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 ON THE HEIGHT 
 
 FIVE SERflONS 
 
 Delivered on New Year's Eve and Morning, September 
 2ist and sad; on the Eve, Morning and Evening of the 
 Day of Atonement, October ist and ad, 1892 
 
 ISAAC 5. HOSES 
 
 Rabbi of Kehilath Anshe Mayriv 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 CHARLES H. KERR AND COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 
 1892
 
 ON THE HEIGHT 
 
 FIVE SERMONS 
 
 Delivered on New Year's Eve and Morning, September zist and 22nd; on 
 
 the Eve, Morning and Evening of the Day of Atonement, 
 
 October ist and 2nd, 1892 
 
 BY 
 
 ISAAC S. MOSES 
 
 Rabbi of Kehilath Anshe Mayriv. 
 
 CHICAGO, ILL. 
 
 CHAS. H. KERR & Co., PUBLISHERS.
 
 Stack 
 Annex 
 
 Oo 
 
 To Two Friends: 
 
 MR. M. M. GERSTLEY, 
 
 who for more than a generation has been 
 
 the faithful and thoughtful President 
 
 of K. A. M., and 
 
 MR. H. N. HART, 
 
 the present liberal, energetic Leader^ 
 
 to both of whom I feel greatly indebted J or 
 
 counsel and encouragement, 
 
 I inscribe these few pages as a token of 
 
 friendship and gratitude. 
 
 I. S. M. 
 
 500784"'
 
 I. ABOVE THE FLOOD. 
 
 SEEMON FOB NEW YEAR S EVE. 
 
 TEXT : I lift up mine eyes to the hills, whence cometh my 
 help. My help cometh from the Lord who made heaven 
 and earth. Psalm 130. 
 
 The year vanishes ! In this twilight hour it 
 takes leave of us, or rather we bid farewell to a 
 part of our life. Once more we stand upon the 
 border lines of the years. Behind us and before us 
 roar and rush the turbulent and turbid waters of 
 time. The present a narrow island a moment 
 between two eternities. Unto us, too, the mighty 
 waves are reaching, and our life, like the ark in the 
 Biblical story of the flood, is borne upon the crest 
 of angry billows, tossed and beaten by the storms 
 of fate, driven along the pathless depths of time, 
 while no one knoweth whither his fragile ark will 
 be carried, or where at last it will find rest ; 
 whether upon the mount Ararat of power and 
 opulence, or in the vale of poverty and sick- 
 ness. We look around us and we behold on all 
 sides the devastations of all-engnlfing time. Where 
 once there were blooming fields, peaceful homes, 
 flourishing cities, to-day we find but ruins and
 
 4 ABOVE TUP: FLOOD. 
 
 fragments, emptiness and waste. Whatever is born 
 of time is again swept away by his irresistible 
 torrent. At the beginning of a new year we may 
 rightly ask : What is the purpose, the end of this 
 ever-recurring deluge of time? What is the out- 
 come of this ever- repeated process of day and night, 
 joy and sorrow, birth and death, growth and decay ? 
 Has time any compensation for our toil ? Do we 
 but sow upon the waves, and build upon billows ? 
 Above the storm and torrent of life we hear the 
 voice of Him who bids worlds to come and to disap- 
 pear. The voice of God is heard above the waters ; 
 "The Lord dwelleth above the flood." He who is 
 Timeless and Nameless, breathes upon the mighty 
 deep and the waters subside. In this twilight hour 
 comes to us a message from on high, bringing 
 the promise of peace and the tidings of a richer 
 compensation for life's toil than change and decay. 
 As unto the patriarch of old so to us comes the 
 dove with the olive branch, assuaging our pains, 
 allaying our fears, and teaching us the divine lessons 
 of faith, of hope, and of strength, in the battle of 
 life. 
 
 Of all the beautiful symbols which nature holds 
 forth to man's mental vision, none is so rich with 
 meaning as the olive branch. Its juice enlightens 
 the eye, and changes darkness into day. The 
 olive fruit holds within its tiny form the promise of 
 light, the unborn flame ; it is a most befitting em-
 
 ABOVE THE FLOOD. 5 
 
 blem of that invisible flame, that light hidden 
 within the soul of man, which alone has the power 
 to enlighten his darkness ; the light of faith. 
 Faith in God's loving care ; faith in the abiding 
 truth of God's word ; faith in the nobility of virtue 
 above the evil powers of passion. This living faith 
 was the patriarch's anchor upon the storm-tossed 
 sea. Such faith must also be ours if our ark of 
 life is to bear us above the flood. Then a thousand 
 may fall by our side, and ten thousands at our right 
 hand, no harm shall come near us. 
 
 Our age, proud of its achievements, intoxicated 
 by its victory over the material world, has lost 
 this priceless gem. Blinded in the chase for dust 
 we mistake the senseless mechanism of nature for 
 the secret Power, the Living Spirit, the Eternal 
 Cause, moving all things. A self-sufficient wisdom 
 has dethroned God, seeing in all this wondrous 
 universe nothing but blind force and unconscious 
 matter, set in motion by some capricious accident. 
 Evolution is the magic word that shall explain all, 
 even the majesty of the spirit, the dignity of man's 
 moral nature. What is man ? A child is he of the 
 dust, and the dust then is his goal. And the mes- 
 sage and meaning of life, man's mission and destiny 
 is but strife and struggle, war and woe, destruc- 
 tion and dissolution. Without the belief in an all- 
 wise and all-kind Father, in whose hand are the 
 lives of all beings and the spirit of all flesh, life, 
 indeed, would be meaningless, and this natal hour 
 of a new year, would be void of significance. Why
 
 6 ABOVE THE FLOOD. 
 
 pause and ponder at the divisions of time, when 
 life throughout is barren of value, the earth but the 
 battle-field of contending creatures ! The raven, liv- 
 upon carrion, is a fit symbol of this melancholy, 
 merciless, godless, view of life. He brings back 
 no message of peace. Driven by the hungry desire 
 he leaps from ruin to ruin, over death and debris, 
 content to feast upon rotteness and corruption. 
 Such was the wisdom of ancient heathenism, sunk 
 in the quagmire of sensualism and vice, and, there- 
 fore, swept away by the floods of history ; such is 
 theory of modern atheism, the twin-brother of 
 materialism. Here on the threshold of a new 
 time we long to hear the sweeter tones of the return- 
 ing dove, bringing to us the message of peace, the 
 tidings of joy. There lives a God, the ol.ve brai ch 
 preaches ; there lives a God who is mightier than 
 the mighty floods of time. His word, revealed by 
 Israel's seers, has enlightened the world, has put a 
 new meaning upon the universe, has raised the 
 child of dust to the dignity of a son of God. Hold 
 fast to this faith, O Israel, it is thy life. In it thou 
 hast the deepest assurance of the purpose of thy 
 being, of the value of thy existence. 
 
 For in the light of this noble faith, comes to us 
 also the message of hope, the sweetest, most blissful 
 promise. Dark and cheerless is the life of him who 
 but toils from week to week, from month to month, 
 from year to year, panting under the load of cares. 
 Estranged from that perennial spring of hope whose 
 limpid waters never deceive, he erects the edifice
 
 ABOVE THE FLOOD. 7 
 
 of his happiness upon the changing quicksand of 
 human fortune. Insatiable becomes the hunger for 
 gold, the thirst for pleasure, the grasping desire for 
 the glitter ' and pomp of the world. The modest 
 house may be exchanged for a proud palace, the 
 simple fare for sumptuous living, yet the soul re- 
 mains empty, and the heart void. Without aim or 
 purpose the spirit flutters to and fro and finds no 
 rest, no lasting peace upon the dark and dangerous 
 flood of life. He will never find true happiness who 
 can see no light beyond this life on earth, who can- 
 not link time with eternity. He who recognizes in 
 this frail body of dust the ark, holding the imperish- 
 able spirit, is lifted above the flood of earthly toil 
 and tribulation; to him comes that heavenly messen- 
 ger: immortal hope, and brings him the assurance of 
 unending bliss. The leaf of the olive tree is bitter, 
 say our sages, "yet sent by God it is sweet." The 
 trials of life, the sorrows and disappointments 
 what mortal man is exempt from them ? They 
 come unbidden, like the advancing tide, rushing 
 over our dearest possessions, destroying our most 
 cherished hopes. How many have come here to- 
 night to greet the new year, whose souls are filled 
 with grief ! For them the past year has brought 
 but loss and tears. They have seen how peris liable 
 is all earthly beauty, how frail is mortal strength, 
 how weak all human enterprise. Who can stem 
 the tide? Who can pass through it, and not be 
 borne down among the rocks and rapids ? In sick- 
 ness and bereavement, in the long list of afflictions
 
 8 ABOVE THE FLOOD. 
 
 which fall to our lot, where can any refuge be 
 found ? The waves of misfortune will break over 
 us and sweep us far away, unless we can find a 
 foothold above the flood to which our souls can 
 flee. Such a refuge there is in the thought of that 
 Supreme Wisdom guiding all things aright. He 
 sends us these bitter visitations, and coming from 
 Him our grief melts into glad foreboding. Not the 
 cruel raven, but the beautiful and kindly dove is 
 the harbinger of the divine promise of consolation. 
 The bitter leaf of sadness is changed into the sweet 
 and healing oil of comfort. Therefore despair not, 
 ye who are heavy laden. Golden the new year 
 opens before you as before the surviving patriarch. 
 What the past has destroyed the future will re- 
 place. It need not be in one year, nor in one life. 
 The one may be the stepping-stone to the other. 
 God's purpose runs through many lives, and each 
 one of us is but a bridge of hope leading from one 
 generation to the other. What we have sown in 
 tears, they for whom we lived will reap in joy and 
 gratitude. This the glad message of hope wafted 
 to us through the breezes of this twilight hour. 
 And so with this message of hope comes to us 
 also the divine assurance of strength and victory 
 in the battle of life. 
 
