VII. The Good of to-Day. Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow; then come and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white -Isaiah i. 17, 18. as snow. JN regard to piety, however, it seems undeniable that the former days were better than the latter; and yet, here also are some things which redeem our time. If our religion is less in quantity, it is better in quality, more rational, more liberal, more practical. Ceremonials are not always helpful; sometimes, on the contrary, they hide the pure light of a faith. If our sentiments as Jews are less intense, our ideas have been enlarged, and our sympathies have been widened. If we do not receive every word of the Bible as coming directly from God, we have gained a clearer and fuller knowledge of its history, and treat that as God's Revelation. The personal Messiah has faded from our belief; but not the grand hope of humanity's redemption from the evils of war and oppression, of which that personality was only the temporary expression. Shorter prayers do not prove less devotion, and the Talmudic doctors have left us this wise rule: there is a time to lengthen, and there is a time to shorten, prayer; and again: better a short prayer with inward devotion, than a long one without it. G. G. H! let my converse, Lord, with Thee, Let th' enlightening of my mind, Remove the shades that keep me blind. VIII. Honor the Hoary Head. With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding.—Job xii. 12. The hoary head is a crown of glory; it is found in the way of righteousness.-Prov. xvi. 31. NE of the strongest evidences of the ethical genius of our religion is the inculcation of reverence for the hoary head. Feeble in body, bending his trembling steps toward the grave, he sometimes sinks to the helplessness of childhood; but within that withering frame lives a deathless soul, which came from God; a soul where there are found treasures of experience and golden rules of wisdom; a soul hastening onward toward its higher destiny. The carnal eye regards only the outward appearance. Youth, in its bloom, manhood in its strength are esteemed far more highly, than weak and decaying age; but as soon as reverence for the supernatural, especially for the allpervading Spirit enters into our heart, it needs must create a like reverence for the spirit inhabiting the frail tenement. The compassion which our teacher Moses enjoins towards all the feeble and the helpless, is, in this instance, deepened to a worshipful sense of reverence; which manifests itself in our conduct towards the aged on all occasions. And this is the connection in which these two sentences are linked together: Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the aged; I am the Lord, thy God.-Lev. xix. 32. O we love with no less loving Hair that turns to gray, Or a step less lightly moving In life's autumn day. And if thought, still brooding, lingers O'er each bygone thing, 'Tis because old autumn's fingers Paint in hues of spring. IX. DAVID EINHORN. The Blooming Rod. And on the morning, Moses went into the tabernacle of assembly, and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levy was budded and brought forth, and bloomed blossoms and yielded almonds.—Numbers xvii. 8. UD, blossom, fruit-all three appeared at the same time. Suppose we let the bud stand for the religious faculty, the blossom for worship, the fruit for life-the Rod would then be a beautiful symbol of the man worthy to minister at the altar, and we could notice that the rule: "A tree shall be known by its fruit" is good Jewish doctrine and of old value, too, and recognition. Also this we would learn, or find confirmed: that a religion should not lose herself in forms that are without vital force, nor bury her face in ancient scrolls whilst stopping her ears to the voices of to-day; but should look around and mark the signs of the time, and heed the needs of the hour that now is; since it is as necessary for this generation that truth and justice and love and mercy be exalted as it was in ages past, but this can never be unless we follow Moses, take the Rod from the tabernacle and show it the people and thus "make to cease their murmurings," whereby they murmur against a lifeless, and, therefore, profitless church. HIRSTING for a living spring, Seeking for a higher home, Resting where our souls must cling, Make us beautiful within, By Thy spirit's holy light; Guard us when our faith burns dim, X. MEV Past and Present. G. G. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts: If thou wilt walk in My ways and keep My charge, then thou shalt judge My house and shalt also keep My charge; and I will give thee such as walk between those that stand still.-Zechariah iii. 7. [EVER lose sight of the fact that the present rests upon the past; the latter may be understood without the first, but not the reverse. All great periods of reform were retrospective; all reformers planted their feet firmly on the rocks beneath them, and drew their strength from the wealth stored up by their forerunners; just as we now go to the coal-beds for the light and the heat deposited there by the sun, ages ago. One of the latest branches of science (sociology) not only starts with the rudest elements of social order, but goes behind that and questions the records of rock caverns and lake dwellings for the doings of primitive man. Nature is irresistible; that which is to live must follow her methods; and her rule is: evolution, not revolution. Only by carefully questioning the past can we learn so to reform our faith as to bring it into line with the beneficent agencies of our time, and satisfy the needs of the Israelite of to-day. And now, O Israel, what does the Lord, thy God, require of thee, but to fear Him, to walk in all His ways, to love Him and to serve Him with all thy heart and all thy soul.-Deut. x. 12. HE real question to ask about any form of religious belief is: Does it kindle the fire of love? Does it |