent. 
 Ch. 23, v. 20, thus rendered in the English 
 version "Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon 
 usury, but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend 
 upon usury." There would appear to be an entire 
 mistranslation of this verse as well as the pre- 
 ceeding one, "thou shalt not lend upon usury to
 
 [35] 
 
 thy brother, usury of money, usury of victuals, 
 usury of anything that'is lent upon usury." The 
 word usury meaning only interest, or the price 
 paid for the use of money, as it once did, was cor- 
 rect enough perhaps formerly, but now that the 
 word has come to mean illegal, excessive, or ex- 
 orbitant interest, it is no longer so. Again, the 
 Hebrew words rendered, "thou shalt not take in- 
 terest, and thou mayest take interest," correctly 
 translated would be "Thou shalt not cause inter- 
 est to be taken, and thou mayest cause interest 
 to be taken" the verb being in what is called the 
 hiphil, or causative form. In other words pro- 
 hibiting either the receiving interest, or paying 
 interest to thy brother. And as the stranger 
 sojourning in the land was expressly placed in the 
 same position as the native born, as we have seen 
 by the texts quoted from Lev. Ch. 19, and Lev. 
 Ch. 25 : the taking or paying interest was pro- 
 hibited entirely in the land ; the object doubtless 
 being to prevent the accumulation of wealth in 
 the hands of the few. The word stranger as the 
 translation of nr: (Nachree) certainly seems 
 incorrect. In nearly all the quotations made by 
 me to-night in which the word stranger occurs, 
 the word in the Hebrew is 13 (Gare). The word 
 13 is almost always, I think always used in refer- 
 ence to the foreigner residing in the land, -nr: 
 (Nachree) really means foreigner. We have the 
 word used certainly in this sense in the instance 
 of Solomon's prayer, where he speaks of the nrj 
 or foreigner coming from a far off country. 
 1 Kings, Ch. 11, v. 1. We have used it in 
 this sense when Isaiah says "and the sons of 
 the stranger shall build up thy walls and their 
 Kings shall minister unto thee." (Is. Ch. 60, 
 v. 10) ; also in David's song, II Sam. Ch. 22, v. 45,
 
 [36] 
 
 when he says the ' sons of the stranger or 
 foreigner shall submit themselves unto me.' And 
 in many other instances. The proper construc- 
 tion of the verse then is that interest was- 
 prohibited entirely in the land, but loans to or 
 from a foreigner residing out of the land might 
 bear interest. After the dispersion when the Jew 
 became the stranger and sojourner in the various 
 countries, the law was modified by the Rabbinical 
 authorities to suit the circumstances, and legal 
 interest was permitted to be taken from the non 
 Jew. What the rates of interest were in the 
 middle ages, as charged by the Jews, who were 
 of necessity from being debarred all other pur- 
 suits the banking class, I can not state, but they 
 would hardly equal what we have seen current, 
 and most of us have paid in this city upon the 
 choicest security, or what is commonly paid .on 
 bottomry. We realize now-a-days both in inter- 
 est and insurance that the risk makes the rate, but 
 that commercial principle was not understood in 
 the dark ages, except by the Jews who were 
 the commercial and banking class. But outside 
 of this commercial principle, the monetary trans- 
 actions of the middle ages seem to have resolved 
 themselves in a pecuniary war of reprisals. It was 
 confiscation, robbery, and despoiling of the prin- 
 cipal on the part of the Christian, and an attempt 
 to get even through high interest on the part of 
 the persecuted and despoiled Jew. If an account 
 could be taken of these transactions, there would 
 be found, I think, a large balance to the credit of 
 the Jew, who certainly did not find among the 
 Christian nations that care, love, and protection 
 that was taught to him, by his law to be shown to 
 the stranger. Was that too among the beggarly 
 elements of the law of which Paul speaks ?
 
 [37] 
 
 I have DOW to refer to the charge of anthro- 
 pomorphism in the conceptions of Deity by 
 Judaism, an objection urged by the rationalistic 
 mind, and finding its support in the language 
 used in the Jewish sacred writings in reference to 
 the Supreme Being. But long before the dawn of 
 rationalism as a phase of religious thought, that 
 subject had been discussed and disposed of within 
 Judaism itself. That mode of thought and 
 speech which we find peculiar to mankind in the 
 early stages of society, and well adapted to convey 
 vivid impressions to the uneducated, and unphilo- 
 sophical mind, was recognized in Judaism as a 
 mere figure of speech, just as we now speak of the 
 rising and setting of the sun and moon. It could 
 convey no anthropomorphic idea to th,e Jewish 
 mind, for that was thoroughly imbued with the 
 teaching of the law that no human conceptions 
 could be formed of Deity. "Take you therefore 
 good Keed, it said, for ye saw no manner of simili- 
 tude on 'the day that the Lord spoke unto you in 
 Horeb out of the midst of the fire, (Dent." Oh. 4 
 14). Thou shalt not make unto thyself any 
 likeness of anything that is the heaven above, or 
 in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under 
 the earth." (Ex. Ch. 20.) 
 
 It was the teaching of Judaism to correct any 
 misapprehension on this point, that the Scripture 
 spoke in the language of men, and that all these 
 expressions in reference to the appearance of God, 
 to His anger being awakened, to His hand, His 
 eye, the shadow of His wing and the like anthro- 
 pomorphic expressions are all merely figurative. 
 The Jewish creed which is the true criterion of the 
 Jewish belief is clear enough on this subject. It 
 leaves nothing open to doubt, It contains as 
 
 304796
 
 [38] 
 
 purely philosophical an idea of Deity as can possi- 
 bly be conceived ; as rational as the most rational- 
 istic mind could desire. A singular, beautiful, and 
 striking feature in it is that it descends not to 
 any explanation, or proof of His existence. It 
 assumes it as one of those self-evident propo- 
 sitions that the mind naturally accepts, as if it 
 an emanation from Deity was instinctively con- 
 scious of its derivation, and reflected although 
 in the most infinitesimal degree its original. 
 
 " Extolled and praised be the Living God," 
 is the sublime opening. He exists, but his exist- 
 ence is not bounded by lime." 
 
 "He is One, but His unity is unparallelled. 
 He is incomprehensible and His unity is endless. 
 
 " He has no material form, He is incorporeal 
 and His holiness is not. comparable to aught. 
 
 "He existed prior to all creation, He is the 
 first, but without any period of commencement." 
 
 Is there anything anthropomorphic here, aught 
 but the most rational and philosophical idea of 
 the Supreme First Cause? It is one that can 
 satisfy the mind of a philosopher, and be accepted 
 by the intelligence of a child. 
 
 And turning from the creed to the sacred 
 writings, we find the representation of that 
 supremely Holy, all powerful, incomprehensible 
 One, as the tender, loving, and merciful Father, 
 who compassionateth his children, who is all 
 merciful and gracious, who forgiveth iniquity 
 and sin to the penitent, but who will by no means 
 clear the guilty and impenitent ; who hath no 
 pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he 
 repent and live ; who careth for the widow, the 
 fatherless and the stranger ; who exalteth the 
 humble and casteth down the proud ; who is
 
 [39] 
 
 accessible to prayer ; with whom the human heart 
 can commune through our emotional nature ; the 
 sole object of our worship, and the highest of our 
 love and gratitude; the balm of our sorrows: the 
 fountain of our joys. Conceptions that to a great 
 extent clash with the rationalistic views of the 
 present day, and which in the future will be either 
 modified by, or as I think modify that cold ration- 
 alism and Deism which is now so generally pre- 
 valent in the world as the natural reaction from 
 dogmatic Christianity, and with which Judaism is 
 now wrestling in close conflict. 
 