 What is life ? What is its value, what its mis- 
 sion ? These are questions which with each suc- 
 ceeding year more vehemently demand reply. 
 We live to-day while thousands who lived with 
 us are no more. For what purpose have we been
 
 ABOVE THE FLOOl). 9 
 
 spared ? Every day, every year that is granted 
 to us is a trust from on high ! We live for a 
 duty, we have been spared for an obligation, we 
 have been consecrated to a most sacred task. " Go 
 forth from the ark, thou and all that belong to 
 thee, and conquer the earth ! " was the divine com- 
 mand to Noah. Not upon the ruins of the past to 
 dwell, but to work in the living present, and to 
 triumph over all difficulties, is the solemn bidding 
 of this hour. Work is the foremost duty and 
 privilege of man. Of all creatures he alone has the 
 power to free himself from the doom of chance, and 
 to make himself independent of nature's whims. 
 He studies her laws and chains her to his service. 
 He foresees the future and meets it with plans pre- 
 pared. Whence comes to him this power of king- 
 ship, this title of sovereignty? It is his heritage 
 from on high, it is the divine power that works in, 
 and through him. Man is the instrument in the 
 hand of God, to mould the destiny of the earth. 
 Each man has a special task assigned to him. No 
 matter how humble your sphere, how lowly your 
 station, how scant your means, if you fulfill you- 
 daily duties as a God-given task, you are par- 
 taker of a divine purpose, and divine power flows 
 in to supply the need of your human weakness. He 
 who conscientiously labors for the support of his 
 dear ones, striving to give back to mankind in the 
 shape of noble sons and daughters the blessings he 
 has received, he is an anointed priest ; his table 
 is the sacred altar, his house a temple of Most
 
 10 ABOVE THE FLOOD. 
 
 High. But farther and wider must be the sphere 
 of his activity than his own narrow house. The 
 greater the gifts with which God has blessed us, the 
 greater must be our task for the advancement of 
 human welfare, for the victory of truth and love. 
 This call to duty appeals with greater force to us 
 as Israelites. The consecration to the priesthood of 
 the Eternal, lays upon us a greater obligation, not 
 a greater privilege. The earth has not yet regained 
 its pristine fairness. As yet the floods of hatred, 
 the rolling tides of race prejudice and persecution 
 sweep over the lands. The ravens of religious in- 
 tolerance still carry the deadly poison from country 
 to country. Our devotion to the holy cause of 
 Israel must, like the dove, bring again to the world 
 the message of brotherly love, the triumph of 
 human right and dignity over the evil powers of 
 hatred and injustice. Be this your holy resolve to- 
 night, to become, by your zeal for the sacred herit- 
 age of Israel, true priests of humanity. Then will 
 this hour hold out to us the emblem of victory, 
 the symbol of peace. 
 
 With strength renewed we will take up the task 
 of the new year. Hidden behind the clouds of 
 uncertainty are the events of future days ; but we 
 fear not. We build our altar to the God of truth. 
 In joy and in sorrow we trust in Him ; for athwart 
 our tears does vault the rainbow of divine prom- 
 ise. The Lord will guard us from all evil ; He will 
 bless our going out from the old year, and our 
 entrance into the new. Amen.
 
 II. THE MORAL IDEAL. 
 
 MORNING SERMON FOR NEW YEAR'S DAY. 
 
 The radiant light of the sun pours down its cheer- 
 ful rays upon us, gathered in this house to welcome 
 and to sanctify the new year. We greet trustfully 
 the beginning of a new time, looking forward to the 
 days and months, still hidden from our vision, that 
 they may bring to us the glad fulfillment of endeavor, 
 the joyous realization of our enterprises. Like unto 
 him who leaves the tumultuous streets, the busy 
 mart, the walled-up inclosures of commerce, to seek 
 the fragrant fields, the purer air of the mountain, 
 so we to-day escape the harsh routine of the daily 
 task, and shake from us the burdens and cares of 
 the year. On the open road we travel ; the silent 
 forest opens its portals, centenary trees nod and 
 bow from on high a genial welcome ; the winged 
 songsters warble for us their charming carols, the 
 rustling leaves make music to our steps, and the 
 balm -laden air breathes health and peace into our 
 souls. Onward and upward we proceed ; higher 
 and higher we ascend on the steep and winding 
 path. The tall, majestic trees recede farther and 
 farther ; the sun sends floods of golden light through 
 the thinning foliage. Suddenly the vision widens ; 
 far beneath us lie garden and glen, field and forest, 
 the rippling brook and the green velvet meadows.
 
 12 THE MORAL IDEAL. 
 
 Before us the sovereign mount lifts up its cloud- 
 piercing head, bidding us approach nearer to its 
 glorious throne. From height to height we climb ; 
 the earth is sinking beneath our feet ; the air grows 
 thin and clear ; awful silence reigns around. With 
 winged footsteps we have reached the summit! 
 Oh what a glorious sight spreads before our eyes ! 
 Endless the land below, endless the blue vault 
 above. Vanished out of sight are the marks and 
 divisions of human possessions ; the boundaries and 
 barriers of men's selfishness or pride. How small, 
 almost imperceptible, seem to us the monuments of 
 human industry or opulence ! Tall buildings or 
 high towers appear like specks in the gigantic pict- 
 ure. How clear and distinct are the outlines of 
 nature's true divisions : earth and sea, ridge and 
 lowland ! As we gaze into the infinitude above, 
 below, a vapor creeps apace ; it rises and spreads, 
 enveloping with its misty veil summit and crest of 
 the mount. A dewy chill penetrates our very being, 
 reminding us of the stern fact that not forever on 
 the height can be our abode, that into the valley be- 
 neath we must retrace our steps, there to live to 
 work, to hope and to spin the thread of our being to 
 its utmost possibility. But the eye that once beheld 
 the enchanting vision will ever again turn its glance 
 to the lofty height ; the soul that for one brief 
 moment has drunk in the beauty and glory from 
 above, can never forget the heavenly sight. 
 
 To such a lofty mountain I would to-day lead 
 you, friends, fellow-travelers on the road Time. Up
 
 THE MORAL IDEAL. 13 
 
 to Moriah's sacred summit let us walk, to the 
 Mount of God, from whose awe-inspiring peak we 
 shall gain a true view of life. " Ifhar Adonoy 
 yeroeh" From that spiritual height let us follow 
 the footprints of human development, in order to 
 discover the Divine Type, tlie Moral Ideal of Hu- 
 manity. 
 
 From the chaos and confusion of conflicting 
 opinions as to the destiny of man, one tone persist- 
 ently strikes on our ear, one word is repeatedly 
 heard above all others the word Happiness. Both 
 those who praise this world as the best of possible 
 worlds, and congratulate man as the most favored 
 of all creatures, as well as they who bewail exist- 
 ence, and deplore man's lot as the most miserable 
 of all they are all impelled by the deep rooted de- 
 sire for happiness, the longing for the joys of life. 
 From the first faint glimmer of the dawning intel- 
 lect man has been a searcher, not of the good, but of 
 the better. Ever dissatisfied with his surrounding 
 he sets out in quest of better pasture ground, more 
 abundant game, new fields of conquest. Always 
 the unattained is the goal before his eyes. As he 
 emerges from the lowest forms of brutal savagery 
 and barbarism, he feels the insufficiency of his 
 being, and seeks to fill out the incompleteness of 
 his nature by reaching forward to some higher, 
 greater attainment. The first ideal of man is phys- 
 ical strength, bodily superiority. The giant hunter 
 and warrior, a Nimrod and Samson, a Hercules and 
 Siegfried are the types of greatness which the vast
 
 14 THE MORAL IDEAL. 
 
 throng seek to imitate. Hero-worship is the first 
 stage in the hierarchy of man's aspirations. The 
 growth and formation of the colossal empires of 
 Asia are attempts at realizing the Ideal of Poioer. 
 The king, wielding undisputed authority over life 
 and substance, leading multitudes of warriors to 
 victory and triumph, is the ideal man. But the 
 heart will not rest satisfied with the attainment of 
 this ideal ; for behind the dazzling splendor of regal 
 power it discovers the shadows of human frailty, 
 disease and age and death reveal the illusion. The 
 mind awakens and seeks a higher ideal of perfection. 
 Here on earth it finds only fragments, suggestions 
 of a higher order ; it locates perfection in the realm 
 above. Sunny Greece approaches with her ideal of 
 Divine Beauty. Harmony and proportion become 
 standards of value ; sound and color the agencies of 
 higher life. Wider and deeper become the chan- 
 nels of Hellenic culture ; linked with art and poetry 
 arises philosophy, with its broad discourse upon 
 reason, weighing and balancing the swift-running 
 thought. It is the artist's view of life, it is the 
 Ideal of Genius that man strives to realize. In 
 legend and in law this struggle of genius is discern- 
 ible. But art, beauty, harmony, are only the indi- 
 cators of the physical senses ; they rest upon the 
 deep abyss of that natural hunger and thirst for 
 pleasure. Enjoyment is after all the characteristic 
 note in the music of Greek civilization ; happiness 
 the ever-recurring theme of interest. Truth and 
 error, good and evil, right and wrong, are at last
 
 THE MORAL IDEAL. 15 
 
 reduced to be equivalents of agreeable and disagree- 
 able, profitable and unprofitable. Thus it is while 
 Greek philosophy is non-moral, Greek mythology 
 is non-theistic. Their deities lack the grandeur of 
 the truly Divine and Absolute ; holiness and right- 
 eousness are not their essential attributes. And 
 though to Greek mind we are indebted for the very 
 name of Ethical Science, in the stricter sense of the 
 word, in which it traces the claim of Duty, the in- 
 spiration and enthusiasm for morality, we can only 
 say that Greek thought beckons into realms whence 
 we see the mountain of a higher ideal. History is 
 in the end the great judge, and her verdict is final. 
 The Greek ideal of Beauty carried the germ of dis- 
 ease on its very lips. It broke down all virile 
 strength and sapped the very sources of morality. 
 In Rome we are presented with the ideal of civic 
 virtue, the Ideal of the State. It is the blaze of the 
 empire welding all nations into one province, under 
 the rule of one law, emanating from one mind. In 
 this attempt Rome foreshadows the ultimate result 
 of historical development, one mankind under one 
 Invisible Ruler. But the means which Rome em- 
 ployed in constructing the empire state, and the 
 motives by which even her noblest sons were guided, 
 are so many stains of blood on her royal robe. 
 With galling injustice she pretended to enforce 
 justice. With crushing despotism she ruled the 
 conquered nations under the false claim of impar- 
 tial law. There lay a deadly fascination in the very 
 idea of dominion. To rule was to the Roman syn-
 
 16 THE MOKAL IDEAL. 
 
 onymous with to be. Religion, art, science are 
 subordinate to the idea of dominion. All relations, 
 even that of the family, are tinctured by that all- 
 engrossing influence of dominion. Law and obedi- 
 ence, master and slave, are terms of interchangeable 
 value. Rome's Ideal Man is a Ccesar. How 
 closely allied are Csesarism and servility, dominion 
 and suffering, law and injustice, luxury and vice, 
 the later history, properly called the decline and 
 fall of Rome, fully testifies. The name of Roman 
 becomes a synonym of perfidy, selfishness and 
 crime ; the word virtue, the noblest in Roman 
 tongue, was emptied of its meaning. 
 
