The Commercial Spirit and Religion
By Editor
The Commercial Spirit and Religion.—The address given by Rabbi Hirsch of Chicago at Temple Emmanuel, San Francisco, recently, was designed for Jews; but it contained some statements that are as applicable to those who are not Jews as to those who are. He said: "Israel is thinking too much of stock exchange, money-getting, and trades unions. Israel is putting forth her strength to lay up money for the children, robbing the children of the opportunity of making their own way, handing down to them not only the wealth they did not earn, but the stingy spirit they ought not to inherit." The truth of these words is seen exemplified on every hand to-day. That inherited stinginess of spirit is nothing but "covetousness, which is idolatry." It has bred a race of wealth-worshipers; and the pyramids of dollars it is building are as truly tombs of the builders as were ever the pyramids of old.