 And now as to the ceremonialism, and supposed 
 want of spirituality of Judaism; two favorite charges 
 often Brought against it, and made the pretext for 
 the alleged necessity for Christianity, which is 
 imagined by its followers to be a purely spiritual 
 religion, dispensing entirely with observance. 
 
 It is however a somewhat singular fact that the 
 supposed founder of Christianity I refer to Jesus 
 not to Paul, who was, indeed, if the gospel account 
 of him be true, the real founder of Christianity, a 
 religion of which Jesus never dreamed, is no 
 where represented as dispensing with any of the 
 observances of the law. It is Paul who is made 
 to speak of the beggarly elements of the law ; 
 who says that the law worketh wrath, and without 
 the law sin were dead ; and who abolishes it, and 
 sets up faith in its stead. 
 
 Like many of the prophets and sages of Israel, 
 who lived before his time. Jesus denounced the 
 exaltation of the letter over the spirit, the practice
 
 [40] 
 
 of the ceremonial and the mere precept, regardless 
 of the spirit which should fill and animate them ; 
 but we have no abolition of any law, ceremonial 
 or moral. A hygienic law under the guise of a 
 ceremonial one, is certainly apparently disregarded 
 in the saying attributed to him in reference to 
 eating with unwashed hands; that, "that which 
 goeth into a man's mouth defileth him not, but 
 what proceedeth out of it defileth a man ;" which, 
 if intended to teach the lesson, as it doubtless 
 only is. that more care is to be given, and more 
 importance attached to the evil that proceedeth 
 from a man's mouth, x than the avoidance of eating 
 with unwashed hands, is certainly sound and good 
 doctrine ; but if intended to be understood, au 
 pied de la lettre, is very unsound hygienic teaching 
 (especially before the invention of forks,) and may 
 be a great offence against decency, both which 
 we shall presently see are made a part of religion 
 as regards Judaism. 
 
 It may be noted further as a most significant 
 fact, that Christianity which started as a purely 
 spiritual religion, is to day almost as much a 
 religion of observance as Judaism itself. There 
 are but few observances among us that have 
 not their equivalent in the Christian Church. 
 Both have an initiatory rite ; the one circum- 
 cision, the other baptism. The passover finds 
 its equivalent in Easter ; the paschal lamb in 
 the communion. The pentecost is made a festi- 
 val in both churches. The feast of ingather- 
 ing, synchronous with the tabernacle festival, is 
 the pattern for the thanksgiving day, adopted in 
 this country at least as a religious celebration. 
 The Day of Memorial, and the Day of Atonement, 
 and the intervening days of penitence which will
 
 [41] 
 
 complete the list of our holy days, may be par- 
 alleled in Shrove Tuesday. Ash Wednesday, Lent, 
 and Good Friday. The Sabbath of the decalogue 
 abolished by an early council of the church, 
 although observed by Jesus and the primitive 
 Christians, is supplanted by the human appoint- 
 ment by Constantine, that half pagan, half Chris- 
 tian, filiacidal emperor, of the idolatrous Roman 
 observance of the Suns-day, which has ever since 
 been observed by Christians. And we have 
 besides. Christmas, and Palm Sunday, and Pas- 
 sion week, and Rogation week, and Holy Thursday, 
 or Ascension Day, and St. John's Day, and a 
 host of other Saint's Days besides. We may learn, 
 T think, from these significant facts, that from the 
 very nature of man which is a dual one, material 
 as well as spiritual, there is a necessity for an 
 appeal by religion to both of these natures ; that 
 the ceremonial is intended to express to a certain 
 extent the spiritual ; to commemorate events which 
 awaken and inspire the religious sentiment, 
 although not in themselves religion ; and to 
 symbolize in some concrete form appealing to our 
 senses, and bringing home more fully to our 
 minds some grand truth or teaching, that we 
 might otherwise forget if only thought of in the 
 abstract. Let us take for an illustration the Pass- 
 over. Does it seem a frivolous, meaningless 
 ceremonial, the abstinence from leavened bread, 
 and the eating of unleavened for seven days? It 
 commemorated by enacting the very scenes of 
 the national exit from Egypt the liberation 
 from slavery the dawn of our freedom. But is 
 there not a deeper symbolism contained in it? 
 One that America, and Americans might take to 
 heart ; aye, and celebrate the Passover too, if the
 
 [42] 
 
 lesson it teaches could be but graven on their 
 minds. The Passover was the season of liberty. 
 Leaven is the symbol of corruption. Might it 
 not be proclaimed from Maine to Florida, from 
 Hatteras to Mendocino, that LIBERTY AND CORRUP- 
 TION CAN NEVER EXIST TOGETHER? 
 
 But in what does the extraordinary ceremo- 
 nialism of Judaism consist now-a-days ? I say 
 now-a-days, because like all other nations of 
 antiquity, the Jews formerly had a sacrificial 
 worship ; which, whether we regard Divinely 
 ordained as the text of the Pentateuch might lead 
 us to imagine, or merely permitted as the writings 
 of the prophets would seem to indicate, or whether 
 a mere human ordinance as the rational thought 
 of the present day would induce us to believe, 
 contains a much deeper meaning than is commonly 
 supposed. You shall find some minds shocked at 
 the idea of a worship, in which the slaughtering of 
 animals should form a part. But let us remember, 
 that the only animals used in the worship were 
 those generally employed for the food of nian. 
 Let us remember, that in pastoral nations cattle 
 were chiefly used as money, as in agricultural 
 ones the produce of the earth was so used. 
 Homer speaks in the Iliad of the armor of 
 Diomed costing nine oxen, and that of Grlaucus 
 one hundred. The Latin word pecunia signifying 
 money, is evidence that pecus cattle were originally 
 used by them as money. Let us remember, that 
 three thousand years ago ministers and priests 
 were not paid for their services in current coin of 
 the realm, or republic. They did not receive so 
 many shekels per annum, payable quarterly or 
 monthly in gold coin, and not in depreciated 
 currency ; but in those primitive times, they with
 
 [43] 
 
 their families were nourished, and sustained by 
 their allotted share of the food of the people, 
 whether animal or vegetable. And remembering 
 this, let me conduct one of these shocked indi- 
 viduals to the shambles of a great city, where he 
 shall see thousands of God's creatures endowed 
 with life, sensation, instinct, and perhaps intelli- 
 gence, slaughtered, and butchered without a word 
 of recognition of a Divine right, except what may 
 be uttered by the Jewish killer, who carries even 
 there a gleam of religious light ; and let me ask 
 him if this is less brutalizing, or more elevating 
 than the animals being humanely killed by a 
 Divinely recognized sanction ? the blood the life 
 which God had given them being as it were 
 restored on the altar to Him who had given it, and 
 symbolizing at the same time when needed, the 
 sense of guilt which a sinner might feel for some 
 wrong committed; and when that was done, priest 
 and people consuming the flesh which was their 
 food : the priest and his household also taking, 
 and enjoying his quota of the bread and the wine, 
 that the law awarded to him in lieu of his share 
 of the land, which had been divided among the 
 people to his exclusion. Let us remember, further, 
 that in those days sacrificial worship outside of 
 Palestine was not limited to the sacrifice of 
 animals used for food, but often included those of 
 human beings; and that this terrible custom was 
 in vogue among those nations that the Jews were 
 to supplant. Let us remember too, that for four 
 hundred years the Jewish p % eople had been in 
 servitude to a nation in which this form of worship 
 prevailed, and to which they must of course have 
 been strongly addicted ; that the Egyptian sacrifices 
 included other animals than those permitted us
 
 [44] 
 
 for food, and sanctioned the receiving the blood 
 in vessels, and its use in cookery. And we can 
 well imagine, that the Jewish law of sacrifices is 
 intended to regulate an existing, and natural 
 mode of worship, rather than to enjoin a new one ; 
 and to prohibit the objectionable features, such as 
 the sacrifice of any animal not fitted for food, and 
 the employment of the blood for dietary use. 
 Remembering all this, our shocked friend may 
 perhaps form a somewhat different opinion con- 
 cerning ceremonial sacrificial worship among the 
 Jews, that is seemingly sanctioned, and counte- 
 nanced by Judaism. 
 
