ADDRESSES TO CHILDREN Addresses to Children BY MRS. NATHANIEL L. COHEN LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, LTD. BROADWAY, HOUSE, 68-74 CARTER LANE, E.G. 1922 Stack Annex CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. THE SHEMANG i II. THE SHEMANG . ... 9 III. THE SHEMANG ...... 14 IV. PENTECOST AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS : THE FIRST COMMANDMENT . . .20 V. THE SECOND COMMANDMENT . . -25 VI. THE THIRD AND FOURTH COMMANDMENTS . 31 VII. THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT . . . -35 VIII. THE LAST COMMANDMENTS . . . -39 IX. " SEE THAT YE FALL NOT OUT BY THE WAY " 44 X. DAVID AND GOLIATH . . . . .48 XI. JONAH 55 XII. THE WIDOW'S CRUSE 59 XIII. THE FAST OF AB 64 XIV. " WHATSOEVER THY HAND FINDETH TO DO, DO IT WITH THY MlGHT " . . 68 XV. HOLIDAYS 73 XVI. NEW YEAR 77 XVII. PSALM cxxx. 81 XVIII. PSALM xv 85 XIX. PSALMS OF PRAISE . . . . .90 XX. PSALM cxxvi . . . . . . -97 XXI. THE DAY OF ATONEMENT . . . .102 XXII. PASSOVER .... . . no The faith and purpose of the writer of these little Addresses shine forth in strength and simplicity, and no introduction is needed from the editors. Most of the Addresses were delivered be- tween the years 1913 and 1917 at the Children's Services held by the West London Synagogue of British Jews. Their publication as a gift to her grand-children was a cherished wish of the writer, D. W. S. M, W. J, ADDRESSES TO CHILDREN I. THE SHEMANG. HEAR, O ISRAEL, THE LORD OCR GOD THE LORD IS ONE. Deuteronomy, Chapter 6, Verses 4-9. WHEN we repeat something daily, we know all the words so well that we are in danger of not thinking about what we are saying. " Then," you will say, " why do we repeat the same thing every day?" I will tell you why. There are words that are so wise, and that help us so much to try to be good and to do what is right, that we must know them by heart so that, as we grow older and wiser, we can always have them in our minds and get to understand them better and better, and think of them whenever we want help in trying to be good and to do what is right. To-day I am going to try to show how much it helps us all to do our best to be good if we do think about the Shemang, and get to understand the full meaning of this prayer, which we all know so 2 THE SHEMANG well and say so often that it is called the watchword of Israel. Let us begin by thinking about the first verse : HEAR, O ISRAEL ! THE LORD OUR GOD THE LORD IS ONE. Two things are taught us in these words. The first is that there is only one God, who is the Almighty Creator of the World, who, as the Psalmist says, " made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that there- in is."* Many people in ancient times, when they looked on the beautiful and wonderful things in the world, thought that all those wonderful things must them- selves be gods. They thought the sun was a god and the moon was a god and so on. But to Israel it was revealed that there is only one God, and this is the message that Israel has to learn and to remember always and to tell to all the world, " the Lord our God, the Lord is One." We say this then constantly and we say it under many different conditions. We say it when we are well and strong, and we say it when we are ill and in pain; we say it when we are happy and we say it when we are sad. We say it when we are safe, and we say it when we are in danger, and so by degrees * Psalm 146. THE SHEMANG 3 we come to feel there is also another meaning in it. The Lord our God is One He is always the same. He is the loving Father of all human beings, our Father in Heaven, always full of mercy and love for us, always ready to forgive us when we do wrong, always ready to listen to our prayers for His help and to strengthen us to bear pain and sorrow bravely. In that sense also, the Lord our God is always One. There is a third lesson in these words, a lesson that marks the difference between Judaism and Christianity. God is the only God, therefore to Him alone we pray. We need no intercessor between Him and us. The humblest and simplest of us may always pray to God. The deeper our consciousness of having done wrong, the more helpful is it in our misery and guilt to pray to Him to pardon our sins and to help us to try to do better. " For there is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayest be feared."* Now let us read the next verse : AND THOU SHALT LOVE THE LORD THY GOD WITH ALL THINE HEART AND WITH ALL THY SOUL AND WITH ALL THY MIGHT. This verse tells us of the three great powers that are in everyone of us. Everyone of us has a Heart, everyone of us has a Soul, and everyone of us * Psalm 130. 4 THE SHEMANG has Might, which means we are able to do, and we are told that with all our Heart and with all our Soul and with all our Might we are to love God. Now what is the meaning of loving God with all our Heart? Heart love is the love that makes us happy with our father and mother, happy when we are with the people we like best, happy when the people we care for most show their love to us. How shall we love God with our heart? I will tell you : when we have all this happiness, we must feel that we owe it to God's goodness and kindness to us, and love God gratefully for giving it to us. Now let us think how to love God with all our Soul. Our soul can be happy even when our body is ill and in pain, or when our heart is very sore from sorrow, sad partings, or bitter disappointment. Loving God with our soul strengthens us and helps us to be brave and cheerful and to feel that God is with us, loving us and taking care of us all through our pains and sadness. And how shall we love God with all our Might ? Might, as I told you just now, means power to do things. Some of us can do much, some of us can only do a little, but every one of us can do some- thing, and that power of doing is called our might. In all we do, let us try to keep ourselves from what THE SHEMANG 5 we know to be wrong. If anger seizes us, and we would like to say or do something unkind, let us try to keep ourselves under control. If we are doing a bit of work, and we feel that we are lazy and know that we are not doing our best, not making the best use of the powers God has given us, let us stir ourselves up to do our work as well as ever we can. Even in little tiny matters, like dressing ourselves and keeping our things tidy, let us always be trying to do as well as ever we can with those wonderful powers that God has given us. Then we shall be loving God with our might. Think of these three ways of loving God with all our Heart, and all our Soul and all our Might. AND THESE WORDS WHICH I COMMAND THEE THIS DAY SHALL BE IN THINE HEART, AND THOU SHALT TEACH THEM DILIGENTLY UNTO THY CHDLDREN, AND THOU SHALT SPEAK OF THEM WHEN THOU SITTEST IN THINE HOUSE, AND WHEN THOU WALKEST BY THE WAY, AND WHEN THOU LIEST DOWN AND WHEN THOU RISEST UP. The thought of loving God is not only to be re- membered just at the time when we say our prayers, but all through the day ; indoors and out of doors, at bed tune when we lie down and think over the day that is past, and in the morning when we rise up refreshed by the night's sleep and ready to begin all the doings of a new day. At all those tunes we 6 THE SHEMANG must think of God and think how to show our love of Him by what we do the whole day long. That not only helps us to keep ourselves from doing what we know to be wrong, but also spurs us on to try our very best to do what is right and kind and useful. AND THOU SHALT BIND THEM FOR A SIGN UPON THINE HAND, AND THEY SHALL BE AS FRONTLETS BETWEEN THINE EYES. In the last bit of the Shemang there is the same idea, but in order to impress it on the minds of the Israelites so that they should always remember it, Moses described it in another way, as if the command to love God were something that you could see and hold. " Bind it on your hand," he said, so that it shall hold back your hand from doing any wrong thing. If we feel inclined to raise an angry hand to strike someone, or a greedy hand to snatch some- thing away from another person, or to have lazy hands and do our work in a slovenly way, then the thought of God must bind our hands and keep them from doing what we know to be wrong and make them do their work as well as ever they can. A girl once said to me, " I have tried to make my hands show my thanks to God this morning." I said, " How do you mean?" She answered, " When I swept the passage, I took up all the mats and swept underneath them." That girl was right. She THE SHEMANG 7 was trying to do her work as well as she could, because she knew that earnest, honest work is pleasing to God. And there is yet another way that we must bind God's commands on our hands. Do you remember the words of Moses ? " Thou shalt not harden thine heart nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother." * Don't left all our efforts in life be for ourselves, but let us think of God's mercy to us frail mortals, and in the image of God's merciful kindness to us, let us try to be kind and helpful to one another. Moses goes on to say, " Hang these words right in front of your eyes," so that you can't forget them. The thought of trying to shew your love of God must be as present to you as though you could always see it, like spectacles, ever in front of your eyes. Now the last words AND THOU SHALT WRITE THEM UPON THE DOORPOSTS OF THY HOUSE AND ON THY GATES. If ever you have a home of your own, let it be clean and tidy, make it comfortable for whoever lives with you. And each of you now try to make around you a little atmosphere of kindness to your fellow-creatures, and of orderliness and cleanliness * Deuteronomy, Chapter 15, Verse 7. 8 THE SHEMANG in your own habits, so that in the place where you live the thought of the love of God and of His good- ness seems ever present. Then your heart and your soul will be loving God it will be written " on your doorposts," for in your house love and kindness will be supreme, and love of each other is one way of showing our love of God. Thus the Shemang teaches us to love God and, by our practical acts, to show our love of him at all moments in our life. II. THE SHEMANG. HEAR, O ISRAEL, THE LORD OUR GOD THE LORD IS ONE. Deuteronomy, Chapter 6, Verses 4-9. THE portion of the Bible I want you to think about to-day with me is that familiar one that you all know by heart the Shemang the watchword of Israel uttered by Moses in his farewell sermon to the children of Israel. The Shemang has been well called the Watchword of Israel. For the sake of the great truth proclaimed in the first verse " The Lord our God the Lord is One," we Jews have fought and suffered through two thousand years. We are still fighting. In England we are indeed blessed, for we and our fellow-countrymen of every creed enjoy freedom, equality and justice. We must not forget the sufferings of those in many parts of the world who are still braving hatred, injustice, cruelty and persecution for the sake of their religion. They may 10 THE SHEMANG have bad health or lack physical or moral courage, but instead of holding up the finger of scorn, we should remember that these weaknesses have come from centuries of persecution bravely and stubbornly borne. Now let us consider the next words of the Shemang, " And thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might." How can we show our love for Him? If you love anyone very much, you think of them often and you try to do things that will please them. So you must love God. You must think of God, you must try to please Him with all your might. But you will say your might is so little. No, I don't think it is hi your own little kingdom yourself. Rule yourself in the way you think will please God. Later in the Shemang Moses tells us how to do this. " And these words that I command thee this day shall be in thine heart . . . Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand. And they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes and thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house and upon thy gates." I think this is Moses' vivid way of telling the children of Israel to make their religion part of their everyday life, to let their hearts and their minds be THE SHEMANG 11 open at all times to receive the help and comfort of God in the difficulties great and small that are sure to come to us all. In very great moments of trial I think we do all turn to God. Great difficulties, great sorrows, great joys make us all I think feel very small, and then we feel the impulse that made the Psalmist pray "Lead me to the rock that is higher than I." * But those very great moments in life come seldom, life is much more made up of little things. I remember a dear old friend of mine telling me that when she was about to marry and go off to India, just for one moment at the time of parting with her mother she lost courage. It was many years ago, in the days when there was no quick way to India by the Suez Canal and no telegraphy to flash tidings to friends at home, and going to India meant being three months away from news of home. She said, "Oh, mother, if any great trouble comes to me how can I face it without you ?" And her mother replied, " My dear, your troubles and diffi- culties will mostly come to you little by little, and as each trial comes God will give you strength to meet it." My friend took courage with these wise * Psalm 61. 