|
A
Sermon Delivered at the Synagogue Nefutsoth Yehudah
of New Orleans, on Sabbath Mishpatim, February 1st
(Shebat 29th), 5611.
By
the Rev. J. K. Gutheim
Minister of the Congregation Shangarai Chasad of New
Orleans
After a year’s residence in your midst, I enjoy the
privilege to preach the word of God in this sacred
edifice. Our two congregations, or, at least, the
regular worshippers of these congregations, have
this day united to offer up their orisons at the
throne of the Almighty, to listen, side by side, to
the reading and exposition of his revealed word.
“Oh, how good and pleasant is it for brethren to
dwell together in unity; . . . for there the Lord
commanded the blessing, even life for evermore!”
(Psalm cxxxiii.) Could men, could brothers, meet for
a more sublime purpose, than to draw from the ever
pure and inexhaustible fountain of life and
blessing? Is there for the hearts and souls of pious
Israelites a more beautiful, a more sacred, point of
union than the house of God, where all our thoughts
and feelings converge into the one all-pervading,
overpowering sentiment, that we are all the children
of our heavenly Father, that we are all alike
dependent upon his bounty, and that it is our common
duty to be grateful for his mercies, and be animated
by feelings of charity and love one towards the
other? Surely, the effects of such a union cannot
but be of a salutary nature. Let us be guided by its
influence in all the relations of life, so that
union and harmony may find a permanent home among
us, and redound to the welfare and blessing of all.
There are periods in our history when perfect union
prevailed among the people of Israel. Unanimity of
sentiment and of purpose inspired their ranks, when
the solemn, everlasting covenant was made at the
foot of Mount Sinai. To the consideration of this
covenant we shall devote the present hour of
<<289>> devotion. I quote for this purpose from
to-day’s Parashah, Exodus xxiv. 8, 4, 7 : “And Moses
came and told the people all the words of the Lord,
and all the judgments; and all the people answered
with one voice, and said, All the words which the
Lord has said will we do. And Moses wrote all the
words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning,
and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and
twelve pillars, after the twelve tribes of Israel.
And he took the book of the Covenant, and read in
the hearing of the people; and they said, All that
the Lord has said will we do and obey.”
In
order to understand more clearly the merits and
requirements of this covenant, let us refer to Deut.
v. 1-8 : “And Moses called all Israel, and said unto
them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments
which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may
learn them, and keep and do them. The Lord our God
made a covenant with. us in Horeb. The Lord made not
this covenant alone with our fathers, but with us,
even us, who are all of us here alive this day.”
These words were spoken forty years after the
revelation had taken place,—after the whole
generation that had gone forth from Egypt, and stood
as eye-witnesses and parties to the covenant near
Mount Sinai, had, except a very few, descended to
the tomb. A new generation then stood on the
frontiers of the promised land; but the messenger of
God presents to their minds a picture of that
memorable event in such glowing and vivid colours,
that even while we read today, we cannot fail to
form a true conception of the whole scene. “One
generation passes away, and another generation comes
but the earth abides for ever,” says Ecclesiastes i.
4 “but even,” (Ps. 28, 29,) “the earth shall wax old
like a garment, and they that dwell therein die, and
the heavens shall vanish away like smoke; yet our
God is unchangeable, and his years have no end.”
“But my salvation, says the Lord, shall be for ever,
and my righteousness shall not be abolished.”
(Isaiah li. 6.) “The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for
ever.” His
covenant is an everlasting covenant. It is this
truth which Moses meant to impress on the Israelites
of his day, when he <<290>>addressed them: “Not with
our fathers alone has the Lord made this covenant,
but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive.”
Over what a vast space of time do we now look back
to that world-renowned event! how chequered is this
interval by mighty events! And yet are the words of
this covenant in as full force now as they were
then. Indeed, for what other object are they read to
us from time to time, but to call to mind a faithful
picture of that remarkable scene, to transport
ourselves in spirit to the mountain of the Lord,
that we may again witness the awful manifestations
of the Deity, again hear and know, learn and
understand, the purposes of the divine covenant,
again renew it, again with one voice call out, “We
will do and obey,” in order that this covenant may
grow still more lasting, and its benefits and
blessings be permanently secured to us and to those
that will come after us. This, too, is the
admonition of the last of the prophets: “Remember ye
the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto
him in Horeb for all Israel, the statutes and the
judgments.”
A
covenant, my friends, is a mutual consent of two or
more parties to abide by certain stipulations; a
solemn agreement; a treaty. The divine covenant
implies the commands, prohibitions, and promises of
God, or the whole revealed law on the one Land,
obedience to this law and the consequent hope of
temporal and eternal happiness on the other. The
divine covenant was a voluntary act both on the part
of God and on the part of Israel. No compulsory
means were resorted to by the Omnipotent; the people
exercised their own free choice; and not until the
willing and full consent to all the provisions of
the law had been given, was the covenant concluded
with the solemn formalities and ceremonies then
customary on such occasions.
