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Text—
"I am an Hebrew, and I fear the Lord the God of
heaven:"—Jonah, i. 9.
The
above address of the reverend gentleman comes to us in one of the daily
papers of New York, to which it was communicated doubtlessly to give it
greater publicity than it could have received in our pages; and we thank
Mr. Isaacs for the manly stand he has taken to oppose the foolish
attempts at conversion which are now made by a simultaneous effort of
several agents of the Conversion Society of New York in different parts
of the Union. We fear not these agents on account of the number of
converts they may be able to carry off, but we dread the poisoning
influence which they may produce on the mind of our Christian
fellow-citizens. The Jews, as such, seek no agitation; they live at
peace with all the world; they desire not to increase their numbers by
converts, and ask the same at the hands of others. We can use the
weapons of defence an behalf of our holy faith which truth and the
righteousness of our cause offer; and it has been the lot of the humble
writer of these lines to be at times called out to stand forth for the
fair fame of Israel; and he attributes it to the excellence of the system
to which he professes himself that his labours have been so well
received, and obtained the meed of approbation from the friends of justice
and enlightened freedom of opinion. .
It
is, therefore, pleasing to find that there is one who is an able ally in
the same calling, and who knows how to improve the advantages which his
station as the head of a numerous body of Israelites so happily confers
on him. Had not our space been preoccupied when the discourse under
review reached us, we should have transferred it entire to our pages;
but we must now rest content with a mere synopsis, which we trust will
not be unwelcome to our readers.
After
stating that public teaching should aim at the improvement of the heart,
and the dissemination of correct principles, Mr. Isaacs lays down three
rules for his guidance: 1. To use all necessary precaution regarding the
nature of the information to be conveyed. 2. To employ the best modes of
conveying this knowledge; and 3. To observe the proper time when to
speak. We pass over the two first points, and refer to the last, of
which he asserts that the present is the proper time to speak out on the
impossibility of converting us from our religion, by means of paid
agents, who are to be sent throughout the country to collect money and
clerical aid for this unhallowed object; and of the place where he was
he maintains that the house of God is the proper one for all sons of
Israel to unite with one accord and one voice, to exclaim, "we are
Hebrews, and fear the God of heaven."
And
then he continues:—
Beloved
brethren: how delightful the reflection, how cogent the reasons of our
self-congratulation, when we consider the wonderful manner how our law,
whose 3155th anniversary
we celebrate this day, how wonderfully that law has survived and
completely triumphed over the most dangerous times. Other establishments
have outlived their rituals. Opinions and systems have for a period been
upheld, maintained, perhaps zealously defended, yet in
turn have they been utterly exploded, whilst our sacred law has
effectually withstood all opposition, obstruction, or the Most violent
persecutions Monarchies and empires joined together, leagued in dark
confederacy to destroy the word of God, to obliterate the very name of
Israel. "Come, let us cut them off from being a nation, that the
name of Israel be no more remembered." How did this attempt
succeed? Like all attempts, either by force or persuasion, by the sword
or the tongue, by poison or bribe, by tyrant or fanatic, by intolerance
or assumed liberality, it has ended in its impossibility. "I am an
Hebrew," is heard in the old and the new world, in the torrid or
frigid zone wherever the foot of civilization has left its impress
wherever the sun of charity refines the grosser passions, and
spiritualizes the emotions, there the son of Israel proclaims, heart
and soul that there is one God of heaven, and that God he fears. For
faith dictates the soul‑composing thought that He created the sea
and the dry land; and how is this? "He who dwelleth on high
frustrates all intentions to injure them." So if you choose to
"meliorate their condition," by strangers to their creed, to
this day He has, in his benign mercy, watched over his radiant message,
and despite all the hostility of contending factions, the holy records
remain unchanged— "And ye offspring of Jacob remain
unconsumed."
He
then speaks of the effects of the law of God in refining the feelings
and elevating the soul to the Father of Israel, who never said to his
children, "seek me in vain." He then reproves those who are
lukewarm in the cause of our religion, and asserts that the law has not
properly ennobled their spirit. He next maintains that according to our
doctrines God is near to all who call upon Him, that He shuts not his
gates of mercy to any child of man of any persuasion; and he instances
the history of Jonah, from which the text is taken, where we find mercy
accorded to a heathen city, because the inhabitants repented themselves
of the evil in their hands, and sought the Lord with a repentant heart.
