Verily we are debtors to the Jew for the great lesson contained in this fact. Another religion—that one indeed which at the present day commands the greatest number of believers—does, as some of its own doctors tell us, leave open, to a considerable extent, this question of future rewards and punishments, contenting itself with teaching that virtue is its own sufficient reward; and that should it have any consequences in a life to come they cannot be evil: and the bearing of this evidence on the point before us is not unimportant. Those, however, who are in the habit of passing by unheeded what more than 300,000,000 of the human family have to say on such questions, will not think it immaterial what the Jews believed. And never had any people more unclouded faith in the eternity and ultimate mundane triumph of truth, of right, and of goodness than the Jews, although they seldom had any thought, and then only very dimly; that they should themselves participate in, or witness that triumph: they lived and died in the faith of it, never having been supported and strengthened by the sight of it, but only by the desire to see it: the better condition, which was to make perfect theirs, having been reserved for other times. Never, however, were any people more ready to sacrifice everything, even to life itself, in proclaiming, and endeavouring to carry out, what they believed. It was this that prompted, and made successful, the Asmonæan insurrection against Greek domination; and which afterwards impelled them to challenge single-handed the world-Empire of Rome. Contemporary history, like much that has been written subsequently, did not understand, indeed quite misunderstood, their motives, and what was stirring within them; and so failed to do them the honour they deserved for their heroic efforts to prevent the extinction of their religion and morality. We, however, can now, at the same time, both do them justice, and acknowledge our obligations to them, for having taught us that the moral sentiments have such deep root in man’s nature; and can maintain so vigorous an existence by their own inherent power, without aid from other-world hopes and fears, and against all of force or seduction with which this world can assail them. This, I submit, throws light upon much that, at the present day, and amongst ourselves, stands somewhat in need of proof and distinctness.