The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-05-10

illustrative OF many. In Phlladeiphfe is
the reform congregation, Keneseth Israel.
whose rabbi is Joseph Krauskope. d. D., in
which is maintained regular Sunday lee
lures by the rabbi or some brother rabbi on
invitation, and which publishes a weekly
bulletin containing these lectures on cur
rent religious thought and other articles on
moral and religious questions. II is in ev-
cry respect a credit to all who are con-
cerned in IL. One lecture was entitled MY
Creed" 1t contained such declarations as
these:
1.-The mass of absurd customs, of obsolete
ceremonies, of barbarous rites, of idol
atrous practices. of sham professions. of
fanatical exclusions that stand to millions
OF Jews for the very essence of Judaism.
are spurned by me. / believe in the love of
man and the love of God. 1 believe in serv-
ice human and service divine. 1 believe in
labor as manly and in duty as godly. be-
lieve that all people are my brethren and
that my God is all peoples God. believe
in doing as I would be done by. 1 believe
in the fatherhood Of God and the brother
hood of man; in the golden rule, in uni
versal peace and good will, in the SUI
premacy of the spirit over the letter, of
reason over faith
What is that but Christianity? In other
words, that is Judaism vitalized by the
life and teachings of the Christ? 1t is the
incorporating of the eleventh command
ment with the law as given by Moses.
In the same Jewish temple, in Sunday
lecture delivered by Rabbi j. Leonard, are
many such passages as these: Where
famine and disease have wasted the peo-
pie, where ignorance and basest supersti-
ton have lowered the people, Christians
have at the peril of health and life been
ever ready to serve the cause of humanity.
If to-day there is to be found few square
miles of earth where childhood is respected
and life and liberty are protected it is due
largely to the spread of the Bibles teach
ings by Christian people. Take away from
the world the art that is purely Christian,
the civilization that is purely Christian and
the literature that is purely Christian and
much of the sweetness and grace OF society
would pass away. just as If one would take
away from Christianity what it owes to
Judaism Christianity would no longer be.
Against Christians we have naught; 1t is
with the dogmas of Christianity We dis
agree"
The meaning OF that truthful sentence
next to the last would be the same If ex-
pressed in form that would quadrate with
the contention of this paper. that Chris
tianity is only Judaism vitalized by the law
of love. On the one hand Christianity is
moving rapidly away from the medieval
dogmas which long retarded its growth
and which are justly an offense to intelli-
gent Jews, as well as to intelligent Chris
tians, thus breaking down an artificial wall
or partition; and on the other hand the Jew
is beginning to recognize in the Son OF
Mary, in the Man of Sorrows, the long
looked-for hope of Israel. When that mid
die wall is broken down and when the
branches that were broken off through un.
belief are regrafted into their own olive
tree then there shall be one vineyard and
one husbandman, one fold and one shep-
herd, and one universal church through
which all the families Of the earth shall
be blessed, and that one church will be the
one organized by Moses in the wilderness
vitalized by the love which the Christ
taught. This may not be soon as man
measures time, but it will come in the full
ness of Gods time, though it be millen-
NUNS hence.