It is true, it was impossible for the Israelites to
refuse so great a boon as the revelation from on
high, since, irrespective of its transcendent
merits, the benefits they had but recently
experienced at the hands of its Divine Author were
of too overpowering a nature as not to convince them
that their heavenly Protector only designed their
happiness;—still, their assent,
<<291>> though
indeed willingly rendered, was a voluntary act. Mark
well this elementary feature of our religion. “Man
is a free agent,” is a cardinal doctrine of Judaism.
If this were not so, the ides of reward and
punishment would be an absurdity, totally
irreconcilable to the justice of the Almighty. To
this principle, too, may be traced our aversion to
making proselytes, save such as are prompted by
conviction and voluntarily offer themselves. The
fountain of truth is open to all, and those who are
thirsty may come and take a refreshing draught. But
in no period of our history, not even when we yet
formed a distinct body politic, were any sinister
means or force employed for the purpose of making
converts. Will this criterion be recognised in those
religions which claim a superiority over ours, and
contend to have superseded it? History,—“that
tribunal of judgment of mankind,”—shows but too
clearly that those two branches which were engrafted
on by degrees and completely severed from the parent
stem, owe the spread of their foliage, and their
luxuriant growth in many a foreign clime, to the
fertilizing effects of human gore;—it was the sword
which cleared the way for conviction. Not so with
us. We never lost sight of the circumstances that
attended our voluntary acceptance of the revelation.
“When the Lord came forth from Sinai, and rose up
from Seir; when he shone forth from Mount Paran, and
came with myriads of saints,—in his right hand a
fiery law,—Revealed Religion!” it was then that the
people said, with one voice, “We will do and obey.”
The divine covenant of Horeb is fraught with the
greatest benefits, with the highest blessing, for
man. It imparted to him the will and the true
knowledge of his Maker. The glimmering dawn, which,
since Abraham’s time, had well-nigh faded away,
assumed the brightness and warmth of midday.
Presentiment grew into joyful reality; conjecture
and doubt gave way to a firm conviction, to a
distinct knowledge of God and of truth.
“The people that walked in darkness saw a great
light; they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of
death, a brilliant light burst upon them.” (Isa.
ix.1.) Knowledge and wisdom are the
prerogatives of man which place him above the brute
creation.
<<292>>
The animal, guided by its instinct, safely walks
through the darkness by which it is surrounded; but
man is at fault, errs and stumbles at every step, if
his mind’s eye is not opened,—of knowledge and
wisdom do not accompany him, and remain at his side
as guides through life. How necessary indeed are
knowledge and wisdom for the cultivation of his
thoughts and feelings, for the direction of his
wishes, aspirations, and deeds, for his enjoyments
and his wants! How indispensably necessary for his
religions life! Certain as it is that man derives
his origin from the Eternal;—“that he is created in
the image of God,” and destined to a blissful
immortality,—quite as requisite is it for him to be
fully conscious of this fact, and clearly to
understand whence he comes, whither he goes, and to
what grand purposes he must devote his existence. It
is true, religion requires the deed:
לא המדרש הוא עקר אלא המעשה
“Not the study, but the deed, is the principal.” But
in order to be perfect in practice, we must needs
understand the theory. And although the expressions
used by our fathers, when they assented to the
divine covenant,—first
נעשה “We will do,” and then
נשמע “We will
hear,” (for the Hebrew term
שמע is a synonymous
for hearing, hearkening, obeying, and
understanding)—were accounted to them as highly
meritorious and praiseworthy, inasmuch as they
signified thereby their unqualified faith in their
divine Lawgiver yet, in every subsequent exhortation
addressed to them by the messenger of God, there is
to be found the term
וידעתם “you shall know,” or, as in the
passage already quoted, “You shall hear and learn,
and then, keep and do.”
Knowledge and wisdom elevate man. In the possession
of truth he is in his true element, comprehends his
true dignity. As the light is necessary to the
plant, respiration to animal life, quite as
inseparable is from man his inherent desire after
knowledge and truth, quite as natural that he go
forth and do not rest quiet until he has explored
the nature and object of whatever lies within the
grasp and reach of his senses, or of those things
which are beyond them. But there is but one truth
which does not deceive; there is but one knowledge
worthy of the utmost exertion of man;—and this truth
is God, and <<293>>
this knowledge is his covenant, his revelation. God
is truth: and, himself dwelling in light, He
requires no blind service, nor blind attendants but
of such as approach his holy mountain, He delights
only in them who are attracted thither by its light.
Knowledge and wisdom alone render man capable of
walking in the ways of his Maker, and through them
alone God reveals himself to man. Therefore is the
knowledge of God called the beginning and the end of
all wisdom.
Whoever builds upon this foundation builds securely,
and whoever is guided by this light will not mistake
his way.
