Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-03-14

Ind they. surrounded by the aims OF
n heather nation ard nader the shad.
ow of the sh'ines Of the idols, they
had to do something to prevent their
| children becoming immoral idolaters.
So what did they doi They withdrew
themselves Just as far aS rossible from
associating with these srtul Babvlo-
ninns. They did what me PurI,ans
did when they were exiles IN Holland.
They did what the foreign missiona-
rles are accustomed TO do amid the
awful customs of the henthen lands.
They keep their children within their
own homes as far as possible. And
when their boys and girls grow too big
to he longer kept clean from the CON
Eliminating immoral Influences of the
east they send them back home TO be
educated in the American homes and
American institutions. oh said an
American missionary some years ago
to me in In/ia 1.-The hardest burden
which a missionary has to bear Is this
separation from his children. But
what can missionary do? cannot
allow my children to grow up amid
the licentious influences Of this land
must separate them from these evil
surroundings. and therefore | send
them back home to be educated and to
be Kept morally and spiritually pure"
when the Puritans arrived in the
city or Ieyden, which was to be their
home for some years to come" wrote
the author of The Pilgrim Fathers Of
New England" "the exiles from Scroo-
by lived very much together, COM
munity within community, dwelling
among strange people" Thus was
1t with the Hebrews in the Babylonlsh
exile. They kept az completely sepa-
rate MS possible, In order to keep their
Hebrew religion pure and undefiled
they became In time a people narrow
and bigoted and clannish SO the be-
ginning Of the sect was altogether COM
mendable. The Jew was n despised
captive. He could not reform the con
ditions around him. but he could reg
lister his protest against them by with
drawing himself from them Not all
the Jews of that time were willing to
thus Withdraw at the cost of obloquy
| and perhaps financial loss. Those who
did Withdraw were called separatists
or Pharsccs Though the Pharsees
as class We're narrow and bigoted.
they had their origin in the noblest and
purest of ideals. They were first or
ganized as sect in order to protect
their own morals and the morals Of
their children.
| cannot illustrate my thought better
| n nv. n l. ~ l., l..
old Jerusalem to the "wailng place" of
the Jews 1t is one OF the great sights
for the Palestine tourist to see Though
! Jerusalem has been under foreign con-
troll for centuries upon centuries, yet
, the intense patriotic Hebrews have not
/ forgotten their race or their religion
They are not allowed to enter the Mo-
hammedan mosque. which is built up
on the site of the old temple, so they
gather day after day at the foot of the
walls where there are stones that once
formed part of the temple. There they
| repeat over and over again the lamen-
tation Of the Seventy-ninth Psalm: 80
God, the heather are come into thine
Inheritance Thy holy temple have
they defiled. They have laid Jerusa-
lem on heaps. We are become re-
proach to our neighbors, a scorn and n
derlsion to them that are roundabout
us. How long Lord? Wilt thou be
angry forever" Thus they stand day
| after day as their fathers stood, and
month after month and year after year
and century after century the weeping
and waillng and praying and pleading
| go on. Thus did the eXiled Hebrews
become the Pharsees or the separators
of Babylon. Day after day. year after
year, they pleaded with God to bring
them back to the Davidc capital.
| How long, 0 Lord" they cried "how
long must we live amid these lcentious
and disappearing Babylonians? How
long? How long? How long," Thus
they prayed. Thus they pleaded. And
thus they refused TO mingle with the
| Chaldean sinners Thus we find that
the genesis of the Pharisees was in
! spired by love for God, by love for
purity and by love for the Mosaic laws.
Their Degeneracy.
| Having explained the genesis OF the
! PhariseeS, it is sad to have to trace
their spiritual degeneracy. When God
| took pity on the race and permitted
them to return TO Palestine. the Phari-
sees We're proud of the attitude they
had taken. They had been faithful
while many of their brethren had not,
and they were proud of It, Now, spir-
itual pride is always a bad thing and
leads men into serious faults. If VOC
once teach the doctrine that the most
important fact of mans life is to live
by a set Of rules and stand up straight,
1t IS not very difficult for him, like n
fancy pigeon, to go strutting around
bending backward. AS he had sepa-
rated from the idolatrous Chaldeans
he now separated himself from his
brethren and plumed himself on his
obedience to the minute letter of the
INV. In order to keep separated from
his fellow men he said II will obey
the law Then. in order to try to fol
low out the letter of the law, he lost
sight Of the spirit of the law. Then he
said, "lf l pay my tithes and | keep
the laws OF purity and obey the law
Of the sabbath, why, I am perfect
man" Now, you know and | know
that there is no set OF laws ever made