Palestine or the Holy Land | Page 5

distance from his native country. His grandson Jacob, a
"Syrian ready to perish," goes down into Egypt with a few individuals,
where his descendants, although evil entreated and afflicted, became a
"nation, great, mighty, and populous," and whence they were delivered
by the special interposition of Heaven. In prosperity and adversity they
are still the objects of the same vigilant Providence which reserved
them for a great purpose to be accomplished in the latter days; while
the Israelites themselves, as if conscious that their election was to be
crowned with momentous results, still kept their thoughts fixed on
Palestine, as the theatre of their glory, not less than as the possession of
their tribes.
We accordingly see them at one period in bondage, the victims of a
relentless tyranny, and menaced with complete extirpation; but the
hope of enjoying the land promised to their fathers never ceased to
animate their hearts, for they trusted that God would surely visit them
in the house of their affliction, and, in his appointed time, carry them

into the inheritance of peace and rest. At a later epoch we behold them
swept away as captives by the hands of idolaters, who used all the
motives which spring from fear and from interest to secure their
compliance with a foreign worship; but rejecting all such inducements,
they still continued a separate people, steadily resisting the operation of
those causes which, in almost every other instance, have been found
sufficient to melt down a vanquished horde into the population and
habits of their masters. At length they appear as the instruments of a
dispensation which embraces the dearest interests of all the sons of
Adam; and which, in happier circumstances than ever fell to their own
lot, has already modified and greatly exalted the character, the
institutions, and the prospects of the most improved portion of mankind
in both hemispheres of the globe.
Connected with Christianity, indeed, the history of the Hebrews rises
before the reflecting mind in a very singular point of view; for, in
opposition to their own wishes they laid the foundations of a religion
which has not only superseded their peculiar rites, but is rapidly
advancing towards that universal acceptation which they were wont to
anticipate in favour of their own ancient law. In spite of themselves
they have acted as the little leaven which was destined to leaven the
whole lump; and in performing this office, they have proceeded with
nearly the same absence of intention and consciousness as the latent
principle of fermentation to which the metaphor bears allusion. They
aimed at one thing, and have accomplished another; but while we
compare the means with the ends; whether in their physical or moral
relations, it must be admitted that we therein examine one of the most
remarkable events recorded in the annals of the human race.
Abstracting his thoughts from all the considerations of supernatural
agency which are suggested by the inspired narrative, a candid man
will nevertheless feel himself compelled to acknowledge that the course
of events which constitutes the history of ancient Palestine has no
parallel in any other part of the world. Fixing his eyes on the small
district of Judea, he calls to mind that eighteen hundred years ago there
dwelt in that little region a singular and rather retired people, who,
however, differed from the rest of mankind in the very important

circumstance of not being idolaters. He looks around upon every other
country of the earth, where he discovers superstitions of the most
hateful and degrading kind, darkening all the prospects of the human
being, and corrupting his moral nature in its very source. He observes
that some of these nations are far advanced in many intellectual
accomplishments, yet, being unable to shake off the tremendous load of
error by which they are pressed down, are extremely irregular and
capricious, both in the management of their reason and in the
application of their affections. He learns, moreover, that this little spot
called Palestine is despised and scorned by those proud kingdoms,
whose wise men would not for a moment allow themselves to imagine,
that any speculation or tenet arising from so ignoble a quarter could
have the slightest influence upon their belief, or affect, in the most
minute degree, the general character of their social condition.
But, behold, while he yet muses over this interesting scene, a Teacher
springs up from among the lower orders of the Hebrew
people,--himself not less contemned by his countrymen than they were
by the warlike Romans and the Philosophic Greeks,--whose doctrines,
notwithstanding, continue to gain ground on every hand, till at last the
proud monuments of pagan superstition, consecrated by the worship of
a thousand years, and supported by the authority of the most powerful
monarchies in the world, fall