Henry Ward Beecher and the Jews : in commemoration of the centenary of his birth (June 24th, 1913)

Henry IVard Beecher
and the Jews

KOHUT

Cibrar^ of €he trheolo^ical Seminar;?

PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY

PRESENTED BY

John Stuart Conning, D.D

BX 7260 .B3 K64 1913
Kohut, George Alexander,

1874-1933.
Henry Ward Beecher and the

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in 2009 witin funding from

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Henry Ward Beecher^^
and the Jews

In Co3imemoration of the
CexVTExaby of His Birth

{June 24th, 1913)

By V

GEORGE ALEXANDER KOHUT

PORTLAND, OREGON
1913

Reprinted in 100 copies from the Anniversary Number of
THE JEWISH TRIBUNE
Portland, Oregon, December 19. 1913

TO MY UNCLE
DR. ADOLPH KOHUT
UNGARISCHER KOENIGLICHER
in BERLIN

RAT

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Henry Ward Beecher and
the Jews

T IS recorded of Rabbi Jehiel, of
Paris, tbe gi^eat Talmudist, who flour-
ished in the middle of the thirteenth
century, that he was also an accom-
plished Cabbalist, who, in the secrecy
of his chamber, was addicted to the
practice of the black art. His fame
soon spread abroad among the masses. Indeed, it was
rumored that in his underground cell, where he spent
most of his days, engTOssed in ardent study, there
burned a magical lamp, which shed its light from
Sabbath to Sabbath, without aid of oil or fuel. Curious
crowds gathered in front of his home, anxious to
see this marvel, but the Rabbi had drawn a circle
about his den and had planted an iron nail in the midst
of it, and when any one ventured nigh to disturb his
meditations, he struck the nail with a heavy hammer,
whereupon the intruder would become rooted to the spot,
as long as Jehiel wished. None had ever beheld the
wonderful lamp that shone without being kindled, in his
sanctuary.

At last, the report of the Rabbi's wizardry reached
the ears of the King. Determined to see this miracle for
himself, he set out with a large retinue, and was soon
knocking at Jehiel^s gate. Roused from his revery by
the unusual summons, the Rabbi seized his iron hammer

and gave the nail he had planted a sounding blow. To
his amazement, it leaped up from the ground, instead of
sinking deeper. Then he knew that it was the King
who desired admittance. Bowing profoundly, after he
had released the latch, he humbly besought his monarch's
pardon. Tempting dishes and costly wines were placed
before his guest, and he was graciously reassured as to
the purpose of the visit. Then the King rose, looked
about the meagerly furnished room, which had no other
ornaments save scrolls and parchments, and paused, as
if by accident, before the lamp, which gleamed with a
strange brilliance.

"How now ?" cried he. "Is this the magic light whereof
my people speak? Tell me. Rabbi, what makes it glow
so brightly, seeing that there be neither oil nor substance
to feed it ! By what subtle art does it burn ? Is this the
skill of thy Cabbala?"

"Nay, sire," gently replied the Rabbi. "There is no
magic here. I have but followed the lead of nature. In
place of oil for fuel, I have but a shining stone. It
throws off luminous rays, by the light of which I read
my ancient books."

"If that be true," exclaimed the King, delighted and
surprised, "thy place is in the palace, by my side."

And thus Rabbi Jehiel became the King's Counsellor.

So runs the story, one of the many quaint legends of
the Middle Ages, handed down by Gedalyah Ibn
Yahya, the sixteenth century chronicler, in his cele-
brated ''Chain of Tradition/'

We shall not attempt to prove the seductive theory
that here we have an unexpected reference to radium,
but rather, after the manner of the ancient homilists,
focus its light upon another personage, whose royalty
is of a kindred sort, and the majesty of whose fame is
at least equal to that of the King of France, of whom
the legend speaks.

He is not of my race or creed, but yet of distinguished
lineage: A Prince of the Church, born with the power
to command, he has ruled the heart of the American
people for two generations. Scholar, preacher, teacher,
man of God, apostle of righteousness and tribune of
the masses, he had the subtle art of personal magnetism.
Not with nail and hammer, as the ancient Rabbi, did he
sway the multitude! He held dominion with the glance
of his eye, the lilt of his speech, the irresistible force
of his passionate logic, the ardor of his faith, the tem-
per of his conviction, the resources of his great courage.

Modest where others boasted, proud where others
cringed, strong where others weakened, and timid where
others rushed headlong, he was ever the leader and not
the led — as much seer as king; inspired as Samuel; in
presence, like Saul, head and shoulders above the popu-
lace. And when rumor assailed him of misdoing and
cant, he knew how to draw an intimate circle about him-
self, and to be alone, in splendid isolation among his
books, where he was loved and trusted. There, where no
one saw, gleamed the perpetual light of his genius, the
emanations of which those that knew him not mistook
for craft or wizardry. And there also, he who came

full-robed in majesty, with gracious greeting and ready
sympathy, would find him engrossed in his parchments,
eager to expound the truth and to reveal the mystery
of the light that shone about him so strangely and
vividly, though not kindled by human hands. Verily,
such a, man was destined for high places, to be the con-
sort and counsellor of kings !

And such a man was Henry Ward Beecher, the one
hundredth anniversary of whose birth we must not suffer
to pass without a tribute of reverence and affection.

We need not here recount the details of his momentous
career. His is one of the historic lives — the glory and
heritage of the American nation. His name and fame
are secure. Imperishable as his great forbears John
Eliot, Jonathan Edwards, Cotton Mather, William E.
Channing and Theodore Parker, who had all served the
Lord with earnestness and zeal, his claims to distinction
are yet more various. For his was no insular spirit;
to toil in the vineyard of his own distinctive theology,
reclaim the infidel and reconcile the dissenter, did not
alone constitute his mission. His was a noble catholicity
of heart and mind, knowing no barriers of convention
or creed, scorning all controversy and compromise, and
rejoicing in the sweet fellowship of men only when he
could meet them as men, on the same level of sympathy
and understanding. He was, indeed, as brave a fighter
in the struggle for human right as Channing, and one
could fittingly say of him what Heine so eloquently
said of himself, in Channing's spirit: "Place a sword

on my tomb, for I was a valiant soldier in Humanity's
War for Liberation!''

As Jews, also, now that we have paid homage, as
Americans, to Beecher, the patriot and prophet, we owe
a debt of gratitude which we can not well repay. For
what great American has shown a spirit more tolerant,
a generosity more spontaneous, and a friendly regard
more sincere and cordial than that evidenced by the
"Sweet Shepherd of Brooklyn"? We instinctively felt
that we could, at need, turn with confident faith to the
preacher of Plymouth Pulpit, and that he would not
fail us. And, indeed, when the iron entered our souls,
and we were bleeding from a cruel wound, it was his
tender hand which bound up, healed and caressed, as
we knew it would. It was on June 24, 1877, that he
delivered the now memorable sermon, before his own
congTCgation, entitled, "Jew and Gentile," called forth
by the cowardly insult suffered by a distinguished Jew
and his family, at the hands of a hotel keeper. The
notorious incident furnished abundant material for sen-
sational headlines in the daily press throughout the
country. Feeling ran high, and while here and there
honest indignation and rebuke flared up like a flame,
the voice of the mighty was not heard in the high places.
Robert IngersoU was probably the only eminent layman
who uttered a vigorous protest against this flagrant
violation of pei'sonal privilege, and in the light of those
happeningB we may be disposed to condone his literary
vagaries, notably his celebrated expose of "The Mis-
takes of Moses."

