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JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 
 
 EDITED CY 
 
 RIDLEY H/'HERSCITELL. 
 
 "We have found him of whom Moses in the law, anil the 
 prophets did write." — John i. -15. 
 
 SEYF.A'TII THOUSAND. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 AYLOTT & JONES, 8, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
 
 MDCCCXLVIir. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 J. UNWIN, OKESnAM STEAM TRKSS, 
 
 lU'CKLEESBURY. 
 
OTEODUCTION. 
 
 It lias been a common complaint of infidels, 
 and opposers of the truth as it is in Jesus, that 
 men have never been left unbiassed in the 
 matter of religion ; that parents and teachers 
 have always been urgent to enforce their own 
 dogmas on the youthful mind ; and that thus 
 men grow up disposed to retain and defend 
 these dogmas, instead of dispassionately ex- 
 amining them, in order to ascertain their truth 
 or falsehood. But if this objection were sus- 
 tained, it would be inconsistent to confine it to 
 religion ; on the same principle we ought not 
 to bias the opinions of a youth in regard to 
 matters moral, economical, or political ; but 
 leave him, on all such subjects, to form his 
 axioms and code of laws after his own fashion. 
 
IV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Indeed, to be truly consistent, we should give 
 no instruction at all ; since all instruction, in 
 so far as it is received, gives a decided bias to 
 the mind. If a man believes his religion to be 
 true, it is the thing of all others which he is 
 bound to enforce on the mind of his pupil ; if 
 he does not believe the religion he professes to 
 be true, then, certainly, he had better leave 
 religious instruction to be communicated by 
 some one else. 
 
 But though it is easy to show the absurdity 
 of the above-mentioned complaint, there is a 
 half-truth in it, which gives it its point and its 
 danger. In a professedly Christian country 
 like this, where a certain amount of religious 
 profession is reputable, the great bulk of such 
 religionists maintain hereditary dogmas, with- 
 out examination, and without any certain 
 conviction of their truth. This not only gives 
 a handle to the infidel, but stumbles and con- 
 fuses men of thoughtful minds, who, ignorant 
 of true religion, yet feeling that man is destined 
 for intercourse with the Infinite and Invisible, 
 perceive with dismay that there is no reality in 
 the religion of the men who surround them ; 
 that their doleful confessions of being 
 
INTRODUCTION. V 
 
 "miserable sinners," their passionate outcries 
 for pardon and spiritual life, are nothing more 
 than a dramatic performance, which it is con- 
 sidered decorous to go through at least once a 
 week. I believe that amid the motley groups 
 of worldly society, there are scattered not a 
 few of these thoughtful ones, who, disgusted 
 with the unconscious hypocrisy of those around 
 them, and kept aloof, by prejudices of various 
 kinds, from the true children of God, whose 
 confessions and aspirations are the language 
 of the heart, finally betake themselves to some 
 one of those refuges of lies, which modern 
 Pantheism has swept, and garnished, and 
 adorned with the fruits and llowers of poetry 
 and philosophy. 
 
 As an answer to the infidel, therefore, and a 
 way-mark to the doubting and perplexed, the 
 testimony of a Jew, that Jesus is indeed the 
 Christ, the Son of God, and Saviour of the 
 world, must always be of great value. In him, 
 all the prejudices of education are against this 
 belief; he is not only devoid of that bias in 
 favour of Christian dogmas, of which the free- 
 tliinker complains, but he has a bias in the 
 opposite direction ; whatever deduction, there- 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 foi'o, the infidel makes from the testimony of 
 one educated in the Cliristian faith, he ought, 
 in common fairness and consistency, to throw, 
 as an additional weight, into the scale of Jewish 
 testimony to the truth of Christianity. And 
 the earnest and tlioughtful man, who feels that 
 if there be any truth in religion, it must be 
 something very different from the heartless 
 formality around him Avliich bears that name, 
 ought to be convinced, that there is some 
 weighty truth in those doctrines,that have over- 
 come the united amount of resistence presented 
 by family ties, educational prejudices, and self- 
 interest. 
 
