The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-03-28
SPHERE OF THE PULPIT
The Subject OF q Sermon by
Rabbi Eisenberg.
AN ELOQUENT ADDRESS
Religion Should Be Active. Progressive
and Keenly Sensitive-lt Should
Disseminate the Law OF I'm
mutable Justice.

Rabbi preached 10 a large
congregation Friday evening on the
subject. The Sphere Of a Modern Pull
pit" His text was Ezekiel III, 1870.
The speaker said:
1T is conceded by all that religion. TO
deserve and maintain the niche in the
temple of human society, should be
active and progressive. It's ears should
be keenly sensitive to the sounds aris-
ing from hearts laden with sorrow,
suffering and saddened. Its eyes
should be aglow with the lustrous
flame of enlightenment. heralding the
roseate dawn OF truth and reason; its
heart responsive, vibrant with senti-
ments Of justice. mercy and love Tor
the unfortunate of humanity.
The religion a~rrogating to itself all
power. all knowledge, all perfection;
the religion sustaining Its votaries on
the dry husks of its antiquated forms
and literature; the religion whose para
disc is lost and whose mission lies IN
the past, but Indifferent to the needs or
the present. wilfully blind to the
changed conditions of the times; the
religion that puts dogma before deed,
creed before conduct, ceremony before
service to man-that religion. though
deeply founded upon the eternal rocks
of faith, will never become the religion
~ 10"
from the desert of s~elfshness into the
Canaan of advanced thought n d.
| vine promises. The sooner such cult is
relegated to the museum of anthropo-
logy the better for the advancement of
the race.
tageous and propitious in the history OF
society, when so much good could be
accomplished by the pulpit, as at the
present day. Past Is the time when a
m%ystifying sermon elicits approval or
applause from pew and press. Gone,
happily, has the day when it was GRIM
inal for anyone to deny. nay. even
doubt a proposition, however absurd,
postulated by the pulpit. Even in So
called orthodox circles, the most ad-
mired. respected and reverenced Is he
not who prates about the glories OF
kingdom come not he who mouths
about the happy life in the Clouds but
he who floods the soul with the mellow
light of reason; who points ou the
possibilities of improving mans condi-
ton here, lettering his environment.
grating pom his heart divine precepts
of ethical and spiritual purity, forges
new inks to the golden chain of the
brotherhood of man.
True ii Island psychology afhrlns
it-that man is by nature a religious
being: he is endowed with faculties to
reverence holiness and love virtue, as
piring after the ideal of perfection en-
throned within his soul. The higher
the intellectual development, the more
profound his mind, the loftier and the
purer are his conceptions of religion.
Not rational man. but the shallow
Drained and the ~empty-headed. self
imputed scholor. ii is who denies the
blessings conferred on CIVILIZATION by
the divine effort of religion. Rational
man knows that wherever the ethical
- II -ls~sA has hAnn hnnnGfIV IFp-
served and faithfully accepted, there
spring up unfading flowers OF right.
duty and love. He knows that true
religion always preceded the wake of
civilization. but wherever n when
ever dogmatic, doctrinal theology sup
planted religious truth, there the ST.
moon of destruction wilted the flowers
of liberty, law and love, and darkened
the stars of hope and happiness. The
nall which eclipsed the sun of progress
during the centuries made dark by
ignorance and superstition must not be
charged to the teachings of the found
ers Of religion, but rather to the bigotry
and blind fanaticism OF the so-called
theologians.
"IsraeIs prophets We're no theolo-
gians. They were the true social re-
formers. Their greatest concern was
not about mans position in the king
dom of heaven. but his position in the
| kln&uOW OH edTtu, liz Icidtioh W MS
fellow man. his responsibility not SO
much to God as to his neighbor. Thelr
t~heology-if one may call IL such-is
quite brief. According to their teach
ings, God demands justice and right
and ne whose hands are spot
less, whose heart is pure and whose
acts are humane, he is a fit companion
for the most high. Nowhere among the
sermons and writings do we find a sin
gle word about belief: this was left to
the theologians of later days, who piled
up precept upon precept, adding Fence
to fence, thereby separating those
more and more whom religion endeav-
pred to closer unite. Those zealots who
wrote ponderous treatises on the char
acter. atu and attributes of God
those who concerned themselves main
ly with ritual fabrication, who bur
dened their people with hturgic ant
ceremonial laws, these bigots who, II
their mistaken zeal reared impassapi'
walls and barriers between jew ane
Gentle, surely they were not tn,
be~nefactors of either Judaism Of
Christianity.
THE prophets were the real benefac
tors of their people. They did no
speculate, they did not dream, they did
not mystify the world with the secre
doctrines OF the mysterious beyond
Theirs was the world acts. not OF air
of fact. not of fiction. Moses. Isaiah
Amos and Malachai. apparently know
nothing about the wonderful c~elestia
kingdom. If they do. they keep tina
knowledge to themselves. Ne'er a wore
do they utter bout the golden stair
way leading thereto. They say not
word about the souls punishment o
reward in the hereafter. They neve
'theologize.' but they thunder fort
burning eloquence in behalf of the OPP
pressed and downtrodden. Consul
their matchless orations writing
and you will find declaration afte
declaration that II is not sacrifice. no
ceremony. not prayer. not penance tina
God requires of e but. to use tn
Prophet Micah summary, To do jus
tice and to love mercy and TO humbl.
walk before God
"The same In true of Christianity
In vain will you for any theoloe,
in the sermon on the mount. Its found
er. true to the prophetic inspiration