FIRST SESSION

CHORAL SERVICE

CARNEGIE HALL

Sunday Evening, April Fourteenth, at 8.15
BISHOP POTTER Presiding

RESPONSIVE READING FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES

CONDUCTED BY Rev. CHARLES E. JEFFERSON, D.D.

God reigneth over the nations;

He hath prepared his throne for judgment.

And he will judge the world in righteousness;

He will minister judgment to the peoples in uprightness.

He hath showed strength with his arm;

He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart.

He hath put down princes from their thrones,

And he hath exalted them of low degree.

He delighteth not in the strength of the horse;

He hath no pleasure in the thews of a man.

The Lord hath pleasure in them that fear him.

He will bring forth justice to the nations;

He will bring forth justice in truth.

He will not fail nor faint, till he have set justice in the earth;

And the isles shall wait for his law.

Arise, O Lord; let the nations be judged in thy sight.

Put them in fear, O Lord;

Let the nations know themselves to be but men.

Through the arrogance of the wicked the poor is oppressed.
The wicked praise God for the success of their greed;
They say in their heart: God hath forgotten;
He hideth his face, he will never see it.

Arise, O God, lift up thine hand to right the oppressed,
That man, who is of the earth, may be terrible no more.

I will hear what God, the Lord, will speak;

For he will speak peace unto his people.

He shall judge the people with righteousness,
And the poor with justice.

He shall redeem their soul from oppression and violence;
And precious shall their blood be in his sight.

Is not this the fast that I have chosen, saith the Lord,

To loose the fetters of injustice; to untie the bands of violence;

To set at liberty those who are crushed; to burst every yoke asunder?

If from the midst of thee thou remove the yoke,
The pointing finger, and the speech of mischief,-

Then shall thy light rise in darkness,

And thy gloom shall be as the noonday.

The eyes of those who see shall not be closed;

The ears of those who hear shall hearken;

The tongue of the stammerers shall speak plainly.
No more shall the fool be called noble,

Nor the knave any more be named gentle.

The noble deviseth noble things,

And in noble things will he continue.

He who walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly,
Who despiseth the gain of oppressions,

Who stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood,
And closeth his eyes from looking on evil,-

Fastnesses of rocks shall be his stronghold;
He shall abide on impregnable heights.

Rest in the Lord, wait patiently for him;

Fret not thyself because of the wicked who prospereth in his way. For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be;

Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and he shall not be;

For the Lord loveth justice, and forsaketh not his saints.

Justice shall dwell in the wilderness,

And righteousness shall abide in the fruitful field;

And the work of righteousness shall be peace,

And the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.

And God shall judge between the nations,

And arbitrate for many peoples;

He shall make their officers peace, and their rulers righteousness;

And they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war any more.

BISHOP POTTER:

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: Mr. Carnegie was to have presided at this meeting. Whether he has forgotten it, or got lost, I cannot say. I hope he has forgotten it, for Father Lavelle and I were both equally shocked the other day to see a list of the twentyeight righteous men in Pittsburg, in which Mr. Carnegie's name figured, but neither your Bishop of Pittsburg (turning to Monsignor Lavelle) nor mine!

Under these circumstances I am asked first of all to introduce the first speaker of this evening, the Rev. Rabbi Hirsch, of the Sinai Temple in Chicago, and of the Chicago University. (Applause.)

The Advent of the Plough

DR. EMIL G. HIRSCH

It

Battle cradled Judah's early poetry, like the youthful strains of the awakening national consciousness among other peoples, running in melodies singing of gory victories, and sounding the crash of clashing swords, the whir and stir of flying arrows. is the mighty "God of War" whom it invokes and proclaims, and to read the significance of the Universe's revolving and changeful sceneries the Hebrew bard's lyre borrows symbol and sign from camp and contest. Stars are an army sent forth in nightly raid to defeat the stormcloud's daring minions. Tide and tempest, roaring sea and ravenous abyss, are giant warriors leaping to the fray. Thus mythology and the nascent nation's vivid memories of recent feuds and broils vie with each other to lend glamour to the horrors of the man-wasting battleground.