sophy were before the Roman empire, by the first Gentile churches. Then God chose "the foolish things, to confound the wise, and the weak things, to confound the mighty;" and he will do so again. What the world and nominal Christians think foolish, weak, and base things, as compared with the favourite carnal weapons of warfare against the stronghold of Babylon, God will render "mighty to the pulling down" of these strongholds, and will eventually bury in the rubbish of fallen Babylon all weapons but his own word. Not a sword, but "the sword of the Spirit," will wave in triumph over her ruins.

R. P.

THE RELIGIOUS STATE OF THE JEWS IN POLAND,
SILESIA, AND OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE.

THE removal of the Jewish population of the frontier of Russia to the interior of the empire has of late called the attention of many to that interesting people, and a few notices of the Jews residing in the countries bordering on that empire may not be uninteresting to your readers. In the beginning of 1840, at St. Petersburg, the writer made the acquaintance of Pastor Boerling, a clergyman of the Lutheran church, and himself a descendant of Israel, who stated, amongst other things, that he was stationed as a missionary for many years at Schloss, a town in Poland, which is inhabited chiefly by Jews. When he first went there he saw no opening for usefulness; and after a little time he began to fear that he had run unsent. But the cholera soon broke out in the place, and all the medical men fled; he then concluded that he had been sent thither of God,―for a previous residence in several towns of Asia while the cholera prevailed in these places had made him acquainted with the most approved methods of treating the sufferers, and now the people implored his aid. He cheerfully attended the sick, and soon gained their affections. From that time their houses were open to him, and he was invited to all their entertainments and feasts.

On one occasion he was present at a marriage feast, when, according to custom, all the guests presented gifts to the newly-married pair. He had just received from London a few copies of the 12mo. edition of the Hebrew Old and New Testament bound together, and he presented them with one of these. It was gratefully received, and at the close of the feast, when the bridegroom held up the different presents, and announced the name of the giver of each, exhibiting the Bible last, he said, "But see what our friend the missionary has given. us, the Scriptures! This I value more highly than silver or gold !"

The young man took the Bible regularly to the synagogue when he went to worship. The reader, observing this, demanded of him how he dared to bring the Christian book into the synagogue. He replied,

N. S. VOL. IX.

2 x

that he had read it through, and found nothing ungodly in it,-that he must and would read it. Many of the other Jews then applied for copies, with which they were supplied; and the desire for instruction became so great, that the inhabitants of the town requested the missionary to organise a school for the instruction of the young. He complied with their request, organising one for the instruction of boys, under his own superintendence, and another for girls, under the superintendence of his wife.

He met with opposition from quarters whence he had least reason to expect it, but the great body of the Jews encouraged him; and after some time a Jew of considerable learning and influence came to him and said, "One or other of us must leave this town. If you don't go, I go; for if things go on thus, my children also will be taught to read, and to read the books of the Christians."

He also mentioned that he was appointed at one time to labour in Upper Silesia. He went thither, and on approaching one town, the first he entered, he was informed that all the inhabitants were Jews, but that he would have no opportunity of prosecuting missionary labour there, for they were all rich and wanted nothing. On entering the town he was soon convinced of the correctness of the information he had received; but as a few Christian Jews resided there he resolved to spend a few days in intercourse with them. It was then Friday, and on the following day he went to the synagogue. Several of the Jews assembled there, observing him to be a stranger, welcomed him with the usual salutation of "Peace be with you!" When, however, they observed that during the prayer which was offered he stood devoutly and still, instead of looking about as did others, they whispered aloud, He is not a Jew but a missionary, for all the missionaries pray so.

What were the consequences? In the course of the day many of the Jews visited his apartment for conversation concerning Christianity; and they spent the time not in disputation as at other places, but in calm and dispassionate comparison of the Old Testament prophecies with the history of Jesus of Nazareth recorded in the Gospels! In the evening six Jews whose heads were silvered with age waited upon him, and almost adjured him to tell them what had convinced him of the truth of Christianity; and they, too, spent their visit in a calm and apparently dispassionate examination of the attestations of the Messiah.

He assured me that ten times the number of missionaries now labouring in Poland and Silesia might find full scope for their energies in cultivating that extensive and hopeful field. The opinion prevails that the Jews present a hopeless field for missionary culture, but there are many things leading us to the contrary conclusion.

God hath not cast off his people if, with the apostle, we believe that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him; and if we

search amongst the Jewish people, we may find many like their fathers who bowed not the knee to Baal; many like the godly Jews of former days, men like Simeon, "just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel."

I felt much interested by the description given by Pastor Boerling of one of his acquaintances, an aged rabbi, who, like Anna the prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser, departed not from the temple, "but served God with fastings and prayers night and day." Regularly at the hour of midnight, was that aged patriarch to be found in the synagogue making confession and supplication unto God. He was accidentally overheard on one occasion by Mr. B., and he repeated to me the prayer, which a retentive memory enabled him to recall. While I listened to it, I thought I saw before me Daniel when he set his face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. The spirit was the same, the expressions similar to those which characterised the prayer presented by that prophet, and recorded in the 9th chapter of the book which bears his name.

