Year: 1877

work dishonorable, and was eating
out the inner life of it; from four
thousand years ago down to this
day-work has been honorable in
the Jewish household; and that
motto, that Proverb stands, which
stood at that early period "He who
brings his chill up without a trade
brings him up to be a thief" On
that principle the children of the
richest Jews, d Jews in the highest
station, were taught how to main
tain themselvesby their own hands
and by their Swn industry. The
making of work honorable is one of
the boons whici God has given to
the human race through this re-
markable people.


Then we are to take noJice how
in the Jewish na5ion, from the very
earliest day, woman took that posi-
tion to which she has been coming
for two thousand years since
through the inspirations of Chris
tianity. While all around them, in
the barbaric East, woman was the
degraded object of mans lust, or of
his convenience as the drudge of
the household, at that very time the
Jewish institutions were ministered
to by priestesses; by women of sin
gular virtue and sagacity and emf
nence. In Greece a woman was not
even permitted to go to the door to
greet her husband or son as he
came from the battle field. She was
not allowed to know music or poe
try or philosophy, if she would be
virtuous. There were women in
Greece who were educated to all the
embellishments and arts of life; ed
ucation in Greece among women
was given with a large hand, and
they were educated in everything
that we consider, to-day, as most
befitting the noblest women; but
alas! no woman was so instructed
unless she was to be a courtesan.
If a woman was to be a mother,
and a woman honored for domestic
virtue, she must be ignorant, and
must not even show her face in a
public assembly, and she must not
appear unveiled in the streets. But
while such was the law in intellect
ual and artistic Greece, in Palestine
the mother, the wife or the daughter
with unashamed and unveiled face
might look upon any man; and if
called to any function, there was no
public sentiment and no law that
prevented her assuming that func-
ton. Whatever a woman could do
well, and was called of God by in
spiration to do, that she was per-
mitted to do; and she stood hon.
ored by what she was. The inval
liable contribution to humanity we
derived from the early example of
this great people.


They also gave to the world, by
their ancient economy, religion
whose genius was the development
of manhood. In other WORDS, they
gave TO the world an ethical reli-
gion, as distinguished from a wor-
Shipping and superstitious religion.
Although the Jew made manifest
every office of devotion and rever-
ence, and although you might select
from the Jewish writer's saints as
eminent in observances as any 9th
ers; yet the distinctive popularity
Of religion among the Israelites was
that it had a practical drift as re-
CARDS the conduct of men. 1t did
not expend itself in lyrics and
prayers and worship. II descended
to the character OF men, and sought
first, and above all other faiths of
that age, to develop manhood. For
the whole flow of that word "right
eousness" in the Old Testament is
the equivalent of our word ''man-
hood" in modern phrase, and seek
tng after Righteousness was the dis
tinctive popularity of the Hebrew
religion. 1t bred race of men
who put into the building of them
selves the attributes of truth, of
justice, of humanity, of morality,
of gentleness and of humility. 1t
reared men who had no equals, and
with whom there was nothing that
could compare in their own time.
The Greeks built better temples
than the Hebrews; but though the
Hebrew hand never carved a mar
BILE, it did better-it carved men.
While the Greeks were so corrupt
in moral matters that they had not
moral sense enough to hold the
State together; while their national
life was perpetually breaking down
under the stress of human nature
for lack of manly character; while
they were making wondrous pic
lures; while they were building
world-renowned temples; while they
were carving heroes in gold and
ivory than which the world never
saw greater, and will never see
greater; while they were making a
sinaulacruna of mankind, the Hebrews
were making nednkind-they were
making man. Such was the very
drift of their religion. And the
apostle, having received the culture
of Greece at the feet of his great
teacher, and knowing what it meant
declared that his brethren sought
after righteousness, but that they
did not well understand what were
the instruments by which the higher
development of manhood was to be
attained. They sought to develop
righteousness by institutions; but
Paul says that no race of people
ever did or ever will, merely by in
stitutions, develop the highest form
of character. That must be done
by following a living example under
a heroic inspiration.


Christ is the law. That is, he
undertook to do that which the
whole law aimed to do, but which
through the weakness Of the flesh
it could not do. He came making
virtue luminous, and interpreting to
mankind so much of the divine dis.
position as can possibly be shown
in the human flesh, by making pos
sible to men that which a man
longs, prays, year1s, signs TO be,
and then helping them to come to
it-namely, to "a perfect man." to
''the measure of the sature of the
fullness of Christ" But this jew
Ish people set the example, by their
religion, which led men to seek
manhood as the chief thing under