 The present assemblage of Jewish Witnesses 
 that Jesus is the Christ, has one peculiarity 
 that distinguishes it from any previous collec- 
 tion of a similar kind. With the exception of 
 those two who lived more than a hundred years 
 ago, they are all my own personal acquaintance. 
 I know tlieir manner of life from their con- 
 version until now ; and can testify that they are 
 followers of Christ, not in word only, but in 
 deed and in truth. Most of the narratives 
 were written at my own request, and have 
 appeared in a detached form at various times 
 
iNTRODUCTION. VII 
 
 during the last four years ; tliey are now for 
 the first time collected togetlier, and I trust the 
 united testimony to the same truth may prove 
 a blessing both to Jews and Gentiles. 
 
 It is generally admitted that our feelings 
 and opinions are greatly modified by our asso- 
 ciation with others ; that we unconsciously 
 imbibe the sentiments of those around us. 
 But the following testimonies to the truth of 
 Christianity are entirely independent of each 
 other; they are given by men of different 
 nations; — of England, Poland, Germany, 
 Holland, and Barbary; — the ages at which 
 they were brought to the knowledge of the 
 truth, vary from twenty to sixty years old ; and 
 there are many other points of contrast in their 
 personal history. Their only entire point of 
 agreement, was, hatred to that faith which they 
 were afterwards compelled by the force of truth 
 to embrace. At this moment they belong to 
 various sections of the Church of Christ, to 
 which circumstances or preference have led 
 them to attach themselves ; but those who 
 peruse their statements will perceive, that the 
 non-essential matters which so often divide 
 Christians, are of too small account in their 
 
VIU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 eyes to be once mentioned. They have been 
 taaght by one Spirit, and called in one hope of 
 their calling; and the sum of their united 
 testimony is: That man, as a fallen sinner, can 
 only be saved, and reconciled to God, by Jesus 
 Christ ; and as a polluted sinner, can only be 
 cleansed and sanctified by the effectual ope- 
 ration of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 I had not intended to state that the first on 
 the list is a narration of my own mental 
 struggles ; but I have been urged to do so by 
 many friends who thought it might give addi- 
 tional interest to it; and, as others of my Jewisli 
 brethren have not hesitated to make a similar 
 avowal, I see no reason wliy I should withhold 
 mine. 
 
 BIDLEY II. HERSCIIELL. 
 
JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST, 
 
 JEWISH WITNESS.— No. I. 
 
 R. H. H„ 
 
 Having been favoured by God with pious 
 parents, tlieir great care was to impress my 
 mind from childhood with a profound reverence 
 for God, and for the Holy Scriptures. I was 
 taught to repeat the morning and evening 
 prayers with great solemnity ; and on the feast 
 days my attention was particularly drawn to 
 the impressive confession in our Liturgy, " It 
 is because of our sins we are driven away from 
 our land," kc. On the Day of Atonement I 
 used to see my devout parents weep when they 
 repeat-cd the pathetic confession that follows 
 the enumeration of the sacrifices whicli were 
 
 B 
 
*Z JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 appointed by God to be offered up for the sins 
 of omission and commission; and many a time 
 I shed sympathetic tears as I joined them in 
 saying, that we have now no temple, no higli 
 priest, no altar, and no sacrifices. As I ad- 
 vanced in years and understanding, my reli- 
 gious impressions becaine stronger ; fear and 
 trembling often took hold upon me ; and what 
 was then my refuge, — what the balm for my 
 wounded spirit? Repeating more prayers, 
 and asking God to accept the calves of my lips. 
 This satisfied my mind at the time ; but the 
 satisfaction arose from ignorance of the cha- 
 racter of God as a holy and a just Being, and 
 of my own state as a guilty sinner, whose 
 prayers, proceeding from unclean lips, could 
 not be accepted as a sweet savour by the thrice 
 holy Lord God of Sabaoth. 
 
