CHAPTER X.
Subsequent History of the Jews
"I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them: because they have not hearkened to My words, saith the Lord." JER. xxix. 18,19.
"For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days." HOSEA iii, 4, 5.
" For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, .. . that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." ROM. xi. 25-27.
The Scriptures speak not only of the degradation, sufferings, and dispersion, but also of the final restoration of the Jews. The singularly exact fulfilIment of the prediction of the Saviour relative to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Romans, as well as the possession of their land by the Gentiles for eighteen hundred years, are fully chronicled in history. But what has become of the people? If it be asked where are the Parthians, the Medes, the Elamites, the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and other ancient nations, the reply is that they have been thrown upon the waters, and like kindred drops have commingled and disappeared. The Jews also have been thrown upon the agitated waters by the strong hand of power: they have been driven to and fro, as in a boiling cauldron, yet they have never commingled; they have sunk, it is true, degraded and dishonoured, but still they are to be found separate and distinct. They are a chosen race, and still beloved for their fathers' sake. Nor will God ever break His covenant. Though without a nationality, or a country, though scattered among the nations, they are still a distinct people; and when the fulness of the Gentiles is accomplished, they will be brought forth as the trophies of the victorious love of Christ Jesus, their Lord and Messiah, their Redeemer and ours.
Whilst the promises are abundant that prosperity and happiness should be their portion, so long as they were obedient to the commands which the Lord gave unto them, they were also threatened with punishments proportioned to their sins. The first predictions were delivered by Moses more than three thousand years ago, as found in Lev. xxvi. 36-39, 44; Deut. iv. 27; xxviii. 29-68. Similar declarations were made by various prophets all along the track of their history. Particularly was it foretold that they should be scattered and removed to the uttermost parts of the earth. "And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth."1
1 Jer. xv. 4-
"Thus saith the Lord God; I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled."1 "My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto Him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations."2 These may serve as a sufficient sample of the character of the denunciations.
Their Dispersion.- They were to be scattered far and wide. Not a voluntary emigration to other lands, but a forcible and painful expulsion from their own country. Not to the regions surrounding Palestine, but to the uttermost parts of the earth. History tells us how oppressive and compulsory were the laws which Adrian, Constantine, and other Roman emperors made against them, forbidding them, under the penalty of death, to enter Jerusalem, or to come within three miles of it. By Vespasian and Constantine they were scattered over the empire. They were sold as slaves into Egypt, thus fulfilling the prediction, "And the Lord shall bring thee unto Egypt with ships, and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen." It is true today that this unique people are found among all nations, in every part of the habitable globe. Yea, in lands unknown to the prophets, who said, "They shall be scattered among the heathen (Gentiles) whom neither they nor their fathers have known."
The English, Scotch, and Irish, whose restricted territory, crowded population, and commercial intercourse with other lands prompt to emigration, have
1 Ezek. xxiii. 46.2 Hosea ix. 17.
scattered themselves widely. But they afford no parallel to the Jews. They have no country, and yet inhabit all lands; they were not constrained by restricted territory, or by over-population to leave; they were not enticed away by mercantile enterprise, for their vocation was agricultural; but they were driven about by the caprice of kings and governors, until their residence is among all the tribes and kindreds of the earth.
They were to find no rest among the nations. - Among those nations," says Moses, "shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind."1 The history of nations is greatly diversified in their rise and fall, their days of darkness and their days of light. They have been raised from their prostration, and made victorious, or they have been blotted out. But the history of the Jews for eighteen hundred years, though varied, has still been uniform. The diversities have often only marked a deeper degradation and a more oppressive bondage. It has all been disquietude and sorrow. Other nations, crushed by adversity, have perished; but the Jews could not be exterminated.
During the first century Jerusalem was laid in ashes, the temple utterly destroyed, their country sold to the Gentiles; whilst the people were driven to and fro, and sold into slavery.
In the second century the Roman emperors enacted
1 Deut. xxviii. 65-
severe and oppressive laws against them. Under the reign of one emperor not less than half a million of the Jews were slain.
Through the third century their persecutions were so severe that they found no resting-place.
In the fourth century, Constantine scattered them as fugitives over all the empire. Before banishing them from Rome he caused the ears of many to be cut off, and their persons to be branded as vagabonds.
In the fifth century they were expelled from Alexandria. Throughout the Persian dominions they were persecuted with terrible cruelty. In the sixth century, allured and deceived by false Messiahs, they rose in rebellion against the government, but were defeated with fearful and cruel slaughter. In Africa, whither multitudes fled for refuge, they were denied the right to worship, and were forbidden to exercise their religion even in the caves of the earth.
