"THE HEBREW NATION."

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1121, 18 June 1867, Page 4

"THE HEBREW NATION."

The lecture on the above subject, by the Bev. P. H. Cornford, will be re-delivered (by request) this evening, at the Rooms of the Young Men's Christina Association, the inclemency of tlie weather having deprived many of the opportunity of being present on the previous occasion. Hie subject is one of more than ordinary interest, and one to which the rev. lecturer has devoted considerable attention. The extracts from the lecture, already published,'indicate sufficiently the mode of treatment adopted by him. Mr. Cornford selects the Biblical narrative as the basis of his theme, and from it illustrates—so far as "word-pictures" can do so —the eventful history of the most ancient and renowned race that ever bore a place in the world's history. That stand-point, as distinguished from the purely historical, has its own excellences, and the narrative of " The Knee and the Book" embraces a story as thrilling, and a moral as grand, as that depicted by the gifted author of "The Land and the Book." There is no other nation whose annals are recorded by inspired historians, and whose deeds are recounted in imperishable history. The lineage of those who boast their " blue blood" from ancestors who came over with the .Norman, is but as yesterday compared to that of men who can trace theirs back to Moses and the patriarchal age. The feats of our Crusaders arc modern when placed beside the deeds of the Hebrew wariiors who by "Lake IWerom thirty centuries ago taught the science of war to the Hittites and other tribes with more euphonious and less suggestive titles; who later down, on the Plain of Jezreel, under .Heaven's high favouT marched to assured victory, and hard upou the rearguard of the routed foe passed the Jordan, "faint, yet pursuing." "With regard to the future restoration of the Jews to their ancient heritage, Mr. Cornford confined himself to simple reference to the passages in Scripture, and a casual allusion to the part which some had set down for JS'apoleon to play in that historical episode. 2he region of prophecy has been so often traversed of late years to spice " sensational" religious literature, that we do not wonder at the rev. gentleman's reticence. To Mr. Baxter the prophecies of Ezekiel and Daniel, or the Apocalyptic visions of M. John, are but very mild puzzles indeed compared to the Rosetta stone or the cuniform hieroglyphics on the Assyrian sculptures; we question, however, whether if Napoleon the Little had not by his consummate ability and clever statesmanship proved himself to have a better claim to the appellation o£ Great than his ambitious uncle, he would have figured so conspicuously in the "visions" or suffered so heavily from the "beastly" allusions of the " dustman of destiny." The golden consolations afforded by a third edition will amply compensate for the nonfulfilment of Baxterian predictions ; it would be bard to say which school does most injury to Holy "Writ, that which turns it into an illustrated almanac, or that which, like M. Renan s, produces religious romances illustrating its sacred events in the- spirit and style of Lady Aud ley's Secret. Considering that those who were in advancc of their fellows in some respects, iu days gone by, were either in league with the Evil One or guilty of witchcraft, the Nestor of European politics can scarcely complain at being regarded as "the great dragon." Macaulay has shown with as little reason, and as much truthfulness, thattho House of Commons, with Speaker, clerks, usher of the black rod, and sergeant-at-arms form the mystic number—666! Whether the restoration of the Jews may be effected by the iutervention of European potentates, who in their ambitious schemings might little dream of such a result, is quite within the limits of possibility. Stranger things have happened ere uow, The day-dream of Italy s best* and bravest might have remained so for a ceniury to come, but for the moi'al and material aid extended by one ffho climbed to power on the bodies of his fellows —the author ot the coup d'pic f of the 2nd December. Exeter Hall and its coadjutors never dealt such fatal blows at the power of the Papal hierarchy as have inflicted by one whom his Holiness affectionate y described as "the eldest son of the Church. And we have seen in our times the stoutest stickler for the " divine right" ot Kings, un-

consciously facilitating the political emancipa tion of his race, and. the divine right of human brotherhood. No human hand can venture to unfold the orophetic scroll. This much we do know—that riphtecn centuries ago the question was profunded "Wilt thou at this time restore tlie C "dom to Israel ?" and that He who could have answered made this sole reply, " It is not for you to know the times and the seasons, "u the Father hath put into his own power. ' Tii the fullness of time the " tribes of the wanderin" foot and weary breast" shall again possess the land which has been hallow ed b\ no common deed* and the subject of no common government—the national glories of a past theocraey an-aiu revived—when 110 longer throughout its borders shall be heard from minaret of mosque the Muezzin's call to ihc worship of the False Prophet, but when in tlie lyrics of Israel's " sweet singer their and our Cod shall alone be worshipped in the place where His honour dwelt, and His glorv was manifested. Is ever during thv last seventeen centuries have so many Jews bee.u mitred there as now. A Hebrew poet imbued with the aspirations of his race, has thrown them into a jioctic mould of singular beauty— Lift up your heads ' for Canaan a soil Is yours. Ye >hall no: l>tty. Lone h.ts it yielded. as a >|>-»il, # Its com, its wine, its fruit, its oil, Kedemption draweih nigh I Lift uv your heads 1 your Temple domo Mial] once more ki?s i\v: sky 1 .Terusa'em shall be yonr home, From which her sons ii j more shAll roam ; Redemption drawetli nidi 1 Lift up your heals! '.ift up your voice I Ye heralds. quickly Hy ! I>id Israel's exiled tribes rejoice ; Jsrat-1. tlu' people « f His cli.'ioe ; Kcdt mpticn dr;iweili liiiiU ! —May tlie hopes expressed in I3eu Japliet's heart-stirring lines have speedy fruition !-— the land sodden with the blood of Roman and Jew, Saracen, Crusader and Turk, again rejoice in peace and plenty —its " holy places" no longer a prey to the hand of Moslem and Bedouin spoiler —and "The Hebrew Nation" become from an historical phrnse, or the secretly cherished aspiration of its " devout men " and *' honourable women," a fact realised and assured, when " they shall dwell safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, and none shall make them afraid."