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diff --git a/26328-tei/26328-tei.tei b/26328-tei/26328-tei.tei new file mode 100644 index 0000000..96594d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/26328-tei/26328-tei.tei @@ -0,0 +1,446 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> + +<!DOCTYPE TEI.2 SYSTEM "http://www.gutenberg.org/tei/marcello/0.4/dtd/pgtei.dtd" [ + +<!ENTITY u5 "http://www.tei-c.org/Lite/"> + +]> + +<TEI.2 lang="en"> +<teiHeader> + <fileDesc> + <titleStmt> + <title>No. 4, Intersession: A Sermon Preached by the Rev. B. N. Michelson, B.A.</title> + <author><name reg="Michelson, B.N.">B. N. Michelson</name></author> + </titleStmt> + <editionStmt> + <edition n="1">Edition 1</edition> + </editionStmt> + <publicationStmt> + <publisher>Project Gutenberg</publisher> + <date>August 16, 2008</date> + <idno type="etext-no">26328</idno> + <availability> + <p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and + with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it + away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg + License online at www.gutenberg.org/license</p> + </availability> + </publicationStmt> + <sourceDesc> + <bibl> + Created electronically. + </bibl> + </sourceDesc> + </fileDesc> + <encodingDesc> + </encodingDesc> + <profileDesc> + <langUsage> + <language id="en"></language> + </langUsage> + </profileDesc> + <revisionDesc> + <change> + <date value="2008-08-16">August 16, 2008</date> + <respStmt> + <name> + Produced by Gerard Arthus, David King, and the Online Distributed + Proofreading Team at <http://www.pgdp.net/>. + (This file was produced from images generously made available by + The Internet Archive.) + </name> + </respStmt> + <item>Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1</item> + </change> + </revisionDesc> +</teiHeader> + +<pgExtensions> + <pgStyleSheet> + .boxed { x-class: boxed } + .shaded { x-class: shaded } + .rules { x-class: rules; rules: all } + .indent { margin-left: 2 } + .bold { font-weight: bold } + .italic { font-style: italic } + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + </pgStyleSheet> + + <pgCharMap formats="txt.iso-8859-1"> + <char id="U0x2014"> + <charName>mdash</charName> + <desc>EM DASH</desc> + <mapping>--</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x2003"> + <charName>emsp</charName> + <desc>EM SPACE</desc> + <mapping> </mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x2026"> + <charName>hellip</charName> + <desc>HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS</desc> + <mapping>...</mapping> + </char> + </pgCharMap> +</pgExtensions> + +<text lang="en"> + <front> + <div> + <divGen type="pgheader" /> + </div> + <div> + <divGen type="encodingDesc" /> + </div> + + <div rend="page-break-before: always"> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">The Central Synagogue Pulpit</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">A Selected Series of Sermons</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">Delivered at the Central Synagogue,</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">Great Portland Street, W.</p> + <p rend="font-size: x-large; text-align: center">No. 4</p> + <p rend="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center">Intersession</p> + <p rend="font-size: x-large; text-align: center">A Sermon Preached On ש"ק פ'ויגש</p> + <p rend="font-size: x-large; text-align: center">Sabbath, December 30th, 5677-1916</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">by the</p> + <p rend="font-size: x-large; text-align: center">Rev. B. N. Michelson, B.A.</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">Acting Minister of the Congregation</p> + <p rend="text-align: center">Printed for Private Circulation</p> + </div> + </front> +<body> + + +<pb n='003'/><anchor id='Pg003'/> + +<div> + +<p> +וישלחני אלהים לפניכם לשום לכם שארית בארץ ולהחיות לכם לפליטה גדולה +</p> + +<quote rend="display"> +<q>And God has thus sent me before you to prepare for +you a permanence on the earth and to save your lives by +a great deliverance.</q>—Genesis xlv., v. 7. +</quote> + +<p> +In a time of effort, suffering and grief such as this +country has never before known, it is well that we +should have frequent occasions for a review of the +position in which we stand for a strengthening of our +sinews to continue the struggle in the spirit of the high +and noble resolve which induced our participation in it. +</p> + +<p> +This week-end will be a solemn occasion; it will draw +together the religious bodies in a rare unity of thought +and action. If there be in these times any who think +themselves superior to the need of intercession and +prayer they are not to be envied. For these are the +days in which human values are changing and the folly +of human pride and the weakness of human strength +are brought home to men—the old-time wisdom of the +humble heart is vindicated once more. And so we take +advantage of the fact that we are again upon the threshold +of a New Year to ask that the blessings of our God +may still be poured upon us and those who, with us, are +striving to right the wrong and to make the world the +<pb n='004'/><anchor id='Pg004'/> +better and purer for our fight against injustice, barbarism +and slavery. We of this generation feel that we are so +ordering our actions—many of us so facing death—that +we may be able to say to future generations: <q>God +hath sent me before you to prepare for you a permanence +on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The land in which we live is overshadowed, its people +perplexed and exasperated by the fears and resentments +of a fierce and desperate War: and we must needs +strive for balance, both mental and moral, if we would not +be swallowed up in the morasses of hate and vengefulness. +Whilst