Preface.

FRIENDLY thought," says Carlyle, "is the purest gift a man can afford to man." If so, this book should not fail of a kindly reception by all those who value such a gift. For what thoughts can be more friendly and propitious to man's best nature than those fitted to evoke and nourish in his heart a devout spirit? Such thoughts speak peace to his soul, direct his spiritual eye inward and upward, purify and elevate his desires, bid him, when distressed, to be of good cheer, and, when prosperous, to guard himself from the snares of pride and godforgetfulness. 'A friend in need is a friend indeed," is the common saying; and such a friend in all sorts of needs and perplexities and doubts and trials this book is meant to prove; to this end our own Bible and other Bibles, the traditions of our own church and of other churches, the spiritual bequests of our own sages and poets and of other wise men and singers, as well, as the writings of living authors have been diligently searched and laid under contribution.

Friendly, also, in another way, these pages will be found on examination. Altho' intended for Israelites, and prepared without any attempt whatsoever at concealing or putting out of sight, or even toning down, Jewish faith or Jewish hopes or Jewish aspirations, there will yet be seen nothing here at which any candid reader of another creed could justly take umbrage. They only who look for offence may discover such; the over-zealous eye

easily magnifies a mere shadow across the way into a stumblingblock; they who are blind from an excess of imagined light, may even be scandalized at the least claim put forth by any faith but their own. Against these classes (they are, fortunately, now growing less in number) there is no panacæa; their cavil must be simply endured. But the fair-minded will allow that this book is not unworthy the encomium and imprimatur of England's great writer that it is a pure gift of friendly thoughts afforded by one man to his brother man.

Likewise the form in which these "Thoughts are presented should help to make them acceptable. A few moments of daily introspection, of retirement from the exhausting din and rush around us, so that we may listen to the still, small voice within us, or, led by a word of truth and counsel, bethink ourselves—(uns auf uns selbst besinnen) seems to have become a way of religious and ethical self-culture which is congenial to the taste and temper of our time. Quite a literature has sprung up, designed to satisfy, what may be truly called, a need of these latter days; and I have full reason to believe that it is felt amongst spirituallyminded Israelites as much as amongst Christians of the same class. A lady-parishioner, finding one of those books on my studytable, lifted it up, as if in grateful acknowledgment, and said: This book, sir, altho' not by a Jewish author, has been my staff and my support these last seven years, which were full of trials and heartaches to me and, in fact, I know not how I should have lived through them without its daily counsel near at hand."

I count this demand for new aids to devotional self-exercise among the hopeful signs of the time; for it shows that devotion is not one of the things which we have outgrown, but which has been growing with us; nay, that it is gathering unto itself new strength by the addition of thought to sentiment, of reflection to prayer and by the willing acceptance of healthful counsel from whatever side it may come.

I have, therefore, gladly responded to the invitation of the publishers to prepare such a help to devout thinking for the Jewish church; whether and in how far I have struck the right path, the future will tell.

I have, however, departed from my predecessors in one essential point; I have exchanged the guiding line of Dates, followed by them, for a line of Subjects, systematically arranged and provided with appropriate headings. The former plan seemed to me all too formal and mechanical. Man's mind is not like an organ, which can be set to play any tune we wish, by putting a sheet of paper into it. Our moods cannot be regulated by dates. What we want is "strength according to our own days," which are more many-colored than was Joseph's coat. When, on the first of June, we greet the morning with a light and contented heart-we shall turn, in a sort of anger, from the page bearing that date, on finding that it gives us a death-bed confession, or, if sad and burdened, and longing for a word of comfort, we find Blackie's Song of Glee offered for our morning devotion. When God has filled our mouths with laughter, our diurnal reading should not fill our eyes with tears. The system, which I have adopted, saves the reader from such recoils. The full index of subjects in front of the book makes it easy for him to find a subject most consonant with his actual frame of mind; whilst, when his days follow each other in an even tenor, he may select his topic and be led, step by step, to consider it in its various bearings. Another advantage of the present system is that I could take due notice of Sabbaths and Festivals and provide readings suitable for those days. The expression on the title page "for every-day use" should be understood, not only as characterizing the practical nature of the readings, but also in its numerical sense, every day of the year. There are three hundred and sixty-six readings, divided into twelve sections or books, after the months of the year, regard being had to the order of the Festivals in the Jewish church-year. In the arrange

ment of subjects I have been guided by the wish to present to the reader a concise, yet comprehensive, view of modern Judaism which, I trust, will be as welcome to the Jewish as to the nonJewish reader. Dogmatic, philosophical or historic treatises are not the writings which attract the majority of people. A brief statement, in clear and non-scholastic terms, appeared to me the best vehicle to convey such information to circles where it is much needed. It is mostly here where I speak in propria persona, whilst in the field of ethics, of what the Germans call Weltweisheit, and of the principles of universal religion, I have invited greater minds, lights of the world, poets of mankind, to speak their Divine prophecies once more to our generation; and assist me in providing a table for those who hunger after righteousness and thirst for the true word of the ever-inspiring God. To those of their holy order who have joined the Choir Invisible, may this re-awakening of their voices be as a thank-offering; whilst to those of my contributors, who are happily still in the land of the living, I hereby offer my thanks with an upright heart.

The Scripture texts at the head of each article have not been placed there as a mere compliment to the Venerable Book, to which I would, in this wise "pay its dues in bows"; but from the conviction of their incomparable value for the upbuilding of a religious mind. I have bestowed much labor on their selection and would entreat those, who shall use this book, not to pass them over lightly, but to pause awhile after reading and try to grasp their meaning and note their beauty, simplicity and elevation. Would that I could have given them, as they live in my own mind, in their native garb; such was our wont only half a century ago! For the most skilful rendering is, as has been pithily said, a surrendering of part of the meaning and force of the original. True in all cases, it is signally so in that of the Bible; religion being the great and all-absorbing purpose of the nation which created that literature, the national tongue was formed for the