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The Southern Israelite
How To Number Our Days And Years
Albany Exchange
National Bank
ALBANY, GA.
CAPITAL SURPLUS
$150,000 $200,000
P. J. Brown, Pres. II. K. I)nvis, V. Pres. & (’ash.
E. II. Kalinon, Viee-Prc*. A. J. Lippitt, Vice-Pres.
Extends
To Our Many Jewish Friends and
Patrons A Happy and Prosperous
New Year
By KABISI JACOB S. RAISIN, Charleston, S. C.
Among the most beautiful and in
spiring chapters of that most beauti
ful and inspiring book of our Bible,
the Book of Psalms, is undoubtedly
Psalm Ninety. It is a sigh from the
depth of the heart over the transito
riness of life, a cry from an anguished
soul for hope, and light, and love, in
a world where nothing is permanent,
and everything is subject to change
and decay. It begins with an appeal to
the Eternal, the Only One “Who Was,
and is, and is to be for aye the same;”
in Whose sight a thousand years are
“like yesterday that is past, and a
watch in the night.” In contrast with
Him how insignificant is the life of
man which is made of such stuff “as
dreams are made on,” and whose years
are spent like a tale that is told. But
the sacred poet does not despair. He
was a Jew, and a Jewish heart may
be bowed down, but there is some
thing in it which immediately buoys
it up. He knows of a way whereby the
ravages of time may be repaired, and
a definite being may render himself
a little lower than the infinite God.
It is to apply the lessons of the past
to our labors in the future; to im
prove the hours to come in the light
of our experiences, individual and ra
cial, in the years gone by. And so in
a passionate outburst of hope he
rings out the old note of sadness and
brings in a new note of gladness. “O
teach us,” he implores, “so to number
our days that we may get us a heart
of wisdom. O satisfy us in the morn
ing with Thy kindness, and then we
will rejoice and be glad all our days.”
Jewish tradition has it that this
Psalm was composed by no other
than Moses, “the man-of-God,” and
though modern critics challenge his
authorship, I prefer to accept it as
the product of the inspired soul of our
first and greatest law-giver. And I
love to contemplate how he wrote it
at a moment of exaltation, at the end
of his long and blessed life, as he
stood at the peak of mount Pisgah.
It was t here and then, midst a pano
rama which commanded a view of the
sandy desert behind him and the Land
of Promise which stretched out in
pensive silence before him, that he
grasped more clearly than ever the
pathos and sublimity of existence, the
mystery anu the miracle and the
meaning of creation, and that his gi
gantic mind could best find an answer
to the everlasting question: “What is
man, 0 Lord, that Thou art mindful of
him; and the son-of-man that Thou
visitest him? Yet hast Thou made
him but little lower than the angels,
and hast crowned him with glory and
honor!”
Most of us number our days by the
revolutions of the sun or the moon,
or by the various changes which we
all undergo, the stages, or “the Seven
Ages” as Shakespeare calls them,
which we meet on our journey through
life as we start from “the cradle with
its lullaby of love, to the low and
quiet way-side inn where all at last
must sleep, and where the only salu
tation is ‘Good night’!” Yet, if this
be the only means whereby we are to
measure our days it would be sad in
deed. W hat is the span of three-score
and ten, compared to the eternal hills
of which the Psalmist speaks ? How
insignificant the lives of even an Vj am
or Methuselah if counted by geologk
ages or sidereal cycles ? Even on this
earth of ours there are monuments
made by human hands which Were
thousands of years old when Moses
first wrote the Ten Commandments
and on our own continent there are
trees by the life-time of which our
lives are indeed “like yesterday that
is past, and as a watch in the night”
The only standard by which we are
to measure our days is by the stand
ard of knowledge, by the yard-stick
of wisdom. Thus alone can we find
consolation for the inevitable flight
of time, and the swift passing of our
days and years. The tiniest pebble
may outlast the mightiest man. It
may even grow, by constant accre
tion, into a stone, and develop into a
boulder, and ultimately attain the
strength and proportions of the Rock
of Gibraltar, defying, as it were, time
and tide, and the most destructive im
plements invented by human ingenu
ity. Yet neither magnitude of size, nor
strength of body, nor length of days,
affects its essence. A pebble it was;
a pebble it will remain to the last of
days, only on an infinitely larger
scale. Not so man. He, too, must
change; but he may, if he be so mind
ed, develop, and become not only big
ger in body and older in years, but
better in texture and nobler in being
if he but number his days so as to
get him a heart of understanding.
This then be our resolution on this
sacred season, the Pisgah-peak of the
year on which, as members of the
faith of Moses, we now stand, and
while our hearts are filled and sad
dened with the
“Memory of what has been.
And never more will be.”
Let our aim henceforth be not to
live by bread alone, but by that which
eometh out of the mouth of the Lord.
In Madras, India, there is an observa
tory from which all the time-pieces
of the great British empire are regu
lated every twenty-four hours; and
for about two minutes every day, the
9,000 telegraph offices, which control
72,000 miles of telegraph lines, and
287,000 miles of telegraph wire,
cease their operation to receive and
transmit messages in all directions,
so that every wayward clock may be
set aright with the sun. Our Rosh
Hashanah is such an observatory, on
ly infinitely superior, and surpassing
ly more beautiful. More distant in
time than Madras is in space, it is > e t
very'near us in our hearts and our
souls. It has transmitted its beneficent
messages to a thousand generations o
our people, and set aright with
Source of life and light. It strikes •
responsive cord in millions of eWl -
souls today, and w’ill radiate hope an
happiness long after the famous n
ish observatory will have crum
into dust. It tells us: You have Uvea
another year, you have cons .
twelve more months of those a
to you on earth. Whether } ou are ^
scious of it or not, you are 1 e
now’ that you welcome the new
5690 from you were when you
corned the now old but the.. •
5689. Even if there be no
laic nr additional fn