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A Sermon for Sabbath Teshuba, 5606.
O
Eternal God Our King! hear our supplication, which we pour out in thy
sanctuary--in the house where thy children congregate to sanctify thy
name. Many are the evils which beset us; and Thou knowest the dangers
which accompany us during our pilgrimage in the valley of tears, where
scarce a joy blooms, but sorrow lurks in the opening cup of the dazzling
flower. How fleeting are our days, and how permanent art Thou; we are here
like a shadow that flits swiftly away before the light of the sun; whilst
to thy existence there is no end, to thy days no measurable termination. O
tale us, then, under the protection of thy power; shield us, by thy
spirit, from the attacks of misfortune which constantly threaten us. But
if it be thy will to afflict us with any one of the ills to which flesh is
subject, because of its mortality: then let us be strengthened, that we
may be able to endure submissively and penitently the wounds which we have
to bear. Let us feel that it is Thou, O Father! who chastiseth, that it is
not in wrath, but in parental love, that we are bruised by thy justice; so
that we may be healed through our wounds, and our souls rise upward in the
resplendent light of purity and sins forgiven, to become angels before thy
throne, messengers of mercy to other mortals yet dwelling in the houses of
clay, in their dark hours of tribulation.
O
Father, another year is gone, a new year is again commenced, and we stand
yet in thy house, renewed in the beauty of holiness, to be a worthy
dwelling for thy name. Through difficulties and trials we have been
preserved, and we are again permitted to come hither to seek thy presence.
Dark looks the past over which we have travelled--its joys are nearly
forgotten, its bitterness is too well remembered. Dark frowns the future
in its uncertainties and prospective dangers. O grant that the evils of
the past may redound to our salvation, and that the apprehended dangers of
the future may become means of righteousness and purification, which are
to bind us strongly to Thee, to be indissolubly united to thy Spirit in
everlasting bliss. And may, in the words of thy prophet, "Thy work be
seen upon thy servants, and thy glory upon their children." So shall
we be sanctified by thy grace, O God, and so shall this house become a
light unto salvation to all who come. hither to pray. And may this year be
to us and all Israel a year of blessing and peace, of light and truth.
Amen.
Brethren,--
To
us it was said by the prophet who had been made the instrument of our
redemption:
כי
חלק ה' עמו
יעקב חבל
נחלתו: דבר'
ל"ב ט':
"For
the portion of the Lord is his people, Jacob is the lot of his
inheritance."--Deuteronomy 32:9.
Full
of compassion for our degraded state in the bondage of Egypt, did the Lord
descend in his glory, to purchase, as it were, unto himself, a people
which should be his peculiar portion among the families of the earth; just
as in preceding centuries, He had called to his service the shepherd
Abraham, imparting to him, out of compassion for the forlorn state of
mankind, some of those everlasting truths which are the best guardians of
human happiness. By the calling of Abraham, God covenanted that, descended
from him, there should always exist a nation, though ever so small in
numbers, that should be specially devoted to profess a belief in the
Creator, which should conform to the word of the Bible: "And ye shall
be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy people;" meaning, that as
it is the priests' business to do the work of the temple to which they may
be appointed, and to teach to their scholars the peculiar doctrines which
appertain unto their system, thus should the Israelites, the sons of
Abraham, exist on earth as priests in God's temple, the entire world, to
be devoted, to the specialties of the service which might be demanded of
them, and to teach the doctrines of their faith, each generation to their
successors. The religion was to be thus a privilege, an especial favour,
by which its possessors were to be exempt from the curse of ignorance
which afflicts other men. We have before exhibited how the calling of
Abraham, and the raising from his descendants of a peculiar people, were
necessary in the divine economy, and how they have thus far best subserved
to become ultimately the means of subjecting all mankind to the truths
which the divine revelation contains. And not a light privilege is this.
