y tfAavnani^
 
 DISCOURSES, 
 
 ARGUMENTATIVE A N D D E V OT I ON A L, 
 
 ON THE SUBJECT OF 
 
 THE JEWISH RELIGION. 
 
 "DELIVERED CHIEFLY 
 
 AT THE SYNAGOGUE MIKVEH ISRAEL, IN PHILADELPHIA, 
 IN THE YEARS 55985601, 
 
 BY 
 
 ISAAC LEESER, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE ABOVE CONGREGATION. 
 
 : yv }"i2' uroazi vxi 'n oxa 'im HD NiSn 
 : 'CD 'jo 'DT 
 
 " Behold ! thus is my word, says the Lord, like the fire, and like the 
 hammer that shivereth the rock." JEREMIAH xxiii. 29. 
 
 SECOND SERIES, 
 
 OR 
 
 VOL. III. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 PUBLISHED AT 1 MONROE PLACE, LOCUST STREET. 
 
 PRINTED BY C. SHERMAN AND CO. 
 
 5601.
 
 Entered according to act of Congress, on the 12th January, in the year 
 1841, by ISAAC LEESER, in the Clerk's office of the District Court for the 
 Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. III. 
 
 DISCOURSES PAGES 
 
 I. Call to Repentance ..... 1 
 
 II. The Redemption of Israel .... 12 
 
 III. The Mission of the Prophets .... 23 
 
 IV. Religious Education and Repentance ... 34 
 V. Obedience to the Law . . . . .45 
 
 VI. The Resignation of Aaron .... 54 
 
 VII. The Uncertainty of Life ..... 69 
 
 VIII. The Revelation on Sinai .... 85 
 
 IX. Religious Union ...... 98 
 
 X. The Sorrows of Israel . . . .. 109 
 
 XL The Requirements of the Law .... 122 
 
 XII. The Duty of Contentment . . . . 137 
 
 XIII. The Way of Life . '" . . . - . . 149 
 
 XIV. Salvation through Repentance . . . 162 
 XV. The Covenant of Abraham , ' . . ' . 176 
 
 XVI. Religious Education, 1. . ... . 188 
 
 XVII. Religious Education, 2. . . 201 
 
 XVIII. Religious Education, 3. ^ . . . . 215 
 
 XIX. Motives of Charity . .. > , ._ , 234 
 
 XX. Funeral Address . . . ' . 243 
 
 XXI. Persecution of the Jews . . . . .248 
 
 XXII. Prayer at the S. S. Examination, 1. . . . 261 
 
 XXIII. Prayer at the S. S. Examination, 2. . .265
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE kind reception which has been extended to my first series of 
 Discourses, published four years ago, and the frequent inquiries for a 
 continuation of the same, have emboldened me to appear again before 
 the public with this new claimant of their favour. The present col- 
 lection is rather less than a half of the former ; since various inter- 
 ruptions, which I need not enumerate, independently of the shorter 
 period during which they were delivered, prevented me from speaking 
 as often as I might have wished. It is truly to be regretted that so 
 far public addresses on religious topics have constituted but a small 
 portion of our devotional exercises in all the countries where the 
 English is spoken ; and I believe that it may be said without any 
 vanity on my part, that in our Synagogue was the first attempt made 
 for about ten years past to give religious instruction in lectures. It 
 can easily be imagined that there are many difficulties in the way of 
 a successful pursuit of the calling of a public teacher among our 
 people in this country, owing chiefly to the fact, that we are com- 
 posed of persons from every European nation, and that therefore to 
 many the English language is partly unintelligible, especially as in 
 an oration the ideas cannot be always conveyed in very simple 
 language, without divesting the subject of all dignity. Still much 
 might be done in furtherance of the introduction and support of 
 teaching by lectures, if those sufficiently well acquainted with the 
 vernacular tongue of England and America would lend their coun- 
 tenance, and elect either ministers capable of speaking no less than 
 reading after the accepted mode, or appoint public lecturers in 
 addition to the usual officers of the Synagogue. No doubt the latter 
 method would be more in accordance with the public wants ; because 
 the Reader proper has to perform duties sufficiently laborious without 
 having to preach when the usual service is finished, or during the 
 same. Besides this, it is not likely that, generally speaking, there
 
 VJii PREFACE. 
 
 will be found many capable of officiating with equal ability in both 
 capacities, of Preachers and Readers ; especially as the requisite 
 qualities for both stations have little in common beyond an acquaint- 
 ance with the Hebrew language ; since our worship is altogether in 
 this tongue, and no one can be competent to expound the Text 
 correctly without being, to say the least, moderately well versed in 
 the original dialect of the Bible. But there are two difficulties in the 
 way ; I mean the smallness of our congregations, and their limited 
 means, greatly opposed to carrying out this plan, even if competent 
 preachers could be found, which is not the case now, except in very 
 small numbers, owing to there being no schools of our own on a 
 liberal scale, either in England or America. Hence the whole num- 
 ber of preachers as far as known to me among the Jews speaking 
 English is but four ; to wit : Mr. David Isaacs of Liverpool and 
 Manchester, England ; Mr. Samuel M. Isaacs of the Congregation 
 Benai Yeshurun, New York ; Mr. Moses N. Nathan of the German 
 Congregation, Kingston, Jamaica, and myself. It is true that occa- 
 sionally lectures were delivered before the above commenced the 
 calling of public teachers and since, by the late Rev. Gershom M. 
 Seixas of New York, the late Rev. Emanuel N. Carvalho of Philada., 
 Rev. A. H. Cohen of Richmond, Dr. Jacob De La Motta of Charles- 
 ton, and several other ministers, besides occasional volunteer lectures 
 from laymen, (if such a word can be with propriety used among 
 Israelites ;) but no appointment was ever made with a view to ser- 
 mons except in the case of the Messrs. Isaacs, since Mr. Nathan and 
 myself were only elected as Readers, and our speaking has therefore 
 been a voluntary matter. The general wish, however, which has 
 been expressed by many congregations to have sermons delivered in 
 their Synagogues, chiefly at Charleston and St. Thomas, and the 
 Portuguese Congregations of London and Jamaica, will no doubt 
 lead ultimately to capable persons being appointed as teachers of the 
 Word, and may induce several intelligent young men to qualify 
 themselves for the ministry by careful preparation. The great evil 
 hitherto prevailing has been that literary attainments have not been 
 expected of our Readers ; but it is to be hoped, that either additional 
 officers will be appointed, or that those only will be selected who, in 
 addition to a good voice and an acquaintance with the liturgy, have 
 sufficient capacity to speak to their brethren if occasion requires. 
 There is however in the usual management of the Synagogue some- 
 thing inconsistent with the appointment of men of endowment to the 
 station of minister, inasmuch as the temporal rulers have too much
 
 PREFACE. j x 
 
 \ 
 
 direct interference with the Hazan in every public act in which he 
 can engage. Now it is all well and proper to leave the management 
 of every temporal concern in the hands of the President and his 
 assistants ; but the minister should not be in the discharge of his 
 proper duties altogether subservient to the temporal managers, who 
 ought to confine themselves strictly to their branch of duty, and 
 leave the public worship in the proper hands of those elevated to 
 conduct it. It is in the nature of man to desire freedom of 
 action; and the same feeling therefore which renders us restive 
 under political subjection, will also create an uneasiness, far from 
 promoting harmony, in the minds of ministers of religion if they 
 are rendered subservient to persons who evidently cannot be more 
 religious and better informed than they are themselves. No doubt 
 this evil originated in former years in the large congregations of 
 Europe, who were always provided with Rabbins and teachers in 
 sufficient numbers to require of the Reader nothing more than certain 
 duties in the Synagogue, for which the chief requisites were, besides 
 a correct moral and religious conduct, a thorough knowledge of the 
 accepted tunes and the manner of performing the service, and these 
 qualities very often constituted the whole of the qualifications 
 demanded or desired. But the times have changed ; and in America 
 and England up to this moment there is not more than one Rabbi 
 who can preach in English, the others being Germans, and those 
 who are in this country came among us but recently ; consequently 
 it seems but reasonable to extend to the Readers some more con- 
 sideration than they now enjoy, if the public expect duties from 
 them, which their predecessors did not or could not accomplish. For 
 as it is now, few indeed will be found, who have minds of sufficient 
 capacity to acquire a knowledge of sciences and languages to qualify 
 themselves for the station of Reader and Lecturer, when they see 
 that the pursuit of the legal and medical professions give them so 
 much more ease, influence, and importance in society. It may be 
 said, that persons should bring into the ministry a devotion to this 
 noble calling, which will rise above the annoyances and deprivations 
 of life* yet this is all well enough when the mind has once reached 
 this elevation of piety by a long train of reflection and a long course 
 of virtuous actions ; but it cannot be expected that young men will 
 qualify themselves for a station which is fraught with annoyance and 
 deprivation, when the same labour otherwise directed will have very 
 different results. And surely it is the interest of all those feeling 
 sincerely the holiness of our faith, to make it by their acts better
 
 x PREFACE. 
 
 understood and more loved, or, in other words, to be the means of 
 inducing those endowed with high intellect to step forward to assume 
 with pleasure and an animated ardour the responsible office of 
 teacher of that blessed religion which is our own inheritance, and 
 our heavenly patrimony from ages which reach to the verge of 
 civilization. 
 
 In Germany, principally I believe in the larger cities, for instance 
 Hamburg, Berlin, Glogau, Prague, Frankford, Munich, and no doubt 
 other places, Rabbins and lecturers have been appointed chiefly with 
 the view of delivering weekly or occasional sermons ; and of these, 
 the fame of Bernays, Salomon, Kley, Plessner, Sachs, and others 
 has reached us even at this distance; and lately Miss Goldsmith of 
 London has rendered a service to our literature by rendering twelve 
 sermons of Dr. Salomon into English, although it must be remarked 
 that occasionally this learned preacher endeavours to force his own 
 peculiar views rather too glaringly upon our attention. But it is to 
 be expected, that, as with every thing else, there will be a difference 
 of opinion among the honestly thinking in matters of religion like- 
 wise, the more so since of late certain persons calling themselves 
 reformers have endeavoured to introduce changes in our mode of 
 worship. Now Dr. S. is the principal organ of this portion, a small 
 one indeed thus far, and hence we cannot be surprised that we cannot 
 always approve altogether of his ideas or of the manner in which they 
 are represented to us ; though to do him justice his style is very 
 beautiful and fascinating, and his advice generally wholesome and 
 pious. It is to be regretted that as yet the works of our other 
 preachers have not obtained currency among the English-speaking 
 Jews ; still we may indulge the hope that by degrees such a taste 
 may be awakened among them, that they will desire to possess these 
 books, when the demand will no doubt be answered by some one 
 capable of executing the task. 
 
 Whether preaching has been extensively introduced in the other 
 European countries, I am not able to tell, not having any means at 
 hand to answer the inquiry satisfactorily. But there is no doubt that 
 a general desire for information has been awakened, and that in many 
 places persons adequate for the labour have been summoned to extend 
 a knowledge of religion among us. It is therefore also gratifying to 
 announce, that latterly the Congregation at Baltimore and the German 
 Congregation of this city have appointed public teachers solely for 
 the purpose of diffusing instruction. But as both congregations are 
 mostly composed of Germans, and as the gentlemen elected are not
 
 PREFACE. x { 
 
 yet acquainted with the English : the speaking is necessarily done 
 in German, and hence it becomes in the first instance useful to a 
 section only of our people residing in this country. Nevertheless it 
 is a source of congratulation to see the increased demand for 
 religious knowledge, and it is to be hoped that this good spirit may 
 not alone be permanent, but become extended to other places which 
 are yet unsupplied with proper teachers. Thus much may be said, 
 that, although some may not at present perceive the use and import- 
 ance of an addition to our service, which is at times somewhat long : 
 the usefulness of sermons will nevertheless at length be generally 
 acknowledged so soon as a perseverance therein shall have demon- 
 strated that thereby much information has been diffused, which must 
 necessarily be the case, if the preachers or ministers are properly 
 acquainted with their duties and alive to the wants of the people. 
 
 Upon the whole, however, the English and American Jews owe it 
 to themselves to do something for the spread of religion, by establish- 
 ing schools for general and religious education, whence ultimately 
 they may derive proper persons to become ministers and readers. 
 For no matter how much learning may be diffused in Germany 
 and elsewhere, experience has proved that learned men even 
 coming from there are little qualified, except by a long and painful 
 course of study, and then only in a defective manner after all, to 
 become good pulpit orators. It is one thing to learn to read and 
 write a foreign language, but something very different to acquire a 
 facility for expressing one's ideas with propriety and ease, which is 
 so highly necessary in the composition of sermons. And if the 
 ministry should then be sought by those whom the people know and 
 esteem, and who are of their own friends and kindred : the standard 
 of respectability of a Jewish Reader would be raised, and his station 
 carry also with it more weight, than it now does when the congre- 
 gations are compelled to elect entire strangers to the highest honour in 
 their gift as Jews, as they but rarely find native citizens qualified for 
 the station in any manner whatever. 
 
 Not many years back such an advice would have been useless, 
 owing to the then small number of Israelites in this country. But 
 they are daily increasing, by immigration from the crowded districts 
 of Europe ; and although the newcomers are themselves unacquainted 
 with the English, still their children will understand in all likelihood 
 no other language ; hence the necessity of providing for the wants of 
 the rising and coming generations. All that is wanted is, union, con- 
 cert, and harmony ; and though our beginning may be small, our 
 end will still be very great.
 
 Xll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 As regards the present publication I have to remark, that it is, like 
 its predecessor, the sincere effusion of my heart and conviction ; 
 there is but little of artificial structure or a careful choice of words, 
 although I have always endeavoured to keep close to the standard of 
 Scripture as understood by us. Whoever expects to find evidences 
 of deep learning in these discourses will surely be disappointed ; 
 since I can advance no claim to any extensive knowledge, and if I 
 could, I would think a sermon not the vehicle for conveying it to the 
 public, believing, as I do, that a religious lecture should be so simply 
 constructed as to be intelligible, for the greater part at least, to the 
 humblest capacity. The preacher ought to seek to enlist the feeling 
 and judgment of his audience, but not to astonish them by the dis- 
 play of his own depth of information, by which he would clearly 
 strive to glorify himself, without doing the least towards extending 
 the kingdom of the Lord over the hearts of the flock intrusted to his 
 care. 
 
 I cannot conclude these remarks without returning my sincere 
 thanks to my friends at home and abroad who have so kindly, and 
 in many cases without any solicitation, recommended and circulated 
 my works, especially the first series of Discourses. This was an 
 act of kindness I had no right to expect, and could only proceed 
 from a belief that some little good might be derived from my labours. 
 It would indeed be a source of high enjoyment to one whose days 
 have not been free from sorrow and trial to be able to believe, that 
 his striving has been of some use, if even it be only to arouse his 
 brothers in faith to step forward unto the holy work, and to labour 
 with more success and prosperity, though hardly with more honest 
 zeal than their friend, 
 
 I. L. 
 
 TH,-I A i k- CTebeth, 18th, 5601. 
 Phlladel P hia 'i January llth, 1841.
 
 DISCOURSES, 
 
 i 
 
 ARGUMENTATIVE AND DEVOTIONAL, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 JEWISH RELIGION. 
 
 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 CALL TO REPENTANCE. 
 
 GOD of truth, in whom there is no injustice ! we have sinned 
 before Thee ; how oft transgressed thy precepts, and departed 
 from thy righteous commandments. The measure of our iniqui- 
 ties has been filling up ever since we came on earth ; and not 
 alone that we have erred ourselv'es, but our example too has led 
 others to stray far away from the road of salvation. Rebellious, 
 frovvard, and perverse, we have disregarded the eternal welfare 
 of our immortal souls, and have dared thy vengeance, O Creator 
 of all flesh ! by obeying impulses to sin the end of which is 
 perdition and thy just indignation. But, Father, King, Saviour ! 
 look on our forlorn state ; degraded by our sin, dispersed by our 
 transgression, captives by our rebellion ! Have mercy, we pray 
 Thee, for thy own sake, if not for ours; display thy power over us, 
 not for the sake of our merit, but because of thy great an*d holy 
 name, that is profaned among the nations ! for why should the 
 gentiles say, " Where now is their God ?" For we know Thee 
 to be the omnipresent, ever wakeful Ruler from whom nothing 
 is hidden, as Thou hast said through thy prophet, "Were a man 
 to hide himself in secret, should I not see him ?" Teach then to 
 the children of man, that the descendants of thy servants yet 
 
 VOL. III. 1
 
 2 CALL TO REPENTANCE. 
 
 receive thy especial providence, though fallen by their sins ! 
 Guide us unto thy service, enlighten our souls by thy know- 
 ledge, and remove from us the heart of stone, in order that we 
 may serve Thee, O Almighty One ! with a willing spirit in sub- 
 missiveness and truth. Let it also be heard proclaimed from 
 before the seat of thy mysterious presence, when the gates of thy 
 judgment-seat are closed, that the sins of thy people have been 
 forgiven, and that their transgression has been pardoned, and 
 that their backsliding has been cured by thy mercy. May this 
 be thy will, now and for ever. Amen. 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 The recurrence of the season of repentance has called us 
 again to the house of our Father, to offer up in his presence the 
 sacrifice of a contrite heart. For disguise it as we may, it must 
 be acknowledged that the names of Rosh Hashanah and Kippur, 
 awaken in the mind of an Israelite ideas of devotion and a re- 
 newal of a resolution to become reconciled to Him above whom 
 by our misdeeds we have haply offended. Be it admitted that 
 this is owing to our system of education, nurtured by early in- 
 struction, encouraged by example, and perad venture fostered by 
 the fear of punishment. Admit it to be so ; yet we say, Blessed 
 be that system, honoured be that early instruction, welcome be 
 that example, aye, thrice blessed be that fear which tend to 
 draw closer the bonds which unite man to his Maker, which, so 
 to say, remove the barriers which stand between us and our 
 happiness. For, what is it that is to be effected by this exhibi- 
 tion of devotional feelings ? is the greatness of any one man or 
 sect of men to be promoted thereby 1 or is the wealth of a class 
 of priests to be augmented? will it bring power to the teachers 
 even of religion 1 None of these can surely be the result, as in 
 our present state the influence of religious superiors is but little 
 heeded and can, from a combination of circumstances, not be 
 very extensively exercised; on the contrary, whatever is done 
 for the extension of religious feelings is solely beneficial to the 
 community at large, because every participant is thus rendered 
 a more worthy, more intelligent, and more happy member of 
 the community, than he could otherwise be. For name not the 
 delusive dictates of a worldly philosophy, that would inculcate
 
 CALL TO REPENTANCE. 3 
 
 honesty from mere prudential motives ; such motives will not 
 stand the test of temptation, they will yield to the influence of 
 interest whenever this loudly calls. Name not love of honour ! 
 Ambitious men seek elevation whenever the opportunity offers, 
 regardless of the means which lead to their desired end. 'Wisdom 
 also and learning in worldly things are not safeguards against 
 temptation, for the wise are not always wise, nor are the learned 
 always prudent No ; neither prudential philosophy, nor ambi- 
 tion, nor wisdom, norwordly learning, will save you from doing 
 the wrong ; but only the knowledge of the ways of our heavenly 
 King ; for this will guide you ever aright, and in acting ac- 
 cordingly you need never fear of injuring yourselves or others. 
 When then I see a multitude enter these walls, when I hear, as 
 I have heard, a unanimous shout of praise ascend from the 
 mouths of hundreds of believers to the great Eternal's throne, I 
 feel a wish that thus might ever be their desire to serve Him whom 
 their words declare their God, for thus would it be well with them 
 and their children for ever. But alas ! we leave the house of God, 
 the Day of Atonement is past, and yet rings in our ear the 
 shout, " The Lord he is God !" the voice of the cornet yet 
 vibrates within us : when we forget that we have been actors in 
 a holy scene, witnesses of a sacred work, listeners to the word 
 of truth ; we enter anew into the deceitful press of worldly en- 
 gagements, forget the Rock who has formed us, mindful only 
 of augmenting our wealth and increasing our importance in the 
 eyes of men. It is sickening to reflect that so much devotion 
 as is at times suddenly seen to flash up, as does the light of 
 some dim lamp when a sudden change of wind causes the flame 
 to shoot upward, should sink down again into dimness when the 
 exciting cause is past. Happy indeed it is, that the wind of the 
 passions cannot extinguish the sacred flame, or else we should 
 be left in total mental darkness, like the traveller in a swampy 
 desert whose taper expires beneath the gust of air which he fain 
 welcomed as cooling his fevered forehead, burning under the 
 agony of weary exertions. Yes, it is melancholy in the extreme 
 to be conscious that so many Days of Pardoning of Iniquity have 
 recurred, and yet the worshippers then assembled did not remain 
 permanently united to their God, whose forgiveness they invoked 
 with apparent sincerity ! Does any one think it enough to wor-
 
 4 CALL TO REPENTANCE. 
 
 ship once a year ? Have we not the ordinance of the seventh 
 day as a perpetual covenant between God and the children of 
 Israel ? why is this not also observed ? Ha ! is it interest, the 
 desire for wealth that counsels us ? But wo ! wo ! that gold 
 should tempt us to forego the pleasure of a tranquil mind and a 
 peaceful soul rejoicing in her attachment to God ! Wealth ! O 
 how fleeting its blessings ! how deceptive its hope ! Religion ! 
 O how everlasting in its blessings, how sure the hopes it in- 
 spires. 
 
 Yes, this land was blessed, is blessed. Fruitful are its fields, 
 extensive are its forests ; through untrodden regions extend its 
 majestic thousand rivers; its sea-shore is crowded with the com- 
 merce of the world ; its sails whiten every ocean ; through its 
 numerous towns resound the shouts of merriment ; the people 
 are secured against oppression, if they but preserve the spirit of 
 their laws; peace maybe said to dwell in the boundaries thereof, 
 and each man may sit under the shade of his fruit-tree with 
 none to make him afraid. If ever prosperity seemed to have 
 taken up her abode in any land, this might have been pointed 
 out to the inquiring sage ; since all the elements of contentment 
 were so profusely scattered abroad. But lo ! the avarice of man 
 has destroyed much of the good we once saw, and the hammer of 
 the artizan has been arrested in the midst of plenty and peace; 
 the weaver's loom stands idle, and even the press, the supplier of 
 intellectual repasts, is almost paralyzed in an age boasting of 
 knowledge and refinement. It is not for us to enter deeply in 
 the causes of this spectacle ; enough it is so ; and does it not 
 teach us, in a language not to be misunderstood, that worldly 
 pursuits will not always secure the object desired ? and that im- 
 moderate possessions fail to promote contentment? 
 
 Yet there is a turn in the tide of prosperity, as well as of wo, 
 and when greatness is at its height, it suddenly changes to de- 
 gradation, shame and ruin. Need we cite examples ? History 
 teaches us of great conquerors, overthrown on the day of tri- 
 umph; and experience has informed us, that wealth, when 
 seemingly the strongest, secured almost beyond the reach of 
 casualties, is then nearest utter prostration, and we may almost 
 say penury. The occurrences of the last few months have 
 amply confirmed this, and also that success or failure in our
 
 CALL TO REPENTANCE. 5 
 
 enterprizes are from a Source higher, greater, holier than 
 human power or human wisdom ; and that person indeed must 
 be blind to the events of the moral world, who would suppose 
 that what our own eyes have seen has not been the work of 
 God. Yes, we may freely assert, that in order to prove how 
 vain, how deceitful, how impotent are human endeavours, has 
 the Almighty permitted the blight of reverses and sudden 
 changes to fall on many lands ; thus showing us that not by our 
 wisdom, not by our own energies, not by our own combinations, 
 no matter how skilfully soever they be arranged, can we look 
 forward to success, if He, to whom all is subject, denieth his 
 blessing. Call it not superstition, imagine not it is blind bigotry, 
 to assert that in our own daily experience we see the finger of 
 God made manifest ; no, friends, no, believing brethren, it is 
 indeed in these daily occurrences that we are reminded, that 
 there is a judging God superintending the affairs of man, ready 
 to exalt the humble to a high eminence, and to cast the pre- 
 sumptuous into the depth of degradation. If we take such a 
 view of life, we will be comforted in our stations, and be con- 
 tent with the sphere of action pointed out to us by circum- 
 stances, the unerring indicators of our call. Understand me 
 not as saying, that there is an inspiration vouchsafed to us by 
 which we are taught to know the precise calling we are to fol- 
 low ; but only as maintaining that to every man light is given, 
 and a road pointed out, which, if followed, will teach him how 
 to be useful to himself and others. There are, accordingly, 
 many in private life who, as fathers, as friends, or advisers do 
 more to promote the service of Heaven, than those who profess 
 to be teachers of religion. To such it may be freely said, " Per- 
 severe, pious ones, your reward will be great ;" and of them it 
 may be maintained, that they are happy, useful, and content, 
 although wealth and importance in the sight of the world are 
 not their portion. How few, however, are found willing to 
 abide content with their lot ; alas ! how small is the number of 
 the meek in spirit, who seek not vain-glory ! 
 
 Man steps abroad, and finds that wealth gives the possessor 
 a rank in life, which no wisdom, no probity can impart ! He 
 sees the man of power courted, flattered, praised, envied by the 
 thoughtless multitude ; he farther discovers, that a strict pursuit
 
 6 CALL TO REPENTANCE. 
 
 of religion will restrain the unceasing toil for wealth ; he fan- 
 cies, that in place of the ways of the law being ways of plea- 
 santness, they only tend to keep him hindmost in the race, in the 
 scramble, to use an expressive word, for the shining baubles 
 which lure the million. He sees no necessity for him to be dis- 
 tanced, outdone by his equals. He therefore pursues means 
 equally noxious, equally culpable, in order to reach the same 
 end. No day of rest is now known to his active spirit ; no fes- 
 tival, no Sabbath, restrains his step from busy pursuits ; nay, 
 not sleep know his eyelids in the noon of night. For awhile 
 his prosperity is seemingly boundless, and wealth, gold, jewels 
 crowd upon him in masses uncounted, he only sees before him 
 an unending career of greater and farther aggrandizement ; he 
 therefore perceives no evil in his course. But suddenly the airy 
 fabric breaks up like a spectral illusion of a nightly vision, and 
 the deceived dreamer at length discovers to his horror that he 
 has grasped a shadow and pursued an atom, an almost nothing. 
 Or take the man of power, who imagines in his rapid ascent to 
 greatness, that to his superior soul the grovelling multitude 
 must yield ready obedience ; he may perhaps imagine in his 
 self-delusion that he is fortune's favourite, and that to his pros- 
 perity there is no end ; but suddenly the evil reaches his heart 
 also, like the tornado that shivers the bark, the hope of the 
 mariner, upon the very strand where he trusted to find a speedy 
 and safe harbour ; and when too late, he discovers that his fan- 
 cied security was his ruin. What consolation can such as these 
 find in their downfal ? where are they to seek for comfort, see- 
 ing that their desired happiness has taken wing and left them 
 to despair 1 And, nevertheless, for ends like these will men 
 turn their backs, as it were, upon the law of God, and turn a 
 deaf ear to the admonition of the Most High ! They lightly 
 regard his favour, provided they can be esteemed wealthy and 
 powerful ; and if but riches and glory are theirs, they heed not 
 how many unwary have been deceived, how many rivers of 
 blood they wander through. And why ? because they know 
 not the pleasure of humble content ; because they heed not, 
 believe not, know not the word of God. I speak advisedly, 
 they believe not, they know not ! Think not, brethren, that a 
 mere knowledge of the words of Scripture is such a knowledge
 
 CALL TO REPENTANCE. 7 
 
 as is required of us, or that a mere acquiescence in the dogmas of 
 the Bible is the belief demanded ; something more is necessary ; 
 for you should know religion practically ; you should be agents, 
 foremost among the energetic who love God with all their 
 heart, with all their soul, and with all their might ; and your 
 belief should be displayed by an ever-resisting to all temptation 
 which might make the pursuit of wealth and power the primary, 
 that of piety the secondary object of your life. The want of 
 such knowledge and faith it is now which causes so many to 
 err ; they have never learned to feel how happy, how content 
 they can be with small means, whilst they are active in the ser- 
 vice of their Maker; they know not, they believe not, that the 
 righteous do not envy their powerful neighbours, and wish not, 
 though humble, to exchange places with the proud and pre- 
 sumptuous. Besides, though acknowledging constantly in words 
 their being mortal and accountable, they act as though their 
 mortality were doubtful, and their accountability as if it never 
 would be exacted. Hence, as we said above, they halt at no- 
 thing in their chosen course, and year after year elapses, and 
 they pursue the same path of destruction, and excuses ridicu- 
 lous in the extreme are offered to lull their own conscience, and 
 to impose upon others the idea that they are sincere in thinking 
 themselves acting rightly. Shallow devices ! whom do they 
 deceive ? can they hide their enormity from themselves, though 
 others are deceived 1 or even if they do impose on themselves, 
 does the Almighty not know ? does he not search their inward 
 thoughts ? does He not understand the desire of every heart ? 
 Yes. truly does this OXE know, truly does He understand 
 the vanity of our striving ; the impotency of our knowledge ; 
 the \veakness of our strength. He has therefore ordained two 
 remedies for our sinful nature. The one, the law He imparted 
 to our ancestors, the second, repentance. The law contains 
 the living precepts, which if a man obey he will live through 
 them. In their execution there is no strife, no oppression, no 
 hatred of our equals, no envy of our superiors ; but all is peace 
 within and love without. For the man that truly endeavours 
 to shape his course .by the law of Moses has the cynosure of 
 the bright starry heaven, which never sets, which never is ob- 
 scured by clouds and darkness, but ever guides him onward
 
 8 CALL TO REPENTANCE. 
 
 onward to his port of destination the embrace of his Maker 
 the favour of his Father the countenance of his God. But 
 if misled by folly, by the love of gain, by the dictates of sinful 
 ambition, we go astray from this holy path ; if the temptation 
 of a sinful life have induced us to forego our inward peace 
 our love of God our affection for our fellow-men : then is the 
 remedy of penitence provided for us by which we can become 
 reconciled to the Lord of our destinies. We are not utterly 
 rejected, because of our* wrongs ; we are not abhorred, because 
 we have erred. No ! for " He being merciful forgiveth iniquity, 
 and destroyeth not, nor awakeneth all his wrath;" this is the 
 language of Scripture, and presents us the consoling hope, that 
 the God of love, " all whose ways are justice," and who him- 
 self is TRUTH, will receive us again in favour when we return 
 to Him in confidence of pardon, in consciousness of sin. We 
 must not however exculpate our misdeeds by vain excuses, by 
 false, specious, self-complacency ; for this would be clinging 
 with lingering affection to our deformity, whilst we profess to 
 regret its existence. Neither must fear of loss prevent our 
 leaving off the evil of our ways. For such a course would be 
 telling in effect that, though w r e acknowledge our sinfulness, \ve 
 cannot renounce the cause of our sinning, and that we love 
 thus the creature more than the blessed Creator ; the means of 
 subsistence better than everlasting bliss ; in short, the world 
 with its allurements better than God ! 
 
 Nor must the opinion of the world deter us. For there are 
 many who sin from a love of companionship, so to say ; they 
 have associates who pursue an ungodly course of life, or who 
 at first have but light foibles, or sins in miniature ; by degrees 
 they increase in sin as they grow older; foibles then have 
 become habits ; again time elapses, and inveterate habits have 
 degenerated yet further into vices, but still the companionship of 
 others causes us to look upon them as excusable, aye, as matters 
 perhaps to boast of. Need I prove to you by examples innume- 
 rable, that men have been drunkards together? robbers together? 
 blasphemers together? debauchees together ? when each by him- 
 self would not have dared so to brave public opinion ? Say not 
 it was the mean, low-minded villain that sunk thus would to 
 Heaven that this were so ! but in all ages the wise too have
 
 CALL TO REPENTANCE. 9 
 
 sinned, and a Korah, a chief in his tribe, rebelled against the 
 chosen of God, the confided in of men ; princes of their families 
 maligned the land of promise ; a son of David drove his father 
 from his home ; a Jeroboam erected golden calves to mislead the 
 people, and innumerable others, renowned for intellect, have ever 
 sunk in the slough of iniquity. Were it that no man could hope to 
 find others willing to join him, he would hardly be so eccentric 
 that is the precise idea which rules many as to act wickedly 
 for himself; but as unfortunately the sinners are so innumerable, 
 the lover of fellowship cannot see why he should be so unfa- 
 shionable, so odd, so eccentric, so singular, as to adhere to the 
 homely ideas and customs of the Jewish nation, " for who now- 
 a-days," he may say and think, " heeds such antiquated notions ?" 
 But let us argue the point with him. What is there of the 
 weakness of garrulous old age in the precept, " Thou shall love 
 the Lord thy God with all thy heart ?" What of dotage is to 
 be discovered in the ordinance, " Thou shall not hate thy bro- 
 ther in thy heart 1" Or say, has the advanced state of society 
 made the observance of the Sabbath less useful ? We will admit, 
 that the wealthy idler, to whom time is a burden the endurance 
 of which is intolerable, may not find any necessity for allowing 
 his horse to rest on the seventh day ; he may not be able to 
 appreciate why he should abstain from following his pursuits 
 of pleasure on the day of rest ; but how is it with the labourer, 
 the artizan, the husbandman have they not also a claim to 
 enjoyment and relaxation ? is their toil never to end 1 is their 
 life to be one continual, unbroken, perpetual servitude ? Or 
 again : " And thou shall make the Passover." Can the man 
 of the world gainsay the debt of gratitude that is due to the 
 Deity for the many benefits which Israel received from his 
 bounly ? We could multiply these instances, but for the present 
 enough has been shown to prove the ulter absurdity of such 
 excuses. Yet the sociable sinner will allege, thai it is unrea- 
 sonable to forego the advantage of sinning as others do. He 
 imagines that others will outstrip him in the race of \vealth and 
 preferment, unless he strives to emulate them. If one works on 
 the Sabbath, he will earn more than he who rests. This is the 
 excuse constantly offered. Yet does it nol appear lo you, 
 wilhout any argument, that sabbath-breaking cannot be de- 
 fended on such grounds ? for, if ever so much is gained thereby,
 
 10 CALL TO REPENTANCE. 
 
 it is wrong to offend against acknowledged obligations. Be- 
 sides all this, it is not clear that offending the Deity is produc- 
 tive of wealth piety the companion of poverty. This, how- 
 ever, no one will maintain, for not all the wicked are rich, nor 
 are the servants of God all languishing in want. Still, and 
 despite of all this evident refutation of the excuses of back- 
 sliding, we are deterred from amending, because we would 
 thereby appear inconsistent. We would be laughed at, if we 
 went to Synagogue, when before we were seldom seen. We 
 would be ridiculed, if we were to cease our labour on the Sab- 
 bath, which before \ve regarded not. We would be called 
 weak-minded, if we refused joining a sinful repast, participating 
 in a drunken carousal, because our conscience had only been 
 newly awakened to the sinfulness of such doing. But why 
 should we hesitate to separate ourselves from the throng of the 
 thoughtless, when we feel a call within to seek the approach to 
 God ? Why should we fear to incur loss, when we seek to 
 make our peace with our Maker? why should we wish to 
 frame excuses unto ourselves, when we come to appear before 
 the Searcher of hearts with the humble offering of prayer? 
 This then should be our repentance, a sincere self-accusation, 
 an entire elevation above the thought of paltry gain, a complete 
 separation from associates whose manners are corrupted and 
 corrupting.' If this is our new conduct, we will soon lose the 
 pride of self-elevation, be enabled to serve God in truth, and to 
 resist temptation, no matter how seductive it may appear. This 
 is the heart of flesh of which Scriptures speak ; this is the liberal 
 spirit, the pure soul for which David prayed. And thus speaks 
 Ezekiel xviii. 31, 32 : 
 
 on onytra WK DD^^S SD n DD'Sy 
 no irnan noSi nenn nm cnn nS 
 D>nSx 'n o&o nan man 
 
 : 3" 7 K^J n"< Sxprrr ; 
 
 "Throw off from you all your transgressions with which you have trans- 
 gressed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit, and why will 
 you die, O house of Israel! For truly I desire not that the guilty should 
 die, saith the Lord God ; return then and live."
 
 CALL TO REPENTANCE. 
 
 11 
 
 " Throw off from you all your transgressions," how is this 
 to be effected ? by " making yourselves a new heart and a new 
 spirit;" if formerly you were presumptuous, self-sufficient, loving 
 the world more than God, placing the temporal above the eter- 
 nal, you should alter all this, and endeavour to love your Father, 
 walk humbly before Him, and follow his ways, and as He is mer- 
 ciful, be you merciful ; as He is truth, so love you truth, and as 
 his goodness is over all his creatures, so do you scatter the fruits 
 of your beneficence unto the rich as well as the poor. If so you 
 act, ye who are of the loins of Israel, how sweetly will your 
 memorial rise before the Judge of all! brighter far than the 
 morning will your light break forth, you will call, and the Lord 
 will answer, and the glory of God will receive you, will gather 
 you unto happiness. Glorious indeed a Day of Atonement 
 which closes with such changes ; happy indeed would we all be 
 if the coming morrow would receive in this house penitents, ser- 
 vants newly awakened to the service of the Most High. Then 
 indeed would our sins be forgiven, and like to David of old, would 
 it be recorded in the book of life : " The Lord has also caused 
 thy sin to pass away, thou shall not die." 
 
 Father! in thy name do Thou bless us; remove our transgres- 
 sion from thy sight, and rend the evil decrees which concern us; 
 and renew to us a year of happiness and content; a year of love 
 and rejoicing; a year of peace and repentance; and open unto 
 us and all Israel the gates of favour and mercy, of prayer, of 
 knowledge in thy law ; restore thy kingdom unto thy chosen 
 David son of Jesse ; guide us unto thy truth, and receive us into 
 thy embrace, there to dwell securely unto everlasting. Amen. 
 
 Tishry 7th ) ,-CQQ 
 October 6th \ K 
 
 NOTE. The foregoing address was composed with especial reference to 
 the distress in the commercial world, which fell like a blight upon many 
 countries in the year 1837, as it appeared to me of sufficient importance and 
 significance to call the attention of the brethren to this fact, as proving the 
 inefficacy of human means to insure success if divine blessing is not sent to 
 prosper the labour of our hands.
 
 12 
 
 DISCOURSE II. 
 
 THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 GUARDIAN of Israel, who hast preserved thy people amidst 
 all their sorrows in all their wanderings in the lands of their 
 alien oppressors, and hast guarded them as the apple of the eye, 
 so that there never was wanting one of the children of Jacob to 
 stand before Thee and to serve Thee: continue unto us also thy 
 favour and guide us with thy knowledge, that we may know the 
 ways of thy law; and lead us with thy grace, that our feet may 
 stand firmly ; bestow on us thy bounty, that we may be satisfied 
 of thy abundant goodness ; and let thy countenance be lifted up 
 unto us, that we may enjoy peace when in this perishable life, 
 and obtain glory and happiness when Thou takest our spirits 
 unto thyself, when by thy decree our appointed days on earth 
 are fulfilled. May this be thy will, now and for ever. Amen. 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 The festival, on which we annually celebrate our redemption 
 from the slavery we had to endure by divine decree in the land 
 of Egypt, is close at hand, and it is meet, according to the cus- 
 tom sanctified by usage, law, and feelings of gratitude, that we 
 should reflect upon this event with emotions of thankfulness to 
 that infinite Being who watches over us in our afflictions and is 
 the Arbiter of all events which occur among the children of his 
 creation. To the unthinking the recurrence of a festival is 
 viewed either as a time of physical rejoicing, or they neglect it 
 as a season which merits not their regard. But not so with 
 Israelites fortified by faith and instruction ; to them the festivals 
 bring rejoicing and gratitude, they honour them as seasons de- 
 voted to the service of the Almighty, and they improve them as 
 fit occasions to awaken a love of the divine law in their hearts. 
 Let us view the going out of Egypt in the proper light, not with 
 the levity which unbelievers are apt to indulge in, and we will 
 discover in it, what it was intended to be, a beginning for the
 
 THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL. 13 
 
 dawn of liberty, not for Israel alone, but for all nations, and a 
 liberation of the mind from false ideas of the Deity, not for 
 Jacob's sons alone, but also for all the descendants of Noah. 
 Without going too far into the details of history, we will briefly 
 advert to the state of society in the days of Abraham and sub- 
 sequently thereto. The only book which can correctly guide us 
 is the book of Genesis, as there exists no account having the 
 least claim to authenticity equal to this, and surely fabulous his- 
 tories cannot much assist the inquirer after truth, farther than to 
 teach him how far the minds of reasoning men may be misled 
 if incorrectly informed. To proceed : When Abraham first 
 began to diffuse the worship he possessed, we find that the coun- 
 try in which he lived, then and now called Palestine and the 
 land of Canaan, was divided into innumerable little principalities 
 and kingdoms, and every city almost appears to have been inde- 
 pendent of its neighbour, yet each subject to a king, the arbiter of 
 life and property, as will appear from the address of the king of 
 Sodom to Abram : " Give me the persons and the property taken 
 unto thyself." (Genesis xiv. 21.) War and bloodshed, even to the 
 extermination of entire tribes, seem to have been the occupa- 
 tion of these petty tyrants ; whilst the morals and worship of the 
 people seem to have been totally neglected. The warnings of 
 the flood and the miraculous confusion of tongues appear to 
 have left no trace behind, so regardless was every one of the 
 divine decrees given to Noah. A man was assaulted for har- 
 bouring strangers ; and even in Egypt, a country so boasted for 
 its learning, and knowledge, as some aver, of true religion, a 
 wayfarer justly dreaded the loss of life, because his wife was 
 blessed with a comely person. The countries surrounding Pa- 
 lestine were no better off, since we find that princes of various 
 tribes confederated to make a murderous inroad from the dis- 
 tant Euphrates unto the confines of Egypt. Also in a later pe- 
 riod, when Jacob left the country of Aram between the rivers, 
 he was pursued by his relation Laban, who carried with him an 
 armed band of his own followers ready to do his bidding even 
 to the slaughtering of women and children. What the condition 
 of the more distant regions from the centre of civilization was 
 we have no means of ascertaining ; still we may reasonably con- 
 clude, that only the strong hand of every individual could secure 
 VOL. in. 2
 
 14 THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 to him the possession of life, liberty, and his laboriously acquired 
 wealth. Peaceful pursuits, uninfluenced by fear of predatory 
 warfare, could not be thought of; the sword alone gave security, 
 and the strong of hand ruled heavily over the weak and timid. 
 Whatever of truth was known on earth became the exclusive 
 property of, and was communicated, as mysteries, to an exclusive 
 class of priests, who had peculiar privileges, peculiar dress, 
 manners and knowledge from the rest of the community, even 
 if we admit that a knowledge of the true God was in their pos- 
 session. This, however, is by no means certain. It is no doubt 
 true, that when first began the apostacy of mankind it was a 
 wilful going astray ; man refused to submit to divine rule, and 
 followed ordinances of his own inventing ; and that whilst so 
 transgressing the knowledge that there exists an almighty Cre- 
 ator, who communicated his will to the progenitor of the human 
 race, was not taken from him ; yet it is not absolutely certain 
 that he should teach his children the duties which he refused 
 to execute, the knowledge which did not withhold him from 
 error. If even then the first ages, to go a step farther, commu- 
 nicated the truth to a chosen few, and held up a symbolic wor- 
 ship to the multitude which they in their own hearts held to be 
 false : yet we may maintain that this did not continue for many 
 ages, and that within five generations from the confusion of lan- 
 guages one chaotic state of irreligion pervaded all mankind with 
 the exception of the few, who practised the precepts handed 
 down to them by " the father of a multitude of people." In his 
 day we yet find that a Malchi-Zedek was a priest of the Most 
 High, residing in Salem, afterwards the renowned city of Jeru- 
 salem. But when the land was conquered we do not find a ves- 
 tige of the true worship among the Jebusites who then inhabited 
 this part of Palestine, and doubtlessly did so in the days of Abra- 
 ham. It is due, however, to truth, to state to you in this place, 
 that there is one passage in the book of Genesis which gives 
 some colour to the hypothesis that it was customary to commu- 
 nicate the knowledge of the truth to a few, to the exclusion of the 
 many. It is in the following words (Gen. xviii. 18, 19) : " Seeing 
 that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, 
 and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I 
 know him, that he will command his children and his household 
 after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice
 
 THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL. 15 
 
 and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that 
 which he hath spoken of him." In this extract, where I have 
 quoted the Bible Version, we find that Abraham is praised for 
 the knowledge God had of him, " that he would command his 
 children and his household after him, to keep the way of the 
 Lord ;" from which phraseology it might be inferred that others 
 possessed of the same knowledge would not so communicate it 
 universally, but only to a few, or a class especially privileged 
 for its acquisition. This however is the only passage which 
 now occurs to me, in the least calculated to favour the theory 
 that heathenism is based upon truth. But admit the whole as 
 proven ; say that the Creator was worshipped by the priests, 
 while the multitude fell prostrate before images, gods made by 
 their own hands ; grant that in the mysterious writings which 
 the sacerdotal order possessed they treasured up knowledge of 
 high and holy things unknown to the unworthy, unlettered, super- 
 stitious nations whose spiritual guides they were (I use the word 
 spiritual guides in the sense it is used among us, though they were 
 seducers rather than guides) : still we may reasonably deny the 
 utility of any system, which will leave the many in ignorance, 
 and establish an aristocracy of information, a tyranny worse 
 even than the fetters with which the task-master binds the slave 
 after finishing his daily toil. For, what is the object of religion ? 
 It is to bind the creature to his Maker by the ties of affection- 
 ate devotion and reverential fear ; it is to teach man to feel that 
 he is dependent upon the great Omnipotent whose servant he 
 is ; it is to teach the son of the earth to look to the infinite 
 Judge to right him in his cause, and to save him when in 
 affliction. In short, religion should promote the love and fear 
 of God, and plant hope, humility, faith and confidence in the 
 human breast, of the lowly no less than the exalted. If then 
 man is taught to offer his adoration to imaginary things, the 
 creations of fraud or deception, how is he to obtain the requi- 
 sites of religion to render his life happy and his death peaceful ? 
 He bows to the image of the sun ; is this to teach him devo- 
 tion 1 He worships the abstraction of the planets ; is this to 
 inspire him with faith? In a word, can error produce the 
 effects of truth ? Even assume a man sincere and ardently 
 devoted to the symbolic worship, if you please to call it so ;
 
 16 THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 still the pure adoration of the One Supreme, the holy flame of 
 devotion kindled in the pious mind by a contemplation of his 
 mighty deeds cannot grow up amidst the rank weeds of error. 
 And if the priests or the privileged class, we alluded to, alone 
 are possessed of a better knowledge, and allow not the com- 
 munity to participate, is it not, as was stated, forging galling 
 chains of intolerable servitude of the mind, injurious far more 
 than the thraldom of the body ? But this latter calamity was 
 also the legitimate consequence of the general degeneracy ; and 
 tyranny and oppression followed in its train, till all mankind 
 groaned under the yoke of misrule, and no nation was free, 
 whilst designing men under the garb of priest, soothsayers, 
 oracles and diviners ruled by their advice or secret machina- 
 tions the public mind. 
 
 It is often boasted that universal toleration of all beliefs was the 
 general custom of heathen people, but that with the rise of revela- 
 tion persecution for opinion's sake became more and more preva- 
 lent. But, again, we may reasonably question the general truth 
 of the assertion. For although in certain lands there may have 
 been no prohibition against worshipping any of the many ideali- 
 ties which besotted men set up as gods; still we find from 
 authentic records, and confirmed by traditions, that it was dan- 
 gerous to worship the Lord of heaven and earth. Of positive 
 history we have the account of Daniel, which relates how his 
 three friends were cast into a burning furnace, because they 
 would not worship the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar ; in 
 Darius's reign a prohibition was promulgated against any one 
 praying for a period of thirty days, under pains of being cast 
 into the lions' den. Ahab and Jezebel slew all the prophets of 
 the Lord, and only Elijah escaped. Antiochus and his generals 
 endeavoured to banish totally from the Hebrews the know- 
 ledge of their religion ; and a persecution as bitter as ever was 
 waged against us by any sect, or which any people inflicted on 
 another for the sake of a difference of opinion, was waged for 
 many years, till the land was freed, by bloody wars and unpar- 
 ralleled deeds of heroism, from its ruthless oppressors. Tra- 
 dition and writings, current only among ourselves, do not lack 
 instances of a similar nature ; and it is said that Abram, before 
 he left Ur in Chaldea, was tried by fire because of his belief in
 
 THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL. 17 
 
 the One Supreme, and the destruction of his father's idols. An 
 interesting narrative on this subject might easily be compiled, 
 but it would lead us too far from our present purpose. Enough 
 has been shown that idolaters were not always tolerant ; and 
 even if they had been, what does it amount to ? simply that in 
 the mode of worshipping common among them, the things to 
 be adored were unlimited, and each person made unto himself 
 such an emblem as his fancy chose, and sought to attract at- 
 tention, as men now do to articles of merchandize, by exhibit- 
 ing some proof of its superior excellence. Witness the oracle 
 erected by Micah, the Ephraimite, which by the management 
 of the pseudo-priest obtained a great celebrity among the tribe 
 of Dan, at the time when idolatry flourished among Israelites. 
 Witness also the oracle of Delphi, and other divinations of 
 ancient pagans, where a certain degree of cunning and artful 
 double-dealing benighted the minds of inquirers, whilst they 
 believed themselves in possession of divine replies. Of course, 
 under such a system it was dangerous for the worshippers of 
 one falsity to attack that of the other too much, and the policy 
 of the priests, who knew at least themselves that their art was 
 mere deception, must have been not to interfere with each other 
 unless their interest suffered thereby. But if even we concede 
 them a thorough and sincere conviction, for the mind may 
 labour under strange hallucinations : still the great alleged tole- 
 ration may have proceeded from the knowledge that there must 
 be something yet beyond the things then adored, more power- 
 ful, more energetic, and more holy. But still a Socrates was 
 accused of blasphemy for approaching the truth ; and Moses 
 feared to sacrifice unto God among Egyptians out of fear of 
 persecution. It will, therefore, appear that toleration was not 
 inherent in paganism, nor universal among pagan nations, and 
 it is not supported by any historic evidence to fasten intole- 
 rance upon the early possessors of revelation, nor upon the 
 receivers of the law from Sinai. Abraham was charitable to 
 all ; his house received the traveller of the desert, and believers 
 and idolaters were fed of his bounty. With the Canaanites he 
 lived at peace, and swore fealty and truth to people whom he 
 once feared as enemies of his life. Isaac and Jacob were no 
 less distinguished for their benevolence to the people among 
 
 2*
 
 18 THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 whom they dwelt ; and we may safely aver that the history of 
 the patriarchs furnishes no instances where a single trace of 
 intolerance or bigotry is discoverable. Certainly the fragment 
 of the life of Joseph which has come down to us does not 
 afford any evidence of intolerance ; for we find nowhere a pic- 
 ture of greater truth and fidelity than is given in that simple 
 and short narrative. Equally futile is it to look in the law of 
 Moses for evidences of intolerance. In not a single passage is 
 persecution for opinion's sake allowed ; and if you take away 
 the commandment enjoining the removal of idols from the land, 
 we have even no prohibition against the worship of idols in 
 Palestine by strangers ; in truth, it would appear that no one 
 had any right to see after their conduct in their own houses ; 
 and provided they offended not publicly the laws of the land, 
 no one could molest them according to our laws. The public 
 prohibition of idolatry cannot, however, be called an act of 
 intolerance. For emphatically speaking the law of Moses was 
 the political as well as the moral code of our people, their 
 thought, their actions, their worship, and their hope and pros- 
 perity, were all to be regulated according to its ordinances ; 
 idols were accordingly considered as a political nuisance, mili- 
 tating by their presence against the sovereignty of the Eternal 
 Lord, the invisible King of the people He had chosen. Ac- 
 cording to this view, idolatry was naturally an offence against 
 the state, its prohibition therefore no persecution, but merely 
 the enforcement of the acknowledgment of the Lord, as the 
 sole Sovereign of Palestine. At a future day we may enlarge 
 on this subject, and place it in a stronger light before you ; but 
 at present we must hasten to resume the subject from which 
 we started. We may therefore maintain, that since no perse- 
 cution is authorised or even allowed by Scriptures, and since 
 the single prohibition of the possession of the idols was afterwards 
 much neglected, greatly to the destruction of the peace and pros- 
 perity of Israel, it is not consonant with truth to charge the 
 Israelites with the crime and folly of originating religious perse- 
 cution. 
 
 We have thus seen that ignorance and tyranny had been 
 made the lot of mankind, disfiguring, by their rapid strides, the 
 creation of the Omnipotent. The warnings, as was said in the 
 early part of this address, of the flood and the confusion of
 
 THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL. 19 
 
 tongues had failed to instruct the world that the Ruler of the 
 universe would not allow transgressions against his will to 
 remain unpunished. It will therefore appear that retribution, 
 nay, extermination of the entire mass of men, had failed of 
 effecting the divine economy, the spread of a universal religion 
 over the face of the earth. Two thousand years had rolled 
 over the world since its first creation, and yet but few would 
 acknowledge the great Creator who had displayed unto them 
 so often his mighty power. Should He again desolate all? 
 sweep off again the mass of mankind ? If again they multi- 
 plied, the same consequence would have ensued, unless He, to 
 whom all is possible, had vouchsafed to remove the tendency 
 to evil inherent in human nature. But this suited not the plan 
 of the Lord, who, in forming man, imparted to him the know- 
 ledge, and consequent choice, of good and evil. He preferred 
 schooling the world to his service, and to educate his crea- 
 tures, so to say, to a knowledge of himself, and a correct per- 
 ception of the truth. The time, indeed, may seem long to us, 
 whose years are but brief, and whose thoughts are bounded by 
 corporeal limits ; but to Him, whose years are unending, and 
 whose wisdom is infinite, what are three thousand years ? is 
 his existence affected by this to us long duration 1 Certainly 
 not ; and we therefore need not, should not, wonder that the 
 world has been left gradually to come unto the service of the 
 Lord, and that not any sudden change has been effected since 
 the mission of Abraham. Your attention has before this been 
 directed to the kind of education the world has undergone since 
 the days of this great apostle ; how God took him from his 
 erring father's home, and, leading him through lands untrodden 
 by him before his old age, caused him to teach the truth 
 wherever he, the Patriarch, pitched his tent. You also know that 
 after his death Isaac became the prophet and blessed one of 
 the Lord, transmitting the truth to Jacob, whom his God sur- 
 named Israel. You know also how the aged father went down 
 to Egypt to behold his long-lost Joseph before his death. It 
 was then in Egypt that the promise made to Abraham, " that 
 his seed should be made as numerous as the stars of heaven 
 and the sand upon the shore of the sea" began its fulfilment. 
 " The children of Israel increased and multiplied, and the land
 
 OQ THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 was full of them," so that the suspicions of the ruler of the land 
 were roused against them, and he devised a plan for lessening 
 the number of the strange people whom his predecessor had 
 invited to sojourn in the land of Goshen. A long servitude 
 was this cunningly devised plan, and to it was at last added the 
 slaughter of all the Hebrew male children. Imagine to your- 
 selves a state more hopeless than this, if you can. To all the 
 sickening horrors of perpetual thraldom, where the great leveller 
 alone of all humanity can bring release from the galling bonds, 
 was superadded the approaching annihilation of their entire 
 nation. The whip of the task-master, the cry of the driver, 
 banished all thoughts of self-liberation to a people scattered 
 over all the land of Egypt as slaves, compelled to build the 
 towns of the king's treasure, to dig his immense canals, to con- 
 struct his stupendous aqueducts, and to till the soil of their indi- 
 vidual oppressors. We have no account of any attempted 
 rising of the Hebrews ; but where was the hope of its being of 
 any use ? Without arms, or at all events unused to wield them ; 
 without concert in their ranks ; fatigued too much by day to 
 brood in secret conclave over daring deeds by night ; watched 
 by troops that had overrun every land then known to civiliza- 
 tion ; perhaps mistrusting each other for fear of having by one evil 
 report reaching the Pharaoh's ears their daily toil, as actually 
 did happen, doubled in intensity : they were compelled to submit 
 to a state of degradation, which perhaps long custom had made 
 habitual to them. The father toiled whilst his strength endured ; 
 the son and grand-son had to submit to a like yoke ; and there 
 was accordingly engendered such a feeling of inferiority to their 
 free neighbours, as almost to place these in their own estimation 
 in a scale of excellence far above themselves. Similar cir- 
 cumstances produce similar effects in our own day, nay, in this 
 very land, and this will give us some insight into the fact that 
 deep-rooted hatred never prompted a violent outbreak during 
 a period of full two hundred years. The tradition that their 
 forefathers had been the favourites of the All-Father was still 
 current among them ; they were yet distinguished in comeli- 
 ness of feature and colour of the skin from the people among 
 whom they lived ; for even in servitude was Israel the peculiar 
 people, and thus wisely Jiad the Lord preserved this nation,
 
 THE REDEMFflON OF ISRAEL. 21 
 
 whom he had chosen for his service. Living in luxury and at 
 ease, a residence of so long a period might perhaps have caused 
 them to amalgamate by degrees with the Egyptians ; incipient 
 repugnance would in progress of time have been dissipated, 
 and consequently no distinct nation of Jacob's sons could ever 
 have travelled out of the land of their sojournment. Observe 
 now the divine economy. Immediately after the death of the 
 sons of Jacob, by which the first link with the original fathers 
 was broken, and when, consequently, the original receivers of 
 revelation had ceased to be on earth, the Lord suffered that 
 the aversion of the Egyptians to the shepherd-people should 
 take its natural course, that is to say, to produce a reciprocal 
 aversion, strongest of course on the part of those who beheld 
 the beasts they worshipped made the food or otherwise the 
 merchandize of the strangers, whom they regarded first as so- 
 journers and guests, and afterwards doubtlessly as intruders. It 
 was also the will of God, that the children of Abraham should 
 be servants during a part of the period appointed for their being 
 strangers in a land not theirs. But the sinful cruelty afterwards 
 exercised we may reasonably believe was in contravention to 
 the purposes of God, as much as the sinning of any one of us ; 
 the bondage in short was decreed, to preserve our people till 
 they had grown up into a mighty nation, for imposing which 
 the Egyptians would hardly have been accountable ; but the 
 cruel oppression of the individuals, the slaughter of children, 
 the haughty contempt of the God of Israel, these were sins which 
 merited and received condign visitation. But whilst we had 
 been thus preserved, we had, as already remarked, lost much, 
 if not all, of our national self-respect, we were Israelites by 
 compulsion more than any thing else, as the Egyptians were 
 too proud to receive us among them as equals ;* and although 
 it is undoubted that many yet retained a due knowledge of and 
 reverence for the simple worship of the patriarchs, still it is 
 equally certain that the mass were tainted, if not wholly cor- 
 rupted, by the system of idolatry among which they had so 
 
 * Witness the pride of Spanish nobles, that they are from an unmixed 
 family, and not in anywise connected with persons outwardly Christians, 
 descended from Jewish or Moorish families.
 
 22 THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 long dwelt. Yet during this period of suffering it was made 
 manifest to them that there is a Power who forsakes not the 
 humble, and who permits not the proud and lofty to bear down 
 with too heavy a hand upon the lowly ; for every device to 
 diminish them had signally failed. Consequently all hope of 
 better days had not perished within them ; and when therefore 
 the time of trial was ended, there were many, perhaps all, who 
 at once readily believed the joyful message with which the 
 prophet was charged, to announce unto them a speedy deliver- 
 ance through the fresh display of the might of the Eternal One. 
 Soon thereupon were wrought signs and wonders, deeds un- 
 heard of before and never since seen again were of daily oc- 
 currence, in order to prove " that there is none like the Ever- 
 lasting Lord our God." The oppressor was made to feel that 
 the Creator's power was yet capable of doing all as at the 
 creation, and the Israelites were convinced that his promises 
 never fail of a fulfilment, if even the period of suffering should 
 have been continued beyond the time they imagined as the 
 termination of patient endurance. All the world, too, was 
 instructed that no one can withstand the outstretched arm that 
 wields the everlasting sceptre ; and the contemner of the hea- 
 venly mandate succumbed and said : " The Lord is righteous, 
 and I and my people are wicked ;" and again : " Rise and go 
 out from the midst of my people, you as well as the children of 
 Israel ; but bless me too." Joyfully the ransomed went forth ; 
 and thus was completed the redemption which had been pro- 
 mised ; and thus had the people been educated who, whilst 
 receiving the law, were to become thereby the blessing of all * 
 the families of the earth, like the looked-for torch, suddenly 
 sent down to the hopeless miner, who vainly gropes his way to 
 the lost entrance, amidst the appalling gloom which reigns in 
 the bowels of the earth. Ay, this glorious light was kindled 
 on yon Sinai, and this light of the unchanging God is to be the 
 guide unto the heavenly portals of eternal bliss to the now be- 
 nighted sons of men. And thus speaks the prophet (Malachi 
 iiil 6) :
 
 THE MISSION OF THE PROPHETS. 33 
 
 " For I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not con- 
 sumed." 
 
 In truth, the same Providence which watched over us when 
 in slavery under Pharaoh's tyranny has ever since guarded 
 us ; and whenever troubles have encompassed us we were 
 always saved by the same mighty Hand that piled up the 
 waters of the Red Sea ; and whenever enemies strove to make 
 us forget the law, the same potent Voice that spoke at Sinai 
 preserved its influence over our mind, so that the holy legacy 
 has not been forgotten. If therefore our children and the sons 
 of the stranger ask, " What is this service unto you ?" we may 
 answer, " It is because the supreme Ruler fulfilled his word, 
 and took unto himself a people from the midst of another, to 
 diffuse through their agency, life, liberty, salvation, and truth 
 to the utmost ends of the world on which our lot is cast." 
 
 Father of Israel ! preserve us farther in thy grace, and look 
 not unto our follies and transgressions, though they be many, 
 but have regard unto the covenant Thou sworest unto our 
 fathers, that Thou wouldst be their God, and unto their children 
 for ever. Amen. 
 
 Nissan 10th 
 April 5th 
 
 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 THE MISSION OF THE PROPHETS. 
 
 LORD of the universe, whose glory filleth all the earth, we 
 come to adore Thee, because of the great truth and kindness 
 which Thou hast ever displayed unto thy servants ! How 
 many were the dangers that threatened us in days gone by ; 
 but by thy gracious aid they were turned into salvations, and 
 calamities which well-nigh had overwhelmed us, were made
 
 24 THE MISSION OF THE PROPHETS. 
 
 new evidences that Thine is the power to humble the proud, 
 and to exalt the lowly. Display then to us who worship Thee 
 in our captivity the same grace and mercy which erst Thou 
 bestowedst upon our ancestors ; and let thus all the sons of man 
 be made conscious that Thou alone art the God in the heavens 
 above and on the earth beneath, and that beside Thee there is 
 no god! Amen. 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 Loudly pealed the thunder, and bright lightnings flashed 
 amid the terrific clouds of gloom, when the Most High lowered 
 his glory on the chosen mountain ; violently shook the earth, 
 and the skies dropped down water, when on Sinai the law was 
 given ; and at the footstool of Divine Majesty lay prostrate an 
 adoring people, lay worshipping an awe-struck nation, when 
 their King came to cause them to hear his words. It was then 
 that every one of the redeemed multitude beheld the evident 
 tokens of divine revelation, and heard the words of truth pro- 
 ceeding immediately from the mouth of the Holy One ; and 
 they felt that it was indeed the Almighty, their Creator and 
 Redeemer who had delivered them from the tyrant's power, 
 who now spoke to them, and that to be his chosen people 
 meant that they could purchase his especial favour and vigi- 
 lance by obedience to the laws that were promulgated to them 
 on that day. In my last address, your attention was called 
 to the extraordinary circumstance, (at least remarkable to Is- 
 raelites, though so very common among gentiles,) that the priest- 
 hood had a knowledge and religion, differing widely from that 
 of the community. The former had access to the temples, fes- 
 tivals, and the so-called mysteries of their innumerable divini- 
 ties ; whilst the latter were excluded from all participation, 
 except distantly, in these matters. A religious address is not 
 well calculated to enter deeply into an investigation of this sub- 
 ject ; but a mere cursory reading, even of the history of the 
 Romans, Greeks, Babylonians and Egyptians will satisfy any 
 one of the correctness of this assertion. I will merely extract 
 from a late popular w r ork, by no means favourable to revela- 
 tion, a short description of the Eleusinian mysteries, to illustrate 
 more clearly what I mean when using this word in reference
 
 THE MISSION OF THE PROPHETS. 35 
 
 to heathen rites. " These" (that is, the lesser mysteries) " were 
 afterwards preparatory to the greater ; for which the candidate 
 was obliged to fit himself by religious ceremonies, symbolical 
 rites, and various acts of devotion, the design of which was to 
 withdraw his attention, at least for a time, from business and 
 pleasure, to keep him pure, chaste, and unpolluted, and to ex- 
 cite his curiosity in relation to the expected revelations. The 
 period of purification continued a year ; and no one could be 
 admitted to the mysteries without purification, on pain of death. 
 The ceremony of admission was performed by night : the can- 
 didates, crowned with myrtle, were obliged to wash their hands 
 at the sacred threshold with holy water : public proclamation 
 was also made, that the mysteries should be approached only 
 with pure hands and pure hearts. Pure Greek only was to be 
 spoken. The celebration of these mysteries commenced on 
 the fifteenth day of the month Boedromion, and continued nine 
 days. It consisted principally of representations of the history 
 of Ceres and Proserpine, the tortures of Tartarus, and the joys 
 of Elysiurn, which were exhibited in the most striking manner. 
 The chief design was, by sensible means, to spread among the 
 people a conviction of the immortality of the soul, and of a future 
 state of rewards and punishments. The initiated were under 
 the peculiar protection of the gods, and they alone were certain 
 of the joys of immortality. Very different from these lesser were 
 the greater mysteries, which contained the secret doctrines 
 that were the chief object of the institution, and were commu- 
 nicated only to a few (the Epoptae), in the recesses of the sanc- 
 tuary. Secrecy was enjoined under the most dreadful penal- 
 ties. Divine vengeance and death were the punishment of 
 those who disclosed them. These doctrines probably aimed at 
 the explanation of the popular superstition and mythology, and 
 the interpretation of their true meaning. The mysteries incul- 
 cated the doctrine of one God, and the dignity and destiny of 
 the soul of man : they instructed the people in the knowledge 
 of nature and of the universe, and pointed out the traces of the 
 Deity in the beauty and majesty, the splendour and regularity 
 of the visible world." 
 
 It will be observed that whatever of superstition and pagan 
 worship belonged to these mysteries in this account are matters 
 
 VOL. in. 3
 
 2G THE MISSION OF THE PROPHETS. 
 
 of history ; but the explanations attempted, so as to refer to 
 them a higher object, such as unfolding the knowledge of one 
 God and of the immortality of the soul, are evidently mat- 
 ters of conjecture only, and may be assumed to have been an 
 illustration attempted in modern times. But it is not my pre- 
 sent purpose to enter into a comparative value of paganism 
 farther than to exhibit the nature of prophecy as it existed 
 among the ancient Israelites, the predecessors of us the modern 
 Jews. You will have observed how carefully the higher know- 
 ledge was hedged round and kept concealed from the multitude 
 of the heathen ; the people had to be satisfied with gross super- 
 stition, no ray of purer light was to them vouchsafed. It need 
 scarcely be mentioned that all this necessarily precluded the 
 revelation of the existence of the Holy One, admitting even 
 that the few elect knew of his sole existence ; for the multitude 
 worshipped in those days of darkness invented absurdities 
 which were a personification of all the follies and vices of man 
 in a barbarous state, and war and petty intrigue were boldly 
 represented as the pastime of the Roman and other deities. 
 Whatever of prophecy was attempted, in order to fasten yet 
 tighter the chain of servitude upon the necks of suffering mil- 
 lions, was delivered by cunning madmen in double-meaning 
 words, interpreted by priests to answer their own, often sinister 
 views. To attempt reaching the truth was held a crime de- 
 serving of the most condign visitation, and wo to him who 
 dared to lift the veil of the Egyptian idol, death, or tortures 
 even worse than death, would surely have fallen to his lot. 
 While thus every communication of the Everlasting One was 
 scrupulously denied, or kept a profound mystery to the mass of 
 mankind : it pleased the God whom Abraham and his descen- 
 dants had worshipped, to announce through his chosen mes- 
 senger that it was his intention to descend in visible glory, yet 
 with no visible form, upon Mount Sinai, there to make known 
 to all the people those laws which He had ordained for their 
 government. It was, therefore, that the extraordinary display 
 of the Divine Majesty took place which was mentioned in the 
 commencement of this address, and from the midst of the fire, out 
 of the bosom of the thunder that shook the lofty Horeb to its base, 
 were proclaimed doctrines true as is the Creator himself; laws
 
 THE MISSION OF THE PROPHETS. 37 
 
 unchangeable as is his wisdom ; and a code imperishable as is 
 the spirit which He has created. Ay, " And all the people 
 saw;" there is the great point on which we must reflect; it was 
 not in one spot of a distant district, not in an obscure corner of a 
 remote, unknown, lonely desert, not a few ignorant, perhaps 
 interested men ; but all the people stood by, in a position where 
 every thing that was transacted was done in the sight and 
 hearing of assembled millions, where the grandeur, sublimity, 
 and transcendent awfulness precluded the idea of human illu- 
 sion and deception. Still the Israelites stood by unscathed, 
 unharmed, alive, listening to the word of the Omnipotent. 
 Truth was inculcated to the million, superstition was over- 
 thrown, not to the chosen few in the recesses of a time-worn 
 temple, but to a new-born people of sixty myriads besides 
 women and children, and the strangers that were in the midst 
 of them, on the green oasis, near the fertilizing rivulet, on the 
 wide extent of the plains around Horeb. All this took place 
 contrary to whatever had been thought of or at all events pro- 
 mulged unto that day within the memory of men ; and therefore 
 did the Israelites say to Moses (Deut. v. 21) : " Behold the 
 Lord our God hath shown us his glory and his greatness, and 
 his voice we have heard from the midst of the fire ; this day 
 we have seen that God can speak with man, who yet may 
 live." Conviction was therefore wrought, a conviction which, 
 despite of sinning, despite of apostacies innumerable, despite of 
 persecutions bitter and agonizing, despite of allurements tempt- 
 ing and destructive, yet survives, that to God alone belongs the 
 government, that He is the sole Creator, that He alone is Sa- 
 viour, and that His commands are true, permanent and un- 
 changeable. 
 
