stand.

66

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But if there be any impenitent sinners now present, any who, under all the admonitions of the divine Word, and the most alarming dispensations of God's holy providence, have continued till this hour to be "stout-hearted and far from righteousness," we would once again address to them the command, or rather the entreaty, to repent; and we would enforce our words by the blessed Saviour's declaration, "Except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish." Flee, then, we beseech you, for refuge from the coming wrath, to that Redeemer who alone can be to your souls as "a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest." Look on Him whom your sins have pierced, and mourn. No longer harden your hearts," but, even now, hear this voice that speaketh to you from heaven, and "repent, and be converted, that your sins also may be blotted out." That Jesus who was lifted up upon the cross to draw all men unto him, is now exalted for the very purpose of "taking away the stony heart that is in you, and of giving to you a heart of flesh." He looks on every sinner still, as of old he looked upon the guilty inhabitants of Jerusalem. He regards them with the tenderest compassion. Draw nigh, then, to him, and you shall in no wise be cast out, for he is waiting to be gracious; and he has sent us to assure you that the rending of your hearts shall be as a signal for rejoicing to the myriads of blessed spirits that wait and minister around his throne. "Turn, then, and live, for why should die." ye "Repent that ye may not perish." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and shall be saved."

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THE SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE RABBINICAL JEWESS. THE progress of Jewish reform has created schools for Jewish female children, both free schools for the poor, and establishments of a higher order for the wealthy. But who ever heard of a female school amongst oldfashioned Rabbinical Jews? or who ever saw a Rabbinical schoolmistress, or a Rabbinical Jewess who gained a livelihood by teaching? The female schools in London, in Germany, in Warsaw, have all emanated from the power of Christian example, or the direct influence of the Government; they are not the natural offspring of Rabbinism, and consequently where this system still reigns, as in the East, and Poland generally, they are not to be found. Very many of the Jewish female children do not learn to read at all. Those that do learn are not taught by one of their own sex, but by a melammed, or a rabbi, or a tutor. In very rare instances they learn to translate Hebrew, but

are much employed in shopkeeping, and sometimes manage all the worldly business, that the husband may give himself unreservedly to the study of the Talmud; and this last circumstance shows, if it were not abun dantly attested by the high degree of mental cultiva tion and accomplishment commonly found among the not to be ascribed to any defect in the Jewish female Jewesses in Germany, that this want of education is mind, but to some external cause. The spirit of Rabbinism it is which degrades womankind, and does not suffer her to exercise the faculties which God has given.

Rabbinism lays it down as an axiom, that to study the law of God is no part of a woman's duty, and that to ternal obligation. teach his daughters the Word of God is no part of pa"Women and slaves are exempt from the study of the law." "A woman who learns the law has a reward, but it is not equal to the reward which the man has, because she is not commanded to do so. But though the woman has a reward, the wise

men have commanded that no man should teach his

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daughter the law, for this reason, that the majority of women have not got a mind fitted for study, but pervert the words of the law on account of the poverty of their intellect. Every one who teaches his daughter the law is considered as guilty as if he taught her transgression. But this applies only to the oral law. As to the written law, he is not to teach her systema tically, but if he has taught her, he is not to be consi dered as having taught her transgression." Rabbinism teaches that a woman is unfit to give legal evidence, and classes her amongst those who are incapacitated either by mental or moral deficiencies. ten sorts of disqualification, and every one, in whom any one of them is found, is disqualified from giving evidence ; idiots, the deaf, the blind, the wicked, the despised, and these are they-women, slaves, children, relations, and those interested in their testimony.'" Rabbinism excludes women from being counted as part of the synagogue congregation. Unless there be minian, that is, a congregation of ten, there can be no public worship of God, but the Rabbies have decided, "that these ten must all be men, free, and adult; " so that if all the Jewesses in the world could be gathered into one synagogue they would all count as nothing, and unless there were ten men present, the minister of the synagogue would not read prayers for them.

Rabbinism teaches, that to be a woman is as great a degradation as to be a heathen or a slave, and provides the same form of thanksgiving for deliverance from womanhood as from heathenism or slavery. The Jew says every day in his prayers, "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God! King of the universe, who hath not made me a heathen. Blessed art thou, O Lord our God! King of the universe, who hath not made me a slave. Blessed art thou, O Lord our God! King of the universe, who hath not made me a woman."

8

Rabbinism, where it is not corrected by the influence of Christianity, allows polygamy, and decides that" man may marry many wives, even a hundred, either at once, or one after another, and his wife cannot prevent it, provided that he is able to give to each suitable food, and clothing."

