The Central Conference of American Rabbis, created by him, imbued with his spirit, and guided by his calm judgment, crowns the work of union in the camp of progressive American Israel. We congratulate him today upon having banished the evil spirit of disunion, suspicion, and jealousy from among the Rabbis of this country. We congratulate him upon having united us into a true brotherhood. We thank him for having made us a band of mutually-respecting and mutually-helpful fellow-workers in the vineyard of Israel. All misunderstandings have given way to mutual trust, all animosities have been quenched by the love which we bear to the head of the Conference. We have come here to honor ourselves by honoring him. We are assembled here today to pay homage to him as the typical American Rabbi. We wish the possibilities and aspirations of the American Rabbi to be judged by his ideals and achievements. For his ideals are our ideals and upon his works we shall strive to pattern our own. His spirit will live in and act through the Central Conference of American Rabbis long after his career on earth shall have come to a close. Whenever and wherever the Conference will meet in coming days, his name will be mentioned for a blessing. The permanency of this organization is secured not only by the character which his mind has stamped upon it, but also by the fact that a majority of its members are his disciples and that their number will increase from year to year.

The Hebrew Union College is the greatest creation of his idealism and of his practical genius. By it he has become the Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai of America. He has planted it as a tree of life and knowledge in the house of God; it shall flourish forever in the courts of Judaism. It shall rise like a palm tree on the mountain of Yahve, and grow up like a cedar on the spiritual Lebanon of American Israel. By this institution, if by no other work of his, he has gained his immortality. By this institution he

will live as a creative spiritual force in the growing life of American Israel. The College is the most perfect and precious fruit of his life. By it he has linked his own individual existence to the universal and eternal existence of spiritual Israel. In fact, it is dearer to him than all things else that he has accomplished. Were an angel from heaven to appear to him and say: "All your work save one shall perish; the choice lies with you. Which do you choose?" He would without a moment's hesitation answer: "Let the Hebrew Union College live and grow, though all things else, willed and worked for by me, should dwindle into nothingness!" He would readily consent to let his own name sink into utter forgetfulness, if thereby he could further the cause for which he has lived and labored and suffered. Not for his glory, nor for the greatness of his house has he toiled incessantly for over half-a-century, but for the glory of God, for the mission of Israel, and the progress of humanity.

For he is an Israelite to the very core of his being. He is like one of the ancient leaders of Israel come to life again. He is a Hebrew of Hebrews in the best sense of the word. He has the stubbornness of will, the tenacity of purpose, the unyielding endurance of a genuine son of Israel, who may at times bend but never breaks. He has the intellectual vivacity, the keen penetration, and the love of knowledge for its own sake, which are characteristic qualities of the superior Jew. But he has also the tenderness of heart, the mercifulness and the strong family affections, by which the true Israelite is distinguished. Infinite pity for the poor and needy and the disinherited of the earth, quenchless hatred of tyranny and tyrants, fierce anger against the wicked, who disguise their lying spirit, their envy and low passions as patriotism and religion, an ardent faith in the God of righteousness-these attributes of the soul of Israel have been the sleepless forces of his character and the impelling motive of his conduct. Ana

lyze his character, scrutinize his life, and you will find that he has ever been a loyal man-loyal to God, loyal to Israel, loyal to his beloved America, loyal to his family, loyal to his friends, loyal at all times to his convictions. He has always stood on his convictions as on an immovable rock. He was never overawed by popular outcries, nor swerved from his position by the assaults of fanaticism. The waves of orthodox reaction, which of late years, in consequence of anti-Semitism, have risen in Germany and flowed over to our own shore, have not been able to tear him from the moorings of Reform Judaism. The madness of Zionism, the most deplorable effect of vile anti-Semitism, has met in him an uncompromising antagonist, convinced as he is, that it is utterly opposed to the spiritual and universal mission of Judaism. Mysticism of every kind, whether the romanticism of neo-orthodoxy or the wild day-dreams of the Zionists, is abhorrent to his light-loving soul. For half a century and upward he has been standing on the watchtower of time, warning his co-religionists against the dangers of materialism and of letter-worship, warning men of all denominations against making love to darkness and superstition, warning the people of America against calling evil good and folly wisdom. Oh, may he stand on that watch-tower for many more years to come-the guardian of our highest interests, the type of the true Israelite, the noble representative of American manhood and patriotism!

FILIAL PIETY.

THE

HE love and reverence for parents partakes of the nature of religion. Filial piety and the fear of God spring from one and the same root. "He that feareth the Lord will honor his father." We adore God as the fountain of infinite existence from which our own life has flowed. It is the mystery of existence surrounding us on all sides to which our soul bends in speechless worship. Our whole being is overwhelmed with awe as we stand in the presence of this all-embracing infinitude and eternity of which we know ourselves to be a part. We are drawn by love and yearning toward the nameless Being that is the parent of the heavens above and the earth beneath, the parent also of our own self. Impenetrable is the veil which enfolds all things, inscrutable their whence and whither. From what seeds did matter sprout and blossom forth? From what central fire was the spark of life taken and blown into a universal flame? Where is the hidden eternal light of will and reason of which our own mind is a beam in darkness? Eagerly, anxiously our soul puts these questions to the world-mystery, and answer is returned by a still voice within: "Sink on thy knees, O mortal, and in hushed awe worship Him, the unseen yet everpresent, whom no thought of thine can grasp, yet whom by faith thou dost embrace. In fear and love adore Him under the image of a father, under the symbol of a mother." And we fear and love our earthly parents as the image and symbol of our heavenly Father. For they link us as no other being does to the mystery of world-existence! It is from them and through them that we have received life. They alone form the vital chain which connects us body and soul with the multitudinous life of the universe. They stand between us

and the infinite divine existence. The torch of life passing through countless ages from the hand of one generation to another has been transmitted to our person through our parents. Noble natures, therefore, gaze rapt in wonder at the countenance of father and mother, and are stirred by feelings akin to the religious emotions which the contemplation of the mystery of existence excites in them. "He that feareth the Lord will honor his father, and he that is obedient to the Lord will be a comfort to his mother."

We adore God as the ideal of perfection. We believe Him to be the highest and holiest of goodness. We do not worship the Infinite because He is all-powerful. His omnipotence could arouse in us only feelings of craven fear, and awaken the anxious desire to live at peace with His will, lest the arm of His dreadful might strike us down. But despite His infinite power we should withhold our love and reverence from Him, did He not reveal Himself to the heart of our faith as the realized ideal of justice, mercy, and holiness, an ideal which we mortals, enslaved by our passions, clogged by our infirmities, are striving after in vain. We can love and revere only those beings that we know to be adorned with the attributes of goodWe prostrate ourselves and pour out the praises of ardent devotion before Him whose perfection is unsearchable, whose essence is love radiant with holiness.

ness.

Similarly, we love our father and mother as the noblest beings we know of on earth. They are venerable to us beyond other men because to our mind they are better, holier, and purer than others. All the virtues seem to us to have incarnated themselves in their lives. They are to us the types of manhood and womanhood, the representatives of the moral ideals of humanity. From them we first learned to distinguish between right and wrong, between good and evil, truth and falsehood. The sweet smile with which our mother nodded approval upon the child's generous acts and