him the death of martyrs of the early Church; with what delight they wished to die for Jesus, knowing that they should enter into life, and that their blood has been the seed for the church, that God in mercy only favoured them to die for their faith-quoting to him the history of Sextimus and Severus, &c., &c. He told me further that the Counsellor von Bergen, whose family physician he is, had, by his simple, Christian, life, made a deep impression upon him. I could only agree with him, proving to him that the early Christians by their conduct fought through all difficulties, and sowed the seed in tears which has now brought forth fruit abundantly. After giving to his brother-in-law a New Testament we parted most friendly, with the invitation to visit him again. HULL. Had I not known the Jews to be of a migratory character, I should have found this truth most fully realised in my second visit to Hull. Some with whom I was acquainted last year are gone altogether, whilst new comers have filled up their places; others have changed their temporary abode, and it gives me a good deal of trouble before I can find them out again. It is gratifying to me to find that Christian friends are glad to see me again; but I value much more the hearty reception I meet with among the few Jewish friends I have made during my short stay last year. They seem really to appreciate my being sent among them a second time for the sole purpose of attending for a little while to their spiritual weal. It is through the missionary, and almost exclusively through the missionary, that the bread of life is distributed among them. Chapels and churches are open to them, it is true; but do they ever enter a place of worship? Lectures to the workingclasses are delivered regularly; but do Jews generally attend? Scripture readers go from house to house; but will Jews listen to them? will they accept tracts from them? How, then, can we reach the Jew? Principally, yea, I may say, solely, through the missionary; and let me state it here, I think most effectually through a Jewish missionary. Some time before I left Birmingham, when on a Sunday morning I was seen talking to a Jewish woman by a lady who knew me, and who is one of the tract distributors in the Jewish locality, she told me that she could not prevail upon that Jewish woman to take a tract, nor to listen to her; and town missionaries and Scripture readers, both in Birmingham and Hull, have told me the same: they cannot distribute tracts among them, and as to foreign Jews, not even attempt to speak. And though a Christian missionary, labouring among the Jews, is perhaps received with more respect, and treated with greater affability, it is to the Jewish missionary that a Jew would open his heart; for who can sympathise with a brother better than a brother, and enter inter into the feelings and arguments of a Jew, but he who claims Abraham for his ancestor. On the first day of Pesach I went to the morning service at the synagogue, where there was a good attendance, amounting, I believe, to 120 individuals, but few women among them. The place itself is small, nor is it such a fine building as that in Birmingham. The service, however, is conducted with great decorum, and the reader, who is a well-educated gentleman, and, at the the same time, teacher to the Jewish children, performs the ceremony with great pathos, and seems well qualified for the position he fills. In the afternoon of the second day, I met, at the house of Mr. -, besides his own family, a few Jews, where we talked over, in a friendly way, the sig nificance of the Passover; and as it was left to me to be the spokesman, I endeavoured to draw their minds from the letter to the spirit, explaining to them that the deliverance out of Egypt was typical of the deliverance to be achieved hereafter; that the smiting of the firstborn, the blood of the Paschal lamb on the door-posts, was typical of the expiatory death of Him who was most emphatically the first-born, and the true Passover; and that the sparing of the firstborn of the Israelites was typical of the new life which would be deprived from Messiah's death. These are, of course, but the heads of what I advanced on the subject, aiming principally to bring them to consider the priestly office of Christ, which topic occupied us altogether for about two hours; and though there were some good talmudical scholars among my listeners, who tried all in their power to involve me in a rabbinical controversy, I kept, as I always do, close to the Bible; for it is my firm conviction, and based upon experience, that the safest way for the Missionary is to argue from the Bible, as the entering into talmudical quibbles leads him away from the main point, and often counteracts the success he otherwise might have gained. I may mention here, that some bigoted Polish Jews would not allow me to enter their house on the day of preparation for the Passover and during the holidays. The paper written by Dr. Bennett came too late for the first days of the feast, but I posted 120 copies in 78 letters to Birmingham, enclosing in each one of the Messianic passages of the Old and New Testament compared and set in circulation in Hull; by letter 8; by other means 64. Foreign Jews arrive but few. I watch, if possible, the various steamers coming in from Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg, &c., and see the steamers off from Hull to London and other ports; but there are very few Jews among them-often none whatever. Only yesterday, the Helen McGeorge came from Hamburg, and there were but two Polish Jews among the passengers, who told me that there were not many Jews in Hamburg; and as now that unfortunate war has really broken out, the communication through Germany, for people without passports, is entirely stopped. Wherever I meet Jews on the piers, in the streets, in the shops-I talk to them; they will not always talk to