HOW TO LIVE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5369, 28 December 1928, Page 2

HOW TO LIVE.

TRUE IDEALS SET FORTH. DISCOURSE BY JEWISH RABBI. Dr. A. Cohen recently delivered a remarkable discourse in connection with the Jewish Year at the Birmingham Synagogue. “The history of the world demonstrated only too vividly,” he said, “how many peoples signed their death warrant by elingivg to life. When thej shirked the; self-sacrifice involved in the maintenance of their, national ideals, when they substituted for the stern call of duty a mad craving for luxury and! self-indulgence; they entered on the downward-path to extermination.

“The religious world had likewise coined the phrase: ‘The blood of martyrs i.s the seed of the Church,’ wihichi taught the same lesson. If they were to understand why the New Year, festival was Instituted) they must clearly grasp the thought that life was not the same thing as existence. Life was a sac.red calling; it meant the utilisation of their gifts and capabilities and opportunities to a worthy end. “To live implied the endeavour to justify their stay on ejarth. It was nothing short of sacrilege to assert that men and women lived if they were actuated by motives which rare-, ly, if ever, rose above the gratification of their animal desires. The moment they left the highroad of ideals for the by-paths of sordid and selfish aims, that moment they ex-, changed life for existence. The man who sacrificed everything spiritual and noble in his nature for wealth or indulgence, dismissing, all thoughts of God and his s,oul and all consideration. for the wejll-being of. his fellow creatures in his hunger for material comforts—that man did not live, for his soul was dead. “His heart was cold to every fine impulse, and irresponsive to the thrills of heroic endeavour. Living only for himself he misse;dj the true road of life altogether. The men and women who could be said to live were thosq who thought least and lafc.t of self, who did not value their existence above all else in the world. “Wealth was but a means to an end, not an end to itself. The use to which the wealth was put was a factor, which could not be overlooked. It was the same with human life. That, too, was not an end in itself. The manner of living, the underlying purposes of life, were motive's, which must be taken into consideration. “They should long for a continua-; tion of their existence because there was work for them to do which they wanted accomplished, and not for reason that there were enjoyments they still liked to experience.”