 Part 2 Chapter 4 of Israel's Faith. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Israel's Faith by Nathan Solomon Joseph. Chapter 4 Sacrifice and Prayer. When the world was young, men did very much the same as little children do, who bring sweet meats to their parents, thinking that what they themselves like best must be acceptable to their parents. Cain and Abel brought to God offerings, Cain from the fruit which he had tended, Abel from the firstlings of his flocks. Soon afterward, in the time of Seth, we find that man began to call on the name of the Lord. This means that man gave expression to their gratitude in the language of prayer and praise. And thus both sacrifice and prayer existed very early in the history of the world. These were the first religious observances. But we have seen how, in course of time, the people became idolaters, and how they, at last, came to sacrifice men and women, and even their own little children, in the strange belief that if they sacrificed that which was dearest to themselves, it would be pleasing to their gods. So one of the first things that God had to teach the children of Israel was to give up the terrible practices of idolatry. To stop sacrifices altogether and all at once would not have been advisable, perhaps hardly possible, for the desire to give something to God could not be checked. That desire had to be made harmless and even useful. And to this end was instituted the system of sacrifices that we find in the Mosaic Code. In the first laws which God gave the Israelites after the Ten Commandments, he forbade their making gods of silver and gold, but explained to them how they might bring sacrifices. Ye shall not make unto me gods of silver, neither shall you make unto you gods of gold. An altar of earth shall thou make unto me, and shall sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen. The Israelites were not to sacrifice human beings. They might bring as offerings beasts or birds, but these were to be clean animals without blemish. Even then the offerings had to be made in certain fixed and particular ways. Those who brought the sacrifice were not permitted to offer it themselves. It had to be offered by a priest, one of the descendants of Aaron, who were all considered holy servants of God. Any animal required for food by the Israelites during their abode in the wilderness had to be taken to the priest, slaughtered by him, and the blood and fat offered as a sacrifice. All this was to show how sacred a thing is life. It was to show that even the life of a brute was not to be taken lightly or wantonly, and thus the people would be led to think that if the life of a beast be thus regarded, how sacred must be the life of a human being. A large portion of the Book of Leviticus is filled with particulars of the various sacrifices, in the manner in which they were to be offered. We read about burnt offerings, meat offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, trespass offerings, and offerings of consecration. There were daily offerings, offerings on the Sabbath, the festivals, and the day of atonement. The object of all this was to compel a fixed form of sacrifice so that the Israelites might never imitate the wicked idolatries and human sacrifices which they had been accustomed to see in Egypt. These forms of sacrifice, described in the Bible, were sufficient to satisfy all religious feelings and cravings and wants. The work of constructing the tabernacle for the service of God is very minutely described in the Bible. God gives every particular and detail of how it is to be made and how furnished. And so it is prepared and fitted under the very eyes of the people without mystery or concealment, unlike the religious systems of other nations in which the priests made a mystery of everything, lest the people should see the deceptions they practiced. Everything in the tabernacle was so made that the worship therein was to be open and public to the whole assembly of Israelites. The priest was to be seen when he went into the sanctuary and when he came out. The priest was one of themselves, one of the kingdom of priests. He was to minister to God, not as a mediator between God and his people, but solely as a servant of God, performing the service of God according to fixed rules and ordinances. It will probably appear very strange to you that God should accept the blood of an animal as an atonement for men's sins, and it certainly would be very curious if it were true, but it is not true. Nothing could be more ridiculous than the idea that a man who had committed some terrible sin should receive the forgiveness of God by simply bringing to a priest an animal to be slaughtered. And there is nothing in the Bible to warrant so absurd an idea. Read carefully the fifth and sixth chapters of Leviticus, if you wish to understand the spirit and meaning of sacrifices. You will find that if a man committed a sin against God, he had first to make a confession of his sin, and afterward to bring as an offering a lamb or a kid, and if he could not afford a lamb or a kid two turtledoves or two young pigeons. And in case he could not afford these little birds, a tenth part of a measure of fine flour could be offered, and the priest burned on the altar a handful of the flour. In the last case, the sacrifice of the flour, there was no life taken, so there was evidently no sacrifice of blood. And thus you see the taking of life and the sacrifice of blood were not essential to the atonement. The really important part of the proceeding was the confession of the sin and the open declaration of the sinner's penitence. Reading a little further, you will find that if a man sinned against his neighbor by dealing falsely with him, or by robbing him, or by deceiving him, or by detaining lost property that he had found, or by swearing to a neighbor's injury, then he had to bring as a sin offering a ram without blemish. But before bringing it he had to make good to the neighbor he had injured, all that he had wronged him of, and to give him, in addition, one fifth part of the value. In this case it is clear that the really important part of the transaction was not the offering, but the making good, the injury. If we wish further to see how small a value God placed upon sacrifices, compared with the spirit in which the sacrifice was brought, we have only to refer to the prophets and sacred writings. Samuel tells Saul, who, contrary to God's orders, had saved alive the sheep and oxen of the Amalekites to sacrifice to the Lord at Gilgal, behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to hearken than the fat of rams. Isaiah exclaims, To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, sayeth the Lord? I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. Wash you, make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. God proclaims, through his prophet Jeremiah, that the aim of the law was obedience and not sacrifice. The prophet Micah asks, Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand of rivers of oil? What does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God? We read in the 50th Psalm, I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell thee, for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof. Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Transfer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High. King Solomon II, in the 21st Chapter of Proverbs, declares, To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Thus we find that the performance of other duties, such as obedience to God, was considered of greater importance than the bringing of sacrifice. We learn from the prophets that, though we have at present no sacrifices and no priests, there are other means to make ourselves acceptable to God, by penitence, prayer, and praise, by acting justly, mercifully, and charitably. The act of prayer and praise was one of the first observances in the history of mankind. It is therefore proper to say a word concerning prayer in this place. What is the good of prayer? Can we expect that the praises we offer to God are pleasant for Him to hear? Can we hope that He who made all the world listens to our puny voices and feeble words? It seems at first hardly possible, but we know that it is not only possible, but certain. For God Himself commands us to pray to Him and to praise Him. He tells us, when thou hast eaten and art satisfied, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Deuteronomy 12.10. And so in our prayer and our praise we are to look to God as the source of all blessing, to acknowledge Him as the great power who supports, rules, and sustains us. This acknowledgment is the great principle of every religion. When therefore the great men of Israel ordained that we should worship God three times a day, and that we should offer thanks to Him before and after every meal, and utter a blessing on every suitable occasion, their object was a wise one. They intended that, in every act of our lives, we should acknowledge the greatness, goodness, and providence of God, so that the thought that He is always and everywhere at hand should keep us from sinning, and cause us to lead a good and a virtuous life. But even if the law of God had been silent on the subject of prayer, the dictates of our hearts would prompt us to utter words of praise, for gratitude is the natural impulse of man. If you have a favorite dog whom you feed and carefully tend, he will lick your hand and dance around you in delight, and show you his gratitude in many ways. If you have a little bird to whom you daily give his dole of grain and drink, he will warble out his note of thanks every time he sees you. How then can man, who alone has the gift of words, forbear to bring the homage of his heart and the offering of his lips to the Creator, who made him and sustains him? That we should pray to God is a law of God, but also a law of nature, which every man, woman, and child gladly obeys. Perhaps God is pleased with our songs of praise, just as you are pleased to hear the warblings of the little bird for which you care. Through prayer our hearts become elevated, our moral tone improved, and our impulses strengthened for the performance of good and noble deeds. King David, who taught all the world the language of prayer and praise, tells us, It is good to sing praises unto our God, for it is pleasant, and praise is comely. And lest we should think that the great Creator of the universe would not hearken to our prayers, he tells us, The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him. He also will hear their cry, and will save them. There are many who say that we cannot hope to alter the preordained design and intention of God by our feeble prayers. But the same objection might be raised against all human exertion. Shall we then cease to be industrious or ambitious, simply because we cannot see the effect