Page:The Ancient Scriptures and the Modern Jew (Baron, David).djvu/15

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
PREFACE
xi

been used before. And if the same thoughts in a different arrangement do not form a different discourse, so neither do the same words in a different arrangement form different thoughts."

As will be seen, I have allowed one of the most eloquent of modern Jews himself to state the case of the "general condition" of his nation at the end of the nineteenth century, the remarkable address quoted, being as far as possible, a literal rendering by Mrs. Baron, of that which Dr. Max Nordau delivered at the First Zionist Congress in Basle.

I have also embodied a short article, or rather address, on "The Religious Condition of the Jews from a Christian Point of View," by my esteemed friend and fellow-worker in the "Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel," the Rev. C. A. Schönberger.

I need only add that to many of my readers I shall not appear altogether a stranger. It is about sixteen years since my first attempt towards the elucidation of parts of the Hebrew Scriptures was published in "Rays of Messiah’s Glory," and although there are passages in that book (at present out of print), which require re-writing, and I am even more conscious now than I was at the time of its publication of imperfections in its plan and composition, the Lord has been pleased to put His seal upon that unworthy effort to magnify His Word, and Him who is its very life and substance. Many have been the testimonies, some even from very highly honoured servants of Christ, to light and blessing received through its pages. Since then some of my smaller publications have had a fairly large circulation