ABOUT the year 1490 B. c. a statute announced a Jubilee, or Liberty Day, in the following stately words:

"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

During the year 1753 A. D., a bell, brought from England for the old State House, Philadelphia, was found to be cracked. It was re-cast and placed in position, retaining the same gracious announcement,

"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." On the FOURTH DAY OF JULY, 1776, that bell, ever since honored, saluted

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

On the 11th day of September, A. D. 1893, at the opening of the Parliament of Religions, at the World's Exposition, the representatives of the chief religions there represented, in turn struck a new bell, as, after his own faith, each invoked the blessing of Almighty God upon the entire human family.

This New Bell had been cast from twenty-two thousand free-will offerings of gold, silver, national coins, personal jewelry, swords, and cannon, and whatever honored sacrifice and valor, and bore about its rim,

"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

Two additional mottoes, from the New Testament, as the first was from the earliest Hebrew Records, served to concenter all the elements that would ensure the purest liberty: :

and,

"Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will to men,"

"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another."

The New Liberty Bell.

The above design of the New Liberty Bell, from the government photograph, is suggestive, as noticed on page 408, that at meridian on each Independence Day, and on Washington's Birthday, all bells throughout the land, which summon to labor, school, or divine worship, be rung together, at a signal from those in charge of the great Liberty Bell.

Its voice echoes the grand announcement of thirty-five centuries ago.

BEACON LIGHTS OF PATRIOTISM.

PART I.

PATRIOTIC BEGINNINGS.

INTRODUCTION.

EVERY boy and girl in America may well be proud of the bright flag which waves above. so many schoolhouses to-day; and the youth of other countries also love their national flag and their native land, so that the patriotic spirit is not confined to any one people nor to any one period of human history.

Just because that spirit is sweetest where the people are most earnest to seek the happiness of all their countrymen, it is right that we study the history of other countries and peoples, to see if we can learn from them that which will make us more blessed and prosperous.

Sometimes we think that there never was a country where everybody had so much cause for being happy as in these United States. And sometimes we forget that nearly all the Laws, Maxims, and Incentives to Patriotism which move our own hearts and bless mankind had their real origin long before Greece and Rome were known to history.

The trials of our Forefathers when they first landed upon these shores, and during their gradual attainment of National Independence, never fail to awaken sympathy. And yet the most noteworthy adoption of a New Country by a wandering people was that of the Hebrew. Their national capital, Jerusalem, has been the most famous city of the world, and one of their descendants, Jesus of Nazareth, is the brightest " Model " character ever known. His birth and name fix all the dates and relations of human history.

The devotion of his Hebrew ancestors to their native land when they were captive exiles, far away from home, is a sublime type of the patriotic spirit in its noblest and best expression. That sad wail, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning! If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" is a sufficient incentive to begin a series of Patriotic Studies with a glance at the very beginning of a patriotic devotion never since surpassed.

1. SEEKING A COUNTRY.

(B. C. 1921.)

THE beautiful country of Chaldea, with its hundred brazen gates, its miles of wall two hundred feet in height and fifty in breadth, its "hanging gardens" and magnificent palaces, is described by the Hebrew seer, Isaiah, as Babylon, "the glory of the kingdom, the beauty of Chaldea's excellency."

ABOUT two thousand years before the Christian era, Abram and his family left their old home in the city of Ur, or City of Fire, as it was called, because its people worshipped the sun, and took up their journey for the land of Canaan, which bordered on the Mediterranean, or Great Sea. According to ancient predictions, the people of that country, named after a grandson of Noah, were to be "servants of their brethren;" and Abram therefore sought a new home in the West, with the belief that he would realize a permanent home country, in which, as promised, all the families of the earth would be blessed. He had scarcely located his family, distributed his camps, and prepared for real settlement, when a famine arose. He at once made a journey to fertile Egypt, and the generous king amply supplied his wants. On his return, he extensively explored his new country, was victorious over all opposing enemies, and died at "a ripe old age." The inspiration of his life had been the acquisition of a "home country" for his people, so that they might realize his brightest conceptions of their future destiny.

His son Isaac, under a similar stress of famine, did not seek aid from Egypt, but so industriously developed the means at his command as to escape serious disaster, and finally became very rich and prosperous. Animated by the same patriotic aspirations which had guided his father's career, he transmitted to his children also the

fullest confidence in the value and certainty of the inheritance of the entire country occupied as all their own. He even cautioned his son Jacob to go back to his ancient home in Chaldea, and marry among his kindred, rather than to marry one of the natives of Canaan. The eventful journey of the son to the fatherland of Abraham, where his uncle still lived, and the romantic courtship of his beautiful cousin Rachel, as well as the fourteen years of hard service under his mean and grasping father-in-law, were marked by indications that the patriotic yearnings of his father and grandfather had become the active principle of his vigorous young life. The death of his father introduced new responsibilities. He had taken a new name, that of Israel, under impressive circumstances, in the conviction, as given by the only reliable history of his times, that "a nation and a company of nations should come out of his loins," and that the realized "Land of Promise" would be even more fully enjoyed by his own posterity in the years to come.

And now, the waste places of Mesopotamia, the early home of Abraham, surrender to the most patient research only shattered fragments of the once magnificent Babylon, but the origin of the people who made home and country the inspiration of their literature, their prowess, and their development, is ever fresh in mind, through the historic record which Hebrew valor and devotion preserved through all the centuries, up to the present hour.

And now, the great American republic, itself "a nation and a company of nations," asserts as the crown of its maturing glory the very principles, patriotism, and sublime precepts which made the early Hebrew commonwealth the type of national prosperity and blessing.

NOTE. - The name Abram was changed to Abraham. See Index.