January 1927
46
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
P r o p h e t i c N o te s By DAVID L.
COOPER stone in the life of all individuals and nations by which their deepest worth is proven, the test which produces the gold precipitate. The touchstone is not the same for all individuals and all nations, nor is it the same for any individual or nation all the time. So far as the Jewish people are concerned, its touchstone today is Palestine. It is the vehicle of Jewish life, it is the criterion of the character of the Jewish people as a people. It is a test of the Jewish heart, it is also a test of the Jewish head. Give me thé measure of what any section of the Jewish people is doing for Palestine, and I will give you the measure of its essential Jewishness. The measure is not in terms of dollars and cents alone. It may consist of 1,000 intangible quantums, some of which escape expres sion except through the vision of the poet and the seer. From the broken soil of the ruins of Jewish life in East ern Europe has sprung a fine flower, the spirit of Chalu- ziut, and that is the measure of the Jewishness of our people in these lands. In the United States the super ficial observer would be inclined to take for a measure only the statistics of the campaigns,: but those statis tics are merely the expression of an inner urge, of a spirit that is seeking and will find other forms of expres sion as well. The United Palestine Appeal has served to crystallize that spirit, but there is abroad also a thirst ( for the water of the Jewish spirit, and that thirst will, express itself in the dreams that will be dreamed by old men, in the visions that will be seen by young men.” Three Tabernacles O N the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter in his excite ment proposed the building of three tabernacles! ;■ one for Moses, one for Elijah and one for Jesus. The voice of God from the opened heavens silenced him and bade him listen to Jesus. The moment God pointed to His Son as supreme, Moses and Elias vanished and they saw no man save Jesus only (Mk. 9:8). Peter never forgot this scene, for almost a generation later he wrote concerning it (2 Pet. 1 :17-18). Is it not also striking that Peter grasped the idea that it was not a matter of erecting a tabernacle as a memorial to Jesus, but that Jesus Himself began the erection of a temple, not on a mount but in the hearts of men; a temple built of “living stones”, true believers united by the Holy Spirit (1 Pet. 2:5) ? Peter himself is a stone in it as is every one who has been born of the Spirit. The Sp irit o f D evotion I T is in the soil of a pure and holy heart that the spirit of, .dqyo.tiqn,,flourishes and the .heart is, at home it); the 'sec’tCf jjlace !6f !thfe Most High. ‘It is •dfelightful to dwell so near to God that we do not have to change our garments and put on new priestly robes for the season of prayer, but we dwell in the heavenly atmosphere, and are always within whispering distance of the ear of our heavenly Friend. The story is told of the devout Bengal that one night when a visiting friend listened to hear him offer his evening sacrifice before retiring for the night, he was astonished to find the good saint simply turn out his light, kneel by his bedside, and quietly say, “Lord Jesus, things are still the same between us,” and then lie down on the bosom of his Lord, and be lost in peaceful slumber. .
J ew ish P ocket E ncyclopedia The B’nai B’rith organization has just published a pocket size encyclopedia which sets forth the Jew and his ideals from the Jewish standpoint, the price of which is twenty-five cents and may be obtained from B’nai B’rith Wider Scope Committee, 70 Electric Bldg.L Cincinnati, Ohio. Every one interested in reaching the Jew with the Gospel should have a copy. A M odern ^J oseph ” According to the “B’nai B’rith” magazine Joseph A. Rosen is a modern Joseph in that he has assisted his Jew ish people in teaching them improved methods of agri culture in Russia. Note the following extract: Since the war he has been Russia’s Master of Agri culture. Not only has he served Russian Jewry as head of reconstruction work for the American Joint Distribu tion Committee, but he has served all Russia. He taught the peasants of the Volga region how to farm, with the result that there has been no repetition of the famine of 1920-1921. The man whom the Czarist government attempted to destroy has become one of the saviours of Russia. M H ydro -E lectric W orks in P alestine According to advices from London, as is given in the “ Scribe,” Palestine is to be favored by a Hydro-electric plant, which promises to provide power for electrification and irrigation of Palestine. This plant will be a potent factor in the transformation of the land. To one. who loves Israel and who is abreast of the rapid developments in the land, comes a thrill when he reads the following: London (J. T. A.)—The financing of the Jordan Hydro-Electric Works, which will provide power for the electrification and irrigation of Palestine, and open up new possibilities for the' industrial development of the country, has' been completed, according to an an nouncement issued by the office of the Palestine Electric Corporation here. The statement was signed by Engi neer Pinchas Ruttenberg, initiator of the plan. . The capital required for the carrying out of the Jor dan Hydro-electric works has been definitely secured and a large part of it has already been paid up. The total amount of the subscribed capital of the Palestine Electric Corporation, which includes the expen ditures already incurred in the execution of the installa tion of electricity in Jaffa, Haifa and Tiberias, is £950,000. • The preliminary work on the Jordan plant will be begun on the arrival in Palestine of Engineer Rutten berg, who jyjll leave London, for Palestine next week. It is expected that that; Jordan works will «be.; in full swing the early part Ilf* next year and when fully developed will employ between 1,000 and 15,000 men. The Marquis of Reading, Sir Alfred Mond, Sir Hugo Hirste and James de Rothschild have agreed to join the board of the Palestine Electric Corporation. P alestine and th e J ews According to the President of the World Zionist Organization Palestine is the “touchstone” of Jewish life, as is seen in an article from the “Scribe” of recent date: Allow me to bring to your attention the following message from our great leader, President of the World Zionist Executive, Nahum Sokolow. “There is a touch-
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