me, however; nevertheless, I make Christ known whenever and wherever I have an opportunity. The time will come-yea, may come more speedily than │ we expect, when their faces are turned Zion-ward and they behold the city sit solitary that was full of people; then they will remember that the Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him; and that it is good for a man both to hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Mr. Kessler, having subsequently returned to Birmingham, gives us the following account of the meeting held in Ebenezer Chapel : The Rev. J. D. Wilson occupied the chair, and after having offered prayer, and made a few introductory remarks bearing on the subject of the lecture, W. Wright, Esq. read the cash statement for the last year, regretting that the Ladies' Association had lost some efficient collectors, on account of which the amount sent to the parent society was smaller this year than in the preceding. Rev. John Gill then addressed the audience, which, considering the numerous meetings that had been held the week before, on account of which some of the ministers could not give up their weekly services, was a pretty good one, and which listened most attentively for more than an hour to Mr. Gill's very interesting statements concerning the Jewish mission. The Rev. John Angell James, whose presence at our meeting we cannot esteem too highly, closed the proceedings by remarking, that we, as dissenters, evince considerably less interest in the spiritual welfare of the Jews than the Church of England, and that it is but seldom we hear prayer offered in their behalf, either from the pulpit or in the prayer meetings, He deeply deplored that state of things, and hoped that all present would commence this night to pray for the Jews, as a pledge to always remember them in their private communions with God, and evince their interest in the cause by contributing to the funds of the society, and help them to carry on the work they are engaged in. Mr. Wilson concluded the meeting. Dunmow, do. East Cowes, offerings. Fareham, H. Sharland, Esq. Ditto, a poor woman.. Haverhill, collection...... Ditto, box.... Hertford, collection Ditto,a Friend, donation.. Ilfracombe, collection Ditto, Mr. Jones.... Notice. 12 11 7 4 8 4 2 0 1 200 0 10 11 200 006 746 180 1 16 1 054 4 10 0 13 3 5 0 10 10 050 026 Keswick, offerings.. Leighton Buzzard, by Rev. Lynton, Mr. Collard Marylebone Presb. S. S., by Maryport, collection Ditto, by Mrs. Burgess. Penrith, collection. Ditto, collected by Miss Ross, collection Shrewsbury, offerings Stockbridge, collection.. Stoke-by-Clare, offerings Thaxtead, collection Whitehaven, collection £ . d. 0 15 0 11 11 11 8 12 0 316 0 10 0 08 186 1 13 6 076 1 11 51 1 19 1 6:10 2 116 6 110 246 106 130 060 230 1 8 0 386 149 0 086 1 11 176 1 14 9 THE MONTHLY DEVOTIONAL MEETING will be held, as usual, at No. 1, Crescentplace, Blackfriars, on Wednesday Evening, July 20th, at 8 instead of 7 o'clock. The Meeting is open to all friends of Israel. London: Published by JOHN SNOW, 35, Paternoster Row. Printed by Charles Adams and William Gee, at 23, Middle Street, West Smithfield, E.C.-No. 163-July 1, 1859 The Jewish Herald. PUBLISH YE, PRAISE YE, AND SAY, O LORD, SAVE THY PEOPLE, THE REMNANT OF ISRAEL." PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE OFFICE:-No. 1, CRESCENT PLACE, BLACKFRIARS, LONDON. No. 164.] AUGUST 1, 1859. On Palestine and the Jews. [Price 1d. THE Holy Land is desolate, for heaven's malediction rests upon it on man's account; and its inherent productiveness is enjoyed by neither the outcast Jew nor its present Mohammedan possessors. How can a country be fertile which has for centuries been the theatre of injustice and rapine? It lies in its winding-sheet; its hands and feet are bound; yet its bosom heaves with life, and it mournfully awaits the all-powerful mandate, "Come forth," to start into full vigour, and to gladden with its warm embrace its long-lost children. A better day is dawning upon its shores, and it shall yet silence gainsayers, by proving that its heart is full to overflowing. "What is the condition of the Jews?" They are depressed, yet cheered by the hope of future good, which sustains their mind amidst the most protracted sufferings. Being of Arab descent, they partake of the constitutional peculiarities of their race; are slow in movement, as time is of small value; are furious when aroused, and violent in action when influenced by passion. Their representatives in Palestine are as distinct from other classes as those whose descendants they are, and who, beneath the willows of Babylon, wept when they remembered Zion. The chosen race may be dispersed, wanderers and outcasts among every people and nation under Heaven; they may live among all races of men, blending and uniting with none; but even in their own land, their habits, manners, and characteristics are neither swallowed up nor lost in the predominating customs of their conquerors. Nowhere have these vanquished ones mingled with their Muslim oppressors;-they are as completely a distinct people as at any former stage of their existence. Perfectly isolated, they follow their own laws, which almost antedate the dawn of civilisation, and spurn the light of more modern times, as unsuited to their condition and their wants. * * * The Jews, it is calculated, do not exceed 12,000 in the whole of Palestine. They are met with in most of the towns of consequence. In no country have they been more despised and down-trodden than in their own; and in no city have they been so condemned as in Jerusalem. This extraordinary people, who have been the sport of the waves of adversity, have often risen upon the tide, and regained respect and power; and at this hour their heads are being raised above the billows which have so long drowned their supplicating cry. God blessed them when their faith had VOL. XIV.-NEW SERIES, VOL. V. |