Full text of "Jewish dreams and realities contrasted with Islamitic and Christian claims"

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UNIVERSmy

PENNSYLVANIA.

UBKARIES

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Jewish Dreams and Realities

CONTRASTED WITH

ISLAMITIC Am CHRISTIAN CLAIMS.^

HEE"EY ILIOWIZI^ /Sb0-I1l(

PHILADELPHIA :
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

1890.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890, by

HENRY ILIOWIZI,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

201379

^cbtcatimt^

LOVINGLY INSCRIBED

TO THE

SAINTED MEMORY

MY BLESSED PARENTS,

ELIJAH AND DINAH.

H. I.

Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive

in 2009 witii funding from

Lyrasis IVIembers arid Sloan Foundation

http://www.archive.org/details/jewishdreamsrealitiesOOilio

PEEFAOE.

A PERUSAL of this work will, it is hoped, suflBciently justify
its raison d'etre. We are not aware that the modernized
Goliath, Jeroboam, and Apion have condescended to offer the
Jew an apology for rough treatment. We shall, however, let
our readers judge whether, in our critical strictures, we for
one moment have deviated from the beaten highway pointed
out by historical facts. We have earnestly endeavored to give
to Caesar what is Caesar's ; but we have not hesitated in restor-
ing to Jehovah what is unquestionably His, Let there be no
doubt as to the relation of Judaism to mankind. In the inter-
est of truth and justice we should combine our efforts to repel
baneful aggression, to clear the Jewish name of calumny, de-
fine our position as the lineal descendants of the patriarchs, and
emphatically reiterate our message to the race. As faithful
Jews our mission is great and glorious. The pressing duty of
the hour is to teach the son of Israel to know and respect him-
eelf , to distinguish between the humane and the inhuman non-
Jew, and to live up to the ideas and the ideals of an illustrious
ancestry. A plain statement of " Jewish Dreams and Reali-
ties " contrasted with " Islamitic and Christian Claims," while
it is likely to strike here and there a discordant note in the
heart of intolerant zealotism, may at the same time contribute
to strengthen that growing cordiality which of late brightens
the intercourse between progressive Judaism and enlightened
Christianity.

In writing these pages fairness, candor, and veracity have
been steadily kept in view. Whether justice has been done
to all topics touched upon is not for us to decide. A general
but brief survey naturally precludes exhaustive treatment.
Our claim rises no higher than to have satisfied a good mo-
tive ; and whatever the effect this book may produce on the
reader, its industrious elaboration has left the author a happier

son of his race.

H. I.

Philadelphia, March, 1890.

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CONTENTS.

I. INTRODUCTION.

An editor causes many to speak. — Paucity of general information on
Judaism. — Numerous Jews who know not why they are Jews. —
Ignorance the cause. — Enlightenment the remedy. — Plain speech
necessary. — Vastness of the fields to be entered. — Difiiculty to sin-
gle out beauties. — A wealth like that of the starry heavens .... 15

II. MOHAMMED'S SINGULAR DREAM.

Carlyle no friend of the Jews. — Denies them the gifts of grace and
humor. — Would not rank them among his heroes. — Neglects to
refer to Mohammed's Jewish secretary and mother. — Original
claims of Jesus and Mohammed. — Illiteracy of Mohammed and
of the Christian apostles. — Jacob's ladder and his vision. — Moses
in the skies. — Ezekiel's first vision. — Tales from the Talmud. —
The tree as a symbol in Hebrew literature. — In Northern mythol-
ogy.— Mohammed's dream. — Gabriel awakens him. — Al Borak. —
Mohammed's journey. — Some incidents.^Whom he meets at Zion's
Temple. — He ascends heaven. — The first heaven. — He meets
Adam. — The second heaven. — He meets Noah. — The third
heaven. — What he sees therein. — The fourth heaven. — The angel
of death. — Description of the fifth heaven. — Fable of Phaeton and
the sun-god. — The angels of the sixth heaven. — The dream be-
trays Pharisaic sources. — Ibn Gabirol's apostrophe. — Mohammed
meets Moses in the sixth, Abraham in the seventh, heaven, but
Jesus he meets nowhere above. — Bliss and denizens of the seventh
heaven. — What the prophet sees there. — Whom he meets. — The
number seven. — Islam's paradise. — Jewish conception thereof. —
Mohammed in face of Allah. — His reception.^His charge. — The
profession of faith. — Carlyle on Arab and Hebrew. — Is welcome to
Mohammed as his hero. — The prophet and his creed 19

III. THE HEBREW'S GREATEST VISION.

Grave questions. — Rare types of mind. — They impress cycles. —
Rule mankind. — Who they are. — Israel's claim. — Deep longings of
man. — The powers that rule. — Secret of national greatness. — Worth
of the Old Testament to mankind. — Immortality an ancient He-
brew dream. — Hebrew sanity forbears painting mysteries. — Phar-
isaic fancies. — Heathen cosmogonies. — In the Orient. — In Greece. —
Version of man's creation. — Its morale. — The Eddas on God, uni-
verse, and man. — Grandeur of Hebrew cosmogony. — Compatible

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with science. — Light its beginning. — Ibn Gabirol and Milton. —
Else and progress of tiie universe. — Man's fall misinterpreted. —
Immortality implied in the origin and nature of the human soul. —
The Jew craves no admission to the orthodox Cliristian paradise. —
His consciousness. — Man is like his gods 35

IV. OUR PROPHET'S DREAM.

General belief in divination. — Among the Spanish Moors. — Among
barbarians. — In old Rome. — In Greece. — Influence and nature of
heathen oracles. — Their decline and fall. — Hebrew prophecy. — Its
origin and antiquity. — Misinterpreted by non-Jews. — Our view
of it. — Samuel founds the prophetic school. — The prophet's mes-
sage.— His individuality. — All in awe of his monitions. — Nathan
and David. — Peter the Hermit and Luther. — Power of the proph-
et's authority. — Elijah's career and his end. — A reference to Jesus. —
Elijah's mythical nature. — Great Hebrews compared with others. —
What it means to be a Jew. — Universality of our prophecy. — The
Messianic dream. — The true and the false prophet. — Why the Jew
is preserved. — The mystic and the poetic in prophecy. — Universal
freemasonry. — Ezekiel's vision of the dead valley. — Its lesson. —
God's Unity our prophet's and poet's ideal. — Rabbinism uncon-
genial to living prophecy. — Good and evil resulting from rigid
Talmudism. — It worked on Judaism as papacy on Christianity. —
Beneficial change of the times. — A religion of living ideals, not
of dead forms. — The men we need to realize the prophet's dream, 55

V. OUR POET'S DREAM.

No distinct line to be drawn between Hebrew prophecy and poetry. —
The Bible an epic poem.— A description of the prophet. — The
world could dispense with anything save our Bible. — It is a uni-
versal mirror. — A wonderful picture gallery. — Paints man as he is,
favoring none. — Poetry the Hebrew's second nature. — Deborah,
Hannah, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have all i>oetic veins. —
What they are singing of. — Sappho. — Our poet's inspiration. — Car-
lyle on Job. — No misfortune to be misunderstood. — The world
would not reason with Israel. — An old infatuation.— How the Jew
judges the non-Jew, and how he is judged. — None but a Hebrew
could write Job and the unsurpassed lyric. — Hundred and fifty
lyrics. — What our lyrics teach. — Must be read in Hebrew. — Some
verses translated by Milton and Byron. — DiflSculty of translating
Hebrew. — Hebrew letters in the starry heavens. — An allegory of
Hebrew letters.— The 104th Psalm. — Wisdom of Job.— George Gil-
fillan on the Bible. — Post-Biblical poetry among Jews. — More
pathetic praying than singing during the Dark Ages. — No absence
of sweet singers. — Liturgy a mine of poetry. — Rabbi Amnon. —
An echo of earlier poetry. — Verses of Ibn Gabirol, Moses, Ibn

Ezra, and Jehndah Halevy. — A Hebrew Dante. — Jewish and non-
Jewish poetry. — " Das Judenthum in der Musik." Wagner's in-
gratitude toward Meyerbeer. — Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, and Wag-
ner compared. — Halevy's music. — The Jew as mimic. — Anton
Rubinstein 69

VI. A GLANCE AT THE TALMUD.

Rareness of true freedom. — Habit of thought and selfish interest two
powerful motives. — Truth bound to win in time. — How Providence
works. — The beginnings of the Talmud. — It preserved Israel's
identity. — Its object. — A means of aggression and defense. — His-
torical importance thereof. — A great work, though it retards the
progress of Judaism. — Covers many centuries. — Treats of all
topics. — A reliable record. — Hateful to the church. — Conflicts with
the records of the gospels. — Disproves the crucifixion as recorded. —
Some facts which tell. — The sciences of the age noticed therein. —
The HalacJiali, the Haggadah, and the MidrasMui. — A disj^ute of
rabbis. — A wonderful tale with a lesson. — Legend of King David's
death. — Inconsistencies accounted for. — Different view on Gen-
tiles and women. — A variety of sayings. — Superstitions. — Thomas
Aquinas' problem. — TertuUian on hell. — Talmudical fancies of
hell. — Not accepted in its literal meaning. — More of this topic. —
Similarity of Jewish and Mohammedan fancies. — A description
of the nether world. — Belief in good and evil angels. — Of resur-
rection.— The paradise of the Pharisee. — Ibn Gabirol on immor-
tality.— Elijah in tradition 89

VII. THEIR MESSIAH AND OUR IDEAL.

A wonder in the annals of error. — Its fearful consequences. — The
few who have sight redeem this world. — The Jesus myth unknown
to history. — Dealings of the church. — Why the Jews did not accept
Jesus. — The argument of Celsus. — Renan and Celsus. — History of
the primitive church. — Schism and heresy. — Numerous sects and
gospels. — Every sect fitting the gospel to its views. — Complaints of
Eusebius. — Unscrupulous church fathers. — Justin Martyr's state-
ment.— Fraud admitted by Grotius. — The church standing on
miracles. — Immorality in her fold. — Felicimus a specimen of the
kind. — Gibbon's regret. — Rome honors Judaism but suspects Chris-
tianity.— Origin of the blood accusation. — Disputes in the church
about the conception, birth, and nature of Jesus. — Singular dis-
cussions.— Arianism rejected by the council of Nice. — Jesus a
supreme divinity. — A question. — Gibbon on the church. — W^hat
she has done in the name of the " prince of peace." — How matters
developed. — Strauss speaks plain. — A change for the better. —
Christian humanity versus Christian barbarism.— Israel's Mes-
sianic ideal. — He of whom the prophet dreamt. — Refers to Israel

onh^ — The Talmud on the Messiah. — Messianic times rather than
a person. — Maimonides on the IMessianic cycle. — It is an allegory, a
Utopia. — Kabbalah differs. — Not endorsed by sane Judaism. — Man
his own Messiah. — His position, faculties, and progress prove it. —
His great possibilities. — Theory of the church. — Human achieve-
ments.— Man's prospects. — His humane tendencies prevail. — Israel
hails the brighter era. — Hopes to see his Messianic dream fulfilled, 109

VIII. OUR MYSTIC VISION.

Definition of mysticism. — Source of Jewish mysticism. — Author of
the Zohar. — A literary curiosity. — The author in dead earnest. —
His drift. — The En-Soph. — How He works. — The Sephiroth. —
Question of originality. — Greek mythology and the Gnostics. —
The Logos. — Philo's Divine Sophia. — Philo's ethical ideal. —The
Kabbalist borrowed. — Haggadic traditions — The mission of Mata-
tron. — How the universe was framed. — The operative agents. —
Three principles in man's nature. — Good at war with evil.— Pre-
existence of souls. — Are here on probation. — An old idea. — Samael's
bright prospects. — When Messiah will come. — Eff'ects of Kabbalah
on Judaism. — It is antagonized. — It furnishes apostates. — A remark-
able Theosophy. — Surprising in detail. — Originality not always a
test of literary merit. — Wise assimilation a great gift. — The Kab-
balist's ideal. — Judaism favors not mysticism. — Mysticism conge-
nial to the church. — Her first delight with Kabbalah. — Why she
gave it up. — Kabbalah superior to any mystic system.— The philo-
sophical and the religious mystic. — Serious thought begets mysti-
cism.— The transcendentalist a mystic. — Spiritual responsiveness. —
Moses had a vein of the mystic. — Whither our mystic dream
tends. — A spiritual Genesis. — Spencer's " cosmos " as dark as that
of the Kabbalist. — En-Soph is Elohim. — Given a poetic garb what
Kabbalah would be. — A wonder tissue. — A heavenly dream . . . 129

IX. HILLEL, PHILO, AND JOSEPHUS.

Curse of falsehood. — Josephus and Apion. — Josephus on the nature
of God.— Philo's assumption as to the relation of Greek to Hebrew
wisdom. — Im})ortant facts. — Josephus on Moses. — His doubtful
references to Jesus and apostles. — Interpolations made it worse. —
Josephus on Israel's defamers. — On Greek historians and Greek
history. — Forgeries of Dion Cassius. — What is true. — Authenticity
of Jewish history. — Josephus, Hillel, and Philo teach loftier
ideals than the church. — Hillel milder and wiser than Jesus. —
Jesus turned into a Moloch. — Nothing save the preposterous orig-
inal in his teachings. — Hillel on life. — His first eftbrt to obtain
knowledge.— His benignant personality. — His impression on Ju-
daism.— Shammai's different temper. — Hillel's definition of Juda-
ism.— His patience and ])rudence. — His view of Divine Grace. —

His benevolence, faith in Providence, and his Nirvana.— His ethi-
cal sayings. — Shows courage in reforming evils. — His method of
interpretation. — His influence on posterity. — Did his duty. —
Worked for humanity. — Philo's ideal. — Philo on the Old Testa-
ment.—Sees in it more than Hellenic philosophy. — How Alexan-
drian Jews read Scripture. — Philo's system.— Aryan jealousy. —
What it may yet unearth. — The privilege of genius. — Wherein
Philo's mind is settled. — A philosophy substantially Jewish. —
How Hellen and Hebrew meet. — Distance between the Hebrew
and the Greek thinker. — Philo's definition of God. — Finds won-
ders in Mosaism. — How God built the universe. — Divine Wisdom
the intermediary. — More than coincidence of Philonic and Kab-
balistic ideas. — Another difference between Greek and Jewish
thought. — Philo on Hebrew cosmogony. — Nobler than Spinoza. —
A dreamer and thinker. — Reads Scripture as Copernicus and Her-
schel read the heavens. — Definition of genius. — The times out of
joint. — What the age worships. — Wherein Philo excels. — Kabbalah
indebted to him. — How he peoples the universe. — His view of
man. — What man is here for. — How he might reach his goal. — Im-
mortality.— Transmigration. — Importance of Josephus, Hillel, and
Philo. — General remarks 143

X. OUR PHILOSOPHIC REALITIES.

Nature of Jewish philosophy. — Subject of its contemplation. — Sets
no limit to free thought. — Assimilates whatever compatible with
its ideals. — Applies reason and allegory. — Saadia places reason
next to revelation. — On allegories and miracles. — Hai", his follow-
er.— Commends reflection. — His view on Deity. — Avicebron's sys-
tem.— He anticipates Giordano Brumo. — Avicebron's Theology. —
His philosophy. — Bruno follows him. — Jewish and modern
thought. — Hal6vy's thou2;ht. — Defines Israel's position among the
nations. — Ibn Ezra. — Founder of Biblical criticism. — Reason links
man to God. — A Jewish rationalist. — In advance of his times. —
Works of Maimonides. — Favors sound intelligence. — Interprets
prophecy. — Defines evil. — A beautiful thought. — Semitic serenity
different from Aryan. — Void in the Aryan soul. — Rousseau, Schop-
enhauer, Goethe, Darwin, Spencei', and Haeckel. — Goethe's Faust
his own picture. — The church affords no consolation. — Points to
myth and miracle. — Hates free thought. — What Judaism did and
Christianity failed to do. — A word of Emerson. — Times of Ibn
Adereth. — Allegorizes supernatural revelation. How God re-
vealed Himself to Israel. — Gersonides questions creation ex-ni-
hilo. — Assumes Reason to be the agent of the Infinite. — Albo's
thought. — Defines the object of religion. — Allegorizes hell. — Ques-
tions bodily resurrection. — Mendelssohn's Phgedon. — Hi& Jerusa-
lem.— Advocates separation of church from state. — Kant predicts

its realization. — Little Moses versus big Pharaohs. — The church
hopes against hope. — Free states humaner tlian the church. — Men-
delssohn on the universality of Judaism. — On ceremonies. — On
Theocracy in Israel. — The need of ceremonies. — Drift of Jewish
philosophy. — Man's position on earth. — The world he rules. — His
mental faculties. — His goal below. — Earth among the stars. — Re-
lation of this to other worlds. — The grave not the end. — Argu-
ment.— Man's immortal gifts. — Man's position in the universe de-
pends on his career below. — Ideas in support thereof 163

XI. ISRAEL'S GOD AND HIS LAW.

What Israel sees in the Divine Law. — What it is to other nations. —
Theocracy. — Jewish hopes. — Moses compared with other law-
givers.— Thor and Skyrmir. — Good advice. — Sunny illumination
better than artificial. — Greece and Rome unprepared to under-
stand Moses.— Greek and Hebrew.— The Twelve Tables.— Judaism
irreconcilable with polytheism and trinitarianism. — Christian
claims. — Their inconsistency. — Results tell.— Spencer on Christian
society. — S. Harris on this subject. — A view of Emerson. — Modern
jurists ignore or slight the Divine Law. — Austin on revelation. —
Bentham's maxim. — Where its application would lead. — Justice
unyielding to numbers. — Difference between Divine and human
laws. — Archbishop Nicanor on Moses. — Henry George and Jo-
hannes von Mueller on Moses.— Meaning of "Thou shalt not
kill." — Violated by the church.— Value of human life in Israel. —
Lynch law and judicial bribery. — Shylock's treatment.— Christian
men and women better than orthodox Christianity. — Authenticity
of the Divine Law. — Origin of Jewish home virtues. — The Jew's
home, his Holy of Holies. — Corrupt dignitaries of the church, —
Meaning of " Thou shalt not steal."~The Ecclesia breaks it. — In-
cites man against man. — Promotes war instead of peace. — Europe's
armaments look not Messianic. — The church not opposed to blood-
shed.—She heeds not the Ten Commandments.— The Decalogue
an epitome of the Divine Law. — Huxley on religion. — What the
modern jurist may learn of Judaism.— A chief justice on the Mo-
saic legislation.— Utters truth and error.— Revolting inferences of
Christian Theology.— Its doubtful triumphs.— Love, justice, and
humanity in the Pentateuch.— Christian laws far behind.— The
golden rule.— Moses describes Israel's God.— His absolute jus-
tice.—Ideal humanity.— Attributes of God.— A story with a les-
son.—Israel's relation to God and man.— Great social ]iroblems
solved by the Divine Law. — Enjoins human equality. — Inalienable
right of person and property. — In advance of the French Revolu-
tionists.—Man's birthright and heritage inviolable.— The church
has no dream of this kind.— The Divine Law upholds Theocratic
government.— The first President in history.— Spencer, Locke,

and Humboldt on government. — Not ahead of Judaism. — Jewish
patriotism. — What Israel's vitality suggests. — Israel's conscious-
ness.— Legend of the " Wandering Jew." — A type of his race. —
Logic and ijolicy of the church. — The Jew destined to wander. —
Principle versus policy the keynote of Jewish history. — The Di-
vine Law, an immovable rock. — Its adherents invulnerable. —
Signs of the times. — Errors of the church. — Judaism her basis. —
Harmony of the old faith. — The Sanhedrin. — Its criminal juris-
prudence.— Its proceedings. — The evidence it required. — Intense
anxiety to do justice. — Its dread of bloodshed. — Humane mt-as-
ures to deaden the pain and terror of execution. — Jewish tribunals
at this hour. — Many Christians prefer it to their own courts . . . 183

XII. OUR ETHICAL REALITIES.

The principle of judging correctly. — The weight of facts — Without
facts no claim can stand. — Strauss and Renan. — What Renan's "Ah,
me " implies. — Moral superiority of Judaism over Christianity test-
ed by facts. — The one a success, the other a failure. — Application of
Lessing's critical remark. — Without the Jewish element what re-
mains of Christianity? — The Jew's claim.— Wherein he glories. —
Antiquity of our ethical realism. — Mosaism more than the sum of
all ethical codes. — Buddha's Nirvana. — Its beauty. — Gloomy ten-
dency of Aryanism. — Human happiness the end of the Divine
Law. — The Jewish Nirvana. — Sublimity of the Law's ethics. —
What they are teaching. — Wisdom the end of Judaism. — The gos-
pels commend ignorance. — The revealed Law good for all times,
all men. — Its application tested and Ibund perfect. — Canon Free-
mantle on the Hebrew's ideal. — A bishop on the impracticable-
ness of Christianity as a religion of life. — The good Jew can do what
the good orthodox Christian cannot do. — Ethical sayings of va-
rious lights in Israel. — A work of golden rules. — Jewish and Chris-
tian views of life. — A word of Jesus. — The curses of Lucas. — Re-
pugnant to Israel's sanity. — Words of wisdom. — Judaism more
solicitous about the relation of man to man than of man to God. —
Woman degraded by primitive Christianity. — She stands high in
Israel. — What church worthies thought of womanhood. — The
" virginity of the cleric." — Marriage and family unholy in the
eyes of the church. — Dr. Donaldson on the subject. — Jewish
wealth in ethics. — The seven Wise of ancient Greece. — Sum of
their wisdom. — Socrates looks in vain for what INIoses found. —
Perfection a Jewish ideal. — Philo superior to More and Locke. —
The old and the new in ethics 207

XIII. A VIEW OF JESUS ; OUR SPIRITUAL REALITIES.

Principles of architectural beauty. — ^Ancient and modern writers on
the art. — Esthetics applied to ideal powers. — Assumed superiority
untenable. — Ridicule provoked by incongruity. — The Mikado's

fall. — Frederick and Voltaire. — Moliere's Tartvffe. — Truth ever
equal to self. — The fatality of falsehood. — Incongruity of orthodox
Christianity. — Jesus contradicts himself. — Substitution of Sunday
for Sabbath, an afterthought. — Noble Christianity not antagonized
by Judaism. — It is welcome to the Jew.— Affords prosperity and
happiness. — The class to be antagonized. — The enemies of peace. —
A Catholic editor's view on Robert Browning. — Three aspects of
Jesus. — The historical view. — A generous enthusiast of a vivid im-
agination.— Deluded by dreams.— Open to conceit. — Goes too far
to return. — Gives offense to public sentiment. — Roman jealousy. —
The Jews do not the wisest thing. — Left to himself, the " Mes-
siah " would, like many after him, have passed away. — Blood has
its effect. — General state of things favorable for a new religion. —
Necessary consequences. — The mythical Jesus. — Legends of his
birth and youth. — Frequency of miracles. — More merciful than his
Father. — Revolting idea of God. — Ludicrous inconsistency. — A
fearful fire-brand.— The " prince of peace." — His paradise doubt-
ful.— His hell a certainty. — What happened since. — The symboli-
cal Jesus. — Views of liberal Christians. — Rational conceptions. —
A reformer providentially sent. — The Unitarian standpoint en-
couraged by Judaism. — Important questions. — Claim of the Deca-
logue on liberal Christianity. — The Sabbath. — Church and Syna-
gogue.— Jewish idealism and heroism. — Judaism ashamed of its
sores. — Not as bad as represented. — Jewish consistency. — Object of
the Sabbath. — Divine Unity an ecstasy. — Nature of Jewish Holy
Days. — Spiritual symbols. — Friday eve at the Jewish home. —
Passover. — What it symbolizes. — Pentecost.— Its double signifi-
cance.— Feast of Tabernacles. — Its lesson. — The " Awful Days." —
Their spiritual sublimity. — Triumph of spirit over body. — Spirit-
ual realities. — Sweetest of dreams. — Meditation 223

XIV. CONCLUSION.

The author's doubt as to whether justice has been done to all sides. —
Whittier's Christianity. — The Times^ editor on Jews. — Golden op-
portunities the church has lost. — Israel's grateful generosity. —
Great modern Christians. — What friendliness might have done. —
Christianity responsible for a world of evil before the world's tri-
bunal.— Transcendency of Religion. — Its degradation by the
church.— With whom is truth ? — Israel's doubts. — What the
dogma did. — Maxims of crescent and cross. — Of Judaism. — Essen-
tial teachings of Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed contrasted. — Juda-
ism denies hell. — Believes in retribution. — Human right. — God's
mercy for all men. — Pleading Abarbanel. — Object of Jewish phi-
losophy.— Man. — Philosophical meditation. — Here and hereafter, 241

appp:ndix.

Talmudic Mythology 255

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.

Not very long ago an enterprising editor of a periodical
caused many a spiritual light to think out some plausible rea-
son, why he chose to be the votary of his particular creed, in-
stead of adhering to any other. So it came to pass that a
repi'esentative of the olden faith was requested to state un-
equivocally. Why he was a Jew. He gave his reason, and
the Jewish and non-Jewish press disseminated his precious
statement as a piece of information on a subject on which in-
formation is rather scarce, and, what is more to be regretted,
not much in demand. For, to tell the unvarnished truth, the
number of Jews who know why they are Jews is consid-
erably less than those who do not know whether it is wise
to belong to a minority who, in matters ethical and spiritual,
often differ widely from the vast majority ; whether the dif-
ferences are insurmountable, and wherein they consist. These
questions we propose to answer to the best of our ability by
sketching Jewisli ideals, dreams, and realities, with critical
references to kindred religions which are advancing superior
claims. Every civilized nation is making strenuous efforts to
inspire its rising generation, by acquainting youth with the
glorious achievements of its past. The modern Jew alone
seems to furnish an exception. It is useless to hide sores and
ignore facts. The time when from Dan to Beer-Sheba there
was not a faithless, ignorant Israelite, is a sweet vision of the
past. At present we have to encounter both ignorance and
infidelity, and our every endeavor must be in the direction of
enlightenment.

Let there be light. Let the Jew study his history and liter-
ature, let him realize his grave responsibility toward his fellow-
man. Ancient Greece had Homer's songs compiled, and caused

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them to be taught in schools and recited in public places.
Virgil's great poems on the foundation of Carthage and Rome
were the song and glory of the old Roman, and proved the in-
spiration of Italy's greatest bard, Dante. The Chinese delight
in reciting the moral sayings of Confucius. How many Jews
are prepared to recite the Ten Commandments, are conversant
with the golden rules of our Scriptures ? The Germans have,
of late, enlarged the bounds of their magnificent literature by
olden epics, weird tales of the Nibelnngen, telling of Sieg-
fried's adventures, of Chriemhild's and Brunhild's jealousy and
vengeance, and of Hagen's desperate valor. Even semi-bar-
barous Russia is gathering wondrous legends similar to the
Sagas of ancient Scandinavia, all calculated to throw lustre on
the present and serve as an example for tlie emulation of pos-
terity. The Roman's highest distinction was to be a Roman.
The son of Albion is proud of his nationality. American
blood thrills at the sight of the stars and the stripes. The
Catholic and Protestant parade the symbols of their faith be-
fore the world, and send tlieir missionaries to the ends of earth.
But there are Jews, so-called enlightened Jews, who neither
know their God nor their history ; who represent nothing, live
for notliing in this world ; and would, were it possible, alter their
very features to hide their parentage. If we cannot change
this class, we should embrace every opportunity to remind
them of the filial debt they owe to heroic forefathers and the
risk to which they expose tlieir children by allowing them to
grow up like weeds, breaking every association with a history
of four thousand years.

We have a brilliant heirloom to boast of. (3ur ideal Judaism
is synonymous with immutable trutli. Shall we tacitly allow
inferior influences to supersede the Divinest of ideals ? Forbid
it God, that we lay ourselves open to the charge of such a base
ignominy. We should not hesitate to emphasize our claim,
that mankind is everlastingly indebted for its highest blessings
to the eternal race. Facts there are to sustain our position.
Judaism is invaded from within and from without, and the time
has come for us to speak plainly. We have been wronged, are
being wronged, and Jewish manhood requires us to protest, to

say why we are Jews, instead of being Christians or Moslems.
Our object is less to show tlie weaknesses of our daughter creeds,
than to exhibit some of the rare, transcendent beauties of our
unalloyed faith.

Instead of following the paved road of strict system and
method, we are going to imitate the bee in hurrying from
flower to flower, gathering the honey from each petal, then
serve it up freely to all who desire to partake thereof. Our em-
barrassment is flowery exuberance, which makes choice diflicult.
The kingdom of our God embraces all the Edens and all tlie
stars, all the precious mines and all the treasure-houses. To
which store, to which jewel, give preference above the others ?
There is such an abundance of wonder-things in the immense
vault we are on the point of entering, that the eye is dazzled
by the splendor of the inestimable hoards, and the mind
shrinks from the idea of computation. Thus let us, unchained
by time-honored regularity, sweep, as the eye does, from the
Orion to the Zodiac, from the Lesser Bear to the Greater Bear,
thence to the other constellations, and finally lose ourselves in
the nebulae of the Milky Way, where, according to the sky-
reading Herschel, there are at least twenty million suns, each
one warming and sustaining a group of planets and satellites,
yet in all making up but a limited number in the immensity
of the heavenly hosts.

We deem it prudent, however, to enter that sacred vault
from a side door, not from fear to avail ourself of the grand
main portal, but simply to satisfy an individual penchant, that
ever chooses the side prospective as the proper view to start
with. A fair survey of the matter in all its lights and bear-
ings will necessitate frequent change of aspect, the standpoint
always remaining, however, within the periphery of which
Judaism is the centre.

CHAPTER II.

MOHAMMED'S SHSTGULAR DREAM.

The brilliant but fei'ociously aggressive Thomas Carlyle was
no particular admirer of Jews, whom, among other charges,
he gravely accuses of poverty in the quality of humor, which
he justly considers indispensable to greatness. Among great
Hebrews he, therefore, finds no hero worthy of his worship.
Carlyle tried hard to steer clear of the diificulty of excluding
the Jew from his Parthenon of heroes. Nor did he ever miss
a chance to deal the Semite an eifective blow. It is sincerely
hoped that the deep but uncharitable Carlyle, in his aversion
to the descendants of Shem, was consistent enough to refuse
to bend the knee before Jesus, whose emphatic claim was to
be the Jew of the Jews ; an honor his ancient brethren re-
spectfully denied. However, in kneeling before Mohammed,
Carlyle is doing violence to his consistency and sincerity by
ignoring the fact that Islam is the cunning fabric of the
prophet's private secretary, the humorous Jew, Habdallah ;
not to forget the hitherto unrefuted assertion, that on his
mother's side the founder of the Mosque was actually a Jew.
Why does that honest author pass over all this in silence?
Having seen one Jew raised to the dignity of a god, and
many others canonized and worshiped as saints, we are per-
fectly willing to yield the half or the whole of the "last
prophet" to whomsoever it pleases to claim him, bodily or
otherwise. But when all essential facts are dilated upon, why
are the Jewish secretary and mother of Mohannned not even
mentioned? The erratic Scotchman, we suspect, knew all
about it, but he grudged us the honor, and we forgive him
this small error, having warmed our heart witli the rays of his
eccentric genius. Peace be with you, brave Thomas. Our
cause is undamaged. Christianity and Mohammedism are

(19)

tliere, and Judaism was there long before and is there still,
challenging comparison. We state an indisputable fact when
we say, that neither Jesus nor Mohammed originally claimed
any higher mission than that of merely reforming the faith of
Abraham and Moses ; and we are not unprepared to show that
every deviation was an afterthought dictated by policy. We
are about to analyze Mohammed's celebrated vision, as an in-
stance of the patchwork of which Islam is made up. If
Jesus had a special love for those who are " poor in spirit,"
Mohannned was one of them ; for in order to teach him to
read, the angel Gabriel had to adopt the singular method of
knocking him down thrice and pulling him up again, an an-
gelic method which leaves one in doubt whether it is not bet-
ter to be educated by man rather than by angels. The serious
objection to that kind of compulsory education is that in the
prophet's case it signally failed. Mohammed never learned
to read well, in which particular he is the peer of the first
Evangelical teachers, all of whom gloried in their illiteracy,
especially John, who was the favorite of Jesus.

Jacob's ladder is one of the most beautiful allegories known.
Fleeing from the vengeance of Esau, Jacob finds himself
alone in the wilderness, where, with a stone as his pillow and
heaven's canopy as his roof, he, uneasy in mind, lies down to
sleep, and has a marvelous dream. A ladder bridges over the
boundless space which separates earth from the stars ; angels
are ascending and descending, while from the ladder's top the
•Lord utters one of the sweetest promises human ear ever
heard: Jacob's descendants shall spread in all directions, east,
west, north, and south, and be the blessing of the race.
The meaning of this dream a child can see. The God of the
patriarchs is to be one day the Lord of all men, and Israel's
seed is destined to spread the Monotheistic faith, thus redeem-
ing the world from barbarism and idolatry. — Equally beautiful
and pregnant is the tradition that Moses spent forty days and
forty nights in the skies in order to secure the Law for Israel,
neither drinking nor eating, but engaged in deep meditation
and in discussion with angels, who were sorry to see the
Thorah go down to earth ; meaning that all the precious

tilings contained in the Pentateuch were dear and sacred to
the powers above. — Ezekiel, in his first vision, on the banks of
the river Chebar, in the land of the Chaldeans, where, among
the exiles, the inspiration of The Lord comes over him, gives
us this mystic picture of the Divine Presence : He sees a
storm-wind break forth from the north, followed by a mighty
cloud, a flaming fire, and a great effulgence, in the midst of
which the likeness of four seraphim is visible, each one hav-
ing four wings and four faces — these representing the face of
a man, of a lion, of an ox, and of an eagle ; they move con-
jointly with animated wonder-wheels of the color of the crys-
tallite, with the appearance as " though it were a wheel in the
middle of a wheel." A vault of purest crystal rises over
their heads ; above the vault stands a throne of sapphire, and
upon it, wrapt in overpowering glory, is " the appearance of
the likeness of the glory of the Lord." From that throne of
Divine effulgence the prophet receives his charge. This vision
is at the bottom of Kabbalistic Theosophy.

The Talmud, of whicli we shall say more hereafter, con-
tains fabulous allegories hyperbolically told, which the wise
alone understand. What is known as the Haggadah is a deep
mythology, which causes the fool to laugh and the thinker to
wonder. A distinguished teacher in Israel tells, in Baha
Bafhra, some startling tales, whicli are elsewhere very in-
geniously interpreted. While sailing on the high seas, he saw
an ocean monster, a fish of such prodigious magnitude that,
though the vessel swept onward with the velocity of an arrow,
it required three days and three nights to sail between the
upper and lower fins of the tremendous leviathan. He also
heard the billows converse, one asking the other if, in its
whelming sweep, it had left aught unsubmerged, in which
case it would finish the work of destruction ; to which the
seaward recoiling wave made answer, that the wonderful
Creator having set a limit to the ocean, it had found it im-
possible to encroach on it, even to the breadth of a hair. The
ethical hint is clear. — The same rabbi tells of a bird he had
seen, by the name of Zig, standing on the ocean's bottom, his
crest reaching to the topmost sky, finding the unfathomed

deep too shallow to bathe therein. A mysterious voice, how-
ever, warned the seafarers that the spot, so far from being
shallow, was, on the contrary, so abysmally deep, that a
hatchet having been dropped there seven years before was
still in the process of falling, it being tossed about by the
mighty surge. — In the 3Iidrash it is said that The Almighty
entering paradise, where the just dwell in bliss, the trees
breathe heavenly odors, sing and praise The Lord, when the
cock awakens and in seven different strains signalizes the en-
trance of Divine Majesty, calling in Biblical and post-Biblical
phrases on humanity to rise and study the Divine Law. — In
our poetry, prophecy, and tradition the tree is often made to
symbolize vigor, prosperity, beauty, wisdom, and immortality.
The Eden, wherein Adam and Eve spent their honeymoon,
was lost to them through the forbidden fruit — they have eaten
of the tree of knowledge. — In foretelling the future of Joseph,
Jacob prophetically sees him flourish as a " fruitful bough by
a spring, a fruitful bough the branches of which run over the
wall." So, in his first lyric song, does our poet of poets com-
pare the meditating, righteous mind with " a tree planted by
rivulets of water, that yieldeth the fruit in its season, whose
leaf does not wither, and whose yield is exuberant." Dream-
ing the dream of Messianic peace and felicity, our pious fore-
fathers speak of a time when the trees shall daily produce de-
licious sweetmeats and silken garments.

Whether or not Mohammed had some intimation of Northern
mythology it is impossible to decide ; but it seems not out of
place to refer here to the Northern myth of the stupendous
ash-tree Ygdrasil, which, however, in meaning, as well as in
magnitude, throws the tree of the Arab's vision into insigniti-
caTice. Ygdrasil is the tree which supports the whole universe,
a tree rooting in the body of Ymir, the giant Frost, who is
fed by the cow Audhumbla. Ygdrasil has three immeasurably
long roots, one of which extends to the abode of the gods,
called Asgard, a region to be approached only by ascending
Bifrost, the rainbow, and in whose centre, more glorious than
all celestial dwellings, stands Walhalla, the golden palace of
Odin or Wodin, the All-Father; the other root reaches down

to the city of the giants, Jotunheim, a species of Titanic
monsters personifying the elements; the third root shoots
down to the dark abysses of Niltieheim, the regions of dole and
darkness. Three goddesses, Urdur, Yerdandi, and Skuld—
past, present, and future — carefully nurse the root that termi-
nates in Asgard ; the one running to the city of the giants,
Jotunheim, is fed by Ymir's well, wherein live wit and wis-
dom ; while that descending to hell, or Nifltieheim, feeds Nid-
hogge, the venomous adder or death, who is unceasingly gnaw-
ing at the root. Here is as deep an allegory as imagination
ever created. Now, let us see if there be anything original in
Mohannned's night trip to the seven heavens, themselves a
fancy bodily taken from Jewish tradition.

The leading traits of Mohammed's journey to the topmost

heaven, and to the very presence of Allah, are as follows: We

are assured by the most devout of his historians, that on the

night of that great nocturnal revelation the darkness of Erebus

kept earth in dead silence, the barking, howling, hooting, and

crowing of beast and fowl being supernaturally silenced ; that

even nature bade her elements suspend their functions, so

that sea, lake, wind, and forest were all hushed in profound

quiet. In the dead of that dead night a heavenly voice

called on Mohammed : " Arise, thou sleeper ! " was the angelic

cry. On opening his eyes the prophet was startled at the sight

of a luminous angel, robed in dazzling garments studded with

pearls and embroidered with gold, and soaring on wings of

light and beauty. It was the well-known angel Gabriel,

who held the bridle of Al Borak (meaning lightning), but

actually a horse of a most strange appearance, nature, and

speed ; a white mare, with the face of a man but the cheeks of

a horse, with eyes shining as stars and wings studded with

precious jewels. The aesthetic combination of a human face

with the cheeks of a horse is in itself sufficient to discourage

every attempt to seek poetry in the grotesque vision. If Al

Borak is a copy of Ezekiel's seraphim it is a poor one indeed.

The prophet was ready to mount the steed, but the steed was not

ready to receive him, protesting that the only great figure slie

thought worthy of bestriding her was the patriarch Abraham,

whom she once bore on his way to see his son Isliniael ;
Al Borak is thus a very old inare of the heavenly stables,
older, though less interesting than Balaam's ass. Gabriel as-
sures the steed that no worthier person ever bestrode her than
was Mohammed, none so beloved and honored of Allah. At
this assurance inspiration comes over Al Borak, who exclaims :
" Is not this the author of the profession of the true faith ? "
Here the angel, in a becoming- encomium, extols Mohammed at
the expense of all otlier prophets. Mohammed Ibn Abdallah,
of the tribes of Arabia Felix, and of the true faith, was the
greatest of Adam's progeny, the seal of the prophets ; without
his intercession nobody can enter paradise ; heaven and hell
obey him ; woe to them who would not recognize the true
prophet. This is a daring coup oCetat against tlie pretensions
of the resurrected Jesus, who, we are reliably informed, on
reappearing to some of his disciples said : " All the might of
heaven and earth are vested in me." Some of those disciples
doubted the appearance as well as the claims of their master ;
not so Al Borak, who, taking advantage of so good an oppor-
tunity, beseeches the angel to cause Mohammed to secure her
admission to the paradisical pasture grounds, which promise
the prophet favorably grants, and the ride begins. Horse and
rider, accompanied by Gabriel, dart their Hight heavenward,
sweep over desert, mount, and forest until, passing Mount Sinai,
the angel causes him to descend and pray. The next descent
is made at Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, a questionable
reverence if one considers the chasm that forever separates the
rival apostles, the distance between the Church and the Mosque.
Three times Mohammed is urged to stay his course, but Al
Borak could not be checked, and this not without good reason ;
for, according to Gabriel's information, the first appeal came
from a Jew, whom to obey would have been to deliver Islam
to Judaism ; the otlier voice was of a Christian, who, in urging
him to stay, had a like unholy end in view ; the third voice
was of a beautiful damsel, signifying worldliness, whom to
obey would have been to undermine the spiritual standing of
the new faith.

Having escaped all these temptations Moliammed stops at

the Temple of Zion, fastens Al Borak, and enters to pray. His
joy may be easily imagined on finding here Abraham, Moses,
and Jesns, who give him a cordial welcome, and, having prayed
a while, he beholds a ladder of light descend from heaven and
rest its foot on the Shakra, the stone on which Jacob had his
vision in the wilderness. To meet Abraham, Moses, and
Jesns in a dream, praying in the Temple of Zion, is certainly
conceivable ; not so that ineeting of Jesus with Moses and
Elijah at noontide, with no purpose whatsoever. Even a mira-
cle ought to imply some object, else it is unworthy of any
notice. The ladder was the manifest invitation for the
prophet and the angelic escort to ascend, which they did as
quick as lightning, landing at the gate of the tirst heaven.
As a good sentinel, the keeper of that portal had first to be sat-
isfied in every particular before admission was granted; this
having been successful, prophet and angel are soon in the
cerulean regions. Of course there is much to be seen. The
first heaven is all pure silver, from which, by golden cliains, the
stars are suspended, each guarded by an angel against the in-
trusion of demons, who are ever lurking, ready to seize the
first opportunity to do some mischief. Here Mohammed
meets father Adam, whom he is commanded to reverence, in
return for which Adam embraces him, saluting him as the
greatest of prophets. Lucifer was neither as wise nor as for-
tunate as the apostle, for, on declining to do liomage to Adam,
the rebel spirit was forever ejected from heaven. But this
first firmament has a somewhat zoological aspect, its denizens
being animal-angels pleading before Allah f oi- their less blissful
prototypes in the nether world. The prophet's attention is
soon caught by the appearance of an enormous cock of dazzling
whiteness, whose height and crest touch the second heaven,
though it is a five hundred years' journey distant from the
first. The crowing of tliis bird is a sweet melody which, on
every moi'row, delights the ear of Allah, awaking at the same
time all creatures on earth, when, in unison, all fowls of the
like kind join him in singing Allah's praise.

The second heaven is soon reached, and, after an exchange
of compliments with the gate-keeper, the prophet finds himself.

on a vault of brilliant steel, and is heartily sainted by Noah
as the greatest of prophets. The third heaven is too glorious
for the human eye to endure ; all is of pearls, sapphires, and
emeralds ; but the object of wonder therein is an angel, entirely
too long to be measured, with two fearful eyes separated by
a distance of a seventy thousand days' journey. He was, more-
over, a general, whom a thousand armed battalions of inferior
angels obeyed, and an important recorder, before whom lay
a ledger of astounding dimensions, in which he continually
entered new names and erased others. This was Azrael, the
angel of death, who enjoyed the fullest intimacy with Allah,
and whose business it was to enter the names of such as were
to be born and blot out such as have reached the end of the
span granted them.

Ascending the fourth heaven he finds it to be of the purest
silver. Among its angelic hosts there is one cherub whose
height is a live hundred days' journey, and whose counte-
nance is sadly troubled, rivers of tears rushing from his eyes ;
he it is whose mission consists in weeping streams over hu-
man frailty, in incessantly uttering evil predictions for the
wicked ; a poor mission indeed for such a stately cherub. The
fifth heaven is a decided improvement on the other four, it
being of the purest gold, radiant with oceans of lire. Aaron waS
at hand to salute the visitant as the last and greatest prophet.
But the golden environments are here greatly marred by tlie
terrific j^resence and aspect of the presiding angel who rules
the element of fire, and is the messenger of vengeance. Why
tlie peace-loving Aaron should have such a horrible neighbor
is hard to conceive, unless it be a punishment for the golden
calf he unwillingly shaped for backsliding Israel. But O, such
company ! A Medusa in features, that celestial monster has
rolling eyes flashing lightning, a visage of copper, all covered
with warts and boils and other bad things, and lie wields a
flaming lance too hot and too long for us to measure ; but it
was not the longest thing the j^rophet had seen. His throne
is a mountain of tire, surrounded by heaps of red-hot chains.
We are urged to be grateful that that terrific prince of fire
and vengeance is not allowed to pay us a visit here under the

cool moon, since his flames would consume the mountains, dry
up the oceans, spoil many a farmer's crop, and thus render
life miserable. He is the chief of that legion of angels who
wreak Divine vengeance on such as do not believe in the mes-
sage of Mohammed. A fitter type of Islam's faith and his-
tory, written with blood and steel, it is impossible to imagine.
We see in this prodigy a caricature of the beautiful myth of
Phaeton, oflfepring of Phoebus, or the Sun, and we beg per-
mission to state it briefly. Phaeton is a child of the Sun by
Clymene. Phaeton's boast of heavenly descent is derided by
Epaphus, a scion of Jupiter by lo*. Phaeton complains to his
mother of the insult offered him and implores her to test his
divine descent. Clymene piteously appeals to Phoebus to
bear witness that she speaks truth, then advises Phaeton to
proceed to India, the rising of the Sun, ascend the palace of
his father, and get the proof of his origin. Following his
mother's suggestion. Phaeton reaches the dazzling abode of
his sire, the Sun ; he is overpowered by his dazzling splendor ;
he sees his father on the throne of glowing light, the Hours,
Days, Months, Seasons, and Years around him. Moved to pity
by the timidity of the beautiful youth at a distance, Phoebus
inquires who he is and what he wants, and, learning the object
of his son's daring ascent, Phoebus confirms Clymene's asser-
tion, and as a proof offers the youth the fulfillment of any
wish he may utter. " O, then, let me lead thy sun-chariot for
a day ! " exclaimed the rash stripling. The sun-god is amazed
at the bold request, discovering too late that he promised too
much. In vain does he warn the youth that only immortal
hands could successfully manage the steeds of fire that draw
the burning chariot athwart the vast empyrean ; even Jupiter,
himself, could not do it without danger to the universe.
Youth is unreasonably obstinate, and the divine sire, having
sealed his promise with the irrevocable oath of the gods, yields
with sorrow. For he knows that Phaeton would have first to
climb the steep heavens, soar over tremendous gulfs of space ;
he would have to pass among terrible monsters, such as the
Horns of the Bull, then the Crab, the Scorpion, the Lion, and
the Archer ; then descend toward the sea, which is not the

least of perils. All this deters not the ambitious youth, who
23ersists in his wish, and, Dawn drawing near and Aurora
blushing at a distance, he is allowed to mount tlie celestial
chariot made up of wheels of glowing gold, of masses of
silver, fire, jewels, and crystallites. Off he sweeps with his
fiery team, finding, alas, every warning of his father too soon
confirmed. The unfathomed deeps below make him dizzy,
his eyes grow dim ; the horses are uncontrollable ; he loses all
thonght, caution, presence of mind ; the monsters appal him ;
his course is irregular ; the steeds run as they please. Mean-
while the world below, clouds, mountains, fields, cities, har-
vests, and forests catch fire ; the wells, lakes, and rivers are
dried ; from one end to the other earth is a conflagration, and
the heat reaches Phfeton, who finds it unbearable. Earth
bursts open and light breaks into the dark regions of Tar-
tarus, frightening Pluto ; the gulfy ocean boils, and Neptune,
though sorely oppressed, is unable to raise his head above
the wave. At last Earth prays to Jupiter to be rather de-
stroyed by his thunderbolt than left to perish thus in slow
agony. The god of gods calls to witness all the deities that
he is just in saving the world by destroying the mad youth
who durst do what no mortal ought to dare. Jupiter shakes
his divine locks, thunders and roars, then, brandishing one of
his fatal lightning bolts, he hurls it at the unfortunate Phsetoa
and sweeps him out of existence. Mohammed's angel of ven-
geance as well as his zoological sky savors too much of this
poetical allegory not to invite comparison, but, as in his draw-
ings on Jewish lore, he disfigures it.

The sixth heaven Mohammed found to be built of translu-
cent carbuncle, with a presiding angel made half of snow and
half of fire, the two antagonistic elements working there in
perfect harmony, a circumstance which causes a host of lesser
angels to beseech Allah to unite all the faithful of Islam as
He united snow and fire. It is impossible to suppress a smile
on reading these grotesque fancies, for which the jiropliet's
Jewish secretary furnished the materials from Pharisaic
sources. His angels and demons are, on the whole, poor
creatures, compared with those of a nobler Jewish imagina-

tion, on which he is shamefully drawing without giving the
least credit. An ancient Jewish fancy is that the firmament
is made of water and the stars of fire, which, however do not
disturb the peace of heaven.^ There is a five hundred years'
distance between earth and heaven ^ is said elsewhere. It is
also stated that there is an angel who stands on earth and
whose head reaches to the throne of God, where he weaves
crowns for his Creator,^ from which it follows that, this angel
must be of a height of at least five hundred years' travel. The
Pharisee lived under the conviction that from tlie day of his
birth to that of his death angels were watching over him,
keeping record of all his doings, and following him beyond the
grave to testify as to his life ; for, said he, " if a man does a
good thing he gives birth to a pleading angel; if he com-
mits a sin, an accusing, evil angel is born." Our Prophecy
frequently refers to heavenly hosts, and in the Pentateuch
angels often execute the decrees of the Most High. But it
was in Babylon where the exiled Jews, by coming in contact
with the followers of Zoroaster, imbibed numerous Magian
fancies.'* Henceforth, the whole universe is peopled with
good and evil beings, not literally but metaphysically, Ge-
liinnom is presided over by an angel.^ As often as The
Almighty utters a sound an angel springs into being from the
mystic river Dinor.^ These angels are half fii-e and half
water .^ Gabriel was ever the lieavenly guardian of Abraham.
Angels preside over ocean and wind, over night and day, over
every element above and below, implying, however, nothing
else than agencies called into existence by the Divine Breath,
and disappearing the moment their task is done. This is the
world-wide difiference between the angelology and demonology
of Judaism and those of heathenism and the two great
religions we are alluding to. Here is what our Ibn Gabirol,
poet and philosopher, whom we shall meet again, says of

.njty pn ;"piS n;? yiso == .Dibty nii'i;' tyx hjff U'2D2) D'o W ;"pi '
.ijipS D'inD -ityipi nrnn Si'x ;"jo ityxii ]nN3 noi;* Kinty inx i^Sd*
'^)y-\ injo n"o f'«"i3j« .Djn'j h^ "iiy^ .^22::) iS;* d'dnSoh moty*
.D^D I'xm tyK vi-n ioir;» -jxSon' ."ixSo x"(3j n":3p '3n xriy lun Sdo

God's angels. In the course of his great poem known as the

" Koyal Crown," he exclaims :—

" Lord, who may fathom Thy unfathomed Will,
Creating of Thyself effulgent hosts,
Celestial beings, spirits high, in Thy
Blest Presence biding, messengers of Thine ;
They, vested with resistless might, assigned
Dominion hold, the sword that flaming wheels
In hand ; quick execution doing as
Thy bidding prompts. All shaped of radiance, full
Of glitter as the precious stone, within,
Without, inspired with Thy Breath, they do
Thy ways contemplate ;• they of holy source,
From light's primordial fountain sjmnging, ranked
Are in divisions, banners bearing, which
Their rank and state in fiery letters blazon ;
Of them, some do command and some obey ;
Seeing, unseen, some hosts on wing depart.
Return, untired, unspent ; some are all fire,
Some water and flame, some fire and water, some
Tempestuous winds ; seraphim are others ; as
Northlight, as lightning, as meteors, are many ;
All bowing in awe before The Most High,
Hymning His glory by day and by night."

It was in tlie sixth heaven where Mohammed had another
meeting with Moses who, instead of welcoming him as before
with delight, wept bitter tears. And good cause had he to
weep, for, said he, with a frank display of unheavenly jealousy,
" You are my successor, who is destined to lead more of thy
nation to paradise than I could in my efforts to redeem the
ever-backsliding sons of Israel." When one knows a little
more of the bitterly jealous nature of Allah's choicest apostle,
it is easily understood how, judging others by self, he im-
puted similar sentiments to Moses. But let us follow him to
the seventh heaven, wliere the patriarch Abraham received
him. It must be gratifying to the Jew to know that Moses is
in the sixth, and x\braham in the seventh heaven, but Jesus is
nowhere found above. The " last prophet " is not quite con-
sistent in his narration ; for if Jesus was good enough to pray
with Abraham and Moses in the Sanctuary of Zion he is like-
wise entitled to some prominence in the heavenly regions.
Nothing but Moslem jealousy denies him this.

As it was to be expected, matters in that topmost heaven look
unutterably Divine — all glory, light, and beatitude. The deni-
zens of this most blissful of all skies are most assuredly an
amazing type of cherubim. One specimen may serve as an
illustration. Imagine a seraph whose body is as large as this
earth, who bears seventy thousand heads, each head having sev-
enty thousand mouths, each mouth liarboring seventy thousand
tongues, each tongue speaking seventy thousand different lan-
guages ; then fancy, if you can, a host of such angelic polyglots
incessantly singing the praise of Allah, and if you never heard
Islam's votaries perform music in the Moorish empire, you
are likely to reach no unfavorable conclusion as to the nature
of this heavenly symphony. The next wonder is tlie lotus-
tree, Sedrat, which grows on the right side of Allah's invisi-
ble throne. This tree is longer than the distance between earth
and sun, and angels more numerous than the dust of earth are
disporting in its shade ; its leaves resemble elephantine ears ;
in its branches flocks of immortal birds are singing the verses
of Al Koran. Milk and honey are less sweet than its frnit —
one of which is sufiicient to feed aU hungry creatures below.
The most interesting part of the fruit, however, is its seed,
which is not wisdom — a thing of which the prophet was painfully
in need — but it contains a lovely, beautiful virgin with sweet,
large, black eyes — a houri reserved for the faithful as a reward
for loyalty to the prophet. Four rivers issue from the lotus-
tree — two enter paradise, the other two are the Nile and the
Euphrates. One need not wonder, therefore, that the source
of the Nile is yet half a mystery. As to the four rivers issu-
ing from Eden, they are surely more picturesquely and logically
described in our Genesis.

Near by Allah's throne is the prayer-house, Al Mamor, built
of precious stones and lit up by countless ever-burning lamps.
On entering its portals, three vases are offered to Mohammed
to di-ink from — the one containing honey, the other wine, the
third milk. He drinks of the milk, to the great delight of
C4abriel, who assures him that but for his predilection for that
white beverage in preference to the wine, his people would
have all degenerated and gone astray. The prayer-house

resembles the Caaba of Mecca, which is actually in a straight
line below it on earth. It is daily visited by seventy thousand
angels of the highest order, who at that moment were engaged
in making their circuit adoration, Mohammed joining them and
walking seven times around. Down to the number seven every-
thing save the grotesque and the ludicrous, including the para-
dise of Islam, is borrowed from Pliarisaic and Biblical lore.
" Seven times in the day do I praise Thee because of Thy
righteous decrees," says the Psalmist. The seventh day of the
week is our Sabbath ; the seventh year was the year of the
Sheinitha, the seventh Shemitlia initiated the Jubilee ; our two
historical festivals, Passover and the Feast of Booths, are to be
observed for seven days ; Pentecost occurs seven weeks after
Passover ; the Israelites marched seven times around the city
of Jericho ; on the seventh day seven priests, bearing before
the Ark seven cornets of ram's horn, marched seven times
around that city's wall ; after seven days each new-born Jewish
male child enters the covenant of Abraham ; nuptial rejoicing-
is limited to seven days ; in old Jewish congregations it is still
customary to make a circuit of seven round the bride before
the wedding ceremony is performed ; on the old belief that,
as the Zoliar tells, " seven days the soul wanders from the grave
to the house, and from the house to the grave, after whicli tlie
body rests where it is, and the soul goes where it must," is
founded our mourning period of seven days, known as the SM-
Vah. The lieavenly Jerusalem^ of Jesus, as well as the Para-
dise of Islam, are both taken from Jewish tradition. Speaking
of the Gan Eden, the Pharisees believe that " the souls of the
righteous are gathered under the Throne of Glory ; " and this,
with an additional promise of sensual pleasures, is literally re-
peated by Islam. People need do no more than read and com-
pare, to see that whatever is not Jewish is neither good nor
true in the Koran and the Gospels.

Beyond this seventh heaven Gabriel was not good enough to
follow Moliammed, who, faster than thought, made his way up-
ward, first through an abyss of thick darkness — the bsi;' of

Hebrew poetry — then emerging, found himself amazed in the
very Presence of Allah and close to His throne. But for the
two thousand impenetrable veils which covered the light of
the Deity, the prophet would have been consumed by the
ineffable radiance. Without further ceremony, Allali stretched
forth one of His hands, laying it on Mohammed's breast, the
other he rested on his shoulder, when a freezing sensation
thrilled tlie apostle to the bottom of his soul, giving place
soon, however, to a feeling of unutterable bliss, enhanced by a
celestial fragrance, which was spreading and permeating all
the heavens. In this posture he received his great mission, the
leading doctrines of the Koran, and fifty orisons to be daily re-
cited by the faithful. Tlie fifty orisons were, however, by the
good advice of Moses — and this alone ought to eternalize Moses
in the heart of Islam — who repeatedly caused Mohammed
to reascend and pray for a reduction, finally reduced to five,
which the Moslem still recites daily. In this manner did the
*' seal of the prophets " face Allah and bring down the " true
profession of faith " on earth : " There is no God but Allali,
and Mohammed is His prophet."

This profession of the Moslem is a weak echo of " and the
people feai*ed The Lord, and they believed in The Lord and
in Moses, his servant." This " hero as a prophet " is Carlyle's
admiration, who, speaking of the Arabs, goes out of his way to
remark that " they are, as we know, of Jewish kindred, but
with that deadly, terrible earnestness of the Jews, they seem
to combine something graceful, brilliant, whicli is not Jewish."
Why, who would believe, that there was nothing "graceful"
and " brilliant " about the Jew, Jesus ? We should like to be
informed of the source from which orthodox Christianity de-
rives its sensational glitter and brilliancy. Let it pass. Car-
lyle is welcome to Mohammed's heroism and prophecy ; it is a
question of taste. The Jew's sense of the aesthetic is inseparable
from his ethics. Judaism fails to see beauty or grace in
things which are at variance with truth and sound common
sense. Mohammed was born in the land of false prophets,
and proved more successful than the countless malidis who,
with equal claims, failed miserably. With the few grains of

truth tlierein borrowed from the treasury of Israel, Islam
served, in the inscrutable designs of Providence, a certain pur-
pose, but it has long ago reached its period of decline and de-
cay. Islam's infant lips were stained with blood ; its career
has been one of carnage and bloodshed ; its life and history
a scandal to ethical humanity.

CHAPTER III.

THE HEBREW'S GREATEST VISI0:N'.

Strange and mysterious are the beginnings and the ends of
life ; mysterious the surroundings, mysterious the being, hunt-
ing, and driving of man. Wlio are we ? Why are we ? How
was this world made ? Who made it ? Why did He make it ?
Why is this world given to us '( What kind of a world is it?
AVho will answer ? Every stone is a mystery, every blade of
grass, every flower, every creature a symbol. Why have we
reason, feeling, longing, hopes, and dreams ? What is it that
softens, deepens, and stirs all our being at the sight of the
star-studded empyrean, the ocean's rolling tide, the East's
springing glories, the West's fading splendors ? All have
meaning, speech, and lesson. Why is life so dear, power so
sweet, fame so precious, death so unwelcome, nay, terrible to
the great majority of mankind ? It is because there is a spirit
in man that dreads annihilation, and is thrilled with the joyous
prospect of life eternal. The consciousness that, mortal though
we be in frame, the longing soul, the deep, meditative, search-
ing mind, is endowed with powers to earn immortality, is the
gravitating influence that causes the world to move, the human
spirit to verge toward a higher plane of endeavor. But this
type of mind is as rare as the elixir, as wonderful and as
mighty. Tribes and races have been saved from oblivion and
raised to the summit of immortal fame by a few, aye, often by
one of those thaumaturgic minds, some of which have stamped
cycles with their unaccountable idiosyncrasies. Five or six
minds of that mysterious type have, it is clear, divided this
earth among themselves, and bade her roll on with the marks
of their genius engraved on her sovereign creature. The
Synagogue, the Church, the Pagoda, and the Mosque repre-
sent so many minds and nothing more.

(35) '

The division of spiritual rule over the race is, however,
neither final nor uncontested ; the strife between the great
spirits being unabated and carried ou, as it were, from the
realms of pure spirit. Who shall rule supreme, who shall
triumph over his adversaries, Buddha, Moses, Zoroaster, Jesus,
or Mohammed? Which shall be the permanent book of reve-
lation, the Zend-Avesta, the Buddhistic Scriptures, the Koran,
the Gospel, or The Old Testament, to say nothing of Con-
fucius and many more, who are entitled to a hearing ? It be-
hooves us, Israelites, to assert once more the rule and supremacy
of The Infinite One and His living Word over all other gods
and their unsubstantiated, unrealized revelations. Kot worldly,
but spiritual, sovereignty is the claim of Israel. You ask :
What is Judaism ? We answer : Mind in action, truth in-
vulnerable, unyielding, imperishable, conquering, herself un-
conquered; subduing, herself unsubdued. Have you a mind
of your own ? Can you say with Descartes, " I think," then
are you justified in saying " I am ;" then are you really alive,
alive as a Hebrew of mind, alive for now and for aye ; for
the great mind rests not until its marks are imprinted on the
sands of Time.

Good ground have we to claim a mind of our own, a na-
tional, say — spiritual personality, as distinctive as the sun is
above the lesser orbs of heaven, and, we may well add, as
powerful, dazzling, and fructifying. We pay no tribute to
conceit, nor homage to vanity or vainglory, by asserting our
irrefutable achievement of having impregnated the world's
mind with that peculiar, resistless individualism, the triumph-
ant genius of the ancient Hebrew and the modern Israelite.
Tlie mind that cleaves to The Universal Mind, who may
change, who subdue it ? As God lives, do they live, inspired
by His Breath ; they are deathless. Israel had a dream ; he
saw the ladder that links earth to heaven ; he saw God's angels
ascending and descending ; he heard the voice of sweetest
promise assure him that, through his seed, the world will be
enlightened and redeemed, and he rose from his vision tremb-
ling with sacred awe at the grand vista that opened before his
mind's eye. As long as there shall be men on earth Israel

shall live. Sweetest of visions, glory of glories ! Cycles of
history belied not that vision.

