Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-09-13
ISRAEL.
Historical Resunfs, Of the He
breTTa,

Standard authorities tell as that the
Hebrews are people of the Semitic race,
whose ancestors appear at the very dawn
OF the history of mankind on the banks
of the Euphrates, Jordan and Nile. and
whose fragments are now to be seen. in
| larger or smaller numbers, in almost all
/ the cities of the globe, from Batavia to
New Orleans, from Stockholm to Cape
Town. This people, as such, forms one
Of the most remarkable phenomena in
history. When little more numerous
than family, they had their language,
customs, and peculiar Observancss.
treated with princes, and in every respect
acted as a nation. Though broken as IL
into atoms, and scattered through all
climes, among the rudest and most civil
! lied nations, they have preserved through
| thousands Of years common features,
/ habits and Obseryances, a common reli-
| giOn, literature, and sacred language
| Without any political union, without a
| common head or center, they are gener-
I ally regarded and regard themselves as a
nation They began as nOmads "mi-
grating from nation to nation, from state
20 state ;" their law made them agricul-
turists for fifteen centuries; their exile
has transformed them into mercantile
people. They have struggled for their
national existence against the Egyptians,
Assyrians, BabylOnians, Syrians and
Romans; have been conquered and
nearly exterminated by each Of these
powers, and have survived them all.
They have been oppressed and prosecuted
by emperors and republics, sultans and
popes, MOors and inquisitOrs; they Uers
prescribed in Catholic Spain, Protestant
Norway, and Greek Muscovy, while their
prosecutors sang the hymns of their
rrga luniafo raxyarod fhoir hnokru hclfaryaA
in their prophets, and even prosecuted
them in the name of their God. They
have numbered philosophers among the
Greeks OF Alexandria and the 5Rraoens
Of COrdOva, have transplanted the wis
dom Of the East beyond the Pyrenees
and the Rhine, and have been treated as
pariAhs among psgans, Mohammedans
and Christians. They have fought for
liberty under KOsciusko and Blucher,
and popular assemblies among the Slavi
and Germans still withheld from them
the right of living in certain towns, viii
lages and streets. This phenomenon,
however, admits Of explanation. At the
very beginning they were not merely
family or tribe, but also q sect, society
or community, superior to those sur
rounding it in culture, morals and ideals,
too pOwerless to hope for great success
over others, but anxious to defend their
own moral condition at the price of self
isolation, and to psrpetuate 1t by the de-
velopment of peculiar customs and reli-
giORs Observanees. The father Of the peO-
pie hiEse4f, A1raham, is recorded as act
ing under divine mission, and leaving
the land OF his parents and his birth in
order to preserve and propagate mis- ideal
in +" his children and his house." After
a hard trial in Egypt and a marvellous
deliveranee they received law, at the
same time national and religious, which
constituted them "peOple of priests
to enlighten the nations by their exam
pie, and which by its sublimity inspired
them with the natural conviction that
they were the chosen people of God, who
alone knew him and walked In his ways.
The national and religious elements be-
came more and more developed and
blended, the antagonism which the sur
rounding idolstry and religiously institu-
ted immortality more and more striking;
long continued struggle for self preser-
vation against overwhelming influences
changed enthusiasm into fanaticism and
salt esteem into repulsive pride, which
was repaid by antipAtby, hatred and
cruel persecution. Their national inde-
pendancs was destroyed; fanstical at
tempts to recover it failed they were
scattered among nations who in the
ulC6u Af4A Lc11CA1C4 = ClNAA1GtAou
some respects superior to their own; the
ancient idolatries were replaced by new
religious systams drawn from Hebrew
sources; tine name of their God was now
praised from the rising Of the sun to its
setting; the ruins of their Zion had be-
come sacred to the nations. But still
they clung to their faith, ceremonies,
traditions and hopes for their religious
and national characteristics were so
deeply rooted and so well blended that
they wonderfully supported each other.
They were still convinced of their re-
ligious and moral superiority to the Gem
tiles they were justified by the eruelties
of the world in believing themselves. its
martyrs; they submitted to them from
what they regarded as q divine obliga-
ton. Their masters punished their self
sufficiency, humillating pride and pre-
tensions by crushing burdens and legal
degradation, their religious enemies by
calumnies, the people by contemptuous
social exclusion; and it was not till the
last quarter of the eighteenth century
that q brighter prospect opened by the
inauguration Of the principle Of religious
liberty and civil equality in America,
and afterwards in the northwest Of Eu-
rope.