PERSECUTION OF JEWS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21463, 10 April 1933, Page 11

PERSECUTION OF JEWS

A METHODIST PROTEST " NARROW NATIONALISM " "The persecution of the Jews in Germany is utterly abhorrent to the Christian conscience," said the Rev. E. D. Patchett, when preaching on the subject, "The Church's Debt to the Jew," at the Epsom Methodist Church yesterday morning. "Persecution is no longer regarded as a legitimate weapon in the Christian armoury," said the preacher. "Rather do we understand the mind of Christ to be opposed to all forms of racial antagonism and religious intolerance. We place no more limits upon the oblige tion of Christian charity than is to be found in Paul's great saying, 'God hath made of one blood all nations that do dwell upon the face o£ the earth.' "The outbreak of narrow nationalism in Germany is, moreover, totally at variance with the instincts and ideals of our own nation. One of the most attractive features of our national tradition is the tendency to count all men as co-equal citizens when they have become part and parcel of our 'national life. So that, while the Jew in the British Empire maintains, as elsewhere, his own individuality and religion, yet he is neither despised nor differentiated against on that account. "The Christian Church owes an incalculable debt to the Jew," said Mr. Patchett. "The literature of the Old Testament is still the common language of our devotional life. It is almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of the contribution the Jew has made to. the moral and spiritual enlightenment of man. Nor is this contribution in a final and finished form. "The Jewish people all over the world still display a remarkable genius for absorbing and improving the valuable elements in civilisation. If they have a capacity to enrich themselves they, in doing so, often greatly enrich the nation of which they form a part. In commerce and industry they do so even as Moses did in Egypt long ago. In moral character and love of righteousness they are still worthy of their great ancestry who first gave to the world a moral basis for life founded upon faith in a holy God. The man who is devoid of religious faith and hope is further removed from the possibility of spiritual fellowship with his fellow Christian than is a devout Jew. ' "The Gospel, humanly speaking, sprang out of Jewis thought. Jesus committed the founding and the fortunes of the early Church to men of His own race, declaring that His personal ministry was confined to 'the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' The motto of the New Testament is 'to the Jew first, but also to the Gentile.' _The Jew was the spearhead of Christ's thrust in a hostile world. So to this day we owe an amazing debt to the Jew."