The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-04
PRESBYTERIAN ON THE JEWS.
The Rev. DIR. Palmer of New Orleans
Pays n Notable Tribute to the Race.

Pays "A Notable Tribute to the Race.
From the New Orleans Picayune.
The Jewish Woman's Council has added
another to the list of literary treats with
which 1t has favored its members since its
Inauguration some two years ago. The dis
tinguished and scholarly DR.. B. M. Palmer
appeared before the association, and in a
mastery address reviewed the history of
the Hebrew race and the important truth
for which it stands in all ages. Every
word of the eminent divine found lodg-
ing place deep in the hearts of his audi
ence and when he touched upon the he
and devotion to the faith of their fathers,
even in the face of persecution,the strength
and unity which makes them the stand
ing miracle Of the, ages, many were al
fected even to tears.
1t was typical of the broad and grow
ing. spirit of brothegly union in New Or
leans, and the undetermined Presbyterian
divine who thus broke through the bouf.-
daries OF religious sectarianism to stand
before an assembly composed exclusively
of Jewish extraction, and proclaimed the
gratitude which the world and civiliza>
ton owe to that great and ancient race,
and hold 1t up to the world as the wit
ness through the ages of the one true God,
won for himself new place in the heart
of community to which he is already
endeared by every act of his long and use
full life. He said, in part:
Il have always had in my inner con-
seriousness a deep respect and reverence
for your race; a reverence which is not of
yesterday or of to-day, but which sprang
from the study of a book which first
claimed your own and equally my sympa-
thies. / have never been able to read that
sacred book without profound astonish-
ment, reverence, respect, and affection for
the Hebrew people. The richness of your
history is so suggestive that l should not
utter the voice of a fiatterer when l speak
of 1t as theme worthy of the most earn
est thought of the student and scholar for
you held in your heart the heritage of the
ages and the kernel of history in your an
. cient and honorable race All the moral
and human forces that go to make up the
world. all the truths that make history one
to build up the lives of people, the civil
ization that has grown up in the long line
of ages, had its origin in your race. Look
around the nations: The only record we
have of the greatest antiquity that we are
all the children of a common Creator
comes from the records of your race. Let
me ask you to look UP the history and
lives of other people of antiquity and fol-
low the lines that they suggest. While the
history of all other nations is shrouded in
darkest gloom yours is clear from the very
beginning, and traces back to the very
hand of God himself. What other nation,
even the greatest and most powerful, can
thus trace its descent unbrol1en down the
long line of ages? rG
ut is a marvellous fact that even in
comparison with contemporaneous histo-
~, notwithstanding all the prosecutions
and sorrows that have been heaped upon
you, even the nations that prosecuted
most must turn to you for the civilization
that marked their own. beginnings.
You stand in history for one great per-
tinent and all-pervading fact and truth,
for while the history of Asia is surround
ed with vague myths, obscure legends,
yours is clear and Unimpeachable And
as with Asia so with Egypt and Babylon
and Syria and Assyria. You were already
great people when these nations were
in their infancy, and you had reached
degree of civilization unknown before,
when Sparta was just beginning and the
she-wolf was nursing infant Rome, and
Greece still wrapped in legendary lore.
The members OF your race can place the
finger of truth upon the fallen dynasties,
the greatest the world has ever known,
and the millennium age will stin find
you fulfilling the designs of Providence
in your marvellous history. And in all
these years you have stood as the wit
ness for the one true God-your God and
mine. We hear the echo down the long
course Of ages. and see it inscribed on the
eternal banners of the years, Hear. o
Israel; the Lord thy God is one, and there
is no other God but He
ut is this eternal message of the race
that gives II its vitality in the present
and was its strength in the past; il was
this same covenant between your God and
you, yourself and the one true God. that
has enabled you to accomplish so much in
His holy designs; it was this conception OF
God had viyified and helped you through
countless prosecutions, this conception that
you grated upon the world. this thought
Of a supreme creator, infinite, all-wise and
perfect in himself. that has made civiliza
ton what It is and preserved the world
from utter darkness. See how the Lord
placed you in the land which he gave You
in order that you might fulfill your mis-
sion as his witnesses. Egypt was on one
side and Babylon and Syria on the other,
and right there, on the crossroads of his
tory, God placed the Hebrew. He put you
there that you might teach the nations
and also to show that without Him no ma
ton could stand
1T Is a singular fact that every nation
which showed any kindness to the Hebrew
nation lives to-day, and every nation that
raised its hands against them has Dassed