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Show Che Government of the Ijibrtws A correspondent in Butte, Mont.,' asks The Intermountain Catholic to give an outline of what the Jewish government gov-ernment really was. Our correspondent correspond-ent savg that he was led to ask the question from reading: a str.te-ment made by the late Robert G. Ir.sersoll to the effect that a worse goverr.'m?nt never existed than that established by Jehovah. In reply to the very courteous letter of our Butte correspondent, we submit the following from the work of Professor Pro-fessor Huxley on "Agnosticism:" "All that is best in the ethics of the modern world, in so far as it has not grown out of Greek thought or Barbarian Barbar-ian manhood, is the direct development of. the ethics of old Israel. There is no code of legislation, ancient o'r modern, at once so just and -o merciful, so tender ten-der to the weak and poor, as the Jewish Jew-ish law." Father Malone, in his lecture on "Infidelity," "In-fidelity," dwells at seme length on the history of the Jewish government. The follcwing from "Letters of Certain Cer-tain Jews to Voltaire" will give an adequate ad-equate answer to our correspondent: There its one God. says the Hebrew cod and there is but one. This God alone deserves to be worshiped. He is the Supreme Being, the necessary origin orig-in cf all beings: no other is comparable to ffim. He is a pure Spirit, immense, and infinite; no bodily shape can represent repre-sent Him. He created the universe by His power. He governs it by His wU;-deim..and wU;-deim..and rubs all its events by His providence. Nothing escapes His watchful eye, all good and evil proceed from His equitable hand: and as every-;h:ng every-;h:ng comes from so everything- centers cen-ters in Him. ' . Ministers of H's service are appointed, offerings and sacrifices instituted, but a!i this pomp is nothing in His eyes, if tb." sentiments of the heart do not give it life. The .worship He requires before and above everything, is the acknowledgement acknow-ledgement of our entire dependence and of His supreme dominion; thankfulness for IBs benefits, trust in His mercy, fear and love. "I a:n the Lord,- thv God; thou &halt have no ether Gods I befcre ir.p. Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven .image, and thou shalt love thy Ge l with a!l thy heart, and with ail thy soul, and with all thy sii--"ngth." T-hese are true and sublime ideas, I.. - .u ,TiP(,r.(iv d'atint-'-jVi the Jewish Jew-ish from all ancient legislators. t p.iey ai. i ej.jiy in tais morality! mor-ality! L? there a vice which it doth not severely condemn? It is not sufficient that actions are forbidden, even desires- are rrohibited. "Thou shalt net covet." He not only requires perfect equity, probity, untainted faithfulness, justice the most exact honesty, but he would have us, besides, to be humane, compassionate, com-passionate, charitable, ready to d. unto others what we would wish t'.-.ey wonld do unto us. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy-se'f." thy-se'f." In short, whatever can make a matt respectable in his own eyes and dear to his fellow creatures, whatever can insure the peace and happiness of society, so-ciety, i-3 there placed in the list of ! duties. W'here could you find, in all antiquity. religious institutions more puie and moral precepts more conformable to 1 the feelings of nature, the light of reason, rea-son, and the sacred mleis of decency and virtue? Recall to your mind the laws cf the most celebrated ancient nations; what false and whimsical ideas of the divinity! What cbjects of worship! What extravagant, impure, cruel rites! What impious opinions, scandalous excesses, barbarous easterns, eas-terns, authorized or tolerated by ther?e boasted legislators! From the heavenly bodies which give us light down to the plants which grow in cur gardens, i from the man celebrated for his talents or r.H crimes down to the venomous reptile which creeps under the grass, everything ha? its worshipers. Here bcholcl a sacrifice of female modesty, there human blood llows upon the altar, al-tar, and the dearest victims expire in those flames which superstition ha-5 lighted up. A lit'e farth3r violence is offered to nature by brutal love, and humanity debased by unworthy and barbarous; treatment. Everywhere the I people, live in error and uncertainty. Let us draw a veil over this mortifying mortify-ing picture of human blindness. The distribution of landd has been looked upon by a!! ancient and modern civilized nations as a ma v.erpicce in politics. Where we re they more w isely distributed than in the Jewish gov-err.-rent? The institutions of the famous Spartan Spar-tan legislator r much extolled by the Greek writers mutt yield the pa'.ni in this ret'-ect to the Jewish legislator. In the distribution appointed by Moses, every one out of six hundred thousand soldiers introduced into the land of Canaan was to get a poftion of ground sufficient to maintain him and his family fam-ily in decent affluence, .descs is not satisfied with insuring to them the peri-se.vS'lon peri-se.vS'lon of these Itr.ds by the laws cf men. as other legislators did: he consecrated con-secrated it by religion. According to these principles. Jrhovah is the only Lord in the land which be gives to the Hebrews. They are all va.---als and their lands are so- mtnv let's which they h.-!d immei'ately from God and from him only. To reize thes- lands, or dispi s?e?3 the tenants would have been an act of hih treason. "For tho land is min." savs the Lord, "for ye are stransers an 1 sojourners so-journers with me." . Almost all ancient governm.enf.-4 abandoned, without reserve, the slaves of both sexes to the lust and brutality cf ,v.e!r masters. "At Lacedemon, let slaves be- treated, treat-ed, in whatsoever manner, they could not cla'm the protection .of the laws. . They were obliged every year to re- I ceive a certain, number of stripes, al- though the-" had not deserved them. lest they should forget the duty of obedience. If'anv ef them looked above his condition, he was condemned I to el:e, and his master was fined, in I order that he might, by severity, pre- t vent his other slaves from oftVidinrr hereafter the eyes of the citizens by I their outward accomplishments." I The Stiartana. authorized by these laws, used to fall umm the Helot whilst they w ere employee1 in the work.- of husbandry and. Without mercy, . I would destroy the ablest men amongst I ! the.m. for no other reason but for exer- cise. and lest these slaves s'houkl in- i , crease tra much. j "In other legislators." says Jose- f I phu3, "piety is an ingredient of vir- tue. but in ours ail the virtues ara i subordinate parts of piety." A ( - |