THE JEWS IN RUSSIA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume X, Issue 489, 25 August 1882, Page 19

THE JEWS IN RUSSIA.

Thb following is a sermon preached at Masterton on Sunday. 6th inst., by the Rev. Father Halbwachs, in aid of the persecuted Jews, as reported by the local paper :— The rev. gentleman selected for his text, « Stretch out thy hand to the poor (Ecclesiasticus, chap xvii., v. 36). He spoke as follows : My friends, I come before you to-night to plead the cause of charity and humanity— the cause of a distressed, persecuted, and suffering race. Lay, therefore, aside at the threshold of this sanctuary all political differences, forget for a moment all diversity of religion* opinions, banish from your mind your own personal feelings and grievances, and be united but in the bonds of human charity and human sympathy. Come and behoM decls of violence and o 'traces of ! crimes and murders, of plunders, and abominations of every sort, which have been inflicted in our enlightened 19th century, in t c heart of a great and mighty civilised and Christian empire, in spite of human laws, and human justice, upon an innocent, generous, charitable and law-abiding people. You have read these atrocities in the public papers, you have heard the universal cry of horror and indignation which those outrages have wrung from the breast of every well-meaning man and woman over the whole Christian world Yes, that cry has found an echo in your own hearts, and consequently you have come hither t« protest with the rest of the world against such scandals ; you have come hither to stretch out your hand to this poor, afflicted people, and to throw your own mite into the common fund of common charity. Allow me, therefore, to congratulate, nay, to praise you. It is no small consolation to see before me tonight, m spite of the inclemency of the weather, such an audience assembled for such a noble cause. Your presence in this beautiful chnrch is a sign that there beats within your breasts a spirit of chanty and justice, and that the character of Christians, which you have received in your baptism, is still gloriously shining on your brow There is no need to tell you from thi« pulpit the sad and melancholy tale of this persecution. You know these atrocities, they are yet fresh m youT memory, and at the very thought of them we are ready to exclaim with Jeremias weeping over Jerusalem, Great as the sea is thy destruction, oh ! unfortunate race of Israel, in Southern Russia. Will we then not help them? Yes. It i 6i 6 our duty not only to sympathise with them, but especially to assist them in their distress, and why so / Because we are men and because we are Christians. Yes, my friends, as men and as Christians it is our sacred duty to stretch out our hand to the poor afflicted Jews in Southern Russia ; allow me, therefore, to respectfully claim you kind attention while demonstrating to you in this discourse our sacred duty of charity under thi* our twofold noble title, » What is man ?" The question is answered in our catechism : man is one of God's creatures, composed of a bo<ly and a soul, and made to God's likeness. We have then a common origin, a common and ultimate end, common laws by which our duties towards God Almighty, and then towards our neighbours, are duly regulated. God is our common origin : He is our Sovereign Lord, our Sovereign Master ; nay, our tender Father. He himself commands us to call Him by that sweet name, and daily in our players we repeat, " Our Father who art in Heaven." God, again, is our common and ultimate end. Unnatural children should we then prove were we to shut our eyes upon the sufferings, the wants, the distress of those with whom we live in brotherhood ; were we to sr-e them perish in poverty and not assist them ; were we to hear their cries of woe, distress and anguish, and not console them. But my friends, there are natural divine laws, which regulate the duties, the relations of man to man, and when these natural, these divine laws are disgracefully trodden under foot— openly and shamefully violated — I say it is the duty of every man to raise hia voice against such scandals ; it is the duty of every man to vindicate those natural, those divine principles. What would otherwise be the fate of the world ? It would fall into an abyss of crimes and abominations of every sort. These natural, these divine laws have been written by God Almighty himself into the heart of every human being, and when, through the sins and crimes of mankind, they had, so to say, been wiped off from the face of the earth, God again gave them to us through the ministry of Moses engraved upon two tables of stone. These laws or Commandments are ten in number, we know them, we repeat them in our prayers, and it would be a jrross and guilty ignorance, and a sinful negligence not to know them, not to say them in our prayers. The