stant attempt to bring down Heaven to earth and to force the human flesh into the mould of the Divine spirit, which constitutes the innermost essence, the struggle, the failure and the triumph of the prophets of Israel."
The national character of the Jewish people and the relation of the prophets to the national ideas is touched upon in several places and Dr. Friedlaender traces the rise of the snirıtıal ideal nf Zion:
"Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities. Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken." Not that Isaiah, who at his installation beheld God sitting on His heavenly throne and filling the whole earth with His glory, could ever have shared the popular mythological notion which tied down the Omnipresent to the narrow confines of Zion. But because Isaiah believed that the city which contained the religious center of the nation, which was the foundation of David and the seat of his dynasty, and was the scene of the most memorable and most sacred experiences of the people, was indissolubly bound up with the existence of Judah.
"If we are permitted to apply latterday slogans to phenomena of a remote and venerable past, then I think we can no more fitly express the fundamental idea of Isaiah than by termining it Spiritual Zionism: Zion, the inalienable center of the Jewish nation, yet not the seat of political grandeur, but the frame and the focus of its spiritual aspirations, whether embodied in righteousness, religion or culture."
Our readers will also be interested in this passage:
“A famous philosopher has formulated the mystery of human existence in the words: Cogito, ergo sum, I think, therefore I am. The secret of national existence may, in a similar manner, be expressed: I hope, therefore I am. A nation, which is not subject to physical death, lives
as long as it hopes, as long as it has something to live for. The Judean exiles in Babylonia who complained to Ezekiel: Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, were soon lost themselves and disappeared. But those who, taught by the scribes and cheered by the prophets, continued to hope, survived. Face to face with their conquerors, who at first had made them feel their inferiority and with it the purposelessness of their existence, they now, realizing the spiritual character of their supremacy, became conscious of’their immeasurable superiority over their oppressors and the tremendous task they had to live for. Their eyes were opened and they suddenly perceived a new heaven and a new earth. But this new earth to them was their old land, and the new heaven was the sky that shone over Tıdah.”
THE RECONSTRUCTION OF REFORM JUDAISM.
A remarkable utterance of the Jewish pulpit was the sermon which was delivered on the first day of Pesach in Temple Emanuel of this city, by the Rev. Dr. J. L. Magnes, on the subject of “The Construction of Reform Judaism; a Plan for its Reconstruction.” Following his previous criticisms of Reform and his pleas for a return to the traditional and national forms and observances of Judaism, which had been termed as the movement for “Counter-Reformation,” Dr. Magnes has now again subjected Reform and its fruits to close analyses, with the result that, viewed from the standpoint of a more comprehensive historical conception of the role of the Jewish religion in Jewish life, he has found Reform sadly lacking in fervor and in enthusiasm, and, above all, in influence over the new generation. Before an audience that crowded the fashionable temple, he presented frankly and boldly a picture of the congregation which showed it to be void of genuine religious interests, empty of the old time piety, and deserted of the sons and daughters of the °