Daily Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1876-1884, 1879-06-15

lift the burden from the soul OF
man: and humanity would be able
to bear Its load of sin, and misery,
aud doubt, no more; and 1t must
have hope-or die.
And now commences the dis
tinctively Jewish era CT the city.
For thousand years 1t is the Jew
that walks its streets as master.
From its walls he arrogautly hurts
defiance and cursiDg upon the
heather; and then turning, humbly
prostrates himself within the shad-
ow OF his holy temple before the
shrine of that Jehovah whose name
even 1t was PROCLAMATION for him to
utter with his lips. How the heart
Of the Jewish race chung to Jerusa-
lem; how every hope, every aspira'
ton was woven about 1t, need hard
ly be told; the scripture is full OF 1t.
David lifted up his voice to chant
Of its glories, and his love for 1t.
Solomon sang of 1t. Prophet and
priest and historian turn back ever
and again to dwell fondly upon the
thought of 1t.
And back of it all was the dream
of the days when Shiloh should
come; of the days when the sun
should rise with a new light upon
the mountains of Judea; when, in
the glory of the dawning, the
morning stars should again sing
together, and all the sons OF God
shout for joy. For thore are
dreams that to the heart of man
are filled with an Infinite gladness
dreams that are sweet, ali! mex
pressibly sweet; and the world
turns again, and yet again, to
them, even as the longing eyes OF
the sick to the roses and the dews
of the morning.
1t Is a strange character, this Of
the Hebrew. What was 1t that
made 1t iniestructible and UNI
changing-it alone Of all peoples?
Why was 1t, that 1t alone could not
die? 1t was coeval with the Chal-
dean and the Assyrian. 1t looked
upon the winged lion of Ninevah
as the cunning hand of the work.
man chiseled that inscruts BILE face
in the unchnnging stone. But for
ages the hyena has howled over that
land that lay between the rivers;
| and with curious hand we exhume
from the mounds of forgotten earth
the tile records which alone tell US
that here people once dwelt. And
the Hebrew-he who was dragged
in chains at the chariot wheel Of
the man of Assyria-he who, with
tears in his voice, sang the song Of
Zion, a captive, by the waters of
Babylon-to.day he walks our
streets; and we take him by the
hand, nor stop to think that he Is
yet singing the songs which his
| fathers sang, ages ago, under the
lash of races whose existence, even,
the world can scarcely remember.
Do we realize it-all this long
space of the worlds life that the
Jew has witnessed as a contempt
rary? He buried the shadowy races
that dwelt by the great rivers, and
the earth grew level over their for
gotten graves. The Greek was
born, and lived, and died; from the
dim dawnipg of years, when Jason
voyaged to Colchis in quest of the
Golden Fleece, down through the
tabled days of AJAX and Agamem-
non before the walls of Troy, and
on to the days Of E-chylus, and
Phidias, and the Acropolis, and
that battle which the world can
never forget in the rocky gates by
the sea. And yet to that unchang-
ing man of Judea the Greek was
but as the transient wayfarer, who
bides for a season and is gone.
| The Roman, for eighteen GEN.
turtles, was the central figure of the
worlds life. Yet this man of Syria,
this imperishable dweller In the
mountains of Canaan, saw him born,
saw him for a thousand years stalk
the world as master; saw him
struggle through the dying agony
OF the decline and fall,-that agony
which shook the earth with
its throes-and then, at last,
saw him buried; and turning
went on his own way unmoved, al
one who has only hidden adieu tc
the acquaintance Of summer.
10
| fAuu w lCh u0 Cdkho W Ills " w
his own knew him not.
But the world-the world that
stood afar off, as one who looks
from the distant hills-it saw, and
understood. And with u mighty
gladness that no speech can utter,
1t gathered to itself the joy of the
Promise fulfilled, and rejoiced as
one to whom after the WEAKNESS
of the night has come the glory
and the light of the morning.
For the fullness of time was at
last come: the time for which the
city and the race had been guarded
during all these long centuries;
the time when Jerusalem was 10
become the central point not SIM
ply of a race, but of the world;
when 1t was no longer men but
Man that was to look to it as q
spiritual resting place, and a
fame. A strange unrest had
seized upon the world. The old
religions were dying out. The I'M
Satisfied heart OF man was hunger
ing for something more. In the
midst of oil their warnings, their
contentious, hush seemed to
come to the nations; ard they
stopped, and asked, "What is it?''
"Why can We not rest? What un.
seen hand is passing to and fro
among us, and drawing us, we
know not whithef?"
It was as when one awakes from
slumbers in the deep darkness,
feeling with that inexplicable pre-
monition, which at times comes to
man, that something, he knows
not what, Is about to happen. Or,
1t was as the change that falls upon
the midnight, when one calls out
In his sleep. "Lo, the morning ap-
proacheth!" =
And now begins another chapter
/ in hn a .r.,l At -