Akin to the all-absorbing influence of self-preservation
works the deep-rooted impulse, the unappeased longing in the
human soul to perpetuate her mortal career by all possible
means accessible to her ; by a pyramid in Egypt, by marble
and bronze statues in Greece and Rome ; elsewhere, by deeds
of valor, feats of heroism, intended to secure an honored
name that lingers long in man's memory after its bearer
is consigned to eternal rest. That our soul is deathless we
trust and hope ; that we may prolong our existence here below
we are sure of. Some men live for nothing ; some vegetate
unheeded, unhonored ; some live for a day ; some rise into
prominence for a year ; • others for a decade ; fewer for a cen-
tury ; but fewest, aye, very few, live forever. These are such
as immortalize their name and the stock they spring from by
works of genius ; such as combine to make what is understood
to be a nation's literature. Armies perish ; navies come to
naught ; empires wither and decay ; beauty fades ; everything
fluctuates under the sun, save the literary triumphs of the
giant mind ; these live with the stars. England has lost these
United States ; she will lose Canada, Australia, and India, and
may one day lose her islands and be nothing but a name ; but
she is rendered imperishable by her Miltons, her ISTewtons,
and her Shakespeares. Babylon is dead ; Greece lives in her
literature. Alexander will be forgotten ; Aristotle never.
Voltaire fears less Frederick's genius than Frederick the with-
ering shafts of the genius of Voltaire. Not their armies and
martial triumphs, but their Homers and Dantes are the glories
of nations ; for it is in the literature of a people wherein their
heroism, their spirit, their genius, manhood, and idealism
are set forth ; the noblest and grandest of earthly monu-
ments ; the invisible chain that links the past to the present
and the future ; the symbols by which bygone ages conmiune
with those yet unborn, yet to come. Here is the miracle of
the dead speaking to the living. Surely the mind that utters
truth is, like truth herself, eternal. — As to our own literature,
it is unequaled in depth, variety, mystery, and sublimity, and

no figures may compute the good it has done for the frail
race of men. Aye, if nothing else glorious should be left of
the eternal wandering Jew, the Bible alone would secure his
immortality. " Do not be ashamed of your Bible. There is
not a virtue but it commends ; there is not a sorrow but it
comforts ; there is not a good law on the statute-book of any
country but is founded on The Ten Commandments. There
are no braver, grander people in all the earth than the heroes
and heroines which it biographizes," says Talmage. That
Book which the world honors most, that mirror of truth, Di-
vine love, human greatness, genius, and frailty, wlio can say
that it sprung not from the Hebrew's deepest being ? But
Israel had more to say than was said in the Hebraic idiom.
There was, there is, no civilized tongue in which the Jew did
not utter his soul's dreams and realities. Chaldaic, Latin,
Greek, Arabic, French, Spanish, Italian, English, and German
having successively been his vehicles of thought. There is
hardly a topic concerning the here and the hereafter of which
the Jew did not think, did not dream.

The Hebrew's greatest vision is that of the beginning, his
sweetest dream that of the end of things. We intend to test
Judaism by its aspects of creation and immortality. Did Is-
rael, in his earliest phases of development, cherish the immor-
tal dream ? Says a Christian authority, in a great work of
reference: "The New Testament itself discloses two entirely
different eschatological methods. The one is moral, spiritual,
idealist, employing outward forms only as symbols, viewing
the future ratlier in regard to development of character than
as a mode of existence. This is the Christian as contrasted
with the Jewish method. The other follows the natural ten-
dency of Hebrew thought. It is literal, material, sensuous.
It delights in chronological arrangements of the unknown fu-
ture, and topographical arrangements of the unseen world."
We have either to condemn this as the stupid statement of an
unscholarly priest, or brand it as a willful perversion of truth.
The reverse of that assertion, as will soon appear, is true ; and
it is a sorry tribute to error to place such an unsustainable
view, a flat misstatement of things, in a leading encyclopaedia.

Bnt this is the cuckoo-song of the alone-saving Church.
Everybody who knows the ancient creeds knows that tlie pop-
ular notion of a hell and a heaven is as old as man's religious
inclination. In his first contact with the savage Indian, Co-
lumbus heard an aged barbarian warn him of the dark place
in the beyond reserved for the wicked, and assuring him that
a bright abode was there for the just. Cultured polytheism
sang of Hades and Elysium. Jesus spoke of a terrific hell
ready for such as would not accept him, and promised paradise
to all his followers. So did Mohammed. Old Scandinavia
had its Niffieheim and its Walhalla. Modern heathendom en-
tertains strong hopes and fears of retribution beyond the grave,
such ideas being inseparable from the earliest, not less than
the latest religious promptings. Well may we question the
competence and sincerity of an author who, ignoring the ab-
solutely transcendental God-ideal of the most dreaming, ab-
stract of races, imputes to it the grossest eschatological fancies.
It remains for us to let a statement of facts take the place of
a refutation.

We unhesitatingly advance the asseveration, that throughout
our vast Biblical literature there is not a pen-picture, not an
idea of a " topographical arrangement " in regard to punitive
or remunerative retribution. There are in Pharisaic literature
vague allusions and a variety of conceptions and fancies in re-
lation to this subject, but, as in later Jewish philosopliy, the
idea of a literal hell is positively rejected.^ Yet, is not this
rather an indication of spiritual sanity than of an absence of
that intuitive consciousness of the soul's immortality, without
which all religion had no higher end ? How can one believe
in Divine Justice without implying reward of virtue and pun-
ishment of wickedness ? "i\-nd thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy
might," in return for what ? for " vexation of the spirit " here
and its annihilation hereafter ? Such a conclusion would not
alone suppress every incentive to faith and virtue, but would
engender strong motives for vice and despair. Those throngs

of " Israel's scattered sheep " who died the martyr's death, the
confession of God's Unity on their lip, could they, could any
human being do so unless full of faith that there be something
more precious and less perishable than earthly life ? Shall we
assume that the only reward of Noah's righteousness was his
preservation from a watery grave ? Could Abraham and
Moses have done what they did, died as tliey died, without a
positive conviction of the Just God being just here and every-
where ? on this side of the grave and beyond it ? Could a
people have Elijalis, Daniels, and Eleazars ; could it fear death
much less than God, without a profound faith in life eternal.
Could men of the highest faculty, men like Moses, Samuel, and
Isaiah, never ask themselves — whither i One word of that great-
est of law-givers fully accounts for the ancient Hebrew's silence
on this topic. " The mysteries belong to God, our Lord, and
the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever."
When was more said in so few syllables ? It means, thus far
and no farther. Nobody doubted what nobody could explain,
until a morbid imagination engendered the most monstrous
of fancies, and then had we a Christian and a Mohammedan
hell of " topograpliical arrangement." Hell is an institution
of the New, not of the Old Testament.

Tliat a fertile, assimilative imagination, as the Jewish is
known {o be, would, sooner or later, have its legendary folk-
lore, embracing tales and fancies of infernal regions, is just
what was to be expected, and will be referred to in a later
chapter. Jewish speculation, however, never gave room to
such a thought, because no sane mind can give definition or
precise expression to a fancy. Poetry may indulge in build-
ing air-castles ; moral and spiritual theology must be rooted in
a healthier soil. It is conceivable that a religion which can-
not imagine gods without tangible forms, cannot imagine a
retribution of a purely spiritual nature. It must be either a
liell, black, deep, hot, inhabited by fiends and furies ; or a
Paradise of carnal joys and sensual luxuries, a golden city,
golden thrones and crowns, sweet music, fragrance, wings to fly,
delicious fruit to eat, nectarian rivers to drink, maidens to love,
an unsated hunger, and plenty of celestial pleasures to enjoy,

ambrosia, the flesh of the boar Schriinir, and the meat of the
she-goat Heidrum. Trinitarian Christianity, witli its picture-
worship and sensuous displays, its Satan as a mighty adversary
of God, with hosts of demons to do liis biddings, a tremendous
power not unprepared to storm the heavenly aljodes and to
frustrate many a good design of The Almighty, had, to be in
some measure consistent, to evolve infernal realms full of hor-
rors and celestial courts full of delights. Ludicrous inconsist-
ency alone could prompt the Jew to associate witli his infinite,
spiritual, unfathomable Deity a hell of bodily torments and a
Paradise of golden or jeweled delights. A faith that sees in
the visible and invisible universe what Fichte terms a " Divine
Idea," a manifestation of a Providential design, that admits of
speculation not of explanation ; a faith whose earliest incep-
tions contain the germs of all future philosophy, whose God
has the universe in llim, but is not all contained therein ; such
a faith is too sublime to degrade the ideal by interlarding it
with the fantastic and the sensual. Here is a world, every
atom of which is an unsolved mystery, baffling all science and
philosophy. Ages uncounted have been wasted to explain the
" So it is," few having dared to answer the Whence, Whither,
and Wherefore of this planet and of life thereon ; what mad-
ness, tlien, to fool one's self and the world with fanciful pictures
of the unknown, unknowable beyond that is one of those mys-
teries which " belong to The Lord our God " ? Thank the Jew
for his unconquerable, sound, common sense, his religious
sanity. He, too, has his sweet dreams, his Divine visions,
but they are the dreams of a wide-awake man, are day-dreams.
There is no raving, no mania about them. The Jew dreams
with sunshine around him, with his eyes wide open.

Begin with the Old Testament, the cosmogony, whose con-
ception of the Creator and His creations is loftier than that of
the ancient Hebrew ? Ernst Haeckel, whom Darwin admires
as the leading scientist in evolutionary researches, assures ub
that the Mosaic Genesis is the most natural and comes nearest
the results of modern scientific inquiry. What a transcendental
spiritual genius must have inspired the Hebraic author, who
in a few incomparable lines bodies forth the overpowering

creative drama, conjuring, as it strikes the mind, Cosmos out
of Chaos ! Childisli, silly, are all other tales of creation in face
of that whelming sublimity of Hebrew cosmogony as set forth
in Genesis. There is the Japanese legend of a creative god
springing frojn a vegetable called Asi, which in turn owed its
rise to original mud floating like oil on water. There is the
golden egg myth, which the earliest teachers of Phoenicia,
Polynesia, China, India, and Egypt made the origin of all
things, thus trying to account for the spherical shape of the
heavens, but invariably winding up with a plurality of gods
and demons. Tliere is the tortoise theory and the mouse
myth, making up a gamut of infantile fables and fancies, which
show the early man in his utmost stupid helplessness. Even
such illustrious races as later rose to high distinction, what a
pitiable conception theirs of the origin of things ! We do not
refer to Ovid's story of creation, which too strikingly betrays
its Jewish parentage to be discussed as a heathen production.
In Ovid's time Jews were settled in Pome, and his narration,
and especially his telling of chaos, the entire absence of light,
and the subsequent separation of earth from sea, heaven from
earth, and the peopling of air, land, and sea with birds, beasts,
and fishes, is as clearly Jewish as the most beautiful sayings of
Jesus and Mohannned have repeatedly been proved to be.
We shall do no more than glance at the Greek and the Scandi-
navian cosmogonies, two mighty scions of the Aryan stock.

Jupiter is not the creative god. Although the chief of all
gods, he is an offspring of Saturn or Chronos, Time. But
who is Chronos ? Whence did he come ? Ouranos was his
father, Ouranos the infinite. Ouranos gave birth to Chronos,
Chronos begat Zeus, or Jupiter, who, being the first-born of
Time, who was the only born of Ouranos, secured, as his
birthright, the supreme sovereignty over mortal and immortal
beings, gods, demi-gods, and men. The first creatures we hear
of are Titans, Saturn, Rhea, Prometheus, Oceanus, Epimetheus,
Hyperion, lapetus, Ophion, Themis, Mnemosyne, and Euryno-
me, all offsprings of earth and heaven, who issued from Chaos ;
horrible giant creatures, of whom the chief god was in whole-
some terror. Chronos, however, had the unfatherly habit of

devouring his own children, until he was cured of it by his be-
loved Metis, who, by a mysterious potion, wisely administered,
caused him to disgorge all the dear ones he had swallowed.
This leads to a domestic disturbance of the heavenly dynasty.
War breaks out and is bitterly waged between Jupiter and his
brothers and sisters on the one side, and the aged father, Sa-
turn, on the other, the latter being vigorously assisted by the
dreadful hundred-handed Titans. Victory crowns the uniilial
audacity of Jupiter. Saturn is subdued, and his auxiliary
giants are locked up in Tartarus, or hell. You will remember
that much later a similar fate befel Lucifer, who, assisted by
his diabolic cohorts, tried to wage war against God and his
son, who hurled him into the blackest abysm of hell. Having
defeated Saturn, there is a peaceful division of the universe
among the Olympian family. Jupiter assumes sovereign
power over the heavens, Neptune presides over the Ocean, and
Pluto rules ever the realms of the dead. Jupiter's symbols of
celestial royalty are the thunderbolt, the vEgis, and the divine
Eagle. A host of inferior gods, bearing the name of the
several virtues, passions, elements, and mental endowments,
obey his commands. So does Pallas Athene rule over wisdom,
having sprung, armed, from the head of Jupiter ; Mercury is
identilied with swiftness, commerce, industry ; Eros is the god
of love. Aphrodite the goddess of beauty. Ares the war-god,
Hephaistos the god of art. Iris the goddess of the rainbow,
Demeter the goddess of agriculture, and so on. Sleep, dream,
illusion, madness, vengeance, retribution, as every intellectual
gift, and all branches of literature were all personified by a
god or goddess. Subordinate demi-gods had charge of all
forests, streams, and springs. Scarcely anything worthy of
notice was without some presiding invisible power, sometimes
assuming the form of man and living in his company.

All these gods and demi-gods had been there before man was
thought of, wherefore, at a certain moment, Prometheus and
his brother Epimetheus, received orders to make man and ani-
mals, and endow them with the indispensable faculties. Epi-
metheus was engaged in executing this work, w^hile Prome-
theus took it easy, confining himself to superintendence. By

some miscalculation, while endowing all animals, Epimetheus
neglected to spare a few of tlie necessary endowments for
man, having lavished them all on the lower animal creation.
To repair the evil, Prometheus, assisted by Pallas Athene, the
goddess of wisdom, stealthily ascended to heaven, stole fire
from the sun's unebbing glow and gave it to man. Fire turned
out a fearful weapon in the human hand, stronger than all the
gifts bestowed on the whole animal kingdom. Armed Math
fire man became the terror of the strongest beast, and the
gods themselves had cause to respect his weapon, for, beside
warming himself, he bent metals to his will, and could do
much good and evil in this world. Jupiter was angry that
such a gift of the gods should be bestowed on the mortal
race, and, while one tale records that Prometheus was pun-
ished by being chained to the Caucasus, with a vulture feeding
on his liver, another version maintains that woman was an
afterthought of the cunning chief-god, who created her, en-
dowed her with irresistible charms, to punish the Titans for
the theft. Tlius was woman sent on earth to counteract, as it
were, the blessing of light. Who would believe it ? We shall
see the Church adopt this view, and for centuries act upon it.
In this way was man made. The first age was one of light,
truth, innocence, and happiness ; it was the golden age. Per-
petual spring ruled; the earth yielded more than mankind
could use ; the rivers flowed with milk and wine ; honey
flowed from the trees. But, as all good things, the golden age
did not last long. Man soon lost his innocence; his greed
brought about violence, fraud, and all well-known vices. Earth,
till then the connnonwealth of man, was now divided and
subdivided ; her entrails were broken open to tear out her
veins of gold, silver, and iron. There was no peace ; blood
was often shed; all the good gods fled from earth, except
Astra3a, Justice, who soon fled withal. Jupiter lost his pa-
tience, convened a council of the gods, meditated first the de-
struction of this world by fire, but, lest the flames endanger
the safety of the skies, he concluded to drown the wicked age.
Here the Biblical picture of Noah's flood is faithfully repro-
duced, Ararat being substituted by Parnassus, and Noah's fam-

ily by Deucalion and his wife Pyrrlia, wliose noble life cansed
Jnpiter to relent. The waters subside. Inspired by an oracle,
the good Deucalion discovers that the race is to be regenerated
by their " casting behind them the bones of tlieir mother."
Unwilling to desecrate the bones of their parent, they stood
hesitating as to the course that would suggest itself as the
wisest, when another inspiration opened his eyes, that by the
" mother's bones " the stones of earth were meant, earth being
the mother of all. Doing as they were bidden, each stone
they threw behind them miracidously turned into a human
form, full of life and vigor. And so was the world made, de-
vastated, and reformed again. An ingenious story, but what
sense, what order, what plan therein? We should, besides,
notice the immoral tendency of this cosmogonic myth. In
the very begiiming of things the first-born son-god fights
with the whole family against the god-father, on whose ruin
he raises his throne. Theft is the next act of a divine power
intrusted with the task of shaping and endowing the animal
kingdom. One may easily see something deep in all this, but
the unethical nature of the tale did nevertheless prove detri-
mental to Greek and Roman morals. Homer tells of shame-
ful vices indulged in by the Olympian chief, whose bad example
could not but be followed by gods and men. The history of
Sparta and Athens is there to show the fatal consequences of a
corrupted theogony, for it were folly to expect man to do and
be better than his gods.

As to the cosmogony of which the Eddas tell it is less inter-
esting and more childish. In that work we are assured of a
time when there was neither heaven nor earth, nor anything
but a dark, bottomless abyss and a hovering mass of mist, in
the core of which was a living fountain, which was the source
of twelve rivers. These twelve volumes of water, as they
flowed forth towards every direction of the compass, grew
colder, until, changed into solid ice, the growing bulk did, by
degrees, fill out the awful deep. From a world of light float-
ing southward of the mist there issued a thawing, genial
breeze, dissolving the ice, changing it into vapor, which rose
in the shape of clouds. These gave birth to Ymri, the giant

Frost, and his daughter Aiidhuinbla, tlie cow, on wliose milk
Frost lived. The cow's appetite was satisfied by her licking
the hoar and salt from the ice, by wliicli process there emerged
one day from the frozen sm'face the hair of a man ; the next
day liis full head protruded from the ice ; on the third day
the entire form loosened itself from the block of ice and salt,
and there stood — a god. This god married a woman of whom
we know only except that she was of the giant tribe, and from
this marriage came the three god-brothers. Vile, Ve, and Odin,
Their first effort was to dispose of Ymri, the giant Frost,
whose massive trunk supplied material for the body of this
earth ; of his blood the seas were made ; his bones were
turned into all the mountains we know of ; his skull was large
enough to form the vault of the firmament ; his hair was stiff
enough to assume the shape of forests ; clouds pregnant with
snow, rain, and hail were the outcome of his brain, while
his eyebrows furnished all that was necessary to build up a
temperate zone for man's benefit, an Eden called Midgard.
Hereupon Odin placed the luminaries above, telling them how
to keep good time and season. Soon the sun's genial wai-mth
called forth a delightful vegetation. The gods were pleased
with the new world, but it appeared deserted, for there was not
yet the human being, whom, by a combined effort they made of
an ash-tree, and his wife of an alder, calling him Aske and her
Embla. Aske and Embla received their most precious gifts
directly from the gods. Odin gave them the soul, Yile reason
and motion, and of Ye they received the five senses, human
features, and speech. Midgard was their first abode, and
they were the ancestors of all men.

With this bird's-eye view of heathen cosmogonies we turn
to the Biblical panorama of creation, and we feel that, before
the breath of Jehovali tlie Infinite, Incomjjrehensible, Eter-
nal, all idolatrous illusions and confusions vanish like chaff
before the mighty north wind. Here, two facts are assumed
as beyond human comprehension, viz., the eternity of God
and the co-eternity of matter. God is, ever was, and in the
beginning of time created lieaven and earth ; the idea of
creation being co-eternal with The Creator. God ever created ;

the substance of the visible universe ever was, but not in its
cosmic distribution, not in an astronomically mathematical re-
lation, not robed in pui-ified, glorious effulgence, nor conjBned
to limited orbits, nor inhabited by the myriad life of plant,
brute, and man. For the earth was long " formless and void,"
darkness hovered over the face of the deep, and The Spirit of
The Creator was brooding over the face of the waters. Let no
syllable pass unnoticed. The term s^ni in Hebrew has more
than one meaning : it means to spread broodingly, lovingly as
the eagle over his young, as the bird in the act of incubation,
hovering, cherishing, vivifying, tending tenderly. The picture
overpowers the mind. There is more than words can tell in
that Hebrew word, conveying a dim notion of Eternal Wis-
dom brooding over and impregnating the shapeless, chaotic
masses of darkness with the germs of transcendent beauty
and glory, called forth by the fiat : " Let there be light ! "
Pass we not thoughtlessly over the fact that Israel's God
caused chaos and eternal night to recede by bursting on them
a universe of light. How deeply Milton feels when, having
escaped the Stygian pool, he exclaims : —

"Hail, holy light! offspring of Heaven, first born,
Or of the eternal, co-eternal beam ;
May I express thee unblamed? since God is light
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate."

Beautiful as these lines are, and true, they but remind us of
Solomon Ibn Gabirol's apostrophe to God as The Essence of
primordial light. He, the All-in- All, omnipotent.

"Primeval light art thou, they of upright soul
Behold, but hidden from the sinful eye
Thy beam ; thou. Light, unseen below, but for
Immortal sight reserved, seen beyond
With God, in heaven's ethereal height."

This had been written five centuries before the British poet
saw light, the Christian forever re-dreaming the Jewish dreams,
re-reaiizing Jewish realities. How much more truth than
poetry in the thinker's intuitive consciousness, that light was

there before the stars, it being the universal element of which
stars, planets, ether, air, all things and all creatures are full.
The more nature is known, the wider prove her resources of
light, beginning with the spark latent in the flint, and thus far
reaching up to the electric candle. Light and heat are the two
essential principles of life. Shall we not bow in awful rever-
ence before The Spirit of spirits, who inspired the revelation
of the only true cosmogony, which opens with : " Let there be
light ! " a glorious motto for an illustrious race to live up to,
and strive by. Deny, if you can, that the Hebrew is man's
spiritual eye. Who had the greatest of visions ? The Aryan
is forging artificial stars ; the Semite takes them from the
genuine heavens, he, the Prometheus of history.

And compatible with this luminous opening of the grand
creative drama, is its sublime progression and its winding up
with the loss of Eden by man, and his acquisition of intellect-
ual light. Did man really fall when he learned to distinguish
between good and evil, and reason, thought, took the place of
instinct ? Is not the whole scheme of a " fall " and a " re-
demption," of an " original depravity " and a " vicarious atone-
ment" something of a melodrama or a comedy? If the fruit
of knowledge was a curse to man, why do the best and the
wisest pray, striv^e, long for wisdom ? Just give it a thought.
If light in the soul be a curse, why is light universal hailed
as the blessing of blessings ? Give them sight. Great Lord !
Man did not fall when a ray of Thy radiance irradiated his
mind ; ah me, he fell when, sunk in error, he raised a weak,
erratic mortal to the dignity of a second god. Judaism stands
for light. One universal burst of light, and Chaos fled before
Order and Beauty. Air, ether, land, fire, and water are con-
signed to their destined places, and placed under immutable
law, the very scientific process which the latest evolutionist
deems necessary to render vegetable and animal life possible.
The stars rotate and revolve in their orbits, and touched by
the heavenly beam, earth produces grass, herbs, and trees after
their kind, all potential with the power of reproduction. The
waters of the deep, and all the elements being pregnant with
life and being, it requires but The Divine fiat to people the

-world, and no sooner are the elements under law, and each
constellation in its place, than life breaks forth in abundance ;
air, land, and water teem with life, flying, swimming, leaping,
walking, singing, rejoicing. But there is no intellect, no God-
like being to rule and beautify this world ; thus is man made
in the likeness of his Creator, with dominion vested in him
over all creatures ; he, the sublimest Divine conception into
whom God breathed " the breath of life."
^'^' This is the Hebrew's great vision of creation. In contrast
to that confusion most chaotic we meet in all known cosmog-
onies, our Genesis is graphic, certain, and positive ; even the
dim background on which the grand picture is vividly drawn ;
the only difference between our philosophy of creation and that
of materialistic cosmogony, being our conscious God, in Whose
stead science puts blind force. In our Genesis only the eternity
of God antedates the eternity of matter, an aflirmation which is
henceforth tlie basis of Theistic philosophy. God being as-
sumed eternal — an assumption necessitated by our finite facid-
ties being unable to define things infinite — His innate Omnipo-
tence necessarily follows. He being The Only One Whose un-
limited might is the creative fiat. Whether the fiat works in
a moment or in a millennium is immaterial, cycles being un-
counted atoms in the eternity of Time. That matter was eter-
nal and prior to the existence of light is clearly stated in our
Scriptural text, wherein we are informed that, after Elohim
had created the heavens and the earth in the begiiming of
time, " the earth was formless and void, and darkness was on
the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters. And God said, " Let there be light, and
there was liglit." Unless resolved to lose ourselves in " chaos
and eternal night " it is not easy to see where we could go for
a scientifically philosophical account of the begiiming of things
beyond our Genesis.

And in that mystic vast wherein all things begin and cul-
minate with the creation of man tliere is more than a mere
adiimbration of liis destiny in this life, and in an after-state.
Our cosmogony doubtlessly implies man's immortality. Tlie
mere statement that the human soul is breatli of the Divine

Breath closes the point under consideration. If God be eternal
can a part of His Spirit be mortal ? In general to saj that the
Old Testament does not implicitly set forth the idea of the
soul's immortality is to give a false version of the Spirit of
Holy Writ. When the good Enoch walked witli God, and was
no more ; " for God had taken him," where did God take him ?
When it is recorded that the patriarchs were gathered unto
their fathers long before interment, and often far from the
place of burial, unless it means the gathering in of the soul to
those of the departed, the statement has no sense. When
Moses disappears, when Samuel's shade is conjured by Saul,
when Elijah ascends alive to heaven, does not all this imply a
popular belief in an hereafter? What meaning had Jacob's
dream with its revelation of God, angels, and heavenly regions,
if the human spirit w^ere excluded from those blissful abodes ?
And those spiritual visions of our prophets who see the Lord
Zebaotli in the midst of cherubim and seraphim, all ablaze with
glory, but for the dream of life eternal, the settled sense that
the righteous share in the blessedness of the beyond, instead of
comforting and inspiring the devout seer, would have sunk
him into the darkest gloom. It were cruelty to reveal realms
of bliss to longing, hoping, intellectual beings, whose inexora-
ble destiny was decay, the grave, hopeless darkness, and decom-
position. How in the name of truth and reason could one
speak of Divine Goodness and Love ? Why should virtue be
cherished and vice be loathed, there being no retribution 1

It is erroneous to take it for granted that in Biblical times
the Jew saw in the coffin the end of all. One of the healthiest
Hebrew qualities has ever been doubt, not begotten of a fertile
imagination or absence of spiritual insight, but by a hungry
yearning after truth unveiled, a glowing thirst to know the un-
known. Who knoweth that the human soul ascends on high,
while the breath of the brute remainetli below ? queries the skep-
tic, gloomy Kohdeth. It is he, however, who passes through
darkness to light, and reaches the conclusion that " God will
judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for
every pursuit, and there is an account for every deed." Again :
" Every deed will God bring unto judgment, whether it be

good or whether it be bad," Also : " Fear God and keep
His commandment, for this is the whole of man." Who spoke
with more emphasis or clearness of Divine retribution ? Think
of " God loill bring unto judgment ;" of " when the dust will
return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return unto God
who gave it," Of course, Kohelcth mentions neither a hell nor a
paradise.
j^ Then Job, the deep, melancholy, daring, skeptic, martyred
Job, with his hundred elegies on human vanity, ignorance, suf-
fering, disappointment, and death. How he soars in doubt and
darkness, until the veil falls from his eyes, when, on a sudden,
light bursts on him, and he knows that God's breath is in man
who cannot die. " Truly there is a spirit in man inspired by
the Almighty." And : " Well do I know that my Redeemer
liveth, and that He will be the last after all creatures of dust ;
and after my skin is cut to pieces will this be, and then freed
from my body, I shall behold God ! " And Job typifies Israel.
So the Psalmist, after the gloomiest views on the ends of moi--
tal humanity, concludes in ecstatic fervor : " Thou wilt not
abandon my soul to the grave." For did not God make man
" but a little less than an angel ? " Learning of his child's un-
timely death, David comforts himself: "I am going to him,
but he will not return to me."

In face of such emphatic expressions of a deep-rooted faith
current in ancient Israel, we are calmly informed by the non-
Jewish theologian, that immortality was a Christian invention,
and that the admission to paradise is inseparable from baptism.
Considering the saint inquisitors and the chaste monks we are
likely to meet in the orthodox heaven, we are not overanxious
to share the company. Why thus unblushingly deny Israel
the dream of his dreams, which is the beholding of God when
" freed from his body ? " Both Jesus and Mohammed made
superhuman efibrts to pass Jewish specie as their original coin,
but the imitations will not work. The balm of Gilead, like
the rose of Sharon, is inimitable, and the world grew wise and
bold enough to see and to tell which is which and whose is
whose. While roaming at large in the vast mazes of Jewish
dreams, ideals, and realities, we shall have frequent opportunity

of alluding to this topic, of which our literature is full. Death-
less, even in this perishable world, it were folly on the part of
the eternal j'ace to doubt immortal life in the beyond. Juda-
ism recoils from defining mysteries, but it reposes unbounded
confidence in the just retribution of the only Just and True
God.

And as our God, so our ideal, our life, and our endeavors.
We may reasonably expect a nation or denomination to be
worse than its gods, but we can never expect the worslii23er to
be better than the power he worships. Thus can we account
for the nature and dealings of the priests in Greece, Egypt, and
Rome, the apostles in Judea, the saints in Arabia, the Druids
in Britain, the cannibals on the Pacific Islands, the pontiffs and
their agents in mediaeval Europe. Man is at best like his God
or his gods. The worshipers of Moloch, like those of Huitzila-
pachtli are like their gods, blood-thirsty, inhuman, ferocious,
environed with altars reeking with the stench of human gore.
Aye, man like his gods ! How else could you explain the in-
quisitorial hells and horrid days of judgment Catholicism has
instituted on earth ? Was not each pope, each inquisitor, each
monk the embodiment of Dante's Minos with his tail slung
around the trembling reprobate * Man's God is in his heart,
his mind, and his light and salvation, his darkness and perdi-
tion, or, as the vulgar call it, his hell and his heaven, spring
from within, not from without, not from things and influences
that are beyond his self. " I am that I am," said Almighty to
Moses. " I am what I think, believe, feel, and act," says the
Jew to the world. " If you force me to comply with your
dictates, then I am no more : my individuality ceases and there
is no cause for my being. My God is in my soul, whom else
shall I obey ? Urge me not to be prudent, to tread the beaten
higliways, to do as the Romans do, to swim with the current,
vote with the majority, be one of the common flock, because I
would othei'wise be driven from the fat pastures. I reply, un-
less you convince me that growing fat is the end of life, I shall
persist in being myself ; in looking into my own heart, in ac-
cepting what seems to me true and rejecting what apj)ear8
untrue."

That man is seldom as good as, and often much worse than,
his gods liistory confirms. In Laced?emon the aged citizen
was required to loan his younger wife to the lusty youth for
the benefit of the State. For Homer sang of Jupiter's im-
moralities, and it could never occur to mortals to be more
chaste than their chief-god. So were the orgies of Bacchus
supposed to be grateful to this god of the wine. It taxed all
the eloquence of the best biographers to clear the name of
Socrates of unspeakable imputations. If Greece was beauti-
ful, like Cleopatra, she was profligate. And Kome, world-
enslaving, kingdom-wrecking, ungenerous, greedy Rome,
Rome of the Caesars, was she not like the Rome of the popes,
the very personification of her gods ? Her delight the gladi-
ator's agony ; her triumph the execution of captive princes
and the slavery of noble nations. What did she know of those
higher sympathies with humanity which sprang from the high-
est God-ideal of Judea ? Let the shade of Hannibal, the
ruthless destruction of Carthage, the chains of an oppressed
world speak.

Turn to Judea, and liere, as elsewhere, you see man act as
his God inspires him. What a distance between the God of
Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Micah, Hillel, Philo, Saadia,
Maimonides, Ibn Ezra, Mendelssohn and Montefiore, and that
of Peter and Paul, of Hildebrand and Luther, of Calvin and
the modern i-evivalists ! What a difference in the ideal, what a
distance in real life ! Rather than a Ferdinand the Catholic,
a Gregory IX,, a James II., give us a Spinoza, a Thomas
Paine, a Goetlie, a Darwin. Rather a charitable skepticism
than a Medusa-faced theology. We shall see, as we advance,
how the real and the ideal coincide in Israel as well as every-
where in old and modern times.

CHAPTER IV.

OUR PROPHET'S DREAM.

In the heart of ancient Israel prophecy was the ever-glowing
pillar of light to the people .and the guiding star of an exalted
class of intensely religions statesmen, orators, and preachers.
Similar in show, but wholly different in nature, was the oc-
cult science of divination that held unbounded sway among
the heathen nations. Neither is that superstition a matter of
the past or confined to the barbarous masses. The Oriental
despot is still shaping liis policy in conformity with the inter-
preted omens of his court astrologer. As late as the fifteenth
century the Spanish Moors, tlien the most civilized people of
Europe, were in their social, domestic, and state affairs entirely
guided by the horoscope. When on issuing from the gates of
Granada to the battle-field Boabdil's lance was broken, and
soon after his pathway crossed by a fox, everybody gave up
the ill-fated king as a victim of an inexorable fate, since at his
birth the santons presaged evil to come for his kingdom dur-
ing his reign. Among semi-barbarians and savages divination
enjoys the veneration of religion ; cards, plants, lots, the flight
of birds, entrails of animals, the grunting of hogs, and the
snufiing of the air by cattle, being considered instruments
through which the future may be read. Ghosts and devils are
supposed to connnune with man through visions. We are told
that the Kamchatkan expects the unwelcome Russian ofiicial
as often as he dreams of dogs and vermin. As to soothsay-
ing and fortune-telling by deciphering the lines of the hand,
they are not out of fashion with many inhabiting quarters of
considerable enlightenment. In the old Orient ChaldBea had
her reputation established as the hot-bed of magic and astro-
logical divination, while the Grecian oracle and the Roman
augur were influences without which the earlier history of the

(55)

rise and development of tliose lands could scarcely be under-
stood.

Jupiter being the chief divinity of Rome, tlie augur's pro-
vince of anxious study was the sky, its flashes of lightning, as
well as the flight and screams of bii'ds, and the examination of
the victims' entrails sacrificed to the gods. The greatest public
transactions, such as tlie meeting of the senate, the installation
of a new consul or pr?etor, the declaration of war or the
making of peace, were all proceeded with according to the
augur's interpretation of the given omens. Famous among
the old Greeks were the oracles of Dodona, of Delphi, of
Trophonius at Lebodea, and of Esculapius. One day a black
dove directed from on high told the people of Dodona that
Jupiter wanted an oracle established in their place, and they
did as commanded. Another bird of the same feather de-
livered a similar message in the Lybian Oasis, where Jupi-
ter had a temple. Some substitute black-eyed priestesses for
birds in this story, whom PhcBnicians stole at Thebes, in
Egypt, to make them preside over the oracles of Dodona and
the Oasis, theft being a minor oflfense in sacred endeavors
sanctioned l)y the gods. Goats pasturing on Mount Parnassus
and thrown into convulsions by vapors which issued from a
cleft caused one of the shepherds to try the effect of the vapor
on himself. He was similarly affected, talked incoherently ;
and this was taken as a manifest indication that some god or
goddess — later believed to be mother earth or Gea herself —
was willing to'reveal some secrets for the benefit of man. A
temple rose over the cleft, a priestess named Pythia had charge
of it, her task being to cleanse hej'self in the crystal water of
the fountain Castalia, then inhale the sacred air or steam, sink
into convulsions, rave and talk unintelligibly, and thus supply
the material for tJie deep wisdom of interpreting priests. Tlie
oracle of Troplionius was a fearful thing to consult, for the
one who sought advice of him had to descend to a subterra-
neous place, where he saw tilings so frightful that he never
could smile again. The temple of Esculapius was tlie sick
man's resort, for he was the god of healing and of medicine ;
he could cure every sickness, his favorite symbol being the

serpent. Apis was simply a bull, whose forebodings were
clearly indicated by his accepting or declining the food prof-
fered by the suppliant.

As in Home, so in Greece, the greatest events, such as the
Trojan war, tlie founding of new cities and colonies, were ini-
tiated, carried on, and closed V)y the guidance and inspiration
of the oracle, whose ambiguous ravings were ambiguously in-
terpreted by ambiguous priests, often barbarous, ignorant, su-
perstitious, time-serving, and tlie tools of men in power.
Seldom did the oracle foretell against the will or interest of
the powerful, and his prophecies always had a loophole through
which, should they turn out false, he could cunningly escape.
One feels more inclined to respect that credulous barbarian
who goes to. sleep on the grave of some dead hero, hoping to
secure in a vision good counsel from the hero's ghost, than
those spurious oracles who based their prophecies on supersti-
tious absurdities, or on the mad ravings of an ignorant woman
in convulsions. But we must recognize in this fact the unfail-
ing fitnefes of things, as it invariably comes to the surface in
the general course of history. As the mythology and theoso-
phy, so the ethics and the prophecy. As the gods, so their
oracles.

Wliat prophets must they then be who are inspired to pro-
claim, foretell the justice and mercy of Israel's Inscrutable,
Infinite God ! We cannot much improve on the line wliich
Philo Judeeus draws between Judean and heatlien prophecy.
The Hebrew prophet, he maintains, is the chosen instrument
throuffh whom The Almightv makes His will known, the
prophet obeying nothing but Divine inspiration ; he speaks in
ecstatic delight, like the harmoniously-shaped instrument dis-
coursing ravishing music in the hand of Apollo. — Not so the
heathen oracle. He is too conscious of his business, too doubt-
ful of his prophetic visions, to be frank, outspoken, straight-
forward, and positive in his forebodings. Having no power,
no inspirations to reveal, he must needs deceive, obscurity be-
ing his safeguard against ridicule or popular skepticism. If
he happened to hit the thing, well ; if he failed, there he stood,
furnished with an evasive answer ; he was misunderstood. A

king consults liini : " If I go to war with that land whose will
be the victory ? " " If you go to war a city shall fall," answers
the oracle. The monarcli is sure of victory, goes to war, is de-
feated, and his capital is taken. And the oracle ? Well, he
said, " A city shall fall ; " his prophecy was verified. The
Delphian oracle declared Socrates to be the wisest Greek when
nobody in Hellas had the least doubt about it. It was natural
tliat an institution of this nature should, as ancient civilization
advanced, become the laughing-stock of the knowing and the
pliable tool in the hands of authority, tyrannical or otherwise,
who, in order to derive sanction from the gods, exacted obedi-
ence of ignorance by causing false oracles to reveal a false
message from above. These oracles were not yet silenced at
the birth of Jesus, as Christian authors would have it, but they
died their natural death at the birth of that higher philosoplii-
cal thought which was the offspring of the fusion of Hellenic
culture with Jewish intuition, Monotheism, and prophecy.

Our prophet's dream is something distinctly original, phe-
nomenal, transcendental, and will admit of no comparison
with anything that passes under the name of prophecy. Our
prophet was, lirst of all, poet, patriot, and preacher ; a student
of his time, and a far-seeing statesman. In a certain sense it
may be said that Israel's prophetic genius was more emphatic-
ally accentuated in history than liis priestly endeavors ; for
our primitive patriarchs were more of the prophet than of the
priest, while the nature of our divine law-giver leaves no doubt
as to his deep prophetic intuitions. If seeing things hidden in
dim futurity be the endowment of the prophet, who saw fur-
ther than Abraham, Jacob, and Moses ? Abraham has tlie
first mystic vision, looks into the stars, sees millenniums in ad-
vance of time ; Jacob, likewise, dreams the prophet's dream and
his happy vista extends beyond any computation of ages, em-
bracing a boundless future to be blessed in his posterity. His
testamentary foreshadowings are a Divinely-inspired prophecy,
unexcelled by any other we know of, and fulfilled in every par-
ticular. Whatever he tells his sons on his death-bed concerns
things to happen only. " Gather yourselves together that I
may tell you what shall befall you in the last days," after wliich

each son hears a premonition of his futnre destiny. And how
far the visions of Moses go ont when he speaks of things to
come ! The whole Book of Deuteronomy is one marvelous
prophecy of what the times have in store for Israel, good or
evil, dependent upon his relations to God and His Law of
truth and righteousness. A chill runs tiirough the blood on
contemplating how the centuries verified those threatening
visitations because of Israel's disloyalty to the Divine Law.
Ah, me ! the unparalleled agonies of the children of the patri-
archs among nations of " fierce visage, that will not have re-
spect for the old, nor show favor to the young." as well as the
loss of the Promised Land, were all predicted by Moses. An
unrighteous, homicidal Church justified her murderous deal-
ings with Israel's seed by pointing to the invented predictions
of her nn'thical Jesus, a god who, we are assured, wished to be
crucified for the salvation of man, and, having been treated as
he wished, turned all his wrath, and that of his God-Father,
against the very people who did their best to gratify his will.
Ah, this madhouse of a world ! We know better, poor, hunted,
loyal, scattered flock, beloved of Him who " chastises such as
He loveth." On reading our great epic of a nineteen centu-
ries' heroic martyrdom it is impossible not to recall the con-
tents of the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, where
every word and phrase uttered by inspiration is by this time a
crystallized event, staring one in the eye as if to say : Just as
I foretold, so it came to pass. So are tlie closing paragraphs
of that same Book a perfect mirror, prophetically reflecting the
events to come, events many of which are now reckoned with
the past. Every tribe has here his future destiny foretold in
a style of poetry and prophecy. It is all uncontrollable inspi-
ration, the " Divine Spirit " prompting the spirit that dwells
in the upright heart.

Yet neither the patriarchs nor Moses are generally con-
sidered prophets in the sense in which this term is connnonly
understood. We have been taught to look for the beginning
of prophecy to the age of Samuel, to the school of which he is
the acknowledged founder. Not until after Saumel does
prophecy become the regular calling of an exalted class, who

feel tliemselves destined to proclaim and sustain the highest
ideal in which Judaism culminates, the Unity of Jehovah, His
unimpeachable justice, love, and mercy, and the universal
brotherhood and equality of all men. The prophet's resistless
authority is expressed in the four syllables, " Thus saith the
Lord." He has no will, no policy of his own ; it is the Lord
Zebaotli who touches his lip with fire, opens his eyes, and
causes him to speak undaunted, whether the guilty be king,
queen, or people. Open, fearless, intensely patriotic, glowing
with religious ardor for the sacred cause, the prophet, when
called upon to denounce evil, is wholly forgetful of self, heed-
less of consequences, yielding himself up to the transport of
fiery inspiration, using speech as sharp and cutting as a scor-
pion whip, and withering the object of his righteous indigna-
tion. We look in vain for another instance where men of
apparently obscure origin, of whom nothing is said or heard
ere they act, on a sudden, stand frowning before the absolute
ruler of Israel with a seething prophecy on tlie lip, which
sends a shudder through monarch, court, and people, conjuring
terror and gloom over the whole kingdom. " King, you are
a sinner, and vengeance is at your heel ! " How mighty the
picture Nathan sets up before David in the case of Uriah's
murder. Stung in liis conscience, unable to withstand the
enormity of the crime, the humiliated king remorsefully rues
his guilt : " I have sinned against the Lord ! " What a
triumph here of Divine prophecy over earthly majesty ! and
such things have happened again and again. What an ado
has been made about a Peter the Hermit, who caused streams
of innocent blood to flow in the interest of what ? How many
dissolute popes have been canonized without a hint at their
corrupt individuality, AVellnigh sixteen centuries had to pass
before a monk had the courage to name the corruptions of in-
fallible papacy and celibate monachism, and the pope was
rather slow in acknowledging the coinjDlimeyit, while the moiik
is proclaimed the Christian Reformer. Contrast Luther with
Isaiah.

The power of Hebrew prophecy lies in its positiveness.
There is no ambiguousness in the inspired denunciation and

the announcement of the impending punishment uttered by
Natlian against the king. The child, the fruit of the crime,
will die, and other evils will closely follow, all happening as
foretold. It stands open to reason that an absolute monarch,
as David was, would not readily submit to the reprimands and
threatenings of a subject if the prophet's inspiration had not
been generally accepted as a positive message from above. A
plague decimating the Jewish population is, likewise, unhesi-
tatingly imputed by another prophet. Gad, to the king, who,
in disobedience to the Highest Will, caused a census to be
taken of his people. High must have been the station of the
prophet who could thus chastise the follies of an otherwise
noble monarch.

So closely were patriotic prophecy and statesmanship inter-
woven that every wise king in Israel dared not for a moment
disregard the advice and suggestions of the prophetic leader.
The extent of the prophet's influence is clearly shown by
vSamuel's proceeding in his objecting to dynastic rulers, in his
crowning, flrst, and later rejection of Saul, and in his anoint-
ing David to succeed that unfortunate monarch. But for
Nathan's interference, Adonijah would have ruled instead of
Solomon. It was the prophet Ahijah who transferred ten
tribes of Israel to Jeroboam because of Solomon's degeneracy.
But these influences would have been easily counteracted by
statecraft had there not been a resistless power back of the
prophet, which placed his authority beyond question, and that
was the fulflllment of all he foretold in the Name of God.
The proof of his Divine mandate lay in the fact of its real-
ization. You may refute and disregard theories, but you are
bound to face realities. — The culmination of prophetic glory,
however, seems to have reached its zenith in the awfully mys-
tic personality and supernatural doings of Elijah. Springing
from perfect obscurity, with nothing save his stern dignity to
shield him, with no record that we know of, but a manhood of
intense virility ; terribly fearless, sacredly devout, with earth
and heaven open to his gaze, yea, ready to obey his bidding,
Elijah, as the Himalayas among the mountains, towers loftily
above all his predecessors and successors, a mystery forever

unsolved. Like a phantom apparition lie emerges nobody
knows whence, he disappears nobody knows whither, baffling
the inhuman snares and persecutions of an unsteady, uxorious
king and a heathenish queen, who leaves nothing untried to
undo her most acrimonious foe. Next to the great enactment
on Horeb the scene on Carmel is the most sublime and over-
powering, and not to be accounted for by anything short of
the prophet's immediate, awful intimacy with the Great Su-
preme. The spiritual world seems open to Elijah. Angels
feed him, guard him ; birds make shade for him ; the Jordan's
tide divides to let him pass dryshod ; rain comes when he tells ;
fire flashes from heaven when he calls ; nay, death himself
yields up his victims when he commands. Poor necromancy
was that of Jesus, indeed, confronted by the supernatural
workings of an Elijah, who did not even deem it necessary to
be crucified and buried in order to ascend transfigured to the
skies. Such a career and such an end ! A soul of fire, blast-
ing vice with a lash of fire, proving Jehovah's Omnipotence
by heaven's fire, and rising skyward in a chariot of fire, there
to live in bliss, the intimate of God. Pitiful performers Mo-
hammed and Jesus with their second-hand imitations of the
inimitable. To change water into wine, and exorcise seven
devils from one poor fallen female, are performances unworthy
of the " Son of God," still less of God Himself. Our necro-
mancers can do better. — A faint negative of Elijah's stupend-
ous career are the recorded miracles performed by the son of
Mary, who likewise fled to a desert, lived on little or noth-
ing, communed with angels, and walked on the water. The
only omission in that record we sincerely deplore is the ascen-
sion in unchanged human form which Jesus found impossible
to accomplish. Ah, what a Tophet of carnage, crime, outrage,
and sin such an end of his would have spared this poor deluded
world ! — For whom shall we exchange our Elijah, the nonpa-
reil ? No wonder this prophet has, to the Jewish mind, become
the symbol of the highest man, sage, prophet, and angel all in
one. He, the martyr to truth below, Israel's pleader above, har-
binger of good, the bearer of food for the poor, of healing for
the sick ; present at every union and consunnnation of bridal

love, and sitting on tlie chair where the babe's body is bared
for the operation that admits him to the Abrahamic alliance.
Having an Abraham, a Moses, a Samuel, and an Elijah to
boast of as fathers and teachers, who would grow jealous of
races who have their Homer and their Yirgil, their Plato
and their Cato, their Buddha, Zoroaster, their Jesus and Mo-
hammed ? Truly, small figures are these in face of those un-
earthly lofty ones who are the foundation of all. To be a
Jew, does it not mean to keep the ethereal stream of prophecy
alive ? Does it not imply war against the degenerate Ahabs,
the dissolute, murderous Jezebels, and the never-failing false
prophets of Baal ? The prophet is the authorized interpreter
of the Divine Will, for, says Amos, " The Eternal will do
nothing unless He reveals His secrets to His servant, the
prophet." ,

The incalculable blessings which flow from prophetic Juda-
ism for the cause of religion at large is to be acknowledged in
the reality that the sweet hopes and golden promises it is con-
stantly holding out for the righteous are not exclusively in-
tended for the chosen race, but for humanity as one family.
Neither the prophet's ideal dream nor his vindication of Divine
justice and goodness implies such a narrow limit as, at his time,
excluded Judea from all other creeds and races. No, the
prophet recognizes neither geographical, nor tribal, nor racial
boundaries and limitations ; he speaks of humanity to human-
ity as children of the same Eternal Father ; he wages relent-
less war against paganism, but has the tenderest love for the
pagan, whom he invites to smite his idols and turn toward the
" mountain of the Lord." His fi-aternal greeting is, " Have
we not all One Father? Did not One God make us all ? " but
he has " no peace for the wicked." And those glorious dreams,
those rosy visions he unfolds for the just, the upright, the
faithful, and the servants of the Eternal One ! Chaos and
darkness, pestilence and leprosy, sickness and famine, death
and sheol, the fires of heaven and the elements of nature, he
invokes to rise simultaneously and wipe out vice and corruption
before the wrath of The Lord ; but no poet equals him in
grandeur of speech, in beauty of simile and metaphor, in

depth of pathos and cataracts of seething eloquence when,
catching the inspiration of heavenly peace, he pours forth in
sweet torrents his yearning prophetic soul, telling of that
Messianic era when the sword shall be changed into a plough-
share, " the wolf shall dwell with the sheep, the leopard lie
down with the kid ; the calf, the lion's wlielp, and the fatliug
shall lie together, and a little boy sliall lead tliem ; and the cow
shall feed with the she-bear, togetiier shall their young ones
rest ; like the ox the lion shall eat straw ; the suckling shall
play on the hole of the asp, on the basilisk's den the weaned
child shall lay his hand ; they shall not hurt nor destroy on all
My holy mountain, for the eartli shall be full of the knowledge
of The Lord, as water covers the sea." The salvation of man
lies in " knowledge of The Lord," ignorance being the origin of
sin and evil. A true appreciation or depreciation of things
perishable is, in the mind of the prophet, bound to bring about
an ideal and spiritual yearning for things eternal, for virtue,
love of God, and love of man. The keynote, the ideal of
prophetic Judaism, is " the knowledge of The Lord," whom
to know means to be like Him, wise, good, and true. False
j)rophet he who recommends the sword as an instrument of
conversion ; false apostles they who preacli liatred and division,
practice fraud and persecution. The true prophet's message
is " peace, peace to the near and the far." Dr. K. Lippe sums
up the difference between Jewish and Christian prophecy in the
following contrast of principle. The Lord promises through
the prophet Malachi to send Elijah " before the coming of the
day of The Lord, the great and the dreadful. And he shall
turn back the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the
hearts of the children to their fathers." Kead Matthew x. 34.
" I am come to arouse man against his father, the daughter
against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-
in-law," such is the policy of the " prince of peace." That
our prophet's dream be realized the Jew was Providentially
preserved, but his ways and means must be prophetic, fearless
in branding vice as hateful to God and man, eloquent in glori-
fying the good, the beautiful, and the true. Such is the
prophet's ideal.

" Nobody should write the last line on Hebrew Prophecy with-
out an allusion to its magnificent imagery, the fullness of the
picturesque, the beauty of style, and the awful mystic sublimity
with which the visions are received and imparted. In every
case the seer speaks of self as perfectly passive and objective,
until placed in unearthly surroundings, confronted with mystic
sights, and called upon to accept the charge of delivering a per-
emptory message. However strange the vision the message is
simple and direct, forewarning events sure to happen, unless
the cause be removed. Though environed with myriads of
angels, cherubim, and seraphim ; though aglow with dazzling
impenetrable light, it is always God Himself who speaks and
trains the prophet's lips to reveal His decree, even to the
wording and illustration. Beautiful is the comparison of
Israel's relation to God with that of the bride to the bride-
groom, whose young love or honeymoon is compared with that
period when young Israel was lovingly followed by The Al-
mighty through the desert. Zion is likened to a divorced
mother, who, however, has no bill of divorcement ; or to a
vineyard intended to bring forth grapes, instead of which its
produce is worthless. Disloyal Jerusalem is a barren woman,
whose husband. The Lord, should she turn loyal again, promises
to make her fruitful. But the most frequent likeness of
Israel the prophet avails himself of is light. The nations and
their sovereigns are to be enlightened by a radiance bursting
from Zion. " Through thee the world's ancient ruins shall be
rebuilt," says the prophet, ever having the universal welfare
in eye. Prophecy is universal Freemasonry, its mission being
constructive, not destructive — a perpetual building up of the
temples of humanity fallen or desecrated.

A thrilling vision is that of Ezekiel, who tells us how the
spirit seized and landed him in a valley full of dry human
bones. He is commanded to speak to the bones in the Name
of The Lord, telling them that by Divine interference they
would once more be restored to life. Doing as he is bidden he
hears the bones rattle, sees them join, assume all the signs of
animation, sinew, flesh, skin, and all, except the soul, the prin-
ciple of life. He is again induced to prophesy : " From the four

winds come, O spirit, and breathe into the dead bones that they
may live."' — "And there came into them the spirit and tliey lived
and rose on their feet an exceedingly great host." Reference
is made in Pharisaic literature to this ghastly vision as unques-
tionable evidence of bodily resurrection;'" but what should
not be overlooked is the prophet's deepest consciousness of
Divine Unity, " From the four winds come, O spirit," since
everywhere is the Spirit of The Lord.

How preposterous to base a trinitarian creed on Jewish
Prophecy! The most glorious vision of the Messianic era
closes with " On that day shall The Lord be One and His Name
One." God's sovereign Unity is the prophet's dream and
Israel's ever-flowing song. Hear Ibn Gabirol : —

" Thou art the One, all numbers' origin,
Creation's only rock ; aye, One art Thou,
Whose Oneness human wisdom cannot sound,
Unable Unity like Thine to grasp ;
Thou Only One, who neither grows nor shrinks ;
Uncounted Thou, unnumbered, One, unchanged,
Unchangeable, nameless, formless ; One, whose bounds
To fathom overstrains the finite mind."

The prophet's ideal dream is the most glorious spiritual
dream Israel ever dreamed. Had that dream continued with
all its supernal adumbrations and earthly manifestations, no
creed could have ever raised its head above prophetic Judaism,
presenting the loftiest ethical and religious panacea that the
world needs to be cured of all moral and mortal ills. But rab-
binism did not prove a sufficient spiritual continuation of the
life-fountain of empyrean Prophecy. Had the Talmud con-
tinued a living tradition, had its representatives and expound-
ers revealed prophetic intimations of a never-ebbing spiritual-
ity flowing from a never-ebbing universe, its influence over the
destiny of Israel and humanity at large might have turned
out incalculably vast. As a compiled mass of variegated lore,
crystallized law, tradition, humor, fable, wit, and allegory, with
a rigid codex as the petrified resultant, it is an amazing monu-
ment of Jewish industry, genius, imagination, history, and

stern religions loyalty and formalism, but never, no, never a
living stream of spiritually potential possibilities. The Tal-
mud helped to perpetuate Judaism in the same manner as the
Chinese wall helped to perpetuate Mongolian stagnation and
Confucian ethics. It did embalm and localize Judaism and
favor an exaggei-ated separatism, both of which are not com-
patible with Israel's world-redeeming mission. The prophet
was infinitely more cosmopolitan and humanitarian than the
Talmudist. The opportunities Talmudical lore offered the Jew-
ish mind for pilpulistic or logical exercise during a period of
universal darkness were inestimable, and the charef or Tal-
mudical reasoner was justly considered a marvel of hair-split-
ting finesse, but the suljlimest idea of prophetic Judaism was al-
most lost sight of, a severe, often unmeaning, ceremonialism tak-
ing its place. In this way did the beneficent warm gulf-stream
of transcendental Prophecy first congeal into the mighty glacier
of Talmudism. Then, breaking up into prodigious icebergs,
and drifting along on the sea of centuries, it eventually took
the shape of austere ''aruchs, voluminous tomes, replete with
dry regulations, long-winded discussions of trivialities, in all,
dead weights pressing heavily on the intellectual elasticity of
the most arduous and active of races. So did it come to pass
that, as somebody pointedly remarked, while Catholicism had
its arbitrary living pope, unprophetic Judaism bent its knee
before a dead hierarch in the shape of an infallible, intolerant,
unyielding, uncompromising series of codices.
,. Fortunately the genial currents of a resuscitating civilization
had the salutary efiect of convincing the enlightened son of
Israel that, in abandoning the prophetic ideal, he came very
nigh being overwhelmed by stronger intellectual and spiritual
powers that derived their vitality from that very source he so
disloyally neglected — Prophecy. When we turn to glance at the
Talmud it will be time for us to do justice to that world of
picturesque beauty and glory. Yet do w^e hail that auspicious
moment in modern Jewish history w^hen the prophet's dream
of the ages began once more to soften the frozen forms of
hitherto irreconcilable rabbinism, which must either yield to
Divine inspiration, and adjust itself to the living sj^irit of

Judaism, or become a relic of an iinprogressive, uninspired
past.

Judaism cannot subsist, still less flourish, without prophetic
inspiration. Israel's God is not One of the past, but One of
all times, and as He did inspire the " upright lieart and true,"
so will He still give spirit of His Spirit to siicli as speak in
His Name. Judaism cannot feed on dead forms, no, not even
on glories that are bygone. Our past had its prophets, we
must have them, too, men with a supernal dream, a lofty ideal,
enkindled by the fire of heaven, self-sacrificing, fearless in
stemming the tide of corruption ; holding up a mirror to vice ;
branding infamy, sensuality, infidelity ; sweeping off, like
Elijah, the prophets of Baal, the venal slaves with whom
Israel ever was and is afflicted ; men who have an inspiration
to reveal, a truth to tell, and who have the manhood to unfold
it unadorned, unvarnished, sincere ; men deep in knowledge
and nature, resistless in eloquence, indefatigable in effort,
recoiling from no danger, no threat, no difficulty ; ready, like
Daniel, to face the lion in his den, like Nathan, to front the
guilty monarch in his royal robe, the fulmination of God's
lightning on their lip ; uttering the soul's resistless fire in
seething streams, till vice is blasted and virtue shines as bur-
nished gold, in His Name Who everlastingly dwells in the
pure and loyal heart. In this way alone will the prophet's
dream and ideal of humanity blended with Divinity be
triumphantly realized.

CHAPTER V.

OUR POET'S DREAM.

It seems utterly impossible to say where Jewisli poetry
begins and prophecy ends, or vice versa, particularly when the
contents of our Scriptures are to be lirst the subject of a brief
examination. If beauty of style, splendor of picture, fable,
parable, simile, and allegory ; if depth of sentiment, transport
of soul. Divine fervor, the fire of thrilling inspiration, in a
word, if God-intoxication causes the strings of the poet's
deepest being to vibrate in gleeful, sacred utterance, then is
our prophet poet by tlie grace of the Most High, he being the
almost unconscious harmonious instrument through whom
Divinity communes with liumanity. It is neither an exaggera-
tion nor is it an unjustified assertion, nor an original idea,
that the Old Testament is one grand, incomparable, unbounded
epos, the epic |3a»' excellence in which the past, present, and
future of humanity are poetically, prophetically, and Provi-
dentially mirrored, the universe supplying the illustrations.
Let the critics criticise. Let science progress ; it cannot but
illumine the religious ideal as it is transcendentally set forth in
the prophecy and poetry of our Bible. Those twenty-four
books which make up our Scriptures are the perfect Iliads of
the Hebrew race, the clearest manifestation of our Deity in
the spirit and consciousness of man ; they are the corner-stone
of the Synagogue, the foundation of the liberal Church and
Mosque ; they sprung from tlie heart of Israel and are insep-
arably interwoven witli the history and destiny of mankind.

With breath of fire, in speech of living flame
The wizard prophet in Jehovah's Name
Links earth to heaven with a golden chain,
And who would say, that he foretold in vain?
Since he, who preaching wandered forth from Ur,
He of God's phalanx first great warrior,
(69)

To him who Zion's fall did weep in strains,

He bard and prophet in Chaldea's plains,

Great spirits rose to make man onward march

Of mystic visions bnilding arch on arch,

Till, like the bow that mirrors forth the sun,

The sky-built pyramid they stood upon,

While at its base unthinking mortals plod,

Upleads the wiser to the feet of God.

Wipe out from memory all Delphian lies,

Dodona's tricks, Elensis' mysteries ;

Forever silence Heliconian glee,

Let thought be mute, be mute philosophy,

The world shall move, our prophets being there,

Who, Atlas-like, of heaven the pillars bear,

See God in man, all man in God declare ;

In sacred visions, speech of molten gold,

A heavenly kingdom, peace on earth foretold.

This is not intended to pass as a piece of poetiy ; we feel it
in our heart of hearts. We can imagine an ancient Greece
without a Homer ; a world-ruling Rome without a golden
period of classical literature ; Britain might prosper without
her Miltons, Germany without her Goetlies, and Italy without
her Dantes ; but how conceive of positive Monotheism with-
out an Old Testament ? How imagine a Judaism, Christianity,
and Mohammedism, a world of law and order, without oiir
Bible ? What articulate nonsense to say that Buddhism, Con-
fucianism, or any other heathenism, could in any tolerable
manner serve as a substitute for tliat matchless Book which,
like the silent ocean mirroring infinity with all that is visible
in it, reflects the faith and doubt, the hopes and fears, the joys
and sorrows, tlie longings and dreamings, the strength and
weakness, the truth and error, the beastly and the Divine, that
is propelling, stirring, and agitating human life. And seeing
the steady and conscious progress of tlie race from the useless
to the useful, the unjust to the just, the ugly to the beautiful,
the false to the true, the material to the ideal ; observing that
the beauty and power of manhood are always found in pro-
portion to the moral quality of the individual and the race,
one cannot fail to realize the eternal rule of mind over matter,
light over darkness, good over evil, the ideal over the physical
world ; God over space, time, law, and all ! We cannot, even

by admitting the theory of the survival of the fittest, see
mere accident in tlie liistorical wonder of Israel's preservation
amid the general wreckage of kingdoms and empires. The epic
grandeur of our Scriptures reveals what evolution and all the
sciences never can approximately reach ; they that would turn
the universe into an unaccountable, unconscious machine, self-
made, witli time, space, matter, and motion as blind motors.