of our efforts at once? Prayer may be one of the means ordained by God to produce the legitimate ends we long for. God delights in granting such of our prayers as our worthy prayers, as a kind father delights in granting the reasonable wishes of his children. Certainly this is the case with all prayers which we sincerely offer for our own moral improvement. It may seem rather strange that the law of Moses, which tells us so many things, does not tell us what prayers we should say. It gives us full particulars of the sacrifices, but ordains very few forms of prayer. In the twenty-first chapter of Deuteronomy may be read a special prayer to be said if a man be found slain, and his murderer cannot be discovered. And in the twenty-sixth chapter of the same book there are prayers which were to be said on bringing the first fruits and on offering the tithes, but these are rather confessions than prayers. Besides these there are really no forms of prayer specially ordained in the law of Moses. Why was this? Because prayers were to be the natural outpouring of the heart. In later times forms of prayer were composed for common use, and certain psalms were sung in the temple by the Levites. Later still, when the Jews returned from the captivity, Ezra, aided by the prophets and scribes of his time, prescribed the order of service, consisting principally of the prayers and psalms than in common use. And these are to be found in our prayer book, together with very many others of much later date, all in Hebrew, except a few of which, having been composed in Babylon during the dispersion, were written in the Aramaic or Caldy dialect, then the mother tongue of the exiled Jews. One may readily understand why our prayer book should be in Hebrew. It is not only our own language, but the language in which God spake to our forefathers. And it is the language which is still used by millions of our brethren in many countries. And though these prayers are only forms of prayer, there is much in the reflection that they are the same that have been used by our people in their synagogues and their homes during many generations, and that they have served during so many ages to bring pious and holy thoughts into the minds and hearts of millions of our forefathers, and to comfort them in their sorrows. But all these prayers are of no avail unless, in praying, we add to these set forms, composed by other people, prayers of your own, which need not be in Hebrew and need not even be in words. I mean loving thoughts of God, grateful thoughts for all His kindness towards you, hopes that He will guide us and give us strength to do our duty and resist temptation, and help us to improve day by day, and so enable us, small and humble though we be, to work His will on earth and earn a place in the life to come. End of Part 2, Chapter 4. Part 11, Chapter 5 of Israel's Faith. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Franklin Vias, Israel's Faith by Nathan Solomon Joseph, Sabbaths and Festivals. Religion consists of two parts, belief and observance. Belief being the act of the mind, observance, the act of the body with the help of the mind. The first religious observance, sacrifice and prayer arose from men's anxiety to do something to show their gratitude to God. It was found necessary to fix particular periods and seasons when men should rest from their daily labours so as to enable them to turn their thoughts to God and to His service, and it was for this reason that the Sabbath and festivals were instituted. In fixing those particular days for His service, God wisely set bounds and limits to the religious fervour of men. We are not to spend our entire time in penance and in prayer. We are meant to work, and religion helps to sanctify our work. The commandment declares, Six days shalt thou labour. Work was to be a duty, and a holy life was to be no excuse for a lazy life. The Sabbath The law of the Sabbath is many times repeated in the books of Moses. Though the wording of the commandment differs slightly in some places, the principle is the same in all. Rest on the Sabbath day for everyone, for yourselves, your household, your servants, and your cattle. The Bible tells us that the Sabbath is a sign between God and ourselves throughout all generations, and this continues to be true even to this day. The observance of the Sabbath is truly a sign. It is truly a test whether a man is one of God's chosen people. The man who, though he may incur great loss or inconvenience thereby, always keeps holy the Sabbath day, shows himself to be a really sincere do. It is a sign between the do and his God. It is a sign that God looks upon Israel as his chosen people, and that the Israelite looks upon God as the guardian of himself and of his race, the source of all earthly blessings, the sustainer of every living creature. And so the Jew brings a sacrifice of one seventh portion of his time to the observance of the Holy Sabbath, in the sure hope and confidence that the time so given to God will not be lost, in the perfect trust that he who ordained the Sabbath will not bring to poverty or want those who keep his Sabbath holy. The Feast of Passover All nations have certain days in the year which they celebrate as anniversaries, just as we observe our birthday every year so nations celebrate, each year the events which they call to mind with pride or pleasure. The early history of Israel was full of events worthy to be remembered. The departure from Egypt, the giving of the law, the travels in the wilderness, these were events worth remembering and they were to be celebrated. Not by cruel sports, not by racist, not by riotous feasts, as is customary among many modern people, but by joyful thanksgiving and by charitable deeds. Now why do you keep the Passover Festival simply to recall the great deliverance of our fathers from the bondage of Egypt? Let us see. We who live in this happy land, free to worship God according to our conscience, free to do as we please, to go where we please, to work as we please, can hardly imagine what it was to live as did our forefathers in Egypt, under the rule of the wicked pharaohs, to be slaves, to be obtained to work not for themselves, but for others, to have nothing of our own, to be beaten by cruel taskmasters who give impossible tasks, to work in fear and dread, without hope and without the comforts and joys of home. This was the experience of the poor Israelites. And worse than all, the lives of their children were not safe for the cruel king, at one time doomed them to destruction. Such was the state of bondage from which God delivered them. But why should we, year after year and after so many centuries call to mind by the observance of Passover, these terrible trials of our forefathers, to show our gratitude to God is doubtless one reason. But there is yet another reason to declare to the world the right of man to be free. Passover is the festival of freedom. We read the history of our ancestors in Egypt and relate their wonderful deliverance and the fall of the tyrant who had oppressed them. And we thereby declare that God ordained man to be free, free in body and free in mind. And we offer a warning to slave owners, to tyrants and to oppressors that God will break their power. For people are not everywhere free and happy as we are. Here it still exists in many parts of the world. There are many countries where Jews are still oppressed, their lives and their property in constant danger where our people cannot meet for public worship nor even permit to be known that they are Jews. By grace of God, Israel has lived through all persecution and is today as strong as ever. Before after power has perished, nation after nation has disappeared, but Israel alone has remained alive through all these thousands of years and year after year celebrates with joy and gladness and gratitude the great festival of freedom. We know how the festival is celebrated, how before the festival begins, the home is cleansed from leaven so that no particle of it remains. Seder night is observed, every household joining in solemn prayer and praise, reading the narrative of the exodus, seated around the table containing of paschal lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs. How at that table all sit as equals, parents and children, master and servant, host and guest, how for more than a week unleavened bread is eaten and no leaven is allowed in our homes. How we meet in the synagogue to praise God for his mercies and how on the seventh day of the festival we read the story of the wonderful passage of the Red Sea and sing the song of Moses in the same words used by our forefathers. When you eat the unleavened bread, which is called the bread of affliction, think of the first unleavened bread which our forefathers made in their hurried departure from Egypt. When you eat the bitter herbs, think of the bitter hardships our ancestors suffered in the land of bondage. How thankful you must feel that you are free and happy, that you are Jews and openly declaring before the world the greatness, goodness, and glory of God, for you are the living witnesses of his greatness, goodness, and glory. Every Passover for thousands of years, those same words of prayer and praise have been sung, which you sing, those same customs have been observed, which you observe, thus making you feel as if you yourselves had just come out of Egypt, the objects of God's bounty and mercy. The Feast of Weeks On the second day of Passover, when the sickle was first put to the corn and the wheat harvest begun, the Israelites were to bring as an offering, a sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest, for seven weeks afterward the days were to be counted, and on the fiftieth day, when the seven weeks were over, the Feast of Weeks was to be kept. The first of the first fruits was to be brought to the house of the Lord, and so this festival is not only called the Feast of Weeks, but also Shabu-Wolf, or the Day of First Fruits. In Palestine, the summer is much earlier than here. The barley was ripe at the Passover season, and the corn was gathered in when the Feast of Weeks had arrived. On this festival, the first fruit offering was brought into the temple. A remarkable prayer was recited when the first fruits were brought to the temple by each Israelite. It concludes with the words, and now behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me. It is to be found in Deuteronomy, chapter 26, verses 2 to 10. These last words emphasize that great principle of our religion, the recognition of God in every act of our life, in every good thing that we receive, in every happiness that we enjoy. The prosperous farmer, fresh from his harvest field, might feel puffed up with a sense of his importance, might grow too proud of his possessions, and might think that it is to his own industry and talent that all his wealth is due. But