chosen people of God, the only race indeed for whom He cared, the Jewish people at large were ready enough to use the weapons of persecution against those who did not worship Jehovah or worship after their fashion. The spirit of coercion dominated them for a time, for the whole period of their triumph and was transmitted by Jewish teachers and Jewish apostles to Christendom. Christians came to believe, like degenerate Israelites, that God was God only of the Christians and not the God of the Jews. However much it is to be deplored, it is nevertheless true that as Jews persecuted the early Christians, so did the Christians in the day of their triumph turn round and persecute the Jews; as in later times Catholics and Protestants alternately used violence and cruelty whenever it was the turn of one of them to be in the ascendant. This spirit of persecution is far from being extinguished even now, but it is so greatly modified by various influences which have been in activity for the last fifty years that a return to the fury and ferocity of the past seems now to be impossible in any country that is truly civilized. From the Jewish mind at all events it has long been banished. In every Christian land which has given them a shelter, they have been remarkable for gentleness, goodwill and even for patriotism. The old and fearful record of Christian cruelties has been by them torn up and forgotten, and they have only returned good for evil, blessing for cursing. To the lasting credit likewise of Christians, they have in these recent times come to the full perception of the horrible wickedness of persecution. Instead of going to their New Testament, as was their wont, for texts to justify their hatred and cruelty to the Jews, they have explored its treasury for words of peace and love and goodwill to all men. If we may ever find comfort in appalling calamity, surely we may heartily rejoice that one result of those diabolical outrages in Russia is to have called forth from every section of Christians in this country and in America, an enthusiastic, a passionate, outburst of abhorrence and indignation. Not only an Archbishop or Bishop, not only a Lord Shaftesbury, but a Roman Catholic Cardinal is heard in eloquent praise of the Jewish virtues, and in grateful acknowlegement of the vast debt due to them both by civilization and Christianity. Verily we live in glorious times; and when we have gone over all the wonderful improvements, refinements, inventions. and our vast

strides in knowledge which the present century has brought to us, they are not to be compared with the blessing and the honor of the mighty change which has come over the spirit of the Christian worl in its righteous indignation against all forms of cruelty and wrong, and in its just as well as generous recognition-at last-of the worth and the dignity of the despised and down-trodden Jew. When Cardinal Manning said at the Mansion House:

For uprightness, for refinement, for generosity, for charity, for all the graces and virtues that adorn humanity, where will be found examples brighter or more true of human excellence than in this Hebrew race?

Or when Canon Farrar says:

The Jews are the most trampled-upon nationality in the world. It is the nation to which humanity owes the deepest debt and on which humanity has inflicted the deepest wrong.

When, I say, we hear such words from christian lips, we can hardly help crying out with Agrippa, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.' Opposition is disarmed. Differences of creed sink into oblivion. Unity of soul, the very bond of peace is at once established,

One more lesson the Jews have learnt in their bitter afflictions which we must not forget. It was the truth which in many places may be found in their sacred Scriptures, but which in the days of their prosperity they had never learnt that God was not the God of the Jews only, but, likewise, the God of all mankind that they, however high was their privilege in knowing and loving the one true God, were not on that account more dear to God than the rest of the world. The old exclusive pride gradually gave way and they learnt at last that they had no monopoly of Divine favour or of Divine mercy, but it was as true of every member of the human family as of the children of Abraham, "The Eternal God is thy refuge and underneath thee are the everlasting arms.' And this was the secret of their friendliness and good will towards Gentiles in all the countries in which they have been scattered. The feeling by which they realized the Fatherhood of God to all men, made them conscious of their own brotherhood and endeavour to fulfil its obligations.