In the seventh century they were expelled from Antioch, from Jerusalem, and from Spain. In France they were compelled either to renounce their religion, or be despoiled of all their property. In Arabia, being conquered by Mohammed, they were put under heavy tribute, and then expelled from the kingdom.
In the eighth century a law was enforced throughout all the nations professing Mohammedanism, that any child who should renounce Judaism and become a Mohammedan, should become the sole inheritor of all the family property. In Spain they were seized and sold into slavery.
During the ninth and tenth centuries, the Mohammedan caliphs extended their conquests from Spain to India. Within these boundaries the great mass of the Jews resided. They were repeatedly deprived of their property, -they were imprisoned, and external marks of infamy put upon them. So persecuted and oppressed were they, that they fled to the deserts of Arabia. For a little season they had comparative rest, a respite from the more oppressive forms of cruelty, still, however, suffering private indignities.
At the close of the thirteenth century they were banished from England by Edward I; nor were they permitted to return until the time of Oliver Cromwell.
Towards the close of the fourteenth century they were banished from France for the seventh time by Charles VI; most of the time since they have only been tolerated there.
In the fifteenth century Ferdinand and Isabella banished them from Spain. Mariana says there were 170,000 families banished; whilst others say 800,000 persons left the kingdom. Most of these fled to Portugal,, and at a great price bought refuge from John II. But soon they were banished from Portugal by Emanuel, the successor of John.
This narrative of their unrest among the nations might be brought down to later periods; but sufficient proof has now been given to confirm the prediction. Says Dr. Keith: "Nor can any tongue of man tell, or pen write, what trembling of heart and failing of eyes were theirs, or what sorrow of mind, what sore sickness of soul, were the portion of this family among the nations, whither they were driven; in the oppressions and banishments, the miseries and the massacres which time after time were relentlessly inflicted upon them throughout Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Hungary, Turkey, Italy, and England."
They were to be spoiled not only of property, but of their children.-" Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people."1 In Mohammedan countries, as already shown, their children were bribed to renounce their religion, and to forsake their parents, by the promise of thus securing the entire estate of the family. In Spain and Portugal their children, by order of the government, were forcibly taken from them, to be educated in the popish religion. "The fourth council of Toledo ordered that all their children should be taken from them, for fear they should partake of their errors, and that they should be shut up in monasteries, to be instructed in Christian truths." When they were banished from Portugal, the king ordered all their children under fourteen years of age to be taken from them and baptised. Sir Walter Scott says, "They were alike detested by the credulous and the prejudiced vulgar, and persecuted by the greedy and rapacious nobility. Except perhaps the flying-fish, there was no race existing on the earth, in the air, or the waters who were the objects of such unremitted, general, and relentless persecution
1 Deut. xxviii. 32.
as the Jews. Their persons and their property were exposed to every turn of popular fury."
They were to be driven to madness and desperation.- "And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning!" "So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see."1 " And death shall be chosen rather than life."2"After the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, some of the worst of the Jews took refuge in the castle of Masada, where, being closely besieged by the Romans, they, at the persuasion of Eleazar, their leader, first murdered their wives and children;
then ten were chosen by lot to slay the rest; this being done, one of the ten was chosen in like manner to kill the other nine, which having executed, he set fire to the place, and then stabbed himself: There were nine hundred and sixty who perished in this miserable manner, and only two women and five boys escaped by hiding themselves in the aqueducts under ground."
"During the massacres in Germany, multitudes barricaded their houses, and precipitated themselves, their families, and their wealth into the rivers or the flames." "During the reign of Richard I, of England, fifteen hundred Jews seized part of the city of York, to defend themselves from the massacres. Being besieged, they offered to capitulate and to ransom their lives
1 Deut. xxviii. 66, 67, 34.2 Jer. viii. 3.
with money. The offer being refused, one of them cried, in despair, that it was better to die courageously for the law, than to fall into the hands of the Christians. Everyone immediately took his knife, and stabbed his wife and children. The men afterwards retired into the king's palace, which they set on fire; in which they consumed themselves with the palace and furniture." Thus indeed were they driven to desperation, and preferred death rather than life.
