Five lectures on Immortality. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Five lectures on Immortality. Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA. Undated

Author

Morais, Sabato

Location(s)

United States -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

United States -- Pennsylvania

Format

9 pages on 4 sheets

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?

Language(s)

English

Source

Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

Sabato Morais Collection, Box 13, Folder 14

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3n873j2p/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3n873j2p

Provenance

Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx13FF14_1.xml

content

1t Lecture on Revelation.

Brethren. The anxiety which I felt in approaching the sub--ject of God's existence--spoken upon at some length in my last four lectures--is intensified now that, to fulfil a promise, I must try to conceive endeavour to present clearly before my hearers of the truth of God's revelation. When I first assumed my task, I knew that those whom I addressed were not tainted with atheism. I knew also from reading, that even philosophers who habitually doubted; persons who had reasoned themselves into a denial of a Supreme Architect in the structure of the symmetrical universe, were finally compelled, by their own the line of thinking, to acknowledge a Prime Mover, so as not to be in contradiction with good common sense and experience. My The deep concern which I then felt arose then principally from a fear of that the inade--quacy of my arguments might frustrate defeat my intentions. For, I wished to strengthen the belief of confirm Jewish youths so in their belief; to supply them with the faculty a medium to influence their coevals healthfully. I greatly desired they that they might aid me in raising man up-ward to see the glory of the Deity through His created nation, and offer heartfelt adoration. But now I must undertake to show confirm strengthen the conviction that the Deity has let His glory downward and holding communion with man through the means of the same created nation.

Yes: I will not be hypocritical. I shall say it boldly. Revelation is, in in my mind, a voluntary derogation of the majesty of Him that is the Spirit enthroned in eter--nity. Hear my confession. I believe that the Almighty who created in forming man sought to give scope to His celestial love, implanted within our soul the seeds of virtue, and hence of happiness. Those Our inborn sentiments, intended to have grown with our growth, ought to have gained additional depth by a study of the model which the Creator offered set forth in His handiwork; a model of justice, in apportioning to all a share of benefits derived from the earth which He made fertile, and from the sky He made resplendent; of justi goodness, in furnishing mortals with more than their actual needs, and with ample capacities for enjoyment. But man allowed those innate principles, which should have sufficed as a guide in social intercourse, to be overcome by passions that hu--man flesh conjured up. It is idle, in my opinion, to inquire why we were not formed angel-like, free from passions. As well might we ask wherefore was not the store whole animal kingdom endowed with man's faculties. It pleased the all-wise One to associate in us body and soul, so that in the struggle ensuing, the nobler part of us might issue forth sublimely victorious.

But in that contest the material conquered the spiritual, savageness threatened to overthrow society from its foundations. Violence ruled; men, who by brutal force had obtained a mastery over their fellow-beings, set arrogated to themselves up as the title of gods & they were worshipped as such. The knowledge of a beneficent Lord who had designed His creatures for a sweet fellowship and mutual improvement was mostly for--gotten. The high sentiments of justice and goodness that should have stirred[?] within the breast were stifled by the fumes of low cravings. Thus In the dark colors traditional history paints the remote stages of the world. The object of man's creation, might have been frustrated, had not the Almighty prevented the effects of a wide-spread evil by an act of Fatherly condescension. He beheld a prevailing corruption, and noted in His omniscience perceived that it could not be rooted out at once. He bethought Himself therefore of the means to remove it by gradual steps, through a teaching which would appeal more immediately to the senses, than originally provided for by the work of nature. namely by He mercifully He resolved to vouchsafe unto man, Revelation.
Was the selection of Abraham, as the first missionary of God's expressed will, a the result of a verbal communication from above, or of a spiritual breathing of the soul of the universe into the soul of the patriarch?

That question I do not presume to solve, but I must show that the divine choice was well merited.
Idolatry and its demoralising accompaniments surrounded the son of Terah in his home and country. Without having recourse to vague traditions and legends, we need only turn to the last chapter of the book of Joshua, which naturally cling to the character of one so great and we shall discover that the pattern of believers was reared under heathen influences. The leader of Israel who succeeded Moses expressed that fact clearly, when, previous to his death, he gathered the tribes in solemn assembly at Shechem, and briefly rehearsed the ancestral history, to draw from them a vow of alle--giance to the Unity [Hebrew] What a superhuman-mental effort must that have been, which severed Abraham for ever from a predominant falsehood, and fastened his soul indissolubly to an unknown or long neglected Truth!
Genius has at times compelled nature to disclose her secrets. Galileo in the cathedral of Pisa; Newton in his orchard saw what no eyes but theirs could see with equal results. The swing-ging of a lamp suspended from the ceiling, and the falling of an apple from a tree are not phenomena that attract special attention. But genius made those casual circumstances reveal time-measurement and the law of gravitation.