 Nor was the Christian ideal of manhood, which 
 displaced for a while that of the antique world, of 
 more abiding value. It denied the world and its 
 claims. It placed itself in direct contrast to all 
 that moved and stirred the healthy, natural man. 
 It divided the world into saints and sinners. 
 Asceticism, renunciation, suffering become the 
 prime virtues and pieties, the passports of salva- 
 tion. For the reward of self-denial will not fail. In 
 the heavens above the hungry and the thirsty shall 
 be abundantly satisfied. In thousandfold meas- 
 ures shall the renounced joys of this life be repaid. 
 In this dualism of the new ideal lies the secret of 
 strength, but also the cause of decay of what may 
 be called the specifically Christian system. In the 
 dark ages of renewed barbarism this ideal has been 
 a potent factor in taming down the unbroken fierce- 
 ness of young races, in curbing their unbridled
 
 THE MORAL ILEAL. 17 
 
 passions, and holding up before them a higher, a 
 diviner order than war and victory, destruction and 
 triumph. 
 
 With the deepening of the roots of culture, with 
 the revival of learning and the advancing tide of 
 science, the ideal of the saint faded like a 
 shadow of the night before the bright rays of the 
 sun. The theory of the nothingness of this world 
 may be professed with pious lips, but the heart 
 knows nothing of it. The interests of this earth, 
 the claims of nature re-assert themselves in most 
 distinct manner. There remains but the illusion of 
 an ideal which the mind has long since discredited. 
 Our age has virtually discarded the ideal of other 
 worldliness. This is an age of dry, prosaic, prac- 
 tical life. And what is the ideal of our day ? Like 
 our architecture and painting it is a combination 
 of all past styles and schools. Into the composition 
 of modern life has come a new element, unknown to 
 the ancients. Individual liberty. Ours is still the 
 age of invention, and each succeeding conquest of 
 physical science places new power, new means of 
 independence into the hands of the individual. 
 Commerce and industry, general education and 
 political security have combined to encourage in 
 the individual the sense of his overwhelming 
 importance, of his own personal advancement and 
 advantage. For his sake the planets revolve, the sun 
 shines by day and the stars twinkle in the silent 
 night. For his sake alone the rivers run their course, 
 the earth unfolds her treasures and sea and air form
 
 18 THE MORAL IDEAL. 
 
 pathways for his ships. The Ideal of Selfishness 
 is the signature of our times. In all previous 
 civilizations the individual knew that he was an 
 integral part of a larger organism which rightly 
 claimed his first and best efforts. To-day the fore- 
 most thought of man is his own personal advantage, 
 regardless of any other interests. To rise on the 
 ladder of success, no matter how many others are 
 to be brushed aside, or pushed down into the deep ; 
 to gain the advantage over every competitor, and 
 to triumph over every opposition, is the aim and 
 ambition of the modern man. Self-assertion is the 
 great virtue in the catechism of our age ; Success is 
 the standard measure of value and worth ; Posses - 
 ' sion the magic word that charms the multitude into 
 reverence and obedience. Personal aggrandize- 
 ment, personal profit, and personal pleasure, are 
 the motives, the propelling forces in our modern 
 society. In politics as well as in commerce he is a 
 great man, who has outwitted, perhaps ruined, 
 " the other party." A Napoleon of Wall Street is 
 the ideal of commercial circles, and Machiavelli' s 
 maxims will receive general sanction by our great 
 political leaders. Nor is it otherwise in those 
 spheres where a more ideal view of life ought to 
 prevail. Science and art are rated as merchandise ; 
 the bar and pulpit are measured not by the amount 
 of good they may do to others, but by the height 
 of income or the number of pews they address. 
 "Know thyself" was the Greek's admonition; 
 "Push yourself forward" is the exhortation of
 
 THE MOKAL IDEAL. 19 
 
 to-day. So general has this tendency become that 
 all relations of labor have been distorted ; a merci- 
 less competition has robbed industry of its joy and 
 just reward. It is indeed a war of all against all, 
 a bitter combat of every individual against a whole 
 hostile' world. Individualism is not the power to 
 lead mankind to universal peace. The ideal of 
 selfishness leads to ruin and moral bankruptcy. 
 Egotism ends in self-destruction. Philosophical 
 Pessimism is but an echo of this selfish, material- 
 istic view of life. 
 
 Contrast with these false idols the true ideal 
 which Israel holds up to mankind ! The noble 
 type of manhood presented in the life of Abraham 
 will stand for all ages to come as the moral ideal of 
 humanity. He wields power but does not aspire to 
 dominion. To defend himself and his own against 
 aggression, does he seize the weapon, but naught of 
 the spoil remains in his hand. He is a master, but 
 those that serve him are not his slaves but his trusted 
 friends and helpers. He possesses of worldly goods 
 in abundance, but he holds them in trust for those 
 who need his help. Not a crumb from the table 
 of affluence but true helpfulness is his charity. In 
 peace and friendship with his neighbors he seeks to 
 spread true religion by the practice of true 
 humanity. Life, according to Jewish conception, 
 is neither a pleasure ground nor a battle-field ; it is 
 a road whose name is Duty ; it leads not downward 
 to destruction but upward to the mountain of God. 
 Devotion of life's goods to higher and loftier pur-
 
 20 THE MORAL IDEAL. 
 
 poses than power or pleasure or individual happi- 
 ness. Not what life lias to offer to him, but what 
 he possesses to enrich the world therewith is the 
 great question for him who strives after the true 
 ideal. Life is not dominion over others, not self- 
 assertion, but Service and Self-sacrifice. And the 
 answer to the stern call of duty, though demanding 
 of us the severest sacrifices of personal joy and 
 happiness, must be Abraham's reply : " Here I ant." 
 All I have and all I am, are ready to be sacrificed 
 for the higher good according to the divine wisdom 
 that conies from above. From the spiritual height 
 of such an ideal we recognize that the individual 
 is indeed but an infinitesimal part, a fragment of a 
 grand spiritual system, and that his value lies only 
 in the service which he may render to the larger 
 life of humanity, for the spread of light and love, 
 of justice and truth, of wisdom and virtue. Lies 
 not in this knowledge a fountain of joy, a perennial 
 spring of true happiness ? To most the harassing 
 question on a day like this is : What will the new 
 year bring to us, what does it hold in store of 
 things pleasant and unpleasant; of success or failure, 
 gladness or sorrow, life or death ? The question 
 which the true ideal addresses to each one of us is : 
 Do you bring to the opening year your soul's best 
 efforts \ Have you made of yourself a better, a 
 truer, a nobler man than you were before ? Can 
 you rise to a higher and loftier conception of life 
 and its duties than the pursuit of your own advan- 
 tage ? Happy is he who has caught the vision of
 
 THE MORAL IDEAL. 21 
 
 the true ideal from on high and is yearning to live 
 out the divine pattern in his own limited sphere. 
 Naught that life may bring, or life may take away, 
 can rob him of the soul's serenity, of the mind's 
 peace and joy. 
 
 Viewed in the light of this true ideal, even our 
 sorrows and disappointments, nay, the severest 
 trials, life's bitterest experiences are sanctified and 
 transfigured. As to Abraham of old, so to many a 
 father and mother comes the divine command : 
 "Take now thy son, thy beloved child and bring 
 him an offering unto me ! " Blinded by their tears 
 they see not the angel of love standing by their 
 side, bringing to them the assurance of divine bless- 
 ing. Up to Moriah lift your eyes, all ye who weep. 
 Speak with the noble patriarch, "Here ami!" 
 ready to obey Thy will, not minel Then your 
 tears will be dewdrops of hope, reflecting the rays 
 of God's eternal light, of His infinite wisdom and 
 goodness. 
 
 Thus shall we be sanctified for the year to come ; 
 thus shall we take with us the remembrance of 
 a higher vision, to ennoble our life, to bless our 
 endeavors, to fill us with joy and strength for the 
 performance of our duty, and thus shall we strive to 
 realize as far as we can the higher type of Israel' s 
 genius, the Moral Ideal of Humanity. Amen.
 
 III. THE LAW OF CONSCIENCE. 
 
 SEBMON FOR THE EVE OF THE DAY OF ATONEMENT. 
 
 TEXT: "And Moses said to the people: Fear not, for 
 in order to prove you hath God come, and that His fear may 
 be within yon, that ye shall not sin." Exodus 20 : 20. 
 