In this connection, it is interesting to recall, at least
by title, a few of the many controversial tracts bearing
on the so-called ''Saratoga Scandal.'^ One, by H. P. C.
Worthington, issued in New York, in 1879, has the edi-
fying caption: "Hell for the Jews." Another, writ-
ten by Herbert N. Eaton, at about the same time, reads :
"An Hour With the American Hebrew." The au-
thor breaks a lance on behalf of the Jews, and quotes
some of the most pointed paragraphs from Beecher's
Sermon.

The efforts of Jewish apologetes, as exemplified by two
other brochures, in my own collection, are more to be
regarded as curiosities of literature than dignified state-
ments in rebuttal. One is by an anonymous scribe, who,
in a dedication "To the American Press, as the Exponent
of the sense of the American People, during the dis-
cussion of the Seligman-Hilton Affair," describes him-
self as "a Seligman Jew." It is a pamphlet of 16 pages,
composed in imitation of Biblical diction, and published
in 1877, m New York, bearing the title: "The Sixth
Book op Moses; A Satire on the Seligman-Hilton
Affair." What it lacks m good taste, it makes up in
cleverness. It has, besides, the merit of brevity and
directness which makes it almost distinctive in contrast
with the elaborate invective produced by Paul Zunz, who,
styling himself a "Naturalized American Citizen," dis-
courses, with the aid of a whole arsenal of puns and pet-
names, and much offensive buffoonery, on "The
Crisis." The sub-title reads: "A Celebrated Case at
Manhattan Beach. First Direct Answer and Chal-

LENGE TO CORBIN. WaR ON MESSRS. CORBIN, HiLTON &

Co. AND THE New York Herald. An Open Letter to
THE Public" (Printed for the author, by Jesse Haney
& Co., 1879).

A feature of this tract is the frontispiece, showing the
Liberty Bell, composed entirely of the text of the Dec-
laration of Independence, and constituting a curiosity in
typography. The author has somehow managed to
spread himself over 45 closely printed pages, venting
his spleen upon Austin Corbin, who appears to have
been the chief offender, by virtue of an assault on
Jewish character perpetrated in the New York Herald,
July 22, 1879. One can not help the wistful regret that
this historic episode was exploited by an irresponsible
tyro in letters, whose illustrious namesake, Leopold Zunz,
had more than once consecrated his caustic wit and
matchless logic to his people's defense, and whose re-
joinder on such an occasion would have become an im-
perishable classic.

It was a Gentile, a Knight Templar, who entered the
lists for Israel! With courage high and spirit-sword
keen, no foe could resist him. And the weapons that
he chose were not those of hate and violence. Love was
his shield and persuasion was his lance. And is there
anything in the armory of speech more effective than
the voice of compassion, the sting of rebuke and the
chastening of scorn?

Of the distinguished victim of race prejudice, this
Christian champion of Israel, always benignant and

serene, and strong in his native dignity, has only this
to say :

I have the pleasure of the acquaintance of the
gentleman whose name has been the occasion of so
much excitement — Mr. Seligman. I have summered
with him, with his honored wife, and with his sons and
daughters; and I have learned to respect and love
them. During weeks and months I was with them
at the Twin Mountain House, and not only did they
behave in a manner becoming Christian ladies and
gentlemen, but they behaved in a manner that ought
to put to shame many Christian ladies and gentle-
men. They were my helpers; and they were not only
present at the Sunday services at the Twin Moun-
tain House, but they were present at the daily prayer
meetings on week days, volunteering services of
kindness. I learned to feel that they were my dea-
cons, and that in the ministration of Christian ser-
vice they were beyond the power of prejudice and
did not confine themselves to the limitations which
might be supposed to be prescribed by their race.
Therefore, when I heard of the unnecessary offense
that had been cast upon Mr. Seligman, I felt that no
other person could have been singled out that would
have brought home to me the injustice more sensibly
than he. With this statement I dismiss the personal
matter.

Nothing in all this of invective, scorn or satire. The
accomplished preacher of Plymouth Pulpit used no death-
dealing darts to reach the heart of his hearers. He
aimed with the arrow of artless truth, and straightway it
sped to the mark.

With a singularly appropriate text from Acts xix.,
34, and the Seligman incident as illustrative parable, he
builds up a Sermon on the Debt Humanity owes to the
Jew, which will always rank as a model of literary style

and sound reasoning. We have here no patronizing
eulogy, no conciliating rhetoric. The stately phrases
file by like a great white army, but there is no waving of
crimson banners, nor the blare of trumpets. Witness
this lofty period:

They also gave to the world, by their ancient
economy, a religion whose genius was the develop-
ment of manhood. ... It did not expend itself
in lyrics and prayers and worship. It descended to
the character of men, and sought first and above all
other faiths of that age, to develop manhood. .
It bred a race of men who put into the building of
themselves the attributes of truth, of justice, of
humanity, of morality, of gentleness and of humil-
ity. It reared men who had no equals, and with
whom there was nothing that could compare in their
own time. The Greeks built better temples than
the Hebrews; but though the Hebrew hand never
carved a marble, it did better — it carved men.

All this is said in perfect sincerity and reverence,
with the passionate fervor of a Heine, from whom, in-
deed, the last sentence appears to have been quite un-
consciously borrowed. No finer tribute to the wisdom
of Mosaic legislation has ever been penned, save pos-
sibly by his own sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" has long been accessible to Jewish
readers, unacquainted with the original, in a Hebrew
and Yiddish version.

In a remarkable essay on ''Moses and his Laws," con-
tributed to the Christian Union, a weekly journal,
undenominational in scope, then edited by Henry Ward
Beecher and Lyman Abbott, occurs the following passage :

The strongest impulse In the character of Moses
appears to have been that of protective justice, more
particularly with regard to the helpless and down-
trodden classes. The laws of Moses, if carefully
examined, are a perfect phenomenon; an exception to
the laws of other ancient or modern nations, in the
care they exercised over women, widows, orphans,
paupers, foreigners, servants and dumb animals. No
so-called Christian nation but could advantageously
take a lesson in legislation from the laws of Moses.
There is a plaintive, pathetic spirit of compassion in
the very language in which the laws in favor of the
helpless and suffering are expressed that it seems
must have been learned only of superhuman tender-
ness. Not the gentlest words of Jesus are more
compassionate in their spirit than many of these
laws of Moses, Delivered in the name of Jehovah,
they certainly are so unlike the wisdom of that bar-
barous age as to justify of them to Him Who is Love.