 I continued in this state of mind until I was 
 about sixteen years of age. During this period 
 of l^my life, I often spent three sleeiiless nights 
 in the week, studying the Talmud, and other 
 Hebrew works. I also committed to memory 
 several chapters of the prophets every week, 
 in order that I might become suflficiently fa- 
 miliar with the Hebrew language to correspond 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 3 
 
 in it. At this period I became acquainted with 
 a Polish Jew, who had studied several years 
 at the University of Berlin, and consequently 
 had become acquainted with Gentile literature. 
 He strongly advised me to give up the study 
 of the Talmud, and devote myself to the study 
 of German and secular literature. After a 
 hard struggle of mind, I resolved to follow 
 
 his advice, and accordingly went to . 
 
 Here there was not only a change in the clia- 
 racter of my studies, but an entire change in 
 my habits and mode of life. Many things that 
 I formerly regarded as essential parts of my 
 religion, were considered by my fellow-students 
 alt modisch (old fashioned), quite unfit for the 
 mifrfekl'drten (enlightened). At first my con- 
 science was much disturbed, and I was often 
 very unhappy ; but, after a time, these feelings 
 wore ofi"; I conformed to the manners of my 
 fellow-students, and I also " lived like a Chris- 
 tian," as the Jews in those parts are wont to 
 say of such of their brethren as have no fear 
 of God before their eyes. I formed acquaint- 
 ance with many young Gentiles ; and this I 
 could now do with impunity, as neither they 
 nor I troubled ourselves about each other's 
 
4 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 religion ; neither of us, in reality, having any, 
 although they called themselves Christians, 
 and 1 was a Jew. The only thing that re- 
 minded me what peojde I belonged to, was the 
 look of contempt I received now and then from 
 Christians ; and the little children in the streets 
 calling after me, " Jew, Jew," Then, indeed, 
 I realized that I belonged to the people who 
 have become a proverb and a byeword among 
 the Gentiles. 
 
 I well remember the first time 1 ever heard 
 of one of my brethren becoming a convert to 
 Christianity. It was a young Jew, who was 
 apprenticed to a tradesman in the town where 
 I studied Mj idea of Jewish converts to 
 Christianity was, that they renounced their 
 national privileges and obligations ; that they 
 separated themselves from tlie covenant God 
 made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and 
 publicly joined themselves to the ungodly 
 Gentiles, who live without God, and without 
 hope in the world. Although at this time 
 1 had laid aside many of the outward observ- 
 ances of the Jewish religion, I had still a strong 
 attachment to the fundamental doctrines of 
 the Jewish faith because 1 believed them to be 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. O 
 
 of Divine origin. The idea of any Jew becom- 
 ing a Christian, therefore, seemed to me a 
 dreadful apostacy ; and I regarded the youth 
 above-mentioned with mingled pity and con- 
 tempt, as one who had forsaken God, and 
 given up all hope of eternal life. 
 
 I pass over in silence several years of my 
 life, which were devoted to the world, and the 
 things of the world ; during which time I kept 
 up such a measure of conformity to the cus- 
 toms of my religion as I considered respectable 
 and consistent; but my early convictions and 
 impressions Avere faded and forgotten ; and I 
 belonged to that class whom the Psalmist 
 designates " men of the world, which have 
 their portion in this life." 
 
 In process of time the Lord laid His afflict- 
 ing hand upon me. The death of my beloved 
 mother, whose tenderness to me I remember 
 to this day with the deepest gratitude and 
 affection, was a heavy stroke to me, and 
 plunged me into the utmost grief. I was then 
 visited with sickness, and my conscience 
 became much disturbed. What I then endured 
 can only be expressed in the language of the 
 sixth Psalm. I solemnly vowed to become 
 b2 
 
G JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 very religious ; I resolved to fast one clay in 
 every week, to repeat many prayers, and show 
 kindness and charity to the poor. But this 
 could not pacify my guilty conscience, as the 
 study of German literature had weakened 
 my confidence in religious observances, — had 
 driven me from my own religion, and given 
 me nothing in its place. One day I was in 
 acute distress of mind, feeling, as David ex- 
 presses it, that I had sunk " in deep mire, 
 Avhere there is no standing ;" that all my own 
 (ftbrts to free myself were of no avail, my 
 struggles only made me sink ueeper ajid 
 deeper. For the first time in my life I prayed 
 extempore. I cried out " O God ! I have no 
 one to help me, and I dare not approach thee, 
 for I am guilty ; help, O help me, for the sake 
 of my father Abraham, who was willing to 
 ofter up his son Isaac, have mercy upon me, 
 and impute his righteousness unto me." But 
 there was no answer from God, — no peace to 
 my wounded spirit. I felt as if God had for- 
 saken me ; as if the Lord had cast me off for 
 ever, and would be favourable no more. I 
 fully understood the words of the Psalmist, 
 " Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 7 
 
 that I am not able to look up ; they are more 
 t))an the hairs of my head ; therefore my heart 
 taileth me," (Psa. xl. 12); and I felt that all 
 my devotional exercises were what the prophet 
 Isaiah was instructed to declare the sacrifices 
 and offerings of the Jews in his days to be, — 
 vain oblations, an abomination in the sight of 
 God. 
 
 I was far from my home and relatives ; and 
 my gay companions, seeing I was depressed in 
 spirits, though ignorant of the real cause ox 
 this depression, earnestly urged me to frequent 
 the theatres, and other public amusements, to 
 cheer my mind. At first this partially sue 
 ceeded ; but the merciful kindness of God left 
 me not thus to my own devices, but gra- 
 ciously interposed, and again roused me to 
 seek after more solid happiness. 
 
 God, in his tender mercy, had again dis- 
 turbed and disquieted mj'^ conscience so much, 
 that I fully realised the words of the Psalmist, 
 " I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly, I 
 go mourning all the day long, for my loins are 
 filled with a loathsome disease, and there is no 
 soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore 
 broken ; I have roared by reason of the dis- 
 
8 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 quietness of my heart." (Psalm xxxviii. 6 — 8.) 
 I had no peace nor rest ; but wherever I went, 
 or however I was employed, I carried about 
 with me a sense of misery that was intolerable. 
 I could say with Job, " The arrows of the 
 Almighty are within me, the poison whereof 
 drinketh up my spirit." (Job vi. 4.) 
 
 One morning I went to purchase an article in 
 a shop, little knowing that God had there stored 
 up for me the " pearl of great price," wliich He 
 was about to give me " without money and with- 
 out price." The article I purchased was wrap- 
 ped up in a leaf of the Bible, which contained 
 a portion of the sermon on the mount. The 
 shopkeeper was, probably, an infidel, who 
 thought the Bible merely waste paper ; but 
 God over-ruled the evil for good. As I 
 was walking home my eyes glanced on the 
 words : " Blessed are they that mourn, for 
 they shall be comforted." This arrested ray 
 attention, and I read the whole passage with 
 deep interest. 
 
 " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their's 
 is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they 
 that mourn, for they shall be comforted. 
 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 9 
 
 the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger 
 and thirst after righteousness, for they shall 
 be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they 
 shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in 
 heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the 
 peace-makers, for they shall be called the 
 childi'en of God. Blessed are they which 
 are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for 
 their's is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt, 
 V. 3—10.) 
 
 I was much struck with the sentiments con- 
 tained in this passage, and felt very desirous 
 to see the book of which it was a portion ; I 
 had no idea what book it was, never having 
 seen a New Testament. A few days after, 
 God directed my footsteps to the house of an 
 acquaintance, on whose table lay a copy of 
 the New Testament. Impelled by curiosity I 
 took it up, and in turning over the leaves 
 beheld the very passage that had interested 
 me so much. I immediately borrowed it, and 
 began to read it with great avidity. At first 
 I felt quite bewildered, and was so shocked by 
 the constant recurrence of the name of Jesus, 
 that I repeatedly cast the book away. At 
 length I determined to read it through 
 