So also Again: the same nature which Gave Galvani his battery, and Morse his telegraph, is that which ex--tensively rewards Edison for his untiring researches. But let not genius, nor the power of invention be con--founded--as they have profusely been blended mixed identified with the highest of God's gifts. To unfold what lay hidden in the work of creation, to apply it in a manner redounding to uni- general -versal use and comfort and advantage and comfort is indeed the evidence of a vast share of spirit in man. But to elicit from creation a truth which will affect the whole human race in its dearest interests civilly and religiously, which will make man's dwelling on earth a foretaste of paradise, and feel to be then seized with an irrepressible wish to impart it that truth at all risks and despite all obstacles, is more than the act of mental su--periority; of talents and lofty conceptions; it is veritable inspiration. And inspiration was that which summoned Abraham from Ur Chasdim and bid him go leave country and kindred to go preaching a verity that would make him an ever--lasting blessing, as the promoter of universal blessings. The Scriptures which make us delight in expatiating acquainted with on the qualities of the heart which distinguished the ancient patriarch, tells us relate nothing of the attributes of of his intellect. They still must have been singularly great powerful, since their possessor could so eminently rise above his surroundings,

since he could with so much certainty point out the only Author of nature amidst a most degrading poly--theism. Thos but Those attributes were only the invisible magnetic force which attracted towards of attraction that brought the Spirit enthroned in eternity down to commune with the spirit of the righteous first saintly Hebrew. a divine afflatus.
Men who dispute revelation, quote philosophers who taught the existence of One God by unaided reason. Well: I will not deny the merits of a Plato, of a Cicero, of an Epictetus and many others among the Greeks and Romans, whose writings have reached us posterity. Indeed, the memorabilia of Socrates alone are a monument of to extraordinary wisdom. We must admire the depth of thought, the purity of sentiments pervading the whole and comparing favorably with the lessons of Jewish prophets and Sages. I am not even inclined to accept the views of some ol modern authors, that whatever is good in the productions of the men of antiquity is an emanation of Holy Writ, with which they became familiar either by personal intercourse with some Israelites, or by a consolidation of the Septuagint translation version of the Bible, supposed to have been made in the days of Ptolemy Philadelphus.

No: I will give those writings the credit for origina--lity. Yet, I must draw a line marked out with great precision to distinguish between what the Jewish people have inherited from their righteous founder, and what the disciples of the philosophers of Grace and Rome had learnt.
All will remember that Socrates was accused of atheism, which then in the language of the time meant a want of respect for the gods of a certain land or a city. What did the defense set up to endeavour to deliver the Sage from capital punishment? That he did sacrifice to the popular deities; that he sacrificed to them sometime at home, frequently at the public places of common worship, and that he was in the habit of practising divinations. We know also have read likewise that he recommended to his pupils to offer to the gods according to their abilities. All this may have been a compromise; the philosopher may have feared perhaps too openly to oppose public opinion. I am not here to condemn Socrates, but to point to the heavenly spirit that moved Abraham; to show my intelligent young friends that he who imagined himself an ambassador of God to the Athenians, and the real messenger of the Omnipotent to the gentile world, bear no resemblance in point whatever in the character of their mission. Abraham travelled journeyed abroad and built altars, but in the face of heathens steeped in polytheism, he proclaimed solely and exclusively the name of the Eternal Lord.

Abraham, urged requested by the King of Sodom to appropriate to himself what he had earned by rescuing the powerless from their assailants, refused the pressing offer swearing declined the offer accompanying the refusal with an oath in the name of "the God Most High, the Maker Possessor of heaven and earth." G Abraham, pray--ing for the wicked, addressed the Deity as "the Judge of the whole earth;" planting an orchard for to give pilgrims shelter and refreshment food, "he called on the name of the Eternal, the everlasting God," and when giving delivering to his trusty Eliezer an important charge, he made him swear by "the God of heaven and earth."
No compromise sullies the demeanour of the great believer. The Omnipotent from whom all things have sprung, is the only object of his adoration, and what he feels he commits as a precious truth to Isaac, his son of promise, who again transmits to Jacob till it reaches the seventy persons that took up their abode in polytheistic Egypt, waiting for the mi--ghty redemption and revelation which would knit them into an apostolic nation.
This I have deemed necessary to preface before I enter more fully into a subject of vital importance to us, of the seed of Abraham, and to mankind at large, who are destined to accept our teachings, and bend the knee before our God.

Identifier

p3n873j2p

identifier

SMBx13FF14_1