 The Unity then speaking was the same Saviour who had by 
 a display of his creative power redeemed the children of his 
 early adorer from galling servitude ; and this Saviour who had 
 redeemed their bodies from bondage was also the same Father 
 who promised to redeem their souls from earthly pollution by 
 their obeying his will. For what says the text of Exodus, xix. 
 5,6? " And now if you will hearken carefully unto my voice, 
 and observe my covenant, you shall be to me a treasure above 
 all nations, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me
 
 og THE MISSION OF THE PROPHETS. 
 
 a kingdom of priests and a holy people." These words can 
 bear but one interpretation, and this is evidently that God an- 
 nounced Himself as One, the Creator and Governor ; and fur- 
 thermore, that holiness, or the saving of the spirit from pollution 
 and its consequent condemnation and unhappiness, could be ac- 
 quired by a hearkening to his voice, and an observance of his 
 covenant ; no other terms, no other faith, no other condition 
 were stipulated ; where then, why then, should we look for con- 
 ditions which the words of the holy message do not require ? 
 But what is meant by covenant ? The covenant of circumcision 
 had already been given to Abraham, in consequence of which 
 observance the Israelites had been chosen as the people to 
 whom God would fulfil the promise made to this Patriarch, 
 that He would be their God ; and now to add to this covenant 
 already existing they were told the duties which they should ob- 
 serve in order to lay a claim to the appellation of " God's people;" 
 that is to say, they should observe the covenant of the Ten 
 Commandments, or those laws which the Almighty had or- 
 dained as the everlasting statutes which should govern the 
 people whom He had chosen. The only article of belief, from 
 which our creed so called is merely a fair deduction, which 
 was asked of them is a belief in the existence of God, the Om- 
 nipotent One, the Everlasting One who had delivered them 
 from Egyptian thraldom; but in' no way was it taught that 
 they should repose their hope of salvation upon the intervention 
 of any assistant, human or divine. For human beings must 
 like themselves be fallible, mortal, sinful ; and no divinity can 
 exist either dependent or independent of Him who is our God. 
 Thus instructed, thus convinced, the people felt that the living 
 God, let me repeat, the living God their Redeemer, had indeed 
 spoken to them from the midst of the fire, and that nought but 
 his terrors had been seen from the midst of the darkness. And 
 yet they had been permitted to survive ! how were the delu- 
 sions of paganism thus swept away ! how were the bonds of 
 priestcraft rent in twain by the Giver of light and reason. The 
 object of the descent of Sinai was thus attained, and thus was 
 accomplished the intention of the Lord to reveal to an adoring 
 people the basis of his everlasting covenant. 
 t Although the people had in this manner been taught that a
 
 THE MISSION OF THE PROPHETS. 39 
 
 man might hear the living God speak, and yet be preserved 
 alive : still weak human nature dreaded to approach again the 
 great fire in which the glory shone resplendent. They were fully 
 alive td the truth and faithfulness of Moses, through whose in- 
 strumentality they had been redeemed, upheld and, so to say, 
 been brought to adore at the footstool of the great Father. 
 They therefore continued : " And now why shall we die, why 
 shall this great fire consume us 1 for if we again hear a second 
 time the voice of the Lord our God, we must die. For did 
 there ever exist any one human being who heard the voice of 
 the living God speaking from amidst the fire, as we have done, 
 and remained alive ? Do thou now approach, and hear what- 
 ever the Lord our God may say ; and do thou speak unto us 
 all that which the Lord our God may speak unto thee, and we 
 will hear and do." (Deut. v. 22-24.) This request was not 
 unpleasing to God ; He, on the contrary, deputed Moses on his 
 part likewise to be the messenger to the people, and thus was 
 the son of Amram made, as it were, the representative of the 
 people before the Lord of all, and unto them he was the me- 
 diator for the communication of the commandments with which 
 he was charged ; and in this manner was the law of Moses 
 handed down to us, a law which is the sequel and more par- 
 ticular definition of the basis of the covenant, the Ten Com- 
 mandments, which all Israel heard on Horeb. 
 
 When Moses now was told that his end was approaching, 
 that soon his body too must be yielded to the earth, that though 
 in his vigour at the age of sixscore years, with his eye-sight 
 undimmed, and his intellect unclouded, his hours were num- 
 bered, and that notwithstanding his earnest entreaty to see the 
 goodly land which was on the west side of Jordan, he should 
 die in the land of Moab, because he had not sanctified the Lord 
 at the waters of Meriba : he prayed to God to appoint a man 
 over the congregation who should supply the place which he 
 under heavenly grace had filled for the long period of forty 
 years. His wish was gratified, and Joshua his disciple was 
 endowed with the divine spirit, and guided by holy wisdom he 
 led on the Israelites to the conquest and the possession of the 
 land of Canaan. -But in addition to this the people were pro- 
 mised, that with the death of this one even the gift of prophecy
 
 30 Tin; MISSION OF THE PROPHETS. 
 
 should not be withdrawn; but that from time to time teachers 
 should be sent who should speak in the name of the living God 
 and the everlasting King. This \vc are taught in Deut. 
 xviii. 15 : 
 
 : i"o n"- onan 
 
 " A prophet from the midst of thee from thy brethren, like unto myself, 
 the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee; unto him you shall hearken." 
 
 Let us understand well what was promised, for upon this 
 depends much, and it is necessary that we should be able to 
 show that this announcement refers to no other character than 
 a human prophet. In the first place, a prophet is a term inap- 
 propriate to the Divinity ; for who can depute Him ? in whose 
 name is He to speak ? who is the superior to whom He shall 
 be accountable ? Farther, " from the midst of thee" refers evi- 
 dently to a human being, one like the people, fallible, mortal, 
 sinful ; more upright, more devoted to the service of God, if 
 you will, but nevertheless, fallible, mortal, sinful. Again, " from 
 thy brethren ;" who can be the personage meant, if it be not 
 one from the seed of Jacob ? who else can be the brother of 
 Israelites, if it be not one of the same origin ? But the next 
 characteristic, " like unto myself," must banish every doubt, if 
 any can rest on the mind of correctly informed and correctly 
 thinking Israelites. Who was Moses ? was he an integral part 
 of the Divinity ? was he a person removed from the rest of the 
 world, in an exemption from sorrow, from error, from death ? 
 did he act of his own accord, in working the mighty deeds of 
 which he was the instrument, from an inherent power, or as 
 the delegate for the time being from the One Supreme ? Next, 
 for what object were the miracles performed ? to aggrandize 
 one ? to depress another 1 no ; only to confirm again and again 
 the minds of the wavering multitude in the observance of the 
 promulgated covenant, in short, to establish on a permanent 
 basis the service of the Lord of all. We may maintain farther 
 that not to atone, not to save, not to reconcile a sinning world 
 to an offended God was Moses deputed ; only to be the mouth- 
 piece of the Lord, and to distribute, to use a simile from out-
 
 THE MISSION OF THE PROPHETS. 31 
 
 ward nature, as a canal enriches, from the supply of the parent 
 river, with refreshing waters the thirsty soil, the benefits with 
 which he was charged to the people to whom he had been sent, 
 and ultimately through these to all the sons of Adam. This then 
 was Moses, this his office, this his prophecy. When, therefore, 
 God promises one like him, a prophet descended from Jacob, 
 He means not a saviour, descended maternally from Israel, 
 whilst his father was more than man, sent to atone for the trans- 
 gressions of Adam's sinful race ; not one through whose blood 
 shed for mankind they could alone be rendered worthy of para- 
 dise ; but a messenger of tidings of good or evil, one deputed 
 like Moses was to speak in the name of his Sender, to demon- 
 strate the truth of the unalterable law, the unchangeable decree 
 of our Lord ; in short, to instruct, to lead, to admonish, to 
 labour in the holy calling with the zeal becoming one so emi- 
 nently favoured, in order that his brethren might turn, repent, 
 and regain the favour of their offended God, and to obtain 
 again through obedience the happiness which their sins have 
 taken from them. And continues the text : " All as thou didst 
 ask from the Lord thy God in Horeb on the day of the assem- 
 bly, saying, I do not wish any more to hear the voice of the 
 Lord my God, nor see again this great fire, lest I die," v. 16. 
 The people had asked that Moses should communicate to them 
 the decrees which might be revealed to him, to instruct them 
 in the way they ought to go ; but they did not ask, they did 
 not think it requisite to ask that he should become their surety 
 to obtain for them salvation ; inasmuch as the very law itself 
 was the instrument to effect this ; because this was the sole 
 object of its promulgation, as we are told in the words of Scrip- 
 ture : " That it may be well with them and their children for 
 ever." (Deut. v. 26.) Indeed, for what other purpose was or 
 could the great display have been, were it not to bestow a law, 
 the observance of which should confer life and peace ? When 
 therefore God promises a prophet on their petition and that of 
 the father of prophets, He evidently could mean no other than 
 had been asked for, a deputy to certify them of the will of the 
 Lord, not a son of god, to use a phrase foreign to revealed re- 
 ligion, to atone with his death, inflicted by the people of his
 
 32 THE MISSION OF THE PROPHETS. 
 
 mother, for the sin of Adam, and to render man again fitted for 
 admission to a share of everlasting happiness. 
 
 I have deemed it necessary to be more diffuse than customary 
 upon the explanation of a text in the Pentateuch and to illus- 
 trate it more, even by an introduction of extraneous matter, than 
 is perhaps agreeable to you or than I have been in the habit of 
 doing hitherto. But observe brethren, our religion is always 
 assailed, by infidels on the one side, who would gladly destroy 
 all belief, and by zealots of another people on the other, who 
 wish, and endeavour to, impose a creed upon us, foreign to 
 our faith, and not consonant with the Bible. I therefore con- 
 sidered it my duty to show you as briefly as one lecture can do 
 it, the infinite inferiority of pagan knowledge of God, even as- 
 suming for it the highest tone which unbelievers ascribe to it ; 
 and then to prove on the other hand, that the opinions of the 
 people among whom we live are inconsistent with and therefore 
 repugnant to the wisdom and goodness of God. Not however 
 to controvert the belief of others or to make converts to our 
 mode of thinking has this been attempted ; but only to afford 
 those who may hear me, and whose hearts I trust the Lord will 
 fill with wisdom to understand and to instruct, some argu- 
 ments which on their face appear unanswerable, to contend 
 with those who may wish to invite them to rebel against the 
 Most High. Yes, rebellion is the word to denote the act which 
 we are called upon to accomplish ; we are told to forsake the 
 Rock of ages for a deity which our forefathers knew not, of 
 whom the Bible does not speak, to whom the law and com- 
 mandments do not even allude. Shall we yield, brethren ? are 
 we to be wheedled out of our hope ? shall it be said, that we have 
 surrendered up in times of repose, and liberty, and enlightenment, 
 and equality, that to which we clung, ay, clung unto death, 
 when persecution, when hatred, when oppression, when chains, 
 the rack, the scaffold were the certain doom of the people held 
 forsaken of God and afflicted ? Or are perhaps the arguments 
 now adduced stronger or more cogent when held out flatteringly 
 than when preached with the fire and sword ? By no means ; 
 the law of God as delivered to Moses, free from human admix- 
 ture, stands as erect at this moment as on the day of the assem- 
 bly at Horeb. You, Israelites ! are its guardians ; you, sons of
 
 THE MISSION OF THE PROPHETS. 33 
 
 i 
 
 Jacob ! are its sentinels ; it is your inheritance ; guard it, save it, 
 watch it ; hold fast to its blessings, and never throw idly by the 
 gift which to bestow God, your Creator, came down in his glory 
 followed by multitudes of his holy angels, to bless therewith the 
 people whom he had chosen. Holy are its statutes, purify your- 
 selves through them ; life-bringing are its precepts, live then by 
 obeying them ; instructive are its ordinances, become wise there- 
 fore by studying them. Yes, live in and for your faith, and ever- 
 lasting life will be your reward ; be erect in your captivity, un- 
 flinching as the defenders of Heaven's best gift, and the glory 
 of Israel which is dimmed will shine again ; and when misfor- 
 tunes befal you then, as misfortunes are the trials which God 
 wields for the purification of nations as well as individuals, Isra- 
 elites will truly appear the people of God, who in Palestine and 
 in foreign lands remained firm and true and devoted servants of 
 Him who chose them because of the love He bore to their 
 fathers. Thus also will be fulfilled the prophecy which was 
 spoken by Isaiah, lii. 10: "The Lord hath bared his holy arm 
 before the eyes of all nations, and all the ends of the earth shall 
 see the salvation of our God." 
 
 Father above ! give us thy blessing, grant us the light of thy 
 countenance, and give us peace and security in the lands of our 
 captivity ; raise up also again unto us prophets who shall teach 
 us in thy name, and pour out thy holy spirit over all flesh, as 
 Thou hast promised ; all nations will then acknowledge that for 
 our sins we were punished, and that by thy favour we have been 
 redeemed. Amen. 
 
 Elul 2nd 
 August 23d
 
 34 
 
 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND REPENTANCE. 
 
 O THOU, who hearest prayer, to whom the sincere offering of 
 a contrite spirit is sweet savour, who pardonest the sinner and 
 forgivest transgressors against thy holy will, when they in re- 
 pentance return and seek thy presence : do now hear our sup- 
 plication, and have regard to the outpourings of the heart which 
 ascend to thy throne from the thousands of assemblies of Israel 
 in all the places of their dispersion ! Wash them clean from their 
 iniquity, cleanse them from their sins, that they may be made 
 whiter than the snow. And write them and seal them unto life 
 and happiness amidst the righteous who are thy beloved, and 
 remove from them all sorrow and affliction ; that they may 
 live devoted to thy service, and regain by serving Thee thy fa- 
 vour of which their sins have deprived them. May this be thy 
 will, now and for ever. Amen. 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 Could we but at all times know the consequences of our 
 contemplated actions, could we be permitted to dive into the 
 recesses of futurity: how often would we hesitate before 
 we acted, and would leave many an intended action undone. 
 For we frequently do that which in its consequences is per- 
 nicious not alone to others whom we sought to injure, but 
 also to ourselves, when we only thought of being .benefited by 
 our conduct. Appearances are so well calculated to mislead, 
 excitement is so apt to blind, interest will so generally deceive, 
 that guided by these only our whole life would be nothing but 
 one continued scene of rashness, its consequent misconduct, and 
 subsequent regret and sorrow. The wisest of men like the 
 most foolish is liable to the same infirmities, and if he is left to 
 judge for himself, he must, acting in ignorance of the conse- 
 quences, very often, nay, almost uniformly, choose the evil, de- 
 ceived by the semblance it may bear to the useful. For great, 
 wonderful and far-reaching as is the mind with which God has
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND REPENTANCE. 
 
 35 
 
 blessed his creature, man, still it is but the field in which the 
 seed may be sown ; and good or evil fruits will be the product 
 according to the cultivation which the fruitful soil has received. 
 But how does the agriculturist cultivate his soil? He first en- 
 deavours to enrich it by mixing it with substances which boun- 
 tiful nature every where supplies to restore its lost vigour ; he 
 next ploughs in order that the loose furrows may be ready to 
 receive the seed which he entrusts to the bosom of the earth ; 
 and when the germ first appears he watches with care lest the 
 chill frost and the gust of the storm nip the tender shoot ; and 
 even when growing up to maturity he must carefully remove all 
 weeds and noxious undergrowth which when suffered to mul- 
 tiply would injure the developement of the plant by their hurtful 
 presence. All this done he must leave the ripening to the careful 
 vigilance of Him above, who sendeth down the rain to refresh 
 the earth and the warming rays of the sun to bring all to ma- 
 turity. Even so> brethren, should we strive to cultivate our 
 minds, and endeavour to reap a rich and blissful harvest from 
 the field of mental cultivation surrendered to our charge. You 
 must understand that in our natural state the mind is liable to 
 receive impressions of every kind, and it may often be said that 
 a wicked man might have been a good one, had he only trained 
 himself or been trained by his parents and guardians in a dif- 
 ferent manner. It evidently becomes therefore the duty of the 
 superintendents of children to go before them with a holy ex- 
 ample, in order that they may early behold the beautiful effects 
 of piety and uprightness ; children will soon see how happy this 
 renders their parents, and naturally enough they will seek to 
 reach the same state by emulating those whom they love, and 
 from whose kind care so many of their enjoyments spring, and 
 who generously provide for all their wants. When the child is 
 thus prepared, how easy is it to awaken in him feelings of grati- 
 tude (so to say plough in him the field for religious seed) towards 
 the great Giver who has enabled his bodily parents to be kind 
 and beneficent to him f Yes, he should be told how it is that 
 all the beauty of nature is beautiful through Him alone ; how 
 -He makes the sun to shine ; how He clothes with verdure, how 
 he adorns with flowers, how he blesses with fruit the field, the 
 meadow and the garden. That every bird that sings amidst
 
 35 RKLIGIOrS EDUCATION AND REPENTANCE. 
 
 the new-clad brandies of spring, sings by Him inspired ; how 
 the cattle that low, the sheep that skip in exuberant joy on the 
 wide spread meadows are there by His ordaining. Tell him 
 when the dew-drop glows in the early rays of the rising sun, 
 that this resplendent diamond and this matchless brightness are 
 scattered from the hollow of his hand in one night over all the 
 earth; yes, fill his heart' with the vastness of the Creator's might; 
 tell him that the bright luminary which lights us by day never 
 rests in his course, that scarce have his beams sunk to rest ap- 
 parently behind the lofty mountain, when from the summit you 
 see them illumining the land beyond. Tell him but what needs 
 it for an humble mortal to recount the greatness and awful 
 working of his Maker ? can we reach the extent of his power ? 
 Still it is by words only that the sensations of our hearts can be 
 conveyed to others ; and when therefore the greatness of the 
 Everlasting One is the theme, how does the heart swell, how do 
 words come involuntarily, .how does our soul heave forth the 
 psalm, and strive feebly to confess its inability to chant his 
 praise ! Let therefore the child see that you are indeed alive to 
 the wonders of the Creator's deeds, and you will awaken in his 
 youthful heart an ardency to love this great and bountiful Bene- 
 factor, and he will almost involuntarily ask, how he should act 
 to deserve the love of the great Adored. When the child has 
 reached this point, that he asks either to be taught, or appears 
 ready to receive higher instruction, you should inform him that 
 the Creator is loo elevated, too supremely blessed to require the 
 services of his creatures for his own benefit ; but that whatever 
 they do will be for their own benefit solely, if their conduct meets 
 with His approbation. Be explicit in this, let the child be at 
 once impressed that his piety will be pleasing but not servicea- 
 ble to God ; that the performance of duties was therefore given, 
 that every human being might at once know those actions 
 which must be beneficial in their consequences, be this sooner 
 or later, to him and others, and learn to avoid those that are 
 hurtful if even their first appearance be harmless or at times 
 agreeable. Thus also says the prophet (Ezekiel xx./ 11, 12): 
 " And I gave them my statutes, and my judgments I made known 
 to them, which a man is to do and live through them ; and also 
 my Sabbaths I gave unto them, that they might be a sign be-
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND REPENTANCE 37 
 
 tween me and between them ; that they might know that I am 
 the Lord who sanctifieth them." Let him understand well what 
 is meant by "which a man is to do, and live through them;" 
 that it is nothing else but that a strict obedience to divine be- 
 hests will give us inward comfort, outward peace, permanent 
 satisfaction. And if we have to conquer our inclination in order 
 to render obedience to the judgments of God ; if we have to un- 
 dergo hardships ; if we have to be subject to loss ; if we should 
 be exposed to the contempt and hatred of the ungodly in order 
 to follow the way pointed out by the statutes of the Lord : we 
 should not falter in our duty, but remain firm and unshaken ; 
 resist the inclination, for to follow it would be sinful and death- 
 bringing ; we should think lightly of hardships, for they may be 
 readily overcome by perseverance; loss of worldly things should 
 not be estimated in comparison with the bliss we obtain by obedi- 
 ence ; the contempt of mortals should be valued when compared 
 with the favour of our great Father ; and the hatred of the un- 
 godly maybe \vell held in light esteem, when we reflect that we 
 are protected by One who is powerful above those who lord it 
 over their fellows. Farther, that this course of steady obedience 
 will bring us life, and that the opposite will cause death and suf- 
 ferings. 
 
 Tell the child also of the beautiful institution of the Sabbath ; 
 how the Lord himself made all that exists in specific time, and 
 that, when all was finished as He had willed it, He sanctified 
 that period and called it the day of rest ; that He could have 
 made all in a moment of time, but He preferred creating, as the 
 Bible teaches, each part of the organization on a different day, 
 but that He absolutely finished, and consequently added no 
 more, when He had organized nature as we now see it around 
 us. He had implanted in every thing a power of continuing 
 itself, if not disturbed by greater causes ; to the earth he gave 
 power to change its masses by heat and various other inherent 
 agents ; to the water to rise up in vapour into the atmosphere 
 and thence to descend and make fruitful the soil ; to plants He 
 gave growth, and to animals the power of motion, and to man 
 alone the faculty of speech. All this organization finished, He 
 viewed it and found it good, and He then abstained from add- 
 ing any more agents and impulses ; and from that time until 
 
 VOL. in. 4
 
 38 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND REPENTANCE. 
 
 now every thing has been proceeding and progressing as He 
 had commanded; and that period too, when all had been finish- 
 ed, called the seventh day of creation, lie blessed and declared 
 holy, and gave it to his noblest work, man, as a day of abstinence 
 from labour, and a day of recreation from toil, and devoted to 
 the worship of the Founder of the universe ; for thereon the 
 sun rose upon the new-made earth, when quietly the fishes 
 played in the sparkling brook, unterrified by the angler's rod ; 
 whilst securely the birds carolled forth their Sabbath-hymn in 
 undisturbed joy ; whilst peacefully grazed the cattle upon the 
 fresh grass of the wide-extended pasture, and whilst man, inno- 
 cent as he had sprung from God's creative hand, chanted forth 
 his ecstatic praise to the Author of his life. Angels might stand 
 by and be thankful at so great a display of goodness ; for there 
 was rest, and harmony, and good-will upon the whole sphere 
 which had just been thrown out as one of the many stars that 
 glow in the firmament of the infinite space, the handy work of 
 the exalted One. Therefore was the Sabbath given as an in- 
 stitution to prove that God the Greater sanctifieth his children 
 by making known unto them a portion of his greatness, and 
 imparting to them a knowledge of those things which will make 
 them worthy to be called his servants, and men hallowed by 
 his worship. 
 
 If you yourselves, parents and guardians ! worship the Lord 
 in your hearts ; if you practise in your own persons the duties 
 you recommend ; if you honour the Sabbath from violating it ; if, 
 in short, your children see in your conduct the reflection of the 
 divine law, whose precepts you impress on them : is it not then 
 highly probable that they will listen with cheerful attention to 
 your instruction, and give ready obedience to the laws you 
 impart ? Most assuredly, and children thus educated, thus led 
 by precept and example, will be full of the spirit of religion, 
 ready to execute from a pure love to Heaven his all-wise de- 
 crees. For in youthful piety there is not mixed up a desire for 
 display, no love of renown, no fondness for worldly gains, 
 which may in a greater or less degree sway the actions of ma- 
 turer years : but the infantile prayer spoken by intelligent lips 
 that know no guile is indeed a worthy sacrifice to the One who 
 is purest of the pure. And well have our wise men included
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND REPENTANCE. 39 
 
 in our prayers the petition : " Grant our request for the sake of 
 children under tuition," for with them is found sincere piety 
 coupled with understanding, and from them alone can grow up 
 undeviating defenders of the holy law ; since they early prac- 
 tise the religion which has been early taught them, and convic- 
 tion of its truth implanted in the pure soil of uncontamiriated 
 reason will remain unshaken in after years, when the turmoil 
 of life, and passion, and sorrow, and disappointment sour per- 
 haps the disposition, and almost lead us to despair of better 
 days. What, I ask you, will then uphold the stranger in the 
 stranger's land 1 who alone battles against adverse interests ? 
 mistrusted by his opponents and feebly supported by his friends ? 
 whence can he derive his consolation ? Can it be from evanes- 
 cent triumphs, from foes vanquished, from difficulties overcome, 
 from a character left untarnished though assailed by the un- 
 godly 1 Surely to the humble in mind such things can afford 
 but small satisfaction ; he values little the malice of men, and 
 lightly he esteems the temporary triumph obtained ; and were 
 indeed such his only support, how soon would he sink into 
 melancholy and listlessness. And suppose his enemies were to 
 triumph, (for often we find that virtue for a time succumbs to 
 malice and cunning,) what then is to cheer him but the holy 
 hope which early has been implanted in him, by an honoured 
 mother, by a beloved father, by a revered teacher 1 And often 
 the shadow of an early-lost mother will rise up to console the 
 son in the hour of sorrow and bid him to direct his eye to his 
 God who never sleeps : the admonition of the father, who was 
 perchance early taken, will recur to the aching memory and 
 counsel him to steadfastness in the righteous path ; and the 
 instruction of the teacher who has sunk in the grave ripe of 
 years and full of honours will be ever present to incite him to 
 persevere in the service of the Most High, uninfluenced by fear 
 of the world, unswayed by the hope of their favour. Those of 
 you, brethren, who have been blessed with such guides as I 
 have just mentioned, will be able to estimate the valuable gifts 
 that have descended unto you through them ; and you will 
 surely not hesitate to endeavour that your own children may 
 receive a similar blessing through your means. In this manner 
 yc u accomplish the high obligation which the Lord demands
 
 40 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND REPENTANCE. 
 
 of you with regard to the precious souls which His wisdom 
 has entrusted to your care, for in this light you should regard 
 your children, as a trust which you should strive to deliver 
 back pure and unsullied into the hands of Him who bestowed 
 them on you. It is accordingly farther demanded of you to 
 watch the growth of the weeds among the useful products, and 
 to eradicate the former that the latter may grow more freely 
 and luxuriantly. In other words, you should keep a watchful 
 eye to discover with every day of advance in life the faults and 
 foibles which your children may display ; do not compare your 
 well-informed and well-behaved ones with those of others who 
 are rude and bad, and thereby extenuate the little evils which 
 you may daily witness in your own families. Do not act in 
 this suicidal manner ; but check every evil propensity as soon 
 as it presents itself; punish gently every departure from right 
 and propriety, and admonish with earnestness, and repeat your 
 holy lessons constantly in mild and persuasive language, till 
 you reach that happy moment when the conduct and thoughts 
 of your offspring and charges flow in the same devotional 
 channel with your own. 
 
 If all this has been religiously, scrupulously and honestly done 
 till they have reached manhood ; if virtue has always been en- 
 couraged and vice ever checked ; if the fear of God has been 
 made a household duty, and His adoration the daily conduct 
 of the seniors ; in short, if the parental fireside has been the 
 school of religion : then alone have you fulfilled your trust, and 
 then alone can you with truth assert that you have discharged 
 your duty to your children, and then alone can you aver that 
 you are not answerable for their misconduct. If then they 
 disgrace themselves by deeds unworthy of the example and 
 instruction they have received, you will not be punished, nor 
 will the displeasure of God fall upon you ; as says the prophet 
 (Ezekiel xviii. 20) : " The soul that sinneth alone shall die ; the 
 son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor shall the 
 father suffer for the iniquity of the son ; the righteousness of the 
 righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked 
 shall be upon him." It will appear from this that when the son 
 acts contrary to the virtue of the father, that the latter shall 
 not be responsible ; but this exemption from blame can only
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND REPENTANCE. 41 
 
 then be claimed when the commandment of " And thou shall 
 teach them diligently unto thy children" has been carefully ob- 
 served. But wo to that parent who values his children more 
 than the glory of God, who reproves them not when they sin ; 
 for then he is accountable for all their transgression, since he 
 could have guided them, and yet neglected his trust. For thus 
 we read in 1 Samuel iii. 11-14: "And the Lord said to 
 Samuel, Behold I will do a thing in Israel, so that both the ears 
 of every one that heareth it shall tingle. On that day I will 
 fulfil unto Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house ; 
 when I begin, and also make an end. I now tell him, that I 
 will judge his house for ever, because of the iniquity of his 
 knowing that his sons behaved vilely and he chid them not." 
 We are told in the same book how lamentable \vas the end of 
 Eli's sons and of himself, and how just was the retribution in- 
 flicted upon the priests who dishonoured by their misconduct 
 the temple and sacrifices of the Lord, and of the father who 
 from love to them winked at their misdeeds. 
 
 We have thus exhibited both the duty and manner of mental 
 culture ; and minds trained in this manner can alone be said 
 to be in a proper state for influencing good and useful conduct. 
 For a person who has been early taught to look towards the 
 law of God for advice and countenance ; who has been firmly 
 impressed that all its commandments are useful and of bene- 
 ficial tendency ; who firmly believes that the Maker does all 
 for our ultimate good, even those things which we mourn over 
 at times as afflictions and sorrows : such a one, I say, can 
 seldom be induced to do aught hurtful to himself or his neigh- 
 bours, that is to say, he will practise virtue, and thus do nothing 
 which can in reality be termed injurious. For if he deprives 
 himself of superfluities in order to assist those who need his ser- 
 vices, what does he lose thereby ? If he voluntarily submits to 
 suspend his labour on the days sacred to the Lord, will he at 
 the period of his death miss the unnecessary gain which he 
 lost by his abstinence, even admitting that his wealth should 
 have been diminished in consequence of his piety ? Say, what 
 can he suffer if he watches by the friend who languishes on the 
 bed of sickness, compared to the blissful satisfaction he thereby 
 earns of having assisted one who so much needed it, even 
 
 4*
 
 42 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND REPENTANCE. 
 
 omitting altogether its bearing as a religious duty 1 In short, 
 we cannot mention a single deprivation which the strict obe- 
 dience to the law requires which can in any degree of fairness 
 be termed hurtful, and the more we reflect the more sincerely 
 we must join with the words of the prophet adduced already : 
 " And my judgments I made known to them, which a man is 
 to do and live through them ;" for all the losses and sufferings 
 such obedience brings are only temporary, and the mind, 
 though at first unwilling, will soon rejoice over the sacrifice 
 made, over inclinations conquered, and over evil intentions 
 checked in consonance with the will of God, and feel a happi- 
 ness which no worldly gain can bestow, that it has been blessed 
 to avoid a long course of regret, and to earn the satisfaction of a 
 conscience unsullied by crime, and to be confident that the Crea- 
 tor will look with favour upon the deeds of the work of his hands. 
 But wo ! when the decrees of Heaven are esteemed of no 
 weight in the regulation of our conduct ! if we trust to the de- 
 ceptions which the outward world imposes upon the senses ; if 
 we prefer riches to happiness ; inclinations before the law of 
 God, the creature before the Creator. For then the road 
 which leads onward to destruction is opened to us ; every 
 act will then draw us to a greater distance from the favour of 
 the Lord ; every step will bring us nearer to the brink of ruin ; 
 since the accumulation of wealth by means not permitted by 
 the law, the acquisition of fame by trampling upon the rights 
 of others, cannot shield the heart from the consciousness of 
 being unworthy of such possessions, nor can we rest free from 
 the apprehension of divine vengeance, if even human power can 
 be laughed to scorn. Or say that empires too should bend be- 
 neath a sceptre unjustly swayed, that kings should bow before 
 a usurper's throne, that nations glorying once in their freedom 
 should willingly bear the chains of fortune's favourite will this 
 bring ease to the soul torn with remorse for friendship betrayed, 
 for the innocent slaughtered, for the widowed mother rendered 
 childless, and for altars of God overthrown ? Yes ! dignify 
 crime as you will, let .its career bo ever so splendid ; still you 
 may confidently assert, that had the criminal but known the 
 end of his doings, had he been permitted to look into the dark- 
 ness of futurity, surely his misdeeds would never have been
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND REPENTANCE. 43 
 
 done. " There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked," 
 speaks Isaiah, Ivii. 21 ; and from the prisoner who in his lonely 
 cell is shut out from all intercourse with man, up to the tyrant 
 who tosses about, uneasy on a bed of down, surrounded by fawn- 
 ing courtiers, all have experienced and all will experience to the 
 end of time, that virtue outraged will be avenged, and that the 
 broken covenant of the Lord will cry out for visitation against 
 the doers of evil. 
 
 Still, even the sinner, though he has wilfully rejected the light 
 so graciously given, will not be for ever rejected, if he but turn 
 and seek the Lord. By this is meant, that the sinner who in his 
 misconduct may be said to have distanced himself from his God 
 may alter, and by following the way of the ordinances regain 
 the favour which is now denied him. He should rekindle in him- 
 self the knowledge of better things which was impressed on him 
 in his happier years of infancy and youth ; he should strictly in- 
 vestigate whether his own deeds can bear a comparison with that 
 standard ; and if he find that they cannot, as find he must, when 
 he feels that he must stand abashed if at that moment he were 
 called on to account before the omniscient Judge : let him pour 
 out his heart in prayer before Him who searches the heart, and 
 humiliate himself in abhorrence of the wickedness he has done. 
 Then indeed may he look for forgiveness, if he sincerely resolves 
 and firmly perseveres to lay aside the faults, and vices, and sins 
 which rob him of his peace, which but too much evidence that 
 he is not entire with God. Only let him not despair of mercy; 
 let him not think that the religion of Israel revealed in the law 
 of Moses has no consolation for the transgressor ; for reasoning 
 like this may sink the straying one yet farther into the whirlpool 
 of sin, and extinguish perhaps the last spark of religion, and in- 
 duce him to become an apostate to his faith and the belief of his 
 fathers, and seek for repose in systems which promise salvation 
 through mediators, or in other words an atonement through acts 
 that are not his own. On the contrary we thus read in Deut. 
 iv. 29 :
 
 44 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND REPENTANCE. 
 
 " And you will seek from thence the Lord thy God, and thou shall find him, 
 when thou wilt seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul." 
 
 In this verse it is plainly taught that a seeking of the Lord 
 will obtain his forgiveness provided the penitence be with all the 
 heart and with all the soul, that is to say, with entire sincerity. 
 It is true that Moses in addressing Israel evidently speaks of the 
 entire people, but we are fairly permitted to apply the same 
 promises of pardon to individuals likewise. Many passages of 
 the prophets teach us emphatically the use and efficacy of re- 
 pentance ; but we must at present pass them over, and merely 
 select a few striking passages from the Psalms of David which 
 clearly teach the doctrine we have advanced. Psalm, xxxvi.. 5, 
 he says : " Therefore did I confess my sins to Thee, and would 
 not hide my iniquity; I said I will confess my transgression unto 
 the Lord, and Thou dost forgive the iniquity of my sin." Psalm, 
 li. 6 : " To Thee, only Thee, have I sinned, and have done the 
 evil in Thy sight." And v. 19, he continues in positive assurance 
 of pardon : " The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit ; a heart 
 broken and contrite, O God, Thou wilt not despise." This is 
 the doctrine which is preached throughout the Bible, and in 
 every instance we are told that sincerity will not find the gates 
 of mercy closed to its earnest prayer. Indeed it is the whole 
 scope of religion to awaken such a state of mind in our people ; 
 all the ceremonies were ordained to arrest the attention and to 
 lead back the unthinking, and even the unlearned who have not 
 been blessed with an education as we have attempted to de- 
 scribe, unto the service of the Most High. Hence, the institu- 
 tion of the festivals, and especially of the Day of Atonement, 
 and the days of penitence. Every year the cornet is blown in 
 Israel's dwellings, to proclaim that the everlasting King yet 
 reigneth, and to call back to his fold those who have gone astray 
 on devious paths. Loudly arises the prayer, sincerely ascends the 
 hymn, and in every congregation is heard with one accord, 
 " The Lord he is God, the Lord he is God !" Willing and un- 
 willing, pious and sinner all join in the loud acclaim, and all 
 attest that the love of God is not yet extinct in Jacob's descend- 
 ants in the lands of their captivity. But brethren, let the wor- 
 ship not be merely for the day, for the moment of enthusiasm ;
 
 OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW. 45 
 
 let its workings operate for every hour of your future life ; be 
 animated by a renewed desire to be good and faithful servants, 
 and resolve to show your sincerity by a vigilant and honest ex- 
 ercise of all the precepts which were ordained for your happi- 
 ness; then indeed will you be accepted, your sins will be forgiven, 
 and you will not die, O house of Israel ! 
 
 Forgiver of sins ! gracious Father ! send us the comforter, 
 even thy spirit, and pour out over us the spirit of truth and 
 righteousness, and open for us the gates of pardon and forgive- 
 ness ; and ordain our portion, and the portion of all Israel with the 
 righteous who have done thy will. Amen. 
 
 E!ul29th 
 Sept. 19th 
 
 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW. 
 
 FATHER of Israel ! unto Thee alone we offer adoration; Thou 
 who hast been from the beginning, and who wilt endure to ever- 
 lasting. Thine are power and wisdom; thine are might and un- 
 derstanding ; and from Thee alone are the powerful strong, and 
 the wise endowed with wisdom. Give us therefore the protec- 
 tion of thy power that we may be safe and sheltered from the 
 attacks and snares of the ungodly; and grant us the light of thy 
 wisdom so that we may be wise in knowing Thee, and bow with 
 meek submission to thy just decrees, and the upright judgments 
 which Thou sendest in thy world. Amen. 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 In examining the law of God we find different words used to 
 denote the commandments which it contains. So one class is
 
 46 OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW. 
 
 called commandments, another judgments, another laws, and 
 another again has the name of statutes. These various terms 
 are not unadvisedly used, nor without proper limitations. So 
 we would understand under commandments those enactments 
 which are apparent to our reason, including the greater part of 
 those technically called the moral laws ; necessity and conveni- 
 ence both demand our acting accordingly, and human reason, 
 when once certified of their being the will of God, will, if not too 
 much misguided by passion, gladly acquiesce in gaining the 
 favour of the Lord by following their behests strictly, seeing that 
 in obeying God in these things we at the same time promote our 
 own interest. The same, with but slight variation, may be said 
 of the judgments so called, or the judicial law of Israel, as prac- 
 tised when the nation of united Israel was governed by the equi- 
 table code of the divine rule. To our own reason a close inspec- 
 tion will make manifest that they are based upon the golden 
 rule, " Do to others as you would have them act towards you ;" 
 and but few indeed among these enactments can be found, the 
 reasonableness of which is not apparent, if the circumstances of 
 the times and of our people are drawn into consideration, and 
 which are not even to this day the best adapted for the happy 
 government of a free and enlightened people. For the more the 
 enactments of the Mosaic code are studied and carried out in 
 practice, the more it will be discovered, that no legislation, pro- 
 perly so called, of equal soundness and practical usefulness, was 
 ever devised by any one man, or any set of men, be they the 
 wisest that ever lived. 
 
 In the execution therefore of the commandments and judg- 
 ments no particular exercise of faith can be displayed, by which 
 I mean that in performing either the moral or judicial laws we do 
 not manifest a submission of our own will to the wisdom of God. 
 But still whilst practising what our reason demands we are 
 nevertheless doing our duty, we obey the dictates of our Su- 
 preme Legislator who is anxious to promote by his benign law 
 the welfare of his creatures. He is desirous to establish peace 
 and good-will on earth ; and whatever therefore we do with a 
 holy purpose, will be acceptable to Him as a manifestation of 
 piety. But religion has a higher scope than a mere utilitarian 
 principle; it is the schooling of the heart, it is the training of the
 
 OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW. 
 
 47 
 
 spirit, it is the government of our desires which it purposes ; in 
 short, it does teach us to yield ourselves entirely to God's guid- 
 ance; and it is a saving faith and a confiding trust that are neces- 
 sary in order to constitute ourselves servants of the Most High. 
 What then is a saving faith ? is it a belief in doctrines not under- 
 stood ? in imperfectly conveyed dogmas 1 No, it is a conviction 
 that whatever God asks of us is correct and true, that his laws 
 are necessary to our salvation and happiness, both here and 
 hereafter. It was therefore to test our faith, to plant the love of 
 God stronger in our hearts, that He gave us statutes and laws 
 which human reason would not have arrived at by the most pro- 
 found study, that we might be tested whether we " loved the 
 Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul." It 
 is accordingly not to be denied, that many of the statutes of 
 the Mosaic code are not founded upon human reason; nor 
 will we for a moment maintain that it is expedient even to 
 attempt measuring the infinite Wisdom by the feeble light 
 vouchsafed to mortals such as we are ; but we maintain that 
 in this consists the chief excellence of the Mosaic rule over 
 any other which is the invention of men and based solely upon 
 human reason and human will. 
 
 Let us examine ; the statutes and laws are those ordinances 
 which God instituted as the distinguishing mark of his people 
 above all other nations of the earth. He ordained that we should 
 erect a sanctuary, holy unto his servic?, where He would come 
 and dwell among us. The regulations belonging thereto, the 
 order of the service, the institutions of the sacrifices, the conse- 
 cration of the priests and Levites were all such as He chose to 
 appoint them. When therefore He says, that such service 
 would be a delight, that such sacrifices would be a sweet sa- 
 vour, where is the human reason that can gainsay it ? Say we, 
 that we would not so have organized the holy service ; admit, 
 that more pictorial, more statuary effect, more elegant, ravish- 
 ing music salute the eye and ear in other worships ; that in 
 other. temples sweeter incense pleases the senses: yet all this and 
 even greater refinements superadded would convince the believer 
 yet more that a holy purpose was the foundation of the simple 
 unostentatious service of the Lord. He preferred to dwell in a 
 tabernacle, elegantly indeed constructed beautifully wrought
 
 48 OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW. 
 
 by those in whose hearts God had placed wisdom ; neverthe- 
 less it was a moveable, so to say itinerant sanctuary, and during 
 a space of four hundred and eighty years our people had no 
 other resting place for the glory of the Sovereign of the uni- 
 verse, whose visible fire dwelt in the midst of them. Would 
 human wisdom have ordained this ? can any one be hardy 
 enough to assert, that a cunning deceiver would not have 
 dreaded to trust his system to so contemptible a depository in 
 a country replete with refinement and elegance ? By no means ; 
 especially when Egypt teemed with temples of yet enduring 
 splendour, when there at every step the modern traveller is 
 arrested by magnificence and wonderful art which no one can 
 even dare to attempt to imitate, much less to rival. We there- 
 fore maintain that in obeying the laws of which we have been 
 speaking, we submit ourselves to the wisdom and guidance of 
 God, who chose to maintain his creed and faith among our 
 nation in a state of simplicity almost inconceivable, whilst hea- 
 thenism fell, though supported by unequalled splendour. 
 
 Again with regard to statutes. " Remember the Sabbath to 
 keep it holy" is the command of the law ; here we behold God 
 as the Author of our life, as the Rewarder of our toil demand- 
 ing a cessation of labour on the day which He claims as de- 
 voted to his service. He tells us, blessing, yes, temporary 
 blessing, the increase of riches and worldly goods, also, shall 
 be the consequence of our labouring less than gentiles do ; 
 would human reason have invented this ? or did it ever do so 
 in any other system 1 True, the Romans had the feast of the 
 Saturnalia, when the slaves were free from labour, and when 
 a universal merry-making prevailed throughout the land ; but 
 it was not the quiet Sabbath of the Jews, not the silent hilarity, 
 the finding pleasure in the Lord prevailing among Israel. With 
 us labour ceased before the sun sunk to rest on the sixth day 
 of every week ; see on the western horizon the light of day is 
 fast winging its course to the depth of ocean's wastes ; from 
 the pastures the lowing herds wend their way to the welcome 
 enclosure ; the sheep bleating and joyous seek the fold ; and the 
 ploughman arrests the busy plough ; the harvester's sickle is 
 swung no more, and stops the hand of the active vinedresser. 
 All is at rest, whilst yet the feathered songsters have not ceased
 
 OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW. 49 
 
 their song, whilst yet they have not sought their downy nest. 
 Say, what cause.s this repose ? is the labourer's hand palsied '( 
 falters the husbandman in his toil 1 is it sloth that pervades the 
 land-? no! hear the psalm arising, from towns, from villages, 
 from hamlets, from the desert plain ; all join in melodious 
 hymns, all hearts are overflowing, every tongue utters praise, 
 shouting forth " A psalm and song for the Sabbath day." The 
 household too is newly arranged, the table decked with the 
 bright linen, the work of the industrious housewife, who awaits 
 the return of the father, husband, and son ; and over the festive 
 board the Lord's name is blessed who has given rest to his 
 people Israel. At length all is gloorn ; the sun has set, the 
 night has spread its dusky mantle over wearied creation ; but 
 no sound of revelry, no clanging of instruments, no noisy shouts 
 disturb the peaceful ear ; for the bondman, though now free, 
 rejoices too with the household in quiet retirement the return 
 of the weekly rest. The day has now dawned ; and over hill 
 and valley slowly the light is stealing ; but it. meets not the ox 
 at the plough, nor the ass toiling under his burden ; no armour 
 clashes ; the forge sends not forth the curling smoke ; and not 
 is heard as wont the hammer of the artisan ; but unto the 
 places where the law is proclaimed all the people go, and listen 
 to the instruction which has been vouchsafed them, and they 
 learn each to value himself, not in being richer, wiser or more 
 powerful than his neighbour, but in obtaining a greater share 
 of the fear and knowledge of the Lord, the Father and King of 
 his people. So it is in all the land ; quiet, and order, and 
 peace, and tranquillity reign all around ; but even in the temple 
 the service is simpler than in other days of the week ; not to- 
 day do you behold crowds of people bringing their burnt-offer- 
 ings, their peace, their sin and their trespass-offering to the house 
 of God ; for only the daily sacrifices and the additional offering 
 of two lambs for the Sabbath are led to the altar, and over the 
 sanctuary as over all the land hangs the shield of the holy rest 
 a rest in which no heathens rejoice, a Sabbath in which the 
 uncircumcised have no share nor portion. Is this an institution of 
 human invention? or did human cunning devise the day of rest? 
 no ! it is the wisdom of God that ordained it, it is the all-wise 
 One who wishes so to refresh by bodily rest and mental culture 
 VOL. in. 5
 
 50 OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW. 
 
 his servants, to lit them to pursue their allotted toil, resigned 
 to his will, content with their portion. For see, in our Sabbath 
 the prince and slave, the philosopher and labourer, the man and 
 the beast of burden all alike participate ; and when we resort to 
 the house of God to serve Him, the pomp, the pride, the retinue 
 of vehicles and of anxious servants must be left behind, for not 
 the horse is to carry the owner, nor is the servant to do servile 
 work for his master on that day. The king therefore, should 
 he come hither, must walk amid the crowd of worshippers 
 who appear before the great King, and in nothing can he claim 
 any distinction above them except he be a truer Servant of, and 
 more intelligent in knowing his Master, the Lord of all. 
 
 If now we must admit that human reason would not have 
 set apart one entire day for rest and a total abstinence from 
 labour : it will nevertheless be apparent, that this institution is 
 eminently calculated to promote a strong reliance upon the 
 Lord ; inasmuch as it will present itself as a day of leisure to 
 the whole community; and their welfare as a mass will be 
 greatly increased if they, with one accord, pretermitting their 
 daily toil, resort to the houses of worship to acknowledge that 
 they are all servants, receivers of benefits, children in their great 
 Father's world, scholars in their Teacher's school; if they de- 
 vote this day to rest, because the Lord of their labour bids them 
 rest ; if they listen to instruction because their Master teaches, 
 and rely for blessing during their cessation of labour, because 
 the Father who never deceives, promises them eternal delight, 
 if they restrain their foot on the Sabbath day, and execute not 
 their desires on the holy day of the Lord. It need riot be told 
 you that the Sabbath was ordained to commemorate the crea- 
 tion and the going out of Egypt ; because your reading of the 
 Bible has informed you thereof full often, nay, the Ten Com- 
 mandments, familiar to you from early childhood, lay it down 
 as a reason, " And remember that thou hast been a servant in 
 Egypt." Besides this, the subject has before this been presented 
 to your consideration. I intend to-day merely to call your 
 attention to the fact, that the laws not founded upon human 
 .reason were given as trials of faith, as a binding of fhe people 
 to God. So then, when we are told that any act is the will of 
 God to be done, another one to be left undone, we should not
 
 OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW. 51 
 
 hesitate in obedience, nor falter in our duty; but we should 
 surrender our own judgment, necessarily circumscribed by 
 worldly views and limits, to the all-searching wisdom of God, 
 whose eye ranges over all nature, in the elevated heights, and 
 in the unsearchable depths. He is the sole Arbiter of what is 
 reasonable, of what is useful, and what is hurt-bringing. He 
 knows the connection of things, and asks nothing which is 
 really injurious to the peace and welfare of the world. But, 
 besides all this, the creature as such owes something to the 
 Creator, otherwise there would be no divine rule on earth. 
 Great acts of charity, of towering benevolence, of wide-spread- 
 ing philanthropy are not within the range of every man, nor 
 always within the daily scope of even the wise and highly en- 
 dowed. But acts of devotion, abstaining from things prohibited, 
 the devoting of the heart to divine instruction, the acquiescence 
 in divine mandates are daily and hourly within the power of 
 every, even the humblest individual ; and the little prayer 
 breathed before we enjoy the Creator's gift ; the revenge we sup- 
 press because of the Creator's will ; the food we leave untasted 
 because the Creator calls it unclean ; the scroll we affix to 
 the post, because it contains the Creator's word ; the priestly 
 blessing we receive, because it is the Creator's benediction ; 
 all acts, in short, of devotion, all restraining of the desires even 
 in minute things all purify the heart, all elevate the spirit; and 
 with the faithful therefore the whole life is one series of acts of 
 devotion,- one continual scene of piety displayed ; and even the 
 ordinary acts of life then become, as also the pursuit of our 
 daily avocations, a part and an integral portion of the service 
 of the Most High, and the domestic fireside, the wide ocean, 
 the shady forest, the couch of sickness, the nuptial feast, the 
 mourner's dwelling, as well as the churches and schools of re- 
 ligion, are then converted into temples of the Holy One, who 
 dwelleth in the heart of those that are faithful and true. " It 
 is the heart the merciful One requires," say our wise men, that 
 is to say, in order to be religious we should feel the devotion 
 which we outwardly profess ; our lives should be consistent, 
 and by no act, word or thought should we ever dare to profane 
 the name of God. But on the contrary we should receive all 
 the commandments, being, as they actually are, the emanations
 
 52 OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW. 
 
 of the same Wisdom, as equally obligatory, nor should we ever 
 dare to offend against either of them, or question their \visdom 
 or usefulness. For if \ve do the latter, are we not in fact set- 
 ting up our judgment above the wisdom of God ? do we not, if 
 we rebel, exalt ourselves above our Maker? say we not by our 
 conduct : " Depart thou from us !" if we neglect the duties 
 which He thinks proper to prescribe for us 1 And yet persons 
 call themselves religious, lovers of God, who select and choose 
 the duties they wish to perform, rejecting some as unwise, 
 others as useless ; they honour God, but cannot put faith in 
 Him ; they read his law, but know not the sabbathic rest ; they 
 are certified, " And my covenant shall be in your flesh for an 
 everlasting covenant," yet they neglect circumcision ; they are 
 told, " You shall be to me a holy people," yet they defile them- 
 selves by the flesh of the swine and the creeping things of the 
 earth ; they are taught, " And thou shalt teach the word care- 
 fully to thy children," yet they suffer their offspring to grow up 
 in ignorance of the law of the Lord ; they are warned against, 
 " And thou shalt not intermarry with them," and still with pro- 
 fessions of religion on their lips, they seek the embrace of those 
 not in covenant with the Lord. It is the deplorable effect of 
 over-refinement, of the wisdom in our own eyes, that induces 
 us to debase ourselves thus before Him who searches the heart ; 
 He asks obedience, but we will be obedient if we think it rea- 
 sonable. Wo ! wo ! that such should be our folly ! To-day 
 we know not, in our self-conceit, what are the motives of the 
 law, we are ignorant, and therefore reject the life-bringing pre- 
 cepts, because of our ignorance alone, like the silly patient 
 dashes from his lips the healing draught of the friendly phy- 
 sician that might perhaps, with Heaven's blessing, restore him 
 to health and friends. But lo ! in a brief space our eyes are 
 opened, we see the wonders of the divine law, and then as 
 transgressors we lament too late our wilful blindness that refused 
 to be led by divine guidance. " God has told us what is good," 
 and Him alone we are to consult by an inspection of his word ; 
 nor should we falter because of the unpleasantness, the danger 
 and loss which compliance might occasion. We are God's 
 children, and as children we should listen to advice, not like 
 equals dispute the point of right. God wishes obedience, not
 
 OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW. 53 
 
 repentance ; He wills us to hear, not to atone for disobedience 
 by magnificent gifts. For in the willingness to serve alone lies 
 the merit, or as we have expressed it, in the yielding of our own 
 desires and wisdom to the supreme power and wisdom of God. 
 This also we are tauht in the Bible : 
 
 yvrh DIZD rraro J;OB> run 'rr Sis 
 
 no oop nxzon D 
 
 "And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offering and 
 sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord ! Behold to obey is better than 
 sacrifice, to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is the sin of witch- 
 craft, and stubbornness iniquity and idolatry.'' 1 Samuel, xv. 22, 23. 
 
 This memorable passage occurs in the history of Saul. When 
 Israel went forth from Egypt, Amalek lay in wait for them on 
 the road and attacked them, when they were faint and fatigued. 
 When now Saul had obtained dominion over Israel he was sent 
 to slay man and woman and every thing belonging to Amalek. 
 The decree was a severe one ; but it was the will of God, and 
 as such should have been obeyed. But Saul hesitated; he spared 
 the king and the best of the flock and cattle in order to sacrifice 
 them to the Lord. When Samuel arrived at the camp he was 
 aware of the delinquency of the king ; but in order to bring the 
 sin home to him, he engaged him in conversation, till Saul 
 avowed his purpose, that the people seemed unwilling to execute 
 the command, and that deferring to them he had spared the flock 
 to make sacrifices ; it was then the prophet exhibited to him the 
 right way of pleasing God, that implicit obedience alone could 
 satisfy Him who stands in no need of our services, and to whom 
 all the princes of the earth are as nothing and their doings as 
 vanity. Willingness is the sacrifice He demands ; obeying is 
 his incense ; but the presumption of judging for ourselves is a 
 want of faith, a rebellion against the Most High. Here we will 
 rest at present; and let us well ponder on the awful responsibility 
 we are hourly incurring by the rebelliousness of our spirit and 
 
 5*
 
 54 THE RESIGNATION OF AARON. 
 
 the stubbornness of our heart ; and O, let us never never de- 
 serve the denunciation, that we are rejected, because \ve de- 
 spised the word of the Lord; but on the contrary let us give up 
 our heart and soul to an absorbing obedience, to a filial devo- 
 tion, to an entire saving faith, in order that by obeying we may 
 receive the approbation of the Lord, which is the greatest good, 
 the highest blessing, which frail humanity can hope to earn. 
 
 Father ! teach us obedience, assist us to subdue our evil desires 
 to thy will, and lead us through this life of trial shielded by thy 
 wisdom, that we may awaken, when we have passed the por- 
 tals of death, surrounded by the light and that happiness which 
 Thou wilt give unto those that fear Thee ! Amen, 
 
 AdarSth 
 Feb. 
 
 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 THE RESIGNATION OF AARON. 
 
 SHEPHERD of Israel hear ! God of Jacob listen to our prayer ! 
 hearken to our voice from the lands of our banishment, from 
 amidst the nations where we dwell cast out from our inheritance 
 for the sake of the transgressions which we have transgressed 
 in thy presence. How long, O Lord, shall we sigh amidst the 
 gentiles ? how long shall the handful of Israel be given up to the 
 rule, the oppression, of their enemies, who would fain devour 
 them, because they cling to thy holy name, amidst all their 
 wanderings and their sorrows ? Arise, O God ! and display thy 
 holy arm before the eyes of all nations, and " sprinkle us with the 
 waters of cleanliness," as Thou hast spoken, " that we may be 
 clean, and be cleansed from all our filthiness, and from all our
 
 THE RESIGNATION OF AARON. 55 
 
 idols; and put thy spirit within us, in order that we may walk in 
 thy statutes, and that Thou alone shall be our God." Amen. 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 We read in Leviticus, x. 3. 
 
 'n -OT -it?** Nin pn*t a* wo 
 : prw DTI nroN oyn SD os Sjn Bnp >:nn 
 
 "Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord hath spoken, say- 
 ing, In them that come nigh unto me will I be sanctified, and before all the 
 people will 1 be glorified. And Aaron held his peace," i. e. he remained silent. 
 
 It is sweet, when we see a man, raised high above the level 
 of his fellows, guided by the same principles which govern the 
 less favoured ; it is refreshing, when we see the sage drinking 
 from the same fountain of knowledge which invigorates the 
 minds of the humble; but it is more sweet and refreshing than 
 both these instances combined, when we see the holy influence 
 of religion exerting its power over the bereaved heart, when it 
 has consigned back some spirit held dear for the ties of kindred 
 and friendship into the hand of its Giver, and when without re- 
 pining, it yields itself a resigned sufferer unto the Judge who 
 measures all our steps. It is truly then, that the servant of God 
 rises above the level of the common mass; for it is he alone who, 
 feeling deeply the infliction of God, can yield himself submis- 
 sively to the decree that has gone forth without murmur or com- 
 plaint ; because he bears that within which teaches him that it 
 is not fitting for the creature to dive doubtingly and complain- 
 ingly into the ways of his Maker, altho' the chastisement have 
 fallen on himself. A notable instance of this kind we have fur- 
 nished unto us in that part of the history of Aaron which we 
 have just quoted. Seven days had elapsed since this noble Le- 
 vite had together with his four sons received daily the consecra- 
 tion to the service of the Most High from the hands of his pro- 
 phet brother; and on the eighth day, which had then arrived, 
 he had been first installed to officiate with the aid of his sons in 
 the Lord's sanctuary. The people were all assembled ; from
 
 56 T11E RESIGNATION OF AARON. 
 
 the altar arose the smoke of the sacrifices which had been insti- 
 tuted as the perpetual offering of a grateful people to their be- 
 nevolent Father; and the chosen ministers were the chief, who 
 had gone hand in hand with the renowned prophet before the 
 tyrant of Egypt, and spoken the message which had been sent 
 to demand the liberation of Israel, and the offspring of his loins 
 whom the Lord had given him. Aaron had thus indeed re- 
 ceived a great reward, and he \vho had been the herald of the 
 redemption of his fellow Israelites was fit to become the instru- 
 ment for the expiation of their sins at the altar. Besides this, 
 the glory of the Lord was displayed before the people; for when 
 Aaron with his sons had come down from the altar after offer- 
 ing the sin, the burnt and peace-offering, and he and Moses had 
 blessed the people, the visible presence of the Most High was 
 made manifest before the eyes of the adoring multitude, and all 
 then felt that now indeed they were reconciled to their Father 
 in heaven, who deigned to dwell in the humble tabernacle which 
 their own hands had erected. Can you imagine a moment of 
 greater triumph than Aaron must have then enjoyed? The 
 everlasting priesthood, to endure unto the end of time, was his ; 
 the representatives that were to possess it after his temporal death 
 were before him, around him; the people for whom he had risked 
 his life, for whom he had toiled, for whom he had almost incurred 
 the doing of a great sin, had been purified of their transgression; 
 that law which at one time had well-nigh been cast off for the 
 idol of Egypt was again triumphant, and the tables of its holy 
 covenanf were deposited in the ark under the shadow of the 
 wings of the Cherubim, under the custody of himself and de- 
 scendants. All around him was joy, exultation and gladness ; 
 the people shouted when the fire came down upon the altar and 
 consumed the sacrifices and the fat, and all fell upon their faces 
 and worshipped. Here then was the consummation of all his 
 hopes, of all his desires; and onward seemed the march of the 
 nation to the holy land, there to erect unto everlasting the sanc- 
 tuary and the worship of the God of truth. Did he dream of 
 sorrow? was his heart awake to the terrible bereavement that 
 was impending? O no, he was secure in his confidence, he felt 
 free from all care and apprehension ; still at that very moment 
 two of his sons, the first-born and his brother, presumed to enter
 
 THE RESIGNATION OF AARON. 57 
 
 the tabernacle with strange fire, which God had not commanded ; 
 they added to the commandment, which was not to be aug- 
 mented or diminished under pain of death; they wished to offer 
 more incense than the mere handful which the decree of the Lord 
 demanded; perhaps, in imitation of the heathens, they desired to 
 fill the house of the Creator with the sweet incense, the cloud of 
 aromatic herbs, the products perhaps of the happy Araby and 
 the distant India. But this strange sacrifice was not pleasing, 
 because it had not been ordained, and a fire went out and 
 destroyed their life, even whilst they were in the sanctuary. 
 Here then lay the hopes of Aaron blighted ; the sons, in whom he 
 had confided and who were to assist and to succeed him, had in 
 the moment of wanton forgetfulness of the law, the chosen minis- 
 ters of which they had been appointed, forfeited their lives, they 
 had died the death of transgressors against the majesty of the 
 Lord. He had sunk from the height of exultation, from the pinna- 
 cle of happiness, into the depth of sorrow and anguish ; the shout 
 of the people's joy was changed into the sound of wailing and 
 regret, because of the burning which the Lord had burned. 
 
 It was at this moment that Moses approached his mourning 
 brother, and said to him: "This is it that the Lord hath spoken, 
 saying, In them that come nigh unto me will I be sanctified, and 
 before all the people will I be glorified;" meaning, that from those 
 who have received the greater light the greater responsibility 
 will be required ; the nearer man approaches to his Maker the 
 more energetically will his faults be punished. God is no Re- 
 specter of persons; He knows no distinction between 'his crea- 
 tures ; He observes the ways of all ; He cares for all ; He pro- 
 vides for all. But as order is Heaven's first law, it is necessary 
 that there should be degrees among mankind, that there be some 
 exalted above their fellows by the greater gift of riches, of 
 power, and of wisdom, in order that they all may be made in- 
 strumental in the proper government of the world. It was 
 therefore so ordained, that in proportion to the endowment, 
 should be the accountability, that it may be proved to the com- 
 prehension of every son of man that the Supreme Judge is good 
 alike, and just alike to all, and that the gifts He bestows are not 
 to be regarded as the exclusive property of the actual possessor, 
 but as the means to distribute the benefits which may be derived
 
 .58 THE RESIGNATION OF AARON. 
 
 from them, as the almoner of his Creator, among those of his fel- 
 low-creatures who come within the sphere of his action. It is true 
 that God could have created all men alike, both physically and 
 mentally ; but then, there would have been no order or subordina- 
 tion, because all being alike (something different from equal) no 
 one would have been willing to obey, and every one would have 
 been anxious to command. As things now are, we find enough 
 of contention ; how much more had the gifts of the Supreme 
 been alike bestowed, unless man should cease to be man, a mix- 
 ture of good and evil ! If therefore the man in authority trans- 
 gresses, he transgresses not only for himself, that is, he does not 
 only sin as an individual, but he transgresses also for the people, 
 his sin becomes an example, a stone of hinderness to the subordi- 
 nate and the less learned. Altho' therefore, it may be said, that 
 all mankind are alike bound by the same religion, there is 
 still an additional obligation of more particular care imposed 
 upon those prominent either by station or intellect; they are to 
 guide unto good, and give no cause for offence to the general 
 multitude. They, therefore, who like Nadab and Abihu, the 
 sons of Aaron, are selected from among the people to stand in 
 behalf of them before the Lord, should expect to receive instant 
 and condign punishment for every great fault they are guilty of, 
 for the reason that the Lord may be sanctified by the visitation 
 which they, as those nearer to the Creator, receive, and that 
 all the people may glorify the even-handed justice which is 
 meted out to the lowly both and the exalted. 
 
 It was this point which Moses meant to impress upon his bro- 
 ther; he offered him no common-place consolation, he did not 
 tell him not to grieve for the loss of his sons; but he called his 
 attention to the fact, that it was a just visitation of their God 
 whose law the slain ones had transgressed, and that it was for 
 the glorification of his justice that they were taken at the mo- 
 ment of their sinning; because their having been called to come 
 nigh unto the Lord should have taught them that it was their 
 duty to be very careful, how they fulfilled their ministry, not by 
 regarding it as having been given for their own gratification, 
 not by exhibiting themselves as raised above the law, but by 
 displaying a cheerful obedience, a ready acquiescence in all that 
 had been commanded, in order that their service might cause
 
 THE RESIGNATION OF AARON. 59 
 
 the Lord to be sanctified, and his glory to be felt by all the peo- 
 ple. Their life had failed to effect this; they transgressed, they 
 made a law of their own, they offered a strange fire ; their death 
 was therefore required to effect the object of their priesthood 
 and they died before the Lord. 
 
 Aaron felt the force of the prophet's rebuke, and he held his 
 peace ; he looked upon the corpses of his sons, and he felt they 
 had sinned ; he uttered no cry of anguish, he expressed no re- 
 pining after God's justice, he spoke not of -his loss, of his be- 
 reavement ; but his soul rose triumphant in its confidence in the 
 Lord, and he held his peace, he remained silent, acknowledging 
 that it is better for him to be bereft of his children, than that 
 the equal justice of his Creator should be impugned ; he ac- 
 knowledged, that the blow which had been struck at his peace 
 was for the good of his people, who also had a right and por- 
 tion in their ministers who had been selected from among them. 
 And when he was bidden not to exhibit outward signs of mourn- 
 ing, neither he nor his remaining sons, but that all the congre- 
 gation might mourn for the loss of those who perished for their 
 instruction and improvement : he again submitted to the man- 
 date, not forgetting that it became him to prove to the people 
 that he could conform to the behests of the Lord, although his 
 heart was torn with grief. But think you that Aaron did not 
 feel keenly his bereavement ? believe you it was indifference 1 
 want of refinement ? Then read the sequel of the chapter from 
 which our text was chosen ; Moses searched for the sin-offer- 
 ing, and finding it burnt, he expressed his indignation to his 
 brother's sons for not eating the sacrifice as ordained ; but 
 hear Aaron's answer : " Behold this day have they offered their 
 sin and their burnt-offering before the Lord ; and such things 
 have befallen me ; and if I had eaten the sin-offering to-day 
 should it have been acceptable in the eyes of the Lord ?" This 
 unpretending reply proves more strongly than any pathetic pic- 
 ture could have done, that, though the anointed priest yielded 
 obedience, yet the father felt his loss; he could not partake of 
 the sacrifice, his soul was with his departed sons, and rather 
 than desecrate the offering of his Master by partaking of it 
 without a proper regard to its sanctity and the object of its 
 institution, he preferred having it burnt, which was the remedy
 
 (30 Tilt RESIGNATION OF AARON. 
 
 if aught of the sacrifice should have been left till the following 
 morning. Moses acknowledged the force of Aaron's reply and 
 he felt content ; in other words, the holy spirit which spoke 
 through the prophet assented to the piety of the father, it per- 
 mitted him to feel, whilst it demanded resignation and an 
 unrepining submission to the decree of the dread Judge of all. 
 
