The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-11-10

orably intolerant, the Jewish State cordial.
welcomed to it's embrace the natives of othe
lands, and the former professors of other creeds
on the single condition of conformity to the es
tablshed religion. From this general natural
ization Ammonites and Moabtes were alOn
excepted, and even this exception, it woul'
seem did not extend TO women, since Ruth, tn
wife Of Boar, was Moabtess.
The resident stranger was entitled to ever,
civil and religious privilege enjoyed by ma
two Hebrew, with only two exceptions: h
could not be elevated TO the throne, (Dem xvii
I51 and IA no real estate could be permanent
ly alienated from the family and tribe to which
it had originally been assigned, unless in
walled town, it was only in such a town that {
stranger could become a freebooter.
Ii is remarkable how thoroughly the prose
lyte stranger was incorporated in the Jewish
nation. Rahab, of Jericho, was married to Sal
mon, the son of the Prince of Judah, and their
son married Ruth, the Moabitess Jether, the
Tshmaeite, married the sister Of King David
Uriah, the Hittite is numbered among David
mighty men, We find Ittai, the Gittite, "a
stranger a commander in Davids army. Da'
vid saw no improperly in deposting the sacred
ark in the house of Obcd-edom, whose very
name, Edomitish Servant, betrayed his foreign
origin.
But while the stranger was thus welcomed
and hOnored in Israel, he was bound to dis
charge the obligations of a Hebrew. He was
to observe the Sabbath (Er. Xxx, 10Y and the
day of AtOnement Leu. xvi, 90 J was to abstain
from eating animals that had died of them
selves, Lev xvii 15;) was to commit no abom-
ination, (LeU xviii, 26,) nor give his seed to
Moloch, (Lev Xxx p &c, &c. On the other
hand, it was his privilege to attend the three
great fessts.-Er. xii, As; Dem. xvi, liza.
When guilty of homicide, the cities of refuge
were open to him, Mum. xxxv, 49, when GER
emonially polluted, he was cIeansed by the mys-
terious water Of eparation.-Num. xix, 10.
As to his sins of ignorance it was announced,
aye shall have one law for him that sinneth
through ignorance, both for him that is born
among the children of Israeli and for the
stranger that sojourneth among them Mum
Ky, 90. So also in regard to the Passover, it is
said: Zone shall be TO him that is homeborn
and unto the stranger that sojourneth among
you."-Er. xii, 40. And co. also, there was
but one law for tho Jew and the stranger in
regard to sacrfces-Num. XIV, 10. The stran-
ger, like the Levite, was without an inheritance
in Israel and therefore, with the Levite, was
entitled to eat and be satisfied of the trien-
had right to CLEAN the harvest-feld and the
vineyard.-LeU. xix, 9, 10. When "waxen
poor and fallen into decay" he was to be re-
heved like poor Jew, Leu. XIV, 35 J and this
law, placing native and foreign paupers on a
legal equality, is given in the same chapter with
the supposed statute for the enslavement of the
latter! Strangers, when hired as servants, were
to be treated as Jewish hired servants; neither
10 a
gers were to be gathered together with He
brews, that they may hear and that they
may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and
Observe to do all the tCords Of this lau"-Deut
XXI, IL. In obedience to this law, the stran-
gers were collected by Joshua to hear "all the
words of the law" and the following anathe-
ma was pronounced in their hearing "Cursed
be ne that PerUerteb the judgment Of the strGn-
ger.H--Joh viii 80; Dem xvii 10.
"The strength Of Israel will not he;u and vet
we are asked to believe that He who uttered
this anathema, himself perverted the judgment
of the stranger, by opening slave markets in
Israel, in which these proselyte strangers might
be sold like the beasts of the field and permit
ted cofiles of strangers to be driven as articles
of commerce from the surrounding countries
into the Holy Land Nay, more: the slave
traders in Israel, as If in solemn mockery, were
required to curse themselves; for, with the rest
of the people, they were to respond to this
anathema, "AMEN." Finally, we have this
great comprehensive statute, not in reference to
any particular rite, but of general application,
placing the stranger and the Jew on an entire
equality before the law viz: "YE SHALL HAVE
ONE MANNER OF LAW, AS WELL FOR THE
As FOR ONE or YOUR OWN COUNTRY,
| 4
%. The national prejudice of the Jews against
this equality with strangers was to be met and
overcome by a reference to the high authority
of the Lawgiver. He was not only Jehovah,
but he was the peculiar God of Israel-Jeho-
yah, your God
Not only were the strangers in Israel He
brews in all but descent from Abraham, but
they were expressly received into covenant with
God, together with tho Israelites. Said Moses:
& Ye stand this day, all of you, before the Lord
your God; your captains of your tribes, your eld-
ers and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
your little ones, your wives, and the STRANGER
that is in thy camp, from the newer of thy
wood unto the drawer of thy water, that thou
shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy
God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God
maketh with thee this dayp-Deu xxx, 10
covenant with the children of Israel and tho
worshippers of Baal?
The strangers in Israel were proselytes, and
not heather; and no foreigner could settle in
the country, except on condition of submit
ting to its civil and religious polity. As Jews
and proselytes were equal before the laws,
domestic servants whether Jews or proselytes
were procured in the same manner by volun-
tary contract, received their wages in advance
| served six years and when the six years over
ran the Jubilee were discharged at the Jubilee
| And now We begin to comprehend the benev.
olence of the statute respecting foreign domes-
| tics. In the whole world there was but one
temple in which the true God was worshpped
| but that temple was open to all who would bow
| at its altar. The fame of the marvellous con.
quest Of Canaan, and the continued wonders OF
| the Theocracy, would naturally arrest the atten
ton of the heathcn round about, and many
might be disposed to acknowledge the great in.
| visible Jehovah of the jews, and to throw TO the
moles and bats their own pa.try and senseless
idols But Jehovah could be worshipped only in
Iudea, and would accept Of no sacrifice not Of
fered on his own altar. The heather, then, who
desired to take the LORD for their God. were in
vited into Judea, and promised an equality in
civil and religious privileges with tho chosen peo
pie of Jehovah. For tho poor destitute fore On
ers thus fleeing from idolatry, refuge was pro
vided. The population was crowded, and NJ
land was unoccupied but the mild, bcnefcen
law Of servitude secured them retreat and q
maintenance. For six years they might be do
INVESTIGATED in a Jewish family, q sum of money
would be Immediately paid to them, and time
would be allowed them for becoming acquaint
ed with the laws and customs of their adoptet
country and to BIO moro fully instructed in tn,
new religion they had embraced, before being
thrown upon their own resources. And il
what temper and spirit were the Jews to receiv,
these emigrants' Were they to look on then
as men out of whose muscles they could whiE
corn and oil and wine, and whose little one,
they could sell in the market together with kid
and lambs "If" said Jehovah to his people
@ a strananr sainurn with thna In ..a... L.