12 THE SHEMANG words and never lost it again. I should like to help you to feel that God is with us always, and that if we really know and remember this, then we are always with God. As the Psalmist says, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." * I want you all to feel that, and to get comfort and courage from feeling it. If you keep ever in your mind the thought of God's goodness, I think it will help you to live your daily life as well as you possibly can. God has given to each of us the gift of all the powers we possess, our eyes and brains and hands. Let us thank God by always using these as well as ever we can. Whatever we are doing, we will be ashamed to be slovenly, we will say to ourselves that we must try to use God's beautiful gifts as well as we possibly can. So, in the simplest everyday things: "When thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down and when thou risest up," .always remember you are using the gifts of God at every moment of your life, and do all that you do as well as you know how to do it. When you get up, dress tidily ; when you eat, eat moderately; when you work, use the brains God has given you to work as well as you can; and when you * Psalm 46. THE SHEMANG 13 play, play fairly, and be kind and good-tempered with your playfellows. Then you will be trying to show your love of God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might and may God bless and help you all. ni. THE SHEMANG. HEAR, O ISRAEL, THE LORD OUR GOD THE LORD IS ONE. Deuteronomy, Chapter 6, Verses 4-9. A VERY wise man* once said to me, "There are only one or two things I want to tell people, but I just talk about these things over and over again, and I tell people about them in ever so many different ways. Some like one way of telling things and some like other ways; so at last, through many ways, I get a great many people to like what I tell them, and to remember it." Well, like that wise man, I haven't many things to say, and what I'm going to talk about to-day I have talked about to you before. But I want us to remind ourselves about it, for it is the most important lesson we have to learn, the very centre of all our thoughts about God, and of all the help we get from those thoughts. * Frederick Denison Maurice. THE SHEMANG 15 Let us consider for a moment what help we get from thinking about God. Our thoughts about God help us in two ways. They help us to try always to be good, and they help us to try always to be brave. There is a law that God gave us through Moses that tells us how to be always trying to be good, and how to be always trying to be brave. We have just recited that very law together : it is the Shemang. Shemang, you know, is the Hebrew word for Hear ! Listen ! " Listen, Israelites," said Moses, and then he told them how to be always trying to be good. He said, Everyone of you must love God. What does loving God mean ? It means trying to do what we think God wishes us to do, and showing that we never forget God. Then Moses tells us three different ways in which we can love God, and explains to us how to show our love for Him by using the three different powers that He has given to us. Here are the three different ways : Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Each way uses a special power. Now let us think about these three powers God has given us and find out exactly what they each are, for each is different. 16 THE SHEMANG When we are with dear friends, we feel very happy. We like to be with them and to feel near them, for we love them with all our heart. To love anyone with all our heart is the happiest feeling, the greatest joy in life. Now when we think of all that God has given us, our life, our health, our loving parents, our dear friends, we turn gratefully to God and thank Him for all His gifts and His con- stant care of us; and we feel that we love God with all our heart and trust in Him, like the Psalmist who says, " I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety." * Now let us think about loving with all our soul. I'll tell you what happened to a little boy. The school holidays had just begun and he was feeling so glad to be able to do what he liked, and he went out into the garden and was running along a gravel path very fast indeed, when he tumbled down ! He hurt his leg, and bruised his face and came hobbling home in great pain. His nurse put some nice soft stuff on his poor bruises and scratches, but they still hurt him very much, and he felt very miserable and very sorry for himself. Just then, his mother came in holding a letter in her hand, and said, " I have some good news for you. Your school report has * Psalm 4, THE SHEMANG 17 just arrived. You have come out top of your class and won the prize." Then the little boy felt great pleasure ; the pain was still there in his body, but his soul was full of joy. So you see our soul is the feeling of our mind and of our spirit, its pleasures and its pains are different and quite separate from the pleasures and pains in our bodies. Our minds, and our power of thinking are part of our souls, so when we try to love God with our soul, we must think : How can we shew with our mind and our thought our love of God? A very wise man named Hillel, who lived 2000 years ago, was once asked that question, and the man who asked him did it in a very funny way. He said, " Tell me so quickly that I can stand on one leg while you make your answer." Then Hillel said, "Never do any- thing to your neighbour that you would not like him to do to you. That is the whole of God's law, the law of love and kindness to your fellow-creatures; all the other laws are only to show you how to keep it. Now go and do as that law tells you." Hillel 's answer tells us how to shew our love to God with all our soul, and also with all our might. We must try to be loving and kind to our fellow-creatures, for God loves them as He loves us. We must just 18 THE SHEMANG think before we do a thing, and think before we say a thing, whether it is a kind deed, or a kind word. And we can decide by thinking, " Should we like this done to us? Should we like this said to us?" That will always show us whether we are trying to love God with all our power of thinking, and all our power of doing. Our power of doing is the third of those three powers, with which Moses taught us to shew our love of God, " With all your might," he said, " you must love God." The word for might in Hebrew is the same as hi English. Might means what we do, our actual carrying out of our thoughts in word and deed. When we have used our mind and our soul to think and to find out how to do what is kind to our fellow-creatures, then we must just set to work and do it do what we think is right and kind, and therefore what God wishes us to do. So now we can understand why the Shemang helps us to be good. How does it help us to be brave ? I will tell you. If we feel sure we are trying to do right, we feel sure too that God will help us. That thought gives us courage to face and to conquer all our difficulties. Even if great trouble comes to us, we say with David " Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the THE SHEMANG 19 Lord delivereth him out of them all," * and we feel that our love of God is that love of which one of the poets of the Bible says : " Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it." t * Psalm 34. t Song of Solomon, Chapter 8, Verse 7. IV. PENTECOST: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Exodus, Chapter 20, Verses 1-17. Deuteronomy, Chapter 5, Verses 6-21. INTRODUCTION THE FIRST COMMANDMENT. THE Festival of Pentecost commemorates the giving of the Ten Commandments. Once a year we gather together to thank God for giving those laws to us and, through us, to the whole world, so that all the world may know Right from Wrong. I think the Ten Commandments are of such intense importance to us all that I would like to draw your special attention to this wonderful set of laws. To begin with it is so short, and yet it is the basis of all laws of all people. By that I mean that, if we obey these ten laws, we shall be good boys and good girls, good men and good women. We shall be just, fair and kindly in our dealings with everyone, truthful in our thoughts and speech, and we shall keep THE FIRST COMMANDMENT 21 ourselves from all the wrongdoing that comes of being greedy, wanting for ourselves nice things 1 that belong to other people and trying to take them away and keep them for ourselves. No people is worthy to be called a nation till it has laws. I am sure you have all heard of the English law called Magna Carta, by which the King was forbidden to tax the people without the consent of Parliament, and (still more important) no one could be put in prison without being tried by his equals. From the time that law was passed, the English began to be an ordered nation. Before then, each generation had merely depended on the will and fancy of its ruler, but from the days of Magna Carta, England has depended for just Government, not on one man, but on the English law, and English law is founded on the Ten Commandments. The giving of the law then was the beginning of Israel as a nation. You remember God said to Abraham, " I will make of thee a great nation." * When Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, went down with all his family to live in Egypt, the Bible tells us they were just seventy souls in all, a large family, but not yet a nation. The descendants * Genesis, Chapter 12, Verse 2, etc, 22 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT of Jacob stayed in Egypt for more than four hundred years, and by that time the seventy people had in- creased to 600,000, but they were far from being a nation. The King of Egypt began to be afraid that they would become, as the Bible says, " more and mightier " than the Egyptians them- selves; so he made slaves of them, and treated them harshly, giving them very hard work and putting cruel masters over them, who used to punish them terribly if their work was not done in a shorter time than was really possible. The 600,000 people that Moses led out of Egypt were thus not yet a nation, but only a great horde of slaves. God willed to make these slaves into a nation like no other nation the world has ever seen, for it was to be the teacher of the laws of God to the whole world. But the first need of the Israelites was to be them- selves told and taught the laws of God, so that they should learn and understand and cherish them, in order to be able to make them known to the world throughout all time. Now we see what a great event it was for Israel when God revealed the ten laws to them through His servant Moses. Let us consider the laws a little more closely. All except the first and the fifth Commandments tell us what we must not do. Thou shalt not have any other THE FIRST COMMANDMENT 23 God. Thou shalt not take God's name in vain. Thou shalt not work nor make thy servants work on the Sabbath. Thou shalt not kill, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness (which means speak un- truths about anyone), thou shalt not covet what belongs to thy neighbour. God leaves us freedom and power to do, but gives us his merciful teaching about what we must not do, so that if ever we find ourselves coming near to thinking of the possibility of doing any of those things He has told us not to do, we know we are on the wrong path. Then we must hold ourselves reso- lutely, and turn away from the wrong-doing that has come into our minds. Now think of the first Commandment : I AM THE LORD THY GOD, WHICH HAVE BROUGHT THEE OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, OUT OF THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE. Surrounded by the wonders of nature and the beauties of nature, the first impulse of man in his simplest condition was to worship all these wonders, all these beauties. He worshipped the sun, the moon and the stars, fire, water, wind, and even animals. At the time of the giving of the Ten Commandments most people believed there were many Gods ruling the world, a God of the Sun, a 24 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT God of the Sea, a God of Fire and so on. Israel alone of all peoples worshipped only the one supreme God. God had revealed to the Israelites that He Himself is the Creator of everything, of all the wonders and all the beautiful things and of every living creature. As David sang hi the 19th Psalm " The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth His handiwork." That was what God taught Israel in the first Commandment and that is the Message of Israel to the whole world through- out all time. V. THE SECOND COMMANDMENT. THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME. THOU SHALT NOT MAKE UNTO THEE ANY GRAVEN IMAGE, OR ANY LIKENESS OF ANYTHING THAT IS IN HEAVEN ABOVE, OR THAT IS IN THE EARTH BENEATH, OR THAT IS IN THE WATER UNDER THE EARTH : THOU SHALT NOT BOW DOWN THYSELF TO THEM, NOR SERVE THEM : FOR I THE LORD THY GOD AM A JEALOUS GOD, VISITING THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHERS UPON THE CHILDREN, UNTO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION OF THEM THAT HATE ME : AND SHOWING MERCY UNTO THOUSANDS OF THEM THAT LOVE ME AND KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS." Exodus, Chapter 20., Verses 3-6. Deuteronomy, Chapter 5., Verses 7-10. THIS is the second of the great Commandments that we were considering last week. It may seem to you rather a repetition of the first law, but I think if we consider a little, we shall see that it is not so. The first law states the fact that God is the only God, the second law describes the duty of mankind resulting from that great fact " Thou shalt have no other gods before Me," 26 THE SECOND COMMANDMENT In shewing us the difference between right and wrong, and commanding us to do right and to keep ourselves from doing wrong, God tells us, " Thou shalt have no other Gods before Me "; that means, no other ruler shall tempt us to serve him instead of serving God. But what ruler, you will say ? I will tell you. There are many tyrants within us, that are ready to rule us, unless we take care not to bow down to them nor to serve them. One tyrant is called Laziness. God has given us minds to think and understand, and bodies to do useful work, and a time to live on earth during which to learn to be wise, and to try to do useful work. Laziness invites us to waste our time, and not to learn and not to work. Another tyrant is Selfishness. This tempts us to keep all the good things we have for ourselves, instead of sharing with our brothers and sisters and friends, and giving to those who are poor and in want. Another tyrant is Ill-temper, which tempts us to give way to anger instead of trying to control our- selves. These are all very big tyrants. There are some little tyrants too. There