And in the same lofty strain, contrasting the Jewish
ideal with the Christian, in the striving for perfection,
her great brother writes :

But this Jewish people set the example by their
religion, which led men to seek manhood as the chief
thing under all circumstances — a larger, broader,
nobler, diviner manhood than ever the Gentiles
dreamed of.

But we need not furnish additional extracts from this
brilliant address. It is a human document of uncommon
interest to Jew and Gentile alike. As it is no longer
available in separate form, and has not been included in
any collection of his sermons, we believe that we are
rendering a distinct service by reproducing it in full, as
an APPENDIX to this paper.

Nor is this the only occasion which called forth his
sympathy for Israel. With the promulgation of the so-

14

called Ignatieff By-Laws in Rassia, when the persecu-
tion of our unfortunate brethren drove so many of them
to our shores, began a new era in the history of Ameri-
can Judaism. It was again Beecher who raised his voice
on their behalf, commending our liberal Immigration
Laws, and admonishing the American nation to welcome
these refugees, and not to reject them as aliens. With
fine discrimination and foresight he recognized the value
of these exiles as an essential element in American citi-
zenship. And who will deny that his prophecy has not
been fulfilled?

And again, when one of the leading congregations in
the United States met in solemn assembly to celebrate
the centennial birthday of the world's greatest Jewish
philanthropist, it was Beecher who joined hands with
the Rev. Stephen H. Camp and Rabbi Gustav Gottheil,
in that splendid service of fellowship and brotherly love.
And it deserves to be recorded that he left his own flock
on that memorable Sunday, to pay homage to the fair
name of Moses Montefiore. From his eloquent tribute,
likewise subjoined to this paper, that we may have a
complete record of his relations to us, we shall here
quote but the concluding paragraph :

And I would to God that this man might not be
the only man of our age. If Judaism is to prevail
— and may God speed it — let it prevail by bringing
forth such heroes of goodness, and then all the world
shall worship with unity and mutual confidence, and
give glory to God. No matter in what candlestick
the candle stands; it may be of lead, or iron, of gold,
or one studded with precious stones. It is the candle
which signifies. No matter in what church you wor-

15

ship; no matter to what sect you belong-; no matter
in what belief you are fixed, it is the living heroic
life, the bounty of a rich heart that is the candle,
giving light in every house and for all time.

In these last lines the great preacher wrote his own
epitaph. His was, indeed, the heroic life and the bounty
of a rich heart, and the candle of which he speaks, like
the Rabbi's lamp in the story, is that mysterious and
unfaltering faith in human goodness, the glow of which
has brought warmth, courage and cheer to many troubled
hearts.

The crowning act of Beecher's service of love for
Israel was his ardent advocacy of Oscar S. Straus for
the Turkish Embassy. During the Presidential Cam-
paign of 1884, Mr. Straus was Secretary of the Execu-
tive Committee of the Merchants' and Business Men's
organization which supported the Democratic nominee.
His nomination for the Ottoman post was wholly unex-
pected, as it was unsought. It was brought about by no
political influence, but solely by the spontaneous ef-
forts of many leading merchants, and was heartily en-
dorsed by the Board of Commissioners of Foreign Mis-
sions. Among those most zealous on his behalf was
Henry Ward Beecher, who, in a letter to President
Cleveland, pressed his candidacy in the following terms:

It is because he is a Jew that I would urge his
appointment, as a fit recognition of this remarkable
people, who are becoming large contributors to
American prosperity, and whose intelligence, moral-
ity and large liberality in all public measures for
the welfare of society deserve and should receive
from the hands of the government some such recog-

16

nltion. Is it not also a duty to set forth in this
quiet but effectual method the genius of American
government, which has under its fostering care peo-
ple of all civilized nations, and which treats them
without regard to civil or religious race peculiari-
ties as common citizens? We send Danes to Den-
mark, Germans to Germany; we reject no man be-
cause he is a Frenchman, Why should we not make
a crowning testimony to the genius of our people by
sending a Hebrew to Turkey? The ignorance and
superstition of mediaeval Europe may account for
the prejudices of that dark age. But how a Christian
in our day can turn from a Jew, I cannot imagine.
Christianity itself suckled at the bosom of Judaism;
our roots are in the Old Testament. We are Jews
ourselves gone to blossom and fruit. Christianity
is Judaism in evolution, and it would seem strange
for the seed to turn against the stock on which it
was grown. — (See Isaac Markens, "The Hebrews in
America," New York, 1888, pg. 187.)

With such evidence before him. no one can doubt his
deep-rooted loyalty to the people, whose champion he
had become, unbidden, at a time when its need was
greatest. Verily, as the good Book says, "By their
works shall ye know them!"

Henry "Ward Beecher passed away full of years and
honors on the eighth of March, 1887, revered and beloved
by all.

At the Sixth Conference of the Jewish Ministers'
Association, held April 25, of the same year, at one of
the Synagogues in New York City, the following Resolu-
tions of Regret were unanimously adopted :

Since our last meeting. Henry Ward Beecher, the
Illustrious teacher, the world-famed orator, patriot
and humanitarian, has closed his unexampled career
and has been gathered to his fathers. We. therefore.

17

the Jewish ministers in conference assembled, desire
to inscribe upon the records of this association, our
deep-felt sympathy and our sorrow over the great
loss which we, in common with our fellow citizens,
have sustained in the death of the venerable and
beloved patriarch of Brooklyn.

We hereby extend to the widow and family of
the late pastor of Plymouth Church, and also to the
bereaved congregation, our profound sympathy and
condolence, and we address to them the words of
scripture: "The Rock, perfect are His doings, just
are all His ways; who can say to Him what doest
Thou?"

We recognize that we have lost in Mr, Beecher
a great co-laborer in the field of religion, a religious
teacher who proclaimed "God, the Merciful and Gra-
cious, abundant in Goodness and Truth," and who
always sought to inspire his hearers with the teach-
ings of brotherly love.

We hereby acknowledge that in the galaxy of
champions of liberty, equality and justice, of reli-
gious toleration, enlightenment and advancement,
Henry Ward Beecher was one of the brightest stars
of our century.

We remember the many inestimable services
which he rendered to his country and mankind at
large by his fervid eloquence, his indomitable cour-
age, his deep sense of justice and his sympathetic
heart. We pay homage to his revered memory and
most gratefully acknowledge how eloquently he
pleaded the cause of the Jewish people whenever
envy, prejudice or fanaticism raised its head. And
among illustrious non-Israelites like Doellinger,
Franz Delitzsch, Virchow and others, who were de-
fenders of our race, the name of Henry Ward Beecher
will be ever cherished as a true "Oheb Yisrael"
(Lover of Israel), and of him we may surely say,
"Zecher Tsaddik Leev'rocho," — the Memory of the
Righteous is for a Blessing.

Be it therefore resolved, that the foregoing reso-
lutions be given to the press for publication and
copies be forwarded to Mrs. Beecher and to the
Board of Trustees of Plymouth Church. — (Jewish
Conference Papers . . of the Jewish Ministers
Association of America, New York, 1888, pgs. 61-62.)

For once, Jew and Gentile were united by the bond of
a common grief. The cry of desolation went up in Zion.