They were to dissemble, and serve other gods.- "And there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone."1" And there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not show you favour."2 These passages have reference to the times when they should be scattered among the nations. When the Israelites were carried away captives by the Assyrians, many became incorporated with the nations, and gave themselves up to their idolatrous worship. In later periods, since the destruction of their sacred city, we learn from Basnage that "the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition reduced them to the dilemma of being either hypocrites or burnt." He adds, "The number of these dissemblers are very considerable, and it ought not to be concluded that there are no Jews in Spain or Portugal because they are not known. They are so much the more dangerous, for not only being very numerous, but confounded with the ecclesiastics, and entering into all ecclesiastical dignities." "The most surprising thing is, that this religion spreads from generation to generation, and still subsists
1 Deut. xxviii. 36.2 Jer. xvi. 13.
in the persons of dissemblers in a remote posterity. In vain the great lords of Spain make alliances, change their names, and take ancient escutcheons; they are still known to be of Jewish race, and Jews themselves. The convents, not a few of the canons, inquisitors, and bishops proceed from this nation." This same writer furnishes the evidence that there were in the synagogues of Amsterdam, brothers and sisters and near relations to good families in Spain and Portugal, and even Franciscan monks; Dominicans, and Jesuits, who came to do penance and make amends for the crime they had committed in dissembling.
They were to be a curse and astonishment, a byword and a proverb among all nations.-"And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee."1"To be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them."2 The proof of this remarkable prediction, which is true of no other people, is so abundant and personal, and within the cognizance of almost everyone, as scarcely to need an illustration. Verily the Jew, all the world over, and through all the ages, has become a proverb, a byword, and a scorn. They have been held forth for contempt by external marks. At times they were to be designated by a leathern girdle; again, by a piece of cloth of a specified colour, conspicuously worn; again, by a clog fastened to their body, and dragged about with
1 Deut. xxviii. 37.2 Jer. xxix. 18.
them. Other equally degrading marks were put upon them, which continually exposed them to scorn and contempt. Though the heathen, the Mohammedan, and the Christian differed essentially in their religious views, still they were agreed in pouring abusive contempt upon the Jews. When Shakespeare, that great master of human nature, would draw a character so detestable as to command the prompt and universal abhorrence of mankind, he produced Shylock, the Jew of Venice, pleading for the pound of flesh. Almost every man may be summoned as a witness to prove that he has often made use of the Jew as a byword and a proverb, and has personally, though unwittingly, carried out this Divine prediction.
Another prediction was that the kingdom-the body politic-was to be destroyed, and the people sifted through the nations yet the seed was not to perish, whilst their enemies should be destroyed.- "And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God."1 "I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I wilI not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure."2 "I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord. For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth."3 Says Bishop Newton, "The Jewish
1 Lev. xxvi. 44.2 ] er. xlvi. 28.3 Amos ix. 8, 9.
nation, like the bush of Moses, has been always burning, but is never consumed." The preservation of the Jews as a distinct people through so many wars and fires,-through such wasting famines and pestilences,-through such rebellions, massacres, and persecutions, is the most striking and illustrious exhibition of Divine Providence, and of the most literal fulfilment of this prophecy. Whilst they have been, and now are dispersed among all nations, yet they are not confounded with any. Though they have mixed with all, still they remain a separate people. Though worldly inducements strongly urged them to abandon their religion, still they have held on to their law. When the northern tribes of Europe poured forth their swarms upon the more genial south, they soon became so mingled in and incorporated with the nations as not to be distinguished. In most civilised countries the distinctive marks of foreign nationalities are soon lost by intermarriages and commingling. But the Jew does not commingle, and through many generations preserves his lineage, and is easily known as a son of Abraham.
Their preservation is the more remarkable when we inquire after their ancient persecutors. The Egyptians, who detained them in severe and degrading bondage, the Assyrians and Babylonians, who carried them away captive and evil entreated them, the Macedonians, who used them with cruelty, and the Romans, who destroyed their city and their temple, and sold them for slaves throughout the empire, are gone, all gone, -their power is utterly broken. How wonderful that the mighty and the conquering nations should be lost in oblivion, whilst the vanquished and the oppressed should survive and spread all over the earth,-a strong nation without a king, or prince, or governor, nay, without a government or portion of land! Yet such is the fact.
Not only have nations thus felt the power of the prediction, but prominent rulers have been strangely dealt with. The firstborn of Pharaoh was destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar was stricken with madness, and his crown given to strangers. Haman was hung upon the gallows he prepared for Mordecai. Antiochus Epiphanes and Herod both died in the most miserable manner. Flaccus, the governor of Egypt, who plundered the Jews at Alexandria, was banished and slain. Caligula, who persecuted them for refusing to honour his statue in the temple, was murdered in the prime of life. Truly, "though scattered and persecuted, they have been a people terrible from their beginning hitherto."