is one called Untidiness. It can make us waste a dreadful amount of our THE SECOND COMMANDMENT 27 precious time in losing things and having to search for them, and in neglecting to keep ourselves and our clothes clean and tidy. The great teacher Hillel said that if we clean our ornaments, which are only blocks made of stone or china or wood, how much more important is it to care for our own body, the case in which is kept the precious soul that God has given us. So you see there are many tyrants that we must not make into gods, nor bow down to them nor serve them. " Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is hi the water under the earth." To understand this Command- ment, just picture to yourselves the Israelites in the desert a mass of homeless and suddenly freed slaves. I have seen in the land of Egypt Arab families who, to this day, wander along the banks of the river Nile with their whole possessions, in order to feed their sheep and camels and goats on the little pasture that springs up on the mud banks as the floods of the river subside. A family possesses only one tent, often made of plaited grass, and usually the shape of a short fat capital A with one very sprawling side, Under the tent are sheltered the 28 THE SECOND COMMANDMENT whole family and the flocks. The goats are at the low end, the donkeys next, the camels under the tallest bit, and I remember in one tent seeing a baby camel one day old with its great huge mother camel. The family takes the rest of the tent. You see there is no room for ornaments in such a tent, so if any graven image or picture were made, it would be made expressly to be worshipped to be a sort of reminder of one of the many gods. So now you understand the command " Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." That word jealous strikes harshly on one's mind, but the Israelites had to be told clearly and em- phatically that there must be no tampering with the precious message entrusted to them, to serve God and God only, and to serve Him by obeying the laws He gave them. They were told they must stand firm, and they have stood firm through thousands of years, as the sentinel guard of the great law, " Thou shalt have no other gods beside me." We must remember how much the Israelites would THE SECOND COMMANDMENT 29 be tempted to do the same as the people all around, whom they saw worshipping the Sun God, or the Moon God, or the Water God. But the Messenger Nation, chosen by the Almighty Creator to tell the world the great message that there is no other God beside Him, must have no such moments of foolish- ness. So to put this as clearly and forcibly as possible, God is described as a jealous God, jealous of anything coming between Him and the sacred message He gave His chosen people. God is not only described as a jealous God in regard to that actual generation of Israelites. The Israelites through all time from generation to genera- tion were to be the servants of God and the teachers of the laws of right and wrong to the world. Does it seem to you very hard and difficult all through life trying, trying, trying to do right? Listen to the beautiful promise at the end of this second law, that tells us God is ever " shewing mercy to thousands " of those who shew their love of Him by trying to obey His commandments. We may fail sometimes, and even then we can feel comforted with the thought that if we are truly sorry when we have done wrong, God will shew mercy to us, and will forgive us. This is the comforting law 80 THE SECOND COMMANDMENT that made the Psalmist say " There is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayest be feared."* We must be sorry when we know we have done wrong, and if we are truly sorry God forgives us. * Psalm 130. VI. THE THIRD AND FOURTH COMMANDMENTS. Exodus, Chapter 20., Verses 7-11. Deuteronomy, Chapter 5., Verses 11-15. LAST time I was with you I spoke about the second of the Ten Commandments. Now let us think about the third Commandment : THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN, FOR THE LORD WILL NOT HOLD HIM GUILTLESS THAT TAKETH HIS NAME IN VAIN. This law solemnly reminds us that our promises once made must be kept. If we have done wrong and are truly sorry and pray to God to forgive us, what do our sorrow and our prayer really mean? They mean that we shall try our best never to repeat the wrong-doing again. That is a promise, and this law says, a promise must not be broken. The law calls a promise " taking God's name," because God knows all our thoughts and all we say, every promise we make. So if we make a promise and break it, it is like speaking untruth to God, it is taking God's name in vain. 32 THIRD AND FOURTH COMMANDMENTS The fifteenth Psalm describes how a good man keeps a promise. If he makes a promise, even if it turns out to be painful and harmful to him- self to keep it, yet he is faithful to his word. He promiseth even to his own hurt and changeth not. Sometimes a promise is very hard to keep, but once made we must keep it. England promised to defend Belgium and to fight with anyone who attacked her. That is why we English entered the War rwe kept our promise. So we see that the third Law given to the Israelites on Mount Sinai guides our statesmen and inspires our brave soldiers and sailors to this day. Now I will read the next law, the fourth Com- mandment : REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY TO KEEP IT HOLY, AS THE LORD THY GOD HATH COMMANDED THEE. SIX DAYS SHALT THOU LABOUR, AND DO ALL THY WORK, BUT THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH OF THE LORD THY GOD : IN IT THOU SHALT NOT DO ANY WORK, THOU, NOR THY SON, NOR THY DAUGHTER, NOR THY MANSERVANT, NOR THY MAIDSERVANT, NOR THINE OX NOR THINE ASS, NOR ANY OF THY CATTLE, NOR THY STRANGER THAT IS WITHIN THY GATES : THAT THY MANSERVANT AND THY MAIDSERVANT MAY REST AS WELL AS THOU. AND REMEMBER THAT THOU WAST A SERVANT IN THE LAND OF EGYPT, AND THAT THE LORD THY GOD BROUGHT THEE OUT THENCE THROUGH A MIGHTY HAND AND BY AN OUTSTRETCHED ARM ; THEREFORE THE LORD THY GOD COMMANDED THEE TO KEEP THE SABBATH DAY; WHEREFORE THE LORD BLESSED THE SABBATH DAY AND HALLOWED IT. THIRD AND FOURTH COMMANDMENTS 33 Notice that this law commands us not merely to rest ourselves, but also to let those rest for whom we are responsible, and especially all our servants, not only our human servants, but our dumb servants as well, our horses, our oxen, our donkeys. It is a law that teaches us the duty of being kind and con- siderate to others. When this command was given to the Israelites, all servants were slaves. They be- longed to their masters and could not leave them, however cruel the masters were, and however miser- able they made their slaves. A kind master would be kind to his slaves, but an unkind master would make his slaves work day after day, year after year, and never give them a day's rest. But when God made Israel into a nation, He gave them this law of kindness to all who were under their orders, to their slaves and to their animals. They were all to be given the one day of rest at the end of their six days of work. It was when Moses was speaking to all the Israelites for the last tune before he died and was reminding them of all the laws that God had com- manded them that he added, in repeating this fourth Commandment, "Remember that thou wast a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by an c 34 THIRD AND FOURTH COMMANDMENTS outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord thy God com- manded thee to observe the Sabbath Day."* When you go out and see everyone having their day's holiday on Saturday or Sunday, remember that this is hi obedience to the command that God gave to the world through Moses and the Israelites, that everybody should have one day of rest in every seven days. I always think that if we do not enjoy our day of rest, it is a sign that we have not worked all through the week as hard as we ought to have done. After six days of hard work, everyone is glad to rest on the seventh day, and I think we should all feel glad to come to Synagogue on that day and to join together in giving thanks to God for His merciful gift of the Day of Rest. * Deuteronomy, Chapter 5, Verse 15. VII. THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. Exodus, Chapter 20, Verse 12. Deuteronomy, Chapter 5, Verse 16. LAST time I was with you we thought about the third and fourth commandments, the law that we must keep our promises and that very merciful law of the Sabbath, the one day of rest after every six days of labour. To-day let us think about God's fifth Command- ment : HONOUR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER AS THE LORD THY GOD HATH COMMANDED THEE : THAT THY DAYS MAY BE PROLONGED, AND THAT IT MAY GO WELL WITH THEE, IN THE LAND WHICH THE LORD THY GOD GIVETH THEE. You remember that in the second Commandment God commanded the Israelites always to obey His laws, and to resist every temptation to do what they knew to be wrong. It was not only that 86 THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT generation of Israelites, the ones who actually received God's laws, who were to obey them and by obeying them to teach them through example to the world. The children of those Israelites and their children's children and every generation of Israelites throughout all time were to obey the laws revealed to their ancestors through Moses. How were all these generations to learn God's laws? This fifth Commandment we have just read shews us how : Honour thy Father and thy Mother. Of all the gifts of God, the gift of parents is the one that brings home to us from the very beginning of our lives the love and mercy of God. God has given to everyone the blessing of a father and a mother, and they teach their children God's laws and shew them how to obey these lawsi. God commanded us all to do honour to our parents by trying to live* in the spirit of their loving-kindness to us, which is the mirror of God's loving-kindness. All through our lives we must remember and cherish the teaching of our parents and hand it on to our children so that, when they grow up and have children, they too will be able to teach them to understand and obey the laws of God. As a great Jewish teacher of later ages said : " God is found by everyone who seeks THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT 87 Him, if the seeker goes steadfastly towards Him, nor ever turns astray." The fifth Commandment says : Honour thy Father and thy Mother, that thy days may be pro- longed in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. These last words do not mean that each one of our lives will be made longer. Life and death are in the hands' of the almighty God and we never know how short or how long our life may be. But it means that the great teaching of the One God and of the knowledge of right and wrong shall go on being taught and honoured from generation to generation of our children and our children's children, so that the life of the people of Israel and then* teaching of God's Laws may be prolonged on the earth that He has given to mankind to dwell there. The very last time that Moses spoke to the children of Israel he said " I have set before you life and death, good and evil, therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live." * So every one of us Jews has the proud duty of telling and shewing the world the laws of goodness. So long as we are always trying to obey these laws and to teach them by the example of obeying them * See Deuteronomy, Chapter 30, Verse 19. ourselves, our days and the days of our people the Israelites, as the Messengers of God's Laws to the whole world, will be prolonged on earth. VIII. THE LAST COMMANDMENTS. Exodus, Chapter 20, Verses 13-17. Deuteronomy, Chapter 5, Verses 17-21. TO-DAY we will think about the last Commandments. Do you remember, when I first spoke to you of the Ten Commandments, what I said about Magna Carta, that great English law passed in 1215, over 700 years ago ? Now I am going to show you how the Ten Commandments were the model and guide of the men who were trying to make the laws by which Englishmen were to be well and justly governed. Magna Carta forbade the King to tax the people without asking the permission of Parliament. Before then a greedy King could take away the money of his subjects quite unjustly, and they were obliged to give it up. But Magna Carta echoed the Eighth Commandment, " Thou shalt not steal," and enforced it even against the King. 40 THE LAST COMMANDMENTS Magna Carta also forbade the King to put people in prison without giving them a fair trial by their equals. Till this law was made the King could have people seized and thrown into prison without giving any reason for it, and without the poor prisoners having a chance of proving their innocence. Wicked Kings took advantage of this to seize people whom they thought were their enemies, and some- times they even caused them to be killed. But Magna Carta said : No, everyone who is imprisoned has a right to be tried by his equals and told why he has been put in prison, and given a chance to defend himself. In this 1 way Magna Carta put into the law of England both the sixth Commandment, THOU SHALT NOT MURDER, the eighth Commandment, THOU SHALT NOT STEAL, and the ninth Command- ment, THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGHBOUR. To bear false witness against thy neighbour means to speak untruths about other people. The Seventh Commandment, THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, teaches us that husbands and wives must be faithful to one another. And now we come to the last Commandment : 41 THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOUR'S HOUSE, THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOUR'S WIFE, NOR HIS MANSERVANT, NOR HIS MAIDSERVANT, NOR HIS OX, NOR HIS ASS, NOR ANYTHING THAT IS THY NEIGHBOUR'S. This forbids us to want to get for ourselves anything that belongs of right to someone else. If we read history we shall see what wicked and cruel acts people have done who allowed themselves to covet what right- fully belonged to others. For