three first of these precepts teach us our duty to God himself ; ef thess I have no need to speak to-night. The seven others regulate our duties towards our fellow-creatures. Now my friends, listen how flagrantly, how criminally these natural and divine laws have been violated and trodden under foot in that lamentable persecution in Russia. Allow me here to enter into some details. "Honor thy father and mother," we read in the fourth commandment. This precept teaches us the duties of inferiors towards their superiors, and the duties of superiors towards those that are subject to them. What are these duties ? To treat them with justice and humanity. But where, my friends, do we find any trace of justice, any shade of humanity, in this sad and cruel persecution ? Alas 1 is it not the most crying injustice to ruthlessly expel from their homes Thousands of innocent people, to burn down their houses and to plunder their goods ? Is it not a disgrace to humanity to see in a mighty empire a furious and lawless mob let loose upon an innocent people, committing upon them openly and unopposed all kinds of ontrages? When mourning and weeping over the fall of Jerusalem the prophet Jeremias exclaims in the bitterness of his heart, •« They that passed by the way have clapped their hands at thee ; they have hissed and wagged their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem." Are we not justified to-night to say of the Russian authorities, they also pasaed by the way, encouraging by their silence these atrocities, clapping their hands at the poor, hissing and wagging their heads at them. In the fifth commandment it is said, " Thou shalt not kill," and they killed the father and the mother, the son and the daughter : nay, the very infant at its mother's breast. The sixth and ninth commandments tell üb, " Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou

shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife," and they perpetrated abominations that hare no name, and whir.h God forbid I should relate to you from this pulpit. Within this sanctuary we can only mingle our tears with those of the victims, and exclaim in the words of the prophet, " Her virgins are outraged, and the nation is oppressed with bitterness. " Thou shalt not steal," and like birds of prey they fell upon their goods, destroyed and plundered them. " Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour," and they invented false* hoods, imputed crimes that were untrue, and could not be proved. " Thou shah not covet thy neighbour's goods " : not only did they covet their goods— goods which this poor people have for years gathered together, with such persevering energy and so many direful privations ; but they plundered them like highway robbers, and sent the people, poor and homeless, into exile. The laws of nature and God having thus been openly, shamefully and flagrantly violated .there is no won-ler, my friends, that an unu,ual cry of indignation arose— that public meetings were held, that men of every creed, of every political opinion, have flocked together, all protesting against those atrocities. There is no wonder that the heart of mighty nations was moved to sympathy and charity, api that thousands, nay, tea thousands of pounds, we -e generally subscribed for the relief of the sufferers. We, my friends, have the same principles to vindicate, the same duties of charity to fulfill. Oh 1 I know you share already the public opinion, and you will also share the public charitable dispositions in assisting these unfortunate victims. But as Christians this sacred duty of charity is still deeper impressed upon us. What is a Chri-tian ? A Christian is another Christ. A Christian then must not only learn and know the doctrine of Christ, but also put it into practice, he must follow the examples of his Divine Master, and copy his divine model. Oh, dear friends, the second person of the most adorable Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Saviour, our Redeemer, our Master, is a God of Charity. His dirine doctrine is a doctrine of charity. His life from the cradle to the cross is but an act of continual charity. The examples he left us are but examples of charity. Is He not the good Samaritan, the good Shepherd consoling everywhere the afflicted, curing the diseased, raising the dead, clot ing the naked, feeding the hungry ? If he pronounces terrible woes against the Pharisees, against the hard- hearted rich, against the world, it is because these Pharisees had not charity, because these hard-heartened rich do not practise charity. It is because the world does not know what is charity. Charity, my friends, will save us, open the gates of heaven for us. And the vant of charity will lose us, and lead us to everlasting perdition. Do you know what our divine Lord shall say on that terrible day of judgment, when surrounded by His majesty and