The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-09-30
JEWISH PERSECUTI
A STRONG DEFENCE OF THE SCAT
TERED NATION.

TERED NATION.
The Nations of the Earth Ought to Assist
In the Establishment in Palestine of a
Jewish Republic.
E. B. AcGnuarv in Davidson Monthly FOR Oct.
Before the dawning of the true day
and the rising of the glorious sun,
when the world was cropping in the
dark night of heathendom, we find
the light of revelation brightly burn
ing in the land of Israel. The
guardian spirit of this nation was
the vestal virgin whose charge it was
to keep the sacred flames well fed
until the God of light himself should
come to dispel the gathering dark
ness. But when the day had dawn
ed and the bright rays had pierced
the deepest gloom, storm of bar
barism. came sweeping past. In this
dark hour of danger, to the Jews
again was committed the wealth of
by-gone ages. They were the con-
SENATORS of learning and truth in all
those trying times when ignorance
and error were rife. To them mod
ern civilization owes much of what
it loves to boast, and yet, repudiating
this debt of gratitude, modern civil
ization has dealt by them in most
uncivilized manner. Prosecuted in
Germany, outraged and massacreed
in Russia, they find but doubtful
asylum in this boosted cradle of
liberty.
In freedoms battles that shook the
world century ago, none were more
ardent in their resistance to despot-
ism, none more willing to sacrifice
their interests to the common cause
of humanity. But when the strug-
gle was over, when the victory was
won, what reward did they receive
for their unrivalled devotion? No
sooner had they left the ranks in
which they SO nobly fought for
freedom than they were denied a lot
in the spoils of victory. In vain
did they plead the common brother
hood of man, advocated by their very
prosecutors; in vain did they point
to the unfinching courage with
which they had borne their part in
the common danger. 1t was all of
no avail; they were Jews and Tor the
crime Of being born of Jewish par
entage, they were denied the rights
of men. Their tormentors, how
ever, could not face the world with
out some palliating excuse; but UNI
fortunately for them, the plea they
urged reacted upon themselves.
They argued that the Jew is greedy
of gain; that Mamon is his god, in
the worship of whom he regards
neither the voice of conscience nor
the rights of his fellows. Their mad
bigotry would not allow them to see
that for this undue love Of gain their
own fathers were responsible. Their
hate prevented them from looking
back to the time when the Jews were
an agricultural people, living in the
quiet, sunny dales of Palestine, with
no thought of lucre, with no lust for
ill-gotten gains. But this life of
content they were not allowed to
enjoy in peace. The Roman legions
came, overthrowing all they had
been taught to hold sacred, driving
them from their fertile lands held
as holy inheritance, and throwing
them upon the mercy of merciless
age. With the energy that has
always Characterized them, they be-
gan to seek their fortunes in other
lands, and it was not long before, by
their industry, they had risen to an
influence that drew upon them the
nate of their defeated rivals. A
storm of indignation was raised and
the Jews were again deprived Of
their honest gains. Robbed thus Of
the rewards of their labor, stripped
of all honest means of livelihood,
why wonder that the Jews betook
themselves to usury? Is the Jew
avaricious? Lay the guilt upon the
grasping Christian Of the Middle
Ages. Does the Jew by his greed
impoverish his debtors? Punish, if
you will, the descendants Of those
who to satisfy their desires degraded
the Jew to depth from which he
has not been allowed to rise, but
touch no5 TIE unhappy victim. whose
remaining noble traits should be a
wonder to the world and testify to
the grandeur of character that centu-
ries of persecution could not entirely
destroy.
But it is these very traits that are
urged against the Jew, and among