 But, outside of this ceremonial no longer in 
 vogue, in what does Jewish ceremonial consist? 
 There are divers observances and customs which are 
 founded on hygienic or scientific laws, or I should 
 rather say endorsed by them, for they appear as 
 religion before they appear as hygienic or science, 
 and which are stamped with a religious sanction. 
 Notably we may remark the dietary laws, and the 
 mortuary rites, which have been the means of 
 preventing contagion, and the spread of disease 
 among a people under circumstances which would 
 seem to invite them ; and to such an extent has 
 the prevention existed, that the immunity of the 
 Jews from epidemics in all ages has become 
 noticeable. There are some customs, and observ- 
 ances instituted for the purpose of securing 
 personal and domestic cleanliness, not only for 
 its being a symbol of inward purity, but on 
 account of its being in itself an agent towards 
 spiritual purity an'd bodily health. A truth that 
 science recognizes in these days, although it was 
 scoffed at by the early Christian Church, and its 
 opposite assiduously cultivated by its enthusiastic
 
 [45] 
 
 followers. The intelligence of the world now 
 proclaims the Jewish doctrine, that Cleanliness is 
 next to Godliness, but that was not a doctrine of 
 the early church. Asceticism and dirt were syn- 
 onymous with sanctity, as we may learn by refer- 
 ence to the lives of the Saints. Science teaches 
 to day that typhus fever and diphtheria are often 
 occasioned by decaying vegetable or animal matter 
 in our houses and cellars ; but when the Jewish 
 Rabbis two thousand years ago, secured the 
 removal of all such fruitful causes of pestilence, 
 in their rigid insistence on the removal of the 
 leaven at the time of the Passover, the world failing 
 to see the philosophy, called it superstition. 
 
 Some other Jewish ceremonials which may be 
 noticed, are the phylacteries; the tzitzit, or fringes 
 on the corners of the garment the mezuzot or 
 inscriptions on the door posts ; and the lighting of 
 the sabbath lamp. All observed in Israel in 
 olden -times, and even now among the orthodox. 
 All may be utterly meaningless of course, if perfor- 
 med blindly and mechanically as mere superstitious 
 observance; but yet what a beautiful symbolism do 
 they all contain , and performed in the spirit in which 
 they were conceived and instituted how expressive 
 they may be of true religion. One may bind dur- 
 ing prayer cubes of parchment containing certain 
 biblical texts, between the eyes, and on the arm 
 over the heart, without any other idea than the 
 superstitious literal observance of a command, 
 perhaps intended to be understood figuratively, 
 or to be observed by a people in an illiterate condi- 
 tion, as we see the beads used in the Romish church 
 by its devout but illiterate followers. But what 
 a meaning symbol may it not become, when before 
 attending to any duties of the day, before caving
 
 [46] 
 
 his home in the morning, the observant Israelite 
 reverently and not superstitiously performs the 
 ceremonial ; and if he should address no other 
 prayer to the throne of grace, proclaims in the 
 prescribed formula the Unity of God, and that 
 he submits the desires and wishes of his heart 
 to the Divine will, and dedicates to the Divine 
 Service his senses, his thoughts, and his in- 
 telligence. Think you, that there may be no 
 holy influence exercised over a man's mind, when 
 he is conscious that the Holy name of Deity is 
 woven on the fringes that border his garment? 
 or when in his home he lifts his eye to the door 
 posts of his chambers, and is reminded that the 
 Divine presence surrounds him, and that with all 
 his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his 
 might, he should love that ever present, all 
 pervading God and Father, and diligently teach 
 the same to his children? And when at the eve 
 of the Sabbath the Jewish wife and mother in 
 her home be it lowly to welcome the toiling 
 artisan or trader, or palatial to receive the mer- 
 chant prince or banker illuminates her house 
 by kindling the Sabbath lamp or candles, how 
 meaningless may the ceremony appear ; but let 
 her comprehend all that the mere ceremony may 
 symbolize ; let her realize that she the wife and 
 mother, the priestess of the home, is to tend and 
 trim the lamp of religion in that domestic temple, 
 and in the hearts of her husband and sons : the 
 flame of which may have been dimmed by 
 contact with the world in the week of toil and 
 strife that has passed, and how radiant does the 
 dark transparency become ! 
 
 Is it the sanctifying influence of such ideas 
 which has preserved the Jewish home, however
 
 [47] 
 
 lowly it be, from the vice and brutality that we 
 see existing in the St. Giles' of the great cities of 
 Christendom? that spares the Jewish wife and 
 mother from the utter degradation which in 
 Christian England enwraps the women of the 
 lower classes? the sickening history of which you 
 may read in an article in one of the English 
 Magazines of last year under the title of "Wife 
 Torture." And this in a country where, forsooth, 
 they support a conversion society for our enlighten- 
 ment and conversion. A conversion society did 
 I say? Let me rather say a society which pur- 
 chases dead Jews, galvanizes them with Chris- 
 tianity, and parades them to strengthen the 
 faltering faith of its dupes. 
 
 Judaism we have seen uses and avails itself of 
 ceremonial, as we use and avail ourselves of words 
 to express our thoughts, as we use some material 
 to embody the flame that we would utilize for 
 heat and light ; but ceremonialism is not Judaism 
 as we 'shall presently more fully see. But were 
 Judaism ten times more -ceremonial than it is ; 
 and it may be admitted that ceremonialism may 
 become excessive in any religion, and hide or 
 cover the spirit, even as thought may be lost and 
 concealed, "as counsel may be darkened bywords;" 
 even as flame may be extinguished by the fuel by 
 which it is fed ; yet what is the remedy in such 
 a case? Is it to abolish, or abandon entirely the 
 religion ? or is it not rather to imitate the conduct 
 of the wise and prudent husbandman whose vine 
 may have run to leaf or wood, choking and 
 impairing its fruit bearing powers, and by a wise 
 and judicious pruning to cut away the redundancy 
 of leaf and -wood, to lop the dead and dying 
 branches, but sparing those yet instinct with life
 
 [48] 
 
 and pregnant with the luscious grape ? Shall we 
 because there are quirks and quibbles of the law, 
 and technicalities through which sometimes the 
 ends of justice may have been defeated, therefore 
 abolish the science of jurisprudence, and let 
 anarchy prevail, or commit the administration of 
 justice to the sense of right or equity possessed 
 by a judge, or magistrate, who shall resemble an 
 Asiatic cadi ? 
 
 I have often thought, in reference to cere- 
 monialism, that religion in the minds of some 
 men may very much resemble a Barmecide feast ; 
 where the dishes and the plates, the decanters 
 and the glasses, the knives and forks, and spoons, 
 the napkins, and the finger bowls, each having its 
 appropriate use, are all laid ready for service and 
 the form of their use duly performed ; but there 
 is no soup in the tureen, no fish, nor flesh, nor 
 fowl, nor delicate entree to fill the plates, no 
 wine in the decanters or glasses, no fruit for the 
 dessert. There are the vessels, there is the form 
 of use but preterea nihil. But supply the repast, 
 and how all is changed ! Let the well cooked 
 and delicately prepared and served viands fill the 
 platters. Let the rosy and sparkling wine fill the 
 decanters, and flow in the glasses. Let the hearty 
 toast and sparkling jest go round, and every form 
 and ceremony is filled, and finds its appropriate 
 use. 
 