 The day which, unlike any other in the calendar 
 of Israel's sacred festivals, offers to us religion's 
 choicest gifts, may rightly claim our most ardent 
 devotion, our holiest thoughts, our sincerest re- 
 solves. Amidst the desert of our daily life it stands 
 out like the fire encircled peak of Sinai, the mount 
 of revelation, echoing across the gulf of centuries 
 the voice of that law which is written with indelible 
 letters upon the tablets of human hearts and hu- 
 man souls. Like Israel of old that had left the 
 bondage of Egypt and encamped around Sinai, were 
 awakened by the thunder-peals, the lightning 
 flashes and the lurid flames emanating from the 
 mount; so have we to-night left the bondage and 
 burden of our daily cares; so are we aroused by the 
 voice of conscience ringing through our soul. In 
 awe and trembling we stand before our spiritual 
 Sinai. The voice that spake three thousand years
 
 2 THE LAW OF CONSCIENCE. 
 
 ago is still proclaiming the eternal and unchanging 
 law of moral truth, is still demanding obedience to 
 the moral obligation. Who is there among all who 
 have come here to-night, so callous and indifferent 
 as not to heed the summons from on high? Who 
 feels not in the innermost -recess of his heart that his 
 past life has not been a full and harmonous response 
 to the divine command of Duty! The visible idols 
 of our senses have had greater fascination over our 
 soul than the invisible, but ever-present God of holi- 
 ness, righteousness and love. To-night the voice of 
 conscience speaks; it cannot be hushed into silence. 
 The soul longs to regain its pristine purity; the heart 
 cries out in sorrow and anguish to be reunited with 
 God, to be reconciled to itself. Not forever can we 
 bear the discord and conflict within us. No burden 
 is so heavy as a burdened conscience; no weight so 
 crushing as the verdict of self-condemnation. When 
 the full knowledge of our failure dawns upon us we 
 are terrified at the revelation. We tremble at the 
 thought of our spiritual death, we cannot endure to 
 hear the shrill and piercing voice of self-reproach 
 and would therefore fain shift the responsibility of 
 our actions on others. The heavenly claims are too 
 high, the divine law too severe; let human weakness 
 plead, let human frailty interpret our course. 
 Therefore does this hour come to us with the same 
 encouraging answer which the greatest of all pro- 
 phets, Moses, gave to trembling Israel ! Fear not, 
 for only to prove you has God come, so that His fear 
 may be within you that ye may not sin ! Not to
 
 THE LAW OF CONSCIENCE. 25 
 
 crush us but to crave us back, not to punish but to 
 plead with us, hath God invited us to his presence. 
 
 There is no word in the whole range of human 
 speech whose sound falls with more ungracious ac- 
 cents upon the ear than the word: Sin. It is not 
 frequently used in the counting-room or the parlor, 
 and is scrupulously avoided in the gatherings of po- 
 lite and gay society. The word is reserved for the 
 pulpit, and even there it is employed in a rather 
 vague and general sense, having reference, perhaps, 
 to some prehistoric event, or to the inborn weak- 
 ness of human flesh. It is thus associated with 
 some theological notion and expresses a rather 
 supernatural relation than an every-day experience. 
 The modern man will admit that he has erred, he 
 clearly sees that he has made a mistake, he apolo- 
 gizes for his gross negligence or freedom, and is 
 awfully sorry if he has done you an injustice. He 
 will even go so far as to beg pardon for an obvious 
 wrong he has committed and will be ready to make 
 amends for the mischief he has caused. But he will 
 never confess that he has sinned, except in a per- 
 functory, liturgical manner, repeating a prescribed 
 formula in the prayer book, or from the preacher's 
 lips. Whence the abhorence for this terse and 
 telling word? It can be explained only from the 
 fact that it touches the most vital relation of man to 
 himself. It is affording a glimpse into his inner 
 life, and the average man is loath to reveal the true
 
 26 THE LAW OF CONSCIENCE. 
 
 motives and impulses of liis nature. To most men 
 morality means simply conformity of conduct to 
 rules, usages and laws laid down by the custom of 
 the people, the authority of legislative bodies, or the 
 all-powerful fashion of the day. To do right, means 
 for them, to act according to the standard of pro- 
 priety prevailing all around them. To do wrong- 
 would mean, to come in collision with the law, to 
 defy the power of authority or of public opinion, to 
 antagonize the good will of those who are strong- 
 enough to harm or to help. The test of morality 
 then would be simply this: Will this action hurt 
 or help me, is there any danger to be encountered in 
 this course or the other? Will it entail the loss of 
 substance or reputation? Who shall judge;! Of 
 course, the "world," the men and women in whose 
 midst we live, and for whose opinion we care. But 
 suppose it escapes their notice? Then nothing has 
 been done, no wrong has been committed. As long- 
 as the "world" can be kept in ignorance, no crime 
 can be chu rged. From this point of view right doing 
 would be the art of escaping detection, and wrong 
 doing the folly of being caught. Indeed, the mo- 
 rality of most men is nothing else but a calculation 
 of consequences. It is the evil result they fear, not 
 the evil itself. To gamble would be no wrong, only 
 to lose. To deceive others would be perfectly legiti- 
 mate, provided 3 T ou can carry your point and not be 
 outwitted by the other. This dangerous theory of 
 ethics has been and is still encouraged by a no less 
 pernicious theology, usurping the name and fair
 
 THE LAAV OF CONSCIENCE. 27 
 
 robe of religion: Virtue brings reward, wickedness 
 accumulates punishment. To swell the list of our 
 good deeds would assure an equally large num- 
 ber of rewards to our credit. To undo the per- 
 formed wrong, to obliterate the evil deed charged 
 against us, is announced as the highest concern of 
 religious ministration. But friends, the springs of 
 morality lie deeper than conformity to outward law, 
 the sources of virtue do not rise in the desert of hu- 
 man selfishness. Behind all law and custom is the 
 majesty of man's moral nature, the innate sense of 
 right and wrong independent of any outward sanc- 
 tion, approval or disapproval. Within man there 
 is the consciousness of his dignity as man, or to state 
 it in the words of religion, as "the image of God." 
 His heart is that sanctuary wherein stands the sacred 
 ark, holding the laws not made by cunning and cal- 
 culation but revealed on the Sinai of his own soul. 
 This consciousness of his dignity, this contin- 
 uous revelation from within, is not an incidental 
 element of his nature, which might or might not be 
 there, it is not merely a part, or the most vital part 
 of his spiritual constitution; no, it is his whole being 
 as man. Without it he is not man, he only bears 
 the semblance of man. He is a creature that must 
 be held in restraint, whose passions must be curbed, 
 whose greed must be bridled by the fear of penalty, 
 whose possibility for good must be stirred by the 
 prospect of reward. He has to be goaded by the 
 prick of the law into conformity of conduct. The 
 moral character, the ethical personality, alone con-
 
 28 THE LAW OF CONSCIENCE. 
 
 fers the title of man. In it lies the measure of man' s 
 conduct, the gauge of his good or evil action. He 
 who against his own better knowledge and convic- 
 tion, perverts the right, betrays the trust placed in 
 him, denies the truth he has confessed, takes advan- 
 tage of another's ignorance or weakness, or indulges 
 low appetites, in ignoble passions, in degrading- 
 pleasures, is not only doing harm to others, 
 he is desecrating the sanctuary of his own soul, 
 he is destroying his spiritual vitality, he inflicts a 
 mortal wound on his ethical personality. This in- 
 ward process cannot be judged by the world without, 
 it is not amenable to the verdict of law. Public or 
 private jurisdiction extend only to the overt act. 
 It is the deed which in the eye of the law constitutes 
 right or wrong. Before the tribunal of conscience 
 it is the motive alone which stamps an action to 
 be moral or immoral. To sin, therefore, means to 
 commit a crime against our own noblest self, to rob 
 ourselves of the high dignity of manhood. Sin is 
 not a single act, nor a number of acts, it is a condition 
 of the soul. The deed alone is neither moral nor 
 immoral. Nor is the harm, or injury done to others, 
 the only measure of wrong. The physician's scalpel 
 may inflict a severe wound, and yet his action, im- 
 pelled by the motive to heal and cure, is praised, 
 while the vicious stab, perhaps with the same 
 instrument, is branded as crime. The evil caused to 
 others may sometimes have been a blessing in dis- 
 guise, or it may long since be forgotten or neutral- 
 ized. The grief planted on the heart of others may
 
 THE LAW OF CONSCIENCE. 29 
 
 long ago have lost its poignancy and been forgiven. 
 But the injury done to our own moral nature can- 
 not be so easily obliterated. The corroding blot on 
 our soul, the deadly poison on the constitution of 
 our character, will continue their work of destruc- 
 tion, blunting our sensibilities, and driving us from 
 evil to evil, from corruption to corruption. This is 
 the meaning of the prophet Ezekiel' s verdict: "The 
 soul that sinneth shall die." Siri is the death of the 
 soul ! Who can deliver us from this spiritual death? 
 Who shall save us from moral destruction? 
 