Think, brethren! all the sons of man are the children of God; they have
received at his hands life, free will, and intellect; the human face
divine marks than to be like yourselves, parts of the last and best work
of the creation. Yet they have not been instructed like you. Folly and
wickedness, in times past, nay, from the very creation almost, obscured
the brilliancy of wisdom and truth, and mankind, by them misled, have
adopted various systems of belief, various ideas of a Godhead, various
notions on duty; so that error is palpably every where prevalent. Men of
intellect, feeling the degradation thus cast upon them, have ever
struggled to dispel the mist, to rend the veil which covered the nations;
but in vain; the mist still continues to rest upon the weary soul, and the
veil of doubt and darkness yet covers the face of the nobles of the earth.
Was
it not, then, a great thing, that, before our eyes, were revealed the
fires of glory that blazed terrifically on Mount Sinai? that we heard the
awful thunders which surrounded the majesty of Heaven? and that our ears
drank in sounds which yet re-echo there, words which once and for ever
broke the chains of darkness, and kindled the everlasting lamp of life in
our spirits, and which taught us to know the great God who created without
an assistant, who governs without any foreign aid, and who blesses without
a mediator? Were these things matter of thankfulness? were they themes for
rejoicing to the enlightened searcher for truth? Yea, they were, they are
so to this day. Glorify, then, the Lord, you of the house of Jacob; bless
his eternal name, ye of the seed of Abraham; for great was his kindness
which He displayed over us in his might, and blessed be his name, which
abideth in truth for ever. We indeed were taught by those events which no
human power could have produced, that there is no god in heaven or on
earth, who can do like our God's great works and mighty deeds; and the
lesson has sunk deeply into our innermost soul, and the events of thirty
and more centuries have not been able to obliterate it from our
recollection. And wherever the Israelite may be, he hears a voice
whispering in his ear: "There is but one God." When he lays
himself down to sleep, there is revealed to his understanding: "But
one Being rules thy destinies; protected by Him thou needest not fear
evil; His hand is ready to snatch thee from destruction; his mercy will
watch over thee whilst thou sleepest, his angels will guard thy
head." And when he rises in the morning, the rejoicing light, the hum
of the insects, the lowing of the cattle, the busy walks of men, will
again admonish him, "That one God has made them all." There is
no doubt, no uncertainty in your minds, believing sons of Jacob; your God
spoke to you on Horeb; He there took you for his heritage, and ever since
you have believed in Him, and have borne your willing testimony to the
truth of his revealing.
But
simple as is the doctrine which constitutes us a people—for it is at
last nothing but a single doctrine--"Our God is one;" simple as
this is, it has not yet been responded to by all mankind. The struggle for
the cause of truth is not yet over--the warfare against sound reason is
not yet accomplished, and we must needs stand by our defences till the
time that it may please the Lord God to enlighten others, even as He has
enlightened us, and to draw all men unto Him by the uniting bonds of a
perfect love, of a confiding trust and single-hearted devotion. Simple is
the truth; but as yet the empire of error has not yielded; and though many
of the absurdities of gross idolatry have faded away, they have in many
cases only been changed for others equally pernicious, though perhaps less
absurd. We are not, therefore, at liberty to relax in our vigilance, to
sleep, sluggard-like, on our posts; but let us loudly proclaim that we are
Israelites, that we have full confidence in the word which has been taught
us, and that nothing which men can accomplish shall ever wrest it out of
our hands. We are God's people by our professing the law which God has
written; we are therefore his sacred portion from the other children of
Adam, who worship not as we do; we who are descendants of Jacob, who
laboured long and well-nigh hopelessly in Egypt, at the bidding of cruel
masters; and by redeeming us thence, with a mighty hand and an
outstretched arm, the Lord established a claim of gratitude upon us more
than upon other men, because, in addition to life, the gift to all, we
have obtained the gift of everlasting freedom; and this we can only repay
by our endeavouring, in very truth, to be worthy of being called the lot
of his inheritance; to be indeed dutiful servants, faithful to our master,
who seeks only our own happiness; to be obedient children, unwavering in
our attachment to our heavenly Parent, who watches over us when our
earthly parents slumber, who provides for all our wants when we are unable
to labour, and who enlightens our soul when otherwise it would grope in
darkness, in uncertainty and despair.
