The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-25

y
the walls Of exclusion ana secluslon that
had divided humanity so long. This was
the case not only materially, but Spiritual
~. The spirit of the age mas knocking at
the Chinese walls of exclusion and secdu-
sion, and was tearing down stone by one
the fortresses that a dead last had reared
in a day of bitter hatred. To-day people
standing in different fields of religious
thought came together, looked into each
others faces, and found, after all that
they did not differ from one another so
materially. If walls still separated them,
the walls were not high enough 20 exclude
the SUMS Hight and Gods air; they might
conveniently lean across and shake hands.
Rather a hedge of roses divided them, and
thai hedge had a rose that, for once, had
a thorn.
Il was a prejudice that, however, was
fast dying out that 10 a Jew Christian
ity had the appearance of a hostile power
that its sacred books were never 10 be
found on the reading desk of the believing
Jew'-and that The great religious genius
who had given the name to that system
of religious thought could never be held
ia high esteem by the son of JACOB, who
was faithful TO his paternal inheritance.
Even a Jewish thinker that lived during
the latter decades of the Twelfth century
of our era said: Christ and Islam are
missionaries in the service of that God
whom they and we adore" And TO the
ulOdein Jews tndl great man OF NdIdTelh
was one of the saints who brought TO them
cheer and light-was claimed by them to
he one If them, and 10 stand on the ground
on which they stood-to have held dear
the same lofty thoughts that were pr.ce-
less 20 them-to have had the same aspi-
rations hat came to them from him whose
name they SPOKE with feeble words. whose
essence, indeed, they could not grasp. yet
whose dove they fe.t to be working in the
world, and whore voice came to them in
the struggle and in the burden of lie TO
do their duty and 10 work in behalf and
for the cause of common humanity.
one view of Jesus they did not accept
that which made of him the atonement
suffering for the sins that mankind had
committed or rather for a guilt that had
been transmitted TO US. They did not be
lieve in the fall of man. Paradise lay be-
fore them. They rather emphasized the
constant rising of man-one generation
standing on the shoulders of its predeces-
sor-one generation rising round after
round on that ladder which, in his dream.
Jacob beheld the angels ascending and
descending, until, finally, when humanity
was united and redeemed, the last round
was reached and we were one with God
the Father, who was in heaven and on
earth.
DR.. Hirsch proceeded to show that
Christ was a Jew and a member of the
Pharisee sect, showing that about all his
morality was to be found in the teach
ings of contemporaneous rabbis. Many
thought that the Judaism of those times
was the Judaism of the barbaric times of
Moses and that to-day the Jews were still
within the thraldom of the Levitical law;
but Judaism was a progressive force.
Christ was man of matches eloquence.
He raised his voice, and the common peo-
pie of Galilee and elsewhere gathered
around him, for he came to them with
oaGna1 of lieybf and cheer. he seemed TO
break for them the shaekles that the aris-
tocrats in the priestly offices and the
learned men in the sYna gogue had forged
for them. His followers increased from
day to day, and month to month, and he
became dangerous to the ruling classes.
But Judaism, as such, was not responsible
for his death The Jews at that time held
no penal jurisdiction. Rome had the pow
er to sentence to death or for life. And,
again, capital punishment by crucifixtion
was not Jewish mode of putting to death,
and there was no word in Hebrew signify
ing crucihxtion; the one used was borrow
ed from the Syriac
The trial, as pictured In the gospels
was entirely at variance with the mode
of procedure laid down in the Jewish penal
code. The theory of some was that he
became dangerous to the Romans, and
that they put him to death. The view
held by the Jews of to-day was that
Jesus was put to death, and that his
death was murder under the forms of
law If they, in those times of passion,
committed that murder, they had made
atonement for the crime thousand fold
Under Jesus Greek culture and Jewish
thought We're welded, and from this union
sprang Christiantiy-Christia in its
dogmatic aspect. 1t conquered the world
Judaism refused to tear down the walls
and join the world. To-day, however,
the Jews were willing to do this His
people, the part of the synagogue to which
he belonged-were busy to-day throwing
off the yoke of medievalism, and We're
ready to join hands in all endeavors to
lead men to hope, to righteousness, to viz
tue, and to purity. The truly human was
the truly divine, and the further we pro-
| crossed in humility the nearer we came to
divinity The Jews of to-day believed
that they had mission to bring light TO
| those still in the rear among their fold.
So had Unitarians among those burdened
| with dogmatism. Both were working in
| the cause which was so clear to the
! prophet of Nazareth-in the cause of the
truly human, which was indeed the es-
| sentially divine.