The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-12-07
Two new PASTORS HERE.
Rev. Mr.. Westa11 Installed
Mr.. C1lst's Inaugural.
DR.. sCUDDER'S MOTHER-IN-LAw.
An Outline of Some of Yesterdays
Sermons-What Y. NJ. C. A.
Delegates Found to Talk
About.
DR.. SCUDDER'S MOTHER-IN-LAW.

The Universalist Church of the Good
Shepherd was well filled last night by a
congregation desirous of hearing for the
first time the new pastor, Rev. H. A.
Westall. The clergyman selected for his
text, Exodus XIV:15, ''And the Lord said
unto Moses, speak unto the children of
Israel that they go forward"
"The Israelites," said he. under the
leadership of Moses had cast off the yoke
of bondage and had begun their march
toward the land of promise. Behind
them lay Egypt with its terrors and be-
fore them lay the Red Sea with its waves
breaking sullenly at their feet and bar
ring further progress. Close upon them,
too, came the Egyptian king with his
army, in hot pursuit of his fugitive slaves
To remain where they were meant certain
capture and a slavery worse than any
thing they had known, while to attempt
to cross the Red Sea without even as
much as raft meant certain destruction.
Gas the darkest hour is often that
which Immediately precedes the dawn.
so in the darkest hour Of IsraeP5 night a
light suddenly broke over the horizon.
For the story goes on to relate how Moses,
rallying his Danic-stricken countrymen,
quieted their fears, and how he smote the
sea with his rod. the waters were divided
iuto wall oD each side, and how the
Israeltes passed through on dry land.
Pharoah and his army, hurryinG after
them, were over whelmed.
"Such is the story of IsraePs deliver
ance, celebrated in the Temple songs of
the nation. 1t is Of course impossible to
determine how much of 1t is to be accept
ed as historically true
A TIDAL WAVE THEORY.
travellers tell US that the so-called
Red Sea. or Sea of Rushes, is subject at
times to violent ebb and flow of the
tide, and. moreover, that north of Suez
it is often possible to wade across the
probable that the Israelites, under the
wise leadership Of Moses, taking advant-
age of this circumstance, made tue pas
sage at that point, while their enemies,
the Egyptians, in their haste to capture
them, were surprised and overtaken by
the tide.
This explanation does away with th e
necessity of miracle by ascribing the
deliverance of the Israelites to natural
causes. Even the account in Exodus
hints that the good fortune of Moses and
his followers was due to the fact that a
strong east wind blowing all night, had
dried up the sea. The essential truth at
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the conviction that he had been raised up
by the Almighty to lead His people out
OF slavery into freedom. did so.
They have ever claimed, and mol
without reason, to be the special objects
of the divine guidance. God did assur-
edly lead them forward. though not by
any such act of miraculous lnterDositlon
as their sacred scriptures record.
MIRACLES DISPOSED OF.
"Not by causing u pillar of cloud to
20 before them by day and pillar of
fire. by night; not by opening dry path
for them through the sea, or by letting
bread fall down from heaven for their
food, but by leaving them to find their
own way by slow and painful steps. by
causing the earth to yield her increase in
accordance with universal and unmuta-
BILE law, and by raising up from time to
time, from among the great and good
men to he their leaders and helpers.
''Such leader and helper was Moses.
Although we cannot accept the tradition
which ascribes to mis- hand the whole OF
the Levitical Code, there is no doubt tnat
it was mainly through his efforts that the
Israelites were emancipated. He oh
tanned for them the priceless boon of civil
and religious liberty. In other words he
inangurated that spiritual movement.
Christianity, the mightiest influence in all
history. Whether. therefore, we be
Christians or Jews, we are indebted tc
Moses He gave the first recorded I'M
pulse to civilization and linked his
name forever with the progress of the
race"
The speaker here compared the revolu
tion and Washington to the flight of the
Israelites and Moses and declared that the
u ission of Washington was as sacred a.
that of Moses. Mr.. Westall also likened
the days of slavery in this country to the
bondage of the Jews and Abraham Lin
coin to Moses.