Rabbinism allows the greatest facility of divorce. "The school of Shammai says, A man is not to divorce his wife unless he shall find some uncleanness

in her, for they interpret the verse (Deut. xxiv. 1) according to its simple meaning. The school of Hillel thinks, that if a woman let the broth burn it is suffi cient, for they interpret the words, a matter of un cleanness,' to mean, either uncleanness, or any other matter in which she has offended him. But Rabbi

Akiva thinks that a man may divorce his wife, if he only find another handsomer than she is. But the legal decision is according to the school of Hillel, that is, if a wife sin against her husband, he may divorce her." The spirit of unqualified contempt breathed in these laws necessarily implies that the Rabbinical Jewess does not hold the station occupied in the social circle by the Christian female; the express exemption from the obligation to study the law, and the extreme difficulty that used to exist to procure it in a language that she could understand, kept her in a state of profound ignorance respecting the history and doctrines of that religion taught by Moses and the prophets. The religion of the Rabbinical female population consists, therefore, chiefly in the observance of the ceremonial commandments, which it is their duty to keep, as the three commandments, the external sanctification of the Sabbath, the fasts and festivals, and especially the preparation of the food. But it must not be supposed that they are satisfied with the mere external acts, or devoid of zeal and devotional feeling. On the contrary, they are zealous even to bigotry for the observance and defence of Judaism, and determinately opposed to all innovation. Their obedience to the Rabbinic law is hearty and devout, and accompanied, I doubt not, in many cases, by an earnest desire to work out their own salvation. Their love of prayer is attested by the new editions of the prayers called S'lichoth and T'chinnoth, which are continually appearing in the Jewish language. But their religious state can be best understood by looking over these books of devotion. I shall therefore give a few extracts from one written by a Polish Jewess for the use of her sisters of the house of Israel. The original is in the Jewish dialect, but where or when it was printed is not told us in the title. Title-page it has none. It is a small pamphlet of sixteen pages, and at the top of the first page the title is thus given, "The Three Gates. This T'chinnah was made by the pious woman Sarah, (may she live) the daughter of our Doctor and Rav, Rabbi Mordecai, of blessed memory, grandson of the Rav our Doctor and Rav, Rabbi Mordecai, who was president of the house of judgment in the holy congregation of Brisk. May it stand until Elias comes."

After which the authoress thus begins:-"I, Sarah, descended from respectable ancestors, I do this out of love to God, blessed be he, and blessed be his name, and now a second time arrange another new and beautiful T'chinnah in three gates. The first gate refers to the three commandments given to women, which are Challah, ceremonial uncleanness, and lighting the lamps. The second contains a T'chinnah, to be prayed when the new moon is blessed; and the third gate is concerning the dreadful days.

"I call to my help the living God, blessed be he, who lives for ever and eternally, and present this second beautiful and new T'chinnah in German, with great love and earnest prayer, that God may have great mercy upon me, and upon all Israel, that I may not be obliged to be long a fugitive and a vagabond; and through the merits of our mothers, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, and my own dear mother Leah, I will pray God, that the present period of my being a fugitive and a vagabond may be an atonement for my sins; and that God may forgive that which I have done amiss, and that I have talked in the synagogue during the time of prayer, and whilst the dear law was reading," &c.

Now this extract, though very short, throws much light upon the religious state of the Rabbinical Jewess. It shows us that there is a deep conviction of guilt, a fearful expectation of punishment, and a firm persuasion that an atonement and the merits of another are necessary to procure forgiveness; at the same time, that it manifests a profound ignorance of the revealed

way of salvation. Like the Romanist, the Rabbinic Jewess looks to the merits of the saints, and trusts in the efficacy of purgatorial suffering. Her petition, that her wanderings as "a fugitive and a vagabond," may not be of long continuance, and that her sufferings of this kind may atone for her sins, does not refer to her wandering about in this life, but to the wandering of the soul from one body to another. The Rabbinic Jews believe in the transmigration of souls, and think that the worst species of transmigration is that designated by the words " 'fugitive and vagabond." Such souls are pursued by evil angels and devils, pass into the bodies of Gentiles, birds, and beasts, and have no rest. What a dreary prospect for a dying sinner! At the close of a life of misery, how dreadful to have no hope of salvation, and no expectation of a haven of rest, except as it can be attained by the purgatorial wanderings of the soul in states of existence more penal and more unhappy than that which is drawing to its close.

[Extracted from a very interesting little work, by the Rev. Dr M'Caul, entitled "Sketches of Judaism and the Jews." Wertheim: London, 1838.]

CHRISTIAN TREASURY.

We all do fade as a Leaf.-To an enlightened peholder it is not that all are under the doom to fade, and be dissolved, and vanish, that strikes him as the deepest gloom of the scene. No; but that they are thoughtless of this condition; their not seeking the true and all powerful consolation under it; their not earnestly looking and aiming towards that glorious state into which they may emerge from this fading and perishing existence. The melancholy thing by emphasis is, that beings under such a doom should disregard this countervailing economy of the divine beneficence in which life and immortality are brought to light; in which the Lord of life has himself submitted to the lot of mortals, in order to redeem them to the prospect of another life where shall be no fading decline or dissolution. Let us not, then, absurdly turn from the view because it is grave and gloomy, but dwell upon it often and intently, for the great purpose of exciting our spirits to a victory over the vanity of our present condition, to gain from it, through the aid of the divine Spirit, a mighty impulse toward a state of ever-living ever-blooming existence, beyond the sky. A man who feels this would accept no substitute consolation against the gloomy character of this mortal life; not the highest health, not the most exuberant spirits, nor early youth itself, if it were possible for that to be renewed. No; far rather let me fade, let me languish, let me feel that mortality is upon me, and that the terrestrial scene is darkening around me, but with this inspiration of faith and hope, this rising energy, which is already carrying me out of an existence which is all frailty, into one of vigour, and power, and perpetuity.-FOSTER.

