The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-04-14

herited faith. /
This, then. friends, is the force Of the
simple words, cit is your very life.'' /
As human beings you can not be said to |
really live. unless you live the life of the
men and women Of to-day, ringing across
the centuries rs the great legacy which
Moses left us individual Israelites. Moses, |
the greatest lawgiver that ever lived, has
also revealed us the eternal and indissolu-
bic connection between the law and God.
Lord, e your - Go o Everywhere the II Il
reason and foundation for the law
And indeed, who can consistently think
that which is implied in the moral law as a
principle which stands alone in the uni
verse which dominates all relations Of life:
others vanish. who in short can begin to
understand this principle of divinity in
man without seeing that there ia divinity in
the universe, that there is the great law
giver, the source of all life. But this
makes the peculiar value Of Moses admoni,
ticn, that the only way to best worship God
is to truly live the life of his law. Let as
build temples in his honor. let us worship
and adore him, SO "a to constantly have the
purity and perfection of God before our
mind. But all our worship. all our cere-
monies. all our service, are dead things if
men and women in Israel, is Moses legacy
to US individually. Live the life of the
law. There can be no institute for it. No
object Of science or art. no metaphysical
thought, no mystic faith in the perfec-
ton of any man can supplant this as a
your real life. This your Judaism.
II. Let US now, friends, inquire what
does the second part of Moses legacy mean
for US. Israel. as whole or spiritual con-
gregation, with mission to accomplish?
"And through this thing (the law ye
shall prolong your days upon the land
Whittier ys 60 over the to
ing for US if we but properly understand its
spirit. 1t gives us the nature and funda-
mental characteristic of our religion; it
shows us the task which Israelites must do
collectively in their. capacity of a people
with mission, the ideals which they must
constantly uphold.
The present condition of Israel and the
problems with which it has to grapple are
BY no means dissimilar to those in exist
ence when they took possession of
the holy land. Israel to-day has
entered new land, new era of
how to live SO as to maintain itself in this
new land. After centuries of hatred and
persecution, of slavery, of Inartyrdom, it is
now for the last hundred years crossing the
Jordan of prejudice which had separated it
from the rest of humanity, and is conquer
dom. And especially to us who enjoy this
freedom in the highest possible measure the
question arises. how shall we act, live as
Israelites in order to show ourselves worthy
of this freedom-yes, in order to preserve
it. And if, unfortunately, there 10 no Moses
of commanding authority today to cry halt
to and direct the various disintegrating
tendencies in modern Judaism, and when
from the nature of the case the rise of such
personality is impossible, we can at least
traverse with our imagination the distance
of time, see the Moses with TRANSPORTED
countenance standing on Mount Nebo and
Offering the last advice to the race whom he
is sending out into the world to be people
of God and messenger to the nations.
"Only through this thing (the law shall
ye prolong yoar days."
Every Israelite to-day has not only to
consider what is his duty as man, but
also what is his duty as an Israelite: We
need everything that there is of intelligence
and character in Jewish manhood and
womanhood to-day to help solve the great
problem. We cannot select for ourselves
course of action in life arbitrarily. We
cannot forcibly tear ourselves from our post
and say We shall from day to day be other
the relations of life in which we are born,
e ena the aord liam knott kS by ne Simply Sdg
saying this past doth not concern
him. that man is not true to himself. For
if those who think that they must forsake
the God of Israel and go after strange
deities on account of their conscience,
would but examine their motives. they
would find that very often it is not a noble
reason which prompts their course. How
often is it pure vanity the desire to appear
wiser; how often the deepest ignorance un-
n %1,on n$ oh vohSl on1
again how often downright treachery to
the old mother, taking advantage of her
struggles to desert her in her old age.
For that We must not conceal
from ourselves, our Judaism is atrug-
Cling for life, struggling to strike
n eSs conditions And in this Struggle i IS
no wonder that it sometimes produces very
awkward plants. 1t is simply affirming the
universal law of nature. It is adapting
itself to its surroundings. Judaism has no
less a task to perform than to change the
changeable spirit. The spirit Of Judaism is
immortal. This spirit is law. 1t is the rec
ognition that human beings, partakers. as
they are, of the divinity are also material
beings, and therefore they can hear the
voice of God only as that of law giver.
And therefore from this text we may gain
the proper inspiration for our work. In the
first place let us all, men and women in
Israel, be true to ourselves; let US continu-
er life enq Indicated to i've us BY GODS
will; and if every Israelite do his
duty the body of Israel will present
an unconquerable phalanx to all attacks
from without, and, secondly, let us ever be
true to the spirit of our inherited religion,
recognizing that it is a religion of law. By
this do not mean that to live in accord
ance with the spirit of our religion it is
necessary to arbitrarily transfer Mosaic
legislation to countries and chimes for
which it could not have been intended. No;
grander view opens before the modern Is
raelite in free countries, if he only becomes
ion to promulgate. To-day, as in Mosaic
times, the great object in life is to feel the
law and to seek to embody the law in posi-
tive institutions. If there is any tendency
or characteristic which may be regarded as
fundamental organs to Judaism, which has
everlastingly required in all its his
torical phases, it is beside it's pure
conception of God the tendency moi
to limit the dictate of Gods law to the
mere word or phrase as preached, but
to constantly embody it in some positive
statute or law. Israel recognized that this
is the only and necessary way in which to
caprice of the individual. Let us then
friends, not be content with preaching char
ity, love and all the virtues, in mere
pharses. but let us seek to embody these
ideals in our statutes, in our social rela-
tions, in our political life. If any sect OF
religion can afford to divorce its practical
public life from its church, the Jewish re-
ligion, if it wishes to live, must turn to its
historical instinct, place itself in constant