instance, King John of England had his nephew, poor little Prince Arthur, murdered, in order to steal the kingdom of England. Philip II., king of Spain, coveted England, and the desire to possess it tempted him to send hisi great Armada to rob Queen Elizabeth of her country. A hundred years ago, Napoleon tried to rob nearly every country in Europe of some of its lands, and the greed and selfishness of Emperors and their advisers! have led to the terrible sufferings of this war. How different to coveting is the example of Abraham. When Abraham and Lot were living together they both had great quantities of cattle, and a quarrel arose between the men in charge of Abraham's flocks and herds and the men in charge of Lot's flocks and herds; each said the other coveted all the best fields. Abraham said to Lot " Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and 42 THE LAST COMMANDMENTS between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left." * Do you know the story of the judgment of Solomon ? t Solomon was one of the wisest kings that ever lived. There came to him two women who were living in the same house and each of whom had had a little baby. One of the babies died, and each woman declared that the living child was hers. One woman said, " This is my son that liveth and thy son is dead." The other woman said, " Nay, thy son is the dead and my son is the living." Then said the King, " The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead : and the other saith, Nay, but thy son is the dead, and my son is living." He thought in his own mind that the woman whose first thought and first words were about the living child was its mother, but he said, " Bring me a sword." And they brought a sword before the King. And the King said "Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one woman and half to the * Genesis, Chapter 13, Verses 5-12. t I Kings, Chapter 3, Verses 16-28. THE LAST COMMANDMENTS 43 other." Then spake the real mother of the child unto the King and said, 'O My Lord, give her the living child and in no wise slay it." But the other said, "Let it be neither mine nor thine but divide it." Then the King answered and said, " Give the living child to the woman who was ready to give it up to save its life. She is the real mother." So the wicked woman who coveted the child and would rather it were killed than that another should have it, was properly thwarted in her base desire, and the woman who would rather give up her child than see it killed, had the joy of having it given back to her in safety by the wise King Solomon. Let us train ourselves always to remember the tenth commandment, so that we may be kept from the cruel and bad things which we are tempted to do if we covet anything that is our neighbour's. IX. SEE THAT YE FALL NOT OUT BY THE WAY. Genesis, Chapter 45, Verse 24. You all know the wonderful story of Joseph he was a clever child, the darling favorite of his father, and consequently the object of jealousy on the part of his brothers, who grew to hate him and even to be very cruel to him. So the brothers sold Joseph for a slave. But did he let slavery degrade him ? Did he say, now that I am a slave I'll just behave like a slave ? No, he tried to do his very best for his master. He rememebered the teaching of his father, and amid the idolaters and graven image wor- shippers of Egypt, he held fast to faith in the one great and merciful God. Joseph knew that what- ever happens God is always righteous, and that what all of us, men, women and children, have to do is to strive to be righteous, never to do what we know to be wrong and to try always to do what is " SEE THAT YE FALL NOT OUT " 45 right and kind and generous, and so to be ever trying to make the best and the highest use of the powers God has given us. (That is what is meant when we are told to try to live in the image of God.) Now God had made Joseph very wise, so that he could be of great use to the world. But besides being wise, he had a loving heart. He not only loved his father who had always been so fond of him, but he also loved his brothers, cruel as they had been to him. So though, when he saw his brothers again, he teased them just a little bit, by mysteriously putting back their money in their sacks, and though for a short tune he frightened them tremendously by threatening to keep Benjamin as a prisoner, yet really he loved them and wept with joy as he made himself known to them. After- wards he sent them back home to bring his dear father and all their families to Egypt, where they would live in safety and have plenty of food for themselves and their flocks. And he told them to tell Jacob that he was not only alive but the greatest man in Egypt. As I have said, Joseph was very wise. When he parted from his brothers he said the words I began by quoting to-day, for he realised that after his brethren had left him, they were likely to reproach 46 " SEE THAT YE FALL NOT OUT one another, each trying to blame the others for the wicked deed of having sold Joseph, their own brother as a slave. Yes, when people have done wrong, they are apt to try to find that it is somebody else's fault. So whenever we know we have done wrong, let us try to remember Joseph's caution to his brethren, and let us guard ourselves from trying to get away from our own sin by blaming someone else. Let us rather pray like King David when the prophet Nathan rebuked him for wrong doing : Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness : According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, And done that which is evil in thy sight. * To try to hide from our faults is cowardly. David * Psalm 51, Verses 1-4. BY THE WAY' 47 was a brave man and so he faced the truth of his own wrong-doing, bitter as it was. To own up bravely when we know we have done wrong helps us to feel truly sorry for our wrong-doing; and to feel sorry for our wrong-doing is the first step towards trying to be good and to do right. X DAVID AND GOLIATH. I Samuel, Chapter 17. IT is many months since I had the privilege of coming to pray with you in this Synagogue. All that time our soldiers and sailors and airmen have gone on fighting freely offering their lives to save England and her faithful friends. I have talked with many of our wounded soldiers. They have told me wonderful tales of their fellow soldiers' bravery and kindness, and of men who risked their lives to save their wounded comrades. One man, a sergeant of artillery, said to me, " Every soldier out there is a hero." Do you know what a hero is ? A hero is anyone who is ready to try to do a great deed, however difficult or dangerous it may be, and who never turns back for fear of danger or difficulty. There have been heroes 1 in all ages, men and women to whom God has given great strength and great courage. DAVID AND GOLIATH 49 My favourite hero is David, the shepherd boy who became King of Israel. I like to think of his being told by his father Jesse to leave the flock of sheep he had under his charge, and to go and take a parcel of nice things to eat to his three elder brothers, who were with King Saul's army righting the Philistines (just as we send nice parcels of food to our soldiers at the Front). So David rose up early hi the morning and left the sheep in charge of a keeper and went, as Jesse had commanded him, and he came to the trenches just as the army was going out to fight ; for the Israelites and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army. And David ran to the army to see his brothers, and as he was talking with them a very big man named Goliath of Gath came up out of the camp of the Philistines. He was so big that he was a giant, and he wore shiny brass armour and carried a huge pole with an iron point that weighed 600 shekels. And the giant stood and called out in a huge loud voice to the armies of Israel saying : " Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Choose you a man for you and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me and to kill me then will we be your servants : but if I prevail against him and 6 DAVID AND GOLIATH kill him, then shall ye be our servants and serve us." And all the men of Israel were very afraid, when they saw the giant and heard his words. But David spake to the men who stood round him and said, " Who is this Philistine who defies the army of the living God?" And when King Saul heard of the words of David he sent for him. And David said to Saul, " Let no man's heart fail because of the giant. I will go and fight with this Philistine." And Saul said to David, " Thou art not able to fight against this Philistine, for thou art but a youth and he a mighty man of war." And David answered Saul, " When I kept my father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after them and killed them. I killed both the lion and the bear, and this Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing that he hath defied the armies of the living God. The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." And King Saul said to David, " Go and fight, and the Lord be with thee." And Saul armed David with his own armour. But David said unto Saul, "I cannot fight with these things, for I am not used to them." And David put them off him. And he DAVID AND GOLIATH 51 took his stick in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had ; and his sling was hi his hand ; and he drew near to the Philistine. And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a big boy, and ruddy and of a fair countenance. And the Philistine said unto David, "Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves ? Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field." Then said David to the Philistine, " Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield ; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mind hand; and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcase of the champion of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the ah 1 , and to the wild beasts of the earth ; that all the earth may know that there is a God hi Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands." And it came to pass when the Philistine arose, 52 DAVID AND GOLIATH and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it and smote the Philistine in his forehead, and the stone sunk into his fore- head ; and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran and stood upon the Philistine, and took his great sword and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled. That is a splendid story of the sort of bravery begotten of trust in God. Trust in God, that thought was always uppermost in David's mind, and he expressed it in those beautiful poems called the Psalms, for David was a poet as well as a soldier. Perfect trust in God, through joy and through sorrow, shines out in all his poems. It comforted him in all his troubles and made him never lose cour- age and never complain. He spent many years in great danger of his life, for King Saul grew jealous of DAVID AND GOLIATH 58 him and tried to kill him, but David bore all his hardships bravely, trusting always in God. At one moment of extreme misery, when he had been driven away by Saul's threats from the shelter given him by a neighbouring King, and when many people would have been pitying themselves and thinking how unlucky they were and how badly they had been treated, he. exclaimed, " I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth."* He always felt, " The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."t Another Psalmist said when great misfortune befel him and he was trying to be brave, " I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me." J I think we can all learn to have courage from the example of David, and from those beautiful Psalms in which he tells us over and over again of his perfect trust in God. "Be of good courage and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord." " None of them that trust in the Lord shall be desolate."* * Psalm 34, t Psalm 23. | Psalm 119, Verge 75. Psalm 31, 54 DAVID AND GOLIATH These are only a few of his sayings. I hope you will all read the Psalms and learn many of their grand and comforting verses, and that they will help and cheer you, as they have helped and cheered countless men and women and children for over 3000 years. XI. JONAH. I AM sure you all know the story of Jonah. God sent him to prophecy destruction to the City of Nineveh, because of the wickedness of the people there, and then Nineveh was not destroyed, for the people turned from their wicked ways and repented, and so God forgave them and spared them. But Jonah was very angry, because he only thought of himself, and feared that he would be discredited because what he had foretold had not happened. If, instead of thinking of himself, he had thought of the awful misery that the destruction of Nineveh would have brought on those 120,000 people who lived there, he would have been glad and thankful for God's mercy in sparing them. The story tells us how God taught Jonah to think of this. Jonah went out of Nineveh into his tent on the east side of the City, feeling aggrieved and angry. 