18

The House of Israel mourned bitterly for the man, who,
like an atoning priest, carried the Old Testament and
the New in his heart.

"Speak amiably with Jerusalem" was his motto. And
today, as we kindle the memorial light, to solemnize and
consecrate the one hundredth anniversary of his birth,
may it glimmer and glow, as the Rabbi's lamp in the
story, to be a beacon for Israel and all mankind, unto
future generations!

Appendix I.

Beecher's Celebrated Sermon,

**Jew and Gentile" Preached at

Plymouth Church, Brooklyn,

June 24. 1877

"But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about
the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians."
—Acts xixs34.

HIS was a terrific tumult raised inEphesus by
a merchant. When an attempt was made on

Tthe part of those who were aggrieved by the
riot that took place to defend themselves by
exposing their principles and their processes,
the mob forbade them to speak. How far
the world has grown since that time is shown
by the fact that when in our day a merchant
attempts to hold up to shame and disgrace
men that are unoffending, there is no riot and
no mob, but for the space, not of two hours,
but of two days (which in New York is an
age for one thing to be of interest) the whole
people have sympathized with those that are
wronged.

It is not my purpose tonight to make any

personal sermon. Certainly, if I had the dis-
position to do it, a fairer opportunity never could present
itself. I have the pleasure of the acquaintance of the
gentleman whose name has been the occasion of so much
excitement — Mr. Seligman. I have summered with his
family for several years. I am acquainted with him, with
his honored wife, and with his sons and daughters; and I
have learned to respect and love them. During weeks and
months I was with them at the Twin Mountain House;
and not only did they behave in a manner becoming Chris-

20

tian ladies and gentlemen, but they behaved in a manner
that ought to put to shame many Christian ladies and gen-
tlemen. They were my helpers; and they were not only
present at the Sunday services at the Twin Mountain
House, but they were present at the daily prayer meetings
on week days, volunteering services of kindness. I learned
to feel that they were my deacons, and that in the minis-
tration of Christian service they were beyond the power of
prejudice and did not confine themselves to the limitations
which might be supposed to be prescribed by their race.
Therefore, when I heard of the unnecessary offense that
had been cast upon Mr. Seligman, I felt that no other per-
son could have been singled out that would have brought
home to me the injustice more sensibly than he. With
this statement I dismiss the personal matter.

There are about seven million Jews in existence in all
the nations of the earth. They are living in almost every
land under the sun. They excel all other people in being
despised. There is not another race or people that is in
such a sense a benefactor of the human race as they are,
and have been. There is not another people under the sun
that is treated so like despicable miscreants as they are,
and have been. For two thousand years they have experi-
enced hatred and contempt and persecution. They are an
extraordinary race by their faults, by their virtues, and by
their long experience. They have been twined in the his-
tory of every nation, oriental or occidental, ancient or
modern; and yet they have never lost their race distinc-
tions. They have mingled, but not "mixed," with the
nations which held them.

From the Hebrews the world has received a treasure of
benefit such as no other people has ever conferred upon
mankind; and those things in which we count ourselves
most advanced, and which we boast as being blessings
which we are conferring upon the nascent nations of our
times, were derived as seed-corn from this notable people;
and we are but raising harvests of that which they raised
three thousand years ago.

"In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."

That was promised to Abraham, and it has been ful-
filled to the letter; for every civilized nation on the globe
is today, if it would understand the source of its benefits,
blessed in the descendants of Abraham. Those heroic peo-

21

pie stand pre-eminent as the unrecognized benefactors of
the human race. If any people ever lived whose faults
might be condoned in consideration of their invaluable
service to religion and to civilization, it is the Hebrews.
If any people ever had a full measure of every form and
degree of injustice meted out to them, it is the Hebrews.

Happily, in all the world the moral sense of mankind
is checking the indignities and correcting the prejudices
which for four thousand years have been raining upon the
heads of this much-wronged people. Now and then a flash
of the old fire breaks out, such as we have recently seen,
but it is transient, it is feeble, and it serves to show how
weak the malign elements in civilization are, and how much
generosity and justice are infused into the popular feelings.

Let us look at the contributions which have been made
to the world's stock in civilization by the Hebrews. It
may surprise some to be told that commonwealth, as we
understand it in republican governments, is unquestion-
ably of the desert, and that our institutions sprang from
the loins of Moses' mind; but it is true that he reared, in
his retirement and relative obscurity, the pillars — or, at
any rate, the foundations on which we are rearing the pil-
lars and the superstructure. The commonwealth of the
Israelites contained in it the seeds of all subsequent com-
monwealths.

The people that most saturate themselves with the
whole economy of the Old Testament are the people among
whom popular liberty is most likely to be developed; for,
although the doctrines of the New Testament give to man
in the ideal such an elevation as that wrong toward him
becomes an indignity toward God, yet the working forms
of political institutions which lie at the foundation of
popular liberty and popular right are to be found in the
Old Testament rather than in the New. An appeal to the
people on all great questions of polity; the educating all
the people to have a public sentiment about their own
affairs; the attempt to conduct a government, whether by
prophet, by priest, or by king, for the benefit of the peo-
ple themselves — these fundamental elements belonged, and
I think belonged first, to the Hebrew commonwealth. The
more one studies the genius of legislation in the earlier
periods of the national existence of the Hebrews, the more
he will have reason to perceive that we are deriving, as It

22

were, the very nourishment of our public life from those
remote times, and that we are indebted to this people for
those very things which make us able to despise anybody
or anything.

Closely allied to the organization of government, and
indeed precedent to it, as the very condition of successful
and continuous government, is the household. Now, the
family emerged from barbaric foVms earlier among the
Hebrews than among any other people, and passed into
that condition which has enabled it to perpetuate itself.
For although, according to the teaching of our Master,
Moses permitted polygamy, it was only by sufferance and
on conditions that would surely extinguish it, and that did
extinguish it. So it may be said that, in spite of the
patriarchal example of early times and later times, the
great body of common people among the Hebrews were
brought up in the spirit of monogamy, and the household
was constituted by the* love of one man to one woman. In
the rearing and governing of a family of children the
household was a great school of all virtue and all integ-
rity. If there be one thing that has been striking in the
economy of the Hebrews from the ancient day it is their
care of their children; the instruction that they gave to
them; their guidance of them in their rising up and sitting
down, their going out and coming in. Their great aim was
to instruct their children in a knowledge of their own
institutions; in a knowledge of the history of their people;
and in a knowledge of those ordinances of God which had
made that history celebrated. On no other point was there
so much urgency in the instruction of their children as
on that of character; and in no other nation were children
ever reared with more care. That feature was continued
down through all the mediaeval darkness, and is charac-
teristic in Jewish households to this very hour. In intel-
ligence, in home life, in purity, in exaltation of sentiment,
and in extraordinary care in the teaching of children, there
are not to be found in the palmiest communities of the
best Christian households those that surpass the best fam-
ilies of Jews at this time. We have borrowed their exam-
ple, and are rearing our children after the pattern and
inspiration of the Jewish household, as it has existed from
the days of Moses onward.

