The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-11-27
WHAT SOCIETY
OWES THE JEW
Rev. Peter A. Simpkin Delivers STIR
ring Sermon on the Subject.
TRACES THE RECORD BACK
DISCOURSE CALLED OUT BY CON-
oITIoNS IN RUSSIA.

Many Jewish citizens occupied seats
in the Phillips Congregational church
at the morning service yesterday. They
were attracted by the announcement
that the pastor, Rev. p. A. Simpkin,
Mould deliver a sermon bearing par
tcularly on the treatment OF the Jews
IN Russia in recent times. They were
well repaid for their attendance upon
the meeting. The sermon was rich in
historical matter, and the speaker took
high ground i'll handling his subject.
Speaking from the text, L am debtor
to the dew" Mr. Simpkin sought TO
arouse an interest i'm the Jewish con-
dltiOns in Russia He said that While
Paul used the words in a personal
sense, he recognized himself as a part
Of the Jewish life, born into it, nur-
tured at its bosom, absorbing its truth
and religious life, strengthened by its
culture, dedicated to its service, carry
ing mission to its people Verify, he
was q debtor in peculiar, personal
fashion but he was also at one with
the soul of the ages in recognizing
common debt to the Jewish race.
For centuTtes-too many of them-the
world has been guilty of d foolish and
baseless hatred of the wandering
lsraelite because OF q childish inter-
probation of the relation OF the jew to
the greatest fact in history.
Hatred and persecution. Ostracism
and repression, robbery and spOliatiOn.
sarcasm and cynicism, were the only
things the Jew knew at the hands Of
those who profess to be followers of
the meek ana lOWly Christ, the great
est Jew of all history, because. for
sooth. the ecclesiastical leaders o. Jew
~ 1900 years ago pushed tc its merci-
less end the persecution OF our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Christians May Blush.
One bushes for his creed and the
history of its touch upon the world
when he becomes familiar with the
cruel dicta and bloody deeds which
have expressed the Christian attitude
toward the Jews.
with one or two exceptions every
shameful outbreak against him. the
sacking of the ghettos, the shedding of
blood to fill the cutters Of the Juden-
Sasse, the Ostracism that has been eX-
ercised, the social outblotting of the
Israelite from every avenue save that
of barter and loan, these have all been
the actions of nomnally Christian ma
tons, and whether it be the nations of
medieval Europe or modern Russia
aud France, the issue is no less shame
full becaues the cross and the name of
Jesus have been invoked in the doing.
1t is only within the past century and
a half that in the most enlightened
Christian countries there has been Civ
Ell to the children of Abraham that fair
and Just treatment which has made life
bearable and lifted from the brow Of
the Jew the shadow Of the centuries,
from his soul the prison bands of re-
preston and injustice.
Entitled to Respect.
The Jew. i'm himself. is entitled to
respect and warm appreciation apart
from those deep and peculiar religious
claims which are TO be pressed in this
hour. The very presence in the earth
in such numbers of this peculiar people
Of God is to be wondered at when one
remembers how the mills of the centu-
Ties have ground him as he has wall
dered-the one race of Christian his
tory without country.
His means have been voiced again
and again.
But we must wander witheringly in
other lands TO die,
And where our fathers ashes be,
Our own may never lie,
Our temple hath not left a shrine.
ana fnOckllS SITS on SdleiE ) throne.
The national life and character which
broken and scattered as chaff by the
wind can still hold i'm its tiniest frag-
ment the passion of that which was
glorious under David and solomon and
MaccabenO, and which surrendered so
slowly and painfully it's entity under
the pounding of Titus hammer forty
years after the crucifiXion, is a thing
for wonder.
That soul which has produced under
slightly favorable conditions. its Men
delssohns. HumbOldts, Spinozas, Bea-
consfield and Hiracho, is a soul to be
viewed with reverence, for ii proved
the rich and fecund quality of the
greatest-since its stretches from Abra-
ham. by Moses and Isaiah, and John
the Baptist, and Jesus, rich with pow
er to bless forty centuries.