 A resignation like this of Aaron is one of the highest efforts 
 which man can make in the service of his Maker, it is the no- 
 blest sacrifice of self which \ve can offer up on the altar of 
 heaven-born religion. It is when we are afflicted, when the 
 tide of our prosperity is turned, that we should have within us 
 that exalted confidence in the Lord's goodness, which should 
 move us to hold our peace, ay, whilst the eyes are suffused 
 with the warm gush of nature's overflow, the scalding tear, 
 whilst the heart heaves with convulsive throes, whilst the mouth 
 fails in uttering forth the cry which is wrung from the keen- 
 ness of the wound which the soul inwardly feels. Yes, it, is 
 then that religion exhibits her empire, when she binds the 
 stricken more closely to his God, unites more firmly to the great 
 Father the confiding child. But, brethren ! it is not only at the 
 moment when sorrow has invaded your dwelling, that you 
 should reach forth your hand to snatch the balm which religion 
 imparts ; you are not to wait to invigorate yourselves with the 
 dictates of our holy law until the time you are afflicted ; for 
 this would be merely using Heaven's best gift as a species of 
 medicine which the patient is willing enough to take only whilst 
 writhing under pain, but which he refuses to touch when health 
 is returning. Besides this, it is very questionable, if religion 
 can act as a temporary sedative, any more than the remedies 
 of the earthly physician, if by excesses we have destroyed our 
 constitution, or counteract the effects of a skilful cure by im- 
 prudence after our recovery. Think you that Aaron's acquies- 
 cence was the effect of the admonition of Moses, produced only 
 at the moment, and not before existing, latent, in his soul ? If 
 you think so, you greatly en', for Aaron had long been 
 schooled in the ways of God, he had felt his goodness, had 
 seen his mighty power, and witnessed his justice. He had con- 
 fided long since in the Justice with which the world is governed, 
 and when the shaft struck him too, he could submit patiently,
 
 THE RESIGNATION OF AARON. (j| 
 
 meekly, devoutly; he bowed to the chastening Hand, he adored, 
 though he suffered. Let it be the same with us all. No one lives 
 who can save his soul from death. The dark portal at the entrance 
 of eternity all have to pass ; the grave has been appointed the 
 common receptacle to all the living on our sphere; the silent 
 earth, or the stormy deep, or the scathing fire, or the fowls of 
 heaven will at a time not far remote receive our mortal remains ; 
 all the elements have been appointed our destroyers, all nature 
 seems leagued against our remaining long on earth. What right 
 then have we to look upon ourselves and our nearest friends as 
 more exempt than others from the common fate of humanity ? 
 where is the warrant which assures us that our fortune, our hopes, 
 our joys, are to stand more firmly than the fortune, the hopes, 
 the joys of others ? Vain delusion, if we deceive ourselves ! fatal 
 error, if we cleave so closely to earth ! A breath of wind may 
 overturn our fortune ; a stroke of lightning may mar our fondest 
 hopes ; an unforeseen accident may banish our joys ; things we 
 fondly cling to are snatched from our grasp whilst our eyes 
 are gloating on them ; the food not yet devoured is perhaps the 
 destroyer of our life ; the hand that smooths the pillow of our 
 couch of sickness may in a moment be palsied by death. And 
 shall we then not be prepared by a holy life, a faithful reliance 
 upon Providence, for the coming of the storm which must ship- 
 wreck our hopes 1 are we to go on from day to day, from 
 hour to hour, to rivet yet faster the chains which bind us to the 
 mundane globe, and loosen the bonds that unite us to our hea- 
 venly Father ? Shall wives, shall children, shall fathers and 
 mothers, shall brothers and sisters, shall friends and kindred, 
 shall wealth and renown, shall wisdom and honour be for ever 
 holding our spirit in thraldom, and keep us chained to the cha- 
 riot of worldly ambition, forgetful of the end that is sure im- 
 pending? Ay, could we ourselves do aught to secure our 
 possessions from loss, and our friends from death, then indeed 
 might our excessive love for them be pardonable ; but since 
 they are merely lent to us for a period, to be taken away again 
 whenever the Giver finds it for good to withdraw them : how 
 can we regard them as absolutely our own, and their with- 
 drawal as a personal injury done to ourselves I Why should 
 we not, since all on earth is fleeting, transitory, perishable, de- 
 
 VOL. III. 6
 
 (}2 THE RESIGNATION OF AARON. 
 
 caying, seek to accumulate treasures which are undying '( why 
 should we not in moments of prosperity and joy endeavour to 
 calm our exultation, and to look towards the period when a 
 change will come '? why not fortify ourselves, whilst we are at 
 peace, with faith, and confidence, and reliance, and fortitude, 
 and learn to lean for support upon the Rock of ages, that we 
 may be able to stand erect when at length the storm of adver- 
 sity assails us ? And yet there are those who go on sinning, 
 glorying in their wickedness, prosperous in their misdeeds, as 
 though for them there is no evil ; they live, forgetful that there 
 is an accountability for them for all the wrong they have done. 
 But the wheel of mourning that rolls round in the world at 
 length reaches them too ; the neglected Sabbaths, the profaned 
 holidays, the forsaken covenant, the unprayed orisons, the hope 
 in God not felt by them, have not been able to ward oft* the 
 evil ; it has come and lodged in their house : where now is 
 their security 1 where now is their hope ? where now is their 
 stay? They mourn because of the wound which death has 
 struck, as though they had suffered a wrong from the Creator ; 
 they complain and repine, as though they had no longer any 
 hope or joy in aught that is theirs ; they murmur, as though it 
 was not an all-wise Providence that has thought fit lo afflict 
 them, to recall as it were their thoughts from the vanities of this 
 life, and to fix them the more firmly on yon bright future in the 
 realms of bliss, which is to be gained only through obedience 
 and a filial reliance upon the promises of benignant religion. 
 Yet if they would but consider that their former striving had 
 been after vanities ; their former security but a flattering self- 
 delusion ; their want of faith a rebellion against God, the neglect 
 of the Sabbath and the other precepts an actual treason against 
 the great King : how readily would they acquiesce in the jus- 
 tice of the decree that has been meted out to them ; and if the}' 
 could not like Aaron hold their peace out of full confidence in 
 the goodness of the Lord, if their sinful life permitted them not 
 to see mercy in the storm as well as in the sunshine : they 
 would at least be willing to submit to their punishment with 
 meekness becoming unto repentant sinners, and learn hence- 
 forward to seek mercy and forgiveness from the Fountain of 
 mercy.
 
 THE RESIGNATION OF AARON. 53 
 
 For we may maintain as a well established principle that 
 every visitation is intended for our improvement; nothing is for- 
 tuitous or the effect of chance, all, all is the effect of design, the 
 working of Providence : not an insect perishes in the flame of a 
 lamp around which it has been buzzing, not a bird is snared 
 by the fowler, not a plant springs from the ground, not a 
 blossom perishes, unless it be by the decree of the Omnipotent 
 who is good alike to all ; the apparent evil, death itself, is but a 
 stepping stone to happiness, and the road to felicity leads through 
 trials and tribulation. Is it then right to regard lightly the chas- 
 tisement we may encounter ? or perhaps are they to harden yet 
 more our hearts that we may still more obstinately reject the 
 counsels of wisdom which the Bible so bountifully offers to our 
 acceptance? Should any one say in the indifference of his cal- 
 lous heart, in the scornfulness of his unbelief: " My son died 
 in the course of nature, he was cut off in his bloom, as other 
 children die;" or again: "I have not deserved such punishment; 
 Providence deals unjustly and cruelly with me ?" To the one 
 we would reply, that although death is in the course of nature, 
 still every time it occurs it is in consequence of a special edict 
 from the Guardian and Ruler of the world ; and that so far from 
 the bereavement being merely accidental, it could not have been 
 otherwise than designedly sent as a warning to arouse the atten- 
 tion ; for there is no chance ; we cannot suppose that such un- 
 certainty could at all enter into the system of nature as designed 
 by an all-wise Architect. To the second we would say : No 
 man is punished without a just cause, and granting that you are 
 not conscious of wrong, still rest assured that you have been 
 weighed and found wanting, and that you have committed sins 
 in the very acts which your interests, inclinations or passions 
 have taught you to regard as innocent. Thus if you profane 
 habitually the Sabbath, if you refuse to enter your children in 
 the Lord's covenant, if you obstinately persist in not teaching 
 them the words of the law, if in short you are regardless of the 
 Mosaic code transgressing the precepts and are an indolent 
 follower of forbidden pleasures are you not a sinner in the eyes 
 of the Lord, altho' in your own estimation you are innocent and 
 pure ? 
 
 If therefore, any evil befall us, we should at once set about in-
 
 C4 THE RESIGNATION OF AARON. 
 
 vestigating our conduct, and reform the sinfulness of our ways; 
 perhaps the Lord may see our altered course, and remove from 
 us farther his anger. And, are not the punishments the tem- 
 pests which purity the moral life, just as the winds and light- 
 nings those which clear the physical atmosphere ? Do we blame 
 the Almighty for causing the wind to blow which lashes into 
 foam the before placid ocean ? Do we arraign the justice of 
 Providence for the vivid lightning which plays around our dwel- 
 ling and terrifies our appalled vision ? Does not every one re- 
 cognize them as harbingers of good, as the agents sent to refresh 
 the earth, to restore vegetation, to destroy noxious vapours which 
 else might settle down upon the surface of our globe, and cor- 
 rupt the air, the water, and the soil whence we derive our sus- 
 tenance 1 But precisely similar are the visitations which ever 
 and anon come over us ; the placidity of our uniform current 
 may be lashed into billows, but the Lord is in the storm ; He 
 calls our attention to the noxious, to the putrefied state of our 
 conduct, He bids us to remove the evil which we discover, in 
 order that when the storm has spent its rage we may stand be- 
 fore Him renovated in the strength of life and live unto eternity. 
 Let the lightning rend our peace, let its desolation be visible in 
 our dwelling, let us be shaken by the roll of the thunder: be as- 
 sured God is in the fire, it is His voice we hear. He calls us 
 to Him, He rouses us from our slumber, He appeals to our better 
 feeling, He wills we should awaken from the torpor of deadly 
 sin, and live in His presence, scathed yet purified, smitten 
 yet cleansed, wounded yet healed again. If thus we look upon 
 sufferings, who can say that they are not fit instruments for a 
 beneficial Providence's purposes to instruct and improve man- 
 kind ? Prosperity but blunts the feelings ; constant success but 
 binds man closer to life ; uninterrupted well-being but induces 
 him to toil more energetically to gain a larger share of the 
 world's goods; and very often it is affliction only which teaches 
 him better things. Happy indeed would it be, if the empire of 
 religion were so far extended, that in the hours of joy man 
 would take it to heart to become a truer servant of the Most 
 High ; that when success augments his stores he would conse- 
 crate his life to God, and repose on the days when labour is for- 
 bidden ; to walk humbly amidst the shouts of admiration ; to
 
 THE RESIGNATION OF AARON. 65 
 
 ieel himself mortal even in the very hour of conquest and tri- 
 umph. But, alas ! many then have an ear only for flattery ; a heart 
 only for pride; a leisure only for enjoyment; a mind only for 
 worldly things ; no time for religion, no mind for prayer, no hour 
 for worship, no day for rest. All, all is one whirl of excitement, 
 one rush after gain and renown; religion lies neglected, God is 
 forgotten. It is therefore that admonitions come opportunely to 
 the aid of our better nature, to move us to cast off the fatal 
 moral indolence, to induce us to review our way, and to apply 
 the remedy where we discover defects. For it is at the time 
 when our pride has been rebuked by adversity, when our medi- 
 cal skill has shown itself incompetent to save the life of a beloved 
 offspring, when the accumulated wealth of ages has been unable 
 to purchase one hour of a life of sufferings, when man utterly 
 feels his helplessness without Divine assistance, when we feel 
 disgusted at worldly greatness, and worldly wealth, and worldly 
 wisdom which failed to afford us relief: that we are drawn 
 towards the Creator and his mercy, to the God who can give 
 life and health, and whose are the wisdom and understanding. 
 If we now profit by this devotional feeling called up at the mo- 
 ment of sorrow, if we let our afflictions make a lasting impres- 
 sion on our future life and conduct : then may it be truly said, 
 that God has been sanctified by our bereavement, and been glo- 
 rified by our humiliation, and the death of a friend by which he 
 was released from bodily ailment may have opened to us the 
 gates of heaven. It is not only by the death of the sons of 
 Aaron by whom the glory of the Lord was to be extended, but 
 likewise by the departure hence of every son of Adam to the 
 latest generation. There is a lesson to be drawn from every 
 death-bed scene, from the sinner's as well as of the righteous ; 
 and the one dying in his impenitence teaches with no less force 
 than the calm resignation of the other. Every thing, in short, 
 that occurs to us is full of import, and will guide us on to a 
 happier lot, if we will but heed the instruction hourly afforded 
 unto us. 
 
 Do we now take the Divine dispensations to heart as faithful 
 servants, do we thank our Creator amidst our afflictions as well 
 as our joys: how sweet will the incense be we then offer to 
 Him; our subdued pride, our renewed hope, our regenerated
 
 (JO THE RESIGNATION OF AARON. 
 
 life, our love of the law rekindled to burn unto our dying day 
 \vill appeal for us to our everlasting Father, and He will send 
 his grace unto our afflicted soul and refreshen it with his com- 
 forting spirit. Sorrow will be changed into joy, anguish into 
 exultation ; and instead of repining and complaint, there will be 
 resignation and submission. J\o rebellious feeling will be called 
 up, no murmur because of the dispensation will be heard; but in 
 entire faith, in the full hope of a better hereafter we will ex- 
 claim : " He is the Lord, let Him do what seemcth Him good !" 
 When one endowed with such holy resignation should stand 
 weeping over the grave of his beloved wife, or his only offspring 
 cut off in the early vigour of manhood and renown, it needs but 
 to remind him that it is God who has afflicted him ; it were vain 
 to offer any other consolation, he will at once recognize the 
 force of the appeal, he will recall his wavering confidence and 
 rest of the soul, and bear with meekness the loss he has sus- 
 tained, and endeavour in renewed activity, in benevolence and 
 devotion to regain his lost composure. 
 
 Religion bids us not, not to mourn ; it tells us not, that we 
 should not regret the death of our friends ; on the contrary, it 
 prescribes observances which are eminently calculated to arouse 
 the feelings. We rend the garment, we eat the bread of mourn- 
 ing, we sit on the ground, we adorn not the person, we are to 
 abstain from pleasure, we are not to mix in general society; and 
 all this has been ordained that we might dwell with serious re- 
 flection upon the evil that has come upon us. But when the 
 thirty days for all but our father and mother, for whom we are 
 to seclude ourselves for the space of an entire year, have elapsed, 
 it is the duty of the mourner to resume his walk amidst his fel- 
 low-men; his regret need not to cease with this period, but the 
 outward exhibition of grief surely should; and I know not. 
 whether the custom of wearing particular garments by those 
 who have lost friends beyond the prescribed time may not be 
 safely regarded as opposed to the spirit of religion. There is 
 no question however that it is sinful to carry regret to too great 
 an extent, to let months elapse before composure is restored, to 
 have the house darkened, or to wear sombre-coloured garments, 
 or to refuse mingling again in society, for too long a period ; for 
 such behaviour tells but too plainly, that the sufferer refuses to
 
 THE RESIGNATION OF AARON. QJ 
 
 yield himself to the decrees of Heaven, that he perhaps thinks 
 that he has suffered an unmerited injury from his Lord. A fault 
 like this is but too apt to be committed by the more wealthy and 
 respectable portions of the community ; they are not actively 
 enough employed and have too much leisure for profitless reflec- 
 tion, especially if their faith and religious conviction should not 
 be sufficiently firm and confiding. It is well however to remind 
 them that with the past sorrows the hand of the Lord is not 
 straightened, and that His arm is yet outstretched to smite them 
 with renewed plagues. And who knows but that their stubborn- 
 ness may merit a new punishment, and that in addition to the 
 one already taken another may also be soon required, or that 
 some other calamity may be sent, a calamity which they now 
 but little dream of? For what sin can be greater than a rebel- 
 lious heart? what conduct more deserving of visitation than 
 murmuring against the dispensation of Providence? And yet we 
 constantly see such unbecoming grief exhibited, and men will 
 brave the vengeance of Heaven by their unyielding disconsolate 
 behaviour. Why should we be disconsolate? say you because 
 one dear to us has fallen ? Truly a friend has fallen, but he fell 
 as all must fall when their appointed hour has come, he was 
 summoned hence by the will of his Maker, the Lord of his body 
 and his soul, who deemed it best now to close the earthly career 
 of him we deplore, because his task was ended, or because his 
 death was necessary for the edification of the world or ourselves, 
 and for the glory of his God. 
 
 We will now define resignation, as a close to the subject 
 which we have been considering to-day. Resignation con- 
 sists not in indifference, in a brutal disregard of life, but in the 
 filial deference to the will of God, because it was his plea- 
 sure to afflict us. It proceeds from a well-grounded belief in 
 the constant supervision of Providence and in his overruling 
 goodness, in the unwavering faith that every thing which is 
 sent by Him is for the ultimate happiness of mankind. It far- 
 ther teaches us that all sublunary things, wealth, wisdom, power, 
 renown, nay even life itself are fleeting, and of uncertain dura- 
 tion, liable to be resumed at any moment by Him who gave 
 them. Therefore it impresses upon the pious man the neces- 
 sity of a cheerful submission whenever the evil reaches him in
 
 ($$ THE RESIGNATION OF AARON. 
 
 his turn, and admonishes him to look for support from the 
 Author of his being to sustain him amidst his affliction. It will 
 light up joy within him amidst the gloom of despair, and instruct 
 him how to extract the grace of life from the poison of distress 
 and sorrow. Yes, it will incite him to robe himself with piety 
 and meekness, to stretch forth his hand to the fruit of the tree 
 of life, to the words of the law, to the precepts of the everlast- 
 ing King, in whose presence there is the fulness of joy, and in 
 whose temple all speaks glory. 
 
 You, therefore, beloved brethren ! who have entrusted to the 
 cold earth the bodies of your beloved ones, rejoice in the Lord ! 
 glorify His name, despite of your affliction ! bow your heads 
 to the rod that chasteneth you ! and learn to enter life everlast- 
 ing through the gate of tribulation. In the heavenly Gilead 
 there is a balm, a Physician too is there ; and if you say in the 
 sincerity of your heart : " Blessed art Thou, O Lord ! our God, 
 King of the universe, who art a righteous Judge;" if you thank 
 Him in the hour of anguish as well as in the moments of joy ; be 
 assured that the balm will be poured into your wounds, and that 
 the great Physician will heal your bruises by his everlasting 
 grace ; and you will be like Aaron of old endowed with strength 
 to submit with resignation and calm fortitude to the decree 
 which has sealed the portion of your beloved ones unto unend- 
 ing life ! 
 
 Lord above ! bless thy people ; bless them in their going out, 
 bless them in their coming in ; guard them whilst sojourning 
 on earth, and guide them to thy holy sanctuary ; purify their 
 hearts in order that they may serve Thee unto evermore, and 
 comfort them in their affliction even as the mother comforteth 
 her son. ' May this be thy will ! Amen. 
 
 Veadar 20th 
 March 25th
 
 69 
 DISCOURSE VII. 
 
 THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. 
 
 To Him who sitteth enthroned in the assembly of his holy 
 servants, in whose presence all speaks of his glory, who is al- 
 mighty to save, who is faithful to his covenant, and to whose 
 ilays there is no end, be glory and praise unto everlasting, and 
 may his name be blessed for evermore in the assemblies of his 
 people Israel, and of all sons of flesh his creatures. Amen. 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 Moses, the man of God, was one of those favoured mortals 
 who have at times been permitted to arrive at a nearer approach 
 to the Deity than falls to the share of other men. In other 
 words, he was a prophet, a messenger deputed to work out by 
 extraordinary displays of power the mission of his Sender. He 
 came back into Egypt to a people debased by slavery and a 
 broken spirit, subdued by fear of their powerful task-masters, 
 and corrupted by the evil examples, the idolatry, and the moral 
 depravity of their highly-refined tyrants, as a messenger merely 
 of good tidings, not armed with worldly greatness, not followed 
 by a numerous retinue to enforce his demands, but as an indi- 
 vidual full of a high resolve, laden with a potent spell, to essay 
 the fulfilment of his message without a resort to human co-ope- 
 ration, without the employment of earthly means. He became 
 the chosen instrument of Israel's redemption ; and the Passover 
 which we now celebrate was instituted to keep the memory of 
 this event ever alive and unforgotten among our latest descen- 
 dants. He, the outcast, the shepherd of his kinsman's flocks in 
 the desert of Horeb, the man diffident of his own powers, un- 
 able to articulate correctly, because he was heavy of speech, 
 he who had sought refuge among roving herds of an inhospita- 
 ble land, became enabled to humble unto submission the proudest 
 and most magnificent monarch of that age, and by divine as- 
 sistance was permitted to raise those, who like him were de- 
 scended from the noble stock of Abraham, to the enviable
 
 70 THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFK. 
 
 distinction of being made the depositary of God's covenant. In 
 this manner the oppressors and the oppressed changed positions ; 
 thev who had formerly wisdom to bestow could now well be- 
 
 / * 
 
 come learners from those they formerly ruled over ; and thus 
 were shown, to the conviction of every one who thinks, the 
 nothingness of human power when contending against the will 
 of the Supreme, and the emptiness of a mortal's knowledge 
 when compared with wisdom flowing directly from the Source 
 of truth and light. 
 
 It must have been under the influence of feelings of this kind 
 that Moses composed the beautiful prayer which is the nine- 
 tieth in our collection of Psalms. He opens with an acknow- 
 ledgment of the divine protection which had ever been extended 
 to Israel from the beginning of the world. He then alludes to 
 the eternity of God, and his goodness in snatching man from 
 the ways of sin by timely admonition and the acceptance of 
 repentance. He next compares the infinity of the Creator with 
 the perishableness of the creature, which nevertheless dares to 
 provoke the wrath of the Omnipotent by its reckless disregard 
 of his precepts. He expatiates on the brief space allotted to 
 man during his sojourn on earth, and the sorrows to which his 
 sinful nature exposes him. Again he pictures the effects of 
 God's indignation towards the wayward child, and the terrible 
 power which the All-wise has over all nature. He endeavours 
 to contrast the Lord's greatness with man's insignificance, not 
 by entering into details, but by exhibiting so to say the brief 
 outline which his devotional feelings have called up in his mind ; 
 he is lost in the immensity of the Creator's goodness and might, 
 and only sees refuge for mortal man in a devout fear of the 
 Creator, and in a reverential obedience to his precepts. He 
 feels that there is safety in virtue alone, and then continues : 
 
 : a"' '* o'Snn : noDn y) N33i ynn p wo* 
 
 " Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wis- 
 dom." Ps. xc. 12. 
 
 Man in the vanity of his heart considers himself of immense 
 importance in the scale of society, he fancies himself the ob- 
 served of all observers, as one whose fortunes stand firm, and 
 whose days are of enduring length. What are to him the hum-
 
 THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIKE. ~j 
 
 ble in wealth, the meek in spirit, the old in years, the decrepid 
 by disease ? He is their superior ; he is of lofty station, of great 
 wealth, high in mind, and confident in his power; he is in the 
 spring-time of life, and disease and its corroding pangs are to 
 him unknown. He therefore steps abroad lightly and full of 
 confidence, he is assured that evil will not reach him, and that 
 he is born to command, or may be that death will not have 
 dominion over his body. To one so completely enamoured of 
 self, (and there are many such,) life appears but made for the 
 individual alone, all must yield submissively to him, and he 
 can learn but little from others ; for in wisdom and in learning 
 he fancies himself superior to almost all who are his compan- 
 ions, and he therefore spurns advice and instruction as dero- 
 gatory to his assumed dignity. It need not be that this fancied 
 great being should be actually of high importance ; for alas ! 
 the number of those is great who claim a rank which neither 
 talent nor station does confer on them, and equally with the 
 actually wise and elevated in society they rely on their own 
 wisdom and their own strength of arm. But be the presump- 
 tion of mortals based upon worldly greatness or not, it is 
 equally destructive to the peace of its victim, equally injurious 
 to the happiness of the hapless one who surrenders his mind 
 captive to its fascination. It warps the understanding, it closes 
 the heart, and lies with a deadening weight upon the spirit in 
 its reach after immortal glory. For no sooner does man en- 
 deavour to conquer his self-love with a view of acquiring know- 
 ledge than this incubus drowns the resolution scarcely formed, 
 it presents to the mind the humiliating posture of confessing 
 one's ignorance, it evokes pride from a thousand sources of 
 mortification ; and knowledge is not asked, improvement is not 
 attained. Objects of pity present themselves, penury holds up 
 her shrivelled hand, her ghastly face ; the presumptuous turns 
 away in disgust, for he cannot have his equanimity disturbed 
 by unpleasant scenes. Religion claims his attention, every 
 fleeting hour admonishes him that life's sands are ebbing unto 
 eternity ; but he heeds not, he is occupied with thoughts of self, 
 with pursuits of gain, with indulgence of pleasure, with schemes 
 of aggrandizement. Should he listen to the disquieting A 7 oice 
 of adm'onition which the Holy One has planted in him ? can
 
 70 Tilt: UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. 
 
 he be diverted from his high aim of worldly ambition and carnal 
 enjoyment by the dread of an end that to him perchance may 
 never come ? Assuredly not ; he continues the slave of pre- 
 sumption, the willing captive of an unholy desire for ease and 
 renown, and he remains a stranger in the house of God, an 
 alien to the grace of his Maker. 
 
 But wo ! wo ! man's fortune is not enduring ; a mortal's 
 foresight cannot save from destruction ; human wisdom is con- 
 stantly turned to nought ; and though we do bloom like the 
 opening flower in the morning, before the sun goes down we 
 may be cut off and left to wither. Often has this melancholy 
 fact been presented to our consideration, daily is our attention 
 arrested ; but we hide our face from the unwelcome sight, we 
 wish not to be disturbed by that harrowing intruder, painful 
 reflections upon the ills which befall others, we banish such 
 thoughts from our minds, simply because they teach us our 
 own insignificance, and point out but too surely what our end 
 will be. Were it that banishing thought could turn aside the 
 evil ; could want of reflection render our body immortal and 
 of ever-returning youthfulness : then indeed might we be justi- 
 fied in living forgetful of our end. But not thinking, not caring, 
 not heeding, render us not exempt from change and grief, and 
 the evil not apprehended will nevertheless come and fulfil its 
 errand. There is no stability in life, no certainty in worldly 
 possessions ; whilst we rejoice we are hastening unto death, 
 and the delights we fondly crave pass away like the vision of 
 the night. A thousand instances crowd on the mind as exam- 
 ples which could verify these remarks, and a man must have 
 lived without any reflection and to but little purpose whose 
 recollection is not stored with several instances of this nature ; 
 but one pre-eminently awful as a warning occurred not many 
 years since, and it may perhaps be well to call it up from the 
 mass of human sufferings which history has treasured up as 
 lessons and guides to our better nature. 
 
 In a port renowned for its extensive commerce and wealth 
 lay moored a bark of beautiful exterior and extensive dimen- 
 sions. Her leviathan-like length, her well-appointed machinery, 
 her endearing name, a name which the exile loves to dwell on, 
 which reminds the absent son of the roof of his father, all
 
 THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. 73 
 
 pointed her out as a desirable means to enable the returning 
 wanderer to reach his " home" speedily and safely. It was in 
 the beginning of autumn, the time appointed for our atonement, 
 the Sabbath preceding the great day of the forgiveness of sin ; 
 and sea, and earth, and sky alike appeared rejoicing in the bril- 
 liant light which a glorious sun was shedding on all around. 
 Multitudes assembled upon the deck of the vessel that was so 
 soon to be their only protection, under God, between life and 
 death, and gay faces and happy hearts looked forward to bo 
 ere long reunited in restored health to friends they had months 
 before left behind. Who thought of impending destruction ? of 
 a speedy death ? their path seemed even before them, and the 
 mother spoke cheerfully to the daughter, the brother looked 
 with confident anticipation on the brother, and the faithful wife 
 reminded gaily the husband that soon would they again behold 
 their happy dwelling and their beloved children. The bark 
 bears her power within herself, she needs not to wait for the 
 fickle wind or the changeful tide ; her powerful oars lash the 
 water as though eager for the start, like the neighing steed 
 paws the ground when the martial trumpet calls him to the 
 fight, or the tap of the drum summons him to the race ; the 
 hissing steam escapes from the opened valve, and the whole 
 fabric trembles at every joint as if impatient for the word of 
 command which is to release it from its tie to the earth. The 
 word at length is given, and away flies the bark with almost 
 unapproachable speed ; and from the shore saluting friends greet 
 the travellers with a final " God be with you," and when the 
 increasing distance quickly conceals them entirely from their 
 aching view, some commend their beloved ones to the keeping 
 of their Father in heaven, whilst others have full reliance upon 
 the skill of the builder and the excellence of the ship's crew, 
 and in their_ vanity and confidence of human means they resort 
 not to prayer. 
 
 Soon the ocean is reached ; and its surface is smooth like a 
 polished mirror, and the wide-spread waters are smiling all 
 around, and almost invite the traveller to venture abroad on 
 their level plain. Barely a ripple ruffles the sea, as it spangles 
 and glitters against the reflected light of day's bright luminary, 
 and onward hies the bark toward her destined haven with 
 
 VOL. III.-
 
 74 THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. 
 
 almost unobstructed velocity. But lo! the treacherous element 
 assumes a different aspect ; the winds are loosened from their 
 treasures ; and the curling waves soon proclaim that the de- 
 ceitful calm is broken. Now the mariner exerts his skill, he 
 fears a rocky shore, he looks with dread alarm to the gloom 
 which marks but too plainly where destruction would await 
 him. Onward yet staggers the doomed craft, as if conscious 
 that upon her depend the lives and fortunes of many a throb- 
 bing heart ; she ploughs gallantly through the angry billows ; the 
 sinking hopes of the crew are almost re-animated in the fond 
 expectation that the fury of the storm will soon abate; but, 
 hark ! the crash of timbers tells that the fabrick which human 
 hands have so skilfully joined is yielding itself to the blast, to 
 the strength of God's serial messenger. Still the progress is 
 onward, the element of fire with which the bark is armed yet 
 battles with the floods without, and though crippled she never- 
 theless keeps on her way ; but this last refuge also ,is soon taken, 
 and the living fire is quenched by the rising waters w r hich steal 
 into the wreck ; and the last hopes of its precious freight are 
 extinguished too. It is night ; the day is the third from their 
 departure ; the hour the close of the Day of Atonement ; and 
 many who belong not to the seed of Abraham have unwillingly 
 spent a day of fasting and humiliation in anxious dread because 
 of their peril. And some children from the house of Israel 
 are also there, and see the working of their God in the storm 
 and the billows, their hearts subdued because of his might. 
 
 The vessel now drifts shoreward, bereft of control over her 
 motion, at the mercy of the storm and waves. The timid 
 maiden claims the prelection of the manly youth who stands 
 mute beside her ; the wife clings in despair to her husband, as 
 though he could save her ; the daughter appeals to the helpless 
 mother, and man asks vainly the aid of a fellow-mortal. But 
 hark again ! what betokens this crash? The vessel has struck, 
 she remains immovable, her onward course is checked by the 
 reef on which she lies. Billow after billow strikes the wreck, 
 piece by piece is every joint dissevered, and one long shout of 
 wailing tells that the work of death is done. A hundred human 
 beings are engulfed in one instant of time; and by the friend 
 the maiden sinks; wife and husband linked together go down
 
 THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. 75 
 
 
 
 into the deep, and mother and daughter, who were loving in 
 life are not separated in death. Few only are left to battle 
 with the sea upon detached planks and broken timbers, fewer 
 yet reach the shore in the gloom of the night exhausted and 
 benumbed, and are left living witnesses of the goodness of that 
 Providence which rescued them from impending danger, which 
 spared their lives when so many others were taken. Many 
 families look anxiously forward for the return of a father, a 
 husband, a mother, a son, a daughter, a sister and a brother ; 
 but these come not, and no more in this world will they meet 
 the beloved, not even will their eyes be permitted to look upon 
 the face of the dead which the ocean will not give up till the 
 graves are opened unto everlasting resurrection ; and long will 
 many a bereaved household dwell with grief upon the recollec- 
 tion of the wreck of the HOME. 
 
 It was not, brethren, for the purpose of telling you a tale of 
 wo, that I have called your attention to this sorrowful recital ; 
 but only to ask you to let it awaken in you reflections upon the 
 uncertainty of your earthly existence. Would the many that 
 perished on that melancholy occasion have ventured upon the 
 deck of the frail vessel which became their grave, had they 
 known their danger ? and yet they ventured thither full of con- 
 fidence, calculating with certainty to meet their friends in the 
 space of three or four days. If any one had called upon them 
 before their embarkation and admonished them to repent of their 
 wickedness, because in less than a week they would be sum- 
 moned before the great Judge of all : would they have heeded ? 
 would they not have called the preacher an alarmist ? a false 
 prophet of evil? Still their security would have been imaginary, 
 and their deferred repentance been no safeguard against the 
 evil which had been decreed. Our end does approach, our 
 death will come, whether our life has been well or ill spent ; 
 the dissolution of the connection between body and soul is the 
 common fate of the good and the wicked, of him who feared 
 God, and of him who did not serve his Maker. But how dif- 
 ferent is the condition of the one from that of the other ? The 
 servant of God sees his end draw near, and his stay is in the 
 Lord; with his last expiring breath he sanctifies his Creator; he 
 rejoices in the coming reunion, and he breathes forth his spirit
 
 70 THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. 
 
 with " The Lord is One" upon his tongue in a perfect reliance of 
 a better world, where there is no pain, no sorrow ! The sinner, 
 however, stands upon the threshold of eternity in doubt and 
 trembling ; he fears to quit this life, because he has no hope of 
 joys hereafter ; his unwilling spirit trembles as it is summoned, 
 and the feeble prayer, haply too late essayed, dies away un- 
 uttered amidst the agonies of a violent death or the pain of 
 helpless maladies. Do we, however, attend well to this con- 
 sideration ? is our conduct such as reason would ask ? do we 
 choose wisely ? are we servants in the house of the Lord, or 
 are we unwilling and but occasional attendants ? how does the 
 account of our sins stand with which our soul is loaded? Alas! 
 we regard but rarely our perishable state, and we act as though 
 we were immortal, or if mortal, unaccountable. We venture 
 heedlessly upon the bark of life, we are impatient to commence 
 a brilliant course, we wince under restraint, and trusting to the 
 apparent strength and security of our position we hasten upon 
 the broad expanse which the world opens to our charmed 
 view. How gay and bright every thing appears in the hey- 
 day of youth ! how unruffled, how calm does the ocean of life 
 seem to our sight ! we dream not there is danger, we heed not 
 the quicksands and the rocks which beset our career. Speak 
 to us of caution, we scorn the thought ; remind us of the duties 
 of religion, we laugh at the folly as we term it of doting age, 
 at the superstition of frosty years; we deem ourselves wise 
 above the ancients, more intelligent than were our fathers 
 before us; we wish not to know the law of God, our own 
 reason we think sufficient to guide us rightly, we care not to 
 bow at the altar where our brothers worship, for we ask not 
 heavenly aid to bless our undertakings. It is well ; God is 
 long-suffering, He punishes not instantly the sinner in his trans- 
 gressing, and years roll on, and we imagine that we have fairly 
 proved : " That we can tempt God and yet escape." But our 
 calm Is deceitful, the apparent beauty and elegant proportions 
 of the bark in which we have trusted are delusive, and the storm 
 of adversity will assail us ere we heed its approach. We may 
 struggle a while against the contending billows ; we may essay, 
 in our confidence upon our own strength, to avoid the destruc- 
 tion which we see impending ; but in vain ! we contend against
 
 THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. 77 
 
 One far too mighty for our feebleness ; we strive against the 
 decree of unerring Wisdom, and lo ! the fire of our resistance 
 is quenched by the accumulating ills that beset us, and our bark 
 lies broken upon an inhospitable shore, and we are driven from 
 our security, floating so to say upon some portion of a wreck 
 at the mercy of the waves which are curling and wreathing 
 over our devoted heads. 
 
 Happy indeed would we be, if amidst adversity we would 
 return and seek the Lord and his strength ; if we would learn 
 to break the stubbornness of our hearts when chastisement has 
 awakened our attention. But unfortunately our memory of 
 things once endured is very short, the effect of calamity as an 
 improver of the heart is soon blotted out; and as the ship- 
 wrecked mariner, who alone survives of an entire crew, will 
 immediately, on his wound being healed, again brave the 
 treacherous main : so do we throw off the recollection of suf- 
 ferings when healing has been vouchsafed to our sorrows, we 
 sin anew, unmindful of the Power that fain would teach us 
 wisdom, like Pharaoh of old who transgressed again when he 
 was no longer terrified by the unusual voice of the thunder, the 
 flashes of lightning, the murderous hailstones, and the sweeping 
 rain. Yes, the flood of adversity is past, and the good resolu- 
 tion we had formed is also vanished ; we go on as we were 
 wont to do, and we stand with a bold front, daring sinners, in 
 the presence of the merciful Creator, we brave afresh his ter- 
 rors, forgetful that though of unending kindness He is an up- 
 right Judge who suffers no evil to go unpunished. Whilst 
 suffering, we perceived as it were dimly that we are mortal ; 
 whilst calamities assailed us we yielded that our power is not 
 all-sufficient ; whilst the weight of sorrow pressed heavily on 
 our spirit we discovered that our reason can become clouded 
 and uncertain. But now we presume again to tread ambition's 
 path heedless of our end ; we dive into business speculation, as 
 though we could command success ; we are again confident in 
 our wisdom, we again press onward, transgressing the wisdom 
 of God, relying on our own judgment as infallible. What else 
 remains for a merciful Providence but to afflict us again and to 
 renew the admonition which w r e once neglected ? 
 
 You will thus see, beloved brethren, that the calamities of life 
 
 7*
 
 78 THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. 
 
 are the messengers of peace, the monitors of better things which 
 are to fit the spirit for a happier and better life. Mercies make 
 us but more confident of our own prowess, more relying on our 
 own wisdom ; but adversities prove to us the nothingness of all 
 we cling to ; the ills of life strip it of its delusive colours, and point 
 out to us where our safety lies, where the haven is prepared to 
 offer us refuge against the fury of the storm. Therefore says 
 Moses in his prayer : " Thou lurnest men to contrition, and 
 sayest, Return ye children of men ;" meaning that the dispen- 
 sation of woes will lead us to offer the sacrifice of a contrite 
 heart to our Maker, who then will be graciously ready to 
 receive back into his paternal embrace the returning children 
 of men, though they have grievously sinned. It is in his dis- 
 pensations that God speaketh to us, and well it is for us if we 
 have arrived at such a state of holiness and humility that, like 
 the bee which extracts honey from every flower, we are able to 
 learn wisdom and a lesson of piety from every punishment 
 which is sent to try our constancy. Therefore also continues 
 the prophet: "Teach us to number our days;" meaning, he 
 prays that God may make us sensible of our perishable nature, 
 that He may instil in our mind the conviction that our days are 
 numbered numbered and limited by the indisputable will of our 
 Creator, and that all our striving, all our working, all our 
 reaching after greatness, all our hastening after wealth, all our 
 lust for renown, will be cut short by the enemy that lies in wait 
 for us unperceived upon every step we take, ready at all mo- 
 ments to bear us hence whenever we are summoned. Yes, he 
 earnestly entreats for grace to assist us to humble ourselves as 
 becomes mortals before the undying One ; and he adds therefore 
 " That we may apply our hearts to wisdom." Does he mean 
 that worldly wisdom which consists only in an accumulation of 
 ideas derived from others, a great and general knowledge of 
 the structure of various languages, a comprehensive under- 
 standing of scientific things, or that peculiar perception of 
 merely tangible advantages which enables the merchant to 
 dispose of his wares to the best advantage, and stimulates man 
 to try schemes for the acquisition of wealth ? By no means ; 
 for such wisdom, useful though it be in its own peculiar province, 
 is not that which will assist us to number our days, it is not
 
 THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. 79 
 
 that wisdom which can teach us how to make our peace with 
 our Maker. The wisdom for which Moses prayed is the 
 knowledge of our own relation to God, is the clear perception 
 of the duties which it behooves the creature to assume as the 
 child of the great Parent. As we read elsewhere (Job xxviii. 
 27) : " And He said to man, Behold ! to fear the Lord is 
 wisdom, and to eschew evil is understanding." If we are 
 endowed with this wisdom, if our understanding has reached 
 this point of perfection, we can then look upon life with correct 
 views; all our acts will then be for the glorification of the Lord, 
 and even our daily toil which we pursue for the support of our 
 bodily functions will then have a holy object, that is, we will 
 labour in our calling cheerfully, willingly, relying upon the 
 mercy of God to prosper our undertaking as He may deem 
 best, and we will then not repine if our well-matured schemes 
 fail to answer our expectations. This wisdom will teach us to 
 moderate our desires, it will enable us to restrain our passions, 
 and to confine all our actions within the limits of the law of 
 God. It will assist us so to number our days, that looking upon 
 each of them as a step nearer to dissolution, we shall become 
 anxious to mark it with a virtuous deed which is to speak for 
 us upon the book of memorial before the Lord of those that 
 fear Him and think upon his name ; in order that when our 
 race is run there may not be a single day which could accuse 
 us of having neglected to offer on it an acceptable deed to the 
 Deity. 
 
 But, brethren, is this our conduct ? does not many a day pass 
 in utter forgetfulness of God's holy law ? do we not offend 
 daily in our body, in our possessions, in our spirit? How many 
 of us there are who regard not the Sabbath and the festivals, 
 who continue their labours on the days when labour is sinful, 
 not minding the commandment which bids them rest, because 
 the wisdom of God has so ordained it ! They imagine that 
 their wealth will be increased by constant toil, by unceasing 
 attention to business ; the Sabbath therefore comes, ushering in 
 rest and joy to the servants of the Lord, but it brings no rest, 
 no joy to them ; the house of prayer receives the devout wor- 
 shippers, but they are away ; they bear publicly burdens from 
 their houses on the Sabbath ; their places of business are open ;
 
 80 THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. 
 
 the usual enticements to the passers by are exposed ; their 
 workshops are not closed, their tools and implements of trade 
 are not unemployed, and they restrain not their feet on the day 
 of rest, but they pursue journeys, attend to their avocations, 
 and will not put faith in the words of their God wh6 promises 
 to bless their repose from bodily labour on the day devoted to 
 his service. How many excuses are framed for such iniquity ! 
 If one is poor he avers that he cannot live without being 
 constantly employed ; and if our substance is great, and our 
 engagements extensive, then we cannot spare the time, we 
 would be too great losers by an obedience to one of the Ten 
 Commandments. So fruitful in inventions is our sinful pro- 
 pensity ! They therefore among us who place so high a value 
 upon the world and its allurements will find excuses enough to 
 satisfy themselves for their wrong-doing. But let them beware ! 
 They deceive not by such miserable pretences the Searcher of 
 hearts; He will judge of their doings according to their merit: 
 and their neglecting his precepts, their pretended unbelief of 
 their necessity and usefulness will not screen them from responsi- 
 bility. Yet men say, that they see no evil in their conduct; whilst 
 they oflend at the recurrence of the appointed time, and but rare- 
 ly does any special occasion summon them to acts of worship, 
 to a presence in the house of prayer ; whilst they are strangers 
 so to say in the mansion of their Father, and the food of life, 
 which He so abundantly, so bountifully supplies, they will not 
 receive, they will not taste. Religious wisdom is preached to 
 them, truth appeals to their understanding ; but they turn a deaf 
 ear, they will not listen. Is this the course of wisdom 1 do you 
 call that numbering your days ? The rather it seems to say, 
 that you think yourselves enduring, immovable to eternity, 
 forgetful that you are but of yesterday, and will speedily return 
 to your native dust. 
 
 Again in the. pursuit of carnal indulgence, in the use of for- 
 bidden food, in the revelling in benumbing drink, how do we 
 miss the goal of our being ! We will not restrain desires till 
 they have degenerated into sin; we will swallow whatever food 
 our palate may crave; we will drink our fill, because the wine 
 looks so tempting. And this you call rational worship ? Is the 
 service of the desires a thing so well becoming accountable
 
 THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. gj 
 
 humanity? You forget that you live only through God's bounty; 
 and consider that what his law declares good and innocent is 
 alone right and allowable; there is nothing right which this law 
 declares wrong, there is nothing allowed which its precepts 
 prohibit. 
 
 In our possessions too we often offend. We are commanded 
 to love our neighbour like ourselves ; and still we fail in obe- 
 dience to this primary injunction. We expect justice, honesty, 
 and fair-dealing from others ; we blame them if they injure us ; 
 we are wroth if our just demands are not attended to, if our 
 just dues are withheld. But we do not regard others' right in 
 the same point of view ; we are overreaching, cunning in our 
 commerce with our fellows, and apt to trample on their rights, 
 and to remain deaf to their remonstrance. Self is uppermost, 
 neighbourly love and fellowship disregarded. The demon of 
 gain, the unclean spirit of injustice reign triumphant in our 
 souls ; and we will not hearken to the poor when he suppliant 
 appeals to our bounty, we will not do justice to the orphan, the 
 widow, and the stranger, because there is no one to plead in 
 their behalf. And is this wisdom ? shall we number our days 
 with deeds of avarice, of cruelty, of oppression, of fraud, of 
 iniquity, of injustice? shall such be the works which are to open 
 to us the gates of paradise ? 
 
 In our spirit too. How often does devotion yield to a re- 
 bellious thought ! do we not many a time arraign the justice of 
 the Lord ? If any misfortune comes to our lot, we imagine 
 ourselves ill-used ; does not success attend all our plans, we 
 regard ourselves as overlooked by Providence. Then too are 
 the sins of pride, arrogance, overbearing conduct to equals and 
 inferiors, disobedience to our parents and teachers, avarice, 
 covetousness and the contempt of lawful authority; all these 
 prove that our soul is not untainted with the leaven of rebellion 
 against the divine rule; that we imagine ourselves raised above 
 the level of mankind, and that we claim a prerogative which is 
 not justly ours, and which has never been conceded to us by 
 the Lord, who alone can confer power on man. It is thus we 
 transgress in our spirit, because feelings like the above are 
 prohibited in the law, and are consequently sinful and will bar 
 for us the portals of salvation ; since sentiments of this nature
 
 82 THE Ui\ 7 CERTAINTY OF LIFE. 
 
 are not only wrong in themselves, but they likewise prompt us 
 to actions which are in direct opposition to the precepts of 
 Scripture. 
 
 Dark indeed is the picture which the moralist must, in de- 
 ference to truth, draw of the world before him ; God has made 
 every thing beautiful ; every thing works for a wise end ; in all 
 reigns order ; in all we discover the effect of design. But it is 
 man alone who mars the harmony of nature; it is he alone who 
 rises in disobedience above the divine ordinances of the Bible, 
 who sets up his own conceits, his own false notions above the 
 truth that has endured for ages and will outlast this globe we 
 live on. Our puerile conception of what we understand, of 
 what we pretend to call right and just, we set above the divine 
 wisdom manifested in the Revelation on Sinai, and we harden 
 our heart, we avert our eye, that we may not perchance un- 
 knowingly imbibe true knowledge. But brethren, it is not well 
 that this is so ; each of us, every one here assembled, has the 
 means in his own power, has the weapon in his own hands, to 
 combat the enemy to his everlasting peace. Let us but lay 
 aside our presumption; let us but turn a willing ear to the 
 guidance of God ; let us but regard all men as equal, ourselves 
 as fallible and mortal; search for wisdom in the law made 
 known through Moses and the prophets; be humble in spirit, 
 just in our dealings, eager in the pursuit of truth, firm in faith, 
 and righteous in our religious actions : and we stand regene- 
 rated, disenthralled, we also will then form a beautiful link in 
 the divine creation, our body and our spirit will be holy to 
 God, our deeds and our thoughts witnesses of his goodness and 
 glory. 
 
 How grieved would you all be, brethren and friends ! were you 
 to be certain that you would be cut off in the midst of your sins, 
 unprepared, unatoned ! How horrible would the weight be 
 which a conviction of the enduring displeasure of the Creator 
 would cast on your souls ! And still are not many acting as 
 though they cared not about the load of sin which they are heap- 
 ing up ? are there not many who brave the Creator's displeasure 
 by their neglect of his precepts, by the estrangement from his 
 service ? But say they : " We de not rebel, we know God is 
 merciful, He will not take us away in the midst of our trans-
 
 THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. 3 
 
 gressions ; we have yet ample time to repent and to make our 
 peace before we die !" If any one here present thinks so, he 
 greatly errs. God is merciful, but this is no warrant for our 
 transgressing ; He may not strike man with instant death when 
 he knowingly and wilfully sins ; but let no one imagine that it is 
 wise to defer repentance from day to day ; we have no guaran- 
 tee, no surety in life; every moment may be our last; a thou- 
 sand agents are at every period ready to cut short our days, and 
 the opportunity for amendment once neglected may never again 
 be offered. Be warned therefore whilst it is yet time ; at once 
 resolve to act as Israelites, as servants of the Most High ; pause, 
 reflect, and sin no more. The hand of Mercy is ever out- 
 stretched to receive the returning child ; grasp it now, hold it 
 for ever, it is your only stay in sorrow', your only support at the 
 hour of death. Heed you the voice which calls to you ? discover 
 you not the goodness that wishes to teach you ? It is your God 
 whose voice you hear, He speaks through your conscience, 
 through the Scriptures which He gave you as an inheritance, 
 through the instruction which is conveyed to you by his ser- 
 vants. It is the Creator whose goodness surrounds you whilst 
 waking, whilst sleeping ; mid joy, mid sorrow ; in health, in sick- 
 ness ; through life, through the hour of death. Come, arouse 
 ye! become his servants; remember the Sabbath to keep it holy; 
 observe the festivals, the sign of the Eternal's power, of your 
 debt of gratitude as sons of Israel ; be holy in your persons ; 
 touch not the food which the law forbids ; be humble before your 
 Maker, be confident only in his wisdom ; and above all love 
 your neighbour like yourselves, and devote to God every hour 
 of your life, and serve Him with all your heart and all your 
 soul. Then will you be accepted, and in accordance with 
 the words of the prophet you will, in the blessed existence which 
 awaits the righteous, " renew your strength, you will mount up 
 with wings, as eagles, you will run and not be weary, and you 
 will walk and not become faint." In this manner your youth 
 will ever last, your strength will never fail; and this will be your 
 sure reward, if you have learnt well to number your days, and 
 applied your hearts to wisdom. 
 
 Lord of all ! guide us, teach us, to know thy ways : bless us 
 with thy goodness, satisfy with thy bounty. Let thy words be
 
 34 THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE. 
 
 sweet to our ears, that we may drink of their refreshing stream 
 which leads unto happiness. Let us live to see the wonders of 
 thy law, and close not our days, until that we have been spared 
 and admonished to return unto Thee with a perfect heart and a 
 sincere repentance.. Subdue our heart that it may devote itself 
 entirely to Thee, and take not from us thy liberal spirit of grace 
 and holiness, and remove from our path the obstacles which 
 strive to lead us astray ; in order that all Israel may learn to 
 walk in thy ordinances all the days of their perishable life. And 
 rnay the merits of our forefathers plead for us their descendants, 
 and let the redeemer come to Zion, even thy servant David 
 under whose shadow we shall live securely among nations. 
 Amen. 
 
 Nissan 12th > ^rnn 
 
 A -i i K.U / OOuU. 
 
 April 15th $ 
 
 NOTE. In explanation of the account of the distressing catastrophe in- 
 troduced into the above Discourse, I will briefly state that the steam-packet 
 Home, Captain White, departed from New York for Charleston on, I believe, 
 her second voyage, on Sabbath afternoon the 7th of October 1837, and after 
 encountering the furious gale I have attempted to describe, went ashore near 
 one of the capes in North Carolina some time in the evening of Monday the 
 9th, being as I stated about the close of the Day of Atonement. Out of ninety 
 passengers twenty only reached the shore ; among those lost were at least 
 three Jewish females and one man belonging to our people, and among those 
 saved was but one Jewish gentleman, who saw his brother swept off from 
 the wreck without being able to render him the least assistance; he yet sur- 
 vives, and I obtained from him several of the particulars as I have related 
 them. The crew consisted of forty-Jive persons, of whom but twenty were 
 saved, including the captain. As this heart-rending occurrence was one of 
 those great exhibitions of human weakness when contending against the 
 agents of the Creator which we sometimes witness: I thought myself justi- 
 fied in offering it to the consideration of the brethren as an incentive to re- 
 flection upon the uncertainty of human life and the instability of our fancied 
 security ; altho' I fear that it may recall painful recollections in the minds 
 of several who have cause to remember the friends that perished in the 
 wreck of the Home.
 
 85 
 
 DISCOURSE VIII. 
 
 THE REVELATION ON SINAI. 
 
 (PENTECOST, 5600.) 
 
 THINE, O Lord, is the power and the glory, and all on earth 
 obeys thy sway; and there too, whither our eyes cannot reach, 
 nor our understanding penetrate, Thou reignest in majesty su- 
 preme. Spirits bright around thy throne are standing, cheru- 
 bim great to Thee bend the knee ; yet unto them also, and to 
 them that up-bear thy mercy-seat art Thou concealed, a mys- 
 tery too great to be by them solved. How then can the son of 
 earth dare to ask, "What art Thou ?" how dare a mortal inquire, 
 " What doest Thou ?" Yet despite our lowliness and thy awful 
 exaltation, it did please Thee in former days to descend in thy 
 glory upon the mountain in the desert whither Thou hadst led 
 our forefathers, and there to give unto them the commandments 
 and statutes which Thou hadst ordained for our salvation. It 
 was then that thy goodness was made manifest ; it was then 
 that mankind were informed how to live in obedience to thy 
 behests ; and we, thy people Israel were chosen to be a beacon 
 unto all other men, teaching by our existence, proclaiming by 
 our permanence, that Thou, O our Father ! art God alone, and 
 that Thou art indeed the Creator, Ruler, and Saviour of all the 
 works of thy hands. Do Thou again this day and all the days 
 of our being renew in our souls the fear and love to Thee! again 
 proclaim to our spirits thy pure and holy word ! cleanse us, 
 that we may be made obedient, and stretch forth thy guiding 
 ./hand, that, like innocent children under the guidance of the 
 father, we may be received back in thy dwelling in purity and 
 innocence, when our souls are demanded back unto Thee, and 
 our bodies be laid in the silent grave there to rest till thy crea- 
 tive word calls us forth anew unto life everlasting. May this 
 ' be thy will. Amen. 
 VOL. in. 8
 
 gg THE REVELATION ON SINAI. 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 On a day like this, when we are assembled to thank the Lord 
 at the time of our festivity for his mercy in giving us his laws 
 and statutes, it is well becoming in every son of Israel to dwell 
 for a space upon the benefits resulting from the event which we 
 celebrate. Were it, that the Pentecost had been instituted to 
 commemorate the slaughter of myriads of enemies, the con- 
 quest of a thousand cities, the subduing of numerous nations to 
 our rule : then indeed might there be many who would feel that 
 they could not rejoice at our rejoicing, who could experience 
 grief only at our success. But the Pentecost, and in truth all 
 our festivals, stand aione in that from all other festivals; we cel- 
 ebrate not the disjunction of political communities; the origin 
 of a sect; the birth of an individual; the conquests of our party 
 and the downfall of our antagonists; no! we celebrate the good- 
 ness of God, we rejoice because of his salvation; we return 
 thanks for a people redeemed, for a world regenerated ! Yes, 
 our fathers had been taken from the midst of another people, 
 their tyrants and oppressors ; they were tainted with many vices, 
 corrupted by the leaven of idolatry, subdued by the superstition 
 of priestcraft. Their bodies, it is true, had been withdrawn from 
 the bondage of Egyptian task-masters, but their spirits were 
 not yet disenthralled; the flesh was free, but the soul yet lingered 
 under the most cruel slavery. In what were we then distin- 
 guished from other nations ? only in the merit of our patriarchal 
 ancestors and the submission with which we had followed our 
 God into the desert and through the waves of the Arabian Sea. 
 We had proved that 'we could confide in the Lord; we had 
 shown that we were ready to receive the heavenly yoke, the 
 law, which should henceforward render us the servants only of 
 Heaven, controlled by and enslaved to no human power. And 
 this alone had been the object of Providence in ^his sending 
 Moses to ask of Pharaoh the liberation of the Israelites, and this 
 had been the reason why so many astounding miracles were per- 
 formed to effect the demand made by the prophet, in order to 
 demonstrate to the satisfaction of all the overruling power and 
 wisdom of the Lord. 
 
 It is known to you, that, true to human nature, Pharaoh
 
 THE REVELATION ON SINAI. 97 
 
 would not listen to forego what he thought his rights to the 
 services of the Israelites; he hurled contempt at Moses and 
 Aaron when they addressed him in the name of an unknown 
 God ; he refused to regard the threats of the Everlasting One, 
 of whom his false priests had never spoken, believing himself 
 secure in the recesses of his palaces, in the multitude of his 
 retinue, from the vengeance of a Deity of whose existence he 
 professed to know nothing. He had been taught to regard 
 his own will as supreme ; his priests spoke of a multitude of 
 gods, of antagonizing principles who shared the rule of the 
 world ; creature and Creator were mixed up in his philosophy, 
 and truth, if any there was in his system, was choked by the 
 rank weeds of fable and human invention. In all his land the 
 gigantic images of monstrous malformations and of animals, be 
 they man, quadruped, bird, amphibious or insect, were adored, 
 as emblems if you will, but still adored as images of deified 
 things. A caste of priests, selected and set apart from all the 
 rest of the people, had the custody of all the avenues of informa- 
 tion and knowledge ; devices, many and varied, had been in- 
 troduced, fraud and trick resorted to, to give stability to the 
 opinions which they professed, and even from the burdens of 
 the state had they been freed from time immemorial. Systems, 
 somewhat different, but nowise better, had taken root in all 
 other lands ; one nation worshipped stocks and stones ; another 
 incarnations of their deities ; another the starry firmament, the 
 works of the Author of all ; another a spirit of good and a spirit 
 of evil ; another yet the monstrous product of some mischievous 
 brain, on whose extended heated arms innocent children were 
 by their parents roasted alive as acceptable sacrifices. No- 
 where then was a nation who called on the God who had ap- 
 peared unto Abraham ; nowhere was there a people who 
 adored the Creator and Ruler of all things. Do you therefore 
 wonder that Pharaoh resisted the divine command ? It would 
 have been incredible, if the Scriptures had recorded that he had 
 obeyed ; we might then have alleged that it is impossible to be- 
 lieve that the king of Egypt could have paid any regard to the 
 injunctions of a Deity to whom neither he nor the surrounding 
 nations paid any allegiance. Yet, it was necessary that in 
 accordance with the promises made to Abraham the Israelites
 
 8$ THE REVELATION ON SINAI. 
 
 should not only be let go free, but that all the other nations 
 likewise should through them be blessed. It therefore did 
 happen, that God the Lord, who had announced his being and 
 his command, did not long suffer Pharaoh to remain in igno- 
 rance of his power. He could, if so He had chosen, have taken 
 the Israelites out of Egypt without punishing the Egyptians and 
 without any delay ; for to suppose otherwise would be limiting 
 the power of Him, the Supreme. But if this procedure had been 
 adopted, there would necessarily have been but little instruction 
 afforded both to Israelites and Egyptians ; for the first would 
 only have seen in their liberation an act of extraordinary good- 
 ness of some unknown invisible Power, who though kind and 
 powerful might be indifferent about obedience and submission 
 to his will ; and the latter would have regarded it doubtlessly 
 as a display of a great superiority over the civil authority of 
 their land, but still might have been left in doubt whether the 
 new Deity had any absolute superiority in a long contest over 
 their acknowledged divinities. But the Lord wished to instruct, 
 to chastise, to correct, to enlighten ; He wanted not merely to 
 redeem the Israelites according to his promise, but to prove 
 also to them and their masters, that there exists One, of un- 
 ending goodness, of infinite power, to whom all must yield obe- 
 dience ; that He is not only good, but also watchful over the 
 affairs of man ; not alone beneficent, but likewise heeding of 
 justice, even-handed justice, and that retribution is a part of his 
 economy no less than it accords with his uprightness to reward 
 and to favour the good ; and lastly, that his might is not merely 
 the display of a momentary superiority over civil rulers, but 
 that it extends over all that exists, over all that can have being, 
 that there is no material thing, no spiritual being, but is subject 
 to his control, destructible at his bidding. 
 
 Heathens, the most enlightened even, imagined that there 
 existed local deities, tutelary powers over certain places and 
 countries, independent of each other, and not seldom engaged, 
 mortal-like, in a conflict for the superiority. Were it necessary 
 it would be easy enough to produce innumerable instances from 
 profane history as well as Scripture to prove this fact; but in- 
 dependently of its leading us too far into historical researches, 
 the house of God is not the place to open such a discussion ;
 
 THE REVELATION ON SINAI. 99 
 
 for the subject is connected with too many immoralities, and 
 exhibits too glaringly the degraded state of human reason when 
 unassisted by divine wisdom, not to give, when viewed at large, 
 more disgust than instruction. Enough, that heathens regarded 
 the earth, the sky, the sea, the infernal regions, the sun, every 
 separate planet, as beings capable of working their pleasure 
 under the sole limitation of some chief among them, and subject 
 to the decrees of an inevitable fate WHATEVER THIS MIGHT BE. If 
 therefore any event occurred it was easy enough for the priests 
 of falsehood to ascribe the cause to the temporary prevalence 
 of some one or more of their numerous tutelary objects of 
 worship. Moreover the idolaters of the olden days never ob- 
 jected to accept a new deity among and in addition to their 
 long catalogue ; provided, they could be made to believe that 
 the new claimant of adoration possessed some power for good 
 or for evil. They did not perhaps change their former gods, 
 but they certainly admitted the power and dignity of the new 
 claimants that were offered to them. A remarkable instance 
 of this fallacy (where a special and local power was admitted) 
 is found in the twentieth chapter of the first book of Kings. 
 Ben-hadad king of Syria had made an attack upon Samaria 
 the capital of Ahab, the sinful king of Israel. Unexpectedly both 
 to Ahab and Ben-hadad the latter was signally defeated in a 
 sortie made by a small number of devoted young men, by direc- 
 tion of a prophet, in order to convince the unworthy chief of 
 God's people, that it is only by the assistance of the Lord that 
 the affairs of man are directed. Ben-hadad's servants were 
 likewise convinced, that in agreement with facts recorded in 
 history it had pleased the Lord to grant victory to the arms of 
 Israel, though they were at that time deeply sunk into idolatry. 
 But whilst they admitted the power of Israel's God, they fan- 
 cied that it was not universal; and they therefore spoke to 
 their master : " Their gods are gods of the hills, therefore they 
 were stronger than we ; but let us fight against them in the 
 plains, and surely we shall be stronger than they." They 
 accordingly persuaded the king of Syria to renew his attack, 
 but to select a plain for his battle-ground, hoping thereby to 
 prevail through the power of their gods of the plain over the 
 mountain-sods of Israel. We now read in continuation: "And
 
 J)0 THE REVELATION" ON SI.XAI. 
 
 there came a man of God, and spoke unto the king of Israel, 
 and said, Thus saith the Lord, Because the Syrians have said, 
 The Lord is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys, 
 therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thy hands, 
 and ye shall know that I am the Lord." Of course the predic- 
 tion was fulfilled, and the slaughtered thousands testified that 
 the power of our God is not limited by, nor confined, to any 
 place or station. All that was intended to be proved is, that 
 heathenism in its greatest perfection, in ancient times as well 
 as in the more modern, had always about the same idea of the 
 ability of God to effect his purposes ; that is to say, the idolaters 
 divided the authority which the Scriptures teach us to ascribe 
 to the Omnipotent alone among the various and independent in- 
 dividuals which figure in their so called mythology. 
 
 As it was now the purpose of God to erect the descendants 
 of Israel into a people holy to his services, it was but proper to 
 imbue their minds at the outset with convincing proofs of his 
 omnipotence. He therefore did not merely effect their libera- 
 tion by a solitary exhibition of superior power, which as we 
 have said it was possible for Him to do ; but He permitted the 
 stubbornness of Pharaoh to yield by degrees only to the con- 
 viction which was wrought gradually through the exhibition of 
 deeds which showed beyond the possibility of doubt the utter 
 insignificance of all the gods of Egypt to do the least in ward- 
 ing off, or staying, or diminishing any of the inflictions which 
 it pleased God to send. The river rolled sea-ward in one 
 bloody stream, the fishes it harboured were thrown dead upon 
 the pestilential shore ; but the healthy flood only returned upon 
 the bidding of the Lord. Frogs in disgusting swarms insinuated 
 themselves everywhere ; but they quitted the afflicted land 
 only when the prophet prayed to God to spare his treacherous 
 enemies. Noxious insects and savage beasts desolated the plains 
 of the sons of Ham ; a pestilence swept off the cattle of the 
 Egyptians whilst of Israel's not one died ; terrible blains infected 
 the bodies of the priests even ; hail in destructive masses deso- 
 lated the fields, locusts devoured what the hail had spared ; and 
 still it was only the prophet's supplication that afforded enlarge- 
 ment. At bright daylight too the sun was darkened, for three 
 days impenetrable gloom rested on the dwellings of the Egyp-
 
 THE REVELATION ON SINAI. 91 
 
 tians ; and still no power save the Lord's granted relief. And 
 lastly the terrible slaughter of the first-born and the demolition 
 by invisible hands of the statues of idols told in language not to 
 be misunderstood, that to God alone belongeth the kingdom, and 
 that his rule extendeth over all. The whole display of these mira- 
 culous events must therefore have stamped upon the minds of 
 Israelites as well as of Egyptians, that the Power which set Israel 
 free is a universal Power, a Deity not only of mountains, but also 
 of valleys ; not a God merely of light, but also the God of dark- 
 ness ; not alone the Dispenser of life, but also the Dispenser of 
 death ; in short the universal God, the sole Creator, the only Ru- 
 ler ! And so we read (Exodus ix. 15, 16) : " For if I had de- 
 sired I could have stretched out my hand, and smitten thee and 
 thy people with the pestilence, and thou wouldst have been cut 
 off from the earth. But for this cause did I suffer thee to remain, 
 in order to show thee my power, and to declare my name 
 throughout all the earth." We therefore see, that the lessons 
 in obedience to the divine command conveyed to him by Moses 
 which Pharaoh received were the only natural way, though the 
 means employed were miraculous, to force conviction upon an 
 obdurate heart ; and these means produced at length the effect 
 which the Lord had in view, and the Israelites were driven 
 forth from Egypt to meet their destinies in the desert of Arabia. 
 Let us consider : if Pharaoh had in this manner been in- 
 structed and taught how great, how irresistible God is, the 
 same lesson must naturally have been impressed upon his own 
 people and the Israelites also ; for the former had shared the 
 punishment of their king, and the latter had been they for whose 
 behalf all these great and fearful things had been done. With 
 this knowledge the Israelites arrived at the shore of the Red 
 Sea. But still their confidence was not completely established ; 
 they were terrified because of the horsemen and chariots of 
 their pursuers, and they deplored that thay had not remained 
 the willing slaves of the Egyptians. These too had speedily 
 forgotten their sufferings no less than the others their delivei*- 
 ance. Again therefore a mighty deed was done ; the waters 
 divided, being piled up like walls by the stormwind of the Lord ; 
 Jacob's sons passed through on dry land, and they who threa- 
 tened to enslave them again to hopeless servitude were over-
 
 92 THE REVELATION ON SINAI. 
 
 turned amid the returning billows. Faintheartedness then fled, 
 when the shore was strewn with the bodies of the horse and 
 his rider, " and the people feared the Lord, and they trusted in 
 the Lord and in his servant Moses." 
 
 All this mighty work of God had well prepared the Israelites 
 to acknowledge Him the Lord as their Sovereign ; for to Him 
 alone were they indebted, almost spite of themselves, for their 
 freedom, for their glorious liberty, which now cheered them on. 
 They might now speak how for their sakes great deeds had 
 been done, how their trusty leader had exhibited a power which 
 humbled a great king, and brought a whole people to repentance. 
 An insidious enemy too, who had surprised them with his armed 
 bands had been signally overcome by the blessed prowess of the 
 young disciple of Moses. Farther, when they asked for bread it 
 was bounteously showered down to them without requiring of 
 them ploughing or reaping ; and when water was needed, in a 
 land sterile and dry, the flinty rock yielded the refreshing ele- 
 ment. After all thes.e things had been accomplished, when 
 every day almost had given them new inducements for thank- 
 fulness and admiration : our ancestors were brought to the foot 
 of Horeb, where they should, as had been foretold, be taught 
 how to serve their God. And now continues the text (Exodus 
 xix.) as follows : " And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord 
 called unto him from the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say 
 to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel. Ye have 
 seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bore you on 
 eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now, therefore, 
 if ye will obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then shall ye 
 be a peculiar treasure unto me above all nations, for all the 
 earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests 
 and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt 
 speak unto the children of Israel." Here are clearly stated the 
 reasons of the redemption and the terms of the covenant. Says 
 the text, " Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians." You 
 yourselves were witnesses of my power ; it is not upon hearsay 
 you are to acknowledge my omnipotence it is not a doubtful 
 authority which you are to regard ; for you in your own per- 
 sons were the recipients of the bounty, witnesses of the glory 
 of your God, that you might know that I, even I alone, am the
 
 THE REVELATION ON SINAI. 93 
 
 Being who cast down and exalt, the sole Almighty, to whom 
 all must submit. You also experienced my protection after 
 you quitted the land of your servitude. You were surrounded 
 by dangers, the sea before you, behind you the vengeful host 
 of the pursuing tyrant ; again Amalek attacked you, when you 
 thought only of pursuing in quiet your way ; but you were 
 borne aloft clear of all obstruction by your God and Saviour ; 
 like the eagle who soaring in his flight above the whole fea- 
 thered tribe bears away her young to a place of safety, inter-' 
 posing her own body to the dart of the fowler : thus were 
 you shielded, protected, and saved. But if you ask, " Why 
 was this done ?" then know, that to your ancestors I have sworn 
 that I would redeem you when the time of your wandering had 
 expired, to raise you up to be my people. It is for the fulfil- 
 ment of this promise that I bared my arm against your oppres- 
 sors, that I smote them with many plagues ; that I humbled the 
 pride of idolaters ; that I proved the helplessness of the idols 
 they worship, in order to teach you to regard me alone as your 
 God, who alone am holy, who alone am able to save. It is 
 now in your own option to merit my blessing ; by this, that 
 you rigidly obey the commandments which I am about to offer 
 to your acceptance, and do on your part all that your God can 
 ask of you as the people who have entered into a covenant with 
 Him, to do his behests for the protection which will be vouch- 
 safed to you. It is not any benefit for myself which I ask ; for 
 all the earth is mine, you cannot benefit me, your virtue, your 
 righteousness cannot render my happiness and my perfection 
 more complete than they now are ; but all the good which is 
 to result is to revert to yourselves ; you shall be a treasure 
 more than all the nations of the earth ; more favoured, more 
 instructed, more holy, more beloved, but also more watched, 
 more accountable for all your doings, because having more 
 light and being nearer to me, you must expect to receive retri- 
 bution whenever you merit it. Says the verse, ' For all the 
 earth is mine." I have reared you under suffering and tribula- 
 tion to know that I am the Lord, capable to do all that my will 
 desires ; you have learnt this lesson more than any other peo- 
 ple ; therefore in my wisdom do I now appoint you, if you are 
 willing, to receive my law, my covenant, which you are to
 
 94 THE REVELATION ON SINAI. 
 
 keep sacred and untouched, as your birthright, your inheri- 
 tance, as men of the house of Israel, and which will at length 
 be THE blessing to all the earth, which I announced to your 
 fathers. 
 
 Thus spoke the Lord of Hosts. Moses descended from the 
 mount and announced the word with which he had been charged. 
 It is possible, nay probable, that the people had all along believed 
 that they were merely to offer sacrifices, after the manner of 
 their ancestors, to the Lord after their deliverance ; but they 
 could hardly have known that a new dispensation was to be 
 entrusted to their safekeeping. How great, therefore, must 
 have been their joy when their high destiny was announced to 
 them, and with how much willingness must they have an- 
 swered : " All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." The 
 Father of all received in favour the reply with which the prophet 
 was charged, and He spoke as follows : 
 
 pyn zyi ytf KS DJK run 
 
 'o D* maw 
 
 " Behold I will come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear 
 when I speak with thee, and in thee also they shall believe forever." 
 