23

I cannot fail to point out, too, how, in that oriental land,

and in that early day, the virtue of industry, of personal
independence, of work, was understood and enforced. Dur-
ing the time when Plato declared that in his ideal republic
there should be no mechanics; during that long interme-
diate period when to be a working man was to be shut out
from all hope of honor and elevation in society; during
the times when monarchy and aristocracy frowned upon
labor; clear down to the day when, contrary to the funda-
mental principles of our institutions and the design of
our fathers, slavery in this land made work dishonorable,
and was eating out the inner life of it; from four thousand
years ago down to this day — work has been honorable in
the Jewish household; and that motto, that proverb stands,
which stood at that early period: "He who brings his
child up without a trade brings him up to be a thief."
On that principle the children of the richest Jews, of Jews
in the highest station, were taught how to maintain them-
selves by their own hands and by their own industry. The
making of work honorable is one of the boons which God
has given to the human race through this remarkable
people.

Then we are to take notice how in the Jewish nation,
from the very earliest day, woman took that position to
which she has been coming for two thousand years since
through the inspirations of Christianity. While all around
them, in the barbaric East, woman was the degraded
object of man's lust, or of his convenience as the drudge
of the household, at that very time the Jewish institutions
were ministered to by priestesses; by women of singular
virtue and sagacity and eminence. In Greece a woman was
not even permitted to go to the door to greet her husband
or son as he came from the battlefield. She w£is not
allowed to know music or poetry or philosophy, if she
would be virtuous. There were women in Greece who were
educated to all the embellishments and arts of life; edu-
cation in Greece among women was given with a large
hand, and they were educated in everything that we con-
sider today as most befitting the noblest women; but alas!
no woman was so Instructed unless she was to be a cour-
tesan. If a woman was to be a mother, and a woman hon-
ored for domestic virtue, she must be ignorant, and must
not even show her face in a public assembly, and she

24

must not appear unveiled in the streets. But while such
was the law in intellectual and artistic Greece, in Pales-
tine the mother, the wife or the daughter with unashamed
and unveiled face might look upon any man; and if called
to any function, there was no public sentiment and no law
that prevented her assuming that function. Whatever a
woman could do well, and was called of God by inspira-
tion to do, that she was permitted to do; and she stood
honored by what she was. That invaluable contribution to
humanity we derived from the early example of this great
people.

They also gave to the world, by their ancient economy,
a religion whose genius was the development of manhood.
In other words, they gave to the world an ethical religion,
as distinguished from a worshiping and superstitious reli-
gion. Although the Jew made manifest every office of
devotion and reverence, and although you might select
from the Jewish writers saints as eminent in observances
as any others; yet the distinctive peculiarity of religion
among the Israelites was that it had a practical drift as
regards the conduct of men. It did not expend itself in
lyrics and prayers and worship. It descended to the char-
acter of men, and sought first, and above all other faiths
of that age, to develop manhood. For the whole flow of
that word "righteousness" in the Old Testament is the
equivalent of our word "manhood," in modern phrase, and
seeking after righteousness was the distinctive peculiarity
of the Hebrew religion. It bred a race of men who put
into the building of themselves the attributes of truth, of
justice, of humanity, of morality, of gentleness and of
humility. It reared men who had no equals, and with
whom there was nothing that could compare in their own
time. The Greeks built better temples than the Hebrews;
but though the Hebrew hand never carved a marble, it did
better — it carved men. WTiile the Greeks were so corrupt
in social matters that they had not moral sense enough to
hold the state together; while their national life was per-
petually breaking down under the stress of human nature
for lack of manly character; while they were making
wondrous pictures; while they were building world-re-
nowned temples; while they were carving heroes in gold
and ivory than which the world never saw greater, and
will never see greater; while they were making a "simu-

25

lacrum" of mankind, the Hebrews were making mankind —
ttiey were making man. Such was the very drift of their
religion. And the apostle, having received the culture of
Greece at the feet of his great teacher, and knowing what
it meant, declared that his brethren sought after righteous-
ness, but that they did not well understand what were the
instruments by which the higher development of manhood
was to be attained. They sought to develop righteousness
by institutions; but Paul says that no race of people ever
did or ever will, merely by institutions, develop the high-
est form of character. That must be done by following a
living example under a heroic inspiration.

Christ is the law. That is, he undertook to do that
which the whole law aimed to do, but which through the
weakness of the flesh it could not do. He came making
virtue luminous, and interpreting to mankind so much of
the divine disposition as can possibly be shown in the
human flesh, by making possible to men that which a
man longs, prays, yearns, sighs to be, and then helping
them to come to it — namely, to "a perfect man;" to "the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." But this
Jewish people set the example, by their religion, which
led men to seek manhood as the chief thing under all cir-
cumstances— a larger, broader, nobler, diviner manhood
than ever the Gentiles dreamed of.

The moral sense of mankind, the vivid conception of
right and wrong among men, sprang from the training of
the Jews. Hunger and thirst after righteousness has been
characteristic of the Jew from an early age; and we have
derived an impulse in that direction from his writings and
from his example. The Greek gave to the world aesthetic
gifts. Whatever was exquisite in beauty, whatever was
fine in symmetry, whatever was rare in proportion, what-
ever was harmonious in art, the Greek longed for; but he
never longed for the good. The Jew was deficient in the
perception of the beautiful as it was developed in matter;
but his soul was all aflame with a conception of the beau-
tiful as it was developed in the mind; and he sought to
create in man inwardly by the spirit that which the Greeks
sought to create in him outwardly by the flesh.

"As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my
soul after thee, 0 God."

26

In all the literature of the globe you cannot find another
such aspiration; and this is but one of ten thousand of the
breathings of the Jewish mind of its yearning after the
divine.

The moral literature, too, which has come from this
people has been a treasure to the world. The human race
has fed on Homer, on Plato, on Aristotle, on Seneca, on
Cicero, and in the far Orient on one or two notable authors;
but nowhere has there been such food for the inner man
as in the wisdom of Solomon, in the lyrics of David and
his school, and in the cry of those great solitary statesmen,
the Hebrew prophets, who were the masters of statesman-
ship in the age in which they lived.

But to us and to all Christendom the Hebrew should be
held sacred for that gift without name and without price,
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. "Of whom as concern-
ing the flesh Christ came" is a sentence that ought to
make the Israelites sacred to us from association and from
history, if from nothing else. The ideal man of the ages
was Jesus Christ. The likeness of so much of the divine
nature as can dwell in human flesh was Jesus Christ.
The grandest interpreter of the Old Testament Scripture
was Jesus Christ. The Sermon on the Mount is but an
epitome of the great truths which had been wrought out
in the experience and observation of the thousands of
years of God's people preceding. Jesus Christ gathered
them together and brought them as grain in a granary into
the Sermon on the Mount; but they grew in a thousand
fields dispersed through the ages. To be sure, he made
them more noble by insphering them in a spiritual light,
and showing what their outcome was, and was to be; but
they were the Old Testament economies; and the Sermon
on the Mount, into which they were gathered, comes to us
not simply from Jesus Christ, but from his ancestors
throughout all the period of the Jewish commonwealth.

