The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-07-19
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BY JOHN A. CALHOUN.


BY JOHN A. CALHOUN.
By the rivers of Babylon there we sat
down, yea, we wept when we remembered
Zion. We hanged our harps upon the will
lows in the midst thereof, for they that car
ried us away captive required of us song.
How shall we sing the Lords song in a
strange land? If forget thee, oh! Jeru-
salem, let my right hand forget its cum
ming
The emotional nature of man seems to
have been the same in all ages. The same
reverence that the savage feels for his faith
er's graves, has all along the track of his
! tory, been felt for that one spot of earth
that men call home. The Chnaman, who
believes that in the coming life his spirit
can have no rest if his body sleeps among
strangers, had his counterpart in the cap
tive Jews weeping by the Euphrates. There
are in the whole range of literature few
more pathetic pictures than the one which
the lines above bring up. Palestine was
a land of beauty and of plenty; her hill
sides bore promise Of all that the heart of
man could wish. Her population was
teeming one, but all its wants were amply
supplied. The turbid Jordan flowed past
many home where happiness and plenty
reigned. Upon her rocky throne Jerusa-
lem gathered into her marts the plenty and
opulence of the east. In its midst stood
the great temple; centre of the thought
and religious life of the nation. Foreign
commerce and tribute alike brought gold
into her limits, until at last her princes
claimed rank among the first of the eastern
world. From Hermon to Edom an ODE
dent people brought their gifts to the
priests; fair cities rose upon every hill and
in every vale, and all was peace and con-
tentment.
The fairest earthly bliss is heeting and
the happy homes of Israel were no excep
ton. Their state seems to have reached
its zenith when the conquests of Daird
and his able chiefs made his power both
dreaded and respected by his neighbors.
His warlike reign gave place to that Of the
|
peaceful Solomon; peaceful at least to the
outside world. A study Of the history of
any of these early states cannot fail to
make ono thankful that he lives in the
worlds later ages. The idea that the peo-
pie are anything but serfs of the ruler is
an altogether modern one. Israel, under
Solomon, reached its height of apparent
prosperity, and through his long reign the
peace of her homes was not disturbed, ex-
cspt by the rapacity of the tax gatherer.
Her hill-sides were loaded with corn and
wine, while yearly the glad procession of
worshipers bore their offerings to Jerusa-
lem; type to them as it has been to many
| heart since of that homo to which the good
should be gathered when this life was over.
Still the happiness Of these quiet homes
seems to have come from no effort of the
ruler; the amusement of wealth and the
qualification of gross sensuality seems to
have required his whole attention. A
wealthy, profusive court usually produces
a poor, discontinued people. "Solomon
made gold to be as common as stones in
the, streets of Jerusalem;' but left state
on the very verge of anarchy; state gilded
without, but ready to fall to pieces with
internal corruption.
The worst fault of Rehoboam seems to
have been that he so faithfully copied his
fathers faults. The response to his re-
fusal to modify his fathers tyranny was
/ ~, pf ba |, ippIop, Of oil
and under the rule that followed, if attach
ment to home could be fos tered it can exist
anywhere. One rival chieftain after anoth-
er reached the head Of affairs, until in petty
civil contests the manhood of the people
was destroyed. The Judeans seem to have
Jared little better, we do not hear of
| quite so many monarchs being murdered
| or quite such a universal state of civil war.
! The holy temple the shrine Of every true
| Jewish heart, served as a means to keep
the kingdom little more in accord. The
w onders of the temple, the law and their
| atber's march to Canaan were told until
the childs greatest ambition was to reach
an age when he could go up to Jerusalem.
Years rolled on, the government was not
| model, yet it was good one for the age,
still the state was a declining one. In an
age when the spirit Of conquest was strug-
Cling for universal domination, Judea
could not remain at peace. Judea after
passing through the enervating reign of
Solomon does not seem to have INDUCED
any taste for military glory; if she fought
it was in her own defence. Her situation
for state peacefully inclined could not
have been more unfortunate. Egypt and
Assyria seem to have been among the first
to develop spirit Of universal conquest.
Palestine became, Of course, the battle
ground until her wales were wet with blood
and thousands Of her homes were left desc
late. 1t was no doubt relief to the mass
of her people when Samaria fell and an
end was put to their turbulent anarchy.
| Judea continued tho effort to remain at
peace until it became impossible longer.
Zedekiah, the last of her prineely line,
seems to have made fight worthy of a
better fate, but Jerusalem fell and her bet
ter classes went into captivity.
The next scene is that to which the
psalm writer introduces us. Instead of
the Judean hills, terraced and vine clad,
and valleys loaded with grain, their home
is now the level plains of the Euphrates,
equally luxuriant, but still not their home,
instead of the olives and figs of Palestine,
the willow ringed river, instead of the
pompous ceremonial of the temple, that
always seems to have had strange fascin-
alton for the Jew-a glittering corpse even
after the soul was gone-they must listen
to the obscene rites of Bel. 1t was then
that the spoiler demanded mirth, when the
heart was sad at the thought of home. In
that moment of supreme bitterness the
whole long history of their state came