 Having discovered the nature of sin we shall 
 perhaps be able to find the way to overcome the 
 evil and triumph over it. ' ; Let us search our 
 way" says the prophet, " let us examine ourselves, 
 and return unto Thee." Self-examination is the 
 first condition to recovery. Not craven fear, not 
 cowardly despair, but honest and true self-knowl- 
 edge can win us back to our nobler self. A mis- 
 taken notion of sin and repentance has led man to 
 seek help where no help can be found. Neither tears 
 of regret, nor works of penance can undo an evil 
 deed, and no power in heaven or on earth can for- 
 give our sin, unless within us we have discovered 
 the root of evil, and with sorrowing heart and 
 strength of will, we conquer the evil inclination. 
 Many a man has shed bitter tears over his sins, yet 
 when temptation came again it found him weak and 
 yielding. He sincerely repented the evil deed, but 
 failed to banish from his heart the evil desire. True 
 repentance must not only lead us to recognize the
 
 30 THE LA\V OF CONSCIENCE. 
 
 wrong we have done, must not only impel us to win 
 our brother's pardon, by making good, in one 
 way or other, the harm we have caused him, but it 
 must so arouse our soul as to make us morally in- 
 capable of committing a base and ignoble act. 
 This js the prophet's idea of repentance: "Let the 
 wicked forsake his way, and the man of evil deeds 
 his sinful thoughts. ' ' 
 
 A glance into our inward life will often reveal to 
 us depths of evil of which the world knows nothing, 
 but which only need the touch of opportunity to 
 rise and sweep away our carefully guarded reputa- 
 tion. How many a man's honesty hangs on so 
 thin a thread, that the slightest weight will break 
 it ; let emergency test him and it will find him un- 
 prepared. Honesty was his best policy, but not the 
 root of his character. And when this policy proved 
 dangerous, he adopted another, less honest but more 
 profitable to his interest. Hidden in the secrecy of 
 our memory lie the broken tablets of our law, the 
 fragments of our purity and innocence, the ruins of 
 the peace and happiness of our soul. Our vows of 
 love, our promises of friendship, our ideals and 
 our aspirations, our faiths and our hopes, lie shat- 
 tered at our feet. We look upon ourselves, and 
 wonder at the change that has come over us. In 
 the place of truthfulness and trust has come lurking 
 suspicion, watchful dissimulation. Selfishness has 
 poisoned the sources of friendship ; envy has 
 sapped all noble ambition; doubt has deadened our 
 belief in the higher good of life. What has become
 
 THE LAW OF CONSCIENCE. 31 
 
 of the golden dreams of our youth \ Satiated to dis- 
 gust with impure pleasures, mature cynicism laughs 
 them to scorn it is the laughter of despair. Then 
 they come, trooping in through the avenues of our 
 memory, a confused multitude our sins and our 
 follies ; our evils and our transgressions the mute 
 witnesses of our fall, the silent accusers before the 
 tribunal of our conscience. Whither shall we flee 
 from before the Judge within ? Where can we hide 
 ourselves as not to hear the shrill voice of self-re- 
 proach '( At the bar of human justice we may obtain 
 a verdict in our favor ; but who will acquit us from 
 the awful sentence of self-condemnation ? In such 
 hours of self-examination we weep bitter tears of 
 sorrow, not for our sins, but for our sinfulness ; not 
 for the one or other of our evil deeds, but over our 
 own self -degradation. A deep sense of shame, of 
 sadness, of humiliation comes over us ; we feel our 
 utter unworthiness. In this painful feeling of con- 
 trition lies the germ of -our spiritual recovery. No 
 false excuses, no vain pretensions, no hollow eva- 
 sions but openness and truthfulness with our- 
 selves, can bring back the peace of the soul, can 
 restore the lost and defaced image of our diviner 
 self. From such self-examination will result not 
 despair and death, but moral regeneration, moral 
 re-birth. Not to destroy us but to build us up 
 comes the divine call of conscience ; it is the voice 
 of God who speaks to us from out the burning 
 mount of our inward revelation. Fear not this voice, 
 hush it not into silence, for "to prove you has
 
 &Z THE LAW OF COXSCIJ:XCE. 
 
 God come," it is the beginning of your self- 
 knowledge, it is the sign of re-awakening reverence 
 and self-respect within you ; it is the divine assur- 
 ance, the moral guarantee that you will sin no 
 more. 
 
 When Israel in the desert had become faithless 
 to the divine covenant of Sinai, when in an hour of 
 fear and self-delusion they forgot the God who 
 brought them forth from Egypt, and made for 
 themselves a molten image, a golden calf, a fit 
 symbol of their low ideal : the greed of gold, the 
 lust of flesh Moses looked upon the tablets of the 
 law and behold, the signs and tokens, the words 
 of the living God, had become invisible, "the letters 
 had taken flight" ; he held in his hands only the 
 dead weight of the tablets, the outward form of the 
 law. Not for this had he liberated his people. 
 He cast the dead symbols of faith from him, and 
 broke them into fragments. But when the people 
 repented, when they mourned and fasted, and 
 wept over their sinf ulness, Moses was commanded 
 to prepare new tablets of the law in the place of 
 the old which were broken; and both the new and 
 the fragments of the old, were kept in the holy ark 
 of the covenant. In this ancient tradition you have 
 a true picture of the inward process of sin, repent- 
 ance and forgiveness. From the Egypt of our 
 mental bondage we are led to the Sinai of moral 
 obligation, we receive the law of moral responsi- 
 bility. Obedience to the outward law seems to us
 
 THE LAW OF CONSCIENCE. 83 
 
 a sufficient source of moral strength. In the hour 
 of weakness the outward law becomes a dead form 
 of conventionality. We look upon the broken 
 tablets of the law. But when we awake from the 
 wild intoxication of self-delusion, when we writhe 
 in the anguish of self -accusation, there comes to us 
 another revelation from within, bidding us arise 
 from our degradation, and prepare the new tablets 
 of the law, the Law of Conscience, the tablets of our 
 inmost convictions, of unswerving faithfulness to 
 our better self. On these new tablets will be found 
 a promise not contained in the old : ' It shall be 
 well with thee." Yea, not until we have conquered 
 the evil thought and triumphed over our sinf ulness, 
 will obedience to the law bring to us true happiness, 
 the joy and peace of the soul. Therefore together 
 with the new tablets, must rest in the sacred ark 
 of our conscience the fragments of the old, the 
 remembrance of our follies, our failures, our mis- 
 deeds, to waken and to warn us, "that we shall 
 sin no more." Then, and then only, shall we hear 
 the divine voice of love, echoing within our soul the 
 word of God to repenting Israel : "I have forgiven 
 according to thy word." Amen.
 
 IV. THE DESTINY AND DUTY OF ISRAEL. 
 
 MORNING SERMON FOR THE DAY OF ATONE- 
 MENT. 
 
 TEXT: Isaiah ii : 2-4, or Micha iv:l-5 
 
 Not without a sense of awe and fear do I rise 
 to speak to you this morning. Conscious of the high 
 mission of this day, of the holy opportunities it of- 
 fers for the awaking and strengthening of our faith 
 in the heart of Israel, I am painfully aware of my 
 own insufficiency to do justice to the divine task 
 incumbent upon me. 
 
 Once a year the high-priest was bidden to enter 
 the most sacred precinct of the sanctuary, there to 
 make atonement for himself, for his house and for 
 Israel whom he represented. Once a year it is the 
 privilege and duty of him whom you have honored 
 with your confidence, whom you have appointed 
 your spiritual representative, to perform the sacred 
 office of prophet and priest in your midst, to lay 
 before you questions which concern us most, and. 
 to urge upon you the fulfillment of obligations most 
 vital to our spiritual life. I crave your attention, 
 and bespeak your patience. May He who girdeth the 
 feeble with strength, endow me with wisdom and 
 courage to worthily fulfill the sacred and arduous 
 task of this hour.
 
 36 THE DESTINY AND DUTY OF ISRAEL. 
 
 Thrice, my friends, have yon followed me to the 
 lofty mountains of Bible-land. On Xew Year's eve 
 we rose above the flood in the ark of hope to Mount 
 Ararat ; on the New Year's morning we scaled 
 Moriah's height, and yester-eve we stood before the 
 Sinai of our conscience. To-day let us ascend the 
 holy hill of Zion., the Mount of God, where erst 
 stood the Temple of the Most High, and the palaces 
 of the kings of Israel. It is the mountain concern- 
 ing which the two greatest prophets Micha and 
 Isaiah have, in almost identical words, advanced 
 the most exalted vision of the future of humanity : 
 
 " It shall come to pass in the latter days that the 
 mountain of the House of the Lord shall stand at 
 the head of all mountains and be exalted above the 
 hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. And many 
 peoples will go say : Come, let us go the mount of 
 the Eternal, to the house of the God of Jacob, and 
 He will teach us of His ways, and we shall walk in 
 His paths, for from Zion shall go forth the law and 
 the word of God from Jerusalem. And he will 
 judge between many peoples and He will be umpire 
 between many nations mighty and afar off, and 
 they will change their swords into plowshares and 
 their spears into pruning knives ; nation shall no 
 more lift up the sword against nation and they shall 
 no more learn war. Though all the nations may 
 walk, each in the name of his God, yet shall we 
 continue to walk in the name of the Lord our God 
 for ever. '' (Micha iv : 1-5. ) 
 
 To the modern reader, these high-strung pro-
 
 THE DESTINY AND DUTY OF ISRAEL. 37 
 
 phetic expectations, after a lapse of over twenty- 
 six hundred years, in the light of all the historical 
 changes and events that have taken place since 
 then, must appear very visionary, if not ridiculous. 
 At no time in their history were the Jewish people 
 politically in a position to justify such a glorious 
 outlook. They were numerically one of the small- 
 est of the nationalities peopling the stretch of land 
 from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates. Sur- 
 rounded on all sides by more or less hostile neigh- 
 bors, the people of Israel were compelled to defend 
 their boundaries and to light for their existence. 
 After a brilliant but brief outburst of monarchical 
 power under David and Solomon, the kingdom 
 slowly but uninterruptedly tended to decay, until 
 at last, first in the North, then the South, the 
 final catastrophe took place. The nation was not 
 only conquered but politically destroyed. The 
 Temple on Zion, the visible symbol of national 
 unity, was burned; the people deported to a foreign 
 land. And though they returned from that exile 
 and rebuilt on Zion's hill the Temple of God; 
 though again there arose on its crest the fort- 
 resses and palaces of Jewish princes, yet was their 
 glory but the reflected light of Syrian or Roman 
 power. Soon enough the last struggle began. 
 Judah succumbed to the superior strength and skill 
 of world-conquering Rome. Judah's sons entered 
 upon the long and dreary pilgrimage all over the 
 earth, homeless wanderers from land to land, from 
 nation to nation. Wherever the Jew set his weary
 
 38 THE DESTINY AXD DUTY OF ISRAEL. 
 
 foot, he was met by hatred, confronted by malice, 
 and treated with injustice and cruelty. Calumny 
 and contempt followed him everywhere. For eight- 
 een hundred years the Jews have suffered a martyr- 
 dom the like of which has not been experienced by 
 any nation on the earth. The present persecution 
 of Jews in Russia but faintly represent the story of 
 suffering they had to endure in every country. The 
 student of history shudders at the bestial treatment, 
 the murders, the rapine, the wholesale slaughter 
 of this hunted human game, as he follows the vari- 
 ous streams of national development. Often it 
 seemed that the nations of the earth had fully 
 agreed upon the total extermination of the Jew, so 
 general, so persistent and so pitiless was the perse- 
 cution of these unhappiest, most wretched of hu- 
 man beings. And still they have survived the 
 vicissitudes ; they have outlived the persecutions. 
 They are to-day more numerous and more vigorous 
 than they ever were before. They stand before the 
 world like Mount Zion untouched by the flood of 
 time. The Babylonian who battered down the walls 
 of the fiast Temple, is covered with the sand of cen- 
 turies ; the Roman conqueror who caused the plow- 
 share to be drawn over Zion and Jerusalem, has 
 vanished from the earth. His triumphal arch in 
 the city on the Tiber stands to-day a symbol of vic- 
 tory in honor of the vanquished. Byzantine and 
 Saracene fanatics raged at the base of Mount Zion. 
 The hosts of crusaders shed their blood at the foot 
 of the sacred mount, and still, like it, Israel stands
 
 THE DESTINY AND DUTY OF ISRAEL. 39 
 
 to-day, firm and strong, and from the height of his 
 prosperity, he looks back upon these dark periods 
 as upon a past and bygone time. 
 
