The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-24

Iofth IN the Mosaic legislation.
The Laws OI Moses.
"The laws of Moses were at once
wise, strict and humane They did not
undertake to reform society in a day.
and hence, in dealing with certain
questions, such as polygamy and slav-
cry, their tendency was restrictive
rather than prohibitory. They were
strict, in that they forbade every crime
and every vice, enforced regard for
every mans rights, and defended the
purity of the social system, aGs the
safety of the commonwealth, by mani
Iold wise enactments. And yet they
infinitely beyond any codes of their
time, were pervaded by the very finest
humanity. For the homicide, pending
his trial, they provided, not Jail, but
city of refuge, and a fair trial by a
jury of his peers at time when arbi-
trary judgment at the hands of ire
sponsible judges was the custom of
mankind.
'As late as the time of George /,
English law took cognizance of $50 cap
ital crimes, but this Jewish code of
thirty-five centuries ago recognized but
four. Within the last century men,
women, and even tender youths were
hanged in England for trifiing thefts,
whereas this Jewish code required res
titution fourfold. The sternness of the
law f1owered into the poetry of senti-
ment in this unique legislation. 1t en-
Joined kindness to the stranger be-
cause We were strangers in Egypt
they were to give to every Sojourner
that protection and favor which had
been so cruelty denied them, and be-
cause it had been So
1T protected the higher ends of pub
lie virtue and prosperity, while shelter
ing under it's broad aegis the little
bird that had built it's nest by the
roadside, forbidding the wanton de-
Struction of the mother bird with her
brood. 1t struck a blow at an idol
atrous practice by forbidding the seeth-
ing of kid in it's mothers milk, and
humanest of all human laws-required
the return at nightfall of the poor
mans garment given as a pledge for
debt, lest he suffer for want of it dur
ing the wintry night. And this sys-
tenn, so wise and so humane, so-com-
plete and so compact, was promulgated
ages before the days of Draco. of Solon
of Lycurgus, and long even before the
keel of Cecrops ploughed the Aegean
wave, or Cadmus taught letters to the
rude warriors of Thebes.
The Impress of Jewish POIity.
1.-THE German and English constitu-
tions bear the impress of the Jewish
polity in their constitutional charac-
ter, their civil administration, and not
a few of their wise provisions. In the
dim dawn of authentic his
tory at time when des-
potism prevailed in every other
land, the Jewish commonwealth was
erected upon the guarantee of writ
ten constitution, regularly adopted by
the people assembled in convention.
And when they tired of their pristine
republic, and demanded a king, their
last resident, the prophet Samuel set
the fashion for the wisest of the ma
tions since his day, when he wrote
in a book the manner of the king
dom'
1.-The principles of the Jewish gov
ernment secured national unity civil
liberty, political equality, constitutional
and representative government, trial
by jury, an efficient, prompt and eco
nomical administration of justice,
peace and good will toward other ma
tions. industry and thrift among the
people, the dignity of agricultural
pursuits, the sacredness of marriage,
the sanctity of human life, and uni
versal education. Thus was the Jew
ish state amid the barbaric darkness
and barbarism of antiquity, the great
beacon light Of the world, diffusing
the radiance OF pOllllcdl pnllOSOpHy
full of truth and wisdom. over all the
ages which have succeeded
Worthy of HonOrs.
MIR. McCorkle showed how the Jew
was entitled to the crown in the
realm of science and philosophy, by
showing how Lord Bacon, the father
of modern science and philosophy, was
indebted to his predecessor, Roger
Bacon, who in turn had derived much
of his learning from the libraries of
learned Jews who had been banished
from England. Roger Bacon was a
chemist so slilful that hk contempor-
aries deemed him a magician; he inn
proved the method of making gunpow-
der, studied the chemical action OF air
in combustion, and the principles Of
the refraction of light: invented spec
tacIes for the aged, and thus gave to
Calileo the idea of the telescope. From
his discoveries and inventions many
new facts and principles were ELECTED.
and the first impulse given TO modern