By reason of their blindness to the true Messias their sufferings were to continue for a long time.- "Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sickness, and of long continuance."1 "Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? And He
1 Deut. xxviii. 59.
answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land."1 These passages, in addition to the predictions of external and long-continued sufferings, speak of the inward workings of the mind. Of this predicted unbelief the prophet Isaiah thus upbraids his people: "Who hath believed our report (or doctrine)? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ?"2 The reason of their rejection of the Messias is stated to be His humble and afflicted condition. To them He was "as a root out of a dry ground," having neither "form nor comeliness" nor beauty that He should be desired. Consequently, "He was despised and rejected;" being "a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief."
In the Gospel by John we find this prediction explicitly applied to the Jews: "Though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him: that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled."3 So Paul also makes the same application: "But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?"4 "Blindness (or hardness) in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in."5 And our Lord says, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."6 The language of Paul in his
1 Isa. vi. 10-12.2 Isa. Iiii. 1.3 John xii. 37, 38.4 Rom. x. 16.5 Rom. xi. 25.6 Luke xxi. 24.
second letter to the Corinthians is true now: "But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart."1 How wonderful and explicit the fulfilment! Every civilised nation believes in Christ,-the Messiah of whom the prophets spake. But the Jews, though perpetuated as living witnesses of the truth of the Scriptures,-though for so long a time without a Prince, without a sacrifice or temple, without ephod or teraphim, and without their looked-for Messiah, still reject Christ as the Messiah. Blinded by their prejudice, they grope at noonday, as doth the blind man for the wall. For eighteen hundred years their cities have been wasted, and themselves wanderers and persecuted. Thus their plagues and sufferings have been of "long continuance," and for "a very long time." How long this blindness will continue no man can tell. All we know is that it will continue "until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." When that shall be God has not revealed.
There are at the present time certain indications that the Jewish mind is in a state of inquiry. In some lands even now they find the most rigid laws oppressing them in their temporal and religious interests, denying the rights of citizenship, and confining them to particular and crowded sections of cities. In England they are now respected in alI
1 2 Cor. iii. 14, 15.
their rights. In the United States they never found any disabilities, civil or religious,-all their interests from the beginning were sacredly guarded, they enjoyed perfect liberty and equal privileges with other citizens. This was a new feature in their history, and it met them in a Christian land, and as the outworking of true Christian principles. It cannot be otherwise than that the reflecting portion will notice these facts, and feel their generous influence. The fact is patent that the Jews dwelling in the United States and other Protestant countries no longer speak contemptuously and malignantly of Christ. Whilst they do not receive Him as the promised Messiah, they admit that He was a good and wise man. Dr. Raphael, the learned and distinguished rabbi residing in New York, thus publicly spake of Christ: "I, as a Jew, do say, that it appears to me that Jesus Christ became the victim of fanaticism, combined with jealousy and lust of power in Jewish hierarchs, even as in later ages Huss and Jerome of Prague, Latimer and Ridley became the victims of fanaticism, combined with jealousy and lust of power in Christian hierarchs; and while I and the Jews of the present day protest against being identified with the zealots who were concerned in the proceedings against Jesus of Nazareth, we are far from reviling His character or deriding His precepts." It is an interesting fact that this same learned rabbi, in his public lectures, delivered to mixed audiences of Jews and Christians, did freely and with approbation quote from the evangelists the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Another indication of an ameliorating influence is the fact that Dr. Wechler, a learned Jewish rabbi of New Haven, Connecticut, regularly attends the weekly meeting of ministers, takes part with them in their discussions, often leading them in prayer. He manifests great interest in these meetings, and is among the most punctual. He uniformly speaks most respectfully of Jesus Christ and of His teachings. These are signs of the times which may foretell the dawning of a brighter day upon the sons of Abraham.
Whilst often despoiled and always oppressed and punished for their covetousness, they were to possess the riches of the Gentiles.- "For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him."1 "They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling-block of their iniquity."2 "The ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them."3 Ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves."4 The covetousness of the Jew has passed into a proverb. None thinks it strange that a Jew should demand exorbitant interest. How often are hardhearted Gentile money-lenders, who fatten upon the distresses of their fellow-men, called, by way of distinctive and marked emphasis, 'as usurious as a Jew".
