The Jewish advance., September 06, 1878, Page 5, Image 5

About The Jewish advance. (Chicago, Ill.) 1878-1881

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some work during the year. They had
literary gatherings, social entertainments
and meetings for mutual improvement.
Some of them have helped their congre
gations materially, and have shown their
public spiritedness by bringing their
mites to help the southern communities
stricken with the yellow fever. They
demand for information of religious
matters. This demand will eventually
rouse their seniors to religious activity.
In the young men’s societies through
out the land a rejuvenation of our reli
gious affairs is to be expected. In New
York. Philadelphia, San Francisco and
other great cities these societies encour
age the study of Hebrew, lectures on
religious, historical and ethical subjects,
and the collection of good libraries. Our
societies in this city are young yet, but
they have done some good work during
5638, and will undoubtedly improve as
time advances. God bless the rising
generation of Israel. God bless the
fathers and the mothers who encourage
their children in ouch effortr.
As to the social standing and achieve
ments of our community during the
passing year—-it is not different from
that of other communities, and will be
spoken of in a subsequent article.
The pnlpit.
The following is a synopsis of a ser
mon by Rev. Dr. A. Huebseh, of New
York, which we clip from the N. Y
Herald:
Text: “And it shall come to pass if they
will not believe thee, neither listen to the voice
of the first sign. that they will believe the
voice of the latter signs.”—Exodus, iv.. 8.
The mission of Moses to Pharoah,
said the Doctor, was one of those events
which formed the beacon lights on the
ocean of human history. Grown up in
the King’s pttlace, the son of Aturam
did not become estranged from the
people. A deep love for his enslaved
brothers grew with him, and the first act
of his manly vigor stamped him as
champion and protector of his nation.
This same rash but noble deed, however,
drove him away from the splendor of the
court, and from the scenes where the
children of his people groaned under the
scourge of unmerciful taskmasters. To
the solitude of the Arabian desert he
carried the lofty emotions that quick
ened his spirit and made his heart throb
with love and compassion.
At Mount Horeb he had the grand
apparition of the thorn bush burning in
a flame and still not being consumed.
This apparition showed him that the
misery of his people in Egypt was
watched by a merciful Providence.
What he could not understand, however,
was, “ Why is the thorn bush not con
sumed?” That means, “ Why does not
God make an end of the sufferings of
the Israelites in Egypt?” And when
about to search for an answer to this
question, he heard the voice of the Lord
warning him to caution; “For the place
on which thou standest is holy ground? ”
No man has a right to question the jus
tice and mercy of God. Fie knows best
when it is time for the flame of His pro
tection to consume the thorn bush of
human misery. And so the nascent
prophet did not proceed in further use
less speculations, but he felt himself
called upon by the divine voice that
spoke to his soul to devote his energies
to the high mission of rescuing the op
pressed, and to become an instrument
in the right hand of God’s love and jus
tice to redeem the wrong and to humili
ate the tyrant. Modesty is the com
panion of true greatness. Anxious as
this true patriot was to serve the cause
of his brethren, he doubted his ability
whether he would be equal to the great
task and carry out what was his ardent
desire to accomplish.
“ Who am I that I shall go to Pha
roah?” This question is a crown of glory
that adorns the great leader at the out
set of his path, and the Lord’s reply:
“ I will be with thee,” shows clearly
that if a man's aim is directed toward a
good and noble goal, he shall not waver
and not slacken, for there is a supreme
strength to support his weakness. God
is with him, and all obstacles must van
ish. Still there was one doubt lingering
in the soul of the chosen messenger:
“ What if Pharoah should say, ‘ Thou
art not the messenger of the Most
High?’ what if the children of Israel
should not believe that the God of their
fathers had sent him?”
lo pacify these doubts the Lord gave
him three signs. They were of great
significance for the tyrant as well as the
oppressed. The first sign was the staff
thrown to the ground, which changed
into a serpent. To the proud, tyranni
cal king that sign meant to say, 4‘ The
king’s sceptre ought to he a shepherd’s
staff ; the tyrant who debases his sceptre
makes it a serpent whose venomous
sting affects the people and finally causes
the tyrant himself to perish.” The
second sign was to convey a similar les
son to the crowned oppressor. It was
the motion of the hand toward the bo
som. Two such motions had to be
made. The first of them, as the He
brew text shows, was an antagonistic, the
second a friendly one. The first motion
had the effect to make the hand dis
eased, the second to heal it again.
This was to teach Pharoah that a king
ought to be the right hand of his people,
who are the body. If he acts as an en
emy against them, he disables himself;
if he is their true friend he increases
his own strength. The third sign was
the changing of the waters of the Nile
into blood, and the signification of this
last sign is not to be doubted. The Nile ,
was the source of blessing for Egypt.
To this stream the land owed its fer
tility, and the inhabitants their afflu
ence. The wild dreams of an unprin
cipled king, however, are capable to
swallow the substance of a country and
to make its wealth rather a curse than a
blessing by using it to shed floods of
blood in wars of conquest, which are
good for nothing; and spread misery in
order to satisfy a restless ambition of an
overbearing heart.
Thus these three signs are the great
lesson for kings. For the Israelites,
however, these signs had again their own
meaning: they were to warn them
against unbelief. lie who throws the
staff of faith to the ground raises a ser
pent against himself whose sting he is
sure to feel in time. He who turns
against his better belief raises a violent
hand against himself and maims his own
right hand.
After these explanations the Doctor
alluded to Russia and Roumania, the
modern Pharoahs, as he termed them.
He censured the severe measures of the
former against the Jewish soldiers, and
the marked hesitation of the latter to
carry for the favorable decisions of the
late European Congress with respect to
the Jews. Roth, the Doctor said, de
grade their sceptre, maim their right
hand, and turn the blessings of their
cjuntry into a curse for themselves.