 EXODUS xix. 9. 
 
 The people having signified their readiness to become the 
 servants of the Lord, He informed Moses, that the legislation 
 should be public, that the whole entire nation should be the" 
 witnesses of their spiritual as they had been of their bodily 
 disenthralment ; so that not one should have occasion to tell the 
 other what are the doctrines of salvation. Another reason for 
 this procedure should be the attestation of the truth of Moses, 
 who had been the instrument of their redemption. God in- 
 tended to crown him publicly with the attribute of faithfulness, 
 to impress upon all that he was a righteous servant, and to 
 insure that whatever he might hereafter be deputed to teach 
 should be received by his brothers as the truth received from 
 God. 
 
 Three days after the annunciation the people were aroused 
 by the loud voice of thunder ; fires flashed from amidst the
 
 THE REVELATION ON SINAI. 95 
 
 deepest gloom, the earth shook, the mountain trembled, the 
 Israelites were awe-struck, and he alone who was called " faith- 
 ful in all God's house," was calm and intent on the issue of his 
 mission. He led forth the people to meet their God, and in 
 silent expectation they stood at the foot of Sinai. Soon a voice 
 resounded, a voice unlike that of a mortal, it penetrated to every 
 ear, it struck to every heart, it moved every spirit. All the 
 people heard, remember this, that more than two millions of 
 human beings heard at the same moment in an audible manner 
 the self same voice ; there was consequently no room for doubt 
 or uncertainty, for all was made manifest, perceptible and 
 clear; and the voice which then spoke still re-echoes again and 
 again to this very day. Truths, never before so comprehen- 
 sively given, were surrendered so to say from the treasury of 
 Heaven to the custody of the Israelites, and well was the cus- 
 todian chosen. What revolutions have passed over our heads ! 
 how much misery has fallen to our lot ! what persecutions had 
 we to endure ! but still the covenant is ours, its words are dear 
 to our hearts, its precepts find a response in our bosoms. Do 
 I exaggerate ? where is the Israelite, who deserves the name, 
 but is willing to suffer for the glorious inheritance which is his ? 
 where is the son of Jacob, who is so in truth, but calls the law 
 of God his greatest treasure ? Men may call us enthusiasts for 
 saying this ! but who can be otherwise than an enthusiast when 
 the contemplation of the great blessing of our religion is pre- 
 sented to his mind ? It is more than our native land ; it is 
 more than our earthly parents ; it is the bond of union which 
 unites us to our everlasting home, which binds the humble 
 creature to the infinite Creator ! to the overliving Father ! 
 
 Now mark, brothers and sisters of the house of Israel who 
 are here to-day to celebrate this great event, how well the 
 prediction has been fulfilled. It is to-day more than thirty-two 
 hundred years ago since the promulgation of the law. A 
 hundred generations and more have been gathered to their 
 fathers since the fire of glory blazed on Mount Sinai. There is 
 no visible trace left of this great event on Horeb ; no monument 
 to mark the spot where Moses stood ; no house of worship is 
 there where the Israelites could adore ; the tables of the co- 
 venant are no longer known among us ; and all our glory all,
 
 90 THE REVELATION ON SINAI. 
 
 all is gone, for the temple too which our fathers thrice upreared 
 is destroyed, gone, vanished. And Israel ? they have wandered 
 through deserts and mountains ; crossed the wide ocean, been 
 scattered away among a thousand isles. It seemed at one time 
 as though death were their only guardian, the grave their only 
 refuge from the many bitter, scalding calamities which seemed 
 to be entailed upon them for their sins. As I said, all, all is 
 gone ; the outward glory of our race has been cast down to the 
 ground, and all that remains is the Voice which we heard on 
 this day. Amidst all our sorrows THIS never left us, it was 
 ever near us in all our wanderings, it always cheered our 
 drooping spirits when we fainted under the exhausting influence 
 of our own apostacies and the gentiles' persecution. Yes, 
 brethren, nations mightier and more numerous than we ever 
 were, whose memorials are written in splendid ruins and me- 
 morable remains of architecture, of sculpture and of arts ; who 
 had thousands of temples for our one ; whose arms and prowess 
 subjugated many and powerful nations, have passed away, as 
 though they had not been, and of some their very names have 
 been forgotten. But it was not our might, our numbers, our 
 conquests, our architecture, our sculpture, our arts that upheld 
 us, it was the possession of the heavenly truth, that charac- 
 terized us always from other men. There may be those among 
 us who value it not; though it is hardly credible that any son of 
 Jacob can be so forgetful of what is the source of his salvation. 
 But be the apostates ever so many, be their motives fear, interest, 
 ambition, or unbelief: of this we are assured, that the law will 
 never be forgotten, that that time will never be, when the mass 
 of our people will cease to regard Moses as the prophet of God, 
 and to believe in the truth of his mission ; for the word which 
 has endured unscathed so many vicissitudes is yet endowed 
 with life, and exists this day in its original vigour and beauty. 
 
 But shall it be said, that as we advance in civilization and 
 liberty, we are becoming indifferent to this blessing ? shall the 
 reproach be cast on us, that we cannot be entrusted with civil 
 freedom without losing our character as Jews ? The foul 
 charge has been made ; and they who wish to annihilate our 
 people, have at times counselled to place us on an equality, in 
 order to consume us by a gradual admixture with foreign
 
 THE REVELATION ON SINAI. 97 
 
 nations. They aver, that equality would render us careless of 
 our distinctive character, and that \ve would then be willing to 
 yield to flattery what no force could ever tear from us. Let 
 me appeal to you, friends and brothers ! to contradict such an 
 aspersion by your conduct. In this land you enjoy the largest 
 personal liberty,; you are equal with other citizens ; no one can 
 lay any hinderance in your way on account of your religion, no 
 one can molest you for your belief in one God. It is therefore 
 lamentable that one is compelled to confess that we do but 
 little to merit the continuance of so much happiness. Alas! 
 that religion should be so much neglected ! When troubles 
 thickened upon us, we could call on our God for enlargement ; 
 and now, when we need no longer fear the adversary's sword, 
 we have become careless. This is not well, brethren ! it is time 
 that this stain should be wiped from our name. There are 
 signs already visible, that in this country too there is increasing 
 a thirst after the word of the Lord ; that persons daily become 
 more alive to the necessity of drinking the waters which lead 
 unto salvation. Let us hope that the signs may not be falla- 
 cious, and that daily some one may abjure the sinfulness of his 
 ways, and become a sincere follower of, no less than a believer 
 in the truth of the Decalogue. It is the province of each of you 
 to contribute to this result by acting rightly yourselves, and 
 inducing others to do the same. Every son of Israel is called 
 upon to be a teacher of the truth ; every daughter of Jacob 
 should spread the word. But above all it is the bounden duty 
 of parents to see that wholesome religious instruction is liberally 
 and daily bestowed on their offspring, for knowledge like this 
 outweighs far the acquisition of mere worldly sciences. Let 
 also your visits to the house of God be constant, lay aside your 
 avocations to attend divine worship, bring your children with 
 you, let them see that you are in earnest, teach them by precept 
 and example : and you will prove to the world that we can hold 
 fast to our law, whilst we join our brothers of other opinions in 
 the discharge of duties as citizens of one common country. If 
 thus you act, then will every returning Pentecost enjoyed in 
 this land of liberty be indeed a day of thankfulness unto the 
 Lord for the blessing of freedom now vouchsafed and the pos- 
 VOL. in. 9
 
 98 RELIGIOUS UNION. 
 
 session of the law announced amidst terrific signs from Sinai 
 of old. 
 
 May the grace of God the Lord be with us, and may He 
 strengthen our hearts to fear Him and to obey his command- 
 ments, from now and for ever. Amen. 
 
 ? iva " 3 , d }5600. 
 June 4th \ 
 
 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 RELIGIOUS UNION. 
 
 O LORD of all flesh! who art of infinite power and wisdom, 
 hear our prayer this day, and plant in our hearts brotherly love 
 and union ; remove from our midst causeless hatred and dissen- 
 sion, and grant that all this congregation and all Israel thy peo- 
 ple may be a band of brothers, united in faith, united in love, 
 made one by charity. Strengthen the superintendents of this 
 house, let their doings be guided by the spirit of wisdom and 
 conciliation ; multiply the worshippers within these walls dedi- 
 cated to thy service, and frustrate the devices of those who may 
 now or hereafter endeavour to sow dissension where there 
 should reign love, union, and harmony. Do grant, O our 
 Father ! that thy holy name may be glorified through our teach- 
 ing and our humble striving ; and pour out thy liberal spirit over 
 us all, that we may truly know how to worship, how to reve- 
 rence, how to follow Thee in thy deeds of mercy. May this be 
 thy will. Amen. 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 In all human labours, be they works of a spiritual or temporal 
 nature, we will speedily discover, that by our own unassisted
 
 RELIGIOUS UNION. 99 
 
 striving, we are able to accomplish but little indeed. In the 
 smallest effort we make, in the smallest implement we handle, 
 we are, although unconscious perhaps, indebted to the united 
 labours of many sentient beings like ourselves acting to accom- 
 plish a given purpose. The bread we eat, is this the product 
 of one individual? No ! there was the ploughman to open the 
 soil by the labour of his hardy hands, amidst the sweat of his 
 brow ; there was the seedman, who scattered the seed into the 
 furrows which had been drawn over the yielding soil; there was 
 next the reaper, who under the glowing rays of a midday sun 
 cut down the rich blessings of the Lord; next the thrasher, then 
 the winnower, then the miller, and lastly the baker, who all had 
 to unite their efforts to produce this simple bread, our daily food. 
 Now take a view of the tools which these various labourers 
 use ! They are the products of the mine, the forest and the 
 forge. Into the dark bowels of the earth, guided by science and 
 skill, the laborious miner digs his way ; unerring tests tell him 
 where is the home of the iron ; the ore is brought up to the light 
 of day, whilst yet the future metal is encumbered with uncon- 
 genial substances. Another equally skilful, and even more 
 daring, perchance ventures under the bed of the sea and ex- 
 tracts the fossil coal with which they smelt the iron. Next the 
 swarthy forgemen pile up in the intensely heated furnace the 
 ore and the fuel, and speedily urged by the blast of the mighty 
 bellows the liquefied metal flows in a fiery stream. Now behold 
 the rolling-mill smoothing a bar of one of the hardest products 
 in nature, as if it were flexible as the dough under the hands of 
 the industrious housewife. Again see the smith at his forge, his 
 brawny arm wields high in air the ponderous hammer and soon 
 the ploughshare is presented to view. The forester also lends 
 his aid, the hundred-armed oak totters, falls ; the artisan shapes 
 the plough; and the farmer harnesses to it the laborious ox or the 
 sinewy plough-horse, and rejoicingly he commences his task of 
 tilling the earth. The builder also is needed ! By the margin 
 of some rapid brook with busy skill the foundation is laid ; stone 
 after stone is carried to the spot, beam after beam is placed in 
 its resting place ; the masons ply their trowels, and the carpen- 
 ters their tools, and the mill stands finished before you. The 
 millwright's services are now needed ; the machinery is duly dis-
 
 100 RELIGIOUS UNION. 
 
 posed, the race is properly arranged, and the wheel is fixed in 
 the outer wall ; and soon the wagons laden with the produce of 
 the farmer's industry feed the voracity of the mighty engine 
 which so many skilful, busy hands have erected, and the stun- 
 ning din tells not of danger, of the battle-alarm, of the destruc- 
 tion of human life, but of the production of the most nutritious 
 food provided by Providence for our sustenance. These briefly 
 are some of the labours w r hich many have to undergo, in order 
 to supply the household with a common daily necessary of life ; 
 and the smallest morsel even which enters in your consumption 
 is watered by the sweat of hundreds, labouring to accomplish 
 one particular end. 
 
 This one illustration serves for all other employments ; and 
 we may say in truth, that man when alone is absolutely help- 
 less, and more unprovided than any other animal, from the 
 largest to the smallest, since each of these can obtain its food 
 without the multiplicity of labours which falls to the lot of man. 
 But were the farmer to sit down in despair and say : " How 
 shall 1 be able to procure iron ore, smelt it, forge it into a 
 ploughshare, how can I cut down the tree alone and make my- 
 self a plough ? what shall I do ? I shall never be able to till my 
 field;" what would any rational man tell him? surely, that he 
 should avail himself of the labour of others, procure the plough 
 which he can find ready made to his hands, although so 
 many preparatory labours were necessary, and just do nothing 
 more than that part of the work which is allotted to him, that is 
 the mere act of opening the soil, which he is amply able to do 
 by the assistance of the beasts of burden which the Creator has 
 assigned for the service of man. Any one would therefore be 
 reckoned unwise, who would refuse doing any thing, because 
 he could not accomplish every thing ; for it is only by every 
 man's doing his share for the general good that the welfare of 
 every individual is best promoted. 
 
 But, brethren, the same holds good not only in the physical, 
 but also in the moral world. Many are the wants of the mind! 
 multifarious are the duties which are demanded of us! and yet 
 they must all be satisfied, if we wish to be happy. Look at the 
 infant when scarce it essays its gift of speech ; watch its painful 
 efforts at utterance, and behold over it bending the fond mother
 
 RELIGIOUS UNION. 101 
 
 seconding the trials at articulate sounds which her offspring 
 makes; behold her joy when it succeeds in imitating the words 
 "My father! my mother!" and think you not that a great labour 
 has been accomplished ? that a trial steadily repeated for weeks, 
 for days, for hours together has at length been crowned by sig- 
 nal success? assuredly, and you can convince yourself of this at 
 the return of the father from his toil to his now happier home, 
 when his wife makes the child again repeat the lesson which she 
 has been teaching, and the fond kiss impressed upon the cheek 
 yet unclouded by sin or sorrow tells that he too thinks one task 
 has been happily accomplished ! 
 
 Months roll on and the little prattler has received from his 
 mother all the instruction she can give him : she has watched 
 with unremitting care, and instilled in him the seeds of the fear 
 of the Lord, she has taught him to reverence the Holy One, who 
 alone is Israel's God ; she has so to say opened the mental soil 
 for more extended fruitfulness ; and the boy is dismissed from 
 the parental roof to the halls of learning to receive farther in- 
 struction in knowledge and wisdom. Daily new light dawns 
 upon him, hourly some new fact charms his mental vision, and 
 every instant he adds to his stock of knowledge. Does he weigh 
 the toil of the teachers, the care of his instructors ? Hardly ; he 
 drinks from the fountain which to him seems ever-flowing, and 
 he barely is conscious that it flows wholesomely only through 
 the care of those who are appointed its guardians, and who in- 
 struct him how he is to distinguish between the springs of life 
 and happiness, and those which are charged with death and wo. 
 
 The school-years at length are ended, and the youth enters 
 upon the broad road of life, mingling with the crowd, jostled by 
 the competitors who with him run to reach to the same goal. 
 He now gathers knowledge from experience, he has to unlearn 
 much of self-love, much of what inexperienced vanity had 
 taught him to think of himself; he sees things with a different 
 eye, he feels with a different feeling, he hears with a different 
 ear, and the sweets and the bitters of manhood's years force 
 upon him convictions which, if properly viewed and piously 
 dwelt upon, will make his declining years happy, peaceful and 
 contented. 
 
 Were now the mother to give up her endeavours at teaching 
 
 9*
 
 102 RELIGIOUS UNION. 
 
 her child to speak, because he did not succeed at the first trial ; 
 \vere a teacher to dismiss the scholar because he found it diffi- 
 cult to make him comprehend his lesson \vhen he made his first 
 attempt ; \vcre the man to become alarmed at the great field of 
 knowledge before him, at the immense amount of learning which 
 he must leave unexplored though he should live ever so long : 
 how could the most eminent of men ever have obtained the 
 smallest part of knowledge ? since it is only the constant and 
 persevering labour of the individual, aided by the advice, the 
 tuition, and the care of others, in fact, by a united effort of 
 many persons, scattered over a long space of time, directed to 
 accomplish one common purpose, .that the eminence on which 
 he stands has been reached ; and it is only by perseverance, 
 union, care and labour that he can hope to maintain the position 
 he has once attained. 
 
 This being so, it may be well to inquire, how we are to do 
 in moral pursuits ? what share of excellence can we and others 
 justly demand of ourselves ? To enable us to give a satisfac- 
 tory answer we will consider the following advice contained in 
 the last paragraph of the second chapter of the Proverbs of the 
 Fathers, a collection of moral aphorisms from those wise men 
 who were the chief teachers of our religion during the latter 
 portion of the second temple and the first century after its de- 
 struction, a class of men, who though often reviled by the igno- 
 rant and the enemies of our faith were worthy pillars on which 
 the structure of Israel's religion could rest with safety, trusty 
 shepherds who guarded well the flock committed to their care. 
 Among other matters Rabbi Tarfone says : 
 
 p nnN vbi -noA ro^Son 
 
 : i"o '3 maic j 
 
 " It is not incumbent on thee to finish the work, nor art thou at liberty to 
 divest thyself entirely of its performance." 
 
 When a man surveys the wide field of the duties pointed out to 
 him by the law, when he is made conscious that all the pre- 
 cepts of the Bible are alike the word and will of God : he is but 
 too apt to become faint-hearted and inquire, " How can I do all 
 that I am told is good ? I am poor, and I cannot give charity ;
 
 RELIGIOUS UNION. 103 
 
 I am ignorant, I cannot teach ; I am feeble, I cannot attend the 
 house of God, am not able to administer to the wants of the 
 sick and suffering ; I fear there is no salvation for me, since it 
 is said in the Scriptures : ' Cursed* be he that fulfilleth not the 
 words of this law to do them.' Will the Lord have mercy on 
 one who is compelled to be so remiss of positive duties ?" To 
 one so conscientious the moralist says : " It is not incumbent on 
 thee to finish the work ;" the field of labour is in truth extended, 
 it spreads over all the actions and pursuits of life ; but thou art 
 not the only labourer in the service of thy Maker. If it pleased 
 Him not to endow thee \vith wealth, He will most assuredly not 
 be angry with thee, if thou canst not gratify the wishes of thy 
 heart by bestowing liberal gifts upon the poor that are with 
 thee ; if thou art not versed in his holy ways, if from want of 
 opportunity thou hast unfortunately not received an extensive 
 knowledge in the law of thy God, He will not expect of thee to 
 go abroad as a teacher of the word ; if thou art enfeebled by 
 age or sickness, and thy feet will not carry thee to the house 
 of prayer, thou wilt not be punished if thou stayest at home 
 and offerest up the breathings of thy heart at thy own fireside, 
 if thou within thy own walls thinkest over the wonders which 
 thy eyes behold, which thy every sense makes thee conscious 
 of; if thou in truth art disabled to administer to those who 
 need thy aid, it is not consonant with Mercy to punish the omis- 
 sion which proceeds not from a wilful neglect. In short, no more 
 than thy powers suffice for will be expected, and no want of 
 means will be regarded as a rebellion in the service of Heaven ! 
 His servants are everywhere, from the rising of the sun to his 
 setting. His name is great among the nations; and each and every 
 man has received some capacity by which he can demonstrate 
 his faithfulness. The law contains many minute duties as well 
 as great actions ; it enjoins the saving of a human life,f and 
 the dismissal of the dam when the nest of a bird is found ;J it 
 commands the restoration of freedom to the bondman in the 
 seventh year and the Jubilee,|| and the fixing of a scroll on our 
 
 * Deut. xxvii. 26. f Levit. xix. 16. I Deut. xxii. 7. 
 
 Exod. xxii. 2, and Deut. xv. 12. || Levit. xxv. 10, 41, 54.
 
 104 RELIGIOUS UNION. 
 
 door-posts* and the wearing of fringes on the borders of our 
 garments,! matters as \ve see of difficult execution and rare 
 occurrence, and others which any child can easily and daily 
 observe. This proves that the law was intended to be the 
 means of salvation ; since every one can at all times, whether 
 exalted or low whether at sea or on land whether at large 
 or in prison whether rich or poor, find some precept which he 
 can obey, and consequently do something to gain the favour of 
 his Maker. 
 
 But now some one may say : " Since there are so many 
 labourers what for are my services needed ? I am too unim- 
 portant, too mean in the scale of society that my labours should 
 be missed ; I will sit contented in slothful idleness ; I will not 
 offend, but I will merely let others, greater than myself, do their 
 great acts, whilst I look on and profit by their examples." To 
 this excuse answers Rabbi Tarfone : " Thou art not at liberty 
 to divest thyself entirely of its performance ;" meaning, that we 
 were not sent hither to be idle spectators upon the great theatre 
 of life ; action, action, is the word ; sloth does not find favour 
 in the eyes of the Master of our labour. We are endowed with 
 hearing, with sight, with taste, with smell, with feeling that we 
 might enjoy the gifts which bountiful nature presents at every 
 point ; but we too have a thinking soul, a reasoning mind, which 
 should set our powers in motion to a higher aim than mere per- 
 sonal enjoyment and slothful indolence. Let us step abroad, 
 cast our eyes over the wants of our fellow-men, and is there no 
 one that can be benefited by our labours ? If we have riches, 
 is there no one who needs our bounty? if we have health is 
 there no one who lies stretched on a helpless bed of sickness ? 
 if we have joy is there no one who needs consolation ? if we 
 have learning is there no one whom we could enlighten ? if we 
 have religious hope, if we are firm in faith, is there no one 
 whom our appeals could reach, who might be warmed by the 
 zeal which burns within us ? Say you, " We are humble, un- 
 known beyond the bounds of our houses ; poor, afflicted and 
 ground down by oppression, how can we be useful ?" Deceive 
 not yourselves ; no matter how humble you are, despite of a 
 
 * Deut vi. 9, and xi. 20. f Numb. xv. 38, and Deut. xxii. 12.
 
 RELIGIOUS UNION. 105 
 
 thousand sufferings, there must be something which you can 
 accomplish some trifle which the great have left unfinished. 
 When the master-builder plans the house does he assign equal 
 tasks to all his men? on the contrary, while the mason with almost 
 miraculous skill builds an arch which may stand for ages, the 
 humble attendant furnishes him with mortar and stone ; while 
 the carpenter fashions the beam and fits the joiner's work, the 
 material is brought to him by persons unacquainted with his 
 art. How long and often would it withdraw the mason and the 
 carpenter from their work, were they to go out each time to 
 fetch the things they need; the attendance of the mere labourers 
 abridges their toil and brings the undertaking to a much speedier 
 conclusion than it could otherwise be. Just so it is with, our 
 religious structure. Our Master is the omnipotent Architect ; 
 the building is the improvement of mankind, for this is the aim 
 of all religion, whether we ourselves or others are the objects 
 of its operation ; the labourers are we all, the sons of man ; and 
 only by a concerted effort can the building be constructed, till it 
 show a beautiful front and a high elevation in the presence of 
 the Creator. There must be none weary, none slothful, none 
 an idle spectator ; but whilst the master-minds are busy in 
 executing the great designs for which they were fitted, let the 
 humbler in capacity encourage them during their toil, and en- 
 deavour by all means to make their task pleasant, their labours 
 more easy. But O, let no one say: " I cannot work ;" for no 
 matter how little one contributes, let that little be done ; and 
 many a one is endowed with a strength of which he himself is 
 not conscious ; many an intellectual Gideon there is who when 
 spoken to by an inward feeling, by outward circumstances 
 which demand his action, with : " The Lord is with thee, thou 
 mighty one of valour," will answer: "Oh my Lord! where- 
 with shall I save Israel? behold my family is the poorest in 
 Manasseh, and 1 am the least in my father's house." (Judg. vi. 
 12, 15.) Well is such humility becoming; it were wrong to 
 have an undue confidence in our own powers ; modesty is always 
 the true garb of distinguished merit, as we read in our section 
 of to-day : " And the man Moses was very meek above all the 
 men who were upon the face of the earth."* But, humility 
 * Number?, xii. 3.
 
 106 RELIGIOUS UNION. 
 
 nevertheless is no excuse for idleness. When Gideon had been 
 awakened to his own strength, he overcame the enemy who 
 sorely afflicted his people. Just so it is with the mind; when 
 the spirit is once aroused it may achieve wonders ! Abraham 
 lived in his father's house, worshipping in humility; he was 
 called forward, and became the light of the world ! Moses and 
 David were shepherds, one became the great prophet whom 
 all future ages will ever bless, the other was afterwards the 
 mightiest king of Israel, and what is more, the outpourings of 
 his soul excite now and will excite for ever the sweetest thoughts 
 of devotion, the noblest conceptions in the great Creator's praise. 
 Do you wish for more examples ? Go and search in the pages 
 of history, and see who were the true benefactors of their 
 species; they were but rarely those born in the purple, but 
 seldom those who inherited immense wealth ; but mostly the 
 children of humble parents, they who slowly and laboriously 
 had to climb the ladder which leads upwards. Every thing 
 requires a beginning, the wizard's lamp which calls up houses 
 at the moment they are wanted is no more a fiction, than the 
 idea that great results can ever be looked for if action is not 
 attempted. Only let every one throw into the common stock 
 whatever he is capable of, and as there is a Rewarder of virtue, 
 an over-ruling Providence, much good will result. But let no 
 one be so presumptuous as to suppose that his assistance is so 
 greatly needed, that the work must stop, if he is taken, or if he 
 does not lend his assistance. For the time never yet was, and 
 never will be, when the vineyard of the Lord was so destitute 
 of labourers, that for the want of one the work had to cease; 
 if one is removed, a hundred will spring up ; if one withdraws, 
 many will press forward to snatch up the tools which the slug- 
 gard has thrown down. Moreover it is not they, who are over- 
 weening or who are ostentatious, who either can teach, or whose 
 charity will be acceptable; but it is at the last those whose 
 wisdom wears the garb of modesty and whose charity is hidden 
 by the love for the welfare of and a regard for the feelings of 
 their fellow-men who can be truly acceptable. And thus speaks 
 an Israelite* of our own days, of his own labours which have 
 
 * Samson Raphael Hirsch, Grand Rabbi of Oldenburg in Germany.
 
 RELIGIOUS UNION. 107 
 
 won him a name among the children of his people : " I am still 
 far removed from the thought, as though these attempts (the 
 name he gives his book relative to the duties of Israelites,) as 
 though any work from my hand would fill up the gap ; for I 
 know too well the entire magnitude of the subject, too well my 
 own limited powers. Upon the whole, he must be a fool who 
 believes, that it is given to him, alone, to stand in the breach, 
 the healing of which is in the hands of God. But he too is a 
 fool, nay, more than fool, who, because he cannot accomplish 
 nil, attempts nothing whatever, and because he is not rich in 
 every thing, endeavours not to lay the smallest, poorest gift 
 upon the altar of his people. Only attempts I venture to offer, 
 nothing that is complete ; happy if here and there one thought 
 does not seem unworthy to one more richly endowed, to follow 
 it up, and there lay his hand on the work where my strength 
 failed me ; happy if my book should become the inducement 
 to one of the noble sons and daughters of my people to seek 
 refuge from the floods of the times with the only One Firm 
 amidst all the fleeting, to God and his word ; happy, if that 
 which is erroneous and false in my attempts may be recognized 
 as such, that it may not be the means to add to the sum of 
 error and falsehood ; but also if they contain any part of truth 
 and purity, which He in whose hands rest the holiest destinies 
 of Israel, may not despise to let it become ever so small a con- 
 tribution to a brighter building of life of the most holy thing in 
 Israel ; to have carried but one stone to the great structure, 
 to have poured but one drop of oil into the lamp of the sanc- 
 tuary who would not find too rich a reward in this ?" 
 
 Thus speaks one who has received a high endowment, who 
 has been raised to preside over the congregations of the Lord 
 in an extensive district in Germany ; and it is the right feeling 
 with which we should do our duties whatever they may be, 
 whether the contribution be a book, a deed of charity, or an 
 act of personal piety. It matters not which, every act adds to 
 the common stock of righteousness, to the empire of holiness in 
 Israel ; virtue is a plant which grows best when many watch 
 and labour for its progress ; let all therefore who now hear me 
 resolve to make it their study to promote the spread of righteous- 
 ness, to do all which they are able to perform themselves, and
 
 10S RELIGIOUS UiNICLN. 
 
 to induce others to join them. Let the son follow the father, 
 and if need be let the father even learn from the son ; let the 
 wife lead her husband, if he should become neglectful of his 
 duty ; let the brother exhort the sister to persevere in the road 
 to grace and piety; in short, let every Israelite be a teacher, 
 an active labourer in the harvest of the Lord. Do you believe 
 the reward will be \vanting ? No, brethren ! our Master is 
 powerful beyond measure, rich beyond compare, bountiful be- 
 yond our wants ; and no matter how great the number of 
 those who enter his employ, there is happiness in store for all. 
 Come then one, come all, bend your shoulders to the burden, 
 lend your hand to the service, and see whether God will not 
 bless you ! Only be firm, be united, let not dissension chill the 
 ardour, check the concord which is so necessary ; and remem- 
 ber that in religion as well as in life, " United we stand, divided 
 we fall !" We have stood for many ages, though little difficulties 
 have frequently disturbed our harmony : it were time now that 
 we should forget them ; but let us as loving brothers in one Fa- 
 ther's house, unshaken like soldiers prepared for the holy war- 
 fare, united as labourers on the holiest structure of Israel, stand 
 shoulder to shoulder and foot to foot, ready for the work, but 
 also with the shield before us and with the brand by our side, 
 or in other words, let us be ever united by charity, by unison, 
 by virtue, by benevolence, and let us be armed with a know- 
 ledge of the word of the Lord, that we may with the blessing 
 of God be ever prepared to ward off the attacks of those who 
 love not the name of Israel ! Only let us be firm, and of good 
 courage, and we cannot fail, for the Lord is with us, as He 
 ever was with our fathers ! 
 
 Father ! shield us with the shadow of thy wings, and grant us 
 peace, now and for ever. Amen. 
 
 Sivan 20th 
 June 19th
 
 109 
 
 DISCOURSE X. 
 
 THE SORROWS OF ISRAEL. 
 
 LORD ! Thou who judgest in righteousness and mercy, do 
 not visit our iniquities in wrath and indignation ; but according 
 to thy loving-kindness deal tenderly and forgivingly with our 
 sins, because we are flesh, frail, and prone to sin. Do regard 
 us with compassion, when thou reviewest our deeds ; and shed 
 over the remnant of Jacob the spirit of grace and supplication ; 
 and whenever the sword of persecution is raised above our 
 helpless heads, stay Thou in thy mercy the descending blow, 
 and disarm the uplifted hand of our vengeful opponents. Let 
 not the adversary prevail over the weak remainder that has 
 escaped, lest they, who honour not thy name as do thy people 
 Israel, say in their presumption and the pride superinduced by 
 the smiles of success and impunity, that we are forsaken of thy 
 protection, and cast out from thy bounty. O! do speedily open 
 the prisons of the captives, and let those go free, who have no 
 protector save Thee alone, our Father, who art the Guardian 
 of Israel ! and fill the hearts of those who now oppress thy 
 people with compassion, that they may deal beneficently towards 
 all our brethren of the house of Jacob thy servants. Amen. 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 Erst on Moriah's mount the temple stood, when on Zion and 
 in the streets of Jerusalem rolled the mighty mass of men who 
 thronged the highways to the sacred city where dwelt the glory 
 of God. Thousands pressed on thousands to prostrate them- 
 selves at the sacred threshold, to behold as it were the more 
 immediate presence of their God. Glad was the shout which 
 responded to the priest's blessing, sweet was the acclaim which 
 told that the Only One was the acknowledged Head of the 
 people that dwelt within thy gates, O Zion ! But hushed is 
 
 VOL. in. 10
 
 HO THE SORROWS OF ISRAEL. 
 
 now the tumult, the temple's splendid halls are levelled to the 
 dust ; in Jerusalem, on Zion, on Moriah, their rightful pos- 
 sessors are strangers, aliens, oppressed, outcasts, slaves ! and a 
 foolish people, a nation that hath no wisdom, reveis in its in- 
 vented rites on the spot where once was the glory of Israel ; 
 yes, the very spot, where the temple formerly burst upon the 
 astonished, delighted gaze of the pilgrim, no Israelite can now 
 approach unless at the peril of his life ; and in place of the reve- 
 rence and adoration of the Lord according to the laws of 
 Moses, the Muezzin of a newly-invented religion call to prayer, 
 in the name, it is true of the One God, but associated with the 
 belief in a prophet whom He did not send, and out of whose 
 mouth He has not spoken. Go abroad over the hills and val- 
 leys of Palestine, formerly the land of wheat and barley, the 
 fig, the vine, the promegranate, the olive and date-palm ; where 
 from every eminence refreshing springs bubbled forth ; where 
 on every side were fertile valleys, vine-clad summits, populous 
 towns ; where on every meadow the cattle grazed in undis- 
 turbed security ; where at eventide in all its boundaries the 
 shepherd might be seen leading back his thriving flock, in 
 desert, on plain, and mountain, by running brook, or purling 
 spring ; go there where once the beloved nation dwelt under 
 the guidance of their Legislator's code, under the shadow of 
 his rule : and you will wonder over the desolation you will 
 everywhere behold. The towns ? they are swept from the 
 face of the earth, and of many famous for deeds of bravery, for 
 schools, for nurseries of piety, not a stone is left to mark the spot 
 where once they stood ; and the others yet existing have lost 
 their splendour, and squalid wretchedness and indolent, unlabour- 
 ing beggary is the lot of their sparse inhabitants. The olive 
 groves in many places are cut down, and though in several 
 parts the fertility and extraordinary products of the land are 
 not entirely gone : still in many others the earth- itself seems to 
 have changed its nature, the water springs are drying up, and 
 the means of fertilizing the soil, which formerly existed, are 
 falling into decay and disuse under the iron sway of the present 
 inheritors of our once blessed patrimony. Where formerly the 
 shepherd fed his flock, and the herdsman stood listlessly near *- 
 the lowing ox or the grazing cow, the robber now lies in wait^ 
 
 .
 
 THE SORROWS OF ISRAEL. m 
 
 f 
 
 behind the bare crag of some overhanging rock to despoil the 
 unarmed traveller of his envied possessions. And wherever the 
 few scanty remains of Israel dwell, they are subject to the 
 arbitrary rule, the outrageous exactions, the cruel treatment of 
 some covetous Arab, or a bloodthirsty satrap of the Turkish 
 emperor. There is no festive throng in Palestine ; there is no 
 joy at the return of the holy seasons ; there is no security for 
 life or limb ; but under the dear-bought protection of the stranger 
 the sons of Jacob revisit their own long-loved land ; and amidst 
 trembling and fear they worship where their forefathers wor- 
 shipped ; and in the home of the free, the land of the brave 
 they dwell subject at every hour to be plundered without resist- 
 ance, to be incarcerated without appeal, to be tortured and 
 slain with scarcely any one willing or able to stay the execu- 
 tioner's hand. 
 
 For centuries this has been the fate of our people and of 
 our inheritance ; and wide-spread sorrow has been the lot of one, 
 and almost utter desolation that of the other. How many times 
 did the wheel of sorrow pass over us ! how often has been 
 unsheathed the sword to wound and to slay ! how many pre- 
 cious spirits were sent to an untimely grave, only because they 
 were sons of a hated race. And it mattered little who it was 
 that bore rule, whether the cunning Grecian, the proud Roman 
 polytheist, the fire-worshipping Persian, the light Arab, the 
 warlike Seljuk, or knightly Englishman, or the pilgrim Gaul ; 
 all alike have hated, spurned, and slaughtered myriads of our 
 unoffending brothers ! hated them without cause ; spurned them 
 because of their belief; and slaughtered them for the sake of 
 crimes which they were not guilty of, and for the shedding of 
 blood which their soul abhorred ! It would be a heartrending 
 task to recount one thousandth part of all the evils which we 
 had to bear in Palestine no less than elsewhere since our cap- 
 tivity commenced ; but so full is the history of nearly every 
 nation with the cruelties inflicted on us, so stained with innocent 
 blood are the hands of many communities : that they who note 
 down passing events have scarcely thought it worth while to 
 mention the particulars, or to tell us the number of the victims 
 slain to glut the demon of persecution. In short, many have 
 always, as it were, consumed us ; and treachery and art, per-
 
 112 TIIE SORROWS OF ISRAEL. 
 
 suasion and force, bribes and the sword have all been employed 
 to diminish the number of those who follow the law of the God 
 of Abraham. 
 
 And do you believe that these persecutions are events of long 
 by-gone years, to be sought for in musty records of history ? 
 Alas ! no ; there has not been a single age, perhaps not a single 
 year since our dispersion, which has not witnessed atrocities 
 of this nature, which has not told of Israel's degradation and 
 sorrow. Even at this very day, in an age which calls itself 
 enlightened, when learning is achieving wonderful triumphs, 
 when science is laying daily open the hidden things of nature 
 and organization, when one might have hoped that the mind of 
 man would have become less savage and more active to the 
 calls of humanity : we have an exemplification of the same 
 dark deeds which well befitted the iron age when men incased 
 in steel, and covered with armour of proof, fought for sport 
 with sharpened spears and uplifted swords till one of the com- 
 batants lay dead in the lists ; and when fired by the spirit of 
 fanaticism and the love of adventure, tens of thousands forsook 
 their northren shores to contend with the dusky sons of the East 
 for the possession of a fancied treasure which they imagined to 
 exist in Palestine. Then indeed, when the priests alone could 
 read and write, when the man of war, with a sword and steed, 
 was more valued than the peaceful farmer or the skilful artisan : 
 it was to be expected that men engaged in perilous warfare, 
 incited by blind zeal, could, horrible though it may be, so far 
 forget the law of love as to chant praises in the midst of 
 streams of blood which defiled the streets of Jerusalem ; whilst 
 thousands of victims of a murderous assault and an indiscrimi- 
 nate slaughter lay yet unburied within the precincts of the city 
 of David. But this state of things has passed away ; the lust 
 for and practice of war have in a measure had to yield to the 
 arts of peace ; it was to be hoped, that, after the sword had in 
 a few late years drunk the gore of millions, a spirit of calm 
 inquiry would have stopped up the entrance of unreason and 
 falsehood ; but unfortunately this has not been the case, and to 
 this very day zealots and fanatics do not pretermit their efforts 
 at extinguishing the lamp of Israel ; and not content with at- 
 tempts at our opinions, they have again within late commenced
 
 THE SORROWS OF ISRAEL. 113 
 
 the system of false accusation, in order to surrender our heads 
 once more to the executioner, that the earth might again drink 
 the life-blood of the best of Jacob's sons. The same fables, the 
 falsity of which has been often proved, the absurdity of which 
 is too apparent to deserve a serious refutation, have been again 
 revived, and it has been said that we need the blood of gentile- 
 victims to celebrate our sacred festivals. The mussulman and 
 the papist have joined hands to fasten this foul charge upon our 
 brothers of the East ; and many have been dragged to prison, 
 subjected to torture and every species of cruelty, nay some are 
 said to have expired under the inflictions of their fiendish per- 
 secutors. Ay, these victims have cried for help ! but who 
 stood forth to aid them ? they appealed to their religion which 
 forbids murder, but they spoke to men who feel not pity for the 
 outcasts of Israel ; the voice of Europe and of this land, which is 
 lifted up loud enough when other cases of suffering and outrage 
 are presented, has barely been raised ; nay the presumed author 
 of this great wrong is not called on to answer for the evil he 
 has done. O God ! has it come to this is it thy will that we 
 are never to know rest ? that we are always to be the mark for 
 malice and wrong ? But thy will be done ; even as Thou de- 
 creest, O our Father ! be it our aim to learn submission ; only 
 keep alive thy spirit, the love of thy law within us ; that thy 
 judgments may tend to purify our souls, to exalt our hearts to 
 Thee, our King and Saviour ! 
 
 Indeed, brethren, it does seem that the curse denounced 
 against us for our manifold misdeeds is yet active as ever it was, 
 that the infraction of the covenant of God with our forefathers 
 demands to this day the punishment of the rebellious race. 
 For what does Moses say in Leviticus (xxvi. 38) 1 " And ye 
 shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies 
 shall eat you up." Yes, this has been fulfilled literally, with the 
 sole limitation, that the perishing and the eating up have not 
 been entire, for punishment was threatened, not extermination. 
 The inspired seer stood on the top of Horeb, that cradle of our 
 national existence ; he was permitted to survey virtue and its 
 reward, sin and its direful visitation. To his prophetic view 
 the future lay opened, and he saw how the evil might be averted 
 by a steady adherence to the law of God ; but he also beheld 
 
 10*
 
 114 THE SORROWS OF ISRAEL 
 
 the empire of truth invaded by the armies which the inclination 
 to evil is capable of raising against the spread of righteousness 
 on earth. Moses therefore begged and entreated his brother 
 Israelites never to lose sight of their Lord and Redeemer, never 
 to forget that He is ready to reward and able to punish. He 
 warned them that by the observance of the covenant alone could 
 they have peace ; but that war and the pestilence, accompanied 
 by their handmaids famine and sickness, should desolate their 
 heritage for their refusal to obey. And he said in continuation, 
 that our residence among the gentiles should constantly diminish 
 our numbers, and that so to say our increase should be eaten 
 up by the land of our enemies. Has the force of this curse 
 ever struck you ? if not, reflect for one moment how truly it 
 has been accomplished. Compare our present number with 
 what it might have become had we been left undisturbed since 
 our second expulsion from Palestine, had not so many hundreds 
 of thousands been doomed to the sword, had not so many more 
 been mingled up either by force or voluntarily with the nations 
 of the earth : how large would at this day have been the rem- 
 nant of Israel ; every land would have been full of us, every 
 part of the earth would have felt our power. This would have 
 been, had we reflected on our conduct, and returned to the Lord 
 in the lands of our enemies with all our heart, when He would 
 have opened our bonds and given us enlargement. But we 
 always sought our interest more than the salvation of our God ; 
 even in times of danger the spirit of gain swayed our souls, 
 and we endeavoured to fortify ourselves against the attacks of 
 an unfriendly world by the possession of wealth. It appeared 
 as though we wanted to make riches the bulwark against pre- 
 judice, and to rely upon the effects to be derived from the 
 gifts of God more than upon God himself. Such folly therefore 
 met its due visitation, our wealth was made the means of our 
 destruction ; the cupidity of our enemies became excited, and 
 the apparent wretchedness of the Jews did not conceal from 
 their keen-sighted persecutors the immense hoards of worldly 
 goods they had heaped up; and the destruction of so many 
 homesteads, the expulsion of our people from so many lands 
 only too well evidenced, that our hopes had been built upon a 
 shallow foundation. And when in other places and other times
 
 THE SORROWS OF ISRAEL. H5 
 
 we mixed too carelessly with, the gentiles, when we began 
 perhaps to forget that we were sojourners far from our own 
 land, the blessed hills of Judcea : again the decree of sorrow 
 went forth, and catholic Spain and her sister Portugal dipped 
 their arms deep, deep into rivers of blood shed by the merciless 
 judges of Judah's fallen daughter. It was long indeed since peace 
 had shed her smile on our path; we were driven from one 
 country to the other, and scarcely any one land was willing to 
 receive into its bosom the loathed descendants of the friends of the 
 Lord ; and where we were permitted to rest awhile, the badge 
 of degradation was fixed on our garments, we were penned up 
 in particular streets, denied the privilege of following the paths 
 of industry best suited to our capacities and tastes, and con- 
 demned to resort to traffic alone and menial employments to 
 supply bread for our wives and little ones. Even the right to 
 marry was in many places refused except under cruel re- 
 strictions and onerous exactions, and this is still continued in 
 several parts of Europe to this very day. -For those only who 
 outwardly forswore their hopes in Israel's salvation there was 
 opened the race to preferment and distinction ; and thus, what 
 with the dread of death by the executioner's hands, and honours 
 and ease on the other side, many were lost among the gentiles, 
 though we may also boast of a greater number who embraced 
 death as their deliverer sooner than forego the favour of their 
 God, their portion as adherents to his law, and of others who, 
 though conscious of talents to raise them to renown in higher 
 employments, and not unfrequently invited to forsake their 
 people, still continued to live as Jews in conscious integrity and 
 an obscurity more honourable than the blood-stained triumph of 
 a monarch. 
 
 With all this the hand of God was visibly stretched out for 
 our protection, and despite of all the dangers that encompassed 
 us we were not utterly destroyed. At length the bigotry of an 
 iron age began gradually to wear away before the re-discovered 
 saving power of the holy Bible. The world began to inquire, and 
 to doubt the authority that bound every thing to the mandate 
 of a priestly autocrat. By degrees too the bonds of persecution 
 towards our people were more and more loosened ; and though
 
 116 THK SORROWS OF ISRAEL. 
 
 yet oppressed, and not permitted to be put on an equality with 
 other men, we needed no longer to tremble for our personal 
 safety and the security of the honest fruits of our industry. We 
 already thought ourselves beyond the reach of the recurrence 
 of ancient barbarities, we fancied the world too enlightened to 
 persecute each other because they could not agree on specula- 
 tive matters. Especially were many of us lulled into security 
 when not long since the spirit of innovation swept like a mighty 
 whirlwind over the civilized world, overturning in its violence 
 long cherished opinions, prostrating deep-rooted custom, scat- 
 tering to the winds institutions which formerly no man dared to 
 question. We then saw those who had hated us bending in their 
 turn to the blast ; we beheld our persecutors flying themselves 
 from the fury of a populace formerly obedient to their wink in 
 the slaughter of unoffending Israelites. We heard liberty and 
 equality proclaimed as the birthright of every son of man; and 
 saw the people everywhere roused by this cheering cry bursting 
 asunder the fetters of slavery and ranging themselves under the 
 banner which promised to lead them to victory over the pros- 
 trate ruins of the mighty fabric which ages of superstition had 
 endeavoured to rear, like another tower of Babel, the top of 
 which should reach unto heaven. We saw and heard all this ; 
 and torn away too by the popular torrent, we hailed this period 
 as one of Israel's salvation, we felt that we too could share in 
 the triumph of the people's cause we rejoiced that we were 
 free. And truly the change was great and grateful ; the con- 
 tempt attached to the name of Jew nearly vanished, when so 
 many bearing it were invested with power equally with other 
 men, when bursting forth from the shackles of prejudice, 
 from the limits which the hatred of our name had cast around 
 us, we vindicated our rights as men by a display of excellence 
 in all branches of honourable pursuit and knowledge which 
 before had been interdicted to us ! But wo ! as our prosperity 
 increased, so increased our indifference to religion and its obser- 
 vance ; as the great mass cast off antiquated opinions, so too did 
 we hasten to prove that the revolution had touched our spirit 
 also. Would ! that truth were not compelled to acknowledge 
 the apostacy of Israel ! would ! that a lover of his faith might 
 say, that we did bear becomingly the change in our circum-
 
 THE SORROWS OF ISRAEL. H7 
 
 stances. But as ever, "Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;" and 
 everywhere we mingled upon equal terms with the nations, and 
 forgetful of our obligations to the God of our deliverance, we 
 ate the food which his law prohibits; we violated the Sabbath 
 of his ordaining ; we intermarried with the gentile women, and 
 our daughters wedded those who are not of the stock of Jacob ; 
 we refused to circumcise our male children ; we reformed, as 
 we called it, our simple worship ; neglected the study of the 
 Scriptures; and in short became lamentably deficient in the 
 fulfilment of our duties. Yes, we imagined that our freedom 
 was the gift of men, not the bestowal of the Supreme, for which 
 He deserves more energetic exertions to serve and obey Him ; 
 we imagined that the age of persecution was over, and that the 
 price of divine protection, the constant vigilance over our con- 
 duct, was no longer needed. We fell as we always have fallen; 
 and prosperity as in former ages rendered us careless of that 
 which adversity had rendered dear to us as the light of our eyes. 
 Hence it was that we so eagerly sought to become like other 
 nations, and hence it is the melancholy spectacle was witnessed 
 of entire families falling off from our religion, not by open apos- 
 tacy, by an avowed joining of the standard of our opponents ; 
 but by a gradual leaving off of all the distinguishing character- 
 istics of Jewish conduct, till at length of some of these families 
 there is not one remaining to claim affinity with the sons of 
 Israel. Such persons moreover are more injurious than avowed 
 apostates, for these last are shunned as deserters from the fold 
 of the Lord ; but the others are like the festering cancer, they 
 are a part of ourselves and destroy the vitality of the body on 
 which they feed. And truly these lukewarm followers of our 
 faith, these Jews by name, where there is no substantial reli- 
 gious conviction or outward conformity, have by their example, 
 and associations, and family connections drawn in thousands of 
 others, who otherwise might have stood steadfast ; until at length 
 we view with complaisance, without the least horror, the public 
 violation of the Sabbath, the eating of the gentile's food, and 
 the intermarriage with strangers to our blood, to such a degree 
 even, that scarely any regret is expressed if, by such an act as 
 the last mentioned, an entire household bo driven from the com-
 
 118 THE SORROWS OF ISRAEL. 
 
 munity of our people, and thrown into the fatal embrace of 
 strangers to our religion. Nay more, people violate every com- 
 mandment, some will not seal their offspring with the sign of 
 the covenant, and still claim the right of Israelites as though no 
 wrong were chargeable on their conscience ; and they thus ac- 
 knowledge that whilst wilfully rebelling against the law, they 
 believe in its sanctity and divine origin. And these deeds we 
 imagine will remain unavenged? we defy God, and fancy that 
 his thunders slumber? But "lo He slumbers not, He sleeps not, 
 the Guardian of Israel;" He who ever stretched out his hand to 
 draw us safely out of the fowler's snare, or from the floods of 
 mighty waters, will save us, despite of ourselves, from the con- 
 sequences of our own iniquity, from the foxes among us who 
 wound our vineyards, the vineyards of the Lord, that have 
 tender grapes.* The Lord in his own good time will purify 
 his fold, He will cast out thence those who will not follow the 
 lead of their Shepherd. Yea ! though they flourish awhile, their 
 hour of retribution is nigh, nearer than any one may perhaps 
 imagine. For, believe me brethren ! this is not the first time 
 that indifference and neglect were the besetting sins of our 
 people; already during our existence as an independent nation 
 were there men like those I have endeavoured to sketch to you. 
 An Elijah had to fly for his life because he had fulfilled the com- 
 mand of the law on those who had misled the people to sin; and 
 when after the times of this devoted prophet the judgment of 
 the Most High had cast the ten tribes from their boundaries: the 
 remaining families of Israel persisted in sin, imagining that the 
 evil would not reach them. They, like the men in our day, 
 were lulled in fatal security, they would not believe that their 
 stronghold Jerusalem could become a prey to the devouring 
 flame. It was then that Jeremiah was called to step forward 
 as the prophet of wo, and to denounce upon the sinful genera- 
 tion and their guilty city the evil which was hastening with 
 rapid strides to overwhelm in one common ruin king and people, 
 priest and prophet, city and country, the holy and the profane. 
 And thus we read: 
 
 * Song of Solomon, ii. 15.
 
 THE SORROWS OF ISRAEL. j jg 
 
 run nnx no -10*6 Stf ; n -m m 
 roDn Stf 'n *iD*n : nsn O 
 
 S nan Sy OK 
 
 " Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying: What dost thou 
 see, Jeremiah? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the 
 Lord to me : Thou hast well seen, for I am hastening with my word to fulfil 
 it." Jer. i. 11, 12. 
 
 I will merely remark incidentl ythat the same root in Hebrew 
 signifying almond also makes the verb hasten, thus Shahkayd 
 and Shahkahd ; hence the vision representing to the prophet's 
 view the speedy accomplishment of the evil was a rod of an 
 almond tree; and let me farther state that many passages in the 
 prophets must be explained in a similar manner by a reference to 
 a similarity of words in the Hebrew original text which no trans- 
 lation can convey. Enough, the prophet saw long before the 
 people thought themselves in danger the certain approach of the 
 fulfilment of God's word conveyed to them by former messen- 
 gers, unless they themselves would avert the evil by a speedy 
 and thorough repentance. The servant of the Lord went forth, 
 reasoned with his brethren, and for many years exhorted them 
 to reflect and to return to the safe haven of the divine protec- 
 tion; yet they refused to listen, their ears were closed, their eyes 
 averted. But the evil they did not suppose possible did come 
 at length, and famine, and pestilence, and fire, and sword com- 
 pleted the work of desolation, and never was the crown of our 
 head restored since it was hurled to the ground in the days of 
 Zedekiah. This briefly was our fate in former years, when we 
 sinned, reckless of the impending judgment: coming events were 
 sketched out, so to say, before the people's eyes, but they would 
 not believe themselves guilty, nor would they imagine' the pro- 
 phecies would become fulfilment. May it not be, beloved 
 brethren, that evil is now impending over us for our manifold 
 transgression, for our repeated disregard of the duties demanded 
 by our holy law? Even now persecution has again lighted her 
 consuming torch, its lurid glare has already terrified many of our 
 distant communities, nay some have bled under its visitation;
 
 1-20 THE SORROWS OF ISRAEL. 
 
 and we fear not; we think the evil too far removed for us to dread 
 its approach. But may not the reports we hear be the mutter- 
 ing of the distant thunder which ere long may burst over our 
 own heads in all the fierceness of a destroying storm ? may not 
 the distant sorro\v be like the heavy atmosphere which precedes 
 the earthquake that overthrows cities and desolates fertile lands/ 
 may not our present safety be like the slumbering of a volcano 
 whose fires are not quenched though its eruptions have ceased? 
 I fear, I fear, that our security is of a like uncertain tenure; for 
 if even there should be no human persecution possible in lands 
 where the rule of the laws is firmly established, God's power is 
 not shortened, and He has in store exquisite pains of a new and 
 unheard-of nature perhaps, which may unawares strike deep 
 into the heart of the obdurate sinner. 
 
 Our fathers have sinned, and they are no more ; yet we bear 
 the burden of our captivity for the sins they committed. They 
 were unwise inasmuch as they would not take warning when 
 they were admonished. Shall we imitate their follies ? shall we 
 hear the voice that admonishes us without heeding its call ? O 
 no, brethren ! remove this stumbling-block of unbelief on which 
 so many have been wrecked already ; draw nearer to the Rock 
 of salvation, to the Lord your God, whose precepts are in your 
 hands. Seize hold of the hand that is pointing out the road ye 
 should walk, and fear not to suffer for the sake of your Maker, 
 if his service should be surrounded by bodily dangers. He is 
 the Author of your life, the Arbiter of your fortune ; and why 
 then should you refuse to yield the one or relinquish the other if 
 even.these were demanded ? But no such sacrifice is desired of 
 you now; you are merely asked to devote a small part of your 
 days, a little bodily suffering, but a small portion of your wealth, 
 because the law so makes it your duty. Let us, therefore, hope 
 that we will take better counsel, and that we will become more 
 and more allied,to the Creator by deeds which well befit Israel, 
 which are consonant with the service of the Most High. If then 
 notwithstanding this obedience misfortune should be our lot, we 
 will have the consolation that we have the favour of our God to 
 assist us in our sorrow ; and that though men frown, He will 
 smile approvingly when we are summoned into his presence to
 
 THE SORROWS OF ISRAEL. j^l 
 
 render an account of the deeds done in the flesh whilst perform- 
 ing our weary pilgrimage on earth. 
 
 Father above ! answer our prayer, and look with compas- 
 sion on thy people in every land where they dwell; prosper the 
 good which is desired in their behalf; but frustrate all the evil 
 designs of those who endeavour to injure thy heritage ; and re- 
 member that we are thy own peculiar treasure, the children of 
 thy servants, to whom Thou hast promised redemption through 
 thy messenger, the anointed son of David. Amen. 
 
 Tamuz 23d 
 July 24th 
 
 NOTE. The above Discourse was written with reference to the persecu- 
 tion of the Jews which commenced in the winter of '40 both at Rhodes and 
 Damascus under the false pretext, the parent nevertheless of many similar 
 atrocities in the middle ages, of the Jews employing human blood at their fes- 
 tivals. That such an absurdity should ever have been advanced, not to mention 
 its finding credence with so many whose opportunities of knowing the truth 
 must have been ample, is truly a phenomenon in the history of the follies to 
 which the human mind has at times been known to cling svith a pertinacity 
 and avidity which would have been honouring the cause of virtue and be- 
 nevolence. And it appears to me that the serious refutation bestowed upon 
 this calumnious charge by so many distinguished men of our people is 
 almost superfluous; were it not that despite of its absurdity it has worked 
 mischief enough and caused incalculable suffering to thousands of Israelites 
 at different times. Yet as the world has advanced so wide in civilization, 
 and a knowledge of our laws and ceremonies is now so extensive, it is to be 
 hoped that its late revival, and the consequent persecution, may be the last 
 we shall have to witness. In another address I had occasion to dwell more 
 at length upon this melancholy occurrence stripped of the above application to 
 religious improvement, and to exhibit some more of the especial features which 
 presented themselves in connection with it, although it amounts by no means 
 to any thing like a history of the event; which however I could hardly give 
 in the course of two or three lectures, and which I have no doubt will at 
 some future day be furnished by some one of the gifted sons of our people. 
 
 One gratifying circumstance has attended this affliction. Men of all per- 
 suasions and of all countries have felt and so expressed themselves that a 
 great wrong has been committed against an unoffending body of men ; and 
 individuals in all stations have emulated to show their sympathy and to offer 
 relief. Pre-eminent among these stands Mr. Van Buren, the chief magis- 
 trate of this republic, who unsolicited by any one instructed the ambassador 
 of the United States at Constantinople and their consul at Alexandria to use 
 their influence in behalf of the prisoners, and to urge the abolition of torture 
 
 VOL. in. 11
 
 122 TIIE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. 
 
 in judicial proceedings. I know not whether these recommendations have 
 had any effect ; but this is of no importance in the present case, as I only 
 refer to the honourable feeling without reference to the consequences. I will 
 merely state, that when writing the above Discourse these orders had not 
 been given ; in fact no public movement whatever had taken place in this 
 country in the matter; though since then the case has been very different. 
 
 As these sheets are going through the press the gratifying intelligence 
 has been received, that through the agency of Sir Moses Montefiore and 
 M. Cremieux the Pacha of Egypt has ordered the liberation of all the pri- 
 soners confined in Damascus, and given permission to those who had fled to 
 return to their homes. Still the favour of a public trial, which would have 
 demonstrated their innocence, has been refused, and the torture has not yet 
 been abolished, although it was urged by the " representatives of the Jews 
 of all the globe." In Rhodes also the falsity of the charge has been made 
 apparent, and the authors of the wrong have been punished for their daring 
 violation of the rights of humanity. Thus have they, who had at first no 
 one to aid them, been snatched from destruction, and thus has divine Good- 
 ness raised up friends and advocates to plead the cause of the oppressed. 
 LAUS DEO ! 
 
 Heshvan 21st, 5601. 
 
 DISCOURSE XI. 
 
 THE REQUIREMENTS OP THE LAW. 
 
 GLORY unto the Father who is everlasting, praise and holi- 
 ness to the Creator of the universe, even in the midst of his 
 servants the house of Israel whom He has chosen to be his 
 people, the messengers of his word, the heralds of his glory, as 
 long as endure the heavens and the earth which He created in 
 power and wisdom. Amen. 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 Like the works of the Lord, so are his word and promises, 
 enduring for ever. Whatever is, exists, just as you see it, for
 
 THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. 133 
 
 a wise and useful object, although your information, your know- 
 ledge of the ways of God, will not permit you to discover the 
 why ? and wherefore 1 Even so is the ,word revealed from the 
 Supreme Ruler ; its essence is wisdom, its purpose the beati- 
 tude and salvation of the creatures of his hands. Nothing in 
 all nature is fortuitous, that is to say, nothing is, as we find it, 
 put here by chance, at random, without an ulterior view, with- 
 out design; for the Wisdom that created, surveyed after creating 
 every thing which exists, and pronounced it " very good :" the 
 design is apparent at every step; the foresight which con- 
 structed all is proven by the admirable adaptation of every 
 thing for the object of its existence ; every being rejoices in its 
 own sphere of action ; and the pondrous mass of iron which 
 the smith wields to fashion into shape the articles which he ela- 
 borates is no less suited to its end, by its texture, hardness and 
 power of endurance, than is the human body, wonderful as are 
 its form and structure, to the end of its formation. The more 
 knowledge you obtain, the deeper you penetrate by study and 
 reflection into the mysteries and connection of outward nature, 
 the stronger, the more convincing will these facts force them- 
 selves upon your conviction ; and at every step in advance you 
 take in the wide book of scientific discovery you will be stand- 
 ing self-abashed for ever having dared to doubt the wisdom and 
 power of your Creator ; and if in the commencement of your 
 inquiry you started with the dreadful idea of disproving the 
 existence of one Ruler and Maker, the first dawn of light which 
 the harmony of all things sends into your soul will make you 
 exclaim with the Psalmist : " Thou art the God that doest 
 wonders, Thou hast made known thy strength among the na- 
 tions."* The dark clouds of unbelief will vanish ; your eyes will 
 be opened to the glorious truth that beams from every star, that 
 shines forth from the bright light of day, that rises upwards 
 from the green meadows, from the flowing brook, from the 
 arid plain ; and your ears will greedily drink in the sound that 
 speaks from every hill, from every valley, which is repeated 
 from the sage whose words are wisdom, from the yet speech- 
 less babe, from the howling beasts of the desert, and from the 
 
 * Psalm Ixxvii. 15.
 
 JOJ THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. 
 
 leathered minstrels : " There is a God, who made us all !" It 
 is ignorance alone which can doubt the existence of a Creator; 
 it is folly alone which in its presumption can deny the over- 
 ruling of an all-wise, all powerful, all-merciful Providence. 
 Devotion however is the child of knowledge, and the progress 
 -of instruction will fill the spirit with prayerful thoughts, with 
 exulting thanksgiving for the innumerable blessings, for the 
 countless means of enjoyment which are so liberally scattered 
 over the whole surface of nature by its wise and benignant 
 Author. 
 
 But no less than outw r ard nature, is the inspiration of God 
 manifested in the books of Holy Writ, an object of admiration ; 
 and the whole scheme of divine truths presents to thinking 
 minds causes for study and humble submission ; and the more 
 our circle of knowledge is enlarged, the greater will become 
 our attachment to the precepts and doctrines which our Maker 
 has been pleased to bestow on a benighted world. Just as with 
 the Creator himself, nothing but ignorance can have doubts of 
 the existence of the holy Word, or of the wisdom of the institu- 
 tions which are founded on it. Many there have indeed been 
 who have affected to disbelieve, to find fault, to deny the excel- 
 lence of the treasure which they either did not understand or if 
 understanding wickedly rejected. But look at their doings 
 and have these been of the kind to win admiration from their 
 fellow-beings? at their teaching and can you discover in it 
 aught of that universal applicability which the Bible presents at 
 every page ? It were enough to make a philanthropist weep 
 over the folly of man to behold the imbecile presumption with 
 which he endeavours to measure the code of our Lord by the 
 small measure of knowledge and light which has been bestowed 
 on him ; especially if he at the same time surveys all the systems 
 which have ever been based upon human invention from the 
 beginning of the world unto our own days. On all sides jarring 
 inconsistencies will be apparent ; and the attempts to file away 
 the roughness of the scriptural scheme in the modern so called 
 improvements, will exhibit themselves as things to be deprecated 
 by those who humbly wish to serve their Maker and to promote 
 the best interests of their neighbour. 
 
 Let the doubter speak of the terrors of a bloody code, such
 
 THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. 135 
 
 as the Mosaic dispensation ; let him declare that he understands 
 not how a law, claiming to be of divine origin, can demand the 
 immolation of criminals for a violation of its details : still let 
 the believer not be deterred from pursuing his humble inquiries 
 into the beauties of the heavenly gift in our possession ; but let 
 him look upon the denunciations of punishment in their true 
 light, as evidence of the great weight which the Lord attaches 
 to the observance of his precepts, and that He deemed the trans- 
 gression of the most vital of them so dangerous to the general 
 welfare, as to ordain that he who purposely so offends, and 
 scandalizes his neighbour by his open misconduct should re- 
 ceive condign punishment as a sinner against the public peace 
 and happiness. He ought farther to take into consideration, 
 that it by no means follows, that a punishment is inflicted be- 
 cause it is threatened ; but that the law merely declares that a 
 punishment should follow a violation, and the only object of the 
 threat thus made is to deter those, who otherwise might be in- 
 duced from wilfulness or interested views to become guilty in 
 the eyes of the law, from fulfilling their sinful intentions. I will 
 merely mention here incidentally, that the punishment of death, 
 according to the best authorities, was rarely witnessed in Pales- 
 tine, perhaps a centenarian might never have seen one execu- 
 tion from one end of the country to the other ; so mild was the 
 sway of the Mosaic precepts, so careful of life, of the sinner's 
 even, was the code which of old governed the Israelitish nation. 
 To continue : who would blame a father, if he were to an- 
 nounce to his son that he should have no share in his patri- 
 mony were he to bring disgrace upon his family by a criminal 
 course of life 1 Yet precisely similar is the case with the law ; 
 it is the gift of our universal Parent, the Bestower of life and 
 happiness ; it is intended as the best safeguard of our temporal 
 and permanent welfare ; it is our inheritance, and mankind 
 have been appointed its guardians. Now one of the commu- 
 nity, disregarding his obligation to his God and to his fellow- 
 beings, wilfully transgresses, and bids open defiance to the 
 kindly warning which would gladly teach him better things : 
 he becomes in consequence an outcast from the community of 
 the law, and a fester upon the body politic ; he is, so to say, 
 disinherited from his father's household, and his life becomes a 
 
 11*
 
 126 THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. 
 
 forfeit to deter others from following the evil which has been 
 daringly perpetrated among them ! Not, therefore, to revenge, 
 but to infuse wholesome terror into the general mass, for the 
 promotion of the greatest good of the greatest number, was the 
 sword handed over to those who are, under the divine sanction 
 of revelation, to administer the rule of state and the dispensa- 
 tion of justice for the benefit of every individual, be he high or 
 low, exalted or humble. For were it not the terror of the laws, 
 the state of society would be deplorable in the extreme ; each 
 man would endeavour to right himself by his own strength of 
 arm ; he would in a measure be compelled to redress his own 
 wrongs ; and it requires but a small share of comprehension to 
 be convinced that such proceedings would produce anarchy 
 among the powerful, and suffering and sorrow among the weak 
 and unprotected. If now the Mosaic law is inexorable in its 
 punishment of murder, what is effected thereby ? nothing less 
 than the restraining of the man of violence or him of hasty 
 and ungovernable anger from violating the life of his fellows ; 
 for if his passion would arm his hand against his brother, he 
 will be perhaps induced to reflect that if he should be con- 
 victed of shedding a brother's blood, he would have no mercy 
 to expect from the community who are appointed to decide 
 upon the degree of his criminality. 
 
 If the profanation of the Sabbath, committed publicly and in 
 defiance of brotherly admonition, and where there is no case 
 of necessity proved, consigns the offender to the visitation of 
 an ignominious death: is there so much sympathy to be ex- 
 pressed for him who has daringly rebelled against the com- 
 mandments ? No ! for the Sabbath was to be the weekly 
 acknowledgment of God's rule on earth and of the debt of gra- 
 titude owing from the people to their Deliverer ; it was to be 
 a time of reunion of all that has life in the presence of the 
 Lord ; and everywhere should be rest, calmness, adoration. 
 Now steps forward one from the entire mass, forgetful of God's 
 power, disregarding his obligation as a son of Israel ; he will 
 not rest when his brothers rest ; his ox is not to stand quietly 
 in the stall ; his ass is to bend his back to the burden ; his ser- 
 vants are not to refresh themselves ; his son is not to go and 
 hear the word of salvation propounded ; his daughter is not to
 
 THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. 137 
 
 mingle with those who go joyously forward lo the house of 
 God ; his wife is not to appear among the matrons of her people 
 when all others abstain from toil ; what is he but a rebel against 
 the divine Majesty which dwells in Israel, a disturber of the 
 public peace, a destroyer of the social compact, who, if his 
 example were followed, would lead many to sin, by producing 
 a neglect of an institution which is wholesome at the same time 
 to the body, and binding the soul more closely to the Ruler 
 of the universe ? Therefore, says the law (Exodus xxxi. 14) : 
 " Therefore you shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy unto you ; 
 every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death ; for who- 
 soever doth any work thereon, that soul shall be cut off from 
 among his people." Not, as we said before, in vengeance, not 
 because the law thirsts for the transgressor's blood, but to re- 
 move the evil example of the wicked sinner who, knowing the 
 responsibility he incurs, will still bid defiance to his God, who 
 is the invisible King of his people, and neglect the institution 
 which his brothers in faith justly esteem as too sacred to be 
 disregarded with impunity. 
 
