THE JEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 3690, 20 July 1875, Page 3

THE JEWS.

A recently published letter from Mr Lassak, of Bedford, to Mr Spurgeon, says the London ‘ Figaro Programme ' contains several passages which are interesting as showing certain things which the Jews profess, and reminding us how nearly, upon the whole, they live up to their professions. Mr Lissak says, in effect, that it is no part of a Jew’s duty to make proselytes, except by the force of hia example. This we know is eminently true at the present time (however it may have been when the Jew had the power to supplement hia example by the sword), and we venture to think it very greatly to the credit of any faith that it is content to work by a method the opposite of one which has deluged the world with blood from time immemorial, and which in its mildest manifestation is attended with more wrangling than profit.

Mr Lassak also shames ns Christians by tbo mere mention of tho Jews’ “strict observance of the Heavenly-appointed Sabbath with a cheerful will, and without the

force of an Act of Parilainent and a magistrate’® order. Without entering upon the question of what is the Heavenly appointed Sabbath we must concede to the Isiaelites all that is here claimed as’%> the observance of the Sabbath they recognise. Here are some further ways by which, according to Mr La«sak, the Jew lets the light of his eaxmple shine : “By strictly abstain ing from eating blood, and thus not becoming a blood-thirsty people and committing those horrid crimes—murder—which we, with sorrow, read of in every day’s papers. By cherishing his wife and children, and not being a nation of wife-beatere. By strictly adhering to the seventh commandment, and thus keeping away from the divorce courts, which so often lay bare the shame and wickedness of other nations. By strictly abstaining from that horrid habit of drunkenness (the cause of all crimes and evil doings) without requiring an Act of Parliament or a society to keep him sober.” It is open to strong doubt if the Jew’s guiltlessness ©f murder is the result of his abstention from the habit of eating blood ; and, in fact, that is a position more likely to be assumed by a Christian vegetarian than by Mr Lissak’a co-religionists; but the fact is beyond question that Jews rarely commit murder. The other claims must be allowed without material qualification. Undoubtedly tho Jews of to-day, in whatever civilised country they are found, conform more closely to the moral and tho civil law than any of iho classes of people amongst whom they dwell. In plain fact, the Jews have a better average of true nobility than any other race on the face of the earth.