the day of the first fruits draws near. He obeys the Divine command and brings his offering to the holy place. He joins the procession, which came from every city and village of Palestine, bringing to the temple of Jerusalem the choiciest first fruits, decked with the finest flowers, amid the sound of music, and the voice of song, echoing the words, O come, let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God. No matter how rich he may be, he himself must carry on his shoulder his own first fruit, and standing before the priest, he recites the ordained prayer, and finishes with the words, and now behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me. The boast half-rising to the lips of the successful farmer would be suppressed at the humble confession of his lowly origin, and at the prayer which acknowledges God as the source of all good. To us, who live in a climate where the wheat harvest is gathered several months later than in Palestine, the feast of weeks held in May or June can present only a shadow of its former beauty, and instead of bringing like our ancestors our first fruits, we are forced to content ourselves with adorning our synagogues with choice flowers as a memorial of nature's bounty and God's loving kindness. But from another point of view, the feast of weeks is as much to us as ever it was to our forefathers. It is the anniversary of the giving of the law on Sinai, the anniversary of the greatest event that the world has ever witnessed, the revelation of God to his people Israel. The feast of booths, we are commanded to dwell in booths for seven days, commencing on the fifteenth day of the seventh month to remind us that God cost the children of Israel to dwell in booths when he led them out of the land of Egypt. These seven days are the feast of booths, and the eighth day was ordained to be kept as a solemn assembly. We are commanded too to take on the first day of the festival the fruit of a goodly tree, the citron, the branches of palm trees, the bows of thick-leaved trees, the myrtle, and willows of the brook, and to rejoice before the Lord seven days. It is interesting to read in the book of Nehemiah how after a long interval of neglect, this festival was observed by our ancestors under Ezra the scribe, how they published and proclaimed in all their cities and in Jerusalem saying, go forth unto the mount and fetch olive branches and pine branches and myrtle branches and palm branches and branches of thick trees to make booths as it is written, and how the people went forth and brought them and made themselves booths everyone upon the roof of his house and in the courts and in the court of the house of God. In this climate, it happens unfortunately that the season when the festival falls is usually a rainy time of the year and thus the command to dwell in booths or temporary huts is not so generally observed by our people as it should be. But there are yet many zealous Jews in this country who in spite of the great inconvenience yet make an effort to observe the command as ordained and who erect tabernacles were in they eat their meals and spend a portion of their time during the festival those who can afford it decorate their tabernacles with lamps and pictures and flowers and fruits making the little home truly a thing of beauty. The law of Moses does not tell us how to make a sukkah or booth but according to tradition the main feature of the sukkah is the roof which must be formed of green leaves arranged in such a manner that the sky may be seen between the leaves so as to indicate the temporary character of the structure as distinguished from the permanent sealing of an ordinary dwelling. It is not only to remind us of the wonderings of our ancestors in the wilderness but also to bring to our minds thoughts of gratitude toward God who favors us with his bounty at the feast of in gathering when we might perhaps be filled with pride at our poorly success we are told to leave our warm substantial homes and to take up our abode in the frail booth roofed like the hut of a wanderer. Looking at this leafy roof we see the sky and call to mind the heavenly hand that made and fashioned us and gave us all we have we see the starry hosts of heaven and understand our own nothingness and the frail covering which scarcely keeps out rain and wind makes us think of those poor distressed creatures who would have no roof to shelter them but for our timely aid. The beautiful trophies of nature too which we are commanded to take during the festival are meant to lead us to like thoughts of duty and gratitude the palm emblem of uprightness the citron and myrtile emblems of that charity that spreads its fragrance far and wide giving much yet losing nothing and the willow emblem of true humility these choice gifts of nature we are together and looking at them learn from them a holy lesson and in all our rejoicings we are to be mindful of others besides ourselves not only shout thou rejoice says the bible but thy man servant and thy maid servant and the levite the stranger and the fatherless and the widow that are within thy gates are to share the bounties of nature and take part in the joys of a happy harvest home it is the custom of the synagogue to signalize the close of these holidays by a celebration thoroughly characteristic of our religion known as Simca Torah the rejoicing in the law on this occasion the synagogue is made to wear its most festive aspect the sacred scrolls of the law decked in gorgeous vestments are carried in procession round the holy edifice even little children participating while hymns of praise and thanksgiving attuned to joyous music testify our gratitude to god for his goodness in having permitted us again to complete the reading of that law which is our greatest treasure end of part 11 chapter 5 recording by franklin vias part 2 chapter 6 of israel's faith this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org israel's faith by nathan solomon joseph the new year's day and day of atonement chapter 6 in the seventh month in the first day of the month shall ye have a Sabbath a memorial of blowing of trumpets and holy convocation ye shall do no servile work therein Leviticus 23 verses 24 and 25 god ordained the new year's festival to be a day of memorial or day of remembrance that is to say a day on which he calls to mind everything we have done during the past year and passes judgment on us according to our work and as he is placed within every one of us a conscience he ordained that on that day the shafar ramshorn should be sounded to awaken that conscience so that all of us may on that day consider our acts examine our own conduct and judge ourselves truthfully even as god judges us the duty of self-examination and self-judgment is one of the greatest of the duties we owe to ourselves and it is right that we should perform this duty not merely once a year on the day of memorial but every night when we retire to rest king david tells us stand in awe and sin not commune with your heart upon your bed in the silence of night some of us will no doubt fancy such frequent examination quite unnecessary and may they get likely to make us too serious miserable but this is a mistake every morning and perhaps twice or thrice a day we are accustomed to look at ourselves in the glass to see if we are clean and tidy and when we are satisfied with our appearance the site does not make us miserable or serious perhaps quite the reverse and so if the examination of our acts and thoughts and the judgment of our conscious be satisfactory and we feel good and clean and spotless in the sight of god the result is increased happiness but god knowing how apt we are to forget this great duty of self-examination ordained the day of memorial so that at least once a year we should be judged by himself and our conscience and so be prepared for the great day of atonement which is to follow nine days later the shofar ramshorn sounding its plaintive and tremulous notes in the synagogue is meant to arouse us from our fancied security to awake our slumbering conscious to remind us of our position year by year we are expected to improve not alone in education and worldly knowledge but in heart and mind and soul every year as we grow older and draw nearer to that day which will be the close of our life here and the opening of new life in the world to come we are expected to become pure and nobler in spirit every year to have fewer faults and greater virtues every year to grow more godly and as each day of memorial comes around we have to satisfy ourselves that this improvement is taking place in our soul in that part of us which is immortal but if not what then if when the trumpet sounds and when we review our ways and works and examine our heart and soul we find duties neglected bad passions encouraged vices increased days wasted what then shall we in despair go deeper and deeper into wickedness shall we waste our time in useless tears no god has opened to us the door of escape from evil has given us the power of repentance and the chance of forgiveness and reconciliation by ordaining for that purpose his great day of atonement for on that day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you that you may be clean from all your sins before the lord the day of atonement is the holiest day of the year the day which we give entirely to god and to the purifying of our soul by repentance during that day no thought of the world or of its profits and pleasures may enter our minds we are to spend the whole day in meditation and prayer we are to afflict ourselves and tradition has ordained that part of that affliction shall consist of abstaining from food and drink from sunset to sunset for one whole day we are to forget our body and to think only of our soul that living soul which god planted within us when he breathed into our nostrils the breath of life just as we feel how refreshing it is to take a bath to cleanse our body from impurity so must we feel how refreshing it is to take means for purifying our soul and causing our transgressions to pass away year by year so that at least once a year we may be clean from all our sins before the lord and truly it is a great privilege that god should have given us the great day of atonement to remove the soul the burden of sin so that every year we may as it were begin a new life with a clean and spotless soul and a light and joyful heart how shall we celebrate the day of atonement so as to receive pardon for our sins the bible tells us how this may be done by confession by penitence by prayer and by good deeds and our prayer book is to be found the form of public confession of sins which probably includes every possible kind of transgression but although it is right that every Jew worshiping in public should join with his fellow worshipers in one general form of confession yet this is not the confession which