entertained, we Jews most scrupulously refrain from passing under review (save when we are rudely intruded on by rabid conversionists) the religious views which others profess. But Mr. Voysey obliges us to break silence, because he appeals to us Jews in an especial manner to cast in our lot with the community he has formed, and to make the Synagogue the arena for propagating his views. Nothing is more precious to us Jews than the doctrine of the unity of the Godhead; and the page of history lies open to tell at what peril and sacrifice our fathers upheld this central article of Judaism during centuries of religious persecution. We are of opinion that Messianism, if it have any concrete significance at all, points to a time when the unity of God will find universal acceptance. But there is a wide difference, which the Rev. Mr. Voysey does not appear to distinguish, between those who receive the doctrine of the Divine unity as a communication from on high, and as constituting a part only of a direct revelation from God to man, and those who deny the theophany at Sinai, and ascribe the idea of the one and only God to be the product of the mind of some uninspired mortal, who palmed it on the world as a divine revelation. It is said that there are some professing themselves Jews who have identified themselves with the Rev. Mr. Voysey's movement, and that they regularly attend the Sunday worship at his conventicle. If this be so, it is much to be deplored. Imperfect, indeed, must be the acquaintance of such profess

1 See Zachariah xiv. 9.

ing Jews with their ancient Scriptures and with the religion of Moses, if they believe that they see the code of Sinai reflected in the shiftings and windings of a speculative theism that rejects the inspiration and the authority of the Pentateuch, which the whole house of Israel has held in veneration as their spiritual life, or, to speak in

the fountain * מקור מים חיים Scripture phrase as

of living waters." 1

When we are asked to approve and adopt the Rev. Mr. Voysey's scheme, because it upholds the great Jewish doctrine of the unity of God, and to charge ourselves, as the appointed missionaries of truth, with the promulgation of it, we answer, taking the second proposition first, that we are to prosecute the mission assigned to us, not by an offensive meddling with the opinions and convictions of others, but through the practices of our own Jewish lives, which are to be regulated by the precepts of the Divine will revealed to us in the book of the law of Moses.

And touching the former proposition we reply, that whilst we rejoice in every advance that the head and the heart make to the acceptance of the Jewish doctrine that God is one and one only, without a distinction of nature or division of parts, we should not consider ourselves absolved, even if that time had come, which prophetic Scripture predicts, when the oneness of God is to be universally acknowledged,—from the observance of our distinctive ritual, nor from our

1 Jerem. xvii. 13.

adherence to the precepts and ordinances of which Moses says, "they are to constitute your wisdom and your intelligence in the sight of the nations."1 Like all who desire to live in good relationship and brotherhood with our fellow-men, we rejoice in every modification of opinion that brings us nearer into agreement in matters with respect to which we have formerly differed; and we would go as far as those who go farthest to bury in oblivion all dissension on speculative theology which has unhappily built up a wall of separation between one child of God and another. But we will not barter away the "heritage of Jacob " " for a spurious liberalism; nor will we forget that so long only as we continue faithful to our God and to His covenant with our fathers can we stand forth to the world in

2

אתם עדי נאם יי : the light which Scripture bids us ,ועבדי אשר בחרתי

* 8 *, "You are my witnesses, is the saying of the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen." 3

1 Deut. iv. 6.

2

Ibid., xxxiii. 4.

3 Isaiah xliii. 10.

XIV.

ON DIVINE WORSHIP.

כי האמנם ישב אלהים על הארץ הנה השמים ושמי השמים לא יכלכלוך אף כי הבית הזה אשר בניתי : ופנית אל תפלת עבדך ואל תחנתו יהוה אלהי לשמע אל הרנה ואל התפלה אשר עבדך מתפלל לפניך היום : להיות עינך פתחת אל-הבית הזה לילה ויום אל המקום אשר אמרת יהיה שמי שם לשמע אל-התפלה אשר יתפלל עבדך אל המקום הזה: ושמעת אל תחנת עבדך ועמך ישראל אשר יתפללו אל המקום הזה ואתה תשמע אל-מקום שבתך אל השמים ושמעת וסלחת :

"Can it surely be that God should dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house which I have built? Yet wilt Thou have regard unto the prayer of Thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God, and Thou wilt hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which Thy servant prayeth before Thee this day: that Thy eye may be opened towards this house night and day, towards the place of which Thou hast said, My name shall be there: that Thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which Thy servant shall make towards this place. And Thou wilt hearken unto the supplication of Thy servant, and of Thy people Israel, when they shall pray towards this place and Thou wilt hear in heaven Thy dwelling-place and when Thou hearest Thou wilt pardon."-1 KINGS viii. 27—30.

I HAVE selected the present text from the prayer of Solomon on the inauguration of the national

Temple of Jerusalem-a composition which stands unrivalled for its many excellences-because it treats of public worship in general and of the efficacy and the victorious power of prayer, the two subjects proposed to be considered in the sermon of to-day.

Patriarchal worship is the earliest form of which history has preserved a record. Extremely simple in its character, it was performed at a rustic altar by the head of the family, who was regarded as the household priest; and it consisted chiefly of hymns of grateful praise and thanksgiving and of short supplications to the Supreme Being for divine protection and guidance. Here also, as occasion might require, mercy and forgiveness were implored for sinful mortals. There is no mention of a sanctuary or temple set apart for public devotion until the age of Moses, and in the , which he was charged to have constructed for the public worship of Israel, whenever they should halt on their march, the service differed considerably from that of the patriarchal era. It was fuller, grander, and more imposing; and although sacrifice constituted one of its main features, that rite could have been regarded only as secondary to prayer. We look in vain in the Pentateuch for any positive injunction to pray at stated times or at any given length, inasmuch as prayer must be the spontaneous effusion of a pious and grateful heart, and cannot therefore be commanded. Neither do we

1 See the supplication of Abraham for the sinful people of Sodom. (Gen. xviii. 23—33.)