Though
we have been thus true to the belief in God, though we have never
altogether fallen off upon the ways of error: still it is proper that
every individual Israelite ask himself, from time to time, "Have I so
deported myself as becomes a member of the heritage of the Lord? Have I
been faithful to my trust? Have I honoured the name of my Maker?"
Alas! to such questions of self-examination what can we answer? what can
the best of us aver in extenuation when the Lord comes to judge, when the
Infinite demands an account of our doings on earth? The law which
constitutes us Israelites has been confided to us solely for our own
welfare. It must not be lost sight of, that, for himself, our God could
well dispense with our service! for, if we sin, we cannot mar his
happiness; if we are righteous, what do we add to his glory? And withal
this, how have we conducted ourselves from the day of our first
institution as a people, from the day that we each took our position as
intelligent agents in the ranks of mankind? The truth will force itself
upon our conviction, that, as a people, we have ever neglected the
obedience due to our Benefactor, and, as individuals, we have not
fulfilled the demands which our Father has a right to exact at our hands.
There is always one delusive idea which has led so many to destruction; it
is, that belief is every thing, acts, ceremonies, or actual obedience
nothing. Were it, to discuss this subject as its importance deserves, that
a MAN had ordained our laws, it might, perhaps, be pardonable in us to
select from our system what we will keep and what we will reject; there
might, in that case, be little acts which could safely be neglected, and
important deeds which should claim our especial attention. But this is not
our case; no man originated our duties, or no human reason invented our
belief. In both these branches it is God alike who speaks to his portion,
his people. He assigns in both the lot for Jacob his heritage. When he
says, "On the first day of the seventh month ye shall have a holy
convocation; no manner of work shall ye do; it shall be a day of the
sounding of the cornet unto you." He deserves as much attention as
when He proclaims himself the Lord Eternal, who had redeemed us from the
iron furnace out of Egypt. In "Thou shalt make thyself fringes on the
four corners of thy garment wherewith thou coverest thyself," He
expresses as much his absolute will as when He ordains, "Remember the
Sabbath to keep it holy." To us one act may appear great, one idea
more sublime than the other; but what is our reason that we should confide
in it? is our judgment always so certain in mere earthly affairs that we
could safely confide our eternal peace to so frail a refuge? How vain is
our thinking, how painful our unassisted reflection, our own research in
pursuit of physical discoveries in the ordinary affairs of life; how often
are we compelled to throw aside all that we have done already as labour
lost; and when apparently near the end of our goal, how often are we
forced to commence anew, with no better hopes of avoiding failure, the
painful toil without which we cannot succeed at all? And still, in matters
of religion, our judgment is to be infallible, our own opinion our
unerring guide! It requires no argument to prove the fallacy of such
reasoning, the very statement of the case is refutation enough of, this
pernicious self-delusion. It becomes, therefore, our imperative duty to
measure our obligations, not by our reasoning, but by the evident record
of the Bible, and the explanation which we have received concerning the
same from our forefathers. We must, in short, take for our direction what
God has taught, and endeavour to shape our course undeviatingly by this
blessed guiding-star, which has been assigned to us to render sure our
steps upon the dangerous road of life, and to bring the tossed bark of our
national hopes to the secure haven, in its tempestuous voyage upon the
treacherous ocean of human events. And let history, both individual and
national, speak for us, whether there is not always safety in adhering
closely to the observances, and death, yea, death and destruction, in the
deviation from the statutes which the Lord has written for our
improvement.
It
is true that there may be unenlightened men who cling to mere ceremonials,
the mere outside of religion, as the spirit thereof, who see nothing in a
ceremony but the act itself, whilst the essence, the reason of its
institution, is hidden from their eye. But, foolish as these are, they are
only guilty of the same folly, which the worldlings commit in neglecting
the observances, because they see nothing therein of paramount importance;
for these, too, omit to look into the essence of the religion of God. Let
us see what did God wish to establish by choosing Israel? a monotheistic
race, a people believing in one God, confiding in no other Saviour than
the Creator himself, who proclaimed to themselves his law. What was the
condition of mankind at that period and since? A constant struggling to
destroy this faith, and to build up in its stead a series of errors, all
more or less pernicious in their nature, because they hated and yet hate
the religion of Israel.