can satisfy us as individuals each one of us must make a confession of his own special sins not to a priest as is the custom with members of other faiths but to god and to ourselves confession is the first step toward betterment we must feel and own that we are wrong before we are likely to cease our wrongdoing and the confession must be accompanied by a firm resolution never to repeat the wrong and so far as may be possible to repair its effects penitence then does not consist as many think it does of mere sorrowful prayers of forgiveness nor of mere empty confessions there must be active penitence reparation for the past and resolution for the future if we have injured or offended our neighbor the injury or offense must be made good before we can hope for forgiveness and if the wrong has been the neglect of a duty we must do our best by our future efforts to remedy the effects of our neglect this is the true penitence of the day of atonement it is little better than a superstition indeed it is superstition to suppose that our inequities are removed by a miracle as the result of our prayers and our fasting the prayers and the fasting are aids to true penitence for they bring the penitent to a proper frame of mind but they are useless and less accompanied by some practical good such as reparation and works of charity and mercy the old Jewish sages tell us that the day of atonement expiates sins between man and his maker but not between man and man for these the only atonement is the redress of the injury is a the prophet has indeed well expressed the meaning and value of the solemn day of atonement when he wrote these stirring words is it such a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul is it to bow down his head as a bull rush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him wilted out call this a fast and an acceptable day unto the Lord is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bonds of wickedness to undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke is it not to deal thy breath to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out into thy house when thou see us the naked that thou covered them and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thine health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward then shout thou call and the Lord shall answer thou shout cry and he shall say here I am observed in the spirit the day of atonement cannot fail to work such blessed changes within us as will influence our lives for our own good and for the welfare of our fellow men end of part two chapter six part two chapter seven of israel's faith this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org social duties after god had given the ten commandments he gave to moses a series of judgments that is to say the laws which were to regulate their manners and their dealings with one another god might have said in the few words be just and kind to each other and this would have included everything but it would not have been sufficiently practical so it was necessary to go into detail laws relating to servitude the first series of these judgments referred to slavery or more properly to servitude now it might be supposed that one of the first laws that would have been given to a nation just released from slavery would have been a law for putting an end to all sorts of bondage indeed many writers who have looked only on the surface have regarded the mosaic law as cruel because they believe that it permitted slavery but it will be seen that slavery in the sense in which we understand it was distinctly prohibited god ordains that he that steal of the man and sell of him or if he be found in his hand he shall surely be put to death so slavery such as existed until lately in some parts of america and such as still exists in certain spanish possessions and parts of asia and africa could never have existed or it was an act punishable by death to steal a human being still there was a mild kind of slavery permitted first strangers who were taken prisoners of war could be bought and sold as bondsmen secondly he brews who had been found guilty of certain crimes were sentenced to a penal servitude and were liable to be sold as slaves but for no longer than six years unless they of their own accord renewed their servitude in the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing thirdly he brews who had become so poor that they could not support themselves or their families might sell themselves into servitude but their servitude would also expire at the end of the sixth year unless voluntarily renewed no unkindness of any sort was permitted towards servants or slaves a runaway slave might not be captured and restored to his master if a master struck his servant or slave and injured him however slightly he was obliged to let him go free when the time of servitude was over the hebrew slave or servant did not go out into the world empty-handed he was to have enough to enable him to recommence his life of freedom thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock and out of thy floor and out of thy wine press of that wherewith the lord thy god hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him and thou shalt remember that thou was a bondsman in the land of Egypt and the lord thy god redeemed thee therefore I command thee this thing today now we understand why the laws of slavery or servitude were the first of the judgments given to the israelites god reminds us you have yourselves been bondsmen remember when you become masters not to be tyrants like the egyptians but to be kind and merciful to those you have to serve you protection of life and limb for man killed another intentionally with guile it was willful murder and he was surely to be put to death but if a man killed another by accident then he was to be exiled to one of the cities of refuge whereas life was to be saved from the avenger of blood this exile must have been a terrible punishment for carelessness must have prevented many of those accidental deaths which now too commonly occur from negligence and want of thought in olden times and even in modern times among barbarous nations was the custom for the nearest relative of a person killed either intentionally or by accident to be the avenger of blood and to slay him who had caused his relatives death the humane mosaic code permitted this revenge to be carried out only when the death was the result of a willful act clearly proved and the avenger of blood was not allowed to follow to the city of refuge and to slay the man who had been guilty of man's slaughter or accidental killing even the life of the murderer was not to be sacrificed without an absolutely certain proof of his guilt he could be put to death only on the evidence of at least two witnesses and these were bound to be eyewitnesses not merely witnesses bring circumstantial evidence or or facts tending to discriminate the accused but actual eyewitnesses of the crime other crimes besides murder were punishable by death such as blasphemy or speaking disrespectfully of god worshiping strange gods Sabbath breaking striking apparent cursing apparent man stealing and practicing witchcraft but the punishment of death was so hemmed in by laws of evidence all in favor of the accused especially by the law requiring two eyewitnesses of the guilt that an execution was a very rare occurrence and the death punishment might rather be regarded as a preventative a terror to evil doers than a social revenge the laws relating to personal injuries not involving death have frequently been decried as barbarous the words used in the bible are eye for eye tooth for tooth hand for hand foot for foot burning for burning wound for wound stripe for stripe it will be readily understood that this law must have been a terror to evil doers it must have prevented many an act of violence at first sight it seems to foster the passion for revenge but in reality it manifests a spirit of mercy in an age when strong passions and lawlessness prevailed no better means could have been adopted than this for curbing the spirit of might against right and for protecting the weak against the strong before the giving of the law it frequently occurred that the man who had suffered an injury would himself or through his relatives inflict the like injury upon the offender a sort of lynch law prevailed such as even now prevails in some parts of Italy Corsica and Sicily where the principle of personal revenge known as vendetta exists the mosaic law steps in between the injured party and the offender it declares that the offense must first be proved according to strict rules of evidence and if proved must be regarded as an offense against society which no longer the individual but the strong arm of the law must avenge it was to be no longer a case of private revenge which might overstep the bounds of justice and meet out a punishment disproportionate to the offense it was to be a case of calm deliberate decision by the judges according to strict rules of evidence and the punishment was to be no greater than the offense it is absolutely certain that the law of eye for eye was never really enforced it was intended rather as a threat to prevent crimes of violence and to indicate the extent of the debt due to the perpetrator to his victim and be it understood that the law only referred to cases of personal injury intentionally inflicted the infliction of accidental injury or even of injuries resulting from a fair fight was punished differently the offender was in such cases to pay fair compensation the amount being determined by the judges we find that if two men fight and one injures the other and he died not but keep with his bed if he rise again and walk abroad upon his staff then shall he that smote him be quit only he shall pay for the loss of his time and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed the like principle of compensation is enforced in the cases of injuries resulting from negligence if an ox known to have been mischievous gored a man to death the ox was destroyed the owner was considered responsible and deserving of the punishment of death but he was allowed in this case to give compensation to the family of the victim in lieu of inflicting the punishment of death on the careless owner of the ox if an ox injured a servant the owner of the ox was bound to pay compensation to the master for the loss of service and the ox was to be killed must be understood that in all these precepts the ox is to be regarded only as a representative animal being the beast most likely to inflict injury in that similar laws were applicable to injuries resulting from the attacks of other animals the law of battlements is another representative law having for its object the protection of human life from possible danger it is enacted that when thou buildest a new house then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof