Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-05-15

49,
started at once to discharge their divine
p~rerogative. Theirs was indeed, a most
noble n unselfish mission. They We're
selected by the Eternal, to bring light,
hope and love to suffering man.. They
We're chosen to p~romulgate the glorious
doctrine of Gods Brotherhood and uman-
ity's Brothei hood. Charged were they to
wander all over the habitable globe teach
ing man his responsibility to society and
carry the Torah-the Law-the torch
OF civilization, scattering luminous
rays Of divine promise. to a famlshing
world. Theirs, was the rare privilege to
teach the great aw of life n OF uni
Versal justice to mankind.
How we'll our people discharged the
pledges their sires mades at Sinai, the
pages Of recorded history, amply testifes.
Yea, the annals Of more than 5000 years,
bear living testimony, to their heroic spir-
it and to their love of religious duty. Even
the most skeptical must. admit that for
courage endurance MI faithfulness Israel
is ulsexce!led in the history of maityrdom.
1t is also admitted by all unbiased minds
that the Jewish people, more thar all
other nations of antiquity has exercised.
| a most potent and lasting influence upon
the human race. Babylon and Assyria.
Egypt n Chaldca, are mere memories in
the book of Time.
THE Grecian bards sing us no longer
their lyrics, and their artists clrisel. that
once carved life into cold marble. fas-
cinated millions of grateful beings. is dull
ed forever. Roman valor and statesman
ship, slumbcr in the historic tomb. But
the power, the influence of Israel. is as
statutory now as when amid convulsive
thunder M lightning. he stood before
Sinai and listened to the voice Of the
great Jehovah eXclaimirg, I AM the Lold
thy Ccd, thou shalt have no other In
every age, in every land and cline. traces
: arc found Of Tcusa obs fpntDrirtS WHITTIER
he carried seeds of enlightenment and
progressive thought.
II say It with pardonable pride. that the
! world owes an everlasting debt of graft
tude to Israel. for having preserved--of-
ten with their own hearts blood, the
most precious treasure-the sacred Bible.
1.-The Jew was always mbued with the
! loftiness of his ideal. Progress ard en-
lightenment We're his passwords during
his long and dreary pilgrimage in the Sa-
hara of life. This Irvine germ was inn
planted in his heart years and years ago,
yea even at the passage Of the Eed Sea,
fearing of being ,%ccaptured by his task
masters-the command G forward
then given him, became tapismanic. To
obey The voice of God-to wander to the
uttermOst parts of the world and bring
the mamma Of Monotheism to man, was a
sacremental duty with him.. Never did
he waver. Never did he murmur, for
obedience was his Keynote. To him, nei-
Their the raging sea of hatred, nor the lur-
i'd flame of fanatisism, possessed any
dread, and whenever the hour of duty
struck, nc matter what sacrifices, he had
to lay upon the alter of pain and suffer-
ing, he was always found moving for
ward. Yes, with the wandering staff in
his hand and with the Sh'ma Israel"
in his heart, he was on his priestly march.
"And yet, notwithstanding his numer-
Gus requests to humanity, notwithstand-
ing his many blessings and benefits he
constantly bestowed upon society, his
history, for two thousand years-with
few exceptions, is one of cruel treatment
and unsurpassing endurance. But be it
far from me to mar this festal hour by
a recital of the inhumanities and hor-
rible tragedies, in which the Jew was the
principal actor these centuries. Let
skeptics smile at the statement Of Gods
providence, it Is none the less true, that
today, Israel assembled, all over the
world in his houses of prayer commence
rating the Sinaitic revelation, is the
strongest revelation of Gods loving care
and watchful guardianship over us.
"In recalling the historic past Of your
sainted ancestors, you, my young friends,
should form deathless resolutions to
emulate their heroic and noble example.
Let your life be in harmony with the
laws of Judaism, linking yourselves in
the golden chain of our great past.
"To be a Jew, to be a Jewess in the
prophetic sense is, indeed. a privilege
rare. The very name stands for every
thing noble, ancient, heroically grand
and spiritually lofty. Consider for a mo-
ment what the status of the world would
have been without the Hebrew. All which
the civilized world holds in veneration
and reverent love ONE from your an
c%estors. Our sister religion, Christianity,
has adopted our sacred literature and it's
ethical teachings. Our neighbors and
brothers, the evout followers of that
great and pious Jew, the Rabbi of Naz-
areth, recite our psalms, they sing our
hymns. They are encouraged with the
messages of our prophets: our Bible
which our sires have so herOically de-
Tended, is their spiritual mama. Israel
has indeed become a light to the nations
and a salvation to the ends of the earth.
Can you imagine what the geographic
cal chart of the world would have been
today had our fathers, the despised n
universally prosecuted Hebrews, been
less tenacious. less heroically determined
to stand by their convictions? Ask the
millions of suffering and sorrowing: ask
the myriads of the down-trodden, the
bleeding and the d~isconsolate, the weep
ing orphans and the heart-broken
widows, the anguishing fathers and the
tear-bedimmed mothers: ask them what
sustains, hat consoles, what encourages
them in their dark and bitter hours. They
all will answer you, 1T is the Bible that
perennial fountain of divine promise,
whose spiritual waters seothe, sustain,
refresh, heal and comfort all who are
duction of those much misunderstood.
maltreated, maligned and misrepresented
Jews.
No, no, the name Jew is not opprobri-