1 66 



THE PRESERVATION OF THE JEWS. 



us, because they have never been ac- 

 knowledged by us ; but the Jews are, 

 to a certain extent, strangers under any 

 circumstances, and, more or less, look 

 to entering Palestine at some day, it 

 may be this year, or the following. If a 

 Christian asks, " Who are the Jews, and 

 what do they here ? " the reply is very 

 plain : " They are rebels against the 

 Majesty of Heaven, and outcasts from 

 His presence." They are certainly 

 entitled to every privilege, social and 

 political, which other citizens enjoy ; 

 they have a perfect right to follow their 

 own religion ; but other people have an 

 equal right to express their opinion in 

 regard to it and them (p. 484). 



The position which Jews occupy 

 among Christians is that which they 

 occupy among people of a different 

 faith. They become obnoxious to peo- 

 ple everywhere ; for that which is so 

 foreign in its origin, so exclusive in its 

 habits and relations, and so conceited 

 and antagonistic in its creed, will always 

 be so, go where it may. Besides, they 

 will not even eat what others have slain ; 

 and hold other people as impure. The 

 very conservative nature of their creed 

 is, to a certain extent, against them ; 

 were it aggressive, like the Christian's, 

 with a genius to embrace all within its 

 fold, it would not stir up, or permanently 

 retain, the same ill-will toward the 

 people who profess it ; for being of that 

 nature which retires into the corner of 

 selfish exclusiveness, people will natu- 

 rally take a greater objection to them. 

 Then, the keen, money-making, and ac- 

 cumulating habits of the Jews make 

 them appear selfish to those around 

 them ; while the greediness and utter 

 want of principle that characterize some 

 of them have given a bad reputation to 

 the whole body, however unjustly it is 

 applied to them as a race (p. 486). 



The circumstances attending the 

 Jews' entry into any country to-day are 

 substantially what they were before the 

 advent of Christ ; centuries before which 

 era, they were scattered, in great num- 

 bers, over most parts of the world ; hav- 

 ing synagogues, and visiting or looking 

 to Jerusalem, as their home, as Catho- 

 lics, in the matter of religion, have 

 looked to Rome. In going abroad, Jews 

 would as little contemplate forsaking 

 their own religion, and worshipping the 

 gods of the heathen, as do Christians 

 to-day in Oriental countries ; for they 

 were as thoroughly persuaded that their 



religion was divine, and all others the 

 inventions of man, as are Christians of 

 theirs. Then it was a religion exclu- 

 sively Jewish, that is, the people follow- 

 ing it were, with rare exceptions, 

 exclusively Jews by nation. The ill- 

 will which all these circumstances, 

 and the very appearance of the peo- 

 ple themselves, have raised against 

 the Jews, and the persecutions, of vari- 

 ous kinds, which have universally follow- 

 ed, have widened the separation between 

 them and other people, which the genius 

 of their religion made so imperative, and 

 their feelings of nationality nay, family 

 so exclusive. Before the dispersion, 

 Palestine was their home ; after the dis- 

 persion, the position and circumstances 

 of those abroad at the time underwent 

 no change ; they would merely contem- 

 plate their nation in a new aspect 

 that of exiles, and consider themselves, 

 for the time being, at home wherever 

 they happened to be. Those that were 

 scattered abroad, by the destruction of 

 Jerusalem, would, in their persons, con- 

 firm the convictions of the others, and 

 reconcile them to the idea, that the 

 Jewish nation, as such, was abroad on 

 the face of the earth ; and each genera- 

 tion of the race would entertain the 

 same sentiments. After this, as before 

 it, it can scarcely be said that the Jews 

 have ever been tolerated ; if not actually 

 persecuted, they have, at least, always 

 been disliked, or despised. The whole 

 nation having been scattered abroad, 

 with everything pertaining to them as a 

 nation, excepting the temple, the high- 

 priesthood, and the sacrifices, with such 

 an ancient history, and so unequivocally 

 divine a religion, so distinct from, and 

 obnoxious to, those of other nations, it 

 is no wonder that they, the common 

 descendants of Abraham and Sarah, 

 should have ever since remained a dis- 

 tinct people in the world ; as all the cir- 

 cumstances surrounding them have uni- 

 versally remained the same till to-day 

 (p. 487). 



A Jew of to-day has a much greater 

 aversion to forsake the Jewish commu- 

 nity than any other man has to re- 

 nounce his country ; and his associa- 

 tions of nationality are manifested 

 wherever a Jewish society is to be 

 found, or wherever he can meet with 

 another Jew. This is the view which 

 he takes of his race, as something dis- 

 tinct from his religion ; for he contem- 

 plates himself as being of that people 