that thou bring not blood upon thy house if any man fall from vents no modern code contains laws guarding more jealously in the interest of human life and limb the law just referred to doubtless had greater significance in oriental customs where most of the roofs are flat and where people walk about on the housetops but the law equally applies to other places besides roofs it indicates that any source of possible danger to life must be carefully and religiously avoided writes a property it was declared unlawful to remove any boundary mark defining the ancient limits of land for the removal of such landmark might rob a neighbor of part of his possessions it was declared unlawful to appropriate any lost property and the finder was bound to search out the owner and restore the property to him the master might not keep back the wages of his servant but was bound to pay him properly any injury done by leaving an open pit unprotected had to be paid for by the careless owner of the pit if one ox killed another the owners of the two oxen were to share the dead and living animals but if the assailing ox was known to have been previously mischievous and the owner had not tied him up he had to pay ox for ox but the dead animal became his property compensation was to be made for any injury to a field or to a vineyard caused by straying cattle and in the case of the accidental burning of standing crops the person who kindled the fire had to make restitution if an animal or other property deposited with anyone was lost or stolen damaged or destroyed and the delinquent could not be discovered he who had taken charge of the property had to be put on trial and he satisfied the judges by a statement on oath that he had not himself been the cause of the loss theft or damage he was absolved but he had to make good the loss if the animal or property had been lent to him the actual owner not being present the rights of property might not be unduly or harshly enforced against the very poor or against the hungry wayfarer those who had occasion to work in or were passing through a vineyard might eat some of the grapes but might not carry away any with them and a man passing through a cornfield might pluck a few years of corn with his hand and eat them but he was not allowed to cut any with his sickle and to remove them in bulk rights of poverty the poor law of the mosaic code gave the poor certain rights whereby they might sustain life and even recover their lost position charity has always been looked upon by our race as a cardinal virtue even the enemies of our faith have always regarded the charity of the jews as their greatest merit and the care they have bestowed upon their poor has ever evoked the wonder and admiration of the gentile world however the charity of our people has probably not been due to mere sentiment but rather to a habit the result of the action of our poor laws the result to the fact that the poor in accordance with those laws occupy a recognized position among us the poor shall never cease out of the land therefore i command me saying thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother to thy poor and to thy needy in thy land these words left much to the liberality of the individual but there were certain rights which the poor possessed independently of such liberality the gleaning of the field were not to be gathered by the former nor was he permitted to reap the corn stanny in the corners of the fields these were to be left for the widow the fatherless and the stranger so to the forgotten sheaf the gleaning of the olive yard and vineyard and their second crop were to be left for the poor and stranger we are enjoying to lend money to the poor a loan being less humiliating than a gift and alone to any of our own people must invariably be without interest thou shall not give him thy money upon interest nor lend him the vituals for increase interest was allowed to be charged to a non israelite if the money was borrowed for mercantile purposes but it was not allowed to be charged the debt was incurred by a stranger who had fallen into poverty or who required help for his subsistence at the end of every seven years the debt was canceled every creditor that lend it ought unto his neighbor shall release it he shall not exact it of his neighbor or of his brother because it is the Lord's release of a foreigner thou may exact it again but even against the foreigner no act of oppression was allowed thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor press him for he were strangers in the land of Egypt nor was the thought of the year of release and the possible loss of the money to weigh with the lender beware that there be not a wicked thought in my heart saying the seventh year the year of releases at hand and nine I be evil against thy poor brother and thou givest him not and he cry unto the Lord against thee and it be sin unto thee thou shalt surely give him and nine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him again it is said thou shall not harden by heart nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother nor was the lender who took security for a loan to retain the article pledge if it was an article of necessity if thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge thou shalt delivered unto him by that the sun goeth down for that is his covering only it is his raiment for his skin wherein shall he sleep a widow's raiment might not be taken in pledge nor might any implement of daily labor be accepted as a security but the greatest of the rites of poverty was enforced by the law of tithe besides the tithe of all produce which was annually given to the Levites the israelite was obliged to bring every third year the tenth part of his increase for the use of the poor at the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the ties of thine increase the same year and shall lay it up within thy gates and the Levite because he hath no part or inheritance with thee and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow which are within thy gates shall come and shall eat and be satisfied that the lord thy god may bless thee and all the work of thy hand which thou doest in every city storehouses were established for the reception of the tithe and from this reserve the needy were enabled to draw one misfortune befell them but even these were not the only rites of poverty the year of release was also the sabbatical year the year in which the land rested although during the sabbatical year the farmer was not doomed to idleness for he could dig water tanks erect farm buildings construct terraces for his vineyards repairs had just in boundary walls the land had to rest so as to recruit its exhausted strength no seed was then sown or vineyard pruned and no fruit gathered by the owner the producer the sixth year being always sufficient for the consumption of three years but though the land was holy to rest on the seventh year the crops still grew the fruit still ripened all these crops and fruits belong to the poor and this beneficent arrangement probably enabled them to clear themselves of debt by payment when their sense of honor would not permit the year of release to wipe off their obligation to their creditors the land laws every fiftieth year the year of jubilee all land that had been sold reverted to the original owner or to his family so the family of the poor man who had been compelled to sell his possessions became again possessed of worldly means and thus the institution of the jubilee at a time when land was the chief item of wealth prevented that cardinal evil of civilized life the concentration of wealth and the few to the detriment of the many the circumstance that gives rise to those terrible contrasts of modern society excessive wealth and excessive poverty except houses and world cities which could be sold as a perpetual possession no landed property could be sold as freehold for the land is mine say at the lord we're told in the book of joshua how and when the israelites had arrived in the promised land and conquered it the country was divided by lot among the various tribes in each man had his share thus at the outset everyone possessed his parcel of land now if a man became poor and sold his land he or his relatives might if they had the means at any time repurchase it paying for it according to the number of years that had to run to the jubilee even a house in a walled city which might be sold forever could be repurchased at the same price by the original owner at any time within a year of the sale but however poor he and his descendants might be in the year of the jubilee the land must revert to them and so their poverty would not be lasting all these laws tended to check the greed for acquiring land seemingly one of the appetites of man which if indulged in excess must tend to the prejudice of his fellow creatures education and these days when education is becoming general it is refreshing to turn back to the mosaic code and see what provision was there made for the instruction of the young and especially for their religious education the levites were the appointed instructors of the people they shall teach jacob thy judgments in israel thy law from the age of 25 to 50 they performed the service of god in the tabernacle or temple and after the age of 50 they ceased waiting upon the service but ministered with their brethren in the tabernacle of the congregation to keep the charge but though the levites were thus ordained to be the ministers of religion and the public teachers the holy law established a principle of religious instruction which was to be by far the most important part of education the instruction of children by their parents the laws of god were not to be taught solely by public teachers thou shall teach them diligently to thy children and shall talk of them when thou sittest in mine house and when thou walkest by the way it was to be the province of parents to instill religion into their own children not only for the sake of the children but for their own sakes moses tells the people only take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen unless they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life but teach them thy children and thy children's children to teach religion to our children is to keep religion alive both in ourselves and in them what teaching can be so forcible as a parent's teaching and what lesson can be so impressive as the lesson given by a father to his children while walking abroad with them discoursing of the wonders of nature and the will of nature's god and so when god gave ordinances for the guidance of his chosen race he established a testimony in jacob in a point of the law in israel which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children that the generation to come might know them even the children which should be born who should