The record-union., 1899-12-24

during all the past centuries, led pure
and holy lives and sacrificed themselves
for the welfare of their fellows could be
marshalled in procession, they would
j form a line which would many times
encircle the globe.
= During all these centuries a most in
dustrious work was carried ON in
spreading the Jewish Bible, it's teach
ings and it's influence into every nook
and corner of the world. The teach
ines of Moses, the Psalms of David, the
Proverbs of Solomon, the prohesies Of
Isaiah. the precepts of Micah, the pa
thetic utterances of patient Job, all be-
came household words in huts, in caves
and in palaces. The God of Israel, who
for hundreds of years had been the God
of a.tribe, of petty race, was univers
allied and became the God of hundreds
of millions The Ten Commandments.
which from the time of Moses to the
time Of Jesus had influenced a handful
of Gods children, were taught and
preached and spread by Christian mis-.
sionaries until they affected for good
the lives of untold generations, living
in all chimes and belonging to all races
| of men.
The moral and religious seeds which
/ the Jew had placed in the hand of the
Christian were taken by the latter and
scattered to the remOtest corners of the
| world and implanted into the waiting
hearts of heather and pagan, of savage
lsand barbarian, of master and slave.
Nor has this work ceased. On the con-
trary it is yet in it's earliest infancy.
| More Christian men and women are
dedicated to-day to the spreading Of
a knowledge of the Bible among the
heather and the untutored than ever
| before in the history of Christianity.
More money is being contributed to the
| cause of missionary work than was
ever before known in the Christian era.
Here is a statement, briefly told of
what has been done in this direction in
more recent years: THE British and
Foreign Bible Society, in it's current re-
port gives it's total issues of the Bible
at 131 ,S14, 796, and that of other kim
dred organizations at S0,SS9, pol Here,
then, we have more than 212,OOO, 600
copies of Gods word sent out annually
| all over the world, a large portion going
| to the front, where soldiers of the cross
are in direct and fierce conflict with
| heather peoples. No statistics can
adequately formulate the influence of
this widely disseminated book on the
| dark places of the earth. Not alone,
however, must the success of this work
be judged by these figures, but by it's
| acknowledged philanthropic and hu
'manizing effects. 1t has reduced the
speech of savages to written languages,
has translated the Bible into almost
every spoken tongue and has thus
opened the way for the intellectual de-
velopment of races that have been stag
nant for ages. Moreover, it has been
the direct cause of emancipation to
millions of slaves; has proclaimed the
equality of mankind; it has forever
auenched Suffice fires which for CEN
turtles disgraced India; it has sup
pressed infanticide; n1easurably over
come polygamy; rung the knell of caste,
and has civilized such peoples as the
| Fijians, Tahitians and the inhabitants
of Madagascar and the Sandwich Isl
andS"
Compare all this with what the Jew
is doing toward spreading the influence
of his faith and his book of books and
note how severely he suffers by con-
| trast.
! The other day I received "a letter
| from a prominent Eastern Rabbi and
this is what he wrote: "Who publishes
the Bibles to-day? The Christian.
Who reads them? The Christian. Who
| is willing to sacrifice an entire day each
week for worship and spirituality? The
| Christian. Who shows reverence, awe,
respect, decorum and silence in the
house of worship? 1t is the Israelite
of the spirit whom I call Christians"
| The Jew. ever has enjoyed. and still
continues to feel a self satisfied air. re-
| lative to his religious teachings AS
rule, he seems to think that they need
no spreading and that these teachings
must Of their own accord disseminate
themselves.
If the Jew believes that his teachings
are of value to mankind if he holds
that his Bible is boon to the human
family, then must he show keen APP
probation of the Christians heroic la
Dor in spreading these works.
| The Jew has many grievances to lay
at the door, not of Christianity, but of
perverted Christianity While per-
verted Christianity practices intoler-.
ance, hatred, cruelty, haughtiness, in
| justice and illwill; Christianity, pure
and simple, in common with pure and
simple Judaism, teaches love, humility,
! kindness, Justice, peace and good will.
The Jew to-day enjoys many blessings
for which he is indebted to enlightened,
pure minded and high-minded Christi
anity. Despite all the misery and suf-
fering and oppression which in some
parts of the world still prevail, he lives
in an age better, purer, nobler than any
in which his ancestors lived. Despite
the fact that much of the Christianity.
which is about us is still more or less
perverted, the opportunities of the Jew
for mental, moral, religious and ma
| terial progress were never so broad in
all the centuries of his existence. And
for all these blessings he is indebted in
no small degree to the influence of pure
| Christianity. Let the Jew, therefore.
realize that however much the Christ
ian owes to him, his debt to the Christ
ian is deep and everlasting.
Jew and Christian have each been
essential to the other. One without
the other could not have achieved the
wondrous work which both have per-
formed in the interest and for the well
fare of humanity.
Without Judaism, Christianity would
have had no foundation. With
out Christianity the spirit of
buddhism would have welded
| little or no universal influence
Had there been no Christianity Jesus,
together with Paul, and his other apos-
lac hoy txo,,