What a complete change has the light of this
covenant wrought in the affairs of mankind! In how
many directions has it sent forth its beams, and
penetrated the human mind and heart, elevating,
warming, and invigorating them! How has it destroyed
idolatry in a large portion of the earth! How has it
exposed and driven from their dens the ghastly
monsters of darkness and superstition! How has it
nursed, cherished, and promoted the progress in arts
and sciences! How has it reclaimed man from the
customs and practices of a rude and barbarous age,
and caused refinement and civilization to prosper in
his midst! What a mighty influence has it exercised
upon all the pursuits of man, upon the spirit of
legislation, upon the intercourse of nations, and
their mutual relations! And how much more is the
light of this covenant destined to effect, until the
prediction of the prophet will be fulfilled: “The
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as
the waters cover the sea.” (Isa. xi. 9.)
Every light of religious truth which now illumines
the world, has been kindled by the “fiery law” of
Horeb. The truths revealed in the divine covenant of
Sinai, of God who Unity, incorporeal, eternal,
immutable, holy, and just,—of a loving Father, who
bears the whole human family as on eagles’ wings,
solicitous of bringing them near unto Him: these
truths are now the property of the greatest portion
of the inhabited, of the entire civilised world. In
the covenant of Sinai, no more one people is
blessed, but many a people, and many nations, from
the rising of the sun even to its setting. And where
these truths are yet mixed with falsehood and error,
where they are <<294>> yet vested with a spurious
garb, that prevents their pristine beauty and purity
from being recognised at the first glance: there it
is the fault of men (call it priestcraft, or
whatever you may), who have surrounded these simple
truths with incomprehensible mysteries; who are not
honest or not bold enough openly to renounce
long-cherished, inveterate errors, as if they
begrudged the world the unalloyed enjoyment of the
blessing which God has conferred upon it in his
revelation.
But the benefits resulting from this covenant to man
in his individual capacity are not less striking.
How many, my friends, from that remote time to the
present hour, may have exclaimed, with the pious
Psalmist, “Thy word, thy covenant, is a lamp unto my
feet, and a light unto my path!” (Ps. cxix. 105.)
How many happy beings may have lived since that
time, possessing the goods of this earth to a large
extent, who were not dazzled by looking down from
the eminence of fortune’s wheel, who in their
prosperity did not forget the duties they owed to
God and to their fellowmen, who enjoyed peace and
contentment here and the hope of salvation
hereafter, because they firmly and undeviatingly
clung to the divine covenant. How many unhappy
beings may have sighed away a great portion of
their existence in anxiety, trouble, and misfortune,
whose every prospect was shrouded in darkness,—every
avenue to happiness blocked up, until they turned
their eyes to the sunny heights of religion, and
their hearts to the covenant of God. Then, the
lowering clouds on their horizon were dispelled, and
peace and happiness restored to their bosoms. How
many honest friends of truth may have lived since
that time, how many deep thinkers and sceptics, who
soared on the pinions of their minds to an
immeasurable height, and again dived into a
fathomless depth, in search for truth; who
constructed systems, and pulled them down,
reconstructed and again destroyed them,— “baseless
fabrics of a vision,”—and found no rest, no solid
foundation, no solution to their problems, until
they directed their inquiring glance to the
revelation of God, and built upon the divine
covenant! Then the intricate mazes of the labyrinth
in which they had lost themselves disappeared from
before their <<296>> eyes, and the way to happiness
and salvation lay open to their view, smiling in the
mild effulgence of a heavenly light. Are we able to
calculate the benefits and blessings of the divine
covenant? Let us pause! “How precious are thy
thoughts unto me, O God! how great is their sum! If
I should count them, they are more in number than
the sand; when I have concluded, I am still with
thee.” (Ps. cxxxix. 17, 18.)
The divine covenant was a boon voluntarily granted
to Israel; it was an act of grace. Being an
emanation of divine love, it can be kept by love
only. Our whole existence, my friends, is an
evidence of the infinite mercy of God, of the
innumerable benefits which he daily strews about.
But his greatest blessing is the covenant, the law
of truth, which he has bestowed upon us. Whoever,
therefore, does not carry out the stipulations of
this covenant from motives of love towards his
heavenly benefactor, cannot well be determined by
any other inducement; whoever is not moved to
gratitude, to obedience, to religion, by that which
God has done for him and still continues to do,—for
such a one faith, religion, law, covenant, God, are
but hollow sounds, without sense or meaning; whoever
may not be united to his Maker in love, does not
comprehend the true relation in which God stands to
man. It is not in slavish fear and sullen compliance
with the provisions of the law that true religion
consists, but in a cheerful acquiescence in the
will of God. In the free, intelligent submission
of the spirit, in childlike obedience and filial
gratitude, religion celebrates its proudest triumph.
Let us be guided, therefore, by the noble example of
our fathers. How much more eventful is our past than
that of our ancestors! What a remarkable history is,
comprised by the covenant of Horeb and the present
day! What an ocean of time is rolling behind us,
from whose heaving bosom each towering wave peals
into our ears the words of God,—“You have seen what
I have done for you; how I have borne you on eagles’
wings, and brought you unto me!” May not this appeal
pass in vain. Let us once more renew the covenant,
all of us who are here alive,—once more, call out,
with one voice and with one heart, “We will do and
obey!” Amen. |