As a picture gallery of living figures unadorned and true
as nature herself, our Scriptural epos challenges comparison.
Is it Virtue, you see her therein beautifully glorified ; is it
Yice, therein you see lier, too, paraded in dismal nudity.
Truth is the object of the whole. God alone is Great, Per-
fect, All-Wise ; but man, whether he be the greatest law-
giver, the sweetest singer, the greatest and wisest king, or the
sublimest of prophets, is fallible and frail. Moses errs; his
Books put on record his error and liis punishment. David
sins ; posterity is informed about it. Solomon falls from
grace ; we are made to admire his wisdom and deplore his
fall. Elijah's severity towards the prophets of Baal is not ap-
proved of by later generations, and his sudden translation is
imputed to that act of cruelty. From beginning to end our
Biblical heroes and heroines are introduced to us as instru-
ments of the highest Will, men and women liable to err, not
at all resembling those infallible saints of the New Testament,
who are nothing if not supernatural. Inspired genius is the
striking quality of Jewish heroism. You meet in our Bible
as nowhere else, law-giver, warrior, judge, prophet, statesman,
sage, and poet, all in one and the same person, as exemplified
in the careers of Moses, Deborah, Samuel, David, Solomon,
and Isaiah. In a trice, the prophet is poet, the poet is
prophet, the farmer is judge, the shepherd is king, warrior,
statesman, and bard. Give us another Deborah who is judge,
general, and poetess in a continent where woman is at this
date considered little more than the domestic animal. Poetry
appears to be singularly congenial to the Semitic, intensely so
to the Hebrew's nature. On a sudden the Spirit of the Lord
is on him who either sings or prophesies, l^obody dreams
that Samuel's devout, modest mother, whose pious tears flow

in streams while praying in Eli's Sanctuary, is more than an
ordinary brave woman, when lo, and behold ! Hannah sings
the loftiest of themes, God's justice, love, and grace. " The
bow of the mighty is broken, and those who stumbled are
girded with strength. The Lord's are the pillars of the earth
on which lie hath set the world. Out of the heaven He thun-
ders on His adversaries. The wicked shall be made silent in
darkness." This is the first and the last time we hear of Han-
nah. So is Deborah's poetical genius, as her entire appear-
ance, a delightful surprise unexpected in womanhood at such a
date in such a place. When The Loi'd goeth forth from Seir,
the earth trembles, the heavens drop, the clouds melt, yea,
" the mountains melt away because of the Presence of The
Lord. " — " From heaven they fought, the stars in their orbits
fought against Sisera." What shall we say of this daughter
in Israel who excels as judge, triumphs as general, and im-
mortalizes the event in lines of unexcelled beauty ? Sappho,
the poetess, who was regarded as the tenth Muse, the " mira-
cle " of antiquity, has, like all heathen " miracles," not turned
out a miracle of virtuous womanhood, and her poetry, though
reputed as exquisitely delicious, could scarcely bear comparison
with the song of souls inspired by the God Whose Breath
causes the mountains to melt. We are informed that Sappho's
favorite themes were the gods, the passions, nature's sweet
products, so that if she sang beautifully she could not have
risen very high. What imparts unsurpassed excellence to He-
brew prophecy and poetry is the overpowering grandeur of the
theme they both contemplate. Creation and its wonders, man
and his destiny, God and the universe, death and eternity, are
the ever-present subjects of the Hebrew bard. Therefore is
there but one Isaiah, one Job, and one Psalmist. Read Car-
lyle's view of Job so grudgingly given by the pungent Aryan
on the great deep, unequaled Hebrew : " I call that, apart
from all theories about it, one of the grandest things ever
written with pen. One feels, indeed, as if it were not He-
brew, such a noble universality, different from noble patriot-
ism or sectarianism, reigns in it. A noble book ! All men's
book ! It is our first, oldest statement of the never-ending

problem — man's destiny and God's ways with him here on
this earth ; and all in such free-flowing outlines ; grand in its
sincerity, in its simplicity ; in its epic melody, and the repose
of reconcilement. There is the seeing eye, the mildly under-
standing heart; so true every way; true eyesight and vision
and all things ; material things not less than spiritual ; the
horse, hast thou clothed his neck with thunder ? He laughs at
the shaking of the spear ! Such living likenesses were never
since drawn. Sublime sorrow, sublime reconciliation ; oldest
choral melody as of the heart of mankind ; so soft and great ;
as the summer midnight ; as the world with its seas and stars.
There is notliing written, I think, in the Bible or out of it, of
equal literary merit."

We ask : Is it a misfortune to be misunderstood ? Seems
it not the lot of uncommon men, things, and principles to be
misunderstood 'i The ancient heathen, wholly incapable of
conceiving One Universal Divinity, and a religion transcen-
dentally spiritual, wondered at the Hebrew race, their abnor-
mal way of worship, and their still less comprehensible God,
a God that deiied every antliropomorphic personification. So
does Tacitus scofiingly allude to the Jewish Temple of Zion,
wherein there was not an image or statue to be seen ; and Ju-
venal fails to realize how intellectual beings could adore
" nothing but clouds and Deity in the skies." And have Juda-
ism and the Jews been since understood ? Are they under-
stood now ? We invoke the genius of history to do us justice.
Tlie Jew has long felt like those ill-fated Spaniards whom the
bloody Aztec priests sacrificed to their horrid gods. A million
howling voices, a myriad of braying drums and yelling trum-
pets drowned the feeble protest of the victimized Jew. Gel-
lert's fable tells how the straight-walking and plain-talking
man happened to land in a strange country where all were
lame of foot and stuttering in speech, and the halting and
stammering population gazed with astonish tnent on the stran-
ger of straight limbs, crying : " Behold, that poor man is not
at all lame ! " But no sooner did he open his lips, than a cry
of pity shook the atmosphere : " Ah, neither does he stam-
mer ! " This is not at all a fable. Shakespeares or Carlyles,

Gibbons or Wagners, like many others of greater or smaller
genius, are but children of their surroundings and habits,
seldom rising very high above current prejudices. If that
great Bard of Avon had known Jews and Judaism as Lessing
and George Eliot, would he have left us the caricatui-e of a
Shylock ? If Dickens had possessed as much knowledge of
Israel's ethical and spiritual life as he had of the taste and
fancy of the mob, he would not personify his ignorance of a
great people's character by the production of an odious Fagin.
Only think of an unchristian genius who would look for ma-
terial in the annals and daily happenings of Christian coun-
tries. What a harvest of relined felons he would find ; sharp-
ers, gamblers, pickpockets, swindlers, a variety of criminals,
highwaymen, assassins, murderers of wives, parents, children ;
fiendish train-wreckers ; a hundred penitentiaries, full of the
lowest specimens of humanity, are there, ready to supply his
nnise with all sorts of despicable subjects. Imagine a good
Christian hear his faith associated with all of those criminals,
and you will realize the outrage you commit on the Jew as
often as his sacred name and fame are slighted by a caricature
of some sordid individual of whom his own race is ashamed.
ISTo, if Carlyle ever caught a glimpse of the Jew's dreams,
ideals, and realities, he would not have dipped his pen in venom
as often as the name Jew came in his way. Who could write
"Job" but a Hebrew? The grandest thing must needs be
written by such as have the grandest faith, conceptions, the
deepest dreams, the grandest ideals, and the grandest God.
How could any pagan upsoar in thought, vision, and song as
high, penetrate mystery as deep as the Hebrew with his great
yearning soul, his earnest manhood, his daring genius to fathom
The Infinite in infinity ? The loftiest form of poetical expres-
sion— the lyric, religious, or hymnal song — attained its sub-
limest height in the heart of Israel. There they are, a hundred
and fifty wonder odes, possibly the work of few, probably the
songs of many Jewish hearts and minds. What a dream !
what a reality ! of all the deep the deepest, of all the sweet
the sweetest ; summing up all — all, bii'th, death, life, pain, sor-
row, faith, hope, trust, joy, delight, ecstasy, gloom, human

greatness, human smallness, mortality and immortality, the
glories of earth and the wonders of heaven — all, God and
eternity. Such are the Psalms Milton dared to translate, not
to imitate. Who could, but a Hebrew, but a Hebrew heart
touched by the sacred fire of the highest empyrean, strike such
heavenly notes ? Read them ; aye, and in Hebrew, if possible ;
for translated, though glorious, they are but the reflected
splendor of the sunny beam received from the cool moon.
The Psalms are a sea of hymnal glories, the lyric of lyrics,
matchless, ethereally inspired, such as angels may sing in the
Presence of Him enthroned on the Merchahah. Here are a few
verses by Milton, and a free translation of a Psalm by Byron : —

" Among the holy mountains high
Is His foundation fast,
There seated is His sanctuary,
His temple there is placed.
Zion's fair gates the Lord loves more
Than all the dwellings fair,
Of Jacob's land though there be store
And all within his care.
City of God most glorious things
Of thee abroad are spoke ;
I mention Egypt, where proud kings
Did our forefathers yoke ;
I mention Babel to my friends,
Philistia full of scorn.
And Tyre with Ethiop's utmost ends,
Lo, this man there was born. —
Both they who sing and they who dance
With sacred songs are there,
In the fresh brooks, and soft streams glance.
And all my fountains clear. —
My soul doth long and almost die
Thy courts, O Lord, to see.
My heart and flesh aloud do cry,
O living God for Thee. —
Happy, who in Thy house reside.
Where Thee they ever praise,
Happy whose strength in Thee doth bide.
And in their heart Thy ways. —
They pass through Baca's thirsty vale,
That dry and barren ground.
As through a fruitful watery dale
Where springs and showers abound. —

Be not Thou silent now at length

O God, hold not Thy peace,

Sit Thou not still, 0 God of strength.

We cry and do not cease ;

For lo. Thy furious foes now swell

And storm outrageously,

And they that hate Thee, proud and fell

Exalt their heads full high.

Against Thy people they contrive

Their plots and counsels deep,

Them to ensnare they chiefly strive

Whom Thou dost hide and keep. —

How long will ye pervert the right

With judgment false and strong,

Favoring the wicked by your might

Who thence grow bold and strong ?

Regard the weak and fatherless.

Despatch the poor man's cause,

And raise the man in deep distress

By just and equal laws ;

Defend the poor and desolate

And rescue from the hands

Of wicked men the low estate

Of him that help demands. —

When I behold Thy heavens, Thy fingers' art

The moon, the stars, which Thou so bright hast set

In the pure firmament, then saith my heart.

Oh, w'hat is man that Thou rememberest yet. — "

" We sat down and wept by the waters
Of Babel, and thought of the day

When our foe, in the hue of his slaughters!
Made Salem's high places his prey,

And ye, O her desolate daughters !
Were scattered all weeping away.

" While sadly we gazed on the river
Which rolled on in freedom below,

They demanded the song, oh, never
That triumph the stranger shall know !

May this right hand be withered forever,
Ere it string our high harp for the foe.

" On the willow that harp is suspended,
0 Salem ! its sound should be free.
And the hour when tliy glories were ended

But left me that token of thee :
And never, shall its soft tones be blended
With the voice of a spoiler by me."

Vain effort. Luther despaired of making "the Hebrew
speak German." And who succeeded ? It is a tongue they
who derived inspiration from Helicon could not fathom, could
not translate. In every other tongue words have meaning, ex-
press metaphor or figure ; in Hebrew poetry every word is
itself a mystic allegory, hiding more than it tells, and telling
more than it seems. Translate if you can nnoxn 'niov;* Sd
■jinD 'D h " All my bones exclaim : Lord, who is like Thee ! "
It conveys not in English what it tells in Hebrew, nxo^f
Ti hvh D'nbuh "^2: " My soul thirsts for God, for the Living
God." This gives no idea of the ecstasy that Hebrew phrase
expresses to the God-intoxicated Jew. o"im mo 'i*n notyx
11^3 '7DKn " My arrows shall be drunken with blood, and my
sword shall devour flesh." AVhere was warlike manhood ex-
pressed in so few words ? D'tyjx b;^ nmnn hs:^ r\h'h nunno DQy\:;2
" In intense thoughts out of the visions of night when deep
sleep falletli on man." tust] 'nioy;' 2^^ m;ni 'jxnp nn£3 " Dread
came over me, with trembling, and it caused all my bones to
shudder." Ah, speak not of translation ; the mystery of these
two lines no speech can render ; it is the spiritual dream of
man — poor, hungry, longing soul — who, waking or dreaming,
shudders at the silence of space and time. And the two words
ynxip D'pn;'on " From the gulfs of my being I invoked Thee,
Lord ; " or this description of God's garment, nn/ih "nni nin
" With glory and majesty art Thou clothed, art wrapped in light
as with a garment." Unacquainted with the Hebrew's idiom
it is impossible to comprehend his prophetic and poetic genius.

In our earliest childhood we were shown two Hebrew letters
in the form of two constellations in the starry firmament, the
^ Yad and the r\ Tav, the first being the first letter of the
Ineffable Name, the other being the first letter of the Hebrew
word Law, Torali. You may see those letters distinctly on
any clear eve, and, remembering mankind's indebtedness to
what has been revealed, taught, and sung in Hebrew, one feels
profound reverence for an oppressed race whose soal feeds on
the Divinest of dreams, and reads its sacred alphabet in the
stars. The coincidence is certainly noteworthy. In our Mid-
rashic literature we find it explicitly stated that the letters

of the Hebrew alphabet are conscious, spiritual beings, who
claimed certain rank and distinction in the mysterious drama
of creation. The Aleph having shown the most modesty, se-
cured the especial prominence of being the first letter in the
Decalogue. Wlien on descending from Sinai, Moses, seeing
the golden calf, dropped the tablets on which God's finger en-
graved The Ten Commandments, only the form was broken,
say our sages, the letters flying about in the air," indicating
therewith, that though violence may be done to the visible
form of the Divine Law, as an ethereal power it is eternal, in-
vulnerable, neitlier tyranny nor fire having any power over
it.^^ With a language so sacred and heavenly, the Hebrew could
not but meditate on the sublimest and holiest of things. He
who knows Hebrew well will glory in it above any other tongue.
The 104th Psalm is justly considered a perfect picture of
God's making and ruling the world. The singer blesses The
Lord, immeasurably great, clothed in glory and majesty,
wrapped in light as in a garment ; who stretches the heavens
like a curtain ; wlio founded the skies on beams of water ;
clouds are his chariot ; " who walketh on the wings of the
wind," making winds His messengers, fire His ministers.
" The earth He founded on her bases immovable to eternity."
Then these lines : " He makes darkness His hiding place, round
Him a pavilion of dark waters, thick clouds of the skies." But
all darkness, " hail, stones, and coals of fire " pass away before
His radiance. He thunders in heaven. His speech is hail and
fire. " The heavens proclaim the glory of God." AVithin,
without, above, below, around, everywhere the Hebrew bard
feels and sees the Lord, ever filled with painful longing to
penetrate the veil of mystery. Small are the agonies of
Prometheus, feeble the light he had stolen of the gods, when
compared witli the more than Imman struggle, lieroic resigna-
tion, Divine sorrow of the martyred Job. He sees tliat he
cannot see, he knows that he does not know. That limited
human wisdom that shrinks amazed at the Supreme Unap-
proachable Intelligence who uttered it, who felt it so deeply

.mmia rnrmxi j'sityj yh'^y .mmis nvniNi nnntyj mm^"

before, who, after Job ? One paragraph tells : Man knows
where to find silver, knows the place of gold ; iron is taken
out of dust, stone is melted into copper ; he sets an end to
darkness, brings precious stones from the shadow of death. In
the earth there is lire, lead springs from her bosom, also the sap-
phire and golden dust is there, in places the vulture's eye has
not surveyed, the ravenous beast has never trodden, " But wis-
dom, where shall she be found, and where the place of under-
standing ? Man knows not her value, and she is not found in
the land of the living. The deep saith, ' Not in me is she,'
and the sea saith, ' She is not with me,' Yea, she is hidden
from the eyes of the living, from the fowl of heaven she is
concealed. Perdition and death say, ' We heard a rejDort of
her.' God alone understandeth her way, and He knoweth her
place," If Socrates was the wisest Greek because he knew the
limits of human reason, was not Job the wisest of men, the
noblest martyr, the typical, daring, searching, doubting, yet
ever loyal son of Israel ? But we are fishing for pearls in the
ocean to procure but a slight specimen of its ancounted, un-
valued treasures. Our Bible is one continuous, varied poem
presenting every kind and shade of poetry. Beside the lyric,
there is the epic, the dramatic, the didactic, idyllic, the elegiac,
and every other species that graces any literature, " The
language of poetry is thus the language of the inspired vol-
ume," Says Gilfillan, " The Bible is a mass of beautiful
figures ; its words and its thoughts are alike poetical ; it has
gathered around its central truth all natural beauty and inter-
est ; it is a Temple with one altar and One God, but illumi-
nated by a thousand varied lights, and studded with a thousand
ornaments. It has substantially but one declaration to make,
but it utters that in the voices of the creation. It has pressed
into its service the animals of the forest, the flowers of the
field, the stars of heaven, all the elements of nature. The lion
spurning the sands of the desert, the wild roe leaping over the
mountains, the lamb led in silence to slaughter, the goat speed-
ing to the wilderness ; the rose blossoming in Sharon, the lily
drooping in the valley, the apple-tree bowing under its fruit ;
the great rock shadowing a weary land, the river gladdening

the dry place ; the moon and the morning star ; Carmel by the
sea and Tabor among the mountains ; tlie dew from the womb
of the morning, tlie rain upon the mown grass, the rainbow
encompassing the landscape ; the light, God's shadow ; the
thunder, His voice ; the winds and the earthquake, His foot-
steps : all such varied objects are made — as if naturally so de-
signed from their creation — to represent Him to Whom the
Book and all its emblems point. Thus, the quick spirit of the
Book has ransacked creation — to lay its treasures on Jehovah's
altar," A beautiful but incomplete picture this ; for it is
mainly to the emblems of life and being, death and eternity,
the relation of the finite to the Infinite, comprising the visible
and the invisible universe, that the poetry of the Bible is de-
voted, accentuating the deepest and the highest in speech and
imagery that the human soul intuitively accepts as the truest,
the Divinest.

But the Hebrew's poetical genius ceased not with the closing
of the last line of that sacred volume. During the Dark Ages
and in modern times the Jew, though unwelcomed in the several
provinces of the fine arts, had nevertheless floods of melody to
inform a flinty world that he was living, believing, suffering,
sorrowing, hoping, and dreaming — melody in words and in
notes. For eighteen hundred years the Jew has been the real
Job of history, sorrow crowding on sorrow, affliction on
affliction, outrage on outrage, until life became ' bitter, unbear-
able, and the grave the only hope, the haven of peace " where
the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest."
Human hatred, bloody persecution, black accusation, poverty,
disgrace, humiliation, slaughter, enforced nomadism, all he
takes from Christian hand with devout resignation, his eye
turned to heaven, the tear flowing, and the only question being :
" Just God, how long will Thy anger be turned against Thy
people, who, as tainted wethers, are given to slaughter ? "
There is no poetry in this, but religion. Such faith and self-
abnegation, such Divine sorrow and sweet resignation as would
do honor to the giant of Uz I During the crusades, when Jew-
ish blood was flowing in streams, no poetry was sung in Israel,
but file heartache was appeased by a mournful prayer — the

Dim Kini — wliicli, had we no red pages in history to tell of
Jewish martyrdom, would itself be a monument more glorious
than any by which the heroism of Eome, or of any other
people's triumphs, is remembered. Unlike the Christian mar-
tyrology, whicii, in the language of Gibbon, created a " formi-
dable army of martyrs, whose relics, drawn for the most part
from the catacombs of Rome, have replenished so many
churches, and whose marvelous achievements have been the sub-
ject of so many volumes of Holy Romance," a pyramid could
be built of their skeletons who, by tlie influence and agents
of the Church, perished faithful to The One. But, often before
and after those darkest of the dark centuries, the Jew, tliough
oppressed, hunted down, and hooted at, had song so sw^eet,
so sad, so heart-stirring, so pleading and touching that, had
the enraged world cared to listen to his cadence, he would have
been proclaimed the nightingale of that gloomy cycle ; but he
sang to deaf ears. Mediaeval Jewish liturgy, Zunz conclusively
proved to be a mine of inexhaustible historic and poetic treas-
ure. In a cursory survey like this we can do no more than
skim lightly over the surface of a sea whose deeps more as-
siduous divers have sounded and explored. It is in the Syna-
gogue where post-Biblical Jewish poetry is to be chiefly looked
for, God-worship having ever been the mightiest source and mo-
tive of inspiratioji for Israel's poetical genius. Who was the
author of this or that wonder-song is a question often unan-
swered. It is as if spiritual voices from the impenetrable beyond
were hynming to our soul the mystery of mysteries in accents
indefinably blissful, not lacking the pathos of pain, an under-
current of sadness for whicli it is easy to account. Our " tears
and blood," our " blood and tears," are the frequent expres-
sions interwoven with sublime strains addressed to Tlie Al-
mighty Guardian of Israel. "The sacred congregations, who
sacrificed themselves for the sanctification of The Lord,"
are down to this day prayed for in countless synagogues.
"May the avenging of thy servants' blood yet in our lifetime
become known among the nations." — " We are as sheep
destined for slaughter." Such lines, however, are merely
incidental, and lose themselves in the triumphant outbursts of

sacred ecstasy, oft breaking forth under extraordinary circum-
stances, such as the mystic strain of Rabbi Amnon of Mayence,
who died a martyr to his faith in the thirteentli century.

Amnon, a favorite of the elector of Mayence, is venomously
insinuated against by envious courtiers, who suggest that his
readiness to embrace the Christian faith should be made the
test of his loyalty to the arbitrary magnate. Thus, being
strongly urged to abandon Judaism, Amnon in an unguarded
moment promises to consider the matter within three days,
but feels bitter remorse the next hour, and fails to report at the
expired respite. He is sent for. He confesses his repentance
to have held out a hope which could never be realized, and of-
fers to expiate his error by the loss of his tongue. " Not the
tongue," says the cruel despot, " the feet which did not bring
thee hither shall be cut off." With his limbs severed from his
body the victim was soon carried home. Three days later be-
ing Bosh Hashanali, the unfortunate man begged to be carried
to his place of worship, where, stretched on his litter, he prayed
with his flock, his intense pains notwithstanding. But before
Keduslia, when Israel proclaims the Thrice Holy, he in tones
of ecstasy cried, " Let us glorify The Lord, for Thou, Eternal,
art our King !" and hereupon he recited the famous f]pin njnji,
a composition on the day of judgment, based on traditional
hints, but in its nature as poetically allegorical and awful as
any scene in the world's literature treating of the supremest
theme. It has since been adopted in our liturgy: —

Now herald we this day's grand holiness ;
How awful thrilling, when thus glorified,
Thy Sovereign Throne in grace unshaken stands,
And Truth with Thee enthroned is seated ;
Thou Judge and Advocate, Omniscient Eye,
With seal and chronicle and count at hand,
Remembering things bygone and forgotten.
Before Thee open lies all-records' book
Wherein each man his doing seals; loud
The trumpet sounds ; a tremulous whisper fills
The skies ; the angels tremble, seized with dread,
And thus exclaim : "A day of judgment this
Wlien heaven's host shall be arraigned!" for they
Before Thy Throne could scarce unguilty stand ;
And all of earthly pilgrimage, as flock
Before the shejiherd, pass before Thine eye.

Tliis allegory is a living i-eality in the Jewish consciousness,
and is but an echo of earlier poets who seldom soar in spheres
lower than the highest empyrean. We have given some pas-
sages of Solomon Il)n Gabirol's " Royal Crown ; " our limited
space allows no copious quotations, except to illustrate the na-
ture of mediasval Jewish poetry. A few verses of Ibn Ga-
birol, Moses Ibn Ezra, and Jehudah Halevy will answer our
purpose. The late Emma Lazarus, herself one of our sweet-
est singers, silenced too early, translates " In tlie Night " of
Moses Ibn Ezra : —

" Unto the house of peace my spirit yearns,
Unto the source of being my soul turns;
To where the sacred hght of heaven burns,
She struggles thitherward by day and night.

" The splendor of the Lord doth blind her eyes ;
Up without wings she soareth to the skies.
Longing in silence, ever seeks to rise,

In dusky evening and in darksome night.

" To her the wonder of God's works appear ;
She longs with fervor Him to draw anear ;
The tidings of His glory doth she hear.
From morn to even and from night to night.

"The heaven of Thy grace did o'er me rest.
Yet was Thy worship banished from my breast.
Almighty! Thou didst seek me out and test
To try and to instruct me in the night.

" In flesh imprisoned is the son of light,
This life is but a bridge when seen aright.
Rise in the silent hour and pray with might,
Awake and call upon thy God by night.

"Infatuate, I trifled faith away.
In nothingness drained through my manhood's day ;
Therefore my streaming tears I may not stay —
They are my meat and drink by day and night.

" Hasten to cleanse thyself of sin ; arise !
Follow truth's path that leads unto the skies :
As swift as yesterday existence flies.

Brief, even as a watch within the night.

" Youth's charm hath like a fleeting shadow gone,
With eagle's wing the hours of life have flown ;
Alas! the time when pleasure I have known,
I may not now recall by day or night.

"Observe a pious fear, be whole again,
Hasten to purge thy heart of every stain ;
No more from prayer and penitence refrain,
But turn unto thy God by day and night.

" He speaks : My child, yea, I will send thee aid ;
Bend thou thy steps to Me ; be not afraid !
No nearer friend than I am hast thou made ;

Patiently wait the day, to which there is no night."

And the same hand rendered tliese deep words sung by
Jehndali Halevy. This is truly Jewisli poetry ; a Divine
Peahn in a newer garb : —

ADMONITION.

" Long in the lap of childhood didst thou sleep.
Think how thy youth like chatf did disajii^ear,
Shall life's sweet spring forever last? Look up !
Old age approaches ominously near.

" O shake thou otf the world, e'en as the bird

Shakes otf the midnight dew that clogs his wings ;
Soar upward ! Seek deliverance from thy chains
And from the earthly dross that round thee clings."

Finally this " Meditation on Death," by Ibn Gabii'ol, so well
rendered by the womanly genius of Emma Lazarus, Sweet,
heavenly reconcilement that breathes from every line, so
pathetic, soft, and melodious, so painful and yet so hopeful !

" Forget thine anguish vexed heart again !
Why shouldst tliou languisli with earthly pain ?
The husk shall slumber bedded in clay,
Silent and sombre, oblivion's prey.

" Why fidl of terror, compassed with error,
Trouble thy heart for thy mortal part ?
The soul flies home, the corpse is dumb.
Of all thou didst have follows naught to the grave ;
Thou fliest thy nest swift as a bird to thy rest.

" Life is a vine-branch, a vintager death ;
He threatens and lowers more near with his breath ;
Then hasten, arise, seek God, 0 my soul !
For time quickly flies, though far seems the goal. ' ■'

^^ In the D'fij.'n nn3 for the year 1829, Isaac Samuel Reggio, of
(-rorizia, reports to have found, among a heap of old MSS., an epic
poem by R. Moses Rieti, called ^DTin "^SD or the Temple. " On pe-
rusing it," says Reggio, "I was astonished to find a work replete with

Deep notes these, even in the borrowed garb of translation.

You feel the soul swell, expand, long and soar, ever dissatisfied
with her narrow prison below, with things that ever change,
wither, and decay. " Rise, my soul, rise liigher and higher, to
the very feet and Presence of God." Is not this the ground-
swell of the Hebrew's genius ? Fathom, define our poet's
dream ? You could as well fathom and define the sky's gulfy
blue, the mystery of past and future, time and space. What
an impartial world admires we are unprepared to underrate.
Homeric song, Miltonic verse, Shakespearean scene and mono-
logue bear the indelible stamp of poetic majesty, the seal
of supernal inspiration. Andromache, the Eve of Paradise
Lost, and the purity of a Cordelia, are pictures in whom earth
and heaven, light and shade. Iris and Aurora are masterfully
blended. So Dante's Beatrice. With superhuman powers
those heroic bards seize the mind, and on imagination's wing
carry it from deep to deep, from height to height, from sphere
to sphere, with a swiftness and a vividness which are resistless,
with a fire that strikes and kindles. Yet, in vain do you look
for the soul's comfort, the spirit's food, the heart's balsam, in
tliose vast waves of song. There is much more of the horrible
than the delightful, of despair than of hope, in the Greek,
English, and Italian epic. There are more hori'ors in their
hells than bliss in their heavens ; and we may be pardoned
for suspecting that infernal tortures were more of a reality

poetic beauty and merit. The more I read, the more I was struck with the
close resemblance between the author and Dante, not only with respect
to the purity and elegance of the language, the profundity of thought
and force of expression, but also with respect to his subject, which is
identically the same with the Paradise of Dante. His style, like that of
the last-mentioned great writer, is likewise often obscure, so as to convey
a meaning beyond that which meets the eye. The poem is divided into
eight books, which, altogether, contain one thousand and twelve stanzas
of ten hexameter lines each. The author has added notes illustrating
his subject, and containing much curious information respecting the
numerous sages and great men he celebrates," &c. The writer of the
above lines concludes that Rieti must have flourished at the end of the
fourteenth century, and claims the distinction of having made known
to his brethren that illustrious poet, whom he surnames the Hebrevj
Dante.

than of a dream to all of them. Homer cannot soar unless as-
sisted by an inferior goddess. Dante is led throngh darkness
to twilight, by an ancient heathen, whence he is lifted higher
by the aid of his Beatrice, his earliest love, who died nntimely.
Milton seeks a mnse on Horeb's top, and when he invokes The
Spirit, who prefers " before all temples the upright heart and
pure," it is for an " adventurous song," an attempt " to soar
above the Aonian mount," the olden seat of heathen inspira-
tion. Therefore do we miss the spiritual, mystic glow in non-
Jewish poetry. It is different with our prophet and singer,
who see God face to face. Non-Jewish poets are intentional,
conscious dreamers ; you can see them make up their mind to
dream, appealing for wings and vision to some intermediary
influence, their song being scarcely spontaneous ; our poets are
born dreamers, unconscious as the singing bird or the har-
monious instrument that responds to tlie master's touch, Non-
Jewish poetry speaks to the fancy, often to man's superstition,
ignorance, and prejudice. The Hebrew singer speaks to the
soul, to humanity, takes hold of heart and mind, strikes every
note of joy and woe, every chord of faith and doubt, and, while
himself musing, feeling, and dreaming, causes the world to do
likewise. Ours is the poetry of all ages, all times, all men ; it
will never grow old, because, like the ocean, it is deep and
mighty, shrinks not with tlie ages ; a gift of God for the com-
fort of the whole race, responsive to every need of the soul.

To complete this brief sketch of our poet's ideal dream we
sliall barely touch on its symphonic expressions, which are
as unique as the genius of the people who received religion,
law, light, song, and music from the immediate hand of God.
A harp, tradition says, hung over the head of King David's
bed, which at midnight, touched by the gentle west- wind, began
to vibrate and emit sweet music, at which the monarch, rising
from his sleep, would spend the rest of the niglit in song and
study. No record is extant as to the melodies to which the
Davidic instrument gave sound ; he, shepherd, warrior, poet,
and minstrel, whose touch of the responsive chord had the
magic of chasing away the melancholy spirit from Saul's mind.
His Divine lyrics, we know, resounded in the Solomonic

Temple, and became thereafter the nation's, as they are at this
hour the world's, sweetest hymns ; but the melodies are irre-
trievably gone, an irreparable loss forever to be regretted. Yet
has it been reserved for the Teutonic Wagner to discover, to
his great chagrin, that there was a " Judenthum in der Musik,"
a subject he treats with an acrimony worthy of a good orthodox
Christian who hates the Jews, because he owed them even
something else besides his Christianity. To be sure, there is
Judaism in music as there is Judaism in all ideal religion
and ethics ; but Wagner, who understood the Jew when he
needed his help, spat gall at him tJie moment he could stand
on his own feet. We doubt if Homer, had he ever met
Abraham or Moses, could have understood them. Can this
be said of Israel's modern calumniators, whom Wagner so
well typifies ? Such venomous abuse, and such low, sordid
motives ! The world is rich and beautiful, the heavens are
grand through their variety. Wagner is full of venom, because
in music, as elsewhere, the Jew displays his peculiar dreams.
It is well-known that Meyerbeer's first great opera, Rohert le
Diahle, eclipsed in thrilling horror and supernatural scenery
anything produced on the stage before. JepJ/thah's Vow was
Mendelssohn's first composition, and one of his later and best
was Elijah. Thus even the baptismal water was not enough
to christianize Mendelssohn's genius, who betrayed a strong
predilection for Biblical subjects, and, like Meyerbeer, personi-
fied the supernatural, the indefinable, the mysterious. Wag-
ner's imagination and his great muse turn to superstitions,
legends, and folklore, such as The Flying Dutchman^ Lohengrin,
The Ring of the Nibelungen, &c., for which we are not less
grateful than for the ghosts and witches of Shakespeare and
Goethe. This is as it should be, and the literature and fine
arts of a people are always sure to reflect its religion, fancies,
and superstitions. But why that sordid jealousy, that base in-
gratitude of a genius so divinely graced and so despicably
mean ? It was Meyerbeer who befriended' the exiled, obscure,
and poverty-stricken Wagner by introducing him to the public,
securing the production of his Rienzi and of the FUegende
Hollander on the stage of Berlin, and by a munificent liberality

so characteristic of the generous Jew. We are told that a prom-
inent Israelite in Berlin surprised his non-Jewisli company by
showing them, among a number of beautiful things, Richard
Wagner's statue with a laurel crown on head and a hempen
halter round its neck. They understood the symbol ; it was a
crown for Orniuzd, and a halter for Ahriman.

However, to return to our topic, we gleefully put it on record
that any susceptible Jewish ear accustomed to the time-hal-
lowed sacred melodies chanted in the Synagogue, must, on see-
ing V Africaine, feel himself quite at home, the music bearing
too striking a resemblance to escape notice. With Halevy the
Jewish element is a leading feature in his best compositions ;
it is our poet's dream still prevailing wherever, in rhythmical
measure or melodious utterance, he is permitted to follow liis
natural bent, and the world is not poorer on this account.
Deep in feeling, high in thought, daring in imagination, in-
tense in nature, Hebrew poetry admits of no substitute ; it is
Hebrew. Thus does it naturally happen, that even among
the mimics, the Jew claims the foreground in ability to inter-
pret what the great have dreamed. In La Comedie Frangaise,
of Paris, you may see the statue of a Jewess bear the inscrip-
tion La Tragedie ; the cast is that of the world-renowned
Rachel ; and the late Victor Hugo in the presence of a great
assembly gratefully kissed the hand of another Jewess, who
stands unexcelled as an interpreter of dramatic genius ; while
Rubenstein's jubilee has just been celebi'ated by all Russia, the
Czar at the head.

CHAPTER VI.

A GLANCE AT THE TALMUD.

"What is the most remarkable thing you have seen this
morning, my dear boy ^ " asked a venerable grandfather of his
lively favorite of the third generation. " Why, grandpa, I
have seen the Italian play his organ, and his monkey dance,"
was the reply. " Nothing else of more interest 'i Just think ;
what was the most wonderful thing you saw as you opened
your eyes? " "Ah, now I know what you mean ; the bicycle
papa bought me on my birthday," answered the grandson,
looking very knowing. "And did you not see the sun ? "
asked the hoary-headed man, not without an air of disappoint-
ment. " Pshaw^, that I can see every day," retorted the lad
with disgust. " So it is, but you never look at him, anyhow."
Is this not tlie case with tlie great majority of the big, thought-
less children of Adam i Toys and pop-guns, what else are
they living for ? " Men are funny people," is the motto of a
comical German paper; but some are too funny for anything.
In the freest clime not one out of a hundred is truly free.
Habit, prepossession, education, surroundings, home, school,
and church, aU conspire to enslave freedom, efface individual-
ity. How many are Jews, Christians, or Mohammedans, from
pure, deep-felt conviction ? The hardest thing is to make a
man see against his interest and habitual conceptions. During
our residence in Morocco we once suggested to an intelligent,
friendly Moor to exchange his flowing garb, light sandals, and
soft turban for a European attire. The Moslem was aston-
ished at our unreasonable suggestion, as he termed it, and not
unjustly : for, by comparing costumes, he had an easy victory
in proving both comfort and dignity to be on his side. We
gave it up reluctantly, finding it impossible to uphold the stiff
hat, stiff shirt, starched collar, close jacket, and hard, pinching

(89)

shoes, in face of the softest, most comfortable, and easy gar-
ments a man may wear. Yet, though we were theoretically
convinced, we practically preferred discomfort to change.
Habit makes error obstinate. As matters stand, but few see
this world with their own eyes, unconscious of a slavery that
makes unbiased sight next to impossible. Of this the thought-
ful son of Israel has daily proof. Defeat sustained through
one who makes me better or wiser is victory ; but things look
dark when Nero is emperor, Epaphroditus his courtier, and
Epictetus the courtier's slave. Time is sure to rectify things,
but the centuries are long, error supersedes error, one su-
perstition gives way to another, and virtue is no shield where
truth lias no vote. Judaism stands armed with truth ; error
may outvote it, it cannot defeat it ; " for the portion of The
Lord is His people ; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance."
Wonderful are the ways Providence adopts to realize His mys-
terious ends.

When, centuries before Hillel, the scribes began to interpret
the Divine Law in conformity with the pressing needs of the
times, nobody thought that those slight beginnings would, after
six centuries, culminate in a prodigious literature, which, in
vastness of variety, resembles nature in the tropics, while in
its historical worth it is inestimable to Judaism, both as a for-
midable means of defense and aggression. Let no sincere
Christian think lightly of the authentic evidence the Talmud —
the unmutilated Talnnid, which the destructive efforts of the
church have not succeeded in annihilating — can bring to bear
in throwing light on the true origin and beginnings of his re-
ligion. The historian who disdains to call in the genuine tes-
timony concerning Christianity as it is unceremoniously given
in the original editions of that enormous work, deprives him-
self of the only reliable source of information on that subject.
We shall elsewhere give more attention to the Messiah, whose
" kingdom of peace " turned earth into one vast valley of Ge-
Idnnom. In the following paragraphs we mean to glance at
the nature and contents of the Talnnids.

Rabbi Jehudah Hannassi, a descendant of the great Hillel
the Ancient, and surnamed Rahbeim Hakkadosh, " our sacred

master," was tlie editor-iii-cliief of 1\\q Mishna — itself avast
literature transmitted from generation to generation, which,
having received permanent shape in six divisions, became the
text-book of the yet vaster ocean of traditional lore which is
embraced in tlie Palestinian and Babylonian Talmnds. With
tlie decline and disintegration of Israel's tempoi-al kingdom,
God and His Law form the central idea and ideal round whicli
the oppressed and scattered tribes rally ; physical dissolution
gives room to spiritual cohesion ; powerful schools, inspired by
enthusiastic leaders and thinkers, spring into life, and, trans-
planted into foreign climes, Judaism, with its Law, Prophecy,
and traditional wisdom in hand, engages in that tremendous
struggle for spiritual supremacy the end of which the world
has yet to see.

Distinguished among the several Jewish sects, whose con-
tentions distracted the peace of crumbling Judea, stood the
Pharisees, a formidable phalanx, voicing tlie sentiments and
religious aspirations of the people, and strenuously opposing
the letter-worshiping Sadducees and the mystic Essenes by
teaching the spirit and not the dead letter of Holy Writ, and,
what is less creditable, by introducing into Monotheistic Juda-
ism such of Magian superstitions as they deemed reconcilable
with the spirit of the Law, and some mystic hints in prophecy.
To them the credit is due of having laid the foundation of the
all-embracing and growing labyrinth of Jewish traditions gen-
erally summed up under the heading Talmud, meaning study,
erudition, or interpretation of Mosaism and later Prophecy.
It would not be in accordance with the design of this work to
enter into an extensive disquisition as to the rise, growth, devel-
opment, arid nature of this unparalleled oral literature, which,
originally a living grove of picturesque variety, has, in time,
assumed the lifeless features of an ossified banyan-tree, in the
shade of w^hich petrified orthodoxy delights to doze. Without
hesitation it may be said that Judaism outgrew the impor-
tance of the Talmud as a source of religious edification. As a
work of historical significance, and as a record of Jewish
thought, life, and ethics, it is invaluable. Thus if the Talmud
has not the influence over progressive Israel it still connnands

over the less enlightened portion of the ancient race, it is,
nevertheless, a monument to be contemplated with reverence
and wonder ; yea, to be searched for hidden treasures more
precious and less fabulous than the hoards of the T^ibelungen.
We have liere to deal with a national literature, covering a
period of nearly eight centuries, touching any and every topic
of human interest, and breathing the dreams and realities of
the most devout and inspired people on earth.

As an enlargement of and supplement to the Mishna, the
Talmud is called Gemara, the complement, and their compila-
tion as one large cyclopsedia — for many centuries passing from
lip to lip enshrined in a people's heart and memory — was finally
deemed necessary in order to preserve and perpetuate the most
authentic legal, social, political, and moral events in Israel.
That this library shielded the identity of Judaism and was a
thorn in tiie side of the orthodox Christian and Moslem Church
is, perhaps, proved l)y nothing so conclusively as by the inces-
sant efforts of monk and dervish to destroy it. Talnnidical
records put it beyond doubt that there was no Jesus cruci-
fied at the time vulgarly adopted, but that several of that
name and of a I'ather questionable notoriety were, for various
crimes, executed centuries before. It is also by Talmud-
ical jurisprudence, so rigid in its methods of criminal proced-
ure, that we are able to discredit the fictitious tale of the
crucifixion having been instigated by the Jews, the writer be-
ing fortunately one entirely ignorant of the Sanhedric law, the
sessions of the grand tribunal, and many indisputable facts,
which give the story-teller the lie. The tale, as given by the
gospels, that Jesus was arrested by emissaries of the high priests,
was at night examined by the judges in the house of the high
priest Caiaphas ; that he admitted himself to be the Messiah
and " the Son of God ; " that the judges tore their garments on
hearing this blasphemy, for whicli they condemned him to die,
and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, who had him scourged
and, with two other criminals, crucified, is flatly contradicted
by the following facts : (1.) There was never more than one
high priest, who rarely, if ever, had anything to do with the
presidency of the Sanhedrin. (2.) Long before the date

spoken of the right to judge criniiiial cases had been denied
the Jews. (3.) No criminal could be condemned in one night
or in a private liouse. (4.) Jewish law allowed no double pun-
islnnent, scourging and crucifying ; nor was crucifying a means
of legal execution ever practiced in Israel. (5.) It is a positive
Jewish law that no more than one criminal should be executed
in one day, never two, still less three, (6.) Blasphemy was
a capital crime after the blaspliemer was warned of its conse-
quences. The claim of Jesus to be " the Son of God " was no
blasphemy, and would be no sufficient reason for his condem-
nation ; and the crookedness of this statement is confirmed by
a remark of Gibbon, wlio says that " Chrysostom and Atha-
nasius are obliged to confess that the divinity of Christ is
rarely mentioned by himself or his apostles." He calls him-
self "the Son of Man.'''' Besides this indirect evidence against
many an Evangelical error, tlie Talmud has a way of calling
things by their proper name, wliich made the St. Cyrils thirst
for Jewish blood. It managed, however, to survive all per-
secutions, and, what we thank Providence for is, that there are
editions tliereof wliich escaped the ruthless mutilations of the
Church. Without the Talmud there would be centuries with-
out any true records.

While the doctors, who prominently figure in this volumi-
nous display of laborious erudition, are mostly concerned with
discussing the oral traditions handed down to their age, paying
scrupulous attention to such references as involved the consci-
entious interpretation of the Mosaic Law, secular knowledge,
including the results of metaphysical tliought and scientific re-
search, are copiously embodied in its heavy tomes. A special
predilection therein is noticeable for mathematics and astron-
omy ; geometry being the necessary science, indispensable in
legal measurements of land in dispute ; and some astronomical
knowledge being necessary in settling calendarial questions,
such as the date of the new moon, tlie feasts, the holy days, the
change of seasons and of years.

The two great divisions of the Talmud are respectively
named the Halacliah and the Haggadah. The first contains a
record of important legal cases and decisions ; the second is a

collection of historical facts, hyperboles, legends, fables, allego-
ries, enigmas, practical experience, worldlywisdom, ethical say-
ings and pithy allusio ns to hnnian nature and its frailties.
These latter, together with numerons ingenious suggestions,
fancies, nice interpretations of hints and superfluous letters in
Scriptures, make up the material of the several works known
as the 31{drashim, which, to tliis day, are an inexhaustible mine
precious to the Jewish preacher. The charm of that peculiar
literature is to be accounted for by the contrasts afforded by its
hair-splitting Halachic finesse, its adroit disentangling of the
most knotty complications presented by legal problems, and
the Haggadic most naive incredible tales, anecdotes, and all
kinds of dreams and poetical flights, which relieve and amuse
the mind as the eye skims over the stately pages, exuberant as
the tropical forest. While engaged in discussing a point of
law, two doctors grow warm, when the one exclaims : " If I
be right, let the walls of this school sustain me ! " at which, we
are assured, the walls reverently inclined. The opposition per-
sisting and rejecting the evidence of the bent walls, the other
disputant forcibly appeals to a neighboring well, and it moves
to another place to confirm his view. This miraculous mani-
festation being unheeded, nay, energetically repudiated by a
daring opposition, a venerable date-tree is required to sustain
the truth of the assertion. The tree responds by leaping to a
distance of four hundred paces ; but in vain, the opposition is
stubborn. " Let then an echo from heaven bear witness that
I am right ! " says the triumphant doctor. Even this is grant-
ed, for a voice audibly rings from above, upholding his inter-
pretation of the Divine Law. Undismayed the opponent
yields not. "The Torah is not in the heavens, but has long
ago been given to us through Moses on Sinai," is the daring
reply. Elijah, who often favored the learned with a call and
some friendly message or instruction from above, was, on the
first occasion, asked what The Almighty did when those super-
natural signs in confirmation of the one party were left un-
heeded. " Lie smiled," said he, and remarked, "my children
have carried it." To the uninitiated this must appear sheer
nonsense. A light in Israel — the gao7i of Wilna — reaches a

different conclusion, seeing in that narrative a profound alle-
gory, and giving it a meaning much more acceptable than
many a one forced on heathen mytliology.

In another place we are told that a distinguished teacher in
Israel, having incurred the displeasure, of the government, had
to flee for his life, and, like the nnfortunate Hannibal, found
no peace nor rest until, driven to extreme straits, he sought
refuge in a forest, facing want and starvation. In connection
with this poor victim of tyranny we are told that at this par-
ticular date there was a serious disagreement in heaven be-
tween the " Holy One blessed be He " and the blessed Synod
of the great dead and learned over whom He presides, concern-
ing a tumor on the human body, which case finds mention in
the Mosaic laws of cleanliness. The tumor having broken out
under certain conditions The Almighty pronounced the patient
as clean ; the Synod declared him unclean. "Who was to be
the umpire in so grave a difference ? The fugitive Rabbi
bar Nachmani, whose claim was admitted as being an expert
specialist on that species of sickness. While breathing his last
the dying sage decided in favor of The Holy One, expiring
with the sound talior, clean, on his lip, at which a Heavenly
Voice exclaimed: " Hail, Rabbi bar Nachmani ! for thou art
clean, and thy soul left thee clean." ^*

David, it is stated, prayed long that he might be informed
as to the day of his death. " Thou wilt die on a Sabbath "
was all he was granted ; but on what Sabbath ? Convinced
that the angel of death could not approach him as long as he
studied the Divine Law, he spent every Sabbath in uninter-
rupted study. On his last Sabbath Death was puzzled how to
reach the soul of the aged monarch, who was engaged in holy
work. The resources of Death, however, are numerous. Send-
ing a mighty storm through the trees of the royal gardens the
king, alarmed at the sweep and rustle, proceeded to see what
it was, when a step of the staircase gave way ; the shock
broke liis strain of speech and thought for a moment, which
was sufficient for Death to accomplish his fatal work.

^* Does not this allegory prove Israel's old fliith in immortality?

It were unreasonable to look for consistency in a variegated
mass of traditional literature wherein hundreds of teachers, at
various ages and under constantly changing circumstances,
have their legal, moral, practical, ideal, and philosopliical views
recorded. We need, therefore, not be surprised at the great
divergence of views as we find them faithfully recorded, a
circumstance which, in the nature of things, may serve as a
proof in favor of the general authenticity of Talmudical
records. Things are recorded as they were at difterent times
uttered, hence the contradictory opinions one so frequently
perceives in perusing diflferent volumes, impressing the reader
that he stands before a forum on which a thousand orators,
lawyers, poets, dreamers, and philosophers are from various
standpoints viewing similar questions. A strong instance of
this apparent disagreement of different authorities is fur-
nished by the expressed views about the relation of God and
Israel to the idolatrous nations of earth. First, we are plainly
told that Moses prayed that the Divine Glory might not shine
on any but the Jewish nation. — It is called Sinai- — Sinah —
because hatred descended on it for the Gentiles. — Eclipses are
ill-omens for Gentiles. — It is called Moriah because terror,
moreh, sprung from it for idolators.^ — ^The Ethiopians are no
men. — Israel's cattle is dearer to the Gentiles than their
wives. — Stealing from a Gentile is forbidden ; his error is al-
lowed.-— The idolator wlio observes the Sabbath or studies the
Law deserves capital punishment. — Make no conmion cause
with a Gentile. — He was exiled because Ethiopians sat at his
table. — During war s]>are not the best of the Gentiles. — You
may turn a few leaves and read the very counterpart of these
intolerant teachings. Just glance at these truly humane lines. —
For the sake of peace it is obligatory to support the non- Jew-
ish with the Jewish poor, attend their sick, and bury their
dead with the Jewish.^^ — He who robs a Gentile must return
the object stolen ; it is worse to defraud a Gentile than to
rob a Jew, thus bringing disgrace on Judaism. — The Gentile

.SxiK?' 'no d;' onDj 'no r"i3ipi

who studies the Law is as good as the High Priest. — And the
" righteous of all nations have a share in the world to come." ^®
This line hy itself is a world of philanthropic love of which
orthodox Cliristianity never dreamt, it having a bottomless
hell for all dissenters.

Infidels and fault-finding humanitarians, mounted on the
windy Pegasus of unmeasured vanity, ask the Jew of the
nineteenth century to account for those summary measures of
cruelty recorded in the Old Testament, and the misanthropic
sentiments here and there expressed in the Talmud. Without
calling to help the pressing necessities and environments of
those remote times — which fair criticism ought to consider, to
say nothing of the self-preserving impulse — in extenuation of
severities and utterances which in those works are not the
rule, but the exception, we shall say that, with the historical
treatment of the Jew by the non-Jew before our eyes, we are
struck with wonder, not at the rare absence of kindlier feel-
ings toward an outrageous foe, but at the frequent presence
of the most pressing injunctions enforcing kindliness and
charity toward the stranger, Jew or non-Jew, aye, even
toward the brute.

Like the Gentile, woman enjoys a fair sliare of Talmudical
impai'tiality in the treatment accorded her. Once she is the
blessing of the home ; she has been the cause of Israel's de-
livery from Egypt; man should be careful of her honor;
Irian's home means his wife ; woman received greater prom-
ises from God than man ; her beauty enlarges the human soul ;
she has one sense more than man ; her virtue makes her hus-
band rich ; the generations are redeemed through virtuous
womanhood; -he who has no wife is no man; the wifeless
knows neither joy, nor any other blessing. — Again the medal
is reversed, and woman is spoken of as a vessel full of dirt;
as one after whose peace no man should inquire — of the ten
Inisliels of speech given this world she usurped nine ; he who
is influenced by his wife descends to hell ; she dislikes to en-
tertain guests. The best of women indulge in supei'stition and

.K3n uh^yh pSn onh w^ nSu'n moiN 'pni""

witchcraft. Speak not much to a woman ; she is frivolous ; she
should be attracted by the right and repelled with the left hand.
As to a bad wife, she is worse than death ; any otlier evil is pref-
erable to a bad woman ; she is a divine infliction of whom it is
meritorious to get rid by divorce. Life is made bitter by a
bad wife ; when it is said that the poor man's days are evil, he
is meant who has a bad wife. — Personal experience had doubt-
less much to do with individual views, yet there is no differ-
ence of opinion as to the veneration due to the mother in
Israel, whose honor is guarded by the Ten Commandments,
and who is in fact the all-in-all in the Jewish home, as it will
presently be shown. The good wife is more precious than
jewels. " He who marries the proper wife, Elijah kisses him,
and The Almighty loves him." "

An almost infinite variety of beautiful sayings is inter-
spersed among the more serious subjects treated in the Talniud.
We take a few of these at random : " To help the poor by loan
is preferable to helping tliem by charity. — The seal of God is
truth. — Live not in the neighborhood of the ignorant who is
overreligious. — Enjoy thy Sabbath like any other day, rather
than appeal to charity. — Israel was dispersed among the nations
so that he might grow by converts. — The Lord found poverty
to be the best endowment for the benefit of Israel. — Having
resisted tlie same temptation twice, you are safe. — The literary
man who has not the courage of his views is no wise man. —
The righteous need no memorial service, their memory being
held green by their good works. — Three qualities distinguish
the children of Israel : ynodesty, convpassion, and humanity. — It
is better that one should throw himself into a fieiy furnace
than cause his fellow-man to blush publicly. — He who does not
teach his son a trade, teaches him to rob. — Blushing is a good
sign ; he who blushes, will not easily err ; but he who lias no
shame proves that his ancestry did not stand at the foot of
Sinai. — Work is great, since it honors the worker. — Be careful
in treating the youth of the poor, for they are tlie support of
the Law. — No man sins until overcome by insanity. — BatJ^er

.bi nmx r]"^^} ipts^n in'Sx )h njjinn ntj'x XB'un"'

he among the persecuted than among the 'persecutors. — The law
of the government is the binding law, — Even of the Gentile no
interest should he taken. — He who causes the good to be done,
is better than the doer thereof ; he wlio dispenses charity un-
known is greater than our law-giver Moses. — The just are
more than ministering angels. — As man measures so is he
measured. — Four parties never behold the Shekinah — the
scoffers, the liars, the flatterers, and the defamers. — The way
man chooses to walk he is Providentially led. — This world is
related to the hereafter as the eve of Sabbath to the Sabbath ;
having pi-epared nothing on Friday, what will you eat on the
Sabbath ? — Later woes cause the eaiiier to be forgotten. — Who
may check the leaven in the dough ? — Open thy lips and let
thy words enlighten. — Woe to the generation of whom you are
the leader. — If one attempts your life, anticipate him in the
deed. — Whatever God does is done for the best. — Nobody
can see his own shortcomings. — Pass bread to the poor, so
tliat others may dispense it to thy children. — Bargain not for
things, being unpossessed of money. — A divorced man who
marries a divorced woman has four minds in his house. —
Should that deformity meet you pull him along to the school-
house. — Woe to the wicked, woe to his neighbor. — No station
can honor a man, it is he who honors his station. — Waste not
thy well's water when others need it. — Woman is more anxious
to get married than man to marry. — The lion you spoke of
turned out a fox. — Woe is me if I speak, woe if I am silent. —
Ascribe not thy fault to another. — The learned son of an
ignorant parent is like one coin in an empty vessel, it makes a
big noise. — Reprimand thyself before reprimanding others. —
If you ask too nmch, you will get nothing. — There is not a
man who has not once a happy hour. — It is not the rat but the
rat-hole that steals. — The rivalry of the wise increases wis-
dom.— I have a precious pearl in my hand and thou wouldst
have me lose it ? — He who has bread for to-day and worries
about to-morrow, belongs to those who are small in faith."

And this yet in favor of womanhood : To be wifeless means
to dispense witli joy, blessing, kindness, religion, protection,
and peace. — He who divorces his wife is unbeloved of God. —

100

None feels a man's death as inucli as liis wife.— No man with-
out a wife ; nor a woman without a husband ; nor a family
without God. — No sooner does a man marry than his sins are
forgiven. — Before taking a M^ife build a house and plant a
vineyard. — God shields the loyal couple, without Whom they
are consumed by the fire of contention. — Let not age marry
youth, lest the sanctit}^ and peace of home be impaired. — No
man should afflict his wife, for God counts her tears. — A curse
rests on the family whose father marries for money. — Marry
a wife of a humbler rank. — Be careful in honoring thy wife,
to whom all thy home's blessings are due. — If thy wife be
small bow down to take counsel of her. — -Love thy wife as thy-
self ; lionor her more than self. — Tears are shed on God's altar
for one who abandons the spouse of his youth. — He who sur-
vives his helpmate has been present at the destruction of the
Temple.— Life has no light for him who buries his wife. —
Christianity, it will be shown later, was very slow in assimi-
lating the least of these tender feelingg in regard to the sacred
dignity of womanhood. Many church luminaries have seen in
their mothers the instruments of the devil.

With these few quotations taken from an unbounded garden
of ethical flowers we would gladly dismiss the subject, gratified
at the panoramic exhibition of a rare province human curiosity
has yet to explore. Candor, however, requires us to look at the
other side of the picture, and, having displayed the good, the
beautiful, and the true, give some samples of the less admirable
or desirable. Our traditional literature having been developed
on foreign soil, superstitions foreign to Monotheism, fancies
repugnant to sound common sense, infiltrated the Jewish mind
to a deplorable extent ; so that Mosaic silence regarding mat-
ters beyond the grave was never fully understood until the
exiled Jews had sufficiently freed themselves of strange no-
tions conceived by coming in contact with other creeds ; no-
tions such as that of hell and other superstitions, of which
our revelation has little to say. We could well dispense with
the whole fancy even as a mere allegory. Such allegories are
dangerous to the untaught and the thoughtless vulgar. Gladly
would we have left the task to Tiiomas Aquinas to answer the

101

weighty questions: "Whetlier the fire that shall purge the
world on Doouisdav will be like the elemental fire we know ?
AVhether the sun and the moon will darken on the Day of
Judgment? Whether all the members of the human body
will rise hair and nails on ? Whether souls are conducted to
heaven or to hell immediately after death ? Whether the
gulfs of hell are tlie same as Abraham's bosom ? " This re-
minds one of Lucifer in the " Golden Legend," who, on enter-
ing the great school of Salern, finds the following thesis af-
fixed for debate : —

" Whether angels, in moving from jtlace to place,
Pass throu<rh the intermediate space ;
Whether God Himself is the Author of evil,
Or whether it is the work of the devil ;
When, where, and wherefore Lucifer fell.
And whether he now is chained in hell."

We have never ceased to be grateful that the names of our
greatest and best are nowhere associated with any infernal tribu-
nal. In defiance to Judaism that leaves Eden's gate open to the
" righteous of all nations," Tertullian,^* a piUar of the ortho-
dox Church, rejoices at the blissful prospect of seeing Christ's
tribunal established in hell. " How shall I admire, how laugh,
how rejoice, how exult when I behold so many proud nion-
archs, so many fancied gods, groaning in the lowest abyss of
darkness ; so many magistrates who persecuted the name of
The Lord, liquefying in fiercer fires than they ever kindled
against the Christians ; so many sage philosophers blushing in
red-hot flames with their deluded scholars ; so many celebrated
poets ti'embling before the tribtmal, not of Minos, but of
Christ." This orthodox theologian has a good many more
things to say on the edifying topic, and, as he is ranked among
the saints, we have to accept his authoritative statement that
the " prince of peace " has some important mission in the in-
fernal regions. He has to see to it that the " sage philoso-
phers " and the " celebrated poets," like Socrates, Buddha,

** It is a well-known fact, stated by Gibbon, that Cyprian, the head
of the Western Church, called TertuUian his master.

102

Zoroaster, Plato, Moses, Homer, Yirgil, &c., blush " in red-liot
flames." Good business for a meek Messiah. That the in-
quisitors and all good Christians of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries entertained the same views, that there are at this
moment scores of Christian millions who believe in a literal
hell and devilish torments, are facts nobody questions. After
all the Talmudical fancies of hell are put on recoi"d there is
the emphatic assertion that " there is no hell in the loorld to
come, but God luill draw forth the sun from his cover — the soul
from the body — scorching the ivicked and comforting the up-
righty Thus reassured that there is no real hell for the Jew,
we are going to give a fair exhibit of our infernal fancies. We
gratefully acknowledge our indebtedness to tlie masterly essay
by the venerable ex-secretary of the Anglo- Jewish Association,
Rev. A. Lowy, whose " Jewish Legends of Hell " enabled us
to enlarge our previous notes on the same topic. The expres-
sion fancies, instead of legends, appears to us preferable, the
legend having more definite outlines, more of a realistic back-
ground than the fancy. An event uncertified by history, but
not beyond the limits of the possible, makes up the material of
a popular legend. Is hell anything but a creation of a morbid
fancy ? Does not the Pharisaic statement that all prophecies
point to the Messianic era, the hereafter being known to God
alone, sustain this view ? ^^

There should be no hesitation in admitting what may hardly
be denied, and that is, that except such as appeared dangerous
to the Monotheistic principle, popular superstition found recog-
nition in tlie Old Testament. Thus, while exorcism is strictly
forbidden, and all witchcraft condemned, the sacrifice offered
to \izazel, the evil spirit of the desert, on the Day of Atone-
ment, as well as the whole sacrificial ceremonial, must be seen
in tlie light of a concession made to an unrefined, unidealized,
popular temper, tinged with superstition. Nor have the dim
allusions to dark regions and painful conditions in after-life
any other origin ; and, current as such fancies irmst have been
in the vocabulary of the people, the prophet and the poet found

103

them handy to allegorize tljeir inspirations. An admixture of
non-Jewish mythology is readily perceived in the later cycle
of those fabulous fancies which, as was to be expected, did not
escape the literal belief of the vulgar. Jacob's lamentation,
that he would descend in sorrow to slieol, is certainly but an
allegorical figure of speech ; and so it is as often as, with addi-
tional remarks, that term and all its synonyms occur in the Old
Testament. Later on circumstances altered cases, and the pop-
ular mind was greatly influenced and vice restrained by a caus-
tic enumeration of such vicious or degenerate natures as are fit
subjects for the fires and tortures of hell. Such are the un-
charitable ; the weakling, who yields too much to female influ-
ence ; the sycophant ; the scofifer ; he who teaches an unworthy
pupil ; he who obeys his lower proclivities ; the proud and
conceited ; the impudent ; the profane ; all sinners, of course,
and, we are sorry to add, even the " best of physicians," ^" and
those who neglect the study of the Divine Law. Apostates,
like Jeroboam, are doomed forever ; but those who visit the
sick ; observe the Sabbath, including its three meals ; the mod-
est and the benevolent and the righteous, never see hell. Hell
is entered by three gates ; is wrapt in " darkness visible ; "
is presided over by an almighty power, the " lord of hell," to
whom God said : " I am above it and you below ; " it has seven
names and seven divisions ; is located in diflferent directions ;
by some, beyond the firmament ; by others, beneath or witliin
the earth ; by others again, beyond the dark mountains, to
which frequent reference is made in the Talmud. Moham-
med's fearful picture of the Tribunal of tlie Sepulchre, after
Azrael had performed his task of separating the soul from the
body, is copied verbatim el literatim from Jewish folklore, a
few small details excepted. His black angels, Munker and

^° DJH'jb D'Xannty ai£3 It is worthy of notice that Rousseau is hkewise
severe in his flings at that class of professional men. That this preju-
dice was and is not general among Jews, and is due either to personal
disappointment, or to an acquaintance with the practices of quacker}^,
is not alone proved by a Talmudical warning, iiot to live in a place that has
no physician, but by the well-known fact that during the Dark Ages, as
well as at present, Jews ranked and rank high among the foremost of
that scientific profession.

104

Nakeer, who call on every new grave, unite the soul with the
body, and, after some intei-rogation, either restore body and
soul to peace or expose them to horrid torments, applying iron
clubs to head and brow, is the slightly modified story of the
"CMhit hakeher,''^ as the same proceeding is called in our tra-
dition. Dante's vision of the infernal regions, and treatment
of the reprobates, is scarcely an imjirovement on what a* ven-
erable Talmudist has seen, accompanied by the acconnnodating
Elijah, to the entrance of hell.

We forbear to enter into details so well known to those who
read the Italian, British, and German poets on that unamusing
topic. Hell is vast ; horrid ; deep ; full of terrible agents ; de-
mons ; iiery beasts ; devouring elements ; black rivers falling
on the heads of the tormented : a disgusting picture of a dis-
gusting fable, which multiplied the terrors and agonies of
death, " Each of the seven habitations of hell has two thou-
sand houses ; in each house there are seven windows, and in
each window are two thousand cruses filled with the substance
of gall, and in these habitations the delinquents of various con-
ditions serve their sentences of torture. According to another
version of this legend," says Mr. Lowy, " there are in each of
the seven regions six thousand houses ; in each house six thou-
sand windows ; in each window six thousand cruses of gall.
Regarding the dimensions of each region of hell there are
various legends. According to one, each region is one hun-
dred miles in length and iifty miles in breadth. According
to another legend hell has a length which would require three
hundred years to walk through. The same number of years
would be occupied in traveling through its breadth ; conse-
quently it would cojisume twenty-one hundred years to pass
from one end to another. Another legend arrives at the follow-
ing estimate of the extent of hell : ' Egypt has four hundred
square parasangs ; Ethiopia is sixty times larger than Egypt ;
the Garden is sixty times larger than Ethiopia; Eden is sixty
times lai'ger than the Garden, and Geheima is sixty times
larger than Eden. The whole world appears like a lid cover-
ing the cauldron of hell.' "

That will do; and one cannot deny respect to a ])eople who.

105

with such a capacious hell at their disposal, still reserved a
place in paradise for the " righteous of all nations/'

Closely connected with these fancies are, of course, magic
and evil spirits. It is intimated that the evil spirits were all
created on Friday. Nobody should enter an uninhabited place
or a dilapidated habitation, lest he be hurt by the ubiquitous
evil genii. The reading of the Shemang is recommended as a
talisman against those invisible foes. If the eye could see
them, nobody could stand the sight of those myriads of evil
ones, who are ever surrounding man. It is good not to walk
alone at night. On one extraordinary occasion, it is asserted
that a hundred and twenty thousand myriads of evil spirits
were caused to descend on earth. ^^ It is not allowed to salute
anybody at night, lest he be an evil one. When tlie wicked
dies, two parties of demons come to meet him. The best of
women are witch es.^^ If one sleeps alone at night, Lilith,
Adam's spiritual wife, will seize him, Eabid dogs, with
whom the witches play, are possessed of a demon. Simeon
ben Shetach had eighty witches hung.

