The Religious Life of LondonRitchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
Religion
The Religious Life of London
Ritchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
London (England) -- Religion; Religious thought -- England -- London
is short, he delivers himself well, his style of address is popular, and
he gives many an Old Testament lesson. He demands of Abraham’s
descendants Abraham’s faith in God, and obedience to Him. The Christian,
of course, misses much. We worship a Messiah who has come; the Jews
still, with sad and weary eyes, look onward, waiting His advent.
Wherever civilization and science go hand in hand, wherever humanity
reaps “the long results of time,” whether in the old world or the new,
wherever the great Caucasian race multiplies and nourishes, there, more
or less, is there a living faith in the mission of Christ as a Divine
teacher, as the comforter of human sorrow, as the healer of human woe, as
the model for all to follow who aspire upwards to heaven and to God. In
Europe there are 280 millions of Christians, and but very few of Jews.
Everywhere they are an immense minority.
“The cedars wave on Lebanon,
But Judah’s statelier maids are gone.”
The Jews are not a proselyting people, but they are becoming increasingly
anxious that the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob should not forsake the
God of their fathers; and about thirty years ago certain of the London
Jews agitated for a reformed mode of worship, as they deemed, more in
accordance with the circumstances of their brethren in this age and
clime. They argued that there is much that is local in the Jewish
ritual, and much that is inapplicable now; that the people in consequence
would fall away unless a reformed mode of worship was introduced. I do
not think the Reformers have made as much progress as they anticipated,
though to a stranger they certainly appear to have not merely modified,
but improved the service. The Prayer-book was carefully revised, an
improved ritual was drawn up by blending the beautiful portions of the
Portuguese and German Liturgies, a choir was formed for the purpose of
inspiring devotional feeling by means of solemn song. In the old
orthodox synagogues the custom of calling up persons to read the law for
the sake of presenting their offerings during divine service, often
interferes with the edification of the assembly, according to the Jewish
reformers, and this also they omit. Furthermore, they decline to
recognise as sacred, days which are evidently not ordained as such in
Scripture. It must be remembered the Jew of the Restoration is much more
of a formalist than the Jew of David’s and Solomon’s time, that the
rabbis returned after the captivity laden with Babylonian learning, and
that a new school arose. In his sermon on the opening of his new place
of worship in 1842, Mr. Marks said, on behalf of himself and people, “We
must as our conviction urges us solemnly deny that a belief in the
_divinity_ of the traditions contained in the Mishna and the Jerusalem
Talmuds is of equal obligation to the Israelite with the faith in the
divinity of the law of Moses. We know that these books are human
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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