salem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion (Joel 3: 18-21).

Amos, another of the most ancient of the Hebrew seers, announces divine judgments upon the states surrounding Judea, and against the two divisions into which the Hebrews fell after the reign of Solomon. He warns them of the calamity about to overtake them through the invasion of the Assyrians, but beyond this destruction he sees future restoration to glory. After the people have been sifted among the nations of the earth, they will be again raised to more than former glory. This is the burden of his

prophecies. He concludes as follows:

And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God (Amos 9: 14, 15).

The Prophet Hosea, a contemporary of Amos and an Israelite by birth, speaks more particularly about the dispersion and final conversion and re-establishment of the so-called ten tribes. Here are some of his remarkable predictions delivered more than seven centuries before Christ:

For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim. Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David, their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days (Hosea 3: 4, 5).

The ephod here spoken of was an article of dress belonging to the uniform of the Hebrew priest. It was made of linen, and the ephod of the chief priest was embroidered with various colors. One part of this dress covered the breast, while the other fell over the back, and the two parts were clasped together upon the shoulders with large gems, upon which were engraved the names of the twelve tribes. It was further fastened with a girdle of "gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen." The teraphim were most probably images to which the people paid superstitious

reverence in their homes. The prediction, therefore, was that Israel should be scattered for many days, for a long time, and be deprived of both public and private worship. Not forever, though. Only for "many days."

The same prophet declares:

Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel (Hosea 1: 11).

The Prophet Isaiah speaks in the same strain:

Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for God hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem (Isaiah 52: 9.)

For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth (Isaiah 62: 1.)

Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah [my delight is in her], and thy land Beulah [married, indicating union between God and his people]: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married (Isaiah 62: 4. See also chapters 65 and 66).

The Prophet Micah declares, referring to the exaltation of the people of God in the latter-days:

In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; and I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even forever. (Micah 4: 6, 7).

The Prophet Daniel, speaking of the last days, says:

And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book (Dan. 12: 1).

Scores of scripture passages might be quoted. The Bible student may be referred to the following, which should be read. with their context:

1. Concerning the gathering of the Hebrew race. 12, 13; 43: 5, 6; 49: 11, 12; Zeph. 3: 10; Zech. 8: 7, 8;

Isa. 11: 11; 27: 10: 8-10. 2. This gathering precedes the acceptance of Jesus as the king of the earth: Isa. 1: 26; 60: 70; Jer. 23: 4; 30: 8, 9, 21; Ezek. 34: 23, 24; 37: 24, 25; Obad. 21; Zech. 14: 5, 9; Ps. 22:27, 28.

3. Further prophetic declarations are to the effect that the Jews restored will be prosperous, and be a blessing to all the earth. Palestine shall become exceedingly fertile, and Jerusalem shall flourish. Before this, however, there will be wars and desolation. Isa. 34; Joel 3: 1-10; Zeph. 3: 8, 9. Ezek. 28: 25, 26; Hag. 2: 21-23; Jer. 30: 7-10; II Chron. 15:3-7.

In view of these prophecies, the movement that has occupied the attention of many Jews the last few years, and which is known as Zionism, becomes exceedingly important. No matter how we view it, whether we consider it a beautiful dream or a practical scheme, it is the most remarkable Jewish movement of the age. It must be reckoned with. And perhaps it is not, after all, more impossible than was the exodus from Egypt.

The chief leader of this movement is Theodore Herzl, of Vienna. M. Herzl sprang into prominence from the humble position of an obscure journalist, by publishing a little book, Die Judenstaat, in which Zionism was outlined. No better idea of this modern Moses, as he has been called, can be given, than by his own autobiography, in which he says in part:

I was born in 1860, in Budapest, in a house next to the synagogue, where lately Rabbi denounced me from the pulpit in very strong terms, because forsooth I am trying to obtain for the Jews more honor and freedom than they enjoy at present. On the front door of the house in the Tabakgasse, where I first saw the light of this world, twenty years hence a notice will be posted up, with the words, "This house to let."

I cannot deny that I went to school. First of all I was sent to a Jewish preparatory school, where I enjoyed a certain authority because my father was a wealthy merchant. My earliest recollection of that school consists of a caning which I received from the master because I did not know the details of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. At the present time a great many schoolmasters want to give me a caning because I recollect too much of the exodus of Egypt.

