Preface
THE Gospel of Israel is at the same time like and un-like every other. It is the story of a great love, change-less through the ages and filled with a noble purpose of universal good. It tells how the infinite and eternal God, a most loving and lovable Personality, created the universe solely that He might share that love which is His inmost nature with created beings and give them the infinite satisfaction of directing that love to Himself, its only worthy object. Having made all things of perfect grace and beauty, in pursuit of His divine plan He had to endow man with free will, so that His love might be wholly free; and in this gift lay the risk of its misuse. Man did use his free will wrongly, and sin came into the world, hideously corrupting God's fair creation. God knew there was now one way to win back mankind to its destined joy of perfect love for Him: to dedicate a single people to that love, so that all its members would be ever conscious of His infinite claim on every moment, every movement of their lives. So God chose a saintly man to found that nation. Her infancy carefully nurtured in an alien land least likely to pervert His purpose, Israel was in due time equipped with sufficient knowledge of God's will for her and of the laws wherein lies human happiness. These she willingly accepted with free and open heart, binding herself for all time to be God's adopted child and, living according to His will, to spread the knowledge of Him through all the nations. God then led her in and gave her the Holy Land which should be hers for ever. Though she often neglected, and at times even denied, her mission, suffering greatly on that account, it is still the purpose of Israel's being, innate in every Jewish soul. To fulfil this mission God has preserved her wonderfully through ages of fearful suffering to our own day; and to this end He still gently leads her on through the desert of her history in many scattered lands. Yes, this is the story of the infinite Lover's great love for a people representing all humanity, and for every Individual who identifies himself with its great ideal. But as love can only thrive in an atmosphere of good will, it is also the story of the highest ethics. As we treat others, so will God's laws treat us; and if we would enjoy His love we must reflect it on all with whom we come in contact. Thus all good social qualities stem naturally from a totally devoted loving adoration for the infinite Creator and Ruler of the universe. By looking constantly to God, patterning our lives and souls more and more on the image of His dimly seen persection, we gradually come to feel Him always with us, watching over and guiding us, blessing us with all good things of this His goodly earth and boundless treasures of the Spirit. So indeed we grow to know that moveless peace, the quiet confidence of an optimism which even the cruel disillusionments and tyrannies of a sin-infested world can never shake. Even in this bodily life of ours we begin to share the bliss of perfected life in Him, a life to which prayer and praise expressed by wise and kindly action are the natural and only possible initiation-whether for individuals.
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