Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-06-11

are stillS demanded of it in order that the
freedom and well-being thus inherited may
be transmitted unimpalred to children and
chlldren's children; when an appeal against
the permission of injustice is made to great
presidents in its history and to the better
genius breathing In its institutions. 1t Is
this living force of sentiment in common
which makes national consciousness. Ma
lions so moved will resist conquests with the
very breasts of their women, will pay their
millions and their blood to abolish slavery,
will share privatlon In famine and all ca
lamity, will produce poets to sing ''some
great story of man, and thinkers whose
theories will bear the test of action. An in
dividual man, to be harmoniousy great, must
belong to a nation of this order, if not in
actual existence, yet existing In the past, in
as a departed, invisible, beloved
ideal, once a reality and perhaps to be re-
stored. A common humanity is not yet
enough to feed the rich blood of various ac
tivity which makes complete man.
As to the future of the Jews as a nation
George Eliot holds certain positive views
which are worthy of being set forth fully and
in which there Is much meat for meditation:
And this Is the usual level of thinking IN
polite society concerning the Jews. Apart
from theological purposes, it seems to be held
surprising that anybody should take an inter-
est In the history of people whole literature
has furnished all our devotional language;
and if any reference is made to their past or
future destinies some nearer is sure to state
as relevant fact which may assist our judg
ment that she for her part is not fond of
them, having known u Mr.. jacobson, who
was very unpleasant; or that he for his part
thinks meanly of them as a race, though on
inquiry you find that he is so little acquaint-
ed with their characteristics that he is aston
ished to leara how many persons whom he
has blindy admired and applauded are Jews
n fhn honlr Thn a~
themselves In the very van of modern adj
vancement, knowing history and the latest
PHILOSOPHERS of history, indicate their con-
temptuous surprise that anyone should en-
terrain the destiny of the Jews as a worthy
subject, by referring to Moloch and their own
agreement with the theory that the religion of
Jehovah was merely transformed Moloch-
worship, while In the same breath they are
clarifying civilization" as a transformed
tribal existence of which some ineaments
are traceable~ In grim marriage customs of
the native Australians. Are these erudite
persons prepared to insist that the name
Father" should no longer have any sanctity
for US, because In their view of likelihood
our Aryan ancestors were mere improVers ON
a state Of things in which nobody knew his
own father? For less theoretic men, ambi-
tious to be regarded as practical politicians,
the value of the Hebrew race has been
measured by their unfavorable opinion of g
prime minister who is Jew by lineage. But
it is possible to form a very ugly opinion as
to the sorupulousness of WalpoIe or of Chat
ham, and in any case think Englishmen
would refuse to accept the character and do
i0gs OF those eighteenth-century statesmen
as the standard of value for the English peo-
pie and the part they have to play in the
fortunes OF mankind. If we are to consider
the future of the Jews at all, it seems rea
scnable TO take as a preliminary question:
Are they destined to complete fusion with
the people among whom they are dispersed,
losing every remnant of a distinctive con-
sciousness as Jews, or are there In the
breadth and intensity with which the feel
lag OF separateness, or what we may
call the organized memory of national con-
sciousness, actually exists IN the worldwide
Jewish communicated again, are there
in the political relations of the world, the
conditions present or approaching for the
restoration of Jewish state planted on the
old ground a center of national feeling,
q source of dlgnlfying protection, special
channel for special energies which may con-
tribute some added form of national genius,
and an added voice In the councils of the
world? They are among US everywhere; 1t is
useless to say we are not fond OF them. Per-
haps We are not fond of proletaries and their
tendency to form unions, but the world is not
therefore to be rid of them. If we wish to
free ourselves from the inconvenience that
we have to complain OF, whether In prole-
taries or In Jews, our best course is to encour .
age all means of improving these neighbors
who elbow us IN thickening crowd, and OF
sending their incommodious energies into
bene6cent channels. Why are we so eager
for the dignity of certain populations of whom
perhaps we have never seen a single speci-
men, and of whose history, legend or litera-
ture we have been contentediy ignorant Tor
ages while we sueer at the notion of a
renovated national dignity for tie Jews,
whose ways of thinking and whose very
verbal forms are On our lips with every
prayer which we end with an "amen?" Some
of Us consider this question dismissed when
they have said that the wealthiest Jews have
no desire to forsake their European palaces,
and go to live in jerusalem. But, in a return
from exile, in the restoration OF people, the
important question is not whether certain
rich men will choose to remain behind; but,
whether there Will be found worthy men who
will choose to lead the return? Plenty of
prosperous Jews remained in Babylon when
Ezra marshaled his band of forty thousand,
and began a new glorious epoch IN the his
tory of his race, making the preparation for
that history of the world which has been
held glorious enough to be dated from fer
evermore. The hinge of possibility Is SIMPLY
the existence of an adequate community OF
feeling as well as widespread need IN the
Jewish race, AID the hope that among its finer
specimens there may arise some men of In
struction and public spirit, some new Ezras,
some modern Maccabees, who Will know how
to use all favoring outward conditions,
how to triumph by heroic examples over the
indifference of their fellows and the scorn of
their foes, and will steadfastly set their faces
toward making their people once more one
among the nations. Formerly evangelical
orthodoxy was prone to dwell on the fulfil
ment of prophecy in the restoration Of the
1k,N, Sc .h0k.
is less in vogue now. The dominant mode is
to insist on 81 christianity that dIsowns its
origin, that IS not a substantial growth hav
Jag a genealogy but Is vaporous reflex of
modern notions The Christ of Matthew had
the heart of a Jew: go We first to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel" The.Apostle
of the Gentiles had the heart of Jew: For
| could wish that myself were accursed from
Christ for my brsthren, my klnsmen accord
ing to the flesh, who are Israelites; to whom
pertaineth the adoption, and the glo-
ry, and the covenants, and the giving of
the law, and the service OF God, and the
promises, who's; are the fathers and Of whom
as concerning the flesh Christ came" Mod
ern apostles, extolling christianity, are found
using a different tone; they prefer the
medieval cry translated into modern phrase.
But the medieval cry, too, Was IN substance
very ancient-more ancient than the days OF
Augustus. Pagans IN successive ages said {:
These people are unlike US and refuse to be
made like US; let US punish them" The
Jews were steadfast N their separateness, and
through that separateness christianity was
born. A modern book on liberty has main
tanned that from the freedom of individual
men to persist in idiosyncrasies the world may
be enriched. Why should we not apply this
argument to the idiosyncrasy of a nation, and
pause in our haste to boot it uown? There is
still great function for the steadtastness of
the Jew; not that he should shut out the ut
most illumination which knowledge can throw
on his national history, but that he should
cherish the store of inheritance which that
history has left him. Every Jew should be
conscious that he is one of a multitude pos
sessing. common objects of piety IN
the immortal achievements and immor-
tai sorrows of ancestors who have trans
mitted to them physical and mental type
strong enough, eminent enough in faculties,
pregnant enough with peculiar promises, to
constitute new benefcent individuality
among the nations, and by confuting the ira
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