56 JONAH Then a gourd grew up and shaded his tent and made him so comfortable with the cool delicious air that he became quite happy and cheerful again. We will read the rest of the story in the words of the Bible. " But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. "And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said : * it is better for me to die than to live.' " And God said to Jonah, * Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd ?' And he said, 'I do well to be Angry, even unto death.' " Then said the Lord, ' Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six- score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand ; and also much cattle?'" It is specially useful for us to think of this story in times of war. To the question, " Doest thou well JONAH 57 to be angry," Jonah answered, " I do well to be angry even unto death." Now that is a very dangerous attitude of mind for anyone of us to indulge in, and as God shewed Jonah, it is wrong. I do not say war is wrong, but anger is wrong. And in war time it is very, very difficult to keep from anger, and anger soon leads to hatred, which is terribly wrong. I am going to tell you a story to show you how love may prevail over hatred, even in war. It is about some Jews who were fighting in Arabia more than 1300 years ago, when the Jews had been driven by the Romans out of Jerusalem and Palestine and were scattered over many different countries. Of these countries Arabia was one of the nearest places of refuge, stretching along the East side of the Red Sea. At that tune Arabia was inhabited by various families, each of whom founded a city and lived in and around it. The cleverer and stronger members of the family became leaders or chieftains, and the others were the followers and soldiers. They all worked and fought for the leader or chieftain, just as the Scottish clans in the Middle Ages were pro- tected and governed by their chiefs. The groups of Jews who fled into Arabia settled near to one or other of these Arab clans, and each 58 JONAH group of Jews became loyally attached to the clan and chieftain under whose protection they lived. Now sometimes the Arab clans quarrelled with each other and went to war, and the Jews with one Arab clan might find themselves fighting other Jews attached to another Arab clan. Wherever this hap- pened, the Jews on the victorious side ransomed their brethren who had been taken prisoners, looking on it as a duty taught them by their religion to save them from a life of terrible slavery. When we think that the Jews were living among a people who, although they had many good points, were always extremely cruel to their enemies, it makes us realize how truly the Jewish religion is a religion of love. Jews fought bravely and loyally for their friends, but when the fight was over, they shewed not anger and not hatred, but generous love and pity for their opponents. Religion played its true part with them in war. XII. THE WIDOW'S CRUSE. I Kings, Chapter 17, Verses 1-16. ONCE upon a time thousands of years ago, in the land of Israel where our forefathers lived, there was not enough food for the people to eat. The summer went on and no rain came and all the fields dried up, so that there was no grass for the cows and the sheep, and no corn for the people to grind into flour to make bread. Everyone saw the little store they had from last year growing smaller and smaller each day, and they all tried to eat less and less to make it last longer, and they grew thinner and thinner, and more and more hungry. That is what is called a Famine, and it is a terrible thing. In those days there lived a very good man named Elijah. He was a prophet, for God had made him yery wise and able to perceive His laws, 60 THE WIDOW'S CRUSE When the famine came, Elijah lived by the side of a little river. Now there were some ravens that came to drink at the river. Ravens are big black birds like crows, very strong, and fond of fighting. They fight with birds not so big as themselves, and when they kill them, they eat them. The ravens used to bring the birds they had killed to their nests, and Elijah used to eat some of the ravens' meat and drink the water of the little river. But, after a while, the river dried up, because there had been no rain in the land, and so the ravens came no more. Then the word of God came to Elijah to go and ask a poor widow at a city called Zarephath to give him a little food, and a little water to drink. So Elijah went to Zarephath, and when he reached the gate of the city, there was the widow gathering sticks. And Elijah said to her, " Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink." And as she was going to fetch it he called to her and said, " Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand." And she said, " I have nothing but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse " (a cruse means a jug), " and I am just gathering two sticks that I may go in and cook it for me and THE WIDOW'S CRUSE 61 my son that we may eat it, and then when it is gone we shall die, for it is the last morsel of food we have." And Elijah said to her, " Make me a little loaf too." And she went and made a little loaf for him too. Then Elijah perceived that God would reward the widow for her kindness in giving him a part of her very last morsel of food, and he said to her, " Fear not, the barrel of flour shall never be all gone, nor the cruse of oil quite empty till the famine ceases in the land." And the barrel of flour never was all gone, nor the cruse of oil quite empty, according to the word of the Lord by Elijah, till the rain came down and brought food out of the earth, and the famine came to an end. Think of the kindness of that poor woman. She had only a tiny handful of flour left, yet she was ready to give some of it away. How truly kind and charitable she was ! If people who have very little, so that if they wish to help others, they must do without something they need very badly themselves, if these poor people give from their tiny store, as the widow gave to Elijah from her last handful of food, how much more still is 62 THE WIDOW'S CRUSE it the duty of those who have plenty for themselves to set aside some share for others. Who gave us plenty ? God. Why have we plenty ? God has given it to us in trust to make good use of it. As the 112th Psialm reminds us, the good man is gracious and full of compassion. He has kindness and charity. The Hebrew word for charity is the same as for righteousness, for the Israelites in all ages have understood that God has given to all of us, rich and poor, old and young, some power of giving our help to others, and just like the oil in the widow's cruse, and the flour in her barrel, that power will never cease. We must always remember that whatever we have, God has given us on trust, to use for the help and comfort of our fellow- creatures. If we can give them no other help, we can give a good example by trying to be brave when we are in pain or sorrow or want. We see our big friends all giving money and help to ease suffering and to end the war. We see and know the pain and sorrow that war brings and we can help in our little way to soften that pain. Do we spend our pennies on toys' for ourselves ? No, we give them to buy comforts for prisoners, or to send nice warm clothes to our soldiers, sailors and WIDOWS CRUSE ea airmen, who are guarding us, or for the help of those who are ill or unhappy. We shall have our reward, for we shall learn the joy of giving and of feeling that we are trying to carry out faithfully the trust that God has given to us, the power of helping other people. XIII. FAST OF AB. BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON, THERE WE SAT DOWN, YEA, WE WEPT, WHEN WE REMEMBERED ZION. WE HANGED OUR HARPS UPON THE WILLOWS IN THE MIDST THEREOF. FOR THERE THEY THAT CARRIED US AWAY CAPTIVE REQUIRED OF US A SONG : AND THEY THAT WASTED US REQUIRED OF US MIRTH, SAYING, SING US ONE OF THE SONGS OF ZION. HOW SHALL WE SING THE LORD'S SONG IN A STRANGE LAND? IF I FORGET THEE, O JERUSALEM, LET MY RIGHT HAND FORGET HER CUNNING. IF I DO NOT REMEMBER THEE, LET MY TONGUE CLEAVE TO THE ROOF OF MY MOUTH, IF I PREFER NOT JERUSALEM ABOVE MY CHIEF JOY. Psalm 137, Verses 1-6. TO-DAY is called the Fast of Ab, because on this day, which is in the month of Ab in the Hebrew calendar, we commemorate the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, first by the Babylonians nearly 2,500 years ago and finally by the Romans 600 years later. I reiad those verses from Psalm 137, because they make us understand the feeling of the exiles, after Jerusalem was conquered and the Temple destroyed. FAST OF AB 65 Great events in our history are kept in our minds (and in the minds of our children and our children's children, generation after generation) by our Fasts and our Festivals, which we celebrate year by year by gathering together to say prayers and to give thanks to God. Some of these special days are to make us re- member joyful events in our history, some are to bring very sad events to our minds. We rejoice at Passover, in honour of our release from slavery in Egypt. We rejoice at Pentecost, in honour of God's great laws that taught us, men, women and children, for all time how to be good and how to avoid doing wrong. Whether they are in remembrance of sad events or of joyful events, these anniversaries bring our thoughts nearer to God. We thank him for the happy and joyful things that have happened to us, for we know it is Hisi goodness, and His loving- kindness that have given us happiness. And when sad things happen, though they make us feel sad, still we trust always in God; amid our sorrow we know that, though we cannot understand why, it is God that has made us sad, and there must be some good reason that will perhaps only shew itself long, long afterwards. 66 FAST OF AB The history of the Fast of Ab teaches us this lesson. More than 1700 years ago Jerusalem was captured by the Romans, the beautiful Temple was burnt to the ground, the Jews were driven out from their hbme country and were scattered far and wide over the world. It seemed the most dreadful misfortune and misery to those poor home- less outcasts. But a wonderful thing happened. During the Siege of Jerusalem, some students bearing a coffin came to the walls of the City and prayed the besiegers to let them carry the coffin forth out of the City. The soldiers consented. When the coffin-bearers reached the tent of Vespasian, the Roman general, they opened the coffin and out of it stepped a venerable Rabbi, named Johanan ben Zakkai. He presented himself to the General and asked him to hear a petition. " Let me," he said, "go forth to Jabneh and live there hi peace to study and to teach." Vespasian consented, and Johanan and his students settled at Jabneh (30 miles from Jerusalem) and there founded a school for the study of the Torah. That school taught some wise men and they taught others, and thus Israelites grew wiser and wiser, and in the course of the next 1000 years, when most people were thinking of nothing but fighting, th*> FAST OF AB 67 Israelites were studying the laws of God, that they might tell and teach them to the world. Our forefathers had to be spread and scattered over the world in order to do this) work. As we look back over seventeen hundred years, we see that those homeless suffering Jews, who fled far and wide before the Roman soldiers, were being scattered in order to teach other peoples the great truths of God. Out of their sufferings grew wisdom and blessings for the whole world. We who are the descendents of those Israelites, must keep on holding fast to our faith in God and shewing the world the great laws that God has taught us. We must love Him and must shew our love for Hun by being kind and helpful to all our fellow-creatures ; and because we love Him we will pour out our hearts in prayer to Him, the One God, who permits all human souls, however humble, to tell Him their thoughts and their hopes. XIV. WHATSOEVER THY HAND FINDETH TO DO, DO IT WITH THY MIGHT. Ecclesiastes, Chapter 9, Verse 10. HE THAT IS OF A MERRY HEART HATH A CONTINUAL FEAST. Proverbs, Chapter 15, Verse 15. I WANT you to-day to think with me about two verses in the Bible. They are both sayings of that very wise man King Solomon, and the lesson they teach is just as useful to you and to me as it was to our forefathers long, long ago. I think, if you follow the advice of King Solomon " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might," you will be rewarded by finding yourself the happy possessor of the merry heart that Solomon says is like " a continual feast." What does he mean by a continual feast ? He is not like the boy who said he thought the greatest happiness was to swing on a gate and eat chocolate all day long. No, he does not mean that idle loafing sort of pleasure, which soon wears out. Solomon means the continual sense of happiness and enjoyment WHATSOEVER THY HAND FlNDETH TO DO 69 which arises when we know that we are doing our best. If we are doing our best, then we get a cheery feeling of enjoyment that is lasting, that is in fact "a perpetual feast." For there is a huge satisfaction in trying to do a thing thoroughly well, to turn out our work so that we can feel proud, not of ourselves, but of our work. It does make the heart merry and everyone of us can have that joy and satisfaction. A dear friend of mine, who was a very hard worker, used to call it pride of workmanship, and it comes from doing whatever you have in hand with all your might. For instance, if it is a sum, don't only do the sum, put it on paper as neatly and completely as you can. You will find an added pleasure in handing it up with beautiful figures on clean paper. Shakespeare makes one of his characters say : '"I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares do more is none."