On partaking worthily of the Lord's Supper.-Some are so childish, and such spiritual sensualists, that if they have not sensible and sweet joy or comfort, or a present removal of their thorn, they conclude, they have come unworthily. It is our fault that, as Israel in the wilderness, we limit God to give that we desire, or else murmur, and think we have nothing. So it is in this sacrament, and so in our prayers, we are passionately desirous of serving our own lusts. James iv. 3. The after-fruit cannot be the measure of our worthy receiving, but the present gracious frame of spirit and exercise of our graces. We love a sweet willing disposition in a child ready to do what it can, rather than always to be crying for sugar plums. God highly prizes those that set on work their obediential graces to observe the law of any ordinance, and perform it; for if we can lust for quails, and yet murmur at the way of the wilderness, we are too like the carnal Is raelite.- Vine on the Sacrament.

It is remarkable, that before the time of Justinian, children frequently were ordained to the office of Readers. Epiphanius, patriarch of Constantinople, who died in 520, was ordained a Reader when scarcely eight years of age. And in the year 427, when Genseric, King of the Vandals, invaded and subdued the province of Africa, and, espousing the cause of the Arians, cruelly persecuted the orthodox Church, Victor, the orthodox Bishop of Vita, relates, that the tyrants not only used him barbarously, but also "murdered or famished all the clergy of Carthage, even more than five hundred persons, among whom were many infant Readers." "The reason," says Bingham, in his Christian Antiquities, "why persons were ordained so young to the office of Reader, was, that parents sometimes dedicated their children to the service of God from their infancy, and then they were trained up and disciplined in some inferior offices, that they might be qualified and rendered more expert for the greater offices of the Church." This early dedication was indeed agreeable to examples in the Jewish Church. But the Emperor Justinian, in the year 541, in one of his Novels, or New Institutions relating to the Church, enacted, that none should be ordained to the office of Reader under the age of eighteen years. Immediately after the Reformation in Scotland, there was a great scarcity, as might well be expected, of Protestant ministers. To supply this defect, it was thought proper that the order of Readers should be continued, especially as Calvin had approved of such an order of Church officers, and had considered the persons appointed to it as put under a course of education for a more weighty employment. The first Book of Discipline, compiled by our Reformers in 1560, under the title of "Readers," says, "To the churches where no ministers can be had presently, must be appointed the most apt men that can distinctly read the common prayers and the Scriptures, to exercise both themselves and the Church, till they grow to greater perfection. And in process of time, he that is but a Reader may attain to a farther degree, and by consent of the Church and discreet ministers, may be permitted to minister the sacraments; but not before that he be able somewhat to persuade by wholesome doctrine, and be admitted to the ministry, as before is said. Some we know

whose honest conversation deserveth praise of all godly men, and whose knowledge also might greatly help the simple, and yet they only content themselves with Reading. These must be admitted, and, with gentle admonition, encouraged with some exhortation to comfort their brethren; and so they may be admitted to the administration of the sacraments. But such Readers as neither have had exercise nor continuance in Christ's true religion, must abstain from ministration of the sacraments till they give demonstration of their honesty and further knowledge, that none be admitted to preach but they that are qualified therefor, but rather be retained Readers; and such as are preachers already not found qualified by the superintendent, be placed to be Readers."

In consequence of the above declared opinion of the Church, many parishes, which could not obtain ministers, were early provided with Readers; and as very slender qualifications were required in a Reader, the principal towns and large congregations, or rather the generality of those parishes which obtained ministers, were also provided with Readers as assistants to the ministers. The town of Perth seems to have had a Reader as well as a minister from the time of the Reformation; and there is very early mention in the Church writers, of Readers in other parishes where ministers had been settled.

The proper business of the Readers was to read the prayers out of the Book of Common Order, and the Scriptures morning and evening through the week, where the people could conveniently assemble so often in the church, and also on the Sabbath a certain space before the ringing of the last bell, where there was a minister to preach; and where there was no minister, the service performed by the Reader was the whole of what the poor people enjoyed.

The Readers seem, ex officio, to have had the power of solemnizing marriage, as appears from frequent complaints brought against them to the General Assembly for marrying persons privately, or without proclamation, or who were parishioners of other parishes, and brought no license from their own minister. Probably Readers, before the Reformation, had the power of solemnizing marriage, which therefore continued unquarrelled with their Protestant successors. But whether they had it in this way or not, yet it was convenient such a power should be exercised by them in a country where there were few ministers, and was also consistent with a peculiarity in the Scotch law, or rather with a common practice, ratified by particular decisions of the Bishops and Commissary Courts and Court of Session, whereby a marriage is held valid if the parties have declared their consent before any witnesses whatsoever, who are of such character as to be admitted to give testimony. It was a part of the Reader's, and not of the precentor's, office to make proclamation in the church, of the banns of marriage; and the KirkSession of Perth, by their act of 7th July 1578,