Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/165

 and exile, he bade them regard with pitying tenderness those who were strangers, as he had been.

But not only were foreigners to be tolerated; they were to receive the fullest protection: "Ye shall have one manner of law as well for the stranger as for one of your own country." If they chose to be naturalized, they became entitled to all the privileges of Hebrews.

Still further, all were required to render acts of neighborly kindness, which would be considered too minute to be specified in modern law. Whoever saw an ox going astray, was required to return it to the owner. The chief property of the husbandman, next to his land, was his cattle. And thus the Law saved to him his most valuable possession.

In several requirements, we discern a pity for the brute creation. Long before modern refinement of feeling organized societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals, Moses recognized dumb beasts as having a claim to be defended from injury. If one saw the ass even of an enemy lying under its burden, he was to lift it up. Birds' nests were protected from wanton destruction. Even the semblance of an unnatural act was forbidden: "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk." This may appear an over-refinement of legislation; but it shows the delicacy of feeling of the Lawgiver — that he shrank even from the appearance of barbarity. Thus he strove to extinguish the spirit of cruelty. If these enactments seem trifling, they at least indicate the strong instinct of humanity which framed these ancient statutes.

But perhaps the most beautiful provision of the Law was for the poor. When the land was rejoicing at the time of the vintage, they were not forgotten: "When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the