A SERMON

Delivered in the Great Synagogue, Duke's Place.

SABBATH, 24 SHEVAT, 5608 (29 JANUARY, 1848).

BY THE

REV. N. ADLER, PHIL. Doc.

CHIEF RABBI OF THE UNITED CONGREGATIONS OF THE

BRITISH EMPIRE.

PRINTED BY SPECIAL DESIRE.

LONDON:

EFFINGHAM WILSON, 11, ROYAL EXCHANGE,

5608-1848.

A SERMON.

MY DEAR BRETHREN,

Ar this momentous time, when so much is spoken on subjects profoundly interesting to us, we not unfrequently observe how busy calumny is in plundering our holy faith of its godly character. We perceive how some go even so far as to affirm, that they do not know at all in what our religion does consist; and, when we refer them to the Bible, the book revered by all, they say that its doctrines have been in the course of time so disfigured, that they can no longer be looked upon as our guide, and consequently that we have no religion at all. We can imagine that such a statement must have raised a smile in most of you, and must appear as absurd as if a man were to deny his own existence; for his religion is his life, nay his life of life-but there are others who, though convinced of the falsehood of an assertion so monstrous, yet cannot, in their simplicity, produce the arguments necessary for its refutation, although their own belief be of adamantine firmness. Therefore, we think it our duty to try to bring the substance of our holy faith, as we are now bound to believe and to practise it, into the smallest