National Republican., 1876-04-10
ROGER WILLIAMS.
Lecture of Simon Wolf, Esq.

| There was a large gathering at the Eighth
Street Synagogue last evening of those persons Of
Hebrew faith to listen to Simon Wolf, esq, on the
| subject of Roger Williams. With n commend
able generous spirit the lecturer donates the en-
receipts of the evening 10 the fund for the re-
lief of the furloughed employees Of the Bureau of
| Engraving and Printing The following is a
| brief synopsis of the lecture:
| In passing through the statuary room at the
| Capitol you are struck by huge in marble of
man dressed in the most simple garments, his face
radiant with holy impulses, his eyes seeming to
speak the universal language of love. No ono can
see it without pausing TO inquire whom the figure
represents and when you are told that II embodies
the great founder of religious tolerance, Roger
Williams, you no longer wonder that you have
been charmed by the GOdlike expression of this
statue and it this feeling that created within
me the impulse TO give pen picture Of the Puri-
tans, and this great prophet Of the New World.
1t may be deemed strange that an Israelite
should sing the praises Ofa people that were so
exclusive and bigoted as the Puritans, but look
farther and deeper than local causes or results.
realize and acknowledge the living fact that by
them was founded, particularly by Williams, the
eternal principles of religious tolerance, and the
Jew wanderer, the citizen Israeite Of All the den
iZens Of this country should feel the greatest
gratitude for enjoying those priceless treasures
and bOOus that many centuries denied
them. And thus while have no particular love
of or affection for Puritanism as a system, yet
cannot help feeling glow Of admiration for those
sturdy pioneers of new and more enlightened
civilization.
In speaking of Williams, Of the Puritans, do
nOt,speak of the preacher or the sect, but Of the
underlying cause, ,'Of their expulsion from Eng
land, and of the great and good man, prophet and
sect as distinguished from the preacher and
Christian.
Mother High Church expelled her hero son
Puritanism into the wilds of America, hoping
that there, in combat of sorrow, hunger and the
savage Indians, he would be exterminated.
But he.dh not die; the contrary, he grew
and prOspered in spite of all hardships, growing
up TO giant stature, whose arms political, social
and civil .are destined 10 embrace the whole
world.
And highly proper it is that the descendants of
these men have cOnsecrated the spot whereOn
their fathers landed, for it is more than Mecca,
more than Jerusalem, for il is the place whereon
man at last, after centuries of weary wandering,
found home. The love of tolerance and peace
had survived the flood of persecution and perched
under the: :sheltering tree of new nationality.
Although just escaped from tyranny barely
landed, some Of the first acts were to prosecute
and persecute the,Quakers of the New England
colonies, and no zealOts Of any age showed more
zeal in the refined art Of torture and cruelty than
these gOOd'fathers. and found their logical excuse
in their Bibles, as if every iniquty since the dawn
of earliest history had not found its apology in the
distorted readings of holy writ.
The statement that Jesus first announced the
law Of love can cnly be believed by the ignorant,
in its myt biology so in its moral precepts there
is nothing original in Christianity 1t has only
appropriated the existing. Six hundred years be-
fore Christ, Bhudda said: BE UNNECESSARILY
merciful towards all;r 4OGyears before Christ, So
phocles said Not for purposes of hate, but fer
49,. - I a,al sv,
Mark, which are claimed the groundwork OF
Christianity, - You shall love thy neghbor as
fhysclL" have been literally taken out of the Sd
tOok of Moses, chap. 10, verse is.
VI course, the Christians Obeyed this high
sOIRding phrase as little as did the Jews before
them and no one can follow ii, for it is unnatu-
raj, as unnatural as the axiom, Love your en-
emics."
Roger Williams was not philosopher, was not
a free-thinIer, was not one who dives deep into
the why or tie wherefore. He stood firm on Bible
doctrine, he never dreamt of analyZing through
e eh6r e"1 WRIT Of reasOnthe revelations and miracles
rian Lut stron',o ,c s%d remained Presbyte-
theological premises no sectarfaII, mt humane
logic.
Nearly three hundred years of enlightened reli-
gious tolerance have taken too deep root to be de-
stroyed by bigOts and parties The world las too
far advanced. is on the'high road 10 tAe inner
courts ol lght, and while here and there some
stray dark lantern may try TO obscure their efIul
gence, yet they cannot stem the full glow of the
fires Of the nineteenth century.
The march Of history is Westward. and in that
march no room is TO lie found for guides other
than the most enighteded. As American citi-
zens Of Jewish faith. recognize in Williams the
founder Of those sublime doctrines that have
given us peace and happiness; no one can appre- |
ciate more than we. We are Heine has said: |
: taa
fend the bulwark Of religious and civil liberty: let
us never he recreant TO the high and holy trust /
Let us give our hearts deepest devotion to our |
country and its institutions"