I AM about, if God permit, to speak now of, by far, the most remarkable people in the world. In the last chapter we studied the Races, and found that through the labours of scientific men the three patriarchs of 4,000 years ago reappear in this nineteenth century as most important “witnesses to truth.” We put, as it were, Shem, Ham, and Japheth into the witness-box, and the result of their testimony was that Noah was inspired, and the Bible true. Such a subject as that has a tendency to lose power through the vastness of its extent. Our reading is not sufficiently wide, nor our minds sufficiently large, to enable us to take in the whole. We are dependent, moreover, on scientific men; and it is a strange thing, but a fact, that those who talk most of science are generally the least disposed to receive the conclusions of scientific men, when those conclusions differ from their own. But now I am about to call witnesses, in the examination of whom we do not want the help of science; for in their case there are no scientific difficulties. Their evidence is within reach of us all, and if we choose we may test it for ourselves. I am not about to speak of what happened 4,000 years ago; but of what is going on now, of what took place last year, and what any one may see for himself, if he will take the trouble to go to Houndsditch or Petticoat Lane. There he will find a most remarkable people, eager, quick, and intelligent, exceedingly different from the rest of the inhabitants of London, and separated from their fellow-townsmen by a social barrier, which is very seldom overstepped. These remarkable people are the Jews.
Now there are five undoubted and indisputable facts respecting the Jews that I propose, if God permit, to bring before you, and may He be pleased to help our study to the confirmation of our faith, and to the increase of our interest in His own ancient people!
(1.) _Their Expatriation_, or their expulsion as a nation from their country.
Now it is a curious fact, that there is no other nation in the world which has such a right to its own country as the Jews. Other nations claim their country simply through the right of occupation. We live in England, and our fathers lived there before us, so we consider it ours, and are ready to lay down our lives for its safety. But we have no title-deeds, and we have no documents to prove that it is ours. But it is very different with the Jews. They have the clearest possible documentary evidence of their covenant right to Palestine. There is not a person in any town who has a better title to his house than the Jews have to their country. It was distinctly given to them by God Himself, as we read in Gen. xv. 18. And yet after having occupied it for fifteen centuries, and after having shown the utmost courage and determination in its defence, they were driven from their homes by their Roman conquerors. Their city was sacked, their temple burnt with fire, their country laid desolate, and they themselves scattered homeless through the world. The result is that at this present time there are many more Jews in London than there are in the whole of Palestine. Now these are plain, well-known facts, and facts so well established that they are beyond the reach of contradiction.