 Let us take another example. The foundation of our law is 
 the acknowledgment of the Supreme Being, who manifested 
 himself to our forefathers in Egypt, as we read (Exodus xx. 2.) : 
 " I am the Lord thy God who have brought thee out of the 
 land of Egypt from the house of slavery." Here we are told 
 who it is that demands our obedience ; not a being of doubtful 
 power, of questionable goodness, but One of infinite greatness, 
 whose hand is not restrained, whose working is not limited by 
 obstacles, by time, by localities, whose power pervades every 
 space, whose care watches over every creature, whose justice 
 leaves not the humble to remain a prey to the oppressor. This 
 is the essence of our King ! this the doing of our God ! who is 
 great, good, holy, one, and eternal. Not, therefore, because 
 He is jealous of a rival who does not exist, not, therefore, be- 
 cause He is unwilling to share his glory with a second who can 
 have no being, was idolatry or false worship prohibited ; but 
 simply because such fatal error must be destructive to the wel- 
 fare of the people, as it would gradually lead them away from 
 the truth, and cause the prevalence of systems of darkness and 
 iniquity, where non-entities are adored in place of the overliving
 
 128 THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. 
 
 God, and superstition and misrule take the place of the wise 
 laws emanating directly from the Supreme Wisdom. What 
 then ought to be the fate of the presumptuous sinner who pub- 
 licly throws off the yoke which it is graceful for man to bear, 
 who denies his accountability to his heavenly Father, who 
 openly declares that he has no portion in Israel's God ? Is the 
 earth to groan under the weight of such a monster among the 
 community of the righteous ? is he to be permitted to utter 
 aloud his blasphemy, and perchance to erect an image of Mo- 
 loch within his field, and sacrifice to it his innocent son, his 
 sinless daughter ? The punishment may seem bloody, but it is 
 the only one that is meet for the crime ; and whereas the sinner 
 has become a scandal and a hinderance to his brothers : the 
 law demands his removal from among the living, that, since 
 his life has exhibited a bad example, his death may atone for 
 the guilt and be the means of deterring others from following 
 the path of sin which leads to destruction. But observe, it was 
 not speculative idolatry which was punishable by the sword of 
 justice ; for whilst man sinned only to his Maker the vengeance 
 was in the hands of the Lord alone ; not to man was to be 
 given the judging over another's thoughts and opinions ; but it 
 was only when the daring had proceeded to the length of an 
 outward adoration, or of some act which proved to the satis- 
 faction of men that the transgressor had thrown off the alle- 
 giance which the whole community owed to their heavenly 
 King, that the civil authorities could step forward to arrest, try, 
 condemn and punish an act which had placed the criminal 
 beyond the pale of the laws, and rendered him unworthy of 
 life. It were easy to go farther into this inquiry, and to exhibit 
 at greater length the correctness of the punishments in the Mo- 
 saic rule of other wrongs besides those enumerated ; but for 
 once we have shown enough that the objections of the doubter 
 are by no means formidable before the light of reason ; and at 
 some future day it is probable that the inquiry may be pursued 
 in its more minute ramifications. Enough for our purpose that 
 the punishments were commensurate with the crimes, and that 
 their aim was the purification of the body politic when it was 
 evident that the sinner himself had been placed beyond the 
 reach of amendment. In addition to this we find a gradation
 
 THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. 129 
 
 of punishment, and nowhere do \ve discover a minor wrong 
 visited by the greater retaliation. Happy, therefore, had it 
 been, if all mankind had submitted themselves to the operation 
 of this code ; happy indeed had our nation been, had we always 
 consulted its enactments, and been sincere in obeying them ! 
 Then would we have prospered beyond measure, and we should 
 have been an enviable people, with God for our only King, and 
 universal brotherly love the ruling passion of our lives. And 
 it is this alone which is the object of the revelation we have 
 received ; not so much the exaltation of the Creator who needs 
 not our service, as the welfare of the creature who needs both 
 the assistance of his fellow-mortal in his search for happiness 
 and the grace of his God to prosper his undertaking. 
 
 These views will enable us to understand one of the most 
 sublime passages in Holy Writ, sublime even there where every 
 word almost is fraught with doctrines of life and salvation ; 
 which was delivered at the time when the end of our teacher's 
 days was fast approaching, when his priestly brother and pro- 
 phetic sister had already preceded him unto the land of ever- 
 lasting life ; when he was almost on the point of surrendering 
 his guiding-staff to his trusty successor ; when a ministration 
 of forty years, during which he had endeavoured to make known 
 to the people the ways and laws of God, was drawing to a 
 speedy termination. He had been the means of the Lord in 
 effecting wonderful events in behalf of Israel, and by rewards 
 and punishments, both actual and denounced, he had taught his 
 brothers, that the revelation from Sinai could not be trans- 
 gressed without bringing punishment upon the offender. And 
 now at the close almost of his labours, and after he had called 
 t to the mind of the people those terrible effects of disobedience 
 of which all his hearers had been witnesses, he spoke as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 'n no xw rrnjn 
 
 inx i-on^Si vs-n ha roSS yrbx 'n nx ru 
 horn *\ah Sm ^n^N* 'n 
 
 vnpn n*o 'n rnso HN
 
 130 THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. 
 
 " And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to 
 fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love Him, and to 
 serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul ; to keep 
 the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes which I command thee this 
 day, that it may be well with thee 1" Deut xi. 12, 13. 
 
 As we have said, for forty years had Moses been actively 
 employed in teaching the people of Israel, and he was now en- 
 gaged in summing up, to use a common phrase, all his instruction 
 in a few comprehensive sentences; and our text is the chief 
 part in which he included all that had been said already, and 
 which he had yet to tell. He therefore commences : " And now. 
 Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee?" is it some- 
 thing too difficult for human attainment? is it a task for which 
 not sufficient strength has been given ? By no means ; the labour 
 is easy of fulfilment, if man regards correctly his relation to the 
 Creator. In the first place, the thing required is, " to fear the Lord 
 thy God ;" and who will not fear Him in whose hand is all the 
 power, and who can do whatever seems to Him best, without 
 one to gainsay his will, or to oppose his intentions ? He is 
 moreover, our God, the Being who has promised us his protec- 
 tion in case we obey Him, and who is able to make us feel the 
 weight of our iniquity if we sin ; but which latter alternative we 
 can avoid if we " walk in his ways." How is this to be done ? 
 Aye, to imitate Him in his ways of mercy ; to be kind as He is 
 kind ; to let our bounty be extended according to our means, 
 just as He provides for all his creatures ; to clothe our brother 
 when we see him naked ; to give him food when we see him 
 hungry ; to give him drink when he is thirsty ; to shelter him 
 when he is houseless ; to protect him, when he needs our pro- 
 tection ; to comfort him when his spirit is troubled ; to warn 
 him when he is going astray from the ways of truth ; to rejoice 
 in his prosperity, and to sympathize with his afflictions. Far- 
 ther it is said, " and to love Him ;" yes we are to love our 
 Benefactor whose goodness is always extended to us, who ever 
 watches over our welfare, who provides for our wants, whose 
 beneficence supplies us with all we need from our entrance into 
 life until we are borne off to the grave, whose providence assists 
 us in joy and in sorrow, and who relinquishes us riot even then 
 when the spirit has been severed from the body, but bestows on
 
 THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. J3j 
 
 us a life, which is holier, sweeter, happier than the existence in 
 this mortal state, where pain and pleasure constantly chase each 
 other over the varied surface of our being. Yes, we are to love 
 Him, who is holy, pure, wise, good and bountiful beyond what 
 our most excited imagination can reach ; we the humble worms 
 are to unite ourselves to the most Exalted by the bonds of love 
 and attachment ! Here let us pause a moment ; were a man to 
 utter such a thought we might justly fear that he presumptuously 
 approached too .near to the Deity; but here Holy "Writ itself 
 expressly teaches us that we can love our God, that we can 
 make ourselves worthy of his love ; that, in short, obedience will 
 unite the creature to the Creator, and that virtuous resolve and 
 virtuous actions will render us children of salvation, humble 
 though our actions be. And thus continues the text, " and to 
 serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul;" 
 all that is necessary to effect this is to surrender our judgment 
 to the instruction we have received, not to hesitate at every 
 point, because we see not the reasons which governed infinite 
 Wisdom in his enactments; but they who fear the Lord, who 
 wish to walk in his ways, and who strive to love Him, should 
 follow the road He has marked out for them with a singleness 
 of heart which knows no rebellion, and with a devotedness of 
 soul which gladly yields itself to divine guidance,. to the truth 
 as manifested in the records of revelation. If thus we think it 
 will be easy for us to obey the next condition, which is, " to 
 keep the commands of the Lord and his statutes ;" for to the 
 humble believer there is nothing unreasonable, nothing super- 
 fluous in the law ; he will apply the best light given him to elu- 
 cidate for himself and others the reasons, and scope, and uses of 
 the precepts, and where his reason fails to carry him farther, he 
 will prostrate himself before his God, and obey submissively, 
 knowing that nought but truth and wholesome instruction can 
 proceed from the Source of all wisdom and knowledge ; he will 
 adore the Holiness which pervades all, and will never rise in 
 judgment against Him by whose sufferance he lives, and thinks. 
 But if we ask : " What is the aim of all this fear, love, and 
 obedience ?" the Scriptures answer, " that it may be well with 
 thee ;" the Creator needs not our service to complete his happi- 
 ness, nothing that we can accomplish will augment or diminish
 
 132 THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. 
 
 his holiness, purity, wisdom, or power; but the acts we do will 
 revert to ourselves, that we may become, though at an infinite 
 degree less than God, holy, pure, and wise, and become armed 
 with faith and a confiding trust in Providence, which attainments 
 will open for us the portals of that happiness which our appoint- 
 ment on earth is capable of enjoying, and make us shine like 
 the stars unto everlasting when our task is ended. 
 
 " That it may be well with thee;" yes the punishments of the 
 law also are for the promotion of happinesss no less than the 
 rewards and blessings. If God is glorified by the grace which 
 attends the life of the righteous, by the peace which illumines 
 the souls of his servants: He is likewise honoured by the equal 
 measure of justice which reaches the transgressor, by the dark- 
 ness and cloud which rest upon the spirit of the sinner. So also 
 says David in the 36th Psalrn, where he styles himself the ser- 
 vant of the Lord (v. 10) : " For with Thee is the fountain of 
 life, in thy light shall we see light." It is only when we love, 
 fear, and imitate God, that the fountain of life can be opened to 
 us, and only when we diligently obey the commandments, that 
 we can see the heavenly light which is the light unto everlast- 
 ing salvation. But on the other hand, as Solomon says in Pro- 
 verbs xi. 10: "When it goeth well with the righteous the city 
 rejoiceth ; and when the wicked perish there is shouting." This 
 means that the joy which the multitude feel when the true friends 
 of mankind flourish, can be exceeded only by the exulting con- 
 viction of an overruling Providence, when the daring sinners at 
 last meet with the judgment they have so long braved, as though 
 the power of Heaven were too limited, or his watchfulness too 
 slothful to reach them> and to put a period to their misdeeds. 
 And when these do fall, when the prosperity on which they so 
 much relied is taken from them, where is their light? The only 
 hope they might have had, the beam of celestial comfort which 
 they might have enjoyed, they have blindly rejected, and they 
 therefore find themselves in the situation of a disobedient son 
 who has been expelled from the mansion of his father for re- 
 peated acts of rebellion. But yet even the sinner is a son of 
 Israel, he is not wholly rejected, altho' he has transgressed ; to 
 him too the Scriptures speak in words of love : " And now, 
 Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear
 
 THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. 133 
 
 the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways and to love Him." 
 No being, that ever was created, is excluded from the call to 
 conversion, from the hope of salvation. The prize to be con- 
 tended for is open to all; the only way unto happiness is obedi- 
 ence; continued obedience if we are on the road of righteous- 
 ness, and renewed obedience, if we have deviated unto the 
 mazes of sin. The light may be obscured, a vail may hide the 
 face of the sanctuary; but the Holy Spirit appeals to us to fear 
 and to love God, and to trust in the righteousness of his com- 
 mandments, and to acquiesce in the justice of chastisements, be 
 they an immediate infliction from Heaven, or through the deci- 
 sion of an earthly tribunal, even if this be an ignominious death 
 for the wrongs with which we have loaded our conscience: 
 and if we do so, then will the light shine upon us also though 
 the moment be the moment of our death ; and the vail will be 
 rent which has excluded from our eyes the face of the holiness 
 of God, into whose presence an entire surrendering of spirit will 
 lead us, to everlasting joy, to unending happiness. 
 
 This is the scheme of the Mosaic Dispensation, this is the 
 doctrine which Heaven himself has taught us of his ways and 
 his goodness ; and by following its dictates in the spirit of hu- 
 mility and devotion we all may have the satisfaction to know, 
 that under the guidance of divine grace we may live to work 
 out our own salvation, each one for himself, but not through 
 the means of a mediator, an idea which our religion rejects. 
 No, brethren ! the law was given unto us, the people of Israel, 
 to be ours, to be our birthright, all the day's of our existence ; it 
 is the road to happiness, by following which we are pursuing 
 life, a life of tranquillity of conscience when mortal, a life of 
 unclouded joy when we have entered the mansion of our Father, 
 purified by the pangs of death. Nowhere is it said that any 
 other method exists, nowhere is any other condition required ; 
 obedience to God's will is the only demand ; but this require- 
 ment must be implicitly followed ; no deviating to the right or 
 the left, no swerving into by-paths either from fear of loss, or 
 a desire to gain the pleasures of a transient life, or to aggran- 
 dize ourselves at the expense of the law, must we permit our- 
 selves, if we wish to become true servants of the Lord of the 
 universe. Guard therefore your innocence, keep a strict watch 
 
 VOL. in. 12
 
 134 THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. 
 
 over all your doings, and weigh well every deed, whether or 
 not it be in accordance with the scale of the way of godliness 
 pointed out by our text. And thbu youth ! who standest at the 
 entrance of life, be not lured away by idle pleasure ; turn a 
 deaf ear to the syren sounds that would draw thee in the whirl- 
 pool of dissipation ; a thousand lights will dazzle thy eye, a 
 thousand charms will obscure thy vision ; but only be firm, turn 
 thy gaze unto the holy Word, drink deep of the waters that thence 
 gush to quicken thy flagging spirit ; and though the struggle will 
 be severe, yet it will be shorter than thou weanest, and when 
 the tumult of passion is hushed, thou wilt bless the hour that 
 thou vovvedst to be a firm adherent to the Lord thy God. 
 Maiden ! whom a flattering world calls beautiful and gay, listen 
 not to those who would undermine in thee the principles instilled 
 by thy parents ; heed not those who would rob thee of the price- 
 less jewel, the love of thy holy faith. What are the earthly 
 baubles which deck thy dazzling brow ? what are the costly 
 garments which envelope thy lovely form 1 but perishing trinkets, 
 fading colours, which ere an hour has elapsed may for ever be 
 snatched from thy longing sight. But the ornament which a 
 holy life casts round the lovely virgin, the grace which charity 
 and benevolence spread over the lowly maiden, lowly because 
 walking in humility before God how unending, how unfading, 
 how imperishable are they ! In the highest old age their flowers 
 are yet blooming, their green ever fresh even at the border of 
 the grave. Seize, therefore, O daughter of Israel ! the book of 
 life in thy earliest youth, and let its pages guide thee, shield 
 thee, comfort thee, in all thy ways, whether joy spreads her 
 soothing pinions over thee, or sorrow steals with deadening 
 weight over thy troubled soul; and knowthat female loveliness 
 is heightened, the woman's sweetness increased a thousand-fold 
 by the summit of perfection pointed out to us, the love and fear 
 of God. And you, who are fathers and mothers in the house 
 of Jacob ! would you secure your own and your children's true 
 happiness? then apply yourselves to search for truth, where 
 truth alone is found. Human wisdom, human experience may 
 deceive and mislead you ; but guided by God's own holy law 
 you cannot go astray ; its precepts lead onward to perfection, 
 its doctrines are the fruit of the tree of life, which are ever in
 
 THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. 135 
 
 your reach, though the entrance of paradise is barred by the 
 revolving sword of the guarding Cherubim ; yes, the entrance 
 to happiness is closed to the sinner, to him who neglects to 
 obey the precepts of our Father ; but to those who seize hold 
 of them they are the tree of life, and the shining blade of the 
 sword, which is destruction to others, becomes to them a true, 
 unerring light to salvation ! Be it therefore your endeavour to 
 go before your children with a holy example of righteous deeds ; 
 let no occasion pass without reminding them of the duty they 
 owe to God ; let no day elapse that you do not assist them by 
 your precept and example to fly for support to the words of the 
 Bible ; and let no moment pass over you when they might see 
 that you, their earthly parents, honour not your Father who is 
 in heaven. On the contrary, let it be your first aim to give 
 your children a thorough religious education above and before 
 all sciences; do every thing to make them acquainted with 
 their duties as Israelites ; warn them early of the dangers to 
 their moral peace which they will have to encounter in their 
 earthly pilgrimage ; show them by your example that you are 
 earnest in what you teach, in what you demand of them ; in 
 short, teach them to be true sons of Israel, and be yourselves 
 their spiritual light by your own conduct in every stage of life. 
 If this be your course, how lovely will your offspring grow up 
 around you, obedient, docile, pious, beloved of men, favoured 
 by God ; and when your strength fails, when old age creeps 
 over your weakened limbs, when the gray hairs encircle your 
 venerable heads, they will tend upon and reverence you, their 
 pious progenitors, to be in their turn blessed as becomes those 
 who acted well their part. It is thus in your power, O sons 
 and daughters of Israel ! to become children of salvation ; be it 
 yours to rush forward to this desirable goal, to be there re- 
 ceived, purified through fear and love of God and obedience to 
 his will, in the embrace of your everlasting Father as children 
 of faith and salvation ! 
 
 Father of all ! look down we beseech Thee, from thy high 
 abode upon us thy children, whom Thou didst call Israel and 
 Jeshurun, and let the light of thy countenance shine unto us, as 
 Thou didst unto our forefathers. O forget us not in our capti- 
 vity, forsake us not in our dispersion ; but let thy spirit and thy
 
 130 THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. 
 
 light guide us rightly, so that we may discern what is thy will, 
 and follow thy precepts all the days of our life. Bless all thy 
 children wherever they are ; and them who languish under the 
 rod of oppression, do Thou speedily save by thy mighty power, 
 open for them the doors of their gloomy prison, and break the 
 arm of him who has lifted up the sword against those who have 
 done no evil. Be it also thy will . to bless this congregation, to 
 unite them in love and friendship unto each other and all Israel 
 their brethren, to banish from them hatred, malevolence and 
 envy ; and to shed upon thy servant* whom they have chosen 
 to appeal unto Thee in their behalf, eloquence of speech and a 
 true knowledge of thy ways, so that he may teach thy flock, 
 and his words sink deep into their hearts ; in order that it may 
 be well with them and with their children after them. And 
 upon all our brethren who dwell in this city, in this land and in 
 all the world, shower thy manifold goodness, and cause thy 
 words to be sweet unto them, and unto him also whom thy 
 grace has called to speak of thy greatness; and grant that 
 through us thy holy name may be glorified now, and when 
 thy anointed David shall rule in thy name, and when the dead 
 shall be awakened to everlasting life. Amen. 
 
 ElulGth ic-fiM 
 Sept. 4th { * 
 
 * NOTE. This Discourse was delivered on Sabbath Elul 7th at the Syna- 
 gogue Benai Yeshurun at New York, over which the Rev. Samuel M. 
 Isaacs was last year elected minister. The next following Discourse was 
 delivered in the Synagogue Sheerith Israel in the same city on the follow- 
 ing Sabbath.
 
 137 
 
 DISCOURSE XII. 
 
 THE DUTY OF CONTENTMENT. 
 
 UNTO Thee, O God ! who art good to all, and whose mer- 
 cies are over all thy works, do we pray, to be with us in all 
 our doings, to be our support at each and every period of our 
 life, in order that we may not stumble, nor be made ashamed 
 unto everlasting. Be with us in our waking hours, guard us 
 when we sleep, and support us with the mighty hand of thy 
 salvation at our awakening in yonder life of blissfulness which 
 Thou hast treasured up for those who fear Thee and love thy 
 commandment. Amen. 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 Glorify the Lord your God, ye of the seed of Israel ! for his 
 goodness which has been extended to you amidst all the trials 
 to which you have been subjected. From the infancy of your 
 nation up to the present moment, it has been your blessed lot 
 to receive protection in every afflicting event which befel you, 
 and never can it be said that divine assistance was withheld 
 to shield the remnant of the descendants of the Patriarchs. And 
 you have been taught, that in national no less than individual 
 concerns it is no matter what man may do, no matter what the 
 intentions of the wicked may be ; for it is at the last the provi- 
 dence of God which watches, controls, and directs for a wise 
 and benevolent purpose all the affairs of mankind, and out of 
 every evil He may and does cause good to spring up, even if 
 the eyes of those who witness the event do not live to see the 
 ultimate benefit which is destined thence to arise. Who, there- 
 fore, can doubt of the mercy of his God, because he is sorrow- 
 ing ? who will dare to impugn the justice of the Creator, 
 because he beholds those, whom he deems evil and wicked, 
 flourishing for a while like the grass of the field ? Says the 
 doubter : " I am told God is just, merciful, and beneficent; and 
 
 12*
 
 138 THK DUTY OF CONTENTMENT. 
 
 I who am pious, upright, loving God and man, am suffering the 
 pangs of sickness, the pressure of poverty, the loss of friends 
 dear to my heart ; there is no justice in this." But is not this 
 in itself sinning, rebelling against the majesty of God ? who art 
 thou, worm of the earth, that darest to criticise thy Maker's 
 goodness, to doubt of his justice, to accuse his mercy ? Thou 
 sayest that thou art suffering the pangs of sickness, and that 
 thy exertions in the service of God, thy devotion to the good of 
 mankind should insure thee a continuous state of health and 
 capacity to labour. In other words, thou deemest thyself en- 
 titled by a prescriptive right to a high reward because of thy 
 virtue ; thou renderest thyself acceptable to God and deserving 
 of his blessing ; and thou imaginest that thou art injured if any 
 interruption be given to thy labour. But say, son of the earth, 
 is all thy striving solely for the glory of God ? does not some 
 part of self-aggrandizement mingle itself in thy labours of love ? 
 Hast thou never boasted inwardly of thy great powers of mind, 
 of thy great capacity for magnificent schemes ? has humility 
 always dwelt in thy soul, when thou didst step forward to fulfil 
 the duties demanded of thee ? has not contempt for thy fellow- 
 beings often obtruded itself at the very time thou wast engaged 
 in serving them 1 In other words, was not thy virtue often sin- 
 ful in part, though the outward appearance betokened naught 
 but righteousness ? Yet even the most righteous man that ever 
 lived has sinned in this way, and therefore no one can say that 
 he has not incurred the just censure of his Creator ; and the 
 afflictions of the body will thus tell thee, O mortal man ! that 
 thou art far from perfection, just as thy mortal frame is not 
 exempt from disease and pain ; and that, if thou wishest to be 
 accepted from on high, thou must needs purify thy heart, and 
 remove thence all vain desires and presumptuous boasting, and 
 learn that no act will render thee worthy of divine favour, 
 unless it proceed entirely from a pure devotional spirit, from an 
 entire surrendering of thy will to the guidance of God. And 
 if the want of strength interrupt thee in thy undertaking, reflect, 
 that in this visitation too the finger of Goodness is seen, to 
 recall thee to thyself, and to check the vain-gloriousness of 
 human pride, which supposes itself necessary almost to carry 
 out the benevolent purposes of the Creator, who surely is able
 
 THE DUTY OF CONTENTMENT. 139 
 
 to raise up other agents besides thee to effect his will ; for His 
 are all the earth and its fulness, and every being that exists has 
 received from Him a task which it becomes him to execute, 
 and it was never intended that a few greatly gifted should 
 monopolize all the deeds of mercy to which all mankind should 
 contribute. If therefore thou findest that thy strength fails thee, 
 search deeply into thy own conduct ; accuse thyself of wrong 
 where thou discoverest that thou hast erred, and amend thy 
 ways that thou mayest deserve mercy ; who knows ? but the 
 Lord may remove the evil from thee, and send healing unto 
 thy diseased limbs, and restore thy strength as aforetimes. Nay, 
 if even thou canst not discover any thing sinful in thy doings 
 (which in itself is almost impossible to suppose) : then too sub- 
 mit to the chastisement in meekness, and strive to glorify thy 
 Maker from the midst of pain and anguish, and prove that it is 
 not the mere love of reward which stimulated thy exertions, 
 that not merely the desire to appear great before man nerved 
 thy arm, and roused thy soul ; but that it was the love and fear 
 of God which prompted thee to serve Him and to imitate Him 
 in his deeds of mercy ; and know that it is by sorrows alone 
 that the truly righteous can be probed, and be exalted above 
 those whose service is not sincere, whose worship is not seated 
 deep in the soul ; and that he who is convinced of the righteous- 
 ness of God will say with David :* " Though I walk in the 
 midst of trouble Thou wilt revive me ; Thou wilt stretch forth 
 thy hand against the wrath of my enemies, and thy right hand 
 will save me." 
 
 Or thou sayest : " I suffer the pressure of poverty !" Yes, 
 thou seest worldly prosperity scattered with a liberal hand 
 among thy neighbours ; thou art envious of their possessions, 
 thou imaginest thyself entitled, because of thy piety, to an equal 
 if not to a greater share of success, and thou imaginest thyself 
 forgotten by God, because He assigns to thee a daily task to 
 obtain thy bread by the labour of thy hands. Let us plead 
 with thee. Thou art envious because others are rich ! Is this 
 becoming one who calls himself a servant of God ? wilt thou 
 dictate to Him whom he shall bless, to whom He shall be gra- 
 
 * Psalm cxxxviii. 7.
 
 140 THE DUTY OF CONTENTMENT. 
 
 cious ? Thou sayest, " They are wicked, whereas I am right- 
 eous." But knovvest thou correctly how far their wickedness 
 extends ? hast thou the gift to search into the recesses of con- 
 science, and lay open to the light of day what passes in the 
 mine of thought, the human soul ? Knowest thou the private 
 deeds of charity which the apparently wicked exercise? or 
 admit that they do no deed of mercy, (which again is almost 
 impossible, for no man is altogether lost to virtue) : still canst 
 thou tell that the hoard of wealth which thou believest unwor- 
 thily bestowed may not be destined to fall into hands which will 
 scatter bounties, and effect charities which thou dreamest not 
 of? Or perhaps mightest thou not become forgetful of thy 
 duties, were wealth to smile upon thee, were thy coffers to be 
 filled with gold 1 for alas ! the example is not rare, where those 
 who once were apparently pious, whilst the world was un- 
 friendly to them, became suddenly animated by a new spirit 
 when they had obtained riches and when prosperity flowed in 
 upon them. Just as was the case and is to this day with Israel 
 as a nation. What a glorious spectacle did we exhibit during 
 ages of oppression ! for when all mankind colleagued together, 
 as it were, to compel us to forswear our hope of salvation 
 through the blessed Only One who lives for eternity, when 
 nearly in every place upon the whole face of the earth we were 
 trodden upon, trampled under foot, because we would not bow 
 down to the idols or acknowledge the false worship of the gen- 
 tiles ; when the root of the tree of our faith was abundantly 
 bathed in blood and its branches abundantly watered with our 
 tears : how nobly did we endure all, in love, humility and sub- 
 mission, because we trusted in the Lord our Saviour, and con- 
 fided in his power. The louder the storm grew, the more 
 upraised became our prayer; the darker gathered the clouds, 
 the more gloomy sunk the darkness the brighter shone the 
 light of our faith, the holier beamed the faithfulness with which 
 we clung to our God ! But the times changed. The gentile 
 world had learned to admire Israel's constancy, to understand 
 better the beauty of the system which is the rule of our life. 
 The weight of oppression was lifted in many a land, in others 
 we were declared equal to the other inhabitants ; and we re- 
 garded the time as a season of the jubilee, we believed that now
 
 THE DUTY OF CONTENTMENT. 141 
 
 the bondmen should go free, and no more be heard the task- 
 master's voice. And how did we repay the act of grace which 
 our God had vouchsafed to us ? I say, " our God," because 
 is it not He who inspires with mercy the heart of him who feels 
 no pity, and softens the wrath of the tyrant, as Solomon says : 
 " The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord as the rivers of 
 water, He turneth it whithersoever He will?" (Prov. xxi. 1.) 
 Say. how did we act when we found that enlargement had 
 been extended to us ? Alas ! that truth should compel us to 
 answer, ungratefully, unworthily, unwisely ! Ungratefully, be- 
 cause instead of obeying more ardently the will of God, we 
 went astray upon the paths of perdition ; we neglected the com- 
 mandments, we forsook the road of life ; and we hewed out 
 unto ourselves new cisterns, and filled them not with waters 
 drawn from the fountain whence flows the stream that refreshes 
 unto salvation, but with the deceitful waters of bitterness which, 
 though sweet to the taste of the thoughtless, are yet in their end 
 death and destruction. . And how many are there who have 
 rebelled against the Lord ! do not our eyes behold the melan- 
 choly fact that religion lies neglected, that its teachers are un- 
 honoured, and worldly wisdom more prized than its doctrines, 
 worldly greatness more sought than the riches of the soul to be 
 obtained by the observance of the duties it enjoins ? Unwor- 
 thily, I said ; for what can be more unworthy than disobedience 
 and ingratitude 1 Were a man to present me with a thing I 
 ardently desire, what would he, what would you all expect 
 from me 1 but that I should not return evil for good, and that, 
 on the contrary, I should demonstrate my gratefulness by doing 
 every thing to please him. But we, unworthy sons of Israel, 
 did not so regard our obligation to God ! our shameful in- 
 gratitude caused us to ascribe our safety to the change of the 
 times, to the prevalence of a more enlightened spirit; and con- 
 sequently we proved that we had not been deserving of the 
 mercy we had received. For in place of duty there is diso- 
 bedience ; in place of religion there is apostacy ; in place of 
 union there is dissension ; in place of the fear of God there is 
 dread of worldly loss ; in place of the love of our Maker there 
 is such a love of public preferment and the amassing of wealth 
 as well nigh threatens to drown every feeling of religion which
 
 142 THE DUTY OF CONTENTMENT. 
 
 has yet escaped in the confusion and bustle of modern times. 
 But does it not strike you that this procedure is not consonant 
 with reason, that we are acting unwisely 1 Let us again ask, 
 Who gave us enlargement 1 and is He who gave it not able 
 to dispense unto us new afflictions 1 In former ages we have 
 seen how the wicked, who deemed themselves secure against 
 the visitation denounced by the prophets, were overwhelmed 
 when the time of wrath came, and how the destruction of the 
 temple, the slaughter of millions, the dismemberment of Israel's 
 kingdom but too clearly evidenced that the Lord had felt dis- 
 gust toward the sinning race, and had determined to cast them 
 , oft' because of their transgression. And now we deem that his 
 arrows are all expended ? that age has weakened his power ? 
 that no farther will He watch our conduct? He, who be- 
 stoweth power on all that has being ; in whose hands are the 
 destinies of all his creatures ; whom no labour fatigues, whom 
 no length of years weaken ! And lo ! in the distance the thun- 
 der mutters ! rumours of afflictions have reached our ears from 
 afar ! Israel is again threatened with danger ; again the per- 
 secutor has dared to accuse us of crimes we thought not of; 
 all, all, because we have sinned. It is possible that they who 
 are the objects of the persecution may not be as guilty them- 
 selves as we are, who are here assembled ; but nevertheless 
 we may freely say, as was said in the days of Joshua, that 
 " Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed the cove- 
 nant which God commanded them, that they have taken of 
 the accursed thing, have also stolen, and dissembled also, and 
 therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their 
 enemies." We may accordingly aver that for the sins of the 
 general mass, and doubtlessly to awaken our attention, has 
 the enemy been permitted to prevail for a while against our 
 brothers in a far-off land, in order to admonish us to beware 
 of the wrath that is impending, and to flee from the danger 
 which may reach us too, secure though we may believe our- 
 selves, because protected by the arm of laws which consider 
 all men equal. Yet are there no other terrors than civil per- 
 secutions ? is there not disease with its gnawing pain, is there 
 not poverty which falls like a blight upon the labours of our 
 hands ? is there not the spirit of melancholy which deadens the
 
 THE DUTY OF CONTENTMENT. 143 
 
 faculties of the brightest mind ? But amidst all the evil we have 
 cause to rejoice in this, that one of the effects we have men- 
 tioned, that of awakening our attention, has already been hap- 
 pily accomplished. From one end of the civilized world to the 
 other a simultaneous burst of sympathy has arisen from all the 
 sons of Jacob in behalf of their persecuted brethren ; all have 
 been taught to feel that, every blow struck at the victims of 
 tyranny was a blow struck against the happiness of the entire 
 Jewish people, that every cry uttered by those under torture 
 was a cry which called a shudder over every one known by 
 the name of Israel ! We have been made conscious that we are 
 brothers, though separated by distance, by climates, and dif- 
 ference of government ; that we are one people, although scat- 
 tered over every land ! O ! that the other object we have 
 alluded to might also be accomplished ; that we all might, being 
 awakened by the sufferings of our brothers to reflect on our 
 conduct, take it to heart and firmly resolve to return unto the 
 fold of the Lord, to again submit ourselves to his guidance, and 
 that " His rod and his staff might comfort us ;" that corrected 
 by his paternal chastisement we might forsake the evil of our 
 ways, and receive consolation in the outpouring of good over 
 all Israel, and again lean on his staff of righteousness for sup- 
 port and assistance ! For then we should again be sons of 
 Israel in truth and sincerity, and be children of salvation ; inas- . 
 much as then we would not have despised the chastisement of 
 the Lord, but been made whole through his instruction and 
 warning. 
 
 It was always thus with our people as a nation and ourselves 
 as individuals. Prosperity spoiled us, but adversity uniformly 
 taught us better things. It was said by the wise men of old : 
 " An humble state is well-becoming unto Israel ;" and is it not 
 so with most individual members of mankind? does not the 
 hurry and application to business withdraw us from the service 
 of the God of all ? Are we not. apt to attend to the details of our 
 worldly concerns, and forget that our soul too has claims upon our 
 time and attention? Why then, sinful man! wilt thou accuse 
 thy Creator of injustice because wealth is not granted to thee ? 
 why wilt thou look with envious eye upon thy neighbour's 
 flocks because they are many, and upon his fields because they
 
 144 THE DUTY OF CONTENTMENT. 
 
 are extensive '( Behold, thou in the humble state art not with- 
 out blessings. Thy daily toil provides thee with food ; the in- 
 dustry of thy hands suffices to clothe thee in decent raiment; 
 rest is sweet to thee when thy labour is ended for the night ; 
 thy mind is refreshed by the exertions thou hast made; not 
 heavy hangs on thy hands the time that to the indolent child of 
 wealth seems never ending ; and when the holy Sabbath comes 
 in its rounds to again bless the earth, how heartfelt will be 
 thy thankfulness that a day has been assigned thee to enjoy 
 religious repose in the bosom of thy own household ; and that, 
 if thou art able to teach, thou canst tell thy brothers of the 
 glory of the Lord, and of his great goodness to his people Israel, 
 and of the wonders He has wrought in their behalf; and if thou 
 art one of the many to whom no such power has been given, 
 that thou canst go and seek instruction in the ways of thy 
 Maker, and learn to do his will even as commanded in the law 
 which He gave as an inheritance to the congregation of Jacob. 
 Know also that with the possession of wealth not every plea- 
 sure has been obtained, and that a wise Providence has assigned 
 to the poor enjoyments which the rich often sigh for in vain : 
 and thou wilt be ashamed, that thou daredst to question an all- 
 seeing Goodness, for having appointed unto thee a lot of labour, 
 whilst to thy neighbour his wealth is perhaps a burden, and im- 
 poses upon him an involuntary state of ease and indolence. 
 
 Or thou arraignest the justice of God for having withdrawn 
 from thee those whom thou lovest. Short-sighted doubter ! are 
 thy friends immortal? art thou thyself imperishable? Perhaps thy 
 hopes were too strongly placed upon a beloved child perhaps 
 thou dotedst upon a lovely wife and didst forget in thy exulta- 
 tion that they live through God alone, and it may be that in thy 
 prosperity thou didst not call on Him, and prepare thyself for 
 the change that was impending. And now the doom has come, 
 they, the dear to thy heart, lie dead before thee ; soon the earth 
 is to close over them ; they are borne away to the home of all 
 the living, and thou art left alone to feel thy bereavement. But 
 O, accuse not thy God ! He is just even in his judgment, there 
 is no evil, no unrighteousness in Him ; He has struck the wound, 
 but can He not heal ? thou art mourning, but are not thy friends 
 at rest ? thou art alone, but are not the departed with their,
 
 THE DUTY OF CONTENTMENT. 145 
 
 with thy God? A space will elapse, and them art removed, 
 and over thee too the clod of the valley will be heaped, and thy 
 memory alone will live after thy form has been laid in the dust; 
 and long ere that, they, whom thou now seest rejoicing in their 
 wickedness, who are surrounded by gladsome groups of healthy 
 children, whose life seems blest by the love of friends, the ties 
 of spouse and kindred, will perhaps have perished as perish the 
 beasts of the field, and their name been left a curse and a by- 
 word, after their evil deeds have been exposed to the light of 
 day ! Ay, thou seest not the connection of things, thou dis- 
 coverest not the end of events at their commencement ; but art 
 thou like unto God 1 will thou measure his foresight by thine '( 
 his justice by thy fancies? Be then silent before Him, be 
 humble in his presence ; and where thou dost not discover the 
 whole scope of an event, learn to submit with humility, to suffer 
 with resignation. Thou now mournest thy child who departed 
 in innocence ; perhaps had he lived thy indulgent folly, thy pa- 
 rental weakness, might have opened for him a path of wicked- 
 ness, and covered thy head with disgrace ; or thy wife, weak- 
 ened by sickness, might have dragged on a miserable existence, 
 a burden to herself and others ; is it not better that she was 
 taken whilst her cup of life was overflowing with blessings, 
 before yet she had to drink deep out of the cup of affliction 
 which others have to drain ? Mourn then, stricken one, feel 
 the weight of the judgment that befel thee; but turn with re- 
 pentance unto God, and seek at his footstool the mercy thou 
 needest, and search in his holy word for the consolation which 
 is to revive thy spirit ; and learn to acknowledge that God is 
 just in all his ways, and that his punishments are merciful, as 
 his bounty is undeserved by any acts which thou canst per- 
 form. 
 
 It were well, beloved brethren, if at the occurrence of any 
 calamity every man were to address to himself considerations 
 like those just presented, in order to hush within himself the 
 tumult of rebellious thoughts which will often arise within us if 
 not timely checked. He who now speaks to you has to acknow- 
 ledge, that his heart has not always been free from the sin of 
 searching into his Maker's views when sorrow visited his bo- 
 som ; and he at times thought himself almost forgotten because 
 
 VOL. III. 13
 
 146 THE DUTY OF CONTENTMENT. 
 
 severe trials were not withheld from him, because the common 
 lot of man reached him too. But let us reflect, have we not 
 also our blessings, each of us, as well as our griefs ( Go and 
 see about you even in the wretched hovels of poverty, and you 
 will be convinced that more good might have been enjoyed by 
 the unfortunate inmates, had they but properly used the bless- 
 ings placed within their reach. We arraign, therefore, not un- 
 frequently the goodness of Providence, whilst we ourselves are 
 the enemies of our peace ; and as was done by Elijah who, 
 when called by Ahab " He who had troubled Israel," answered 
 " I have not troubled Israel ; but thou and thy father's house, 
 in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord" 
 (1 Kings xviii. 18.): the sinner should always be rebuked, be- 
 cause he it is who converts the good he has received or might 
 receive into curses and afflictions. And then, why should we 
 compare our lot with those more blessed than ourselves in order 
 to excite discontent, when we might think ourselves happy in 
 comparison with millions whose fate is by far more deplorable 
 than ours ? Besides this we are all apt to believe that, because 
 others have that which we need, they ought to be more content 
 than we; but they perhaps envy us some quality of mind or 
 body for which they would gladly sacrifice the half of that 
 wealth which we envy them. Believe me one thing, none is 
 altogether happy, none on the other hand entirely forsaken. 
 The Creator -regards alike all his works ; to his all-seeing eye 
 nothing is concealed ; the exalted are within his ken and power, 
 and the lowly He watches, and He shields them in the day of 
 trouble. Were it now, that the Blessed One had to act with 
 human means ; were it that his capacities were stinted, because 
 He had bestowed many gifts upon a few ; were it that his 
 memory could become weakened by the length of time which 
 has elapsed since the deeds of wickedness which we condemn 
 in the successful sinner were perpetrated, or, since we did those 
 acts which religion demands of us : then indeed might we ex- 
 cuse our littleness of faith, our presumption in accusing Him of 
 a want of mercy, of neglect of justice. But see we not with 
 our own eyes his unending power ? do we not behold daily his 
 bounty scattered far and wide, over earth and ocean, over 
 mountain and plain, over city and field ? Do we not constantly
 
 * 
 THE DUTY OF CONTENTMENT. 147 
 
 witness how the poor are lifted up from the dunghill, how the 
 needy are exalted ? Have we never beheld the fall of the pre- 
 sumptuous, the humbling of those who trusted in their wealth, 
 their power, or wisdom ? And yet we doubt ! and yet we fear 
 to pursue the way of truth, because we see them who forsake 
 it flourish awhile in their wickedness ! Therefore are we. taught 
 in Scripture, Psalm xxxvii : " Fret not thyself because of evil- 
 doers, be not envious against the workers of iniquity. For like 
 the grass they shall soon be cut down, and like the green herb 
 they shall wither. Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the 
 land, and exercise truth. And have delight in the Lord, and 
 He will give thee the desire of thy heart." And then continues 
 
 David : 
 
 * 
 
 xim vy HDSI -pm 'n 
 
 : 'n i" 5 ? D'bnn 
 
 " Commit unto the Lord thy way, and trust in Him, and He will bring it 
 to pass." Ver. 5. 
 
 Who more than the Sweet Singer of Israel, beloved brethren, 
 suffered from the attacks of the wicked, who was more pursued 
 by undeserved malice ! Taken from behind the flock, the oil of . 
 anointing was poured upon his head by the prophet Samuel, 
 to institute him the most worthy of the congregation of God the 
 future king of Israel. When the armies of his people had been 
 defied by the Philistine giant, he boldly stepped up to vindicate 
 the national honour. The people acknowledged him as their 
 leader. He was the son-in-law of Saul ; the chosen friend of 
 the disinterested high-minded Jonathan ; and yet he had to flee 
 from the country like one stained with crime, and no shelter 
 could he find in the land which he was destined to rule. He 
 was denounced to his revengeful enemy, and his steps were 
 watched wherever he went. It must have been under these cir- 
 cumstances which tested his sincerity, his confidence in God, 
 that he composed many of his songs of praise, it was under such 
 a state of trial that his soul was filled with the holy spirit, and 
 reproving in himself the weakness of faith, he says : " Commit 
 unto the Lord thy way ;" what matters it that I am a fugitive,
 
 148 THE DUTY OF CONTENTMENT. 
 
 an outcast ; what need I envy the wicked who are now prosper- 
 ous and happy; is not God my salvation? has He not promised, 
 and will He not fulfil ? Surely, his word will not fail, his pro- 
 mises are not given to deceive ; but whate'er He says is true, 
 whate'er He promises will be fulfilled. We know how David 
 became afterwards the leader of the people of God; we know 
 how greatly the Israelitish nation prospered under his rule ; we 
 are all acquainted with his sincere repentance when he had 
 sinned ; all of us have felt the force of his beautiful hymns ; his 
 confidence has inspirited our confidence, his filial faith has ex- 
 cited our faith. He became great in a worldly sense ; but how 
 much greater was the spiritual blessing which was vouchsafed 
 unto him ! and whilst the world stands, David's songs and Da- 
 vid's hopes will be the songs and hopes of Israel. And where 
 are they, whom David in his moments of weakness envied as 
 happier than himself? they are barely remembered, their deeds 
 stand recorded as evidence how far man can go astray when 
 he forsakes the fear of God ! Read, I pray you, the whole of 
 the Psalm from which our text was quoted, and you will rise 
 refreshed in faith and resignation, you will feel some of the 
 inspiration which dictated it, even when you are suffering, and 
 see those exalted whom you call wicked ; and you will become 
 sincerely convinced that it ill becomes you, the creatures of God, 
 to sit in judgment upon his government of the world. You will 
 be impressed, if you judge calmly and reflect with humility, that 
 you have suffered no injustice, that your case has not been for- 
 gotten by your Creator, and that the evil you have to endure is 
 a just visitation for your manifold sins, and that your Redeemer 
 lives to send you enlargement whenever in his judgment you de- 
 serve a return of his mercy. Be it therefore your constant study 
 to be content with your lot; do your best by labour and industry 
 to improve your condition ; and if success does not then follow, 
 be sure that an humble station is the best for you, and the sphere 
 assigned to you by Providence to contribute therein your por- 
 tion to the improvement of the world. But above all do not 
 grow careless of God's commands, imagine not that the way of 
 evil can become by any excuse the road to preferment; no, 
 " Commit thy way unto the Lord," do your part as becomes his 
 servant, live under and according to the law, obey strictly its
 
 THE WAY OF LIFE. 149 
 
 precepts ; " trust in Him;" be satisfied with the judgment that 
 is dispensed unto you, be convinced THAT ALL THAT is is RIGHT, 
 altho' you do not'readily discover HOW this is. And if you in 
 all your ways know the Lord, remain steadfast amidst trials, 
 faithful in the midst of sickness and pains, upright in poverty, 
 and humble when fortune smiles : be then sure that God will do 
 according to his promise, send his blessing on the work of 
 your hands, become your Physician in diseases, your Support in 
 poverty, your Stay in the hour of success, and your Comforter 
 in sorrow. Such thoughts, such hopes, such a faith will render 
 your life tranquil, and make you as nearly sinless as mortals 
 can be, and make easy for you the hour of death, when your 
 soul must return to the God who gave it ; and thus purified by 
 virtue and faith you will become sons of everlasting life, inheri- 
 tors of bliss without measure. 
 
 O God of Israel ! be with us during our pilgrimage in this life 
 of sorrow and trial ; let thy countenance shine to us when evil 
 is sent, and subdue our stubborn heart to thy service, so that we 
 may glorify Thee, and proclaim thy goodness to all mankind, 
 unto whom and unto us we pray Thee to send peace and salva- 
 tion through thy blessed messenger the son of David, Amen. 
 
 Elull2th 
 Sept. 10th 
 
 DISCOURSE XIII. 
 
 THE WAY OF LIFE. 
 
 t 
 
 OUR God and God of our fathers ! we pray Thee not to enter 
 into judgment with us, for nothing living can be justified before 
 Thee ; but according to thy unending mercy do Thou deal bene- 
 ficently with us, and condemn us not altho' we have sinned. 
 
 13*
 
 150 THE WAY OF LIFE. 
 
 For well we know our disobedience and hardness of heart ! and 
 that knowing the good we have preferred the evil, and chosen 
 the path of death, altho' the way of life lay open before us. Yet 
 art Thou ever ready to receive the repentant child ! Spare 
 us then, O our Father, and lead us by mild visitation to recog- 
 nize the sinfulness of our ways, and teach us to deserve thy 
 mercy by a sincere return unto thy service, even as Thou hast 
 commanded us through Moses thy servant. Amen. 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 We find in the portion of the law we read this day the fol- 
 lowing: 
 
 nan Dion nNi Dnn n DVH *]vs nru rwn 
 
 ro man 
 
 " Behold, I lay before thee this day the life and the good, and the death 
 and the'evil." Deut xxx. 15. 
 
 Moses, as we all know, had been employed in teaching the 
 people the will of the Lord, and informed them how and when 
 they were to engage in what is called divine service, and how 
 and when they were to abstain from certain acts which are 
 called disobedience to the commands of God. Every opportu- 
 nity had been seized during a period of forty years to again and 
 again urge upon the children of Israel the necessity of a com- 
 pliance with whatever had been taught them, and the danger 
 which attended a disregard of divine behests. They had also 
 been informed, that the Lord purposed their happiness, and not 
 his own aggrandizement, and that by choosing them as his peo- 
 ple He merely intended to set them up as living monuments of 
 his power and goodness to the other nations of the earth. And 
 now when but a few hours of earthly life were left to our great 
 teacher, when but few more words of instruction were to flow 
 from his lips : he addressed the Israelites who knew him to be 
 standing on the threshold of eternity, (since the forty years from 
 the Exodus were just then drawing to a close,) in the above 
 memorable words. Behold ! our blessed lawgiver at the head
 
 THE WAY OF LIFE. J51 
 
 of the people sinking into the grave with strength undiminished 
 and eye unclouded, not dying because of the weakness of age, 
 or the debility of sickness, but simply because by a just decree 
 he had been doomed for a want of obedience on one occasion 
 only not to enter the promised land, exhorting his hearers to 
 follow the road of the law he had marked out for them, and 
 to hand down this law to their descendants for ever as the code 
 which it behooved them to obey. And if any one of all these 
 were now to have asked, " Why should he obey the precepts 
 of the law ?" the prophet says : " Behold I lay before thee this 
 day the life and the good." If you wish to obtain THE life, 
 adopt THE good ; that is to say, by obedience only can life ever- 
 lasting be obtained ; by obedience only can life on earth be ren- 
 dered happy. Look upon the ways of men, upon the passions 
 which agitate, upon the desires which impel them, and you will 
 not find that they lead unto life. Go, brethren ! and mix among 
 the crowds that throng the streets, with the inmates of lordly 
 palaces and the tenants of the abodes of wretchedness, and see 
 whether their unhappiness proceeds from obedience to our law 
 or from a neglect thereof. Look upon the drunkard, he trans- 
 gresses the law by converting the blessings of God into means 
 of degrading himself to the level of the beast ; has he life ? Alas 
 no ! they even, who love him and are depending in a measure 
 upon the labour of his hands for their support, are themselves 
 among the number of those who must regard his death as a 
 blessing more than an affliction ; for he is a burden to himself, 
 a disgrace to his family, and an outcast from the society of the 
 good. And when his end draws near, when his substance is 
 wasted, when his steps are tottering though he is young in 
 years, when his wife and children are dressed in the habili- 
 ments of wretchedness, and he looks with dread upon their help- 
 less state : how glad would he be, could he recall the past years 
 of sin, and how willingly would he now, if he were permitted 
 to live his life over again, fulfil the injunction : " Ye shall there- 
 fore be holy, for I am holy."* Yet in the days of his strength 
 and joyousness he did not regard with horror the intoxicating 
 drink ; he poured out the wine, say at the festive board, and 
 
 * Leviticus, xi. 44.
 
 152 THE WAY OF LIFE. 
 
 watched its beautiful purling with the eye of fondness; he ad- 
 mired its fine 'colour, praised its age and vintage, and dwelt 
 with rapture upon its delightful flavour. Little did he then 
 dream that the delicious cup would deprive him of wealth, of 
 friends, of reputation, and bring him in poverty and sorrow to 
 an early death. Say, how came this to pass? Simply because 
 he used that which has been bestowed on man as an occasional 
 indulgence, or a strengthening stimulant, as an every-day drink, 
 and when it was not required to assist the process of nature; 
 regarding only its agreeable qualities without heeding the dan- 
 gers that follow its immoderate use. He drank at first perhaps 
 only when in society of friends to any extent ; he next craved 
 an equal share when alone in his house ; until by degrees his 
 vitiated taste could be satisfied by nothing but habitual drink- 
 ing, which naturally disqualified him for any rational occupa- 
 tion, and rendered him a spectacle of horror and a by-word, as 
 one who chose death, when life was within his reach. 
 
 Or watch the man of deceit, who by a fair outward appear- 
 ance endeavours to impose upon the credulity of his neighbour ; 
 has he life? Certainly not. He imagines perhaps that his su- 
 perior cunning entitles him to prey upon the ignorant and con- 
 fiding. He accordingly lays his schemes with a far-reaching 
 view of self-aggrandizement, with a single eye to his own sup- 
 posed interests. He watches with anxious care, with sleepless 
 nights, every avenue which might lead to detection ; now appa- 
 rently his prosperity stands unmoved ; he reaps a golden har- 
 vest; he speaks with evident charity of the sufferings of the 
 needy ; he is foremost in acts of benevolence ; talks with com- 
 passion of the foibles and sins of others, as though he were in- 
 deed a man of truth and righteousness. Yet he is at heart full 
 of anxiety ; he suspects every one that approaches as likely to 
 become the instrument of detection ; but all his acts are un- 
 availing ; justice though slow points at him at last as a traitor 
 to the social compact: and when he stands exposed to the 
 world as a deceitful sinner, when deprived of his ill-gotten 
 wealth he roams over the earth a fugitive and alone, his steps 
 pursued by thousands panting for his punishment, he will bitterly 
 lament the moment that he lost sight of the divine command 
 which says: " Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, nor lie to one
 
 THE WAY OF LIFE. J53 
 
 another." (Lev. xix. 11.) And yet was this man. born innocent 
 as we all were ; and many years after his entrance into life he 
 must have remained unstained by the crimes which banish him 
 now from society ; and only because he confided more in his 
 own ingenuity, because he had not sufficient faith in the word 
 of God, he was induced to seek prosperity by injuring his brother; 
 and his punishment will therefore teach us, that avarice and 
 fraud, though cloaked by the mantle of outward sanctity, are 
 not conducive to that happiness and contentment which to ob- 
 tain should be the chief aim of our thoughts and labours, and 
 which can be found only -in the pursuit of righteousness, which 
 is found in the precepts of the religion bestowed by the Lord 
 upon Israel. 
 
 Or look upon the man who stands on the pinnacle of glory, 
 the conqueror before whose bloody sword thousands of slain 
 have fallen, the tyrant whose frown strikes terror into all who 
 surround him ; has he life ? If earthly greatness could confer 
 this boon ; if immense wealth could furnish happiness ; if flat- 
 tery of abject slaves, the homage of conquered kingdoms could 
 insure content : then indeed might he say that the had found the 
 treasure we are commanded to seek. But does power render 
 us immortal? does wealth confer satisfaction? do flattery and 
 homage prevent the assault of revenge or stay the hand of the 
 prowling assassin ? Where then is THE LIFE of the mightest 
 potentate who rises by murder and violence? O no! he has 
 not life, nor content, nor satisfaction. For how can he expect, 
 the first, when he has spilt wantonly much innocent blood, and 
 rendered desolate many a happy peaceful home ? He only re- 
 garded himself in his search for renown ; he forgot his mor- 
 tality, and that he too must appear to render an account of his 
 deeds done whilst in the flesh before the supreme King of kings 
 the Holy One who alone reigns over all ; and therefore the un- 
 erring and infallible decree of the Judge of all flesh will consign 
 him to that doom which his misdeeds merit. But even before 
 his final condemnation, he enjoys not content nor satisfaction. 
 The people whom he oppresses he can place no confidence in, 
 and he is constantly in dread of their rising to expel him from 
 the throne which he disgraces ; the kingdoms which he has 
 conquered will continually strive to throw off the galling yoke
 
 154 THE WAY OF LIFE. 
 
 which he has imposed on them ; and he can only hope to keep 
 both in subjection by an unceasing vigilance and often by in- 
 creased exactions ; for, the course of violence once begun, it is 
 difficult to know where to stop ; and thus he is continually a 
 prey to anxious care and terrors ; and gladly would he choose 
 a brief space of contentment, no matter what the price might 
 be. Although therefore he is raised high, and despite the ex- 
 tent of his power, he will yet have cause to feel that disobedi- 
 ence to the law is not the way of life, and that the king even 
 cannot disobey with impunity the commandment implied in the 
 words of Holy Writ which says : " That his heart be not lifted 
 up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the com- 
 mandment, to the right or to the left." (Deut. xvii. 20.) Yet 
 he too how happy might he have been, had he not lent his ear 
 to advice of the wicked who crouch at the foot of power ; had 
 he not been misled by the glitter of outward splendour which 
 necessarily accompanies his station. Peaceful neighbours would 
 have served him better than the enraged conquered can do ; a 
 grateful country would have blessed a wise and virtuous ruler; 
 and an approving conscience and a well-founded faith in the 
 Sovereign of the universe would have rendered his sleep as 
 undisturbed and tranquil as that of the labourer when he has 
 finished his daily toil. And of one thing be sure, brethren ! that 
 human greatness never blessed with peace any one who had 
 not the heavenly light within him ; and it matters not whether 
 it be a Pharaoh standing abashed before the august prophet 
 when confessing his guilt ; an Ahab when he met Elijah after 
 slaying for no cause Naboth the Jezreelite ; a Nabuchadnezzar 
 when he was compelled to herd with the beasts of the field that 
 he might be taught humility ; a Cassar when he fell at the foot 
 of Pompey's pillar struck by the hand of his beloved Brutus ; a 
 Robespierre when in the moment of desperation he attempted 
 his own life, or a Napoleon dying an exile upon a lonely isle : 
 all have felt that the pursuit of glory, unawed by the standard 
 which God has given, is sure sooner or later to produce the 
 fruits of bitterness, and lead to death and destruction. 
 
 Nor are riches, and wisdom, and the pursuit of pleasure, 
 and the indulgence in carnal desires the sources of life. The 
 possession of the first leaves to those who view them as essen-
 
 THE WAY OF LIFE. 
 
 ' tials to happiness, a vast void yet unfilled up, and they die with 
 not the half of their desire accomplished. Or speak of worldly 
 wisdom ; and can you point out one among the whole crowd of 
 philosophers, from the most remote antiquity to our own days, 
 who either was happy through its possession only, or beloved 
 by the unwise for no other cause than his learning ? Or tell 
 me of pleasures ; who did ever exist that had tasted enough of 
 the varied joys which this life affords, or who could say with 
 truth, that the most exquisite pleasure did not always leave a' 
 melancholy impression upon the soul ? We will not enlarge at 
 present by an investigation of the subject ; but will merely de- 
 mand, whether the happiest of mortals ever found what may 
 with truth be called LIFE in the pursuit of pleasure from his in- 
 fancy to the moment of his death, even if no cloud should ever 
 have darkened his horizon, or pain marred his enjoyment? 
 And with regard to indulgence in carnal desires and the follow- 
 ing of the dictates of the passions, it is almost superfluous to 
 assign any reason why they cannot offer life. For let a man 
 but commence a course predicated upon such rules, if rules 
 they may be called, and what will be his end ? Premature de- 
 cay, and early death on the one, and an ignominious punish- 
 ment for laws transgressed and rights trampled on, on the other 
 hand. 
 
 In following up these investigations it will become manifest 
 to you that if we commit ourselves to the allurements of the 
 external world, and have no regard to any guidance save that 
 presented by our own reason, interest, appetite or passion : our 
 life must pass away very unsatisfactorily to ourselves and pro- 
 fitless to others. The destructive operation of these false guides 
 upon ourselves we have already traced; and can you name 
 any benefit or service which the vain egotist who is proud of 
 his learning, the sordid seeker after wealth, the glutton and 
 drunkard, and the self-sufficient oppressor can confer on others 
 by the mere pursuit of their selfish ends ? On the contrary, 
 every act of theirs if it have any effect at all must be more or 
 less injurious to society, and the annals of the world and the 
 records of crime furnish us with thousands of instances to prove 
 the truth of this assertion. But turn we now to the man who 
 seeks to shape his course by the law of God, and we shall see
 
 156 THE WAY OF 
 
 an entirely different result springing from his labours. Let us 
 regard him as the father of a family. He is there temperate in 
 the use of things, even those not prohibited by the law ; he 
 never exhibits himself before his children in a manner that they 
 must despise their parent; he is the friend not the tyrant of his 
 wife ; he is a kind master over his servants, and imposes no 
 unnecessary burdens upon his subordinates, knowing that they 
 are like him servants and children of Omnipotence, who merit 
 and therefore should receive kind and generous treatment from 
 those who employ their labour. He instructs his family in the 
 path they should go ; he watches their conduct ; and because 
 he spends all the time not necessary for his out-door occupa- 
 tions in his own home, at his own peacefnl fireside, he has 
 ample opportunity to correct whatever of fault he may discover; 
 and thus he is not only the parent in the flesh of his offspring, 
 but is likewise, conjointly with the mother, the spiritual guide 
 of the children whom God has given him. Who sees not in a 
 picture like this, where a righteous husband presides over the 
 good of the household, a legitimate consequence of obedience 
 to the commandments? and who can doubt that there is life, 
 and happiness, .and contentment, where we see regarded the 
 precept: " And thou shall teach them diligently unto thy chil- 
 dren, and speak of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when 
 thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when 
 thou risest up ?" (Deut. vi. 7.) 
 
 Or let us visit the man who conducts his business in the fear 
 of the Lord. He is scrupulous to deal fairly with all men ; he 
 uses no subterfuges or artful tricks to enhance unduly the price 
 of his wares in the eye of others ; he makes no false representa- 
 tion of any kind so as to deceive with regard to the extent of 
 his means ; in competing with his neighbours he will never 
 undervalue their merchandize or throw a slight or doubt upon 
 their fair standing ; he engages in no wild speculations by which 
 his own property or that of those confiding in him may be 
 jeopardized ; and when any unforeseen misfortune should 
 occur, he will deal alike with all who have claims upon him, 
 and prefer honourable poverty to dishonourable wealth gotten 
 by fraud, deception or concealment. In his pursuit of gain, 
 which in itself is both lawful and praiseworthy, he will place
 
 THE WAY OF LIFE. 157 
 
 unlimited confidence in the blessing of God, and transact his 
 business so, that in giving to each man what is his due, he will 
 also direct his views to the commands contained in Scripture, 
 and give to the poor according to his means ; support as be- 
 comes him the service of his Maker and the schools of instruc- 
 tion whence virtue, knowledge and piety are scattered abroad ; 
 and when the time of rest arrives he will cease speaking of his 
 worldly affairs and refrain from pursuing his usual avocations, 
 but resort with those who are of his household to the places 
 where the sons of Israel meet to pray, and where the holy law 
 is proclaimed freely and openly to all who may come. Such 
 a course is surely one of much peace and enjoyment, and the 
 certain reward will be the obtainment of life, the life of the 
 soul, and the possession of tranquillity and content ; for thus 
 says the text : " A perfect and just weight shall thou have, a 
 perfect and just measure shalt thou have, that thy days may be 
 lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." 
 (Deut. xxv. 15.) 
 
 Again, place a servant of God in an exalted station ; and 
 what will his conduct be 1 He will look upon himself as a de- 
 pendent upon a superior Authority, as a representative of a 
 higher Power, to dispense, in a limited degree because of human 
 weakness, justice and mercy to all who may come under his 
 supervision. He will not presume over those placed under his 
 control, and not impose unnecessary burdens upon the people ; 
 but knowing his accountability he will govern with moderation, 
 endeavour to instil true piety and submission to divine rule, 
 and promote peace and good-will among the children of men. 
 Shall I name you instances ? Then look upon Abraham ; he 
 called himself dust and ashes, and yet he was the first that pro- 
 claimed aloud the greatness of God ; and what was his reward t 
 not alone that the Lord made with him a covenant to be a 
 Protector to him and his seed after him, but the gentiles too 
 acknowledged their indebtedness to the peaceful shepherd, and 
 called him " a prince of God among them," and sought his 
 friendship for themselves and their descendants after them. 
 Then we had a Joseph who, raised to the throne from a prison, 
 forgot not the fear of God when they who had deeply injured 
 him were in his power. Not to speak of Moses who was the 
 
 VOL. in. 14
 
 158 THE WAY OF 
 
 meekest of men, and to whom no other man ever yet was 
 equal : we may claim David, who, though he occasionally 
 sinned, and thus proved by his example the efficacy of repent- 
 ance, was nevertheless a devoted adherent to the Lord, and 
 called down upon himself and his house the punishment of sin, 
 rather than that the people over whom he had been called to 
 rule should suffer. And who does not remember David \ who 
 that is of Israel's slock but proudly claims a share in the son of 
 Jesse ? And not to extend our inquiries too far, let us call to 
 mind one more Israelite, the virtuous Josiah, who purified the 
 land of idolatry, repented because he was certified of the will 
 of God, and was the means of a renewed spirit of devotion in 
 Palestine. Much was he loved, and his early death was deplored 
 by the poet and seer, the prophet Jeremiah. And of those who 
 are aliens to our race we may also number many who have 
 done honour to the image of God which they bore. We in- 
 stance a Grecian Aristides, a Roman Cincinnatus, an Alfred of 
 England, and the good Washington, a man evidently the in- 
 strument of Providence to effect a great change in the opinions 
 and customs of men, and who with but a small sacrifice of 
 human life was the means of establishing a mighty state where 
 freedom and civilization might find a home, and Israel dwell 
 safely with none to be a hindrance to them or their faith. It 
 is thus that at the height of human power a regard to the law 
 will ensure the happiness of the individual as well as of those 
 connected with him ; and as says the Psalm : " Lord ! the king 
 will be glad in thy strength, and in thy salvation how greatly 
 will he rejoice ! He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest it to 
 him length of days for ever and ever. For the king trusteth 
 in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Lord he shall not 
 be moved." (Ps. xxi. 2, 5, 8.) And say, who would not sooner 
 be an Abraham, the shepherd-chief and the founder of our 
 now scattered nation, than a Nimrod, the builder of mighty 
 cities, the renowned ruler of remote antiquity? a Moses 
 rather, whose grave is not known, than a tyrant Pharaoh, for 
 whose corpse a pyramid was raised as a suitable burial-place \ 
 or prefer being a Josiah, the restorer of the worship, than a 
 Nebuchadnezzar who overthrew mighty kingdoms 1 And lastly, 
 to bring the matter closer to our own days, let us ask, who of
 
 THE WAY OF LIFE. 159 
 
 proper feeling does not believe the fame of Washington, who 
 retired from power when his services were no longer needed, 
 more enviable than the renown of Napoleon, who could not 
 rest till he had usurped the dominion over a people he pre- 
 tended to honour, and become the terror of many nations, who 
 at length combined and hurled him from a throne erected upon 
 the bodies of slain millions ? Is it not evident, that a ruler 
 governing in humility is a blessing ? and that he earns life for 
 himself when his race is run, and can enjoy content and peace 
 whilst yet on earth because he has obtained the satisfaction of his 
 God, and is secure in the love of those over whom he is placed ? 
 Upon the whole it will be apparent to you, beloved brethren, 
 that the way pointed out by our blessed religion is the road of 
 life and happiness ; that the acts it prohibits are the paths of 
 death and evil. If now we want to know, " How we are to 
 obtain life ?" it necessarily becomes our duty to investigate the 
 holy Scriptures to enable us to obtain the requisite information. 
 And what does Moses say in continuation of our text ? " In 
 that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to 
 walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, and his statutes 
 and his judgments : that thou mayest live and multiply, and 
 the Lord thy God will bless thee in the land whither thou goest 
 to possess it." Whoever therefore wishes .to obtain the boon 
 of life, must correct at every stage of his being every evil pro- 
 pensity he may discover within himself; he must watch his 
 passions, subdue his inclinations, and restrain the advice which 
 interest and self-aggrandizement might whisper into his soul. 
 At every occurrence of life he should ask himself whether the 
 contemplated action is in consonance with the ways of God, 
 whether the deed intended be one of mercy, of righteousness, 
 of benevolence and justice. If called upon by any circumstance 
 whatever to .do any thing be it great and small, he should first 
 consult the Bible, to discover whether or not it is agreeable to 
 the commandments, statutes and judgments of the Lord ; or 
 rather, as we are continually and unexpectedly compelled to 
 be active, it is evidently unavoidably necessary that we be pre- 
 pared beforehand, and make ourselves constantly more familiar 
 with our duties, both by inquiring from others and a constant 
 study of the word of God for ourselves, so that we may be able
 
 l(jQ THE WAY OF LIFE. 
 
 to act rightly whenever the time of action may come. If then 
 our peace is threatened by the allurements of the world, we 
 shall in this manner be prepared to stand firmly, unmoved and 
 obedient, amidst the tumult of passion, interest and ambition. 
 The dazzling glitter of folly may then strive to entice us on- 
 ward to death ; but the steady light of God's truth will point 
 out the way which leads unto salvation. So also the prophet : 
 "I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day; 
 the life and the death, the blessing and the curse I have set 
 before thee ; but do thou choose the life that thou mayest live, 
 thou and thy seed." 
 
 Let no man therefore plead in extenuation of his sinning, that 
 he is much tempted, that he is engaged in active business pur- 
 suits, that the commands of the law are not suited to his taste, 
 that his high station exempts him from obedience, nothing of 
 this nature will plead his excuse for disobeying the will of the 
 supreme King. For if we are much tempted we should place 
 before us in lively colours, that momentary gratification will be 
 followed by long years of repentance, sorrow, and perhaps 
 sickness, death, and condemnation of the guilty soul ; that habits 
 of evil are gradually acquired from trifling and small begin- 
 nings ; and that at last every sin will not only make us ame- 
 nable to the vengeance of Heaven, but will likewise render 
 more difficult for us the ascent to the mountain of the Lord, 
 where is the holy mansion of the righteous who have done his 
 will. If we are engaged in active business, the greater is our 
 need of divine consolation. So many are the vicissitudes to 
 which we are hourly exposed, so many dangers continually 
 surround us : that we ought to have peace and life within, to 
 resist the blast which one time must assail us from without ; 
 and where can this peace be found but in obedience, and piety, 
 and a reliance on divine assistance, as we have shown ? If the 
 words of Scripture are not palatable to us, can this be an 
 excuse for our transgressing ? O wo ! for the sinful folly that 
 seeks to place itself above the balm of life ! If we have any 
 doubts, if our faith is feeble, let us apply ourselves with double 
 diligence to investigate the precepts of the law, let us prostrate 
 ourselves before the foot of Mercy, and ask for light to dispel 
 our darkness, for grace to combat our unbelief. For when
 
 THE WAY OF LIFE. 161 
 
 proper devotion has taken possession of our hearts, we will 
 readily embrace the scheme which God has laid before us, we 
 will choose it as the way of life, in which alone we can move 
 onward to happiness. And if our exalted station would instil 
 pride into our spirit, and mislead us to forget our accounta- 
 bility : then let us call to mind how soon over the mightiest in 
 genius and power the rod of confusion may be stretched out, 
 and how speedily our highest power and brightest wisdom must 
 yield to the conqueror of the most renowned conquerors, and 
 the destroyer of the wisest philosopher, the terrible but sure- 
 coming angel of death. 
 
 If thus now we survey the evils attending on sin and the 
 happiness consequent upon obedience, and call to mind that 
 earthly gifts will soon fade and vanish from our grasp, or we 
 be taken from them ; and that at last we are in the hands of 
 Him who gave us the law of life : we must be penetrated with 
 devotion and a willing spirit to yield ourselves subjects to the 
 yoke of the law. ^ To us the choice is given we have before 
 us life and the good, death and the evil ; there is no power on 
 earth to prevent our choosing wisely. O ! let us take up eagerly 
 the portion of life, and fly to the ranks of the righteous and 
 pious of all ages and all nations who have executed the will of 
 their Maker according to the best light they had obtained. Let 
 many, let all, resolve to unite themselves to God in the year 
 which is now coming unto us, let us hope, in peace, life and 
 prosperity ; let the youth, the man, and him who stands on the 
 brink of the grave seize hold of the life which is in the law ; 
 and when the cornet sounds in the habitations of Israel, let all 
 be awakened to a sense of their dependence on God, and pro- 
 claim aloud that they receive Him as their King and Saviour, 
 and seek for life and light in his presence where there are peace 
 and joy to everlasting ! 
 
