successes of the Hebrews; and when they departed from the living ideal, their demoralization began. Even in captivity, among foreign nations, the divine Principle wrought wonders for the people of God, in the fiery furnace and in kings' palaces.
Judaism was the antithesis of Christianity, because it engendered the limited form of a national or tribal Judaism antipathetic. religion. It was a finite and material system, carried out in special theories concerning God, man, sanitary methods, and a religious cultus. That he made “himself equal with God,” was one of the Jewish accusations against him who planted Christianity on the foundation of Spirit, who taught as he was inspired by the Father, and would recognize no life, intelligence, or substance outside of God.
The Jewish conception of God, as Yawa, Jehovah, or only a mighty hero and king, has not yet given place to Priestly learning. the true knowledge of God. Creeds and rituals have not cleansed their hands of rabbinical lore. To-day the cry of bygone ages is repeated, “Crucify him!” At every advancing footstep, Truth is still pursued with sword and spear.
The word martyr, from the Greek, means witness; but those who testified for Truth were so often persecuted Martyrdom. unto death, that at length the word martyr was narrowed in its significance, and so has come to mean always one who dies for his convictions. The new faith in the Christ, Truth, so roused the hatred of the opponents of Christianity, that its followers were burned, crucified, and otherwise persecuted; and so it came about that human rights were hallowed by the gallows and the cross.