This rabbi led an abstemious life. On one occasion, when offered a little wine, he declined. In a short but thrilling reply, (to which I cannot do justice in a translation) he stated his reasons for acting thus :-"I read," said he, "that wine makes glad the heart of man; and I,-can I be joyful while the city of the Lord is trampled under foot? Can I be joyful while the name of Jehovah is blasphemed? Can I be joyful while the people of God having turned their back upon the Lord, are weltering in sin?" Is not this the spirit expressed by the Psalmist," If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave unto the roof of my mouth: if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." On another occasion he slipped away from a marriage feast at which he had been present. He was soon missed; and one and another of the guests exclaimed at once, "Where is the rabbi?" A search was made, but nowhere could be found. At length some one inquired, "Have you been to the synagogue ?" The parents of the bridegroom and bride caught at the suggestion,--they hastened thither, and there they found him in the dark, engaged in prayer. They entreated him to rejoin the party, and to bless the youthful couple with his presence. He replied, "No, I cannot. You are joyful as is befitting the occasion of your meeting, but my heart is sad,-sad; sad, when I think of the condition of my people." They still urged him; when, to meet their wishes, he consented to rejoin the party on condition that all music should be laid aside. A marriage party without music is an incident almost unknown amongst the Jews; but such was the attachment of his flock to this rabbi, that the concession was made at once. And on his rejoining the party, marked attention was given to several

addresses which he delivered, in the course of the evening, on the sins to which they and their nation were addicted.

Religion is the same in all, however different may be its manifestation in different circumstances; and I was informed that similar manifestations of its influence are not uncommon amongst the more humble of the rabbis.

From the same friend I also learned that in Prussia there are few Jewish families of which some of the members or connexions have not been baptized. These are, in general, Christians only in name, but he knew many who were also Christians in conduct, and Christians in heart. There was at that time a very prevalent expectation that the Messiah would appear in the course of that year. The expectation was founded on calculations made by many of the Talmudists, from data drawn from prophecies in the Old Testament Scriptures; and I was told of one learned Talmudist, who had declared that if the Messiah did not appear in the course of that year, they were shut up to the conclusion, that he must have already come; and if so, that Jesus of Nazareth must have been he. I have had no opportunity of learning the effects of the disappointment which followed this expectation, but if the result be to lead the Jews to prayer, we may yet see literally fulfilled that ancient prediction, "I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart. All the families that remain every family apart, and their wives apart."-Zech. xii. 10-14. And "if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness!".

Amongst the more learned of the Jews in those regions, I have reason to believe there are many who are not satisfied with Judaism. I made the acquaintance of one such,-Dr. Levaison, a learned rabbi, who was profoundly versed in the Talmud, but found in it no satisfaction. While inquiring after the truth at one of the universities of Germany, he became acquainted with a distinguished professor, whose neological sentiments have secured for him a sobriquet importing that he is a personification of pagan philosophy. He gradually imbibed his sentiments, and in proportion as he did so he had to give up his Talmudical theories, but he still felt that more was necessary to enable him satisfactorily to account for all the phenomena with which he was

acquainted. In this state of mind he met with a priest of the Greek church, who was in the suite of a Russian ambassador at one of the German courts. He, carefully distinguishing betwixt ceremonies devised by man and truths revealed by God, directed his attention to the doctrines generally received as evangelical, and convinced him of the truth of Christianity. Not having met with evangelical Christians amongst Protestants, he came to St. Petersburg, in the hope of there hearing more perfectly the principles of the religion he had embraced. I endeavoured to ascertain the prevalent opinions of the Jews in regard to the nature and character of the Messiah, and found that of the Talmudists, almost all expect him to be only a man; among the Cabbalists, many expect that he will be Divine; but by many of the Jews it is expected that there will be two Messiahs,-one who has probably appeared already, in whom was to be, and has been, fulfilled the predictions contained in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah; and another who is to reign for ever. The former, as might have been expected, lived unknown; but there is more than one individual known to Jewish history whose life is supposed to fulfil what was foretold. None, however, excepting Christian Jews, appear to consider that Jesus of Nazareth was he. This is not wonderful, as few have access to the New Testament; and there is amongst them a distorted history of his life, which is calculated to hold him up to the ridicule, contempt, and execration of the nation. With regard to that Messiah, I found it believed that his death would be as a sacrifice for the sins of his people, and not merely an effect brought about, directly or indirectly, by the wickedness of the nation.

Since the period to which the preceding pages refer, a number of Jews in Germany have given up the Talmudical interpretation of the Scriptures, as have several of their brethren in England, and reorganised themselves as a separate religious community; but of their theological views I know nothing. There is, however, a very interesting body of Jews living in the Krimea, known by the name of Karites, or Caraites, and sometimes called Tartar Jews, in consequence of their speaking the Tartar language. These men long ago rejected the Talmud, and for several generations have continued to regulate their sentiments and conduct by the Scriptures of the Old Testament alone. I often heard of them while in Russia, and universally received a favourable report of their conduct and behaviour. Many of them appear to be spiritually-minded men, and therefore they are hated by the other Jews, among whom there is a trite saying expressive of their hatred and contempt, to this effect,-"If a Christian be drowning, take a Karite, and make his body a bridge by which to save him." But I have never heard of their rendering railing for railing. The designation generally given by them to the other Jews, when speaking of their theological differences is, "Our brethren of the Talmud." They have amongst them copies of the New Testament, which they