* That means, if you set to work pluckily at some difficult job, determined to succeed in doing it, you go from strength to strength. Your own courage carries you along and you succeed better than seemed possible when you began. * Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7. ?0 WHATSOEVER THY HAND FINDETH TO DO I once heard Lord Thring address some boys who were just leaving school and going to begin to earn their living. He said "Now boys, you all want to do well in life and to succeed in whatever you try. Well, it's not Luck but Pluck that brings success. Stick to your work and never be satisfied to do as well as other people, but try to do better. Never think how well you've done, but think how much better you mean to make yourself ready to do the next thing that comes your way." If we want to do all the little things in life well, and the big ones too, we have to be trying at all tunes (instead of just now and then) to do our best, and so we get the habit of taking as much pains as we can to do everything as well as we can. Have you ever heard of Benjamin Disraeli? He was a very clever but an unusual sort of person. He looked rather unlike most people and he thought rather unlike most people, and he used to startle people by his ideas. Well, he was elected a member of Parliament, and soon tried to make his first speech hi the House of Commons. But his manner and his looks and some of the things he said were so very startling and unusual, that the Members jeered at him and would not listen to him, and he had to sit down. As he did so, he said, " Some day, you DO IT WITH THY MIGHT 71 shall listen to me." Forty years later that man be- came leader of the House of Commons and Prime Minister to Queen Victoria. I began by saying there is; a huge satisfaction in doing our very best over any bit of work we have in hand. But there is more than that, for it is our duty to make the best use of the powers that God has given to us. Suppose I were to give one of you a precious gift such as a camera. If you took nice photographs and kept the camera carefully, I should be pleased that I had given it to you. I should say you deserved to have that camera. God has given us all very precious gifts. He has given us the power of thinking, of seeing, of working. If we use those gifts well, we are shewing our thanks to the Giver. Do you remember the eighth Psalm which reminds us that God has given us power over all the works of His hands over all animals, " all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea." The birds, beasts and fishes cannot think or reason. They never change their ways, but do the same things by instinct, generation after generation. But we, men and women, boys and girls, can think, and must be always trying to change to change for the better by becoming wiser through knowledge, and kinder, 72 WHATSOEVER THY HAND FINDETH TO DO as we know and understand God's infinite kindness to us. I hope you each say a prayer to God every morning to thank Him for His merciful care of you at all times, and to pray for His help to guide you to do what is right and to keep yourself from doing what you know is wrong. If you have got up in good time and made yourself as clean and neat as you can, that is in itself a little prayer to God. It is a little effort on your part to make the best use of the power God has given you of knowing right and wrong, and so it gives more meaning to your prayer to God to help you to be good, for you are trying to shew that you are grateful for the powers God has given you. XV. HOLIDAYS. AND THOU SHALT REJOICE IN THY FEAST, THOU AND THY SON, AND THY DAUGHTER, AND THY MANSERVANT, AND THY MAID- SERVANT, AND THE LEVITE, THE STRANGER, AND THE FATHER- LESS, AND THE WIDOW, THAT ARE WITHIN THY GATES. Deuteronomy, Chapter 16, Verse 14. THIS is the last time we shall meet for awhile as the summer holidays are just beginning, and I expect you are all going away into the country. So I have chosen these words from Deuteronomy to read to you. The sentence occurs four times* in the speech that Moses made to the Israelites when their wanderings were about to end, and they were going to cross the river Jordan to enter the beautiful land that was to be their home. Moses told them it was " a land that floweth with milk and honey," and "a land of hills and valleys" which "drinketh water of the rain of heaven," f very different to the arid sand-covered * Compare Deuteronomy, Chapter 16, Verse 11; and Chapter 12, Verses 7 and 12. t Deuteronomy, Chapter 11, Verses 9 and 11, 74 HOLIDAYS rainless plains of Egypt that they were leaving, that could only be tilled and sown along the narrow strip watered once a year by the overflowing of the great river Nile. God ordained that people should have holidays, and when Moses impressed this on the Israelites, he told them how they should have holidays in their new home. " And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast," he said, " thou and thy son and thy daughter and thy manservant and thy maidservant." For God bids us not to have selfish enjoyment, but to try to make others share our holiday and enjoy it with us. I hope you will all have happy holidays. I hope you will all give happy holidays to your parents and brothers and sisters and playmates, and to the people round about you. Do you ever think what that word holidays means ? It means Holy Days. Now when you are packing up to go away, I want you just to pack into a corner of your memory the thought that holidays are not only to be jolly days, but also to be holy days, days when you try to make others happy as well as en- joying yourselves. Be thoughtful for your mother and father, for each other, and for your servants too. Think what you can do to make all around you enjoy your being with them. HOLIDAYS 75 There aore two alternative things that may happen at the end of the holidays. I will tell you what they are, and you just think which of them you would like to happen. One is for your people at home to feel, " Oh ! what a good thing the holidays are over. The children want so much looking after, so much amusement provided for them to keep them out of mischief. It is a comfort they have gone back to school !" That is not a nice thing to happen, is it? But now think of the other thing which may happen. Everyone at home may say, " We do miss the children now they have gone back to school. It seems so quiet without their merry voices and busy plans. They were always so sweet and bright, and always ready to run messages or to do any little thing they could to help everyone and save extra trouble. They invented their own games and were so happy together, and never quarrelled. We are sorry to be without them all day !" When that is the feeling at the end of the holidays, they have been holy days as well as jolly days, and I hope you will all have such holidays, and come home ever so much bigger and stronger and feeling fresh and ready to begin to learn again when the New Year comes round. Don't let the holidays pass altogether without ?6 HOLIDAYS reading. You needn't choose a big book or a diffi- cult book, but just read one book at least. I think the nicest sort of book to read is the life of some] very wonderful person, or the history of some very heroic deeds. These make us feel what great and wonderful possibilities there are in life, and that we too must try always to do our best fearlessly. And let us not forget the poor and the suffering for whom there are no holidays. We must try during our holidays to do something for them. A little knitting or crochet will make our girls' holidays all the sweeter; boys can do a little carpentering, or can at least spend some of their allowance for those who have to pass weary hours in hospital. Let the law of kindness guide your words and your acts, and then I not only hope but believe you will all have happy holidays. XVI. NEW YEAR. I AM so glad to meet you all again, and particularly glad to meet you to-day. You know last Thursday was our New Year'si Day, the beginning of the year. I always think the Jewish New Year, which is in the early autumn, is the real New Year of human life. Coming as it does after the hot long days of summer rest, it is the time when we all start afresh. School children begin a new year of work, so do the lawyers, the members of Parliament and many other people. As we walk through the streets we see station omnibuses laden with the luggage of people coming home, and all looking so fresh and ready to begin work again after their holidays. I hope you have all had jolly holidays. I hope you have come home determined to shew that your holidays 1 were really Holy Days, and that you have grown not only stronger and bigger but better too, I hope you are stronger not only in 78 NEW YEAB your arms and legs, but also in your wish and power to help anyone who is in trouble, stronger in your love of God, in your determination to try always to be good and not to let yourselves be tempted to do what you know to be wrong, whether in little things or in big things. If a thing is wrong and you know it is wrong, don't say " Oh, it won't matter this once," but instead " depart from evil," as David says in the 84th Psalm, and then he adds "and do good." Don't waste time and do nothing, or you are so likely to be tempted to do idle mischief . Let us all shew our thanks to God for the holidays by starting well on our New Year of work. Let us make up our minds never to waste time, but to use it always either for good hard work or for good hard play, to try always to hold ourselves back from doing wrong, and to try hard to do right. Now I 84 PSALM CXXX stant struggle with our own faults, and that if we only try hard enough, we can, through the mercy of God, earn His full forgiveness, " plenteous redemp- tion." "For there is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayest be feared," a watchword of courage and comfort for all who have done wrong. " Fear the Lord " means fear to break the laws of God. But if you have failed once, don't despair. Make up your mind to try hard to do better, and to be more obedient to God's laws. That will be fearing God, and if you have that fear of disobeying God's laws, then God will forgive your sins. And so we learn to feel a helpful fear, but never to despair, never to give up trying to be good. We will always pray for the merciful forgiveness of God, and hope in the Lord. XVIII. PSALM 15. LORD WHO SHALL ABIDE IN THY TABERNACLE? WHO SHALL DWELL IN THY HOLY HILL? HE THAT WALKETH UPRIGHTLY, AND WORKETH RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND SPEAKETH THE TRUTH IN HIS HEART. HE THAT BACKBITETH NOT WITH HIS TONGUE, NOR DOETH EVIL TO HIS NEIGHBOUR, NOR TAKETH UP A RE- PROACH AGAINGT HIS NEIGHBOUR. IN WHOSE EYES A BAD PERSON is DESPISED; BUT HE HONOURETH THEM THAT FEAR THE LORD. HE THAT SWEARETH TO HIS OWN HURT, AND CHANGETH NOT. HE THAT PUTTETH NOT OUT HIS MONEY TO USURY, NOR TAKETH REWARD AGAINST THE INNOCENT. HE THAT DOETH THESE THINGS SHALL NEVER BE MOVED. THE 180th Psalm that we read together last Sabbath tells us how we must try to obtain God's merciful forgiveness when we have done wrong. To-day we will read the 15th Psalm, which tells us how we can best try to please God in iaJl the things we do and say in our every-day life. If we spend some of our Sabbath in thinking about how we should try to be good in order to please God, I am sure it will help us to do what is right during the coming week. But it is not enough to think about it on the 86 PSALM XV Sabbath only. We must think about doing what is right every day, and all day. All day long we are doing something, little things are happening in which we take our part. We can do our part well, or we can do our part badly, even in little tiny things, like playing games, or eating our meals or dressing ourselves. I once heard an old gentleman tell some children when he was distributing prizes at their school that all through life they must try to do everything as well as they possibly could. " I can see," he said, " whether anyone knows how to do his best, if I see him make up a parcel. If the paper is all crumpled and crookedly folded and the string loose, I know the fellow who made up the parcel will never do well in life." That old gentleman began life as a very poor boy. He determined to do his best. He worked hard and became top boy in his school and won a scholarship to Oxford University, and afterwards became a great lawyer and a judge. His name was Lord Thring. I often think of him when I see people doing things carelessly and untidily. Let us read our Psalm again, verse by verse, and think what each verse teaches us. " Ix>rd, who shall abide in thy tabernacle ? Who PSALM XV 87 shall dwell in Thy holy hill?" To understand this verse you must remember that it was written by a poet in the East. People in the East speak very differ- ently from our way in the West. They are never in a hurry. They do not use short words like yes and no. They do not give direct answers to ques- tions, nor say simply just what they mean. When Jacob wanted to say he would die of grief if any harm happened to his dear son Benjamin, he said, " If mischief befall him, then shall ye bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave."* People in the East often express their thoughts in imagery, that is, they do not say the actual thing they are describing, but speak of some other thing that suggests to our minds the idea in their mind. In England we do not use imagery in ordinary talking, but in poetry we do use it. When Shakespeare wants to describe England he calls it, " this precious stone set in the silver sea," t comparing it to a jewel and so suggesting its beauty and how dearly we all love our native land. He doesn/'t say this, but he brings the thought into our mind, without saying it. That is imagery. * Genesis, Chapter 49, Verse 38. f King Richard II., Act 2, Scene 1, 88 PSALM XV The imagery of this first verse of our Psalm, with- out actually asking, conveys to our mind the question : Who is really trying to be good and always thinking whether he is behaving in the way that will please God ? Then comes the answer. " He that walketh uprightly," that means is honest and straight- forward; " and worketh righteousness," that means is fair and just to everyone ; " and speaketh the truth in his heart," that means, loves the truth and always speaks it. " He that backbiteth not with his tongue," that is, never says nasty things about other people; "nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour." I think I can best explain that by telling you a story. Someone came to a very deaf friend of mine and, taking up his ear trumpet, began to complain of something that one of his neighbours had been doing. My friend took down his trumpet so that he could not hear, and said, " I always stand up for my friends, particularly when they are in the wrong." That good old man was too loyal to take up a reproach against a friend or a neighbour. " In whose eyes a bad person is despised, but he honoureth them that fear the Lord." This means PSALM XV 89 that the man who tries to make his conduct pleasing to God will have nothing to do with wicked people, but he loves those who, like himself, try to obey God's laws. " He that sweareth even to his own hurt, and changeth not." He never breaks a promise, even if keeping it is very, very