The doctrine of bodily reeurrection has its origin in
Pharisaic literature, the Pharisees insisting that the Israelite
was bound to believe that doctrine, which they traced back to
the Divine Law. We are assured in Sanliedrin 9:2, that the
" righteous, whom God will resurrect, will never return to dust
again ; they will have wings and be able to swim on water."'
They who doubt the doctrine of resurrection fall into Gehin-
nom. Moses Maimonides and Moses Mendelssohn subscribed
to that article of faith, and it is useless to add that their fol-
lowers in this respect are at this very hour counted by mill-
ions. Would to Heaven they had spoken of it as an allegory,
but there is no trace of such a conception about the thirteen
articles which Maimonides composed and Mendelssohn en-
dorsed. In pleasant contrast to this is the grandly ideal
view of the blessed beyond, as it is dimly spoken of in that
same traditional literature. The human soul is philosopli-
ically compared with the Infinite Spirit. As God fills the

.D'Sts'D Th];2 D'tyjaiy mt^Dn -- .n^nn '3«So xm Sd n-i' "

106

whole universe, so is the body full of the soul ; as God sees,
Himself unseen, so the soul ; as God sustains the universe, so
the soul the body ; as He is pure, so the soul ; as He is hidden
in the remotest quarters, so the soul." Agreeably to this view
of the soul is the picture of bliss promised in the beyond.
The learned, who spend their lives in the study of the Law,
are admitted to the celestial Synod presided over by The
Almighty. The souls of the righteous dwell under the Throne
of Glory ,^ an idea on which Mohammed's paradise is based.
The following is an explicit passage on the subject. " In the
world to come, there is neither eating nor drinking, nor sen-
sual indulgence, nor any material occupation, nor jealousy,
nor hatred, nor competition ; but the just rest, crowns on
head, deriving ineffable bliss from the clearest light of Divine
Majesty." Evidently sharing this sweetest of human hopes,
Ibn Gabirol sings : —

" Who may Thy Wisdom emulate, who didst
Beneath Thy Majesty's Supremest Throne,
A blissful station grant the upright soul ; —
They, spirits pure, thus deathless wrapt in life,
Reposing from sublunar toil, tasting bliss
Immortal, ranked, besides, in brilliant files
Before Divinest Grace in bliss enthroned.
Their heavenly Manna being wisdom sweet,
Unfathomed here ; such be the meed of them,
Whose heritage is life unuttered here."

Let US not turn away from this traditional maze of dreams,
fancies, and realities, without a word on the mystical, mythi-
cal, and mythological personality of Elijah, who, invested
with all the virtues, rights, and powers of the highest angels,
often wanders among the mortal race, seeing, unseen. He
is the Matatron, the intermediator between God and man,
whose prayers he spreads before his Divine Master, supple-
menting them with a pleading word. He visits the pious, the
sick, and sometimes the virtuous poor, spreading hope, healing,
and blessing wherever he moves. His benign presence is even
grateful to the canine species, that play, delighted at the sight

.nnDH HDD nnn ninj: □'pnir Sty jnotyj "

107

of this messenger of good, but howl as often as tlie angel of
death lands on this terrestrial globe. In thousands of Jewish
homes, a special cup filled with wine is set apart on the first
eve of the Passover for Elijah, who is supposed to fly from
liouse to house, followed by a host of blessed and blessing
angels. Finally it is he who is waiting to give the signal
when the true Messiah shall descend to found God's everlast-
ing kingdom below, bringing love and peace to all men.

CHAPTER VII.

THEIR MESSIAH AND OUR IDEAL.

There is something darker and more real in this world than
the mythical goddess, Ate, who, according to Homer, now and
then walks on the heads of mankind to confuse their sane in-
tellect, and that is the misconception and forced interpreta-
tion of an allegory, such as tlie forever distorted and misun-
derstood prophecy of tlie deeply allegorical Isaiah and his
prophetic followers. Nothing in the annals of error is psycho-
logically more remarkable than the moral, religious, social, and
political revolutions brought about by the illogical, historically
unjustified and unconfirmed significance attached to an un-
proved, unsustained realization of the prophet's Messianic
dream ; misinterpreted and grossly misapplied by the trini-
tarian, image- worshiping, orthodox Church. Heathen mythol-
ogy is beautiful compared with the misconceived Jesus-myth,
fearful in its dark consequences ; written with the blood and
tears of at least as many victims as the man-eating Aztecs sac-
rificed to their demoniac idols. That Tophet of gore, corrup-
tion, vice, and crime ! Who ever hated deeper, dealt more
cruelly, aye fiendishly, with fellow-men of independent faith
and thought than the mediaeval, ah ! me, and the modern semi-
barbarous followers of that legendary Messiah ? It is the
blackest nightmare history tells of. In questions of truth and
error, how little do majorities avail ! As if to show that truth
is not measured by bulk, a Wise Providence ordained that
the world be redeemed by a few enliglitened minds, the
precious being always rare ; and that the wisest, not the vast-
est, nations determine the course of man's moral develop-
ment. Even what is at this moment known as the " civilized
world " embraces but a small minority of the fourteen hundred
millions of men and women on the globe, so that human

(109)

110

progress is hardly endorsed by a vote of the great majority.
The masses are deaf. You reason, prove, or disprove in vain.
Until a recent date, the question was not, Who speaks truth ?
but, Who may enforce his argument with the iron rod? It is
useless to rehash what men of deep, impartial genius have so
often proved. The Jesus begotten by the Holy Ghost and
born of a virgin. History knows not, and sound common sense
rejects. The Jesus of history is one of many namesakes ; his
teachings are as contradictory as his record, and as uncertain.
The foundation of the Church is legend ; her teachings are a
patchwork, and whatever there is good and beautiful therein,
her actions, her annals belied. Unscrupulous zealotism erased
damaging passages from tlie Talmud, distorted Sacred Writ
and historical documents by spurious interpolations, gagged
freedom of speech, chained liberty of thought, having no
safer prop to uphold a creed whose basis is fiction and miracle.
Pray, consider this single fact : Here is a people of a fiery
imagination, groaning under Roman oppression, divided by
civil war, rushing toward dissolution, anxiously hoping, pray-
ing, and waiting for a deliverer — a promised Messiah, and
rejecting him whose birth was announced by a detached star,
and whose miraculous performances, if partly true, ought to
have suflSced to turn even an Antiochus Epiphanes into a Jew.
Such an incomprehensible blindness is verily the greatest of all
recorded miracles. Why did the " Lion of Judah " disdain
his own Messiah ?

This is an historical phenomenon non-Jewish historians
never critically consider. Why did the Jews not accept Jesus,
having shown themselves ready to recognize a Messiah in a
mere brave warrior, like Barcocheba — yea, having virtually
paid Messianic honors to Cyrus ? Wlien a man like Gibbon, in
trying to account for the obstinacy of the " Jewish Christians "
to see more than a man in Jesus, says that " the miracles of
the gospels could not astonish a people who held with in-
trepid faith the more splendid prodigies of the Mosaic Law,"
he says in as many words that the most credulous and de-
luded of the Jews were not hopelessly deceived. Celsus, a
Greek philosopher of no mean quality, in his " True Dis-

Ill

course," induces a Jew to advance causes for his rejection of
the miraculous birth and tlie Messiahship of Jesus. According
to tlie information of that Greek clironicler, Mary was not a
virgin, but a divorced woman, who fell in love with a Roman
soldier, Panthera, and the fruit of this love was Jesus. Owing
to poverty the soldier's son emigrated to Egypt, where he had
learned many necromantic tricks, by means of wliich, reappear-
ing in Judea, he tried to sustain his Messianic pretensions. His
miracles any Egyptian juggler could perfoi'm, and more than
such he never brought to light.'* His divine mission remained
thus unsustained. If he were a god he would not have chosen
questionable and worthless men as his apostles. His fore-
knowledge ought to have excluded Judas from his company.
His resurrection was an absurd fabrication, or h^ would have
reappeared and justified his nature as a god, instead of stand-
ing on record as a rebel. Who had seen him after he had
risen ? A half -insane woman and two of his followers under the
influence of an absurd hallucination. — Celsus had seen Chris-
tianity in its infancy, knew the Jews and many of the church
fathers, and is thus entitled to some consideration. Enlight-
ened Israel is unprepared to attach weight to slanderous tissues
of that kind, but they are noteworthy as the deliberate ex-
pressions of men, high-minded and cultured, never speaking

^* A quotation somewhere else will show that Strauss had similar mis-
givings about the veracity and miraculous performances of Jesus. To
Renan he is a man " whom his death made divine," and as a critic justly
remarked, he reduced him to " an amiable rabbi who, beginning as an
innocent enthusiast, developed into something hardly, if at all, removed
from conscious imposture." We have yet to hear of a Hebrew sage or
prophet who stood open to such disgraceful and yet unrefuted charges as
are associated with the origin and growth of Christianity ; charges which,
instead of being diminished and weakened by the increase of light
thrown by scientific research, are, on the contrary, on the increase as the
ages advance. In this case it very much looks as if falsehood is a fearful
investment that bears interest of interest. Had Mohammed died a poor,
obscure Arab the grave would have given him peace. His assumed rnis-
sion of the "last prophet" doomed him to be periodically exhumed,
paraded, examined, arraigned, condemned, executed, and buried, only to
be unearthed by some other critic. Such is Nemesis. Truly, there is
" no peace for the wicked."

112

without thinking. The Platonic philosopher evidently looked
seriously into the matter, and we are having the benefit of his
conclusions. Celsus was not a poet but a thinker, and his " True
Discourse " is not intended to fill the place of a romance. Nor
was it sufficiently refuted by the church fathers, who often mis-
took contradiction for refutation.

Glancing at the bare-laid history of the inner primitive
Cliurch, Jewish aversion to it assumes the nature of several
logical causes. Before the first century of the vulgar era had
passed, schism and heresy divided the Church, the Gnostics
alone or Gentile Christians being subdivided into more than
fifty particular sects, each one boasting of its bishops, martyrs,
and apostles, and, what is yet more questionable, of a difterent
history of the career and teachings of Jesus and his twelve
disciples, iri-econcilable with the contents of the four, in them-
selves contradictory, gospels endorsed by the Church proper as
authentic. When it is added that the Gnostics were the most
thoughtful of the primitive Christians, and therefore the least
trusted by a church based on ignorance and blind faith, the
surprise at Jewish opposition to the whole system will not in-
crease. Concerning the autlienticity of the gospels as we
have them, Eusebius complains of the philosophical Christians,
who " presume to alter the Holy Scriptures, to abandon the
ancient rule of faith, and to form their opinion according
to the subtile precepts of logic." * * * " Their errors
are derived from the abuse of the arts and sciences of the in-
fidels, and they corrupt the simplicity of the gospel by the re-
finement of human reason." Human reason is the tiling the
good church father piously abhors : a sentiment of which the
Vatican is full. It appears that the most enlightened primi-
tive Christian found the gospel to be painfully in need of re-
finement, and he did his best in this direction. Celsus does,
likewise, accuse the Christians of incessant alterations and
corrections in the substance of the gospel. Nothing that
promised advantage to the pious work appeared forbidden to
the church fatliers. The difference between policy and princi-
ple was not a matter of serious deliberation. " There exists
not a people," says the veracious Justin Martyr, of the second

113

century, " whether Greek or Barbarian, or any other race of
men by whatsoever appellation or manner they may be distin-
guished, however ignorant of arts or agriculture, whether they
dwell in tents or wander about in covered wagons, amo!ig
whom prayers are not offered up, in the name of a crucified
Jesus, to the Father and Creator of all things." At the end
of the nineteenth century, such a statement would provoke a
compassionate smile ; at the date of its writing it was a delib-
erate falsehood. The " pious fraud " is an integral part of
primitive Christianity, and never was humanity more duped
than when it relied on the fulfillment of some ambiguous
prophecy of Jesus. When time exploded the stupidity of the
impending millennium, after it had been positively predicted
by the " Son " of God, lame attempts were made to allegorize
the thing, while the scholarly Grotius, with more candor than
policy, suggests, that for a " loise end " that " pious fraud "
was allowed to agitate the world for so many centuries. Who
feels not a pity for a religion that endeavors to attain her
holy ends by " pious frauds." Bhime old Judaism for shun-
ning and denouncing such an ungenuine, unfilial, off-shoot ?

And that ludicrous jugglery of the primitive Church that
was palmed off as miracles I Almost every Christian in the
days of father IreucTeus was a prophet, open to sudden inspira-
tion of the Holy Ghost. Startling miracles were of daily oc-
currence ; demons were driven out from possessed Christians ;
the sick were healed, the dead restored to life ; foreign lan-
guages were acquired by the ignorant in a supernatural man-
ner. Yet when a distinguished Greek assured Theophiius of
his readiness to embrace Christianity at the sight of a single.
individual who liad really been raised from the dead, that
Bishop of Antioch thought it prudent to decline this fair prop-
osition.

Neither was the moral ideal of the jirimitive monk of a
nature to inspire the Jew with respect for tlie church. A few
words of Gibbon tell the tale : " Disdaining an ignominious
flight the virgins of the warm climate of Africa encountered
the enemy in the closest engagement : they permitted priests
and deacons to share their bed, and gloried amidst the flames

114

of their unsullied purity. Btd insulted nature sometimes vin-
dicated her rights, and this new species of martyrdom served
only to introduce a neiv scandal into the chicrch.^^ Milman
puts on record that father " Felicimus had been condemned by
a synod of bishops on the charge not only of schism, but of
embezzlement of public money, the debauching of virgins,
and frequent acts of adultery. His violent menaces extorted
his readmission, against which Cyprian protests with much ve-
hemence." This father of righteous indignation calls those
" innocent amusements " indulged in by the holy men " irreg-
ularities." We should think such ii-regularities a fair excuse
for those blind Jews who did not turn Christians. But
father Cyril did not see it in this light. Referring to the fact
that the hrst converts to Cliristianity were mostly drawii from
the scum of the masses, Gibbon thinks it all Providentially de-
signed, obscurity, ignorance, superstition, barbarism, and pov-
erty having, in his judgment, been indispensable to the success
of the church. Christianity had to rise from the lowest to the
highest. He continues, " "We stand in need of such reflections
to comfort us for the loss of some illustrious characters, which,
in our eyes, might have seemed the most worthy of the heav-
enly present. The names of Seneca, of the older and the
younger Pliny, of Tacitus, of Plutarch, of Galen, of the slave
Epictetus, and of the emperor Marcus Antoninus, adorn the
age in which they flourished, and exalt the dignity of human
nature. They filled with glory their respective stations either in
active or contemplative life ; their excellent understandings were
improved by study ; philosophy had purified their minds from
prejudices of the popular superstition, and their days were spent
in the j)ursuit of truth and the practice of virtue. Yet all these
sages (it is not less an object of surprise than of concern) over-
looked or rejected the perfection of the Christian system."

It is proper for us to notice that, unloved as Israel was of
Rome, his faith was not treated with disrespect, but rather
with wonder. The same sentiment that caused Alexander
the Great to bow before the name of Jehovali engraved on
the headgear of the High Priest, induced Augustus to ask
that sacrifices be offered up for his prosperity in the Temple

115

of Zioii. Had the Jews been treated with contempt as some
Chi'istian historians would have us believe, would the proud
Caligula have insisted on having his statue placed in the Jew-
isli sanctuary, cm tionor which all Judea heroically denied ?
Jewish heroism and sincerity exacted respect of the conqueror,
while Christian jugglery and mysticism aroused his suspicion
and contempt- The Synagogue was frank, open, and known ;
the Church was clandestine, mystic, and repugnant.

It is amusing to read the popular Roman view of primitive
Christianity as reflected by Eunapius, who ranks the monks
among the animals. " The monks are the authors of the new
worship, which, in the place of those deities wlio are conceived
by the understanding, have substituted the meanest and most
contemptible slaves. The heads, salted and pickled, of those
infamous malefactors who, for the multitude of their crimes,
have suffered a just and ignominious death," &c., " are the gods
which the earth produces in our days." What is of more pain-
ful concern to us is this passage in Justin Martyr and Minacius
in regard to the dark accusation against the primitive Chris-
tians that, in their secret assemblies, " a new-born infant, en-
tirely covered over with flour, was presented, like some mystic
symbol of initiation, to the knife of the proselyte, who, un-
knowingly, inflicted many a secret and mortal wound on the
innocent victim of his error ; that, as soon as the cruel deed
was perpetrated, the sectaries drank up the blood, greedily tore
asunder the quivering members, and pledged themselves to
eternal secrecy by a mutual consciousness of guilt." Need we
look anywhere else for the origin of that spectral hlood-accusa-
tion which for centuries has brought untold woe on the Jewish
head ? '^' The worship of dead bodies by the church justified,

'^'' We are living in the year of jirace 1890, and have the grim satisfac-
tion of reading the following lines of Pope Leo XIII., addressed by his sec-
retary of state, Cardinal Rampollo, to the author of " La mystere du sang
chez les Juifs," an insane rehash of the infernal blood cakimny : " His
Holiness, the Pnpe, was highly pleased with the dedication of that book,
and he has charged me to thank you and to inform you that he bestows
on you his apos^tolic blessing, for he fully agrees with your work about the
infamous custom of the Rabbinical Jews."* It is entirely too late in the
* The Pope has since officially denied this statement.

116

in a measure, the pagan's suspicion that there was something
wrong about the secret service of tlie primitive Christian ; but
what, save madness, can justify the black calumny that Jews
were using Christian blood for their unleavened bread when
the use of any blood is strictly forbidden by the Divine Law ?
But this is a question of honesty or villainy.

However, be this as it may, the deeper we look into the
question the clearer grows the immense distance, the unti-av-
ersable chasm, that divides orthodox Christianity from Mono-
theistic Judaism. For hundreds of years there have been,
and there never ceased to be, bitter contentions in the bosom
of the Church as to the nature of its founder and his doctrines.
The momentous questions involved are notliing less than the
incarnation of Jesus, the virginity of his mother, his lineal de-
scent from David, and his relation to his God-Fatlier. The
Ebionites and the Nazarenes, who were the original Jewish
Chi'istians, derived little profit from their having been bred
and taught on the spot, environed by the scenes where the
Messiah was said to have opened and ended his career. Theirs
was the assertion that Jesus was born, like other sons of the
dust, with a mission like that of other prophets, a conception
that barred their way to the fold of the then growing larger,
and thus growing bolder, but very much heathenized Church.
A Jesus born in the ordinary way was not to the taste of the
wonder-doing bishops of heathen origin. The difficulty in
their way was a gospel in Hebrew, which the Ebionites pos-
sessed, and wherein the first two chapters of St. Matthew's

day to advance a slander which has time and again been refuted and
branded as a lie, not alone by Catholic historians like Basnage, learned
bishops like Kopp of Fiilda and Reinkens of Bonn, but also by two popes,
who are known to have issued "bulls" against that black falsehood, Pope
Innocent IV. and Pope Sixtus V. On reading such an endorsement
from such an authority in an age like this it is impossible not to think
of the fool who, having tied one end of a rope round his own neck, tied
the other end to the spoke of a flying wheel, turning on steam to make
it go. What followed need not be stated. There must be some mad
dogs about the Vatican, and the sooner they are muzzled the better for
his declining "infallible" Holiness. We thank the Lord Almighty for
being Jews, and thank Him equally that at least the half of Christen-
dom are not Catholics.

117

gospel in Greek/^ telling of the immaculate conception, had
no place. This difficulty was eventually surmounted by the
mysterious disappearance of the gospel in Hebrew, so that a
translation thereof by some unknown person, made to fit the
demands of the new theory, is the only one we possess down
to this day. Thus did the supernatural Jesus triumph over all
obstacles, and, by a wonderful combination, was enthroned as
the only " Son of God." He was, it is true, the son of Joseph
and Mary, the lineal descendant of David, but begotten of the
Holy Ghost. Joseph, being suspicious of the miraculous con-
ception, was quieted by a divine vision of the Holy Ghost,
who frankly claimed the paternity of the infant god. So
everything passed off smoothly enough, except the diverg-
ence of view as to the manner in which the Ghost had inter-
course with Mary, and the M^ay in which Jesus came to life.
Tliis turned up a new and very serious problem. Enlightened
proselytes of pagan quarters accepted the divinity, but denied
the humanity of Jesus, thus rejecting that part of the gospel
as false which tells of the innnaculate conception. Deeming
it a degradation of the Divine Spirit and His " God-Son " to
have passed through the body of a woman, they invented a
new fiction. Like Adam, Jesus appeared in the shape of
perfectly-developed manhood ; a purely spiritual figure, en-
dowed with the faculties and powers of a man — visible, but not

^* St. Matthew composed the gospel in Hebrew, the church fathers as-
sure us, but later church policy required its disappearance. No less an
authority than F. C. Baur finds, on examining and comparing the gos-
pels, that they have been all tampered with by the primitive church,
there iiaving been a cycle of traditions before any gospel was known or
heard of. Then there was the Hebrew gospel — that of St. Peter, of the
Ebionites, of the Egyptians, and of St. Luke ; while that of St. Mark he
recognizes to be entirely one not of revelation but of adaptation to the
new conditions of the Church. Jewish and Gentile Christians, Baur
shows, endeavored to fit their gospels to suit their difi'erences of views,
so that the German theologian and philosoj^her reaches the conclusion
that the safest basis of Christianity must not be looked for in the gospels
but in the four Pauline epistles. This is, however, more than Strauss
would concede, who, in his " Leben Jesu," reduces all the gospel tales
to myth, and allows Jesus to evaporate in an "idea of the identity of
God and man and the mission of humanitv."

118

tangible. This pliaiitoin " Son of God " the Jews crucified —
imagined to crucify — so that the whole drama of the crucifixion,
the resurrection, and the ascension was, in reality, a comedy
played for the benefit of mankind. When it was urged that
such a play was unworthy of God and " His Son," the learned
Gnostics were not at all at a loss to point to a nmltitude of
other " pious frauds " sanctioned by the saintly fathers of the
Church, they being justified by the holy ends in view. They
would not admit that the god of the Christians had to pass
through tlie mortal process of conception — embryo, growth,
birth, and death ; and an agreement was finally reached that
" the Divinity passed through Mary like a sunbeam through a
plate of glass." To strengthen this logical basis of a hence-
forth impregnable faith it was further compromised tliat Jesus
was something more than a phantom, having been gifted with
an impassable, incorruptible body. This wise agreement, how--
ever, was anything but final, for the doctrine of Arius, that
the " God-Son " was subordinate to liis God-Father, was sol-
emnly condemned by the council of Nice, A. C. E. 325, when
it was decreed that Jesus was " very god of the very God," be-
gotten, not made, of one substance with his Father.

We Immbly ask : Of what substance were the brotliers of
Jesus made — Jude, Simon, and James ? But the thing is en-
tirely too Christian to be understood or fathomed by a Jewish
mind. We give it up, satisfied with the matter as it stands ;
our object being to f urnisli a few facts, drawn from non-Jewish
sources, as to If^hy the Jeics obstinately persisted, and still do
persist, in being Jeivs. " Only this, and nothing more." " We
shall conclude this chapter,"" says the author of the " Decline
and Fall," " by a melancholy truth which obtrudes itself on the
reluctant mind ; that even admitting, without hesitation or in-
quiry, all that history has i-ecoi-ded, or devotion has feigned,
on the subject of mai'tyrdom, it must still be acknowledged
that the Christians, in the course of their intestine dissensions,
have inflicted far greater sevei'ities on each other than they
had experienced from tlie hand of the infidels. During the
ages of ignorance that followed the subversion of the Roman
empire in the West the bishops of tlie Imperial city extended

119

their dominion over the laity as well as clergy of the Latin
Church. The fabric of superstition which they had erected,
and which might long have defied the feeble efforts of reason,
was at lengtli assaulted by a crowd of daring fanatics, who,
from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, assumed the popular
character of reformers. The church of Rome defended by
violence the empire which she had acquired by fraud ; a
system of peace and benevolence was soon disgraced by pro-
scriptions, war, massacres, and the institution of the holy
office." Knowing all this, and more, why should the Jew be
a Cln'istian ?

There must be something unsound, unhealthy in a "system
of peace and benevolence " which, for almost two millenniums,
caused rivers of Iniman blood to flow. Every promise made
in the name of Jesus stands unfulfilled.^' Where is the
millennium, the " peace on earth and good-will to men ? "
Where the love of the enemy ? W.here the least realization of
those extravagant doctrines proclaimed in his name ? Let the

2'' D. F. Strauss, whose "Life of Jesus" left Christianity much in the
possession of a " chatemi en Espagne," jiertinently urges that Jesus him-
self spolce ,, toon ber 3(n!unft be§ 3LRenfd^eniol^ne§, b. f)., bon feiner eigenen
mefftaniic^en 2Bteber!unft in einer jpateren, obtoo^t nid;t fernen 3eit, ico er in
ben JBolfen be§ $innnel§, in gijttlid^er Serrlic^feit, unb toon ©ngctn beglcitet,
erj^einen i»erbe, bie Xobten ju ertrecfen, Sebenbe unb SBerftorbene ^u xidjtcn,
unb fein 3teid), ba§ @ottc§= unb §i'"i"f't^«i<^-' ?" eri3ffnen. — 3(n biefe§ Stiid
bcr Se^re '^sefu in lv>i3rtlid;ev 'Sluffaffung l^ielt fic^ bie dftere ,S{ird)e, fa fie ift
eigentlic^ auf bicfem ©runbe aufgebaut, inbem oBne bie Gru^artung ber
lt>a^ren3Bieberfunft ©l^rifti gar feined|riftlid^e,*i?ird^e ju (3tan =
be gefommen ittcire." Strauss does not hesitate to affirm that ,,l^at er e§
g[eid)Jup^I tion fic^ borl^ergefagt unb felbft erinartet, jo ift er fitr un§ ein
©c^luarmer, Jr»ie er, tcenn er e§ oI;ne eigene lleberjeugung bon fic^ auSgefagt
!^dtte, ein ';i5raf)Ier unb Setriiger J»are." Strauss brings a good deal of
sophistical ingenuity to bear on the subject, but he succeeds not in
extricating his mythical hero froiu the contradictions of his own j^rom-
ises; and as Jesus never returned "among the clouds of heaven, in
divine glory, and followed by angelic legions, to awaken the dead, judge
them and the living, and open the heavenly kingdom," and as this
promise is "in fact the ground on which the ancient church was
founded, an expectation without which there had never been a church
of Christ," so must we not be blamed for holding that the whole fabric
is one of fiction.

120

streams of Jewish blood shed, the hatred of sect by sect, race
by race, tlie division of families, engendered by the merciful,
meek Church ; let the gigantic armies, the pitched battles, tlie
new engines of destruction, the steel-stocked arsenals, the steel-
clad navies, bear witness to the rule of the " prince of peace."
But repetition makes this a threadbare topic. Time has done
more than criticism, and the Church has done tlie most to un-
dermine her own foundation. Her strongholds long thought
impregnable have been irreparably damaged and broken into
by such as knew her best, and the breach widens as the years
advance. At this moment there are more Christian antago-
nistic sects than articles of faith, beginning with irreconcilable,
hard-shell Catholicism and culminating in versatile quasi-Mono-
theistic Unitarianism. AVith these changes in progress and
the implied league science made with philosophy against tlie
unsustained pretensions of the orthodox Church, der eicige
Jude can afford to hold his ground and wait for fui-ther devel-
opments. Having systematically belied its promises for cen-
turies past, Muscovite and Ottoman diplomacy labors under
the disadvantage of general suspicion and distrust. The
M^orld has learned the meaning of the Messianic message,
translated into sixty generations of hatred, slaughter, tears,
and outi-age ; it is wiser now than ever before, at least wher-
ever man is allowed to speak freely to his fellows. Christian
barbarism, it is true, is still setting momiments to its Chmel-
nickis, still beatifying its Torquemadas, but Christian human-
ity is gratefully remembering its Spinozas, Brunos, and Arian
heroes. Judaism is proud to call liberal Christianity its legiti-
mate daughter, but disclaims its maternal features in the sullen,
misanthropic Churcli. Thought is free at last; tlie birthright
of man is being heroically reclaimed. May not this dawn,
breaking on the horizon, be taken as a luminous harbinger of
the true, ideal Messianic era? O, that frightfid spectre in the
shape of a black monk, may its shadows never again darken the
sight and poison the sweet milk of human love and kindness !
What is the nature of Israel's Messianic Ideal ? It is im-
portant for us to understand the time and the spirit in which
Isaiah uttered that famous Messianic prophecy, followed by

121

many other prophecies, the fulfillment of which the orthodox
Christian claims to recognize in the founder and history of
the Chm'ch. That prophet lived in one of the most stirring
periods in Israel's history, and had seen Shalmanezer over-
throw the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, and carry them into
captivity. But while Samaria, after an heroic resistance of
three years, fell, the kingdom of Judah was greatly strength-
ened by its noble monarch, Hezekiah, a scion of the Davidic
dynasty, whose most intimate and loyal adviser was Isaiah,
great as statesman and prophetic orator. He it was who pre-
dicted the doom of Sennacherib, whose immense host was smit-
ten with the plague under the w^alls of Zion. It was evident,
however, that the small Judean kingdom could not long with-
stand the overwhelming power of the heathen, unless a re-
deemer of more than human endowments would rise from the
stock of that glorious dynasty, under whose first two rulers
Israel had seen his brightest days. For who could forget that
the hateful, ever-lurking Philistines, now once more raising
their heads in defiance, had been completely defeated by the
immortal David ? And was not the Solomonic rule the most
brilliant, peaceful, and prosperous ? Was Solomon not famed
as the wisest of kings, whose wisdom legendary tales magni-
fied ? Were not the gorgeous temples and pompous palaces
there to remind the people of the golden age when Oriental
glitter, wealth, and plenty dazzled the multitude ? There was
no wai' in the times of Solomon. Hiram, king of Tyre, sup-
plied materials and skillful workmen to build the Temple ; the
queen of Sheba journeyed to Jerusalem with a caravan laden
with jewels and spices, and, having all her riddles solved by
her royal host, she admitted that he was far wiser than fame
made him. A fleet brought gold and other treasures from re-
mote quarters. It was impossible not to look back with long-
ing on a time so prosperous, peaceful, and glorious. And
when the prophetic genius took celestial fire and a noble fig-
ure of a spiritual nature was to rise vaguely from the dimness
of futurity, it naturally assumed the shape of an idealized
Solomon destined to initiate an era yet more prosperous and
peaceful than the bygone. Kecall to memory tlie dream of

122

young Solomon, who, given wealth and wisdom to choose from,
prefers " an understanding heart ; " think of the decision which
frustrates the malice of an envious female, who would have
the child of another one cut in twain; then reflect on the gems
of ethical and philosophical meditation, which at that time were
already current in every Jewish household ; and you have the
noble, royal picture of the prophet's promised Messiah, "And
there shall come forth a shoot out of the stem of Jesse, and a
sprout shall spring out of his root ; and there shall rest upon
him the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of wisdom and under-
standing, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowl-
edge and of the fear of the Lord. — And not after the sight of
his eyes shall he judge, and not after the hearing of his ears
shall he decide.'' His qualities are to be righteousness and
equity ; he will protect the poor and the suffering ; he " shall
smite the earth with the rod of his mouth," and the peace of
earth will extend to the animal kingdom, that " shall not hurt
nor destroy on all My holy mountain ; for the earth shall be
full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the
sea."

His mission is strictly defined : " He will set up an ensign
unto the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel ;
and the dispersed of Judah will he collect together from the
four corners of the earth." — " Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
and Judah shall not assail Ephraim." — " To him shall nations
come to inquire ; and his resting place shall be glorious," &c.
Here is a translucent, beatified Solomon and his peaceful king-
dom poetically painted. Eijhrahn and Judah are to be mainly
benefited by the Messiah ; the scattered gathered " together
from the four corners of the earth." And is Jesus, with the
dark era he initiated, to be accepted as the archetype of that
sublime picture i Absurdity ! Say, white is black. Ah, mill-
ions of humanity are deluded.

Several remarks in Talmudical lore indicate the same Jewish
view on the Messiah and his golden times. If a personal
Messiah was really expected by the Jews, would a learned
doctor ask: "Whether Cyrus was not Messiah?"^* Would

?n'n n'lyo \s^^^\3 'di '*

123

another maintain : " There is no Messiah for Israel ? " ^^ Would
a third say : " Jerusalem will be redeemed by righteousness ? " ^^
Would the prophet Isaiah himself call tlie pagan Cyrus " the
Messiah of the Lord ? " The masses are always inclined to
take propliecies literally ; the wise never. So it is with the
allegory of hell, so with that of the Messiah. Great lights in
Israel discard the litei'al meaning of a personal Messiah, sub-
stituting therefor a cycle of universal enlightenment and peace.
It is not to be a Saturnian age of physical delights and plenti-
ful harvests only, but one spiritualized by the supernal felicity
derived from a full knowledge and worship of The Only God.
Accustomed to see the prophet's vision realized, the Messianic
dream is thenceforth foremost in the Jewish mind, and the
darker the times, the deeper the sufferings, the keener the hopes
that the Utopian era is at hand. With all this realistic Israel
has never for any length of time been deceived by a fraudu-
lent Messiah. Frequently as such impostors came to light they
seldom created more than a passing ripple on the serene surface
of Jewish realism. There was a critical sanity in • the nature
of our early sires, which their latest descendants never belied.
It is this mental sanity which baffles all snares of the hypocrit-
ical conversionist. Uidess lured by menial temptation, even the
most illiterate Jew would not turn a Christian. Whatever the
shortcomings and aberrations of the Jew — and they are neither
slight nor few — you will look in vain for him in the " para-
dise of fools." His dream of the Messianic Utopia has a defi-
nite meaning ; has, indeed, been defined beyond all doubt.
Traditional literature teems with allusions to the n'jyon niro'
" Messianic times," but it is a dream with a tangible reality at
the bottom of it. No less an authority than the philosophical
Maimonides furnishes the definition of it. He sees in the prom-
ised Messiah a heaven-commissioned personality, a prophet
sent to teacli the world — the Gentile and the Islamite — to wor-
ship The One Eteknal.^^ " They who said that the command-
ments have been long abrogated and neglected for ages ; and
such as maintained that they were all allegorical and that the

124

Messiah had come ab-eadj ; no sooner will the Messiali rise
flourishing, exalted, and glorious, than they shall all be con-
vinced that they inherited error from their ancestry, and that
tlieir parents and prophets deceived them."^^ Again: "Let
not the idea take hold of thee, that in the Messianic times
there will be radical changes in the rules of the world, or in
the works of creation, but things will be as they are. As to
Isaiah's prophecy of the wolf and lamb, the leopard and
kid lying together, it is all metaphor and allegory, signify-
ing that Israel will dwell in peace with the world's peacebreak-
ers, who act like the wolf and the leopard. Therefore did our
sages say, that the difference between these and the Messianic
times will be a change in the relations of the nations to their
governments. In those days there will be neither famine, nor
war, nor envy, nor competition ; for nature will produce fruit
as plentiful as dust, and mankind will love no other vocation
save that of understanding God. Therefore will the wise be
great, looking into the mystery of things, and realizing the
wisdom of their Creator as far as man may."^^

From these passages, as well as from earlier Pharisaic say-
ings, it follows that centuries of meditative speculation have
taught the wisest in Israel to wait for tlie redemption of man-
kind by mankind, initiated, peradventure, by some sky-enlight-
ened genius, but always left to work out its own destiny.
Greater knowledge of nature's secrets will cause her to yield
abundantly, and abundance will enable man to devote his time
to ideal pursuits. Thus will knowledge of God grow and spread
as the wave of the sea, knowledge of the Most High being to
the Jewish mind synonymous with virtue, love of man, of truth,
and of peace ; a Utopian vision, an ideal for humanity to attain
to. In this particular the Zohar, this Bible or gospel of the
Kabljalists, is, as in many other vital points, at variance with
I'ealistic Judaism, some of its paragraphs distinctly referring to
a personal Messiah, who " invokes all the sufferings, pain, and

DH^nnxi DH'KOJiyi Dn'nnx iSnj iptyty |';nn jnrn dSd on td^*
n;*n irtyi D'oiriDn Dn:n D";nn D'bnj D'ODnn vn^ ■]D'3Si"' .Di;'nn

125

afflictions of Israel to come upon him ;" " who shall in Para-
dise instruct the babes who died in early infancy." But these
are the fancies of a mystic, to be discussed elsewhere. Our
Messianic dream centres not in a person supernaturally en-
dowed, but in tlie ideal triumph of the divinity in man's soul,
over his animal proclivities. As past achievements in the
provinces of the tine arts, the sciences, and in general culture
and refinement have back of them no greater miracle than the
heroic endeavors of the human genius, so must all salvation in
the future spring from the divinest qualities of humanity.
Every man must be his own Messiah, and every humane worker
is, in a sense, a redeemer. Judaism has long ago rejected the
idea that man is an orphaned child, an accidental combination
of cosmic dust, hopelessly cast into infinity to be born, live, and
die in pain. 'Nov does it countenance the preposterous notion
tliat man is born depraved. No ; he is born frail, but his very
frailty is to be the source of his greatness, for he has freedom
to rise from the lowest to the highest. He was not made for
tlie universe, but the universe was made for him ; for his rise,
progress, elevation, and spiritualization. The quintessence of
the finest elements below ; fire, ether, and spirit from above
all converge in the Godlikeness of his soul, centering therein
and radiating therefrom to infinite heights. The relation of
The Universal Spirit to tlie human mind is not less evident
than the relation of the sun to this globe. Earth and heavens,
the stars, the seas, and the continents are all for man's edu-
cation. Doubt not the divinity of your soul, the power to
take care of self. Had you not the supernal qualities of
thought, progress, and free action, you could not control a
world which has a thousandfold agents to destroy you ; you
could not subdue and utilize the elements ; you could not
venture out on the ocean's treaclierous deep ; you could not
breathe life-like beauty on canvas ; nor turn rocks into noble
monuments of taste and symmetry ; nor work in metal as in
clay ; nor bend nature's obstinate neck under the yoke of your
genius ; you could not seriously entertain the dream of im-
mortality ; you would not be the noblest, most potent being
under the sun. Man is the result, the crown, the finishing

12()

touch of creation, and embodies in him all the eSvSences which
bade the universe be and move.

But man fell, lost Eden, tasted of the fruit of knowledge,
lost all hope of self-redemption, and, but for the merciful
" vicarious sacrifice," would go down to eternal perdition, says
the orthodox Church. Poor salvation policy this, ascribed
to a loving, just Creator, who made man frail, allowed the
devil to tempt him through his gentle wife, so that he might
surely fall, so that he might be condemned, in order that
" God's Son " or God Himself might be crucified to redeem
him. Blasphemous doctrine ! God is All- Wise, All-Merci-
ful, All-Knowing. He made humanity weak, so that by its
own will-power and endeavor it might rise to self-conquered
sovereignty. We repeat, it is from man's weakness that his
strength aiid glory spring. Let none think lightly of the race,
its past victories, its present greatness, and its future possibili-
ties. Who may tell how far, how high, its longing, daring,
restless spirit may yet lift it ? Think not, at this moment, of
human frailty, but pass in review the cycles bygone ; think of
him, who, springing from the double mystery of Time and
Space, less armed than the brute, with darkness behind and
darkness before him, at war with the elements and the beast,
succeeded in stamping his seal on the face of a world, and,
after a struggle of ages unnumbered, stands, mightier than
ever, his foot firmly planted on earth, his eye piercing the
gulfs of heaven, armed, like the Grecian chief-god, with thun-
der and lightning, and meditating war on death himself.
Surely, we are a great, God-like species of beings, whom
angels may envy, and it lies in our power to turn this planet
into an ideal, heavenly kingdom.

Surveying the changes which have of late markedly modi-
fied the relation of man to man, we are encouraged to enter-
tain the hope that our Messianic dream is nearing realization.
Vast, dreary regions there are where the wolf is still feeding
on the lamb, the leopard still devouring the kid ; but the
growing knowledge of God has, withal, dispersed many a
tliunder-cloud, laid bare many a barren land to the fertilizing
influence of the suimy beam. Is not Spain ashamed of her

127

past ? Is not Rome befriending the martyred race ? Sits not
a Jew in the House of Lords ? Has not another one been in-
stalled, and this a third time, as the Lord Major of tlie greatest
city on earth ? Was not a Jew's free gift among those of the
Pope's jubilee ? These are blessed signs of the times. May
our prophet's sweetest vision be verified. Israel's particular-
ism is not one of exclusiveness, but of spiritual conquest. His
Sinaitic magna charta once promulgated, he lives true to his
pledge, unshaken in his resolve to make Jehovah's banner the
ensign of the race. Nor will he rest nor yield until " those who
flock toward the Mount Zion shall judge the Mount Esau,"
* -:^ * u Q^ which day The Lord will be One and His Name
One ! "

CHAPTER VIII.

OUR MYSTIC VISION.

Mysticism means deep thinking and deeper feeling ; it is a
conscious admission that liuman reason reveals not enough of
God to the soul to appease her deepest, often indefinable long-
ings. Reason ceases with definition. Who and where is God ?
What are His attributes ? What is infinity, eternity, law, mat-
ter, spirit, being ? Can reason define them ? If she cannot,
she must, and actually does, resort to a power of a finer spiritual
insight and penetration, which is known as intuition : a power
which teaches the heart to feel logically and tlie mind to tliink
dreamingly. Revelation and Propliecy gave Judaism the ad-
vantage of a mystic realism, or, as the moderns call it, a phil-
osophical transcendentalism. Yet was there a period in our
history when, dissatisfied with things visible, subject to the
worst of social conditions humanity is capable of enduring, the
Jewish mind, inexhaustible in varying aspects of the spiritual,
evolved a system of mystic dreams which, disowned by sane
Jewish philosophy, and decried by many critics as methodized
insanity, is yet a phenomenon not unworthy of a fair notice.
There is most assuredly method in the madness of the Kab-
balist, Nor are his views of Creator and creations entirely
original. Besides the Book of Creation, or Sefar Yezirah, a
work assumed to be of hoary antiquity, the main source of
this Theosophy is the Zohar, a Chaldaic term denoting " splen-
dor," heavenly light, a book of strange revelations, of which
Rabbi Simeon ben Yochai is said to have been the author or
compiler. The substance of this mystic text-book was long
generally accepted by Kabbalists as an oral i-evelation deliv-
ered by God to Adam wliile in Eden, and thence it passed,
from age to age, down to its compilation in its present form.
Later critics, however, undertook to disprove its antiquity, and

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130

to trace it to an author of a comparatively recent date, and
tlieir ejfforts were crowned with success, thus divesting the
Zohar of the sanctimonious halo it not unnaturally assumed.

The Zoltar has been conclusively proved to be a production
of the thirteenth century, with Moses de Leon as its original
autlior ; a theory with which we are little concerned, consider-
ing that the object of these brief notes is not to establish date
and authorship, but to convey an idea of that strangest of the
peculiar productions of the Jewish mind. Whosoever the
author, he was a Jew, and claims our attention, whether we
agree or disagree. We may find fault with the system as one
irreconcilable with our Monotheistic ideal, savoiing too nmch
of the trinitarian salvation scheme to be congenial to Jewish
intuition ; subordinating the ethical element to the vaporous,
imaginary, philosophically untenable ; attempting to pass off a
crazy mosaic made up of a little of everything, borrowed
everywhere, of everybody, as an original work. Yet, with all
deductions and allowances made, the Zohar remains a literary
curiosity of uncommon interest. Its author commands con-
siderable knowledge of ancient Jewish and non-Jewish phi-
losophy ; he has method, and a remarkably cunning faculty of
assimilation, while his imagination would, as a poet, have
secured for him high distinction. These qualities he wields
with consummate ingenuity, blending them into a hazy whole
sufficiently coherent and systematic to deceive the novice, but
dissolving under the magic test of historical analysis. The
author, however, enforces respect for his sincerity. There is
dead earnest in every line. Faith is in his work, deep and
strong. His universe teems with life and being, visible and
invisible, all issuing from the Infinite Incomprehensible, Here-
in the Zohar is essentially Jewish ; as for the rest, let us see.

We are confronted here with a maze of thought, fancy,
conception, truth, fable, and fiction unknown in the annals of
philosophy. The nature of the Divine, Supremest Being, and
of all being, the origin and object of all creations, are therein
accounted for with a conclusiveness and a boldness which
rouse astonishment. Never was metaphysical thought uttered
with such a positive precision and definiteness. As in Genesis,

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the author disdains to reason, but gives facts with an air of
unquestionable authority, and his votaries accept them with
unqualified faith, as if not he but they have had the mystic
revelation. God, the Origin, Substance, and Author of all
things seen or unseen, is here denominated The Unbounded or
the En-Soph, having neither beginning nor end, nor dimen-
sion, nor form, nor attributes, each of which if ascribed to
Him, would limit His infinity. The universe — which neces-
sarily has bounds somewhere — is all contained in Him, not He
in the universe — which is a Talmudical idea. Being thus
incomprehensible to finite intellect, in order to be known, God
manifests Himself in what is visible to the eye and compre-
hensible to the mind. But such manifestations were impos-
sible without certain active or creative principles emanating
from The Unbounded or En-Soph. For this purpose a per-
fect spiritual being, a celestial Adam, of whom the earthly
one is a gross copy, had to be called into existence. That
supernal power, whom Ezekiel saw in vision mounted on a
chariot of fire, was thus not God Himself, but a perfect per-
sonification of Him, or, to give it the trinitarian name, " His
Son." Milton imparts poetical beauty to this Kabbalistic
fancy. That Shadow of God or Adam being the centre of all
creative energy or potentiality, is the prompting focus, as it
were, from whom ten active Virtues or Emanations, called
Sephiroth, radiate. These are : Grown, Wisdom, Intelligence,
Beauty, Love, Justice, Foundation, Firmness, Splendor, and
Kingdom. The Emanations issue from the several mem-
bers and quarters of the archetypal heavenly Adam, and we
have only to imagine a wise, mighty monarch, crown on head,
wisdom written on his face, intelligence speaking from his
heart, love and justice practiced by his hands, a vigorous
progeny issuing from his loins, the splendor and firmness of
royal manhood visible in his lordly bearing, powerful limbs,
finally, a kingdom at his feet, and we have the mortal picture
of immortal, creative royalty. Such is the first perfect reflex
of The Unbounded, and such His ten creative virtues. With
these the basis for the origination and progression of the
visible and invisible universe is laid.

J 32

We are sorry to deny originality to this conception, which
is scarcely half as pliilosophical and ideal as the Divine Sophia
of the Philonic, and the ceons of the Platonic system, of
which it is an inferior reflection. AVliat the Zohar claims for
the Sephiroth the Gnostics many centuries before ascribed to
the (eons, which are in turn an improvement on the Titans,
who sprang from Chaos with the charge of building the upper
and the nether worlds. The vision of the heavenly Adam is
nothing else than the mythical Minerva, who sprang armed
from the head of Jupiter. Nor does the resemblance end
here. The En-Soph looks not unlike Chronos, with incompre-
hensible Fate in the background. Further comparison sug-
gests the probability — as will appear later — of this mystic
Theosophy being a melange of Hellenic and Hebraic ideas as
welded by Philo.

The Monotheistic Jew of ethical realities is not readily open
to mystic extravagances unless lured by a golden promise of
some new spiritual revelation. When the Platonic philoso-
pliers made the happy eff'ort of idealizing Greek polytheism,
reducing it to an anthropomorphic expression of the infinite
Logos, Alexandrian Judaism realized an affinity of thought,
and the result was that wedding and welding of Hellenic and
Hebraic ideas, which became the life-work of Philo Judteus.
Kabbalah, we venture to maintain, is nothing else than an un-
fortunate dilution of Philo's transcendental Judaism. Philo's
God is naturally a most absolute transcendency. His universe
originating in the Divine Sophia, or Wisdom. One nmst be
blind not to perceive in these two fundamental principles of
Philo's philosophy the metamorphosed ideas of the En-Soph
and the heavenly Adam with his several oions or Emanations.
And is not the ethical summary of Kabbalistic self-denial
and resignation — the ty^n bico'3 — but a mystical reflection of
Philo's ethical ideal that culminates in meditation, renunciation,
and in an unconditional sui'render of self to The Supremest
Will ? Compatible with Greek mythology of male and female
deities, is also the mystic realization of a spiritual, moral, and
material world, engendered by a union of male and female
Sephiroth, as Intelligence and Beauty, Love and Justice, Firm-

ness and Splendor, with the all-embracing, most glorious
Sephira, Kingdom, as the climax and sum of all the other nine
Emanations, excelling them all by mirroring the En-Soph^s
Omnipresence and Omnipotence. So much for the original-
ity of the Zoliar\s fundamental ideas.

We concede cheerfully, that, if the ingenious Kabbalist
borrowed the bulk of his material, he certainly digested it
well, and wove it skillfully into a tissue of his own. He pro-
ceeds to teach that the highest, purest, and ideal world is, of
course, that of the creative Emanations, closely allied to The
Unbounded, who works through His archetypal image ; it is,
in Plato's language, the " world of ideas," in Philo's, the Di-
vine Sophia, or Wisdom, a world most perfect and innnutable.
From this world of ideas emanates the world of forms, pure,
spiritual beings, less perfect than the Sephiroth, but, next to
these, the highest in the scale, entirely ethereal, personified by
the angel Matatron, who is the garment of Shaddai, The Om-
nipotent, and the visible manifestation of The Unbounded.
Matatron is tlie prince or dominion of the spiritual world, and
is a well-known personality to such as have read the frequent
allusions to him in the Haggadic traditions. From his spirit-
ual domain, 3Iatatron controls the spheres and tlie angels
and everything else, as a loyal prime minister ought to do.
Other traditions identify Enoch with that princely magnate,
who is — we are scarcely surprised — the confidant of God, His
minister of the interior and exterior. His trust is indeed not
small, for besides planning and superintending the formation
of the most supernal beings and things, he has to condescend
to attend to a lower grade of occupation, since from his potent
spheres issues the somewhat lower " world of formation," a
world very, very high above the one we are treading, but
considerably lower than the transcendental Sephiroth. So far
from liaving anything in common with this massive globe, the
" world of formation " is wholly free from gross matter, its
denizens being angelic hosts, made of light, divided into ten
divisions, corresponding in rank to the original ten Emanations ;
being invisible, except when commissioned to appear to man.
Not one of these l)ut holds a responsible post in the universe,

134

bearing the name of the region or the element he is intrusted
with as minister and sentinel.

And this lower angelic world gave rise to the lowest of
worlds, called the " world of action," or of matter, it being a
kind of condensation of all the grosser elements of the other
three worlds, but still retaining the impression of the ten
Sephiroth. This is a world of tangible substance, limited by
time and space, perceptible to the senses, changeable, corrupti-
ble, and thus the abode of malignant spirits. Gross and im-
perfect as these evil angels are, they are yet divided up into
ten ranks, one lower than the other, seven of which are the
incarnation of all human vices, and inhabit the " seven in-
fernal halls." Samael is the prince of these black legions and
regions. The seven halls are subdivided into unnumbered
places of torture, wherein sinful humanity expiates its sins.
Samael was the tempting snake who caused Eve to disobey
God's will, thus bringing about the expulsion of man from
Eden. Samael is not wifeless, for he is married to the harloty
a " beast " like his infernal majesty ; or, rather, both making
up one monstrous brute, and working in constant harmony in
disseminating evil, Samael is a fallen angel, whose prospects
could be much darker than they actually are. But we nmst
not anticipate matters. The creature of whom we know most
is yet to be heard from, and that is man.

The upper and nether worlds being ready and well peopled,
it was found that between the angels and the demons there
was a missing link, a being who, standing between the angelic
and demoniac opposition, attacked by the latter and shielded
by the former party, would bring life and activity into the
various camps of the otherwise unemployed good and evil
spirits. Thus was man formed after the model of the celestial
Adam, a being who is the microcosmic epitome, the acme of
everything that is mysterious and wonderful in the universe ;
the very shape and skin of his body revealing to the seeing
eye the stellar figures of the heavens. As the heavenly arcslie-
type sprang from the Inscrutable En-So2jh, or the Universal
Impenetrable, so was His copy, the earthly Adam, a gracious,
luminous work of that Celestial Author, who, to do Himself

135

justice, lavished all the ten Emanations in gracing His arche-
typal, last master- work — man. That man was the crowning
work of creation is proved by his being the last work of the
sixth day, made to be monarch of everything. He being
there, everything above and below was complete ; for his form
is tliat of the whole universe, and is shaped after the four
letters which, in Hebrew, make up The Holiest Name. Within
and without, in shape, form, and feature, to him who can read
hidden things man is the wonder of wonders, the mystery of
jnysteries, as mysterious as the starry empyrean, says the Zohar.
His soul is a direct offspring of the transcendental ten Sephi-
rotJi, and is a threefold power constituted of spirit, soul,
and senses — ^d:, nn, notyj — by which last he is linked to
this world of gross matter. His spirit emanates from, and is
influenced by the Sephirah, Crown, thus linking him to the
liighest world of ideas and ideals, w^hile his ethical qualities
emanate from, and are ruled over by, the Sephira, Beauty,
the ethical being synonymous with the beautiful, which is, to
our mind, the best idea of the whole Theosophy. We see
here in a new garb the worlds of Ormuzd and of Ahriman,
light and darkness, good and evil, at war, with man as the
bone of contention, and the Kabbalistic theosophist needed to
go no further than the Talmud to get his materials ; for the
Pharisee, a Monotheist in faith, was in some measure a
Magian in superstition.

All human souls pre-exist in the ten SepJiiroth, and are des-
tined to pass through the earthly ordeal by descending into
human frames and dwelling on probation below. Prior to
sublunar existence each soul represents the dual, male and
female, princij^le. Both enter this world in two separate
forms until, united by marriage, they resume the original
relation of one complete soul. The Most Holy One controls
these unions according to the merits or demerits of man, the
virtuous being granted his original companion, which is denied
to the wicked — thus rendering liis life miserable. Our curi-
osity as to the soul's mission below is sufiiciently satisfied, but
not in a manner to make us forget the teachings of Zoroaster
and of Buddlia. The soul is sent down with a perfect free

136

will and an unlimited faculty to develop and enrich the germs
of those supernal endowments she received from the Sephi-
roth, lest she be unable to re-ascend to the Primordial Source.
Reason is at a loss to realize how a power issuing from the
highest Emanations, instead of idealizing the gross, could run
serious risk of being abased and engulfed by it. Yet this
postulate is not confined to Kabbalistic literature. Should, by
low indulgence, the soul degrade her high nature, she is given,
by re-birth, three chances to redeem her ethereal quality, after
which, failing in her eiforts. Eternal Grace strengthens her by
an additional soul more callous to earthly temptation, by which
assistance slie ultimately re-ascends to her aerial abode. The
soul's transmigration is thus an essential doctrine in the Kab-
balistic Theosophy, a doctrine as repugnant to the spirit of
Mosaism as picture-worship. When all souls shall have
triumphantly passed through this ordeal, then will the Messiali
descend and the everlasting Sabbath begin — an era sinless and
blissful, for Satan himself will be restored to his angelic do-
minion and lustre; all souls will unite with the Universal
Soul and dwell in the Holy of Holies of the seven Paradisical
halls.

All this, and a good deal more, is traced back as implied in
Biblical lore, and we have at this hour tens of thousands of co-
i-eligionists to whom these teacliings are the celestial manna of
life. They are, however, looked on and opposed by the vast
inajority as deluded dreamers, giving countenance to a system
and a Messiah vitally antagonistic to Monotheism. These ap-
pi-ehensions of sober Judaism were fully justified by desertion
from its ranks of many prominent Kabl)alists, who found the
trinitarian Church more congenial to their doctrines than the
Monotheistic Synagogue. Such cases, coupled witli the several
false Messiahs, who jieriodically rose from the Kabbalistic
ranks to disturb the peace in Israel, have put this Theosophy
under the ban of Jewish sane thought, to say nothing of the
learned Mirandola's thesis, that " no science yields greater
proof of the divinity of Christ than magic and the Kabbalah."

It were unjust to dismiss a Theosophy as nebulous as this
with an emphatic " Nonsense !" For, on considering the aston-

137

ishing completeness of the system, the marvelous ingenuity
displayed in its construction, the philosophic serenity with
which the mystic deeps are laid bare to the dizzy mind, and
the influence it has exercised over Judaism and its religious
off-shoots, it is not easy to suppress a feeling akin to wonder
and admiration. To avail one's self of ready materials in the
construction of a new, or seemingly new, ideal to answer the
requirements of the times, is not this doing noble service to
the cause of humanity ? Taking perfect originality as a test of
literary merit, would it not be reducing the world's great liter-
atures to a few ancient ideas ? It is not in substance, but in
form, that truth reveals herself variously to various minds,
various ages. Philo was called by his enthusiastic co-religion-
ists the "Attic Moses ; " Moses Mendelssohn the " German
Plato ;" and Hillel could with more propriety be surnamed the
" Jewish Socrates."

The history of philosophy shows human thought engaged in
a casting and recasting of systems, with, here and there, a new
idea imputable less to mental originality than to the natural
growth of enlightenment in the empirical sciences. Assimila-
tion, digestion, and reproduction of thought in a more accept-
able form, more suitable to the needs of the hour, is not
plagiarism.

On close examination it becomes clear that Kabbalistic The-
osophy is a hardy effort to reconcile the pantheistic idea that
underlies all mysticism, with Jewish Monotheism rooted in the
Hebrew's consciousness of a Divine Active Personality, active
through a multitude of agents. Such appears the relation of
the indefinable E)i-So])h to His perfect attributes, the creative
Sepliiroth or Emanations. Yet is this erratic tendency of the
mind by no means compatible with the transparent Monothe-
istic and ethically realistic ideal of Judaism. The mystic Es-
senes were not popular with the bulk of Israel ; nor did Kah-
balah, as stated, turn out irresistibly attractive to Jews in
general, but, even in its time of fascination, met with as bitter
an animadversion on the one hand as it was enthusiastically
i-eceived and cultivated on the other. To be frank, we should
prefer to miss this mystic vegetation in the otlierwise weeded

138

vineyard of the Lord, wherein nothing but the flowers of
Sharon, the bahn of Gilead, the cedar of the Lebanon, and the
trees of knowledge and eternal life are flourishing, watered
by the dew of Ilernion.

The mystic Church, with her three in one, and one in three,
was quick in perceiving her atiinity to the vagaries of the
Zohar, and, for a while, it looked as if Simeon ben Yochai was
to be canonized with St. Cja-il, who consecrated his memoiy
by the murder of the wise Hypatia, and the extermination
of the Alexandrian Jews. Jewish affection for the Zohar,
we suspect, alone caused the shrewd Church to hesitate in
adopting a system which would necessarily create a common
ground with a religion she wisely preferred to keep at a dis-
tance. This was no mean sacriflce on her part, for no sooner
was Jesus recognized in the " heavenly Adam " than some of
those reliable eye-witnesses, who saw the house in which Jesus
had lived carried by an angel from Bethlehem to a small town
in Italy, miraculously brought to light an edition of the Zohar
in which the mystic Thrice Holy of the prophet was explained
as meaning the Holy Father, the holy Son, and the holy
Ghost. This trinitarian idea found a plausible support in a
passage of that work which speaks of God's creative voice as
being constituted of three elements, fire, air, and water, or
heat, breath, and humidity. A work given to Adam in Eden
with so much in favor of the "Son of God"' was a godsend
to a Church that began to feel the effects of undermining re-
formers. Pope Leo X. was delighted with the discovery ; but,
alas ! the Jews, one of whom was proved to have cunningly
manufactured the whole thing ! If that Moses de Leon had
by a popular instigation been crucified, what a precious saint,
what a cluster of legends and miracles he would have fur-
nished for the holy Church ? Orthodox theology would have
a new subject ; it might have proved conclusively that it was
Jesus himself who came, as he promised he would, that he
was again crucified, and, resurrecting as of old, he re-ascended
transfigured to his Father. As things turned out, the Zohar
and its supplements were left to the Jews, and they have it
still — a phenonienal work not to be ashamed of, though un-

139

necessary as a guide on the pathways of faith and righteous-
ness. God, revelation teaches, is everj'where, is seen and felt
all around, in the sunbeam, the lightning, in the darkest thun-
der-storm, and in the gentlest zephyr. We need no mysticism,
have scarcely room for it ; but, having been enriched by one
who felt and thought deeply, strove and labored zealously, let
us deal justly with him. His mystic system compares favorably
with the best known to us in the Orient's numerous religions.
Our Kabbalistic Theosophy impresses one with a sense of a
spiritual superiority ; since, all its vagaries and superstitions
notwithstanding, it virtually hinges on the Monotheistic idea.
To tlie author of the Zohar this M'orld is a serious reality ; life
a period of trial and preparation — a period not to be spent in
passive inactivity, but in active resistance to the low and the
gross, in self-conquest, self-denial, and in promotion of the
best.

In comparing mystic systems and doctrines one ought to
distinguish between the religious and the philosophical ele-
ment. The religious mystic is a deep, responsive nature, who,
suspecting or doubting the reality of this world, and conscious
of his own imperfections and painful limitations, longs to
break through the bounds of mortality, to fathom the origin of
self and things around, to determine the relation of the finite
to the Infinite Being, and to bring himself into spiritual com-
nmnion with the Cause of all causes, visible or invisible. The
danger of aberration with him lies in his selection of means and
methods to reach that great end; bodily self-afiliction, passive,
physical, and mental torpor being the threatening extremes of
(Oriental mysticism so generally adopted in tlie medicTeval con-
vent and hermitage. Of such practices the Zohar has nothing
to say, except fasting and abstinence from gross enjoyments,
which tlie Kabbalist urges as a necessity to subdue the lower
passions and weaken the chain tliat binds humanity to matter.
Obeying different promptings, but in search of a similar goal —
truth and God — the philosopher, endeavoring to substitute
reason for intuition, logic for sentiment, reality for dreaming,
climbs the same Jacob's ladder, and, ere long, involuntarily
reasons himself out of reason and is a transcendentalist or a

140

inystic — which is the same. How escape mysticism ? The mo-
ment you touch the unknown, unsounded, imdelined, indelin-
able, you build a system on the airy foundation of speculative
hypothesis — which is but another term for faith, intuitive
assumption. The very premises of our arguments and deduc-
tions are lost in mysticism. To build on hypothesis is building
on a dream ; to speak of things, virtues, excellencies, which are
beyond the conceivable ; to found a philosophic edifice on arbi-
trary postulates, is it not raising a massive superstructure on a
basis made up of articles of faith ? Wherein, then, lies the
material difference between the fundamental thoughts of Her-
bert Spencer and those of the mystic Bernard of Clairvaux,
or the author of Theologia BIystica, the one being as unable
to sustain his theory as the other ? As long as reason is in-
competent to reveal the unknown and solve the unsolved, all
thinking men will be in a measure dreamers, or, as they are
fashionably called, transcendentalists. As a rule, the relig-
iously inspired and responsive nature will tend irresistibly
toward the mystic, the spiritual. The more responsive a race
the more mysticism in its religion, poetry, philosophy, and
Theosophy. We cannot define mysticism better than — an in-
nate desire in the human soul to see God face to face and have
cosmos accounted for and explained. Our most realistic law-
giver, who longed to behold the Divine Glory and see His
ways, was, in a sense, a mystic. What is then more natural
than that a people like Israel, who may be termed the religious
oracle of mankind, should, in its Promethean struggle to let
earth have all the fire and light of heaven, evolve system after
system, poetry. Prophecy, Talmudism, philosophy, Theosophy —
all more or less permeated by the mystic spirit of a beautiful,
sublime transcendentalism ? Because foreign thought and
dream are to be discerned in Kabbalistic literature, this is no
reason for us to disown it as another aspect of the Hebrew
genius, ever eager to plunge into and penetrate the unknown.
(Jur mystic dream is, therefore, but another soaring effort to
satisfy an unappeased spiritual thirst after the highest and
holiest. That Theosophy, well understood, will turn out more
philosophical than prepossession is willing to adjnit. As a

141

supplement to Jewish cosmogony, Kabbalah may appear in the
light of a spiritual Genesis. We press the question again :
Wherein is Spencer's " Cosmos " less mystic than that of the
Zohar, a few secondary fancies excepted ? Spencer conceives
of a time in boundless eternity when nebular matter floated
about, brooding in darkness and death, a chaos of uncertain,
dim masses, pregnant with possibilities of solar systems and all
such potential energies as broke forth in life, growth, and prog-
ress. Behind these Spencer does not go, evidently recoiling
from an efltbrt which overpowers the mind. Of what we are
most anxious to know, namely, the spiritual influences back of
all that is — we are not given as much as a hint, not a glimpse.
Denied the fundamental thought, we must be forgiven if we
look at the whole as a philosophical romance, marvelously de-
veloped ; a romance the beginnings of which are lost in mystic
darkness. If the Kabbalist is not less mystic in his primor-
dial Cause, he is decidedly less dim, aye, he is positive in its
definition. His En-Soph is simply the Incomprehensible Eter-
nal; the Elohim of Genesis, whose fiats are anthropomor-
phized. The philosopher assumes first causes, the Kabbalist
explains them ; the philosopher's forces are blind, directed no-
body knows by whom, springing nobody tells whence; the
Kabbalist systematically, and, we may _ add, philosoj)hically,
bodies forth a stupendous cosmos, back of which are tran-
scendent spiritual powers emanating from Him, Whom words
carmot utter nor mind comprehend ; Who is greater than im-
mensity, a Source transcending all thought, all limit, all com-
prehension ; felt, not explained ; inexhaustible ; the Beginning
of all. Himself without beginning.

