The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-01-13
TWELVE PAGES.
BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS.

tion therefor OF the day more generally OBJ
served for the same purpose. He begins by
calling attention to the fact that his own
people do not in any considerable numbers
observe and respect the seventh day. "The
few attendants on Saturday morning." he
says, "are composed of some old ladies and
children who have nothing else in this wide
world to do, but the bone and snew Of the
congregation, the young and middle-aged,
are nowhere to be seem" Since the Jew has
taken upon himself corresponding duties,
Dr. Stern is of the opinion that there is no
other way in which he can become fully
identified with the spirit of the age than by
the abandonment of all the external rites
which tended forever to stamp him as an
Oriental scjourner amid Occidental nations"
The writer further says:
Having attained the rights OF citizenship,
it henceforth became his duty to enter with
life and soul into the spirit of the times, to
contribute his share toward the wiping out
OF the lines OF demarcation which had form
erly separated man from man and to create
no unnecessary distinctions between himself
and the rest of the world The representa-
tives of orthodoxy saw the danger with
which Jewish institutonalism and ce-emo-
nialism were threatened by the entrance OF
the Jew into national life and did their
utmost to dissuade their followers from ac
cepting the rights of citizenship. The Jew,
SO ran their argument, is in captivity for his
sins, and he is to remain an outcast until
such time as God will again gather his scat
tered remnants to Palestine. But their eff
forts were in vain, The Jew gladly accepted
his rights, and from that day almost every
external ceremony was doomed to disappear.
Nor has anything been lost by their disap-
pearance. The American Israeite
who violates the dietary laws and
removes his sidelocks is at least
as good and moral man, as useful
n citizen and as tender parent as the hyper
orthodox Jew OF Turkey and Russia. There
was, however one external observance in
Judaism, the downfall of which was fol-
lowed by disastrous consequences, though it
easily might have been otherwise The day
of rest is an institution which every civil
lied nation and the two universal religions
of the word-Chrstianit and Mohammedan-
ism-have adopted from Judaism. True,
they have not adopted the letter of the Jew
ish law; true, they have not enforced rest
upon the man servant the maid servant
and the cattle thus turning the day of rest
into day of gloom, and in this they have
acted wisely"
AS the Christian religion has suffered from
the fanaticism of the Puritans, which per-
mitted no latitude, but bound all
things down to the literal interpreta-
ton of divine law, so in Judaism
'there also existed at one time a set of Puri-
tans-the Karaites-who accepted the COM
mands of the Bible in their literal sense and
who therefore tolerated no lights in their
houses OH Saturday. But the majority of
the people laughed at their blue laws, even
as the intelligent New Yorker laughs at the
Anticipated paragraphs of the Penal Code"
In the same liberal spirit DR.. Stern declares
that any religious observance that does not
tend to increase the happiness and well-being
of its observers is not deserving of that
name, and the quicker it dies the better.
'The Sabbath of the Jewish Karaite and the
Christian Puritan have no future except in
the grave"
The well-nigh immutable law of custom
has fixed upon Sunday as the one day out of
labor. According to the Bible, the Jew
probably has better right to observe the
seventh day than has the Christian
the first day of the week. But
the world is intensely practical; we
deal with questions as we find them. 1t is
plain that it would be a hundred fold easier
for fha lou tO cOrna 70 tha ~, r;ctin,, rae+ nv
than to reverse the order. Mahomet recog-
nized the inevitable when he went to the
mountain, after vainly commanding it to
come to him. There need be no conversion
to Christian dogmas in the matter The
world has come to believe that religion was
made for man, not man for religion; and in
changing from the seventh day to the first,
the Jew, by ignoring the letter of the law,
will be better able to honor its spirit, and his
church can but be benefited thereby. As DR..
Stern says:
''The situation in which the Jew is placed
to-day will not permit him to observe the
traditional day of rest. He cannot rest on
Saturday without great financial sacrifice
and personal inconvenience; hence not 10
per cent. OF American Jews observe that
day. Some wholesale houses have their
front doors closed, but We should advise no
one to go behind the returns. Thus the
young generation grow up without any day
Of rest, without the opportunity to attend a
religious service, and should we be surprised
that they crowd the halls OF agnostics like
Felix Adler and atheists like Ingersoll? 1t
must be painful sight 10 every liberal re-
ligionist-be he Jew or Christian-to see re-
ligion discarded simply because men have
not the courage to abandon the shadow after
having cast aside the substance and to set
apart some day in the week for the purpose
of religious worship and ethical instruction.
Let Felix Adler 90 tomorrow to Philadc-
phia, Baltimore, Boston, st. Louis or Cincin-
natl, and the Jewish young men will flock
around his banner but when he lately Wis
tied Chcago bis visit Mas almost q conn lnte