we turn to our God for help in maintaining our +just cause, which we cannot doubt is indeed His cause, +we still must guard our actions and our thoughts, to +prevent the blotting out of the moral issues that are at +stake. +</p> + +<p> +It would be a wretched perversion of conscience to +require of any man, condonation of the infamous cruelties +and treacheries which have disgraced our foes during the +last two years. The best elements in us rise in irrepressible +repugnance before such pageants of wickedness +as have clothed the famous name of Wittenberg with +infamy and made the story of naval warfare a continuing +record of wanton crime. No man can think, without +shame, of the so-called civilisation and culture which +could palliate such perversions of justice as those recalled +by the fate of Nurse Cavell and Captain Fryatt. +</p> + +<p> +Yet there are two considerations that may help us to +feel that the German people, so far from being truly +<pb n='005'/><anchor id='Pg005'/> +represented by the miscreants who have organised and +carried through the atrocities on land and on sea, are +wantonly misled and disgraced by them. +</p> + +<p> +History includes the record of similar horrors perpetrated +by other nations which nevertheless are justly +reckoned among the best human material. May we not +hope that the crimes of Germany in the twentieth century +provide no truer index to the national character than +did those of revolutionary France in the eighteenth? +</p> + +<p> +Psychology unites its testimony to that of History. +Civilised man stands as the latest link of a long chain +of advancement from aboriginal beasthood, and he +retains within himself the germ of all his earlier traits, +though these are increasingly suppressed and held in +check by higher habitudes. Civilisation represents an +elaborate system of auxiliary disciplines, designed to +stifle as far as may be the brute in man and to strengthen +the acquired qualities of justice, mercy and refinement. +</p> + +<p> +When some sudden catastrophe such as Revolution +or War befalls, there is always great danger that that +elaborate system of artificial auxiliaries to virtue will be +broken down and the beast let loose in unchecked +savagery. Unquestionably this gives the key to the +atrocities that stained the French Revolution: it probably +gives the key to the crimes of German warfare. It +certainly leads us to the contemplation of the horrors +from which we ourselves would be free—a contemplation +which helps to make our Day of Intercession one not +<pb n='006'/><anchor id='Pg006'/> +merely of prayer for victory and its material benefits, +but for the ennoblement of our minds and the purification +of our souls. +</p> + +<p> +The happenings of the past two weeks have led our +thoughts to the possibilities of peace and the consideration +of peace terms. +</p> + +<p> +May the peace, whenever it come, be worthy of the +conflict that it ends, a peace which enthrones justice in +the affairs of the world and banishes oppression. +May the final treaty include specific provision for the +trial and punishment of the men who have organised +and carried out the crimes of the war. So shall resentment +die, when it is realised that our victory is unstained +with injustice, and the German people themselves are +helped to return to the fellowship of civilised mankind. +Thus shall the nations now at war at last be bound +together by the ties of international goodwill. If we are +able to realise these high aims then God will indeed +<q>have sent us to prepare a permanence on the earth +and to save lives by a great deliverance.</q> +</p> + +<p> +How great is the debt we owe to those who are bearing +the brunt of the struggle—how deeply we realise our +dependence upon the manhood of this nation! We +cannot allow a day set apart for supplication to come +and go without more than a passing thought for those +who have sustained wounds or suffered hardship for the +maintenance of our integrity and our rights of existence +as a nation. +</p> + +<pb n='007'/><anchor id='Pg007'/> + +<p> +Many are the movements to which the War has +given rise, which aim at alleviating the ravages +of the combat. When we think that of the seven-and-a-half +million Belgians left in Belgium, more than three-and-a-half +millions are being fed by the free canteens or +receiving relief in some form from the charity provided +in the first place by the large-heartedness of the American +people, we shall understand something of the vastness +of some of the problems which arise only to be dealt with +by outside agencies. The gallant stand of a gallant +people is still continued both before and behind the +German lines, where the Belgians are as stubbornly +resistant to day as they were when their King drew his +sword and said: <q>For us there can be no other answer.</q> +And the passive resistance of the imprisoned millions in +Belgium to the compulsion and cajolery alike of their +would-be friend, the enemy, is a factor in the German +subduing process the world outside must appreciate. +But the Belgians are paying the price. Their resources +are diminishing day by day. The world's benevolence +is dwindling and they are facing an immediate future +wherein life's necessities will have to be defined in terms +of the irreducible minimum. The whole nation, +we are told, is growing so thin on the small ration that +can be provided, that wasting diseases, due to under-nutrition, +are increasing by leaps and bounds. +</p> + +<p> +These facts are here referred to, first and foremost, +that we may pay some tribute, if only in thought, to +these and our other brave allies who have suffered +loss incalculable, and in the second place to direct our +<pb n='008'/><anchor id='Pg008'/> +attention to our own more fortunate