glory, He shall come to judge the living and the dead? '• Come ye blessed of my Father" will He say to the just, " possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I was thirsty acd you gave me to drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, nakei and you clothed me ; I was in prison and you cam-; to visit me," and further on he adds, " Verily I say to you, as long as you did it (these things) to one of these my least brethern, you did it to me." Whatever, then, we do for charity's sake to oui fellow-creatures, we do it to Christ himself. If, then, you are true Christian?, look with pity and compassion upon these suffering members of Christ in South Russia. They are hungry ; they ask for bread, and there is none to b-eak it for them. They are naked ; go then and clothe them by your charity. They are strangers, have no home ; pet them a new home by your generous donations. What a beautiful occasion to gain heaven, to show your love for Christ our Divine Master. Some one miajht say, what are tho-e people to me, are they not Jews ? No my friends, do not speak like that, but rather let us imitate the example of the good Samaritan. What did he do, that good Samaritan, when he found along the roadside an unfortunate stranger that had fallen into the hands of robbers on the journey from Jerusalem to Jericho ? What did he do, oh that good Samaritan, when he saw him stripped of his clothes, all covered with wounds, and already half dead? Did he ask him from what country he came, did he enquire after his political or religious opinion ? No, by no means. No, but without losing a moment he went at once up to him, say 8 the Holy Scripture, bound up his wounds, poured oil and wine into them, and setting him upon his beast, brought him to the inn and took care of him. Oh I How wonderful an examole of charity. Happy you are dear friends if yor underscand it, but'thrice happier if you imitate it. Alas 1 have then these poor people not fallen also into the hands of highway robbers ? Have they not been left stripped, bleeding, and covered with wounds along the roadside? Why Bhould you not hasten to bind up their sores ? Why should we not also pour the oil and wine of charity into their aching wounds ? They are Jews, but by that very reason they ought to be still dearer to us. Have not their forefathers been the chosen psople of God ? Are they not the oldest race of people upon earth, are they not bright examples of charity and generosity ? « There is a book, (sava Cardinal Manning) which is common to the race of Israel and to us Christians. That book is the bond between us, and in that book I read that the people of Israel are the oldest race of people upon earth. The Russians, the Austrians, and the English are but of yesterday compared with that imperishable race who, wilh its inextinguishable light, inimitable tradition, and faith in the law of God, scattered as it is all over the world, passed through the fire unscathed, trampled in the dust, yet never combining with the dust in which it is trampled. The people live still and we are in the bonds of brotherhood with it. The New Testament rests upon the Old, they believe one half for which we would give our lives." Ah! my friends, this very people, this ancient and noble race, we are all going to assißt. Yes, dear Christains, I know you are going to help them I know it by your presence here, by your charitable disposition, I know it by yonr noble titles of Christians and of men which are held sacred and binding by you. With the poor coin you will throw into the plate to-night yon will; purchase priceless diamonds for that eternal crown which one day if you are nobly charitable in this life will be deposited on your brow. All ye here present atietch out your hand to the poor, especially you my dear Catholic people, you haveetill greater reason to be charitable, for wherever there are

sufferings to be consoled, poverty to be relieved, hunger to be fed, there also the Catholic Church, the true spouse of Christ, like a tender loving mother, is consoling the afflicted, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, binding up the wounds of poor suffering mankind. I know that you are not rich, and it is also well-known that your priest is still poorer than the poorest of you. But in our very poverty let us be charitable, and throw with the widow of the gospel our own mite into the public fund of common charity. Let ws Btretch out out hands to the poor for Christ's sake, not only now, not only this evening, but to-morrow. Let us be charitable according to our means in imitation of our Lord, and then on the terrible day of judgment we shall be placed at his righthand, we shall be numbered amongst the Lambs ; we shall hear from his divine lips these consoling words : " Come ye Blessed of my Father. Come possess the Kingdom of God." — This the grace and blessing I wish you.