 We can make our religion, my friends, cere- 
 monially a Barmecide feast ; or we can make it a 
 satisfaction of the spiritual man, and fc 'a feast of 
 reason and a flow of soul." Ceremonialism in this 
 sense bespeaks rather an excess of spirituality 
 than a want of it. The great mistake we make, 
 I think, in regard to the ceremonialism of a
 
 [49] 
 
 religion, is in imagining that it is intended for all 
 who may nominally profess the religion ; that all 
 so professing it must necessarily perform, and 
 fulfill the ceremonial ; whereas, the true idea 
 would seem to be, that he only who feels the need 
 of the form or ceremonial to express the inward 
 sentiment, should avail himself of it. The illiterate 
 peasant finds but a small vocabulary necessary to 
 express the few thoughts that arise in his mind 
 but what dictionaries, and concordances, what 
 delicate refinements of language, are needed to 
 clothe the glowing fancies, the poetic imaginings, 
 the brilliant conceptions of a Shakespeare, a 
 Goethe, a Milton, or a Longfellow? It was Charles- 
 Lamb, I think, who said that he never gazed upon 
 a beautiful scene in nature, but that he felt inclined 
 to say a grace. There are thousands perhaps of 
 materialized minds who have gazed upon the 
 loveliest prospects, in whom no feeling of devotion 
 was awakened, and to whom the breathing of a 
 prayer- would have seemed a mockery; and yet to 
 one whose bosom glowed with the sentiment the 
 expression of it would have been a necessity. 
 
 That same quick, keen, religious sensibility 
 manifested in the saying of Charles Lamb, had 
 filled the hearts of Israel's sages two thousand 
 years before his time, and they had "prepared a 
 form of blessing, for every occasion that could 
 awaken the sentiment of gratitude and love to 
 the Creator of all. There was no occasion nor 
 circumstance in life that for them was not an 
 opportunity for the expression of that religious 
 spirit which filled and inspired them, but which 
 we now-a-days in this materialized age can hardly 
 realize. The glowing thought, the inspiring, 
 elevating sentiment was there, and they sought
 
 [50] 
 
 for forms and symbols to express them. They 
 spoke a language, that perhaps, we more material- 
 ized understand not now ; but let us not therefore 
 efface their writing. We may someday again 
 discover the key. The sparkling wine may not 
 be at hand to fill the silver flagon, and the delicate 
 crystal goblet ; but although we need not go 
 through the form of raising the empty glass to 
 our lips, we need not melt the tankard, nor break 
 the glass. 
 
 But while defending Judaism against the charge 
 of excessive ceremonialism, I must not forget 
 that there is a species of ceremonialism, or what 
 is commonly called such, although in reality it is 
 not, that calls for some consideration. I refer to 
 that minute excessive observance which exists in 
 extreme orthodox, and rabbinical Judaism ; those 
 minutiae, those excessive refinements and hair 
 splittings in which the rabbinical mind as dis- 
 played in the Mishna, keen and ingenious to a 
 fault indulged. Devising, under the pious principle 
 of making a fence for the law, a system of minute 
 and detailed observance that to many minds less 
 ingenious and critical, would seem forced, strained, 
 puerile, and absurd ; but which to it seemed 
 perfectly logical, and sanctified by its enthusiastic 
 fervor the legitimate and proper regard to be paid 
 to the fulfillment of a Divine command : forgetting 
 though that all mental vision is not alike, and 
 that a fence might be raised so high above, and 
 placed so far beyond the principle to be preserved, 
 that the principle itself might be lost sight of 
 entirely. It is this excessive hair splitting, 
 refinement, casuistry, and scrupulosity that has 
 more than anything else within itself, brought 
 discredit on the fair fame of Judaism. A fault
 
 [51] 
 
 that Milton well expresses when speaking of 
 certain scrupulists, he says, " who when God 
 hath set them in a fair allowence of way, never 
 leave subtleizing and casuisting, till they have 
 straightened and pared that liberal path into 
 a razor's edge to walk upon. " It is an instance 
 perhaps in which the saying of a witty French 
 writer may toe true, that "La petite Morale est enemie 
 de la grande" But as in the civil law it is well 
 said, " Apices juris non sunt jura" that curious and 
 nice exceptions tending to the overthrow, and 
 delay of justice are not law; so it may be said with 
 equal truth, that the hairsplittings, and excessive 
 refinements, and casuistry of the rabbinical schools 
 are not Judaism. 
 
 Our examination so far of Judaism has shown 
 us the negative side; we have seen rather what 
 Judaism is not, \ve have now to consider it on 
 its positive side, as to what Judaism really is. 
 
 There are two aspects in which we may regard 
 Judaism the supernatural and the rational. The 
 main features and principles underlying both, and 
 in which Judaism really consists will be found how- 
 ever much the same. The Supernatural, indeed, 
 may be but the glamour, the radiance, the aureole 
 that religious veneration is apt to cast around an 
 object much cherished and revered; which like 
 the bright colors of sunrise are earthly, and not 
 belonging to the sun itself. When the artist 
 depicts on his canvas an inspired character, he 
 paints a nimbus, or circle of rays surrounding the 
 head, to represent the Divine inspiration, which 
 like a halo surrounds the seat of intelligence. 
 It is not very irrational to suppose that a similar
 
 [52] 
 
 poetical illusion may have been indulged in 
 concerning the sacred writings, and religious 
 traditions, which descended to our fathers as 
 an inheritance from time immemorial, sanctified 
 with the veneration of a thousand years. But 
 what matters it if our minds accept literally the 
 artistic nimbus, or construe it to mean the Divine 
 inspiration ? What matters it if we accept literally 
 the statements which have come down to us 
 through these years of veneration, word paintings 
 perhaps done in the childhood of our nation, or 
 if our minds seize the underlying idea that they 
 clothe and convey to us? What if some of us in 
 reverent simple credulity accept literally the 
 statements that God spoke unto Moses; or that 
 those grand, eternal principles of religion con- 
 tained in the Decalogue, were inscribed by the 
 finger of God on tablets of stone, amidst thun- 
 derings and lightnings, and the trembling of Sinai's 
 mount; or whether others conceive these words as 
 the mode of speech poetically, or allegorically ex- 
 pressing the inspiration of Moses, the Divine and 
 permanent character of the glorious teachings, and 
 throwing around the picture a frame work which 
 the poetic mind would devise as fitting, and appro- 
 priate to the idea. 
 
 To the intelligent, reverent and religious mind, 
 the laws of God whenever, wherever, or however 
 discovered, revealed, or made known to us, appeal 
 with commanding accents, and invite obedience 
 out of love and adoration to the Supreme First 
 Cause, as well as from their tendency to promote 
 our welfare; but to the ignorant, uncultivated 
 and simple minds of a people but one or two 
 generations removed from the abject slavery of 
 Egypt, the teachings of these laws by the inspired
 
 [53] 
 
 mind of Moses, the eternal principles of justice, 
 morality, and right, may be well supposed had to 
 be put into a more concrete form to be grasped 
 and retained by their child-like minds. Perhaps 
 this may account for much of the supernatural 
 element in the Bible; but whether it does or not, 
 it is certain that it is of no great moment what 
 our belief may be on these subjects, as long 
 as we accept and fulfill the exalting, ennobling 
 principles and teachings that underlie and are 
 contained in its pages, as the jewel in the casket, 
 the kernel in the husk, the picture in the frame, 
 the kindling, inspiring idea in the mere uttered 
 word, the illuminating flame that burns in the 
 lamp. 
 
 The Bible with its cosmogony, and its history 
 is not necessarily Judaism; but it is here, and in 
 the traditions of our race, and in the expositions 
 of them by our sages, that we must seek for, and 
 will find it. 
 
