A Paper read before the Shanghai tion. jecting of the Shanghai Zionist Association, "the Rev. Frank Rawlinson read the following sympathetic and informing paper I deem it an honour and a privilege to be permitted to address you this evening. As a man I can sympathise with your sufferings; as an American I eppreciate your aspirations for national emancipation; as a Christian I worship your God. To attain to that for which this Zionist Association stands you need a love strong enough to overcome your many differences, a spirit of patriotism intense enough to supplant your attitude towards the countries of your adoption, am affection for your ancient land that shall subordinate the difficulties of getting there to the satisfaction of being there, and a reverence for God comprehensive enough to make your loyalty to god the chief characteristic of your nation. If I can help you towards these things a little I shall consider this effort well put forth.
For about forty centuries the Jew has lived on this world; for twenty centuries he has wandered. His maintenance of national characteristics seems to have been in almost direct violation of natural principles. It is the opinion of many that he ought to have died long ago; but it is a fact—and facts count for more than opinions—that the has not. He is some-tames referred to as a " miracle" or "am extraordinary enigma." His situation has been summed up in these words. "They are a people without a country whose country is without a people." The Jew by reason of his very Jewishness is a religious, social, and political problem. So the subject for this evening presents itself to me under the title © Problem of the Jew," 'a problem facing both those who know him and himself. My task is more to present to you the problem than to elucidate it, though I aliall have probably most to say about the present-day attempt to solve it. This attempt is known to you as "Zionism." I think, however, that the full solution of the problem does not lie in human hands alone.
Let us take a look in passing at the home of the Jews. There seems to be a growing conviction that the Jews are linked with Palestine for all time. There once pulsed through it the heart throbs of the life of the ancient world. It was isolated by a great desert and ed mountains. Its situation made it the contre of activity for the world of ite day. One has said that it had double relation of exclusion and ready intercommunication." In natural advantages it, was a " most-favoured land." But we are told that to-day Palestine is pre-eminently a land of ruin. And even its ruins are in the Liege of the fatal this country are of flat ret gion that Strangely snowy present. rulers of thinks highly of the Jews' ancestors and does not lightly esteem the founder of Christianity. It was only for a period of sixty years—the golden age of the Hebrew nation—that the boundaries of actual possession were fully identical with the boundaries of the promised heritage. Happy the day when that again 3s so. Though Palestine is a land of ruins it is not a land beyond redemption. It is true that we are forced to admit that the present prosperity of the country is not great. One writer says; At present the country has nothing but starvation to offer to penniless emigrants." Young Jews constantly have to Jeave to find fresh openings. Another writer thinks that this cannot improve without something unexpected happening. Yet the Tand is full of promise; Lebaron has not lost all its primeval beauty. Sixty-eight times is Lebanon mention-jed in the Old Testament and it has not yet come to that condition that people can look at it and forget it. Carmel still wears some of its bride-like tresses. The early and the latter rains are again coming and in greater profusion. That modern life has touched it is seen in the presence of railroads. Its soil is good. The deposits in the valleys and plains are notably rich in the elements that make fertility. Some of its possibilities are hinted at in the fact that in 1852 about ten acres of waste ground on the hill of Goath was bought for two hundred and fifty pounds (£250) and put under cultivation. That same piece of land is now valued at £20,000. Another writer says that Palestine is capable of support ing a large population if fully cultivated. The present population of Western Palestine is about 600,000. But the country under cultivation is fully capable of supporting ten times that number—6,000,000. I was interested to note, though, that that is the highest figure I have seen. The number of the Jews is considerably above that. This is not, however, any hindrance to "Zionism." Palestine is still a land where history can be made and lives worthily lived.
One cannot think much of Palestine without thinking of Jerusalem. For Jerusalem is the heart of Palestine and Jerusalem is still, I believe, in the heart of the Jews. It is the point on earth of closest contact between God and man.
Not now, perhaps—but that is man's own fault. Ib is a city, too, still unforgotten. It may still be said with the Psalmi "For thy servants take pleasure in hor stones and have pity upon her dust." One writer says that Jerusalem is a graveyard. Beneath its present surface lie the rubbish and wreckage of not less than eight cities. Its entombed relics speak of David, Solomon, Nehemiah, Herod, Omar, Godfrey de Bouillon, and' Saladin: To give you an idea of the height of the Aébris that covers this ancient city in some places, let_me mention one place. Here the wail of the temple as seen is about forty-five feet high; but were the debris cleated away to its foundation it would be found to be 170 feet high. Prophecy has been fulfilled in that parts where walls once rose have Lec ome vegetable gardens. The present city has four main quarters:—the Armenian, the Christian, the Moslem and the Jewish. And of these, sad to relate, the Jewish seems to be the worst. "Ruins heaped upon ruins," says one, "are the chief characteristic of this densely populated district." The ancient city of the worshippers of God has passed into the hands of the worshippers of Mohammed, and by superstition and tradition has almost become a caricature of its relations with the found-or of Christianity. One instance of this will suffice, Within the walls of what is known as the Church of the Holy Sepulebro are located thirty-two shrines. For sixteen centuries Christian pilgrims have kissed a marble slab within it that at the best is only an artificial representation of a tomb such as Jesus lay in. And sad and suggestive it is that the only place in Jerusalem to which the Jews have froe access is "The Wailing Place."
The solution of the "Problem of the Jew" has much to do with what has already been Now let us look at the one around whom the problem revolves—the Jew himself. What is he to-day and how does he affect the world at large? Let us look first at him as a tenant in his old home—for his own house only knows him as tenant—and I am afraid not yet enjoying all the privileges of a tenant. Nevertheless he is going back there in increasing numbers. In all Palestine there are to-day about 120,000 Jews. Of this number 30,000 are found within Jerusalem itself. One of out every four Hebrews in Palestine is in its capital city. In 1840 there were only 3,000 in Jerus Jem and 10,000 in the whole Jand. It
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.