arise and declare themselves to their children that they may set their hope in god and not forget the works of god but keep his commandments history shows that many branches of knowledge have been lost and many arts and sciences utterly forgotten because parents have neglected the natural duty of teaching their own children this happened with the ancient egyptians grazed of all nations of antiquity in the arts of construction in science and in philosophy their knowledge became lost to the world because instruction was in the hands of a privileged and dominant class the priests who used their position for their own aggrandizement keeping their knowledge to themselves and leaving the multitude in ignorance and superstition so with the ancient chinese conspicuous among eastern nations for the cultivation of science and literature nearly all their knowledge was lost to the world in the like manner but our code maintains knowledge to be the heritage of the whole human race and not the monopoly of priest or levite it declares that there to be no priestly mysteries or secrets that education is a public right of the whole nation as well as a private duty of parent to child that all revealed knowledge is public property that though the secret things belong to the lord our god those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever religious toleration it has been frequently charged against the mosaic code that it was wanting and mercy and toleration in as much as it preached the wholesale destruction of certain idolatrous tribes of canaan the fact that the israelites were entrusted with the duty of utterly exterminating those tribes must be candidly admitted they were ordered to save alive nothing that breatheth and the fact is certainly a terrible one even the women and children were to be slaughtered why this fearful carnage the bible answers the question the seven idolatrous tribes the hittites girgoshites amurites canaanites parisites hevites and jabu sites were to be exterminated that they teach you not to do after all their abominations which they have done unto their gods what those abominations were we know not precisely for the pentioch only hints at certain of these crimes too fearful to mention there must have been pollution and everything they touched for we read that moses ordered all the spoils of midian to be destroyed except such things as could pass through the fire and could thus be purified there are mental and moral diseases as loathsome and as infectious as any which affect the body may it not have been even an act of supreme mercy that god by a terrible act of extermination prevented the evil from increasing and spreading till the whole world became a massive corruption when then we read of these fearful wars of extermination we must not regard them as evincing anything like a want of forbearance or toleration towards followers of a religion differing from our own and we should rather seek in the pentioch for the special laws which teach us how we should treat members of an alien faith we are told that shall not vex a stranger nor oppress them for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt even the Egyptians by whom the Israelites had been so unmercifully treated were to be required with charitable forbearance thou shall not abhor an Egyptian because thou wasst a stranger in his land the law knew no difference between Jew and Gentile if a stranger sojourned with you in your land he shall not vex him but the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you and thou shalt love him as thyself for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt one law shall be to him that is home born and one unto the stranger that sojourneth among you a stranger was permitted to join in the divine service of the tabernacle in temple and was even allowed to bring an offering to the altar of god if a stranger sojourned with you or whosoever be among you in your generations and will offer an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord as ye do so shall he do one ordinance shall be both for you and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you in ordinance forever in your generations as ye are so shall be the stranger before the Lord no lesson of religious toleration could be enforced in stronger terms than those the bible practically tells us if god can thus tolerate those who believe not in the true religion why should not we he love it the stranger in giving him food and raiment love ye therefore the stranger there is however a kind of spurious tolerance which is not the result of true philosophy or true liberality but rather the effect of religious indifference it is common enough to hear persons indifferent to religion say that one religion is as good as another against such indifference the bible warns us there may be no lax attachment to our religion there must be full and complete loyalty to the one and only true god that such loyalty need not detract from our tolerance of the religions of others may be best proved by reference to a prayer perhaps the most remarkable in the whole bible prayer of king Solomon at the dedication of the temple he crazed the blessing of heaven on the building he has raised to the glory of god and begs that the prayers and supplications that he and his people may there offer may be favorably answered and then he crazed the same blessing for those who were not of his own faith moreover concerning the stranger which is not of thy people israel but has come from a far country for thy great name's sake in thy mighty hand in thy outstretched arm if they come and pray in this house then hear thou from the heavens even from thy dwelling place and do according to all that the stranger called it to be for we know from the talmudical and other accounts of the temple that this prayer was not as some might suppose the mere individual expression of a wise liberal king for it has been found that surrounding the raised platform on which the temple was erected in a line between the outer protocol and the temple proper there was a great corridor 30 cubits 45 feet wide which was known as the court of gentiles destined for the worship of strangers and that this court was many times larger than the court of the man of israel the prayer of king Solomon and its application to the gentile world was therefore no dead letter the liberal spirit which pervades this noble prayer is the spirit of our holy law if that spirit had permeated the two creeds which have sprung from our religion then history would not have had to record as it unfortunately does so many stories of persecution so many rains of terror so many orgies of fire and sword the jew acting in the spirit of the mosaic code proclaims all men equal in the sight of god he hopes and believes that the day will come when all the world will recognize the one true god till then there may be many religions there can be but one morality and so our sages and the true spirit of toleration have declared that the righteous of every faith have their share in the world to come end of part two chapter seven part two chapter eight of israel's faith this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org israel's faith by nathan solomon joseph oral duties the restraints of law may prevent men from being criminal but will not make the virtuous one constantly meets men who are seemingly good citizens and who yet are bad and moral and irreligious men but such a contradiction the mosaic code does not recognize that shall be perfect with the lord thy god perfect before god is before the world it is not sufficient to do one's duty to the country in which we live to obey its laws to be patriotic and pay our dues to the state no one can be a truly good citizen without being a virtuous man love of god first among the moral duties which belong to every religion is the duty to love fear and revere god it seems so simple a matter to love the great being to whom we owe our existence our food our clothing our strength our faculties and all we possess that obedience to this law should be as natural as obedience to the appetites of hunger and thirst but our faith does not permit us to indulge in a piety that costs us nothing and that is a mere obedience to a natural instinct for we are told not merely to love god but to love him with all thine heart with all thy soul and with all thy might what does this signify the long array of martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for the sake of their religion will afford the best interpretation of these words with all our heart the center of our emotions with all our soul the fountain of our thought our reason and our faith with all our bodily powers with every nerve and every muscle that makes us beings of action we are to show our love of god and be prepared to sacrifice everything for him but we jews are no longer called upon to bear the crown of martyrdom to die for our faith how then can we show our love of god the bible tells us how to keep the commandments of the lord and his statutes which i command thee this day for thy good we have to keep the law not only for god's glory or his pleasure but for our good how can the obedience of a small nation and one of his little planets profit him the creator of the universe behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens as the lord thy gods the earth also and all that there and is thus love of god means obedience to his will and obedience to his will brings happiness there is one great point of difference between judaism and other religions although our religion undoubtedly requires of us many sacrifices and restraints yet judaism is essentially a happy religion it is not a religion of long faces many fasts and everlasting seriousness our sabbath for instance is not a puritanical sabbath we are not to show our love to god by making ourselves miserable though we are called a kingdom of priests we are not to be a nation of monks and nuns we are not to grown away our lives although several fast days were instituted to commemorate sad events that have befallen our people on one day only in the year does the law bid us afflict our souls we are to serve the lord with gladness enter his presence with a song our religion and our happiness are to go hand in hand our love of god and obedience to his laws are to make us happy but though the love of god is the duty and joined by every religion there's something special about that duty as enjoined upon the jew other religions have their secondary deities or demigods or mediators but the god of the jew is the one soul god the creator of the universe who works by his own great power and who nevertheless may be approached in prayer and supplication by the humblest of his creatures without any mediator and in these words does he declare his sovereign power see now that i even i am he and there is no god with me i kill and i make alive i