But if one turns from moral functions to secular, it
may be said that no people ever taught the world such a
lesson of endurance, of indestructible manhood, under
every conceivable oppression and wrong, as the Jews have.
No abuse that can be heaped upon man has been spared
from the head of this persecuted people. From the days
of the Roman emperors they have been objects of cruelty
in every part of the civilized world. They have every-

27

where been denied citizenship. Everywhere they have been
denied not only equal rights, but the commonest rights of
humanity. They have been obliged to clothe themselves
so that their very garments were a badge of contempt.
They have been shut up in certain territories. They have
been fleeced, cheated, persecuted with the crudest instru-
ments of wrong by those who sought to wrest from them
their supposed riches. They have been emptied out of
countries where they had taken up their abode. For in-
stance, from Spain seventy thousand families were driven
suddenly into exile, not more than one-fifth of them sur-
viving. That cruel exodus was repeated time and time
again in various nations, from hundred years to hundred
years, under the oppressions of superstitious peoples. Did
a plague break out in Hungary? The Jews had poisoned
the people, and a mob wreaked vengeance upon their house-
holds. Was there black death in Germany? The whole
country was in cruel riot to avenge their sufferings on the
persecuted Jews.

But this remarkable race, though fined, robbed, treated
with the utmost injustice and cruelty, and kicked out from
their abiding place again and again, they could not be
destroyed. Hope sprang immorta.l in their soul. With
tenacity, with toughness, with an ineradicable courage,
with a persistence in their own faith, and with a trust in
their own national stock, they have marched through I
know not how many generations of persecution. The legend
of "The Wandering Jew" is true — not of any one person,
but of a people. It was the nation of the Jews that was
the "Wandering Jew;" and all that has ever been dreamed
by poets or invented by the imagination of the miseries of
the "Wandering Jew" has been fulfilled more than four-
fold upon the head of this great and wonderful race. They
have never sat down in discouragement, but have repaired
again and again and again their wasted fortunes, and
erected schools and synagogues, and amassed property,
and served the state, and wrought for manhood. It has
been the very genius of the Hebrew people to work for
the welfare of mankind by working for their own wel-
fare. All their struggles for existence, and all their con-
flicts for equal rights, have done much to produce that
spirit of toleration which is found throughout the civil-
ized nations of the globe. They fought the battle of lib-

28

erty in fighting for their own right to live. The conflict
in England by which the disfranchised Jews were at last
permitted to have a name, and to have citizenship, and
the rights of a citizen under the government, was one of
the most enlightening and strengthening of all the moral
movements in your time and mine. And that which took
place in England took place in Germany, in Holland, in
Spain, in Portugal, in France, in Switzerland, in Hungary,
and in Austria generally. The Jews, everywhere perse-
cuted, everywhere bruised and crushed in the root, every-
where disbranched, everywhere defoliated, everywhere
robbed of their precious fruit, have sprung to life again
like the mulberry tree, which is fed upon and plucked by
the silk-weaving worm, but which, though stripped of one
crop of leaves, produces another and another. This extra-
ordinary people have set an example to humanity of in-
domitable courage in the endurance of whatever men can
put upon them and yet living and thriving. If ever a race
was heroic this race has been.

In its long and dreary way the indomitable spirit of
this great people has not flinched. They have held fast
to their faith. When for the sake of saving themselves
they were outwardly obliged to conform to a cruel reign-
ing Christianity, interiorly, in the church, in the sanctuary
of their own households, they were faithful to the reli-
gion of their fathers. And, not content with simply their ,
own advancement, they have in almost every age and in
almost every country added to the common stock of knowl-
edge and civilization, and that under all the unfavorable
conditions of which I have spoken. The Jewish philoso-
phers have stood second to none. The Jewish statesmen
have been among the most eminent in the world. Jewish
teachers, and scholars, and literary men, and scientists,
and artists have ranked with the ablest in Europe, and
they do today. It will not do to say that they are the
genius of intelligence and administration in Europe; but I
may venture to say that they are second to no others in
these respects. Today in music, in painting, in histrionic
art, in finance, and in generalship, the Hebrews are equal
to any among the most favored, whether in Europe or in
America. Considering their opportunities, they are cer-
tainly giving more genius to statesmanship and adminis-
tration and finance than any other people.

What have they, then, of which they need be ashamed,
in a Christian republic where all men are declared to be
free and equal? Of what has this oriental nation to be
ashamed in a country where Christianity has breathed a
spirit of manhood? Is it that they are excessively indus-
trious? Let the Yankee cast the first stone. Is it that
they are inordinately keen in bargaining? Have they ever
stolen ten millions of dollars at a pinch from a city? Are
our courts bailing out Jews, or compromising with Jews?
Are there Jews lying in our jails, and waiting for mercy,
and dispossessing themselves slowly of the enormous
wealth which they have stolen? You cannot find one
criminal Jew in the whole catalogue. It is said that the
Jews are crafty and cunning, and sometimes dishonest, in
their dealings. Ah! what a phenomenon dishonesty must
be in New York! Do they not pay their debts when it is
inconvenient? Hear it, O ye Yankees! Was there ever
any such thing known on the face of the earth before?
Is it true that they live on that which you throw away?
What a miscreant a man mvist be that is so closely eco-
nomical! Is it true that they can make money where you
go to bankruptcy? Shame on you! — not on them. Is it
true that they have among them many who are untrust-
worthy? I suppose they must be the only people on God's
earth any portion of whom are not trustworthy! Now I
suppose there are Jews that are sometimes tempted of
the devil; I suppose there are crafty men among the
Jews; but I believe that for their numbers there are fewer
such men among them than among us, and that of men
of high and honorable dealing with enormous interests at
stake, of trustworthy men in the administration of affairs,
they have more in proportion to their numbers than our
own or any other race stock, in this or any other land.

If, then, you look upon their genius, upon their anti-
quity, upon their eai^ly and continuing services, upon the
legacy which they have given to the gentile world, upon
their fidelity to their faith, upon their heroism, upon their
industry, upon their enterprise, and upon their substantial
integrity, they are of all people under the sun the last that
should be insulted, either by retail or by wholesale. And
if in all the world you had sought for a place in which to
base an insult for mere race you could not have found
another where it would have been so disreputable as in

America, where the race spirit is opposed to our funda-
mental interpretation of religion not only, but of mor-
ality and of civic economy. But of all places in America
where society attempts to keep its garments free from
contact with the vulgar people, think of a hotel; and of
all hotels a thousand-room hotel in Saratoga! Listen, O
ye astonished people: where for fifty years North and
South and East and West have come together, and been
instructed, sometimes by ministers and sometimes by Mor-
risseys, and where every form of pleasurable vice, every
sort of amusement, everything that would draw custom,
has been common — there, in Saratoga, the Corinth of
America, in a hotel designed to accommodate two thou-
sand people, it seems society is so developed that it will
not consent to go unless everybody that comes is fit to
associate with men who made their money yesterday, or a
few years ago, selling codfish! What is society in Amer-
ica? It is a disposition to be independent. The power of
a man to take care of himself and his family by his own
wit and industry — that makes a man respectable insofar
as economics is concerned; and it is not in good taste for
a man that inherits all his money, and does not earn a
dollar himself, to reproach men who have not a dollar
that they did not earn themselves. Of all people in crea-
tion the Hebrews least deserve the ban, the finger of scorn,
the ostracism, of polite society. The trouble is, men have
not been to school enough to learn the decency which be-
longs to the instruction of the Jews, to their institutions,
and to their fundamental ideas of manhood and religion.