difficult. " He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent." He is generous with his money, and never will be tempted by an offer of money to do what he knows to be wrong. "He that doeth these things shall never be moved." No, he is as firm as a rock, because he lets nothing ever move him from what he knows to be right and good conduct, pleasing to God. He is always trying to be worthy to abide in God's tabernacle and to dwell on His holy hill. XIX. PSALMS OF PRAISE. THERE are many Psalms which begin and end with "Hallelujah" a fine ringing sound. What does it mean? It is the Hebrew for "Praise ye the Lord." Let us think to-day how we can praise the Lord, and let us see if the Psalms will help us. I think they will shew us many ways of praising God. One way is to try to think about all the wonderful things God has made for us to use; and enjoy. The spring makes us think of many of God's wonders. The new leaves unfold and the grass springs up and the flowers are blooming, and the birds are singing and little lambs and little calves and little children all make us think how God " renews the face of the earth." In the warm nights we look out of our open window and see the moon and the stars : " PRAISE YE THE LORD. PRAISE YE THE LORD FROM THE HEAVENS : PRAISE HIM IN THE HEIGHTS. PRAISE YE HIM, ALL H|S ANGELS : PRAISE YE HIM ? ALL HIS HOSTS ; PRAISE YE HIM, PSALMS OF PRAISE 91 SUN AND MOON : PRAISE HIM, ALL YE STARS OF LIGHT. PRAISE HIM, YE HEAVENS OF HEAVENS, AND YE WATERS THAT BE ABOVE THE HEAVENS. LET THEM PRAISE THE NAME OF THE LORD : FOR HE COMMANDED, AND THEY WERE CREATED. HE HATH ALSO STABLISHED THEM FOR EVER AND EVER : HE HATH MADE A DECREE WHICH SHALL NOT PASS. PRAISE THE LORD FROM THE EARTH, YE DRAGONS, AND ALL DEEPS. FIRE, AND HAIL; SNOW AND VAPOURS; STORMY WIND FULFILLING HIS WORD; MOUNTAINS AND ALL HILLS; FRUITFUL TREES, AND ALL CEDARS: BEASTS, AND ALL CATTLE; CREEPING THINGS, AND FLYING FOWL : KINGS OF THE EARTH, AND ALL PEOPLE ; PRINCES, AND ALL JUDGES OF THE EARTH : BOTH YOUNG MEN, AND MAIDENS; OLD MEN AND CHILDREN; LET THEM PRAISE THE NAME OF THE LORD; FOR HIS NAME ALONE IS EXCELLENT; HIS GLORY IS ABOVE THE EARTH AND HEAVEN. Psalm 148. Verses 1-13. Here is another Psalm which tells of the wonders that God has created and reminds us how everyone can try to please Him. SING UNTO THE LORD WITH THANKSGIVING; SING PRAISE UPON THE HARP UNTO OUR GOD : WHO COVERETH THE HEAVEN WITH CLOUDS, WHO PREPARETH RAIN FOR THE EARTH, WHO MAKETH GRASS TO GROW UPON THE MOUNTAINS. HE GIVETH TO THE BEAST HIS FOOD, AND TO THE YOUNG RAVENS WHICH CRY. HE DELIGHTETH NOT IN THE STRENGTH OF THE HORSE : HE TAKETH NOT PLEASURE IN THE LEGS OF A MAN. THE LORD TAKETH PLEASURE IN THEM THAT FEAR HIM, IN THOSE THAT HOPE IN HIS MERCY. Psalm 147, verses 7-11. The last Psalm in the Bible pictures for us the different places and different ways in which we can praise God : PRA|SE YE THE LORD. PRAISE GOD IN HIS SANCTUARY,* * Psalm 150, 92 PSALMS OF PRAISE that is, in the holy place, the Synagogue where we come to think about God, and to say our prayers to Him, PBAISB HIM IN THB FIBMAMENT OF HIS POWER,* When we are out of doors looking at the sky, seeing the sun shining, or seeing the stars twinkling and the moon gently gleaming far, far away, we think how all these are the work of God, and are given by Him for us to enjoy. The next verse just expresses this feeling : PEAISE HIM FOR HIS MIGHTY ACTS : PRAISE HIM ACCORDING TO HIS EXCELLENT GREATNESS.* We wish to use the most beautiful sounds and the most beautiful words and to make the prettiest and most graceful movements when we offer our praise and say our thanks to God. As our Psalm says : PRAISB HIM WITH THB SOUND OF THE TRUMPET : PRAISE HIM WITH THE PSALTERY AND HARP. PRAISE HIM WITH THE TIMBREL AND DANCE : PRAISB HIM WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS AND ORGANS. PRAISE HIM UPON THE LOUD CYMBALS : PRAISE HIM UPON THB HIGH-SOUNDING CYMBALS. LET EVERYTHING THAT HATH BREATH PRAISE THE LORD. PRAISE YE THE LORD.* We do not know exactly what all these musical instruments of olden times were like, but let us see what we can discover from their Hebrew names. Shofar, the loud trumpet, has been * Psalm 150. PSALMS OF PRAISE 98 sounded in our Synagogues on New Year and the Day of Atonement through thousands of years, ever since Bible times. It has never been altered, so we know that the Shofar always has been a trumpet made of a ram's horn. The psaltery and the harp, like the harp we still use, were sounded by just lifting the strings with the finger-tips, and then dropping them. The timbrel, used by dancers, was something like our tambourine, and made just one sound rather like a drum. It could be carried in one hand and beaten with the knuckles of thei other hand, as they do in Spanish dances. Now listen to the Hebrew words for stringed instruments, minim. Doesn't that sound like a violin? Ngugaph, the Hebrew word for organ always seems to me to suggest the long solemn notes that come from an organ, which seems to make the very sounds we long for in order to express our praise to God* We try to find the most beautiful sounds, and to use the most beautiful words when we are humbly wishing to express our thanks to God, and so we choose beautiful Psalms and Hymns and beautiful music. Some of the most lovely music in the world has been written for the Psalms. 94 PSALMS OF PRAISE When King David wrote Psalms and sang them, while playing beautiful music on his harp, he felt this would help everyone to draw near God, and so he taught the priests to make daily services of song and praise to God for all people to hear and to join in. Every service ever held, has grown out of this same need which King David felt 3000 years ago. One of the Psalms says, t " Thou madest man to have power over the works of Thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet : all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea," God has trusted us to rule them, so we must always be kind to the birds and beasts that God has put, as the Psalmist says, " under our feet." We are told in the Bible " Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together."* In this country it is not the custom to harness different sorts' of animals together, so you may not realise what an uncomfortable arrangement it is for them. But I have seen in Egypt a camel and a buffalo (which is a very large, slow-moving sort of ox) harnessed together to a plough. The poor buffalo could not keep up with the camel's swift stride, and the camel had never learnt to go at the t Psalm 8, Verse 6. * Deuteronomy, Chapter 22, Verse 10. PSALMS OF PRAISE 95 slow walk of the buffalo, and it was piteous to see them pulling and straining against one another. In Palestine there are no camels, but there are oxen and donkeys which would be as uncomfortable together as the camel and ox. So it is easy to under- stand the reason for the merciful command " Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together." There are many laws given us by Moses about being kind to animals. "If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him."* Don't say, "Oh, it is not my ass, the person to whom it belongs must help it." The poor animal is suffering, you must help it. But if we are to be kind to animals, how much more should we be kind to human beings to each other. "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."t Think always how kind God is to us, " Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." t "His mercy is from everlasting to * Exodus, Chapter 23, Verses 4 and 5. t Leviticus, Chapter 19, Verse 18. $ Psalm 103. 96 PSALMS OP PRAISE everlasting to those that remember his command- ments to do them." t In the last words of the last Psalm, " Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord." tSee Psalm 103. XX PSALM 126. ONCE upon a time, long, long ago, a very wonderful thing happened to the Israelites. They had all been captured by Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, who had taken them away, far from their homes in Palestine. For seventy years they had remained prisoners in Babylon and nearly all of that generation had died, and their children had grown up as exiles. Now at the end of seventy years there was a new King of Babylon named Cyrus, who was 1 a very wise ruler. He saw that the Israelites were good, peace- able people who were useful citizens and obeyed the laws, so King Cyrus liked the Israelites and he felt sorry for them being far from then* own country, and at last he decided that it was right and just to give them all permission to return to Zion. Mount Zion was one of the hills in Jerusalem and was the loving name by which the Israelites of old spoke of their native land. And good King Cyrus not only allowed them to go back to their own country, but he 98 PSALM CXXVI gave them back all their treasures, the beautiful ornaments of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from the Temple of Jerusalem 70 years before. I am going to read you one of their songs of thanksgiving, the 126th Psalm. It is called a Song of Degrees because it was somg by the priests as they marched in procession up the broad flight of steps in the court of the Temple. PSALM 126. WHEN THE LORD TURNED AGAIN THE CAPTIVITY OF ZION, WE WERE LIKE THEM THAT DREAM. THEN WAS OUR MOUTH FILLED WITH LAUGHTER, AND OUR TONGUE WITH SING- ING : THEN SAID THEY AMONG THE NATIONS, THE LORD HATH DONE GREAT THINGS FOR THEM. THE LORD HATH DONE GREAT THINGS FOR US ; WHEREOF WE ARE GLAD. TURN AGAIN OUR CAPTIVITY, O LORD, AS THE STREAMS IN THE SOUTH. THEY THAT SOW IN TEARS SHALL REAP IN JOY. HE THAT GOETH FORTH AND WEEPETH, BEARING PRECIOUS SEED, SHALL DOUBTLESS COME AGAIN WITH REJOICING, BRINGING HIS SHEAVES WITH HIM. PSALM CXXVI 99 Notice those last two verses. "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him." (Sheaves are bundles of ripe corn.) Those are the verses to read when, after trying very hard to do a thing, we have failed. Perhaps it was a school prize that we had set our heart on winning, and we just missed it. Perhaps it was just a game that we were very keen on winning, and instead of winning we were beaten. Well, a clever Englishman once said that among his greatest pleasures was to win a game, and the next best pleasure was to lose it. That man knew how to play a game and how to bear defeat. How shall we make ourselves bear failure or disappointment bravely and never lose heart, but remain full of courage and ready to try again ? Let us think what our Psalm tells us. " He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." The secret is to have the precious seed of trust hi God's help. Then we shall work in an honest straightforward way, not losing our courage or our temper if we fail, determined to persevere and to try, 100 PSALM CXXVI try, try again until we do succeed, and to remember always that difficulties are made to be overcome. Do you know the story of Robert Bruce who was King of Scotland over 500 years ago? In his tune Scotland and England were always fighting against each other, and Robert Bruce was beaten in a great battle and fled away and only just escaped being taken prisoner. He took refuge in a poor country- man's cottage, and lying down exhausted on the floor, he began to think anxiously what he should do to save his country. As he lay there, he noticed a spider busily spinning a, web on the low beams just over his head. He watched the spider trying to carry the slender thread of his web across from one beam to another. Time after tune the thread broke and the spider returned to his starting place, till at last, after spuming a thread, he moved quickly across and, with a great effort, just caught the edge of the next beam. " That little insect has given me a lesson," said Bruce. " If he can persevere and succeed with his tiny powers by trying and trying, so can I," and so he did. He set to work and gathered his army together again and taught them better ways of fighting, and defeated the English King in the famous Battle of Bannockburn. PSALM CXXVI 101 I will tell you another story. You know sometimes the weather in winter is too wet for the farmers to be able to plough and drill holes for planting seeds, because the land is so soft that the horse that draws the drilling machine would make great deep holes with his hoofs. " I shall sow my corn all the same," said one farmer, whom I knew. He took a spade and dug the soil gently into the right shape and then walked over it and sprinkled in the seed as he went along. So in spite of the wet weather, that man took courage and determined not to be beaten. It was very hard, tiring work, but he sowed all his fields by hand, and never used a horse at all. I think he came home rejoicing next harvest time, bearing his sheaves with him. So shall we all, whether we bear with us sheaves of corn or other precious gifts of God, if we only keep carefully our seeds of trust in Him, and exer- cise pluck and perseverance and industry in all our works. XXI. THE DAY OF ATONEMENT. FOR THIS COMMANDMENT WHICH I COMMAND THEE THIS DAY, IT IS NOT HIDDEN FROM THEE, NEITHER IS IT FAR OFF. IT IS NOT IN HEAVEN, THAT THOU SHOULDEST SAY, WHO SHALL GO UP FOR US TO HEAVEN, AND BRING IT UNTO US, THAT WE MAY HEAR IT AND DO IT? NEITHER IS IT BEYOND THE SEA, THAT THOU SHOULDEST SAY, WHO SHALL GO OVER THE SEA FOR US, AND BRING IT UNTO US, THAT WE MAY HEAR IT AND DO IT? BUT THE WORD IS VERY NIGH UNTO THEE, IN THY MOUTH, AND IN THY HEART, THAT THOU MAYEST DO IT. Deuteronomy, Chapter 30, Verses 11-14. THE text, from which we will try to gather courage and comfort on this day of prayer and repentance, contains almost the last words of advice and admonition that Moses spoke to our ancestors before his death. We all lead busy lives, so busy that we scarcely ever find time to think. But thousands of years ago, we Jews and Jewesses were commanded to set apart THE DAY OF ATONEMENT 103 this one day in every year to think to think each one of us over the past years of our own life. We set aside our daily work, our daily occupations, what- ever they may be, and give up the Day of Atone- ment to looking inward, to thinking over all