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D'ISRAELI'S REMARKS ON THE JEWS.

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tidings of our Lord would have been unknown for ever to the northern and western races. No one has ever been permitted to write under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit but a Jew; for near a century no one believed the good tidings but Jews. And when the time was ripe to diffuse the truth among Ethnicks, a Jew of Tarsus was personally appointed for that office, who founded the seven churches of Asia. And that greater church, great even amidst its terrible corruptions, that has avenged the victory of Titus by subjugating the capital of the Cæsars, and has changed every one of the Olympian temples into altars of the God of Sinai and of Calvary, was founded by another Jew of Galilee."

He also says, most justly in my humble opinion, "Viewing the influence of the Jewish race upon the modern communities without any reference to the past history or future promises of Israel, dismissing from our minds and memories, if indeed that be possible, all that the Hebrews have done in the olden time for man, and all which it may be their destiny still to do, we hold that, instead of being an object of aversion, they should receive all that honour and favour from the northern and western races which in civilized and refined nations should be the lot of those who charm the public taste and elevate the public feeling."

Having said this much to the Christian, he turns to the Jews, and says, "It is wonderful that a great portion of the Jewish race should not believe in the most important portion of the Jewish religion. As, however, the converted races become more humane in their behaviour to the Jews, and the latter have opportunity fully to comprehend and deeply to ponder over Christianity, it is difficult to suppose that the result will not be very different. There is nothing repugnant

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to the feelings of a Jew when he learns that the redemption of the human race has been effected by the mediatorial agency of a child of Israel, that a Jewess is the queen of heaven, or that the flower of the Jewish race are now sitting on the right hand of the God of Sabaoth."

"Perhaps too in this enlightened age, as his mind expands, the pupil of Moses may ask himself, whether all the princes of the house of David have done so much for the Jews as that Prince who was crucified on Calvary. Had it not been for him, the Jews would have been comparatively unknown. Has not He made their history the most famous in the world? Has not He hung up their laws in every temple? Has He not vindicated all their wrongs? Has not He avenged the victory of Titus, and conquered the Cæsars?"

"What success did they anticipate from their Messiah the wildest dreams of their Rabbis have been far exceeded. Has not Christ conquered Europe, and changed its name into Christendom? All countries that refuse the cross wither, while the whole of the new world is devoted to the Semetic principles and its most glorious offspring the Jewish faith; and the time will come, when the vast communities and countless myriads of America and Australia, looking upon Europe as Europe now looks upon Greece, and wondering how small a space could have achieved such great ends, will still find music in the song of Zion, and solace in the parables of Galilee."

"These may be dreams," he concludes, "but there is one fact which none can dispute. Christians may continue to persecute Jews, and Jews may persist in disbelieving Christians; but who can deny that Jesus of Nazareth, the incarnate Son of the most high God, is the eternal glory of the Jewish race?"

CHAPTER XV.

PHOENICIA, CILICIA, PISIDIA, LYCIA, CARIA, LYDIA, THE ISLANDS IN THE PAMPHYLIAN AND EGEAN SEAS, AND IN THE EASTERN

ARCHIPELAGO.

I SHALL ever remember with pleasure and pride the voyage I made in the "Levant" steamer, the company and the cabin, the captain, officers, and crew. It was one of the most delightful portions of my long trip of ten thousand miles. It afforded every comfort for the body,-food and rich fruit and rare wines; and every day it presented nourishment for the mind richer and rarer still. Enjoying one of the finest climates on earth and at the best season of the year, I sailed for a thousand miles by the bases of the Lebanon and Taurus mountain ranges along the coasts of Phoenicia, Cilicia, Pisidia, Lycia, Caria, and Lydia. I thus made a grand circuit up the eastern shores of the whole Levant, and over the broad sea of Pamphylia, through the crowded Egean sea along a great part of the Archipelago, and up the gulf to Smyrna. In this course I steered north about five degrees, and then turned more to the westward by the islands of Rhodes, Cyprus, Patmos, and many others. During the whole voyage I enjoyed a distinct sight of the country, as we passed generally within a mile or two of the bold, beautiful beaches

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of Asia Minor; tossed by volcanic eruptions and torn by earthquakes into an endless variety of precipitous headlands and deep ravines and unfathomable craters, from burning mountains whose fires, now extinguished, had long been in active operation. Day after day either Lebanon, or Taurus, or Olympus, or some such terrific mountain ten or twelve thousand feet in height, looked down upon us from their snow-covered tops. Thus our eyes were feasted by a countless number and variety of places on the mainland, and on islands in the ocean, all beautiful beyond description in themselves merely to look at, but interesting far more from the details of sacred and civil history. And as all of us knew more or less of our Bible and of the classics, every promontory we rounded and every island we reached reminded us of what was said of it in the Scriptures, or in Homer, Virgil, Xenophon, Horace, Livy, or Quintus Curtius. Especially for the last two or three days of this voyage, ten, twelve, or fourteen islands were often seen within the range of my naked eye at once. Thus, as one receded into the dim distant horizon over the stern of the ship, another was gradually rising from the waves before us, and another and another bay, strait, headland or hill, attracted our notice, and sent us to the chart every hour. Then some name was sounded from one to another familiar to us all from our school days. My only regret was that this voyage occupied so much of my time, which was becoming now rather scarce. But I was elevated with the notion that comparatively few European travellers take this course, and also that we were steering towards the north pole, and of course homeward. Already I felt the breeze becoming fresher every day, and that the mosquitoes of the warmest latitudes were not so terribly tor

TRIPOLI-GABILI-LATAKIA.

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menting. But still I was as far even from Gibraltar as the Mediterranean waves could float me, and there was yet before me the horrors of several quarantines of three and of five days' duration. But this I could not help, and therefore thought it needless to regret. One word more. Let every traveller in the East take this same voyage, and if he can manage it, in this same steamer, "the Levant."

Tripoli is the general rendezvous of travellers on their way to Lebanon. It is celebrated for its silk manufactories and mulberry trees, which reach almost to the water's edge. But in fact the whole scene is one mass of gardens, and flower shrubs, and fountains, and rivulets, and water jets, and every variety of oriental luxury. The wines are excellent, and so very cheap that a gallon of the best, equal to claret, may be had for threepence or fourpence. I was charmed with the smell of the fruit and the beauty of the blossoms all around. But, and there is always a but everywhere, there were marshy plains, pools of stagnant water and heaps of filth on the streets which, by polluting the atmosphere, produce Syrian fever and all sorts of agues. The fort stands in an elevated position in the midst of the city, and the houses, shelving down from the castle, are scattered tastefully along.

Before reaching Latakia we passed the pretty little Syrian town of Gabili, celebrated for growing the finest tobacco in the world. The harbour of Latakia is really a fine little sight, and the landing is neatly constructed, and roofed in as a protection from the heat and the rain; but the port has been partly filled up by the fall of its ancient castle during the terrible earthquake of 1822. The consular agents of the European nations inhabit a range of handsome-looking

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