| Show The GRAPHIC BIB I e McClar By LEWIS BROWNE I rrt MINOR I sr i SFA S' S r 1 ti I r oe a Py r The Colony in Egypt m llE thousands of T Till left In the despoiled land landwere landwere were the very ery dregs of nt the population A man of One fine character named Domed was appointed ap pointed governor go over them them and he tried with all his might to give gl the he poor wretches some sort of government go gov v- v tint But a rascally adventurer muse assassinated the noble Ueda- Ueda Hah Hoh and tried to organize a n fresh revolt against t Dreading the life certain consequences the more energetic of the population lion tion straightway tied fled from the land forcibly taking the old prophet Jeremiah Jeremiah Jere Jere- miah with them They escaped tol to l Egypt and settled down In the cita cities cit It lea ies of and which were commercial centers situated on the main caravan route going to Mesopotamia Others of the fugitives settled in n Memphis while still sUII othera others oth ers era went far up the Nile lille to tine line And thus the Jews as erstwhile erstwhile erstwhile erst erst- while shepherd people now perforce became traders But nut with the vast ast change from pastoral life In the hills bills of Judah to commercial life In the marketplaces marketplaces market marketplaces places of Egypt there came an equally vast change In the whole outlook of ot the people They began to fall away from the religion of their forefathers and took to the religion of the heathen people around them Soon they began to cultivate the manners and vices of ot the l Egyptians The last recorded words of Tere- Tere miah are ere a bitter attack on his fellow fellow fel tel low Jews In Egypt for Cor their apostasy apostasy apos apos- tasy and according to tradition the heroic old prophet was beaten to death for uttering them It Is significant that when th the e Inhabitants of ot Israel were deported deport deport- ed they disappeared as a separate e people But nut years later when the far tar fewer Inhabitants of Judah Juda h were deported not alone did the they y disappear but on the contrary the they y became even een more distinctively di a separate people people and and lived An And d that seems to have been due altogether altogether alto alto- gether to the prophets of Judah Tullah h who had preached and been ben persecuted persecuted perse for tor their their- preaching In those years preceding Judah's Ju Ju- dahs dah's deportation the prophets ha had d managed to breathe Into the tin tiny v nation a spirit which served to makIt make mak e It quite indestructible For Ioor Judah did not go Into exile feeling that tha t Its sufferings were accidental It is s Important to realize just h bow liow ow tiny Judah actually was fo for r then the miracle of its survival becomes becomes becomes be be- comes even more Impressive After Arter r the catastrophe that occurred I In Insa sa the Inhabitants of Judah w were er e left lert divided Into three main frog frag ments First there was the dis I remnant left behind In Pal Pal- poor poor benighted pe peasants peasant who vito were harried constantly by wild wll tribes from Crom the desert Then there then e were the Hie fugitives who had congregated congregated congre congre- e gated In scattered settlements 1 In Egypt Finally tl there ere was the community com corn sanity of ot exiles in 10 Babylon But nut all three groups together r probably would not have sufficed t to people an ordinary sized fair-sized Amerlean American Amer ican lean city like Paterson N N. J. J G or I. I Des Moines Iowa Their total num aura ber could not have hn been mud much Li Limore more than titan a hundred bundred and twenty twenty- five to a hundred and fifty thousand d about half balf as many Jews as there then are today in the city of Chicago alone And yet that little nation di dispersed dis s persed parsed across the Orient tossed fosse tt about In the welter of ot empires Ilk Ilka like ilkI e a cork In a furious whirlpool ma managed man aged to live on and come out oat lr tri trl 1 The ne story of that survival i Is S largely the story of- of the handful ul that was dragged off oft to Babylon m And Add not DOt even of all that handful L for many of those Jews