The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-12-03
||5S'||!sSID(eLN1lL ION
Nr~s<S M r>rN NAu1l ~ ,rN.A
z----W DR.. will DURANT-

IN DR.W|
a s Job is an allegory Of Judah
~ stricken and beginning to
oubt its god, SO Ecclesiastes is the
yn1bol of a people definitely con-
quered, scattered in exile to, strange
lands, and driven at last to. denial
and despair.
It Is sign that Yalrveh was be-
ginning to die and that the soul of
man, left empty and discomfort,
would, soon be ready for another
faith.
Already In the Book Of the. Wis
dom of Solomon the new. belief APP
pears and centers itself about the
hope for another life; yes, it is true
that on this earth. might is right,
and the just man is crowned with
thorns; but there is a world beyond
this one in which the rich OPP
pressor will find his punishment and
the poor man his reward.
In the Book of Daniel and the |
Book of Enoch this hope and
promise become clearer and more
positive; and Daniel sees God COM
ing. in a Last Judgment Of thun-
der and lightning to. drive the
wicked into everlasting hell and
take the just with him into Para
disc, So was the soil prepared for
Christianity.
~ ~W
CODA.
THE rest Is dispersion. Through
III the years OF Greek rule in
~ inc the Jews fed or drifted
WIZ their cities to every port Of
editerranean--to Antioch, and
~ ~ IS, and Alexandria, and Rome.
- - Carthage. and MarseilleS, be-
~ g by force Of circumstance the
merchants par excellence Of the an
cient and the modern world BY
Caesars day there were more Jews
in Alexandria than in, Jerusalem.
J. In the old Temple discord rules.
Chasidim and Zadikin1, Pharisees
and Sadducees, quarreled about the
Interpretation of the Law; and
strange sects like the Essences rose,
to protest against the growing sur
render Of the younger Jews to the
pagan influences of Greece.
Scholars began to write commen-
taries on the Law, and commenta-
ries on the commentaries, until the
Talmud was formed, in which the
text of the Law appeared on each
page as a little island in the sea.
But the greatest scholar of them
all, Hillel, brought them back to
the essence of the matter when he
was asked to define religions, What
thou wou1dst not for myself, do 1t
not to thy neighbor. Therein lies
the whole Law" Here again the
way was made straight for Christ.
Meanwhile, the little land changed
rules, but could not keep its free
dom. In 1855 B. G.. Judas Macca-
baeus, with an army gathered slow
~ in the fields. man by man, en-
tered Jerusalem and drove out the
Greeks. Y
The enemy returned reinforced
and Judas was killed in battle, but
the memory of his courage inspired
his followers to fight on till they
were free.
That year of victory, 154 B. c.,
became the independence Day of
the Jews, and to this day they cele-
brate. 1t yearly. 49,.
But only eighty years later POM
pey came, with all the power and
ruthlessness of. Rome. He had
learned that the Jews would not
fight on the Sabbath, and SO on the
Sabbath he attacked with all his
forces. 49,
Great siege engines battered down
the ancient walls and sent heavy
stones like shot into the temple. The
Jews, in the midst of death, went
on with their services. What II the
individual died? The race would re-
main and return even to Jerusalem
long after every Roman had passed
away 4
So Palestine became a province Of /.
the new barbarians in the west; the
temple was despoiled Of its treas J.
ures, and Jews by the thousand were
sold into slavery. When Titus
came, in 10 A. D., to, destroy the
temple utterly, in a fltscf petulant
revenge for the INSTRUMENTATION Of
the Jews, it was the last scene In
the tragedy Of the Jews.
In the Ate Pinakothek at Munich
you may see, in Kaulbach's massive
picture, Titus entering among the
ruins, while the elders kill their
children and the priests kin the
elders and the last surviving rabbi
presses the sword proudly into his
own heart. It was noble way for
nation to die NG
But we do not see only the Parth-
enon. We do not see merely the
Areopagus, where the great councils
sat; nor merely the theatre of Di-
orlysips, where Socrates calmy stood
in his place while AristophaneS at
lacked him; nor merely the purple
hills whose vines made all Greece
glad; nor merely the iakelike seas
that taught all Greece to honor
beauty.
These are realities, but they are
! symbols, too; they mean half the
I world to us because. every one of
them is rich with the memory Of
genius.
Here it was that men made fairer
rods than ever before and gave ma
ture a second life with poetry, and
dared to think OF JOY and lowell
ness as divine; here first they
placed Mora, dark fate, over gods