, 1857-11-20
The Jews

the changes oil European history since tn
Christian era, Judea still continues to b
{ the most interesting portion Of the world
Among other purposes, it may be 70
the purpose of fixing the general eye upoI
this extraordinary land that i has becr
periodically visited by more striking sue
cesSion of great public calamities than per
haps any other region With less to at
tract an invader than any other conspcuou
land Of the East, it has been CONSTANT,
exposed to invasion. Its ruin by tho Ro
mans in the first century did not prevent it,
being assailed by almost every barbarian
who, in turn, assumed the precarious soV.
creignty of the neighborug Asia. After
ages of obscure misery, new terror came
in the Saracen invasion, which under Am
rou, on the conquest Of Damascus, rolled
on to Palestine A siege of four months
which we may well conceive to have abound
ed in horrors, gave Jerusalem into the hands
of the Kaliph Omar. On the death Of
Omar, who died by the usual fate Of East
ern princes, the dagger, the country was
left to the still heavier misgovernmont of
the Moslem viceroys-a race of men essen
TALLY barbarian, and committing for their
crimes by their zeal in proselytism The
people, Of course, wore 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 hostilties and public
weakness After almost a century Of this
wretchedness, another invasion from the
Desert put Jerusalem into the hands of its
old oppressor, the SarOcen; and To 1881.
the famous Saladin, expelling the last Of
Palestine. After another century of tu-
multi and severe suffering, occasoned by the
disputes Of the Saracen princes, it was Wis
tied by a still more formidable an evil in
the shape of the Turks, then wholly unciv-
ilized-a nation in all the rudeness and vio-
1ence Of mountaineer life, and spreading
blood and fire through Western ASIA
From this date, (l3l7,) it remained under
the dominion Of the Ottoman until its con-
quest few years ago, by that most extra.
ordinary Of all Mussnlmans, the Paeha of
Egypt-a dreary period of FIVE hundred
years, under the most desolating govern
ment in the world. 1t is equally impossi-
bic to read the Scrptural references to the
future condition Of Palestine without dis
covering crowd Of the plainest and most
powerful indications that il shall vet exbib-
it totally different aspect, from that of its
present state Enthusiasm, or even the
natural interest which we feel in this mem
orable nation, may color the future to us
too brightly; but unless language Of the
most solemn occasions and by men divinely
commissioned for its utterance, is wholly
unmeauing, we must yet look to some pow
erful, unquestionable, and splendid display
of Providence in favor Of the people Of Is.
real.
The remarkable determinations Of Euro
pean politics reward Asia Minor, Syria and
Egypt within these few years; the not less
unexpected change of manners and customs,
which seemed to defy all change; and the
new life infused into the stagnant govern
ments of Asia, even by their being flung
into the whirl Of European interest, look
not unlike signs Of the times 1t may be
no dream to imagine in these phenomena
the proofs of some memorable change in
the interior Of things-some preparation
for that great Providential restoration Of
which Jerusalem will yet be the scene, IL
not the center, and the Isrealite himself the
especial agent of those high transactions
which shall make Christianity the religion
of all lands, restore the disnnntled beauty
of all earth, and make man what he was
created to be, only "a little lower than the
angels"
The statistics of the Jewish population
are among the most singular circumstances
of this most singular Of all people. Under
all their calamities and disperSions they
seem to have remained at nearly the same
amount as in the days Of David and Solo
mon; never much more in prosperity, never
much less after ages Of suffering Nothing
like this has occurred in the history of any
other race; Europe in general having
doubled its population within the last hun
dred years, and England nearly trebled
hers within the last half century; the pro-
protion of America being still more rapid,
and the world crowding in a constantly in
creaSing ratio. Yet the Jews seem to stand
still in this vast and general movement