The Jewish Ministry in England.
The following letter, Which has been
addressed to the Jewish Chronicle of
London, reveals the state of synagogual
affairs in England. Although Chazanoth
does not play such an important part in
American congregations, there are yet
analogous abuses which the sentiments
of this letter bring to mind. The remarks
referring to the Jews’ College are of
special intei-est to American Israelites,
as we have more Hebrew colleges in spe
and in re, and the future of the students
must be thought of by every one who
has the cause of Jewish learning at
heart:
SfR: Candidates for the Jewish Min
istry owe you a deep debt of gratitude
for your uniform and intelligenc advo
cacy of their claims. You have for
years done all in your power to promote
a higher standing for men who have by
their sacred calling to exercise a power
ful influence on the future of Judaism.
Your written word has ever been ad
dressed, and seemingly not quite invaim
to a community commendable in many
things, but singularly slow in freeing it
self from obsolete customs quite out of
keeping with the progress and interests
of the age. About five years ago, as I
am instructed, a sub-committee of the
Jews’ College, consisting of the Rev. A
L, Green, Mr. M. A. Benjamin, the late
Mr. Michael Henry, and others, were ap
pointed to deal with the question of giv
ing a more efficient training to Jewish
ministers. I am not, however, informed
of the results of the deliberations of
those gentlemen. More recently Mr.
Charles Samuel succeeded in bringing
the matter under the favorable notice of
the Council of the United Synagogue,
and we are promised that a new era to
the Jews’ College shall commence as
soon as matters are finally settled in con
formity with the legal bearings <ff the
question. All this is full of promise,
but promise of what? That a few more
young men of parts may be induced
under the hope that tells such flattering
tales, to devote themselves to the un
profitable calling of a Jewish minister.
Pray don’t imagine that I judge the po
sition of a clergyman amongst us by a
money standard only—far from that. I
allude, and in sorrow, to the unfortunate
and undignified communal position, as
well as worldly status, to which a Jew
ish minister is obliged, from necessity, to
submit.
There are, I admit, a few men amongst
us who have fairly won their position,
and who command, as they richly de
serve, the respect of the respected, but
the road of preferment to the majority
of us is so hard and thorny, and made so
bitter, that when too late we' regret that
we ever, either through our enthusiasm
or the wish of our parents or guardians,
devoted ourselves to a calling that de
manded so much and gave so little.
Just review the condition of things
that now stares us in the face.
The city synagogues, large and small,
have for years been without a preacher,
Treated to an occasional sermon, they
are piously content. The same syna
gogues that tolerate this would not per
mit themselves to be without a singing
chazan for one hour. One synagogue,
anxious to retain some of its old impor
tance, advertises for a preacher at a sal
ary of £150. What, I ask, would the
same synagogue give for a reader, second
reader, secretary, or beadle? Aye! the
preacher has only to preach once a week;
and, forsooth, how many times has the
reader to perform? Given a voice and
one set of tunes, the reader may with
safety pass his time in the harmless con
templation of vacuity from week to
week. If the preacher is worth his salt,
and he has to submit his sermon to the
very critical audience, sometimes very
small but very select, who listen to him
how hard he must work to produce,
week after week, some new views, or to
enhance some old lessons, before he can
win the ears and hearts of his hock.
IIow enormous must be his reading in
these days when literature is more or
less within the reach of the meanest of
his flock.
Just think! The St. John’s Wood
Synagogue advertises for an “ admirable
Crichton,” who is to be preacher, reader,
secretary, and heaven knows what else,
and for what? For a salary which a
reader with a voice, and nothing but a
voice, can command in the smallest syn
agogue. And, still further, the Pro
visional Committee of the New West
End Synagogue advertised recently that
a candidate for the post or reader would
perform, and an earnest exhortation was
annexed, addressed to intending scat
holders, to attend.
This was followed more recently by an
announcement that other candidates for
the distinguished office of preacher
would deliver sermons in the very same
sacred edifice, and the exhortation to in
tending seat-holders was simply left out.
The inference is that the position of
preacher is an office so unimportant as
to render it quite a matter of indiffer
| ence to intending seat-holders as to the
competency of both or either, or to whom
the palm of merit should be given. I
am certain it never entered the mind of
the Provisional Committee or its honor
ary secretary to offer what a captious
person might regard as a gratuitous in
sult to the gentleman who recently
preached in the Bayswater Synagogue;
bur the advertisement is all of a piece
with the estimate formed of the func
tions of a preacher. With this convic
tion forced upon me by circumstances, I
ask the community to pause before it,
enlarges the sphere of the Jew’s College.
It will be the perfection of cruelty to
withdraw young men with brains, and
possessing industry, from the ordinary
pursuits of life which may lead, as they
continually do lead, men quite as hum
ble in origin as Jew’s College students,
to fortune if not to fame, and then when
the community has reared and trained
these men, to leave them unpityingly to
proud penury, and to find out when too
late that from beginning to end the whole
matter had been a heartless deception.
Do let us alone if this is to be the case.
The Men Who are Dissatisfied
With Disraeli.
“There is probably no living man”
writes Mr. Curtis in Harper's Monthly,
“more profoundly satisfied with his po
sition than Lord Beaconsfield.”
And perhaps an element in this satis
faction is the dissatisfaction of a good
many men with it, who cannot bear that
a Jew and a “romantic adventurer”
should come to such a great honor and
be able to accomplish so much for civil
ization, Disraeli’s career is the greatest
romance of modern times, and leaves
all fiction, even his own, in the rear.—
The Hartford Courant.