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

and enjoinsS IN His teachings and the
teachings of His early followers and no
less by all true Christians to-day, whether
OF Jewish or gentle ancestry; thus show
Ing that Christians and Jews retain through
the ages that much in common. as the
basis of the homecoming of the Jew who
was broken off from the true church
through unbelief. That this type does not
characterize all so-called Christian nations
only proves that all Christian nations are
not nations of Christians. as similar fact
shows that all so-called Christian churches
are not churches of Christians. 1t is not
TO the disparagement of Christianity that
in a nation whose institutions are affected
enough by the precepts of Christianity TO
cause 1t to be called a Christian nation
there may be found many or even ma
jority who disregard every distinctive pre-
cept of the Christ; nor that in a church
organization comparatively few observe in
their lives all that is meant by their pro-
fession. Such conditions are to be re-
GREETED. but they do not dsprove the truth
of Christianity.
The marvellous preservation of the Jew
through the ages in his racial integrity
n preservation that cannot be accounted
for except by the recognition of the hand
of God, for yet unrevealed purposes no
more remarkable than their proverbial
morality always and everywhere. A Jew
in Police or Criminal Court is a rarity.
and no Jew is ever found in
public almshouse. Not long ago
a stranger was accidentally killed
in Indianapolis. The coroner's inquest de-
veloped the fact that he was a Jew. His
name and residence could not be ascer-
tanned. When the fact of his nationality was
made known to resident Jews they would
not allow him to be buried at public ex-
pense IN the potter's field. They claimed his
body and he was tenderly buried by his
Jewish brethren in the Jews cemetery.
But Notwithstanding these admirable
traits of character, the Jew is prosecuted
everywhere except in England and the
United States. and nowhere is it on account
Of his religion. 1t is as difficult to leave
God out of this fact out of the equally
remarkable fact of His continued preserva-
ton Of the Jew through the ages
in his tribal character. If in this
we may not assume an unfulflled
mission may we not assume purpose in
that? May it not be one punishment for the
rejection of the Christ who gave so many
proofs Of his Messahship? But is there not
in it much more than that, even conceding
that punishment for the sins of the fathers
enters into the fact? Evidently. the imme-
date cause of hatred of the Jew is jhs
thrift in business. He is found everywhere
among the rich merchants and bankers and
manufacturers of the earth. He is. every
where paragon of industry and economy.
he ha hon ant
or manufacturer he digs in trenches or ped
dies fruit deals in junk. If he is noted
for driving a hard bargain his father Jacob
was so noted before him. That was an
enormous price he extorted from his hungry
brother for very cheap supper, and Jo-
seph was no better when, after cornering
the wheat market. he sold at high figures
until he became owner, not only of all the
money the starving Egyptians had, but
of their cattle and farms also. Commerce
and the greed for gold are planting the
Jew among all peoples that when he turns
to the Lord he may already be in position
to lift up the standard of the true God and
to enforce the law of morality as supple
mented by the law of love.
1t was the abiding faith of the early
church that blindness had happened to Is
rael only in part, that the veil that obscured
the truth should be taken away; that the
branches that had been taken off through
unbelef should be grated in again.. They,
If they abide not in unbelef, shall be
grated in, for God Is able to graft them
in again, and so all Israel shall be saved"
Never once did the church i'm the days of
the apostles allow that the followers of the
Christ had left the true church. But when
shall this grating in of the broken-off
branches occur? Evidently not Immediately,
possibly not within century, possibly
not in a millennium. But it must
come, and when it does come Judaism, sup
plemented by the law of love, will be the
universal religion Of the world
He reads current church events superb
cially who is not struck with the manifest
trend of thought towards the coming of the
Jew of to-day to the church of the fathers
vitalized by the new commandment and
adapted to it's worldwide mission, the fill
ing of the earth with the knowledge of the
Lord. Nor are these Indications all on one
side. On the part of the Christian there is
the advancement of the repulsive creeds of
the dark ages. and the substitution of duty
for doctrine. The traditions and command
| ments of men which were proclaimed as
law at the time of Christ were no more
repulsive to thinking people of that day
nor further from the sublime and helpful
doctrines Of Moses and the prophets than
were many of the dogmas that were fabri-
Gated in the monasteries of the middle ages
and for the same purpose: to magnify the
priesthood at the expense of the people, and
to obscure simple trustful faith by dark
cloud of formulas. 1t is wonderful how
many of these dogmas survived each sue
cessive reformation and remained to plague
the church and to repel thousands who felt
the need of a guide and a Savior such as
the Christ is when seen through unclouded
truth. Many of them yet remain in the
| monk-made creeds, but the living pulpit no
longer proclaims them any part of the
truth: they serve only as occasion for
heresy trials now and then, as a tribute of
the belated to the who breaches a
| duty instead of dogma, and prefers to
preach the Christ as the apostles prea ched
Him, rather than to preach the myth that
| medieval superstition promulgates. 1t is
very significant that with the elimination of
dogmas from the pulpit there has come a
wider application of the law of love to the
duties of life and better imitation of the