1 Isa. lvii. 17.2 Ezek. vii. 19.3 Isa. Ix. 9.4 Isa. lxi. 6.
That the Jews are the possessors of great wealth is established by the most abundant evidence. But for their riches they never would have suffered such repeated and extensive spoliations in the days of despotic kings. Notwithstanding all that they have endured, the promise is that they shall be notorious for the abundance of their wealth. Whilst it is true, even down to the present time, that ever since the dispersion the Jews in Palestine have been and are poor, still, in almost every other country, they ply their occupations with eminent success. The laws of the nations among whom they were scattered, forbidding them to hold landed property, have, by necessity, driven them to accumulate gold and silver and precious stones,-a kind of property valuable in every part of the world. They have a large share of the funds of every kingdom of Europe. We know that the richest bankers of England and the Continent are Jews; that the Rothschilds and the Goldsmidts control such wealth as to determine the loans needed by governments.
They are yet to be advanced to great prosperity, temporal and spiritual.-" The Lord. . . will have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee, . . . and He will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers."1 "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice. . . .Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek
1 Dent. xxx. 3, 5.
the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days."1"And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in My wrath I smote thee, but in My favour have I had mercy on thee."2 "The vail is upon their heart. … Nevertheless… the vail shall be taken away."3 "And they. . . shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. . . . And so all Israel shall be saved."4 "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips."5
The striking fulfilment of the varied predictions already considered may well assure us that what remains to this wonderful people of favour and temporal advancement, and especially of spiritual enlargement and blessedness, will be perfectly carried out. It is a fact worthy of particular attention that, with all the changes among the kingdoms during so many centuries, nothing has occurred which renders impracticable the fulfilment of these prophecies. On the contrary, the condition of the Jewish people, as well as of Christian and other nations, at the present time, with the facilities of travel and intercourse, is such as to render them easily capable of a complete accomplishment. And when these predictions of their conversion to Christ shall be fulfilled, it will be a sign and a wonder to all nations, and the prelude to the universal spread of Christianity.
How, in what manner, at what time, and through
1 Hosea. iii. 4, 5.2 Isa. Ix. 10.3 2 Cor. iii. 15, 16.4 Rom. xi. 23, 26.5 Psa. lxxxix. 34.
what agencies all will be accomplished, we know not. As all prophecies are to be fulfilled by the voluntary doings of men pushing forward their own personal plans, we doubt whether the men who shall fulfil them will have any consciousness that they are thus engaged, any more than did the Jews when they crucified the Lord of glory. When the prophecy is completed, then the facts will come to the front and prove the fulfilment. I have thought that unfulfilled prophecy was not unlike to the pillar of cloud, which, though it led the people, was still obscure and dark;
and that fulfilled prophecy was not unlike to the pillar of fire, by means of whose light all things were clearly to be perceived. Whether Christ shall in His bodily presence reign upon this earth or not, whether the Jews shall return to Palestine, and abide there, or continue to occupy other countries, are matters about which men honestly differ. But one thing is certain,-that blessings rich and large are in reserve for the children of Abraham; blessings which will not only enrich them spiritually, but be also to the Gentiles as life from the dead.1 That these days may be hastened, I am confident, is the hearty prayer of Christians.
"The long era of dispersion, lasting seventeen centuries, is characterised by unprecedented sufferings, an uninterrupted martyrdom, and constantly aggravated degradation and humiliation, unparalleled in history,-but also by mental activity, unremitting intellectual efforts, and indefatigable research. A
1 Rom. xi. 15.
graphic, adequate image of this era could only be portrayed by representing it in two pictures,-the one representing subjugated Judah, with the pilgrim staff in hand, the pilgrim pack on his back, with a mournful eye addressed towards heaven, surrounded by prison walls, implements of torture, and red-hot branding irons; the other exhibiting the same figure with the earnest of the thinker upon the placid brow, with the air of the scholar in the bright features, seated in a hall of learning, which is filled with a colossal library in all the languages spoken by man, and on all the branches of Divine and human lore,-the figure of a servant with the proud independence of the thinker,-the one representing the external history of this era, a history of suffering, the like of which no other people has endured to such an aggravated degree, and to such an immense extent; the other exhibiting the inward history, a comprehensive history of the mind, which, like an immense river, springing from the knowledge of God, appropriates and binds all the tributary sciences,-again a history peculiar to this people only. Studying and wandering, thinking and enduring, learning and suffering fill the long space of this era. . . .
