THE JEWS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1029, 11 November 1882, Page 3

THE JEWS.

The Jews are the great riddle of humanity. The history of the world has passed on. a fleeting panorama, apparently, to ono spectator on-lj -ihe Jew. In the dawn of human progress ms form Alls the horizon, and every page in the annals of culture Dears the in.press of his influence. Ages before the nations of Europe took upon themselves their present features, he had colonised their soil, and it is probable that, before Caesar bad even more than a hearsay acquaintance with Britain, the Jew had troden its shore as the supercargo of the Phoenicia.i mariner The one standard of morality recognised by the world, the basis of all civilised law, has een handed down by Hebrew hands ; the religious ideas of both tire East and West acknowledge the fatherhood of Hebrew inspiration. And yet never were the Jew# either numerically or politically powerful. Originally but a small nation, they endured unparalleled political woes, were decimated and ostracised, but yet were not exterminated ; they were dispersed amongst tire people of the earth, and their political bonds utterly destroyed, but still they preserved their distinctiveness. Alternately the objects of persecution and massacre, cursed and shunned of all men, they have with mysterious persistence seen race after race of their conquerors rise and disappear. Through all the vicissitudes of their own and the world’s history they have lived on unimpaired, and their powers of endurance have apparently triumphed over the passions and numbers of their conquerors. The Hebrew of to-day receives, through an unbroken line of descent, the living traditions of 5000 years ago, and stands before the woikl tire only link between these modern limes and misty epochs when humanity was cradled.