 There is a talmudical legend that I find quoted 
 in that excellent work of Rabbi Cohen of Paris 
 the Deicides which so clearly suggests what 
 Judaism is that you will forgive my repeating it. 
 
 In one of the celebrated academies where all 
 the sages of Israel were assembled, there arose an 
 important discussion between Rabbi Eliezer one 
 of the glories of the Synagogue, and his colleagues, 
 as to the interpretation of certain doctrinal matters. 
 All the arguments advanced by Rabbi Eliezer 
 had been unanimously opposed and rejected by 
 the other doctors. ' ' Well ' ' ind ignantly exclaimed 
 the illustrious rabbi, "let this banana part from 
 its roots, and plant itself on the opposite side." 
 At these words, the tree detached itself from its 
 roots, and planted itself on the opposite side.
 
 [54] 
 
 ",What does that prove?" cried the doctors with 
 one voice, "and what connection has the value of 
 this banana with the question which occupies us?" 
 "Well," again exclaims Rabbi Eliezer, may the 
 rivulet that flows near us, demonstrate the truth 
 of my opinion;" and suddenly, oh miracle ! the 
 waters of the brook re-ascended to their source. 
 "Well," once more replied the other doctors 
 "whether the waters flow in one direction or 
 another, what connection is there between this 
 circumstance and the subject of our controversy?" 
 "Well" impatiently said Rabbi Eliezer, "may the 
 walls of this room serve me as proof and testi- 
 mony;" and the pillars supporting the edifice 
 bow obedient to the voice of their master, and 
 the walls crack and threaten to overwhelm them. 
 Then Rabbi Schoshonah, one of the most renowned 
 sages of his age, exclaimed, "Oh walls! Oh walls! 
 when sages discuss the interpretation of the law r 
 what have you to do with their argumentation?" 
 And the walls stopped as they were falling, and 
 remained leaning over the heads of the doctors. 
 " May God Himself pronounce supreme judgment," 
 cried Rabbi Eliezer, and from the Heavenly heights- 
 the daughter of the voice was heard saying, "No 
 longer call in question the doctrine of Rabbi 
 Eliezer, reason is on his side." Rabbi SchoshonaK 
 enters his protest; "Neither reason, nor the law," 
 cries he, "is now in the depths of the heavens; 
 neither miracles nor mysterious voices have, in 
 our eyes, the power to demonstrate the truth. 
 To human reason, to the decision of the majority 
 of the sages of Israel, is committed the interpre- 
 tation of Thy law, Oh God! Henceforth they 
 alone are the only powers that can avail." Not- 
 withstanding the miracles that were performed,.
 
 [55] 
 
 notwithstanding the intervention of the Divine 
 voice, the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer was condemned 
 by the doctors his contemporaries. And the 
 Talmud innocently adds, that Rabbi Nathan having 
 met the prophet Elijah, he asked him what had 
 been said in heaven respecting this celebrated 
 debate, and received the* following answer : The 
 Lord smiled and replied, "my sons are the 
 strongest my sons have triumphed !" 
 
 Compare this rational independence of thought 
 with the miracles of the church in the middle 
 ages, the winking pictures, the bleeding wafers. 
 Compare it with the so called miracles of the nine- 
 teenth century the holy wells the stigmata, &c. 
 Judaism then we may define as being the relig- 
 ious teachings of the Bible rationally expounded 
 by the sages of Israel. And what in the main 
 (in the main, please observe that I say, and not in 
 their entirety) those teachings and expositions are 
 we will now consider. 
 
 I have sometimes heard Judaism preached as 
 consisting in the belief in one God. I have heard 
 it again preached as consisting of the fundamental 
 maxim, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." 
 We find put into the mouth of the great Hillel 
 when required to teach the law to the neophyte, 
 while he stood on one foot, somewhat similar 
 teachings ; partial views of a grand whole, which 
 might accommodate a man standing on one leg, 
 but too narrow for a man to walk on with two. 
 But such partial views of Judaism no more repre- 
 sent it than if we should take one or two prismatic 
 rays and call them "light." It is not the red ray, 
 nor the blue ray, nor the violet ray, nor these 
 combined that is light, but it is the intimate 
 mingling and commixture of all the prismatic 
 colors with the invisible chemical rays that lie
 
 [56] 
 
 beyond, which constitute that life sustaining, -all 
 animating, beautifying, and glorious principle that 
 we call light. Guided by this analogy we may 
 discover what really is Judaism. We find in the 
 Bible the fountain of religious light as the Sun 
 is of physical light, and like the Sun having its 
 incomphrensible spots *not only what we may 
 call religious and moral laws ; laws that regulate our 
 relations towards God and our fellow man, but 
 side by side with these we find what we may call 
 hygienic laws, dietary laws, political law, laws of 
 justice, laws regulating our relations to the state, 
 towards the dumb animals around us, and to the 
 earth itself ; all announced in the same authori- 
 tative tone, as of Divine authority, "The Lord 
 spoke unto Moses." No difference seems to be 
 made between the authority promulgating the 
 moral law, or that enjoining the hygienic law ; a 
 fact that has sometimes provoked unfavorable 
 comment, but which to my mind has seemed one 
 of the most meaning and interesting features in 
 the Biblical teachings. For are not all laws, 
 whether the moral law, or social law, or political 
 law in its grand fundamental principles, on which 
 society is based, as well as the laws of hygiene, 
 by all of which mankind must be governed if their 
 welfare and happiness is to be secured the laws 
 of God? What indeed is law of any kind, 
 excepting of course municipal law, but the mani- 
 fested will of Deity. Wisely and philosophically, 
 then does Judaism place hygienic law on the same 
 plane as the moral law. Indeed I can conceive 
 of instances where the infraction of the hygienic 
 law may be more disastrous in its effects than 
 that of the moral law. To illustrate. Let us 
 suppose an infraction of the moral law by which a
 
 [57] 
 
 man shall commit a pecuniary wrong against his 
 neighbour. In some transaction in trade, tempted 
 perhaps by the necessities of his family in need 
 of the comforts, or -conveniences of life that are 
 looked upon almost as necessaries, he wrongs^his 
 neighbour of a sum of money. Here is certainly 
 a heinous moral wrong. But ever regretting the 
 weakness which led him to yield to the temptation, 
 he repents of the wrong he has done, and coming 
 to the one he has defrauded, he expresses his 
 sorrow 'and regret, he makes restitution to the 
 fullest extent with interest, and punitive damages 
 as ordered in the Bible ; (Lev. Oh. 5, v. 25.) he 
 penitently confesses his sin to his Father in 
 Heaven, implores forgiveness thereof, and under 
 greater tempation he fails again to yield ; thus 
 testifying to the sincerity of his repentance, and 
 sorrow. Can we look on such a man longer as 
 guilty? Is he not rather purified in his nature by 
 the repentance he has manifested, and its effect 
 upon Jiim? But let us imagine an infraction of 
 some hygienic law, or say even the continued 
 infraction of a dietary law, by which we know 
 scrofula may be induced in the system. Let us 
 suppose a child born inheriting such taint, and 
 bearing through its life, shortened perhaps by 
 such cause, the terrible evidence of the entailed 
 disease, in white swelling, hip disease, rickets, 
 consumption, or some other form of scrofula. 
 Can all the sorrow, or penitence of the parent 
 make restitution to the unforutnate child for the 
 misery entailed on it? or atone for the wrong 
 committed against it ? 
 
 Here then, my friends, we may see the beauty 
 and wisdom of that religious system which recog- 
 nizes all law as stamped with Divine authority.
 
 [58] 
 
 Hence we may learn in what Judaism really 
 consists. 
 