position and to +remind us that amid all the devastation, the War is +being commemorated by works of beneficence and +mercy, works intended to show our sympathy for +suffering and our gratitude to the God who is supporting +us through these terrible days. +</p> + +<p> +He is not a good man who fails to employ every +possible effort to supply the needs of those dependent +upon him in his own household. No less is he a +moral failure who does not lend himself to support +every noble effort for the succour of those bound to him +by the ties of religious faith, especially when suffering +has come upon them through their faithfulness. And +so no one could have any compunction in appealing to +you as was done a short time ago for your own brethren. +But we must not forget that he who builds a fence, +fences out more than he can fence in. Israel must be +faithful to his own, but his own includes not only the +members of Israel's faith, who have the first claim upon +him, but all the children of God, who are by the fact of +their human birth, his brethren; and to-day the +appeal is made to us on behalf of those to whom we have +to pay something we <emph>owe</emph>. The sick and wounded +of our soldiers and sailors have a claim we cannot ignore: +their misfortunes have been brought about by their +devotion to our country's cause. It is enough that they +must suffer for us: we must see that everything possible +is done to alleviate the pains they undergo. The Sick +and Wounded Fund asks for your help, and, as I know you, +I am sure you will give it with no unstinting hand. +</p> + +<pb n='009'/><anchor id='Pg009'/> + +<p> +We think to day of our wounded, but we think also +of our dead. Men may be willing to die for one cause +in one age, and in another for what may seem a different +cause, but in the last analysis it will be found that that +for which human beings lay down their lives is always +what they regard as the Eternal Right. +</p> + +<p> +In every man created in the image of his God there is +this strange mystical susceptibility, this urge to lay all +he has upon the altar of the ideal that he feels has the +right to demand his uttermost. Nothing else so fully +demonstrates man's spiritual nature: it is the one great +fact that differentiates us from the brutes. +</p> + +<p> +On the one hand is man selfish, greedy, earth-bound, +false and sordid in his aims. On the other, at repeated +intervals, in great and solemn hours, comes this austere +appeal for all he has to give—and he promptly gives it, +joyously, willingly, without thought of reward, and +derives a greater satisfaction from that self-giving than +from all other kinds of gain together. It is deep, +mysterious, elusive, this stress of the spirit, but we all +know it unmistakably as all generations have known it. +There is nothing so strong in human nature as this +impulse to fling ourselves away at the bidding of we know +not what, the something that incarnates itself now in this +cause or objective and now in that, and makes us feel +וישלחני אלהים לפניכם לשום לכם שארית בארץ ולהחיות לכם לפליטה גדולה +<q>God hath sent us +<pb n='010'/><anchor id='Pg010'/> +before you to prepare a permanence on the earth and to +save your lives by a great deliverance.</q> There is +nothing so exalting within the totality of human experience +as the elevation of soul reached by the one who +willingly dies for the sake of the others. +</p> + +<p> +How many men of character and intellectual gifts, +how many thinkers, writers, artists, how many men +fitted to promote the prosperity of their country in +industry and commerce have we lost in the War! And +how many of the rank and file, men who were distinguished +for nothing in their lives so much as the manner of their +death! How much poorer the next generation will be! +To the memory of them all we give the grateful tribute +of saddened and chastened hearts: we remember them +all in our prayers, we recall their heroism as we rejoice +in their manhood and their glory. Never was a time +when so many of our best and noblest have gone from us +willingly because they have felt it to be their duty and +never was a time when their parents and dear ones have +shown such a noble example of uncomplaining patience +under a loss which to them was the greatest that any loss +could be. We may well feel proud not only of the sons +but of the parents that they have willingly given +their children and have borne their loss with dignity and +resignation, not repining and bewailing their dead, but +putting their hands to works of charity and helpfulness. +Let us who remain be worthy of those who have been +taken, worthy of the country that can rear such children. +They have revealed to us the soul of the nation, the soul +by which, far more than by its wealth or its prosperity +<pb n='011'/><anchor id='Pg011'/> +or its material strength, a nation lives: and while the +soul of England thus lives, England will maintain her +greatness. +</p> + +<p> +Let us remember our heroes who have made the +supreme sacrifice, not altogether with sorrow, but also +with a solemn thankfulness—to God who strengthened +them to play their part, to them for their simple example +of duty done. The memories of these, our heroes, will +for us and for those who come after shine as a holy +flame, a light that will burn for ever at the altar of +patriotism and of duty. +</p> + +<p> +And so we commend their souls, even as our own, to +the mercy of our God, looking to Him in all humility and +trust to vouchsafe us in His good time <q>a permanence +on the earth and a saving of life by a great deliverance.</q> +Amen. +</p> + +</div> + +</body> +<back rend="page-break-before: right"> + <div rend="page-break-before: right"> + <divGen type="pgfooter" /> + </div> +</back> +</text> +</TEI.2> |