Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1880-12-28
The Jews.

Sunday evening Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
and Rev. Robert Collyer spoke to their con-
gregations concerning the persecution of the
Jews in Germany. The following is an ex-
tract from the remarks of Mr.. Beecher as re-
ported in the New York Herald:
should do myself discredit if did not af-
firm that no more earnest and eager man can
speak for the utter freedom of the Jewish
people than 1. When an appeal is made to
the people of America on their behalf it
comes with peculiar claims to nation such
as we are. We are indebted to the Jews
more than to all other peoples put together.
To hem we owe the earliesb form of COM
monwealth established by Moses we owe
the rights of foreigners in strange land to
the doctrines of the Old Testament as estab-
lished by the great lawgiver. We are indebt-
ed to this people more than to any other for
the household, for the education of children,
for the first rights of citizenship. We are
indebted to them for the highest conception
of womanhood. Barbaric ideas of woman
will everywhere lead to barbarism and ideas
of woman, if they are exalted and refined,
bring exaltation and refinement to every peo-
pie And here stands high the Jewish
people on the subject of womanhood. There
was woman permitted to be legislator, judge,
prophet, orator and poet of whatever God
had inspired her to be. And at the time when
women in Greece lived in profound igno-
rance, in Palestine she was found leading
nation in almost every path of excellence.
We owe to this people the laws and the GUS
toms that protect labor and laborer, which
protect the poor and suffering and where
YOU find the custom of the Greeks freeing
the State from the burden of the poor by
cutting them off you will see the laws of the
Jews redeeming them from the hardships of
their state. We are indebted to them for
land tenure, and although the land tenure of
the Israelites may not be applicable always,
it keeps within the range of labor. The
commissions which England is undergo
ing. or those which have been brought
about by the land habits and laws of
that empire, are not due to the Jewish laws.
We are indebted to the Jews for laws for the
Christian world. The Old Testament, with
its wealth of wisdom, is our beacon. They
lived it, wrote it and handed it down to us.
The New Testament is Jewish. When it
pleased God to give His Son unto us it was
Jewish maiden who was chosen for his moth
err Our Lord was a Jew. st. John was
a Jew The apostle whose spiritual zeal car
ried the spiritual life unto all the world was
Hebrew of the Hebrews. Whatever we have
of authoritative Christian gain we derived
from them.
The following is an extract from the report
of Rev. Mr.. Collyer's discourse:
L never heard of jew who was tramp.
nave never TO my kuOWl6uS6 So6n d Jew
begging, while am wearied out by beg
ging Christians that am sometimes tempted
to wish we were all Jews, if that makes the
difference. / wish Christians, SO called, were
as faithful to their homes also and their fam
lilies as the Jews are. hear they are not nice
in their manners, but the man makes the
manners, as manners make the man, and [
have found those among them just as nice as
we are; but this is matter on which I
shall not dwell I ask merchants who
have large dealings with them how
they find them. ''Just as upright" they
answer, sstake them by small and large, as
Christians - while some go as far as to say
the scale dips in the larger fields of commerce
in their favor. Now, when we take these
men who live among US for our instance and
then ask wherein they differ from their
brethren In Germany, the fair answer seems
to be that the difference is in favor of the
old lsnd. The Jews in this country have had
to engage almost wholly in business. In
Germany they have shed a great iustre on
the land by their genius and their
learning, giving to Germany many men
of such eninence in almost every depart
ment of art and letters that to leave these out
would leave Germany poorer than if you
stole her purse. Yet we always think of