 It is no religion of sentiment and emotion ; of 
 belief and rant ; but it is essentially the Religion of 
 Law. It is no jellyfish religion, but a religion 
 with a back bone, to use a forcible expression of 
 the Rev. Mr. Ijarns of this city. It is obedience 
 to law, to Divine law ; whether those laws regu- 
 lating our relations to our Heavenly Father, our 
 relations towards our fellow men, our duties to 
 the state, our duties to, or relations towards our 
 families, our duties to ourselves, and reacting 
 from ourselves to yet unborn generations, our 
 relations towards the animals around us, towards 
 the earth itself. And not a blind or selfish obed- 
 ience, but an obedience yielded out of love, rever- 
 ence, and adoration towards the Supreme Law 
 Giver. 
 
 In this we find the essential difference between 
 Judaism and Deism, between Judaism and Chris- 
 tianity. The latter being (always remember my 
 distinction between the religion of Christ and 
 the Christian religion) a religion of belief in 
 dogma, in which the elements of conscience and 
 law are ignored, a religion in which salvation 
 is of belief, and not of works. The former 
 contenting itself with the mere acknowledgment 
 of the existence cf a Divine Creator. It may be 
 a purely rational and philosophical belief in God, 
 essentially and entirely monotheistic, but it is not 
 Judaism. It is not religion. To use the analogy 
 of physical light before referred to, it is but the 
 dawning of religious light on the mind of man, to 
 be followed, as it is in Judaism, by the knowledge 
 of all that the light reveals. For as the effect of 
 material or physical light on the eye of man, is to
 
 [59] 
 
 reveal to him exterior physical nature, and to 
 guide him in his relations thereto, so the object 
 and effect of spiritual or religious light which 
 Judaism is is to reveal to him exterior religious 
 objects, or duties, and to guide him in his relations 
 thereto. And as man was created to exist in the 
 world in common with other species of animals, 
 is destined to pass a lengthened life therein, and 
 in association with myriads of his fellow men, 
 with whose interests, affections, sympathies, and 
 passions his own are ever clashing ; and as his 
 existence on earth was to be entirely a relative 
 one, the spiritual light of religion was to reveal 
 to him his relations with all that share the earth 
 with him, and guide him in his relations and 
 association with them. On every relation of life 
 this blessed spiritual gift which God has vouch- 
 safed to his creatures was to shed its light. Our 
 duties towards Him in our worship and adoration 
 of Him, and in our obedience to His commands ; 
 the duty of the parent to the child, of the child 
 to the parent ; the duties of man to his fellow man 
 in the ten thousand complications of life ; his 
 relations even to the animal world, and with the 
 earth itself ; all, all were to be made as clear tc 
 the soul of man by the Divine light of religion, 
 as physical nature to his eye. And as material 
 nature is beautified by physical light, even so was 
 our spiritual nature to be beautified, and made 
 glorious by the light of religion. It was meant 
 to pervade our entire lives as physical light per- 
 vades nature ; to scintillate in our most trivial 
 actions, as light on the grain of sand ; to brighten 
 the clouds of sorrow with the rainbow hues of 
 hope and consolation, and to shed sunset glories 
 on our departing hours. Thus, and thus only could
 
 [60] 
 
 the object and end of religion, which is the welfare 
 and happiness of man be attained. The spiritual 
 light must guide him in all his relations in this 
 world, and in his hopes and aspirations for the 
 next, giving light, and warmth, and happiness 
 wherever it illumines. 
 
 It is this idea of Religion regulating and gov- 
 erning every relation of man in life, which pervades 
 the Pentateuch and the whole Bible; which is 
 caught up and amplified by our sages to the fullest 
 extent, and in the most minute detail in their 
 comments on the Scriptures, and the development 
 of the law in the pages of the Talmud. It is this 
 religious system of law, and accountability to the 
 Supreme lawgiver, and the worship of that Supreme 
 One in unity and immateriality which is essentially 
 Judaism. It is embodied in that verse in Deuter- 
 omy (CJi. 18, v. 13) the very key note of Judaism, 
 " Perfect shall thou be before the Lord thy God." 
 It aims at the perfection of man. Everything 
 that can exalt, that can purify, that can ennoble, 
 that can physically or spiritually conduce to his 
 welfare, or benefit is recognized as religion. The 
 principle of the mens sana in corpore sano is recog- 
 nised to the fullest extent, and as we have seen, 
 hygiene and personal cleanliness have been put 
 on the same plane as the moral duties. It aims 
 at making every action of man's life conform 
 to the law of right. It would interweave religion 
 into the daily life and conduct of man, robing 
 him like the high priest in golden garments of 
 service. It prescribes rules for governing his 
 relations with his fellowman in every situation. 
 Does he enter the commercial mart, or his counting 
 room? The voice speaks to him, 'Just balances, 
 just weights, a just ephah shall ye have ; when thou
 
 [61] 
 
 sellest aught, unto thy neighbor, or buyest aught 
 of thy neighbor's hand, thou shalt not overreach 
 one the other,' (Lev. Ch. 25, v. 9.) Do we employ 
 our fellow man in our service? we recall the 
 injunction; "Thou shalt not withold anything 
 from thy neighbor, nor rob him : the wages of 
 him that is hired shall not abide with thee all 
 night until the morning." (Lev. Oh. 19.) "On the 
 same day shalt thou give him his hire, that the 
 sun may not go down upon it, for he is poor, and 
 his soul longeth for it." Deut. Ch. 24. Do we see 
 our neighbor in danger of life or limb? we re- 
 member the text, "thou shalt not stand idly by 
 the blood of thy neighbor." Do we enter the hallb 
 of justice where now-a-days the complaint is that 
 corruption prevails and that the solemnity of the 
 oath is disregarded, and perjury is rife ? There 
 could be neither, were the Divine command again 
 and again repeated in the pages of the law regarded ; 
 'The judges shall judge the people with a just 
 judgment ; thou shalt not respect persons in judg- 
 ment, and thou shalt not take a bribe but justice, 
 only justice shalt thou pursue, that thou mayest 
 live." (Deut. Ch. 16.) "Thou shalt not bear false 
 witness against thy neighbor." And for those of 
 our profession on whom much depends for the 
 discovery of the truth, there is the wise and 
 searching direction and teaching of our sages; 
 '* Be exceedingly careful in the examination of 
 the witnesses, and be cautious of thy words, lest 
 they from them should learn to utter falsehood." 
 But it would take too long to cite even a portion 
 of the numerous precepts, and injunctions regu- 
 lating every relation of life according to the line 
 of law and right. Suffice it to say that from the 
 exercise of the loftiest principle, to the most
 
 [62] 
 
 intimate, and private relations of domestic life all 
 is illumined and regulated for the welfare, benefit, 
 and happiness of man, woman, and child. 
 
 And more than this, it would spiritualize the 
 dull daily incidents of our lives and homes, that 
 our every act should be an act of worship. Trans- 
 figuring life in the light of religion 
 
 * * * "As a volume dun, 
 Of rolling smoke, becomes a wreathed splendor, 
 In the declining sun." 
 
 The home was to our sages a temple ; the 
 parents were the ministering priests ; the table 
 an altar, the meals religious services ; a holy 
 influence was to surround the young ones as 
 they grew up, that they might be fitted to 
 become in their turn members of that priest- 
 hood instituted in the words. ''Ye shall be 
 unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." 
 
 Such my friends is Judaism. If that be the 
 "bundle of dry and dusty rabbinism, on which 
 Israel has lived for the last eighteen hundred 
 years,' there is a bright and lambent flame that 
 may be perceived around it, which may remind 
 us forcibly of the burning bush in the desert ; 
 and listening, we may fancy we hear the angel 
 voice! "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for 
 the place whereon thou standest is holy." 
 
 But have I so far attempted to paint Judaism 
 and said hardly a word of immortality, or a future 
 life? It would indeed seem so; and that in so 
 doing I have but followed the example of the 
 Pentateuch, in which no decided reference is 
 made, nor any teaching found of any such doc- 
 trine.
 