10 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 When I came to the twenty-third chapter 
 of the gospel of Matthew, I was astonished at 
 the full disclosure of the nature of Pharisaism, 
 contained in it ; and Christ's lamentation over 
 Jerusalem, in the concluding part : " O Jeru- 
 salem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the pro- 
 phets, and stonest them which are sent unto 
 thee, how often would I have gathered thy 
 children together, even as a hen gathcreth 
 her chickens under her wings, and ye would 
 not ! " affected me even to tears. In reading 
 the account of the crucifixion, the meekness 
 and love of Jesus of Nazareth astonished me ; 
 and the cruel hatred manifested against him 
 by the priests and rulers in Israel, excited 
 within me a feeling of compassion for him, 
 and of indignation against his murderers. But 
 I did not as yet see any connexion between 
 the sufferings of Jesus and my sins. 
 
 I will not detain my readers by relating the 
 thoughts suggested by the gospels of Mark 
 and Luke, but proceed to speak of that which 
 took the strongest hold on my mind, the 
 gospel of John. The interview between Jesus 
 and iN'icodemus, narrated in the third chap- 
 ter rivetted my attention. I could by this 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 11 
 
 time in a great measure sympathize with 
 Nicoclemus in his opening address to Jesus : 
 " Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher 
 come from God ; for no man can do these 
 miracles that thou doest except God be with 
 liim." (John iii. 2.) And I was as much 
 astonished as Nicodemus himself at the saying 
 of Jesus : " Except a man be born again, he 
 cannot see the kingdom of God." (^ver. 3.) 
 If He had told me to fast, to give alms, to go 
 morning and evening to the synagogue, to 
 repeat the prayers twice or three times a day, 
 and that then I should see the kingdom of 
 God, I could have understood it; but when 
 told of a new birth, I was ready to exclaim 
 with Nicodemus, " How can these things 
 be ? " Christ's explanation of the reason of 
 His sacrifice, by a reference to the serpent 
 lifted up in the wilderness, struck me very 
 forcibly : " As Moses lifted up the serpent in 
 the wilderness, even so must the Son of man 
 be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him 
 should not perish, but have eternal life." 
 (v. 14, 15.) I had many times read the ac- 
 count of the brazen serpent, but had never 
 understood its spiritual import before; nor 
 
12 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 perceived that it was the forgiving love of 
 God that healed the poor Israelite, when his 
 veins were filled with the poison of the ser- 
 pent, and his soid defiled with the poison of 
 sin. ^Vlien utterly unable to help himself, 
 the free mercy of God provided a remedy ; 
 and the poor sinner, whose body was in 
 danger of death, and whose soul was in dan- 
 ger of everlasting punishment for his rebellion 
 against God, had only to look at this serpent 
 lifted up, and he was immediately healed. 
 Christ here declared, that what the brazen 
 serpent was to the wounded Israelite, He is to 
 the perishing sinner, who feels that he is guilty 
 before God. 
 
 This doctrine was so new and strange to 
 nie, that, instead of at once perceiving it was 
 just such a remedy I needed, and intreating 
 God to show me if all this were indeed true, 
 I became more agitated and distressed ; and 
 feared that if I continued to read this book, I 
 should be led away from the religion of my 
 fathers. I therefore resolved to lay the New 
 Testament aside, and devote myself to the 
 study of Moses and the Prophets, and the 
 Psalms. I felt that I had never hitherto 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 13 
 
 studied the Bible -with a desire to know -wliat 
 God therein taught me as an individual ; to 
 learn what He would have me think, and feel, 
 and do. I had only read it with the explana- 
 sions of the different commentators ; and 
 whatever they said respecting- it, I took for 
 granted to be the truth. But I now felt that 
 this imj^licit confidence in man, in a matter of 
 such infinite importance as that of knowing 
 what God requires of me, is hazardous and 
 unwise ; and I felt how misplaced such con- 
 fidence was in tlie present case, when I re- 
 membered how frequently these commentators 
 differ from each other. The revealed word of 
 God was not meant to be kept as a hidden 
 mystery, but was given to all Israel ; that 
 every individual miglit learn from it that which 
 concerns his eternal welfare. I therefore be- 
 gan to study the Bible with views and feelings 
 very difierent from any I had experienced be- 
 fore. 
 
