Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub
[graphic][merged small]

THE

CHILDREN'S JEWISH ADVOCATE.

SEPTEMBER, 1860.

THE REPORT.

THE Report for the year contains much that is interesting. No one can read it, and not believe that the Lord is doing a great work amongst His people Israel. Let us take courage. God calls for greater prayerfulness, greater zeal, and greater effort on our part. Let us then labour and pray, and the blessing will be given.

Our first extracts are taken from the account of Amsterdam, by the Rev. C. W. H. Pauli :

That numbers of Jews read the New Testament, I know as an undeniable fact; and I can adduce several instances, which have come to my personal knowledge, in proof that some have come in these days to the knowledge of the truth. Not long ago, I was delivering a lecture to an immense assembly in Schiedam. Ï heard that a Jew was present, who paid the strictest attention during the two hours I was speaking. The following morning I saw him, and found him a believer in Christ. My joy was great, and I asked him how the Lord had led him out of his unbelief. He told me that having read the New Testament, he was led to believe in Moses and the Prophets, "which," said he,

"before I neither knew nor believed; but how were my eyes dazzled, when I saw the wonderful truths in the law; when I could perceive through the veil of the types and shadows, the blessed Messiah! I have left the synagogue, and am under the instruction of a Christian minister."

Another Jew, who often visits me as an inquirer, told me the following interesting story. "A little Christian boy came to my stall and offered his little pocket New Testament for a few cents. I asked him how he came by it. He said some man gave it to him, and told him to read it. He, being a Roman Catholic, told his mother, who said she dared not read such books, and wanted to throw it into the fire, but he thought that would be no use to any one. I gave the boy five cents (a penny) for the book, and I have read it many a time through and through. I feel convinced that Jesus is the Messiah; but you know my wife is much opposed to my way of thinking. I carry this little book in my pocket, as my best companion in dreary hours."

66

66

At another time a rabbi saw a Jew reading a New Testament I had given him the previous day, and said to him in a very haughty tone: "How dare you read that book?" The Jew replied, after a pause, "I was just thinking whether you ever found out prohibited cheese (i.e., cheese not made according to rabbinical laws, or under the superintendence of a Jew) by smelling it ?" No," answered the rabbi. "Then by tasting it, I suppose, said the Jew. The rabbi replied, angrily, Neither have I ever been able to find out prohibited cheese by tasting it; for the taste of the one is as the taste of the other." Then," said the Jew, "if you can eat Christian prohibited cheese, which according to your own words you must have done, and moreover found no difference between the one and the other, I may read this New Testament, as I find no difference between this prohibited book, and the Old Testament which is not prohibited." The rabbi was puzzled, and left the Jew.

66

The usual services are continued on the Lord's-day and in the week, and the Sunday School is in a very encouraging state. Many children, formerly baptized

your missionary with their parents, are now growing

up as Christians, and express their thankfulness to God for thus permitting them to be educated in the religion of Jesus. One remarked a short time ago, "England must be full of true followers of Christ, who from the love to the blessed Saviour have pitied His brethren, and sent them the Gospel. Holland has given us an earthly home, but England a heavenly one.'

Our old and valued missionary, Mr. Moritz, of Gothenburg, has much to tell us. We read :

Mr. Moritz mentions an interesting case of a young Jewish girl, who was baptized at one of the Churches in Gothenburg. Her father having lost all his property, she was obliged to support herself by needlework. By this means she became acquainted with some Christian families, the members of which took much interest in her welfare, and endeavoured to lead her to Jesus. At length she resolved to become a Christian, and, after receiving instruction from a clergyman, she was baptized. Her family and all her Jewish friends immediately cast her off, but Christian kindness has placed her in a position to qualify herself for a situation as a governess.

In that part of the Report which speaks of the mission at Mulhouse, we meet with the following statement. The Jew has learnt how high is the standard set up by the Gospel, and how pure is the morality it teaches.

A gentleman was expostulating with a Jew for saying what was directly untrue. The Jew quietly replied, "Yes, the business requires it, and I am not of that new religion to which Mr. and Mr.

(naming some Jewish gentlemen who are proselytes,) belong. To what religion do they belong? asked the first. "Why, when they say yes, it is yes; and when they say no, it is no."

It is very touching to read the following extract from the account of the Mission at Frankfort-onthe-Maine, by the Rev. Dr. Poper :

A poor Jewess, who had been just left a widow with

« PredošláPokračovať »