The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-06-07

takes of builders, the delays of architects.
 dome with a decided tendency to wob-
 bie and the persistent disappointments
 of an unstable life, many of us imagined
 that we, too, were doomed to wander fcrs
 ty years in the wilderness before we
 should enter the promised land.
 And even after we are here annoy
 ances without measure supervene 10
 mitigate our jubilee joliity. The weather
 is altogether unpropitious. orators invited from afar send in their regrets, speak CTS whose words are pledged take sick
 at the last moment; and yet, strange to
 say. this temple Is thronged. there are
 few rabbis left to us ,the warmth of
 June day is not warmer than our en-
 thusiasm and I look out upon sea Of
 happy faces.
 .'Is there anyone stil dissatisfied with
 our location? Behold. you have Southern
 soil for your home, a Southern sky for
 your canopy, Southern stars for your sem
 tinels. the carol of Southern songbfrds for
 your melodies, the sons and daughters of
 Southern homes for your friends and lov-
 CTS. Happy Kahl Montgomery! No won-
 der she talks about herself. She has
 something to talk about
 Wandering through the cities of Amer
 ica. two classes of buildings. rising above
 the general level catch the travellers
 eye. The one, the stately spire of the
 church; the other, the gloomy chimneys
 of the factory. The one as 1t stands
 calm and serene in the blue air of heaven
 with the sunshine playing on the gliding i at the top. seems to point the way for the inhabitants to a light that lies above;
 the other. thrusting itself up into the darkness of its own making and striving like some giant polypus. to embrace with its tentacles of smoke the whole town, seems to tell the citizens that above there Is only black nothingness and that all of value lies below. There they stand these two buildings, the house of prayer and the factory, sym bols of struggle ancient as the world. Commerce and religion. Truth and trade. Materialism and ideaiisn. The spiritual and the temporal. Strange that the Jew is found enlisted under both contending banners. @i &-- v The Jew is the marvel of the world in intensity of religious feeling and in keen ness of business speculation These are the words of Professor Marshall, the economist. and because the. thought is so self-contradictory. the Jew is a riddle, a sphinx that baff1es and. puzzles the world thinkers. For long time men thought the Jew could do only two things we'll, lend money and win it back, buy and sell old clothes. Yet the Jew has given a God and a moral code to the world and has fought and. bled on .ev- cry battle field of liberty.
 A Plea for Justice. e. 70, that we might be judged as men, not merely as tradesmep. Let our crit ics remember always to be just. No doubt | like aIa humanity. we have sought gold too ardently and do so stili. but let not 1 that passion conceal from us the fact l that we have been rather good children and have studied hard the lessons On the
 page of science. art1and. history. "If illustration of this truth be needed. | behold the founders of this congregation whose fiftieth jubilee we celebrate to- | night. They came to this land of ours | from the old worlds bondage and oppres- sion. Yet in America, the new Canaan,
 d land o'erfiowing with milk and honey. they did not forget that snot on bread | alone doth men aive.' In the youthful | rush and struggle to earn competency | they did not forget their spiritual obli- | gations as men. They found time and
 thought and inclination to turn aside from | the passion and thrali of business to
 dedicate a house unto God Because they
 did cleave unto the Lord does their work | live today
 | "All honor to this sturdy band of plo- | thU AOuidtTS ol xAulcftCdH T1tDftW I congregations. In our days it is easy to | be Jew. What are the disadvantag ges
 that come to us? The world. even if 1t | has not grown to love us, at least is con- - ing to understand us. But fifty years ago
 to avow ones self a Jew was tantamount | to declaring one's self freak. All that | America then knew of the Jew was that
 he had lved-1900 years ago-and that
 he had forgotten to die, when tho curtain
 of the temple was rent in twain by the l splendor of d new creed.
 | The fathers of our congregation were | men-brave men. They were strangers in 1 a strange land. land doubly strange to | them because they did not understand it's customs and could not speak It's language. | They may not have been able to philoso- | phize deeply but fin them lived the spirit | of righteousness. What Of it if they knew l not of Reubens or of Raphael, if they
 did not bother about Browning or the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam? What of it
 If they could not geologize or botanize l or philosophize or psychologize? They had
 their hearts in the right place. They fol- | lowed God. And when I recall the story of their trials. their struggles and
 achievements. I am at loss for words | adequately to express the debt we of the | younger generation owe to these pioneers
 who have gone out from our midst-aias, too soon--and of whom but one survivor remains. that grand old man in Israel. l Jacob Strauss
 What the Temple Means.
 This temple we have erected here rep resents something more than the grand | eur of Hebrew theology. What a protest it is against the crass commercialism of | the age. which makes us more concerned over the loss of goods than the loss of | goodness, more fearful of a fall in stocks | than a fall from grace, more interested | in conversion of a note into cash than l the conversion of a soul unto God Sad 1 dened by life's sordidness, depressed by the avarice the cruelty and cunning of the street man needs this home of rev. cry and worship. Here again the soul will burn. The fret and fever will pass l away. God will once more seem nearer than breathing, and closer than hands and feet Again the dew is on the grass. | and the heart of man grown old and gray in temptation and sin will become as the heart of a little child
 You the chosen representatives of the congregation. to whom was entrusted | the sacred task of establishing this house | of God, no words of mine take it, are | needed to crown you with the laurel wreath. If your labors have been unseI- ! fish, your motives high and pure, YOU have a reward greater than human lips
 can offer-a good conscience and It's ap- probation of work well done Who shaH | ascend the hill of the Lord? He that hath | clean hands and a pure heart He shall | receive a blessing from the Lord and fa- vor from the God of his salvation One name only wottId I ynanftnp tbo ,xan,n af