For
the belief in a simple unity destroys at once all artificial systems of
theory: as soon as you have once heard what our religion is, you
understand it just as well as the most learned There is an end to fraud,
to tyranny over the spirit. This, however, it was precisely what God
intended to teach, all his people should alike know Him, as they were all
alike bound to serve Him. When, therefore, this religion became known to
the world without, it was met at every step by the contempt, the ridicule,
and, not rarely, the persecution of by who differed from us. How was it,
then, to be preserved intact amidst this unceasing warfare? Was there to
be exerted a constant miraculous power to act as an antagonizing principle
to the opposition it had to struggle with? How otherwise could the few
monotheists be preserved and distinguished among the many who believed,
and still believe, in a plurality of gods in some shape or other? The
Lord, therefore, chose his own means to perpetuate his religion; he bound
it firmly and for ever to certain observances, which should distinguish
his followers among mankind as a people peculiarly devoted to his
service. So we find with circumcision, "Walk before me and be thou
perfect." By the Sabbath: "For it is a sign between me and the
children of Israel for ever." With the prohibited food: "And ye
shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am holy, and you shall not
defile yourselves on any creeping thing which creepeth on the earth; for I
am the Lord who bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God,
and you shall be holy, because I am holy." With the fringes it is
said: "In order that you may remember and do all my commandments, and
be holy unto your God." We could multiply proofs; but it is enough,
with what has been adduced already, to establish, as an incontrovertible
fact, that the ceremonial observances have a meaning far above the mere
act which is produced by them; they are to revert back on the spirit,
render it free from the pollution of the external world, by ever and anon
impressing on it the recollection of God, of his miracles, and of his
revelation. Observe, brethren, on every occasion wherein Moses, by the
order of God, gives a prominent reason for any observance, it is, that we
have been bondmen, meaning the act is demanded as an evidence of
gratitude, because we have received signal and undeserved benefits from
our God and King. The observance, moreover, of the precepts will
necessarily make a distinction between us who practise them and those who
are not bound thereby. The heathen, the Mahomedan, the Nazarene, can have
no interest in keeping the Passover, the Pentecost, the New Year, and the
other festivals; they are meaningless to them; they have never been
bondmen in Egypt; they never stood at the foot of Sinai to receive a law
from the God of heaven; they never had a revealed law to offend against,
so that they would have to seek atonement by the humiliation pointed out
in the law. To them, therefore, the sound of the cornet is an unharmonious
noise; but, to us, it speaks in the voice of a messenger of peace:
"Return, ye backsliding children! why will you die, O house of
Israel?" To them it would be useless to fast an entire day without
bread, without water to pass their lips; but our fathers sinned grievously
after receiving the law on Horeb; they speedily departed from the good
way, and made, themselves a molten calf to worship the same; it was then
that, after many days spent in prayer by the prophet, it was the pleasure
of the Most High to stay the just indignation, and to withhold the
destruction which had been deserved by the senseless multitude; and to
have a constant memorial of the pardoning mercy of God, He instituted the
tenth day of the seventh month as a perpetual ordinance, for a fast
throughout our generations in all our dwellings. To fast, then, is to
acknowledge before the Searcher of hearts that we acknowledge our
unworthiness; and our dwelling an entire day in God's house is a
confession that we prize his favour above all other treasures; and we
shall then also be reminded of the sublime experience of Israel in all
ages, that it was one God who rendered our limbs free from slavery; one
God and the same Being who delivered our souls from the bonds of darkness
by the publication of his law; and one God and the same Being who,
undeserving though we were, blotted out our sins without demanding
sacrifice or atonement, and refused thus to exterminate those who had so
daringly defied his holy will. This ordinance was to be observed
throughout all times, in all places; what is this but to say, that every
where there is one and only one God? at all times there is and can only be
one revelation? Thus the ideas of the Unity and Revelation went hand in
hand, and together they were to bless the heritage of the Lord with
abundant light and peace, and render them for ever and aye free from the
corruptions of superstition, idolatry, and false belief, those awful
plagues of the mind, which have at all times exerted so baneful an
influence on the souls of men, and the fate of empires.