 I now viewed the Scriptures, not as a record 
 of historical events, nor as the authoritative 
 standard of Jewish law and theology, but as a 
 portion of the mhid of God, vvhich He has 
 graciously revealed for my instraction, — a 
 c 
 
14 JEWISH -WITNESSES 
 
 revelation of His will, with which He sees it 
 good I should be acquainted. When I read 
 the account of the creation of man and of the 
 earth, the question that arose in iny mind, 
 was: "Why has God revealed these facts; 
 and what does He wish me to learn from 
 them?" The eternal God, infinitely holy, 
 and happy in His own perfection, saw good to 
 create a race of beings who might participate 
 in His holiness and happiness. He created 
 man in His own image and likeness, crowned 
 him with glory and honour, and made him 
 have dominion over the creation. Wlien I 
 thought of the unclouded hapj)iness of the 
 first man, — his unobstructed communion with 
 God, his knowledge, his power, his full enjoy- 
 ment of all the blessings with which a loving- 
 Father had surrounded him, I began to en- 
 quire, " Wliy am I unhappy ? Why do misery 
 and wretchedness abound in that creation 
 which God at first pronounced ' very good ' ? " 
 The answer to this question was not far off; 
 the third chapter of Genesis revealed the mys- 
 tery. With what earnestness and solemnity 
 of feeling did I now read a portion of Scrip- 
 ture, the words of which had been familiar to 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 15 
 
 me from childhood, but the real purport of 
 which I had never before understood ! I had 
 formerly regarded it as an allegory, or mystic 
 description of events that related solely to 
 Adam and Eve, with which I, as one of their 
 descendants, had no personal connection. But 
 I now perceived it to be a narration of the way 
 in which "sin entered into the world, and 
 death by sin," (Rom. v. 12) an explanation of 
 the problem, why the creation now " groaneth 
 and travaileth in pain." The subtle enemy of 
 man succeeded in his attempt to instil into the 
 minds of our first parents a doubt of the love 
 of God towards them : " Ye shall not surely 
 die :" this is not the reason of the prohibition ; 
 it is " because God doth know that in the day 
 ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, 
 and ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and 
 evil." (Gen. iii. 4. 5.) Unbelief in the love 
 of God was the cause of the fall of man ; had 
 Adam and Eve believed that God loved them, 
 they would have felt assured that all His com- 
 mands were imposed for their own good ; but, 
 doubting this, their hearts became alienated 
 from Him, and they were ready to act in op- 
 position to His will. The outward act of diso- 
 
16 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 bedience was but the manifestation of an 
 altered state of inward affection towards God. 
 
 The fatal deed was done, the rebellious will 
 of man declared to the living God that it 
 .spurned His control ; and forthwith misery 
 and confusion entered into the fair creation. 
 Could all the delights of Eden now render 
 them happy ? Ah ! no. Was the presence of 
 God now a source of joy to them ? " They 
 lieard the voice of the Lord God walking in 
 the garden in the cool of the day ; and Adam 
 and his wife hid themselves from the presence 
 of the Lord God among the trees of the 
 garden." (Gen. iii. 8.) And thus have their 
 posterity done ever since. The thought of a 
 Being of infinite poMcr, in whose hands our 
 destiny is, — who " knoweth our sitting down, 
 and our rising up, who understandeth our 
 thoughts afar off," (Psalm cxxxix. 2,) has ever 
 been a source of dread to fallen man. The 
 vain pursuit of earthly pleasures, by banishing 
 the thought of this unseen power, serves to 
 " hide" him, for a time, from this unwelcome 
 presence ; but when the conscience is fairly 
 aroused, when he feels that he has been madly 
 living in opposition to the will of a poAverthat 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 17 
 
 could at any moment crush him into dust, 
 every attempt to hide himself from this awful 
 presence is vain : " Whither shall I go from 
 thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy pre- 
 sence ? If I ascend up into heaven thou art 
 there : if I make my bed in hell, behold thou 
 art there : if I say, surely the darkness shall 
 cover me ; even the night shall be light about 
 me." (Psalm cxxxix. 7, 8, 11). 
 
