The record-union., 1899-11-19

lish the kingdom of David. Judea, at
that time, was divided into two po-
litical camps The conservative party
realizing the military feebleness OF the
people of Judea and the utter hopeless
ness of attempting a rebellion, coun-
seled submission to Rome. Inc raol-
Gals, which included the hot-headed and
more adventurous spirits, known as the
zealots, advocated rebellion ana cursed
those who paid tribute to the Roman
x-gatherers, denouncing them as
traitors to Judea. While, on the one
hand the radicals hailed Jesus as their
political deliverer and proclaimed Him
the King of the Jews, the zealots We're
incensed at his doctrine to renuer uhlo
Caesar the things which are caesar s.
thus advising submission 10 Roman
rule and the payment OF TRIBUTE 70
Rome Jesus, in common with Tue
conservatives, realized the utter nope
lessness of the people OF Judea at
tempting to rebel against powerful ana
mighty Rome. He knew full well that
such attempt must end, as 1t dld torty
years later, in the utter destruction OF
Jerusalem and in the bloody anu re-
lentless massacre of the Jewish Deo-
pie. He therefore preached 10 Ineul d
kingdom, but not an earthly one. ne
spoke in most beautiful terms Oh tue
kingdom of heaven and urged upon ms
hearers SO to live that they might IN
herit it. He said: Lay not up LOT
yourselves treasures upon earth, Where
moth and rust doth corrupt ana where
thieves break through and steal. But
lay up yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust doth cor
rupt and where thieves do not break
through and steal.
Beautiful as were these teachings.
they did not seem to appeal to the
mind of the ignorant and the untninE-
ing who followed him. They We're not
in frame of mind to grasp and to
comprehend a far-off and distant king
dom in the realm of the spiritual. They
knew only the present and felt only the
present They were oppressed and IN
the hands of the national enemy, and
they yearned for relief. They wanted
leader and a political redeemer VINO
would drive forth the hated Roman
and once more re- establish their earth
ly kingdom.
1t was this thought, this desire, this
spirit that prompted them, as Jesus
rode into Jerusalem on that fatal oaJ
before the Passover, to cry aloud and
say: Blessed be the King that
cometh in the name of the Lord, ana
thus subject him to the charge OF
treason to Rome, upon which charge
he was finally convicted before Plate
and crucified in accordance with the
Roman law.
With the death of Jesus, aside from
the handful of disciples who still clunS
to His memory as that of the Messiah,
those who had looked upon Jesus as
their political redeemer lost, for the
time being, faith and hope, and
awaited the coming of some other who
should, by driving forth the Roman
hordes, in verify, prove their klngly
redeemer and bring back to them their
national independence.
Not so with the more educated and
enlightened among the Jews who lived
in the time of Jesus These did not
look for a personal Messiah they read
the utterances of the prophets Isaiah,
jeremiah and Micah as foretelling
simply certain moral effects, as the re-
suit of certain moral causes. These
purely moral teachers: not soothsayers
or fortune-tellers. They seemed to
have a divine grasp of the laws of
moral cause and effect and to be readily
able to warn and to foretell that GER
tain immoral causes must bring ruin
and disaster
Hillel, the philosopher and teacher of
Jerusalem; Philo,- the Jewish historian
and philosopher 9ef Greece, as we'll as
the educated and enlightened among
the Jews, looked forward not to the
coming of personal deliverer CT a
Divine Messiah, but for a messianic
age, for an ideal condition of society,
a condition of universal progress and
peace. With them it was a hope for a
good time coming, not for the Jews
alone, but for the human family. 1t
was hope for a moral exaltation first
of Israel then of mankind. rather than
a regal dynasty The narrow hope of
the ignorant Jews was that of the
restoration of the throne and of the
political independence of Israel; the
broader hope of the thoughtful and the
enlightened was that of a reign of uni
versal peace.
The same broad hope of a messianic
age still fills the mind of the enlight
ened thoughtful Jew of to-day. He no
longer looks for the restoration of
Israel. He feels that the country of his
birth or of his adoption is his country
and his nation. The present efforts of
many earnest and jealous Jews to re-
establish Zion as a national home-not
for themselves but for the oppressed
and perSecIlted among orr peOple-he
looks upon as impracticable and vision
airy, and as largely waste of time and
energy The enlightened Jew has faith
and hope in the twentieth century; he
believes that the century at whose
doors we are now knocking will be the
most progressive in civilizations his
tory, and that the march of progress
will, in that era, make gigantic strides.
He believes that, in the decades near
at hand, enlightenment will prevail,
persecution and oppression will cease,
and that the Jew will be permitted to
breathe the air of religious and civil
freedom throughout all lands, and that
the need will thus be removed for the
re-establishment of Zion. Jusc as
America is the Zion of the American
Jew and England the Zion of the Eng
fish Jew, SO, he believes, will even
despotic Russia and Roumania of to-
day become the Zion of the Russian and
Roumanian Jews of the coming cen
fury.
The nineteenth century has begun
to lay the foundation for universal peace
and progress. Not least among the great
moral and religious achievements of