e supernatural as a permanent factor in the progress of
events. Its miracles, from the time of the Middle Ages, are but a poetic
detail, a legendary recital, a picturesque decoration; and its
cosmogony, borrowed in haste from Babylon by the last compiler of the
Bible, with the stories of the apple and the serpent, over which so many
Christian generations have labored, never greatly disturbed the
imagination of the rabbis, nor weighed very heavily upon the thought of
the Jewish philosophers. Its rites were never "an instrument of faith,"
an expedient to "lull" rebellious thought into faith; they are merely
cherished customs, a symbol of the family, of transitory value, and
destined to disappear when there shall be but _one_ family in a world
converted to the _one_ truth. Set aside all these miracles, all these
rites, and behind them will be found the two great dogmas which, ever
since the prophets, constitute the whole of Judaism--the Divine unity
and Messianism; unity of law throughout the world, and the terrestrial
triumph of justice in humanity. These are the two dogmas which at the
present time illuminate humanity in its progress, both in the scientific
and social order of things, and which are termed in modern parlance
_unity of forces_ and _belief in progress_.

For this reason, Judaism is the only religion that has never entered
into conflict, and never can, with either science or social progress,
and that has witnessed, and still witnesses, all their conquests without
a sense of fear. These are not hostile forces that it accepts or submits
to merely from a spirit of toleration or policy, in order to save the
remains of its power by a compromise. They are old friendly voices,
which it recognizes and salutes with joy; for it has heard them resound
for centuries already, in the axioms of free thought and in the cry of
the suffering heart. For this reason the Jews, in all the countries
which have entered upon the new path, have begun to take a share in all
the great works of civilization, in the triple field of science, of art,
and of action; and that share, far from being an insignificant one, is
out of all proportion to the brief time that has elapsed since their
enfranchisement.

Does this mean that Judaism should nurse dreams of ambition, and think
of realizing one day that "invisible church of the future" invoked by
some in prayer? This would be an illusion, whether on the part of a
narrow sectarian, or on that