Dr. de Sola closely identified himself with many of our literary and scientific associations, notably with the Natural History Society, in which he was an active colaborer of Sir William Dawson and Sir William Logan. He was for many years president of the society and received H. R. H. Prince Arthur (afterwards Duke of Connaught) when that prince visited the society in 1870. His address upon “The Study of Natural Science,” delivered upon that occasion, called forth a letter of approbation from Queen Victoria.
During all his intense literary activity Dr. de Sola was taking a very prominent part in all matters affecting the Jewish people. His mastery of Jewish theology, in all its branches, had earned him wide renown among his own race and had gained him a high place among the very foremost rabbis of the day. Convinced that the fences which orthodoxy placed around the citadel of his ancestral faith were the best safeguards against disintegrating forces, the upholders of historical Judaism found in him an able and powerful champion. Equally noticeable were his bold attacks upon the weak points of the skeptical school of modern biblical criticism. His intimate knowledge of all those branches of learning which bear upon this subject made him particularly formidable in this respect. The Jewish press and pulpit and the lecture platform were the vehicles by which he usually reached the public on these subjects. He had, indeed, since his first arrival in Canada been a particularly active contributor to Jewish journals, more especially to the Occident of Philadelphia, with which he was for years identified, being in intimate literary relations with its editor, the gifted Isaac Leeser.
Dr. de Sola’s ability in the pulpit led to his frequently being invited to lecture in the United States, where he had acquired much prominence and popularity. On the 9th of January, 1872, he was invited by General Grant’s government to perform the ceremony of opening the United States congress with prayer, and for the first time was witnessed the unique spectacle of one who was not a citizen of the United States nor of the dominant belief officiating at the opening ceremonies at the assembling of congress at Washington. The broad liberality of this act, upon the part of the United States government, was fraught with particular significance at that time, owing to the fact that diplomatic relations between Britain and the United States had then but lately been strained to dangerous tension by the “Alabama Claims,” and this high compliment to a British subject was the first evidence of the growth of a better feeling between the two countries. Sir Edward Thornton, the British ambassador at Washington, formally extended to Dr. de Sola the thanks of the British government, and Mr. Gladstone--then prime minister, also personally communicated his satisfaction.