"Does Christianity fail to civilize or has it never been taught? I believe the latter is the case."

Such was the caustic comment made last night by Dr. Emil G. Hirsch upon the massacres of the Russian Jews. Dr. Hirsch spoke at Temple Israel, Fourty-fourth Street and St. Lawrence Avenue. His sermon dealt largely with the present situation in Russia and the lessons which were drawn from it.

"After us the deluge," he quoted. "Such has been the cry voiced by many a nation. It was raised in France by the companions of Louis XV. You all know what followed.

"It was raised in Greece and it was raised in Rome. It was even raised in Palestine. We read in the Psalms of the doings of the young Hebrews, of their craze for athletics, a craze which is equalled only by that of our modern collegians, of their 2wine-bibbling and their licentiousness. You know that Palestine, too, paid the penalty and that it was proved then, as it often has been proved since, that the sins of the father are visited on the children. 'After us the deluge!' was the cry raised in Russia by the grand dukes. In the czar's capital were to be found the conditions that have before led to the downfall of the men who raised the cry of the French cynic. What had they to fear? They felt secure in their places. The greatest intellects of Russia were enchained in Siberia. They had their Cossacks, those warriors whose devotion knew no bounds, to ride down the mobs and by their knouts and their horses' hoofs teach them the lesson that they must be contented.

"But the day of retribution came. Robbers at home, they tried to be robbers abroad. They seized other peoples' lands. Battle after battle was fought and lost, ship after ship was sent to the bottom. Still they laughed and cried, 'After us the deluge!'

"Then came the revolution and with it the massacre of Jews. We who have read Jewish history knew what to expect. We knew how the revolution of 1830 began, how the movement for constitutional liberty in Austria was inaugurated. Bureaucracy needed a scapegoat. When the mujik became discontented he was told: 'Kill the Jews. The 3czar wills it.' A mob never refused an invitation to slay and pillage.

"So in the pale of Russia, that hell which even Dante's imagination failed to picture an equal, the atrocities began. We have been told that Christianity civilizes. It is the doctrine we read and which is preached to us. How is it in Russia? Who seems to be following the doctrines of Christ there, the Russians or the Jews? Does Christianity fail to civilize, or has it never been taught? I believe it is the latter.

"The Jews in Russia are giving a lesson to the Christian world. They are praying to-night as Christ prayed: 'Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.' It is not upon the Russian people that the blame for the massacre rests. It is upon the bureaucracy. The day of retribution is at hand, however. The blood guiltiness of Russia is not yet complete, but it is nearly so.

"Looking at Russia, let us beware lest we, too, should call out: ' After us the deluge!' We are doing it when we bow down to wealth and power. Remember that the doctrine of responsibility has ever held good and that the day of retribution must come."