Morning journal and courier., 1892-02-15

not only for the weary wanderers of earth, but for mankind at large, that the grand day of universal goodwill may dawn. This belief in the coming of & personal messiah has its origin in the sufferings that attended the Jew in the centuries of his persecution and msrtyrdom- Denied the rights of man, bounded by fanatic, hate-infiamed mobs, the Jew drew his hope and strength from the conviction that the day will come when again in the blessed land of his fathers he may live as 8 free man, worship his God ss his heart dic- tates and enjoy undisturbed the opportu- mites of life. Who will wonder that the Russian Jew of our day cherishes this hope of @ messiah--for to him it means freedom from oppression, permission to breathe the free air, opportunities for hap piness, for life. With these religions views the orthodox couples 8 stern morali- ty. Love and righteousness are to him the highest expressions of his religion. To be faithful citizen, loving father, 6 devoted husband, an upright man, these are intangible commands of his God.
 Reformed Judaism differs from ortho- dox Judaism on the question whether the ceremonial and ritual laws are still bind ing in our day. The reformed Jew holds they are not Ritual regulations that had validity while the Jew dwelt in the lands of the Orient have lost their hold to-day, when the Jew lives among the nations of the Occident. Ceremonies that had bind ing force in ages of ignorance and gloom are not in consonancs with the enlightened spirit of the present. The reformed Jew regards religion not as an institution that is tethered within certain fixed limits, but as & growth that broasens amid the devel- opment of thought, and takes on new forms amid the higher requirements of the age. While holding fast to the funda- mental truths of his religion, he desires so to shape ceremonies and forms that they shall be in agreement with the cul- ture of the times. The reformed Jew subjects religion, as everything else, to the searching eye ot reason and criticism, and whatever cannot stand the test he rejects as antiqusted, out-worn- Though he does not observe the ceremonies of tho past he preserves and accentustes the thought embodied in them. In his wor- ship he introduces the languages of the present. Above all the reformed Jew lays emphasis upon deed rather than upon creed, and places a righteous life above the observance of mummiied forms and ceremonies
 To display the beauty of a godly life, to be faithful tn dpty and in hearty symps- thy with every just cause, to extend the nduu IGiloNsulp Itc ucc1N tue wr-tched, this is the mission of the Jew.
 The message that he has been appointed to announce to the world is that love, jus tice and truth are the three pillars upon which the temple of brotherhood is to be erected. The reformed Jew discards the belief in personal messiah and substi- tutes for it the hope in a messianic age. He does not desire to return to Palestine and See his former kingdom re-estab- lished. For the American Jew this coun- try is his Palestine. But he does yearn for the dawniug of a messianic era, when truth shall sway the sceptre over earth, when love shall bind heart to heart, and a united mankind worship one God and strive for one goal, the development of that which is noblest and best in man.
 As compromise between orthodox and reformed Judaism stands conservatism Ju- daism. It holds with the reformed wing to the hope of a msssiauic era of love rsth- TT than of a personal political messiah. It lays less stress than does orthodoxy upon rituaI law and agrees with both that right eousness is the expression of religion. But in its worship it still clings to many ceremonies that reform has abolished and still preserves in its prayers intact the language of the ancient Jew.
 But whatever differences there may be in these divisions of modern Judaism they agree in that which sums up the very essence of the Jewish religion, that 6 life devoted to that which is grand and noble is the truesr worship of God The mod ern Jew has yet, as formerly, & glorious mission to fulfill-to bid mankind shessh the sword of contention and break down the barriers that separate man from man, that the beauteous picture of the inspired prophets may be realized, ihe dawning of that day of promise when mankind, al peace, shall erect a world-embracing tenn pie of brotherhood and the glory of one God illumine the earth.
 RUDOLPH GRossRAS.