Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-10-02

| the congregation ana an earnest prayer
| for their ha ppiness and prosperity in the
coming year, Rabbi Caliscfl said, in part:
The closing of a year is a time for
memory-for. memory and for tears. We
are parting with an old friend-one whose
! life is henceforth and forever ineXtrica-
bly, bound up with our own All that we
| have done within this fth-month.
just gone. God and our conscience
alone know. Something is known to our
friends and Notwithstanding less to
that wider world of acquaintanceship.
| whose circumference marks the orbit OF
| our daily walks and doingS. But the real
! self of u.s. the true and Utmost ego of
each of us, has been yelled from the
worlds knowledge. Tl1eat intricate COM
plexus Of sentiment and emotions; of de-
sires feelings ambitions, plans, motives,
and hopes, worthy and unworthy; that
| indefinable ourself we have kept under
! a lock of secrecy, whose key is used in
| but the rarest moments of unreserved
confidence.
But the year that has just gone had
passed that guarded portal. He has fill
| tered into our lives percolated into the
very arcana of our secrets. And now that
| we are standing at his opened grave.
about to lower his coffin into the cemetery
of yesterday, we are stirred to recall those
| moments and deeds with which he is as
ISOLATED in our, lives.
CAS- friends of common friend we are
gathered in this house to pay the. last,
sad tribute to the departed AS with
human friend of flesh and blood, we re-
member what he has been to us, each one.
| and what we each one. have been to him.
What did this year bring to you, and
YOU and you? And what did you ac-
complis1 during its presence here?
Let each one of us call up the days;
let memory hold the stage and speak her
part: and. above all, let her speak freely
| unhesitatingy, truly. Do not blink the
relative values Of things to magnify that
good deed you have performed. to dwarf
the kindness done to you-to condone
your shortcomings and palliate your mis-
deeds. Let your heart be opened honestly,
| let your soul be unlocked. let the probe
| of inquiry sink into the very core of
motive, and see if the deed it impelled
had beer for truth or for falsenood, for
justice or for greed
VALUE OF RETROSPECT.
There is wholesome value in this re-
| Prospect 1t is the purpose of the day
to call it up The shofar sounds that we
| shall hear on the morrow are the itrum-
pet tones of awakened memory. In an
| ticipation they speak to lis in this tender
| hour to enforce the words of the psalm
lst-'Happy they who llearken to the
sounds OF the trumpet. They shall walk.
oh. Lord. securely in the light of Thy
countenance.'
How can we say happy? Does not
memory bring tears? We cannot recall
only that which is gladstone. Along with
the joy bells there sound the solemn notes
Of the dirge and the knell. Does not the
spent year bring home to us those dear
| ones whose pilgrimage on earth has, alas,
found its end? There are other death
chambers relimned on the canvas of the
x1.s- Is -
OFFSPRING. We stand in thought by other
graves besides this of the year. There
ere tears, unavailing tears. for those
dread hours of mortal parting through
winch we have all passed. There are
tears for the pain and the grief of separa-
ton. for the plans that have been de-
feated, for the promises that have budded
for naught, for the griefs that have been
sown thckly in the pathway of ourselves
and our loved ones There are tears for
the darkened bitterness of disappointment
for the lost arrows that were shot from
the bow of hope, for the pain and the
sorrow that have come to U.S. And are
there tears. too for the pain and the
sorrow we have caused to others? There
should be- Let memory deal with what
we have done, as well as what we SUI
fered. Let the tones Of the sacred trum-
pet pierce the battlemented walls of the
castle of our selfish complacency; let
them penetrate the chambers. of the heart
and echo in the farthest corners of the
soul. that we may hear them. and hear
ken, and be happy
Happy? Can we be happy in the recol-
lection of our misdeeds? Yes. in one way.
If we recall them to repent them. if we
remember in order to atone. It is mans
chief blessedness that there lies in his ma
ture an infinite apacity for Improvement.
a capacity that begins with the lowest
depths of degrade ton and ends only with
the infinite perfection of God. To recall
our misdeeds in order that we may re-
pent: in order to recognize their evil. and
to resolve. with Gods help. not to perse-
we're in them; to recall the bitterness and
pain we have caused in the hearts of
others in order to atone and ask forgive
ness; to go to him whom you have
wronged and declare your sorrow; to go
to him who has wronged you and say
j bear, no grudge: let us be friends
these are memories whose tears shall be
transformed to rivulets of joy. whose
pain shall be changed to gladness. and
whose grief shall be the seed of harvest
of happiness. And it is of those who do
so hearken to. the sounds Of the shofer
that the psalmist speaks, for they in
deed shall be happy, for they shall walk
securely in the light of Gods counte-
nance.
A NEW ERA.
oh my friends. want this New
Years eve to be the beginning of a new
and splendid era for Beth .Ahaba We
are on the eve of the building of a new
temple. Possibly but another. New Year.
and the building will be but memory.
a hallowed,. sanctitied memory, and We
shall have enlarged the boundaries of our
tent and moved forward upon the highway
of our congregational lite. We must grow
geographically as well as individually.