 It is but natural to ask : Why has Israel not 
 succumbed under this universal hostility? What 
 explains this singular historical phenomenon : the 
 survival and preservation of Israel to this very day ? 
 Many are the answers advanced in explanation of 
 this mystery. The Jews, they say, possessed greater 
 vitality, greater power of resistance, than those 
 mighty kingdoms that oppressed them. But this 
 explanation explains nothing. Whence, we may 
 ask, did they derive this greater vitality, this endur- 
 ing strength ? And the reply comes back : From the 
 fountain of their religious life. The heritage of their 
 faith supplied them with the armor of indestructi- 
 bility, made them invulnerable to the death-deal- 
 ing shafts of hatred and persecution. This answer 
 contains but question-begging generalities ; it only 
 moves the mystery one point farther away ; it sub- 
 stitutes one miracle to explain another. The pres- 
 ervation of Israel is referred to the power of Israel's 
 religion. But has not Israel's religion been subject 
 to the like treatment ? Great as has been the per- 
 secution of the Jewish people, still greater was the 
 persecution of their religion. And the wonder of 
 the preservation of Judaism is more astonishing 
 and inexplicable than the preservation of the Jews. 
 
 It required no small amount of courage, in the 
 face of the splendor of Babylonian and Egyptian 
 worshiD, in sight of the glorious monuments of the
 
 40 THE DESTINY AND DUTY OF ISRAEL. 
 
 art and architecture, the wisdom, the poetry, the 
 science and culture of those nations, to assert that 
 their gods were vanity, their worship idolatry, their 
 wisdom folly, their splendor deceptive. A handful 
 of people, of inferior civilization, proclaims the be- 
 lief in an invisible, unapproachable Deity, declares 
 that to Him alone obedience, reverence and love are 
 due, insists that besides this one Eternal God there 
 is no power in heaven and earth, announces that 
 He is the Father of all men, and confidently pre- 
 dicts a time when mankind shall be united under 
 the rule of this just and holy God. The antique 
 world took no notice of the pretensions of this in- 
 significant nation. And when the attention of the 
 leading minds was forced upon this strange, abnor- 
 mal religion, it evoked no sense of admiration or 
 approval. The first impression of Judaism upon 
 the classic writers of Greece and Rome was a most 
 unfavorable one. To them it lacked the elements 
 that should make religion attractive and effective. 
 They even missed in it the belief in Deity, and de- 
 clared it to be rank atheism. The Jewish rites and 
 religious forms were the butt and target of Roman 
 wit and satire, or the welcome opportunity for 
 Greek slander and accusation. 
 
 When Christianity began its victorious march 
 through the Roman world, it at first shared the uni- 
 versal contempt and odium in which the Jews and 
 Judaism were held. But soon it severed the natural 
 bond uniting it with its mother-faith ; it stood out 
 in bold contrast to both heathenism and Judaism.
 
 THE DESTINY AND DUTY OF ISRAEL. 41 
 
 By casting off the national and ceremonial garb of 
 the religion of which it sprang, and by adapting it- 
 self to the methods and needs of heathen thought, 
 it worked its way upward from the prison, the 
 slave-den and the vulgar crowd to the emperor's 
 throne, the palaces of the mighty and the halls 
 of the learned. And in the measure as Christianity 
 rose to power it became more hostile to the faith 
 out of which it had grown. It repeated the accusa- 
 tions and vile slanders of its former heathen enemies 
 and charged them upon Judaism. The freedom of 
 worship which under heathen empire was granted 
 to the Jew, under Christian supremacy was either 
 withdrawn, or restricted with humiliating condi- 
 tions. Nation after nation bent their heads to the 
 cross, the Jew alone refused to renounce his ances- 
 tral faith. For tills reason did he suffer; for the sake 
 of his religion did he endure the fearful martyrdom. 
 The doctrines of Judaism were branded as blas- 
 phemy, the practice of Jewish rites were stigma- 
 tized as sorcery and witchcraft. The profession of 
 Judaism meant contempt, exclusion, insecurity of 
 life and property, disfranchisement, exile and 
 often death. Renunciation of Judaism secured 
 equal rights, honors in Church and State, inter- 
 marriage with the noblest families of the land, 
 wealth, power, influence. Under such pressure, 
 under such unequal conditions, is it not strange, 
 nay, marvelous, that Judaism has survived that 
 the Jewish people would rather suffer a thousand- 
 fold death than renounce their faith ?
 
 42 THE DESTIXY ATs T D DUTY OF ISRAEL. 
 
 And even to-day in the bteze of modern life and 
 culture, this miracle is repeated. The religion of 
 the civilized world to-day is the Christian system. 
 Language and literature, law and government are 
 permeated with the ideas and pet phrases of the Xew 
 Testament religion. Civilization itself is repre 
 sented as a fruit of Christian thought. The noblest 
 hearts center their hopes in ideas and doctrines in 
 opposition to Jewish thought. In many European 
 countries Judaism is still the barrier to political 
 equality. Where that equality is constitutionally 
 guaranteed the Jewish confession will bring to the 
 aspirant for a public office no end of annoyance, 
 insult and exclusion. In this country of nominally 
 equal rights and duties the Jew often discovers to 
 his dire disappointment, that there is a mighty differ- 
 ence between the Old Testament and the New. 
 Were he to give up his antiquated, impracticable 
 sort of religion, and embrace Christianity, he will 
 be welcomed with joy as a long lost and newly 
 found brother. 
 
 And still, in spite of all these overwhelming odds 
 against it, Judaism holds its own and confidently 
 proclaims the triumph of its spiritual and moral 
 ideas ; it still has the power to warm the hearts and 
 fire the minds of thousands of its children, that 
 they rather choose to hold fast to a system so 
 widely discredited, than to accept a faith generally 
 pronounced to be superior, richer, more universal 
 than the religion of Israel. What accounts for this
 
 THE DESTINY AND DUTY OF ISRAEL. 43 
 
 modern miracle ? What explains this wonder of 
 the preservation of Judaism \ 
 
 If the history of the human race is not a con- 
 glomeration of disconnected events, if human life 
 on earth is not to be measured merely by the num- 
 ber of wars and defeats, of the rise and fall of na- 
 tions ; if the course of humanity is a closely linked 
 chain of development, of cause and effect, all 
 events tending toward a goal, however far. off that 
 goal may seem. if, in a word, history reveals a di- 
 vine plan, and a divine idea, then the life and des- 
 tiny of Israel, the share of Jewish thought and 
 energy in the composition of humanity can by no 
 means be considered a mere accident or a passing 
 phase ; then Jew and Judaism must have a divinely 
 appointed mission, a God-given task in the world- 
 historic process of the human race. An impartial 
 glance at the history of human thought will discover 
 two currents of intellectual life : the one springing 
 from the contemplation of nature, the other rising 
 from the heart of man. Dazzled and intoxicated by 
 the manifold ness, the ever-changing moods, and 
 fascinating play of life in nature, the nations of old 
 lost themselves in wild speculations, which led to a 
 grotesque and exaggerated relation of man to the 
 physical world. Observation of nature led them to 
 the imitation of nature's ways, but no observation 
 of nature teaches moral truths. Nature is indiffer- 
 ent to man's moral needs. Heathenism is nature- 
 religion, and all nature-religion is essentially 
 unmoral, if not immoral. There was needed an
 
 44 THE DESTINY AND DUTY OF ISKAEL. 
 
 opposite bias. The Hebrew mind starts from a dif- 
 ferent direction. The vision is an inward one, it 
 beholds the seat of the spirit, it contemplates man, 
 not as a child of nature subject to her whim and 
 will, but as a child of the Spirit which is superior 
 to nature. Man is the main concern of Jewish 
 thought ; his spiritual and moral health the chief 
 problem of religion. The diversity of natural 
 forces, so alluring to the heathen mind, disappears 
 before the eye of the Jew, he sees all nature subject 
 to the one Will speaking through his soul. He dis- 
 covers a unity in nature after he has found within 
 himself the revelation of the one, holy, just and 
 merciful God. To him God is a God of history, who 
 manifests his purposes in the life and fate of the 
 nations. Life is no mere repetition of the process 
 of nature, but an historical procession, an ethical 
 movement. 
 
