A PRACTICAL SERMON.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 842, 14 June 1910, Page 3

A PRACTICAL SERMON.

EABBI VAN STAVEBEN'S PENTECOSTAL ADDEESS. '■: An eminently .practical sermon was that delivered by Eabbi van Staveren at the service of "The Feast of Weeks" —Pentecost, tho seventh week after Passover— which was held at the' Synagogue yesterday morning. In t.ho course of his address, the llabbi said that the words of his text, "Seek God and not evil, that ye may' live," might figuratively be regarded as a call to every body of religionists jealous for the triumph of thoir creed. 'The one and' only justification of their'religious opinions was that which was f uraished . by their lives. That religion would 'live the longest, and so prove its superiority, which most surely ennobled its adherents. "Who could "have refrained from sorrowing and. feeling regret in his heart," said the preacher,-, "at the words expressed a. few days, ago in a public newsSapei by one of our congregants—the un-' ue criticism passed upon the action of Hie chief prelate of tho dominant- religion of the Empire? It was unwise, ungenerous, and uncalled for. I would remind my friend that the. fence to wisdom is silence." The speaker then referred to the respect in which the Christian religion was held by the community. "We aro able," he eaid, "to discern'in Christianity the depoeitorj' of, a great measure of truth, and to recognise it as a force that has made for the moral and spiritual uplifting of the world. Because we enjoy English justice, we. can be just to English religion." These sentiments, t.ho speaker, went Oil to say, were not new. They had been expressed by notable' people in the Jewish world, who were unflinchingly loyal to Judaism, and this liberality of attitude, born of strength, not of itcakness, was full of charm and meaning.' He commended that attitude of mind to tho .attention of his hearers. For centuries past all religious eccts had been' shouting, in opposition to one auot.her: "Our religion,is the right one," and the dispute had not yet been settled. It would. never be settled save upon tho qualification that that religion which produced the best men and women would alone stand. It was, then, for the adherents of each of the great religious sects to hasten, by ihe nobility of their'own lives, that' recognition which it was desired should bo universally acclaimed.