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Show 8'f'. it $NH At '-,; fflH The reading of the persecutions of the Jews In I' ,tf jJjH Bulgaria and other States where Russian and Slav PI'lfflB methods prevail, is a reminder, not only of the ' 1 'HjtfB afflictions which have followed that race for cen- j 1 h a'j turies, but of the inestimable distance between ! J -j) fj jH what is called civilization In eastern Europe and j j t 'iyJB in our own country. ' it J H The Hebrews read in their sacred book how j !i'ji;fB their race was delivered of old; the Song of Moses j j! k ,-.l and of Miriam: sI'!mH "I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath tri- Kij '.jJB umphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath j W ';f( j.Sfl he thrown into the sea. j IS f$!'tft8H "Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast J ffi i& fl into the sea; his chosen captains also are drpwned. I m pjJlflH The depths have covered them." ) M '$ fijfl They read, too, the Lord's words to Moses: M v'fMH "And ho said, I will make all my goodness ! j j'ffwH pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of , ffl tfSB the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom l,i f!SB I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom M" "1i H I will show mercy." Ei ' ;!J9H As they read they cry out: "How long, 0 Lord, , j "''ffH how long?" They read how, for' their ancient peo- f IflH pie, a pillar of cloud went before to be their guide $h UfflH by day and how a pillar of fire lighted their path ' w 'IlH by night; how, when their great peril was upon i jf'TlM them, the cloud turned back from their front and j JlYlwIM stood between them and their enemies; how, when j !f,!JB their race was spent by hunger, quails and manna j'jr i'd'ijl were rained upon them for food, and how, when jjljfHfl sorely afflicted with thirst in the desert, the solid m jljuH rock was made to open its adamantine jaws and re- j !;' fi veal its hidden springs to give them drink, and ! Jot 1 they wonder that the signs are all hidden now : P'vlfFjBB and that there Is no answer to their prayers. t P f j Eastern literature, even the most sacred, ' jj ' j9 abounds in imagery and allegory, and it is not f m 'iIbH infrequent to see what was but a state of Qe J I " 'f MM human mind or a condition of a people portrayed jfi i'fjH in an allegorical story, winsome or sorrowful as ! 1 1 ' ' Jh may be. j rat &fl Adopting something of that thought, it is not i j9B difficult to anticipate the writing of some one of Klfl the race who is to write, a thousand years hence, IP f!9 the story of the bringing of the Hebrews out of Mr ffH their last captivity; for It as true now as It was j ill'oJH four thousand years ago that the world's great BrMi slave-masters are ignorance and the tyranny that iff raH comes of ignorance. By ignorance in this case we IL j'fifiH mean that kind of ignorance which men possess 'IP'tliliU when no sense of moral or humane obligation is 1 f$M present to lighten and soften the knowledge that BE wB they possess. Mi-anBH Egypt was filled with this ignorance. The scien- wiHH tists read the stars; the soldiers marshaled mag- BllHfll nificent armies; the statesmen had evolved the JbIBiB fact that order rested on the enforcement of wise hIbH laws; the artisans were cunning in their work- HHII manship, but their knowledge was but of the brain; HShIH it was pot sanctified by any of the restrains of 99HH i: iB,ir j .....BBBBH H ' H mercy or of justice and, despite their many gifts, B B they were barbarians. H jflj j With the modern lights of the schools; with H fl I the lights put out by the daily newspapers, by H jBj j the telegraph which every day gives to the world H the world's history of the previous day; with all H B the splendors of the present and all the expe- H B reince of the past, Bulgaria is filled today with B ! jjfj barbarians and her government is a government H j B of barbarism. H i m ' Looking forward, then, to this -writer who, a Hj ! w thousand years hence, may piclc up the pen which K ' iffj fell from the hand of David of old, he will write, B B perhaps in language as majestic and sweet as that B j 8 used by David or Isaiah, the coming back of the H n K " Jews from their long captivity. The barbarism B j m with which they were surrounded will be de- Hj l W scribed. Then there will be pictured the new H ' M light which was lifted up in the West, in a land Hi i si which their fathers knew not of, a light kindled HI '. W by a race beyond the sea who had founded a gov- Hj i W ernment on the thought that all men are created Hj ji jw equal, that every man has of right an equal in- HJ I ;B heritance with every other man in the blessing B ! 1 which the great God has filled the world with; Hj ' that the light so kindled was to the nations what IS the X-ray is to the human body, revealing every IB foreign substance which interferes with its health; W that as the light shone on and on, higher and higher, brighter and brighter, the world began to 'iW be softened and humanized, the fetters began to jli break from tho wrists of slaves; prisoners cap-- Hi ? m tured in battle were no longer slain or sold into Hj i jw slavery; the hospital began to follow armies and B ; the red cross followed fighting men upon the bat- B J ft tlefield to succor the wounded; nations began to HI ! B turn to arbitration to settle their differences; the B fl whip was banished from the asylums where mad- H ! fi men were confined; anaesthetics were discovered Hj i to make mortals forget their pain; slowly but B j 8 surely the thought took form that there is no di- Hj fl vinity in mortals save the divinity of heart and Hn jfl brain; and, still remembering the old edict that Bij man must live by the sweat of his face, the con- fH viction came that the good God, in issuing that fl decree, did not mean it as a badge of servility, but H l jB rather, inasmuch as all progress must come Hi : B through labor, labor must be the most honorable Hh thing known to man, the most honorable and the His most commanding; that hence the world's highest honors were due to such as might perform the .j highest labor, that labor to be judged by its ben- Hj ! efit to mankind. Bj That in the western land men of the humblest Hi j origin were advanced to the highest stations; that B; the character of the whole people was exalted by Bjj the hope nursed in every heart of possible ad- Bi vancement until at last one of these humble men, B j who for worth had obtained to a commanding fl; place, wrote to the sovereigns of the Old World Hj reminding them of the barbarism that still ex- Hj! 'fl isted by the Black Sea, only a day's journey from Bl ji ; where the Messiah died as an atonement for man's Bjf! Ifk wickedness, and appealed to those sovereigns to BfCf awaken from their lethargy and to keep their. B w agreements. Bm How this was the beginning; how the great B Mm light shone on and on, how the nation under it ad- B KM vanced until a second letter, twenty years after Bllfl tne m'st was written, and the request of the first flnffl was changed into an implied command; how the B Br world was more stirred by the second letter, but Bjlfi "their hearts were hardened," until fifty years fl iftiflj later still a third letter was penned and it was to BiflB the world what were the thunderings on Sinai and BjffB the people knew that God was near. How then Bflfl tlie barbarism was melted from men's hearts; how B9 len aH men stood at last on a common plane, and B'HV the gathered hosts of Israel, enriched by the BlWl world's treasures, took up their joyous march out flflfl of their last captivity, and going to their sacred BjSB city, even to the "holy hill" built there a new BBB temple compared with which the temple of Solo- BflU mon was but the clumsy achievement of an unen- BJBn lightened age. |