Isaac S. Moses

“ Of all the nations of antiquity, before and after Israel's appearance in history, none has survived a certain period of time. Within the limits of a few hundred years the proudest and most powerful nations had exhausted their productive genius; they gave their contribution to the wealth of humanity, and then disappeared from the face of the earth. Their mission was ended. New nations sprang up in their stead, to take up the task of humanity, to labor at the solution of some new problems, and to contribute their share to the larger life of mankind. ”

“ He who yesterday knelt in reverence before the child of fortune, will to-day, when the sun of luck no more smiles upon it, be the first to strangle it, if by this act he may win the favor of the new powers that be. Public opinion is no gauge of the worth of a man; it is not the measure of value of principles or institutions; it is no criterion of truth or right. "The voice of the people is the voice of God," is one of those favorite catchwords skillfully employed by demagogues to tickle the long ears of his sovereign majesty the Public. ”

“ If we are not true-hearted and sincere in our convictions, if we ourselves are halting between two opinions, how can we call down the heavenly fire of true faith upon the souls of our children? That we may be better able to fulfill our mission, God has endowed us with wonderful faculties and abilities, which have made us proverbial; he has given us greater vitality, to survive the storms of hatred and persecution; wealth and wisdom, to emulate in the solution of the greatest problems of mankind. ”

“ If not a Religions Community, inspired by the life-mission of Israel, what place do we hold in the organic life of modern nations? It is not difficult to find the answer, though it be humiliating to our self-love. Then there is no room for Israel on this earth! Then we stand on a level with the Gypsies or some other wandering tribes who have outlived the mission of their people, and who, in smaller or larger numbers, present the painful spectacle of a degraded race. The irreligious Jew, the Jewish atheist, is an anomaly, an historical self-contradiction. ”

“ And yet I assure you, though Elijah is dead, and the prophets that lived after him are dead also, one prophet is here among us who thinks, and feels, and speaks with the soul of Elijah, one who with the courage and fearlessness of the prophets of old, cries to us in accents not to be overheard or misunderstood, appeals to us in words that burn like leaping flames into our souls, chastising us for our sins and follies, and calling us back to our duty to our God and to the religion of our fathers. ”

“ We have been true to our material interests, but false to our divine trust. We have striven to accumulate wealth at the cost of our religious and intellectual life. We have sacrificed the soul for the body, the end for the means; we have given God for Baal! From our houses we have banished the faith of our fathers; with our own hands we have broken down the altars of devotion, and brought our children up in ignorance of Israel's great truths. ”

“ To our sons and daughters we have set the example of cold indifference or stupid sneering at the holiest and most venerable forms of our ancestral faith, and now we wonder why the heaven of our spiritual life is closed and the ground of our religious activity is dry and barren; why our prayers are without devotion, our services without uplifting inspiration; why our children turn away from our sanctuaries to seek not a truer faith, but the enchanting worship of Baal and Astarte wealth and pleasure! ”

“ To the prophets of old religion was not a matter of tradition or conventionality, far less was it to them a matter of business or policy, as it was to the priests or kings. With them religion was the deepest and most conclusive of all convictions, it was life itself. God, to their minds, was not a term for an indefinite religious aspiration, but the life of their life, the soul of their soul. ”

“ The masses are not moved by conviction, but by convenience; their God is not Jehovah, the Invisible, the Eternal, whose law is unyielding truth, whose service is uncompromising devotjon to duty, whose nature is unchanging love, justice and holiness; but Baal, the visible deity, whose symbol is the sun, now smiling in friendly rays, now hidden behind obscuring clouds, to-day kissing the flowers out of their sleep, to-morrow parching up field and meadow, that all creatures languish for thirst a type of that idol worshiped at all times by the masses, the idol called: Public Opinion. ”

“ In tones that will forever ring through the ages, piercing the ears of indifference and arousing the hearts of the faithless to their duty, it cries: "O Eternal, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all those things at Thy word. ”

“ Yes, ignorance, intellectual and spiritual torpitude, is the evil which besets modern Israel; the Baal against whom we must fight with the weapons of the ancient prophets, with the weapons of the spirit, the weapons of truth, sincerity and faithfulness to principle. ”

“ What is the meaning and purpose of Israel's existence, what is the position he occupies in the life of the nations, what is his destiny in the larger kingdom of the spiritual life of humanity? The prophets of old, as well as the best and noblest minds of the people, conceived this mission to be at all times a divine one. Israel is to be a people of God, that is, his mission is to historically body forth those religious ideas which constitute mankind's true dignity and wealth ”

“ Elijah would not do at all in a modern Jewish congregation. A man who has the audacity to frown at the king, and to lay the charge of corruption and murder upon his very crown; who, in face of an overwhelming majority of prophets and priests, eating at the king's table and fawning at his majesty, declares that he Elijah alone is right; that the word of God in his mouth is truth, and that those who obey the king's behest and minister at the new altars of Baal and Astarte are traitors to their God and their people ”

“ The religion of humanity, the all-embracing faith of an Universal Religion is yet to come, and as of old, Israel is the Elijah, the forerunner and preparer of that great messianic time out of the soul-life of Israel must that future religion of humanity be born. ”

“ They killed the body that the soul might live. What would have been the fate of the people without these uncompromising upholders of the ideal mission of Israel? If the policy of their kings had obtained, the nation might have existed a few hundred years longer; the princes would have built some more palaces, filled their stables with more horses, their courts with more slaves, their harems with the daughters of many nations ”

“ Their very occupation and name became to them symbols of their divine mission. Elijah means: My God is Jehovah, the Eternal, I know no other. To him I have devoted my life, my powers. This name stands as the type of all prophets of Israel, before and after Elijah. They were all men of thorough-going conviction; their faith in the God of Israel did not rest upon popular assent, but was a direct voice speaking to them through their own consciousness. Such men are always in the minority. The true people of Israel have always been few in number. ”

“ To be a strong, prosperous nation, to push the border lines of the country far into the neighboring kingdoms; to build strong cities, stud the mountains with fortresses, and crown the hills with royal palaces and stately temples, was the ambition of those who, through popular favor, treachery, rebellion, or the massacre of dynasties, held the reins of government. ”

“ Should not a Jewish community like this provide an institution where our daughters may receive as thorough and classical an education as in the best and most fashionable seminaries in the land, with the additional benefit of Jewish religious influence, and not leave the task of moulding the heart and mind of the wives and mothers of the coming generation, to the quiet proselytizing efforts of Catholic and Methodist schools? ”

“ Where are the Jewish libraries, high schools, seminaries and universities, established by our Jewish Astors and Vanderbilts? How piteously poor do the few attempts at a larger humanitarian work look in comparison with our wealth and numbers in this country. ”

“ Nor should we overlook the dangers threatening the honor and faith of Israel in connection with the increasing immigration of brethren from lands of barbarism, political misrule, and religious darkness. If Christian associations go to the trcjuble of establishing missionary schools among them, shall not we, who are of their flesh and blood, take a warmer interest in their moral and intellectual welfare, and by patient toil, by kindly and brotherly treatment, win their confidence, their implicit trust, and raise them up to that level of American citizenship on which we stand? ”

“ The masses are swayed by the outlook of temporal prosperity; they bend the knee before the successful hero; they praise the victorious conqueror. Let the tide of fate's\\ cep against them, and the loudest praises quickly change into public accusations. ”

“ Israel shall not exclude himself from the practical life of the nations, but shall remain in close contact with all tha^t concerns the welfare of the people with whom he shares a common political life ”