 [63] 
 
 And yet my friends it is Jewish doctrine ; 
 accepted, and taught long before the dawn of 
 Christianity; to evidence which you have only to 
 consult the pages of Josephus, or refer to that 
 apocryphal book, supposed to be written about 
 one hundred years before the Christian era, "The 
 Wisdom of Solomon," in which you will find the 
 doctrine more fully announced than in any book 
 of the Canon. But what has been called other- 
 worldliness is not a prominent feature of Judaism, 
 Judaism knows no everlasting punishment. It 
 has no doctrine of Hell and Hell-fire. It has no 
 Sunday school heaven of harps and golden crowns, 
 to which the faithful believers in the dogmas of the- 
 church are instantly translated. It has no dogmas- 
 to enforce with the terrors of Hell, and Hell-fire, 
 so vividly painted by the revivalist preacher, to the- 
 agony of mind of young children, and weakf 
 minded men and women, who are thus terrified 
 into submission to the church. Judaism is pecul- 
 iarly a religion, the religion of love. It is not 
 Moses, and our sages who preach a religion of Hell- 
 fire, and everlasting damnation to the wicked, and 
 eternal happiness to the righteous. Religion with 
 them was not to be a matter of prudence and 
 fear. But it was simply, "ye shall be holy, for 
 I the Lord your God am holy." "Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with 
 all thy soul, and with all thy might." 
 
 Some of my Christian friends would perhaps 
 like to say to me, "and what of the temporal 
 rewards, and punishments spoken of by Moses?" 
 and cite as was once cited to me by a Christian 
 minister with whom I was conversing on this 
 subject, the texts. "If you hearken unto my 
 commandments, then will I give you rain in its.
 
 [64] 
 
 due season ;" "Honor thy father and thy mother, 
 that thy days may be long in the land.'' And he 
 might have added one quoted by me to-night, 
 'Justice only justice shalt thou pursue, that thou 
 mayest live." To them I would reply, as I replied 
 to my clerical friend : Is that the construction you 
 give to those verses ? Do you think if you are a 
 God-fearing man living on one side or end of the 
 road, and I a wicked one who live on the other, 
 that you will gather a crop through abundant 
 rains, and mine shall fail for want of them? Or is 
 it not rather that national virtue will result in 
 national blessings of plenty and prosperity, brought 
 about in agricultural countries by the seasonable 
 rains? Do you -imagine if you are a dutiful and 
 obedient son and I the contrary, that you will 
 secure a long life and I be cut off in youth ? or 
 lias not this to be understood, as the last text also, 
 in a national sense ? And I illustrated my con- 
 struction thus ; which nation outside of Israel, I 
 asked, is the most ancient in the world ? The 
 Chinese, he replied. And which of all nations, I 
 asked again, has shewn the greatest honor to 
 parents? Again the answer was, the Chinese. 
 With all their other vices, and they are doubtless 
 many, this seems to have saved them. 
 
 And when, my friends, America closes its ports 
 to the Chinese, it is devoutly to be hoped that 
 Young America will import with his teas the 
 example of the Chinese in honor to parents, 
 that his days too may be long in the land which 
 the Lord has given him. 
 
 No ! my friends, Judaism wisely gives no promi- 
 nence to the doctrine of future rewards and 
 punishments. It realizes that to the extent to 
 which you introduce this element into a religion
 
 [65] 
 
 you make religion a matter of prudential .consid- 
 eration and fear, when it should be purely a 
 matter of love and gratitude. And on this point 
 too, the world is Judaizing, as it is on all others. 
 Here is a little straw, wheat-laden, carried by the 
 breeze. It is entitled the dream of St. Teresa, 
 and is from the pen of Epes Sargent. 
 
 "Have you heard of the dream she had 
 
 Teresa, the Saintly ? 
 
 Come, listen ye good and bad ! 
 
 And heed it not faintly. 
 
 "A weird, awful woman she saw, 
 And wondered what brought her; 
 In one hand she bore flaming straw ; 
 In the other hand water. 
 
 "Where bound" asked Teresa, "Oh tell? 
 
 The answer was given ; 
 
 'Teresa, I go to quench hell, 
 
 And then to burn heaven.' J 
 
 ' But why asked the Saint, do you make 
 So wild an endeavour"? 
 So that men for His own holy sake, 
 May love God for ever." 
 
 And it will not be long, my friends, ere you shall 
 hear this doctrine preached as Christian doctrine, 
 and the protest of Judaism to the contrary doc- 
 trine for eighteen hundred years shall be entirely 
 ignored. And the rugged, battered, bruised, but 
 still indomitable, unconquerable old warrior 
 Judaism when he hears it, will smile in the pride 
 of his conscious sense of strength, of right, and 
 of final victory for the truth that he represents, as 
 he may be supposed to have smiled when a Rev. 
 Bishop preached lately in this city that the world 
 was indebted to Christianity for the Sabbath. 
 To Christianity forsooth for the Sabbath ! To 
 that which had scoffed at it, trampled on it, would
 
 [66] 
 
 none of it, had stigmatized it as one of the beggarly 
 elements of the Jewish law, a carnal observance 
 of the Jew, and had abolished it by an early council 
 of its church ; andwhen the statement was received 
 by an otherwise intelligent audience in their 
 gaping religious credulity with acclamation. Or if 
 the stern old warrior had allowed a word to escape 
 from his close set lips, there would have burst 
 forth from his pent up indignation as addressed 
 to the Church represented by the Churchman ; 
 ' My doomed foe ! thou ever wert, thou ever wilt 
 be a falsity.' 
 
 But, perhaps, the Reverend Bishop thought 
 that Christianity in this country might lay claim 
 to the institution by at least a Sabbatical observ- 
 ance of the idolatrous Roman Suns-day the 
 day of Apollo the dies Soils and as no such 
 title by observance of the Divinely appointed day 
 could be shown by the Israelites at large, the 
 title never would be disputed. Christianity, my 
 friends, has learned a great deal, and has yet to 
 learn a great deal more from Judaism ; but on the 
 other hand, we Jews may learn many excellent 
 religious lessons from the example of pious Chris- 
 tians. The track does not make the locomotives, 
 nor the rolling stock ; and there may be very 
 excellent locomotives and stock on the wrong 
 track, and very poor ones on the right. And if 
 the track is a very long one, and the deviation 
 not easily discernible, it is hardly to be wondered 
 at?, in such a case, if passengers are misled into 
 taking the wrong one. But to resume after this 
 little digression. 
 
 Judaism invests the natural transition called 
 death with no terrors, nor professes to hold the 
 keys of heaven and hell, and barter salvation for
 
 [67] 
 
 allegiance. The beautiful maxim of Spinoza is a 
 truly Jewish one, that the proper study of a wise 
 man is not how to die, but how to live ; and that 
 there is no subject on which a wise man will think 
 less than death. It is Jewish doctrine, too, and 
 true philosophy that the child is the father of the 
 man ; to-day, the parent of to-morrow ; the mortal 
 man the father of the spiritual man. Prepare 
 thyself, say our sages, in the ante-chamber that 
 thou mayest be fitted to enter the dining room. 
 No ! the doctrine of immortality and a future life 
 is rather hinted at, and suggested in the Bible than 
 announced. It belongs to those secret things 
 which pertain to the Lord ; for us are. only the 
 revealed, to perform all the words of His law. 
 But we are instinctively conscious of it in our 
 moments of highest aspiration ; it is whispered to 
 us in the analogies of nature ; it speaks to us in 
 the very genius of our language. Did it ever 
 occur to you that the Hebrew expression signify- 
 ing for ever and ever (c^ij/n "iy c'piyn )o) , literally 
 translated means from world unto world ? 
 