 I felt that my own condition was precisely 
 tliat of Adam and Eve, when they sought to 
 hide themselves from the presence of the Lord ; 
 I was in a state of alienation from the Being 
 by whose mighty influence I was ever sur- 
 rounded ; and I felt that they and I needed 
 one and the same remedy, — even perfect re- 
 conciliation with this omnipotent and omni- 
 present Being, " the great, the mighty, the 
 terrible God." 
 
 I was much struck with the circumstantial 
 manner in which God has seen fit to detail 
 what He said to the serpent, to the woman, 
 and to the man. When I considered how 
 completely every word pronounced against the 
 man and woman has been fulfilled, I thought 
 it certain that every word spoken to the ser- 
 c 2 
 
18 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 pent must have as full an accomplishment; 
 and that as surely as the word of the living 
 God is true, so surely shall the " Seed of the 
 woman," — shall some descendant of the 
 woman, — "bruise the head" of Satan ; that 
 is, shall undo the evil which he has wrought 
 in ilic creation of God. 
 
 The question that then naturally occurred, 
 was : What must this seed of the woman do, 
 in order to restore man to the state of hap- 
 piness which he lost by the fall? And the 
 obvious answer was : He must bring back the 
 alienated heart of man again to rest its affec- 
 tions on God as the supreme good : He must 
 so exhibit the love of God to man, as to draw 
 forth man's love in return. And the love he 
 must now reveal is love of a higher kind than 
 that of mere complacency in a holy being, such 
 as we may suppose God to have felt towards 
 unfallen man ; it must be a love that can, 
 with consistency to the perfect holiness of God, 
 be extended towards guilty and rebellious 
 creatures. But here a difficulty arose : If this 
 seed of the woman be merely one of the fallen 
 race to whom this new revelation of love is to 
 be made, if he is one of the alienated and 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 19 
 
 rebellious sinners, how is he first to be raised 
 out of this state ; Avhere, and how, is he to 
 acquire a knov/Icdge of this forgiving love ol 
 God? Must he not be an intermediate 
 person ? a PT'DI^S, an umpire, who can lay his 
 hands upon both ? (Job. ix. 33.) 
 
 It was impossible to conceal from myself 
 that I was involuntarily pourtraying the cha- 
 racter which Jesus of Nazareth assumed to 
 himself. In spite of my struggles against 
 them, these convictions irresistibly forced 
 themselves upon me : Man is a fallen creature ; 
 his heart is by nature alienated from God ; he 
 cannot recover himself from this state of aliena- 
 tion ; the promised seed of the woman must 
 be a mediator between God and man ; he must 
 partake of the nature of both, and yet he must 
 not partake of the sin of man ; and how can 
 all this be, except by — I shrunk from adding 
 — the incarnation of Deity in man ; for I saw 
 at a glance where this admission would land 
 me. 
 
 Though I had thrown aside the New Tes- 
 tament, I could not get rid of the light I had 
 acquired from it. It seemed to shed a radi- 
 ance on every line of the Pentateuch, which I 
 
20 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 was now studying ; making that clear which 
 was before dark and mysterious ; giving order 
 and consistency to what had formerly appeared 
 arbitrary and unconnected. It cannot be de- 
 nied that the explanations of modern Judaism 
 in regard to the sacrifices are far from satis- 
 factory. Long before their appointment as a 
 portion of the Jewish economy, even from the 
 days of Abel downwards, they formed the chief 
 part of outward worship. Why did a God of 
 mercy command His creatures to imbrue their 
 hands in the blood of an innocent animal ? 
 Why, under the law, were these sacrifices mul- 
 tiplied ; and why was the sprinkling of blood 
 a means of purification? Man, as a guilty 
 sinner, is obnoxious to death ; in taking the 
 life of the animal brought in sacrifice, he con- 
 fesses this, saying : " Lord ! my life is forfeited 
 by sin ; but thou art graciously pleased to 
 accept the penalty in the person of another : " 
 -iD2'^ t2?D2n «"in mn-'^D " It is the blood that 
 raaketh atonement for the soul." (Levit. xvii. 
 11.) Yet surely the blood of bulls and goats 
 could not do this, unless it was connected with 
 something of a higher and spiritual character ! 
 I was forced to confess that the view taken by 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 21 
 
