Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1894-12-07
J5dIII CIRKIIll And JlNIAH
IIIIlkS6IIIIG. SEI.IIIi.
Rev. MOSES D. H0GE, D. D, AND RABBI
EDWARD n CALlScH, 0. o., IN
THE SAME PULPIT.

EDWARD N. CALlScH, 0. D., IN
THE SAME PULPIT.
The most notable Thanksgiving service in
Virginia, and probably in the United States,
took place at Beth Ahaba Synagogue, at Rich
mond, on last Thursday. Dir. Hoge, the
famous pastor of the Second Presbyterian
churchso Richmond, was present by invita-
ton of DR.. Calisch, who is the Rabbi of the
Synagogue, and one of the most learned and
eminent men in the Jewish ministry in this
country. We copy from the Richmond State
a report Of the services
DR.. Hogc, among other things. ga i'd
The blue heavens filled with the calm
splendor OF an unclouded sun, salute the
people of this great land as they throng their
houses of worship with glad and grateful
hearts to offer thanksgiving and praise to the
Father Of Mercies. God over all, blessed
foreyermore. Such is the employment of
happy millions at this hour as they review
the dealings Of Providence with them in the
hestowment OF personal blessings, family
Joys and national benefits.
1t would be impossible for one possessed of
intelligence and ordinary sensibility, in the
review of his own life to recall to remem-
brance the countless blessings he has enjoyed,
beginning with the tender fidelity of a moth
er', love and continued through all subse-
Quent years crowned with goodness and mer-
cy, without Il glow of devout gratitude to the
great giver of ALL and if such retrospect is
profitable to individuals, it is no less so for
communities and nations which have expert
enced the fostering care of Heaven and been
elevated by the divine hand to an exalted
height of prosperity and happiness.
S;ich is the employment of grateful millions
This day. The proclamation of the President,
echoed and encouraged by the Governors of
SO many States, is responded to by the spon-
taneous consent and approval of the people
who are celebrating the day in just such ways
as they prefer, whether by religious services
OF family reunions or in other modes congo
NAL to them. We find ourselves citizens OF q
country where both civil and religious liber-
ty are enjoyed with fuiness and universally
unknown in any other part of the world. If
we were required to trace back the stream to
its original fountain it could be found far
back in the past. The treasures we possess
were bequeathed to us by patriots, saints and
Sages OF remote antiquity.
Ii history teaches us any lesson more i'm
pressive than another it is that no nation ever
attained permanent prosperity and power
which did not recognize as fundamental ar
ticle OF belief the existence of one Coda
spirit, infinite, interchangeable and eternal, a
living God possessed of intelligence and SUI
preme ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS power that works
for righteousness, but a person who is essen
TALLY righteous, with the disposition to make
his creatures happy; a God whose Providence
marches unseen through the magnificent pro-
cession of events which make up the history
of the world, giving order, movement and
continuance to all things.
The great oriental nations of antiquity
seemed in their earliest history to recognize
the unity of God, deriving their ideas from
the traditions of Eden-but when they became
polythests, dividing earth and sea and all the
departments of nature between presiding del
ties, often hostile to each other and engaged
in savage conflicts with each other, then even
to the ignorant and degraded populace such
Gods became objects of contempt and scorn.
Men are never better than the Gods they wor-
ship, and when their delties themselves vio-
late Justice. truth and virtue and become the
patrons of all the vices, all reverence for the
supernatural being lost and all religious re-
straints being annihilated the people left
without any unifying and conselv ative prin-
ciple. become proflgate, lawless and discor-
dant. These ancient nations possessed litera-
ture, art. and many of the elements of SPLEEN
did civilization, but it was civilization
without any moral element in it, and so was
doomed to disntegration and ruin. Thus fell
lr,f,,r ifnI
and multitudinous armies and she dropped the
sceptre which her eneryated hand could no
longer sway. So persisted queenly Persia
with her dadem of fire and countless riches
swept away by little Macedon as chaff is
scattered by the storm. Thus fell the fairest
land of the muse, the land where Plato reas-
oned and Homer sang and Demosthenes
thundered-unsaved by her 10000 gods-the
true God unknown. Thus fell majestic Rome,
with her mural crown and victorious legions
dominating the interchangeable save
by her own corfuptiOns.
Not only have these nations persisted, but
thew have passed away without making any
contribution to the religious thought of the
world, without transmitting any influence
which has quickened the spiritual life of
mankind.
70 all this there was one memorable excep-
ton There was one oriental cation, terrific
rally insignificant without sea ports, with
out navigable rivers. without colonies, yet
which was the very fountain of the great
truths which have filled the world with
its profoundest wisdom and its divnest
hopes. There was one nation whose govern
ment was a theocracy-the noblest govern
ment any nation ever knew. l refer, of
course to Palestine. There the knowledge
and worship Of the true God was maintained
while surrounding nations abandoned them
selves to the most debasing polytheism.
There lived the men who were the worlds
greatest benefactors for all time and whose
| influence has been so perpetuated that their
names are household words with us to this day.
| II history gives us glmses of Assyrian kings
| OF Persian priests or Egyptian sages, their
| forms are as inaninlate as portraits fastened
to a wall, but the form of Jewish patriarchs,
prophets and psalmists still seem instinct
| with life in grand procession they march be-
fore us; their voices thrill us with tones,
whether of tenderness or triumph, such as
| moved the hearts of men three thousand years
ago. The names of the Caesars have been
committed to the custody of scholars, but the
names of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David,
Solomon and Isaiah are the most familiar
| names on human lips.
Mr.. Gladstone, in his Juventus Mund:,
would fix Oh the era of Homer as the heroic
age of the world. There We're indeed heroes
in the days of Agememnon and Achilles, but
more heroic age was the patriarchal
The real benefactors OF the world are not
only those who have given to the nations
their forms of government and thus shaped
their outward structure, whether monarchi-