"There is scarcely a science, an art, an intellectual province in which Jews have not taken a part, for which Jews have not manifested an equal aptitude. To think was as much a characteristic feature of the Jew as to suffer. In consequence of the chiefly compulsory, seldom voluntary, migrations of the Jews, the Jewish history of this era comprises the entire habitable globe, extending to the snow region of the north, the tropical heat of the south, crossing every ocean, and settling in the remotest corners of the earth. Through these migrations the Jewish people gathered new experiences, and the eye of the homeless became practised and keen. Thus even the accumulated sufferings were instrumental in extending the horizon of Jewish thinkers. . . . The Jewish people became a cosmopolitan people, which, because nowhere, was, on that very account, at home everywhere. What has prevented this constantly migrating people, this veritable wandering Jew, from degenerating into brutalized vagabonds, into vagrant hordes of gipsies? The answer is at hand. In its journey through the desert of life, for eighteen centuries the Jewish people carried along the ark of the covenant, which breathed into its heart ideal aspirations, and even illuminated the badge of disgrace affixed to its garment with an apostolic glory. The proscribed, outlawed, universally-persecuted Jew felt a sublime, noble pride in being singled out to perpetuate and suffer for a religion which reflects eternity, by which the nations of the earth were gradually educated to a knowledge of God and morality, and from which is to spring the salvation and redemption of the world. The consciousness of his glorious apostolic office sustained the sufferer, and even stamped the sufferings as a portion of his sublime mission. Such a people, which disdains its present, but has the eye steadily fixed on the future, which lives, as it were, on hope, is on that very account eternal, like hope. The law and the hope of the Messiah were two angels of protection and comfort, upholding the humbled, and guarding from despair, degeneracy, and national suicide." 1
The more our Jewish brethren study their own history in their own Scriptures, as it stands related to prophecies, as also those recorded in the New Testament, their conviction of the truth of Christianity must become fixed and settled. How overwhelming to all men will be the evidence when the vail which now clouds their vision shall be taken away, and the Jews, as they read in Moses of Christ, shall, with warm and generous hearts, acknowledge Him as their Lord and Redeemer. What, then, can the unbelieving world do when they see the long-disinherited Jew openly wending his way to the Messiah, and weeping as he goes? They must acknowledge that there is a God in heaven, and that all His words are true. Then both Jew and Gentile shall bow down and reverence the Son even as the Father. Thus indeed the conversion of the Jews will be to the Gentiles as " life from the dead."
The existence of the Jewish people is an unanswerable argument for the truth of the Bible. Look at them. Where is there a parallel case to be found? Read the many predictions of the Bible concerning them; then read their history as written and delineated by their own and Gentile historians, and note the exact fulfilment. Emphatically they are
1 I make the preceding quotations from The History of The Jews, issued by the American Jewish Publication Society.
" the nation that living shall die, and dying shall live; that trampled on by all, shall trample on all; that bleeding from a thousand wounds shall be unhurt; that beggared shall wield the wealth of nations; that without a name shall sway the councils of kings; that without a city shall dwell in all kingdoms; that scattered like the dust shall be bound together like the rock; that perishing by the sword, by the chain, by the famine, shall be imperishable, unnumbered, and glorious as the stars of heaven." Such is the prophetic and the retrospective history of this wonderful people. As they are scattered over the earth, and are a distinct people among all nations, so they are the imperishable monument to all the world of the truth of the Bible. Nay, more, they are the imperishable though "involuntary monuments of the truth of Christianity, and of the Divinity of the Messiah whom their fathers crucified."
No man can read what the Bible says of the Jews, and with candour collect the testimonies of history, and of facts all around him, and remain an unbeliever. He must admit the truth of the Bible. If true, how momentous are its teachings to every individual! For it is not more certain that the Word of God concerning the Jews has been fulfilled than that every declaration of God will be accomplished. The truths of history, of philosophy, and of science men may neglect with but little harm; but the eternal destiny of every man is fastened, with more than adamantine chains, to the great truth of salvation revealed in the Bible. For, saith the Lord God, "The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." 1
It must be obvious to every student of the past that God has held forth the Jewish nation as the model from which other people are to learn the principles of His moral government. In them He shows that natural causes are only instrumentalities in His hands for the development of the principles of His government. "Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers?" saith the prophet Isaiah. The response is specific, "Did not the Lord, He against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in His ways, neither were they obedient unto His law."2 And by the prophet Jeremiah He saith, "a house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the cIay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in Mine hand, O house of IsraeL" "Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, . . Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good." 3 "And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this great city? Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them."4
1 John xii. 48.2 Isa. xlii. 24.3 Jer. xviii. 6, II.4 Jer. xxii. 8, 9.
Secular historians rest in natural and political causes to account for the fall of nations. The true causes lie farther back. The natural and visible ones are only the instrumentalities which God uses to consummate His own purposes. The fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah was not the original cause, but only the instrumentality, for the Lord has told us that the true cause was their wickedness. It is thus that God teaches that the true cause of extinction of nations is their sin. The historian who goes no farther back than visible natural agencies, has failed to state the true and efficient cause for the ruin of nations.
