Year: 1877

In the New. An appeal 10 the peo'
pie on all great questions of polity
the educating all the people to have
a public sentiment about their own
affairs; the attempt to conduct gov
ernment, whether by prophet, by
priest, or by king, for the benefit OF
the people themselves-these fun
damental elements belonged, and
think belonged first, to the Hebrew
Commonwealth. The more one
studies the genius of Legislation in
the earlier periods of the national
existence of the Hebrews, the more
he will have reason to perceive that
we are deriving, as it were, the very
nourIshment of our public life from
those remote times, and that we are
indebted to this people for those
very things which make US able to
despise anybody or anything.


Closely allied to the organization
of government, and indeed preee-
dent to it, as the very condition OF
successful and continuous govern
ment, is the household. Now, the
fa amily emerged from barbaric forms
earlier among the Hebrews than
among any other people, and passed
into that condition which has en-
abled it to perpetuate itself. For
although, according to the teaching
of our Master, Moses permitted po-
lygamy, it was only by sufferance
and on conditions that would surely
extinguish it, and that did extin-
guish it, So it may be said that,
in spite of the patriarchal example
of early times and later times, the
great bodyof common people among
the Hebrews were brought up in the
spirit of monogamy, and the house


hold was constituted by the love of
one man to one woman. In the
rearing and governing of a family
of children the household was a
great school of all virtue and all in
tegrity. If there be one thing that
has been striking in the economy
of the Hebrews from the ancient
day it is their care of their children
the instruction that they gave to
them; their guidance of them in
their rising up and sitting down,
their going out and coming in.
Their great aim was to instruct
their children in a knowledge of
their own institutions; in a knowl-
edge of the history of their people
and in a knowledge of those ordi-
nances of God which had made that
history celebrated. On no point
was there so much urgency in the
instruction of their children as on
that of character; and in no other
nation were children ever reared
with more care The feature was
continued down through all the me
dI@val darkness, and is character
istic in Jewish households to this
very hour. In intelligence, in home
life, in purity, in eXaltation of sen
timent, and in extraordinary care
in the teaching of children, there
are not to be found in the palmiest
communities of the best Christian
households those that surpass the
best family of Jews at this time.
We have borrowed their example,
and are rearing our children after
the pattern and inspiration of the
Jewish household as it has existed
from the days of Moses onward.


1 cannot fail to point out, too,
how, in that oriental land, and in
that early day, the virtue of indus
try, of personal independence, of
work, was understood and enforced.
During the time when Plato de-
clared that in his ideal republic
there should be no mechanics; dur
ing that long intermediate period
when to be a working man was to
be shut out from all hope of honor
and elevation in society; during the
times when monarchy and aristoc-