 O God ! send upon us, thy people, the good we need ; inscribe 
 us in the book of life, of maintenance and salvation ; and cause 
 the spread of righteousness to become abundant among us, and 
 let thy grace be with us, even as we hope in Thee. Amen. 
 
 Elul26th I 
 Sept. iJ4th $
 
 162 
 
 DISCOURSE XIV. 
 
 SALVATION THROUGH REPENTANCE. 
 
 Ix thy law, our God ! Thou hast written, that even in the 
 lands of our enemies Thou wouldst not cast us away, nor abhor 
 us to destroy us utterly and to break thy covenant with us ; we 
 beseech Thee now to fulfil thy word, and to keep alive in our 
 hearts the sense of our duty and the remembrance of our cove- 
 nant with Thee, so that we may be awakened to a knowledge 
 of the sinfulness of our backsliding from thy righteous com- 
 mands ; and do Thou, O omnipotent King ! not withhold from 
 us thy protection and goodness ; but protect us when enemies 
 assail us in their wrath and pride, and shield the worm of Jacob 
 from the merciless persecutor, who lies in wait for thy heritage. 
 And in thy mercy do Thou forgive our sins unwittingly com- 
 mitted, our wilful transgressions, and our presumptuous iniquity, 
 and wash us clean by thy grace from the pollution of rebel- 
 lious disobedience. Yes, do Thou purify us, that we may be 
 pure, and stand before Thee renovated with a new heart and 
 a new spirit to serve thee alone, O our God ! who art our 
 Father, our Creator, our Shepherd, our Guardian for ever. 
 Amen ! 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 In my last address I attempted briefly to exhibit the beauties 
 of a holy life, the happiness attending on obedience, and the 
 evils consequent upon a dereliction from the path of duty pointed 
 out by the law. It was there shown to you that piety has so 
 many attractions to the rightly thinking, that it is but reasona- 
 ble to expect that every well-informed person would as a mat- 
 ter of choice become pious. Yet the fact cannot be denied, 
 that piety is not loved by all, and that religion is more praised 
 than practised ; or in other words, that mankind fail to reach 
 happiness, and reap misery, temporary and lasting, as the re-
 
 SALVATION THROUGH REPENTANCE. 153 
 
 ward for their actions. It would appear almost, that, were we 
 to take an account merely of the outward pursuits of mankind, 
 they had no idea whatever of the importance of a religious life, 
 so much are they engaged in pursuits foreign to piety, and in 
 occupations which seem to absorb all the faculties and energies 
 with which they have been endowed by the God of nature. If 
 God now were to judge as men judge, if He were to condemn 
 as mortals condemn, who of all the living could hope for mercy ? 
 For do we not daily see how sin is heaped upon sin, iniquity 
 upon iniquity, rebellion upon rebellion ? We crave the evil that 
 is prohibited, even if we do not practise it ; and whenever the 
 least excuse can be discovered for transgressing, we yield to 
 our craving and openly contemn the divine commandments. 
 This is the course of folly, of forgetfulness of our duties which 
 so many of us pursue, in which nearly all incur the guilt of sin. 
 Is there one now who has never sinned, in thought, in word, or 
 action ? Who can say, that his heart is pure from deceit, his 
 mouth from wicked words, his hands from sinful deeds 1 Truly, 
 we see the good but choose the evil ; the road of life is clearly 
 pointed out to us in the law, but we walk in the path of death. 
 We surrender ourselves slaves to our unholy desires, and close 
 our ears against the admonition which the words of Scripture 
 constantly address to us. We say, therefore, that if God were 
 to judge us as mortals judge, no one would be justified, no one 
 could hope to see the life everlasting. But He is mindful of 
 our frame, He remembers that we are dust, and will not cut 
 off the sinner utterly although his deeds merit visitation. On 
 the contrary He gives him opportunities to again merit favour, 
 and to retrieve the errors he has committed. In other words, 
 the sinner has received a remedy by which he can again obtain 
 divine mercy : this remedy is " repentance." Let us explain : 
 every act which we do, be it good or bad, deserves a return ; 
 and for every deed of our life we shall accordingly be judged 
 by our God and Creator, and receive such a doom as our con- 
 duct will have merited. If our good actions therefore exceed 
 our sins, we shall receive blessing and happiness as the reward 
 for our past life ; but if our sins are more numerous than our 
 virtues it is evident that we ourselves can expect nothing else 
 than condemnation ; for we have voluntarily assumed the re-
 
 164 SALVATION THROUGH REPENTANCE. 
 
 sponsibility of choosing sin and its natural concomitant, retri- 
 bution, inasmuch as nothing compelled us to transgress but our 
 own evil inclination, and because we might have lived vir- 
 tuously if sin had not led us willing captives into the snares of 
 unbelief and iniquity ; and consequently we cannot complain 
 if we have to taste the bitter fruits of our unwise choice. 
 
 If now there were no atonement provided for the sons of 
 man, there could evidently be no happiness, since all have more 
 or less sinned, and sinned voluntarily, disregarding wilfully the 
 law of life ; and because but few of us, if any, can lay claim 
 to a great amount of virtuous deeds which would outweigh the 
 load of sin with which their consciences are burdened. It was 
 therefore consonant with divine wisdom to appoint so to say 
 checks upon our actions, and to ordain reasons which would, 
 from association, make it the duty of every one to institute annu- 
 ally an inquiry into his past conduct, to see if something does not 
 require alteration and improvement ; if there is not some trait 
 or quality in his character which is not in accordance with the 
 religion of the Lord. In this then we have another cause of 
 thankfulness, in that the law was not only given to point out 
 the way of life, but that it also contains constant reviving 
 springs, which are to fill up the waste of the precious element 
 caused by the avocations, the distractions, the bustle, and the 
 confusion incident to our peregrination through the mazes of 
 our terrestrial existence. We all know how exciting are the 
 passions and the desires which the Creator has implanted in us 
 for wise purposes, in order to insure the continuance of the 
 human race, and to give us incentives to labour and exertion. 
 But how would it stand with many, if not all of us, were there 
 no inducement or opportunity given to watch the operation of 
 these desires, and to see that they do not lead to vice and im- 
 morality, or to arrest their course if we discover that they have 
 led us astray 1 Would we not hurry on to destruction, slowly 
 perhaps at first, but with an accelerated downward speed, if 
 once we had yielded to their sway ? How wise therefore is 
 the provision of our law in giving us remedies for both these 
 dangers, by assigning us a season of repentance every year, 
 and by teaching us at the same time that repentance is effica- 
 cious and peace-making between the sinful creature and the
 
 SALVATION THROUGH REPENTANCE. 155 
 
 justly offended Creator. Ceremonies therefore were instituted, 
 and days of abstinence from labour, one of which is the great 
 solemn day for general humiliation, appointed, to awaken the 
 attention of all Israel, and to admonish them, each and collec- 
 tively, to search into their past conduct, to sift their actions, to 
 accuse themselves of every wrong they may discover, and to 
 resolve on an amended course of life for the future. The only 
 obstacles to such a procedure are ignorance and stubbornness, 
 and neither is of sufficient weight to excuse a continuance in 
 the path of sin. Let us examine the first difficulty, ignorance. 
 Says the sinner, " There is nothing wrong in what I do; I fol- 
 low the bent of what I consider right, and surely my conscience 
 would approve of nothing that is wrong, and 1 feel no com- 
 punctious visiting of the inward monitor ; my sleep is sound, 
 my reflections by day are not disturbed by a consciousness of 
 sin ; consequently the course I am pursuing cannot be displeas- 
 ing in the sight of Heaven." It is, brethren ! presumption like 
 this which keeps the greater number of those who transgress 
 the law in the road to perdition which they are pursuing, and 
 this simply because they will not see the truth which is to them 
 accessible no less than to the righteous. But what man who 
 understands properly the operations of the human mind will 
 say, that a tranquillity of conscience in religious matters is a 
 test of innocence ? If we do not inform ourselves of our duties, 
 how can the conscience be awakened to rebuke us if we ne- 
 glect them ? For instance, if a youth at the age of twenty were 
 for the first time to see his father, and not be informed of the 
 relationship subsisting between him and the person before him : 
 is it possible that he would show him the obedience due to a 
 parent ? or would you suppose that there exists a mysterious 
 connection in nature which would at once reveal to the one 
 owing duty the person to whom such duty should be paid ? 
 Most assuredly the uninformed debtor would pretermit the obe- 
 dience, till he is certified that it is indeed his father who claims 
 the same. Or suppose a young man who has from his infancy 
 been trained among a band of thieves to steal or commit other 
 violations against the social peace ; what do you think are his 
 sensations when he abstracts another's property ? Certainly not 
 those of a consciousness of sin, although he may have the fear
 
 166 SALVATION THROUGH REPENTANCE. 
 
 of detection before him, knowing as he must that no one likes 
 to lose any thing once in his possession ; and if such a person 
 is apprehended, he exhibits not unfrequently what we com- 
 monly call a hardened disposition, because we cannot imagine 
 how one can help expressing contrition when he has violated 
 his neighbour's rights. But the truth is, the moral perception 
 of wrong has never been awakened in the delinquent, it is igno- 
 rance which hardens him, and mere punishment arbitrarily in- 
 flicted will most assuredly fail of producing reformation. If it 
 were necessary we could adduce a hundred examples, and vary 
 them at pleasure to prove that the human conscience must be 
 awakened, trained and instructed to make it a fit arbiter of our 
 actions; it is in short a capacity 'in our soul which, like all 
 other capacities, would lie dormant and useless if not called 
 into life by proper education. If therefore we are ignorant of 
 the Bible, if our education has been of that nature which takes 
 no cognizance of our accountability to a higher tribunal than 
 human authority : how is it possible that we should be correct 
 judges of our own conduct ? our conscience, it is true, does not 
 accuse us ; but is it not because it is uninformed, torpid, asleep ? 
 Our repose at night is calm and undisturbed ; not because we 
 have done no wrong, but simply because we are not alive to 
 its existence ; our reflections by day are not disturbed by a con- 
 sciousness of sin, only because we are not informed of the acts 
 that are sinful. If now a man who proclaims the word of sal- 
 vation to his brother were to admonish him to beware of the 
 wrath that is impending, would he be properly answered that 
 the sinner's conscience does not accuse him of wrong ? Assu- 
 redly not ; for he would be compelled to advance that the sin- 
 ner's ignorance produces this self-satisfaction, even if this be 
 real and not assumed, in order to excuse unto men fallible like 
 himself his misdeeds. He would tell the sinner that he ought 
 to search the word of God, compare every action by that uni- 
 versal standard of righteousness, and look with humility into 
 his past conduct to see whether his conscience has not been 
 burdened with many a deed, for which he has rendered himself 
 accountable. If one were farther to say, that his parents before 
 him had done as he does now, that he has never been taught 
 to look upon the like things as sinful : what can such excuse
 
 SALVATION THROUGH REPENTANCE. 157 
 
 avail ? We will admit, for argument's sake, that his ignorance 
 hitherto might perhaps plead an extenuation for him ; but he is 
 no longer ignqrant as soon as his attention has been called to 
 his sinfulness. He before knew not that he offended, and his 
 sin was therefore unconscious ; he was not accused by the in- 
 ward monitor, because the monitor himself was ignorant ; but 
 now conscientiousness has been awakened, a new light has 
 been kindled in his breast, and guilt henceforward will attach 
 to every departure from the right marked out by the Bible. 
 For so we read in Ezekiel iii. 19 :" Yet if thou warn the 
 wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his 
 wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity ; but thou hast delivered 
 thy soul." It thus will appeaV that perseverance in any wicked- 
 ness after instruction has been given is not, cannot be availing 
 to save the soul from death. But let the transgressor open his 
 ears to instruction, let him alarm his conscience when he listens 
 to the admonition that divine grace permits to be addressed to 
 him ; and surely he will accuse himself of the wrong he has 
 done, though before then he was not aware of sin, not alive to 
 iniquity ; and abhorring the filthiness of his ways he will hasten 
 to the waters of cleanliness, even the word of God and his holy 
 spirit, and endeavour to wash away all the pollution which 
 adheres to him, and make himself a new heart, and become a 
 member of the brotherhood of those who fear the Lord, and 
 have a regard to his name. This change of conduct will have 
 also the farther effect of producing a thirst for more extended 
 instruction in the ways of the Lord and his law ; it will incite 
 the regenerated son of man to lay up a treasure, whence he 
 may at all times draw sustenance to invigorate himself when 
 temptation and opportunity to transgress again present them- 
 selves ; and as formerly his ignorance made him torpid and 
 unconscious, his new zeal and increased knowledge will render 
 him quick in perceiving any and every remissness in the fulfil- 
 ment of his duties ; and he will no longer boast of that hardy 
 indifference which is nothing else than a living moral death, 
 but will acknowledge that he now fears to offend, that he now 
 dreads incurring divine wrath ; yet that withal he experiences 
 more real tranquillity, more real joy whenever an act of virtue is 
 accomplished ; for he now bears within him the conviction that
 
 SALVATION THROUGH REPENTANCE. 
 
 he is within the operation of the moral life which is alone found 
 in the words, and in the obedience to the commands, of the law 
 of our God I 
 
 On former occasions we have examined the causes of sin, 
 in so far as they produce the actions which are contrary to 
 the commandments. It is not requisite at present to go again 
 over the whole ground, and we will confine ourselves merely 
 to the obstacle which " stubbornness" lays in the way of a 
 thorough reformation. It is a notorious fact that habit makes 
 us forget either the good or bad qualities, either physical or 
 moral, of any thing which is placed within our sphere of action 
 or enjoyment. The sensation becomes blunted by constant re- 
 petition, till at length we lose sight of the very nature of the 
 thing before us. The delicate ear of the musician will detect 
 errors and jarring discords in the sounds which delight the un- 
 initiated. The latter has enjoyed his false melody so long, that 
 he wishes no better ; the former however is at once aware of its 
 blemishes, and he therefore justly condemns it, and wonders how 
 such a mass of inconsistencies can please any human ear. 
 With regard to taste, even with entire nations, the difference is 
 equally great. The food which shocks many as absolutely dis- 
 gusting, has been converted by habit into a delicacy to many 
 others. The same is the case with dress and ornament. Some 
 forms subject themselves to pressure which constant practice 
 alone can render tolerable ; and some again require a large su- 
 perfluity of garments, which others would, as they think justly, 
 consider a useless burden and injurious to the free and active 
 use of the limbs. But in the moral world habit has no less an 
 affect on the mind. Whatever we have practised from our in- 
 fancy will become natural to us, and we will often wonder how 
 it is that any one can think even of differing from the views we 
 have taken. Any act, when first we do it, may appear either 
 ridiculous, or superfluous ; but if we repeat it, we shall con- 
 stantly feel less of strangeness in it, and we shall lose at last all 
 sense of its either being a matter of merriment or extrava- 
 gance. The first transgression accordingly which we permit 
 ourselves causes doubtlessly a severe struggle and self-accusa- 
 tion ; but if we repeat it often, we by degrees will cease feeling 
 the like unpleasant sensations to mar our unnatural enjoyments-.
 
 SALVATION THROUGH REPENTANCE. 
 
 When a man has therefore for a length of time been sinning, 
 he has no longer any pleasure in the pursuit of virtue, because 
 this course would deprive him necessarily of the things which 
 habit has rendered requisite to his perverted taste ; or because 
 it will impose on him duties the exercise of which is foreign, 
 and, therefore, unpalatable to him. He for this reason perse- 
 veres ; not because he is ignorant that the Bible condemns his 
 conduct, but because he is used to sinning. Now it so happens 
 that most men are either too indolent to institute a rigid self- 
 examination, or are too proud to confess that such a search has 
 resulted in convicting them of guilt. They at all events profess 
 outwardly that they have perceived nothing in their conduct 
 deserving of blame, or which should be altered. They therefore 
 continue to do as they are wont, and pass their days in life-de- 
 stroying follies. But could this pride, or this pride and indo- 
 lence combined, be once humbled, could the creature but once 
 acknowlege in secret before God and in public before men, that 
 the past acts were habits of sin and iniquity ; and could the 
 sinner, thus confessed, but once be brought to break off from 
 unlawful pleasures and seek to find delight in the exercise of 
 religious duties, and could all Israel, could all mankind be in- 
 duced to embrace the happiness resulting from piety and devo- 
 tion : how readily would a thorough reformation be effected in 
 every individual, and how rapidly would the empire of sin be 
 banished from the face of the earth ! 
 
 So many appeals are addressed to us to act after this manner; 
 so much love is expressed by Scripture towards sinful man ; so 
 much regret is recorded about the death of the unrighteous : 
 that one would think that every Israelite would gladly be pious, 
 or, if he has offended, endeavour to merit a return of divine 
 favour. But alas ! the human heart is too proud, habit is too 
 inveterate, passions are too dominant, for us to humble our- 
 selves and to cast off the evil of our ways ; we cling with a 
 bold front to iniquity, and will not listen to the voice of admo- 
 nition that is addressed to us. But why should we remain 
 stubborn ? what is there so lovely in sin ? what so absurd in 
 piety, that we should choose the first and reject the other? why 
 should not the dust of the earth stand humbled before the 
 Creator? why should the child not fly for protection to the 
 
 VOL. in. 15
 
 170 SALVATION THROUGH REPENTANCE. 
 
 everlasting Father 1 Brethren ! there is nothing disgraceful in 
 our publicly confessing that we have acted unlawfully, if we 
 are sincere in our regret ; there is nothing humiliating to ac- 
 knowledge that we condemn our past conduct, when we feel a 
 conviction of sin. Let us reflect, that the disgrace is not in the 
 change but in the perseverance in doing wrong; that the humi- 
 liation now endured before those equally mortal and fallible 
 with ourselves is infinitely less than if our guilty spirit should 
 stand abashed before the unending One, with all its sins un- 
 atoned, with all its transgressions unconfessed. But even the 
 mortification of confessing by a change of conduct that we 
 thought ourselves hitherto in the wrong will soon lose all its 
 disagreeable effects, if we but resolutely determine to disregard 
 the sneers and malicious remarks of our associates. Let them 
 say, that we are grown wonderfully pious, that we are be- 
 coming saints, that we are no longer pleasant companions; 
 what do we suffer by this? Certainly not any injury which is 
 worth minding ; it is merely a little ridicule, perhaps a little 
 pleasant raillery, which we can easily silence, if we candidly 
 state that such jests are unpleasant to 'us, since we are sincere 
 and serious in the new mode of life we have adopted. And 
 grant, that we should all the remainder of our days be exposed 
 to the jeers of the ungodly, or to the taunts of our friends who 
 may perhaps be inclined to censure our strict observance and 
 to wonder at the great change that has taken place within us : 
 admit that such taunts may have a disagreeable effect upon a 
 sensitive and irascible mind in seeing its best acts so misinter- 
 preted and its motive so falsely explained : still is even this more 
 readily borne than the constant self-accusation of the sinner 
 when his attention has been awakened ; and may not the un- 
 charitable remarks of a selfish world be the requisite temptation 
 which our new-born zeal has to encounter ? Moreover, is not 
 virtue always exposed to the same trials ? do not those who 
 never grievously sin meet with similar provocations in their at- 
 tempts at leading a godly life? What reason then has the sin- 
 ner to dread these annoyances more than they who have never 
 sinned, if such can be found ? He will say perhaps, that the 
 latter are so used to obedience that it costs them no efforts to 
 persevere in righteousness, and that they are easily able to dis-
 
 SALVATION THROUGH REPENTANCE. m 
 
 regard the jibes of their friends. But this is not altogether 
 true. No one is so righteous that he is in no danger of falling ; 
 no one is so perfect but he feels unpleasantly if he is exposed to 
 detraction and ridicule ; it is easily said that one has a hearty 
 contempt for malice and slander ; but I fear that but few in- 
 deed actually are so far removed above human frailty as to 
 feel really the contempt they express. In short, it is as much 
 the duty of the sinner to look towards the law of God for in- 
 struction undeterred by the shame of appearing self-accused 
 before the world, as of the always righteous to be mindful, and 
 to persevere in the exercise of, the duties enjoined in the same 
 law. And if therefore we wish truly to escape condemnation 
 for the sins we have done : we must remove the hardness of 
 disobedience from our soul, expose our shame, if need be, before 
 all the world, and pursue the way of righteousness just as we are 
 taught in the words of salvation. Let us consider moreover at 
 whose request, yes request is the word, we are thus to bid de- 
 fiance to the world ! It is not a man who calls us to him, not 
 a mortal whose power is limited, whose days are brief; but our 
 God, the Everlasting, the Omnipotent, the Omnipresent. It is 
 He who appeals to our better judgment, to our love for his 
 favour, to our fear of his power. He tells us to make ourselves 
 familiar with his precepts, and to throw off our stubbornness; 
 He appeals to us to change our actions if there is evil in them, 
 and to return unto the good which we have forsaken. And we 
 are promised, that such an open profession will meet its reward, 
 in the return of the grace of the Lord which we have lost by 
 our transgression. For thus says the prophet : 
 
 invm iruop iNsom 'n n** 
 inarm 'n hx wi vnatrno pK BJO i:m 
 
 : 'T 'i n": rrjw ; niSoS HST O WnS 
 
 " Seek ye the Lord, while He may be found, call ye upon Him, while He 
 is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 
 thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon 
 him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Isa. Iv. 6, 1. 
 
 In these few expressive words the whole scope of repentance
 
 172 SALVATION THROUGH REPENTANCE. 
 
 is clearly laid before us. " Let the wicked forsake his way ;" 
 suppose a traveller has strayed from the proper road into a 
 barren trackless desert, where death threatens him at every 
 step he takes ; would he be wise to stop where he is, or to con- 
 tinue his perilous journey despite of all dangers which surround 
 him, if a benevolent sage were to appear and offer to lead him 
 to the secure highway in a fertile district whence he might 
 reach the haven of his destiny in peace and safety ? We would 
 assuredly say that his blood be on his own head, if he disregards 
 the admonition and refuses to be led by his kind conductor. 
 Just the same is the appeal to the sinner. He has strayed from 
 the road of the law which is the way to salvation; he has de- 
 viated into the howling desert of transgression, which is unpro- 
 ductive of contentment and charged with death and destruction, 
 and every act which he perpetrates when under the dominion 
 of sin is plunging him deeper into the abyss of hopeless degra- 
 dation. But he is met in this miserable condition by the grace 
 of the Ancient of days, who addresses him in endearing terms 
 of love through the words of Scriptures and the advice of the 
 friends of man, the teachers of the word, and the pious asso- 
 ciates whom no one is altogether without, to return to the high- 
 way of salvation in the law which, as we have said, is the 
 course of life : what should he do, but seize the favourable op- 
 portunity which is offered him, and unite himself to the God 
 from whose service he has strayed ? " And," says the prophet, 
 " (let) the unrighteous man (forsake) his thoughts ;" yes, if we 
 are anxious to be secure in our renewed pursuit of righteous- 
 ness, we must not resort to half-measures, to say " we have re- 
 pented for one day, we are now again in favour with the Lord." 
 This course is but a mockery of Providence ; He cannot be sa- 
 tisfied with an attempt to defraud Him by a pretended conver- 
 sion, by an evident exhibition of an ephemeral penance which 
 is forgotten when the day has closed. But how are we to re- 
 pent ? Even as the prophet says, by first pretermitting our sin- 
 ful deeds and then purifying our iniquitous thoughts. We must 
 abhor sin altogether, we must feel that we are unworthy through 
 transgression in the sight of God, and that through obedience 
 alone, continued during the remainder of our life, we can be
 
 SALVATION THROUGH REPENTANCE. 173 
 
 accepted. We must cast no longing, lingering look behind, as we 
 are retracing our steps ; but speed onward, onward in righteous- 
 ness, farther, farther from transgression. And as when sinning 
 we hastened by accelerated steps after we had once yielded 
 ourselves to our desires : so will we be strengthened, as we pro- 
 ceed, to advance faster and faster in the pursuit of righteous- 
 ness ; for the forsaking of our wicked thoughts, or in other 
 words the pleasure we at one time felt in transgressing, will 
 impel us to be active in righteousness, and to grow stronger in 
 grace and holiness. And what will be the result? "Let him 
 return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy on him." The 
 sinner, when he is aroused to self-condemnation, must not de- 
 spair of mercy ; he must not appeal to the magnitude or number 
 of his misdeeds as a proof that he cannot return, since to him 
 no atonement can be given. No, this is not the doctrine which 
 the Bible teaches ; all may be received into favour, all should 
 therefore return. Who is there that has stood in the council of 
 the Lord, and will set a measure to his bounty? who dares to 
 deny to man the hope which God himself has inspired ? No ! 
 the mercy of God is extended to all who come, his forgiveness is 
 not exhausted, and never will be exhausted. He has created 
 mankind for happiness, not destruction ; but it is their business 
 to earn salvation for themselves, at first, by obedience, and if 
 they have sinned, by repentance. Still let no man flatter him- 
 self that he will escape condemnation if he does not repent; for 
 we are told that impenitence will receive the displeasure of our 
 God, who is everliving and cognizant of all our deeds. We 
 cannot escape, except by embracing the call, the invitation to 
 mercy addressed to us ; let us all therefore seek the Lord while 
 He may be found, before our life draws to a close ; let all wait 
 on Him while He is nigh, which is all the days of our existence ; 
 but chiefly at the season of forgiveness which He has instituted 
 as a time of atonement for Israel to their latest generation. Let 
 us be convinced, that it is in our power to be numbered among 
 the righteous and the accepted, the elect of God, because they 
 have done his will, and purified their thoughts from evil. Let 
 there be no holding back, no timidity ; for what have we to 
 fear, if we act rightly ? and what have we not to dread, if we 
 are stubborn and persevering in sin ? 
 
 15*
 
 174 SALVATION THROUGH REPENTANCE. 
 
 O ! that all Israel therefore would hasten forward to embrace 
 the tree of life which the Lord has planted for them ; how 
 happy a season of atonement would this be, if all were to return 
 in truth to the fold of the great Shepherd ! There are those 
 whose hands are defiled by fraud and unjust gain : let them ask 
 for forgiveness of their injured neighbour, make restitution for 
 the wrong they have done, abhor their deceitful way, and then 
 ask of the Lord to pardon their sin, according to his mercy. 
 There are they who have caused dissension and strife among 
 brothers : let them too beware of the wrath they have grie- 
 vously offended ; they must strive to heal the breach they have 
 caused ; they must confess that they have acted treacherously, 
 and humble themselves to their injured fellow-mortals, before 
 they appeal to Heaven for pardon and forgiveness. There are 
 they who have polluted themselves by food which the Scrip- 
 tures call an abomination : they are now warned that their way 
 is sinful, that it is time to serve the Creator and not strive unto 
 the end of their days to satisfy a mere carnal craving for use- 
 less and sinful enjoyments ; and if they have forsaken this evil, 
 then let them too join the crowd of worshippers, and appeal for 
 atonement from the Source of all mercy. There are those who 
 have neglected the covenant of Abraham ; their sons bear not 
 the impression of the seal which is to mark them servants of 
 the Most High ; they have in this manner spoken by their acts, 
 that they wish not to be of Israel, desire for no portion in the 
 law, the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob ; they have 
 braved the Lord, and no punishment has hitherto reached them : 
 but let them too beware ; the justice of God sleeps not He 
 gives them time for repentance, He will not destroy them, while 
 there is hope of amendment ; but surely the judgment will at 
 length be executed, and the outraged covenant will see ven- 
 geance executed upon the transgressors. Let these also there- 
 fore seek the Lord while He may be found, come to his foot- 
 stool with prayer and humiliation, and bring their offspring as 
 an acceptable offering into the midst of the congregation of the 
 Lord, and rear them, as they themselves were, to know that 
 they are of Israel, and their hopes are bound up in Israel's 
 hope. And they who have violated the Sabbaths of the Lord, 
 do they not discover that they have sinned long enough, that
 
 SALVATION THROUGH REPENTANCE. 175 
 
 no satisfaction attends a constant toiling, a labour uninterrupted 
 by a spiritual refreshing at the house of God ? What will their 
 unlawful gains avail when the day of trial at length arrives ? 
 what will their souls say when they must answer the dread 
 Judge when demanding an account of their doings whilst in 
 this state of probation 1 Let these also return from their evil ; 
 God is near to their pra;, ers, if they will sincerely repent and 
 sin no more ; they too will be accepted, if they forsake their 
 sinful way and no longer cling to their thoughts which only 
 counsel evil and will debar them from an entrance into the 
 gates of everlasting life. 
 
 Brethren ! by the favour of God we have been preserved to 
 celebrate the commencement of another year ; his mercy has 
 not been withheld from the labour of our hands ; as yet it is 
 time to seek righteousness ! the portals of mercy are not yet 
 closed ! But who will warrant us that another year will be 
 allotted to any one here present ? how are we to know who of 
 us will be soon carried to the grave ? Should we not, therefore, 
 feel alarmed at the state of uncertainty which is ever extended 
 over human happiness, over human life ? were it not time there- 
 fore that we all should look to our deeds, pluck thence the evil 
 which threatens our peace, and seek for pardon for our past 
 misconduct ? Let no one say, that we have not sinned, indi- 
 vidually and collectively ; there is sin in the houses, in private 
 recesses, in public assemblies, in the dark of night, in the noon 
 of day ! It is therefore the business of all to assist in clearing 
 from briars and thorns the highway of salvation, to purify them- 
 selves and to help in cleansing others. Perhaps we may be 
 received in favour, perhaps the evil which we have merited 
 may be converted into blessing, if the Lord sees that we are 
 entire with Him, and sincere in his service. Perhaps in his 
 mercy He may visit the outcast daughter of Zion, and build up 
 her desolate places and heal up the breaches in her sanctuary 
 which the heathen have trampled down in their triumph, be- 
 cause we had sinned. And how happy would we then dwell ! 
 protected by the law of God, governed by his own anointed ! 
 No longer would our brothers linger in captivity, and writhe 
 under the lash of the persecutor ; and righteousness and truth 
 would guide us all onward to the realms of bliss, to the favour
 
 176 THE COVENANT OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 of God. O ! let this holy aim be our desire ! let us return to 
 our Father, who speaks to us through his word, who appeals 
 to us through our love of life, through our hope of salvation ! 
 Let us, beloved brethren ! devote ourselves to his service, pro- 
 claim aloud that to Him alone we will cling, that we will hence- 
 forward seek in his law alone for instruction, and endeavour to 
 offend no more. Then will we be received as was David re- 
 ceived, our sin will be wiped off, and we will not die ; but live 
 and stand regenerated before our Father who is in heaven, and 
 amidst the assembly of the saints who have done his will. 
 
 Bless us, O our God ! as Thou didst bless our fathers ; and 
 look not to our iniquity, but forgive us, even as Thou hast for- 
 given the sinning seed of Adam from the beginning until now. 
 Accept our prayer, and cause thy word to be sweet unto us ; 
 that we all may be induced to return from our evil ways, and 
 seek for life in thy presence, by a submission to thy holy will, 
 which Thou hast made known to us through thy servants the 
 prophets. Amen. 
 
 Tishry 5th 
 October 2d 
 
 DISCOURSE XV. 
 
 THE COVENANT OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 BLESSED God, the omnipotent I AM ! whose are all existing 
 things, whose happiness is immeasurable, whose goodness is 
 without ending, bless us as ever Thou didst bless the seed of 
 Abraham thy beloved ; be with us in the moments of joy, be 
 our stay in the hours of sorrow ; watch over us when we are 
 obedient, and reject us not when we forsake thy covenant. 
 Have regard to our sinful nature, remember that we are flesh,
 
 THE COVENANT OF ABRAHAM. 177 
 
 and be mindful that we are children of those holy ones of for- 
 mer years, whose devotion and piety Thou promisedst to pre- 
 serve unto a thousand generations. Give us then thy blessing, 
 grant us thy salvation, and cause that from us too may yet 
 spring' generation after generation of true sons of Israel, who 
 will sanctify thy name, even as it is sanctified by thy holy mes- 
 sengers, who declare Thee their God and Creator, and pro- 
 claim : " Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth 
 is full of his glory." Be this thy will. Arnen. 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 Were life never beset with dangers, were there no critical 
 situations during the course of our existence : then would we 
 require no prudence to guide us correctly, no instruction to tell 
 us how to proceed in our plans. So likewise, were religion 
 nothing but an admission of certain truths, or an exercise of 
 nothing but pleasant duties : no admonition, no warnings, no 
 rewards, no punishments would be requisite to render us all 
 religious. If this were so, then life on the one hand would pass 
 away in one uniform state of inaction ; and religion would fail 
 of improving the soul, or of tending to eradicate the evil pro- 
 pensities inherent in our nature. But life is one constant suc- 
 cession of dangers and trials ; all our energies are perpetually 
 called into action to ward off some unpleasant event or to com- 
 bat with some pressing difficulty; the mind thus becomes 
 quickened, the inventive faculties are excited ; and mankind 
 in consequence are always hastening forward to a state of 
 change and improvement, no matter whether the latter be either 
 fancied or real. If occasionally the result of such exertion 
 must be admitted to be injurious to the great mass : still it is 
 more frequently highly useful and even necessary, as experience 
 has amply proved, to infuse life into the stagnant state of inac- 
 tion or torpid submission to misrule. The same is the case 
 with religion ; our souls are susceptible of improvement, and 
 our disposition though inclined to sinfulness can be counteracted, 
 if we have a constant watch over ourselves, and endeavour to 
 shape our conduct in accordance with the law of God. 
 
 Now let us inquire what it is which we naturally seek ? and 
 what it is which we are naturally inclined to avoid ? On the one
 
 178 THE COVENANT OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 hand, we seek pleasure, ease, and enjoyment ; on the other we 
 have an aversion to sorrow, labour, and pain. But let us ask, 
 is it not a moral labour to overcome anger ? the desire for any 
 thing unlawful ? Only be placed in a situation where your self- 
 love and authority have been deeply wounded, where the 
 offender is within your reach for reproof or punishment : and 
 the natural impulse would be to give way to resentment, and 
 to let anger take its course of violence and destruction. But 
 religion steps in and tells you to labour hard against your im- 
 pulse, to put a bridle on your temper, and to obtain a conquest 
 over yourselves, even at the expense of your love of self. Or 
 be placed in a situation where your passions for unlawful en- 
 joyment are strongly incited, where the chances of detection 
 are small> the pleasure great and immediate, the opportunity 
 actually before you though generally of rare occurrence : your 
 nature is drawn to sin ; but the law of God appeals to you to 
 beware, to hesitate, to reflect and to renounce your wishes, in 
 obedience to a higher Will, to a superior Authority. It is 
 doubtlessly true that the resistance of human nature in both 
 instances mentioned will be very great, the love of ease and 
 enjoyment will strongly appeal for gratification ; but the wisely 
 thinking will nevertheless readily distinguish that the labour of 
 self-conquest and the pain of suppressing the passions are the 
 only means to prevent them from feeling hereafter the fruits of 
 indulgence self-abasement, shame and degradation. 
 
 If now any one will not obey the law of God, because it con- 
 tains precepts the execution of which is painful, laborious and 
 unpleasant ; if one avers that the God of love could not have 
 demanded bodily afflictions as a part of his service : we will 
 tell him, that he does not understand the why of these institu- 
 tions ; they are intended to teach us to subdue our natures, to 
 overcome our love of ease and pleasure, to inure ourselves to 
 the sorrows and cares with which our life is beset from its very 
 commencement, in order that we may become wiser and bet- 
 ter, and more fitted for the kingdom of heaven, which is to be 
 our home unto everlasting, our residence unto the utmost length 
 of days. All that is wanting to ensure a proper understanding 
 of these ordinances is a deep-seated faith, or a conviction of 
 the goodness and truth of the Lord in all He does, in all He
 
 THE COVENANT OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 179 
 
 says ; that He will ordain nothing which is not wise, that He 
 will demand nothing at our hands which is not for our own 
 improvement. Were it now, brethren ! that our own wisdom 
 could be so extended as to understand the operation of outward 
 nature and the workings of our own mind ; could we precisely 
 know what is beneficial, what is hurtful, how far one thing may 
 be safely used, and how far we could without danger proceed 
 in our intended plans : then indeed might we be permitted to 
 dive into the recesses of religious truths, and ask for every pre- 
 cept in the law : " Why is this so ?" But how does the case 
 stand 1 The knowledge we have of our own selves is very 
 limited ; the surface only of things is laid open to our view ; \ve 
 taste, we eat, we drink, we revel, without knowing whether 
 there is life or death lurking amidst our joy ; we move onward 
 unconscious whether the next step will bring us to our end. 
 And we will ask of God, why He so ordained it in his law ? we, 
 the short of days, the limited in knowledge, will know the rea- 
 son for every precept before we act ? How presumptuous, how 
 foolish is such a thought ! The rather, we should have confi- 
 dence, the assurance I ought to say, that every precept is given 
 for a wise purpose, for a beneficent end ; and we should obey 
 it with feelings of thankfulness that the Omnipotent was pleased 
 to point out to us the way we should go in order to obtain his 
 approbation. If now the execution of any one commandment 
 should involve the sacrifice of personal ease, and the endurance 
 of some little bodily pain : it will be nothing more in effect but 
 that we have an opportunity to prove, that our love of God is 
 something more than a love of ease and self-indulgence ; that 
 our religious hope is something holier than a mere mercenary 
 feeling ; and that we can love the Lord and worship Him, even 
 if our natural sensations have to be first subdued before we can 
 display this love and this worship. 
 
 Besides all this we may maintain, that though the Bible asks 
 of us the performance of duties which involve bodily afflictions, 
 these are in no case whatever of any lasting or oppressive 
 duration. For the Lord in giving us his law wisely apportioned 
 our duties to our capacities ; and it is therefore in our power 
 to obey whenever the opportunity offers, unless we are restrained 
 by circumstances over which we have no control, which pre-
 
 JQQ THE COVENANT OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 sent then a case of necessity, or, what is the same, an excusa- 
 ble neglect of our positive duties. But in every other instance 
 the unpleasantness of an obligation is no reason why it should 
 not be acted on ; for we should consider that it is a trial of our 
 faith, a proving of our nature, to show whether our confidence 
 in God is sufficiently firm and well established to enable us to 
 sacrifice our ease and inclination in obedience to his will. If 
 now we obey, we have slain SIN which is inherent in us ; we 
 have conquered ourselves; and we have proved that we are 
 indeed servants of the Most High. But if we fail, we have 
 yielded ourselves slaves to sin ; we have been remiss in the 
 battle for righteousness, and have proved that we are recreants 
 in the service of Heaven. On the one hand the spirit has 
 prevailed in the contest with the flesh, and we have become 
 children of light, inheritors of salvation; for we have with- 
 stood, even as is the will of our Master who is in heaven. On 
 the other hand, however, the flesh has prevailed, the spirit is 
 slain, the world is triumphant ; and we have earned for our- 
 selves immortal disgrace, and the lasting displeasure of the up- 
 upright Arbiter who will judge every one according to deeds. 
 
 What is now to be expected from us ? How should Israelites 
 act? Even as Abraham did, in faith, in singleness of heart, in 
 submission to divine will. Before to-day the character of this 
 Patriach has been presented to you as the propagator of reli- 
 gious knowledge, as the harbinger of glorious truths to a be- 
 nighted world. Let us look upon him now in the light of the 
 obedient servant, the uncomplaining, confiding follower of the 
 Lord of hosts. We read in our lesson of this day as follows : 
 
 'n mn CMB> ytrrn rutr own p 
 
 HB> Sx ON vh$ ")D*n DTJN* SN* 
 
 nna ronsn 
 
 : '3 'K T"' 
 
 " And when Abram was ninety and nine years old, the Lord appeared 
 to Abram, and said unto him, I am the God Almighty, walk before me, and 
 be thou perfect. And I will give my covenant between me and thee, and I 
 will multiply thee exceedingly." Genesis xvii. 1, 2.
 
 THE COVENANT OF ABRAHAM. 181 
 
 How greatly had Abram been blessed in all worldly things 
 except children ; and in later years this blessing also had in a 
 measure been added to his almost overflowing cup of happiness. 
 Did he covet wealth ? he was possessed of every thing which 
 constituted riches in those days. Did he sigh for power? this 
 too he had, for he was foremost among the chiefs of his time. 
 Did he desire a good name? this also he possessed in an emi- 
 nent degree. Moreover he was pious, and had been permitted 
 to make the truth that was his known to others, that they also 
 might seek shelter under the wings of Omnipotence, and for- 
 sake the worship of false deities. He was at this time ninety- 
 nine years old ; more than half of his life had already passed 
 away : when he was told, that as yet his piety had not been 
 perfect, and that with all his devotion, with all his public teach- 
 ing, with all the trials he had to encounter, there was yet some- 
 thing more to be done, some farther requisite to holiness was 
 yet expected from him. Hitherto the trials had been outward ; 
 that is to say, whatever had happened to our ancestor was the 
 work of others, which he had to encounter, humanly speaking, 
 whether he would or not; he was placed in circumstances 
 which permitted him no other course of conduct. But now the 
 trial was to be with himself, he was voluntarily to assume the 
 terms of the covenant which the Lord was about to make with 
 him. Abram fell prostrate before the awful Appearance, and 
 the word was vouchsafed to him, and he was told how he 
 should walk before God and be perfect. "This is my covenant 
 which you shall observe between me and between you and be- 
 tween thy seed after thee, circumcise unto yourselves every 
 male." (v. 10.) Understand well, brethren ! Abraham was on 
 the verge of a hundred years, he had all along thought that his 
 course was pleasing to God, and up to this moment he had 
 never yet been informed that circumcision was either a duty 
 or praiseworthy. If Abraham now had been of those whose 
 faith is weak, he might have argued: " Why am I at this late 
 period commanded to do an act which if it be a duty ought to 
 have been revealed to me years ago ? Why should God single 
 out a matter which is painful and unpleasant, and make that a 
 sign of his covenant 1 Could He not have told me of my duty 
 much earlier? or could He not give me a sign which is of 
 VOL. HI. 16
 
 J82 THE COVENANT OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 easier attainment and more consonant with my feelings ?" But 
 he, the first of the children of the East, did not so argue, did not 
 so set up his judgment above the wisdom of the Lord. He was 
 informed that he was not yet entire with God, that it was de- 
 manded of him that he should walk before the Lord, and that 
 he should assume the sign of the covenant, even the circumci- 
 sion of the flesh : and he obeyed ; he was elated with the thought 
 that he at length had an opportunity to prove that bodily incon- 
 venience did not stand as a barrier to his devotion, that he could 
 mortify the flesh, if religion so required it. How holy must 
 have been that faith, how entire that heart which animated the 
 Patriarch ! He voluntarily shed his blood, of his own free will 
 he assumed the covenant, and handed it down to his posterity. 
 And additional blessings were poured out upon him ; the Lord 
 promised that unto all the future descendants of Abraham he 
 would be God, that is to say, that never, never, should the 
 knowledge of the pure ONE depart from Abraham's seed, and 
 that in all ages the God of all would dwell in the midst of the 
 descendants of his devoted servant, if they keep the covenant. 
 And thou, O blessed covenant, hast never yet departed from the 
 midst of us ! In every age, in every land, our brothers have 
 brought their offspring as an acceptable offering to the Most 
 High ; not by immolating them upon the altar of unbelief, but 
 by rendering them perfect as the law demands. And fathers 
 have hastened to impress thee on their sons, and mothers have 
 rejoiced that their portion was so happy ; and the people with 
 one accord have professed aloud, that in thee they acknow- 
 ledge, that through thee they are convinced that the Lord is 
 God alone, that his word will ever endure, and that Israel is 
 the people selected to be his servants, chosen to be the messen- 
 gers of his glory. 
 
 Hitherto Sarah had been childless ; yet the effects of Abra- 
 ham's faith were not alone confined to spiritual grace, but were 
 extended likewise to increase his temporal satisfaction. A year 
 had just elapsed from the time of the announcement, when 
 Sarah, to complete her happiness, saw the fulfilment of all her 
 hopes. Her long-tried confidence, the anxious waiting for the 
 verification of the Lord's promises, had now witnessed an entire 
 accomplishment ; and she could no longer doubt that the fulfil-
 
 * THE COVENANT OF ABRAHAM. 183 
 
 ment of the other promises would not fail, but that from her 
 seed all the world should derive blessing, and that her descend- 
 ants should always be a people sacred to the service of the One 
 Eternal. Therefore at the age of eight days was the child of 
 promise circumcised, as the Lord had commanded ; and thus 
 was the parent of Israel the first of Abraham's sons who re- 
 ceived the impress of the covenant at his entrance into life. 
 
 We, his descendants, stand now on earth, the inheritors of 
 the covenant, the children of salvation under the law. Centu- 
 ries have rolled on, ages have followed on ages, and yet this 
 covenant and this law have stood our protecting angels from 
 amalgamation and perishing among the gentiles. And this co- 
 venant is a constant test, a trial of faith, whether we are willing 
 to walk before the Lord, whether as parents we are sufficiently 
 embued with the spirit of religion to submit ourselves to divine 
 .guidance and inflict upon our sons a few brief hours of pain in 
 obedience to the law, for which temporary suffering they are 
 to be admitted into the community of those who worship no 
 God save the Creator, and who obey no law save the emana- 
 tion of Supreme Wisdom. Parents ! do you fear your God ? 
 do you dread to appear before Him with the sin of neglect, of 
 apostacy, upon your conscience? Then hasten to initiate your 
 children into the covenant, and let them not have occasion in 
 after-life to accuse you of being the cause that they are not 
 members o the Jewish community. It is true, that it is the duty 
 of every Israelite to assume the covenant himself, if his parents 
 have been neglectful of the commandment ; but what reason 
 have you to expect, that your children will be sufficiently 
 strong in faith to submit to the law, if you thought it unreason- 
 able and cruel, or unnecessary, in their infancy 1 Let me im- 
 press it solemnly on your mind, that it is no small crime to cut 
 off an entire household, or an entire family, from communion 
 with Israel. We know well enough that but few temporal 
 advantages are to be gained by this communion ; perhaps the 
 knowledge of our being Israelites may be an injury to our ad- 
 vancement; for as yet the prejudice against our name and our 
 religion have not vanished from the face of the earth. If now 
 you value the fleeting advantages of life so much as to deny 
 your children their rights as Jews ; or if you are so weak in
 
 184 THE COVENANT OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 faith as to neglect as unwise and unimportant what we deem 
 of the first necessity: you will have incurred a responsibility 
 which will weigh heavily against you on the day of trial. Be- 
 sides this, what avails all your seeming religious conduct in 
 other respects, what use can be in your coming to the house of 
 God and claim affinity with and the rights of Israelites : if you 
 are determined, that with your death your family are to be 
 cast out from the community of the Lord 1 ? Or do you believe, 
 that in the progress of time the old covenant will fall into dis- 
 use, and that symbolical or imaginary rites will take its place, 
 and that among such Jews your children will be welcome 
 members ? You greatly err, if so you think ; for trust in the 
 word of God, trust in Him whose promises have never de- 
 ceived, the covenant of Abraham will never cease to be revered 
 and observed by his latest descendants. For what does the 
 text say : 0*71^ JvnV DDiBan 'nnj nrvni " And my covenant shall 
 be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant?" Now this is both 
 a commandment and a prophecy. As a commandment it is 
 certain and undeniable that for thousands of years the covenant 
 has not alone been observed, but has been highly prized as a 
 glorious gift by the children of Israel. And as a prophecy, 
 I will merely say, that as great dangers have passed over us 
 as are likely ever to occur again ; and that amidst all the 
 persecutions we had to endure and all our own apostacies this 
 ordinance never was forgotten or unobserved. Ay, when the 
 heathen oppressors prohibited the holy ordinance under pain of 
 death, the mothers in Israel risked even life itself to obey the 
 will of God ; and in every age and every land the state of un- 
 circumcision was considered a disgrace upon the sons of 
 Jacob. If therefore you wish that your children shall not be 
 cast out, now and for ever, from the community of the Lord : 
 neglect not to fit them by your own act to be worthy members 
 of Israel's household ; reflect that their apostacy, if they should 
 be driven to worship strange gods, will rest upon your own 
 souls ; and that we, the sons of Jacob, will never hold them as 
 brothers who like us bear not the seal of the covenant. And do 
 you not tremble at the thought, that your descendants shall be 
 mixed up with the nations of the earth ? prize you not the holy 
 privilege, the sacred birthright of being the followers of
 
 THE COVENANT OF ABRAHAM. 185 
 
 God, the inheritors of the merit of Abraham, the followers of 
 the law of Moses ? You yourselves are elated at the thought 
 that you are adorers of God, the believers in the one, undivided, 
 unchanging UNITY: and you care not to hand down this preroga- 
 tive to your children? You feel that a high destiny is yours ; you 
 are convinced that the doctrines your parents taught you, that 
 the creed you imbibed with your mother's milk, that the confes- 
 sion you early breathed, " The Lord our God the Lord is ONE," 
 are thoughts worthy of the unending God : and yet you idly 
 cast your offspring into the arms of unbelief, of false worship, of 
 ideas uncongenial to Scripture, unworthy of the holy everblessed 
 Creator? You would be shocked, were any one to invite you to 
 join another religion, to forswear directly your allegiance to 
 Jacob's God : yet do you feel the same regard for your children's 
 future happiness when you exclude them by your own sins 
 from the congregation of the faithful? Perhaps you feel indiffe- 
 rent about religious duties ; perhaps you are tinctured with infi- 
 delity ; and you neglect therefore the commandment, because 
 you do not believe in its necessity ! Even then your conduct 
 is unwise. For understand, the time may come when your 
 convictions may become stronger, when unbelief may yield to 
 a firm faith in the truth of Scripture and the necessity of obe- 
 dience to the commandments ; how will you then do, when you 
 find yourselves surrounded by children NOT of the covenant, by 
 sons who have NO RIGHT, NO PART IN ISRAEL ? Or why will 
 you not leave to your children the choice of being Israelites or 
 not ? The covenant can do them no bodily or mental injury ; 
 it is only an acknowledgment that in the flesh they belong to 
 the house of Israel ; and surely it is their right, as well as- it 
 was yours at your birth, that nothing should be done by their 
 parents which of necessity makes their entrance into the great 
 body of Jews more painful and more difficult, and consequently 
 more uncertain, than it ought to be. You were children of the 
 covenant and yet you rebelled ; let your own children have the 
 same choice ; let them if they think proper become Israelites, 
 if their conviction be stronger than yours, if they are more 
 disposed to obedience than you ; but let them never have cause 
 to say, as many no doubt have said : " It is my father's and 
 mother's fault that I am not an Israelite." 
 
 16*
 
 186 THE COVENANT OF ABRAHAM. 
 
 If littleness of faith will then stand in the way of obedience, 
 fathers and mothers in our ancient people ! it a useless and 
 causeless timidity will instil in you doubt and hesitation : reflect 
 from what stock you have sprung. You are believing children 
 of believing ancestors ; I will never credit that there is one Is- 
 raelite, no matter how irreligious, who is without religious 
 belief; yes, you are of that people to whom a trust in God is 
 natural in all their backsliding : your forefathers were they 
 who in their own persons and that of their children ever sanc- 
 tified the name of the Lord ; and then arouse yourselves and 
 resolve to be worthy of such an enviable ancestry. Abraham 
 was faithful, so was Isaac, so was Sarah, so was Zipporah, so 
 was Joshua, so were the millions who have so long borne the 
 name of the congregation of Jacob ; and at this late day, when, 
 after the clouds of oppression have been almost totally chased 
 away, the sun of freedom begins to shed his benignant light 
 also upon our long-oppressed race, it were surely ungrateful 
 to the Deity to refuse to observe any longer on our part the 
 terms of the covenant, w'hen He, true and faithful to HIS word, 
 has been our God as He was the God of Abraham, and never 
 has withdrawn from us his light, his law, his knowledge, his 
 protection and his goodness, as we see clearly proven this day. 
 Arise then in your might, beloved brothers ! and in the words 
 of the prophet (Isaiah li. 2) : " Look unto Abraham your father, 
 and unto Sarah that bore you ; for one he was when I called 
 him, and I blessed and increased him." Yes, it was through 
 faith that he was blessed ; alone he wandered forth, childless 
 at the age of seventy-five, from his father's house, to follow the 
 guidance of the Lord ; childless as regards Sarah he was at 
 the age of ninety-nine years ; then he became perfect through 
 obedience, through faith, and the covenant, and since that 
 period he became through Isaac the father of a multitude of 
 people, of a people that has maintained the glory of the Su- 
 preme in all parts of God's earth ; of a people trodden down 
 and pillaged, yet upheld by faith, living in the belief of the truth 
 of the Lord, confiding in the justice of his decrees. It was 
 Sarah's happiness to shelter in her bosom the first of those cir- 
 cumcised on the eighth day ; and like her companion through 
 many a weary pilgrimage, through many a sore trial, she thus
 
 THE COVENANT OF ABRAHAM. 187 
 
 had a share in sacrificing in faith her own feelings, her own 
 repugnance, in obedience to the will of her God. May her 
 daughters feel the same call to sanctify ; and may they hasten, 
 in order to ward off" danger from their husbands, and condem- 
 nation from their children, to enter these into the covenant of 
 Abraham. And may the fathers glory that none of their 
 pledges of conjugal love are excluded from the household of 
 our Lord ; but that sons alike and daughters are children of 
 salvation, heirs to the glory and hope promised unto Israel ! 
 
 And thou, angel of the covenant, the messenger of happy 
 tidings ! be present in spirit, whenever this sacrifice is brought : 
 bless, in the name of the everlasting God, each child and every 
 parent ; and proclaim before the mercy-seat of Glory, that we 
 are true to the law, unforgetful of the ancient statutes, and 
 submissive to the divine command. And join thy prayer with 
 ours, and entreat for salvation and redemption for all Israel, 
 in order that it may be announced to us as, in days of yore : 
 " And I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thy own 
 blood ; and I said unto thee, In thy own blood shall thou live ; 
 and I said unto thee, In thy own blood shalt thou live."* 
 
 O God everlasting ! remember the covenant and the fathers 
 who early obeyed Thee, and have compassion on thy people 
 Israel, and forgive them and bless them, because that Thou art 
 their God, the merciful and long-suffering; and redeem them 
 speedily even for the blood of the covenant, and because of the 
 promises Thou didst announce to their forefathers thy servants. 
 May this be thy will. Amen. 
 
 Heshvan 10th 
 November 6th 
 
 * Ezekiel xvi. 6.
 
 188 
 
 DISCOURSE XVI. 
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 O THOU ! who art nigh unto all who call upon Thee, be 
 attentive to our prayers, and grant us the aid we need at thy 
 hands. Bless our labour with productiveness, and deny not a 
 happy increase to our undertakings. And give us contentment 
 and peace of mind, to be satisfied with thy decrees, and enable 
 us to fulfil the duties of our appointment on earth. Guard us 
 from evil, defend us from the malice of the ungodly, and let the 
 light of thy law guide us securely in the path we should go; so 
 that we may live and deserve the blessing which thou hast 
 promised to those who do thy will. Amen! 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 In reading the Bible, the record of the will of God and of the 
 doings of the forefathers of our people and of those who came 
 in contact with them, it is requisite that we should not mistake 
 history 'for example, and look upon all the transactions we read 
 of as acts which we may freely imitate. For^the Scriptures 
 nowhere say, that we should strive to copy any one of all 
 those whose lives are recorded ; and if we are even informed 
 that one or the other of the Bible characters was a man after 
 God's own heart, it by no means follows that every act of his 
 life was praiseworthy. On the contrary, we are presented 
 with the law; and by its standard we are to measure our 
 lives, to do nothing which is in opposition to the same, regard- 
 less what others may have done, and to judge likewise of the 
 transactions which are related to us, whether they be examples 
 to be followed, or instances of deficiency in virtue or faith 
 which it is our duty to avoid. The Bible is a veritable record 
 of all matters which it concerns us to know ; and as the great 
 and good characters of which it speaks were like ourselves 
 fallible and sinning : it gives us a faithful statement of their bad
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 189 
 
 no less than their good deeds ; since the prophets and inspired 
 writers, whilst recording the backslidings of God's favourites, 
 knew that no one could be misled by the bad examples occa- 
 sionally exhibited by these, because the rule was also transmitted 
 according to which every action of theirs or of other men must 
 either be justified or condemned. If then we find not a single 
 perfect man in the Bible, if every one whose life is recorded 
 was at times guilty of faults and want of faith : it is no more 
 than saying, that the great men of ancient days were, like those 
 of our own times, compounds of good and evil. And herein we 
 must admire the perfect artlessness discoverable in the inspired 
 writings. Nothing is told for effect ; no elaborate defences of 
 characters are any where to be found, and no extenuation is 
 offered to make us think kindly of the acts which our own 
 judgment must lead us to condemn, but which our feelings 
 might extenuate if our sympathies were appealed to. It is 
 therefore very questionable, whether the cause of religion can 
 gain any thing by our offering, at this late day, excuses for 
 acts which the Bible merely records ; for if such a course had 
 been deemed necessary, no doubt the Lord's spirit would have 
 impelled the prophets to adopt the same ; their silence should 
 accordingly teach us caution, how we attempt to clear the fame 
 of those we justly prize of the charge of occasional disobe- 
 dience and crime which the holy Text has laid against them. 
 We may safely, maintain moreover, that infidelity gains nothing 
 by the frailty of the servants of the Lord ; nor can religion lose 
 by our candidly admitting that human nature was the same in 
 all ages ; and that though some have had greater light, no one 
 was so perfect that he did not at some period or other of his 
 earthly existence call for and need the forgiveness of God. 
 
 I deemed this much necessary before introducing to you the 
 text to which I wish to draw your attention to-day ; inasmuch 
 as it is an expression of censure on the life of David, just 
 thrown out by the sacred historian in the account he presents 
 to us of the last days of this renowned king of Israel. You 
 are all well aware how highly David is valued as. a man 
 devoted to the Lord, still we find him occasionally in the light 
 of a grievous offender ; he retained the humility of a shepherd 
 on the throne of Israel, still he suffered his inclinations to
 
 190 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 prompt him to the commission of incest and an act akin to 
 murder. With all this he was a character of great excellence, 
 and a mind but rarely found among men. And in his repent- 
 ance and his prayers we have an illustrious example of humilia- 
 tion of the mortal before the Everlasting, and an incentive not 
 to despair of mercy even when we have sinned. David had 
 all his life been the mark for malice and persecution; and what 
 from external enemies, intestine confusion, and the misconduct 
 of his own children, his days were by no means of an even and 
 happy current. Even his last moments were embittered by the 
 arrogance of one of his sons, who aimed to usurp the govern- 
 ment before his father's lamp of life had expired. Now the 
 Scriptures do not enter into long details to account for the 
 heinous crime of Adonijah, but state simply : 
 
 n:o yno "10* voo 
 
 " And his father had never aggrieved him, saying, Why hast thou done 
 this 1" 1 Kings i. 6. 
 
 Parents ! look well to the fate of the son of David, who had 
 never been checked by his father. He was a man described as 
 exceedingly handsome, as a favourite of many of his father's 
 friends, and the oldest in point of birth of the yet remaining 
 sons of the dying king. He must have known that it was his 
 father's wish, by the express command of God, that the younger 
 Solomon,* on account no doubt of his greater wisdom, should 
 succeed to the government ; and yet would he not forego his 
 imaginary rights in deference to his father's will, but rebelled 
 and proclaimed himself king by means of a faction in the state 
 who doubtlessly were in fear of losing their influence if the peo- 
 ple were to elevate Solomon to the vacant throne. Adonijah 
 we are told had never been reproved by his father, and this in- 
 dulgence, unwisely extended, caused him in this weighty point 
 too to regard his own will merely : and the sequel was, that 
 David during his lifetime appointed Solomon his successor; 
 and the folly of the disappointed aspirant was at length the 
 
 * 1 Chronicles xxviii. 5.
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. jgi 
 
 cause that he was slain by order of his brother as'an enemy to 
 the internal repose of the realm ; since with his first failure he 
 had not yet learned to rest content with a private station, for 
 which he was better fitted than the rule over a people like 
 Israel. 
 
 Parents ! regard well the evil effects of indulgence to your 
 children, and learn early to avoid a similar fault in your 
 own families. The responsibility resting upon you is of the 
 first magnitude ; you are the progenitors of beings who have 
 an intelligent soul and a mixed disposition which both prompts 
 to good and to evil. The Lord, we may freely say without 
 employing the words figuratively, has placed in your hands 
 intelligent souls for your safe-keeping ; as we read in Psalm 
 cxxvii. 3: " Lo ! children are a heritage of the Lord;" and it 
 is your business, the employment of your whole life, to see that 
 no neglect of yours should jeopard or injure their earthly or 
 heavenly happiness. Understand, though you have a claim 
 upon them as their bodily parents, there is yet ONE who is 
 your and their Author, and who has consequently a claim upon 
 your own selves, and a superior right in your children, and He 
 has a just title to demand of you a due care and watchfulness 
 over the charges He has entrusted to your temporary custody. 
 You must therefore begin at the very outset to educate them 
 with correct principles, and to train them early in the way 
 they should go. Let us endeavour to sketch a plan of domestic 
 education. The infant of a few months old has some penetra- 
 tion, and it speedily contrives ways and means to satisfy its 
 cravings. If any object strike its fancy and its weak powers 
 prevent it from seizing the same, it will probably cry and weep 
 till it be satisfied or it find its striving ineffectual. If the child 
 succeeds but once in thus gaining its point, it will to a certainty 
 repeat the experiment to gain its end by a few tears opportunely 
 applied. Here now begins the duty of the mother, and it is 
 her province to discover whether the infant's petulance pro- 
 ceed from pain or a perverse disposition. If from pain she 
 will of course apply soothing remedies whether internal or 
 otherwise to remove the cause of suffering ; but if she is con- 
 vinced it is mere wilfulness, it would be highly injudicious to 
 bribe it into quiet. Although a noisy child is very troublesome
 
 192 
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 and unpleasant, it is much better both for its own sake and that 
 of the parents that it should weep and fret till exhaustion at 
 length produce quiet and submission. It is of course out of the 
 question to reason with a small child ; a passive overcoming of 
 a perverse disposition is therefore perhaps the only remedy, and 
 it is requisite that it should be employed despite of its apparent 
 unpleasantness. 
 
 Another duty springs from this consideration as a neces- 
 sary consequence of what we have advanced. It is, that it 
 is unwise for the mother to surrender her child into the care 
 of servants, even at the tenderest age. It is natural, that 
 a servant, the best even of her class, should endeavour to make 
 her task as easy as possible, and to gain the favour of the 
 mistress by quieting her charge at all hazards. I will not now 
 mention the danger of bodily injury, arising from giving it 
 sedative or stupifying medicines, though this too has been done; 
 but confine myself merely to the moral evil of spoiling the dis- 
 position by early indulgence. The mother, as a professor of 
 our religion, is not at liberty to divest herself of the duty 
 incumbent on her, both by nature and religion, of watching 
 over the moral progress of her offspring. If the child were 
 sick, even slightly, the icarld would call her unfeeling, if she 
 were to leave it in the hands of a nurse and go about seeking 
 her pleasures abroad ; how much more has the moralist a right 
 to tax her with neglect, if she is so callous to its moral happi- 
 ness, as to leave the developement of its dawning mind in hands 
 who can naturally feel no inducement, except in rare instances, 
 to do what is asked of them with the least more labour than it 
 is absolutely requisite. There are among those who undertake 
 the charge of infants females of excellent endowments, whom 
 poverty or adverse circumstances compel to enter the service 
 of their fellow-beings ; there are such who in a menial station 
 are anxious to discharge the duties they have assumed with 
 honour and fidelity; but they are. not so general as to render it 
 a safe thing for parents to transfer their prerogative, or their 
 duty rather, to strange hands ; and besides, how can the mother 
 expect that her child shall be well cared for by others for the 
 sake of the small pittance of weekly wages, if the ties of nature 
 cannot secure for it the mother's superintendence ? I do not
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. |93 
 
 mean to say that the mother is bound to be perpetually with 
 the child, that she is to take no recreation, and not permitted 
 to leave it for a moment with others ; no ! but that she is not 
 at liberty to rest satisfied if the child does not trouble her, and 
 to be content to leave it in the hands of servants three-fourths 
 of the day, provided it does not happen to be sick. In short, 
 education should begin from the cradle; the child must be 
 thwarted if it is petulant and unruly ; its temper and inclination 
 must be curbed as soon as it displays any undue anger or 
 unreasonable demands; and it must not be forgotten, that 
 indulgence once commenced, it may be very difficult, if not 
 altogether impossible, to remedy the fault in after-life. 
 
 As soon as the child begins to speak and his reason becomes 
 in a degree more developed, the difficulty which hitherto existed 
 in discovering the source of infantile sorrow, will of course be 
 in great degree removed, and consequently the remedies to be 
 applied will be more apparent. But as at this period children 
 are perhaps more interesting than at any other, especially to 
 their parents, greater care should be used to guard against in- 
 dulgence. Moreover, as speech is now in his possession, the 
 child can demand more intelligibly what he wants than formerly 
 by mere dumb signs and motions. And if you value the peace 
 of your house and the welfare of your offspring, be resolute to 
 persevere in your refusals, and to promise nothing which you 
 might think injurious to the child. It is no use whatever in first 
 saying no, and then to be persuaded or coaxed into yielding ; 
 for depend upon it, children are very quick-sighted, and soon 
 discover, if yielded to, that they can gain the mastery over 
 their parents by petulance and perseverance. They will at first 
 try the experiment in small matters ; but they will soon rise in 
 their demands, and increase with an increase of years and op- 
 portunity in exacting compliance from the over-good nature of 
 their elders. Make it then a rule, not to refuse any thing that is 
 necessary or reasonable to the child's comfort, or occasionally 
 even to his pleasure ; for it is well at times to encourage him, 
 though not by offering a direct bribe for obedience. But if you 
 have refused, let no tears or entreaty move you from your pur- 
 pose. It may seem hard to be so persevering in refusing a 
 trifle which is perhaps of no importance whatever ; but it be- 
 
 VOL. III. 17
 
 194 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 comes of importance as soon as it may tend directly or indi- 
 rectly to relax wholesome domestic discipline ; and the only 
 way to avoid this disagreeable alternative is not to refuse in 
 haste and without due consideration. If you are then resolute 
 in your determination, and exhibit withal no unnecessary petu- 
 lance or testiness in your expression of dissent : the child will 
 speedily learn that he has nothing to gain by a teazing perseve- 
 rance, and the father's refusal or the mother's no will then be 
 a sufficient answer to all his silly demands, especially if he finds 
 that every thing reasonabb is readily conceded. Let me sum 
 up this part in a few words : obedience should be made one of 
 the first things which the child should be able to recollect ; it 
 ought to be the earliest principle instilled in the mind ; and the 
 necessary consequence will be, that obedience in maturer years 
 will become more easy on the part of the son or daughter, and 
 be more easily exacted by the father or mother. 
 
 Another observation I have to make with respect to children 
 from one to three years old ; it is, to be very guarded against 
 nourishing the principles of envy and revenge at this early age. 
 It may be necessary as a punishment for disobedience, to deny 
 to one child the indulgence granted to another ; but great care 
 must be taken not to excite the feeling of envy in the delin- 
 quent ; tell him, that it is a consequence of obedience in the bro- 
 ther that he is more favoured, and that you hope that he will 
 to-morrow merit the same by doing what is right. It were 
 perhaps better at times not to bestow the distinctive mark of 
 favour before the other child, if you know from observation 
 that he is of a sensitive disposition. Be judicious in this point 
 especially, as it is not unfrequently the case that quarrels be- 
 tween members of a family have been the consequence of early 
 favouritism ; and it is unfortunately too true, that parents them- 
 selves are by degrees led to look upon one or the other of their 
 children with more kindness than the others. This is radically 
 wrong ; it not alone fails in correcting as a punishment, but it 
 becomes a downright incentive to stubbornness and a careless- 
 ness in doing the duties demanded : if the child should be in- 
 duced to think that he is ill-treated, especially if he discovers 
 that another's faults are either overlooked altogether, or not so 
 severely visited as his own. With regard to the feeling of re-
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 195 
 
 venge, it will no doubt be self-evident to you, that there are a 
 thousand incentives to excite this unholy passion in the mind 
 of the young. If any thing unpleasant occurs to them, they will 
 naturally appeal to their parents for protection and redress ; and 
 if you have to interfere in their behalf, be it against a servant, 
 a stranger, or one of their own relatives, do it in a mild deco- 
 rous manner ; do not let your children see, that you think they 
 have suffered a great wrong ; do not go about executing justice 
 in a boisterous, excited manner ; do not speak loudly to the de- 
 linquent in the presence of the offended party ; for all such ex- 
 hibitions only encourage the children in tale-bearing and seek- 
 ing of revenge for every, even the slightest, injury. Nor is it 
 correct to pacify the child, if he should accidentally get injured, 
 by striking a chair or any other inanimate object, as though it 
 had offended ; for this too encourages in a very reprehensible 
 manner the feeling of revenge which should be repressed in a 
 good system of education, as unfortunately it is but too apt to 
 be called into play in later years by associates and circum- 
 stances. Moreover such a procedure is irrational ; and it is 
 evidently requisite to exhibit in your own conduct towards your 
 children, even in early youth, nothing which hereafter you 
 should have to tell him was the effect of folly. You lower 
 thereby your authority, and derogate from your dignity as 
 moral guides, and it is of the utmost importance that this should 
 not take place. For if you really wish to be not only beloved 
 but also respected by your children, you must endeavour that 
 in their eyes at least you should stand as high, if not higher as 
 moral preceptors, than any body else ; because by this means 
 the task of governing your household will be much lightened, 
 and rendered more pleasant to yourselves, and more profitable 
 to your offspring. 
 