 With the knowledge of the infinity of worlds that 
 astronomy has revealed to us, what a vista of pro- 
 gress for the human soul do the words open to us ! 
 
 " She desires no isles of the blest, no quiet seats of 
 
 the just, 
 
 To rest in a golden grove, or bask in a summer sky ; 
 Give her the wages of going on, and not to die." 
 
 This then, my friends, is Judaism ; or rather, these 
 are some of the teachings of Judaism; that purest, 
 most rational, most practical of all religions, to the 
 heritage of which we as Jews are born. This is 
 the religion which divested of its national features, 
 is gradually superseding that dogmatic Christianity 
 to which Judaism has ever been the foe. With
 
 [68] 
 
 the religion of Christ, which is but a form of 
 Judaism, and a more orthodox form than is 
 possessed by many so called Jews of the present 
 day, Judaism has little difference, no feud. But 
 with the Christian religion, with its pagan element 
 of man worship ; its Trinity ; its vicarious atone- 
 ment ; its doctrines of faith above righteousness, of 
 salvation by belief and not by works ; announced 
 in the new" testament thus, "If thou shalt confess 
 with thy mouth Jesus the Lord, and shalt believe 
 in thy heart that God hath raised him from the 
 dead, thou shalt be saved." (Romans Ch. 10.) In the 
 Nicene creed by the remission of sins through bap- 
 tism ; and by Luther the great luminary of the 
 Protestant Church in the following unmistakable 
 terms, "a Christian cannot if he will, lose his sal- 
 vation by any multitude or magnitude of sins 
 unless he ceases to believe. For no sins can damn 
 him but unbelief alone. Everything else, provided 
 his faith returns, or stands fast in the Divine 
 promise given in baptism, is absorbed in a moment 
 by that faith:"* a doctrine, a monstrous doctrine, 
 which for the last fifteen hundred years has hung 
 like a heavy drag on the moral progress of mankind, 
 and is responsible for more vice and crime, corrup- 
 tion and immorality in the world than we can 
 dream of ; With this, Judaism in the interests of 
 humanity, has an unending war ; a war unto death ; 
 a warfare of Amalek from generation unto gener- 
 ation. And like the battle with Amalek, it is one 
 wherein when Moses lifts up his hands Israel 
 prevails, and when the hands of Moses are suffered 
 to droop Amalek prevails. And like the battle 
 with Amalek, it is one in which our clergy as 
 representing Aaron, and our laity as representing 
 
 (* Luther de Captiv. Bab. Sec Mohle's Symbolik.)
 
 [69] 
 
 Hur must each perform his part in sustaining the 
 uplifted hands of Moses. And again like the battle 
 with Amalek, it is one in which the foe will be dis- 
 comfited ; but with this difference, that as Israel 
 fights not his spiritual battles with the sword, the 
 discomfiture will be not mn ""D*?, but > inn*? not 
 with the edge (Heb mouth) of the sword, but with 
 the sword of the mouth. 
 
 \Vhether that Judaism which I have painted to 
 you is the religion of the Jew of the present day ; 
 whether all Israel basks in the glorious sunshine ; 
 whether there are not many, very many dark 
 places into which the glad sunlight does not 
 come ; How much has been shut out by the walls 
 of the Ghettos in which Christians immured us for 
 centuries ; Whether we in the past or the present 
 have been, or are its true exponents; you can judge 
 perhaps as well as I ; but it is none the less Juda- 
 ism. Our language would not be the less Hebrew, 
 though few should speak it or understand it. Our 
 religion is not the less Judaism, though few may 
 practice it in its completeness. And it is Judaism 
 I paint and not its professors. It is the light I 
 exhibit, and not the lamp in which it burns. 
 
 To the extent that we are its exponents we are 
 true Jews; fulfilling our destiny as a kingdom of 
 priests and a holy nation. And well, indeed, may 
 we be proud of the title, as a title of honor and 
 nobility dating back to days long anterior to those 
 of Roman and Grecian civilization; anterior by 
 many centuries to the earliest sages of Greece, 
 who probably drew their inspiration from Israel's 
 fount. It may be made by our enemies a term of 
 reproach ; it may be rendered by ourselves a word 
 of reproach ; but to us it should be, and by us it 
 should be made the highest title of honor, and not
 
 [70] 
 
 one of reproach. Realizing and truly fulfilling our 
 exalted mission, and certainly not otherwise, we 
 should feel and make the intelligence of the world 
 acknowledge that a man should need no Honorable 
 before his name, if he was privileged to put the Jew 
 after it. I say the intelligence of the world, because 
 with its ignorance and especially its religious ignor- 
 ance, we can have no hope, remembering what 
 Erskine says in one of his speeches; " There is a 
 martyrdom of truth in every age, and the world is 
 only purged from ignorance by the innocent blood 
 of those who have enlightened it." And the blood 
 of martyrdom, my friends, is not always red ; there 
 is a martyrdom of scoffing, abuse, contumely, con- 
 tempt, and social ostracism, at which galling though 
 it may be, the martyr for truth must not wince. 
 
 Robert South, an eminent Divine of the time of 
 Charles the 2d of England, speaking of the per- 
 versity of the Israelites of yore, observes, "God 
 seems to have espoused them to himself upon 
 the very same account that Socrates espoused 
 Xantippe ; as the fittest argument both to exercise 
 and declare his admirable patience to the world." 
 But, if one may presume to assign a reason for the 
 Divine selection of the Israelites, other than that 
 which the Bible itself declares ; I should rather 
 imagine it might be said, that the Almighty selected 
 them for the purpose of exibiting to the world, 
 what pure religion might do for man. Without 
 it, they were the abject degraded Egyptian slaves, 
 hankering after the flesh pots of Egyptian bondage 
 in the very sight and possession of glorious liberty ; 
 but enlightened and purified by the knowledge and 
 observance of the Divine laws, they were to become 
 the kingdom of priests the holy nation, children 
 of God, as the Bible speaks of them. (EoseaCh. 22.)
 
 [71] 
 
 We may, my friends, devoid of the elevating, 
 purifying, and ennobling principles of Judaism, 
 or starved upon its mere husk or shell, exhibit 
 ourselves still to the world in the light of the 
 degraded Egyptian slave, sunken in material 
 gratifications, and worshipping a calf of gold, in 
 the sight of the pillar of light which is to guide' us 
 in our way through the world. Slaves, though 
 clothed in broadcloth, decked in diamonds, or 
 rolling in wealth, as was many a Roman slave, 
 and operating with the ignorance of the world, 
 make the name of Jew a byword and a reproach ; 
 fulfilling in ourselves the prophecy " Ye shall be 
 a proverb and a byword among the nations of the 
 earth." Or performing in all things the glorious, 
 ' ennobling teachings of our Jewish faith, of 
 Judaism ; fed with the full plump grain, the very 
 staff of spiritual life we may become truly a 
 Kingdom of priests, a holy nation, and operating 
 with the enlightenment of mankind, make the 
 name of Jew an honor and a praise and fulfill 
 in ourselves the prophecies, 
 
 "And it shall come to pass instead that people 
 say of 'them 'Ye are not my people, they shall 
 call them the sons of the living God.'" (Hosea 
 Oh, l,v. 10.) 
 
 "And it shall come to pass, in the same degree as 
 ye have teen a curse among the nations, house of 
 Israel ! and house of Judah ! even so will 1 save 
 you, and ye shall be a blessing." (Zech. Ch. 8, v.13.) 
 That which may lift us from the degradation to 
 the exaltation, from the disgrace to the glory ; 
 operating with the enlightenment of mankind, in 
 which we have the most vital interest, and to 
 which we should bend our untiring energies, is 
 simply JUDAISM.
 
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