Are these people aiding or are they quenching civili-
zation in our land? Are they bearing their part in the
advance of knowledge in America? Are they educating
their children? Are they publishing books and newspapers?
Are they opening synagogues? Are they the corrupters of
morality? Is it in the Jewish family that the monstrous
spawn is bred that degrades Christian households? It
was left for Christian reformers to unloose the bands and
throw open the door to every foul solicitation and every
base temptation that plays about every household in the
land. Are the Jews remiss in rearing their children in those
elements of education and training which go to make a
character distinguished for virtue, integrity and manhood?

Are they in our poor houses? In which? Are they In

31

our jails? Where? Are they in our reformatories? Point
them out. Do their women defile our streets? You cannot
find another people in America among whom the social
virtues are more rigorously taught and observed than
among the Israelites. Exceptions there are, but their char-
acteristics are such as I have represented them to be.
They are a temperate people, and we are a drunken people.
They are a virtuous people, and we largely tend to be a
lascivious people. They are a people excessively careful
of their children, and there is a great laxity among us in
the education of the household. We may well take lessons
of them. They were the schoolmasters of our fathers,
and we may well go to school to the same masters.

They are becoming land owners in America, by reason
of the liberty and toleration which reign here; and as land
owners those very peculiarities which made them offensive
at other times are dropping away from them. There can
be no question that the Jewish race stock, if it be suf-
fered in the largest spirit of true Christianity to have its
way, will merge with the American stock. During all the
two thousand years in which the Jews have been wander-
ers on the globe, persecuted and despised, there has been
no inducement for them to invest their money in landed
estates, and their property has been of a moveable kind;
but they are now buying land in America; and I tell you
the land that a people stand on forms them more than
they form the land by their agriculture; and more among
us than anywhere else they become citizens. They come
here to live and stay; and their children will intermarry
with ours; their blood will flow into the common stream
with ours; and if their virtues might be incorporated with
ours it would be of unspeakable advantage to ns. Where
else, then, is prejudice against them so culpable as in
our land?

Let me say, in closing, that our brethren and fellow-
citizens, the Jews, should not suffer themselves to be too
much exercised by the petty slights or even public insults
that are heaped upon them. A hero may be annoyed by
a mosquito; but to put on his whole armor and call on all
his followers to join him in making war on an insect
would be beneath his dignity; and I think that for our
friends, the Jews, to notice in any special manner this
indignity which they have received will be to place too

32

much Importance upon it. I trust, therefore, that there
will be no public assemblies called, no resolutions passed,
no more importunate letters written, no recrimination, no
personalities. We are fed to death with such things as
these, until the people have come to have almost a butch-
er's appetite. So let us banish, and let us exhort those
whom we are proud to call fellow citizens to banish wrath;
and may they recognize that their position, their honors,
all things that are sacred to them, are, in this country,
such as they shall themselves determine them to be. May
they understand that under this government there is no
place to which they may aspire — no sphere of finance, no
walk in literature, no avenue to honor, no field of art or
science — which is shut to them. The heaven above their
head is not more free to everyone of them than all the
ways of men in this land. Let them be composed, and not
be disturbed by injuries which are but the faintest echoes
of the wrongs which were inflicted on their fathers through
unnumbered generations. If their fathers, when the foot
of tyranny was placed upon their necks, when they were
treated to the flame and the cord and the ax, when they
tasted the luxury of the dungeon, when they were pelted
with all manner of obloquy, when they were driven hither
and thither and were wanderers up and down the earth, in
patience possessed themselves, and maintained their econ-
omy, their institutions and their genius, I am sure their
descendants will be able, under this slight breath, this
white frost, this momentary flash of insult, to maintain
their genius, their households, their social customs, their
citizenship and the honors which their fathers achieved,
and of which they are showing themselves not to be un-
worthy in this nation and in our time.

33

Appendix II.
Beecher's Address on Montefiore

[From "Addresses delivered at the Thanksgiving Service held at
Temple Emanu-El, New York, on the occasion cf Sir Moses
Montefiore, Bart., completing the one-hundredth year v ^ his life,
October 26. 1884." (N. Y.. pp. 7-12.)]

account it a great honor that you have
thought me worthy to be here upon such an

I occasion, and my presence here this afternoon

is to me a source of much pleasure.
The sentiment of all just and honorable
men who fear God and love their fellowmen
goes with this celebration. The distinguished
citizen of the world, Sir Moses Montefiore, by
his long life, by services so splendid in the
way of humanity, has become himself a text
that involves largely the truths both of the
Old Testament and the New. Jew and Chris-
tian alike may derive from his example and
services both instruction and encouragement.
There is no thing in this world that art
can achieve, no architecture, no sculpture, no
picture that is so beautiful as a noble living
man. For although it may be the work of Michael Angelo,
a man in health and strength and serving his kind, is more
stately and more beautiful than any statue ever thought
of or created.

It is the living man and not the simulation of man In
the stone that should command admiration. There is
nothing in all the madonnas and holy families of Raphael
that can compare for one single moment with the mother
and the children in the household. One is but the shadow;
the other is the substance. And this celebration is a sign
of great advancement in the moral feeling of the world.
Sir Moses Montefiore is a stranger and a foreigner to most
of the people who will celebrate the great birthday of this

34

great philanthropist, and who, all over the world will
gather to give expression to this gladness in his continued
life, and their thanksgiving for what he has been able to
accomplish.

It certainly is a great thing. God has brought forward
the human consciousness and feeling to such a point that
this venerable gentleman's birthday is an occasion of uni-
versal jubilee.

My friends, he has brought to unity the quarrelings.
the disgraceful differences of all the Christian sects of the
world. He has shown that goodness is orthodox every-
where and always.

Correctness of thinking is very desirable. But the men
that hate each other and quarrel on the ground of correct-
ness of thinking, have hardly learned the first elements
of the true religion.

Therefore a man standing in the firm faith of the
Israelites, and surrounded by Christians divided into a
hundred different sects, commands the confidence and the
love of them all.

The world has changed. The world is changing. The
great men of remote antiquity were the men of physical
force, courage, audacity — the men that soared head and
shoulders above the rest of men.

They are somewhat admired yet, but they are slowly
sinking below the horizon. Men are not admired as war-
riors, but principally when their conduct is for the exhi-
bition of principle and the advancement of humanity. But
even now, a soldier patriot is not admired altogether as he
was in the days gone by. We have come to an era in
which we admire the statesman. We admire the artist.
We follow the inspiration of men of genius; and this is
unspeakably higher than the admiration of mere physical
gifts.