He then turns to his audience, and reminds them that the Lord rebuked
Jonah for his illiberality in being angry that mercy was shown to
Nineveh; and then says our preacher:
Are
we not impressed with the idea that the words are directed to each of
us, and led to ask ourselves the question, if there is not something
deserving reprehension in our conduct when we can see no virtue beyond
our creed, desire no happiness beyond our sect! Whether by illiberality
of sentiment we would not hem in the bottom and stop the current of
divine favour to a certain class, imagining that all those who think not
as we do cannot enter the portals of heaven, as if we kept the keys.
"I am an Hebrew." And with due humility, and at the same time
sincere earnestness, we will tell those who profess to meliorate our
condition, that we seek no aid, and least of all such aid as they would
afford us. Thus is the succour of the wolf to the lamb, with a caress
destroying its victim.
Mr.
Isaacs then adverts to the persecutions and troubles of the Hebrew race,
to prove that sufferings will not deprive us of our religion. He
instances the half a million Jews exiled from Spain by Ferdinand, under
the advice of Torquemada, in 1492, the very year in which America was
discovered, as if to offer in after times an asylum to the outcast sons
of Judah, and to rear a home for civil liberty and religious freedom.
The preacher next turns with much force to the various sects which
distract the Christian church, and urges, how they can ask us to embrace
a system concerning the nature of which its own members are not agreed?
when new sects .are almost daily springing up, when strange fanatical
doctrines constantly supplant one another, each one claiming to be the
only road to salvation?
He
then foretells, that all the efforts of the missionaries will be futile,
maintaining that the UNITY of God is imbibed with the very food the
infant draws from the breast of the mother; and after saying that the
words "Our God is one" are the first lesson of the sons of
Israel, he continues:
This
is their constant theme. It grows in them with their growth, that He is
the sheet anchor of their hope. It was publicly declared on the mount in
the words, "I am the Lord thy God, thou shaft have no other
gods." And to that divine message they respond. The unity of God is
the watchword of every son of Israel. They teach it to their offspring,
morning, noon and night. Like the "pillar of fire," it is ever
present in their wandering through this wilderness. And do they expect
that this faith can be removed, or altered to suit their idea of the
divinity, to please their reading of the prophecies, their mystification
of the book of life?
He
next enters somewhat at large upon the missionary efforts at home and
abroad to destroy our religion, under the specious guise of meliorating
our condition, which Mr. Isaacs proves not to be so deplorable, morally
or physically, as to require aid, such as our spiritual opponents can
bring us. He speaks of the improvement of the political condition of
Jews in Hamburgh and Russia, and adverts happily to the permission
granted to them to return to Spain, the land of Ferdinand and Isabella,
the land of a million of martyrs, because they were Hebrews, and feared
the God of heaven. He animadverts in strong terms on the apostate bishop
of Jerusalem, and the utter fruitlessness of his mission. He defends our
people for not exposing themselves to the danger of hearing their
religion denounced, or going to places where they might imbibe doctrines
in opposition to their received faith, upon the principle of "lead
us not into temptation." Herein we fully coincide with our
preacher. The strong in faith may be able to resist the allurements, but
the weak and uninstructed will more or less experience a shock which
designing artfulness knows but too well how to employ for its own
advantage. Our space forbids us to say more at present, but we shall
have to enter on the subject at greater length before long.
After
alluding to the reception of the law, on the anniversary of which Mr.
Isaacs spoke his address, he exhorts his headers to remain steadfast to
it and to its requirements, assuring them that an increase of happiness
will surely follow an increase of righteousness; and he concludes
happily by adverting to the reign of the Messiah, when righteousness
shall flourish every where, and celestial happiness shall abound on all
the earth.
We
had marked several more passages for extracting; but the want of room
admonished us to abstain, thus doing injustice to our reverend friend,
for which we offer him this assurance as an apology, that had his sermon
arrived a few days earlier, (it reached us on the 12th of
June,) before N. L.'s excellent address was put in the printer's hand,
we would have given it an insertion, as we said above.
As
critics, we must call the attention of Mr. Isaacs to a certain
unevenness of style, at times colloquial, which stands in strong
contrast with passages of thrilling interest in the production before
us. Another defect is the alluding to persons by name, though they are
apostates. We war not with men, we can do without the traitors who
forsake our standard; we have only to do with principles, and these we
can combat without reference to any one, be he high or low. There are
also some peculiar expressions which we would rather that Mr. Isaacs had
omitted. But as our friend has appeared but two or three times in print
before the public, we are confident that the little blemishes we have
pointed out will be overcome by him without any difficulty. Knowing his
ability of doing good unto Israel and Israel's cause, we trust, that he
will receive our strictures in the spirit of kindness in which they are
written; for the welfare of the house of our God requires that they who
advocate its cause should speak well no less than truly.
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