Glad as we should be to hold our ground with our sacred
Scriptures and philosophic literature, consigning mysticism to
folklore and poetry, our mystic dream is surely not one to be
treated with disrespect, as the creation of a morbid imagina-
tion. Given a poetical garb, the Kabbalistic Tlieoso])hy would
throw all other epic tales into insignificance. It is a wonder-
tissue, woven of ethereal woof and warp ; light and dark
threads interchange therein ; chaotic deeps, solar worlds, stars
and seraphim, and angels high and low are therein bending

142

to the Universal Will ; and man is there derived from the
Purest Essence with faith, free will, hope, and intellect to
brighten np his way to Him who is the All-in- All. Smile not,
friend; you know not more, but less than our mystic dreamer,
of visions sweet, of lofty thoughts and sentiments. He has a
heavenly dream ; what have you, enlightened as you imagine
yourself to be ? Eitlier yon, too, have a dream or a soul thirst-
ing for sensual pleasure ; a spirit heavy as lead. And whither
tends your faith ? What do you read in the stars, the oceans,
and the continents ? What has hope in store for you ? This
world, you know well enough, is not yours, and if you cherish
no mystic dream of an hereafter, then have you good cause to
envy the Jewish mystic, who sees end, purpose, and wisdom
in everything ; feels himself at home among the stars, know-
ing, or believing to know, the Whence, Whither, and Where-
fore. Happy he, happy all who have a dream !

CHAPTER IX.

HILLEL, PHILO, AND JOSEPHUS.

History repeats itself in many ways. On reading the mas-
terly reply of Joseplius to Apion, and those other defamei's of
ancient Israel, who, unable to cope with a rival of spiritual
superiority, resorted to historical forgeries, one thinks he is
reading a chapter of modern anti-Semitism. The curse of
falsehood is a fatal lameness which dooms it to halt, struggle,
stumble, and sink into infamy, leaving its bearers to dangle in
the noose from the gallows they raised for truth and innocence.
Haman was bodily hanged by the neck on the gibbet he had
built for another ; are not scores of similar malefactors morally
sustaining the same penalty, hanging forever between hell and
heaven, delivered to infamous immortality? Lies will not
endure. Falsehood defeats its end by the mad excesses it,
happily, cannot escape. Had Apion and his compeers con-
fined themselves to bearable forgeries against a race they
either did not know or did not want to know, they might not
have aroused the righteous ire of the learned Josephus, who
found it an easy work to brand them as liars. Unprovoked,
Josephus would have scarcely gone out of his way to discredit
Greek history, showing that even Herodotus was more of a
fabulist than an historian. The triumph of Josephus is com-
plete. He sees his peojjle's defamers defamed. Apion has
the impudence to record that the Jews had the head of an ass
made of gold in their Temple, as an object of worship. An-
tiochus Epiphanes had found it, together with a captive Greek,
whom the Jews enticed, fed with fine delicacies for the pur-
pose of delivering him to slaughter, his entrails — a rare treat —
to be eaten by them secretly, of course. But for the scathing
reply which forgeries of this sort elicited from the Jewish
historian, many a precious fact would most probably have

(143)

144

been lost to history and Judaism. Precious to us must be
the evidence furnished by Josephus, that Jews and Jewish
laws were not unknown to Berosus, Pythagoras, Aristotle,
and other historians and thinkers of the earliest times. They
not alone knew them, but many respected tlieir laws, and
actually adopted some of them, Josephus maintains that
" Pythagoras, and Anaxagoras, and Plato, and the Stoic philos-
ophers, who succeeded them, and almost all the rest, are of
the same — Jewish — sentiments, and had the same notion of
the nature of God ; " but they " durst not, these men, disclose
tliose true notions to more than a few." Every Jew knew,
however, that " God contains all things, and is a Being every
way perfect and happy, self-sufficient and supplying all other
beings ; the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things.
He is manifest in His works and benefits, and more conspicu-
ous than any other being whatsoever ; but as to His form and
magnitude He is most obscure," &c. Jewish thought being
so much older than Greek thought, and Greek philosophers
ha^^ng knowledge thereof, was it not natural for Philo to
assume that Greek philosophy was, for its sublimest ideas,
largely indebted to Hebraic wisdom ? Is it reasonable for us
to suppose that the wise of Greece, who traveled to distant
climes to inform themselves, would take no notice of a people
over wliom a Solomon ruled 'i Before Japheth went to the
tent of Sliem to get his god, was he not there to get many of
his ideas? Aryan jealousy, older than Apion and younger
than Rcnan, hates to let Shem prevail, but denying is one
thing and refuting another.^*'

^* During the year 1835 a gentleman, S. Hart, found at the British
Museum a pamphlet " published at Cambridge, by W. Thurlstone, anno
1739," signed by Pli'doglottuH and dedicated to the " Reverend the
Rector and Fellows of Lincoln College, in the University of Oxford."
The author therein shows that " it is among the ancient Easterns that
we must expect to tind at least that traditional knowledge, which des-
cended to mankind more pare and extensive than among others." This
" is evident from the general resort of the wisest among the ancient
sages thither, purely for the improvement of their minds." He then
proceeds to show that Pythagoras must have been acquainted with the
contemporary prophets: "namely, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other sages

145

Josephus, himself a priest, speaks of the Five Books of
Moses as belonging to the twenty-two known to him to be of
hoary antiquity, the only code known to ancient Israel ; yet
have we learned men — among them Yoltaire and Renan — who
seriously doubt the existence of a Mosaic personality, while
even Manetho goes no further than substituting Osarsiph for
Moses, thus confirming his personality, though denying his
Hebrew origin and descent. We may then be forgiven for
doubting the existence of Jesus, who in very truth left nothing
but legends to tell of his career. It must be mortifying to the
Church to see the scattered allusions of Josephus to Jesus and
some of his followers rejected as false interpolations ; for Euse-
bius admires that historian and Zosinms declares him a celeb-
rity of liis age, honored alike by Jew and Gentile. A con-
firmation of the well-informed Josephus of the extraordinary

of the priests and Levites, and generally of the Israelites." Thales, as
well as the other Sapi or Wise Men, famous in Greece, have all gotten
their wisdom by traveling and biding among the Orient's wisest. " Plato
not only traveled over Egypt to this end, but even acknowledged that
the Greeks received their most valuable learning, at least in a great
measure, from the Phoenicians and Syrians, that is, Hebrews, from
whom, ill particular from Moses, he has harrowed so largely, that Nume-
nius, the Pythagorean, did not scruple to style him : Plato, making
Moses speak classically like a Grecian. From those Easterns the Greeks
learned the use of letters by means of Cadmus ; and indeed, the ety-
mology of this name, which is plainly derived from the Hebrew mp,
clearly discovers to us the obligations the Greeks are under to the
Easterns for the first elements of knowledge ; and, more especially per-
haps to the Hebrews and Chaldees, so remarkably characterized by the
Oracle : The Chaldees alone have ohtained true wisdom, that is, the Hebrews.''
Continuing, the learned writer reminds his readers that Solon was cer-
tainly indebted for his best laws to the Easterns, whom he copied ; he
pays the highest tribute to the Hebrew tongue, which he finds " to
be an original and essential language, that borrows of none, but lends
to all," a language which even the inveterate enemies of Israel admit
" to have a noble emiDhasis, and a close and beautiful brevity ; " and,
referring us to universal history, he adds : "Aristotle, we are assured,
esteemed an acquaintance with the Hebrew learning so expedient to
his disquisitions that he made himself a master of that branch of
literature, and was well versed therein." Until this is disproved, Philo's
conceit of having but reclaimed a portion of his sires' wisdom from its
Hellenic assimilation may well be pardoned.

146

event would have set all doubts aside, and would have hastened
the spread of primitive Christianity, instead of which it was
long exposed to Roman scorn and persecution. There is good
reason for us to believe that the original edition of Josephus
contained not a line in reference to the crucifixion, and this
fact having been proved beyond a doul)t, the work is as in-
valuable to historical truth and Judaism as it is obnoxious to
its daughter religion. How important that historian's testi-
mony was deemed in the eyes of the early church fathers, is
sufficiently demonstrated by their clumsy effort to turn him
into a witness of tlie fundamental fact on which Christianity
is based. But the presence of the forgeries is more damaging
to the cause they were meant to serve tlian the absence of any
mention whatsoever. They betray a consciousness of weak-
ness and a disposition to adopt unholy means. Josephus and
Philo are contemporaries, while Plillel preceded them by sev-
eral decades. All three lived, strove, thought, and taught
at a period when the world is said to have undergone the
greatest changes. Why is Josephus silent about the star that
wandered, the earthquake, the darkened sun, and the countless
miracles recorded by the gospels 'i Having been on the scene,
his silence looks ominous, while his glorification of Judaism
proves its undiminished power even over the most learned
Jews of that age. The same may be said of Philo, to whom
Eusebius ascribes a certain work in which the good father sees
the glories of monastic life foreshadowed. To associate Philo
Judaeus with monasticism is about as skillful a scheme as to
derive the trinitarian principle from the Decalogue. But the
pious church fathers could perform all kinds of miracles.

Josephus is especially fortunate in comparing the Aryan
way of writing history with that followed by the Semitic tribes.
He makes out a strong case by showing that in Greece no reg-
ular records were kept. Everybody there could be an historian,
and the people cared much less for the reliability of the stated
fact than for the style in which it was delivered. Accuracy
and veracity, the two elements essential to good history, were
the least and the last thought of. No, educated to believe ig-
norant, superstitious priests, and to worship fabulous gods, the

147

Greek historian, in order to surprise his audience, had to blend
the little he knew, or imagined he knew, witli a tissue of fiction,
things strange and curious. The Roman chronicler followed
the same tendency. Tlie veracity of these historians is sore-
ly tested by statements like the following by Dion Cassius.
With perfect calm this ardent worshiper of the gods records
that the Jews had massacred two hundred and twenty thou-
sand Greeks in Cyrene ; two hundred and forty thousand of
the same heroic nation in Cyprus ; an immense multitude in
Egypt, many of whom were cut asunder; their blood was
greedily drunk, their flesh devoured, and their entrails used as
girdles. Like Apion, Dion Cassius hangs himself by his lying
tongue. The Jews revolted, had good cause to revolt against
their outrageous oppressors. Had the Roman iiad an idea of
their religious scruples he would have blushed at his owii
infamy. A people that, a hundred times before, preferred
death to unclean food, need not seriously refute such charges
of cannibal barbarities. As to the cause of their i-evolt, we
are informed by Joseplnis that the Jews, scattered among the
Greeks in Asia and elsewhere, sent ambassadors to Csesar Au-
gustus with bitter complaints of outrage, pillage, and abuse,
beseeching him to grant them equality and religious liberty ;
and that their complaints were well substantiated is sustained
hj tlie edict issued in their favor.^ It was not always ill-
will or malice, but prejudice against what they termed barba-
rous peoples, and a desire to surpass others in strange tales,
startlnig facts, which tempted the ancient Aryan to misrepre-
sent his neighbors — a disposition modern liistory has not out-
grown. We have yet to find an historian generous enough to

.^* It opens: "Caesar Augustus, hij^h-priest and tribune of the people,
ordains thus: Since the nation of the Jews has been found grateful to
the Roman people, not only at this time, but in times past, also," &c.,
he orders, "that the Jews have liberty to make use of their own cus-
toms according to the law of their forefathers." These privileges,
granted by the Roman emperors, were not repealed before 439, when the
Christian emperor, Theodosius II., excluded all Jewish citizens from
public offices, "which exclusion subsequently determined their position
in the Eastern Roman Empire, as well as in Europe, as that law was
embodied in the Justinian code," remarks Doeliinger.

148

do full justice to an adversary. Not so the Jews, who, at the
very outset of their history, liad appointed historiographers,
men of high station, integrity, installed into tlie holy office of
priesthood, pledged to record truth — cost it what may. This,
Josephus emphatically asseverates, and he has the sacred rec-
ords to sustain him. King or queen, or magnate, or popular
hero, or High-Priest — Jewish history was never overawed by
names or titles, but throws as much liglit on their short-
comings as on tlieir excellencies. The Jew never trifled with
truth ; exceptions serving but to confirm the rule. Every bi-
ographical sketch ill our Biblical chronicles will stand inquiry
as to its most probable veracity, so that the unfailing legends
which usually gather round distinguished persons never ob-
scure their real individuality.
y Ours is a history of facts, men, thoughts, and actions.
Neither myth nor miracle throws doubt on oar leading figures
in history. Good cause has Strauss to question the individu-
ality of Jesus, but who ever dreamt of doubting the personal-
ity of Josei:)hus, of Hillel, or of Philo % They are the three
who bear witness to Israel's sublime ideal long before the
- Christian myth found currency among the vulgar masses.
The memory of these universally-honored figures should be
kept green, since they did, in a great measure, directly deter-
mine the course of Jewish, and indirectly influence that of
universal history. IIow^ much of the wise sayings and teach-
ings ascribed to the founder of Christianity are not found ex-
pressed in the pages of Josephus, the wisdom of Hillel, and
the philosophy of Philo '\ May he who has judgment judge.
And how infinitely more they taught than the Church ever
dreamt of. Referring our reader to a perusal of those para-
graphs in Josephus which sum up the principles which gov-
erned the ancient Jewish Theocracy, w^e shall give a little at-
tention to Hillel first, then a look at Philo.

We shall not apologize for expressing our inmost conviction
that the mildest features and charitable principles credited to
the doubtful Nazarene are substantially borrowed from the
beautiful legends and anecdotes tliat cluster around the name
of Hillel, while his unsettled mind and visionary proclivities

149

are entirely foreign to the serene nature of the Hebrew sage.
If there ever lived a man who said those many good and as
many queer things as are given to us in his name ; if he strove
and died loyal to a conviction, he did no more than Socrates
and Eleazar did before, and Huss and many others did after
him. Life was less precious to him than truth ; so it was to
the great Greek and the martyred Hebrew, and he is entitled
to no more nor less respect than those myriads of noble men
and women who lived and died for a conviction, an ideal. We
mean to say, that the day on which we shall be convinced tliat
a legitimate son of Joseph and Mary was crucified because of
his enthusiastic devotion to our Father in heaven, or because
of his efforts to redeem a backsliding age from corruption, we
shall bless his name, but curse the impostors who turned him
into a dark, vindictive Moloch, whose altars reeked with hu-
man gore, and whose priests reveled in the mire of abomina-
ble vice.

Eut, as to his teachings, they are, at best, second-hand
productions, with an admixture of preposterous extravagances.
We recommend our Hillel as a nobler, sounder specimen of
ideal manhood, all originality and self-reliance ; a soul centred
in a conscious self, recognizing the vanities of earthly life, yet
realizing its high goal,' and commending it as a happy span of
duration, vital to spiritual progress in the universe. Our first
acquaintance with . Hillel awakens our sympathy for the poor
young husband, whose heart is divided between duties to an
indigent family and a thirst for knowledge with no means to
quench it. Unable to pay the small admission fee to the gate-
keeper of the school where the wise meet, he tries, says the
tale, to get a hearing of what is taught therein through the
upper class-room by climbing up to one of its windows. And
so absorbed is he in catching the sounds of the learned, that a
slowly-descending snow covers him up, numbing his vital cur-
rents. Found in this state, liis condition moves charity to as-
sist him. He progresses rapidly until his attainments become a
matter of wonder and admiration. Soon the head of a school
and chief of a scholarly party, he stamps his followers with
the seal of his benignant personality, grows in importance,

150

authority, and fame ; displays at the same time an astonish-
ing determination to rem.edy evils brought about by a slavish
adherence to tlie letter of the Law, often irreconcilable with
clianged surroundings and circumstances. Later, president
of the Sanhedrin, and the most popular of teachers in Israel,
Hillel's active career caused succeeding generations to venerate
in him the reformer of his time — a man of whom it may be
said that he possessed that magic wand which can change a
wilderness into a garden of deliglit.

Hillel's mild temper is often contrasted with the severe, im-
patient individuality of the venerable, very conservative head
of the opposition. When a lieathen approached Shammai,
with the request to be converted to Judaism, provided he
would teacli him its main doctrines while he was standing on
one leg, tlie ilkistrious master impatiently repelled him. On
appi'oaching Hillel witli the same proposition, the gentler sage
answered : " What is hateful to thyself, do not unto another,"
is the substance of Judaism, the rest being an amplifying com-
mentary thereof, which he advised the proselyte to study. His
patience being once discussed by two men, one staked a large
amount in a wager, thinking he could exhaust it. In order to
reach his end, he chose the hour on Friday when Hillel was in
the habit of bathing for the coming Sabbath, to annoy him. En-
tering unceremoniously the rabbi's house, he cried, " Wliere is
Hillel, is Hillel here 'i " The good man innnediately appeared,
barely wrapped in his light garments, asking, " My son, what is
your pleasui'e ? " Though the question put to him was studi-
ously trifling, he answered it and retired, only to be disturbed
again and again by the same blatant individual, wlio was bent
on winning his wager. But the intruder was doomed to dis-
appointment. For Hillel not alone satisfied the impudent
molester by answering all his silly questions, but invited him
to come again should he have any doubt about anything he
might be able to remove. " May there not be many like thee
in Israel," cried the frustrated party. " Why, my son ? " asked
the insulted sage. Being informed of the loss the other sus-
tained through his patience, a loss of four hundred dinars, he
remarked : " It is much better that you should lose double the

If)!

amount of what you liave lost, tlian that Hillel should lose his
patience."

Many are the anecdotes extant characteristic of Ilillel's
sweet, benevolent nature. Nobody who turned his face toward
Israel's religion was turned away by him, be the conditions
ever so strange. Shammai rejected a pagan who offered to em-
brace Judaism subject to the assured prospect of his becoming
its High Priest. Hillel proposed to try, and, by teaching the
proselyte the solemn duties and awful responsibilities of that
high office, he induced him to abandon the idea. Like Sham-
mai, Hillel divided mankind into three divisions as to char-
acter and virtue ; the righteous, the averagely good, and the
wicked. On the day of judgment, all agreed, tlie wicked will
be sent down to Geliinnom for punishment ; the good will
share in the bliss of the righteous; as to the averagely good,
the followers of Shannnai thought they would have to pass
through hell to heaven, a view rejected by the teachings of
Hillel, who thinks The Almighty's Grace would incline the
scale of justice in their favor, making the good in their life
prevail over the evil. How much diviner this sentiment than
tliose of Jesus, who promises no mercy to such as doubted his
divinity, cursing tribes and cities because unable to convince
them of his Messiahship. Characteristic of Hillel is the inci-
dental reference found in the Talmud about the manner in
which he treated a son of a good family he befriended. In
consideration of the better days the poor youth had seen, he
was provided with a horse to ride on and a servant to follow
him. When, on a certain occasion, no servant was to be found
to attend the youth, Hillel himself performed the humble
office, " running before the horse," as the records tell, " for
three miles," to satisfy the humanest sentiment of a royal hos-
pitality. About two thousand years before, Abraham used to
wait longingly before liis doors in expectation of strangers, on
whom he himself attended with joy. Such were our fathers
and teachers, at a period in history when the wild ancestors of
the proudest Aryan nations slept in caves and led a cannibal, or,
at best, a murderous life. Love for all, and charity to every liv-
ing creature, is Hillel's real Nirvana; but he is not Buddhistic

152

in his views of liuuiaii existence, which, in his judgment, so
far from being a period of struggle and pain, is, on the con-
trary, intended for man's benefit, a sweet blessing to be clieer-
fully and gratefully enjoyed and beneficially utilized. Take
the to-day as it comes, enjoy it, and let Providence take care
of the morrow, is Hillel's advice ; for surely man is here for
his best on probation, master of self, his time, of this world
and the world to come. Why be gloomy? Is not cheer a
healthier mood ? The Shechinah flees the melancholy soul.^^

Hillel's ethical sayings breathe Socratic wisdom. Buddhistic
serenity, an unexcelled, universal humanity, and faith unshaken
in the final triumph of righteousness. " Love peace, strive for
peace, love mankind and enlighten them in the knowledge of
God," is one of his. More of his golden rules will be given
elsewhere.

Psychologically interesting are the two extremes of an al-
most feminine benignity, blended with a determined virility,
dauntless in carrying the hardiest plans into reality. Hillel
was daring when innovation was necessary to uphold the cause
of justice, 60 that even the letter of the Law had to yield to
tlie peremptory demands of the times. The Law's spirit, not
its letter, was his guide, and the reforms he introduced necessi-
tated nothing less than the falling into abeyance of certain ordi-
nances of Sacred Scripture. Because Scripture tells that a man
may redeem his property on a cei'tain day, shall he forfeit it on
account of his creditor's cunning, who evaded him on that very
day? No, this cannot be the spirit of the Divine Law. The
man having complied with certain rules shall get his property
whether his creditor be present or absent. A¥ise interpretation
of The Law under radically changed circumstances, was vital to
the existence of Judaism, and for such he amply provided, by
teaching a sevenfold manner — seven Middoth — in which Holy
Writ may, by the use of reason, be made to cover all possible
emergencies. Not less important to the growth and prosperity
of Judaism in dispersion proved his systematization of the un-
wieldy maze of traditional lore, reducing it to six regular di-
visions, or Sedarim. Nineteen centuries have not diminished

.131 nni";' -jino xb mity nrotyn px '■

153

the veneration for a man, who, had he not died a Jew, would
have been beatified bj the Church, either as the sky-directed
master of Jesus, or as the very incarnation of divine benignity ;
so wise, so mild, so firm, sweet, charitable, deep, devout, re-
signed, cheerful, faithful, and hopeful ; one of the rarest fig-
ures in history. Such is our Hillel. Judaism, however, wor-
ships nor saints nor martyrs, but looks on all its expounders as
inspired instruments of The Most High. Hillel fulfilled his
mission ; came when he was needed ; did what was best. He
lives enshrined in the grateful Jewish heart, and admired by
posterity at large. His precious seed is there nmltiplying and
bearing fruit far beyond the limited field it was scattered in.
The lame attempt to pluck laurels from his immortal crown, to
ingraft them on the inferior head of a mythical man-god, will
in time turn out as successful as the trip of Phaston on the
chariot of his father, the all-seeing sun-god.

Inspired by the same spirit, working for the same ideal, but
moving on difi^erent lines and aiming at loftier aspects, Philo
commands our unqualified veneration as another luminous pil-
lar, guiding, as the ancient pillar of light, his co-religionists
from the bondage of letter- worship to the realms of thought and
dream. By far the most prominent of the Alexandrian school,
and unfamiliar with the Rabbinical interpretation of Scripture,
he, imbued with Hellenic culture, found it impossible to see in
the Old Testament simply a range of ordinary ideas destined to
regulate the physical conditions of life. True, the allegorical
method of reading the Bible was not unknown to the Talmudist,
but with the Hellenic Israelite it became a rule essential to his
reverence of Jewish Scripture. There was no mean for him.
To him the Old Testament was either a revelation of spiritual
allegories in a literal garb, or it was a system of polity which
had served its time. If a childish mythology could give rise
to a Platonic philosophy and Theosophy, what treasures of
mystic wisdom were not to be conjured up from the deeps of
the Mosaic Revelation, and the sublime visions of Prophecy ?
Applying his philosophical genius to a deeper insight into the
Pentateuch, Philo was amazed to discern all Greek wisdom in
and between the lines of Mosaism, so that the conception of

154

Moses as the truest and only inspired oracle of The True and
Only God, became the fixed idea of Philo and his school. For
the uninitiated, Scripture contained simple instruction ; to the
thinking it revealed the spiritual universe. Even the stories
had an allegorical meaning to the enlightened. Jacob's love
for Rachel signified love of chastity, purity ; Adam symbolized
the sensuous side of human nature ; Leah was unadmired
virtue ; Rebecca was an emblem of patience ; and so on.

We shall have a few words to say of our "philosophical
realities," but as a prelude it w411 be interesting to devote a
limited space to an outline of Philo's philosophical system.
The shortest review of this philosopher's dreams will sufii-
ciently indicate how much the Zohar is indebted to his world
of ideas and ideals. As a thinker of the highest grade, Philo
deserves our most serious study, since his masterly discern-
ment not alone welds Hellenism and Hebraism into one mag-
nificent system, but elevates Monotheism to an ideal sublimity
beyond which it is impossible to rise. In Philo's philosophy
the impartial student will find Hellenic thought play an aux-
iliary, rather subordinate part. Aryan jealousy did its utmost
to deny Philo the authorship of a new system. He only
copied his Greek masters, those critics say ; assimilated mate-
rials to reproduce them in a Judaized habiliment. We admit
cheerfully that in no case we know of is the Jewish assimilative
faculty so surprisingly illustrated as in Philo's genius of spiritu-
alizing heathenish ideas by a process of an intuitive superiority?
which never for a moment betrays him as the true, loyal Mono-
theist. We may possibly hear, one of these days, that an Aryan
archa>ologist unearthed 'positive 'proofs that Mosaism was made
up of materials borrowed from a score of ancient codes. This
would be as serious a charge as the one advanced against a
great architect, that the splendid structure he designed was
built of stones cut from various quarries. It is, we should think,
the privilege of genius to inherit and utilize the mental achieve-
ments of the past, provided tliey are, in a masterly way,
adapted to higlier needs of the present and the future. Had
some kind antiquarian removed all doubt as to ancient Hel-
lenism having been probably enriched by its senior. He-

155

braism, we would not hesitate in avowing what Pliilo himself
did, namely, our veneration of tlie Greek masters. Would
this detract aught from the greatness of our noble philosopher?
Platonic and Pythagorean thought, everybody will admit, had
to undergo a very substantial smelting process before it could
be fused and moulded into the Hebraic ideal ; their world of
ideas had to be harmonized with, and subordinated to, the
Jewish world of spirit. On one essential point, Philo's mind
is irrevocably settled. Whate^'er good, true, and beautiful
he found in Hellenic literature, he only admired and assimi-
lated because he saw it endorsed or anticipated by the supreme-
ly Divine Law of Moses — a cii'cumstance which by no means
affected his profoundest respect for heathen thought. Nor had
he the least doubt as to who borrowed of whom. Moses lived
at least a thousand years before Plato. How, out of materials
that are in nature either pantheistic, materialistic, or agnostic,
Philo succeeded in building up a philosophy which is substan-
tially Jewish, is a subject worthy of a longer notice than the one
we are permitted to indulge in. When one remembei-s the bit-
ter resistance the Jews, under the Asmoneans, offered to Hel-
lenistic culture, as it was forced on them, Philo's acceptance
of Greek philosophy and its assimilation in his system is the
more to be wondered at. But this happened in a different age
and clime, and under changed conditions. When tyranny re-
sorted to terrorism to exterminate a faith rooted m the Jewish
heart, Hellenism was odious to the Jew, who swore dire ven-
geance, and wreaked it in the blood of the foe. But wlien,
far from Zion, Hellene and Hebrew learned to fraternize
in the mild atmosphere of Alexandrian rule, the discovery of
an intellectual kinship proved a resistless fascination to the
responsive Jewish quality — a faculty that was often the cause
of many a Jewish aberration dearly paid for. This cannot
justly be insinuated agaiiist our Pliilo, who, with all his love
for Hellenic culture, was to the very core an enthusiastic
Jew — a distinction he placed above every other.

The great distance between our thinker and those of Hellas,
whom he courted and utilized, is his absolute postulate, that
God is The Being whom human intellect can neither fathom

150

in quality nor in quantity, nor in time, nor in space, He being
indefinable, eternal, immutable, the simplest of the simple, the
greatest of the great, freer than the freest, better than the
best, more perfect than perfection. In fact, Philo's vocabu-
lary, pure and classical as it is, appears to forsake him the mo-
ment he attempts to express his conception of Deity and His
inexpressible attributes.^" To know the God of Moses and His
Will is to him the highest wisdom, and this no works body
forth in such a perfection as the Mosaic Books, which l)ut few
ever read as he did, seeing therein revelations of hitherto un-
dreamt of mysteries ; reflected, it is true, in the ideal musings
of non-Jewish minds, but nowhere found as absolutely perfect
as in the work of God's only inspired oracle, Moses. Twelve
centuries later the hazy Kabbalist does in a less luminous way
throw similar streaks of light on his dim horizon. Philo's idea
of God is so high that he thinks it absolutely impossible for
human thought and speech to express lohat He is, but that the
utmost we may do is to say what He is not, for definition caunot
define what the mind cannot conceive. Now, considering that
man finds it next to impossible to clearly define the universe,
how could he define or comprehend God, who, as the Tahnud
teaches, contains the universe in Him, but is not fully contained
therein ? — Mark the origin of the Zoliar'S En-Soph. — The prob-
lem that here faces our transcendental philosopher is : How
God, being absolutely indescribable, devoid of all quantity and
quality, could create worlds and things describable and defin-
able ; how things gross and transitory could spring from Him,
the Most Perfect? This cliasm between God the absolutely
transcendental and His creations and creatures grading down
from the highest to the lowest and most imperfect, is philo-
sophically bridged over by the assumption of Divine ideas —
which Fichte adopts — and forces which, wholly distinct from
the perfect personality of God, serve as connecting links be-
tween Him and the less perfect wonderfully graded universe.
These Philonic active ideas or forces are the Sephiroth of the

^" The four Aristotelian principles, matter, form, efficient cause, and etid,
together with that potentiality the "father of logic" illustrates by the
germ in which all the purts of the tree are contained, are, it will be
realized, no approximation to Philo's transcendental God.

157

Kabbalist, who, we need not say, scarcely improved upon or
brightened up matters. Like the Sephiroth, Philo's Divine ideas
or forces ai-e the names of Divine primordial thoughts, which
preceded all creation of the visible, translating themselves into
the material universe, acting, in a word, as agents or ministers
of The Most High, which is another substantial difference be-
tween Hebrew and Hellenic tliought. For Greek philosophy
fails to establish a positive connection between what it denomi-
nates the Logos, the ideas emanating therefrom, and tlie things
which are the visible forms of those ideas. Tlie angels Philo
refers to are the Divine ideas as executive messengers, which is
in itself nothing original with him, it being a Talmudic idea,
that daily ministering angels spring into existence from the
mysterious river Binor, and, having performed their assigned
tasks, vanish again. In Greek philosophy the Logos is the
supreme thought, or Reason, the origin of all other reason,
which last Aristotle assumes to have individual existence on
earth before it inhabits tlie liuman body. With Pliilo, the
Logos is the Reason, the Wisdom of The Supreme, giving rise
to all other operative intelligence. Herein, again, Philo rises
toto coelo over his Greek models of thought.

The cause, as well as the ultimate object of this material
divergence from thinkers he reveres, is Philo's endeavor to
harmonize the noblest results of Hellenic civilization with the
sublimest ideal of Hebraic Theosophy. Thus, with the inex-
pressible Infinite at the basis of all things, his Logos or
Reason as the source of all thought and a multitude of sub-
ordinate ideas or forces which emanate from that Supernal
Reason, Philo proceeds to show how Jewish cosmogony
sustains his philosophy, and how our Genesis is tlie only one
philosophically compatible with the most spiritual of Theos-
ophies. Philo is a hard nut for the trinitarian Church to
crack, and from whatever standpoint we look at him he is de-
cidedly a nobler and more consistent figure than Spinoza, who
is all the time pantheistic, often belligerent, aye vindictive,
and, at times, painfully insincere and unjust.^* Philo is a

'« Spinoza's flattering allusions to Jesus have no cleaner motive than
his vindictive utterances against the Jews, whose fanatic rage against
him lie would have honored himself by treating as a philosopher.

■ loS

serene, peaceful, yet Unn, nature ; deep and loyal, ready to
recognize the best wherever he meets it, and utilizing it for
the liighest ends ; a dreamer ^^ar excellence, an enthusiastic
philosopher, loving Judaism the more because to him it is the
inspired oracle of humanity lie loves not less, eager to persuade
mankind that Israel's God was and ever will be the Father of
all men. How he labors to teach the Jews what is best in
Hellenic culture, and to persuade the Greeks that Israel's God
is better and greater than what they deem the best and the
greatest. To read Scrij)ture with Philo's eye, is it iiot reading
the heavens with the soul of Copernicus, Newton, and Her-
schel ? Genius is both the light in which we are taught to
study and the sight with which we are endowed to see things.
Like sweet maidenhood, truth and nature reveal not their
charms to him who would not woo. Thinking is courting truth.
Look at the ocean ; is it no more than a vast expanse of water ?
Why is the poet's soul thrilled at its sight ? Plato thinks that
there is a "divine madness" of which the philosopher alone is
possessed. His nund has wings, leading him into the sanctuary
of truth, revealing to him what is hidden from the vulgar. Tlie
sight of beauty and grandeur enkindles his thought, which in
tui'u renders a glimpse at wisdom unrobed possible, and wis-
dom is lovely beyond expression. But how many have sight ?
The stars are there, symbols written witli the linger of God,
but unmeaning to the uninspired soul. Multitudinous nature is
there, mirroring heavens all around, a world of emblems one
of thousands stops to decipher. Our Scriptures are there — of
late the arena of learned gladiators, brandishing their weapons
of lead in face of Zodiac's mystic figures. Give eyes to the
blind-born ? You may as well teach harmony to the deaf.
The instrument is there in which symphony slumbers. The
untutored touch brings forth dissonance ; the master's stroke
conjures ravisliing notes. The harmony must be in the soul or
it is nowhere. This age is out of harmony with self, with
nature, and with God. Letter-worship, and ether-worship, and
fancy-worship, and man mion- worship, and vanity-worship, and
idol- worship, and no worship characterize a time when any-
body and anything are more than everybody and everytliing

159

to self, so self-sufficient, so all-knowing and all-seeing, that
they do not see the forest for its multitude of trees ; an age
that knows not how little it knows. Philo had eyes and heart
to see and feel, and his power consisted in his profound rev-
erence for an inspired work, the like of which the world has
never produced ; his threefold strength was made up of faith,
I'everence, and thought; a type of man frequent in Israel.
Philo believes, reveres, and thinks, free from any other dream
save the one which, in priest, prophet, and sage, matures into
an unshaken conviction — One God, one universe, one mankind,
one people of Israel, whose one and only mission is to make
Jehovah The God of all.

It should be noted that Philo's Logos, as a creative influence,
is a power entirely distinct from God, and is not to be con-
founded with the " demiurge " of the Gnostics. Philo's " Di-
vine Sophia " is a philosophic translation of that primordial
formative Wisdom so explicitly discussed in the contemplative
Books of the Old Testament, such as Job, Proverbs, Ecclesias-
ticus, and Wisdom. AVisdom speaks of self, " The Lord cre-
ated me as the beginning of Plis way, the first of His works
from the commencement." Again, " Before the mountains
were yet founded, before the hills, was I brought forth." Job
speaks of Wisdom as the mysterious power whose way God
alone sees. In a moment of intense spiritual longing, Moses
pathetically prays, " Let me, I pray Thee, behold Thy Glory,"
and " Let me, I pray Thee, behold Thy ways." The answer is
" Thou canst not see My face, for no man can see Me and
live." A glimpse at the " back parts " is all that is- granted.
There is a dej)tli of thought and of symbol in these few
words which must inspire the highest mind with awe and
wonder. Moses is not denied the sight of Wisdom, the re-
flection of Divine Glory, but the fullness thereof he never can
see while alive ; a clear hint therein of what is reserved for
man after death. This leading thought underlies Philo's
philosophy. In the act of creation, it is not God Himself
who directly works, but His Logos, Reason, or His Word, or
His Wisdom is the intermediary divine power, acting through
a multitude of ideal agencies, ideas, forces, angels, and demons.

160

You may discern herein the heavenly Adam of the Kabbalist,
with all his Emanations and creations. Neither does our phi-
losopher, in his speculations and iirst conclusions as to man's
origin and nature, lose sight of the Scriptural text. There
is the highest and the lowest wedded in human nature, im-
plying a constant struggle within. Sf)ace is full of pure souls,
the Breath of God, and those nearest earth are eager to enter
mortal bodies, following in this an immutable law. The two-
fold nature of man explains at once the goal and the trials of
life, the one drawing him skyward, the other earthward, thus
making his rise or fall a matter of free will. " See, I have
set before you to-day life and the good, death and the evil," is
in substance the groundsill of all moral philosophy, translated
by Plato into the good and the bad steed, which carry the
chariot of the winged soul. To overcome the sensuous and
jDcrfect the spiritual side of man's nature is necessarily the
leading idea of Philo's, or Jewish ethics. By ethical elevation,
by the triumph over the allurements and sensual indulgences
of this material, tempting world, man is to reascend to The
Original Source of his higher being. Who is God.^^ Aye,
virtue, in her ideal actualization, enables man, even while im-
prisoned in his mortal frame, to enjoy the blissful conscious-
ness of a close affinity with his Creator. Yet temptation and
earthly chains are stronger than man's will power ; wherefore,
in his ethical and religious endeavors, he must needs appeal
for help from on High. A life triumphantly closed in the
exercise of virtue and the acquisition of wisdom entitles the
soul to an immediate return to The Universal Spirit. In this
case, the dying hour is the liappiest of life's career. The dust
returns to the dust whence it came, and the soul returns to
God, where she belongs. Failing in her mission below, she

^'This idea is l)eautifully stated in Midrushic lore, where it is said,
that God will disport with the righteous in Paradise, who, on seeing
Him, will be startled, when, full of grace. He will quiet them with the
assurance that He is as one of them.

inix D'Nn D'pnvi H2h Tn^S py pn D'p'ii-n d;' h'-ah n"3pn my
'jdSo D';n;nn ddS no D'p-ii.'S Dn"? -inifst n'apni vjijSo D';'T;niDi

161

has to continue her period of probation by passing from one
body to anotlier, until, purified, she may return to her original
empyrean home. This is evidently a concession made to the
Pythagorean doctrine, borrowed from Egypt and India, of the
soul's transmigration, and known in Kabbalistic terminology
as the gilgul.

It is not a small matter for us to be able to point to such a
mighty mind, who antedates Christianity and its founder, and
anticipates all its highest claims, including the doctrine of
eternal life. Josephus, Hillel, and Pliilo are three gigantic
figures who, in various ways, bear witness to Hebraic ideal-
ism, circumscribing and sounding that ocean of spiritual vast-
ness which Judaism embraces and fathoms, and whence fiow
the less limpid and shallow rivers of its daughter creeds.
Whatever is healthy and pure in their tides comes from that
unpolluted crystal deep, fed by unbounded spiritual streams,
converging in the Living, All-Enfolding, and Upholding,
Creating, and Sustaining Fountain-Head ; the turbid, unclean,
obnoxious, and venomous therein is drawn from heathen
sewers. Aryan cosmogonies, Aryan gods, ethics, theosophies,
and philosophies are all on record ; so is Israel's life and
thought, his heart and his soul, his history and his God
there, unaffected, aye, unchanged. We challenge compari-
son. Let the wise compare; let them judge; let them de-
cide who is the debtor, the teacher, the benefactor — of whom.
We waited long and not vainly ; we are waiting still, and shall
wait until, dazzled by the universal knowledge of God, man
will cast off error and falsehood in all their glossy forms —
false creeds, false gods, and false priests.

CHAPTER X.

OUK PHILOSOPHIC KEALITIES.

In the following paragraplis we propose to present a few
succinct ideas of our leading post-Biblical thinkers, thus con-
veying a slight conception of what may be properly called
Jewish philosophy. Well may we ask whether Judaism, with
its all-embracing Monotheistic Theosophy and a system of
humanitarian ethics, is seriously in need of any philosophy or
Theology to idealize it. Our answer must be in the negative,
since revealed religion necessarily precludes rationalistic or
speculative subtilization, appealing to intuition, not to reason,
as a basis for further development. Jewish philosophy is,
therefore, logically considered, a philosophy of interj^retation,
not one resting on hypothesis. In this Pliilo leads. His
fundamental tliesis- — -which is that of the Jewish Alexandrian
school — is, God being Eternal, the universe being His work,
and revealed Scripture teacliing His will, how are we to
understand all these things? If Greek thought agrees with
the Sacred Records, there was no doubt in the minds of Aris-
tobulus and Philo, that the harmony was due to Hebraism
being the mother of ideal Hellenism. Jewish speculation be-
gins, text in hand, as it were, its foundation being the Divine
Word as revealed. Yet this thesis, limited as it appears, is, in
reality, so vast in scope that, instead of chaining free thought,
all thought is amazed at the very contemplation of the stu-
pendous theme wherein God, eternity, infinity, apart from
everything therein perceivable and unperceivable, are central
ideas. Thus is the subject and the object of Jewish phi-
losophy well defined. God, the universe, and man therein be-
ing facts, what is their relation to each other ? What is the
goal of human life here below? Is revelation explicit in
satisfying progressive thought ? It is plainly evident to him.

(163)

164

says Philo, wlio penetrates tlie spirit of the Divine Word, in
which all human thought and much more is contained. Set-
tled in this respect, Jewish philosophy thenceforth proceeds to
assimilate whatever is compatible with its unshaken postulates.
Thus, whenever there was misinterpretation or misunderstand-
ing touching Scriptural lore, to undeceive the vulgar and the
letter-worsliiper, the Jewish philosopher interposed reason or
allegory, sometimes availing himself of non-Jewish thought
to show how truth, found elsewhere, was but a faint reflex
of truth revealed to Israel. In this way did the mediaeval
and modern Jewish thinker often fvdfill the mission of the
ancient prophet. Seeing the Jewish mind incline toward
dead, stagnant forms, substituting a new kind of idolatry for
the living Word of God, to be adapted to the needs of all
times and conditions, he hastened to disabuse it by separating
the dross from the gold, and by eliminating the gross and
superstitious from the spiritual beauties hidden in the Sacred
Text.

The gaon Saadia, who flourished during the first half of the
ninth century, is a type of the kind we are referring to.
President of the academy of Sura, and venerated not alone
on account of his extensive scholarship, but more so on ac-
count of the highest manly virtues, Saadia's genius astonishes
tlie student of Jewish thought. Blind faith and literal read-
ing of the Scriptures Saadia rejects as unworthy of a true, in-
telligent Israelite. His conviction is that the Jew is in duty
bound to apply reason in examining matters of creed — reason
standing, in his judgment, next to Revelation in its ability to
reach truth, though its success in trying to reach that goal be
tardy, toilsome, and gradual, while Revelation is a free Divine
gift bestowed on mankind. Commenting on the Pentateuch,
Saadia does not hesitate to allegorize the most unaccountable
miracles, such as the speaking of the serpent to Eve, or the
dialogue that is recorded as having occurred between Balaam
and his mule. Satan among the heavenly powers, as spoken
of in Job, is an allegory. In short, like Philo, Saadia finds
every noble thought and the sum of all idealism in the Old
Testament, making all knowledge at his disposal tributary to

165

this Book of books, the Truth of truths. Hai, a later gaon,
is one of Saadia's loyal and worthy followers. In a true
Philonic spirit Hai symbolizes every idea conflicting with sane
reason. " There is no doubt," says this gaon, " that The Al-
mighty cannot be compared with any other being or spirit.
He being far removed from all manifestations of human na-
ture— such as weeping, laughing, joy, or anger — so that every
allusion of our sages, in this sense, must not be taken in its
literal meaning, but is intended as an illustration or simile
drawn from things perceivable to the eye. Thus, when the
Tor ah speaks of God's hand, wrath, and eye, it is only by
way of parable, according to the speech of man." And this
Hai was the head of a great Jewish school, at the begiiming
of the eleventh century.

We have had a word of Avicebron under the name of Ibn
Gabirol, as a poet of ethereal wing. We are now going to
know him as a thinker of the highest grade, whose works, ap-
pearing in the eleventh century, had a great influence on phil-
osophic speculation for many succeeding ages. Avicebron's
system seems in many vital points to be the original, after
•which Giordano Bruno, excepting the Italian's lack of rever-
ence, shaped his philosophy. To Avicebron Theology has a
threefold object : to obtain knowledge of matter and form ; to
recognize the Divine Will or creative Word ; and to secure
some comprehension of the Supreme Divine Unity, Who un-
derlies all variety of spirit, matter, and form. Perfect knowl-
edge of God is impossible ; the imperfect possessing no means
to conceive of the most perfect. By His Will the Infinite is
related to, and operates on, the finite. The relation of all cre-
ations and creatures to the Creator is regulated by the Divine
intermediary— Wisdom. This is the necessary Jewish basis.
All matter springs from one universal matter ; aU form from
one universal form ; all souls come from One Universal Soul.
There is a gradation in the scale of being, beginning with the
lowest and grossest, the clod and the element, the plant and
the animal, and rising to tlie highest, the Divine Will or
Unity. The links which make up the metaphysical chain be-
tween the lowest and the highest are: the principle of motion

166

in material things ; the vegetative soul, as that of tlie vegeta-
ble kingdom ; tlie vital soul, as that of the animal kingdom,
except man ; the rational soul like that of man ; and the Un-
bounded Intellect, which fills all space, and is the Will of the
Supreme. From this highest Source goes forth all activity,
life, and inspiration, the lower in the scale being influenced by
the one immediately above and so on, until all infinity is con-
trolled by the All-Containing Divine Unity. — Is not this prin-
ciple of Divine Unity in universal variety all that Bruno of
the sixteenth century has to tell us ? Bruno's causa immanes,
the only primordial principle, the God, who is the beginning,
the middle, and the end ; the Whole, tlie Eternal, the Infinite,
Free, Living, Active, and Creative Intelligence, is the Divine
Unity of Philo and Ibn Gabirol. So is his living cosmos per-
meated and inspired by the One of Israel.

On perceiving the latest tendency of empirical science and
speculative tliought to trace variety to unity, do we not see an
old system in a new dress? There is a change in terminology,
not in substance. A good deal of what is passing as original
with the moderns, has been anticipated by Jewish tliought.
Plaving made the acquaintance of Avicebron, we turn to Car-
lyle, Emerson, and others, and what do we discern ? An en-
deavor to show that we are waking and sleeping, musing and
dreaming, in the bosom of Unbounded Intelligence ; that we
ai'e what we have made of self ; shall be what we are aspiring
to ; that every one is a world in self to self ; that all selves are
traceable to One Universal Self; and stone, tree, brute, man,
and star are all correlated, varying in form, grade, and ap-
pearance, not in substance, nor in goal. If Philo and Avice-
bron did not say all this, what did they teach ? The Jew has
taught all that ages before.

When we turn to the philosophical I'cflections of our sweet,
gentle bard, Jehudah Halevy, we find them less deep than
those of Philo and of Ibn Gabirol ; Init they breathe the ten-
derest of feelings and the convictions of a heart elevated by
profound reverence, purified by suffering, and callous to mar-
tyrdom. Ilalevy sees in Israel the religious heart of all the
nations, the most precious, yet most delicate organ exposed all

167

around to danger, but strong enough to sustain itself success-
fully. The end of Israel's niartyrdoni is to try him and to
strengthen his faith ; to rid the gold of its dross, and thus pre-
serve it for the benefit of humanity. Our revealed religion is
but a development of natural religion, and favors neither as-
ceticism nor sensualism, but is intended to supply all our fac-
ulties with the healthy nutrition which furthers the harmoni-
ous development of all our being. Judaism approves only of
such worship as springs from a combined sentiment of rever-
ence, love, and joy ; and it attaches no more importance to the
Day of Atonement than to the Feast of Rejoicing. Israel's
faith is based either on Sinaitic Revelation, or on later author-
ities, who, in enacting laws, were prompted by surrounding
conditions. In order to secure the salutary development and
application of the Divine Law, it is allowed to interpret
Scripture, but wisely, and to enact new laws if necessary.
Only the untutored are forbidden to change aught in the
Law ; not so the learned, who will never act against the spirit
of Revelation. The sufferings of Israel prove nothing either
against his future or his great mission, considering that Chris-
tians as well as Moslems are glorying in their martyrs who will-
ingly endured shame, torture, and death. Would not a word,
a change of confession, render us the equals of our oppressors ?
But the Jew prefers martyrdom to treason, ever loyal to his
Providential appointment. While suffering in dispersion,
Israel resembles the buried seed hidden in the soil in order to
assimilate the ingredients necessary to its sustenance. Christi-
anity and Islamism are both harbingers of the Messianic era.
Such are a few of our poet's reflections found in his Cuzari,
the well-known imaginary dialogue a Jewish scholar is assumed
to have held with the king of the Chazars, a Tartar tribe, who,
having examined the doctrines of the three great religions,
gave preference to Judaism. Heine calls Halevy " a great
poet, a star, a luminary of his time ; his songs formed a pillar
of light, preceding Israel in the wilderness of his exile."
Generous was the heart that, sighing under the weight of the
oppressions of an unrighteous Church, accorded it a noble
mission on earth — a sentiment also expressed by Maimonides.

168

A bolder figure in the fields of Jewish free thought, is
Abraham Ibn Ezra, the famous poet, philosopher, mathema-
tician, and grammarian. His was the daring task to pave the
way to modern Biblical criticism, though we are not aware
that due credit has been given him in that province. Neither
•Renan, nor Wellhausen, nor any other of the Bible dissectors
has dealt with more frankness and hardiness than Ibn Ezra in
subjecting matters thought before infallible to the test of a
critical analysis. No obscure point in the Pentateuch escapes
his notice, and his criticism is sufficiently plain ; so plain, in-
deed, that his co-religionists found cause to suspect his ortho-
doxy ; a suspicion which for a long time denied him a settled^
peaceful existence, for poor Ibn Ezra was in the truest sense
a wandering Jew. — Ibn Ezra claims more regard for the un-
derstanding of the heart — n;^! 2^12 \o' '2 — than for many an
obscure doctrine sound common sense is at a loss to compre-
hend. He stoutly maintains that reason is the link between
God and man, that the Law was not given to the uninstructed,
and that rational interpretation of the Divine Word was the
bulwark of Judaism.'*" "We are not permitted here to show
the critical insight of this great genius, who sacrificed bodily
peace to mental freedom. Ibn Ezra is the embodiment of
Jewish rationalism, fearless, deep, sharp, daring, uncompro-
mising, speaking his mind, come what may. His misfortune
was to have been eight centuries in advance of his time. Such
a versatility of genius has never since been met in one and
the same person ; no, not even in Voltaire and Goethe, whose
greater and better chances were their only distinction, in face
of poor, wandering Ibn Ezra."*^

.ih'Dty Kin vn^K |''3i ms p3 iNbom, iS n;n px '^wvh Tr\\r\r\ TMPri vh*'

*i Whether Ibn Ezra's adventure in Jehudah Halevy's house — where,
by finishing a poem of his hospitable friend, he was recognized as the
famous Ibn Ezra and secured the hand of Halevy's beauteous daugh-
ter— be true or not, appears to us of less importance than the testimony
Maimonides bears to his scholarship and character. For in writing to
his son Abraham, Maimonides urges him to waste no time in reading
commentators, except Ibn Ezra's, whose writings " are most valuable
and useful to all who understand them ; for his works require diligent
study, profound meditation, and persevering assiduity ; but they richly

169

Almost contemporaneous with Ibn Ezra lived and worked
that giant laborer in the vineyard of the Lord, Moses ben
Maimon,or, as he is popularly known and revered, Maimonides,
the physician of the Sultan Saladin, and the greatest authority
in mediaeval Judaism ; a powerful individuality whose influence
over his people extends even down to this day.'*^ The mere
fact, that Spinoza and Mendelssohn received their first philo-
sophical impetus from a study of that great light in Israel,

deserve the labor that is bestowed on them, for deep and extensive
knowledge is the reward of him who makes himself master of the pre-
cious stores with which they abound. I myself confess that I am deeply
indebted to Ibn Ezra for the light which, through his aid, I have ob-
tained, and the clear view which he has given me of many obscure
passages in Sacred Scripture." Maimonides assures his son that Ibn
Ezra was " animated by the same spirit of truth as our father Abraham ;
that ' he neither fears nor flatters any man,' nor allows fallacy to shelter
behind the great fame of its author, but has 'one object in view, namely,
truth.'"

* ^ In proof of Jewish sullen resistance to all intrusion from without,
and the rigid isolation of Israel among idolatrous and trinitarian nations.
Gibbon remarks that " the wise, the humane Maimonides openly teaches
that if an idolater fall into the water, a Jew ought not to save him from
instant death." In justice to truth we beg to quote these lines of that
same Maimonides : " Every Israelite ought to treat the resident Gentile
in civil intercourse precisely as he would treat a brother Israelite. We
are commended to sustain their wants; we are enjoined to visit their
sick, to bury their dead, to distribute charity among their poor as well
as to the destitute brethren of our faith, for the sake of peace." And
the grand Sanhedrin convened by Napoleon unanimously declared:
"That by virtue of the Mosaic Law given to Israel's seed, they are at
all times held to consider as brethren all men who acknowledge God
Creator of heaven and earth, and all those among whom they enjoy the
advantages of civil society, or only the benefits of hospitality ; that the
Sacred Law commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves ; that in
consequence of this doctrine, concerning which there exists not the least
dispute among the Rabbis whose authority we recognize and with which
every Hebrew, who arrives at a mediocre knowledge of his religion
becomes conversant, it is our unqualified duty to love, aid, and protect
our countrymen, and to behave toward them in every civil and moral
respect as if they were adherents to the Law of Moses." It should be
borne in mind that this was the explicit declaration of a grand body of
strictly orthodox Jews. How long will it take before a body of orthodox
Gentile priests will reach similar conclusions?

170

ought to be sufficient to put Maiinonides in the Parthenon of
the noblest thinkers. This Moses was, in a measui-e, the second
powerful law-giver in Jewish history ; for he virtually brought
about a renaissance in Hebrew literature and thought. It
being beyond the set compass of this work to discuss the de-
batable effect his vast compendium entitled the Yad Hacha-
zakah, or Mishne Torah produced on tlie legal and ritualistic
growth of rabbinical Judaism, we shall confine our notes to a
brief mention of his leading philosophic work, the 3Ioreh
HannebucMm, or ^^ Guide of the Perplexed.'' Before quoting
a few lines to indicate the spirit of that great eifort, it should
be noticed that, like Pliilo and Ibn Gabirol, Maimonides un-
dertook to harmonize Jewish and Hellenic ideas, Ai-istotle
being his principal authority beyond Judaism ; so much so that
he has been accused of placing that wise Greek above Moses.
Like Philo, Maiinonides professes deep reverence for Greek
philosophy, and, like him, he is a Jew to the very core of his
heart, seeing in the Old Testament the Divine Revelation, full
of symbols, mysteries, and the only source of ethical idealism.
We have elsewhere shown how Maimonides interprets the
advent of Messiah ; the following ideas are drawn from his
" Guide of the Perplexed." In his concluding lines to the
forty-seventh chapter of the second part of the 3Ioreh, Mai-
monides, after referring to the habitual error of man who takes
literally such phrases as the " gates of heaven," or the " skies
opened," emphatically observes, " Use thy intelligence in study-
ing things and you will soon learn to distinguish between what
has been taught by metaphor, by h^^perbole, by allegory, and
by the literal sense originally implied in the wording as it ap-
pears. Prophecy will then become lucid to your conception ;
your doctrines will be reasonable and acceptable to the Lord ;
for truth alone is welcome to God, to Whom falsehood is hate-
ful." This is an urgent appeal to the reasoning faculty of an
age in which the dead forms and meaningless ceremonies
usurped the throne of individual free thought. To Maimon-
ides " prophecy is a Divine emanation, endowing reason, feel-
ing, and fancy with a superior degree of spiritual energy, per-
spicacity, and vivacity. It is the highest state of the imagina-

171

tive faculty. The prophets had no other calling than that of
upholding the Mosaic Law, and of furthering its principles.
The prophets had to be ideal men, prepared to speak truth
even in face of death. As they received inspiration by dreams
and visions, they must needs have been possessed of great im-
aginative faculties ; yet the reality of their prophetic percep-
tion was subject to no doubt whatever, since their conviction
imparted strength to their spiritual ecstasy."

Maimonides defines evil as nothing positive save " the ab-
sence of the good." " Those evils which man inflicts on man
are the result of ignorance, which is the absence of science.
Just as the blind, unguided, hurt themselves and others, so are
the ignorant inflicting sufferings on one another, which are
hard to endure. The recognition of truth alone causes hatred
to disappear. The vulgar imagine that there is more evil than
good in the world. Every fool imagines the universe to exist
for him only, and, his wishes continuing unfulfilled, he con-
cludes that all being is bad. In reality, however, the vast
aggregate of humanity amounts to very little in face of the
immense universe. Man is largely the author of his own mis-
fortune. Through our own weakness we are often obliged to
appeal for help. The virtuous and the cultured realize the
Wisdom that upholds the universe ; they, too, yielding to the
physical demands or cravings of the body, endeavor to satisfy
them by securing bread to eat and a garment to cover one's
self, without courting the superfluous. What man needs is
air, water, and food, all of which nature supplies in abundance
and at a low price."

The perfect serenity breathing through these lines one does
not frequently meet in the tomes of modern philosophy, and
not too often in those of ancient thought. Semitic serenity is
of a different type from that of the Aryan ; it is perfectly un-
ruffled, without the least undercurrent ; it is the serenity of
the blue firmament, not that of the apparently calm, but ever
restless, ocean. Behind the serenity of the Greek what an
intense flow of passion ; what a glowing lava stream of de-
spair ; what a deep of eiuptiness and doubt ! Plato hopes,
more than believes, that the soul is immortal ; to Philo it is a

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positive fact that man" is deathless, being a part of God Him-
self, Who is to him more of a reality than earth, sun, moon,
and stars. There is a void in the heart of the Aryan stock,
which no artificial religion of a nij^thical redeemer, a crucified
god, could ever fill. The human soul is vaster, deeper, and
grander than that untenable salvation scheme, good enough to
mislead the credulous, but utterly impotent to allay the spirit-
ual thirst of thinking men. Therefore does Schiller lament
the fall of the mythical gods ; Voltaire laughs and scoffs at
religion as he learned to know her from contact with her dis-
solute representatives ; therefore does Rousseau reason himself
out of reason ; does Goethe long meditate self-destruction, find-
ing comfort in heathen art and immoral indulgence ; therefore
does Schopenhauer see in the suicide of the race the only way
of escape from a detestable universe and a life that is misery.
And what means Darwin's subtile skepticism, Spencer's open
God-defiance, and Haeckel's self-made creation ? It is that
fearful vacuum in the soul that turns immensity into a terrible
blank and life into a dark Walpurgis carnival of intoxicating
lust. What a divine reconcilement, that of the Teutonic Jup-
iter, the author of " Faust" and "Tasso," who, having escaped
suicide, failed to escape libidinous pleasures ! A great but
heathen genius, heart and soul, is that of Goethe, with little
of faith, less of etliics, and much of sterile skepticism and
unholy verbosity. In " Faust " you see the author's very self,
mad, doubting, hungry, thirsty, faithless, hopeless, fearing,
daring, seeking and finding relief in carnal diversion. But
the void in the soul remains as void as ever, witli nothing
save a mythical man-god to fill it. In vain do you ask conso-
lation, liglit of the Church. She points to inyth and miracle ;
she crucifies reason, free tliought, free speech ; she connnends
ignorance, blind faith, unconditional obedience ; she beatifies
infamous inquisitors, and dooms every rising, free, genius as a
foe to her gods. Why lose patience with the invincible Sem-
ite, the Hebrew, who during four thousand years has endeav-
ored to fill that hopeless void by planting therein his Omnipo-
tent God ? He it was who gave one Book to all men, for all
times. Wlio did the like ? From the Semite's loins sprang

173

that redeemer, who has, alas ! not yet redeemed those who are
in need of redemption. Oppress, defame the Jew because he
is loyal to conviction ? Had ancient heathendom been successful
in extirpating Israel, where would Christianity, where Islam,
take their rise ? The Church, nobody can deny, had and has a
mission, but she failed to realize her love-ideal, failed to verify
the least of her Utopias, while Judaism is an incontestable re-
ality ; it is Judaism. The Jew may generally be said to be a
Jew in theory as well as in practice. Can the same be gener-
ally said of tlie Christian ? At the beginning of the eight-
eenth century. Dean Swift painfully exclaimed, "We have
just enougli religion to make us hate, but not enough to' make
us love one another." Denying the Fatherhood of God to all
mankind, how could the orthodox Church foster the brother-
hood of man ? Good reason has Emerson to ask himself,
" whether we have not lost by refinement some energy, by a
Christianity entrenched in establishments and forms, some
vigor of wild virtue. For every Stoic was a Stoic ; hut in
Christendom where is the Christian ? " Irony of history !
Sounds of mercy, breath of love, deeds of hatred and blows
of death, how reconcile these ? Give us an ansM'^er !

With Maimonides medieval Jewish thought reached its
climax, not because of paucity of Jewish brain, but because of
the stagnant element in Israel that took umbrage at the in-
roads philosophy had made on orthodoxy. Symptoms of Jew-
ish disloyalty were perceived in the rising generation ; at the
same time a new sect of mystic enthusiasts rallied round
teachers who promulgated Kabbalistic doctrines, harmless in
themselves, but threatening to undo that splendid ethical real-
ism for which Judaism is distinguished. That the alarm of
the elders was not unfounded, showed the conversion of sev-
eral prominent Kabbalists to Christianity, having recognized
in the heavenly Adam of the Zohar the identity of Jesus. A
convention of Jewish worthies, presided over by Solomon Ibn
Adereth took place, who decreed that the age of twenty-five
years alone entitled Jewish youth to philosophic study. How
far Ibn Adereth himself was from letter-worship will be seen
when it is stated that he discarded the idea of a supernatural

174

Revelation, assuming it to have been nothing more than a
spiritual communion, God having revealed Himself to the
mind, not to the senses, of Moses and Israel. When it is
written in the Tor ah that the Almighty told Moses He
would appear to him in a cloud, so that all the people should
hear and forever believe, Ibn Adereth adds very significantly,
"every thinker knows that the hearing was not that of the
ear but of the soul ; so is the seeing spoken of on that awful
day, not that of the bodily eye but of the mind."** Yet
when, five centuries later, Geiger uttered the same idea, it pro-
voked the bitterest sentiments and aggressions.

