The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-03-24
MOSES AND JESUS.

sALIsT, our Michigan correspondent
made reference to the sermon of Rev.
DIR. Rexford in reply to Rabbi Gross
man. In the Rabbits discourse, which
was delivered in the Unitarian church
in Detroit, he placed the great religious
teachers of the world in the following
order, according to the preachers esti-
mate of their Importance, viz: Moses,
the prophets, Zoroaster, Mohammed
and Jesus.
DIR. Rexford was not satisfied with
this representation, and replied to the
Rabbi on the particular point of the
comparison of Moses and Jesus, dis
cussing also the position and claims of
other religious teachers. In determin-
ing the relative following of the great
religious teachers, he said that he knew
no better law to apply than that which
has become very common standard in
our day, viz, "The survival of the fit
test" Taking up Zoroaster, the
prophets and Mohammed, DR.. Rex
ford showed how their believers have
wasted away until even the name Of
Mohammed has faded from the high
est civilization of the world. We give
the following report of DR.. Rexford's
sermon as it appeared in the Detroit
Tribune:
"Moses," said DIR. Rexford, "was placed
first in importance in the grade have
named. 1t is great and honored name
in the Jewish religion, but the question
is pertinent just here: How much Of
light and of earthly Immortality is be-
queathed TO that name by the circum-
stance that the Old T testament blossoms
out into the New? How much of the
light that rests upon the face of Moses is
reflected back from the face of Jesus?
Suppose the New Testament had never
been written, and the Old Testament, with
Moses included, had been left to its wan
ing constituents, who to-day constitute
only three tenths of one per cent Of the
human race. The New Testament has
carried the old thousand times further
than the Jewish devotees of the book ever
carried it. The large place which the Old
Testament holds in the world is not to be
attributed to the zeal of the Jew so much
as to the discipleship Of Jesus, In this
succession the Jew is essential. Israel is
one link in the chain of providehtial
events.
"Moses, it is true, was the great law
giver of Israel, but Israel was the merest
fragment of the race-an infnitesimal
fragment. Many of his laws we're savage
laws, fit only for given time and condi-
tion, and when people rose above that
grade the law of that grade must needs
be abandoned; hence the limitations Of
Moses. The great commandments are in
his code. They are the foundations of
law and order, but they were written in
human nature before they were engraved
on stone. People very early learned that
it hurts man to kill him, and people do
not like to be hurt. That feeling speed
lily grew into law. And so for all the
cardinal commands. India had six of
the commandments identical with those
of Moses, and there is no evidence that
India quoted. We gladly concede the
great service Of Moses, but men have
learned not to kill or steal in many coun-
tries where the name or law of Moses has
never been spoken.
at will be confessed, doubtless, by the
Jews themselves that if Moses and the
prophets had not been adopted by the
Christian church they would have been
the possession to-day of the merest hand
the book receive thousandtold impulse
and reinforcement from the rejected
name. Moses is far more indebted to the
Christians than the Jews for his notorie-
ty in the world at large. The Christian
church has borne his name to regions
where it would never have been spoken
had it been left alone to the Jew. I do
not make this claim on the ground OF in
trinsic force or worth in the names, but
it is sequence of that historical contin-
uity of thought and its force which
sweeps on from the earliest to the latest
day, identifying the Hebrew genius of
religion with the Christian genius. The
rejected name survives and is the grow
ing religious name of the world. 1t is
the religious Inspiration of the foremost
nations of the world-those that are
pushing forward along all the paths of
the noblest industries with the greatest
vigor.
"Jesus taught the great doctrine of
spirituality as no other taught. He
taught the law Of human brotherhood as
no other taught He taught the univer-
salty of Providence as no other taught.
Not that there were no hints OF these
great realities in other teachers, but that
no one of them gave that vast emphasis
to them such as we find in him.
"Had Jesus of Nazareth ever subjected
multitudes to the sword as did MohRm-
med, had he ever married a multiplicity
of wives as did Mohammed, had he ever
slain human victim as did Moses the
Egyptian, our ideal would have been
furnished, but resisting not evil, that
very spirit has been one of the increas-
ing forces in his growing mastery"