“And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers” (Jeremiah xxiv. 10).
HOW wonderfully and fearfully have these words been fulfilled to the letter! And the scourge has not yet ceased from pursuing them, but has followed Israel through the centuries, even to the present day. Within the last few years thousands upon thousands have been brutally done to death in Eastern Europe. In the Ukrainian districts especially the pogroms have been remarkable for the ruthless cruelty of the perpetrators. The venomous hatred displayed towards the Jews by the people of Russia and other Continental countries has been appalling. Not only the lower classes, but people of rank, also, have manifested this anti-Semitism.
In 1905 a book entitled the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, by Sergei Nilus, was published in Russia, in which it was alleged that a deeply-laid plot for the overthrow of civilisation and the establishment of a Jewish world state was in existence. Last year this book was republished in London under the title of The Jewish Peril, and was later published in instalments in the Morning Post, a London daily newspaper. It is believed that this book did much to help the anti-Semitic cause. However, its authenticity has now been clearly disproved by the publication in the Times of a series of articles showing that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is nothing but a clumsy plagiarism. The original volume from which the plagiarism was made is proved by the Times to have been published in 1865 by a Frenchman in Brussels. Credit is due to the Times for exposing this imposture.
It is clear that the Vatican is not well disposed towards the
Jews, and has no desire that a Jewish National Home be established in the Holy Land. The native population of Palestine recently sent a delegation to London to seek to secure a reversal of the Balfour Declaration in their favour. The English Churchman writes concerning this delegation:—”It is very significant that when passing through Europe on their way to London they should refuse invitations to discuss their grievances with the representatives of other nations, but that they made an exception of the Pope. They fitted a visit to Rome into their programme, not that they might lay their case before the Italian Government, but that they might spend some time at the Vatican in conference with the Pope and his advisors. Mr. Ormsby-Gore drew attention to their action in Parliament by asking whether they had been received in audience by the Pope; whether the British diplomatic representative was present at the interview, and whether this visit to the Pope was authorised by the British Government. The curt official reply was to this effect:—’The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative, and to the second and third parts in the negative.’ We suppose it was natural that when the Pope was conferring with the Mohammedans, whom he is employing to undermine British influence and authority, he should not desire the presence of the Envoy.” The English Churchman, after discussing Palestine and the Jews at some length, concludes thus:—”Still, as we have often said, if the restoration of the ancient people to their land be God’s will, no weapon that is formed against it can really prosper.”
It will certainly be pleasant to see Palestine’s land once more peopled with the children of Israel, but, O, may the time speedily come when the darkness of Judaism will be dispelled by the Light of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
O. W. L. I.