The
few observations just laid before you on one branch of the ceremonies,
could easily be extended to all others; the illustrations chosen were
merely those that first presented themselves to my mind, without much
weighing whether better and
stronger ones might not readily be found. So pure is the religion of
Heaven, that it requires no eloquent defence to the thinking; and could
only all men be equally instructed, it would assume at once the empire
over all souls, and banish in a moment all error from the face of the
earth. That this will ultimately result in the course of events, admits of
no possible doubt; for God has spoken: "On that day the Lord shall be
acknowledged ONE, and his name shall be ONE." It might perhaps then
be that the ceremonies, being no longer of the important signification
which they were hitherto, could be safely abolished or supplied by others
of God's ordaining. But this too is doubtful, and we have no evidence that
any changes will ever be made in our religion as regards Israel. At all
events now the causes of the institution yet operate; we are to this hour
surrounded by those who differ widely from us, whose thoughts of God are
not those which the Bible contains, and who reject the law of Israel. If
we were then to relax in our observances, if we were to break down the
lines of demarcation which separate and surround us: we would at once
yield up many of our members to amalgamation with the inimical world at
large; we would thus step by step obliterate the heritage of the Lord, and
destroy Israel from being his people, his witnesses, the bearers of his
unity, unto the end of time. But we are commanded to be faithful; we have
met with fearful retribution for neglecting the sacred charge confided to
us; what should then be our course? Uphold the system of the ceremonies in
all its vigour, and enjoin, by living instruction and faithful practice,
upon all the branches of the house of Israel, to be true to the standard
of faith which we have received, and not to depart to the right or to the
left from the way which the Lord our God has commanded us. Every action,
even the smallest, performed in the name, and unto the glory of God, will
act as a purification of our heart, it will render it sensitive to the
impression of righteousness, and will rivet closer and closer our union
with the Father above, who wills to be sanctified in the assemblies of his
people. Only thus can we be the heritage of the God of Jacob, when we are
faithful ourselves, and draw others after us, the strong and the weak, the
wise and the foolish, to come in with us, to enter the sanctuary together,
to fall down in humility, to worship with an undivided spirit the ONE who
is alone in heaven and earth, who is unchangeable and pure, full of mercy
and truth, and whose will called forth the earth, that it stood, and who
spread out alone the canopy of heaven.
Brethren!
we are standing this day at the commencement of a new year from the
creation. A few hours ago we hailed the coming season, and prayed that it
might be blessed with abundance from before the God of our fathers. Let us
hope that He has heard our prayer, and that the year which we have just
commenced may be one of peace and plenty, of righteousness, and
acceptability, in which union and good-will may prevail among all our
brethren, and they be free from the enmity and attacks of the enemies of
their faith. But we also have a duty to perform. We must not expect
happiness, either temporal or permanent, without deserving it. Let us then
arouse ourselves to additional vigilance; let us lay hold of the law of
God, as a firm and only support during our earthly trials, as our only
guide to yon realms of happiness, which our Father opens for us beyond the
confines of the gloomy grave, which is destined to receive us when our
earthly pilgrimage is drawn to a close. Dark indeed will the passage be,
if we are without the grace of God; but a joyous awakening will be ours,
if we have obtained his forgiveness, if our death has atoned for the
wrong we have done.—Be watchful over your conduct; listen to the voice
of admonition which is implanted within you; but above all, study the word
of truth with unwavering faith, and follow its behests during every day of
your life. So shall your prayers be heard on the Day of Atonement, and
whenever you humble yourselves before your Father, and He will approvingly
accept your repentance, and say by the blessed influence his peace exerts
over the soul of man: "I have pardoned, as thou hast spoken."
And
may the unbought grace of the Lord, which exceeds all blessings, be ours,
now and for ever; and may his holy mime be praised through our humble
means, and be to Him alone ascribed the glory, worship, and adoration from
all mankind, from eternity to eternity.
Amen.
Wednesday,
Elul 29. Oct. 1, 5605.
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