Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-04-25
THE JEWS BELIEF.
DR.. Hirsch's Able Address at
Chicago, Thursday Night.
Words That May Be ThoughtfuIIy
Considered by All Religions.
Words That Will Make More Than One
Person Think"

Chicago, April 24.-"If Jesus Christ
should return to the earth, tomorrow,
he would be welcomed in every Jewish
synagogue in the land and every Jew
would say with David: Lift up your
heads, o We gates, and be We everlast-
ing doors and the king of glory shall
come in"
This was the climax of a lecture by
Dr. Hirsch delivered, last night, before
the Epworth League of st. James
Methodist church. The big audience
gave the speaker a storm of applause
when he sat down the meeting thanked
him for his lecture the people thanked
him for it by a rising vote, and as he
had euloGized the Lords prayer, the
meeting was closed with it, Dr. Hirsch
repeating it in union with his Christian
friends.
1.-THE Jews" said DR.. Hirsch, do not
believe in original sin and inherited de-
pravity. They believe every man is a
responsible free agent and is not in
volved in the guilt of his fathers or his
children. OF course, therefore. they do
not believe the story of the fall of man
in the book of Genesis lin its literal
sense. They accept the teachings of
the high criticism and consider the
story of the garden of Eden an allie
CORY.
'As they repect the doctrine of origi-
nal sin they reject. of course, the doc
trine of redemption from sin. They be-
Meve in a Messiah. but the Messiah of
the Old Testament is Il temporal prince
who shall reign over the Jews after
they shall have been reunited and be-
come n nation again in Palestine.
AT least the orthodox Jews believe
this. but the liberal Jews do not believe
in the Messianic prophecies at all. For
instance. the prophecy in Isaiah sup
roSed to teach the miraculous birth Of
Jesus was undoubtedly spoken of Heze-
kaih and properly translated, there is
nothing miraculous about it. -; r.
The Jews hold that Jesus preached
nothing but Judaism. The supremacy
of the commandment to love God and
man. the doctrine of the fatherhood OF
God, the doctrine that the Sabbath was
made for man. the abrogation of the
law of retaliation, the obligation to
love even ones enemies and even the
Lords Prayer. which, which we readi-
ly admit is the sublimest petition ever
framed i'm human language-all these
we claim were taken from the Jewish
writings, some of which We're composed
hundreds of years before Jesus was
born.
Moreover. when it comes to practic-
ing the loving preCepts of Jesus the
Jews claim that the Christians have
made an utter failure of it. The truth
is, Jesus was crucitied by Il Roman
governor and Roman soldiers. and.
though the cruCifiXation was nstigated
by Jews, it was by a few jealous priests
and not by the mass of Jewish people
who admired and loved him, as is evil
dent from his triumphal entry into
Jerusalem the day before
so far as the modern Jews are con-
cerned they regard Jesus as one of the
noblest spiritual teachers that ever an
peared in the world and that the Jews
have furnished the only shining ex-
ample of obedience. The so-called dis
oiples of Jesus have prosecuted the
Jews with savage ferocity for ages and
the Jews have borne these prosecutions
with lamb-like gentleness and silence"
Dr. Hirsch then presented the belief
of the Jews in the resurrection and the
immortality of the soul. He said it
could not be denied that men had a
soul and the bare existence of a soul
proved its immortality after death.