Nor does Ibn Aderetli stand alone in his rational view of
what liad been, until then, considered the miracle of mira-
cles, essential to the divinity of Revelation. In his philosoph-
ical work, entitled n nionSn — "the Wai-s of God," Levy
ben Gerson, commonly known as Gersonides, a celebrity in
his time, denies all miracles, including creation ex niliilo, a
daring genius in philosophic thought coming very near Ibn
Gabirol, save that mystic suff'usion from which our poet phi-
losopher is not entirely free. Tlie intermediary Reason be-
tween the finite and the Infinite is philosophically assumed ;
prophecy is divested of the supernatural, for Providence, Ger-
sonides thinks, reveals Himself more readily to the enlight-
ened than to the ignorant, an idea of old, current in the
Talmud, wliere the sage is placed above the prophet. The
culminating thought of this thinker is that it lies with man
to acquire, by study and meditation, more and more of that
Universal Intellect which, as an ocean, envelops humanity.
In the same spirit Joseph Albo wrote his Ikkarim or " Fun-
damental Principles," treating of Religion in General, tlie
Existence of God, Revelation, and Retribution. Religion is
liere to control weak human nature, to prevent injustice and
violence, and to lead man, by culture, to perfection. Hell is
an allegory, doubtlessly intended to symbolize the barrier
which, in the hereafter, the consciousness of guilt interposes

ni»'Dtynty n;'^ S;o "73 ;'t ijdi .ntyn d;' -cents' no D;^n yni^fv t\:ii*'

175

between felicity and the soul. " Maker of the universe, grant
Thy servant peace of the soul, and Thy will be done," should
be the prayer of the wise. Albo thinks that " resurrection,
being unproved by Scripture and untenable before Reason's
ti-ibunal, has but tradition to sustain it."

We can barely touch upon a few ideas of Mendelssohn,
whose life and work initiate a new period in Israel's history, a
fact which it is not our business here to discuss. Nor would
it be advisable for us to analyze here his noblest work, PIup-
dcm, or the " Ininiortality of the Soul," based on an imaginary
conversation of Socrates, while in prison, with some of his
pupils. The leading thought of this work is, that the soul,
being essentially spiritual, cauuot, like things material, be sub-
ject to mutation. In his " Jerusalem " Mendelssohn conclu-
sively proves the sway of the Church over the State to be both
illegitimate and detrimental to the organic prosperity of secu-
lar government. The Church has her province, and the State
has another one ; the one concerns herself with the spiritual
well-being of a certain sect or creed ; the other has to watch
over the material prosperity of all citizens, who may or may
not belong to the same sect or creed. A separation of Churcli
from State is urged, a view heartily endorsed by Kant, wlio
hailed this theory of an absolute separation as a great " pro-
nnilgation of a grand reform, destined to be realized slowly
l)ut surely, and to embrace all religions." If it be true that
Spinoza undermined the foundation of Christianity, Mendels-
sohn may be charged with the overthrow of its material walls.
That prophecy of Kant has seen fultillment. Except in semi-
barbarous lands, the State lias at last been emancipated from
the surveillance of the Church. Neither Catholicism nor
Protestantism, we may assume, gave any heed to the uncalled-
for progi-amme of the " hunchbacked little Moses." But the
big Pharaohs have grown old and wise enough to see their
folly. A little Moses, with a large head and a generous heart,
may turn out a mischievous Bedouin to a Church of no head
and no heart. The orthodox Church did not yet abandon the
hope of turning the State into a subservient tool of intoler-
ance and oppression ; but, with her nimbus withered, her

170

influence is visibly dwindling. It must be humiliating and
mortifying to have misused such brilliant chances of doing
universal good, and to see that good gloriously done by the
profane State. Ah, when did the Church dream of treating
mankind with justice and humanity ? Wherever her sway is
not broken there is still darkness, intolerance, and persecution.
Her seed of Erebus, scattered broadcast, will bear dark fruit
in ages yet to come, but she knows that Prometheus broke his
chain, and is abroad, torch in hand, to her a veritable Lucifer,
and she has gathered in her baneful feelers.

In his " Jerusalem " Mendelssohn endeavors to put the
question beyond doubt, that Judaism embodies eternal truths
accessible to every intelligence, thus rendering it superfluous
to crystallize Hebrew Monotheism into articles of faith.
Moses did not teach to believe or not to believe, but to do this
and not to do that. Faith cannot be enforced, it has to be im-
parted by suasion, wherefore ancient Judaism had neither
many symbols nor set articles of faith. Maimonides was the
first who conceived the idea of summing up Judaism in thir-
teen articles of faith. Joseph Albo reduced these to three,
coinciding with those which Herbert of Cherburg proposed
as the basis of natural religion. Albo has not been con-
demned on this account, because the saying of our sages
has not been forgotten, that " Though these are tying and
those are untying, all are engaged in interpreting the Living
Word of God." The original precepts and doctrines of
Judaism were not intended to continue immovable for all
times, under all conditions, though everything around, lan-
guage, customs, and manners, may change. So far fi'om this,
our teachings were, on the contrary, transmitted through the
oral living word, subject to circumstances, and susceptible of
adaptation to the requirements and the aptitude of the student,
while the written Law and ceremonies furnish the head of
the family with the best material for instructing youth. Cere-
monies are calculated to keep religion a living influence, they
being in a manner an illustration and a monitor. The inven-
tion of printing, while a good thing in itself, has the disad-
vantage of isolating the student; oral instruction, on the other

177

hand, necessitates social intercourse, thus challenging zeal and
ennilation. There could, in Israel, be no conflict between
church and state, God Himself being the Sovereign of the
people and His Law their constitution. Therefore was blas-
phemy treated as a national crime, as high treason, to be
visited witli condign punishment. Sabbath-breaking was a
violation of the civil as much as of the spiritual Law. Yet
was the transgressor treated with utmost mildness. Ko, the
guilty could not at all be punished unless warned prior to his
second commission of the crime by tw^o impartial witnesses of
the first, and enlightened as to the punishment attached to the
transgression. Judaism did thus not punish incredulity, but
the state did. This is confirmed by the fact that, the Temple
having been destroyed and tlie Jewish nationality dissolved,
the rabbis abrogated every coercive law, imposing none but that
of voluntary penitence. — Writing to a distinguished friend,
Mendelssohn states tliat oui- religious ceremonies are very
important as a bond of union as long as polytlieism and
anthropomorphism were dominant around the globe. "As
long as this plague of reason exists, the true Theists ought to
form a defensive alliance against the polytheistic missionary."
In the same letter he further adds : " We should combine all
our efforts to reform abuses, to expound the true meaning of
our religious exercises, which hypocrisy and formalism con-
spire to render vain and unintelligible." Was not Mendels-
sohn a reformer ? a Jewish reformer ?
^ These cullings, gathered from the voluminous tomes of
Jewish thought, though too meagre to represent the several
systems in all their bearings, are sufficient to indicate the
unanimous spirit of reverence manifested toward Holy Writ
and revelation, as furnishing the basis for ideal superstruct-
ures. Jewish philosophy, well conscious of human inability to
fathom the Infinite, turns all attention to man, not as a Jew,
but as a man, and, with the Sacred Text ever present, it boldly
determines and defines his position on earth and his station in
the universe. The royal position man holds on earth is not a
matter of mere claim or unjustified pretension, but one of
quality and destiny, thus ordained by an inscrutable law.

178

Just as oil will float on the surface of water so will the human
mind assert its supremacy over creation, whether partly or
wholly developed. Every man is born to be a king, a demi-
god, " but a little less than an angel," with powers to control
matter, mould and foster mind, rise to lofty dignity and
superiority, change conditions and surroundings, and surmount
the limitations nature sets to his endeavors. But few realize
the might and possibilities latent in their being ; in other
words, few know the position assigned to them on this planet,
the sovereign endowments vested in their spirit ; and thus,
instead of soaring on eagle's wings toward the sunny beam,
they choose to grovel in mire with the senseless down-trodden
worm. Was the chronometer invented to measure the inter-
vals between meals or dances, or to embellish the bust of a
fool ? The chronometer is a precious instrument for the sea-
man, and for him who has cause to measure time by the frac-
tion of a second. Human skill is seldom wasted without a
purpose ; in this, man follows the example set by nature, in
whose vast realms every seed is destined to bear fruitage. To
supply his daily wants man needs not those supernal qualities
he is endowed with. He could bodily subsist — as other ani-
mals do — by the force of instinct. Wherefore, then, those
precious gifts of soul ? Wherefore tins world entirely left to
his control, a star teeming with wonders hanging in infinite
space ? Above, there immensity spreads studded with billions
of stars, rising and setting day after day as if challenging the
son of earth to look up, contemplate, wonder, and learn what
he knows not and ought to know. Shall man toil to eat and eat
to toil ? Must it be so ? and is this the be-all and end-all ?
Reason and thought say, No ! Man's goal on earth is not to
be enslaved by matter, but to control it. Manhood ceases the
moment one, obeying material pressure, or, what is worse,
animal greed, or, what is worse than all, low, uncontrollable
j)assion, says, / must. No man must do aught degrading
human dignity, lowering liis value, withering tlie soul's divine
lustre, for he is the image of God, born to rule this earth by
learning to rule self. He must not if he does not want.

Judaism assigns mankind this sovereign position on earth.

179

But earth is a star among the stars. The popular notion of
nether and upper worlds is not sustained by scientific facts.
By day the sun is above this earth, by night this earth is above
the sun, but beneath other stars, which are in turn one above
or below the other, or none above the other, as the case with
the spokes of an ever-rolHng wheel would be. Of course, all
the stars cannot be in the centre of the universe. Our sun is
the centre of a group of planets, and, with all his satellites, is
called a solar system. The universe, astronomers tell us, is
full of solar systems held together by central suns. It is thus
evident that we are as likely to be in the heart of the universe
as in the outskirts thereof, which makes no difference whatso-
ever, infinity being full of Divine Glory. What everybody
may see and easily comprehend is the close relation that exists
between this world and the others within sight. The sun
sends us volumes of light indispensable to our existence, and
delegates tlie moon to perform this office at night. The stars
rise to show their intimate relation to this their sister sphere,
80 that, while we habitually speak of the heavens above and
the earth beneath, we are actually in heaven, with stars above,
below, before, behind, to right, to left, and everywhere.

Such being the relation of this globe to those around it,
what is the position of man in the universe ? Granted his
royal supremacy over all nature, as it appears to us here, is
this his highest and only distinction ? There are strong rea-
sons to favor a different view. If Providence planned no
other end for man than that of a temporary duration to end
with a hopeless return to eternal silence. He would not have
bestowed on him such celestial gifts as He denied to every
other creature we know of. We have, then, either to admit
that there are things in the universe which are for no purpose,
which idea would imply a very imperfect Creator, or none at
all, or to sustain revelation by a philosophical endeavor to ac-
count, as much as it is in our power, for all things intellectu-
ally, having realized the wisest design of Supreme Wisdom
intuitively.

Well, then, man harbors dreamings and longings, without
which, had he no other destiny tlian bringing his earthly

180

drudgery to a close, he could do well enough ; no, better than
now, when his energies are divided in an incessant combat of
the noblest aspirations against the lowest proclivities of human
nature. Observation teaches that the most intelligent animal
possesses no more of sense, instinct, and energy than are neces-
sary for the preservation of the species. Instinct induces the
beaver to provide for the cold season, and leads the migrating
bird to warmer climes. If man has a great deal more of di-
vine powers, energies, and faculties than lie needs to assert his
rule over this creation, it is reasonable for us to conclude that
the apparent superfluity of gifts is, indeed, not superfluous,
but has been intended for higher uses. What are these uses ?
We perceive in human nature the in-esistible impulse to grow,
to grow in age, in influence, in power, in fame, in wealth, in
wisdom, in everything that tends toward greatness. This un-
quenchable thirst fo]" more than we are and have, this con-
scious striving for aggrandizement in every shape, while it
indicates that the possibilities of human growth are, in many
respects, unlimited, it at tlie same time furnishes the proof
that the confines of this world are not those of our soul.
Either we must resign our claim, faith and consciousness, that
the spirit of man is the Breath of The Almighty, or accept it
as the fact of facts, that, as God fills the universe and tran-
scends it, so man, the ideal and thinking, has, under certain
conditions, access to the whole universe and its Maker.

Such are the necessary conclusions of Jewish cosmogony and
pliilosophy. Upholding the faith in the existence of the In-
finite God, Whose Wisdom ordains all for the wisest ends, and,
basing the divinity of the human soul on her Divine origin,
Judaism impliedly extends the limits of man's duration to
eternity, and the confines of his active or passive being here-
after to the remotest bounds of the universe. What is of
vital importance in this consideration is the proper use of that
individual free will which makes man arbiter of his own des-
tiny here and hereafter. Apart from virtue's being her own
reward below, we know that a man's career is not buried with
him. Why, then, should we doubt that good or evil deeds
which survive their author here do follow him beyond the

181

grave to determine his position in the universe ? Is not such
an assumption perfectly compatible with universal justice ?
Nature reveals her selections. The flower blossoms not in un-
congenial climes ; life flees the pestiferous swamp, the fetid
exhalation; and the rainbow shines not on winter's dreary
horizon; beauty, harmony, and order dwell not with de-
formity, discord, and confusion ; and we should doubt that the
ethereal habitations of virtue are separated by untraversable
abysms from the abodes of vice. Why should we ?

CHAPTER XI.
ISRAEL'S GOD AKD HIS LAW.

Loyal Israel sees in the Theocratic Law tlie essence of all
wisdom, the keystone of all ethics and religion, and the basis of
perfect justice such as have never been approximately reached
in any other code. But this is not universally admitted by the
non-Jew, our Law being to the Christian largely replaced by
the Kew Testament ; to the Mohammedan entirely so by the
Koran. Among all the forms of government discussed by old
and modern writers Theocracy meets with slight consideration,
it having always been, and continuing to be, a distinctly
Hebraic ideal of government, founded on laws as eternal and
immutable as the Sovereign from Whom they are derived.
Since we are conlidently looking to the time when Israel's
God shall be the One of the human race, it is natural for us
to expect that His Laav is destined to be The Law of all man-
kind, an expectation which needs much to be fully realized.
As compliance with the fundamental princij)les of natural re-
ligion brings man face to face with the Monotheistic ideal, so
does every attempt to legislate in the interest of universal jus-
tice derive authority and vitality from the Mosaic legislation.
Idealize whatever form of government you please, the Theo-
cratic form towers above all, and must be so as long as God
and His laws are so infinitely greater tlian men and their
laws.

On comparing Moses to other law-givers, the myth of Tlior
and of Skrymir presents itself to the mind. Thor, the thun-
der-god of Northern mythology, who is armed with a mount-
cleaving mallet, a magic belt of strength, and a pair of pro-
digious gloves, undertakes an expedition against the obnoxious
giants, a race of tremendous Titans who inhabit the city of
Jotunheim. Thor has no small opinion of himself, and doubts

(183)

184

not his ability to chastise those mischievous prodigies. On his
way the thunder-god spends the night in a cave, is alarmed by
a fearful earthquake, and rises early to discover to his amaze-
ment that he was sleeping in the glove of one of those Titans
he was going to undo, and that the earthquake was nothing
else but the snoring of that huge sleeper. In-itated by jeal-
ousy Thor concludes to slay the Jotun, but vainly applies his
enormous hammer to make an impression on the skull of the
giant. Scarcely noticing the I'epeated onslaughts Thor has
made against him, Skrymir rises quietly from his rest, intro-
duces himself to his baffled foe, rubs his eyes, and, parting
company with the small assailant, advises him to be cautious
in dealing with the giants of Udgard Loki, for they " will not
brook the boastings of such little fellows as you are."

Good advice this for the great and small founders of great
and small religions, who, pretending to look down on Mosaism
as an antiquated code, have manufactured a number of new
fictitious salvation schemes, snoring all the while in the glove
of him whom they claim to excel. Welcome all ; the paradise
of fools is large enough, and the Pope's benediction is for sale ;
get it and be saved, if sky-rockets are as good as suns and the
palm-tree not more than the weed. But what shall we say
of those who never cease to confess their deep veneration
for the Kevealed Law, and belie their confessions by plant-
ing idols in the sanctuary of Jehovah 'i At night we may
well be satisfied with the taper, be pleased with the oil lamp,
delighted with the incandescent candle ; but Aurora rising in
the East and Phoebus following in her trail, of what use is all
artificial illumination ? Ah, not the savage alone exchanges
jewels for tinsel. Huitzilapachtli gave way to a substitute, and
Aztec madness was exchanged for a lesser foolery. So is man-
kind being slowly redeemed from the trinitai-ian fancy, one
phantom vanishing after the other before the Breath of " The
Lord of the spirits of all flesh."

Old is error, older deception, and superstition is the oldest,
antedated by ignorance and conceit. The Twelve Tables of
Rome supplied Cicero with a basis foi- his Utopian code. A
multitude of local laws had to furnish Plato and Aristotle

185

with material for brilliant political theories. They whose
greatest law-givers, after Minos and Draco, were the stern
Lycargus and the polite, practical Solon, could not readily be-
hold an ideal statesman in Moses. They could not consist-
ently go to " barbarians " for laws, whose God appeared a
phantom to some and a mystery to others. Rome, wlio ever
adopted the gods of subjugated nations, on coming in contact
with Judea had for once to abandon the hope of comprehend-
ing a Deity Who would not submit to any kind of visible rep-
resentation. Even to the learned Koman, Israel's God was an
inconceivable Being, ruling a queer, unbending people, whose
customs and rites Cicero and his contemporaries often misrep-
resented, decrying them as sheer superstition. The lirst en-
counter of Hebraism and Hellenism was written in blood.
Not to study Jehovah, but to enforce the worship of Zeus, was
the highest ambition of victorious Greece. In this she failed,
as other powers before and after her did, and when Hebrew
and Hellene met again it was to realize the spiritual affinity
which idealized paganism, having risen to higher regions of
thought, found stronger than racial hatred and prejudice, and
an interpenetration of ideas and sentiments was rendered pos-
sible.

It was otherwise in Rome where Judaism was barely toler-
ated, often respected, but seldom, if ever, made an object of
study, though eloquently commended by Josephus. The Di-
vine Law was not easily reconcilable with the Twelve Tables,
which the proud Roman venerated with an idolatrous rever-
ence, though they were mostly borrowed from Grecian sources,
which were, in turn, traceable to the Easterns, especially to the
Hebrews. " They are," says Livy, " the fountain of law, pri-
vate and public." Nothing grander in the world than the Ta-
bles, thinks Cicero. Like trinitarian Christianity, Polytheistic
paganism could not readily adapt itself to Monotheistic Mosa-
ism, since it was impossible to eliminate the One Eternal from
His Law, of which the Decalogue is an epitome, and opens
with the most positive emphasis of Divine Unity.

Since its very inception Christianity advanced the claim
of being the universal substitute for Israel's world-mission.

186

Acknowledging, as it does, all the time, tlie priority and superi-
ority of the Divine Law — which its founder came " to confirm
and not to abolish " — the question has never been answered,
why, in its administration of justice, does it rest its judicial
measures mainly on heathen jurisprudence ? This disloyalty
to the Divine Word is strikingly conspicuous and lamentable
when it is borne in mind that not one of those great social
problems so happily solved by the Mosaic legislation has been
successfully dealt with by the Christian Church and State.
Neither did morality in general win by the teachings of the
new creed. The results of so-called " Christian civilization "
on human intercourse in the world of trade are given by many
leading thinkers of modern schools. " On all sides," says
Herbert Spencer, " we have found the result of long personal
experience to be the conviction that trade is essentially cor-
rupt. Ill tones of disgust or discouragement, reprehension or
derision, according to their several natures, men in business
have, one after another, expressed this belief. Omitting the
highest mercantile classes, a few of the less common trades,
and those exceptional cases where an entire command of the
market has been obtained, the uniform testimony of competent
judges is that success is incompatible with strict integrity.
" '''" "' It has been said that the law of the animal creation
is ' Eat and be eaten ; ' and of our trading community it
may similarly be said that its law is ' Cheat and be cheated.'
A system of keen competition, carried on, as it is, without ad-
equate moral restraint, is very much a system of commercial
cannibalism." On this side of the Atlantic we hear Rev.
Samuel Harris, President of Bowdoin College, Maine, remark,
" Society " — of course Christian — " is a scramble ; every one
crowding and hustling his neighbor to get aliead. Every-
where restlessness and anxiety ; the capacity of contentment
is lost ; a civilization whose first principle is ' Help yourself,'
and of which the legUimate developments are peculation and
false balance-sheets, lying advertisements and unscrupulous
adulteration, railroad swindles, gambling speculations, and ju-
dicial hrihe7^y.'''' And Emerson finds, likewise, that " the ways
of trade have grown selfish to the borders of theft, and supple

187

to the borders (if not beyond the borders) of fraud." Such
are the fruits of that Messianic morality destined, we are as-
sured, to supersede our Divine Law. This is too earnest a
question to be indifferently dismissed.

Koman and English legislation, it is affirmed, underlies all
the jurisprudential systems of the civilized world. In those
codes, however, the Divine Law is not explicitly recognized.
When Austin speaks of those positive laws set by God to man,
he refers to such as are revealed or unrevealed, revelation
being to him identical with " natural reason," or " light of
nature," or " dictates of nature." But nature and God are not
to Moses synonymous terms. Neither is the utilitarian philoso-
phy of Bentham, with his maxim of all good law and govern-
ment being tested by their securing " the greatest happiness
to the greatest number," an ideal approaching that of the Mo-
saic system. The greatest happiness of the greatest number
is a maxim not rooted in absolute justice. Carried into effect,
that principle would require the equal distribution and con-
stant redistribution of wealth, which is usually the possession
of the few ; it would often necessitate the removal of such
men as, by their stern opposition to general corruption, may
be said to mar the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
The sons of Israel have been trained to think that justice has
neither to do with happiness nor with numbers, bnt simply
with what is right or wrong, just or unjust, true or false.
Does not the greatest happiness of the greatest number justify
slavery, destruction of the rich, assassination of the mighty
who rule ? oppression and abuse of minorities ? How could
Bentham reconcile British rule over India with his theoi-y of
happiness in relation to numbers ? It were a sad day for
mankind were we obliged to sacrifice the happiness and rights
of the minority to those of the majority. How shall nmrder
committed by many on one be punished ? To reduce the laws
of government to a point of numbers, is it not returning to
barbarism, where force alone, sustained by numbers, rules ?
If law be synonymous with justice, if justice be the pillar
of truth, what can happiness and imnibers have to do with
law ? When the Benjamites committed a heinous crime, the

188

question of miinbers did not restrain Israel from chastising
the whole tribe.

Here we strike the difference between Divine and human
laws, TJie Divine Law is truth revealed, to be complied
with irrespective of majorities or minorities. " Thou shalt
not steal ! " Whether one steals of a thousand or a thousand
steal of one, theft is theft, the crime is a crime. Human law
is, on the other hand, more or less utilitarian and arbitrary,
often enacted to serve personal or political ends or aspirations.
Divine laws are intended for all men and for all times ; human
laws are generally called fortli by momentary needs, are local
and selfish, calculated to benefit one nation, aye, often one class
of men, not infrequently a few, or even one of the mighty in
power or in wealth. Divine laws spring from Theocratic, un-
changeable Sovereignty ; human laws are enacted either by
optional or arbitrary authority, in both cases subject to change.
Savigny's theory that law, like language and other social hab-
its, was the outcome of the consciousness of a people grow-
ing organically, applies not to the Divine Law as it is proved
by the Mosaic system, where we see' that the people did not
make their Law, but the Law made the people. Strange
fact, this, in history, a group of slavish tribes opening the
grandest world-career with the Divinest of laws.

Only a few months since Archbishop Nicanor, of Odessa,
spoke thus to the students of that city's university : " It is sur-
prising to see the audacity of some ignorant people in trying
to attack the greatest of the world's reformers in the person
of Moses. Being such nonentities, they are only noticed when
they advertise themselves constantly in the public press, but
when people look closely into the matter they and their alle-
gations die a natural death. If ever one of the woi'ld's great
leaders was inspired by God, it was undoubtedly the prophet
Moses. Where are now the laws of Lycurgus? Where are
the laws of Solon ? What influence had the laws of Con-
fucius on human history ? The Koran is simply a repeti-
tion and a mutilation of the Law of Moses. The teachings
of Moses were the chief foundation of Christian morality,
modern law-making and development. Philosophy, with all

180

its big-sounding names, is the outcome of the Old Testaraent.
The Israelites are now, as they were in ancient times, one,
united in religion, sympathy, and brotherly love, no matter
what their nationality be. They seem to be especially pro-
tected by Providence, and they are going from strengtli to
strength." The frank bishop has many more good things to
say of the sobriety, economy, industry, religious loyalty, and
sacred domesticity of the Russian, inhumanly treated Jews •
and the contrast he puts forth by comparing the results of Ju-
daism with those of orthodox Christianity, Mali be noticed by
history as the expression of a righteous soul who, led by per-
sonal experience, reluctantly admits that the humble Synagogue
has accomplished a great deal more than the imperious Church,
tlie Gothic cathedral.

With these general remarks, let us turn for a moment to the
Mosaic system and, as much as our space permits, see whether
in matters of pure justice the world has outstripped the Re-
vealed Law.^^ As the basis of our later jurisprudence, the
Decalogue claims our first attention. In the Hebrew tongue
the last live Commandments, with which we are here chiefly
concerned, are expressed in twenty-six words, and their purport
is, to our mind, the greatest wonder associated with the scene
of Sinai.

** Henry George sees in Moses "a mind in advance of its surroundings,
in advance of its age ; one of those star-souls that dwindle not with dis-
tance, but, glowing with the radiance of essential truth, hold their light
while institutions, and languages, and creeds change and pass. From
the free spirit of the Mosaic Law sprang tliat intensity of family life that
amid all dispersions and persecutions has preserved the individuality of
the Hebrew race ; that love of independence that under most adverse
circumstances has characterized the Jew ; that burning patriotism that
flamed up in the Maccabees and bared the breasts of Jewish peasants to
the serried steel of Grecian phalanx and the resistless onset of Roman
legion; that stubborn courage that in torture held the Jew to his faith.
It kindled that fire that has made the strains of Hebrew seers and poets
phrase for us the highest exaltations of thought; that intellectual vigor
that has over and over again made the dry staff bud and blossom. And
passing outward from one narrow race, it has exerted its power wherever
the influence of the Hebrew Scriptures has been felt. It has toppled
tlirones, and cast down hierarchies."

190

Johannes von Mueller, honored as the German Herodotus,
tliinks that to compare Moses with modern law-givers, means
to compare the pyramids with the palace of Versailles, The
figure would have been truer had he placed the Himalayas in
face of the Parisian hills. There is a criminal code in " Thou
shalt not commit murder." The Cains are forever doomed,
branded, embalmed in infamy. How fearful the word murder !
The world recoils with horror when that word is sounded.
Human sacrifice is murder ; human outrage, brutality, torture,
is but a part of murder. Murder, assassination by wholesale,
is the charge that cleaves to the orthodox Chui'ch. How she
reveled in bloodshed, torture, and outrage. Hers are hor-
rible centuries of shame, revolting to the milder impulses of
man. " Thou shalt not kill ! " Macbeth murders Duncan,
hires assassins for Banquo, but The Yoice that avenged the
blood of Abel, and rang from Sinai's top, wakes all the
furies of darkness, who rest not until blood flows for blood.
War is murder, wholesale massacre, abominable to the Lord.
In self-defense alone is bloodshed justified ; else the taking of
human life in any form is murder. And so precious was
human life to Israel that, even wlien called upon to avenge
bloodshed, all possible delays and obstacles were interposed to
retard execution, dreading the possibility of perpetrating legal
murder. Cities of refuge were set apart to give accidental
manslaughter a chance to escape blood vengeance ; but neitlier
altar nor sanctuary afibrded protection to wiUful nmrder.
Lynch-law is an abnormity heard of in the nineteenth century
of love and grace ; it was unheard of in Israel. The man
hangs on the tree and the courts are silent as death, as if all
passed off as it should be. The murdered man rots in his
grave, his widow wears crape, while the prison's bar opens to
the golden key, and the murderer drinks champagne with his
warden. A city is in uproar ; " murder most foul " was perpe-
trated ; the assassin is arraigned, the testimony is strong ; but
O, that genius of a lawyer, and that Daniel of a judge, who
allows a technicality to triumph over the inviolable dictates of
justice ! Shylock's treatment by an httpdytlal Christian court
is an illustration of judicial malpractice, which the Divine Law

191

condemns, even in poetry, as a perversion of justice. Like the
Egyptian goddess, the justice of the Divine Law stands blind-
folded, balance in hand. She sees not, but she hears, weighs,
and judges, and from her verdict there is no appeal. Three
thousand years before Emerson discovered the devil to be an
ass, Mosaism doomed the tempter's snaky head to be bruised
by his victim's heel. Next to idolatry, glossy lies are hateful
to the Synagogue, but they are rampant in the policy of the
orthodox Church. Still Christian men and women are, hap-
pily, as a rule, much better than orthodox Christianity, the
audience humaner than its preachers, and the congregation
better than the denomination, else the world would be much
worse than it is. Somebody remarked, that the Jew was
driven into a corner, which he turned into the world's count-
ing-house, and made his signature on a scrap of paper of
more value to thrones than the long lists of heraldic titles
with nothing behind them. Exclusion and persecution guard-
ed the Jew from the contamination of unhallowed influences,
and his Divine Law is as genuine as on the Day of its giving.
Our Moses and our Sinai, our Law and our God, are there ;
come and share in what is the legitimate heritage of all men.
1^0 counterfeits in Israel.

The drama of creation winds up with the wedding of the
first man and woman. God Himself ties the connubial knot
to stand as a type of sacred home life, whence all human hap-
piness and virtue are henceforth to flow. A new barrier, hold-
ing out a curse against the licentious intruder into man's pri-
vate sanctuary, is added by the seventh commandment : " Thou
shalt not commit adultery." The great modern legislator and
jurist may rack his brains to invent a substitute for this moral
bulwark uttered in two Hebrew words against the pollution of
the most sacred of human relations. Mosaic laws must not
alone be judged by what they explicitly say, but by what they
imply. The inviolability, the sanctity of home, the divinity
of human love, the chastity of womanhood, the sacredness of
domestic peace and purity, are sufficiently provided for by
those two Hebrew words which in Israel bore holier fruit than
all the gospels and the heav}^ codes non-Jews have put in their

192 .

stead. He who knows the true Jewish family, witli its filial
love and parental devotion, its liberal hospitality, and its daily
consecration of the highest home virtues, will admit that it is
a temple in which the table is the altar and the parents the
priests of the Most High. Happiness, prayer, blessing, rever-
ence, and song are characteristic of the blessed Jewish home.
Next to the Holy of Holies the most hallowed spot on earth to
the Jew is liis home. Tlierefore is celibacy and monachism so
odious to Israel, being old enough to know what these imply.
While Torquemada was burning Jews and Moors as heretics,
the son of the unmarried Gonzales de Mendoza, grand cardi-
nal of Spain, was engaged in a crusade against the infidels ; a
miracle to be sure. " His holiness " was as much venerated in
Spain as the Pope in Rome, was the favorite of the Catholic
sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, and, next to them the
mightiest in the kingdom.

Two Hebrew words, " Steal not,"^ make up the eighth Com-
mandment. Non-Jews may confine stealing to larceny or bur-
glary. The Israelite sees in it a positive law, a command
against every possible practice tending unlawfully to deprive a
fellow-l^eing of lawful property. " Stealing knowledge," and
" stealing the heart," are expressions of the Hebraic idiom.
Deception, dissimulation, and flattery come under this heading.
Bearing false witness against a fellow-being, which the ninth
commandment forbids, is surely not to be limited to what in
modern codes is punished as perjury. No ! calumny, defama-
tion of character, misrepresentation, and every false utterance
against honor and honesty are comprised tlierein ; it commands
control of heart and tongue. — And what is not embodied in
" Thou shalt not covet " ? Greed and selfishness, the origin of
crimes unnumbered are herein sweepingly branded as grievous
sins. The Lord is hating selfish greed as the dark progenitor
of untold woe and evil. Ah ! the greedy, insatiate Church !
How many victims perished* not in the flames to appease her
unholy thirst for gold ! Those inlmman creatures of the Eccle-
sia, who, including the latest types of the anti-Semitic luadness
with its bloody sequels, have ever been at the bottom of all
Jewish woe, ever inciting man against man ; bloodthirsty, until

198

glutted with the gore or the wealth of the lielpless. What
is to them the Divine Law that forbids theft, infamy, lie, and
murder? They have a new revelation, a new covenant more
perfect than the old one. And lo ! behold the results, the
latest, of that Messianic realization of "peace on earth and
good- will to men." Look at the Old World ! what dreadful
armaments; what bitterness of speech among the Messianic
nations ; what suspicions ; what manoeuvres ; what lies in di-
plomacy ; what tremendous strains to outdo a neighbor in the
invention and construction of fatal engines ! Not satisfied
with the greatest navy the world has seen, Great Britain but
lately voted $90,000,000 to strengthen her terrible armada.
France and Germany are studded with forts and barracks.
Belgium has spent a fortune in fortifying her vulnerable
points. Switzerland is doing lier utmost in reorganizing her
army. Italy is building monstrous men-of-war. Spain and
Portugal are not behind in warlike preparations, while Russia,
Austria, Turkey, and a group of smaller kingdoms are eyeing
each other with the love of the wolf for the lamb.

Reviewing this appalling situation of things, the historian
Emile de Laveleye, of Belgium, sums it up in the single fact,
that with the modern ease of concentrating armies, the facility
of bringing, within forty-eight hours, a host of seven million
warriors into the Held, with a reserve of ten million to back
them, more human life may be destroyed in one day now than
ever before in a protracted war. "And it is under this continual
menace of the most frightful shock of armies that our planet
will ever have looked upon, that we live, and the most extraor-
dinary thing is that we get used to it," adds that chronicler.
Will Christian nations, will the Church, will all the laws com-
bine to counteract that impending slaughter of humanity by
humanity ? They will not, because they are all utilitarian in-
stitutions, conventional things, enacted and repealed by tem-
porary interest. The pope never opens his lips without a
lamentation for the loss of his temporal dominion, as dear to
him, it appears, as paradise to which he is holding the key.
Had he physical powers there would be no end of crusades and
carnage /or* ^Ae glory of the Messiah. How many of the Ten

r
1!)4 *

Coramandmeuts does the Yatican keep holy ? Instead of the
One Eternal, it worships " tliree gods ; " a host of saints ; it
worships idols, pictures, and figures ; it worships " graven im-
ages and the likeness of things above and below ; " it is not
guiltless of taking " His Name in vain." Truili is the seal of
God, say our wise ; truth is the hefe noir of the Vatican priest.
" God blessed the Seventh Day and sanctified it ; " the bishops
rejected it in exchange for a day of heathen rejoicings. And
when did the Catholic monk enjoin honor of father and mother ?
he who forced children to bear false witness against their pa-
rents. And murder, and lewdness, and stealing, and false wit-
Tiess, and covetousness ? The annals of no nation, though
utterly corrupt, teem so densely with those vices as the dark
chronicles of the mediaeval Church. Judaism alone is rooted
in the Divine Law, and we can point to millions of Jews wlio
now as ever strive to live up to the letter and spirit of the
Decalogue, and this in spite of all impediments.

Yet the Decalogue is the merest skeleton of a code modern
jurists would do well to examine witli more insight and less
irreverence or undervaluation than they usually bring to the
task, if they give it any thought at all. " AVhat doth the Lord
require of thee but to do justly, to act kindly, and to walk
humbly before thy God ? " In these words of Micah, says
Huxley, there is more religion than in all heatlienized Chris-
tianity. On submitting Mosaism to a close analysis, the jurist
might possibly reach a similar conclusion in regard to the rela-
tion of non-Jewish jurisprudence to the Divine Law. The
chief justice, Paxson, of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania,
in an address before the students of the University of that
State, briefly indicated how heavily general jurisprudence has
drawn on our Divine Law, concluding, however, with the
rather threadbare and unsubstantiated assertion, that the law
of love and mercy did not issue from the smokes of Sinai. It
came from Golgotlia, of course, and who, knowing the history
of the alone-saving, loving, and merciful Church could have
any doubt about it? However, is there really no love, no
mercy, no humanity in the Divine Law ? none in the nature
of Israel's God ? Perversion of truth ! If there be no love,

195

no justice, mercy, and charity in the Divine Law, there are
assuredly none in this world. Turn we to the Pentateuch
first, and let Jehovah appear in all His Divinest Atti'ibutes,
He Whom blaspliemous tongues never cease to charge with
cruelty in order to deify an invented saviour by extolling him
above The Creator of the Universe. To despise and out-
rage tlie Jews and glorify their God was not a scheme to suit
the holy ends of redemption. The salvation of the Christian
necessarily presupposed the perdition of the Jew, and if Jesus
be the meek " prince of peace," wliose blood was necessary
to appease the ferocious vengeance of his Father, then what a
Father must He be! Such was the sacred logic the daughter
religion applied against an unyielding mother and her God.
The triumph won by the adoption of this policy was equal to
that of the cur that bays at the moon. " You may deny that
you are drunk," said the policeman to the Irish drunkard,
" but can you refute it 'i You can ^ Well, walk up straiglit
to that poi'ch." The Irislnnan could not do it.

We ask the blasphemers of Jehovah to disprove His pui-est
justice and sweetest mercy as they are a thousandfold im-
pressed on the Hebrew's mind in our Sacred Scriptures. Hu-
man love, the stranger, the fellow-man, the j^oor, the orphan,
the widow, the lielpless, the innocent, the slave, the laborer, yea
the animal, where liave they more tenderly been looked after
thaii in the Divine Law ? Geiger calls attention to the fine sen-
timent expressed in the Mosaic warning not " to favor the
poor before judgment," testifying to the consciousness of the
law-giver, tliat the human feeling of pity was predominant in
the Hebrew's individuality. Moses was less apprehensive of
wealth corrupting the verdicts of justice, than of Jewish com-
passion with poverty. " One law shalt thou have for the native
and the stranger." Our Union requires the stranger to be
naturalized in order to share in all the benefits of the constitu-
tional law and citizenship. " Thou shalt not vex the stranger,
and shalt not oppress him." LIow many Christian States can
boast of a similar law ? " You shall not afflict the widow or
the fatherless child." Lending money on interest is forbidden.
By excluding the Jew from every field of industry and trade,

196'

and by denying him the right to possess or cultivate land, the
orthodox Christian forced liini to earn a livelihood by loaning
money on high interest, and then covered him with contumely
because he did what he was forced to do.

" The ass of him who hates thee " do not " forbear to un-
load," supposing the poor animal succumbs beneath its weight.
" Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart ; " and " thou
shall love thy neighbor as thyself.'''' That this refers not to the
Hebrews only, we read on the same page — Lev. 13 — "And if a
stranger sojourns with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him ;
as one born in the land among you shall he be unto you ; and
thou shall love him as thyself. '''' Anything more humane we
do not know of, have not met with anywhere. " For a Merciful
God is the Lord thy (xod," says Moses in Deuteronomy ; and
the Sabbath is to be observed by perfect rest from labor, ex-
tended to the servant, the stranger, and even to " any of thy
cattle." Not alone man but brute creation shall be treated
witli mercy. The animal shall not be muzzled while thresh-
ing, shall be fed in due time, even before its owner takes food
himself, and shall work with its equal in nature. Ox and ass
nmst not plow together.

Moses describes God as follows : " The Lord your God is the
God of gods, the Lord of lords, the Great, the Mighty, and
the Awful God, Who has no regard for persons, and taketh
no bribe ; who executeth justice for the orphan and the widow,
and loveth the stranger to give him food and raiment. Love
ye the stranger, for you were strangers in tlie land of Egypt."
The poor, the orphan, the widows, and the stranger are never
lost sight of. The audacity to deny the God of Moses the at-
tributes of love and mercy ! " Thou shalt not deliver unto his
master the servant who may escape from his master." Hu-
manity in the highest degree ! Bards of this century sing of
British soil as consecrated to liberty since it would not restore
the fugitive slave to his master. So far did the world advance
in human love within three millenniums. Slavery of Hebrew
by Plebrew is God-accursed in Mosaism ; " merciful " Chris-
tianity felt differently about that matter. But here is the sub-
limest picture of our Great, Just, and Gracious God. " The

197

Eternal, a God merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and
abundant in goodness and truth ; showing mercy unto thou-
sands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin ; but who
will by no means always leave unpunished, visiting the in-
iquity of the fathers upon their children, and upon the chil-
dren's children to the third and to the fourth generation."
These last lines, like the " tooth for a tooth " theory, have
often been cunningly pointed to as an evidence of Jehovah's
cruelty, Judaism, however, did never accept them in their
literal meaning. We know well enough that children do suf-
fer through the sins of their parents, especially when they per-
sist in following in their footsteps. And this is what those
lines imply, teach Israel's lioary sages.

Taken together with the times and conditions under which
this spiritual likeness of Deity is drawn, it is a heavenly reve-
lation of supreme justice blended with the sweetest grace and
mercy. The attempt at replacing this Divine ideal by a some-
thing claimed to be diviner very much resembles the theatri-
cal trick of outshining the sun by an artificial contrivance pro-
pelled by machinery across the scene. We beg to be forgiven
for dropping this subject with a feeling of compassion for a
clamorous multitude, whose arguments amount to the noise
issuing from the void of a windbag. " Sir," said Macaiday
to an addle-pated peer, who failed to grasp the reasons ad-
vanced by the great debater, " I can give you an argument,
but I cannot supply you with good sense to comprehend it."
Important as it is for the orthodox Church to take good care
of her gods, we Jews can afford to let our God take care of
Himself. The following tale is not without a good moral.
An Irishman dealt a heavy blow on the neck of a Jew, because,
said he, " Jew, you have killed my god." " Fool," cried the
Israelite, " you may kill my God if you can get hold of Him.''
Ah, the Jews know too well who the god of Peter and Paul
was, but when will the Church learn to worship the God of
Moses ?

An attempt to quote more of the Old Testament in proof of
its humanity would make this chapter too long for a brief, gen-
eral survey. Througliout Mosaism and Prophecy, as well as

198

within the heavy tomes of Talmudical lore, we are incessantly
reminded of Israel's relation to God, and his dnties toward the
great human family. Jehovah is the Father of all men, of
whom Israel is the first-born, the spiritual guide of the race.
That tlie non-Jew's prayer may be heard by Israel's God when
offered in His sanctuary, is the ardent petition of our wisest
king. " Have we not all One Father ? Has not One God
created us all ? " asks Malachi.

Enough. To return to our topic, we wish to point oat one
other great reality in the Divine Law, whicli ought not to pass
the notice of social scientists ; we allude to the inalienableness
of personal right and property, which is a remarkable feature
in the Mosaic legislation.^^ As slavery in Israel was a viola-
tion of the Divine Law, so was the transfer or tenure of real
estate in perpetuity unlawful. The Israelite could neither sell
himself nor his heritage forever — the remission years of the
Shemitha and the jubilee having been insurmountable barriers.
The problem of capital and labor could not arise in a land
where everybody was a capitalist of non-transferable property.
This enactment involves a sublimer principle than that of the
great French Revolution, which was the principle of human
fraternity, liberty, and equality. Granted human equality, tlie
equal right of every man to a fair share of this world's
goods and blessings follows as a necessity, and its denial
amounts to robbery. It must not be in man's power to disown
those sacred rights he derives from God. The Divine Law

** Washington ascribes the greatest blessings of civilized society as
flowing mainly from the "pure and benign revelation." — " We hold," says
the Declaration of Independence, "these truths to be self-evident: that
all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights governments are insti-
tuted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed." But Moses held over three thousand years before that, be-
sides perfect human independence, man has a share in this world, which,
like his bodily and spiritual freedom, is inalienable. Monopolies are,
therefore, irreconcilable with Mosaism. The Declaration of Independ-
ence was certainly not composed in accordance with the spirit of the
New Testament and the orthodox Church, but is an avowed homage to
the perfect Divine Law.

199

punishes the Hebrew who offers to sell himself as a slave. By
making the renunciation of one's liberty or property a viola-
tion of the Divine Law, human equality received the seal of
Divine sanction, and it remains for modern jurists and legisla-
tors to determine whether mankind is sufficiently advanced to
try what the Mosaic code did accomplish thirty-three centuries
ago — the earth being the promised land of all men. Such is
the design, yea, the mandate of the Divine Law. It has not
been given to man to secure the greatest happiness of the
greatest number, but to guarantee the equal rights and pro-
mote the equal happiness of all men. The Divine Law invests
neither church nor state nor any sovereign with power or au-
thority to protect that minority who, unlawfully, in one way or
another, deprive the great bulk of mankind of their lieavenly
birthright, their inalienable heritage. Tyranny and slavery,
sovereign and subject, are branded as a degradation of human
dignity, as a sinful abuse of power, by the Mosaic code. Sam-
uel yields reluctantly to Israel's demand for a king. Compli-
ance with the Divine Law renders a state of society such as the
Church sanctioned and sanctions ; a society of lords and slaves,
tyrants and subjects, oppressors and oppressed, millionaires and
paupers ; a state of society in which the few have everything
and the many have nothing, save the bread they earn with
" the sweat of their brow," next to impossible, next to criminal.
The Divine Law favors none other than Theocratic govern-
ment; that is, in Paine's reasoning, empliasized by Lincoln, the
government of " the people by the people." Samuel was the
first president of the most perfect of democracies, a man of
God's appointment, one of the people, who ruled the land
with the " rod of his lip." We feel safe in asserting that all
modern writers on the sphere and function of government,
from John Stuart Mill, who indorses tlie laissez-faire theory,
to Herbert Spencer, who sees in government a mere agency of
the people instituted for the pi-otection of man's natural rights,
are perhaps unconsciously but surely advancing toward the Di-
vine Law and Theocratic democracy. " Men being by nature
all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of his
estate and subjected to tlie political power of another witliout

200

his own consent,'' is Locke's indorsement of Theocratic de-
mocracy. Locke is, however, behind Moses in his assertion
that man's " owai consent " is enough to divest himself of his
natural right and heritage, an assertion rejected by the Divine
Law. So is Humboldt's idea that the function of goverimient
is " to promote the absolute and essential importance of human
development in its richest diversity." Despite all disadvantages
of intestine incoherence and political disintegration within, and
an almost general hostility encountered without, Israel's state
and genius prospered under Tlieocj-atic rule. Not before the
Divine constitution fell into abeyance and Theocracy was grad-
ually supplanted by ai'bitrary dynasties, was the doom of Judea
sealed. Political changes and reverses, however, cannot seri-
ously affect the authority of the immutable Divine Law ; and
no sooner did Israel restore his Theocratic constitution to the
original reverence of the people tliau, even in dispersion, his
national ujiity was secured.

Wherever the Jew's lot is cast he is patriotic, patriotism be-
ing admittedly a Jewish not a Christian virtue,*" but he is at
the same time religiously Theocratic, living under the light of
his Divine Law. And if it be true that the fittest survive, if
the world's history be God's tribunal through whicli His ver-
dicts are given to man, if matter be, indeed, inferior to spirit,
Ijody to mind, falsehood to truth, physical to spiritual powers,
if time be a test, and durability a confirmation of the truly
Divine and imperishable, what lesson does the survival of
Israel's seed scattered all the world over not teach ? Call it
pride, vanity, conceit ; you must in fairness forgive the Jew
his innate consciousness of being the favorite, the first-born,
the ever-chastised, yet never-forsaken, son of the Most High.

The legend of the wandering Jew is historically significant.
Christian superstition saw in that fabulous individual, who,
having struck Jesus on his neck at the moment when, leaving

*^Le patriotism est un sentiment de Vancienne loi, qui, theoretiquement, n^a
point de. place dans la nouveUc ; ci le jour oH VErangile a He. preche aiix Gen-
tiles a ete, en principc, le dernier jour des nationaliies. — Le sentiment de la na-
tionalite tel que I'entendent les Anglais est un sentiment essentiellemenl Juif,
says John Lemoiinie.

201

Pilate's gate, he dragged along the cross to which he was to be
affixed, was cursed never to rest, but rejuvenated at the end of
every century, to wander, a warning to mankind, the type of
his wandering race. The Church found it good policy to teach
that the Jews lost Zion and were dispersed among the nations,
because they did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah. Their
misfortunes were thus turned into a testimony of the divinity
of Jesus, and to make the testimony emphatic the condition of
the Jews had to be made as miserable as possible, since to
oppress the Jew was tantamount to strengthen the Christian
cause. This was the logic of the primitive and mediaeval
Church, and is a sentiment that is still rampant in semi-barba-
rous lands. That the Jews survived all miseries and multiplied
was not thought a wonder of heroic patience, devotion, and
endurance, but it was considered a miracle, destined to convince
the erring that, like the wandering Jew, his race was denied
the historic grave because he rejected Jesus and his Yiceger-
ents. Such rigmarole is easily spread, readily accepted by the
vulgar, but causes the intelligent to smile contemptuously.
There lived never a race of a deeper sense for ideal felicity
than the descendants of Abraham, who are preserved by their
loyalty to the Divine Law and supernal Sovereignty, neither
of which could be blazoned and taught without wandering,
without mingling among the nations of the earth. What
Abraham was commanded to do, his latest descendants are do-
ing, they wander from the rising to the setting sun, teaching
the Law and building the altars and temples of Jehovah. The
stars wander and so the Jews, both to give light.

The struggle of principle versus policy is the keynote of
Jewish history. The Mosaic code is all principle. Can this
be said of other codes ? Truth knows no policy, nor fear, nor
majorities, nor power. Her dictates are : Do what is right,
life has no other end. Seventy thousand mantles cannot hide
the deformity of falsehood. The barbarous East has a class of
specialists, old hags, whose business it is to cut sour faces and
howl hideously in houses of mourning. The Occident can
boast of a similar class of specialists, who are engaged in sing-
ing gleeful anthems to the new faith and doleful dirges to the

202

old one ; but policy withers in face of principle. Disinherit
the Jew and rise in his stead ? How could this be done, the
Divine Law being his dearest and jour cheapest possession ?
Brutality may deny Israel a spot to rest his head ; can it deny
him his share in the universe ? You may crucify the Jew, you
cannot crucify his soul, nor can you replace his Law by any
conventional code, nor darken the glories of his history. The
Greeks labored hard to outwit and extirpate the people of the
Divine Law. Roman wit was spent in stigmatizing the fidelity
of Israel to his precious heirloom, and the Church recoiled
from no crime that held out a prospect of detriment to the
ancient race. How woefully they all failed need not be re-
hearsed here. Judaism lives, an honored, mighty, vital influ-
ence, a constant menace to all modernized idolatries, spreading
like the fruitful bough of Josepli, " a fruitful bough by the
well, its branches spreading over the wall. And the archers
harassed him, and they assembled in multitudes and persecuted
him ; but his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his
hands remained firm. From the hands of The Mighty One
of Jacob, from Him, the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel; from
the God of thy fathers, who shall help thee, and from The
Almighty, who shall bless thee, will come upon thee blessings
from heaven above, blessings from the deep that spreadeth
beneath, blessings of the breast and of the womb."

This century has seen a noticeable change in the attitude of
enlightened Christians toward the old faith and its adherents,
promising a sound conception of the fatal error — to say nothing
of its criminal aspect — orthodox churchmen indulged in by
unwisely degrading their own creed in defaming the mother
who gave it soul, bone, and sinew. The God-reality which
permeates tlie Divine Law and the core of Judaism is as indis-
pensable to the new faith as the vital energy of the root and
the stem is to the vitality of each and every limb of the tree.
The ages and their annals afford no other spectacle as prepos-
terously unique as the ti'eatment of the Synagogue by the in-
consistent Church, who, worshiping a Jew, tortured his race ;
feeding on Jewish brains, bruised the Jewish head ; deifying
the supposed son of God, belittled God Himself ; building on

203

Prophecy, rejected the Divine Law ; in short, raising a giant
superstructure, while undermining its foundation. Infinitely
more harmonious with the rise of Judaism are its own growth
and development. On the Divine Law Prophecy and the vast
edifice of Hebrew literature, Biblical and post-Biblical, is
founded. Attention has been drawn elsewhere to the spirit of
Hebrew Prophecy, poetry, and tradition. We propose to con-
clude this chapter with a few words on that criminal jurispru-
dence which was the necessary evolution of the Divine Law.

With the picture of our court and its jury — often constituted
of twelve illiterate men — before us, we may profitably sum-
mon the great Jewish assembly, the Sanhedrin, to meet, in
order to form an idea of their peculiar ways and methods in
serious cases. In the first place, only men of dignity and wis-
dom were eligible to a seat in that august senate,"*^ As no
criminal could be arraigned and judged without two ocular
witnesses, and as the verdict entirely dependea on the given
testimony, the criminal code of Judaism attached the greatest
and gravest importance to the nature and treatment of wit-
nesses. Thus, no one could mount the stand as a witness or
an accuser before he had warned the guilty against the nature
of the crime and the penalty it was sure to bring, and not un-
til he had himself seen the crime perpetrated. The fact alone
was of account ; circumstantial evidence was out of question.
The first step of the court was to make the witness feel the
enormous weight of his responsibility. The blood of inno-
cence would be on his head should it be shed by inaccurate or
false testimony. If he had the slightest doubt about the accu-
racy of facts his testimony was void. It was not enough to have
seen a man run after another, a deadly weapon in hand, then
see the murderer return from the house, the weapon reeking
with the blood of the victim found therein. If the witness
saw nothing else but one man fleeing away, the other follow-
ing, a bloody steel and the fugitive slain, but did not see the
act of murder, his testimony amounted to nothing. The San-
hedrin was in dread of bloodshed. The current view was, that

204

a Sanhedrin is sanguinary who had one execution in seven
years. Another view is, that no execution should happen in
seventy years, while two great lights of the Law expressed
themselves, that, had they been in that great assembly, there
would have never been an execution.'**

Every advantage was granted to the accused ; every disad-
vantage stood in the way of the accuser. In the consultations
of the great court no voice given in favor of acquittal could be
retracted, but every vote against the criminal could be repealed.
A hasty verdict of " guilty " amounted to an acquittal. Self-
accusation was not listened to, but self-defense met with the
gravest consideration. Extenuating evidence came never too
late, not to the last second fixed for the execution. Before
the execution took place a herald preceded the condemned, in-
viting any and every body who had aught to say in favor of
acquittal to come forth and be heard. A horseman, flag in
hand, stood at the portal of the court, ready to stop the pro-
cession to death at a moment's notice, should anything trans-
pire for the benefit of the guilty. It was a sacred principle in
Israel's jurisprudence to choose the mildest, most painless form
of execution. " Love thy neighbor as thyself" meant, among
other things, our wise taught, to let the guilty die without
pain.^' The whole assembly tasted no food nor drink on the
day on which they saw and judged a murderer.^*' An intoxi-
cating drink was prepared by good women to dull the sense of
dread and the agonies of death in him whose crime was be-
yond doubt.^^ You could as well bribe the sun as corrupt the
verdict of a Jewish court. Such a case was never heard of in
Israel. It is not generally known that, except in criminal
cases, about five millions of Jews are still depending for jus-
tice on that hoary jurisprudence in preference to any other in
which experience taught them to repose small confidence, es-
pecially in lands where judicial bribery is not an unusual occur-
rence. In every Jewish congregation in Russia, Roumania,
Galicia, Turkey, Morocco, Tunis, and elsewhere, where non-

E7Sjn :"inK/"xD ixity p-nnjo " .r\2' nn^o iS in^ ■]id3 ^^nS mnxi"

205

Jewish justice is for the highest bidder, there is a local tribu-
nal called the Beth-Din, usually constituted of three learned
Hebrews whose integrity nobody thinks of questioning. Nor
is it a rare sight to see Christians of station and intelligence
resort to those Semitic courts, where the balance of justice
never inclines toward him who bears the heaviest coin.

Our God-reality and our Divine Law guard the Jewish
court, the Jewish heart, the home, and the faith from idola-
trous contamination.

CHAPTER XII.

OUR ETHICAL REALITIES.

The generally current maxim of vox populi vox Dei has
never been accepted by Israel without strict limitations, espe-
cially in matters of truth and conscience. The one who sees
what the world fails to see is more than the whole world in
this particular distinction ; and the principle of judging things
in general by their intrinsic quality, not by quantity, is the
one by which the divine in man will ultimately be tested.
Truth knows no numbers, minorities, or majorities ; facts are
the symbols of truth, which no Olympian thunder can silence
or refute. " Will all great Neptune's ocean wasli this blood
clean from my hand ? " asks Macbeth. " No ; this my hand
will rather the multitudinous sea incarnadine, making the
green one red." What happened, happened ; what is true, no
power above or below can change. If it rained this morning,
can the Almighty Himself change the fact ? Galileo having
proved his theory of this globe's rotation, all the popes are
impotent to disprove it. As in international intercourse the
paper value of currency indicates the moral credit of the re-
spective land, so does the current unbiased view of a people's
ethics indicate the estimation at which its religion is held.
Now, you claim that Christian morality is superior to all other
morality ; you claim, in the language of Strauss, that Jesus is
" the highest object we can possibly imagine with respect to
religion, the being without w^hose presence in the mind perfect
piety is impossible ; " or, as Renan expresses it, that " he is
the most beautiful incarnation of God in the most beautiful of
forms ; his beauty is eternal ; his reign will never end." Sup-
pose we deny it as articulate wind, contradicted by the same
lips that uttered those cheap generalities, and ask for facts to
sustain words, what will you do ? That same Renan exclaims :

(207)

208

" All, me ! eighteen long centuries will have to pass before his
blood shall bear fruit. Thinkers as noble as he was will dur-
ing that period be subjected to torture and death. Even now
penalties are being imposed in so-called Christian lands for re-
ligious dissensions. Jesus is not responsible for these aberra-
tions. He could not foresee that many a people of morbid
imagination would turn him into a hideous Moloch who longs
for human flesh. Christendom has been intolerant, but its in-
tolerance is not an essentially Christian but a Jewish fact."
True, save the last line, which shall stand here unrefuted as a
survival of that Apion spirit who, seeing his gods tumble,
gratified his envy by maligning a race whose God could neither
be overthrown nor crucified. Renan is, in this respect, not as
guilty of hypocrisy as those eulogists of Judaism whose en-
comiums are like Milton's picture of Sin sitting at the gate of
hell : " Woman to the waist, and fair, but ended foul in many
a scaly fold, voluminous and vast, a serpent armed with mortal
sting." But Kenan's " Ah, me ! " means : " Christianity is thus
far a failure.''''

We do most emphatically deny it that the Cliurch ever
formed an ethical code of her own superior, or even equal, to
the original system of ethics as embodied in our Divine Law
and its commentaries. We furthermore asseverate that ethical
Judaism is vastly superior to ethical Christianity, which stands
convicted of pluming itself with feathers borrowed of that
eagle whom, in his Godward flight, it vainly tries to outwing.
Besides what has been said in the preceding chapter in con-
firmation of this asseveration we are prepared to strengthen
our position by advancing a few additional irrefutable facts.
Nothing easier than this. Renan himself admits — and he
stands not alone in his sorrowful admission — that as a i-eligion
of justice, love, and mercy, the one based on the New Testa-
ment is, so far, a signal failure, having accepted Jesus in theory
and turned him into a " hideous Moloch " in practice. But
the founder of Judaism has not been as unfortunate as to be
so monstrously misrepresented. The most rigid lines in Mosa-
ism were softened down by a humane prophecy and a philan-
thropic philosophy. Our ethical realism is so venerably old,

209

is a quarry so characteristically Jewish and original, that any
plagiarist who attempts to transplant a stone thereof, for the
benefit of some unheavenly scheme, will let it appear in the
light of a polished onyx block planted in a wall of mnd.
Like nature's beneficent gifts, our Divine Law and Prophecy
are intended for all mankind. Like nature, they admit of
imitation, of distortion, and adoption ; but they admit of no
substitution.

Whereas we are willing to do justice to the ethical beauties
of Christianity, recognizing that even in its heathenized con-
dition it had, and has, a mission, a great mission, we are con-
strained to maintain what Lessing, returning a manuscript to
a young author, observed : " AVhat is good therein is not new,
and what is new therein is not good." A Talmudical allegory
tells how the Lord punished the envy of the moon, which,
jealous of the sun's effulgence, exclaimed : " Why do two lords
occupy one throne ? Why should I not be the first ? " The
Lord withdrew His golden rays ; jealousy paled the moon's
splendor, and there she soars with her lustre withered.^^ How
would the off-shoots of Judaism fare had they to yield to the
challenge of i-eturning " to Caesar what is Caesar's " ? Suppose
we admit that the transferring of evil sj)irits from two lunatics
into two thousand swine, and that the tempting of Jesus by
(Satan, as well as all other amazing miracles, are of a New
Testamental originality, does this imply the disowning of our
claim to have taught and practiced the golden rule prior to
the Herodian period ? It is on points like these tliat Judaism
takes issue with its overweening daughter creeds. If we al-
low the miracles of the ISTew Testament and the Koran to pass
as original, we are in no sense bound to allow our precious
materials in the Sermon on the Mount, or in Mohammed's vis-
ion, to continue unrecognized. If you are to " give to Csesar
what is Caesar's "is it not our sacred obligation to restore to
Jehovah what is Jehovah's ? We are happy to have supplied
the adamantine blocks for the reconstruction of the world's
ethics — for the elevation of humanity to divinity ; all that we

^ ^ See first allegory of Appendix.

210

are working and waiting for is Israel's recognition as the only
true expounder of the Divine Law, and as the clianipion of
the One God.

The object of these pages being mainly to exhibit the
splendid features of our etliical realism, allusions to kindred
or tributary systems will merely occur incidentally and by way
of comparison. Full knowledge of animal anatomy renders
vivisection superfluous. (3ur case is one in which a statement
often serves the end of an argument. In theory, our ethical
realism dates back to the infancy of man ; in practice, it ex-
tends from the noblest ethical career of our ancient patriarch —
loliose lift is something more than a myth — down to our Jate
centenarian philanthropist, Montefiore, who, as Abraham, was
the true type of the earliest Hebrew, died, the ideal of the
modern humanitarian Jew. This type has been made hered-
itary in Israel by the acceptance of and the compliance with
the ethical teachings of the Divine Law, and its wise interpre-
tations in Prophecy and in subsequent literature. Mosaism
sums up in substance all ethical codes of antiquity and rises as
high above them as heaven is above earth. Reverence for the
loftiest intuitions in the human soul inspires us with profound
veneration for him who is by far the wisest of the Orient's
earlier lights. Buddha, after years of inward search and
meditation, evolved an ethical system admirable in conception,
self-sacrificing, humane in realization. The dreamer of Nir-
vana was one of mankind's greatest. Such an effort to be
guided by the " Enlightened One," to banish all evil, impure
desires from the human heart, planting universal kindness
and charity in their stead ; love " good-will without measure
toward all being ; " where, beyond Buddhism, do you, among
In do-Europeans, hear of it again ? Even Platonism reaches
not up to tliis lofty height. Yet here, as elsewhere, the
Aryan is given to the gloomiest contemplations of earthly
life, which is to the " Liglit of Asia " a mystery — of sorrow,
since misery and vexation of the spirit do, in his judgment,
always accompany human existence, and the way to salvation
is assured by the total suppression of all wishes and passions.

Such is not the spirit of the Divine Law. Its explicit end

211

is to make man liajjpy, this world an abode of peace, kind-
ness, love, mercy — even to animals— charity to all, and ethical
purity. Our ethical Nirvana finds expression in five Hebrew
words which, translated, read, " Perfect shalt thou be with the
Lord thy God."^^ The ethical demand of the Divine Law
is nothing less than human perfection. Jesus and Mohammed
are satisfied with less than this. Both promise not the virtu-
ous, but the faithful, perfect absolution of all sins and paradise
withal. In Judaism 'perfection is insisted upon, to be acquired
by a stringent watch over self, by control, not suppression, of
human nature, such as subduing the feelings of greed, hatred,
envy, malice, lust, and vengeance, and by substituting therefor
the sentiments of love, truthful, charitable, and i-ighteous deal-
ing with everybody. " If thou see thy enemy's ox or ass
going astray, thou shalt bring it back to him again." The
Hebrew has often done this. How often did the Christian
offer his left cheek to him who struck his right ? Preposterous
command ! We would be satisfied had the Church not dealt
five blows for one, or for none.