We are drawing near to the very sanctuary of admira-
tion. The day has gone by when it was in the power of
the body or even in the gifts of the intellect or of genius
to command universal esteem. Today we admire a man
who is great of heart. A good man is the greatest among
men.

If his goodness is spread abroad; if he have the means
by which to carry out goodness on a large scale, the day
has come when the philanthropist stands for the highest

35

form of humanity. And in tliis achievement you have
recorded the fruit of countless ages of past experience.
It is the right fruit.

Now, we are glad, not simply to admire the philan-
thropist. Sir Moses Montefiore; we are glad not merely
to wonder at the prolongation of such a life; but we read
in him a lesson of the true uses of riches and of position.
Surely, he, of all men, has elevated himself into the rank
of a man commanding universal admiration.

There are many men who are made narrower by
abundance. There are many men who become rich that
they may make meanness more conspicuous. Some men
pamper themselves.

They separate themselves from their fellows. All God's
bounties fall upon them as water falls upon the sand.
The desert drinks it in and gives no blade of grass, no
flower, no fruit back again.

But here is a man eminent in wealth, allied with the
world's aristocracy, standing not in any respect higher
in his own estimation. His riches brought him nearer to
the human heart and made him the benefactor of those
who were in poverty — and not alone of his own kindred
or his own religion. He has circumnavigated the globe
on missions of mercy. And though primarily and properly
his message and mission have been to his own people, yet
when in the providence of God he was enabled to labor
for others, his great and generous heart has included all,
though they were called by different names in religion and
nationality.

His is the brooding of a spirit so great that his wings
could spread themselves from the east to the west, and the
warmth of his bosom covers the whole human family.

In this type there is a lesson that may be read in our
day.

We are a people on whom the heavens rain gold. We
are a people for whom God has commanded the earth to
render up her fruits. The sea washes our shores with
golden sand, and for us the genius and industry of the
human family is rearing up a wealth more boundless than
anything ever known. We have eminent wealth. We have
mountainous wealth. And it becomes us, that are blessed
by God with the means and opportunities, to take heed
lest of the means we make curses. It is a goodly thing to

lift up the stately form, not of an Idol, but of a man with
like conditions of race, into whose hands God has given
the power of treasure, and to see how he has used it. The
life of Sir Moses Montefiore shows greatness. And the
requital comes. It echoes from every quarter of this
world in sympathy with the m.an who has used his power,
not for his own exaltation, but for the relief and the com-
fort of his fellowmen. It is God who is the great Worker,
who sits not supine to be worshipped, but who everywhere
is active, thinking, living, fostering and stimulating; the
great burden-bearer of the universe. And they that in
imitation employ the strength of their reason and genius
and the resources of their riches for their fellowmen,
stand not only high, but already begin to stand highest
in the ranks of worshipped men. We behold, too, how a
good man rises above all the separations of the sects of
human society. What potentates today one hundred years
old could call out so many worshippers out of his own
kingdom? How many men that stand today fighting the
battles of the sectarians would have such sympathy in
their age and continued health as has been brought to
this man?

Since thousands of years a Jew has been a name of
reproach. The wanderings in the desert of old have been
nothing in comparison to the wanderings of this great
people all over the world. The thunders of Sinai have
been nothing compared with the thunders of persecution.
I, for one, am glad in my soul, that the whole world is
obliged today to bow down to the name of a Jew, who
stands conspicuous this hour above the head and shoulders
of ordinary men, for his goodness, his philanthropy, for
the type that he gives us of true manhood. And is there
this admiration for the man, but we have in his example
a lesson to ambition.

To get a riband is not to deserve a riband.
To get a coronet is not to deserve a corone

Multitudes of men have crept through low and dirty
ways to obtain the gem. But such a man as Sir Moses
Montefiore, who has been titled by the hand of the great
Queen, took the gift not to receive honor from It, but to
reflect honor from himself upon it. And every man after-

37

wards shall find such honors to be more valuable, because
he has owned them.

He teaches us that the unity of the human family is
to spring from the heart and life, and not from any exte-
rior gifts of manhood.

More than that. All the world says of such a man,
"He cannot be shut up." Still, there is a sense in which
he is yours. I congratulate you. The candle that burns
in the window of my humble dwelling is my own in a sense.
But it is a stormy night. The weary traveler far away
sees it shine, and wrestling with the snow that he thinks
will be his winding sheet, he makes for the cheering sight.
So with Sir Moses Montefiore.

He belongs to humanity. He belongs to mankind. He
is the possession of the whole world. And here, I think,
I might as well repeat the language of the great Paul.
"Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So
am I. Are they of the seed of Abraham? So am I."

If all Israelites were like this great man whose birthday
we celebrate today then I am a Hebrew, I am a Jew, I am
of the seed of Abraham.

And he is my brother. He is of my people. He belongs
to me by the right I have to admire whatever is good. In
such a man I recognize the breaking down of the middle
wall and partition between you and me. I am a disciple
and teacher of the New Testament. I accept the Old.
When now and then a man rises who unites in himself the
firmness of the Old and the fruits of the New, I see in
that man the arms that bring the old and new together
in a common bond of unity.

And so, as a Christian gentleman that reveres and uses
the Old Testament as the ground and foundation of reli-
gion, I rejoice that I am privileged to stand here to express
my reverence and admiration for this great man. God is
greatly good; and I thank him for having raised up this
philanthropist and given him length of days and honors in
the sight of all the people.

And I would to God that this one man might not be
the only man of t)ur age. If Judaism is to prevail — and
may God speed it — let it prevail by bringing forth such
heroes of goodness, and then all the world shall worship
with unity and mutual confidence, and give glory to God.
No matter in what candlestick the candle stands. It may

IT f

be of lead, of iron, of gold, or one studded with precious
stones. It is the candle which signifies. No matter in
what church you worship; no matter to what sect you
belong. No matter in what belief you are fixed; it is the
living heroic life, the bounty of a rich heart that is the
candle, giving light in every house and for all time.

Supplementary Note. — Since the aforegoing article
was put in type, my attention has been called to the
Menorah 3Ionthly of March, 1905, vol. xxxviii, pages
130-140, containing a full reprint of the sermon, "Jew
AND Gentile." We are told, in a prefatory note, that
the original manuscript notes of this address, which
proved to be considerably fuller than those the noted
divine usually made in the preparation of his discourses,
are now the property of the American Jewish Historical
Society. They were presented by A. Abraham, Esq., of
Brooklyn, who in turn received it as a gift from Mr.
H. D. Beecher, a son of the distinguished preacher. In
a letter to Mr. Abraham, dated May 11, 1887, Mr. Beech-
er says:

The accompanying notes are the framework of the ser-
mon that my father, Henry Ward Beecher, preached Sun-
day evening, June 24, 1877, on the Hebrew race. Having
known you both personally and as a business man for a
number of years, it seems peculiarly fitting that I should
present this document to you, whom I regard as one of the
best representatives, both as a gentleman and as a man
of business, of the great Hebrew race, whom my father
had so high a regard for.

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