From the treatment which the Jews have received all nations may learn their danger. They were the people of God's choice, and with them He made a covenant; but remember His treatment of them when they sinned. Though in the progress of the ages they "have been spoiled," "hid in prison-houses," and" for a prey" and "a spoil," still they are not wholly destroyed, because of God's covenant. Why have they been cast off for these eighteen hundred years? The Apostle Paul replies, "Because of unbelief they were broken off;"1 not annihilated, because of the covenant and the promise of their restoration.
Now look at the nations where the gospel was first published. What has become of them? They sinned, and they are wiped out. Other nations will also disappear. This is the danger which threatens the people proud of their power, or wealth, or freedom. All are in the hands of God.
1 Rom. Xi. 20.
The question naturally arises, why did God thus severely treat the Jews? He has dealt so with no other people. When the old world, by reason of its great wickedness, was doomed to destruction, the flood was the executioner, and the sufferings endured were not protracted. When Sodom and Gomorrah were blotted out, fire made short work with the guilty city. When Babylon and Nineveh, Tyre and ancient Rome were destroyed, mercy was mingled with the judgment. Why this difference of treatment, for they all have sinned? Christ has clearly laid down the principle which justifies this discrimination: "Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not: Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee."1 The principle thus emphatically stated is that men are responsible in proportion to their advantages, and that consequently their guilt and their punishment
1 Matt. xi. 20-24.
must be in proportion to the privileges they have neglected or misused. The Jews had privileges arid advantages given to no other nation. God was pleased to enter into covenant with them, promising the highest prosperity and happiness to them whilst they were obedient to His laws, and threatening the severest punishment in case of their disobedience. From the beginning of their nationality He did more for them than for any, or for all other nations. He established them in the land promised to Abraham, their progenitor, as a theocratic commonwealth, giving to them the privilege of self - government, under judges of His appointment or of their own choice. He revealed unto them, through His prophets, His wiII, chastened them when they rebeIIed, and when penitent restored them to favour. He gave them the knowledge of the true God, and made them the depositaries of His law. His Providence was ever vigilant over them,-they were His constant care. The same sin in them was far more criminal and aggravated than it possibly could be in any other people. Hence the severity as the just recompense.
But why should it fall on that generation? As the light and privileges increased from generation to generation, so the sin became more intense and cumulative. This last generation, instead of condemning the sins of the past, approved of and practised them. Said our Lord: "Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed kiIIed them (the prophets), and ye build their sephIchres."1That sin roIls with accumulative power,
1 Luke xi. 48.
and concentrates itself upon the last approving generation, our Lord thus asserts: "Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation." God had borne with them for many ages; all proper methods for their reformation had been tried. They waxed worse and worse, until the cup of their iniquity was full; then forbearance could do no more, and the Saviour closes up this statement of their accumulated sin with this memorable lamentation: "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."1
They had resisted all the evidence which Christ gave of His Messiahship,-they ascnbed His miracles to satanic agency,-they persistently rejected Him, they hated Him with murderous hatred,-they had deliberately determined upon His death by crucifixion. This for the time sundered the strong bonds of the covenant, and placed them beyond its protecting
1 Matt. xxiii 34-38.
shield; it left them to the awards of justice, and the execution of that ancient threatening,
"And I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of My covenant." How avenge it? The immediate context adds, "And when ye are together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you, and ye shall be delivered into the hands of the enemy." The Saviour, knowing that the time for the avenging of "the quarrel of the covenant" was nigh again, wept over Jerusalem as He lifted His voice in lamentation, saying, " If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes."
It is often asked why is this beautiful world the theatre of so much and such intense suffering? How is it consistent with the benevolence of God? Until we are so situated as to gather up and comprehend the results of God's government of this world, we cannot, by reason of our short experience and limited knowledge, accurately judge. At present we see only a part of God's ways, and that through a glass darkly. A time will come when we shall see the results, and shall understand how all the suffering is consistent with the benevolence of God. Even now we know that in every well-regulated human commonwealth, law with its penalty must be supreme.
It is benevolence that forms and executes right laws, for justice is one form and outgrowth of benevolence. I t is benevolence which builds the strong massive walls of the prison, and shuts up there those who outrage the rights and happiness of the virtuous., It is the province of benevolence, in the form of justice, to protect the good and obedient. If this works wisely and truly among men, imperfect as our laws are, how more perfectly must it work in the unerring hand of God!