At the age of ten I went to the Realschule. Lesseps was then the hero of the hour, and I had conceived the idea of piercing the other isthmus, that of Panama. But I soon lost all my former love for logarithms and trigonometry, because at that time a very pronounced antiJewish tendency prevailed at the Realschule. One of our masters explained to our class the meaning of the word "heathen" by saying, "To that class belong the idolators, Mohammedans and Jews." After this peculiar definition I had enough of the "Realschule," and wanted to become a classical scholar. My good father never constrained me into a narrow groove for my studies, and I became a pupil of the gymnasium.

But for all that, I had not yet quite done with Panama. Many years later, as the Paris correspondent of the Neue Freie Presse, it became my duty to write about the notorious incidents of that scandalous episode in the history of France. At the gymnasium which was called the Evangelisches Gymnasium, the Jewish boys formed the majority, and therefore we had not to complain of any "Judenhetze." In the upper seventh I wrote my first newspaper article-of course, anonymously, otherwise I would have been kept in by the headmaster.

While in the highest class in the gymnasium, my only sister died, a girl of eighteen: my good mother became so melancholy with grief that we removed to Vienna in 1878.

During the "shiva" week (week of mourning) Rabbi Kohn called on us and asked me what were my plans for the future. I told him that I intended to become an author (ein Schriftsteller), whereupon the rabbi shook his head.

In Vienna I studied law, took part in the stupid students' farces, including the wearing of a colored cap of a "verbindung" until this association one fine morning passed a resolution that no Jews should henceforth be received as members. Those who were members already they kindly permitted to remain in the "verbindung."

I said goodby to these noble youth and began to devote myself seriously to work.

In 1884, I took my degree as doctor juris and entered the Gerichts Praxis (an unsalaried appointment in the law courts as a judicial clerk under the supervision of a judge).

I held this appointment in the law courts of Vienna as well as in Salzburg. In Salzburg the work seemed to be much more attractive, the scenery in and around the town being most beautiful. My office was in an old castellated tower, just under the belfry; the chimes sounded sweetly pretty to me three times every day.

Of course I wrote much more for the theatres than for the law courts. In Salzburg I spent some of the happiest hours of my life. I would have liked to stay there in the beautiful town, but, as a Jew, I could never have advanced to the position of a judge. I therefore bade goodby to Salzburg and law business at the same time. Again I caused a great deal of worry to the rabbi in Budapest, for instead of going in for a real profession or for an art, I began to travel and to write for newspapers and for the theatre. A great many of my plays were performed at different theatres, some with great applause, others fell flat. Until this minute I cannot understand why some of my plays met with success while others were hissed off the stage. However, this difference of the receptions of my plays taught me to disregard altogether whether the public applauded or hissed my work. One's own conscience must be satisfied with one's work, all the rest is immaterial. I disown at present all my plays, even those which are still applauded at the Burgtheater (Imperial Court Theatre in Vienna). I don't care any longer for any of them.

In 1889, I married. I have three children, a boy and two girls. In my opinion my children are neither ugly nor stupid. But of course I may be mistaken.

While traveling in Spain, in the year 1891, the Neue Freie Presse made me the offer to become its correspondent in Paris. I accepted this position, though I detested and despised politics up to that time. In Paris I had occasion to learn what the word politics means, and I expressed my views in a little book, "The Palais Burbon." In 1895, I had quite enough of Paris and returned to Vienna.

During the last two months of my residence in Paris, I wrote the book, "The Jewish State," to which I owe the honor of having been asked by you for some biographical data of my humble person.

The story of the book that became the beginning of modern Zionism is particularly interesting, M. Herzl says:

I do not recollect ever having written anything in such an elevated frame of mind as that book. Heine says that he heard the wings of an eagle beat over his head while writing certain verses. I do believe that "something also beat" above my head, while I wrote that book. I worked at it every day until I was completely exhausted; my only relaxation in the evening consisted in listening to Wagner's music, more especially to "Tanhauser," which opera I went to hear as often as it was performed. Only on those evenings when there at the opera I felt doubts about the correctness of my thoughts.