 These two ideas: spiritual unity and moral 
 progress, are the Hebrew's contribution to the un- 
 folding life of humanity. The whole history of 
 Israel, the construction of his religious edifice, even 
 the whole system of his ceremonial law, are the 
 framework of these ideas. Nor have these thoughts 
 remained inactive. True ideas are living forces, if 
 once they have taken possession of the mind. We 
 do not seek them, they seek us, they possess us and 
 make us their instruments. Like sparks that fly 
 up from the glowing iron when beaten upon the an- 
 vil, so did Jewish ideas spread through the heathen 
 world, scattered by the blows of national mis-
 
 THE DESTINY AJSTD DUTY OF ISRAEL. 45 
 
 fortunes. Israel's political life had to be shattered, 
 in order that the Israel's truth should become known 
 to the world. But not in a direct way did the light 
 of Jewish ideas reach the eye of mankind. The 
 nations of the antique world were indeed ripe for a 
 new form of faith, they hungured for new truth, 
 and new moral inspiration, but they were not ripe 
 for the pure thought and the lofty idealism of 
 Israel. Therefore was an immediate agency needed, 
 to carry the new inspiration from Zion's hill unto 
 all nations. Christianity spelled Israel's Word 
 to the Gentile mind ; it blended Jewish thought 
 with heathen conceptions. The principle of unity 
 suffered dilution in a trinity ; the ^principle of 
 moral progress was overshadowed by the sense of 
 man's utter worthlessness ; the vision of historical 
 procession was reversed, and the pathetic, yet hope- 
 ful drama of human life was turned into a tragedy: 
 God dying on the cross for the sins of man. Only 
 in this heathenized form could the burden of Jewish 
 thought, the fatherhood of God and the brother- 
 hood of man vitalize and invigorate the nations. 
 Christian theism and Christian morality have in- 
 deed produced vital changes in the life of mankind; 
 but their cogency lay not in what they differed 
 from, but in the measure in which they reflected 
 the original Jewish thought. Again and again the 
 deeper minds went back to the primitive source and 
 drew new inspiration from Israel's Word. After 
 eighteen hundred years of combat and conquest, of 
 trial and triumph, of growth and spread, the con-
 
 46 THE DESTINY AND DUTY OF ISRAEL. 
 
 viction that is gaining in strength in the minds of 
 the finest and most unprejudiced thinkers of to-day, 
 is, that the essentially Christian doctrines can no 
 more command allegience ; that the civilized world 
 has outgrown the belief in an incarnate God, in 
 vicarious atonement, and the whole plan of salva- 
 tion, forming the basis of the Christian system. 
 Though but a small minority, the Straus, Renan, 
 Tyndall, Hartman and Ziegler, and a host of others, 
 voice the true conviction of representative thought, 
 when to the query: "Are we yet Christians?'' 
 They answer in the negative: "We are not." 
 Civilization to-day can no more be called Christian 
 than it canjbe called Jewish. It is the result of 
 forces that lay beyond the sphere of Christian inter- 
 est. Dogmatic Christianity is by its nature rather 
 hostile to the progress of physical science and the 
 increasing emphasis of the interests of this world, 
 than otherwise. 
 
 It is therefore not an idle boast of ignorance or 
 impotence, if the assertion is made that the Jew is 
 still needed in the process of human development. 
 A partial, nay, prejudiced interpretation of his- 
 tory, would fain read us out of life. The mission 
 of the Jew lies in the past, they say ; his function 
 was a preparation for Christianity. Prophetic in- 
 spiration breathed its last with Malachi. Jewish 
 thought died with Philo of Alexandria. Whatever 
 truth Judaism had produced, it is claimed, has 
 passed into the new dispensation. They forget, or 
 pretend not to know, that two thousand years in
 
 THE DESTINY AND DUTY OF ISRAEL. 47 
 
 the life a people cannot be looked upon as a blank, 
 least of all of a people intellectually so keenly alive 
 and morally so sensitive as the Jewish people. An 
 uninterrupted stream of .mental life courses down 
 the ages, carrying the precious freight from genera- 
 tion to generation. The names of Simon, the Just 
 and Ben Sirach, of Hillel and Akiba, of Rab and 
 Mar Samuel, of Sadia and Maimonides, of Halevi, 
 Ibn Ezra and Ibn Gabirol, of Abarbanel, Manasseh 
 Ben Israel, Spinoza, Mendelssohn, of Zunz, Geiger, 
 Jost, Gnetz, Samuel Hirsch, and a host of thinkers 
 still living, are evidence of the ceaseless mental 
 activity, of the continual intellectual work going 
 on within Israel. The great law of progress has it 
 not at all affected the current of Jewish life? Do 
 we to-day hold exactly the same position as in the 
 time of Jewish nationality? or Talmudical exclu- 
 siveness? or under the pressure of persecution? 
 Has Jewish thought not advanced since eighteen 
 hundred years ? A comparative study of the two 
 religious streams will reveal the fact that, however 
 much Christianity has taken over from Judaism it 
 is not a fulfillment and consummation of Judaism, 
 but a sideral movement ; that Judaism has con- 
 tinued its own stream of development, fructify- 
 ing in direct and indirect ways the minds of the 
 nations and that it holds within it the precious 
 germ of a Universal ^Religion of Humanity still 
 to be realized. The drift of modern thought seems 
 to go in this direction. The emphasis in favor of 
 undogmatic religion, the preponderance of -the
 
 48 THE DESTINY AND DUTY OF ISKAEL. 
 
 ethical interests over theological speculation indi- 
 cate a return to the simplicity and rationality of 
 Jewish faith and the purity of Jewish morality. 
 Modern Judaism is a living witness to the eternal 
 truth, the divine message with which Israel has 
 been charged unto all nations. In this message 
 and in this mission lies the secret of our inde- 
 structibility, the reason of the wonderful preserva- 
 tion of Judaism and the Jewish people. They are 
 still needed as an essential element in the divine 
 plan of the education of man and mankind. 
 
 From this fact must spring the kindling spark 
 of our enthusiasm for, and our devotion to the holy 
 cause of Israel. To know r that we are living for a 
 purpose, that we are a link in the spiritual chain 
 of humanity, and that by our work, by our moral 
 fervor, our faithfulness and fidelity to our intrusted 
 charge, we are furthering the advent of the time 
 predicted by our prophets, the time of universal 
 righteousness and peace, is, for noble minds and 
 pure hearts, a source of the highest joy, of the 
 sweetest recompense. In a time of growing materi- 
 alism and increasing selfishness ; in a time when 
 mankind is more than ever divided into hostile 
 camps, when nation against nation stands armed 
 to the teeth, when class interest and class hatred in- 
 tensify the bitter struggle for existence ; in a time 
 of reawakened prejudice and intolerance, of secta- 
 rian bigotry and religious persecution, in such a
 
 THE DESTINY AND DUTY OF ISRAEL. 49 
 
 time it is the duty of the Jew to stand loyally by 
 his ancestral faith, to uphold the flag of his rational 
 belief, of his purer morality, of his broader human- 
 ity than creed or race. The present is not a time 
 for indifference. It ill behooves the modern Jew to 
 neglect his own sacred heritage, to cast aside the 
 symbols of his noble faith, to cut assunder the ties 
 binding him to his past, and to hold in derision the 
 assurance of his great mission for the future of hu- 
 manity. It is by no means an evidence of deeper 
 wisdom and superior culture, in him who, with his 
 birth has received the divine charge of Israel's 
 truth, to refuse allegiance to the common obligation, 
 to stand aloof from the burdens and responsibilities 
 of his Jewish brethren. Nor does it betray any de- 
 gree of self-respect in the modern Jew, instead of 
 upbuilding and maintaining his own religious edi- 
 fice, to admire and to imitate everything which does 
 not bear the sign of Jewish origin. They are not 
 only false to their God-given trust, who wantonly 
 despise their own, but they are also faithless to the 
 larger and higher interests of humanity. If not 
 from the fountain of their own past, from what 
 source will they draw inspiration? The thought 
 that nourishes the spiritual and moral life of the 
 Christian has no. spell over the Jewish mind, has no 
 warmth for the Jewish heart. From the roots of 
 his own religious and ethical association must grow 
 the tree that is to bear the ripe, delicious fruit of his 
 character. Are we so poor, morally, and mentally, 
 that we must go borrowing and begging from other
 
 50 THE DESTINY AND DUTY OF ISRAEL. 
 
 creeds to embellish our own sanctuary ? Have we pro- 
 duced no wealth of mind and heart in the long pro- 
 cess of the ages \ In our Sabbath and in our festi- 
 vals, in our literature and in our liturgy, are stored 
 untold treasures of heart and soul-inspiring truth. 
 Ours is the duty to avail ourselves of these treas- 
 ures of our past, to vitalize with the fervor of our 
 soul the forms and symbols of our world-historic 
 mission ; to kindle with the flame of our affections 
 in the heart of our children love and reverence, 
 energy and enthusiasm for the ideas and ideals of 
 Judaism. 
 
 This holy task, this solemn obligation, appeals 
 with greater emphasis to the heart of the women in 
 Israel, the wives, the mothers, the priestesses of 
 the Jewish home. It is theirs, principally, to watch 
 that the sacred flame of reverence and true piety be 
 not extinguished on the altar of filial affection ; that 
 the light of a rational faith shall shine in the temple 
 of the home, making the faces of all members of the 
 family bright with inward blessing. Mothers in 
 Israel, beware how you fulfill your sacred task ! 
 No earthly wealth, or outward accomplishment can 
 supply the lack of religious inspiration, can fill 
 out the emptiness of the soul ; and no amount of 
 worldly wisdom will be guarantee and safeguard of 
 your children's moral health. Jewish wives, sanc- 
 tify your homes with love and devotion for the re- 
 ligion of your fathers and mothers, let Sabbath 
 and festival greet you with peace and be welcomed 
 with joy ; then will the spirit of true love and
 
 THE DESTINY ATSTD DUTY OF ISRAEL. 51 
 
 holy affection reign in your house, and more 
 than all arts and graces win and hold your hus- 
 bands' faithful love. The home is the nursery of 
 virtue, the home is the stronghold of religion. In 
 the Jewish home lies the future of Judaism. 
 
 Let us then be faithful to our duty. The visions 
 of a universal religion, of a humanity redeemed 
 from error and vice, united under the law of the 
 one eternal God of Israel, is not an idle play of 
 fancy, not the vain glory of arrant assertion it is 
 the hope of mankind, the noblest aspiration of the 
 soul. Until that time will come, until the glorious 
 prophesy shall be fulfilled, when all nations shall 
 recognize the truth which Israel has proclaimed, 
 until the day dawns when all barriers shall be re- 
 moved, all distinctions be wiped out, and all the 
 families of the earth worship in the spirit on the 
 mountain of God's house until that time has come, 
 we, of the house of Israel, must remember the 
 prophet's exhortation: "Though all nations may 
 walk in the name of their gods, yet shall we con- 
 tinue to walk in the name Eternal our God, for ever 
 and aye." Amen.
 
