The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-10-11
|s'BREAD OF TEARS SUBJECT
 OF ATONEMENT DAY SERMON
Rabbi A. j. Messing, Jr., Speaks on the Significance of the Most Solemn and Sacred Holiday
 of the Jews.

piled rows of brick and stone about him
 until the wall closed over his head. and shut him in his dark and awful living
 tomb.
 Horrible as the story is 1t Is just what many today are doing with their souls. They are pilng bricks and stones upon
 m, walling them in, and leaving them there to die. In the very core of many great fortune which men have gathered. in the inner chamber of many a beauti- full palace which men have builded-hid- den away out of sight is a grave over
 which the angels weep-the grave of soul.
 Many man has buried his manhood in his business. Many a poor slave has dug a deep grave for his soul with the
 wine cup for a spade. Fashion has
 woven the shroud and pail for many poor girls soul. Tn many garden of
 beauty and pleasure. hidden among the
 flowers, Is a grave where innocence
 faith, purity. virtue, honor, truth lie
 buried.
 And now over these hidden tombs of lost souls there flow the tears of repenta nee
 Thank God for the Bread of Life found in the tears of Repentance. For athwart
 the graves of buried souls the sinner through misty eyes, sees the glorious
 colors of the rainbow spelling Gods prom ise.
 Though thy sins be as scarlet. they
 shall be white as snow. Though they be
 red as crimson they shall be as wool" Consider, too, the tears of sympathy. These are bread to the soul, for they dis solve pride and selfishness. They hu-
 manize. Their scalding touch melts the icy rind of unconcern if not of malice
 that envelops thy heart. By their symbol
 ism, thou wilt feel myself man among
 men. drinking out of the same cup from which all men have drunk and all will 1 drink. This world would be desert were | It not for the alchemy of sympathy. Men
 would be brutes were 1t not for the com | munion hours of grief when they are | brought nearer to each other by the | promptngs of softer emotions than strife and struggle for gold and glory. | Are we to have forever the bread of tears? Must goodness and strength of l character be forever dependent upon the
 ministry of sorrow? O, no. God ceases feeding His Israel upon the bread of | tears This is but a preparatory minis try. When we shall have gained the
 stI Iereth it brings, 1t shall pass away
 because its work is done. It came to | give us strength of manhood and woman | hood; these attained, we shall pass on
 to the fearless world where sorrow and | signing is unknown.
 Each care each Ill of mortal birth, Is sent in pitying love.
 To lift the hungerng heart from earth | And speed it's flight above. And every pang that wrings the breast And every joy that dies
 Bids us to seek a purer rest | And trust to holier ties.
 In the play, L'Aiglon there is near the
 end gruesome scene In which. on the
 battlefield of Wagram. the rdead rise out
 of their graves and the groans of the
 wounded are heard on the gale There
 Is a question whether Rostand, the play | wright, had right to include such hor-
 TOTS in a drama intended to be acted on the stage There Is also a question whether the great Playwright, the divine ] Artist who composed the drama of the | Universe, ought to have included real suffering in the play of Life. That ques- | tion has never been satisfactorily ex-
 plained. All that we can do, seeing that
 there is this thing in the world, is to con- | sider-What good, what excellence can | we get out of 1t?
 | Friends, as we journey through life a
 gc cd many yelled angels come to us hold | ing in their hands the Bread of Tears. Be not rebellious but offer your hospi- ! tality to that angel. You will perhaps be entertaining unawares the best friend | God ever sent into your life. And this
 is the meaning of our Yom Kippur. For though the hour Is eloquent of tears, it is also soothing in the assurance that no | eye has wept but One has seen 1t and will, | sooner or later. requite and release. pray God for you and for myself that
 we may meet His yelled angels. and that we take from their hands the lessons | God means to teach us, and. with new | patience and sympathy, go on through
 the rest of the pilgrimage until we come | safe home.
 "The Victory of Optimism" is the sub
 ject of Rabbi Messings morning ser | mon. He will be assisted in this ser
 vice by MT. S. Roswald and MT. c. F.
 Moritz.
 The afternoon service is memorial in | it's nature. and at that time respect is | paid to those who have died during the
 preceding year. Rabbi Messng's sermon | will be Tn Memoriam."