wound and i heal neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand other faiths have regarded god as a deity who will not forgive without the mediation of a being half god half man or that of a priest our religion represents god is a god merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin so that we need no one to crave pardon on our behalf the priests of other faiths have invented the terrible idea of hell with the devil as its presiding deity and this hell they represent as a place of eternal torment for the souls of the wicked and the unbeliever our religion knows no such sacrilegious ideas it cannot allow that god who claims our love and whose universe abounds with proofs of his kindness can be capable of meeting out eternal punishment to a human soul it cannot conceive that the same god who gave us in his code a true message of love in which we are enjoined to be kind to our neighbors our dependents and even to the helpless brutes could afflict everlasting torture on the souls of those whom he created in his own image would he then permit the existence of a devil or god of evil side by side with him to counteract his goodness and to check his mercy there is no god beside me is the divine declaration the idea that a loving god should inflict eternal punishment is too revolting to be even contemplated we are told to fear god to fear his displeasure not as we would fear a tyrant king but as we would fear to incur the displeasure of a parent or to forfeit his love when he speaks of punishing us it is in the language of a wise father to an errant child does not threaten us with eternal punishment for a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee in a little wrath I hid my face from me for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee sayeth the lord thy redeemer this is the god we are told to love with all our heart with all our soul with all our might our forefathers were therefore ordered not only to worship no other gods but not even to mention their names they were to overthrow their altars to break down their pillars burn their groves and hew down their graven images or over superstition of every sort had to be destroyed hence there were laws for the prevention of those superstitious rites practiced by the priests of idolatrous nations who recognized powers other than the great power who rules the universe so we find the command against mohawk worship divination witchcraft the observing of times and the other so-called black arts by means of which the priests of ancient religions were want to influence the vulgar and the ignorant finally the duty of prayer as an outward mode of exhibiting our love of god must be the spontaneous homage of the heart not an irksome duty like a tax unwillingly paid must be the voluntary outpouring of the heart not alone in the set phrases of the prayer book but in the unspoken language of our soul for as at the supreme moments of life soul speaks to soul without word or sound or utterance so can man at all times hold silent communion with his maker he can raise his soul upon the wings of prayer and render silent praise to the one and only god respect for parents and for the aged the fifth commandment has already told us something about the duties we owe to our parents but is not only in the decalogue that these duties are enforced in the 19th chapter of a leviticus we find he shall fear every man his mother and his father in the 21st chapter of exodus death is ordained as the punishment of the child who strikes or who curses a parent and in Deuteronomy we read cursed be he that set a light by his father or his mother first and foremost among the duties that we owe to our fellow creatures are those that we owe to our parents these duties are impressed upon us strongly by nature for without being taught them every right minded child fulfills them by intuition the bible therefore justly treats the wicked irreverent son as an unnatural monster not worthy to live the bad son is certain to be a bad man and a bad citizen in every relation of domestic and social life is a social pest and is consequently worthy of death in the 21st chapter of Deuteronomy we read about the punishment incurred by the stubborn and rebellious son the man of his city were to stone him to death throughout the bible and in our later records there is no mention of capital punishment for the offense of a son against his parents so we may hope that there was never cause for such punishment and that the law severe as it seems was rather declared as a terror and a warning to those who might be apt to disregard the duties they owed to their parents closely connected with the laws as to filial duties is that which ordains respect to the agent thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man in fear thy God for one aspect of this law as well as that relating to assaults on parents must now be forgotten was a custom among many barbarous nations to slay old people who were overwhelmed with the infirmities of age and this act of murder was even committed by sons on their parents although such a custom is shocking to contemplate it is perhaps no worse than might be expected from nations with whom brute force and physical strength were the only qualities that were valued the mosaic code puts old age on a different basis the agent are not to be regarded as mere encumbrances burdening the world with their weaknesses they are not to be cast aside when their work is over and their power of work is spent they are to be treated reverently and respectfully for though their strength of body may have departed they have acquired knowledge and accumulated experience as useful to the world as physical prowess and this is the meaning of king Solomon when he says the hoary head is a crown of glory fit be found in the way of righteousness the glory of young men is their strength and the beauty of old men is the gray head thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself the duty involved in this law is one that is included in almost every code of morality in almost every religious system there is a well-worn tale told of two learned and rival doctors of the Talmud Hillel and Shamai which bears upon this commandment and indicates the importance attached to it by Judaism a scoffing he then applied to Shamai requesting him to teach him the laws of Judaism in the short space of time that he could stand on one foot Shamai and anger sent the scoffer away thus repulsed he went to Hillel it made the same request of him and Hillel replied do thou not unto another what thou was not have another do unto thee this is the whole law the rest is mere commentary the precept thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself is a protest against selfishness the origin of every vice and itself the greatest vice you love your neighbor as yourself you will be just to him you will not wrong him in any way you will not hate despise or dishonor him you'll help him in misfortune and you will judge him charitably but it might be argued this law to love one's neighbor as one's self is a little unreasonable nay impossible how can anyone love his neighbor as dearly as he loves himself self love is deeply implanted in every human heart how then can we be expected to love our neighbor as ourselves your own happiness and welfare depend on the happiness and welfare of others no king was ever happy whose subjects were unhappy no head of a household could be happy if his family and servants are in a constant state of discord no employer could be happy if his work people are discontented sullen and their demeanor and perpetually at war with him thus the happiness of every individual depends on the happiness of those with whom he comes in daily contact if therefore you truly love yourself and prize your happiness love your neighbor as much and prize his happiness no one could possibly be truly permanently and honorably happy at the expense of his fellow creatures wealth with its unequal distribution will always create different social grades and on some the burden of work will ever fall more heavily than on others does not follow that this burden of work entails unhappiness on the contrary those who have to work too hard or not more unhappy than those who lead a lazy unprofitable life still poverty has its undoubted evils and it is the duty of the rich to soften the hardships that afflict the poor unfortunately in our artificial state of society the relations of employer and employed are far from satisfactory both frequently forgetting the command thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself the master is frequently too exacting to a servant the servant too careless of his employer's interests and hence arise those unhappy relations between employer and employed which have so often culminated in trade disputes outrageous and strikes a selfish policy never thrives there are in this country industries which have prospered mainly because masters and men have treated one another as fellow workers with a common interest each loving his neighbor as himself seeking his welfare and looking for happiness in the happiness of his fellows but there are other industries which have failed because masters and men have tried to make as much as possible out of each other regardless of all considerations but their own selfish aims nor is it only in the conflict between labor and capital that this primary law of morality is so often forgotten the disputes between individuals which find their way into the law courts and the disputes between nations which give rise to sanguinary wars all have their origin and neglect of this same law the principles of right and wrong are sufficiently clear so that no man need wrong his neighbor in ignorance if he loved his neighbor as himself he would not wrong him there would no more think of damaging the interests of his neighbor than of endangering his own but as regards nations the law has greater force or that dread curse which has covert many of the fairest gardens of the earth into cemeteries which has changed friends into fiends human beings into brutes and aroused passions which only the hand of death could subdue war would have no existence if every nation instead of envying despising or hating would love its neighbor as itself patriotism becomes the worst devices when forgetful of that duty a nation wages a war of aggression against a neighbor whose land it covets war is in sober truth the hideous thing and so men strive to clothe its hideousness and decent garb to hide the blood beneath crimson uniform and stifle the groans of wounded men with using they drown the sobs and sighs of orphans and of widows with songs of victory and call the murderous work of battle a work of glory but if the truth be told war is at best but wholesale homicide the aggressors but wholesale murderers aggressive war at best but wholesale robbery the nation