that has happened to us and all that we have done since the last Day of Atonement. Well, that will not be so very useful in leading us towards the end for which we all hope and pray on this solemn and help- ful day, unless we think over the year of our life for one great purpose. What is that purpose ? It is to try to the utmost of our power to deserve the for- giveness of God, for which every one of us earnestly and humbly prays on this day. Now if we want to try hard to deserve forgiveness for all we have done wrong in the past year, it means of course that we want to avoid going on doing the same wrong things in the coming year. So the way we must think of the past year is this. We must be always considering, what could we have done better? Have we controlled our temper or have we let it get the better of us ? Have we said and done unkind things, and wrangled and squabbled when we might have made the soft answer that turneth away wrath, and brought peace and love to those around us? Have 104 THE DAY OF ATONEMENT we always spoken the truth, and not only spoken the truth aloud, but as the Psalmist said, spoken the truth in our heart ? Have we never for a moment thought of letting anyone else bear the blame if we were in fault, never let our heart feel unjust anger, unjust suspicion or unjust jealousy of anyone else ? Have we worked hard at whatever we had to do, or have we scamped our work and tried only to do it in the way that gave us the least trouble, with no pride of workmanship, no effort to do our very best ? We must ask ourselves : Have we indeed tried to bring good and not evil to those around us during all the days of this year? Have we tried truly to cheer them with kindly thoughts and kindly acts when they come home weary and perhaps dispirited ? Have we made their joy our joy, and their sorrow our sorrow, and devoted our loving thoughts and our best efforts to comforting them and helping them ? Have we set before ourselves an ideal of humble, patient and courageous faith hi God under every trial, and of that self-control and cheerfulness and kind- ness which all go to make the happiness of home ? Have we striven after cleanliness, tidiness, thrift, industry and good order ? Have we tried to restrain THE DAY OF ATONEMENT 105 ourselves from an angry word or a hasty blow, or a foolish promise that we know we cannot fulfil ? Have we kept before us the thought of loving God, by trying always to please Him ? Have we always had the Shemang as " frontlets between our eyes?" Those of us who have parents and brothers and sisters at home should ask ourselves, do we make the law of kindness guide our tongues, and our acts ? Are we unselfish? Do we think how we ought to honour our father and our mother, to be staunch and kind friends to our brothers and sisters ? Do we guard ourselves from wasting our time and our money when we should resist the temptation, and rather seek our pleasure in the sweet joy of helping others ? These are the questions we must put to ourselves as we think over our past year, and let us each try honestly to acknowledge to ourselves (for each one knoweth the plague of his own heart) every time that we have failed to try to do our best, failed to resist doing what we know to be wrong, failed to compel ourselves, hi spite of temptation, to turn from the wrong and to do the right. If we make the honest enquiry each hi our own heart, we pave the way for doing better in the future. If, like King David when Nathan the 106 THE DAY OF ATONEMENT prophet pointed out to him his great sin, we say : " I acknowledge my wrong-doing. Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned " ; * if we realise that it is against God we sin, against God who has given us the power to discern between right and wrong, then we are on the road to doing better, then we too can say and feel David's prayer of repentance : " Create in me a clean heart, O God ; and renew a right spirit within me."* The humblest among us, however young, however ignorant, however weak, can be comforted by this prayer. So long as we each try to do our best to be good, and seek in every act of our lives, great and small, to do what we think will please God then we are making the sacrifice that is pleasing to God. " Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust hi the Lord."t Some of us are less fortunate and less strong and less clever than others, but God, who makes us all, knows the hearts of all, and in His infinite mercy and loving kindness He considers all our works and accepts the humblest " sacrifice of righteousness." * Psalm 51. t Psalm 4. THE DAY OF ATONEMENT 107 For some of us I know life is a hard struggle to get through our daily work, and there seems no time to think of anything else, but there is time. In every moment of our lives we can dedicate our work to God by doing it as well as ever we can. I think it helps us very much to remember that our life and powers are a gift from God. He gave us our bodies, He gave us our souls. We must shew our gratitude for the divine gifts by cherishing them carefully and trying to make the best possible use of them. We must keep our bodies, those marvellous machines, clean and in good order. If we let them be dirty or untidy, we are not making the best use of that part of God's gift. And our souls, the spirit within us that triumphs over mere bodily sensation, that can feel joy in divine mercy and in human kindness even while our body is suffering pain, the spirit that gave our ancestors courage to die rejoicing amid torture for the sake of truth and faith, the spirit that inspires our people to bear persecution and almost outlawry sooner than renounce their belief in the one All-merciful God, the spirit that moves us to love one another and to try to soothe the suffering and to cheer the sorrow- ful, how dearly we should prize and cherish that precious gift of God, striving ever to keep it pure and 108 THE DAY OF ATONEMENT untarnished so that it may ever be the mirror within us of the glory and goodness of God. " Cast me not away from Thy presence. Take not Thy holy spirit from me."* Let this be our earnest prayer, and let it be not only a prayer of words but also a prayer of action. As our great lawgiver reminded our forefathers when they were on the eve of beginning a new life, a life no longer as slaves, no longer as a wandering tribe, but as a nation charged with the sacred duty of bearing the eternal message of God to the whole world : " The word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and hi thy heart, that thou mayest do it." Ours is not only a message of words but a message of acts. We are charged not merely to proclaim the commandments of God, but to do them, and to guide all the acts of our lives by them. The message is an eternal message, the commandment an eternal com- mandment. We, just as much as our ancestors, must ever be striving to conduct our lives by the light of the law, which is a beacon of faith and truth and love, of justice and kindness and mercy through- out all iages. May we all be given strength and help to shape * Psalm 51. THE DAY OF ATONEMENT 109 our lives in the thought of striving to please God : " Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in Thee."* Psalm 83. XXII PASSOVER. I WANT to tell you what the great Festival of Pass- over means for Jews throughout the world. You remember the history of Joseph who was sold as a slave into Egypt? When the King of Egypt had a dream that he could not understand, Joseph was the only man who understood the dream ; and he gave such wise advice about it, that the King made him ruler over all Egypt, and invited Joseph's father and brothers and all their families to come and live hi Egypt. They and their children and their children's children after them lived many years hi the land of Egypt and, as the Bible tells us, they increased in numbers and the land was filled with them. But there arose a new King who had for- gotten Joseph and all he did for Egypt, and the new King said to the Egyptians, " These Israelites (as Joseph's people were called) grow more in number and mightier in power than we ; we must make them our slaves, or perhapsi they will try to conquer us." PASSOVER 111 So the Egyptians set hard taskmasters over the Israelites and made their lives bitter with terribly hard work, forcing them to build great cities for the King, and to work without ever having a sabbath day of rest or a holiday. Then the King made a cruel law that every little baby boy that was born to the Israelites should be killed. But one beautiful little boy was hidden by his mother until he was three months old, and then, when she could hide him no longer, she made a cradle of bulrushes and put him hi it in the rushes by the river. And the King's daughter came to the river to bathe, and when she saw the cradle, she sent her maidens to fetch it. She looked in it, and there lay the baby crying, and she felt so sorry for him that she took him home with her, and treated him as though he were her own son, and called his name Moses. One day, after Moses had grown up, he saw an Egyptian beating a poor Israelite slave; Moses was very angry and hit the Egyptian so hard that he killed him. When King Pharaoh heard this, he ordered Moses to be killed, but Moses fled away to a distant land called Midian, where he married, and lived for many years taking charge of the sheep that belonged to his wife's father. One day, as he was wandering with his flock of sheep in a solitary place close to a great 112 PASSOVER mountain, he saw a bush which was all on fire, and yet the bush did not seem to get burnt. While he was watching this wonderful flame, he heard a voice, and it was the voice of God. And God said to Moses : " I am the God of thy Fathers. I have seen the affliction of my people Israel which are in Egypt, and I will deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and I will bring them unto a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Come now, therefore, I will send thee to Pharaoh and thou shalt say to him ' Let my people go that they may serve me,' and thou shalt bring forth my people Israel from Egypt. And to the children of Israel thou shalt say : ' The Lord God of your fathers hath sent me to you to deliver you from the hand of the Egyptians.' " * On the eve of the first night of Passover we read of the wonderful things that God caused to happen in Egypt, of all the terrible plagues that befell the Egyptians, and of how at last the King of Egypt let the Israelites go. He became so frighened that he hurried them out of the land by night, so that they had no time to make any bread to take with them. As the Bible says " The people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being *See Exodus, Chapter 3. PASSOVER 118 bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough they brought from Egypt. Now the sojourning of the Children of Israel who dwelt hi Egypt was 480 years, and it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the self-same day it came to pass that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations." * And so we celebrate this night at the Seder service in which we all take part. Old and young, father and mother, children and grand-children, we all sit round one big table, and we all join together in thanking God for bringing our forefathers safely out of the land of Egypt. We eat unleavened bread as our forefathers did over 3,000 years ago, and we eat some bitter-tasting herbs to remind us how bitter were the sufferings of our people when they were slaves in Egypt. As we lean comfortably back hi our chairs, we remember how our forefathers toiled when they were slaves hi Egypt, and we all thank God for having saved us from slavery. We pray to God to help us to deserve the great blessings and *See Exodus, Chapter 12, Verses 34 and 39-42. H 114 PASSOVER happiness 1 he has given us, and we gather all our children round us so that as Moses said : " When thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, ' What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgements which the Lord our God hath commanded you?' Then thou shalt say unto thy son, * We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.' " * It is over 3,000 years since the Almighty God freed our forefathers, and saved them from being slaves. Do you know what slaves were ? They were people who actually belonged to their masters, just as horses or cattle do, and, however unhappy the slave was, however unkind his master was, the poor slave could never go away from serving him. There were shops for buying and selling slaves, they were called slave markets, and masters would go there and buy slaves, big strong men and women and even little children, for the children of slaves were slaves too. God saved our ancestors from being slaves and for this we thank Him and sing songs of joy and grati- tude to him on the Feast of Passover. But Passover is not only the festival of our freedom. Why did God free us from slavery ? He * Deuteronomy, Chapter 6, Verses 20-21. PASSOVER 115 freed us so that we might do a great work that He commanded us. Long before the Israelites went out of Egypt, He had told their ancestor Abraham " I will make of thee a great nation, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed."* How did God do this ? He made the Israelites into a nation, and He gave them the laws of righteousness, good- ness, and justice, and He gave them the great duty of teaching these laws to the whole world. These laws are contained in the Ten Commandments and the Shemang. By our teaching and telling them, the message of Passover becomes a message of freedom not only for the children of Israel but for all men and women. So on this night we thank God not only for giving us our freedom and a beautiful land flowing with milk and honey, but also for giving us the knowledge of his laws of goodness and the great trust of making us his messengers to tell and to teach them to the whole world. Genesis, Chapter 12, Verses 2 and 3 ; Chapter 18, Verse 18 ; Chapter 22, Verse 18 ; Chapter 26, Verse 4. 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