The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-05-27
4 TRIBUTE TO THE JEWS.
OF JOHN L. SToD-
DARD.

Na
- Which He Eloquently Paints the
curious Achievements of Famous
usbrevs- Disraen, Moses Monte
Acre. Baron Hirsca and the Roths-
childs.
From the Ne,U HdUen Register.
When John L. Stoddsrd delivered his last
.,nrse Of lectures in this city, his audience
,rss PARTICULARLY struck with the brilliancy
- that portion of the lecture on Jerusalem
.bs, was classed as a tribute to the Jews.
!. vss full of characteristic fire and elo-
a,snce, and perhaps the browning piece of
,be oratory Of the lecture platform, so far
.s this series was concerned. Those who
lizard him told those who were not so fortu-
n.ta what splendid effort it was, and
,bare has been great desire since on the
nsrr of the latter to know just what the
iaotnrer had to say on this interesting sub
lar. By request, it is published. 1t was
ss follows:
Filled with the memories awakened by
tba patriarchs' graves, let US return now to
Tsrnsalem to look on one of its most i'm
D-assiye features. 1t is this ancient wall,
Consisting largely of huge blocks Of stone,
Tbioh once formed part of the old Hebrew
,ample. This, therefore, is to Jews by far
The most sacred portion of the city. What
matters it to them that Christian
sacts wrangle or worship round the
Iolv scriptures? or that Mohammeda S
E7eel in prayer within the mosque
n Omar? For. autedating by 1000 years
oven the oldest of all such memorials, are
these llossal fragments of the time Of Sol
omon. And here on every Friday, century
sfrer century, the wretched exiles from
Mount Zion have come to kiss or battle
with tears these relics of their former
cIoryl Now they are free to do so, but in
mast ages they have paid enormous sums
70 their oppressors for this miserable privi-
lege.
1t is most pathetic instance of a nations
grief, No one who has a particle of SYM
pathy can gaze upon that sight without
emotion! For while some read aloud from
the Old Testament words which describe
the splendor of the Hebrew monarchy, the
others moan and sob and beat their tremb-
ling hands against the wall. Their grief is
evidently genuine. for saw tears on many
cheeks, especially when were read such
passages as these: ''How hath the Lord cast
down from heaven to earth the beauty Of
Israel. ""How is the gold become dim and the
most fine gold changed. ""Our holy aud our
beautiful house, wherein our fathers praised
thee, is burned up with fire! We are be-
come a scorn and derision to our neigh
bors." 20, Lordl behold we are thy peo-
pie Remember not our iniquity forever. !"
"Ol let thy tender mercIes speedily redeem
US We are brought very low"
WHAT wonder that they mournn For
eighteen dreary centuries their history has
teen one almost interrupted tragedy? Scat
ho xuprl1
all nations, they have been forced to suffer
every form of persecution which brutal men
have been sufficiently ingenious to invent.
Words actually fail to paint their suffer-
ings. To torture, rob and exile them, the
despotism of ten kings has been ex-
haustedl They have been bought and
sold as slaves. The plague which devastated
Europe in the middle ages was ascribed to
them with horrible results. In France
throughout whole provinces every Jew was
burned! In Germany, too, their history
for centuries is hideous chronicle of human
cruelty. While even in England their per-
secution, outlined by Sir Walter Scott In
lvanhoe, is nothing to the lurid picture
which he might have drawn,
And as for Spain, no land in the world
has equaled this THE birthplace of the in
QUESTION for wreaking on the unoffending
Jew atrocious sufferings. Thousands were
buried alive. In one year, in Seville alone,
$50 persisted in the flames. Hebrews them
selves regard their terrible expulsion from
this laud as misfortune equalled only by
the ruin Of their temple. We shudder at
the brutal policy of Russia toward the Jews
to-day, but let US not forget that
other Christian nations, except free
America have acted in a similar
way when they had reached about that
stage OF civilization to which Russia has
attained. In the thirteenth century all
Jews were banished from Great Britain
and their property seized. In 1890 they
were expelled from France, and in 1899,
the very year which witnessed the discov-
cry Of America by Columbus, they were
sent forth from Spain, whore they had
lived, protected by the Moors. 600 years. to
wander through the world as hated exiles,
to perish of starvation or by the slower
agony Of the slave whip. If received at
all in many Christian cities they were
shut up together in certain limited districts
IKE the Ghetto at Rome. Moreover, by a
refinement Of torture, the Jewish children
under IA years of age were taken from their
parents and retained in Spain and Portugal
TO be brought up as Christians so that in
their madness Hebrew mothers would some
times murder their offspring and then COM
init suicide. And why was all this misery in
ticted on this race3 Because the Jews oruci-
ned Jesus. But as matter of fact the Jews
did not cruelty Jesus. 1t was the Romans
VINO scourged him, put the crown OF
thorns upon his brow aud finally nailed
blm to the cross! True, the Jews solicited
his death. But how many of them?
Only prlestly sect in Jerusalem. Is it fair
70 condemn an entire people for the sins of
a few, and above all to persecute their inno-
cent descendants after hundreds of years?
mat would be a dangerous precedent to
establish. According to that we should
nave To persecute the Greeks for causing
socrates to drink the hemlock: the Italians
because so many martyrs were thrown to
the lions In the Roman colosseum; the Flor
entlnes for burning Savonarola; the En-
giisn for the flames Of Smithfield ;the Span
iaros for the horrors OF the inquisition.
Inc Jews are not the only people who
nave rejected or put to death their teach
ssTs and reformers. It is as old as history.
IN any case. what right have certain ma
uons themselves not without SIM to act as
eXecutionerss Vengeance is mine, will
repay, saith the LORD"
And now as we behold that grand old
work w OF Michael Angelo, his statue of the
hebrew law-giver and leader, Moses,
whose precepts after thirty centuries
are still obeyed, would you suppose
mat after 1900 years of such
St;upen9ous persecution one gen.
ulne Hebrew would be left wko had
not long since thrown aside his faith for
me religion of his tyrants? For recollect
Ioat baptism has usually offered to the
Se" an avenue Of escape from all these
uorrors. And even in Russia now a Jew
u may rid himself of many restrictions by
becoming Christian. But here, indeed,
Is the marvel of it all-the miracle of hiss
n 90 all