" Thou shalt not follow the majority in doing evil," even if
the evil contributes to the " greatest happiness of the greatest
number." " Ye shall be holy, for I, the Eternal, Am Holy." —
" Ye shall not steal — neither shall ye deny— property in your
hand — nor lie one to another." — "Thou shalt not witlihold
property from thy neighbor, nor rob him ; there shall not
abide with thee the wages of him that is hired to the next
morning ; thou shalt not curse the deaf nor put a stumbling
block before the blind, but thou shalt be afraid of thy God." —
"Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among tliy
people ; thou shalt not stand — indifl^erently — by the blood of
thy neighbor." — " Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge
against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself, I Am the Lord." When the servant is
dismissed, he is to be supplied by his master with a liberal
portion of his wealth. Reverence for age is enjoined, uncondi-
tional submission to the parental will, liberality to the poor
and the helpless, perfect tolerance and friendly treatment of

212

the stranger, above all, absolute justice, just weight and full
measure, frankness, sincerity, respect of human dignity are
the distinguished, glorious principles of our Divine Law.
Domestic chastity is treated with the utmost care and minute
detail ; the food of the Hebrew is to be the cleanest ; the
word of his lip, the thought of his soul, the purest ; the most
sacred intimacy of husband and wife is an object of ethical
solicitude. Nothing that concerns the bodily and spiritual
welfare of tJie Israelite escapes the attention of the Divine
Law, which, it is plainly stated, has been revealed, in order
" that you may live thereby," all virtue and purity being cal-
culated to lead to happiness and perfection.

Such being the ethical nature of the old faith, one is tempted
to ask, what the Church and the Mosque added thereunto, im-
proved thereupon, unless it be the barbarous doctrine that ex-
tols ignorance above wisdom ? " Blessed are they who are
'poor in spirit.''^ The votaries of Judaism pray that they may
never be visited with that kind of blessing. From time im-
memorial it has been the glory of Israel to wipe out ignor-
ance, and to raise generation after generation rich in spirit.
The wisest of Scriptural thinkers urge Israel to search for
wisdom, which is more precious than jewels. Wisdom was
the petition of Solomon, the quest of Job, the longing of
David, the highest goal of our sages and prophets. Jewish
ethics presuppose knowledge. That " the ignorant man can-
not be pious " is an ancient saying with our wise, fully con-
firmed by daily experience, because Judaism .exacts more of
its representatives than blind faith. Judaism sees in ignorance
a curse and a misfortune, and commands a prudent distance to
•be kept between the learned and tlie illiterate. The Revealed
Law was not intended to be blindly believed, but to be stud-
ied, understood, amplified, and wisely applied to all conditions
and circumstances ; and its assimilative adaptability to all times
is evident from its unexcelled provisions calculated to meet the
requirements of the most civilized ages, and keeping much in
reserve to be utilized by times to come, perchance, yet much
in advance of those we are calling progressive.

A separation between the etliical, juridical, and spiritual

213

was, in ancient Israel, never attempted, all tliree aspects being
focused in tlie Divine Law and Prophecj, and finding further
development in post-Biblical schools. " Let those who would
make Christianity merely a religious system apart from the
common life of men, and who look at religion as a merely in-
dividnal connection with God, see to it that they do not fall
below the Hebrew ideal," says Canon Freemantle ; and he
continues to maintain that " those who appreciate that ideal
most fully, and dwell most on the Divine element pervading
it, will see that it points to an all-embracing society, including
the whole range of human interest, and binding all men and
classes and nations together in true relations, which are the
work and expression of the Spirit of God." In addition to
this statement it is in order to quote a few lines from another
divine, the Bishop of Peterborough, who, speaking on social-
ism, remarked that Christianity made no claim to rearrange
the economic relations of men in the state and in society ; and
he hoped to be understood when he plainly said that it was his
firm belief that any Christian state, carrying out in all its rela-
tions the Sermon on the Mount, could not exist for a week.
The two leading principles taught were non-resistance and for-
giveness of injuries. It would not be possible for a state to
forgive all injuries, or to forgive all criminals. Neither could
the English Government, in the event of a French army land-
ing on our shores, afford to give that army a safe escort to
London. It was perfectly clear that a state could not continue
to exist upon what were commonly called Christian principles,
and it was a mistake to attempt to turn Christ's Kingdom into
one of this world. To introduce the principles of Christian-
ity into the laws of the state would lead to absolute intoler-
ance.— Summed up in a word, it means that Christianity can-
not be reconciled with the rudiments of justice and human
equality. Carried to its ultimate conclusion, it means that Juda-
ism is a religion of life, and Christianity one of death. You
can be a good Jew, and love your neighbor and the stranger ;
but to be a good orthodox Christian you are bound either to
convert or to despise and ill-treat your neighbor, or to act like an
idiot by giving your cheek to be struck, and punish no crime.

214

When the ethical side of our supplementary literature is ex-
amined, it is found to be a scrupulous amplification of the eth-
ical spirit of the Divine Law. Gathered from the vast maze
of traditional literature, and shaped in the form of a purely
ethical work, are the " Ethics of the Fathers," gems of moral
pliilosophy, every phrase furnishing a text for an ethical dis-
course. That ethical treatise opens with the statement that
Moses, having received the Law on Sinai, had delivered it to
Joshua, who transmitted it to the Elders, Judges, priests, who,
in turn, delivered it to the Great Assembly. This Assembly
laid down the following three great principles, which ought to
cause many a modern sage and law-giver to stop and think :
" Be careful in legal decisions, multiply the number of stu-
dents, and raise a bulwark around the Law." Simeon the Just
teaches that " the stiLcly of the Law, Divine reverence, and good
ivorks sustain the world." Another teacher insists that man
must not worship God with the view of securing a reward, but
out of unselfish motives, which, in modern phraseology, would
be termed, " Virtue should be her own reward." Other veins
of genuine beauty run through the following sayings : " Let
thy house be the gathering-place of the wise ; sit at their feet,
and drink in their words. — Open thy house freely ; make it
the home of the poor. — Live under the guidance of a superior
mind, a teacher ; court a true friend, and look at the brighter
side of every man's character. — Keep aloof from a bad neigh-
bor ; shun the company of the wicked, and be not unprepared
for adversity. — Love work ; hate ofiice ; intrude not among
the ambitious." Hillel says : " Love peace, pursue it ; love
laanlcind, and spread knoioledge broadcast among them. — He
who hunts fame will lose his name. — He who learns not retro-
gresses.— He who disdains wisdom deserves not to live. He
who parades wisdom as a diadem of vanity will fall. — If I
think not of self, who will think of me ? Should I think but
of self of what use am I ? And if naught be done to-day,
when then ? — Further the interests of the public ; doubt your
self-trust ; Judge not of others too severely before being simi-
larly tried ; say not a thing cannot be learned which you may
learn anyhow ; say not ' 1 shall perfect myself,' you may have

215 j.

no chance to do so. — The unprincipled fears no sin ; the igno-
rant cannot be pious ; the bashful cannot learn ; and the hot-
tempered cannot teach. — Not everybody who deals in wares
wins wisdom. — Where there is lack of manhood show thyself
a man. — The more flesh the more food for worms; the more
wealth the more cares ; the moi-e wisdom the more ideal life ;
the more study the more wisdom ; the more thought the more
insight ; the more beneficence the more salvation. — A good
name is the best thing for man ; he who lives faithful to the
Law lives forever." Seeing a skull float in the water, Ilillel
exclaimed : " Because of thy having drowned others thou art
drowned thyself ; and they who drowned thee shall be them-
selves drowned."

Hie thee to rearward with your Sermon on the Mount !
Sliammai said : " Fix a time for study ; be small in promise.,
great in action, and meet friendly every man.'" liabbi Simeon,
son of Gamliel, used to teach : " All my life did I spend
among the wise, and I found nothing healthier than silence ;
not the thought alone but the deed is essential ; much talk en-
genders error. — On three virtues does the world rest — on truth,
on JUSTICE, and on peace."

But we are here in the magic storehouse of Aladdin, and are
embarrassed as to the choice of inestimable treasure. Rabbi
Jochanon enjoins: "i?e not conceited of acquired knowledge;
thou art here for no other purpose. — Which is the best virtue
for man to acquire ? " asked he once of his five pupils. " An
unenvious eye," said the one ; " a loyal friend," said the other ;
" a good neighbor," thought the third ; " the power to foresee
future events," said the fourth ; " a good heart,"" said the last.
The master deemed " a good heart " tlie best quality, for it
comprised all other gopd qualities, thought he. And who could
plausibly disagree with this hoary sage in Israel ? "5e the
honor of thy felloiv-man dear to thee as thy own ; be not impa-
tient, and repent of your sins on the last day of your life," re-
marked Rabbi Eliazar. "^ jealous eye, impure greed, and hu-
man hatred shorten the life of m.an.'''' Rabbi Jose said : " Thy
fellow's property be dear to thee as thy own, endeavor to study
tlie law of which the knowledge is not hereditary, and in all

216

thy dealings he thy goal the highest^ Rabbi Tarplion : " The
day is short, the work is great, the workers are shiggish, the
reward is immense, and the Master presses. Not thine is the
task to do all the work, but thou art not relieved of thy share
therein. Much wisdom brings due reward ; sure is thy Master
to reward thee according to thy merit ; but know that the re-
ivard of the righteous is in the world to conies In the same
spirit was this saying uttered : " This icorld is the vestibule of
the hereafter ; prepare in the vestibtde, so that thou mayest he
received in the palace proper J^ Judaism is thus not without
its heavenly kingdom, and as these sayings are older than
Christianity, what remains for us to conclude ?

Grand ethical principles are imparted in the following lines
by rabbis of the highest authority : " Contemplate these three
points, and sin will lose all her power over thee ; know whence
thou earnest ; whither thou goest ; and before ivhom thou art
bound to give account of self. — Pray for the prosperity of the
ruling government, for, but for the awe it inspires, man would
devour his fellow. — Only knowledge coupled with virtue ivill
flourish. He who is unloved of man is unloved of God. — The
distinction of man is to have been created in the image of God :
but a greater distinction is to he fully conscious thereof. — Every-
thing is seen ; man has free choice ; the world is judged ivith
mercy ; much depends on the amount of good done. — Where the
Divine Law is unheeded there is no benevolence practiced. —
Where there is lack of ivisdom there is no fear of God. — No
bread, no culture ; no culture, no bread. — He whose knowledge
outweighs his righteousness resembles a tree of roots too weak
to support its boughs ; the lirst gale will uproot it ; but armed
in virtue, no storm in the world can shake him." Here are
indeed " Jewish Realities."

This must answer our purpose. Our mines are verily inex-
haustible, and it were a vain effort to exhibit all our uncoined
bullion. This modest display of specie current in the Jewish
home and school will convey a fair idea of the precious metals
it has been coined of. Jesus was not heard of when many of
these were already living principles in Israel ; and we are be-
ing urged to derive spiritual inspiration and ethical enlighten-

217

ment from the few distorted Jewish ideas expressed in the
Sermon on the Mount, or in the apocryphal gospels. Devoted
to wisdom, and striving for prosperity and happiness, we are
expected to subscribe to ignorance and curse the thinking, the
wealthy, and the happy. The founder of Christianity assures
us that " it is easier for the camel to pass through the eye of a
needle than for the rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven."
And those mad curses of Lucas : " Woe betide the rich ! woe
to the well-fed ! woe to the laughing ! woe to you for whom
every one has a kind word ! " Such curses are abominable
to the ethical sanity of Israel, who prays for enlightenment,
wealth, and iiappiness, and favors joyous laughter, as God's
precious blessing, keeping man good-humored, thus accessible
and open to the noblest of virtues — charity and humanity.
" Poverty is worse than fifty blows," say our sages ; and " in-
spiration is only granted to the wise and good-humored." An-
other Talmudical passage maintaiiis, that " the poorest is he
ivho is poor in spirit ; having no reason, what hast thou ? having
this, ivhat lacketh thee ? " ^

Our ethical realism and its actualization are as phenomenal
as the giving of the Law amidst the thunders of Sinai.
Renan was not the first to discover the fact that Israel is not a
religious power only, thougli it stood and stands as such as the
ideal of humanity. Judaism was ever conscious of its social
and moral, not less than of its spiritual, mission, all three be-
ing so intimately interlaced that it is impossible to see where
the one begins and where the other ends. Tliroughout our
vast literature the student is astonished to find infinitely moi'e
solicitude displayed about the righteous relations of man to
man, than those of man to God. The Day of Atonement
cleanses man of his sins against God, but not of his wrongs
against his fellow-man, until every wrong has been righted
and the wound healed. The Church never ceased to grace
herself with Jewish glories, claiming them as her own, and
when the Jew raised his timid voice in protest he was argued
down witli the rod or the torch. Deprived of these the

?mDn no n'jp n;;"i ?n'jp no mon n;n .n;n:} nSx 'j;r px"

218

situation of the Churcli grows critical, and her spiritual pros-
pects are anything but cheerful.

Perhaps nothing is so false as the claim of Christianity to
have raised woman to the place which is legitimately hers.
Tlie very reverse of this claim is historically established. From
the age of Sarah, the honored consort of the first great Hebrew,
to the age of Judith Montefiore, woman in Israel was the
sacred Vestal, reverenced at the Jewish home, the soul and
centre of the Jewish family. Our Proverbs glorify woman,
declaring the virtuous housewife the most precious of God's
jewels. It were superfluous to refer to our Deborahs, Han-
nahs, Esthers, Huldalis, and Miriams, who played such a
mighty part in shaping the destinies of their people, and we
have sufiiciently indicated the place post-Biblical lore assigns
to womanhood. When Koheleth asserts to have found one
good man among a thousand, but not a good woman, man's
moral superiority is riot very seriously emphasized. But how
did for centuries Christianity treat the mother of mankind ?
Paul would have her locked in a chicken-coop. To Tertullian's
saintly mind she is the " devil's gateway." Clement, of Alex-
andria, reached the conclusion that woman must blush " even
to reflect of what nature she is," while Gregory Thauinaturgus
assures us that " a person may find one man chaste among a
thousand, but a woman never." His saintship must have had
curious experiences as regards man's and woman's chastity.

" What the early Christian did," said Dr. Donaldson, recently,
in the Contemporary Bevieta, " was to strike the tnale out of
the definition of man, and humau being out of the definition of
woman. * * * She was on the earth to inflame the heart
of man with every evil passion." Her company secured by
marriage was deemed a pollution to the holy ministers of the
Church. Children were considered one of the smallest bless-
ings, and family life not a state to be desired, for " the cleric
would rise to the throne of heaven only on the wings of vir-
ginity," is the assurance of Church ethics. What the " vir-
ginity " of the cleric implied, we all know at this date. Such
a religion ought to be transferred to the dead moon, where it
were in perfect harmony with the dismal surroundings. For

219

this living world which invites man to eat, drink, sing, laugh,
think, do good, be wise, worship, hope, rejoice, live and let
live, Jndaisrn is the only universally acceptable faith. The
sweetest human sympathies and affections are at home witli the
Jew, whose greatest happiness and success in life are to see a
large, noble family rise and prosper under his loving auspices.
Dr. Donaldson continues : " During this period there is a
striking absence of home life in the history of Christians. No
son succeeds his father ; no wife comforts the weary student ;
no daughter soothes the sorrows of the aged bishop. Perhaps
this absence of domestic affection, this deficiency in healthy and
vigorous offsprings, this homelessness may account in some
degree for the striking features of the next century, and es-
pecially the prevalent hardness of heart.'''' Perhaps ! That
period, and many periods after that, were Hecate's black cycles
of vice and crime, a truly Messianic era of love and peace,
during which prominent among the sacred studies of the lioly
men was the subject, " how every heretic should be put to death
in this life, and tortured eternally in the world to come."
Judaism blushes to claim mothership of so monstrous a birth ;
but things have changed of late, especially since the Ecclesia
had her venom extracted and hei' stings dulled.

Israel's Divine Constitution placed him beyond the necessity
of borrowing ethical principles from any philosophical system,
old or new. Its definition of good and evil, right and wrong,
true and false, things eternal and things perishable, is final.
Tlie " seven wise " of ancient Greece bequeathed us little in-
deed that could be compared with Mosaic ethics. " Know
thyself," and " Exaggerate nothing " is not the sum of all
wisdom, since one may know liimself and be accurate in all
things, yet be a rogue of the first grade. Socrates is painfully
looking for the good and the tr'iie, continuing doubtful as to
the " finest of goods," a doubt our ethics know not of. Our
Divine Law is, in itself, the perfect knowledge of the perfect
good. All we have to do is to comply with its principles.
Pagan and Christian ethics fall far below those sublime pre-
cepts enjoined in the Divine Law, where man is required to do
good because it is good, and for no other reason. " Love God

220

with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might,"
" The real Jew is he who does the will of his Creator because of
loving Him,''^ is a leading ethical rule in Judaism. The next
rule is, " works," not mere " faith," are to test man's ethical
quality. In modern ethical philosophy we find nothing but a
rehash of Jewisli ethics. More says : " If it be good that one
man should be supplied with the means of living well and
happy, it is mathematically certain that it is doubly good that
two should be supplied, and so on." The general good and
happiness is the highest goal of our ethical code. When the
same authority maintains that " ethics is the art of living well
and happy," and that true happiness lies in " the pleasure
which tlie soul derives from the sense of virtue," he simply
repeats an old Jewish principle, that good works ought to
spring from love of God, and not from fear of punishment.
" The idea of a Supreme Being," says Locke, " infinite in
power, goodness, and wisdom, whose workmanship we are, and
upon whom we depend, and the idea of ourselves as under-
standing, rational beings, being such as are clear in us, would,
I suppose, if duly considered and pursued, afl^brd such founda-
tions of our duty and rules of action, as might place morality
among the sciences capable of demonstration, wlierein, I doubt
not, but from self-evident propositions, by necessary con-
sequences as incontestable as in mathematics, the measure of
right and wrong might be made out." Locke could, in this
respect, learn at the feet of Philo. To the Jewish thinker,
the Supreme Being is not an idea but a reality, and His Law
of right and wrong is the immutable ethical law.

Our limited space gives us no latitude to enter into further
details as to the relation of modern moral pliilosophy to ethical
Judaism. A survey of the best ethical systems extant leads us
to the conviction that they are all an imperfect scientific gen-
eralization of those revealed and inspired ethical doctrines
which are of a hoary antiquity in Israel. As grammar is the
scietice that metliodizes speech and subjects it to certain rules,
60 is moral philosophy but a methodizing efibrt engaged in
systematizing what is intuitively a developed, ever-growing
power, a power all-permeating, supreme, and indigenous in

221

the Jewish heart. It was a Jewish thinker who taught that
reason is identical with revelation in so far as it slowly and by
sinuous ways reaches tardily what revelation anticipates. If
it be not our merit, it is certainly our distinction granted by
Divine Grace to possess what is indispensable to the bodily
and spiritual well-being of all our fellow-men. In our Divine
Law and its concurrent literature there is the unsealed Zemzem
well of hving truth, ethical and spiritual. The proof of its
truth lies in the fact of Israel's moral vitality. Nothing short
of Providential Guardianship underlies JeshurwrHs preserva-
tion. Ethically imbued with that self-sacrificing virtue which
sets piinciple above everything else, our fathers, even in the
land of the foe, lived inwardly resigned, self -contented,
hopeful, aye, happy in adversity, happy in their conscious-
ness of a divine heroism ; above all, happy in the ethical
works of a faith the ultimate end of which is to alleviate
human suftering and sorrow, and to unite all men on the
principle of perfect equality. No social condition, however
humble, relieves the Jew of ethical duties toward his brother.
" Even he who depends on benevolence must be charitable," is
a Jewish saying worthy of notice.

Acting on this principle the homeless, wandering Jew dis-
penses a mite of his mite to dry the tear and allay the hunger
of the unfortunate. His house tvas and is the home of the
poor. Over his wife and children he bends with consecrated
love, his tearful blessings dropping as the dew of heaven, con-
scious of sweet sorrow, a martyr to an ideal. What we say
here of the Israelite in exile, many others know as well ; but
we have seen him in different climes, under various, often un-
supportable, circumstances, yet never shrinking as often as
conviction imposed self-sacrifice. We have seen the poor Jew
divide his crust of bread with the hungry ; give of the small
means he had for the benefit of those who dwell in the Holy
Land. We have seen him implore the forgiveness of him he
had injured and humbly offering redress, obeying the prompt-
ing of no other but the ethical quality. An aged father
cufiing publicly a son advanced in years in the presence of his
children, is a sight we remember, and see in spirit the filial

222

son of Israel siiiile submissively, without uttering a word ; a
scene not exactly aesthetical yet ethical in the highest degree.
And we have seen in lands of barbarous oppression the Jew
raise hospitals for Jew and Gentile, and pray for a govern-
ment and a people who have left no scheme untried to reduce
him to abject misery. Crucified not once but a hundred times,
and bleeding from many a wound, the actual living Jew, not
the mythical Jesus, has exclaimed time and again : " Father,
forgive them for tliey know not what they do ; " they, one-
half of whom " worship a Jewess, and the other half a Jew."

CHAPTER XIII.

A VIEW OF JESUS ; OUR SPIRITUAL REALITIES.

An ancient writer on fine architecture exacts of that art the
three elements of stahility, of utility, and beauty. Modern
authors, who have given us their views on the same art,
enlarge and qualify the number of conditions on which the
secret of architectural grandeur depends ; they speak of size,
proportion, harmony, symmetry, ornament, and color. The
builder of the Egyptian pyramid, of the Grecian temple, of
the Gothic cathedral, and the colossal structures of Stone-
henge, in order to impress one with a sense of pleasure, had,
in a measure, to comply with those elemental rules. Had he
succeeded in fully satisfying the requirements of the art, he
should have reached the ideal of perfect beauty and grandeur.
Except size, the conditions which govern stability, utility, and
beauty in the domain of the moral and spiritual appear to be
very much the same. Size devoid of those aesthetic elements
is not alone undelightf ul but even repugnant, as is proved by
the remarkable impression one receives at the sight of the
huge elephant by the side of the beautifully proportioned,
symmetrical, and spirited race horse. The claims and truth
of spiritual might are likewise to be tested by its harmonious,
symmetrical consistency, say, by tlie proportion its real en-
deavors and successes bear to its ideal pretensions. Religion
nmst take cognizance of the science of aesthetics, since, in her
practical application, she has not alone to realize the truthful
and the sublime, but should never offend the sense of the
beautiful ; above all, shun as pestilence the incongruous and
the ludicrous. Assumed superiority may long resist the most
earnest of protests, but, growing incongruous, it pales and
withers at the sound of laughter. Ridicule is the deadly anni-
hilating Nemesis of falsehood. They in Japan once persuaded

(223)

224

the Mikado that, while he was sitting on his throne, the globe
was in danger should he stir. To prevent the universal catas-
trophe the royal dupe used to sit for hours as deadly still
as an idol. The world could not help laughing, and the
laughter killed the Mikado. Frederick the Great was less
afraid of three armies than of Voltaire's laughter, and the
Jansenists and Jesuits had good reason to hate Luther much
less than Moliere's Tartuffe. The pensive owl is dangerous
enough to such as are in dread of thought and light, since,
wherever they hide, there is no telling but the owl may be
there as well, and know all about it. But the owl is Jupiter's
bird compared with the loud-talking and laughing parrot.
Truth is always equal to self. Falsehood is compelled ever to
be on the alert, to study words and miens, and to cut figures
to suit her ends, conscious all the while of instability and
incongruity.

The fatal flaw of orthodox Christianity is flagrant incon-
gruity. Its very founder or founders appear inconsistent in
word and deed. Jesus claims to be the Messiali, the " prince
of peace," and his peaceful mission on earth is announced
in these words : " Think not that I came to send peace on
earth ; I came not to send peace, but the sword." And
elsewhere he emphasizes his mission by saying : " I am come
to arouse man against his father, the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."
Warning his followers not to transgress the smallest ordinance
of Mosaism — " He who repeals one of these smallest com-
mandments and thus teaches the people, will be the smallest
in the kingdom of heaven" — he himself breaks the Sabbath,
which is one of the Ten Commandments. These are stum-
bling-blocks in the way of sincere research. Moliammed jus-
tifies some of his shortcomings as being his special privilege
as a prophet; so does Jesus claim to be " lord of tlie Sabbath "
to break it. It was a Talmudical saying that " the Sabbath was
given to you, not you to the Sabbath," which, however, does
not imply violation of the Divinely Consecrated Day, but
mental and pliysical ease, rest, and peace. Yet even the
desecration of the Sabbath by Jesus did not justify its substi-

225

tution by Sunday, which was a rather late afterthought of
paganized Christianity. Springing from the purest of sources,
the new faith spread and raiuified like a wild inundation to
every quarter of the compass, gathering in its bed all the im-
purities of heathen fetichism from the Egyptian triad down
to the worship of bloody Moloch. The inconsistency of the
Church is not merely unsesthetic, but grimly ironical.

We will not, like the anti-Semite, dip our pen in venom
and bespatter a great power because of our disagreement with
its doctrines, means, and methods. Right here we most sin-
cerely and truthfully assure our readers that we humanely love
all our good fellow-men who happen to be Christians. May
that liberal Christianity prosper that is Christian in the high-
est and noblest acceptance of that term, working for human
love, peace, and happiness. We know that there have been
humane, generous popes, in whom the feelings of humanity tri-
umphed over a barbarous doctrine. Moreover, there is at this
moment an enlightened Christianity rising into fame for whom
Israel has a cordial welcome, a brotherly love. Writing these
lines in the heart of a city wherein at this moment over a
hundred and fifty thousand homes are radiating with the fes-
tal beauties of an almost universal joy, having been preceded
by universal work and profit, we cannot but rejoice at so much
benefit and happiness accruing to mankind from a creed
which, had it not been polluted, we would bless as a wayward,
yet not unworthy, scion of a purer parent. But with each of
these Christian festivals there are in the mind of Israel hor-
rid scenes of outrage and massacre associated, over which we
would readily draw a curtain were they a matter of the remote
past. Anti-Semitism reminds us that the Evangelical messen-
gers of peace are yet at large, and, though hopelessly crip-
pled, are up and doing their very best or, say, their very worst.
This is the class we are bound to brand as the devil's messen-
gers, who deceive the world by their honeyed lies, and poison
its peace by the venom they instill into the unguarded mind
of Christian youth and credulity. Christian and Jew ought to
know and stigmatize that class as the enemies of peace, and
make them the butt of scorn, the object of pity and contempt.

226

Robert Browning is honored with a grave among the choicest
sons who made England glorious and the world a good deal
wiser and better, and of him the editor of the Western
IFatchmau, a Catholic priest of the mediseval type, has the
following to say : " Robert Browning, the greatest genius of
the century, according to many, and a poet entitled to rank
with Wordsworth and Goethe, in the opinion of a few, the
main who sought the soul of things and not their outward in-
tegument, who neglected the form, but oh, the sense, ye gods !
the weighty sense, died last week, and a dispute has already
arisen as to whether the man w^as «Tew or Christian. We never
liad much respect for poets, but we shall have less hencefor-
ward." Sucli are the pillars who uphold the ortliodox Church.

Now, though frequent reference has been made in these
pages to Christianity and its founder, a positive view^ of his
personality njay not be out of place in this chapter, and such
we propose to give before drawing an outline of our spiritual
realities. Strauss, Renan, and Baur have done their part in
throwing a flood of light on Jesus, his apostles, and their gos-
pels, and we had our say on these. At present we shall not
stop to inquire whether or no, at the given date or a century
before, there really lived such a man of such a nature, en-
dowed with such superhuman powers as the primitive Church
fathers tell of. Setting aside the question of the record's ve-
racity and the gospel's authenticity as far as the supernatural
elements therein are concerned, there remains no plausible
reason for doubting the individuality of the man who gave
I'ise to the Christian religion ; and, admitting the personality
of Jesus, we are induced to see him from three different
standpoints : the historical, the mythical, and the symbolical.

In the historical Jesus we see a person of a visionary gen-
ius, born at a troublous age, when the general decline of things
caused Israel to expect a helper ; a man powerful enough to
deal with tlie might of all-swallowing Rome ; to carry, like
Judas Maccabeus, Jehovah's banner to the discomfiture of the
heathen gods; to rule like Samuel, Solomon, and Elijah, with
the " rod of his lip." The air was full of reveries and proph-
ecy. The times were such as "tried men's souls;" the helper

227

was looked and longed for ; the public mind was prepared for
the extraordinary, the miraculous, tlie impossible. A young
man of a sympathetic, responsive, enthusiastic, and generous
disposition, endued with a vivid imagination, as the son of
Joseph and Mary appears to have been, could catch fire at the
incipiency of a conceit, and could easily persuade himself that
he might be the preordained Messiah. Many before and after
him were similarly afflicted, though less successful as to re-
sults, the field and conditions being less favorable. Dreams
deluded him into all kinds of religious aberrations, carrying
him away from the prescribed course of Jewish life, until,
drifting too far, return was not easy, and the boldest course
appeared the wisest. Everybody knows how, even at this date,
one may found a new creed by boldly defying all authority and
proclaiming a doctrine more acceptable than those in vogue.

Yet did the Messianic claim of Jesus meet with little cre-
dence even among the vulgar, for we are assured that his
followers were few, and his own mother and brothers were
first among the faithless, as he himself testifies by refusing to
admit them to his presence. Had he not openly violated the
Sabbath ; had he not proclaimed himself the " king of the
Jews" at a time when Rome was jealous of her suzerainty, the
whole thing would most probably have passed off as many
similar vagaries before and after him. As matters stood, we
assume the Jews had to take notice of his dealings and, them-
selves unable to mete out capital punishment, which the viola-
tion of the Sabbath and other transgressions imposed, they
drew the attention of Roman authority to the doings of one
who religiously and politically became a menace to the state
and the people. They were in a dilemma, had to do some-
thing, and did certainly not do the ivisest thing. Left to him-
self, the extravagant, contradictory claims and teachings of
Jesus would have defeated his ends ; for any one who knows
our Prophecy and tradition is utterly disgusted with the mis-
(piotations and pervei'sions as the gospels reproduce them in
his name. But liis blood was shed. Making allowance for
many exaggerations, there remains little doubt that he died a
victim to popular excitement and Roman cruelty. lie sustained

228

a martyr's death ; was hooted and scorned by the mob ; had
a crown of thorns planted on his brow ; w^as scourged, out-
raged, and crucified, all for an apparently innocent preten-
sion, Tlie impression such an execution under like circum-
stances would in our days make on the mind of the credulous,
is not to be doubted. The very rabble that clamored for his
execution must have turned pale on seeing the deluded victim
transfixed and bleeding in agonies on the cross. Blood has
done what nothing in the world could have done — it deified
a man. Once buried marvelous legends clustered round his
memory ; everything deemed M'ise and best by his followers
was put to his credit. He did and he said all good and won-
derful things.

The times were ripe for a change. Paganism was in its ex-
piring throes. Greece and Rome found it difficult to uphold
their gods. New pliilosophies were undermining the last hold
of polytheism. The field was vast and almost free, the chances
for the spread of a new spiritual doctrine were good. In its
old garb, Judaism was unpalatable, yea, repugnant, to the
heathen, who was deeply prejudiced against it. In its changed
dress and form it was a novelty. Converts multiplied, and as
the years advanced incredible tales were accepted as matters
of fact. The founder's personality was magnified, glorified,
and at last deified, until the most prosaic facts were buried in
a sea of myth and miracle. Thus came into being the man-
god, the mythical Jesus.

This person does supernaturally arrive at this nether world.
The stars and all nature announce his birth. He is born of a
virgin and begotten of the Holy Ghost. As a babe he per-
forms miracles ; angels watch over him. Later on Satan
tempts him. Having spent his youth among the great teachers
in Israel he is raised to membership of the august Sanlieih-in,
is very learned, disputes with the greatest of his school, and is
ever triumphant. He is the " son of God," " the promised
Messiah," sent to redeem mankind that, since the loss of para-
dise, fell a prey to hell and the devil. His later career is a
chain of miracles ; the evil spirits are in dread of him ; he
transfers them from body to body, from men to swine ; he

229

heals the sick and the leper, calls the dead to life, makes the
lame walk straight, and gives sight to the blind. He feeds
multitudes with the food of a few ; changes water into wine ;
paces on the wave as on dry land ; curses and blesses with im-
mediate effect ; prepares for his crucifixion ; dies praying for
his enemies and promising paradise to the two thieves who
are crucified with him. Triumphing over death and the
grave he resurrects after three days, reappears to some of his
faithful pupils, and ascends, transfigured, to the skies, a prince
of peace, to take his seat at the " right hand of his Father." ^
Such is the Jesus of the orthodox Church, a being more gra-
cious than his Divine Father, Who would not forgive human
frailty until expiated by the blood of " His only Son," a cruel,
atrocious Father, it is too clear.

Thus did the Church change the loving, gracious Jehovah
into a ferocious IS'emesis, whose vengeance nothing but the
blood of His only " Son " could appease. The spirit of sacred
awe, Divine reverence, the genius of sane intellect rises in re-
volt against such a monstrous doctrine, such a preposterous
Theosophy. Moreover, that ludicrous inconsistency of hating
the ancient Jew, and heaping shame and misery on his late de-
scendants because of his having done what had been preor-
dained for tlie salvation of humanity ; because he did what to
propitiate a vengeful Creator had to be done. Everything, that
Theosophy teaclies, had been planned out beforehand, so that
the crucifixion was the culmination of a beneficent sciieme laid
by the God-Father and His compassionate Son ; and the Jews
are to be punished for having done what the gods prompted
them to do ? Is not this punishing one for obedience, or foi*
acting as an instrument of the Highest Will ?

But the mythical Jesus and his doctrines defy all reason and
logic. Blind faith, submission to tlie unreasonable, are the per-
emptory demands of the Gospels and the Koran. Never was a

^^ We are here, in many regards, reminded of the Magian theosophj^
The story of Zoroaster is, to a large extent, tliat of Jesus, God at war
with Satan, filUng the place of Ormuzd and Ahriman. Zoroaster spoke
as soon as born, wandered about fasting in the desert, and was, likewise,
tempted by Satan. We ask : Who copied of whom?

230

fiercer firebrand thrown into this world than when the myth-
ical Jesus hurled His ultimatum of " Who is not ivith me is
against /we," which means : " No peace unless you think as I
think, believe what I sa}^, and do what I command." The sword
of Mohanmied proved less fatal to the peace of the world than
that declaration of war on free thought and God-worship.
With the mythical Jesus rises Hecate with her black crews,
idolatry in all lier hideousness, an infernal world of unspeaka-
ble horrors, thronged with fiends who torture erring humanity.
And lest there be any doubt as to the reality of hellish torture
in the beyond, to establish the " heavenly kingdom " of the
mythical Jesus here myriads of human victims perished in
the fires kindled by the Church of the meek ^^ prince of peace ; "
hell-fires glowed in Christian lands ; hell-tortures were inflicted
in Christian prisons ; hell-hatred burned in Christian hearts.
If the promised paradise of the mythical Jesus required some
confirmation his hell was a burning reality. The Dark Ages
are the terrible nightmare conjured up on this planet by the
dark worshipers of the mythical Jesus. The Aztecs tore the
heart from their human victim, and all was over. The
Christian tore his victim limb by limb, mutilated the martyr
day after day, from motives less pure than those of the man-
eating Mexicans. Ah ! dwell we no more on that blood-thrill-
ing cycle of human shame and madness. Memory burns and
cannot forget what the lieart has long ago forgiven.

Let us rather turn with a feeling of relief to tlie symbolical
Jesus, who gives the name to the humane principles of en-
lightened Christianity. To the liberal, cultured Christian we
take Jesus to be the symbol of meekness, kindness, self-sacri-
fice, love, and foi-giveness, a veritable prince of peace. Divest-
ing him of the supernatural and mythical, the thoughtful Chris-
tian beholds in Jesus a benefactor of his kind, endeavoring to
universalize that Revelation and Prophecy which hitherto
were confined to a limited quarter and a comparatively small
number of the great family of erring man. His was a great
mission, who, like another mythical power, stole the fire of
heaven to bestow it on mankind ; for, but for his heroic life
and death, cycles might have passed before tlie knowledge of

231

God would " cover the earth as waters cover the sea." The
best in Christianity is due to him ; for its evil doings he is not
responsible. Liberal Christianity does consequently advance
the plausible theory that, since God utters His will and de-
crees through the events of history, Jesus, if uot a " Son of
God " in the orthodox acceptation of that word, was decidedly
an extraordinary personality, Providentially ordained to do
a great, aye, the greatest, work one man had ever done, a
mighty instrument in the hand of the Mightiest God. "We
honor not Jesus as a son of God : we are all sons of God,"
says the Unitarian ; " we honor him merely as a great, good
man who did a great, good work."

To this theory of the symbolical Jesus — in many respects
the image of our symbolical Elijah — Judaism opposes no se-
rious objections save that in conformit}^ with this view there
remains no ground for liberal Christianity to break any of the
principal doctrines of the Old Faith, especiall}'' the Decalogue
commanding the observance of the Seventh Day as the True
Sabbath. Besides, Jesus being no more than a good man or a
mere symbol, what meaning has Christmas or Easter to the lib-
ei-al Church ? What does the whole " new covenant " signify to
it ? If God be the Only Author of all that is, the Bestower of
good and of evil, life and death, why turn to any intermediary
influence for salvation ? Why not let the finite soul commune
with The Infinite'^ Early Christians considered themselves
Jews in every particular except in their idea as to the Messiah.
Over three centuries passed before the Church carried out the
afterthought of transferring the Sabbath to Sunday. A return
to original Christianity necessitates the full recognition of the
Decalogue, of which the Sabbath is as essential a command-
ment as the worship of the One and Only God. Progress in
the right direction must needs bring the liberal Church nearer
the Synagogue, the question being one of time oidy. Granted
once that Jesus was a man, the Gospels unauthentic, and the
Church fathers arbitrary in their dealings with matters relig-
ious and others, Judaism remains the only safe basis for the
religious man to take his stand on.

The genius of history and fact confirms us in our conviction

232

that Judaism points to the truest, sublimest faitli, the loftiest
system of ethics, the grandest of literatures ; to a philosophy in
which all philosophies centre, to a record of deeds and virtues
unexcelled, unequaled. Unconsciously the thinking world is
paying homage to the Divine Law, expounding tardily what is
therein revealed in undoubted clearness. Medical science tes-
tifies to the wholesome sanitary regulations interwoven with
the ethical beauties of our Divine Law, certain mortal diseases
being unknown in Israel. Study our ethics ; they are Divinely
human, humanly divine. Read our Bible, read it with the soul,
you will find it the Book of books, the sublime epitome of all
sacred thought. Ours is the history of histories. What mar-
tyrdom •equals that of Israel, he a hundred times crucified
and yet alive? Our domesticity is the purest of the pure,
our Holy Days the holiest of the holy, and our God the God
of gods. Who would profit should we yield? Who will not
profit yielding to us ? What you know of God we have taught
you. Wliat you know not of the soul's sweetest felicities we
can teach you. Speak of heroism ! Do you know the spiritual
realities of the Jew ? Prejudice blinds the eye and dulls the
edge of reason. The Jew was consistent, often erring, but as
often returning to his God. He allowed the enemy to take
his city rather than break his Sabbath in its defense ; he gave
himself up to be flayed alive or be cut to pieces rather than
betray his faith ; he wandered from lands of plenty into deep
misery rather than desert his God. True, we have our desert-
ers, our disloyal, irreverent traitors; they are the sores on
Israel's healthy body, ever present, hurting but not wound-
ing. Like all other races we have our rabble, our scum, largely
engendered by long, severe persecutions. We are heartily
ashamed of them, but they are not as bad as they appear ; for
they have soft spots in their hearts, very sensible to the magic
touch of him who knows under what spiritual influences they
rose into manhood. That uncouth, seemingly rough Jew will
weep like a child the moment he hears his parents named, or
is reminded of his old, dear home. He at once feels his par-
ent's hand rest blessingly on his head. A picture of felicity
rises before his mental gaze. His eyes are sufiused with

233

tears, and he is not what he seemed. Filial love and Divine
reverence are his par excellence. He loves and worships.

An undeniable harmonious consistency marks the relation
of Israel's lofty ideal dreams to his realities. Whereas Chris-
tianity confined itself to proclaiming high-sounding, unpracti-
cable principles, Judaism carried the highest into actuality,
requiring its votaries to go in juridical as well as in ethical
matters beyond the limit of duty.^*^ It is not enough that the
Sabbath and the Holy Days should be observed, but they are
to be lengthened by additional hours,^^ and wherever there
was the least doubt as to the day fixed by Scripture, to
make it doubly sure, another day was added. lie is deemed
the mightiest who fully controls his passions and " tui-ns his
enemy into a friend."^* Sacred ecstasy seizes the soul of
the loyal Israelite at the proclamation of The One In-
effably Holy. jSTeither the ravings of the fanatic dervish
nor the lunacy of the revivalist bear any similarity to the
ecstatic felicity of the Jewish worshiper, when, grasping the
full bearing of his sacred mission, he, with eyes closed, a
heart distended, the mind soaring in the effort to pierce the
deeps of mystery, articulates the " Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God ! tlie Lord is One ! " The Kabbalist trembles at the ut-
terance of The Only'^ One! The love of God with all his
soul, all his heart, and all his might, is to the Jew a spiritual
reality for which he often endured the crudest of tortures
and deaths. Living or dying, the confession of Divine Unity
is ever on the lip of Israel's true son and daughter. Jewish
Holy Da^'S are spiritual symbols instituted to strengthen the
golden chain of connnunion between Israel and his God.
Historical or otherwise, our festivals are hallowed by a sanc-
tification unknown — we dare maintain — beyond the pale of
Judaism.

A perpetual synjbol of the immediate relation of the finite
to the Infinite Spirit is the God-consecrated Sabbath, a gracious
gift granted to Israel as a foretaste of heavenly rest and
peace. Our Sabbath is intended to relax the care, toil, and

.ly^1pn *?;» Sinn j'S-dio " .|nn nimn wiih "

234

anxieties of body and mind and to double the spiritual light
and delights of the soul.^^ The Sabbath is to be divided
between bodily and mental pleasures. The study of the Law,
reading of sacred poetiy, singing of Psalms, and worship of
The Most High are fit Sabbatic engagements; also visiting
the sick and ministering to the poor and the orphan. The
delights of that resting-day are to be enhanced by the best
meals, the best attire, the cleanest underwear, beautiful sur-
roundings; and the blessings of home are to be shared in
by the homeless, the poor, and the stranger. Everything that
tends to mar the ease of the body or disturb the peace of
the mind must be avoided. Happiness and enlightenment,
joy and felicity, moral and ideal, are the aim and the
end of the Sabbath ; ease extended to every living creature,
man or animal, of the Jewish household. No sooner is Fri-
day's sun declining than everything and everybody at the
Jewish home assumes an air of rest, serenity, peace, and
holiness. Spotless linen covers the table, on which there
are the two sacred loaves of bread. The matronly genius
presiding over the house looks very sober and solenni, spreads
her liands over the lighted candles and, with closed eyes,
blesses and welcomes the Sabbath, her grown daughters do-
ing the like to right and left. The head of the house is
present, and both parents lay their blessing hands on the head
of each child before proceeding to welcome the bride of the
Sabbath at the Synagogue, after w^liich the happiest of eves is
spent at home. There is no doubt whatsoever, that besides
idealizing the environments and sentiments of the individual
Isi'aelite, the Sabbath has proved the mightiest preserver of
Israel's identity, and is indeed an ineffaceable landmark, a
" perpetual sign " between Judaism and its rival powers. The
Sabbath is the very heart of our religious life and vitality ;
break this and all is doomed. There is weight in the saying
of our wise, that Zion fell because of Sabbath-breaking,®"
since with its desecration all moral and spiritual restraints

•''*Such is the meaning of the ni'jT nocyj.

235

yielded to the low, the unholy, and the criminal. The ex-
istence of Judaism is bound up with its Sabbath.

The Feast of Passover is an eloquent reminder of an event
in the world's history, which, with or without the wonders re-
corded, is, seen in connection with subsequent developments,
calculated to impress the Jewish mind with the profoundest
reverence for Divine love, justice, and retribution. It is the
feast of man's universal "• declaration of independence," the
first unmistakable accentuation of man's individual right to be
accountable to God alone as the Sovereign and Father of all.
Tyranny and oppression, slavery and falsehood, are branded as
crimes accursed of God. Deeply imbued with the sense of
inalienable human right and liberty, Judaism sees in that Fes-
tival an eternal symbol of spiritual freedom, and commemorates
the Exodus with appropriate emblems, making it a holy day
of heartfelt joy, gratitude, and worship. You should see the
genuine Jewish home on the first eve of Passover. If there
be melancholy in your breast, or an ice-crust closing round
your heart, it will thaw, melt, and vanish at the sight of so
much ideal human joy radiating from every eye, beaming from
the face of youth and age. It is expected that " in every age
every one should act and feel as if he himself had been freed
from Egypt," and this is carried out to the letter. Around a
table whereon everything of beauty is effectively displayed,
gathered is the family, the parents at the head, the children
and strangers to right and left. There is on the table, beside
the unleavened bread, the wine and the symbolical bitter
herbs. The glasses are filled. All present rise to hear the
father of the home open the ceremony with the benediction
over the wine. A tear steals down the mother's cheek. One
of her dearest is missed, either absent or dead. Ah, that mix-
ture of joy and sorrow so characteristic of the pure Jewish
home ! But, as the ceremony advances, the praise of the Good,
Loving, Just, and Gracious God resounds around the table and
all other feelings are drowned in the one of devotion. " And
this reliance on God's redeeming might braced our sires of old
as it consoles us now, for not one only rose to destroy us, but
age after age rose against us, yet did The Almighty save us

23G

from the oppressor's hand." Around the world this family
worship in the Jewish home has, besides a religious and his-
torical, an educational significance ; for it is purposely insti-
tuted for the benefit of the rising generation. The youthful
mind is to be impressed with the grandeur of the event and
the unbounded grace of Providence, so as to be armed for
present and impending misery. For is not Israel still in bond-
age, groaning under the yoke of modern Egypts ? The Ameri-
can, British, and French Israelite may doubt it, but he who
prays in the Synagogues of Russia, Roumania, Morocco, and
Persia knows too well that the Pharaohs and their task-masters
are not all dead. Often has that eve been chosen by the
priest-ridden rabble to bring desolation on whole congrega-
tions, who were in a moment tlirown from joy into deep
sori-ow ; so much so, that the approach of Passover has filled
great Jewish communities with grave apprehension, dreading
robbery and massacre on the one hand and the infernal
" blood " calumny on the other. Yet, when did the Jew
hesitate in the exercise of his s];)iritual privileges, deterred
by danger or death ? If I am no Jew,- what am I ? If there
be no spirit, what is there ? If the eternal and spiritual be
no more than the perishable and material, what is life wortli ?
what is it given me for ? asks the Jew.

Originally a festival of harvest, when the Hebrew husband-
man, having gathered in the fruit of his fields and orchards,
proceeded to God's Temple to offer thanks for His blessings,
Pentecost assumed in time a purely spiritual meaning, it being
traditionally settled as the Day on which God revealed Him-
self to Israel on Mount Sinai. Occurring seven weeks after
the second day of Passover it is sometimes called the " Feast
of Weeks," and is very generally admitted to be the most
beautiful of our Holy Days. Of late this feast has been
fittingly utilized as a day of confirmation, opening the portals
of Israel's fold to all those children who have passed the age
of thirteen years and beyond. A joyous, spiritual solemnity
is the feature of this grand feast. The congregations of the
Lord rise to hear the Decalogue read from the Sacred Scroll,
after which, service being over, the confirmants enter to tell

237

tlieir elders what tliej have been taught of the beauties of the
ancient faitli. Tears are shed wliile tlie children are solemnly
initiated into the threefold covenant that links Israel to his
God.
y. Not less impressive is our Feast of Tabernacles, an autumn
festival of hoary antiquity, having an historical and agricul-
tural significance. During our stay in the Promised Land
this used to be the feast of the ingathering of the delicious,
ripe fruit, such as the citron, the olive, the fig, and the vine ;
it was a feast of grateful tbanksgiving. But the main char-
acter this feast preserved for us lies in its historical associa-
tions and reminiscences ; for it commemorates Israel's trying
period spent wandering through the desert. Like Passover
it makes the Jew forcibly conscious of his exceptional position
among the nations of earth, he alone being able to point to
such a Providentially-shaped history, such phenomenal events,
such manifest protection and guidance from on High. In
remembrance of that hard but salutary schooling in the wil-
derness, many loyal Jews partly dwell seven days in booths
built for that purpose^ the booths being beautified by the
leaves of the palm-tree, the twig of the myrtle, the willow of
the brook, and the most fragrant of the ingathered fruit.
God's bounty and His never-ebbing grace for His people are
to be illustrated by these symbols. Dwelling under the open,
starlit Eastern sky, environed with the bountiful manifesta-
tions of Gracious Providence, and looking back on a super-
naturally wrought history, the ancient Israelite must have felt
wonderfully deep and spiritual ; an impression which became
hereditary and is shared l)y liis latest descendants, even at
this day.

Superior to all our other spiritual feasts is, however, the
sublime season of ten days which yearly opens with our New
Year or Rosli liashanah and closes with the Day of Atone-
ment or Yom. Kijij^ur. Holy Days in aim and nature more
sublime it is impossible to imagine. Religious history fur-
nishes no example of such a divine effort to triumph over the
lower proclivities of human nature. Man is imperatively
called upon to look into self, scrutinize, his inmost being with

238

the eye of severe impartiality, review his past life, give
thought to the higher ends of his sublunar existence ; arraign
self before self ; break the shackles that chain him to gross-
ness and sensuality, and, on the wings of prayer and repent-
ance, coupled with resolves of a worthier future, rise to a
realization of this world's vanity, the serious aspects of this
life, the justice of God, the beauty of virtue, and the certainty
of Divine Judgment. Few are they in the camp of Israel
who, at the approach of those " awful days," are not aroused
from their religious lethargy, not stirred to an endeavor of
rising above the common level of thought and feeling. A
spiritual wave seems to strike every Jewish home, fill every
Jewish heart except such as are utterly lost to any and every
sense of faith and reverence.

During this season virtue in all manner of expression cele-
brates her glorious triumphs. Charity and humility are the
predominant manifestations of penitence. Long before dawn
masses throng the places of worship and prayerful invocations
are wafted heavenward. The Day of Memorial and the Day
of Atonement are to the Jew days of supreme Judgment.
He feels himself in the Awful Presence of tlie Highest Tri-
bunal ; feels that he has to give account of self ; that time is
fleeting, the grave open, and the record waiting. Between
Israel and Jehovah there is no intermediary influence, he being
as much of God Himself as any other being under the sun.
He obeys the Voice of the Highest Throne, that commands :
" Make peace with self, thy fellow-man, and thy God ! " He
hears the message, knows that he stands among the stars
responsible to none but his Author. The sovereignty of God
is contrasted with the impotence of man, and history is briefly
reviewed to impress the Jewish mind with the never-failing
love of The Only One. On the Day of Atonement neither
drink nor food, nor any other physical indulgence, is allowed
fi-om sunset to sunset. An extreme efibrt is made to suppress
the low instinct. Passion is conquered. Enemies shake hands
and make peace. Parents rest their blessing hand on the head
of tlieii' dear ones, and the tears roll profusely. Peace is the
motto, the look, tlm bi-eath, the wish of every good Israelite.

239

It is a perfect self-consecration of humanity to tlie Divinest
Ideal ; it is a celestial triumph of the spirit over the body, the
spiritual over the material in man's nature.

The Spiritual Kealities of Judaism, Divine in their simplic-
ity, awful in ideal majesty, are such as only a people can
realize whose law-giver's sweetest longing was to see God face
to face. Let our daughter religions parade their Christmas
and their Ramazans. The spiritual fountain-head is with us,
unebbing, ever flowing, pure as the azure's deep, brilliant as
the Galaxy, sweet, fresh, mighty, heavenly ; fed by Him Who
feeds the solar spheres. Not before Israel's sanity is diseased
will he yield to a faith of fancy, founded on myth, initiated
with blood, enforced with fire and sword, disgraced by human
hatred, and polluted by corruption. The Jew's Holy of Holies
is the human lieart ; his temple is the universe, his altaa", his
home, and his High Priest God Himself. As civilization
advances the humane spirit of Judaism gains in ascendency,
while orthodox Christianity is losing its hold and is slowly but
steadily verging toward the state of decay. As to Moham-
medism, it is fast sinking beneath its own dead-weight. Such
is the fate of all pretentious imitations. The genuine alone
endures. Not thus a faith rooted in God, human love, stern
justice, and a longing for perfection. How could such an ideal
cease, or be superseded, there being nothing truer than truth,
nothing diviner than perfection ? Therefore is Judaism im-
perishable and Israel invulnerable, immortal. There is some-
thing awful in the stirring world-career of the chosen race.
To think of the fact that the language in which the angels
spoke to Abraham, and in which Moses proclaimed the Ten
Commandments, is the one in which Jewish weeklies and
dailies and a vast literature are published at this hour ! A
contemplation like this in connection with Israel's past and
triumphs tempts one to exclaim, with Addison : —

"The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years ;
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt, amid the war of elements,
The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds! "

240

Sweetest of dreams, grandest of realities ! To be the throb-
bing, immortal heart of spiritual humanity. Thus has, after
thousands of years, the patriarch's and the prophet's dream been
realized. Jehovah is The God and Israel His people. Spirit
of truth, bones of our sacred ancestry, ashes of our martyrs
burned in slow tires, not in vain did ye fight, struggle, suffer,
and triumph over death. No candle is lit to celebrate the
memory of Vespasian, but a myriad illuminations tell yearly
of the deathless Maccabees. Scorning the Divine Law, is it
not mocking the sun ? ' Rejecting Horeb, Carmel, and Zion, is it
•» JAiff^^ not sublimating, aye, annihilating Golgotha and Mecca ? The
' (/^ I't'i^ world is on its return to God and Sinai, and the high road to
' fjigjixjix salvation runs not through St. Peter's pompous Cathedral, but
j^ through Ezra's unpretentious Synagogue. The Jew never for
a moment admitted that either earth or heaven belonged to
the Pope, and he is alive to see paradise restored to all men.
All, they have all done their utmost to degrade and defame
the Jew. But " the martyr cannot be dishonored," thinks
Emerson. " Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame ; every
prison a more illustrious abode ; every burned book or house
enlightens the world ; every suppressed or expunged word
reverberates through the earth from side to side. Hours of
sanity and consideration are always arriving to communities,
as to individuals, when the truth is seen and the martyrs are
justified." How long Israel was waiting for those " hours of
sanity ! " but he waited not in vain.

CHAPTER XIV.

CONCLUSION.

A GENERAT. review like this of " Jewish Dreams and Reali-
ties," as the last lines are written, involuntarily raises the
question whether the subject has been fairly treated, that is,
whether the picture has not been overdrawn in favor of the
main question and its kindred topics, which are inevitably in-
volved in such a wide-reaching discussion ? Conscience is ap-
pealed to and doubt arises as to the mental capacity of one
brain of a certain bent of mind or bias of thought to sum up
the real and fictitious, tlie true and the false, in a maze of
creeds, doctrines, traditions, legends, visions, feelings, haUuci-
nations, inspirations, deceptions, misrepresentations, and fan-
cies ; and to constitute one's self the arbiter in awarding the
medal of merit to whomsoever it may belong. With whom is
truth '>. At the age of eighty, Whittier answers to the question
of an Israelite, " I don't know what it means to be a Jew, but
I know what it means to be a Christian who has no quarrel
with others about their creeds, and can love, respect, and honor
a Jew who honestly believes in the faith of his fathers, and
wiio obeys the two great commandments, ' Love to God and
Love to Man.'" And the London Times, some weeks ago, ed-
itorially remarked, " The Jews are suffered readily to take the
high position to which their intellect — perhaps sharpened by
centuries of persecution — fits them. Their period of proba-
tion has left them stronger and more capable than ever, as the
ranks of our professions show. If the more humble members
of the faith have taken refuge, like hunted creatures, in occu-
pations repugnant to other men, and have developed a trium-
phant facility in such callings, it is the fault not of the race,
but of its persecutors." Is not all this a sign of the times ?

(241)

242

Even Catholic S2:)ain opewly confesses and deplores the aberra-
tions of her sires' Christianity. Imagination is aghast at the
flood of evil that could have been a flood of good had the
Church but in a limited measure complied with her founder's
nobler teachings of human love and mercy. A race whose
grateful generosity opens Eden's gate for Hiram, and looks up
to Cyrus as a Messiah, could not but honor a religion like that
of a Macaulay, a Browning, a Beecher, a Whittier, and their
like, of whom there is no paucity in this age. What cordial
fraternization would have brought about in unifying the race,
it is much easier to guess than to tell. Civilization might a
thousand years ago have reached its present stage, and our
century might have been permitted to witness what a mil-
lennium hence is likely to see— a race united in love and
spiritual affinity. That events so detrimentally turned against
the general welfare of mankind, and that the Church was so
conspicuously instrumental in retarding the consummation of
that very ideal she claimed to represent, justifies her being
called to account before the tribunal of history. Philanthroj^y
weeps at the universal evil conjured up by the distortion and
abuse of the divinest of gifts laid in the human soul. Relig-
ion, ethereal, robed in light, fragrance, and humility, the
wand of peace and grace in hand, and the smile of ineflfable
bliss in the eyej the gentlest and meekest of angels, the Church
has turned into the fiercest, the blackest of devils, spitting
blood, fire, venom, and hatred ; a demon with eyeballs of ter-
ror, talons of iron, ravenous, bloodthirsty, voracious, greedy,
and of tiger's ferocity. Love, truth, mercy, salvation, with
that Church ? If you whisper such blasphemous falsehoods,
Satan, who for eighteen centuries has been rolling in fits of
hellish laughter at this idea, may yet indulge the hope of turn-
ing once more this earth into an insane asylum. Rather let us
answer the question : With whom is truth ?

With whom is truth ? Reason answers : With him who is
in search thereof, not with him who claims her exclusive pos-
session. • The wisest of Greece doubted his wisdom, and this
proves him to have been the wisest. The wisest Hebrew king
exclaimed : Who knoweth that the spirit of the sons of man

243

ascendetli skyward, and the spirit of the beast descendeth
downward ? " Wlio knows, wlio knows ? Such is the burden
of Israel's liistorj, his thouglit, sucli the refrain of his grand
epic works. He lias no iron-clad dogjnas. The enemy of
growth and free thought is the immovable dogma. It trans-
forms the living banyan-tree of human intellect and sentiment
into a fossil ; it petrifies the mind ; it mummifies nature, em-
balms the universe, lames the wing of imagination, and is piti-
ably alarmed at the least symptom of independent life, is panic-
stricken at the sight of bud or blossom. How could a world
made for life ever young and ever green, a race whose prog-
ress means vitality and stagnation decay, make peace with a
power who enforces its two commandments, the first being :
" Thou slialt not tliink," and the second : " Hate him who
dares to think." Are not these substantially the conditions of
the orthodox cross and the crescent ? " What the Koran con-
tains not, you may burn," says Omar. " Believe my infalli-
bility, kiss my shoe, or you shall never enter paradise," says
tlie pope. " Either trinity or eternal perdition," says Luther.
" LTngodiy, cruel priests," says the Jew, " our fathers teach that
the righteous of all nations have a share in the loorld to comeP
How overlook this immense distance between Jewish univer-
sality and non-Jewisli partiality ? How overlook it with cen-
turies of telling history before us ? Jesus and Mohammed
exhaust their ingenuity in creating abysmal gulfs of blood-
curdling horrors, peopled by terrific fiends, whose delight is
human agony, monsters a gracious God had called forth to tor-
ment in eternity frail human beings, and Moses is criticised
for having been silent as to the beyond. To think that hun-
dreds of millions are still living and dying under the illusion
of that abominable doctrine ; to realize the anguish of the
dying, and of the surviving, who, not alone lose each other
torn from the bosom of love, but liave a foretaste of hell
in the certain expectation of the dear departing ones sinking
into the claws of howling, yelling, lacerating devils, must be
sufficient for any feeling being to turn away with a shudder
from the Church and the Mosque. Where in the Old Testa-
ment is there explicit mention of a hell or a heaven ? Divine

244

retribution is alluded to and nothing else. As to post-Biblical
conceptions we have already quoted Joseph Albo, who rejects
Geliinnom as being nothing else than an allegory, an assertion
no one ever thought of gainsaying, and deriving strong support
from Pharisaic lore where — Nedarim 8 — it is positively said :
" There is no Gehinnom in the world beyond, but, drawn forth
from the body, the virtuous soul lives in the blissful memory
of the good, and the wicked suffers in memory of the evil left
behind."

Had we nothing else to say in glorification of our ideal,
would not that universal recognition of the good in every hu-
man being, regardless of race and creed, and the pliilosophical
aspect of Divine retribution, justify the Mother Faith in her
claims of an ethical and spiritual superiority over her immodest
ofF-shoots? We deal not in windy articulation ; we challenge
the detractors of Israel and of his God to face fact with fact,
life with life, history with history, and convince us why we
should desert Jehovah for Baal.

Who, in his senses, could for one moment doubt the title of
all men to earthly happiness and to heavenly bliss — whatever
this be — provided righteous, dignified manhood keeps them
on the high level The Almighty assigned to tlie noblest of His
creatures below. Aryan, Semite, Mongol, or Negro, humanity
and philanthropy know no race nor creed nor color ; they only
distinguish between the right and the wrong, the true and
the false, the good and the bad. When the Egyptians were
drowned in the lied Sea the angels, says tradition, rose to
sing hynms in triumph of the just cause, but God said : " My
creatures are in distress, and you want to sing ! " Sweet,
philanthropic Judaism that has compassion even for the op-
pressor, the tyrannical taskmaster. Who did invent Aryanism
and Semitism as watchwords of hostile design ? That hydra-
headed misanthropy everybody knows was engendered and is
being nursed by the hate-breatliing, orthodox priest.

On this occasion we may aptly introduce a few stanzas from
a work which we have in preparation, wherein Don Isaac
Abarbanel pleads the cause of religious libei'ty before Ferdi-
nand and Isabella the Catholics ; it is a Jewish view : —

245

Man worships greatness even in his foes,

By worship lifted genius Godlike grows ;

Mere whim divides what God designed to be

In all His realms harmonious unity.

Mankind is one, one like that Fountain-Head

Whence life is flowing, whither go the dead ;

One soul in all, oft bursting forth in beams

Of truth eternal from ethereal streams ;

Whoso seeks Truth and clings to her with love,

In him is virtue, spirit from above ;

If man but worship, needless to agree.

Or force conviction, man like God is free;

Free as the bird, who free his carol sings

In various cadence God's sweet mercy rings ;

Free as the cloud, free as the ocean's vast.

As thunder free, free as the lightning's blast ;

As must our breath, so must our thought, be free,

AVith mind in chains life is but slavery.

In countless ways Almighty works His ends.

The bud, the blossom toward mild sunshine bends,

Free homage paying to that radiant sphere;

He worships not, who worships out of fear.

The freeborn reverence God, why rules enforce

On mind sky-driven like the water's course?

Though from great ocean all the waters s^n-ing
Which flood the earth and preciojjs blessings bring.
On deep azure throw high that gloriest span
Of seven hues which is the awe of man,
Not all, ascending the cloud-vested height.
Descend to mirror the heaven's stellar light —
In streams of crystal, lakes of skyey blue.
In brook or river, pearls of sjiarkling dew;
But some are winding through wild sinuous tracks,
Some bounding forth in leaping cataracts;
Through rock and crevice some burst into light.
Some well in tunnels, some in dreary night;
Some spread destruction in the fertile plain,
Some clear return, some troubled, to the main ;
And, like the waters, so the human wave
Around this world does, groping, searching, brave
Mysterious destiny with pall and grave.
Instinct with faith, that spirit pure must rise,
As things ethereal, to the rainbow'd skies.
With reason dawning, feelings undefined,
Man long of Edens and of hells divined;
With ardor turned to the orb of day.