longing for its neighbor's lands but wholesale plunderers and thieves and of the war's waged or pretended to be waged for a principle of honor none would exist if honor meant but honesty and glory meant God's glory not man's his glory is to make the whole world kin to make this world a world of peace and happiness to make man's life like days of heaven upon earth therefore he gave to man this law of love to love his neighbor as himself to widen the sphere of human sympathies to make the earth one nation and all mankind fellow citizens honesty and truth the duty of truthful honest dealing is set forth in the third and eighth commandments it is repeated in leviticus he shall not steal neither deal falsely neither lie one to another thou shall not defraud thy neighbor just balances just waits a just ff a just hen shall ye have the arm of the law in all civilized countries protects the weak against the strong and prevents direct robbery by the highwayman but there is an indirect robbery which too often evades the law and is unfortunately very prevalent in most commercial countries to deal falsely to misrepresent where's merchandise to be what they are not to lie to a purchaser as to the value or cost of a commodity to give short wait are all forms of commercial immorality which sap the foundations of society yet by some are regarded almost as matters of course in mere incidents of business the evils engendered by such loose principles of dealing are incalculable a general distrust and suspicion takes the place of confidence the purchaser is bound to waste his time in a vigilant examination of what he buys lest he may be defrauded and not withstanding his vigilance he may yet be cheated goods have to be weighed and measured over and over again lest at some point of transfer or transit something may have been abstracted nor must it be imagined that acts of dishonesty exist only among small traders recent experience has shown that merchants of the highest reputation have been guilty of gigantic frauds and when those frauds were discovered their plea was simply they were quite the usual thing and that most people did as they did distrust suspicion and loss of time are not the only evils resulting from commercial dishonesty dishonesty breeds dishonesty the honest trader finds that he cannot compete successfully with the dishonest one and becomes dishonest like his neighbor and so the standard of morality becomes generally degraded many think this condition of things harmless because every man of the world is prepared for it and believes nothing but the evidences of his senses but in truth the results are very serious and most serious of all not to the intended victim but but to the dishonest trader himself his notion of honor becomes videated and blunted he acquires loose ideas regarding honesty and truth but god has declared that all that do such things and all that do unrighteously are an abomination unto the lord thy god and is surely not difficult to imagine that he who is the essence of truth and justice must abominate those who steal or deal falsely with or lie one to another truth is the basis of all morality a righteous man hated lying said king Solomon he who adheres to truth will be righteous in all things nor must the truthfulness consist merely an abstaining from a direct lie equivocation flattering misrepresentation and duplicity are all forms of lying as hateful as the bold and direct lie perhaps more so deliver my soul from lying lips and a deceitful tongue is the prayer of king david guard my tongue from evil and my lips from uttering deceit is our own price repeated daily prayer truth is the guardian of the soul if it retained truth it will retain innocence and contact with the world will leave it unharmed and unstained who has king david shall ascend into the mountain of the lord or who shall stand in his holy place he that hath clean hands at a pure heart who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully he shall receive the blessing from the lord and righteousness from the god of his salvation slander and false report thou shalt not raise a false report applies not loan to individuals but to things and circumstances great injury may be done by publishing false reports of rumors though they be not intended to injure anyone the law just quoted is directed against exaggeration misrepresentation of facts and misstatement of events the love of the marvelous is strongly implanted in the human mind it is curious to notice how easily people believe what they are told and the more marvelous a tale is the more ready people are to believe it it does no one any harm is the common reply to the censure of such false reports but both to the individual and to society it does much harm though the reputation of the individual who may be the subject of the report may remain untouched the lies that have been told in the name of religion have been truly frightful in results it is not too much to say that the true interests of religion have in all ages greatly suffered through the raising of reports of false miracles by the overzealous priests of religions other than our own truth above everything should be the motto of priest preacher and teacher as for truth that endureth and is always strong it liveth and conquereth forevermore the interests of religion are always identical with the interests of truth the great god of truth does not want to lie to be told in his service he declares the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name which i have not commanded him to speak shall die thou shalt not go up and take as a tale bearer among my people is another more direct law against slander no matter if the tale be true and your neighbor be worthy of blame you are not to be a tale bearer however blame worthy he may be the fact is no excuse for your hating him thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart thou shalt and no wise rebuke thy neighbor and suffer no sin to rest upon him this law represents the true principle of religious charity and is at the same time a caution to those self-righteous people who take delight in reviling their less religious neighbors such people who are righteous over much as king Solomon calls them are directed to show their piety not by looking down with supercilious glance upon their less pious neighbors but by remonstrating with them privately and by gently winning them over to the path of virtue purity thou shalt be perfect with the lord thy god though there are very many ordinances which relate to the subject of moral purity this one comprehends all the rest for it enjoins us to be modest chaste and pure it bids husband and wife to be faithful to each other it bids us to be decent in our conduct demeanor and conversation and even on our thoughts and so to be perfect with the lord forgiveness most difficult of all duties is the duty of forgiveness for forgiveness is not always within our control still god commands us thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself i'm the lord and a little consideration will show that forgiveness of an enemy is a duty that we owe equally to god to ourselves and to our fellow creatures the sooner an injury is forgotten the better for our own peace of mind moreover by forgiving others we make ourselves worthy of forgiveness by the almighty to the merciful god will show himself merciful this is the highest charity the greatest kindness of man to his fellow to give alms to the poor to help the distressed to be kind to the stranger all easy and pleasant duties but to love our enemies so far as to forego vengeance and bear him no grudge is the highest form of virtue because it is so much at variance with our strongest impulses kindness to animals god gave man dominion over the fish of the sea and over the foul of the air and over the cattle and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth man was to have control over the animal creation but he was to remember that all birds and beasts and creeping things are yet god's creatures all alike objects of his loving care accordingly when god gave us the law he impressed upon us the duty of kindness to animals for seven days after birth no animal was permitted to be taken away from its mother an animal had to be slaughtered it might not be killed on the same day as one of its young lest perchance the one might see the suffering of the other an ox was not permitted to be muscled while treading out the corn lest it might be irritated at being prevented in the presence of plenty from satisfying its hunger nor was an ox permitted to be yoked with an ass at the plow lest the pace or tension of one animal might overtax the strength of the other no animal might be worked on the Sabbath day so that even the poor dumb brute shared with man the blessing of rest it was commanded that anyone seeing an animal fall beneath its burden must render help to raise it even if thou see the ass of him that hateeth be lying under his burden and who'st forbear to help him thou shalt surely help with him it is pronounced to be a duty to lead back an animal that is strayed even if it be owned by an enemy during the wanderings of the israelites in the wilderness all animals that were slaughtered for food had to be brought for that purpose to the door of the tabernacle and it was unlawful to slay an animal elsewhere the blood of the slaughtered animal was sprinkled on the altar and the fat was burned in this manner the act of slaying an animal for food was dignified and promoted to a religious act and there was no chance of any wanton cruelty when the israelites reached the promised land this restriction was removed and they were allowed to slay animals anywhere the law which thus first gave to the priests the province of slayers of the cattle probably gave rise to the custom always prevalent among the jews even down to the present time of appointing men of high religious characters as slaughterers of animals used for food the best guarantee was thus afforded that the prescribed rules should be conscientiously observed and also that the animal should be slain with the least possible pain the jew consequently does not as a rule indulge in that kind of sport which consists of killing it does not shoot pigeons grouse and pheasants for the mere pleasure of taking deadly aim at them the animal he requires for food he is slain by the most expert thus avoiding all needless torture if we were asked why god made so many laws for the protection of animals from cruelty we may reply that the laws in joining kindness to dumb animals forms only part of the great law of love which the pantyhook inculcates if man be taught by these laws to be kind to dumb animals will he not all the more be kind to his fellow man will not he who spares pain to his ox spare pay and also to his servant and treat his dependence with kindness and with brotherly love end of part two chapter eight