We know that as there are Christians and Christians, e.g. English Christians and Russian Christians, as there are Irish and Irish, and so forth, so also there are Jews and

Jews; and it will not be denied that they have been greatly coloured and influenced by the kind of persons among whom they have dwelt. We can observe this among the Jews in our land and in this great metropolis; not many Englishmen have had so large and so intimate acquantance with Jews of all countries as I have had. I knew them by thousands in St. Mark's, Whitechapel, Italian, French, German, Russian, Austrian, Polish, and each class bore the characteristics more or less strongly of the nation from which they had emigrated. I am told that the Jews of the East are in a much lower state of civilization than those of the West and it is not surprising. But if there are these differences, which the Jews themselves would be the first to recognise, we must remember there is the same variety in every race and of every creed. If the Jews of Russia are at all below the standard of Jews in Germany or in England, the Russians who have been committing those fearful outrages are sheer barbarians, savages, anachronisms in this 19th century; and it will remain to be proved whether or not the Emperor and the ruling classes in Russia belong to the same detestable class of barbarians, according to the manner in which they behave in future to the Jews after hearing the indignant and unanimous protest of this country.

I have not dared to touch on the details of those horrors with which the Press has lately made us acquainted; and I do not see much good in sensational appeals to men and women of sound judgment and tender heart, especially when, if details are admitted at all, those which are most important are simply unmentionable. Taking for granted that all is well known that needs to be known, and that a vast amount of dire distress, poverty, homelessness and ruin have fallen upon 100,000 Jewish families, it is quite out of the question for us to make a mere protest against Russian brutalities, or to utter a cry of pity and commiseration over their unhappy victims, without at the same time contributing something substantial towards their relief. It was on this account that I did not bring forward the subject many weeks ago but there are suitable times for all things, and knowing what heavy calls have been made upon the congregation and supporters of this Theistic Church within the last month, and to which I can only allude with feelings of the deepest gratitude, I cannot have the courage to ask you immediately for any charitable contribution. But I may do this with a

good grace and a clear conscience. I may first of all ask those who have had no share in the recent private collection to give very liberally towards a fund which I open to day for the relief of the poor Jews in Russia; and secondly, I will ask for promises of contributions to be paid anytime within two months, from all persons who may not find it convenient to pay their money at once. This fund when collected will be forwarded to the Lord Mayor as a contribution to the National Fund for that purpose which was opened last Wednesday.

It is asked sometimes by captious critics, what do we Theists do in the way of benefiting our fellowmen except by our talk; we have no schools, or colleges, or parochial institutions for the benefit of the poor, &c. To which I will answer that every one of our members and supporters has all along been a contributor likewise to the various public charities, to the needs of his own parish and the poor around him, to the objects for charity perpetually cropping up. Some of them have made me their almoner for considerable amounts, and I am quite sure Theists are not one whit behind other good hearted and religious men. In our more public action as a community, we have from time to time made contributions which might well put to the blush many a larger and wealthier congregation.

The amount raised in assisting private persons, some of whom were not Theists but orthodox Christians is considerably over £200. To the sufferers of the Indian famine in 1877, our congregation sent £48. To the Irish in their distress in 1880, we sent £75. To the Hospitals, in all, £462. These are samples of what has been done in the space of ten years by the youngest and, perhaps, the smallest religious community in the world.

I ask you then with confidence to keep up the liberal traditions of our Church, and do not let us be behind our Christian brethren in running to the relief of our suffering Jewish brethren in Russia.

We have not confined ourselves in our sympathy and help 'to them which are of the household of faith; therefore, we can with greater alacrity, if possible, turn now to support those who, certainly belong more than any other people on the face of the earth to the household of our faith. We and they are not only men but we are Theists with them and they with us, in all that constitutes the essential elements of

what we call religion. Their creed is like ours, the shortest in the world. Their theology, like ours, is the simplest and most rational. Their hopes, like ours, are for the well being of all mankind in this world and in the world to come. And like them we aspire to be loyal both to God and man, and long for the day when all mankind shall love and serve HIM only who is the Lord of the whole earth, and when' the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.*

Worshipping in this house of prayer which was built and used for a Jewish Synagogue and joining our hearts and our holy cause with theirs, let us pray again the prayer of Moses.

'Lord, thou hast been our refuge from one generation to another. Comfort us again now after the time that Thou hast plagued us and for the years wherein we have suffered adversity. Shew thy servants thy work and their children. thy glory, and the Glorious Majesty of the Lord our God be upon us. Prosper the work of our hands upon us. O prosper Thou our handiwork.

It is requested that all donations to this Jewish Relief Fund may be sent to the author, Camden House, Dulwich, S.E.

UPFIELD GREEN, Printer, Tenter Street, Moorgate Street, E.C.