246

The river, brute adored, or gods of clay,
Believed his idol truest of the rest.
His worship truest and his creed the best.
A freezing horror seizes heart and mind
AVhen, gazing through the darker times behind,
I see the reeking fumes from altars rise
Where man of man makes horrid sacrifice;
His kin, his child delivers to the flames.
Vile incest fosters, or his body maims.
Convinced his fetich of immortal bliss,
Delights in foulness, sacrifice like this !

Ah, old is error, old the quest of truth.

As old as longing for immortal youth

And power here ; not undivine our greed

To win dominion, spread a cherish'd creed ;

For life hereafter — this our highest goal —

As God is living, deathless is our soul !

To live forever strove immortal Cid,

Immortal dreams did raise the pyramid.

Oil, bronze, and marble quicken to the breath

Of art disputing the domain of death ;

Nay, plant and beast, each species it appears.

Obeying nature, sturdy offsprings rears

Its kind unweaken'd living to preserve ;

Why manhood thus impeach that would not swerve

From sacred lines a hundred ages trace ?

Can filial revereVice a loj'al child disgrace?

Lou's i^rophet joins the teacher of Iran,

The Orient's wisest who gave light to man ;

The dreamer of Nirvana, and the mage

Of Egypt's wisdom, how far from the sage

Of Greece, and Rome, and Bethlehem are they.

Who of good powers and of evil say,

Alternate ruling as frail mortals prove,

Or hateful demons or high priests of love ?

The faith of love, what else proclaimed he,

Your worshiped master, what our prophecy ?

In sight of him, his symbols within ken.

Who dreamt of peace and good-will to all men ;

Without a verse of Scripture, old or new.

Without a cause, an accusation true.

Without a tear of human misericord,

They burn, O queen, the image of the Lord!

A myriad tortured, burned on the stake.

Who would, impious, not with sires break,

From Sinai bearing, in Jehovah's Name,

247

The grandest message mankind to reclaim !

Sweet charit}^ may justice help to stay

The cruel rod that wounds, too weak to slay,

A people's honor tested by the tears

And death-defiance of three thousand years.

With the universahzation of Judaism by Hebrew Prophecy
and Jewish philosophy, the question is no more, Who is the
Jew? but Who and why is man? What a question! How
grave, how absorbing, how worthy of the purest, the liighest,
and the deepest thought ! Who is man ? A mystery ! You
see before you a being whose beginning and whose end are
hidden in impenetrable darkness ; and what a being he ! — free,
noble, great, majestic, perfect in form, divine in appearance,
unfathomable in quality, with inexpressible wonders written
in his mien, radiating from the gulfs of the eye; dwelling
among the stars, a riddle to himself yet conscious of divinity.
Who is man ? Scripture tells, he was the last work of crea-
tion, the only one into whom God has breathed His Breath,
thus immortal. Similar are the conclusions of science, which
likewise recognizes in him the master-work of the Divine
Author, the highest being known to biology, but one whose
construction, bodily and mental, is as mysterious as the frame
and the Spirit of the star-built universe. As old and thorough
as the science of anatomy claims to be, she is amazed at the
inextricably entangled piece of divine mechanism called the
human body. Anatomy dissects the frame of man, examines
its largest and minutest parts, muscles, arteries, tissues, nerves,
blood, brain ; she counts the joints of the skeleton, analyzes,
microscope in hand, every atom of solid and fluid matter ac-
cessible to her gaze, and, when all is done, she stands baffled,
admitting her very limited comprehension of those phenomena
of life which she is most anxious to know. " So it is," no
more, not How ? nor Why ? The heart, an inscrutable won-
der, drives the life fluid through the mazes of the body, feed-
ing, like a mystic stream, the remotest and tiniest channels
thereof. Our nervous system, like a net of gauze, covers
every inch of the human form, the most perfect telegraph
conceivable, giving warning of the least touch the province it

248

covers may experience. Ask the anatomist where it begins
and where it ends. " I do not know," is his answer. He as-
sures you, however, that brain is a kind of gray matter, densely
interwoven with an extremely fine and delicate tissue, affirm-
ing it without liesitation to be the seat of mental consciousness
and intellectual energy, as well as the central oi'gan of several
other functions, meeting all sensory appeals of the complex
human organism. This is all science knows of that central
seat of intellect, sensation, and perception. Yet, brain alone
turned this wild planet into an Eden, and rules over it with
the thunder and lightning of Olympian supremacy. So little
does science know of the visible man.

But there is the invisible man, who is the Godlike being in
the truest sense. It is the moral, intellectual, and the spiritual
man of whom we must take cognizance, since it is the incor-
poreal in the universe, as well as in humanity, which con-
cerns us most, those undefined qualities which, in transcen-
dental excellence, are the attributes of The Supreme, and, in
an infinitely lesser and baser degree, make up that supernal
power called the image of God, or the soul. Psychology is
the science devoted to a study of those qualities in man to
which we can no more than refer in j)assing. Our mind has
the faculty of conceiving, perceiving, and retaining things for
an indefinite time in the magic chambers of memory. Things
seen in earliest infancy — creatures, cities, rivers, landscapes,
oceans, the stars in the vast firmament — are faithfully photo-
graphed and vividly retained in the boundless galleries of the
mind. Memory is vaster and deeper than all the oceans com-
bined, for it can receive, retain, and reflect more than all the
deeps on earth, and is only excelled by the seraphic virtue
called imagination. Memory is the storeliouse of all those
things we have oui'selves seen ; imagination enables us to see
tilings others have seen, or to conceive things no soul has ever
seen. We hear the explorer of the North Pole tell of the
regions he has dwelt in ; our imagination takes hold of the
given picture, and there it is. The prophet tells of a celestial
vision he had at night ; imagination receives his impression
and retains it for aye. The poet soars on imagination's airy

249

wing to unmeasured heights, to unfathomed deeps; we follow
him, carried aloft by the like faculty, no barrier, no distance
being able to check its sweeping flight. Wedded to thought,
memory and imagination lift humanity to a degree in the scale
of being beyond which demi-gods may scarcely rise. Thought
is, however, the pillar of light by which humanity will be led
to salvation. The thinking man is the freest, happiest, and
mightiest of mortals. Barbarism, infidelity, irreverence, vice,
and sensuality are the absence of noble thought. Thought is
the power of powers, the gateway to truth and glory ; thought
is an attribute of God Himself, an offspring of Eternal Wis-
dom.

This is the reason why Jewish philosophy sees in Wisdom
the supremest emanation from the Unsearchable God ; the
effluence which antedates primordial matter ; the fiat which
made infinity teem with solar systems. The contemplation of
that Supreme Wisdom flowing from the Supremest God is the
object of spiritual Judaism, an object not to be attained with-
out perfect freedom of thought. God's Wisdom was the dream
and reality of the ancient Hebrew ; it was the vision and
inspiration of the prophetic Israelite ; and is the sacred med-
itation of the modern philosophic Jew. Not to think im-
plies for the Jew a break in the chain that links him to his
Maker ; to think means to the orthodox Christian to. endanger
the only pillar of the Church, which is blind faith. Obedience !
cries the Church. Principle ! answers the Synagogue. Israel's
time-hallowed and God-sanctioned privilege is the use of his
reason and the belief in his free intuition. " Thou shall knoio "
is the leading injunction in our Law. First knowledge, then
faith; for "the ignorant" we have seen " caimot be truly
religious." Therefore, the Jewish thirst for knowledge, the
Jewish longing for wisdom, which Holy Writ, tradition, and
philosophy combine in extolling above all things, " God
grants wisdom to none except the wise." ^^ Nor is Divine
inspiration — the Shekinah — accessible to any but the most en-
lightened. Wisdom is put above prophecy. At the bottom

.nnon n t?'ty "oh xSx noDn jnu ri'-z^ pK"

250

of true prophecy there is, in fact, more sound judgment, in-
siglit, and foresight, than divination or supernatural inspira-
tion. The prophet was a wise, inspired Israelite who, having
carefully surveyed present conditions, did not hesitate to fore-
tell what was most likely to follow. Transported witli the
glow of spiritual realities, the ardor of a soul-thrilling rever-
ence, the Hebrew seer, awake or asleep, saw God everywhere,
and his poetically-robed visions assumed the glorious, transcen-
dental expression of what is denominated the " Divine afflatus."
His dreams were to him realities ; his realities came in the
dreamy sights of an etherealized wisdom. The prophet was a
thinker of ideal and spiritual dreams, a progressive man, who
studied the signs of the times and the needs of the age un-
bound by any set dogma save those ethical precepts which are
indissolubly wedded to pure Monotheism. A dogmatic the-
ology could thus never take root in Israel, since such a system
necessarily precludes free thought and progress, doubt and
search for truth, which, with God as the Heality of realities,
are the secret of Israel's vitality.

Our " Dreams and Realities " would close here had we not,
as a tribute to candor, to put on record another kind of reality
which, melancholy as it appears, is by no means unprecedented
in the annals of the Lord's " firstborn." So gloomy, indeed,
seems at ^his hour the spiritual aspect and prospect of matters
Jewish that many a champion and well-wisher of our dearest
cause despairs of another rejuvenation. Liberty, it is said, had
accomplished what oppression tried in vain — it sensualized the
modern Jew. Whatever moves in the camp of Israel moves
not by a vital energy from within, but by tlie momentum im-
parted to it long ago from without. What but a decade ago
would have been condemned by any and every Jewish congre-
gation as a desecration of sacred ground, aye, as blasphemous
defiance hurled to the face of a glorious ancestry and the most
essential principles of the Divine Law, is now looked upon as
a matter of course, necessitated, it is maintained, by " the spirit
of the times ; " a pliable, elastic phrase just now stretched to its
uttermost. Every transgression is extenuated by the lame
apology that it was due to the spirit of the age. Applied to

251

social and political changes this phrase has some sense ; ap-
plied to matters moral and spiritual it is the sheerest nonsense.
The stealing of horses and the ill-treatment of parents could
as easily be justified by " the spirit of the times " as the break-
ing of the Sabbath, or the tliievish defalcations and failures,
all of which are equally forbidden by the Divine Law. The
times did never corrupt man ; it is man who ever corrupts the
times ; and the Jew has no more ground to make the times re-
sponsible for his religious laxity or infidelity than the drunk-
ard to make the liquor answer for his intoxication.

It were superfluous to repeat here what has been elsewhere
so thoroughly ventilated ; but the remark has to be made that
the lukewarmness, the indifferentism, and defiant attitude the
Synagogue has of late to encounter cannot truly be imputed to
superabundance of scholarship in the pulpit or to deep, intellect-
ual culture in the pew. Just the opposite of this view comes
nearest truth. Even a limited knowledge of Jewish philoso-
phy and the methods it adopts in interpreting Scriptures and
miracles would cause many of our young mock-rabbis — a set
of sensational Hotspurs — to stop the ludicrous spectacles of
passing from the " feast of fools " to the " feast of asses."
How ineflfably conceited and utterly unworthy of his sacred
calling that young rabbi must appear who scorns irreverently
what, centuries ago, men like Maimonides, Ibn Adereth, Saadia,
and Albo allegorized. Never was there denser ignorance pre-
vailing among certain groups of Jews on Jewish matters than
at this age, in this land ; and one can hardly wonder that in-
significant, aye, unprincipled, men, such as would but a few
decades ago not have dared to open their lips in face of a He-
brew scholar lest they be caused to blush with shame, are now
the popular idols of certain miscalled " reformed Jews."

Such excrescences spring not from a healthy system. The
products of the swamp betray the nature of the soil. For, in-
stead of seeking wisdom before the Ark of the Lord, a consid-
erable number of our degenerate brethren in this hemisphere
are thirsting for novelty and sensation. They want a religion
to suit " convenience," a lecturer who knows how to please,
and the rotten market is there to supply the demand. This is

252

a sorry reality we reluctantly notice. There is, however, the
consolation that such backslidings have always been endemic
and spasmodic, never epidemic and permanent, in the widely
scattered Jewish community. Dispersed among the nations, it
is the fate of Israel to be more or less aftected by every
change, progressive or retrogressive, healthy or otherwise, the
great world in its march towards the highest goal often under-
goes. But Israel's ailments are local and transitory. Mistak-
ing fire-flies for stars, and demons for seraphim, the Jew " time
and oft " strayed into quagmires, but, happily, as often retraced
his steps to healthier regions, resuming his innate moral and
spiritual vigor and elasticity ; undeceived, made wiser by loss,
better by trials, ideal by enlightenment, Jewish by faith and
reverence.

APPENDIX.

TALMUDIC MYTHOLOGY.

ALLEGORICAL TALES.

TALMUDIO MYTHOLOGY.

TO THE READER.

The following allegories, drawn from the Talmud, will
repay perusal, even in their prosaic garb, as they have been
■beautifully reproduced in the excellent but long-defunct He-
hreio Revieia. The attempt to improve them by rhythm and
rhyme did not appear successful enough to reward the work it
implies. Thus, having refashioned two of these charming
allegories, without apparently enhancing their intrinsic poeti-
cal beauty, we concluded to give them as we found them, but
slightly modified here and there.

These, together with the several Pharisaic allegories given
in the second and sixth chapters of this work, though culled
from a maze of allegorical beauties, will, it is thought, suffi-
ciently convince the reader that Judaism can boast of a my-
thology second to none and superior to all on record. They
are spiritual " Dreams and Realities " as deep, as clear, and as
mysterious as heaven's unfathomed blue, telling of the heart's
unappeased thirst, the soul's yearning after light, knowledge,
truth, God ; as old as man's deeper sorrow, and the obscurity
which darkens his sight.

Born a priest, a prophet, a poet, a thinker, and a worshiper
of the Most High, the responsive, true scion of Israel feels
too deep, and sees too far to exchange earthly tinsel for su-
pernal glories. Therefore his unequaled martyrdom of nine-
teen centuries, his readiness to wear the yellow badge of an
undeserved disgrace, to lay his head on the block, his body on
the burning pyre rather than forfeit his distinction, the lofty
station Providence assigned him in this world as the bearer
of Jehovah's banner, and the invincible champion of God's
Unity and man's universal brotherhood.

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MYTHS OF THE TALMUD.

THE SUN AND THE MOON.

" Two lights shall shine ! '' the fiat from on High,
Through darkness roars, "two lights shall grace the sky,
And grace the earth with radiance mild and bright ;
One orb the day shall rule, the other night ! "
Of light and flame a blaze the Orient wakes,
A sphere of splendor to the westward breaks.
Earth teems with life, joy ruleth far and wide.
The Sun as bridegroom shines, the Moon as bride ;
And nature's garb is leafage, herb, and flower,
Each mead an Eden seems, each grove a bower.
While gentle breezes fragrance spread abroad.
And myriad voices praise the gracious God.

II.

But as in glory robed the Sun doth rise.

His golden oceans flooding earth and skies,

The lesser orb, unable to control

The canker Envy, gnawing at her soul,

Loud sorrow utters with an envious breath,

And speaking thusly, withers pale as death :

" Or I or He should hold ethereal sway,

One might should rule ; who would two lords obey ?

Myself can brighten with my mellow beam

Yon globe beneath, illumine sea and stream.

Instead of blushing at his whelming might ;

The first not I within the realms of light."

III.

These words no sooner ether struck and air
Than paling deeper, fading in despair.
The Moon hung dark, her mellow lustre fled ;
Twelve myriad stars rose shining in her stead;

(257)

258

" Have mercy, Lord ! " she cried ; it was too late,

God's judging angel sped from heaven's gate,

And ligliting softly on tlie darkened moon,

Irrevocable judgment uttered soon.

" Unhappy star, so late with light aglow,

Now dark as night, in tears which welling flow ;

Hear, envious Moon, how great, how gracious He,

Who, punishing, doth temper His decree.

IV.

" Thyself lienceforward shalt for light depend
On yonder orb, that will his radiance send
To lighten thee with splendors dazzling far.
Through borrowed light thou shalt yet shine a star.
The queen of night, of peace, and balm of sleep
For such as toil and such as long and weep.
And such as love and such as hopes deceive
Beneath thy rule shall soothing dreams relieve.
God's mercy granted this. Who saw thy tears.
The Sun be king, thou queen, of all the spheres ;
Beware of Envy though, this temptress fell
Did mighty angels from the sky expel."

A silver sea, as off the angel fled.
The generous Sun upon the Moon did shed.
Who penitent and pale her course doth roll.
Since weeping nightly, though devoid of dole ;
Herself forgetting wlien she sees below
Man's mortal pains, his aggregate of woe.
She feels compassion and she mourns with him,
Poor child of dust, whose destiny is dim.
Thus, when the day descendeth in the west.
The Moon brings healing balsam for the breast.
And pain is drowned in the peace of rest.
Since what by day doth often hopeless seem,
Illusion grants it in the realms of dream.

259
MERCY'S CHILD.

"A glorious world, a star of light and shade,
A seat of joy, the last world We have made,"
The Lord exclaimed, " but not for beasts alone
Were gifts unnumbered thus bestowed upon
That master- work of Our inscrutable plan.
The world is there and now create We man."

" Create not man," a seraph bows in awe ;
He Justice mirrors, guardian of the Law ;
" Let him not be who will Thy Law disdain,
Will knowledge have and free-will all in vain ;
Will wrong the weak, oppress his helpless kin.
Through theft and treason will his triumphs win."

" Why man create," a meeker cherub spoke,
" Who war and hatred will beneath provoke,
Will rouse Thy wrath to drown him in a flood,
And stain that planet with his brother's blood ?
Create him not, who will his kindred bleed.
Create him not," the angel. Peace, did plead.

Then Truth majestic made thus her appeal :
" Foreknowledge tells me man will falsely deal
With me. Thy oldest daughter of the skies,
Will yield to falsehood, foster hateful lies ;
Make him not, Father ; hear my ardent plea,
Thou God of Truth, Who hates hypocrisy."

Angelic ministers, as Truth doth end.
Before the Lord in blazing legions bend ;
Then, as a mighty wave, do roar and rise,
While Eclio answers from the lofty skies :
" Create not man to live and die in pain.
Give him no star with ejuilt and blood to stain."

to'

Compassion breathing, weeping angel's tears,
The gentlest figure of the heavenly spheres,
Sweet Mercy, she the youngest child of God,
Craves leave to speak ; this granted by a nod.

260

Her words fall softly as the silver beam

The placid moon throws on the placid stream.

" Create him, Father ; let man rise to life;

Endow him richly for his destined strife ;

Of yonder orb make him sole ruling king ;

Let from his weakness strength and virtue spring ;

And should all guardian angels from him flee,

Myself, Thy Grace, will bear him company ;

" Will cleanse his heart, should him Temptation lure,
And have him share the sorrows of the poor,
Sustain the widow, dry the orphan's tear ;
And help the helpless all their burdens bear ;
Thus, chasten'd, rising by endeavors mild.
Thy image gracing, he sweet Mercy's child."

" Thy plea be granted," said the Lord of Grace ;

" It is ordained that the mortal race.

In spirit mighty, though in nature frail.

Against all evil shall in time prevail.

And, having earth, shall once the skies invade,

Since Mercy pleads for him — let man be made ! "

The angels hear it and submissive bow.
Celestial harmonies to earthward flow,
Delicious fragrance spreads throughout the skies,
Life's angel breathes and the oceans rise,
All nature quickens, yielding up her best
To make man rise, of earth the holiest.

THE INFANCY OF ABRAHAM.

Abraham was reared in a cavern, for the tyrant Nimrod,
forewarned by his astrologers that the infant son of Terah
would teach mankind to renounce tlie worship of idols, sought
to take his life. But in the darksome cave the light of God
illumined his youthful mind. He reflected, and asked him-
self, " Whence am I ? Who has created me ? "

261

He has reached the age of sixteen years, when he left his
dreary abode, and for the first time beheld the heavens and
their resplendent orbs, the earth and its fullness. How aston-
ished was he, and how rejoiced ! He interrogated all creation
around him : " Whence are ye ? Who has created you ? "

The sun arose in his glory. Abraham prostrated himself.
"This must be the Creator!" exclaimed he. "Great and
beauteous is his appearance ; his radiance dazzles my feeble
eye." The sun pursued his course, and set at eventide to make
room for the silvery moon ; and Abraham said to himself :
" The luminary which has set cannot be the God of heaven ;
it yields to yonder lesser light, and to the hosts of stars by
which it is attended." But clouds overspread the sky, and
moon and stars were soon hidden from his sight, and Abraham
stood alone in the midst of his meditation.

He went to his father and asked : " Who is God, the Creator
of heaven and earth?", Terali showed him his idols. "I
will put their divinity to test," said he to himself, and, when
he was alone, he presented them with the choicest viands, ad-
dressed them, and said : " If ye are living Gods accept my
offering, that I may worship you." But immovable stood the
idols ; no ear had they for his invocation. " And these," ex-
claimed the youth, " my father considers his Gods. But
perhaps I may show him he is in error." He took a staff and
shivered the idols into fragments, except one within whose
bended arm he placed his staff. He then hurried to his father,
and said : " Father, thy great god has slain his lesser brethren."

But Terah looked at him in anger and said : " Mock me not,
boy ! How can he do what thou hast said, since my own hand
fashioned him, who is inanimate 'i " And Abraham replied :
" Be not angry, O my father, but let thine ear hear and thy
reason weigh what thine own mouth has uttered. If thou
deemest him incapable of a feat which my boyish hand was
capable of performing, how can he be the God Whose power
created thee and me, heaven, and earth ? "

Terah stood silent before the reproof of his son ; but the
fame of Abraham and the audacity of his deed soon reached
the ear of the tyrant ISimrod, who summoned the youth before

2G2

bini, and thus sternly spoke : " My god thou must serve, or
the burning furnace awaits thee ! "

" And who, O king, is thy god ? " inquired the undaunted
Abraham.

" The fire is my god, the mightiest of all beings," answered
the king,

" Fire," replied the youth, " is quenched by Water : Water is
borne by the clouds : The clouds are scattered by the wind, but
man defies the pelting of the storm and the blast of the wind :
Thus man is the mightiest of beings."

" And I am the mightiest of men," said the king ; " adore
me, then, or the fiery, burning furnace awaits thee."

But Abraham fixed his illumined eye on the king, and said:
" Yesterday at morn I beheld the sun arise, and I saw him set
in the evening. Command now, O king, that the sun arise at
eventide and set in the morning, then will I worship thee."

The king deigned no further reply, but, at a sign from him,
the youth was led off and hurled into the midst of the fiery
furnace. But the rage of the fire harmed not the dauntless
martyr. An angel of the Lord received him in his arms, and
fanned the fiames away from him. They refreshed him like
the fragrance of roses. Beauteous and radiant the youth went
forth from the furnace, and soon God appeared to him and or-
dered him to forsake Chaldea for the land He would show him.

So did Abraham become the founder of the true worship of
the Only God, Who created heaven and earth, for all the human
beings who inhabit the terrestrial globe.

THE POWER OF TEARS.

For three days Isaac was dead in the heart of Abraham, for
God had chosen him as a burnt-offering, and the father refused
not obedience. Silently Abraham ascended the steep height
of Moriah, lost in painful reflection, when the friendly voice
of his child aroused him. "Behold, my father, we have fire
and wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt-offering ? "
And Abraham replied : " My son, God will provide Himself a
lamb for a burnt-offering."

263

Onward tliej wound their way in silence, and they came to
the place of which God had told Abraham. Here he built an
altar, laid the wood in order, bound Isaac, his son, and laid
him on the altar upon the wood.

And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife
to slay his son, and he cast one look of anguish up to heaven,
for the boy lay mute upon the altar. He neither complained
nor remonstrated, but he silently turned his streaming eyes to
heaven. The silent tear that glistened in the eyes of both
moved the sky ; its mute appeal ascended to the heavens and
pleaded before the mercy-seat of Him before Whom silence is
equal to eloquence.

And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven
and said, " Abraham, Abraham ! " " Here I am ! " replied the
patriarch. " Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou
anything unto him." Joyfully the father received the destined
victim, the son who was restored unto him, and he called the
scene of his anguish and joy, " The Lord seeth." He sees the
silent tear in the eye of the sufferer. He sees the mute an-
guish of the heart, which implores more fervently than the
loudest appeal. * * -^

Threefold are the prayers of man to God, and their efficacy
is also ascending in its degrees. The quiet petition of the
heart is acceptable to the All-Merciful. He hears and gra-
ciously receives it from the moving lip. The loud cry of dis-
tress in tlie hour of need pierces the sky, and heaps burning
coal on the head of the oppressor. But more mighty than
these is the mute prayer of the sufferer, who steadfastly cleaves
to his God, even in the hour of death. It forces the gates of
heaven, breaks locks and bolts, appears before the throne of
Mercy, and calls down the look of Him Who ever " seeth."

THE DEATH OF MOSES.

When Moses, the faithful messenger of God, was to die, and
his hour approached, the Lord assembled His angels and said :
" It is time to recall the soul of my servant ; who among you
will go and summon her to come into My Presence?" At

264

this the princes of the angelic hosts, Michael and Gabriel, with
all who stand before the throne of the Lord, imploring, said:
" We are his ; he has been our teacher ; thus let not us sum-
mon the soul of this man." But Samael, the leader of the
rebellious angels, stood forth and said, " Behold ! here I am ;
send me." And he went.

Arrayed in wrath and cruelty he descended, wielding the
flaming sword in the right hand. He rejoiced beforehand at
the agony, the death-throe of the righteous. But when he
came nearer Moses, he found that his eyes ivere not dim, nor
his natural force abated. The servant of the Lord wrote the
words of his last song and the Sacred Name. His counte-
nance was resplendent, radiant with the peace and brightness
of heaven. Samael stood abashed ; his sword dropped out of
his hand, and he hurried away. " I cannot bring the soul of
this man," he said to the Lord; "for in him I have found
nothing impure."

And the Lord descended to summon the soul of His faith-
ful and beloved servant. Michael and Gabriel and all the
attending angels followed in His train. They prepared the
bier of Moses and surrounded it, and a voice was heard:
" Fear not ; I Myself will bury tliee."

Then Moses prepared himself to die, and sanctified himself
even as one of the seraphim. And the Lord called unto his
soul and said : " My daugliter ! one hundred and twenty years is
the term allotted for thy inhabiting my servant's earthly tene-
ment. The time is expired ; then come forth and tarry not."

And the soul of Moses answered, saying : " O Lord of the
universe ! 1 know that Thou art God, the sovereign Ruler of
all spirits and of all souls, and that the living and tlie dead are
alike in Thy hands. From Thee I received Thy glorious Law ;
I saw Thee in flame ; I ascended and went along the pathway
toward heaven ; girt with Thy Power, I entered the palace of
Egypt's king, I took the crown from off the head of the
proud Pharaoh, and did manifold signs and wonders in his
land. I led forth Thy people and parted the sea, and have
made known Thy Will unto tlie sons of man. I dwelt be-
neath the throne of Thy Glory ; my hut was under the pillar

. 265

of light, and I have spoken with Thee face to face, as a man
speaketh to his friend. And is not all this enough for me ?
Receive me, therefore, for now I come to Thee."

The Breath of the Most High touched the lips of Moses,
whose soul departed in the touch. So did Moses die at the
mouth of God, who Himself buried him ; and no man know-
eth of his sepulchre unto this day.

THE SONGS OF NIGHT.

As David, in his youthful days, was tending his flocks on
Bethlehem's plains, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and
his senses were opened and his understanding enlightened,'
that he might comprehend the songs of the night. The
heavens proclaimed the Glory of God ; the glittering stars all
formed one chorus ; their harmonious melody resounded on
earth, and the sweet fullness of their voices vibrated to its
uttermost bounds.

" Light is the countenance of the Eternal," sang the setting
sun. " I am the hem of His garment," responded the rosy
tint of twilight. The clouds gathered and said : " We are His
nocturnal pavilion;" and the waters in the clouds, and the
hollow voice of the thunders joined in the lofty chorus : " The
Voice of the Eternal is upon the waters, the God of Glory
thundereth ; the Lord upon the waters." — " He doth fly upon
my wings," whispered the gliding wind; and the silent air
replied: "I am the Breath of God — the aspiration of His
benign Presence."

"We hear the songs of praise," said the parched earth;
" all around is praise ; I alone am silent and mute ! " And the
falling dew replied : " I will nourish thee, so that thou shalt
be refreshed and rejoiced, and thy infants shall blossom like
the young rose."

" Joyfully we bloom," echoed the refreshed meadows. The
full ears of corn waved as they sung : " We are the blessing of
God, the hosts against famine." — " We bless you from above,"

266

said the moon ; " we bless you," responded the stars ; and the
grasshopper chirped: "Me too He blesses in the pearly dew-
drops." — " He quenched my thirst," said the roe ; " and re-
freshed me," continued the stag ; " and grants us our food,"
said the beasts of the forest ; " and clothes my lambs," grate-
fully sang the sheep.

" He heard me," croaked the raven, " when I was forsaken
and alone ; " — " He heard me," said the wild goat of the rocks,"
when my time came and I calved." And the turtle-dove
cooed, and the swallow and all the birds joined their song :
" We have found our nests, our houses ; we dwell on the altar
of the Lord, sleep under the shadow of His wing in tran-
quillity and peace."

"And peace," replied the night, and Echo prolonged the
sound, when chanticleer awoke the dawn and crowed : " Open
the portals, the gates of the world ! The King of Glory is
coming ! Awake ! arise ! ye sons of men, give praises and
thanks to the Lord ; for the King of Glory is coming ! "
*******

The sun rose and David awoke from his melodious rapture.
But as long as he lived the strains of creation's harmony re-
mained in his soul, and daily they sounded from the strings of
his harp.

THE DAWN.

Hast thou seen the glorious dawn, the beauteous harbinger
of day ? Its brilliancy proceeds from the apartment of God ;
a ray of the Imperishable Light that brings consolation to
mankind.

*******

As David, pursued by his foes, passed a dreadful night of
agony in a dismal cleft of Hermon's rock, he sung the most
pathetic of his Psalms: "Lions and tigers roar around me ;
the assembly of the wicked have encompassed me and no help
is near." When behold the dawn broke. With sparkling eyes
the roe of morning sprang forth, moved over hills and plains.

267

and, like a messenger of the Deity, addressed the fugitive on
the sterile rock : " Wliy dost thou complain that no help is
near ? I emerge from the darkness of night, and its terrors
yield and vanish before the genial ray of the cheerful East."

His eye continued fixed on the purple hue of the dawn, and
he felt consoled. He saw it rise, followed by the sun in all his
effulgence, pouring blessings and happiness over the earth.
Confidence and hope once more entered his soul ; his plaintive
lament became a hymn of joy ; he called it " the roe of the
morning, the song of the rosy dawn." -inBTi nS'K Often, in
after-times, he repeated this Psalm, to thank his God for those
perils of his (;arly years which he had overcome, and, amid
the sorrows of his later years, that Psalm ever cheered his
desponding soul.

*******

Daughter of thy Creator, holy dawn, thou who every morn-
ing dost look down and rejuvenate heaven and earth, look on
me, too, and renew my heart, that it may be pure, an altar
devoted to thy Maker.

THE EOTAL SINGER.

The royal singer had sung one of his most beautiful Psalms
to the glory and praise of Him Who had been his help in every
need. The last notes still vibrated on the strings of his harp
when Satan stood beside him and tempted the singer's heart to
be proud of his song. " Among all Thy creatures," he ex-
claimed, "hast Thou, O Lord, one who praises Thee more
melodiously than I do ? "

Through the open window, before which he had spread his
hands in prayer, a grasshopper flew into the king's room, and
seated itself on the hem of his robe. She began her clear
matin-song ; a number of grasshoppers assembled around her.
A nightingale came and soon many more followed, singing in
chorus the praises of God.

The ear of the king was opened ; he heard the concert of
all animated nature : the splashing of the brook, the rustling

268

of the woods, the voice of the morning star, and the enraptur-
ing song of the rising sun.

Lost in the harmony of the voices which unceasingly and
unweariedly sung, the king remained silent. He thought his
song excelled even by the grasshoppers which still chirped on
the hem of his robe. Humility again entered his soul. He
seized his harp, and gave vent to his feelings as the musical
strings resounded with his enthusiasm : " Praise ye the
Lord," he sung, " all His creatures ; praise thou, likewise, the
Lord, my inmost heart ! my soul, join humbly in His praise."

THE YOUTHFUL SOLOMON.

A beneficent monarch once spoke to his favorite and said :
"Ask a boon of me and it shall be granted to thee." And the
youthful favorite said within himself : " What shall I demand
that I may not hereafter repent of my request ? Honor and
distinction I do already possess ; gold and silver are the mean-
est, as they are the most faithless, gifts of fortune ; these are
not worthy of being demanded. No ; I will pray that the
king's daughter be granted me, for she loves me as I love her,
and in her I receive perfect liappiness. This request will also
secure to me the affection of my illustrious benefactor, who
thus becomes my father." The favorite uttered his request
and it was granted. * * *

When the Lord first appeared to the youthful Solomon in a
vision of the night, He said unto him : "Ask what I shall give
thee." And behold the youth prayed not for gold or silver,
for honor, fame, or long life. His prayer was : " Grant me
wisdom ; " and with her, the daughter of the Most High, he
received every felicity for which he could have prayed.

To her he dedicated his most beautiful songs ; her he rec-
ommended to the sons of men as the only true source of hap-
2)iness. As long as he continued faithful to her he rejoiced in
the blessings of God, in the love and admiration of men. And
it is only through her that his fame survives and has been pre-
served from oljlivion.

269

THE AGED SOLOMON.

Luxury, riches, and ambition perverted the ripened man-
hood of Solomon. He forgot Wisdom, the pride of his youth,
and his heart was involved and weakened in the vortex of
frivolous dissipation and wicked folly. Once, as he was walk-
ing in his splendid gardens, he heard the conversation of the
manifold creatures around him ; for he understood the lan-
guage of beast and of bird, of tree, stone, and shrub. He
turned his ear and he listened.

" Behold," said the lily, " there goes the king ; he passes
me in his pride, whilst I, in my humility, am robed more
splendid than he."

And the palm-tree waved its boughs, and said : " There he
goes, the oppressor of his country ; and yet his vile flatterers
in their fulsome songs presume to compare him to me. But
where are his boughs ? where the fruit with which he glad-
dens the hearts of men ? "

And the turtle-dove cooed to her mate : " Not one of his
thousand wives would grieve for his loss as I would for thine,
my only beloved." And as he went on he heard the nightin-
gale sing to her beloved : "As we love each other Solomon
loveth not. O, not one of his sultanas holds him as dear as I
do thee, my dearest."

The angry monarch hastened his pace, and he came to the
nest where the stork was teaching her young to launch forth
on their adventurous flight. " What I do for you," said the
stork to its brood, "King Solomon does not do for his son
Rehoboam. He does not teach and exhort him ; therefore will
the young, prince not thrive. Strangers will lord over his
father's domain."

The king withdrew to his secret closet. Musing, he sat
there in silent grief. As he sat there, sunk in painful reflec-
tion, the bride of his youthful years, AVisdom, stood before
him and touched his eyelids. He fell into a deep sleep and
had a melancholy vision. He saw the deputation of the
tribes as they stood before his haughty son. He saw his em-
pire divided through the silly answer of his foolish boy. He

270

saw ten of the tribes he had oppressed rebel, and place a
stranger on their throne. He saw his palaces in ruins ; his
gardens rooted np ; the city destroyed ; the Temple of the
Lord in ashes. Suddenly he awoke from his sleep, and terror
seized on his troubled mind.

When lo ! once more the bride of his youth, the guardian
of his early career, stood visibly before him. Tears flowed
from her eyes. She spoke : " Thou hast seen what hereafter
will happen. Thou alone art the original cause of all these
calamities. But it is not in thy power to recall or alter the
past. Thou canst as little bid the years of thy youth return,
as make the river flow back to its springs. Thy soul is wear-
ied, thy heart is exhausted, and I, the forsaken of thy youth,
can no more be thy companion in the land of terrestial life."

With pity in her look she vanished, and Solomon, who had
crowned his youthful days with roses, wrote in his old age a
book on the vanity of all human affairs on earth.

ELIJAH.

Elijah was of a fiery spirit, and with a spirit of fire he per-
formed his prophetic office. He called flames down from
heaven, and he consumed his own life in his zeal. Weary and
exhausted, he withdrew from the haunts of men. In the
dreary desert he threw himself under a juniper-tree and
sighed : " It is enough. Now, O Lord, take my soul unto
Thee." And an angel of the Lord braced and strengthened
him, and he reached the mountain of Lloreb, where the Lord
removed the burden of his prophetic calling from his shoid-
ders, and directed him to anoint another in his stead. And
when, with the anointed Elislia, Elijah came to the river Jordan
a fiery chariot and fiery horses appeared. The two companions
were separated, and Elijah ascended to the throne.

The first who appeared to him in the regions of bliss was
Moses, his prototype. He reached Elijah his right hand
through the purified flames of the fiery chariot, and said to
him : " Thou hast been zealous, my brother ; thy zeal has been

271

ardent, and thou hast suffered much from thy brethren. I
have suffered likewise ; still I prayed for their preservation,
and offei'ed my soul as a ransom for theirs. Nevertheless, ap-
proach the throne of the Judge, the AU-Merciful,"

With trembling steps Elijah advanced toward the Glory of
the tlirone. " What doest thou here, Elijah ? " demanded a
voice from out of the throne. He answered : " I have been
very zealous for the Lord Zebaoth : for Israel has forsaken Tiiy
covenant, thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets
with the sword. I only was left, and they souglit my life, to
take it away."

And a fire went forth from the Glory of tlie throne, but the
Lord was not in the fire. And a wind went forth from the
throne, strong and irresistible ; it rent the mountains, and
broke in pieces the rocks ; but the Lord was not in the wind.

The wind and the fire had passed, when a still small voice
was heard. A sensation never before experienced penetrated
the prophet, and the flame of his spirit became chastened like
the radiance of dawn.

" Rest thou here, Elijah ; " said tlie Voice. " Repose and
gain new vigor after thy toils ; for the Lord is merciful and
benevolent. Thou shalt often again descend to the sons of
men ; thou shalt teach but with mild kindness ; thou shalt con-
sole and aid them with thy love ; nor longer punish them in
thy zeal ; for the Lord is gracious."

And often since has Elijah visited mankind, but in a differ-
ent spirit from that which animated him during his earthly
sojourn. What before was ardent jealousy is now loving be-
nignity ; what was fiery zeal is now mildness and benevolence
Invisibly, or in an assumed shape, he guides the conversation
of those who seek true wisdom, and unites their souls. He it
is wlio turns the hearts of the fathers to their children, and
the hearts of the children to their parents. Harbinger of
good, he aids the righteous in the hour of danger, and is ever
present to solace and strengthen those who pray. His office it
is to proclaim to mankind the coming of the great and dread-
ful day of the Lord.

979

SAMAEL.

When the Lord first made man out of the dust, and had
crowned the perishable frame with the diadem of His likeness,
He presented His latest creation to the angelic hosts of heaven.
Joyfully the angels saluted their younger brother ; cheerfully
they attended his bridal feast celebrated in Paradise. One
only of them scorned the earth-born creature. " Am I not
formed out of light ? " he exclaimed, " while thou art but dust
of the earth ? Tlie fiery stream which flows from the Throne
of Glory forms my essence, while the frail, perishable mould is
thy substance."

And behold ! the stream of light departed from him ! As

melts the snow, the glorious raiment which ornamented him

with its radiance vanished, the proudest of spirits became the

meanest, stripped of that power which was not his own. * * *

Inflamed with rage, he withdrew from the celestial hosts,

and vowed vengeance against man, the innocent cause of his

fall. " I have become unhappy through you," he exclaimed,

" and you shall become unhappy through me ! " He had heard

the Divine decree which prohibited Adam from eating the

pernicious fruit of the tree of knowledge. He collected the

iA(rt ^^ ^^st ^'^y^ of his withered radiance and tried to seduce them in

«-^ ^A the guise of an angel of light. But the snow^ melted, out of

'^■^■<64^ I which he strove to form his garment, and, when he trod the

path of the seducer, he appeared in the semblance of the

serpent. Nothing remained of the shining seraph who hid

himself beneath the glossy colors of the glittering snake.

Eve saw and admired him. She soon was seduced. She ate
death, and reached to her husband the fruit of death. Sorrow
and misery sprang from their deed, an inheritance to their
latest descendants.

The Creator appeared. He judged the seduced with mercy,
but vigorously He punished the seducing serpent. Accursed, it
became a loathsome and detested reptile, crawling on earth.
" Because it has been thy delight," He spoke to Samael, " to
make others unhappy, let joy at the grief and misery of others
be henceforth thy unhallowed portion." — Exiled from the liosts

273

of the blessed, denied all participation in their blissful pursuits
which once he shared with them, Samael roams accursed, the
executioner of his own fearful punishment — the angel of

DEATH.

THE CONFORMATION OF MAN.

The Creator descended ; all the angels, the princes, and the
elements beheld and contemplated his work. He called to the
dust, and it gathered itself from all the quarters of tlie terres-
trial globe. And the angel of earth said : " This frame will
be a mortal creature wheresoever it dwells upon earth, for it is
dust, and must return unto dust." He called on the heavenly
cloud to moisten the dust. Soon the clay began to heave and
shape itself into vessels and compartments. And the angel
of the waters exclaimed : " Thou wilt require nourishment,
thou curiously-constructed creature ! Hunger and tliirst will
become inseparable from thy being." Inwardly the veins and
the cells began to be formed ; the several outward limbs as-
sumed their shape, and the angel of life said : " Thou wilt be
subject to many desires, beautiful woi-k of creation ! Love of
thy species will attract and impel thee."

The Creator approached with His daughters Wisdom and
Love. With paternal tenderness He raised the inanimate clay,
and breathed into it life and immortality. Man stood erect ; de-
lighted lie looked around. " Behold," said the voice of the
Most High, " all the growth of the meadows and trees, all
the animals that dwell upon earth, I have given to thee. Thy
fatlierland, the earth, is thine, and thou shall rule it. But thou
thyself art Mine : thy breath is My gift, and when thy time
Cometh I summon it unto Myself."

Wisdom and Love, the offsprings of God, stayed with the
new lord of the earth, instructing him to know animate and
inanimate creation. They conversed w^ith him as loving
friends, and their light remained with innocent man. * * *

Man lives his allotted time on earth. Happy if Wisdom
and love deign to cheer him with their inestimable gifts !

274

But when his allotted time expires, liis body returns to mix
with tlie elements whence it was taken, but the spirit returns
again to God, by Whose paternal embrace it was breathed
into him.

THE TEEES OF PAEADISE.

When the Deity led man into his paradise, all the trees of
the Gai'den of Eden saluted the favored of the Lord. With
waving branches they offered him their fruits for his food, the
fragrant shade of their boughs for his refreshment. " O that
he would prefer me ! " said the palm-tree. " I will feed him
with my golden dates, and the wine of my juice shall be his
beverage. My leaves should form his tranquil bower, and my
branches spread their shadow above him." — " I will shower
my odoriferous blossoms upon thee," urged the apple-tree,
" and my choicest fruits shall be thy nourishment."

Thus all the trees of Eden greeted their new-created lord, and
the Supreme Benefactor permitted him to enjoy their rich offer-
ings. Of all He gave him liberty to partake. One fruit only
he was forbidden to taste — the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

" A tree of knowledge ! " said man within himself. "All
other trees yield me but terrestrial, corporeal nourishment ; but
this tree, which would elevate my spirit and strengthen the
powers of my mind, this tree alone I am forbidden to enjoy."
Yet he silenced the voice of desire, and suppressed the rebel-
lious thoughts which arose in his bosom. But when the voice
of temptation assailed him, he tasted the pernicious fruit, the
juice of which still ferments in our heart. "^' "' *

" Hard is the prohibition laid upon man," said the angel of
heaven; "for what can be more temptnig to a being who is
gifted with reason than the acquisition of knowledge ''( And
shall he, who will soon transgress the connnand, therefore be
punished with death ? "

" Wait and behold his punishment," replied the dulcet voice
of celestial Love. " Even on the path of his errors, amidst
the pangs of repentance, ?nd the stings of remorse — even
there will I be his guide, and conduct him to another tree
which grows in the heavenly home."

275

LILITH AND EVE.

Solitary and silent, Adam traversed his paradise. He had
tended the trees, had given names to the animals, rejoiced in the
rich fullness of blessings wliich creation everywhere unfolded ;
but amidst all animate beings he could iind none to share with
him the wislies of his heart. At last his eye remained fixed on
one of those beauteous creatures of air, which, as tradition in-
forms us, inhabited the earth before man was called into being,
and which his clearer sight could then still distinguish. Lilith
was the name of this beautiful being, who, like her sisters, dwelt
on trees and flowers, and fed only on the most aromatic fra-
grance. "AH creatures," said Adam to himself, " live in social
community with each other, I only stand alone ! O that this
beautiful creature might become my companion ! "

The Eternal heard his wish and said : " Thou hast cast thine
eye on a form which is not destined for thee ; yet, in order
to instruct thee by correcting thine error, thy wish shall be
granted." The command of transformation was given and
Lilith assumed human limbs. Joyfully Adam hastened toward
her, but soon he discovered his error. The charming Lilith
was proud, and disdainfully withdrew from his embrace. "Am
I of the same origin as thou art ? " she haughtily exclaimed. " I
am formed out of the pure air of heaven, not from the lowly
dust of the earth. My life lasts tliousands of years. The
might of spirit is my strength, and fragrant odors my celestial
sustenance. I mhII not join thee to increase thy lowly, dust-
begotten race." She flew away and would not return to him.
And the Creator said : " It is not well that man should be
alone. I will give him a mate who shall be proper for him." —
A deep sleep settled on Adam's limbs, and a prophetic vision
showed him the new creation. It arose from out of his side,
formed of the same essence as he was. Joyfully he awoke
and beheld his second self. And, when the beneficent Creator
led the lovely being to him, his heart heaved and yearned
towards her, for her essence had been near to his heart. " Thou
art mine," he i-apturously exclaimed. " Thou shalt be called
woman, for thou art taken from man." * * *

276

When the Lord loves a man, He gives him the mate who is
his, formed for him out of his own heart, and she becomes his
wife. Sensible that they were created for each other, they
become one in daily-renewed contentment, and the happiness
of sympathetic union. But he who desires the possession of
outward charms only, and longs for a being that appertains
not to him, is punished by wedding a mate who is not his, nor
formed out of his own heart. Thus the two souls forced into
one by a compulsive union, and soon sensible that they were
not created for each other, indulge in nmtual hatred, and tor-
ment one another till sej)arated by death.

THE VINE.

On the day of their creation the trees rejoiced, each exult-
ingly praising its own good qualities. " The Lord hath planted
me," said the majestic cedar ; " firmness and fragrance, dura-
bility and strength are united in me." — " The mercy of the
Lord hath planted me as a blessing," replied the umbrageous
}>alm-tree. " In me beauty and utility are combined." — The
apple-tree said : " I stand glorious among the trees, like the
sun amid the heavenly hosts." And the myrtle remarked dis-
dainfully : " Like the rose among thorns I stand distinguished
am.ong my kindred, the underwood." All boasted — the fig-
tree of its fruit, the olive of its richness ; even the pine-tree
and tlie fir could rejoice and exult.

The vine alone remained drooping and silent. " To me," it
sadly cried, " everything seems denied ; stem nor branches,
blossom nor fruit, can I boast ; yet, such as I am, I will wait in
silent hope." It sank down, and its tendrils wept in silent sol-
itude.

Not long did it wait and weep, when, behold, the new-
created sovereign of earth, kind-hearted man, approached. He
saw a feeble plant, the sport of the winds, sunk low, as if im-
ploring his aid. In pity he raised it, and wound the tendei-
tree round his arbor. The air joyfully saluted the glowing
vine, the heat of the sun peneti'ated its hard, green grains,

i i

and prepared that sweet juice, the most precious beverage of
mankind. Decked out in the fulhiess of its rich grapes, the
vine bent down to its preserver ; he tasted its refreshing juice,
and called the vine his friend. The proud trees envied the
feeble plant, for its fruit was more valued than theirs ; but it
rejoiced in its tender stem and the fulfillment of its hopes.
Therefore doth its juice still invigorate the human lieart ; it
cheers the desponding spirit, and imparts gladness to the
mourning mind. * * *

Ye who are suffering and abandoned, do not despair, but
persevere in patience and hope. There is an Eye above, which
beholds even you. The humblest plant yields the most de-
licious juice ; the feeble vine begets vigor and animation.

THE SHEPHERD IN A VISION.

In the silent midnight hour preceding the vernal festival on
which the first brothers were to bring their offerings of grati-
tude to the Creator, Eve, their mother, beheld in a dream a
wondrous vision. The white roses, which her younger son
had planted round his altar, changed their hue. They looked
more blood-red, more fully blown than any she had ever seen.
She tried to pluck them, but they withered at her touch. On
the altar lay a bleeding lamb. Plaintive voices rose around
her, and among them rang a shriek of piercing despair, till all
were lost, mingled in a heavenly harmony, the like of which
she had never heard before.

And a picturesque plain spread before her gaze, more beau-
tiful than even the paradise of her youth. On it a shepherd
in the shape and image of her son, arrayed in robes of daz-
zling w^iite, tended his flocks. The red roses made a garland
which entwined his brows, and in his hand he held a lute, from
which issued forth the symphony of heaven. His mild eye
beamed affectionately on her, but when she approached to take
liis hand he vanished, and with him the vision of the night.

The mother of mankind arose as the purple dawn bright-
ened the sky, and with a heavy heart she proceeded to the

278

festival. The brothers brought their sacrifice, and their parents
departed. Evening came, but her sons returned not. Their
anxious mother went forth to seek them. She found Abel's
flocks scattered and mournfully lowing. He himself lay life-
less at the foot of the altar. His blood dyed the roses he had
planted, while Cain's groans of anguish reached her ear from
a neighboring cavern.

Fainting, she sank on the corpse of her son, when again the
vision of her last dream rose before her. Abel was the shep-
herd whom she had seen in the magnificent fields of the new
paradise. The red roses were twined round his brows ; in his
hand he held a harp, and his soft accents fell soothingly on her
ear as he sang to her : " Look up to the heavens, to the stars
look up, all weeping as thou art, my mother. Behold yon
chariot bright, it leads to fields more blooming, to an Eden
more glorious than thou ever sawest in paradise ; where the
blood-stained rose of suffering innocence blooms in celestial
splendor, and its sighs are turned into tunes of rapture."

The vision vanished. With a strengthened mind and hope-
ful resignation. Eve rose from the lifeless body of her son.
The next morn his parents bedewed it with their hot tears,
wound it with the roses died in his life-blood, and buried him
at the foot of the altar he had raised to the Lord, in the pres-
ence of blushing dawn, which spread her Orient glories over
the Eastern skies.

Often they sat at his tomb in tlie silent hour of midnight,
their eyes turned to the starry firmament. There they sought
their beloved shepherd, there they hoped to meet him again.

THE DEATH OF ADAM.

Nine hundred and thirty years had passed from the moment
when the Breatli of the Creator gave life to the clay, when
Adam felt within him the sentence of the Supreme Judge:
" Thou shalt surely die." — " Let all my sons appear before me,
let them all come that I may see and bless them," said he to
weeping Eve. Many hundreds in number, his descendants

279

came, all standing around liini, praying and weeping for his
life. — " Who among you," said Adam, " will ascend the holy
mount ? Perhaps he may find mercy for me and bring me
the fruit of the tree of life." All his sons rose, each was
willing to go, but the father selected Seth, the most pious, to
be the messenger of imploring pity.

Robed in mourning, Seth hastened on and soon stood before
the gates of Eden, imploring : " Let him find mercy, All-
Merciful ; send my father the fruit of the tree of life." Sud-
denly a radiant cherub stood before him, in his hand a branch
with one solitary leaf, not the fruit of life. " Convey it to
thy father to cheer his parting hour," said he, " for eternal life
dwells not on earth. But haste on, for his hour is come."

Seth hurried to the death-bed of his father : " This branch
an angel sends to cheer thy parting hour ; it is not the fruit
from the tree of life." Adam took the branch and rejoiced,
inhaling the odor which invigorated his soul. " Everlasting
life we find not on earth, my children," said he ; "you all will
follow me, but in this leaf I breathe the air of another world
of immortality." AVith this his eyes closed and his spirit fled.
All the children wept, except Seth, who planted the branch at
the head of his father's tomb, and called it the branch of
renovated life, aivaking from death.

SOL:

AN EPIC POEM.
By Henry Iliowizi.

Minneapolis Journal : — Rabbi Iliowizi has given years to the composition of
this epic, which, in so far as it portrays the traditions, hopes, virtues, and aspira-
tions of his own people, has been to him a labor of love. As a poem it is rich in
incident and majestic in movement — a touching, beautiful story, admirably told,
abounding in passages of true poetic fervor and dramatic power. While con-
gratulating our townsman upon the unusual merit of his poem, we bespeak for it
a hearty welcome among our people. Its theme and treatment commend it alike
to Israelite and Christian. Loyalty to home talent should give this work a place
in every Minneapolis library.

St. Paul Pioneer- Press : —The author treats his subject with much poetic vigor.
Beautiful similes abound. Scenes are vividly set forth. Of course, in a work of
this kind, there must be a suggestion of the " Divine Comedy," but, nevertheless,
this poem is filled with fresh conceptions eloquently expressed. Perhaps Mr.
Iliowizi relied a little too much on the interest of the story for carrying the reader
through the monotony of rhyme. The tale is certainly thrilling enough to do this.

Chicago Jour7ial : — The reverend author of this epic claims for it an historic
ground. It is the story of a Hebrew maiden who suffered a martyr's death in
Morocco, about half a "century ago. Mr. Iliowizi's poem, which is the work of
years, will be read with interest and pleasure, not only by the people of his own
race, but by the Christian also.

The Jewish Messenger of New York : — These thrilling incidents have been skill-
fully seized upon by the author for his epic. Throughout the book the author
displays a force and eloquence which are promising for his future. His style is
often pithy and epigrammatic, and we feel confident that, with study and practice,
his literary gifts will give him a worthy place among the writers of the day.

The Occident of Chicago : — The author exhibits a dexterous pen in giving the
tragic end of Sol. The lines run smoothly, and much poetic fervor is lent to each
canto. Altogether, it presents a very interesting volume, which is neatly printed,
and, though not wholly free from typographical mistakes, will prove a welcome
adjunct to modern literature.

The Interior of Chicago : — " Sol," an Epic Poem, by Rev. Henry Iliowizi. —
This poem is appropriately dedicated to Sir Moses Montefiore, the venerable phi-
lanthropist, whose magnificent charities have made him known the world over.
It details with fitting accompaniments the sad story of the persecution and tragic
death of Sol, a Jewish maiden, who suffered martyrdom in Morocco. Becoming
acquainted, during a residence in Morocco, with the circumstances attending the
maiden's death, the author then resolved to make it an epic poem. He has
accomplished his self-imposed task, after years of assiduous labor, and he now
gives the work to the public with a hope that it may lead to a more favorable
appreciation of a race whose virtues, he thinks, are their own, while their short-
comings are the natural results of a long, dark, and painful history, for which he
holds the Gentile, and not the Jew, responsible. Let that pass. It is certain that
Rabbi Iliowizi has given us an epic marked by rare poetic ability — a grand poem
which, while felicitously and powerfully portraying the aspirations, the hopes,
the sufferings, and the traditions of his own people in connection with the sad end
of Sol, the heroic maiden, forcibly appeals to the warm sympathies and kindly
feelings of all Christian people. Gentiles and Jews will read this remarkable
epic with almost equal pleasure. All admirers of epic poetry will appreciate and
enjoy its majestic movement, its vivid descrijitions, and its glowing imagery. In
a second edition, which must soon be called for, the author promises a correction
of some typographical errors which appear in the first. He resides in Minne-
apolis, Minn.

PRICE, $1.00.

Address Henry Iliowizi,

1845 North Eighteenth Street, Philadelphia.

HEUOD:

AN HISTORIC TRAGEDY IN FIVE ACTS.
By Henry Iliowizi.

Minneapolis Tribune: — This theme, imbodying a long succession of criminal
intrigue, is well adapted to the method of treatment he has bestowed upon it,
and proves good material for a tragic play. It may be said of this tragedy, as of
Eabbi Iliowizi's earlier poem, " Sol," that it proves the author's possession of the
poetic spirit, and of the ability not only to conceive, but to materialize, dramatic
action.

Minneapolis Journal : — Artistically it leaves nothing to be desired, save a little
more nicety of phrase, which may be acquired by a study of the best English
models of our own day, rather than those of the times of Elizabeth and Queen
Anne, when the dramatist was allowed a license not at all permissible at present.
The principal personage of the drama is King Herod, whose crimes form one of
the darkest passages of history. The gory tragedy, full of treachery and murder,
moves inexorably to its final act, the beheading of Mariamne at the command of
Herod, who is led to this api^alling crime by jealousy. Finding his wife inno-
cent, he recalls his order for her execution, but too late. He then, in despair,
seeks to end his own life, but is jirevented by his brother Pheroras.

Jewish Messenger of New York : — Rev. H. Iliowizi has just jjublished in neat
pamphlet form an historic tragedy, " Herod," depicting scenes and characters
in that monarch's life. The execution of Queen Mariamne forms the climax.
The author has decided literary tastes, and his ambition in choosing to write a
tragedy in blank verse is not to be questioned. We discern fair progress in his
style. The movement is rapid throughout, and the author wields a strong and
picturesque pen.

The Occident : — A few weeks ago Rev. Henry Iliowizi, of Minneapolis, Minn.,
laid on our table his latest work, " Herod," an historic tragedy in five acts. We
regret that we were, until now, unable to give our attention to this exceedingly
well-written dramatic play. We read this work with interest, and have derived
great pleasure from it. The lives of the ambitious, envious, and jealous King
Herod, and his gentle, innocent, and unfortunate queen, Mariamne, the descend-
ant of the heroic house of Asmoneus, are rich in tragic events, and the author of
" Herod " makes very good use of the historic material. The character of Herod,
as well as that of Mariamne — the leading names of tlie dramatis jicrsonce — is very
truthfully depicted. The author's imagination is vivid, his language eloquent
and highly poetic, except in some of the monologues, where the author endeavors
to imitate some of the old English dramatists: attempting to jJortray the deep
agitations of burning passions or overwhelming .sufterings in short but striking
sentences, it lacks the polish and smoothness of the old masters. But the author
is young and highly gifted, and more experience will improve his stj^le. We
already notice a decided improvement in his language. "Herod," as well as his
previously published poem, " Sol," makes us wish that the young author may
continue to employ his brilliant literary talents and poetic ability, for he is sure
to find a lofty place in the temple of fame, and liis name will yet reflect honor
upon his people.

PRICE, 75 CENTS.

Address Henry Iliowizi,

1845 North Eighteenth Street, Philadelphia.

JOSEP^H:

A DRAMA.
By Henry Iliowizi.

Hebrew Observer : — The author of this dramatic poem, in chaste and classical
language, presents a graceful histrionic pen-picture of the Biblical narrative.
Though many a dramatic effort has heretofore been devoted to " Joseph and his
Brethren," Mr. Iliowizi is quite original in his composition, and exhibits much of
poetic vigor and beauty in the delineation of touching incidents in the life of
Jacob's favorite son. This epic, comprising seven tableaux, is intended and
adapted for amateur performances, and Young Men's Hebrew Associations and
other Literary Societies should secure a copy for representation on tlie stage.

Our Church .-—The author is singularly fortunate in his subject. Probably no
Old Testament name suggests more of popular interest and supplies richer mate-
rial for an amateur drama than that of Jacob's favorite son. The theme loses
none of its interest and value in Mr. Iliowizi's hand. We can cordially recom-
mend it to our young people as especially appropriate for a church or Sunday-
school entertainment.

Jewish Messenger: — Eev. Henry Iliowizi, of Minneapolis, has just published a
little work adapted for presentation before Y. M. H. A. audiences. It is entitled
" Joseph," a dramatic representation in seven tableaux. It shows care and force
in its composition.

Minneapolis Tribune: — The Eev. Henry Iliowizi, Rabbi of ]\Iinneapolis, well
known to the reading public as the author of " Sol," an epic poem, and " Herod,"
an historical tragedy, has recently published a drama entitled "Joseph." The
story of Joseph is told with considerable force and dramatic effect in a series of
seven tableaux. It is intended for amateur representation, but is equally inter-
esting for private I'eading.

The Jewish Free Press .-—Rev. Henry Iliowizi, the " poet Rabbi " of the North-
west, has sent us a c()])y of his latest published work, an historical drama en-
titled "Joseph." In his former productions, "Sol" and "Herod," Mr. Iliowizi
displayed poetical ability, and now the flowing lines in " Joseph " give him an
undisputed claim for working his favorite style, the epic. The theme, dealing
with the sale into slavery of Joseph, the rise to the position of ruler in Egypt,
the famine, the remorse of his guilty brothers, and the grand grief of the old
patriarch Jacob, is one which affords abundant material for a first-class drama,
and that Mr. Iliowizi has made out of it. Evidently it was a labor of love with
the "poet Rabbi," this dramatizing of one of the most beautiful events in Jewish
history. He seizes upon every incident, and "Joseph" is a veritable canvas-
picture, a graceful epic. The work is read on to the end with increasing interest ;
the chaste language, grave yet simple, unfolding the tale, delights without weary-
ing. Mr. Iliowizi is a successful playwright, and it is hoped that " Joseph " Ls
by no means the last of his dramatic efforts. Taken from the standard of a
" working play " we can warmly recommend it to tlie different Literary and
Young Men's Hebrew Associations of the country. The acts are easily set ; the
chorus, when well trained, and the many tableaux, give rare opportunities for
the display of histrionic talent of our young people. There has been too much

struggling after ditficult plays, but now that one is put into their hands giving a
fine field for the amateur, we would like to see it on the " boards " at our club-
bouses the coming winter. The characters are historical ; the different spoken
pieces heroic, and the climax thrilling : all pointing to Henry Iliowizi as a poet
of the first order, and a credit to Jewish talent in America.

Rev. Dr. Felsenthal of Chicago : — Rev.Henjiy IlIOWIZI, Minneapolis, Minn.
Deak Sir : — This afternoon the jiostman delivered to me a copy of your new
drama, " Joseph," which you so kindly have forwarded to me. Accept my sincere
thanks — not only for the copy you have sent me, but also still more so for your
enrichment of our Jewish literature, which, until now, was so very poorly repre-
sented in the English language. I could only glance over the pages of your
drama, but this hasty glance was sufficient to convince me that there is a genuine
poetic spirit in my colleague who, as minister, presides over the Jewish congre-
gation in Minneajjolis. It shall be a pleasure to me to recommend your book,
and I should be pleased once to see your drama performed " auf den Brettern, die
die Welt bedeuten." From such a puljjifc, perhaps, our young people might be
reached more effectively than from our Temple pulpits. I remain, dear sir,

Yours resijectfully,

B. FELSENTHAL.

The University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 5th, 1885.
My Dear Sir; — Please accept my very hearty thanks for a copy of your
drama "Joseph." It is a work of great merit, and I shall take great pleasure in
bringing it to the notice of our Literary Societies. /

Very truly yours,

CYRUS NORTHRUP,

President.
PRICE, 5() CENTS.

THROUGH MOROCCO TO MINNESOTA;

OR,

LIFE IN THREE CONTINENTS.
By Henry Iliowizi.

Jewish Chronicle of London. — " Throwjh Morocco to Jlinnesota " is the title
of a well-written little book by Rabbi Henry Iliowizi, lately minister in Minne-
apolis and now in Philadelphia. In well-chosen language, Mr. Iliowizi gives in-
teresting sketches of life in three continents — Europe, Africa, and America — he
having been for some time teacher at the Alliance School at Tetuan on the com-
pletion of his studies in London and Paris.

PRICE, 50 CENTS.

Address Henry Iliowizi,

1845 North Eighteenth Street, Philadelphia.

(Form L-9)

M-719

BM
648
145
1890

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nw^ A r. ^""^"^^'^g Research Institute

BM648.I45 1890

Iliowizi, Henry, 1850-1911

pSe&.^"'^ ■--^^^^- «
1890

ARI 0006304 000 001

000 630 486 90-

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Full text of "Jewish dreams and realities contrasted with Islamitic and Christian claims"

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