 If you discover that your child has any evil propensity, no 
 matter how young it is, do not withhold punishment. For if 
 the fault is curable, it is more easily so in the beginning, and 
 when it first shows itself, than when it has become confirmed 
 and grown into an inveterate habit. Little children are men 
 in miniature, and all the germs of a good or bad character are 
 existing in them no less than in adults ; hence the necessity of 
 treating their foibles as the sources of crime in later years. For
 
 196 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 instance, should you see one of your children snatch at any 
 little thing you give to another, or demand a larger portion for 
 his share : you may safely say, that this is a display of covet- 
 ousness, and you should lose no time in counteracting it. If 
 you see that your little son is fond of teazing domestic animals, 
 and taking a delight in inflicting pain upon them, or if you de- 
 tect him in pinching or beating his brothers and sisters : you 
 have cause to tremble for this early exhibition of ferocity, and 
 you must lose no time, and pretermit no diligence to remove so 
 hateful a characteristic. If you see him indulge in violent out- 
 breaks of rage, it is not well to buy him off or to bribe him into 
 good humour ; for this would be paying a premium for a dis- 
 play of an odious feature ; but the evident duty of a religious 
 parent is to endeavour to subdue this failing, both by mildness 
 as far as prudent and well-timed severity where this may advan- 
 tageously come into play. It is no doubt true, that a father or 
 mother, particularly towards an only child, may think it hard 
 to be so severe ; but let us ask, what benefit can result from a 
 winking at faults which will become daily more apparent and 
 fixed ? You would be truly ashamed, were your son at the 
 age of twelve to show a covetous, cruel, or quarrelsome tem- 
 perament ; you would be grieved to hear any one say : " What 
 an unmannered, rude boy this is !" why then will you not 
 begin at once, before his character is formed, to give his mind 
 a proper bend 1 or think you that you will be able to remedy 
 the defect of early indulgence by greater rigour and severity 
 at a later period 1 You should however consider, that if your 
 son could master you when an infant, he is not likely to submit 
 to control as he advances in years ; and even if you are deter- 
 mined to curb him then, and grant even that you should suc- 
 ceed, does it not strike you, that you will have to undertake 
 the unpleasant task of thwarting him at last, and to cause him 
 thereby grief and vexation as much as though you had always 
 restrained him ? If therefore you mean to govern, govern at 
 once ; and you are more likely to succeed in the discharge of 
 your duty, by the early exercise of a little authority and the 
 exhibition of a little severity, than you could hope for at a later 
 date by a positive insisting and an undue portion of vigour, 
 which, whether you will or not, will then be requisite, if you
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 197 
 
 wish to have any control over your family, in even a small 
 degree. 
 
 Another point must be looked after in early childhood ; it is, 
 that you insist upon strict truth from your child. I know not, 
 whether it may not be a natural impulse to deny any thing we 
 have done wrong in ; at all events the smallest child will say 
 no if detected in any fault ; though even this may, like many 
 other defects, be the consequence of bad example, of which too 
 much is always presented to us in every stage of life. Be this 
 however as it may, insist (I need not say with mildness, for this 
 is a matter understood of itself) upon the strictest truth from 
 the youngest child ; reason with him if need be, and explain 
 in simple words the odiousness of falsehood ; tell him how des- 
 picable it is to be caught in an untruth, and that generally, if 
 not always, every equivocation will be detected, and bring ad- 
 ditional disgrace for every offence, no matter how small, which 
 might have been perhaps forgiven if the truth had at once been 
 confessed. But whilst you demand unvarying truth, be cau- 
 tious that you do not deviate from it yourself; never threaten a 
 punishment, if you mean to be begged off; let not the child see 
 that you are wavering and mean not to do what you say ; so 
 also if you promise any reward, be sure to fulfil your words ; 
 it will have a very happy effect upon the young mind, and 
 teach it imperceptibly to love truth and to abhor a falsehood. 
 In the same manner you must repress the pernicious habit of 
 tale-bearing among the family ; endeavour to instil daily into 
 every one under your charge to practise forbearance and good 
 nature ; tell him, that the offence was perhaps not committed 
 on purpose, and seek to discover whether the offended party 
 might not have committed the first aggression. It is certainly 
 mortifying to a high-spirited child to find his complaints dis- 
 missed in such a manner, and to have the wrong laid to his 
 charge ; but what matters it that he suffers pain in this way ? 
 can it do him any injury? is his temper not improved thereby? 
 is not turbulence repressed '( malevolence rebuked ? and con- 
 tention stifled? Now reverse the case; suppose in your pa- 
 ternal fondness you would listen to the accusation brought by 
 your son against a neighbour's child, and were without investi- 
 gation to insist upon your friend's punishing the delinquent for 
 
 17*
 
 198 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 the injury which has, for all you may know, been accidentally 
 done, or perhaps in self-defence; let your son know that you 
 got the offender well whipped for the outrage, and show your 
 evident satisfaction at the result, and recount the minute cir- 
 cumstances to your wife in the presence of the accuser; do 
 you not thus tell him to persevere in his course ? to do what- 
 ever mischief he pleases to others ? that you only will believe 
 him your darling your- child? Or perhaps tell him in so 
 many words that you will see him righted after this foolish 
 fashion ; and as sure as you live, you lay the foundation for a 
 tricky, quarrelsome, and highly unamiable character. Under- 
 stand distinctly, education should tend to correct the evil pro- 
 pensities of the human heart, to counteract the evils of bad 
 examples ; and surely your system would be worse than no 
 education at all, if you encourage and by that means foster 
 one of the worst traits to which we are naturally addicted. 
 
 A domineering propensity is also occasionally shown by 
 young children ; they will at times insist upon having this thing 
 or the other, and will not unfrequently aim a blow at a servant 
 or an older brother or sister if not immediately gratified. If 
 you discover this feeling, you must oppose it at all hazards; for 
 if persevered in and not early eradicated, it will grow with 
 every day, and cause them much unhappiness as they advance 
 in life, and render them truly odious in the eyes of others. The 
 more wealth you have, the more you are likely to leave to your 
 children : the stricter you must insist on an humble and kind 
 bearing from them to all around them, especially to servants, 
 who naturally must feel some reluctance in informing you of 
 such a fault, unless your sense of religion demands of you, to 
 ask for a correct statement of your children's conduct in your 
 absence. Observation has taught us, that children are not un- 
 acquainted with their parents' superior power which wealth 
 gives them, and that they are sufficiently apt to avail them- 
 sevles of all the advantages arising therefrom ; especially as 
 rich men's children are only too often the objects of regard to 
 visiters and others who may some way or another wish to pro- 
 pitiate their parents' favour. If you are therefore judicious, 
 and can yourselves set a proper value upon the glittering dross 
 which we are all striving for ; if you yourselves are impressed
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. jgg 
 
 with the unsubstantial tenure you have in worldly goods and in 
 your mortal life : you will pretermit no effort to enforce humi- 
 lity and patience, and to insist by all means upon an amiable 
 and decorous behaviour even to subordinates. Your children 
 in this case also as in others should have your example to teach 
 them the duty practically, which your words call for in theory; 
 you yourselves should be kind to servants, mild in your reproofs 
 of them, and never show any arrogance or pride to these and 
 all others under your control and direction. You may think, 
 perhaps, that your children will always be provided for, and 
 that they, who work for money, are not of sufficient importance 
 to deserve protection against the favourite offspring of wealth 
 and affluence ; but you err if you judge so. It is not so much 
 the protection of the subordinates, though this also is of vital 
 moment, as the improvement of the children themselves, the 
 rendering them amiable, which can be attained only by the 
 means we have indicated; it is your duty to improve their 
 minds, and clear away thence all those evil qualities which 
 may become prejudicial to their peace and future happiness ; 
 and as we said, and as the good sense of every man will tell 
 him, no quality is more hateful even in the great and exalted 
 than arrogance and overbearingness. Besides this, you ought 
 to reflect, that in the constant mutations which are going on 
 in the world no one can determine, whether the servants now 
 at your beck and call may not at some future day become ex- 
 alted above your children, and whether these may not be com- 
 pelled to ask of those, who once served you and them for pay, 
 for aid to assist them in their necessities. Now grant that this 
 should never be, still man may become useful to another in a 
 thousand great and little ways ; and the love of a menial secured 
 may stand in good stead to you and them in situations where 
 the assistance of the great is of no avail. In addition to all 
 this the servant is a child of God, and as such claims your pro- 
 tection, the more so because he is subject to your power ; this 
 therefore is an additional reason, why you should insist upon a 
 conciliatory conduct from your children, the younger as well 
 as the older, to your domestics, and show to them that you 
 likewise are not backward in this important duty which you 
 as servants of God must exact of them.
 
 200 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 If by the visitation of the Lord you have been deprived of 
 one or more children, let this be no excuse for indulgence ex- 
 tended to those that remain. It were indeed making a bad use 
 of the admonition of Heaven to convert it into a curse (for so 
 indulgence is) to intelligent accountable beings. The mother 
 may perhaps fancy, that in the cry of the child before her she 
 is impelled to kindness by the memory of those who were taken; 
 but it is a mere weakness which may readily be overcome 
 by a little fortitude; by considering that to indulge the living 
 cannot restore the dead. It is surely a singular infatuation, 
 which can only be explained by supposing that the parents at- 
 tach a greater value to a child because they were deprived of 
 others, to overlook faults in the survivor which otherwise would 
 have been checked ; and it requires no profound thinking, that 
 it is unwise for many reasons. First it looks like dissatisfac- 
 tion with the will of God, and a stubbornness in submitting to 
 his irrevocable decree ; and secondly, the child so educated will 
 not have any reason to thank his parents for spoiling him ; not 
 to mention other considerations which readily present them- 
 selves. 
 
 We will now sum up this part of our subject briefly. It is 
 the duty of the parents conjointly, to watch over the disposi- 
 tions of their children from the earliest age ; to check every 
 fault, and to counteract every evil propensity. Not to be moved 
 by tears, by petulance, or perseverance; but to act with the 
 responsibility to the Lord before them. This supervision must 
 not be entrusted to others, no matter who they are ; but father 
 and mother themselves must fulfil the trust which they have 
 received, and to execute which they are mutually pledged to 
 one another. They should reflect that David, who is styled " a 
 man after God's heart," is censured in the holy Scriptures for 
 a neglect of his authority in the case of one of his sons, who in 
 consequence met with an untimely and violent death. It is not 
 to be supposed that early indulgence will have this unhappy 
 effect in all instances; but the resulting evils are sufficiently 
 great and appalling without supposing extreme cases. Still if 
 w r e could examine carefully the lives of great malefactors and 
 sinners, we would no doubt find, that the early folly of their 
 parents laid the foundation for their temporal or permanent un-
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 201 
 
 happiness. Let me appeal to you then, brothers and sisters of 
 the house of Jacob ! to fulfil your trust in the spirit and letter 
 of the law, and cause thereby that your' children may live long 
 and happy in the fear of the Lord, and bless their earthly pa- 
 rents who early restrained their sinful propensities, and pointed 
 out to them thus the road which leads to the mansions of ever- 
 lasting felicity ! 
 
 May the Lord our God enlighten our spirit with his wisdom, 
 and bless us with his grace, even as He was with our fathers ! 
 Amen. 
 
 Heshvan 24th > -/,/, 
 November 20th ( OW1< 
 
 DISCOURSE XVII. 
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 UNTO Thee, O our Lord ! be praise and glory, for all the grace 
 and truth which Thou hast done to thy servants, for the many 
 innumerable benefits which we have received at thy hands, for 
 the many acts of goodness which, undeserving though we be, 
 were showered down upon us in liberal measure, and in seasons 
 of affliction no less than in hours of rejoicing. O! that we 
 might all be alive to the debt of gratitude we owe unto Thee, 
 and that all might endeavour to merit thy beneficence by obey- 
 ing thy holy word, and spreading a knowledge thereof unto 
 those not yet acquainted with thy service and worship. But 
 do Thou ! in thy mercy, give us the spirit of counsel and 
 understanding, that we may be enabled to teach the truth even 
 as it is pleasing to Thee, and to bring many precious souls to 
 seek for shelter and salvation under the shadow of the wings of 
 thy glory. May our eyes see this, and may all Israel be wit-
 
 202 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 nesses of the outpouring of thy holy spirit at the coming of the 
 redeemer, thy messenger. Amen ! 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 In my preceding address I endeavoured to sketch out a 
 simple and comprehensive plan of a domestic education of 
 young children in accordance with the principles of our 
 heaven-born religion ; and I trust that the rules which I con- 
 sidered it my duty to lay before you will be found both practi- 
 cable and consonant with reason. And I candidly believe that 
 the duty of early government of the household is, like all other 
 duties demanded by our law, the best promoter of domestic 
 happiness and a useful life in after-years. Let us to-day pursue 
 the subject in its more distinct branches and later applicability. 
 We are taught in the Proverbs of Solomon : 
 
 no* 
 
 : moo 
 
 " Train up the boy in the way he should go : and even when he is old he 
 will not depart from it." Prov. xxii. 6. 
 
 Another version of this verse is : " Train the boy according to 
 his capacity;" which, although slightly differing from the 
 common translation, does by no means change its meaning. 
 The wise king of Israel wished to impress upon the parents the 
 duty of watching over the conduct and progress of the child, 
 and to afford him such instruction, suited to his capacity and 
 years, as will engrave itself deeply upon his mind, and will not 
 be eradicated or forgotten even when the frosty years of old 
 age have long since banished the days of youth, and the early 
 instructors are laid low in the silent grave. To insure this 
 happy result it is necessary that you should begin correctly 
 and start in such a manner, that you need not retrace any 
 step you have once taken. Begin therefore with correct 
 principles, and inform the child early, in a manner suited to his 
 years, of the duties which he owes as the creature of the 
 Supreme, and as a member of the human family at large. 
 And as soon as he is able to learn teach him, after the good cus- 
 tom of our people, to glorify the Lord by the word of his mouth;
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 203 
 
 make him early familiar that He, our God, is ONE, that He is 
 the sole Ruler and Governor of the universe, and that from 
 Him alone proceeds all the good we enjoy. Let his first 
 thoughts be fixed upon the profession of our faith ; let him 
 know by heart, as the first of his acquisition in knowledge, the 
 Shemang, " Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is 
 One ;" let him learn it loo in the sacred tongue, which, together 
 with the law, is a blessed inheritance from our fathers ; instruct 
 him in simple and to him intelligible words how to address the 
 throne of Grace ; so that he may at once be made to feel that 
 he is a dependant and a servant of a spiritual Being who 
 watches over all his acts, and rewards the good and punishes 
 the evil. In doing this, however, you should speak to him as a 
 rational being, and not make use of superstitious terrors to 
 frighten him into an unwilling obedience, nor attribute to the 
 Deity feelings and qualities which are foreign to the Bible 
 doctrines. Our God is so exalted, so pure, so unspeakably 
 holy, that every attempt to invest Him with human frailties is 
 blasphemous in the extreme ; and in serving Him we cannot 
 go farther astray from true piety, by any misconduct whatever, 
 than by an indulgence in superstition. It is thus your duty, 
 as guardians of. an accountable spirit, to make your child a 
 devoted worshipper, not an ignorant bigot, not a terrified 
 believer in nonentities. Religion in its most extended sense is 
 diametrically opposite to such fqlly ; and it is therefore your 
 first duty to teach the true worship without admixing imaginary 
 fears and ideal terrors. Hence you must not permit on any 
 account to let your child be entertained by ghost-stories or the 
 exploded notions of witchcraft, lest his reason become obscured 
 by such revolting inconsistencies. And there is danger of this 
 being the case ; for it is true, though an apparent paradox, that 
 the mind of most human beings has a fondness for the marvel- 
 lous and for harrowing recitals ; they are a species of stimu- 
 lants which the vitiated taste will drink in with the ear, as the 
 corrupt drunkard swallows the intoxicating poison as though it 
 were a pleasant and wholesome beverage. If therefore early 
 impressions of superstition are permitted, if the child is suffered 
 to become acquainted with such absurdities, as will cause him 
 to invest with fancied terrors many an innocent action, and
 
 204 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 people with imaginary beings the receptacles of the dead or 
 dark corners in your dwelling : you expose him to one of two 
 great evils ; you may cause him in maturer years to run the 
 danger of embracing infidelity and unbelief, when he discovers 
 that the terrors of youth are idle, and when a defective educa- 
 tion has blended these intimately with the everlasting truths of 
 religion. For in the presumption of boyish arrogance many 
 are induced to judge from uncertain premises and hastily 
 drawn conclusions ; they think they have a thorough knowledge 
 of every abstruse subject presented to them, because they have 
 a little information in popular sciences or a superficial acquaint- 
 ance with one or the other of the learned professions. If they 
 now have any cause to connect religion with acknowledged 
 falsities, they are too apt to reject both, because they do not 
 weigh the evidences and the overwhelming authority by which 
 the former is supported. Now it is against this unhappy result 
 that you must guard the child from the beginning; let therefore 
 acknowledged truths alone be brought to his view, that he may 
 not have any occasion to unlearn or reject as false and unrea- 
 sonable any thing he has once imbibed under your instruction 
 or by your sufferance. Besides the danger of infidelity which 
 may possibly be the consequence of an acquaintance with 
 superstition, there is another but little less injurious. If the mind 
 has become once saturated with horrors, it is with some tem- 
 peraments likely enough that the impression will never wear 
 away, but give a colouring to thoughts, feelings and actions 
 throughout an entire life. It may perhaps be said, that the 
 age of superstition has passed away, that general enlightenment 
 will cause a greater tendency to an entire unbelief in all 
 spiritual beings, than an adoption of acknowledged nonentities. 
 There may be truth in this remark, with regard to the majority 
 of men in civilized countries ; but experience has also shown, 
 that there are many exceptions, and that the mind can be 
 warped by false inculcations to adopt any absurdity which can 
 enter the imagination of the veriest madman that ever lived. 
 Superstition and mysticism the most horrible have existed side 
 by side with the most reckless infidelity ;* and daily experience 
 
 * The atheism of the French Revolution was accompanied by the exist- 
 ence of the theophilanthropists, and the goddess of reason.
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 205 
 
 proves that at this very hour, there are men, nay among the 
 most enlightened, who pat faith in ridiculous pretensions* to 
 revelation which would have disgraced the age of the cru- 
 saders. Now a superstitious mind is constantly alive to un- 
 founded apprehensions, and invests things with power which 
 are either powerless, or are at all events innocuous ; which 
 fancies will at length destroy a healthy religious sentiment, and 
 banish perhaps a reliance on the protection of the Supreme. 
 Moreover, superstition, by substituting a resort to acts for- 
 bidden by the letter and spirit of the law, not unfrequently 
 engenders fanaticism, which is a furious adherence to notions 
 bearing a semblance to religion which are far, veiy far, distant 
 from this holy principle; and superinduce at times acts of 
 barbarity at which sober reason has cause to shudder. Yes ! 
 go to yonder hill and survey the crowd gathering below ; hear 
 their shouting ! behold their evident ecstasy ! and do you know 
 the cause ? Watch well ! see yon youth decked out in fantas- 
 tical garments see the maiden in similar habiliments following 
 her ardent brother ! behold around them are aged men bearing 
 in their hands images of what they call their saviour ! and 
 regard how the youth and the maiden fix their gaze steadily 
 before them or on vacant space, carefully shunning to cast a 
 look upon the idolatrous figures which surround them ! Now 
 hear the populace heaving forth their curses at the unbelievers 
 see the lighted stake, the executioners heaping up the fagots 
 for the intended sacrifice ! and what think you betokens this 
 horrible, this fantastical exhibition? It is a noble scion of 
 Israel's household, it is a high-souled maiden worthy of the 
 ancient mothers, who are in the enemies' power, and are led 
 forth to execution, because they will not forswear the God who 
 redeemed our fathers ! Their thoughts are turned to the Lord 
 of their spirits, their souls are in communion with the One King, 
 the everlasting God ; they will not listen to the false priests who 
 offer them life, honour, and w r ealth, if they will forsake the 
 renowned name which they inherited from their ancestors ; 
 and from mouth to mouth of the immense crowd it is whispered 
 that the infidels remain unrepented, (for so it is called in their 
 
 * Mormons, and other similar fanatics. 
 VOL. in. 18
 
 200 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 vain delusion,) and they heap maledictions upon the unfortunate, 
 and eagerly thirst for their martyrdom. Now the devoted sister 
 and the ardent brother for the last time on earth cast a fond 
 look at each other ; their cheek is not blanched, their eye does 
 not quail ; but persevering in their high resolve, their arms are 
 bound to the stake, and soon the flames ascend in curling wreaths 
 over their heads, and with their last breath they seal their devo- 
 tion and their love for the Holy One and his law; and their 
 spirits speed hence to those realms of bliss, where truth needs 
 not to fear the demon of falsehood, where the sword strikes not 
 to wound the innocent, where the flame does not consume the 
 followers of our holy faith. And yet their persecutors think 
 that they are doing an acceptable service to the God of love ! 
 They rnurder the innocent, and fancy that He, who said that 
 " from the hands of all living he would require the soul of man," 
 could look upon such barbarity with complaisance and favour ! 
 So direful are the effects of false belief, so repugnant to huma- 
 nity the actions which it often prompts ! You may say that 
 the picture just drawn belongs to times that have long since 
 passed away ; we will admit it in a measure ; but human 
 feelings and frailties are the same in all ages, and we capnot 
 tell how far a system of folly may be carried, if no steps are 
 taken to guard against its extension or its re-entrance, if it 
 even should have been totally banished. Besides this we are 
 occasionally witnesses of isolated deeds of barbarity and self- 
 immolation, produced by a wrong bend of the mind, when it is 
 under the influence of moody melancholy, caused by a false 
 view of the attributes of God ; such as the ideas of a total 
 rejection from grace, an impossibility of repentance, an impla- 
 cability of the Merciful One, a supposition of atonement through 
 a mediator only, and similar unscriptural errors. Happily 
 these errors are not properly belonging to our people ; we are, 
 perhaps, freer than any other class of men from gross supersti- 
 tion and false belief; we may freely say that Israelites have 
 for the greater portion a general and correct knowledge of the 
 unchangeable truths of the Bible : it is nevertheless not to be 
 denied that minor superstition has not been always foreign to 
 us, and that we have often borrowed the erroneous notions of the 
 different countries in which we happened to live. I need not
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 207 
 
 entertain you with the details of the confident belief in the 
 existence of witches and ghosts, in the efficacy of charms and 
 conjurations, of good and evil omens, of signs and portents, which 
 belief is even now not altogether extinct, to convince you of 
 the correctness of the assertion ; your own knowledge of the 
 subject is amply sufficient without extraneous proof. Nor is it 
 necessary to investigate how such absurdities were ever en- 
 grafted upon the doctrines of Holy Writ which energetically 
 teach the opposite views; enough for our purpose that we in 
 the process of time did not escape the contaminating influence 
 of error which ignorance had caused to prevail among gen- 
 tiles ; and hence we are bound to warn those who are to watch 
 over the education of our children, be they parents, guardians, 
 or teachers, to use every effort to guard against the growth of 
 superstition, and not to permit their charges to become ac- 
 quainted with such absurdities if it can be avoided. So likewise 
 they should be very careful that children hear nothing of the 
 erroneous ideas concerning the Deity which are contrary to our 
 religion ; since these errors will more or less check the growth of 
 true piety, and prevent them from acquiring early or correct 
 comprehension of the attributes of the Lord which are con- 
 tained in the law. 
 
 The subject of correct ideas of religion and the errors of 
 superstition is of so great importance, and occupies necessarily 
 so ample a field, that a moralist might will be excused if he 
 were to spend many hours in depicting it in its various ramifi- 
 cations. But as our present object is merely to regard it in 
 connection with a general system of education, we must leave 
 it in the unfinished state it has been presented to you ; since the 
 intention is more to give you means for reflection than a com- 
 plete illustration of the benefits of truth and the injury resulting 
 from falsehood. You will however readily distinguish, that 
 the duty demanded of you to inculcate pure, unadulterated, re- 
 ligious doctrines, in early youth, is of the highest importance ; 
 and that consequently you, as parents, are also bound to watch 
 yourselves in this part of education over the developement of 
 the intellect of your child, and to see that through the agency 
 of others no errors are instilled which might prevent the spread 
 of truth and piety. Hence it is requisite, that the child be not
 
 208 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 left in the society of those who would either from ignorance 
 or design counteract this part of domestic education; and if 
 you hava to entrust him to domestics occasionally, forbid them 
 energetically to indulge him with superstitious stories, or to in- 
 struct him in any manner in doctrines foreign to our religion. 
 So also, you should never use terrors of a mental nature to 
 frighten him ; or to make strange noises as though an extraor- 
 dinary being were coming to inflict some indefinite vengeance 
 for any act of disobedience. All this is totally wrong. You, 
 the parents, should make your words respected by every one in 
 your house ; in all worldly matters your orders should be law, 
 obedience to which you should by all means enforce ; but more 
 than all your child should be told that he is bound to obey you, 
 because you are his parents, who provide for his wants and 
 watch over him with fondness and care, that, as far as lies in 
 your power, no evil shall happen to him ; be in earnest in your 
 determination, and command nothing about which you may 
 afterwards be indifferent ; and you will have no occasion to 
 call in the aid of frightful figures to insure obedience. In the 
 same manner, when you think proper to reward your child, do 
 not employ the agency of a supernatural being to bring the gift 
 to him ; a few times he may acquiesce in the truth of what you 
 tell him ; but he soon will see through the shallow device, and 
 detect the pious fraud of his progenitors. It weakens your au- 
 thority, when you are convicted in the mind of your child of 
 deception ; but reward direct, tell him you give him this or that 
 trifle (it is no use to give valuable things,) because he has done 
 his duty in a manner to elicit your approbation, and that you 
 hope he will often give you cause to show him your satisfac- 
 tion. Although now I would recommend a rare resort to re- 
 wards, as children should early learn to love virtue for its own 
 sake and not on account of pay : still if rewards are used, let 
 the child have an opportunity to connect them with the appro- 
 bation of his parents and his own good conduct ; he will thus 
 be taught to love his duty, and perform it to please his kind 
 father and his affectionate mother who are so anxious to make 
 him happy. 
 
 To. encourage the child in obedience it is a good plan to 
 render the gradual execution of religious duties the means to be
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 209 
 
 employed. There are happily in our religion certain offices 
 by which youths can become gradually initiated into the way 
 they should go; and tell your child therefore that he shall be a 
 participant in the others as soon as he shows himself worthy 
 by a previous observance of the duties already open for him. 
 Among these initiatory acts we may reckon the offices in the 
 Synagogue, which can happily be held up as objects of emula- 
 tion to young children even, and which should be attainable 
 only by obedience and good conduct. So also the reading of the 
 weekly section of the prophets, attainable only through diligence 
 at studies and worthy behaviour ; it will give a degree of zest 
 to youths and make them look upon themselves as having a 
 portion in the service of the Lord, and stimulate them to be- 
 come yet more familiar with the ceremonies and observances, 
 and to induce them to be careful in supporting the degree in 
 religious standing they have already attained. There are so 
 many other acts by which a gradual initiation may be brought 
 about by judicious and religious parents, that it is not necessary 
 to dwell any longer upon details which must at last be left to 
 their good judgment. One thing however I must mention, that, 
 as there are no mysteries in our law, you should endeavour to 
 explain every observance as well as you can, exhibit the scope 
 and extent thereof, and give the reason for its institution 
 wherever the Scriptures give us such a reason; and where no 
 cause is assigned, for instance in those laws called statutes or 
 ordinances, you may, or rather should, tell your child at once 
 that such commandments were instituted by the wisdom of 
 God to preserve Israel a distinct people among all other nations 
 of the earth, to be consecrated to his service. You gain greatly 
 by this exposition ; for by expounding to him the reason, where 
 this is discoverable, say for instance the observance of the Pass- 
 over, in commemoration of our redemption from Egypt; the in- 
 stitution of the unleavened bread, to celebrate the unprepared- 
 ness of our forefathers when they were released from bondage ; 
 the annual Pentecost, to call to mind the promulgation of our 
 heavenly code from Sinai, you at once raise in your child a 
 patriotic sentiment of attachment to Israel at large, and a de- 
 sire to do something to become worthy of participating by his 
 acts in the goodness and protection which the Lord has pro- 
 
 18*
 
 210 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 mised to his people. You can in no manner whatever excite a 
 greater love for religion ; and by degrees he will endeavour to 
 copy your actions without your being obliged to demand it 
 from him ; on the contrary, he will think himself favoured if 
 you take him with you to the house of God, if you permit him 
 to go with you to the chambers of the sick, to be near you at 
 the interring of the dead, and to have by your bounty the means 
 to drop his trifle into the collection made for the poor. And if 
 he sees you earnest in your conduct, the thought of doubting 
 will not arise within his mind ; and he will gradually become a 
 willing, understanding, but not a blind, follower of the Mosaic 
 code. 
 
 It evidently is therefore your duty not alone to show your 
 child a holy example in your own person; but to keep those from 
 an intimate footing in your house who speak slightingly of, or in 
 opposition to religion. If you wish him to grow up entire with 
 his God, you should withdraw him from evil communication; for 
 as we illustrated with superstition, the mind gradually becomes 
 tainted with the corruption of unbelief and lukewarmness, if it 
 is constantly or even occasionally exposed to the deleterious 
 poison which flows from the mouth of the ungodly. Their agree- 
 able manners and pleasant conversation are no excuse for your 
 tolerating their intercourse ; and if such persons are from neces- 
 sity admitted to your fireside, you must insist upon their keep- 
 ing silence on disputed matters of religion. You may think it 
 your duty to effect if possible their conversion ; but do not dis- 
 pute before your child, till he is old enough not to be affected by 
 the doubts of your antagonist ; fo you cannot tell how an argu- 
 ment badly conducted by the defender of religion may operate 
 injuriously upon the happiness of one who may appear an 
 uninterested listener. We will leave out of the question that 
 arguing with an unbeliever seldom carries conviction with it; 
 since the haughty pride of the human heart not unfrequently 
 refuses to yield, even if the arguments brought forward to 
 sustain its positions are weak and untenable, and often resorts 
 to abuse and ridicule if nothing more tangible is at hand. I 
 say, we will not take this danger into view, where the child 
 may-see sacred truths treated with contempt or levity; for even 
 if this should not be, and you should succeed in silencing the
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 211 
 
 arguments of your opponent and he confess himself vanquished : 
 still the bane of infidelity has been infused in your child's ear, 
 and the danger incurred of having thereby shaken the before 
 tranquil acquiescence in religious truths. It is not that religion 
 is weak, or that its tenets are not defensible by the most cogent 
 arguments ; but that it is unwise to do any thing to chill the 
 ardour of youth by exhibiting in its presence exemplifications 
 of those wicked men whom it is much better to know in theory 
 only. It is deplorable enough that in riper years our constancy 
 should be exposed to the temptations of the world, and to have 
 our hopes attacked by the shallow arguments of a sensual phi- 
 losophy, which attracts us because it promises a gratification of 
 the passions undisturbed by the admonition of Scripture ; and 
 surely it is best to let the days of early youth pass in tranquillity 
 and an entire acquiescence in paternal admonition, and the 
 pious instruction of our first teachers. There is no question, 
 but that much of irreligion is owing to an early unsettling of 
 conviction by wicked associates, and by hearing the command- 
 ments spoken lightly of; for the Scriptures inveigh against evil 
 companions for adults who possibly may be fortified by a long 
 course of reflection, how much more should such be deprecated 
 when they may tend to corrupt the mind of children. And 
 these are the words of the first Psalm : " Blessed is the man 
 that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in 
 the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful ; but 
 whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and doth meditate in 
 his law day and night." Let it be therefore your endeavour to 
 surround yourselves only with those who honour religion with 
 words and actions, let those only be the inmates of your house 
 from whom no bad examples are likely to operate on the mind 
 of your child. In this exclusion of irreligious persons there is 
 no bigotry or persecution ; for as the guardians of the peace of 
 your household you are as much bound to ward ofF dangers to 
 the mental welfare, as you are sedulous to exclude the incen- 
 diary from destroying your domicil whilst you are wrapt in 
 unconscious sleep. And in this instance also no less than in 
 every other, prevention is far preferable to a cure ; and it is 
 almost reduced to a certainty, that the child, if not vitiated by a 
 corrupting influence, will grow up gradually a true follower of 
 religion.
 
 212 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 Such a selection of associates around your table becomes the 
 more necessary from our present state of dispersion in small 
 numbers all over the world. We live in the midst of commu- 
 nities whose system of belief is not only different, but who reject 
 totally, I may say the whole of, the ceremonial and religious 
 observances, if we except a substitute for the Sabbath. The 
 consequence is that this corrupting influence, I mean to say the 
 different conduct of the majority, is active beyond all calcula- 
 tion, and it only requires the addition of infidel or careless Jews 
 to sap completely the foundation of faith in the individual, un- 
 less he is strongly fortified by a knowledge of our holy law and 
 a uniform observance of its precepts. These requirements can- 
 not be looked for in children ; and hence it is evident, that they 
 should hear and see nothing done in their immediate presence 
 which is counter to the doctrines of our religion. By this 
 means it is to he hoped that the spirit of true piety may be kept 
 alive in the minds of your offspring, and they may live to trans- 
 mit the same to succeeding ages in its untarnished excellence 
 and undiminished lustre. 
 
 As your child advances in years you should adapt the govern- 
 ment to his increasing intellectual capacity ; and as soon as he 
 is old enough for comprehending it, you should enforce obe- 
 dience by persuasion, which should never degenerate into en- 
 treaty, for the parents should never be petitioners, if they mean 
 to preserve the authority which nature has given them. Mild- 
 ness coupled with earnest firmness should always be exhibited, 
 and no relaxation of discipline should be accorded upon any 
 pretence whatever. It is also your duty to keep cool, no matter 
 what the offence of the child may be, and to judge with calm- 
 ness of the degree of guilt which he has incurred. Where 
 moral remedies fail of producing reformation or enforcing obe- 
 dience, physical means should be resorted to, even to the use 
 of the rod. Scriptures here give us a rule, which we should 
 not set aside for all the fancies of modern theorists. For so 
 says Solomon (Proverbs xiii. 24) : " He that spareth the rod 
 hateth his child ; but he that loveth him chasteneth him be- 
 times." And herein too the blessed Creator sets us an exam- 
 ple ; for when admonitions fail of working a reformation in 
 man, punishment is sent to snatch the soul from the jaws of 
 perdition. If therefore you truly love your child, if your views
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 213 
 
 reach farther than the day, if you can bear to look upon his 
 tears more than tolerate evil conduct : chastise him for every 
 great dereliction, when you are convinced that mere words 
 will fail of the desired effect. Cruelty however should not be 
 indulged in, nor should punishment be inflicted whilst you are 
 angry, nor before you have judged carefully of the degree of 
 the wrong which you deem deserving of the rod. Reason with 
 him, tell him wherein he has failed, prove to him why he de- 
 serves and obtains punishment ; and it is highly probable, that 
 one infliction of the rod will have a much happier effect in cor- 
 recting error, than a thousand barbarous beatings in the mo- 
 ments of anger, where the child is but too apt to think himself 
 ill-used, and which proceeding may produce a moodiness and 
 a sullen yielding to a command, without the most remote 
 thought of reformation. Consider that indulgence and undue 
 severity are both calculated to produce a relaxation of disci- 
 pline ; for if both the parents are tyrannical, or if the father 
 alone punishes with undue rigour, the offences committed in 
 their absence will not be reported to them even by those who 
 have cause to complain, as they will prefer not noticing the 
 injury to having the child cruelly beaten or otherwise cruelly 
 punished ; and impunity thus obtained is eminently calculated 
 to invite a repetition of the offence which a mild punishment 
 might have guarded against. Let it be a rule with you, that 
 you expect good conduct and obedience, and insist upon the 
 members of your household reporting to you any flagrant wrong 
 done in your absence ; but let your own deportment be so, that 
 they see that you govern with moderate firmness, and they will 
 then have no cause for hiding the delinquency of your child 
 from your knowledge. You will in this manner have a chance 
 of having a constant watch over your child's conduct, which 
 is a great point gained ; and he will be afraid to offend, for he 
 can find no means of escaping detection, and knows, that he 
 will be punished if he transgresses. It is with children as with 
 grown men ; it is not so much the degree as the certainty of 
 punishment which deters them from transgressing ; and a judi- 
 cious parent will let no opportunity pass to prove, by a firmness 
 that will not yield where punishment should be inflicted, that 
 he means to be obeyed. , If a child now is kept under constant 

 
 214 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 control, without feeling often the means that make him so : he 
 will become habituated to obedience, and a moral, religious 
 course of conduct ; he will learn to love virtue and holiness ; 
 and as he grows up he will have these sentiments engrafted in 
 his spirit, and it is highly probable that, strengthened by hea- 
 venly grace, which is never denied to the pure in mind, he will 
 be kept upright in the way he should go. 
 
 Another requisite to a proper training is, that both parents 
 should coincide in the government of the household. If the one 
 deems it necessary to punish let the other not interfere, espe- 
 cially in the presence of the child. It is a positive encourage- 
 ment for misconduct, if he sees that he is screened when he has 
 transgressed ; he will learn to despise the authority of the one 
 that indulges him, and to hate the one that punishes ; both 
 thereby lose their authority ; and if in later years the father for 
 instance should be gathered to his native earth, the indulgent 
 mother will have ample cause to repent that she was the means 
 of teaching by her weakness lessons of insubordination and dis- 
 obedience to a child who now laughs at her commands, and 
 treats with scorn the entreaties of his remaining parent in her 
 declining years. No, parents ! be united, support each other 
 in doing your duty by your child ; if the father frowns, let not 
 the mother fondle ; if the mother punishes, let not the father 
 extend protection ; but be it your study to act in the fear of 
 God, and teach your child by your mutual attachment, from 
 which he sees no deviation, to love you equally, to fear you 
 equally ; that he may be stimulated to honour you both alike 
 as the law requires ; and that, growing up in obedience to the 
 religion of our fathers, he may indeed merit the blessing of a 
 long life on the earth to your satisfaction and the well-being of 
 all his associates, and become a child of immortal glory through 
 a love of God and the fear of his word, which are the beginning 
 of all wisdom. 
 
 May the name of the Lord be blessed from now and unto all 
 eternity. Amen. 
 
 Kislev 2nd 
 Nov. 27th
 
 215 
 
 DISCOURSE XVIII. 
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION". 
 
 O GOD of everlasting! we approach Thee to crave thy 
 blessing and the grant of thy protection from the many evils to 
 which we are exposed. Give us fortitude to submit to thy 
 visitation, and strengthen us with thy undeserved grace, that 
 we may remain firm in obedience when the allurements of sin 
 would withdraw us from the path of life. And as Thou ever 
 nearest the prayer of the humble and penitent : permit our 
 words to come before Thee, and despise not the outpourings of 
 the heart of the outcasts of Israel in the regions distant from 
 their heritage where Thou dost cause them to dwell; but 
 do Thou according to their request, and give them an under- 
 standing mind to comprehend the words of thy law, and remove 
 all obstacles which may oppose their obeying in truth the pre- 
 cepts which Thou hast ordained. And O ! give firmness to 
 those of thy children who are assailed by flattery and the cor- 
 rupting influence of their enemies, to resist the direful tempta- 
 tions, and to remain steadfast in the pursuance of thy holy will; 
 so that the machinations of those who wish to blot out Israel's 
 name from among the nations may be turned to naught, and 
 they be covered with shame and confusion, even as was 
 Senacherib who dared to blaspheme thy holy name, and as 
 were the Philistines who relied upon the strength of their 
 champion against the armies of the living God. May this be 
 thy will. Amen ! 
 
 BRETHREN ! 
 
 It is a solemn duty enjoined in the Scriptures to use every 
 effort within your reach to render your children fit servants of 
 the Lord of heaven and earth, and to imbue their minds with 
 such sentiments as will make them love their duties, and enable 
 them to have a proper firmness to resist doing wrong whenever
 
 216 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 temptation and opportunity may present themselves. For as 
 your children advance in life, and are gradually withdrawn 
 from your care and observation, they will be exposed to 
 influences which will greatly tend to remove entirely all your 
 early lessons, unless you have implanted in them the root of all 
 the principles according to which you act yourselves, and 
 desire them to act. Your duty therefore is not completed if 
 you merely tell your children once what you expect of them to 
 do, and you ought not to be satisfied if they are well-behaved 
 and decorous in your presence ; but you should furnish them 
 with such sentiments as will stand by them instead of parental 
 superintendence and care, which should act as a check upon 
 them when they are alone or far removed from those whom 
 they have to fear or whom they love. Mere morality will not 
 effect this ; by this I mean, that lessons of virtue stripped from 
 the consideration of duty to a higher Being, and merely based 
 upon ideas of expediency and prudential considerations, may 
 engender a cautious, kind, and apparently benevolent character, 
 but will not confer that degree of firmness, which could induce 
 us to resist the impulse for wrong of which we have been 
 speaking. For what is your system of morality, so called, 
 based on ? We answer, expediency only ! Now it is well 
 whilst correct conduct and this selfish principle point out the 
 same road, for then the mere moralist will without doubt do 
 what all must acknowledge to be right; but let the- case be 
 different ; let us imagine a situation where we are drawn to an 
 attractive transgression by a strong appeal to our senses, where 
 those we fear are far away, where those whom we would on 
 no account grieve by our actions are not likely to become 
 cognizant of our sinning: and then tell me, where our con- 
 stancy, our resistance would be ? Where is the sentiment to 
 restrain us? Tell me not of the dignity of human nature, of 
 the sublime attributes of the human soul; for the man of the 
 world who has no other check than morality, will have ample 
 means, because he has a wide range of permitted actions, to 
 hide from others any thing which they might call unworthy 
 and undignified, at least he will endeavour to preserve the 
 gilded exterior, till his real sentiments and character are at 
 length accidentally laid bare ; and the sublime attributes of our
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 217 
 
 soul, such as social love, the feeling of honour and of benevo- 
 lence, are only too well calculated to lull the spirit into security 
 whenever self is brought into competition with the rights of 
 others ; for then we are apt to disregard the love for our fellow, 
 because we may thereby be exposed to injury or inconvenience; 
 feelings of honour may prompt us to revenge, because we may 
 think our honour wounded or our dignity outraged ; and lastly, 
 the so called feeling of benevolence may by some strange 
 fatuity move us to protect ourselves before we take a view of 
 the wants of others, although if we were to reflect with candour 
 we would find that we have enough for others as well as for 
 ourselves. We therefore say, that morality, in itself, is not the 
 guide which we ought to place before our children in their 
 commencement of life, and point it out as the check which is 
 to assist them in the restraining of the desires and passions. 
 
 " What guide, then, would you recommend V Need I tell 
 you, beloved brethren, the name of this blessed principle ? 
 know you it not without the words of a public teacher? Surely 
 the heart of Israelites recognizes full well the heavenly gift 
 which has sustained them when their spirit wa-s drooping, when 
 their foot was weary amid the many pilgrimages which they 
 had to encounter since the first hour they heard the voice of 
 the Everlasting Father speaking to them from the midst of the 
 fire, on that day when the unity of the Lord and his will were 
 made known from the thick clouds of glory that enveloped the 
 summit of the chosen mountain of Sinai ! The terrific fire of 
 the promulgation of the Decalogue did not blaze long; the 
 wonderful sounds soon died away in the stillness which fol- 
 lowed ; the pageant of millions assembled in attentive silence 
 was speedily dissolved: and still the words then announced 
 have stood the bulwark of our people against foreign tyranny 
 and domestic disunion, against outward oppression and the 
 defection of the faithless in our own household ; and we have 
 remained as a body faithful to our trust, though our Father's 
 warnings are no longer audibly announced as in days of yore 
 through the mouth of his servants. This then, brethren, is the 
 principle which you should recommend to your children, this is 
 the guide you should set before them. If now you have the 
 VOL. in. 19
 
 218 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 happiness to succeed in rearing them up faithful followers of 
 
 this law, if you witness in them an adoption of the duties it 
 
 enjoins, and of the doctrines on which it is founded : you need 
 
 not tremble for their future welfare, for it is then founded upon 
 
 a basis which is probable to remain unshaken during their 
 
 whole lives. For where the law of God purifies the thoughts, 
 
 where its statutes direct the bond, can we entertain a doubt 
 
 that a common benefit will result from a mind so trained, from 
 
 actions so prompted ? We say " a common benefit ;" for it is 
 
 not here like with the expediency of the mere moralist, where 
 
 the agent looks to his own interest, provided it comes not in 
 
 direct conflict with that of others ; since the Israelite, who 
 
 deserves the name, will forego his own interest in every point 
 
 where the law asks it of him ; he will assist his enemy,* though 
 
 he have no hope of conciliating him ; he will restrain revenge,f 
 
 though the offender be in his power ; and he will assistj with 
 
 his wealth and his services the needy and indigent, though the 
 
 release-year be near at hand, and he can thus have no farther 
 
 claim upon their repaying him the amount of their indebtedness. 
 
 But it is not the effect of the law upon others we wish now to 
 
 discuss, although it is a fruitful theme which might well inspire 
 
 the eloquent with noble thoughts, and afford him a fine field to 
 
 descant upon the mercy of the Most High in so watching over 
 
 the welfare of his creatures as to bestow it on them for their 
 
 social guidance ; we will to-day regard it only in its workings 
 
 upon the individuals themselves subject to its rule, and trace 
 
 the progress by which it renders them the children of salvation 
 
 under the law. For our text we will take the following 
 
 passage : 
 
 vm DDT 
 
 inon -]ro&':) on -on DDOI nx onx 
 ninro hy omroi : 
 
 * Exodus xxiii. 4, 5. f Leviticus xix. 18. J Deut. xv. 9. 

 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 219 
 
 " Therefore, shall ye lay up these my words in your heart, and in your 
 soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets 
 between your eyes. And ye shall teach them to your children, speaking of 
 them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, 
 when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shall write them 
 upon the door-posts of thy house and upon thy gates." Dent. xi. 18-20. 
 
 The Scriptures, you will observe, connect personal piety -with 
 the education of children; or in other words, they demand of the 
 parents example no less than precept. In the verses preceding our 
 text is contained a denunciation of punishment for disobedience 
 and defection ; and as the reverse, or the means to avoid punish- 
 ment, you are told : " Therefore, shall ye lay up these my words 
 in your heart and in your soul ;" to avoid sinning and its neces- 
 sary visitation you should be perfectly alive to religious obliga- 
 tion, your body (the heart) and your spirit (the soul) should 
 equally be devoted to the service of the Most High ; and every 
 feeling which prompts you to satisfy the cravings of nature, 
 every thought which dwells upon the vastness of the Creator's 
 works, which reflects upon your own being and your destiny in 
 the light of Israelites and of men, should all be alike in con- 
 sonance with his wishes and his behests as contained in his 
 revealed word which He made known to our fathers. The 
 heads of the household should exhibit no levity in speaking of 
 the commandments, no disregard to the observance of the di- 
 vine ordinances, no doubting of the truths and doctrines of the 
 Bible ; and in doing any act, they should be careful, that it be 
 entirely in accordance with the letter and spirit of the law. 
 The house should be surrounded with evidences of the inmates 
 being Israelites ; every thing should be regulated according to 
 the principles of your ancestors ; the food, the drink, the man- 
 ner of speaking should all be different from gentile custom, and 
 no hesitation should be shown, because such conduct would 
 render you objects of curiosity and inquiry to those who are 
 strangers to our people. " Lay these my words upon your 
 heart," you are told ; it is no matter what others think of you, 
 you must not be afraid of the surprise which might be expressed 
 in discovering you in your own peculiar Israelitish rites ; but 
 " Ye shall bind them for a sign upon your hand ;" bind the me- 
 morial of the law literally in your hand ; place it there at least
 
 220 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 during your morning-worship, to remind you of your obligation 
 to the Lord for his manifold blessings, in calling your early 
 fathers to his service, in redeeming you from Egyptian bond- 
 age, in giving you his laws, and in preserving you to stand 
 before Him despite of the thousands of calamities which befel 
 you; place it on your forehead, ornament yourselves with the 
 crown of the law, to confess that you subject your feelings and 
 your thoughts to divine rule, and to acknowledge that the Lord's 
 are the power and the government to do in all the world's 
 according to his almighty will ; and by this means you will 
 obtain firmness and strength to be bold and unflinching when 
 temptation would lure you away to follow other gods and bow 
 down to them. And not only for the days of Moses was this 
 said, when gross idolatry was the prevailing sin of all the 
 world; but also for the present hour; for if we do not worship 
 stocks and stones, and bow down to a god who cannot save, 
 we nevertheless have within us unhallowed passions and un- 
 clean desires, and we worship the love for gold, the inclination 
 for unlawful pleasures, the demon of ambition, and the lust for 
 places incompatible with religion, which all are equally unable 
 to raise the soul above the mortality of this life into the presence 
 of our Maker, and are all alike false idols to which our ever- 
 lasting happiness is so often sacrificed. The institutions there- 
 fore which were wise in the days of Moses, which were then 
 calculated to rivet closer the bonds of the law : are so yet at 
 this very day; practise them therefore before your children, 
 and show them how they are to obey the commands which 
 you lay before them. If you do this in all truth and in entire 
 simpleness of faith, you can then proceed to the next duty: 
 " And you shall teach them to your children ;" it is not enough 
 that you tell them where they may find the word of God, and 
 it is not doing your duty, to let them put upon it their own in- 
 terpretation ; but you yourselves, fathers and mothers, should 
 instruct them in the words of life and interpret the text for them 
 in the manner it is accepted among Israel. Two duties pro- 
 ceed out of this consideration ; first, it is the business of parents 
 to make themselves thoroughly acquainted with at least the five 
 books of Moses, the law proper, and omit no occasion to teach 
 the duties thereof to their children ; not that their studies should
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 221 
 
 be confined to this part of the Bible only, but that the poorest 
 persons, or those who daily have to toil for their bread, should 
 endeavour to become at all events familiar with this, that they 
 might have it in their power to become proper instructors of 
 their offspring ; though we can hardly imagine a family so con- 
 stantly occupied, that they could not read with care the whole 
 record of revelation and occasionally those good works which 
 have been written by pious Israelites, in order to become them- 
 selves more firm in faith, and to render the instruction more 
 agreeable and varied to their juniors.-r-Secondly, they are 
 bound to search for pious and intelligent teachers, to whom 
 alone they should entrust the education of their children. For 
 it is not to be denied that it is a bad system to send sons and 
 daughters of Israel at an early age to schools where either no 
 religion at all, or one of an opposite character to our own, is 
 taught. In the one case the love of revelation is not encouraged, 
 in the other, feelings are called into action and a species of con- 
 viction of non-admitted and inadmissible doctrines is produced, 
 which will materially affect the due observance of our religious 
 rites. It were indeed advisable, that children should know 
 very little, at all events not more than is unavoidable, of the 
 existence of a difference of religion; since by this method a 
 deep-seated adherence to the early lessons of piety is impressed 
 on the mind, before the doubts which are consequent upon a 
 view of the multifarious shades of belief are elicited; and parents 
 thus give such a strength to the principles which they practise 
 in their families, that the ready imitation of the same by the 
 children is more easily attained. It will not do to assert, 
 that in general schools children are taught nothing bad ; for, 
 brethren ! you are not to be content with a mere negative edu- 
 cation ; there is nothing negative in virtue, all at length depends 
 upon the performance of certain acts, whether they be cere- 
 monial or social duties, without which civil security itself can- 
 not be obtained ; for this too requires action for its firm estab- 
 lishment. We say therefore that religious tuition should be a 
 part of the daily exercises in school ; Bible reading and Bible 
 explanations are a necessary branch of a Jewish education ; 
 and hence, where practicable, Jewish teachers, if not alone, at 
 all events jointly, ought to have the superintendence of our 
 
 19*
 
 222 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 youths. Some may perhaps suppose that much time must be 
 lost to the acquisition of sciences and general knowledge by so 
 much care bestowed upon religion, which they justly say rests 
 but upon a few easily understood principles. But there is a 
 great error in both these assertions. First, it is not true, that 
 the time bestowed on the Bible and its elucidation is lost or 
 misspent. We will admit for argument's sake, that by this 
 study the hours to be devoted to grammar, history, and other 
 sciences should have to be diminished; still can this not be 
 called a loss. For let us ask, what do you want to teach by 
 sciences ? certainly nothing more, than to give to the young 
 correct views of life, and enable them to judge with propriety 
 of things to be hereafter presented to them. So is grammar to 
 enable them to speak and write with propriety ; history to in- 
 form them of the acts of past ages, and to give them examples 
 of good men to be imitated and wicked ones whose deeds should 
 be abhorred ; and so with other things. Now we demand, is 
 religious knowledge not something which is to become useful 
 to children hereafter? is it not calculated to enable them to 
 judge with propriety of many subjects of the highest impor- 
 tance ? If you then call sciences the ornament of life, religion 
 surely is far more, it is the essential of our existence ; and hence 
 it is a science above all to be acquired with diligent study. 
 But it is not true, that the time devoted to such information is 
 lost to the elegant branches. So many collateral matters be- 
 come necessarily mixed up with a study of Scripture, that an 
 intelligent teacher will find it an excellent vehicle to communi- 
 cate all the necessary information whilst engaged in this alone; 
 especially if we go according to the good old custom, and teach 
 the Hebrew at once, and read the Bible from the original only, 
 and employ all the aids which modern learning has brought to 
 bear upon the sacred volume. This will at once require and 
 employ the study of grammar, both of the language of Israel 
 and the vernacular of the country ; a geographical survey of 
 the different regions mentioned in the Bible ; comparative his- 
 tory of the tribes and nations occurring in the narrative ; be- 
 sides such other matters, (for instance the natural history of the 
 animals, plants, and minerals, whose names occur in the law 
 and prophets, and a survey of the manufactures and manners
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 223 
 
 of the ancients,) which will suggest themselves to an enlightened 
 inquirer in religion. In truth, the Bible is a magnificent study 
 for itself; which is evidenced by the many learned and excel- 
 lent works written to illustrate, and the many great minds who 
 have devoted themselves solely to explain its text and to clear 
 up the obscurities which have at times presented themselves, 
 because we are not sufficiently familiar with the imagery it ex- 
 hibits and the customs and characters it portrays. We may 
 assert without fear of contradiction, that there are not many 
 men, if there be indeed one, with sufficient information to ex- 
 plain correctly the books of Scripture, so rich, and magnificent, 
 and inexhaustible are their stores. Besides this, no study need 
 be neglected on account of religious instruction ; there is ample 
 time, if properly economized, for children to become acquainted 
 with every thing for which they have capacity and which can 
 be useful to them. It is a great folly to suppose that it is ad- 
 vantageous for a child to be an early genius, and to display 
 rare excellence above others of the same age ; for in this way 
 indolence and a degree of self-sufficiency are very apt to be 
 produced, which are injurious alike to an advancement in know-- 
 legde and an amiable deportment. If therefore religious educa- 
 tion should retard the progress in other matters a year or two, 
 (if we take different children of equal capacity educated in dif- 
 ferent systems, that is to say one with the other without religion, 
 as a criterion:) still nothing would be lost thereby in the end; for 
 what the one would gain by a greater leisure, the other would 
 far more than equal by a greater degree of solidity and an en- 
 larged capacity for deeper studies. But even this danger of a 
 delay in advancement is in all probability overrated ; for dif- 
 ferent studies, provided they are not too numerous and difficult, 
 rather assist each other, and are a sort of relief for the student; 
 and I can see no reason why religion viewed as a study should 
 differ from any other, since it is no doubt true, that to the young 
 the subject presents itself by no means in the unattractive light 
 it often does to adults, because it demands of these to restrain 
 passions and desires which the former have never yet felt. 
 
 With regard to the objection we supposed as made against 
 the necessity of teaching religion, because it rests upon a few 
 easily understood principles : we will state, that the Jewish
 
 224 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 faith is in truth founded upon the great self-evident principle of 
 the existence of God, secondly upon the existence of a revela- 
 tion from God, and thirdly upon the existence of rewards and 
 punishments, inasmuch as the other doctrines which we profess 
 are derived from one or the other of these cardinal points. 
 Nevertheless, we maintain that it is of the highest importance 
 that children should learn these principles from believing persons, 
 and that great care should be taken that no false or inaccurate 
 doctrines should be added to or substituted for them. We all 
 know, or ought to know, that our mind is so constituted that it 
 will imbibe every thing presented to it, especially in youth ; and 
 the grossest errors, as now viewed, have been at one time or 
 another the prevailing sentiments of mankind. Even in our 
 own day, are we not constantly startled by the profession of 
 creeds which we Israelites cannot in any way acknowledge ? 
 And their existence, as generally admitted truths, can only be 
 accounted for on the ground that early education has rendered 
 them acceptable to those holding them ; for we have no right 
 to doubt upon vague surmises the sincerity of any of our fellow- 
 beings, and we must therefore suppose that persons holding 
 doctrines, say the opposite of ours, may be perfectly sincere in 
 believing them, no less than we ourselves are in maintaining 
 our own pure faith. It is, as we said, the constant hearing 
 of such matters in youth, and having nothing offered that runs 
 contrary to them, which render them so convincing to their 
 professors that they acquiesce in them as though they were well- 
 ascertained truths. If now Jewish children are exposed to the 
 same influence with those of our gentile neighbours, I ask what 
 can you expect, but that they too should become tainted with 
 the leaven of erroneous belief, and be made converts to one or 
 more doctrines which we cannot admit as true ? Say you, 
 that it matters not what young children think of controverted 
 theology, and that when they grow up it is time enough to 
 teach them our doctrines. But this is again a fatal error. We 
 know from experience how difficult it is to convince a gentile 
 of the erroneousness of his belief, whilst we cannot comprehend 
 how it is possible for him to hesitate yielding himself to the con- 
 viction which the Scriptures offer ; hence our hesitation in 
 admitting persons not born Israelites to our communion, be-
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 225 
 
 cause we should suspect their having that conviction which is 
 necessary for the adoption of our religion, till we have no longer 
 any motive to doubt their professed sincerity. If now you leave 
 a Jewish child to the same in^uence which warps the gentile's 
 mind, you in fact teach him gentile doctrines ; and you will be, 
 and deserve to be, sorely grieved if with advancing years you 
 find it difficult to make him adopt the doctrines which you 
 yourselves profess. His mind has been rendered unjewish ; he 
 has to unlearn what he considered true hitherto ; and one of 
 two things may occur, he either may adhere to his early-im- 
 bibed notions, or become an infidel, rejecting what he once 
 learnt, and what you now wish to teach him. If you can suc- 
 ceed in convincing him of our holy law, and induce him to 
 adopt it as true : still there may remain lurking some ideas 
 which are not orthodox and which may impart a shadow and 
 colouring to his religious conduct, which cannot be defended 
 upon pure biblical grounds. Believe me one thing, simple as 
 is our religion in its foundation, it must be early infused, that is 
 the precise word, into the mind to become united with, and in- 
 separable from the soul. There should be no necessity for con- 
 verting our own children, they ought to be Jews in every stage 
 of their being. As soon therefore as they begin to learn, the unity 
 of God should be held up to their adoption, not so much by 
 argument to prove its being so, as by simple information. The 
 proofs of the existence of the Deity are so universal that you 
 can easily lead the youngest even to comprehend that every 
 thing was made by a superior Power ; and the uniformity of 
 design in every creature will elucidate the universality of this 
 Power ; and the harmony in the whole chain of existence, the 
 regularity of the movements of all the beings whom we can 
 observe, and the use one thing is to another prove that this 
 superior, universal Power is also one and uniform. Yet even 
 this simple doctrine will require a length of time to become 
 perfectly familiar, readily as it impresses itself with immovable 
 conviction upon the minds of educated Israelites. Let us next 
 view the second cardinal article of our creed : " There is a 
 revelation from the superior, universal, one and uniform 
 Power;" again let this be taught without much argument, 
 which, let me remark, will naturally have but little weight with
 
 226 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 children, for they will sooner take your simple assertion, when 
 they once have confidence in you, than listen to reasoning 
 which is perhaps beyond their comprehension. So then tell 
 them, that the Lord God, or the ONE as we called Him, made 
 himself audibly manifest to our ancestors and other great men 
 of former times, and communicated to them the duties they 
 should observe, and those acts which they should carefully 
 avoid. And as therefore we thus know what is right, which 
 is also our duty to do, and what is wrong, which is what we 
 should avoid : we will be held responsible for our actions which 
 we do when we are not under restraint or impelled by una- 
 voidable necessity. This at once will open for you an oppor- 
 tunity to descant on reward and punishment; and you can tell 
 your charges, how the Lord made man of soul and body, and 
 that though the latter is destroyed by death, the former will yet 
 survive, and receive then such reward for past conduct, as He, 
 the Lord, may deem just and proper. We concede that these 
 principles follow so clearly from each other, that a reasoning 
 person will readily admit them as true; but again we say, it takes 
 time to impress them sufficiently upon the understanding of the 
 young ; and once telling them, will not suffice to prevent the 
 growth of error from other causes. Besides this, as soon as you 
 teach the child that there is a revelation, it is natural that he 
 should ask to be informed, what this revelation is ; will you then 
 dismiss him with a mere reference to the Bible, and tell him to "go 
 and read ?" Suppose you were to pursue such a system with the 
 study of grammar, do you really think that any progress would be 
 made in it ? And yet you assert, that religion of all sciences 
 requires no teaching, and that it is time misspent to inculcate it ! 
 No, brethren, our holy faith is simple and pure ; but it demands 
 actions as well as belief, and these actions are a proper study for 
 youths, and the Bible a book which merits and should receive 
 a thorough reading and a sound interpretation in all our schools. 
 It is the word of salvation, it is the word of truth, it is the will 
 of the God of truth who desires thereby to render us fit for ever- 
 lasting happiness. And, therefore, we demand, that it be the 
 first study both as to time and duration, which you should pre- 
 sent to your children, that they may become early familiar with 
 its principles and duties, and have a long season to apply these
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 227 
 
 to life, and regulate it by the doctrines which you offer for their 
 acceptance. In the same manner you are bound to prevent 
 their becoming familiar with the doctrines which we call 
 erroneous, and against which the Scriptures warn us as injuri- 
 ous and calculated to make us forget our religious duties. 
 Hence it arises, that it is exceedingly sinful to send children 
 entirely among gentiles, to eat and drink with them, and to 
 become thoroughly imbued with their doctrines ; since this 
 course is certainly the most injurious in forming a Jewish 
 character. And as parents have not always the leisure or 
 information to become their spiritual guides, it evidently be- 
 comes the duty of all true Israelites to send their children to 
 Jewish teachers, who have the fear of God before their eyes, 
 and who execute the sacred trust of rearing the young in the 
 way they should go in a manner best calculated to effect this 
 most desirable object. These should be aided by the parents 
 in maintaining a wholesome, though mild discipline over the 
 children, and they should omit no opportunity to make religion 
 better understood, more loved, and more sincerely followed, 
 than unfortunately it has been in many places in our own days. 
 Believe me one thing, brethren ! that the falling off which we 
 all have to deplore in religious observances, is the offspring of 
 ignorance and want of education. In former years there pre- 
 vailed an error of teaching abstruse points of legal knowledge, 
 to the exclusion, to a great extent, of pure scriptural knowledge. 
 Sciences were then inaccessible to our oppressed people, and 
 hence many wasted their powerful intellect, which being re- 
 pressed was nevertheless not extinguished, in detecting points of 
 difference and matters of disputation in the law, which now 
 have but little value in the changed aspect of things which of 
 late years has taken place. Nevertheless was there a great 
 devotion to religion, and the strictest observance of even the 
 minutest things was the crowning glory of those days. But 
 when the access to sciences was opened to us, a new spirit was 
 suddenly called into action. Scripture was more sought after, 
 and the ancient disputations and comments greatly neglected, 
 much more so indeed than they should have been, for with all 
 their faults they contain matters of profound wisdom and deep 
 reflection. Yet even this modified study of our religion has not
 
 228 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 in many places maintained its ground, and has there, alas ! 
 receded to a point of perfect inattention to so holy a pursuit. 
 In several towns there is not even a single school where the 
 Scriptures are expounded and the holy language of our ances- 
 tors is taught ; so that some, judging from appearance and a 
 fancied necessity, have thought it expedient to advise to banish 
 the latter as useless from our form of worship. And now we 
 see the effects of this deterioration, in the ignorance, unpardon- 
 able ignorance, of many in the essential points of their religion; 
 in their unacquaintance \\ith the Hebrew tongue; in their 
 omission of the observance demanded of them, and in the 
 neglect, I almost might say exclusion, of the teachers of our 
 blessed faith. It is true that there are but few places where 
 there is not a minister appointed to do the necessary offices of 
 religion, and what is more, public worship is generally well 
 supported, if even tho number of attendan s is not very large; 
 but I speak of a class c f teachers of religion, not merely public 
 servants, who should have the formation of the mind of our 
 children specially delegated to them, and give instruction in 
 the doctrines and principles of the law which has descended to 
 us from our ancestors. -And it is such as these who are not 
 cared for, not wanted ! whilst parents themselves are loo busy 
 to be themselves the teachers of their children ! It is a crying 
 evil, a sin of no small magnitude. A man would be stigmatized 
 as illiberal and unenlightened who would refuse sending his 
 child to any school, and merely give him an occasional Jesson 
 at home in the rudiments of reading and writing; and in truth 
 he would be guilty of a great wrong, by leaving him behind the 
 march of improvement. And so well is this subject generally 
 admitted, that but few indeed can be ibi:nd who g ve not some 
 schooling to their children, and ma^y spend large and liberal 
 sums to teach them whatever is ornamental ai d useful, and not 
 unfrequently give extravagant prices for mere u eless accom- 
 plishments, that they may not be a whit behind the spirit of the 
 age. And yet these very parents find it impossible to pay for 
 the religious education of their childr ;n ! as though every thing 
 should be taught but the word of the Lo 'd ! Is it then sur- 
 prising that we are retrograding in religious knowledge 1 that 
 the gentiles who formerly could lear.i from us are generally
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 229 
 
 better acquainted with Scriptures than we are '( They, we will 
 state it to their credit, are respectful to their public teachers, 
 they endeavour to seek for information in various ways from 
 them, and listen to their reproof with becoming deference. This 
 was formerly also the case with us, when the schools of our 
 teachers were filled with listeners, when they might reprove and 
 admonish, and the community would obey their instruction. 
 Perhaps you may say, that in those times there was too much 
 power in the hands of these men ; admitted ; but what can you 
 say in defence of a state of things where the opposite fault is 
 so prevalent as not to admit of any concealment from the eyes 
 of our opponents ? Let us be candid ; the evil has reached an 
 alarming height, and it is high time that a remedy were applied. 
 As it is however now among us, the difficulties in the way of a 
 thorough change are truly great and appalling; for whilst there 
 are not more union and harmony to effect a general good, and 
 whilst the uninformed obtrude their ideas of reformation, or 
 whilst the unworthy and irreligious assume the place of teachers, 
 nothinar can be done. But the change must commence with 
 
 o o 
 
 the individual members of Israel themselves. They must learn, 
 in the first place, to disregard the opinions of those who differ 
 from us in their rule of faith; secondly, they should admit no 
 one to teach who is not qualified by education and a thorough 
 moral and religious conduct for the task he assumes ; thirdly, 
 whenever a teacher is appointed he should receive the coun- 
 tenance of all the community where he lives, and whilst he is 
 in the discharge of the duties for which he has been appointed, 
 let him not b'e unduly interfered with or checked by the tem- 
 poral rulers of the Synagogue ; fourthly, let no one attempt to 
 imitate the example of the vainglorious who speak of reforming 
 our worship, or, in other words, of forcing their own crude 
 notions upon us instead of those opinions we have always 
 cherished ; and lastly, if no competent teachers can be obtained 
 at the present moment, let such inducements be held out that 
 youths whom the Lord has endowed with wisdom will seek to 
 qualify themselves for teachers in our academies, and to be- 
 come lecturers and preachers of the Word in our Synagogues. 
 But it need not be expected that success can attend the produc- 
 tion of sound capable teachers, whilst we are ruled, as in many 
 VOL. HI. 20
 
 230 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 countries, by the direct interference of the gentiles, or as in 
 others, by our yielding constantly to what is termed public 
 opinion in withholding our children from proper Jewish schools; 
 whilst incompetent or unworthy persons are elevated to the 
 same responsible rank ; whilst our teachers, when appointed, 
 receive not the countenance, respect and support of the com- 
 munity, and whilst their energies are cramped by the interfer- 
 ence of the ignorant and ungodly, who decry their honest efforts, 
 and strive to bring confusion in our midst by the introduction 
 of pretended reforms. The plan just hinted at may not be 
 attainable in a few years ; there are doubtlessly some difficul- 
 ties in the way ; but still impracticable it is not. We have 
 gone astray from our former devotion to the law ; why should 
 it be impossible to bring us back ? You may perhaps say, 
 there are no such persons among us who are fit to follow out 
 the details ! This is only true in part. The whole plan can 
 only be carried out into practice by slow degrees, particularly 
 that of freeing ourselves from gentile influence ; but still there 
 are many wherever Israelites dwell who can do a great deal to 
 forward the blessed work. Let the attempt be made by a 
 united effort, and some success will at once attend it. And 
 have we not seen in this very place an initiatory course of 
 instruction imparted for several years past with a success 
 which many at one time despaired of? And why should not a 
 general Jewish education succeed just as well, if the same 
 spirit were displayed which forwarded the pious plan just men- 
 tioned? And of one thing be assured, that as soon as there is 
 a demand for teachers, they will be forthcoming'; for the time 
 never yet was that the law of our God had not its devoted 
 followers, who meditated therein day and night, and from 
 whose lips flowed wisdom and instruction. 
 
