The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1856-11-06
INCREASE OF JEWS,

migrants has increased more rapidlv in tb;s
country than the Hebrew. Tn 1850 a man
might count npon his fingers ;ll !hc synn-
g""ncA III ia" iaiid; now there are at least
Il quarter -! :. million of Jews, from eighty
to ninety synagogucs, and multitude of
smaller communities where nucleus exists
which will soon grow into synagocue.-
Ihe city of New York alono has twenty
synagogues and thirty thousand Jews
about one'twentieth part Of the population
being such. There are synagosues in all
the chief cities of the scaboard: two IN
Boston, five in Baltimore, three in New Or
leans, two in Charleston, and. four in Gin.
cinnati, &c.
1t may not be inappropriate to add 10
the above statement respecting the progress
OF the ancient people" in our country, the
annexed historical and statistical particu
lars from an article in BlackwooIs Maoa.
zine:
vast as is the period and singular as arc
the changes of European history since the
Christian era, Judea still continues to be
lhe most interesting portion Of the world
Among other purposes, it may be for the
purpose of liking the general eye upon this
extraordinary land that it has been periodi-
caIly visited 10y more striking succession
Of great public calamitics than perhaps any
other region. With less to attract an in
vadcr than any other conspicuous land of
the East, it has been constantly exposed to
invasion. Its ruin 10y tho Ronla,s in the
first century did not prevent its being as
sailed by almost every barbarian, who, in
turn, assumed the preoarious sovereignty OF
the neghboring Asia. After ages of Oh
Saracen invasion, which, under Amrou, on
the conquest Of Damascus, rolled on to
Palestine. A siege of four months, which
we may well conceive 10 have atountled in
horrors. gave Jerusalem into the hands of
the kaliph Omar. On the death of Omar,
who died by the usual f.;c of Eastern prin-
ces, the dagger, the country was left to the
still heavier niisgovcrnment Of the Moslem
vIccroys-a race of men essentially LarLa-
r';'n, and committing for their crimes by
their zeal in proselytism. The people, of
course, were doubly tormented.
A new scourge fell upon them in the in
vasion of the Crusaders, at the beginning
Of the twelfth century, followed by long
succession Of bitter hostlities and public
weakness. After almost century of this
wrctchcdncss, another invasion from the
Desert put Jerusalem into the hands of its
old oppressor, the Saraccn; and in 1887
the famous Saladin, expclIing the last of
the Christian sovcrcigns, took possession of
Palestine. After another century of tumult
and severe suffering, occasioncd by tie dis
putes Of the Saracen princes, it was visited
by n still more formidable evil in tile shane
of the Turks, then wholly uncivlized-
nation i'll all the rudeness and violence of
moun'aineer life, and spreading blood and
lire through Western Asia. From this date
Q3l7 it remained under the dominion of
the Ottoman until its conquest, few years
ago, by that most extraordinary Of all Mus.
srmans, the Pacha of Egvpt-a drcary
period %! 300 years, under the most desc
laling Government Of the world. It is
equally impossible to read the Scriptural
references to the future condition of Pales-
tine without discovering a crowd Of the
plaincst and most powerful indications that
it shall yet exhibit n totally different aspect
from that Of ITS present state. Enthusiasm,
or even the natural interest which we feel in
this memorable nation, may color the future
to us too brightly but unless language of
the most solemn kind, uttered on the most
solemn occasions, ana by men divinely
commissioned for its uttcrance, is wholly
unmeaning, we must yet look to some pow
crful, unquestionaLlc, and splendid display
of Providence in favor Of the people of
Israel.
The remarkable determination of Euro
pcan politics toward Asia Minor, Syria, and
Egypt within these few years; the not less
unexpected change of manners and Gus
toms, which seemed to defy all change :
and the new life infused into the stagnant
Governments. Of Asia, even by their being
flung into the wlrirl of European interests,
look not unlike signs Of the times. 1t NAV
be no dream to imagine in these phenom.
ena tho proofs Of some memorable change
in the interior Of things--some pIeparalives
for that great Providential restoration of
which Jerusalem will yet be the scene, il
not the centre, and the Israelite himself the
especial agent Of those high transactions
which shall make christianity the. religion
Of all lands, restore the dismantled beauty
of all esrth, aad make man what he was
created to be, only "a little lower than the
80 80 -r . . ~ -, .-