deserted Ld d and took to the gods of ot the co con Babylon was a n mighty cit city y whose outer wall was 50 miles 1 In len length th and so thick that four cha char char- lots could coald drive on It abreast In It ft were mighty temples adorned wit with jewels and ami precious metals an and vast palaces brilliant with colore colored bricks and tiles The Life LiCe of the Exiles BUT T B UT UJ not all 11 the exiles were swei swept tt oft off their feet teet by the grandeur grander r of Babylon and Its Us gods The m ma a went the way wor of all majorities major majori 1 ties but an heroic minority sto stood od Its Us ground and refused to be sta stampeded stam- stam m Of course the temptation to be satisfied with things In Baby Baby- Ion w was s almost Irresistible TI The e exiles were not scattered throughout through through- h out the empire but let settled tied together h. h er Cr on the banks of one of the c ca- ca e. e no vats Is In this re lIe by v It d In form us that th the f was the I ward from the elt ht h J th the e dry of waters shrine Shrine sy flowed lowed r raglan I on us as e was wai to be where here 1 r t f In to the thein dwell 1 0 in the theIn villa village ge k- k kIIn li nt I In the hUddled h I had b been h won to escaped It a escape th the a II the exiles took to Ira to envois canal which glon plon in III every It is liS s much for fop colOm lion ilon The prophet propheTS roe Eu the spiritual l ad advIser of describes the place t iv tr a n dip city y of m Inert BertH Bert Bert- tut CuI H sol call beside nan mast q The J Jews ewe were altar port unity of matin comfortable In la their They were unhindered and sad a their private edam affairs II a Chances a a plenty vert Wert those who desired volt lion for Cor King who Babylonia tot Dot u II was tuna called the Great Great- stacIe stacle In la their ray wal He lie had Judah not out of an MJ sal t I the Jews Jens but simply sImp v existence of that n aced red his hold on Pie could not afford to tat for It was the one ops ope from Crom 1 L and sad thereto therein most vital region on 00 tle frontier of the N Now liow osy however howeler er that h Ps safe sate r defeated and exiled mall m on a all ll the good In la th the r rapidly many mno of ten tha get EPt It lint Hut always there IB act II III who could not be at tu to I lotto Ionia They hated haled pa tt tI la land nd for lor It was not tit 96 was unclean to then the I they thought OO on oil tie hills whence the thep thel hi kit en In their minds 0 tta came caDle Ineffably lovely l c II sit who once trod them measurably great U ilk around a fire the ei td's their hearts with tales tola les lea with glow glowing Ing stories elaborated about MoRt and Solomon Many of the p em forgot altogether the tie t I whence they had tem coat IDI rest plodded aloof along la in i ii I sickness The They could II a to God Cod In Babylon f tor ha have e meant a vo n Holy La Law IV which sa Salem lem as the only prop pale sacrifice The best test fr was to devote denote one day hi pd the Sabbath to ondI lk of their God Cod Perhaps II they prayed and aDd fa tail fasts that synagogues synagogues that I Is h their their faces turned tutus y a ward Jerusalem ld they begged for the a aday day of their And at last the W dip d lion Uon seemed about to fa 4 dir din empire was arising IA lit Cr empire of oC Cyrus Cyro the P r sewed certain to tJI IL va W Wa a weakling sat eat oa OD ore Ue the II I whispering we wetie tie tle settlement of ot t the Ot then loud and heroic nally tally in B. B C the new empire of the po pOll Bab Babylon and was destroyed fort forever fortNow li Now ow Cyrus Cyrys War 1111 1 enlightened most 10 his first acts alb after ut k Babylon was to IraD gnat the Jewish exiles 10 toSas' toSas their on so desired to homeland but not all of the rt vantage of oC f Cyrus J bs p If found it too t tbt selves a away aY ay frolD troy homes they had unclean lead land aO sad l IbIS a aen toms behind tM the d sit resented en l J lit citizenship I it t a r The OD 1 of n nI ly boast I tIe their I r ans uns er r ce were I d most of 0 f Even that tb e ted tad freely l 1 spiritual did not ad I even en they ad d r money tD ve gave ga ra tree free moral enco few out ready randy to go bec |
