The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-01-02
Yesterday.


Yesterday.
When we read Of events that occurred ages
Ne. we and Il difyicult to imagine that they
In the light Of the same sun that
lhines upon Us to-day. The imagination in
vests distant events with sombre atmos-
phere. The men of the olden time, who have
come down to as embaimed In history, loom
grandiy ia the mist of ages. The transactions
Of the Greeks aud Romans hardly appear to
us the transactions Of men such as we are
We regard them through a medium so dusky,
that II 10 a. if We saw them through SMOKED
glass. Itis shock to the imagination to sec
q genuine Egyptian mummy-to ind 'na' INC
hiects of the Pharaohs were men no' axe
than We are upon an average, ana prooao'y
not N larse-and that in oil respects they
warn physically like ourselves Alas ior 'he
rsce az demisods, Of whom old HOMER dis
courses so eioq uentiy, not mummy nor
.rs,ston OF one of them has been found. Per-
hama hs himself would account for 1t by
..v,cs that they had been translated 10
the skies. and made stars Of, or devoRd
to other purposes not quite SO useful. But
the ,saitsy Is not to be found, and what
has been found gives the lie to the old poets
repeated theory, that the race OF
men il Ia cons tant process of degeneration,
and the demigods of one age excel the mere
men of the next. We are driven to believe the
more sensible position, that men are the same
in all ages, differing only in the degree in
which each Is objected to the process Of men,
tai and moral cultivation. The son, too, shone
as brightly, no doubt, fivs thousand years ago
a. 1t does now. And yet we cannot for our
f. ArA 4 pn w ricoa
NO doubt, from our habit of associating moral
with material darkness. Four thousand years
expand their dusky wings over the pyramids.
When we think of them, it is in connection
with darkness and mystery. We are unable
to separate the idea Of moral darkness from
that darkness which proceeds from the alb
,ence Of the sun. Il is for that reason that
we cannot realize the fact that they who buiit
them " wrought LA the light of the same bright
sun that shons upon US yesterday. Our ideas
OF E.ypt are always the ideas Of a land over
which perpetual darkness hovers. We see the
wand Of the prophet stretched OUT at the
bidding Of supreme Intelligence, aud we see
the whole land enveioped in midnight. 10
our imasination that midnight n.ver rises
from the face of the earth. Gigantic figures
al, before us, as in a panorama, and we can
never bring our minds to feel that they are
more than fantastic.
And yet, a thousand analogies assure us tina,
the men Ut that day were in no respect differ
ent from the men of this. We see the same
restless dispc si,ion, the snme y+arnihg al'ef
something they know not what the same dis
content with The present, the same wild nope
that the future will bring forth some unoe-
fined and impossible good. The Bible, no'
oniy as u rule of faith, but as a mirror In winch
m.n and communities may see themselves, a.
full length, is worth all that ever was written
or spoken by man, put together II is the MS
tory, more particularly, OF single ha'ion
buI The history Of that nation Is the history Oh
mankind We see one man selected from Inc
whole human race by mis- Creator nimself,t to be
the proeenitor of a mighty nation. which lor
his sake is tu be always under the direct
superintendence of the Divinity. We see his
descendants alone, in the midst Of universal
heaiheuism. retaining a knowledge of the only
God We see them grown into a mighty ma
tion, protsc ted By His almighty power. brought
out from the midst of a hostile people by the
guidance OF HIS hand shielded from innumer-
able and unheard Of dangers, by interpretation
so direct that it was i'm possible to mistake 1t.
that the earth ever shone upon, their enc
mics subdued around them, their arrange
men,s perfect within. their government pre-
scribed by God himself, and yet we see
them utterly discon lented with their lot, and
pining for a new system OF government
What are we to infer from :hisa That man
Is not, and cannot be satisfied with all tnal
earth can give him. That he will be misera.
BILE, that he will be rebellious, that he Will
seek to change his condition let 1t be what 1t
may, good or evil, bond or free. Ii MS nckie
and unthankful nature would not allow him
to be satisfied with a government instituted
by God. what is there that can satisfy him T.
Let 1t not be supposed that the Jews were
worse than other people. On the contrary
they were fully as good as any other nation
would have been in their situation. Inc only
fault with them was that they were men,
Had they acted otherwise than as they dlo,
thav would have been something more, and
that never was intended. Their history
IN the graudest lesson ever vouchsaied 10
mankind, and it is 50 because they were out
men, and did merely. what other men would
inevitably have done had they been placed in
their situation.
Yet as the Jews themselves would not pront
bv all the warnings and all the examples that
were set before them, so no nation has ever
vet profited by the example Of the Jews. Men
seem to fancy that Providence does not super
intend the rest of the world. as it superin-
tended the Jews, merely because 1t was thought
good TO reveal its workings in connection with
them. Thus, though they have not only
MosRs aud the Prophets, but Christ and his
Apostles, and the grand example Of Jewish
hi..ory before their eyes. we find them follow
ing precisely In the footsteps OF the Hebrews,
murmuring at everythin satisfied with
nothing, and quarreliing With their lot only
because 1t affords no just ground for quarrel.