 My advice is, therefore, brethren ! that schools for general 
 education under Jewish superintendence should be established 
 forthwith in every place where they are not, and be reformed 
 and put upon a permanent footing where they are already in 
 existence. The sciences can well be blended with the study of 
 religion ; and do not imagine that the teaching of the former 
 will be hurtful to the latter, or that the careful study of the 
 Bible and commentators will retard the progress in science.
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 231 
 
 They who tell you the opposite are either not acquainted with 
 general knowledge or ignorant of the language and tendency of 
 Scripture ; or they confound what is unessential or merely an 
 abuse with the fundamental doctrines and duties which have 
 been handed down to us. It is not enough to let your children 
 have an occasional glimpse as it were at God's word, and then 
 to leave them to draw their own conclusion ; it is not enough 
 that they have once in a while a lesson in Hebrew or religious 
 books ; but they should be constantly under such guidance that 
 they may daily learn more familiarly our own national speech, 
 and drink in, literally, the proper understanding of the words 
 of the living God. For then will piety entwine itself with their 
 soul, and will become a part of their very nature. It will then 
 not be necessary for you to threaten punishment for disobedience 
 to their duties; for they will practise cheerfully what their in- 
 telligent teacher impresses on their mind, provided you do not 
 counteract at home, by injudicious levity on sacred subjects, a 
 direct contradiction of what is taught at school, or an exhibition 
 of irreligious conduct, the impression which is produced by him 
 you have chosen as their moral guide. If you have capacity, 
 introduce frequently religious conversation ; explain a history 
 of the Scriptures, expatiate on the beauty of a commandment ; 
 have the Bible read, and whenever the Hebrew is taught let the 
 children render for you a passage into the vernacular language. 
 For there is nothing so effectual in filling the mind with willing 
 obedience, as a thorough understanding of our duties ; and 
 whence could we obtain this in greater perfection than from 
 the words of the Bible themselves? And thus also says our 
 text : " And ye shall teach them to your children, speaking of 
 them, when thou sittest in the house and when thou walkest by 
 the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." In 
 the first place permit the children to obtain correct information 
 by such agents and means as have been pointed out to you. 
 Then let your conversation revert to the same when you are at 
 home in the bosom of your family ; let prayers and devotional 
 exercises be a portion of your domestic economy ; thank the 
 Creator for the gifts of life, the food and the law, for bodily 
 and spiritual blessings which have been bestowed on you ; let 
 them see that you are willing to acknowledge your dependence
 
 232 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 
 
 on the Lord, and anxious to derive information from his word, 
 and they will be stimulated to acquire likewise a holy feeling 
 and to grow in grace and piety. When you are abroad with 
 them draw their attention to the beauty of the objects which 
 everywhere present themselves, and tell them that the whole 
 is the work of the One great universal Power whom you wor- 
 ship. Tell them also of the goodness He manifested in chajig- 
 ing for a time the course of nature to effect the redemption of 
 Israel from bondage, and the announcement of the law from 
 Sinai. When the time for repose draws near, let them pray 
 and repeat the confession of our faith, and do yourselves parti- 
 cipate in their devotion. Let the same be the case in the 
 morning, when you and they are awakened to a renewal of 
 God's favour by being again permitted to enjoy his blessings 
 for another day. In this manner will religion become natural 
 to them, and will be the ruling principle of all their actions, at 
 least you have according to the law laid the best foundation for 
 a virtuous and happy life. In making religion, however, the 
 rule and conversation of the household, you are not told to ex- 
 clude rational converse on other subjects ; but merely to let the 
 concerns of the immortal spirit have a portion of your thoughts 
 and speech no less than the affairs of a merely physical kind. 
 Nor is innocent recreation to be excluded ; on the contrary, 
 religion should impart cheerfulness, and play and amusement in 
 moderation are by no means incompatible with it. 
 
 In short, hold yourselves in this as well as in other matters 
 close to scriptural instruction, and you cannot go astray ; and 
 the wise king of Israel, in enforcing a strict observance of the 
 law, told us also there is a time for all things. Do this, brethren 
 and friends ! in the spirit of true piety, and devote not all your 
 leisure to amusement, but spend occasionally an hour for the 
 moral progress of your offspring. The task may at first be 
 rather awkward for you ; but practice will render you more 
 ready, and in a little while you will become excellent instruc- 
 tors, and you will be rewarded by the greater docility and more 
 prompt obedience of your children ; and know that by no means 
 whatever can you fit them better to become favourites of God 
 and beloved of man, than by rendering them faithful Israelites 
 and strict adherents of the law of Moses. If thus you consti-
 
 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 233 
 
 tute your fireside a school of piety, and your home the sanc- 
 tuary of religion : well may then the name of the Almighty* 
 appear on the door-posts of your house and of your gates, as 
 indicative that there dwell they who in this remote generation, 
 and in this land so far distant from Palestine, forget not the an- 
 cestral custom, uphold the ancestral law, and look forward to 
 a return unto the now waste hills of the once lovely land, under 
 the guidance of the son of David, whom the Lord will send to 
 spread over the whole earth peace, freedom, piety, and devo- 
 tion to the Almighty's will, even as He ordained in the law 
 which He of old proclaimed from the mountain of Horeb to the 
 adoring children of his servants whom He had redeemed to be 
 his people for ever. 
 
 O God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, display thy won- 
 drous power over us, and incline our heart to follow thy com- 
 mandments ; and support us in our endeavours to obey Thee, 
 and let not the confusion, and anxiety, and cares of life lead us 
 astray from thy righteous path. Preserve us by thy grace, so 
 that all the nations of the earth may see that thy name is 
 called over us, and fear to injure us, thy heritage. Amen. 
 
 Kislev 16th ) 
 Dec. llth I 
 
 NOTE. The foregoing three lectures on "Religious Education" by no 
 means present this important matter in so complete a light as I might 
 wish ; but I thought it best to close the subject for the present ; yet I pro- 
 mise myself, if the views here offered meet with favour, to enlarge upon 
 them at a future day. 
 
 * The Mezuzah. 
 20*
 
 ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 THE SYNAGOGUE MIKVEH ISRAEL, 
 
 IN BEHALF OF 
 
 THE FEMALE HEBREW BENEVOLENT SOCIETY 
 
 OF PHILADELPHIA, 
 ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12. 1837 HESHVAN 14, 5598. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 O LORD of heaven and earth, whom neither the heights of 
 heaven nor the depths of the abyss can contain, who art 
 without beginning and without ending, we come before Thee 
 to invoke thy blessing upon our endeavours to serve Thee, and 
 on our striving to fulfil the behests of thy will. Strengthen our 
 resolve that we may resist temptation, and guide our steps that 
 we be not lured away upon the destructive road of sin. Cause 
 good to result from our charity, and bless every trifle given in 
 thy name, that it bear fruit a thousand-fold, and suffice for the 
 needy that he may never more -require the assistance of flesh and 
 blood. Grant prosperity to the labour of each individual, that 
 every man may receive his support immediately from thy liberal 
 hand. Bestow thy blessing upon this land and its inhabitants 
 amongst the lands that are blessed of thee, and fill the granaries 
 with corn and the fields with abundant increase, so that the 
 small means of the poor may be enough for their support. Above 
 all teach us humility; so that if blessed with prosperity we may 
 not wax proud and incur thy wrath by a neglect of thy holy 
 precepts ; and that if punished we may bend our head in meek 
 submission to thy just decrees. Let it be further thy will to
 
 MOTIVES OF CHARITY. 235 
 
 grant that our prayer may ascend into thy presence, and 
 speedily light up the lamp of the son of Jesse thy servant, and 
 let all the world see thy glory, when Thou returnest to Zion the 
 chosen dwelling of thy name, there to let thy presence abide 
 among us for ever. Pour also the spirit of thy wisdom over us 
 and all the children of thy creation ; so that all may devote 
 their hearts to serve Thee who alone art God and King. Amen. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 MOTIVES OF CHARITY. 
 
 r i . 
 FRIENDS AND ISRAELITES! 
 
 The benevolent daughters of our people composing the Fe- 
 male Hebrew Benevolent Society of Philadelphia have deputed 
 me again to lay before you a brief account of their steward- 
 ship of the funds entrusted to their care. And well it was that 
 your liberality gave them more extended means in the year 
 that has just elapsed and been mixed up with the resistless 
 tide of eternity, with the years that have been and are passed 
 away for ever. For, sorrow, poverty and anguish have not 
 been absent, and every day almost some hapless stranger, some 
 lone woman, has presented claims which could not be over- 
 looked, and which have been supplied as far as the funds of 
 our sisters have allowed and as actual necessity required. Yes, 
 persons to whom the tongue of this land is unknown have re- 
 sorted hither in search of a happier home than their own native 
 land afforded, and when arrived found themselves overwhelmed 
 by dire and oppressive want ; what now would have been their 
 situation if not some kind helping hand, under Providence, had 
 stepped forward to supply the couch for sickness, the fireside 
 for refreshing heat, the bread for the infants, and the shelter of 
 the friendly roof for the aged and infirm ? Acts of this nature
 
 236 MOTIVES OF CHARITY. 
 
 have been accomplished in the last year, by the judicious appli- 
 cation of the small means, small for so extensive a use, placed 
 at the disposal of the society ; and thus blessings have been 
 scattered, joys diffused, and sorrows lightened ; and the friend- 
 less stranger, friendless as she thought herself far from her native 
 soil, has found friends and protectors in the kind daughters of 
 Israel who, true to the characteristics of their race, are re- 
 tiringly unostentatious, merciful in their sympathies to the suf- 
 ferings of their fellow-mortals, and kindly intent upon bestowing 
 the fruits of beneficence to all who need. It is not as the eulo- 
 gist of the society and their doings that I say this, but merely 
 because last year* I was called upon to appeal to your gene- 
 rosity in support of their treasury, which appeal was so liberally 
 answered, that it appears to be obligatory upon me to state 
 briefly that the funds collected have been so applied as the 
 donors had a right to expect, and thereby to foster the virtuous 
 resolution of again enabling our sisters to keep up to its full 
 measure the system of charity upon which they have been 
 hitherto acting. And truly there is need of this bounty ! For 
 the transactions of this and other charitable institutions, here as 
 well as in neighbouring cities, amply prove, that with increased 
 means the annual surplus has not increased in equal propor- 
 tions ; for the poor of other countries, chiefly from the over- 
 populated districts of Europe, annually crowd hither in increased 
 numbers to obtain under the protection of equal laws and the 
 untrammeled exercise of their industry a more extended reward 
 for their labours than can be procured in their native land. Na- 
 turally enough, among the many of small means, persons in the 
 pinching state of indigence may be induced to sacrifice their 
 little, their all, in order to reach this land, perhaps this very- 
 city, and no sooner are they arrived, than they feel that even 
 here a person must have, to use the language of the people, a 
 start in life; or perhaps sickness or other afflictions may at 
 once arrest their labouring hand upon their first coming here: 
 shall people like these be compelled to hold out their hands to 
 ask for alms from strangers to their faith ? shall they be com- 
 pelled to resort to the poor-house, that refuge for the vicious 
 
 * See Discourses, vol. ii. pp. 269 277.
 
 MOTIVES OF CHARITY. 337 
 
 and improvident no less than the honest poor 1 or shall they be 
 left in want of every thing at times perhaps when the female 
 has to bear the pangs of maternity, or when the aged sire is un- 
 able to raise his drooping head, sinking fast into the grave of 
 his forefathers, from his bed of sickness? Or shall they be told 
 to toil away, like the cruel Pharaoh said to our oppressed an- 
 cestors : " Go ye now and toil, and straw shall not be given 
 you?" Shall they be left in such distress that the fear of 
 starvation must compel them to transgress the law of our 
 Maker and Redeemer ? Surely this cannot be, this is not the 
 wish of one of you, my honoured hearers ! and I am not far 
 wrong in maintaining that many if not all would divide their 
 last loaf in order to obviate such extreme cases of hardships. 
 But such a demand is not made. God has helped us, we 
 have means, we have more than we absolutely need for our- 
 selves ; and even if the last year has deprived us of a part of 
 our wealth, still enough has been left to compel us to confess in 
 honest truth, that though less wealthy, we have yet means suf- 
 ficient to assist, even if it be with a mere trifle, those less 
 favoured than ourselves. Let us give this trifle, let us bestow 
 it this day on the ladies' society, the members of which are our 
 security that the amount collected will be distributed so as to be 
 made subservient to promote the greatest amount of good con- 
 sistent with their rules, and we may be assured that, no matter 
 to whom given, great benefit will be the result ; for experience 
 has taught us, that the recipients of relief from our various 
 benevolent associations have often, I may almost say, generally, 
 been enabled ultimately to obtain a livelihood by their own 
 industry, perhaps through the very charity originally bestowed 
 by these blessed treasuries, yes, thrice blessed treasuries of the 
 Lord ! and when they obtained a moderate competency many 
 have reimbursed the amount obtained, and joined themselves in 
 turn to us in order to propagate the good work themselves, and 
 to be bestowers in place of receivers of benevolence. And herein 
 lies the chief characteristic difference between the charity of an 
 individual and a society. If an individual gives, it is almost 
 universally an absolute gift, and the receiver is placed under 
 obligation to the donor for as much as is given, and even if he 
 should advance in life, he can hardly insult his benefactor by
 
 238 MOTIVES OF CHARITY. 
 
 offering him back the small amount received ; and consequently 
 a species of superiority on the one, and dependence on the other 
 hand is thus maintained, extremely injurious at times to the 
 existence of friendship between persons who might otherwise 
 have been friends. But if a society is the almoner, no feeling 
 of dependence on individuals is engendered, the idea of an irre- 
 deemable obligation can find no place in the mind of the poor, 
 and if he is afterwards blessed and sees that he now can return 
 what was given him in the hour of his need, there is a ready 
 opportunity of his doing so, for the treasury of the association 
 will always gladly receive back what it dispensed ; and there-, 
 fore although the debt of gratitude is not cancelled, still it 
 presses not down the individual independence, which, if pro- 
 perly fostered, is the basis of every honourable character. I need 
 not cite instances where charity thus given was returned ; nor 
 if even this did not take place, where the bounty once bestowed 
 produced a permanent relief; for your experience will supply 
 such instances. And surely the idea that with a small gift you 
 may be the means of raising a fellow-being from absolute want 
 to comparative ease and affluence ; the idea of saying by timely 
 assistance a despairing brother from the depth of temptation, 
 crime, and misery : must be enough to induce all of you to 
 give " each according to the blessing of the Lord which He 
 has given you." 
 
 Another advantage resulting from labours of a society is, that 
 charity can be and is given with more discrimination ; since the 
 managers of a public charity are bound by every consideration 
 to guard against imposition by persons feigning necessity where 
 none exists ; whereas individuals, however anxious to distin- 
 guish, can seldom spare the time to make the necessary inves- 
 tigation. It may perhaps be urged, that the certainty almost 
 of obtaining relief may embolden many to lay their situation 
 open and demand relief, who perhaps by their own application 
 and perseverance might have been able to help themselves. 
 This is certainly often the case, and persons have been known 
 who thus in a measure fraudulently obtained assistance ; but 
 the number so transgressing against the commandment implied 
 in the annunciation, " By the sweat of thy face shall thou eat 
 thy bread," bears no proportion to those who have honestly
 
 MOTIVES OF CHARITV. 239 
 
 a claim upon our sympathy, and truly it is better that now and 
 then our managers should bestow largesses where none are 
 properly required, than that the really deserving should suffer 
 from a too cautious distribution. It must at the same time be 
 observed that a hesitancy in replying to questions when an 
 applicant is examined, does not always demonstrate unworthi- 
 ness, or a consciousness that direct replies would debar him 
 from relief; on the contrary, it may proceed from a sense of 
 shame, that he has been brought by reverses to the necessity of 
 asking the aid of man. For there are many who in their own 
 homes have always maintained a character unsullied by aught 
 of reproach, who have perhaps themselves been of those who 
 feed the hungry and clothe the naked. But lo ! in the hour of 
 night the wind of Heaven carries up the clouds from the dis- 
 tant ocean, with sulphurous gases the air is filled, mass of va- 
 pour piles itself on mass, and with heavy portents rests the 
 atmosphere's weight upon every man's breast. Hark ! yonder 
 sound is the roll of the distant thunder ! See yon sudden flash ! 
 it is the lightning's vivid glare ! all nature seems now convulsed 
 and sound and fire and the torrent are commingled, and man 
 hastily forsakes his pillow, terrified at the awful display of his 
 Creator's mighty power ! Now the storm is at its height ! and 
 the fierce flame seizes hold of man's labour, and soon blazes up 
 in the gloom of the terrific night. Quick in succession the 
 bucket is plied from hand to hand of compassionate neighbours, 
 high in streams issues out the volume sent forth by the aiding 
 engine ; but vain is all the toil, useless is the friendly aid, rafter 
 after rafter tumbles into the fiery pool, walls fall in, beams are 
 crushed, and all fly aghast from the threatening ruins ! Yet 
 none of those dear to his heart* are lost, and the father leaves 
 his devastated home for a foreign clime, bereft of all the riches 
 he once possessed, and claims peradventure your aid to obtain 
 bread for his helpless little ones. Is he deceiving you, because 
 in a strange land the blush of shame mantles on his cheek 
 when he hesitatingly recounts the tale of his wo ? Is his wife 
 to be blamed, if she is unwilling to let strangers know the 
 full extent of evil which the Lord has in his judgment de- 
 
 * Partly borrowed from Schiller's " Lied von der Glocke."
 
 240 MOTIVES OF CHARITY. 
 
 creed unto her ? For although compassion is raised in the 
 mind of the benevolent by a knowledge of the sufferings of 
 the unfortunate : still the sensitive delicacy of many who are 
 oppressed by poverty shrinks from disclosing the tithe of 
 what they have to endure. Those therefore who really wish 
 to be a blessing to their species, those whom the Lord has 
 blessed with means to relieve the wo they see, should not wait 
 till the sufferers are knocking at their gates ; but should of 
 their own accord seek out the modest inobtrusive indigent 
 whose lips are sealed by shame and delicacy from laying their 
 sufferings open to public gaze. And if they are unwilling to be 
 such agents of beneficence in their own persons ; if they like 
 not to enter the abode of wretched indigence and to bestow 
 with their own hands a part of their superfluities ; or if age or 
 sickness or unavoidable occupations prevent them from being 
 angels of mercy : let them then give unto those, who, like our 
 society here present, will gladly assume the task, and will faith- 
 fully and impartially administer relief to all who need, and who 
 require not abject humiliation in order to move their pity, and 
 who never will, never can, because they never should, send a 
 distressed sister unheeded from their doors, since they have 
 voluntarily bound themselves to spread consolation, sustenance 
 and contentment among the needy according to the utmost 
 extent of their disposable means. It need not be urged upon 
 you who are at ease and in affluence how lovely it is in all to 
 feel for those who are afflicted ; for there are but few indeed 
 who have not felt an emotion of tranquillity and satisfaction 
 with themselves when they parted with what made them not 
 poorer, and lighted up the smile of gratitude in the countenance 
 of the persons they benefited with their charity ; and all must 
 have experienced how sweet a reward was the " God bless 
 you" coming from a heart overflowing with gratitude. Yes ! 
 charity blesses the giver as much as the receiver ; for whilst the 
 one is relieved of a load of care, the other thereby purchases 
 himself a better heart, he conquers the disposition to retain 
 worldly goods which cannot benefit him, and acquires the 
 good will of his heavenly Father. For what says the prophet 
 (Isaiah Iviii. 6-9) ?
 
 MOTIVES OF CHARITY. 241 
 
 -inn yen nirnnn nns imroN arc nr 
 : iprun HDID S:n D'jran D^IVI nS:n HDIO 
 D no N'nn DHTID oj;n *]orrS DjnS 015 
 w : oSynn a6 "peaoi worn any nann 
 "|Sm nosn mno "jro-ian 
 'm anpn rx 
 
 : 'c-'i n": n 
 
 " Is not this rather the fast which I choose, to dissolve the bands of wicked- 
 ness ; to loosen the oppressive burdens ; and to let the oppressed go free ; and 
 that ye should break asunder every yoke ] Is it not to distribute thy bread 
 to the hungry? and to bring the miserably afflicted poor into thy house? 
 when thou seest the naked that thou clothe him, and that thou hide not thy- 
 self from thy own flesh 1 Then shall thy light break forth like the morning; 
 and thy health shall spring forth speedily ; and thy righteousness shall go 
 before thee ; and the glory of the Lord shall receive thee. Then shall thou 
 call, and the Lord will answer, thou shall cry, arid He will say, Lo, I am 
 here." 
 
 This is the extensive field of universal benevolence in which 
 we are commanded to labour ; and the harvest unto ourselves 
 will be ample indeed. For we are promised a boon far above 
 our own acts ; we are told that our light shall spring forth as 
 the morning; yes, like to the exhausted mariner upon the sink- 
 ing wreck is welcome the blessed dawn that shows him the 
 friendly haven : so shall in the gloom of despair the divine light 
 illuminate the path of those acting righteously. And like the 
 same mariner's health and streng h are reinvigorated when he 
 finds that safety is within his reach : so will virtuous deeds 
 constantly make us progress onward when we have escaped 
 shipwreck against the rock of passions. And as the seafarer 
 rejoices when he casts his anchor in the harbour of security, 
 when all perils are overcome : so shall we rejoice when we 
 are received into the embrnce of the divine Glory, the perma- 
 nent resting-place of the righteous. If our conduct deserves 
 this, we may indeed call, and the Lord will answer, and unto 
 the voice of our entreaty He will surely grant us his favour. 
 We thus see that witli our small endeavours we can purchase 
 ourselves everlasting joys ; eternal bliss by temporal sacrifices. 
 
 VOL. in. 21
 
 242 MOTIVES OF CHARITY. 
 
 Let me then again call on you, brothers and sisters, to act up 
 to the demands of our Father ! give according to your means ! 
 right the injured ! assist the oppressed ! relieve the indigent ! 
 and as God loves the widow, the orphan, and the stranger, to 
 give them bread and garments : so be you his agents on earth, 
 bid the stranger welcome, be parents to the orphan, and pro- 
 tectors to the widow ! so that when you may call in your need 
 upon the Omnipotent, the Seer of all secrets, He may mete out 
 to you enlargement and deliverance, as your virtue may deserve 
 from his unexhaustible bounty, and from his mercy which never 
 faileth. 
 
 Heshvan 5th 
 November 7th
 
 FUNERAL ADDRESS, 
 
 SPOKEN OVER THE BIER OF 
 
 THE REV. ISAAC B. SEIXAS, 
 
 AT THE BURIAL-GROUND IN NEW YORK, 
 ON MONDAY THE 2d OF ELUL, (AUGUST 12th,) 5599. 
 
 BRETHREN AND FRIENDS! 
 
 On but one occasion previous to this time have I stood before 
 you ; it was when the benevolent guardians of the poor and the 
 orphan sent for me to appeal to you in behalf of their charges. 
 Little did I then dream, that he who on that day stood by my 
 side and administered in this holy house would so soon be called 
 from the field of his labours into the presence of the omnipotent 
 Judge ; little did I on that day think that ere three years had 
 passed away, I should be summoned to address you over the 
 bier on which his mortal remains are laid. I almost shrink 
 from the task, and gladly would I have been absent this day, 
 and not tasked my feelings by officiating on this mournful 
 occasion. But it comports not with the duty of a servant of 
 the holy One to withhold his aid when it is required at the 
 grave of the departed, and it is not for him to hesitate when his 
 services are demanded. Still I would earnestly have wished 
 that I had been spared this trial, and that some other one could 
 have been selected to perform the duties which are now de- 
 manded of me. For I too must mourn with his bereaved 
 family over the father, the husband, and friend ; since, inde- 
 pendently of the family connexion subsisting between us, my 
 first associations in this country are connected with our de- 
 ceased brother. When I had crossed the broad Atlantic Ocean, 
 and had escaped by the almost miraculous interposition of
 
 244 FUNERAL ADDRESS. 
 
 Providence from the fury of the equinoctial storm and the 
 raging of the mountain billows, and when I had recovered 
 from a painful illness after my arrival on these shores, and 
 when I repaired to the house of God : it was Mr. Seixas' voice 
 that I first heard lifted up in prayer to the throne of Grace, and 
 in his presence it was that I returned thanks for the undeserved 
 mercy that had been shown unto me. Several years after this 
 elapsed that I lived under his ministry, and I will mention it to 
 his credit, and it is a fact with which few of you are acquainted, 
 that he was the first who proposed what has since been carried 
 into successful operation, I mean the gratuitous instruction in 
 religious matters on certain days in the week. It was in the 
 Synagogue at Richmond where he, feebly assisted by me, 
 commenced teaching on the Sabbath and the first day such 
 children and youths as desired religious instruction. If the 
 success was not so great as we at one time hoped, it was 
 owing to the great difficulties we had to encounter. But I may 
 freely say, that the seed was thus sown, and one at least has 
 ever since had hopes of a revival of religion among our brethren 
 in this land, and he hopes to be spared to see the devoutly 
 wished-for consummation happily accomplished. Blessed time 
 indeed will that hour be, when our youths and maidens, natives 
 of this soil, will be joyful servants of the Most High, devoted 
 followers of the law of the God of Jacob ! And when we see 
 the spread of piety, when we see many disenthralled from the 
 bonds of selfish gain : let us pronounce a blessing on the name 
 of him who was the first to commence the righteous work 
 which has since been undertaken with promise of better suc- 
 cess by the pious daughters of Israel in different places, -as is 
 known to you all this day. 
 
 But this is not the only cause why I should mourn with the 
 nearest friends and relatives of the deceased. It was under him 
 that I first learned the accepted mode of our worship, and was 
 thus fitted to be summoned to officiate in the sanctuary where 
 I have these ten years endeavoured, though I fear unworthily, 
 to proclaim the word of life, which has been graciously be- 
 stowed on a sinning world by its merciful Creator. Many 
 times, since that period, has the hand of affliction, and the suf- 
 fering of severe bodily illness been laid on me ; death in various
 
 FUNERAL ADDRESS. 245 
 
 forms has threatened me, once especially, when the beloved, the 
 only other son of my parents was removed from me : I could 
 not then imagine that I should be suffered to survive to officiate 
 on this occasion, and to perform the last solemn rites of our faith 
 over him whom I may freely call my teacher, without a great 
 stretch of the imagination. But so are the inscrutable decrees 
 of Providence; " He woundeth, and his hands also heal," " He 
 bringeth down to the grave, and raiseth up again ;" and we 
 see his omnipotent power displayed no less in his visitations 
 than in his mercies. Let us therefore improve the occasion, 
 mournful and afflictive though it be, so that the death of this 
 servant in the house of God may redound to our advantage. 
 It was but, so to say, yesterday, that he walked among us ; not 
 two weeks have elapsed since he accompanied me on my 
 return to the city where I have been chosen as the messenger 
 of the congregation; we parted in the principal street of this 
 extensive city ; he appeared in health, and surely no thought of 
 so speedy a dissolution could have entered into his imagination. 
 Yet scarcely had a week rolled on in the ceaseless course of 
 time, when I heard tidings of his illness, and next of his unex- 
 pected and lamented death. Often and often has this truth 
 been forced upon our view, that the tenure of life is uncertain, 
 that we are not assured whether to-morrow's sun will shine for 
 us, or whether the rising moon, which finds us in high expecta- 
 tion of a length of years, may not send her setting rays upon 
 our couch of death. Yes, so uncertain is life; and still our 
 plans reach as it were into the space of centuries ; we grasp 
 the exisience of many generations, when scarcely one hour may 
 yet be ours. But does it not strike you that this grasping and 
 this striving do not become man destined to die? should one, 
 whose life is so limited, extend his view so far, and seek for 
 things which he cannot reach ? Better indeed would it be for 
 each and all, were every man early to reflect on the fleeting 
 state of his existence here, and to fix his hopes on yonder haven 
 beyond the grave the grave, the embrace of which no one can 
 escape, were he to live a thousand years, instead of the three 
 score and ten allotted to us. These hopes would teach him 
 that he has the power given him of earning felicity by an 
 obedience to the will of his Maker, who, in giving him life 
 
 21*
 
 246 FUNERAL ADDRESS. 
 
 and being, also bestowed on him a law which, if obeyed, will 
 lead to happiness. But there is no time for delay next year 
 next month to-morrow nay, this day, this hour, may be our 
 last, and the opportunity may thus be lost of acquiring felicity, 
 if we do not act immediately. It becomes therefore our duty 
 to act always so, as though every day were the last of our life, 
 and to endeavour to repair through repentance any evil which 
 we may have committed ; in order that we may deserve the 
 favour of our Maker at any moment when it may please Him 
 to summon us to his presence. Obedience to the will of God is 
 truly the balm of life, the real object of our existence ; for its 
 riches no tyrant can ever take from us, its wealth no misfor- 
 tune can snatch away, and no canker-worm can deface the 
 beauty of the garment which it throws around our spirit; for 
 thus teaches the Bible : 
 
 vmvo nxi NT o'nStfn nK ^DBO SDH -m 
 
 : y- 3"< nSn ' 
 
 " The end of the matter, even all that hath been heard is, fear God and 
 keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." Ecc. xii. 13. 
 
 If we are then snatched away after a brief notice from earthly 
 life and its enjoyments : we shall have the consolation in our 
 last moments, a consolation outweighing far all the pearls of 
 Persia, and the diamonds from the sands of India, more sweet 
 by far than the senseless shout of admiring thousands, of having 
 accomplished our task on earth, and of being able to restore 
 our soul in its purity into the hands of Him who gave it. 
 
 Let us hope that he, for whom we now mourn, has been 
 received into the abode of the righteous, among those who have 
 fulfilled well their mission on earth, and that his sins have been 
 forgiven, (for there is no man so righteous that he sin not ;) and 
 that his bodily sufferings and the pangs of death have purified 
 his spirit from the dross of iniquity. But for those who survive 
 him, for his bereaved widow, his fatherless children, let us 
 invoke the mercy of Heaven : may He bestow on them his con- 
 solation, even his blessed spirit, which abideth with the lowly 
 and contrite, and may He shield them by his beneficent protec-
 
 FUNERAL ADDRESS. 247 
 
 tion from all evil, and guide them unto happiness both on earth 
 and when their spirit is freed from the trammels of the body. 
 May He be the Protector of the widow, and the Father of the 
 fatherless, and teach them to regard Him, the holy and righteous 
 One, as their sole Refuge, as He is the Refuge and Solace of 
 all the children of man, and especially of his people Israel 
 whom He chose to be his servants, and the promulgators of his 
 law on earth. Amen. 
 
 Elul2nd 
 August 12th 
 
 NOTE. The Reverend Isaac Benjamin Seixas, minister of the congrega- 
 tion Sheerith Israel of New York, died on Sabbath evening, the 1st of Elul, 
 5599. I was sent for by his congregation to perform the funeral service 
 over my deceased friend; the time eft me for throwing together a few ap- 
 propriate remarks for this mournful occasion was necessarily limited to less 
 than two hours before retiring to rest on Sunday night ; as I had to com- 
 mence my journey to New York early in the morning. The reader will 
 therefore excuse both the brevity and the great imperfections with which 
 the above tribute may justly be charged ; it ou^ht p< rhaps not to have ap- 
 peared at all in this collection, were it not that I thought myself not at 
 liberty to pass over the decease of Mr. Seixas, without acknowledging that 
 a part of my usefulness as a minister of our congregation was owing to his 
 instruction. I. L.
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS IN THE EAST. 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 THE SYNAGOGUE MIKVEH ISRAEL, 
 
 O\ THURSDAY EVENING, THE 28th OF AB, 5600 27lh OF AUGUST, 1840. 
 
 A MEETING to express sympathy and to devise means of relief for the Is- 
 raelites persecuted in the East on account of false accusations, was held in 
 the Synagogue as mentioned above : when Mr. A. Hart gave a succinct his- 
 tory of the cruelties practised against our brethren, and concluded with an 
 appeal to the feelings and sympathy of the audience. I then spoke as 
 follows : 
 
 MR. CHAIRMAN AND BRETHREN ! 
 
 The gentleman who has preceded me has stated to you the 
 reason of our assembling at this unusual time* at the house of 
 God. We, the inhabitants of a land where a benevolent Provi- 
 dence causes to prevail an equality of rights and an entire free- 
 dom in religious pursuits, have met for the purpose of publicly 
 expressing our sympathy for those of our brothers who, living 
 where the " bond of slavery twineth," have lately been sub- 
 jected to persecutions at which the blood runs cold, and this for 
 the sake of false accusations brought against them, not as men, 
 but as members of the Jewish community. Were it that they 
 only suffered unjustly, even if the charge did not touch our an- 
 cient system of faith, still, as sons of Israel, we ourselves would 
 feel the wrong that they have unjustly to bear. But now we 
 have an additional incentive to rouse our every feeling of com- 
 miseration and regret ; since the religion, which we profess in 
 
 * Alluding to the lateness of the hour, which was past the usual period of 
 the evening service.
 
 PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. 249 
 
 common with them, has been stigmatized as authorizing the 
 shedding of human blood at the recurrence of the annual Pass- 
 over. You may perhaps smile that such an absurd accusation 
 should at all be made ! you may feel contempt at the ignorance 
 which could give credence to such superannuated folly ! but 
 our smile of derision, our hearty contempt, do not affect the 
 mass who regard not with kindness the remnant of Israel, and 
 will not disarm the malice of those who are only glad of every 
 opportunity to send new sorrows to our bosoms. It is not the 
 first time that it has been said and believed that the Jews are 
 commanded to slay their Christian neighbours ; and at a time 
 when the pestilence raged over almost the whole known world, 
 our people were accused of causing the great destruction of 
 human life by poisoning the wells, simply because in proportion 
 to numbers less Jews died than Christians. The consequence 
 was that multitudes of the accused were butchered without pity, 
 and those whom the black death had spared fell a prey to the 
 fury of an excited populace, rendered lawless by the prevalence 
 of a fatal disorder, which daily hurried thousands to the tomb. 
 And whenever superstition and rapacity wished to glut them- 
 selves in the destruction of our defenceless race, the charge of 
 murder for our religious rites was raised, and, as was the case 
 lately, it was made the pretext for unsheathing the sword and 
 dooming countless numbers of innocent victims to merciless 
 slaughter. O ! then were times of sorrow and affliction; we wept, 
 but no one pitied, our gore rendered turbid the streams, but all 
 passed carelessly by ; they heeded not our cries, they regarded 
 us as aliens to the rights of man, outcasts from Divine favour. 
 Those were indeed times when our harps were hung upon the 
 willows ; when the voice of wailing was heard in every home ; 
 when the houses of prayer were filled, not with living worship- 
 pers, but with the bodies of those slain by the unpitying perse- 
 cutor. Whither then could we fly ? We were shunned as 
 murderers, as those unclean with leprosy, as banished from the 
 pale of the laws ; and every land almost forbade us its boun- 
 daries, every city almost shut its gates against our fugitives ; 
 and where we were permitted to rest awhile we had to pur- 
 chase at a high price the protection of some powerful chieftain, 
 whether civil or ecclesiastical ; and then we had to suffer our-
 
 250 PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 selves to be confined to narrow and unwholesome quarters, and 
 to be marked in our garments as sons of Jacob. Well might 
 a noble poet,* who, had he always acted as he at times felt, 
 would have been the glory of human nature, thus speak of the 
 sorrowing nation descended from Abraham : 
 
 1. 
 
 " Oh ! weep for those that wept by Babel's stream, 
 Whose shrines are desolate, whose land a dream ; 
 Weep for the harp of Judah's broken shell ; 
 Mourn where their God hath dwelt the godless dwell ! 
 
 2. 
 
 And where shall Israel lave her bleeding feet ? 
 And when shall Zion's songs again seem sweet ? 
 And Judah's melody once more rejoice 
 The hearts that leaped before its heavenly voice ? 
 
 3. 
 
 Tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast, 
 How shall ye flee away and be at rest ! 
 The wild dove hath her nest, the fox his cave, 
 Mankind their country Israel but the grave !" 
 
 This was literally true for centuries, our homes were not safe 
 from invasion, our sanctuaries ever open to the spoiler, and our 
 sons and daughters constantly the object of derision, or food for 
 the sword. Mankind had conspired against us, and death alone 
 was viewed as an unassailable refuge against the ills that accu- 
 mulated over our heads. And even where permission to dwell 
 was granted us, we were yet excluded from a share in equal 
 rights, and tolerated merely as excrescences on the body poli- 
 tic; condemned to low pursuits, prohibited the exercise of 
 mechanic arts and the study of ennobling professions, and 
 continually subjected to exactions and rapine. 
 
 In those days of affliction, contempt and scorn were our uni- 
 versal portion ; and Turk, and Pagan, and Christian, alike con- 
 tributed to pour the bitterness of gall into our cup of life. Yet 
 
 * Lord Byron.
 
 PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 251 
 
 had through us the world been greatly blessed since the latter 
 days of the first temple. Our views of the Deity, of the exalted 
 attributes of the Creator, had by degrees been infused into the 
 philosophy of the heathen, and they had learned a new source of 
 joy by looking unto a state of pure enjoyment after the life of the 
 body had become extinct, and to regard the idols which they 
 worshipped in their true light of creatures of the imagination. 
 At a later period there arose one of our own community, who, 
 be the accounts related of him false or true, was nevertheless 
 the means of the spread of a system analogous to our own over 
 a large portion of the pagan world ; he became, though doubt- 
 lessly without himself dreaming of such a result, the messenger 
 of better things to many who knew not God. Still was he a 
 son of Abraham, a professor of the same religion we profess at 
 this very hour; and he enjoined, if there be any truth in the 
 books said to contain an account of his life, an adherence to 
 the law as it existed at his day; at the same time all the injunc- 
 tions of brotherly love which he is said to have promulgated, 
 are clearly referable to the Law of Moses, and the sayings of 
 our blessed Rabbins. After his death, and centuries after his 
 religion had begun to spread, there appeared another claiming 
 affinity with our race, and pronounced himself inspired to teach 
 better things to mankind ; and he too founded his doctrines upon 
 the Law of Moses, even so far as to recognise, in addition to 
 the unity of God, a weekly day of rest and the prohibition of 
 certain articles of food, besides the fundamental covenant of 
 Abraham. Speedily persuasion and the sword banished, under 
 his guidance and that of his immediate successors, the worship 
 of idols from Arabia, Iran, Tartary, and the far India; even 
 Ethiopia, the coasts of Africa, and Spain, nay, the very distant 
 islands of the Eastern Archipelago, and the countries beyond 
 the great desert, yet inaccessible almost to the European's foot, 
 acknowledged the sway of the Koran, and the Islam became 
 the law of as large a portion of mankind as then acknowledged 
 the Christian Gospels. Yet, take it as we will, these two 
 mighty revolutions in opinion were the effect of the religion of 
 the Jews, an adoption of an essential part, with the rejection of 
 the ceremonial laws, by many and powerful nations. In this 
 manner then were civilization and an enlightened philosophy
 
 252 PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 indebted to the Jews, or rather the code they then obeyed, and 
 to this day obey, for much, if not all their progress; and what- 
 ever of equality of rights, of mercy, and benevolence, is now 
 prevalent, we may freely say, has its foundation in the Penta- 
 teuch, the law of the Jews. Does now the Christian religion 
 recommend human sacrifice ? does the Koran command a vic- 
 tim to be slain at the great festival of the Moslems? We know 
 the answer must be in the negative; nothing but ignorance, 
 wilful ignorance, could charge the Monolheists who are not 
 Jews with the commission of a crime so foreign to their belief. 
 But does the Jewish law, less than that of Christians or Maho- 
 medans, demand the exercise of mercy, forbid the commission 
 of murder ? We have yet to learn that it does ; for he who has 
 no mercy is no son of Israel, and he who pollutes his hands 
 with human blood becomes a prey to the sword of the avenger. 
 We know of no difference between the Israelite and the 
 stranger ; we are bound to assist every one in distress, and our 
 neighbour is he who, like us, bears the stamp of the human face 
 divine, be his opinions what they may ; be he our friend or our 
 enemy ! 
 
 And yet, how much had we to suffer, because of the accusa- 
 tion that we employed human blood, the blood of our Christian 
 fellow-rnen, in the celebration of the birth of our people ! We 
 ask, Where is the historical evidence that such a thing ever 
 took place? we demand, Where is the permission to be dis- 
 covered, I will not say in the Pentateuch, but in any of our 
 writings? To eat of the blood, nay, in the smallest quantity, 
 of a brute animal, is most energetically interdicted; and can 
 reason be so blinded as to suppose that we would mix human 
 blood in the unleavened bread, over which we call down the 
 blessings of the Lord, and return thanks for his manifold 
 mercies to his people Israel ? We will admit, that at a period 
 when the rights of the subject were but imperfectly under- 
 stood, when a pontiff could dispose of crowns as of ecclesi- 
 astical benefices, when a mighty effort was made to enforce a 
 uniformity of opinions, when the iron-clad barons were not able 
 to sign their names, when might made right, and the dictum of 
 one man could not be disputed, except at the risk of life: it 
 might have been supposed possible for the multitude to be de-
 
 PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS.* 253 
 
 luded by the persuasion of those whose lead they followed, to 
 believe any absurdity with regard to the Jews who lived among 
 them as outcasts from human rights, and whose supposed wealth 
 was always an object to be coveted by the lords no less than by 
 the rabble. But it surpasses belief, that with the progress of 
 enlightened principles, this absurd idea should have survived in 
 its odious deformity; at a time, too, when Spain, once the slave 
 at the feet of an inquisition, demands a free constitution, and 
 when the new Sultan of the Osmalins gives a new charter to 
 his people, who will doubtlessly in future ages revere the name 
 of Abdul Medjid, whatever his fate now may be in those mu- 
 tations, from which thrones are not exempt. We cannot be too 
 much astonished at the folly or effrontery which, at the present 
 day, pretends to lend credence to a foul calumny which the 
 better disposed, during even the dark ages, refused to entertain. 
 But so it is, the mass is ever ready to put faith in the marvel- 
 lous and the extraordinary, no matter if their absurdity should 
 be apparent on the very surface; and all we can say is, that 
 with the progress of civilization many have fallen behind the 
 march of intellect in others, and that human nature is prone to 
 err, and this in an aggravated degree, at all ages of the world. 
 Were any proof of this wanting, the recent tragic scenes in 
 Damascus and Rhodes would give ample confirmation. You 
 must know, Mr. Chairman, that not everywhere have our 
 rights been acknowledged as in this happy land, happy for the 
 Israelite, because here no one can demand of him a test-oath to 
 testify to that which he inwardly disbelieves, before he is per- 
 mitted to fill a station for which his talents qualify him. Yet, 
 in many lands we are tolerated merely, and constitute not a 
 part of the state, as we do here and in a few other enlightened 
 countries. So, too, in the dominions of the Pacha of Egypt, the 
 renowned Mehemet Ali, are we left unprotected by any law, 
 save the will of the ruling chief, or those who administer the 
 government in his name ; add to which that in the lands of the 
 East, human life is not held sacred, but is ever at the mercy of 
 the despot, and the possession of wealth is often the passport to 
 destruction. 
 
 Now it so happened, as you already know, that an old man 
 disappeared ; whether murdered or not, no one has clearly 
 
 VOL. in. 22
 
 254 PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 shown ; and if murdered, it has not yet been proved, as far as 
 our knowledge extends, who his murderers are. But our 
 brothers in Damascus are wealthy, they are subject, at the best 
 of times, to great cruelties and grinding exactions ; and do you 
 think that so favourable an opportunity for pillage would be 
 suffered to pass ? Little would you know the spirit of despotism 
 if you were to think so j, for though ever ready to oppress, it 
 greedily seizes every opportunity to give some colouring of 
 justice to its exactions. The result has been what might natu- 
 rally have been expected. One humble individual, at first 
 arrested upon the vaguest suspicion, was beaten till his tormen- 
 tors could not do otherwise than cease in the infliction; he was 
 taken back to prison, and there tampered with to induce him to 
 accuse, not those of a low degree like himself, but the first in 
 wealth and learning which the city could furnish. They were 
 seized and tortured; some died under the excruciating pain 
 they had to endure; others accused themselves guilty of the 
 crime of murdering the missing individual ; one adopted the 
 Mussulman religion ; whilst others, patiently enduring the 
 most intense suffering, still clung to the truth, and refused 
 making any confession of guilt in themselves or others, of 
 which they were guiltless. The name of one of these noble 
 martyrs has reached me, it is Mussa Salonikli, who adhered to 
 the protestation of his innocence when the endurance of others 
 was broken down. Such a man deserves to be held in honour- 
 able remembrance for future ages, as an example of a true 
 Israelite, who exhibited a filial confidence in his God under the 
 greatest trials to which poor mortality can be subjected. But 
 with the seizure of the first accused the persecution did not 
 stop; others of the best and noblest were barbarously mal- 
 treated, and many children were thrown into prison, and kept 
 upon miserable food, to induce their parents to come forward 
 and accuse persons acceptable to the monster Sheriff Pacha, 
 who, if report speaks true, must have known from the recanta- 
 tion of one who had embraced Moslemism, that the charge of 
 murder against our brothers was no less false than foul. 
 
 You may ask, Why did not the Jews rise against their op- 
 pressors ? But, Mr. Chairman, ages of suffering deaden the 
 spirit; and they render powerless the hands of those who other-
 
 PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS." 255 
 
 wise might strike for their own liberation ; faint-heartedness has 
 long, therefore, been the lot of our brothers who languish under 
 oppression, and many have become passive even under every 
 cruelty. We who, under different circumstances, feel so very 
 differently, must not, in the knowledge of our security, despise 
 those whom adverse fortunes have so bowed down; on the 
 contrary, let us admire their patient endurances, for having re- 
 mained true to our faith under every trial they had to undergo. 
 Let us from the midst of our thankfulness to God for having 
 blessed us so much more than we deserve, express our sympathy 
 for those who suffer elsewhere; those who, with us, are de- 
 scended from the stock of the Patriarchs. But what need is 
 there for this appeal 1 Around me are those who have assem- 
 bled for no other purpose than to express, in language not to be 
 misunderstood, that they feel for their brothers who languish 
 under the cruel bondage of oppression; that every cry of an- 
 guish, uttered by their fellow-believers elsewhere, touches a 
 sympathetic chord in their own hearts. O, this is a soothing 
 reflection ! we have no country of our own ; we have no longer 
 a united government, under the shadow of which we can live 
 securely ; but we have a tie yet holier than a fatherland, a 
 patriotism stronger than the community of one government; 
 our tie is a sincere brotherly love, our patriotism is the affection 
 which unites the Israelite of one land to that of another. As 
 citizens we belong to the country we live in ; but as believers 
 in one God. as the faithful adorers of the Creator, as the inheri- 
 tors of the law, the Jews of England, and Russia, and Sweden, 
 are no aliens among us, and we hail the Israelite as a brother, 
 no matter if his home be the torrid zone, or where the poles 
 encircle the earth with the impenetrable fetters of icy coldness. 
 We have therefore met for the purpose of expressing our ab- 
 horrence of the calumny cast on our religion in another part of 
 the world, and to offer our aid, in conjunction with our brothers 
 in other towns both of this country and elsewhere, to those who 
 have been subjected to such unmerited barbarities. Perhaps 
 the united voice of all the professors of our blessed religion may 
 reach the ears of the potentates of the earth ; perhaps public 
 attention may be roused to the wrongs we have so long suf- 
 fered, and all acknowledge that our system is one of love and
 
 256 PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 peace, and that it is an essential point with us to do our duty to 
 the state no less than to observe the divine commands. If this 
 should be the case, if those differing from us would grant us 
 everywhere an equality of rights, not as apostates from, but as 
 adherents to, our ancient religion: then indeed will the martyrs 
 at Damascus not have suffered in vain, for their sorrows would 
 .then bring peace to Israel. Now, Mr. Chairman, is this hoping 
 for too much? I hardly think so. Already the transaction 
 which we deplore has raised up advocates for us among our 
 Christian friends ; and if the name of Ratti-Menton will live in 
 the disgrace which he so well merits, the generous Mr. Merlato 
 at Damascus, and Mr. Laurin at Alexandria, who there repre- 
 sent the Emperor of Austria, will be remembered with gratitude 
 for their unsolicited exertions in our behalf. In England, too, 
 the subject has awakened attention, and one of its great minds, 
 who formerly opposed our admission to equal rights, the re- 
 nowned Sir Robert Peel, has already thought proper to mention 
 the case of the sufferers in parliament, with every demonstra- 
 tion that he too feels that a great wrong has been done to an 
 innocent people. There too has been an O'Connell, a Noel, a 
 Thompson, and many others to speak in our behalf; and doubt- 
 lessly in this land too, perhaps in this city, men will step for- 
 ward to vindicate the rights of man outraged in the persons of 
 the Jews at Damascus. Perhaps a voice too loud to remain 
 unheeded may be raised against the use of torture in trials, and 
 that the Pacha of Egypt, in whose dominions are Damascus 
 and Jerusalem, may be induced to abolish it altogether; and so 
 not we alone, but all the inhabitants of the earth, may have 
 cause to rejoice in the present movement in which we are 
 engaged, though sorrow was its first promoter. And why 
 should the case of the Jews be less attended to than that of 
 the Greeks? When the sons of ancient Hellas broke the 
 chains of the Ottoman power, all Europe and America were 
 awakened in their behalf; but have they any greater claim 
 upon the sympathy of the world than we have? We admit 
 that the Greeks may have been the fathers of architecture, of 
 painting, of sculpture, and of tragic poetry ; but the world 
 is indebted to us far more, for a gift far nobler, for the posses- 
 sion of the Decalogue, for the word of God, the holy and pre-
 
 PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. 257 
 
 cious Bible, the book more venerable than all books, the parent 
 of a pure belief, the foundation of true happiness, of religion 
 without bigotry, of liberty without licentiousness. 
 
 Another happy effect has already resulted from the same 
 cause; it has awakened anew the spirit of brotherly love 
 among us, and we have had an opportunity of experiencing 
 that oceans may intervene between our dispersed remnants, 
 that mountains may divide us, but that yet the Israelite is ever 
 alive to the welfare of his distant brother, and sorrows with his 
 sorrow, and rejoices in his joy. The times also have produced 
 spirits adequate to the emergency, and a Cremieux of Paris, and 
 a Montefiore of London, will be long remembered as the gene- 
 rous, active friends of their people, who nobly volunteered to 
 plead the cause of their brothers in distant lands. Let us trust 
 that the Lord may prosper their way, and bring them back to 
 their families after the happy termination of their mission of 
 love. 
 
 It is now, Mr. Chairman, as ever it was ; although banished 
 and scattered over every land for our manifold transgressions, 
 we are not cast off nor utterly forsaken by our God. He has 
 been our shield, as He was the shield of our forefathers ; and 
 as out of every evil He always caused good to spring unto 
 Israel, so let us hope that this present occasion may not pass 
 away without a proportionate benefit accruing unto us and the 
 world at large, under the dispensation of his Providence. I say 
 " unto us and the world at large ;" since our cause is not the 
 cause of faction, and when we prosper it is not for the oppres- 
 sion of any human being, for never yet were our people perse- 
 cutors for opinion's sake, because the law of God was always a 
 code of toleration and benevolence ; and then, the more the 
 knowledge of the truth is spread, the more it is understood, the 
 stronger will be the feeling of attachment which will unite all 
 the inhabitants of the earth as a nation of brothers. 
 
 In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, I will repeat the words of the 
 wise Solomon, invoking the blessing of our heavenly Father 
 upon us and our undertaking : " The Lord our God be with us, 
 as He was with our fathers ; O may He not leave, nor forsake 
 us; may He incline our hearts towards Him, to walk in all his 
 
 22*
 
 258 PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes and judg- 
 ments which He commanded our fathers." 
 
 With your permission, I will now offer a preamble and a 
 series of resolutions for the approval of this meeting: 
 
 The Israelites residing in Philadelphia, in common with those 
 of other places, have heard with the deepest sorrow, that in this 
 enlightened age the absurd charge of their requiring human 
 blood, at the celebration of their Passover, has been revived, 
 and that an accusation of this nature having been brought 
 against their brethren at Damascus and the Island of Rhodes 
 has been the cause of a most cruel persecution being waged 
 against them, by order of the Mussulman authorities, instigated, 
 as it is feared, by one or more of the European residents. 
 
 They have learned also, with unfeigned horror, that several 
 prominent men at Damascus have been seized by their ruthless 
 persecutors, and tortured till some confessed thefnselves guilty 
 of a crime which they never committed ; and others died under 
 the most exquisite barbarities, which ignorant bigotry, urged 
 by the love of plunder and hatred of the Jewish name, could 
 invent. 
 
 Although the Israelites of Philadelphia, living in a land where, 
 under the blessing of Providence, equality of civil and religious 
 rights so eminently prevails, are not in any danger of persecu- 
 tion for opinion's sake : still they cannot rest while so foul a 
 blot is cast upon their ancient and sacred faith, a faith on which 
 both the Christian and Mahomedan religions are founded, and 
 which is essentially a law of justice, of mercy, and benevo- 
 lence ; and they would deem themselves traitors to brotherly 
 love and the rights of outraged humanity, were they to with- 
 hold their expression of sympathy for their suffering brethren, 
 who writhe under unmerited tortures, and languish in loath- 
 some dungeons, and to offer their aid, if practicable, to have 
 impartial justice administered to them upon the present and any 
 future occasion. The Israelites of Philadelphia have therefore 
 met in public meeting, and 
 
 Resolved, That they experience the deepest emotions of sym- 
 pathy for the sufferings endured by their fellows in faith at
 
 PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. 259 
 
 Damascus and Rhodes, under the tortures and injuries inflicted 
 upon them by merciless and savage persecutors ; and that, while 
 they mourn for those upon whom such cruel enormities have 
 been heaped, they cannot but admire the fortitude evinced by 
 many of the sufferers, who preferred enduring every torture 
 rather than subscribing to the falsehoods dictated by their vin- 
 dictive enemies. 
 
 Resolved, That the crime charged upon the Israelites of Da- 
 mascus, of using Christian blood for their festival of redemption 
 from Egypt, is utterly at variance with the express injunction 
 of the Decalogue and other parts of the Pentateuch, and incom- 
 patible with the principles inculcated by the religion they pro- 
 fess, which enjoins them to " love their neighbour as them- 
 selves," and " to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly 
 before God." 
 
 Resolved, That they will co-roperate with their brethren else- 
 where in affording pecuniary aid, if required, to relieve the 
 victims of this unholy persecution, and to unite in such other 
 measures as may be devised to mitigate their sufferings. 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be accorded to the 
 consuls of those European powers, who made efforts to stay 
 the arm of persecution, and who by this deed deserve well of 
 the cause of suffering humanity. 
 
 Resolved, That this meeting highly appreciates the prompt 
 and energetic measures adopted by our brethren in Europe, and 
 elsewhere, for the promotion of the object of this meeting, and 
 the noble undertaking of Monsieur Cremieux and Sir Moses 
 Montefiore, in coming forward not only as the champions of 
 the oppressed, but also as the defenders of the Jewish nation ; 
 and this meeting expresses the hope that the God of Israel will 
 shield and protect them, and restore them to their families in 
 the enjoyment of unimpaired health. 
 
 Resolved, That, in conjunction with our brethren in other 
 cities, a letter be addressed to the President of the United 
 States, respectfully requesting him to instruct the representative 
 of the United Stales at Constantinople, and the United States' 
 Consul in the dominions of the Pacha of Egypt, to co-operate 
 with the Ambassadors and Consuls of other powers to procure
 
 260 PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. 
 
 for our accused brethren at Damascus and elsewhere an impar- 
 tial trial ; and to urge upon the Emperor of Turkey and the 
 Pacha of Egypt to prohibit the use of torture in their judicial 
 proceedings ; and farther, that he be requested to instruct the 
 representatives of this country to urge the governments to 
 which they are accredited, to exert their influence for the same 
 purpose.* 
 
 * The Resolutions were the joint production of different persons, and so 
 appear in the pamphlet containing the transactions of the meeting. Several 
 other resolutions adopted are omitted here as containing nothing of a per- 
 manent character. 
 
 It is to be remarked, that the first report of the wealth of the Israelites at 
 Damascus is said to have been much exaggerated, and they are, as we have 
 been informed since the meeting, poor in every respect, with few exceptions 
 only; but it would also seem that these very persons were selected as the 
 objects of persecution, together with a few who held a high station for learn- 
 ing and influence. It is also reported that four actually expired under the 
 tortures which they had to suffer.
 
 PRAYER, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 FIRST ANNIVERSARY PUBLIC EXAMINATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL FOR 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF ISRAELITES IN PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 HELD ON SUNDAY, ADAR 15th, 5599 MARCH 3d, 1839, 
 AT THE MASONIC HALL. 
 
 O OUR God ! and the God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob thy servants, whose words are true, and whose faith- 
 fulness is never-failing, Thou hast spoken through the mouth 
 of the messenger " faithful in all thy house :" " In all places 
 where I shall permit my name to be mentioned, I will come 
 unto thee and I will bless thee." Do Thou now according to 
 thy promise, and let thy glory be here present among us, un- 
 seen by our eyes, but inwardly felt in our spirit. Dwell in our 
 heart, and purify it unto thy service ; remove from it deceit, 
 cunning and duplicity, so that we may not be led to falter in 
 our duty and love to Thee ; but fortify us, strengthen us, that 
 we may be elevated above the desires of the sinful flesh des- 
 pising worldly gain which would counsel us to transgress thy 
 holy will rejecting the desires of the heart of stone which 
 would seek to place its own pursuits above the commandments 
 of thy life-bringing law. And O our Father ! teach us to feel 
 our nothingness, for a shadow are our days on earth ; enable 
 us by thy grace to look upon this life as a pilgrimage to thy 
 blissful dwelling ; in order that when blessed with worldly 
 goods we may look upon them as means for our happiness, not 
 as our destined happiness ; means given by thy favour only, 
 to be taken back when in thy wisdom Thou deemedst us no
 
 262 PRAYER. 
 
 longer worthy of enjoying them. Teach us to regard such 
 wealth as belonging entirely to Thee, so that we may conquer 
 our unholy desire for worldly possessions to devote a part of 
 our substance to thy service, " inasmuch as from Thee is all, 
 and we give only unto Thee what thy bounty has bestowed 
 on us." But also if Thou hast decreed that we should labour in 
 vain, if Thou hast withholden thy blessing from the work of 
 our hands : inspire us with fortitude to be resigned to thy will, 
 and guard us from a rebellious spirit which would fain mislead 
 us from the path marked out for us by thy wisdom. And 
 also if bodily suffering is apportioned to us, let thy goodness 
 be our shield ; that even whilst the body is tortured by pain, and 
 our soul taking hence her upward flight, we may unceasingly 
 sing thy praise. And wherever we are, whithersoever thy pro- 
 vidence may lead us, be Thou our Portion and Protector ; 
 guard us by the refuge of thy wings from the terrors of the 
 night, from the arrow that flieth by day, from the pestilence 
 that stalketh in the darkness, and the destruction that wasteth 
 at the noon of day. Let thy care be at all times over us as a 
 shield and a buckler, so that securely we may pass our allotted 
 time on earth. 
 
 Display farther thy goodness unto us, and cause that thy 
 name may be sanctified out of the mouth of these children who 
 have been drawn hither to imbibe instruction of thy will, by ihe 
 aid of the daughters of thy servants who have devoted them- 
 selves to the goodly work. Bless the scholars with an under- 
 standing heart and a willing spirit ; that they, understanding the 
 truth, may learn to preserve it ever sacred in their hearts, and 
 as willing servants to be always ready to teach unto others the 
 truth that in them dwelleth, and to inculcate by precept and a 
 uniform virtuous holy life to those who may come after them 
 the sacred truths which Thou hast revealed. Teach them of 
 thy own wisdom ; enlighten them above those who instruct 
 them ; and let thy unity be firmly fixed in their souls, and 
 strengthen them so that amidst all trials, nay in the last 
 moments of dissolution, the acknowledgment of Thee, O 
 only One God and everlasting King, may never be moved 
 from their mouth, but that in sincerity and entire faith they 
 mav exclaim : " Hear, O Israel ! the Lord our God, the Lord
 
 PRAYER. 263 
 
 is One." And grant that from this school thy law may 
 spread, and that servants and faithful followers may be mul- 
 tiplied in Israel unto the end of time. Upon the teachers 
 also bestow thy blessing, guard their lips from uttering error, 
 and their tongue from deceit; be Thou with them in their 
 teaching, and let nothing but truth, nothing but what is ac- 
 cording to thy will be taught by them ; for Thou alone, our 
 God and Instructor, canst guard us against error, and unless 
 upheld by Thee we are like the blind struggling amid pitfalls 
 and snares. Let thy wisdom, which erst inspired thy prophets, 
 fill their minds with due understanding that they may lead 
 those looking upon them for the waters of life unto the fountain 
 whence alone issues the refreshing stream of holiness and true 
 knowledge. Bless these thy handmaids, who have devoted 
 themselves, to dispense religious knowledge without fee or price, 
 with thy favour, and enable them to lead a life consistent with 
 their sacred calling let them be pure themselves, and give 
 them grace to purify others ; grant that they may be quick in 
 understanding thy law, and blessed whilst blessing others ; and 
 cause that their example may be followed in other places, until 
 there be no son or daughter of Israel that is unacquainted with 
 thy service in the utmost ends of the earth. 
 
 Upon this city likewise and its inhabitants shed thy blessing, 
 and bestow plenty and competence upon all the children of thy 
 creation. Upon this land grant the blessing of peace, let not 
 the clash of armour, the rushing of the war steed, the rattling 
 of the sword and the roar of the deadly artillery be heard in its 
 boundaries, and fill the hearts of its rulers and citizens with 
 wisdom, that they may govern with justice and mercy; and fill 
 the whole land with a spirit of benevolence and kindness, that 
 every man may forbear from righting himself by the strength 
 of his own hand. 
 
 O Lord ! relying upon thy unbounded goodness we have 
 dared to approach Thee, and to ask the many undeserved 
 favours we stand in need of; not upon our righteousness do 
 we rely, but upon thy unlimited mercies ; do Thou therefore, 
 and because of thy covenant with our fathers, hear our voice 
 in thy high abode, and forgive us our trespasses and our ini- 
 quity, for well we know that we have sinned, we and our
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 fathers ; but not according to our deeds wilt Thou act towards 
 us, for thy wont is to withhold long thy anger, and thy custom 
 is to have compassion upon thy creatures who return unto Thee 
 with a repentant spirit. Have mercy then on Israel thy people 
 and on Jerusalem thy city on which thy name is called ; and 
 send salvation into the world through him whom Thou wilt 
 send as the harbinger of peace, even the anointed, the son of 
 David, and Elijah the angel of the covenant. " And may the 
 beauty of the Lord our God be upon us ; and establish Thou the 
 work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish 
 Thou it." May this be thy will, O our Father and King ! from 
 now unto everlastin. Amen. 
 
 Adar 15th 7 
 March 1st I
 
 PRAYER, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 SECOND ANNUAL EXAMINATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL, 
 
 HELD VEADAR 24, 5600 MARCH 29, 1840, 
 AT THE SYNAGOGUE. 
 
 MAY thy name, O Lord our God, be praised unto everlast- 
 ing, even from eternity to eternity, for Thine is the glory and 
 the power, and thy providence watches over all the beings 
 whom thy word has created. Wherever we turn, we behold 
 the works of thy goodness, the doings of thy beneficence ; and 
 life, and health, and wisdom, and light are all gifts which pro- 
 ceed from Thee solely. For who is with Thee in heaven? and 
 who is near Thee on earth? Above, Thou reignest alone, there 
 is no second to share the rule with Thee, omnipotent Father ! 
 and on earth all are thy creatures, all the works of thy own 
 hands. There is no saviour without Thee; for when Thou 
 woundest, who shall heal ? if Thou smitest, who can save from 
 thy power? and if thy wrath is enkindled, who shall appease 
 Thee, save it be that thy mercy forgives the repentant sinner? 
 It is to Thee, therefore, that we call in our distress ; to Thee, 
 therefore, we pray ; to Thee, therefore, we bend the knee. O, 
 that all flesh might like us be taught to revere Thee alone. 
 O, that all Israel might be made of one heart, and one spirit, 
 to serve Thee in truth and sincerity ! 
 
 The heavens and the heavens of heavens cannot contain 
 Thee, for all have sprung from Thee ; all is sustained by thy 
 
 VOL. HI. 23
 
 266 PRAYER. 
 
 might ; all lives only with and through Thee. Yet Thou hast 
 ever deigned to fix thy dwelling in the midst of thy servants, 
 and from the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast founded 
 
 O 
 
 thy mighty works ; the deeds done by the innocent, the words 
 of purity flowing from their mouth are to Thee agreeable 
 savour ; and Thou delightest in the offering of prayer which 
 the humble sacrifice unto Thee, O our Saviour ! Behold us 
 then this day assembled in this house which has been built for 
 thy worship, with our children, our sons and daughters, whom 
 thy servants endeavour to rear up to know and to fear Thee 
 all the days they may live on earth, and to instruct in the law 
 of thy will which Thou gavest unto our forefathers in the days 
 of yore, when they beheld thy glory, saw thy fire, and heard 
 thy voice. How shall we thank Thee? how shall we praise 
 Thee, for this boon which Thou didst so graciously bestow on 
 us, by which Thou didst separate us from the heathen, and 
 bring us near unto thy service to fear thy name, and to be 
 the witnesses of thy glory ? In all our wanderings it has been 
 our stay, amidst all our sorrows it has been our support; nnd 
 unto this day we are sustained through it as a people distinct 
 and separate from the other nations of the earth. We humbly 
 confess, that it is not our wisdom and our knowledge that have 
 done this; but the wisdom and the knowledge which Thou didst 
 impart unto us through the hands of thy servant Moses, the 
 chosen messenger of thy goodness. We therefore implore 
 Thee, O Lord our God, and God of our fathers ! to strengthen 
 us in our striving to promulgate the knowledge of thy word; 
 to instil into us, and all those engaged in teaching the precepts 
 of thy code persuasive wisdom, and eloquence of speech, that 
 our words may sink deep into the hearts of all those who come 
 to learn, that the seed which is planted mid labour and sorrow 
 may produce fruits of holiness and devotion, promoting adora- 
 tion of Thee, the only God, and love to our fellow-men, who, 
 like us, have received a living soul and a feeling heart. 
 
 May it also be thy will, to receive in favour this endeavour 
 of the daughters of Israel in this and other cities, to found in- 
 stitutions for the spread of godliness; prosper their work, for- 
 ward their enterprize, and grant that whilst blessing they may 
 be blest ; that whilst teaching they may learn ; that whilst puri-
 
 PRAYER. 267 
 
 fying they may be purified, and brought to a knowledge of the 
 good, and be led to follow that path of righteousness and truth 
 which leads to everlasting happiness. May many be induced 
 to imitate their example ; may their reward be a multitude of 
 disciples, freed from the bonds of unbelief, armed with the 
 knowledge of truth, that they may be able to withstand the at- 
 tacks of those who love not Israel, and who would gladly wean 
 them from the observance of thy precepts. 
 
 But what are we, that we have been brought hither ? what 
 is our life ? what is our righteousness ? A day passes, and we 
 are cut off; Thou hidest thy face, and we perish; in the midst 
 of our devotion our thoughts often wander; and whilst wor- 
 shipping, our mind is turned towards gain and the vanities of 
 this life. All the benefits we receive from thee are undeserved 
 by us ; thy bounty is extended to thy children, but they merit it 
 not. Miracles have been wrought in our support ; unheard-of 
 deeds have been displayed that we might be preserved ; but 
 not because of our righteousness, but only because of thy 
 mercy, which is unending. Ere we prayed, Thou ever didst 
 answer ; before our thoughts were uttered, Thou *idst hear ; 
 and when affliction's waves threatened to overwhe\m us, thy 
 power stayed the destructive current, and we received enlarge- 
 ment. We therefore throw ourselves humbly upon the con- 
 tinuance of thy mercy ; guard us, as Thou wert wont to guard ; 
 shield us as Thou ever didst shield ; preserve unto us the know- 
 ledge of thy law, and cause its precepts to speak a language 
 which may find a response in the heart of every son of man, 
 and especially of all these young charges, whom thy servants 
 have assembled together in thy house, and endeavour to lead 
 unto the footstool of thy greatness. Multiply the teachers, 
 strengthen them in their effort, and let their reward be, that the 
 good they now do may produce a plentiful harvest of righteous- 
 ness and truth. 
 
 And upon thy servant,* who, by Thee permitted, has spoken 
 
 * Alluding to the Rev. Moses N. Nathan of Kingston, Jamaica, who being 
 on a visit to this country, was requested and kindly consented to address the 
 congregation and children upon the above occasion. His eloquent address 
 was published and extensively circulated along with the other proceedings 
 of that interesting meeting.
 
 268 PRAYER. 
 
 of thy goodness and thy law in the distant isle of the sea, where 
 they, who, like us, call on thy unity, have reared houses for thy 
 service, do Thou shed thy grace and truth, and cause us to be 
 instructed and to profit by the words he will address to us. 
 Arm his tongue with persuasiveness, that we all may leave this 
 house to-day improved and better than we entered. Bless his 
 labours for thy glory, wherever they may be exerted, and cause 
 him to return to his station, in the fellowship of the daughter of 
 Jacob his companion, in restored health, in renewed vigour, and 
 increased usefulness. 
 
 Father of all ! we farther pray Thee, to let thy countenance 
 shine unto us, and unto all Israel ; and shield us by the shadow 
 of thy wings from the many calamities we are subject to, be- 
 cause t'-.at we are flesh. Strengthen us, that when in health, 
 we may overcome the evil of our inclinations, and that when 
 our bo y is racked by pain, we may be prepared to resign 
 cheerfully our spirit into thy hands, O our King ! Let thy grace 
 and thy holy spirit be ever with us ; remember the captivity of 
 Jacob, and forsake not the outcasts of Israel, and suffer not the 
 gentiles to devour them, lest they say, Where is their God ? 
 Preserve unto us also the blessing of freedom which we enjoy 
 in this land, and grant that a spirit of pure benevolence may 
 become universal toward thy people in every country of their 
 dispersion. But above all, fulfil unto us the promise made to us 
 through thy prophet, who spoke : " As for me, this is my cove- 
 nant with them, saith the Lord, my spirit which is upon thee. 
 and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart 
 from thy mouth, nor from the mouth of thy children, nor from 
 the mouth of thy children's children, saith the Lord, from 
 henceforth, and for ever." May this be thy will. Amen. 
 
 Veadar 24th 
 March 29th
 
 
 
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