This world, be it remembered, is hardly a speck in the vast material universe; and that all the inhabitants, from the beginning to the end, are scarcely an item in the countless myriads upon myriads of intelligent and accountable creatures whom God has called into being. Yet every intelligent being in the universe is personally and eternally interested in manifestations of Divine justice which are being here displayed. Hath not God so revealed: "And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery (or truth), which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." 1
Here it is the avowed eternal purpose of God, by means of the church, gathered out of this sinful world, and purged from sin by the blood of Christ, to make known His manifold wisdom to the principalities and powers in heavenly places. Why make this manifestation? Not for His own gratification, but their benefit. For here in this world, as nowhere else,
1 Eph. iii. 9-11.
is the true and unalterable nature of sin demonstrated. When the rebel angels were cast forth from heaven, the holy ones saw the meanness and the baseness of sin, also the deep abhorrence of God. But they could not then know its virulent malignity. They could not then know what might be the effect of forbearance on the part of God. Who could tell that they would not repent and return to allegiance if a solitary ray of mercy had lighted their intense darkness?
All these and many other things are settled by the demonstrations made on this earth. God has shown to these holy ones that He was not cruel when He hurled the devils into their prison. He means to settle for ever the true nature of sin by demonstrating, through ages of diversified treatment, that it takes advantage of the patience and long-suffering of God to do still more wickedly; nay, worse than that, it pushes its way on with increasing determination through mercies planted thick along its pathway. Even at the cross, when God in mercy is offering up the sacrifice of His only-begotten and dearly-beloved Son, that He might save the guilty, then the deep and horrible malignity of sin was manifested in the sneers and taunts and mockery of the illustrious Sufferer. Such is sin. It takes advantage of the patience, the forbearance, the love, the mercy of God to go on to deeper depths of malignity and hatred.
All this lies open to the view of the heavenly principalities and powers, and they can have no misgivings as to the certainty of the malignant nature of sin, as to the degraded and viciously-selfish character it always involves, and of the inevitable misery which it produces. They must see, and with adoring wonder acknowledge, the manifold wisdom and benevolence of God in His treatment and final disposition of the incorrigibly wicked. And when the grand consummation shall come, and the redeemed from all time are gathered to the realms of the blessed, then it will be found that "where sin abounded grace did much more abound;" that, counting in all who have died in infancy, and including the long ages of the millennium, when the whole world will be densely populated, then I think it will be found that the overwhelming mass of all the earth's inhabitants will have been saved from the penalty and power of sin by faith in "the blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;" whilst, on the other side, the number of the impenitent and incorrigibly wicked, though great in themselves, is so comparatively small as only to illustrate the malignant character of sin and of necessary punishment. Then will the Lord say to His redeemed multitude, so great that no man can number them, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."1 The victory over sin will be complete and eternal. The principalities and powers in heavenly places, who watched and aided in the conflict, will share in the joy of the victory. And all the servants of God will be confirmed in holiness for ever.
1 Matt. xxv. 34.
But what, on the other hand, must be said of those reiterated declarations, so common in the present day, of the Fatherhood of God, as though He were so weakly merciful that He will not maintain His law or punish sin? God, as the moral Governor of the universe, must assert the claims of justice. And that He will do so the history we have passed in review establishes beyond the possibility of doubt. To whom does the Fatherhood of God apply? In its strict and full sense only to those who have entered into covenant with Him. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God." It is only those who "have received the Spirit of adoption" who can cry," Abba, Father, . . . and if children then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ."1 With them the covenant is sure, and cannot be broken. But no such words are spoken to the wicked. Our Lord said to such, "Ye are of your father the devil."2 They are "the children of the wicked one." And again, "He that committeth sin is of the devil." From their moral unlikeness to God, they cannot, in any true or real sense, be His children. Having chosen their part with His enemies, they must hear the terrible sentence, "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."3 The terrible doom which overwhelmed the ungodly and impenitent amongst the Jews may convince us that this is no empty threatening, no unmeaning menace.
Out of Christ there is no possibility of hope for
1 Rom. viii. 14-17.2 John viii. 44.3 Matt. xxv. 41.
any human being. Only in Him can we escape from the curse of a broken law and the ruin of sin,-a curse and a ruin more fearful far than that which came upon the doomed and guilty city. In Christ the atoning Saviour, the risen and interceding High-Priest, we escape from eternal death, and rise to heavenly blessedness. "Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope," and flee at once, before the judgment overtake you. " Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him." 1
1 Psa. ii. 12
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