The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-03-09
JESUS WASN0T REJECTED
DIR. GOTTHEIL TELLS HOW THE
JEWS REGARDED CHRIST.

GuAA between the F0OpIo VINO
Loved, and the Few Priests Who
Opposed Him.
From the Nel1 York Sun.
Many christians gathered with the ortho-
dox Hebrews in the Temple Emanu- Fl,
Forty-third street and Fifth avenue, yes
terday morning to hear the Rev. DR..
Gottheils answer to the question: Ibid the
Jews Reject JesusF'
at is a central question:" said the
preacher. ibid the Jews reject Jesus?
When1 spoke to my christian friends about
! the subject ana told them how l proposed
to answer it, they stared at me as if they
thought 1 was not in my right mind.
met CHRISTIAN clergyman the other day,
and. of course, we talked shop. Even he
| supposed that would take the side of Jesus
as against my people.
81 am only a candid, unpreiudiced STU
dent of the New Testament, as l an also of
the Old Tes ament or any other book. You
! KIN W, therefore, what my ans wer must be
t. the text. But does not the whole Chris
tian church affirm the contrary7 Do not all
say with one voice that the Jews rejected
| Jesus and that the cruclfxiOn stands as a
/ crime not to be forgiven in this world or
the next? Every cross on a Christian church
| points as a witness against our people,
| charging that we have slain one so pure, so
| nobe-he who descended from a home in
heaven that he might save the lost of Israel
the one who ought to wear a crown placed
on his head by his own people. Yet in the
face Of all this testimony | do not hesitate
to say that the charge is but an old and in
veterate error.
Jesus is no longer living personality
a human being whose teachings can be
measured by any of the standards used for
other human beings. He has BECOME an
| object of faith-a faith which is supported
| by hell-fire on one side and by paradise on
! the other. Who can reason with such
faith? He ihas become dogma, pivot on
| which salvation revolves. When man be-
| gins to spin theories out of his brain what
| cant he put into them? He can put in only
| as much knowledge and as much feeling as
ne possesses. And SO it is that creeis, like
that of the Presbyterians-the creeds that
were supposed to contain the eternal truth
| by which men were to live, and on
| which they were to go to heaven-have to
| be revised. The best thing that was said
| by the Presbyterians in their discussion was
the remark that we have become too much
| OF the gentleman to believe longer in the
damnatlon of babies In an ancient book
| of our literature a writer says: NO man
| knows whore the grave Of Moses is, but /
know where it is. He is buried in the Tai
mud So Jesus has been buried iu christian
| theories. Emerson says, truly, that the cure
of a bad theology is not found in another
theology. but in common sense. We will
not put one theology ag inst another, but
| will appeal to at court which knows
neither Jew nor Gentile-common sense
and before it I will plead the cause of my
people,
81 take the charge as it stands Did the
Jews reject Jesus2 Which Jews? How
many of them9 1t is commonly thought
that the Jews were small remnant living
then in Judea. In reality they were a great
nation, scattered throughout the whole
civilized world. So numerous and rich
were they that they had great schools of
learning in Babylon, and thi her the youth
had to go to finish their education, Just as
we now send our young men to Europe. The
Jews were scattered over vast distances
1t was not the day of newspapers
or of the electric telegraph or penny post
| age, and news of what was done in Jeru-
salem reached the outskirts of civilization
only after the lapse of years. You can see,
then, how ignorant Of the mission and
doings Of Jesus the great majority of the
Jewish nation must have been at the time
of his death. What do you think when it
is SAID to You that the American people
have decided that the worlds fair shall not
be held in New York? When have the
American people been asked to decide that
question! Never. When were the Jews as
a nation asked to decide on the character
of Jesusa Never.
IF the Jews did reject Jesus, which one
did they reject? There are no less than six
in the New Testament First, there was
Jesus as an instructor, teacher of ethics,
a reformer Of the church. With this Jesus
the Jews had no quarrel. The next was a
worker of miracles. / mean no disresDect
when say that he would be called faith
curist in our day, because he healed only
those who had faith. Third, he was Christ,
the Messiah of the Jews, figure wholly
Independent of that Jesus the moral teacher,
or that Of Jesus the miracle worker Fourth,
there was the redeener of the whole world
Fifth, there was the Son of the liviug God
God himself incarnate, who is particu-
larly depicted in the gospel of John. Last
of all we have the Judge of the World
who at the resurrection will divide the
human race into two parts How these six
different conceptions are to be harmonic I'd
is beyond ithe power of people of ordinary
minds
Now, which of these did the Jews re-
jects The moral teacher9 l defy any one
to show me a passage in the New Testa-
ment which says that his morality was re-
jected. Even whea the Pharisees were re-
buked by Jesus they remained silent, be-
ca Use they had been taught not to answer a
master, and they regarded him as master
Did the Jews reject Jesus as a worker of
miracles9 Was physician such as he ever
rejected by the people? The New Tesla
ment says the crowds were so great about
him that he had to escape from them by
stealth. Did the Jews reject him as the
Messiaha They neither accepted nor re-
jected. They had not been taught that the
Messiah was to he one to lead them to
heaven, but that he was to be an earthly
ruler They said. when Jesus was extolled
as the Messiah. Let him do the work of
the Messiah.
''As God or a part of the Deity, they did
reject him. They could not derstand
that claim. They did what thousands of
intelligent men do this very day. As re-
deemer Jesus was a very great mystery.
He was neither rejected nor accepted.
Those who could believe did so, and those
who c uld not kept quiet, and 50 as to the
! other supernatural claims.
There is a world of difference between
what history tells US, and what we see be-
fore our eyes We can undsI stand, per-
haps, why the Jews did not take up Jesus
as God if we consider the work of the great
preacher, Phillips Brooks in Trinity chu en-.
The building was crowded with intelligent
business men, men who would pursue a
business advantage to the utmost. They
sat and listened with bowed heads, and