Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

precede the strength to be great and free; but wherever faith is given through the one, power will, through the other, sooner or later, succeed. It is in this view that we may propose to investigate the liberty of the Jews.

The two great principles upon which all liberty as well as all religion relies are the common origin of man and the common government of God.

8

The first of these was repeatedly imparted, at various seasons, to the Jews. Their traditions, like those of many another people, bore witness to the individual spared with his family, in order that mankind might be preserved from the condemnation otherwise universal; and the bow then set in the cloud above the faithful Noah was in token of a covenant to all flesh upon the earth.6 Another covenant with Abraham,7 and the still later declaration of Moses, proclaimed the same truth, — that, though one branch after another might wither and fall into error, the stock was always common to the sound and to the decayed. But instead of following the truth of human brotherhood, which was thus again and again disclosed, the Jews were overweighed by the extension of the chain, and would have supported only the links that bound themselves.

It fared the same with the second principle, concerning the universal government of God. No people could have more literally believed that in the Deity they had their judge, their lawgiver, and their

6 Genesis, IX. 13, 17. 7 Ibid., XVII. 2, 4.

8 Numbers, XV. 16.

9

king; none could have paid their homage to a mortal monarch with more devotion or greater splendor than they worshipped Him who made their sanctuary His dwelling, and by whom their separate interests of every day were as much regulated as their doctrines or their national destinies." Yet the Divine government was obeyed only because visible in outward and miraculous appearances; and in such a spirit, that, could its subjects have had their will, it would have been confined for ever to themselves, within the limits of their own Judea.

Neither, therefore, of the principles defined as the foundation both of liberty and of religion was developed to its full proportions among the Jews. It is this, indeed, that reduces the nation commonly arrayed in holiday attire, and portrayed as keeping with serious zeal the festivals of their faith or the injunctions of their laws, more nearly to the level of the toiling and the tempted races which dwelt with them upon the earth. Yet there were men amongst them to stand upon the mountains through their lives, and to assist their people at times to ascend them like

9 Isaiah, XXXIII. 22. 10 Exodus, XXV. 8.

11 The striking testimony of the great pagan historian is true : — "Non regibus hæc adulatio, non Cæsaribus honor." Tacit., Hist., V. 5. The theocracy of the Jews is the one undisputed point in history. "Deus profecto erat Rex Israelitarum.' Jahn, Arch. Bibl., Sect. 219. "Non tantum generali provi

dentia, sed speciali imperio, gentem Judaicam regeri et moderari.” Spencer, Dissert. de Theoc. Jud., De Legg. Hebræor., Cap. V. sect. 1. "Wherever the Israelite turned, he was reminded," says one of their descendants, "of the presence of his God and of his king. His king was in heaven; his God was on earth." D'Israeli, Genius of Judaism, p. 35.

wise; these times and these men, therefore, are for us, if we may, to follow.

Moses returned from Horeb to communicate 12 the revelation he had received to his countrymen, and to lead them forth from bondage. Had the people of the earth known what was passing, they would have ceased from labors and wars, to watch, on bended knees, the wanderings of the Israelites through Egypt and across the desert sands. But it was in solitudes, unseen by human eyes and uncheered by human prayers, that the band of slaves was saved from their pursuers and brought into the wilderness which still separated them from the homes whither they were called.

It sometimes seems as if they were not altogether unconscious of the magnitude of the service in which they were engaged. After those hours of dreadful terror and alarming deliverance in which the fugitives walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and were led in safety to the other shore, while their pursuers were overwhelmed in the waves, it was Moses who first sang a "song unto the Lord." 13 But there were none, apparently, who did not join with him in his thanksgiving, and even the women went out with timbrels and with dances to swell the praise which had never before, if we are informed aright, arisen from so many voices upon the earth. The form of Miriam, the prophetess, as she led the He

12 In language how earnest and 13 Exodus, XV. 1 et seq. how solemn! See Exodus, VI.

2-8.

brew women in celebrating the more than mortal triumph that had been achieved, is the image which an artist might choose in order to represent the characteristics of her people. The timbrel, the dance, and the song are not the only features in the scene we seem to see in her; there are the flashing eyes, the inspired voice, and the impulsive aspiration towards the Power by which the wondering people had been and were again and again preserved. Yet, to complete the picture, the pride and the punishment of Miriam 14 should be shaded in the darker background.

The course by day and the encampment by night soon became the objects of chief concern to the wanderers from the Red Sea; and though they did not yet prove faithless, it was more than they were able to comprehend, that they should continue in the midst of perils and sufferings. Now, they would return. whence they came; anon, they were "almost ready," run the touching words,15 to stone their leader for his fidelity; and the fall of manna and the stream from the rock seemed rather leading them to ruin than to salvation. But the time was come when the people, whose resolution was not so deficient as their knowledge, were to be brought under more intelligible subjection to their and their fathers' God. The uncertainty under which they labored forward and wavered backward in the wilderness was dissipated by the thunders, the lightnings, the thick cloud, and the voice of the trumpet, exceeding loud, from Sinai. Moses descended from the mountain with the com14 See Numbers, Ch. XII. 15 Exodus, XVII. 4.

mandments of fear towards God and justice towards man, and was believed. He went up a second time, and, after forty days and nights of seclusion, reappeared with the tables upon which the commandments were engraved, to find the people naked and sacrificing to a molten calf. Casting, with instant determination, the tables from his hands, he called to his side all who would yet be true; and when the Levites alone obeyed his summons, he ordered them to fall upon their faithless countrymen. As soon, however, as the people repented, he promised his intercession; and while they waited, anxious to learn the punishment they had to bear, Moses "returned unto the Lord," and prayed for their forgiveness. He then ascended Sinai for the third time, and on his return, with the tables engraved anew, the tabernacle was prepared by the rejoicing nation to receive them and the Glory by which they were visibly sanctified.

These familiar events are recounted only to explain the relations between Moses and his followers. Of ordinary appearance, it would seem, and without the least pretensions on his own part to extraordinary personal power,16 this wonderful man, though always respected and almost always obeyed, employed his authority as humbly as if he had been a child, instead of a ruler amongst his countrymen. He not only knew,

--

16 Josephus says, "He was of powerful in making men give credit agreeable presence, and very able to to what he believed." Whiston's persuade the people." Antiq., III. transl. Cf. a fragment from Arta1. 4. So in III. 15. 3: — "This man banus in Cory's Anc. Fragments, virtue, and p. 190.

was admirable for his

[blocks in formation]
« НазадПродовжити »