 V. HOFFNUNG UND TROST. 
 
 SKIZZE DER NEILA-PREDIGT. 
 
 Die Scheidestunde des Tages naht. Nur noch 
 kurze Zeit und das heilge Werk 1st vollbracht. 
 Welclie Fuelle von Gedanken und Empfindungen 
 haben die weihevollen Melodien nicht in unserer 
 Seele geweckt ! Nicht ein Opfer haben wir gebracht 
 durch unser Verweilen an dieser Stsette vom fruehen 
 Morgen bis jezt nein, ein reiner, goettlicher 
 Genuss war dieser Tag fuer uns. Heute empfanden 
 wir die Wahrheint,dass der Mensch nicht vom Erode 
 allein lebt, sondern von Gottes Hauch durchdrun- 
 gen, seelige Freude trinkt aus der Ouelle der Begeis- 
 terung. 
 
 Diese Stunde gemahnt uns an die Scheide- 
 stunde des groessten aller Propheten. Sein Herzens- 
 wunsch, das Land seiner Sehnsucht zu betreten, ist 
 ihm versagt worden. Nicht er, sondern sein 
 Schueler soil sein Werk vollbringen. Ihm aber 
 wird die Botschaft, hinaufzugehen auf die Hoehe 
 Nebos, und von dort aus das Land zu schauen, das 
 Gott seinem Yolke verheissen hat. Die Sonne hat 
 wohl an Kraft verloren, aber an milder Wserme, an 
 lieblicher Schoenheit gewonnen. Alles um ihn her 
 athmet Ruhe und Frieden. Wie das summt und 
 singt in seinen Ohren ! Sind das Stimmen der Ver- 
 gangenheit oder Ahnungen der Zukunft ? Er hat
 
 54 HOFFNUIfG U.ND TROST. 
 
 den Gipfel erreiclit. Nicht satt sehen kcennen sich 
 die alten Augen. Acli der herrliche Ausblick aufs 
 Land ! Dort der Libanon, der schneegekoernte, 
 Carmel's sagenumrauschte Hoehe winkt ihm ; Miz- 
 peh leiichted ihm entegegen und dort die herr- 
 liche, bergumrahmte Stadt, Zion der heilige Berg. 
 Und er sieht die Geschlechter voruberziehn die 
 Helden, die Fnersten, die Propheten. Er sieht die 
 Flamme der Zerstoerung ; er hoert das Rasseln der 
 Ketten die Gefangenen seines Volkes tragen sie 
 in die Ferae. Es truebt sich sein Blick. 1st es eine 
 Wolke, ist es Ahnung der Trauer ? Lange, lange 
 sucht sein Blick nach einem lichten Punkt dort 
 flammt es auf intrueberNaeht das grelle Licht der 
 Scheiterhaufen ist es, das im Westen aufblitzt. Die 
 Getreuen seines Stammes stehen am Marterpfahl. 
 Seinen alten Schlachtruf wiederholen sie im 
 Flammentot : Sh' ma Yisrael, Hoere O Israel, hoere, 
 O Menscheit, fuer den einzigen Gott wollen wir 
 sterben. 
 
 Da hoert er das Rauschen msechtiger Ge- 
 wsesser ; ein Schiff schaukelt anf dem Weltmeer 
 ein Gottesheld, vom Ewigen gesandt, zieht hinaus 
 gen Westen. Aus dem Ocean hebt sieh eine neue 
 Welt die herrlichste Frucht amBaum des Lebens, 
 Freiheit, hier wird sie gefunden. Die gehetzten 
 Soehne kommen, hier finden sie Rnhe ; hier bauen 
 sie Altsere dem lebendigen Gotte hier verkuenden 
 sie seinen Namen. Anf den weiten Ebnen, an den 
 grossen Seen, an den westlichen Bergen, erschallen 
 die Worte die er, der Meister gelehrt. Da stimmt
 
 HOFFNUNG UKD TROST. 55 
 
 auch er ein in den vieltausendfachen Chor : Boruch 
 schem k'vod mal'chuso; ja, dein Gottesreich es 
 naht gepriesen sei dein Name. 
 
 Sein Auge richtet den Blick nach oben. Am 
 Himmel strahlts in wunderbarem Glanze. Ein 
 Wolkenschleier aus Licht und Gold gewoben senkt 
 sich hernieder ein suesser Hauch toent an sein 
 Ohr ja das ist die Gottesstimme, die er so oft ver- 
 nommen. Der Ewige, der Weltengebieter, er selbst 
 ruft den Namen seines treuen Knechtes. Auf die 
 Kniee gesunken ist die greise Riesengestalt, und 
 ehrfurchtsvoll liauchen seine bebenden Lippen den 
 Namen des Allmsechtigen : Adonoy hu lio-elohim. 
 Des Aethers Wellen tragen den Laut in alle Lande 
 und bringen tausendfach den Schall zurueck: 
 Adonoy hu ho-Elohim. Der Herr allein is Gott ! 
 Nur noch der Rand des Sonnballs schwebt ueber 
 dem Saum der Erde. Da trifft ein Strahl der 
 sinkenden Sonne den Mund des Gotteshelden das 
 warder Scheidegruss, das war der Sterbekuss von 
 seinem Gotte auf Lichtes Schwingen gesandt. 
 Dichtes Gewoelk senkt sich hernieder, unsichtbare 
 Hsende tragen die leblose Huelle hinab ins 
 Thai und betten sie zu suessem Schlummer. Und 
 kein Mensch kennt das Grab, wo der gr'ceste der 
 Sterblichen ruht. 
 
 Diese Stunde ist fuer uns ein Berg Nebo, eine 
 Gotteshoehe zur Ausschau und Einsicht. 
 
 Im L0erm und Taumel des Lebens geben wir 
 uns nur zu leicht dem truegerischeii Wahne hin, 
 diese uns umgebende Welt sei daurende Wirklich-
 
 56 HOFFNUNG UND TKOST. 
 
 keit. An der Scholle haftend bauen wir uns 
 Hffiuser als wollten wir evig hier weilen. Die 
 Genuesse des Lebens scheinen uns die wahren, 
 unvergflenglichen Gueter. Dass dem nicht so ist, 
 lelirt ja die einfachste Erfahrung. Wie lange auch 
 das Leben des Einzeluen sich ausspinnen mag, am 
 Ende seines Daseins sieht er doch, dass er um 
 werthlosen Tand sich abgemueht. Wonach er 
 gestrebt, selbst wenn er es erreicht hat er kann es 
 nicht mit hinuebernehmen in die unbekannte Welt. 
 Welchen Werth hsette auch solch ein Dasein 
 dieses Einerlei der Arbeit, des Essens und des 
 Schlafens ! 
 
 Nicht die Welt wie sie ist, sondern wie sie sein 
 soil, wie der schaffende und gestaltende Geist sie 
 erblickt, ist die wahre Welt. Das Ideal ist Wahr- 
 heit, die Wirklichkeit Schein. Die Geschlechter 
 kommen and gehen, der Einzelne erscheint und 
 entschwindet ein kurzer Lichtblick zwischen 
 endlosem Nichtsein doch das ideale Reich des 
 Geistes, die ragenden Hoahen der sittlichen Msechte, 
 sie glsenzen in eviger Schoenheit. Was wir beitragn 
 zu diesem Reich, was wir schaffen zur Veredelung 
 der Menschheit, zur Mehrung des Wissens, zum 
 Wachsttium wahrer Gesittung, das allein hat blei- 
 benden Werth, das allein ist unser wahrer Gewinn. 
 
 Dann schreckt uns auch der Gedanke des Todes 
 nicht. Der gewcehnliche Mensch fuerchtet den Tod. 
 Im Lichte idealen Strebens erblicken wir das Ende 
 als eine Gottesbotschaft. Wer als aechter Mensch 
 gelebt, wird vor der Todesstunde nicht zittern. Er
 
 HOFFNUNG UND TROST. 57 
 
 hat seiner Zeit sein edelstes Streben anvertraut, 
 darum wird die Zeit sein Andenken in Dankbar- 
 keit bewahren. Nicht den Tand und den Schein ver- 
 erbt er seinen Kindern und Enkelssoehnen, sondern 
 seines Geistes und Herzens Schaetze. Wie wir im 
 Geiste die Schmerzen mitempfinden, die vergan- 
 gene Geschlechter erlebt, wie wir ihre Triumphe 
 nach Jalirtausenden feiern, so werden wir aucli 
 nach tausand Altern, wenn wir Werke des Geistes 
 geschaffen, das verheissene Land einer bessern 
 Menschlieit mit verjuengten Augen durch unsere 
 spsetgeborenen Nachkommen sehen und geniessen. 
 
 Unsere Theuren, die von uns genommen, leben 
 und wirken sie nicht in und durch uns weiter fort ? 
 Mancher Sitz in diesem Temple is heute leer. Noch 
 vor einem Jahre sass hier der greise Lehrer, der 
 treue Preund Liebman Adler. Lebt er nicht noch 
 in unserer Mitte ? Die Wackern und Edlen unserer 
 Gemeinde, die den Gottesruf vernommen, durch 
 unsern Mund sprechen sie heute die Bekenntniss- 
 worte ihres Glaubens an dieser Stsette aus. 
 
 Darum nicht in Trauer, sondern in freudiger 
 Erhebung wollen wir unserer Lieben in dieser 
 Stunde gedenken. In ihrem Geiste wollen wir leben 
 und wirken. Dann werden uns von dort wo unsere 
 Thrsenen gefallen, liebliche Blumen der Hoffunung 
 erspriessen, und auf den Grabeshuegeln unserer 
 Lieben werden Saaten des Trostes, Fruechte der 
 Unsterblichkeit reifen. Amen.
 
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