JEWS. 



557 



abounded in crimes ; but we have no idea of bring- 

 ing the Romans into this contrast, for the purpose 

 of exalting that great pest of the world. Those 

 who measure character by fortune, must remember 

 that the eternal city was at no distant period, com- 

 pelled to drain the cup she had poured out so li- 

 berally for the nations. Her temples were over- 

 thrown ; the tombs on which her great names were 

 written, were defaced by barbarian hands ; and, 

 while in every nation there are living memorials of 

 the Hebrew race, there is not one who can trace 

 his heraldry from Rome. It is the duty of all, who 

 would give a right direction to moral feeling, to 

 resist this unhealthy admiration of lawless violence, 

 whether of ancient or modern times. There is no 

 need of recommending these splendid sins ; power 

 will always command respect, and the right hand 

 of the conqueror will cast aside moral as well as 

 physical resistance. Still it is not well to keep 

 incense constantly burning on this altar of human 

 blood ; for, though these great tyrants of man are 

 not common, all the relations of life are affected 

 by a sentiment, which encourages false ambition, 

 and turns real glory into shame. 



The history of the Jews since the destruction of 

 Jerusalem, is truly wonderful, and affords a most 

 striking testimony to our religion. Never was 

 vessel dashed upon the rock into smaller fragments, 

 than the Hebrew nation in that tremendous over- 

 throw; a million of its best lives were sacrificed; 

 all its noblest blood was shed ; the temple was 

 ruined from topmost tower to lowest foundation- 

 stone, and a cold and heavy desolation thrown over 

 all the borders of the land. And this was the 

 people, who deemed themselves the favourite sons 

 of God! for whom he had suffered the bright light 

 of prophecy to send its unnatural dawn far into 

 the depth of coming ages ; whom he had suffered, 

 though unworthy, to lean so confidently upon his 

 everlasting arm ! One would have thought that 

 so profound a calamity would have turned every 

 Hebrew heart to stone. But every thing about 

 this strange people disappoints predictions founded 

 on human nature. Fortresses still existed in Judea, 

 and, though shaken by the thunder of Jerusalem 

 when it fell, held out without a sign of dismay. 

 Masada was the last that fell into the hands of 

 the Romans. They had surrounded it, and at last 

 succeeded in battering down its walls ; but when 

 the night brought a pause to the combat, the Jewish 

 leader assembled his comrades and told them that 

 God had forsaken his people ; still he was more mer- 

 ciful than the Romans, and he proposed that they 

 should fire the city, and offer themselves, their 

 wives and children, as a last burnt offering upon a 

 glorious altar. They approved his counsel ; em- 

 braced their wives and children with tears, and 

 then stabbed them to the heart. Having chosen 

 ten of their number by lot as executioners, they 

 embraced the corpses of their loved ones, and sub- 

 mitted their necks to the blow. The ten then 

 cast lots ; and when nine had fallen by each other's 

 hands, the last survivor set fire to the palace, and 

 drove the sword into his own heart. When the 

 Romans entered the city, they were affrighted at 

 the desolation. Savage and horrible as such self- 

 devotion is, it is impossible not to admire the 

 strength of heart which it discovers ; and, with- 

 out inspiration, one might foretell, that so long as 

 a solitary heart of this description was left to beat, 

 it would treasure its national distinction as its 

 sole remaining pride. 



Thus, in truth, it has been in every country 

 under the sun. They were scattered to the four 

 winds, like the ashes of their temple ; and now the 

 keel of the adventurer can hardly reach a shore, 

 where the Jews have not been before him. Gain 

 is the only avenue to power which their feet are 

 permitted to tread, and they walk in it with an indus- 

 try that never sleeps. Unsocial as they are, go 

 where they will, they adapt themselves with won- 

 derful flexibility to the habits of the people. To 

 a certain extent they mingle with others in the in- 

 tercourse of life; but there is a veil in their hearts, 

 like that of the temple, never lifted; a sanctuary, 

 into which the eye of no Gentile is permitted to 

 look. There is no region in which they cannot 

 make themselves a home ; and yet they draw a 

 line broad and deep between themselves and others, 

 by keeping up their ancient usages, circumcision, 

 abstinence from unclean meats, and all animal food 

 which has not been killed by a Jew, by assembling 

 in their synagogues, and there worshipping God in 

 the language of their fathers. They are at home, 

 and yet are exiles; familiar, and yet strangers; con- 

 tent with an unenviable lot in the land of their 

 adoption, and yet constantly looking over its boun- 

 daries to their own holy land; having every thing 

 to humble and depress them, and yet looking for- 

 ward with triumphant hope to a time, when the 

 coming of the Messiah, " like the lightning shining 

 from the east to the west," shall shiver and melt 

 their chains. 



It is impossible to tell when and how the scat- 

 tered fragments of the Jewish nation were collected 

 and bound together; but not long after the fall of 

 Jerusalem, we find two Hebrew communities ; the 

 one on the other side of the Euphrates, under the 

 prince of the captivity, the other on this side the 

 river, under the patriarch of the West. The school 

 of Jamnia, which pretended to be the Sanhedrim 

 saved from the general ruin, obtained great author- 

 ity ; and, as it was principally spiritual in its pre- 

 tensions, it did not excite the jealousy of the Ro- 

 mans. It is curious to see how a gradual, but 

 unconscious preparation had been made for a monu- 

 ment of this kind, flattering to the pride of the 

 Jews, but as useless in itself as the fabled pillars 

 that survived the flood. The priesthood had been 

 gradually superseded in the course of ages. The 

 authority of tradition overshadowed that of scrip- 

 ture, and the interpreters of this new volume ac- 

 quired unbounded influence. At the same time, 

 the worship of the synagogue grew up in place of 

 that of the temple ; so that when the ruin seemed 

 complete, a new worship and new priesthood were 

 already created to their hands. Even this was 

 enough to give them a feeling of strength ; and 

 before the generation that saw the fall of Jerusa- 

 lem had passed away, the whole body of Jews west 

 of the Euphrates rose, in a fire that spread at once 

 into a conflagration, and was only extinguished 

 with the loss of six hundred thousand men. The 

 emperor then issued edicts meant to destroy their 

 race ; but at this moment, apparently so uninvit- 

 ing, a pretended Messiah, calling himself the " Son 

 of the Star," appeared ; set up his standard in 

 Jerusalem, and the Jews poured in by thousands, 

 with a spirit unbroken by disaster, ready to make 

 a new appeal to arms. But their king was slain ; 

 the plough passed over the fresh ruins of the city, 

 and all Jews were forbidden to come near it 

 again. 



But even then, when Jerusalem was left a city 