 Christians of the design and meaning of sacri- 
 fices is at least consistent and plausible ; and 
 more suited to the prominent part they held 
 in the ancient Jewish religion, than the vague 
 notions of modern Jews on the subject. I re- 
 membered the confused idea of some connection 
 subsisting between sin and sacrifice, which 
 I had formerly entertained ; as, for example, 
 when we say on the day of atonement : " Let 
 it be willed before thee, O Lord, our God, and 
 the God of our fathers, to forgive us all our 
 sins, and pardon us all our iniquities, and grant 
 us remission for all our transgressions : — For 
 the sins for which it is our duty to bring the 
 burnt offering : And for our sins for which it 
 is our duty to bring the sin-offering, &c." 
 What were these offerings to do for Israel, or 
 to teach them ? Whatsoever benefit accrued 
 from them when offered, are we not now de- 
 prived of that benefit? In the days of old, 
 the high priest confessed the sins of the 
 children of Israel, -T^UK^n li^S-i-bl? cnw "jn^l, 
 " and put them on the head of the goat," which 
 carried them away into the wilderness; (Levit. 
 xvi. 21, 22) but Avho carries away our sins 
 now ? 
 
22 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 These, and many other reflections, were 
 suggested to my mind, by the Christian doc- 
 trine that the sacrifices were typical of the 
 work of the Messiah ; and I felt disposed, 
 with a more definite meaning than I had 
 hitherto attached to it, to adopt the petition in 
 our service for the day of atonement : Dpn 
 
 " Raise up for us an upright advocate ; and 
 cause the backsliders to hear : ' I have found a 
 ransom.' " 
 
 After some time spent in the diligent study 
 of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms, 
 it occurred to me that my abandoning the 
 study of the New Testament was very unrea- 
 sonable. " Why should I hesitate to read it?" 
 I asked myself. " If I am sure it is false, it 
 can do me no harm ; and if I am not sure it 
 is false, is it not my duty diligently to examine 
 if it be true?" I reflected that Jesus of Na- 
 zareth came to Jews, to people who must have 
 bad the same difficulties and the same preju- 
 dices as myself; so I resolved to give the 
 question of the truth of Christianity a fair and 
 a patient investigation. 
 
 On returning to the perusal of the New 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 23 
 
 Testament, I was much struck with the truth- 
 fulness of the whole narrative. The mistakes 
 and unbelief of the disciples, the success or the 
 failure of their mission, the numbers who be 
 lieved their report, or the numbers who re- 
 jected it, all appear to be faithfully recorded 
 as they occurred, without any calculation of 
 expediency, any thought of making out a good 
 case. Jesus of Nazareth appeared to me to 
 have said and done exactly those things which 
 an impostor would not say and do. Austeri- 
 ties which men may admire and wonder at, 
 have been common in all false religions ; the 
 denial of sense being compensated by tlie 
 gratification of pride ; but a self-denial that was 
 to be known only to Him " that seeth in se- 
 cret," was a device as little calculated to gain 
 followers as could well be imagined. " Who- 
 soever will come after me, let him deny him- 
 self, and take up his cross, and follow me." 
 (Mark viii. 34.) " When ye fast, be not, as 
 the hypocrites, of a sad countenance ; for they 
 disfigure their faces, that they may appear 
 unto men to fast. But thou, when thou fastest, 
 anoint thine head, and wash thy face ; that 
 thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto 
 
24 JEWISn WITNESSES 
 
 thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father 
 which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." 
 (Matt. vi. 16 — 18.) Not one promise did He 
 make to His disciple that was gratifying- to 
 the carnal desires of man ; poverty, contempt, 
 tribulation, this was the inheritance promised 
 them in this world : " If the world hate you, 
 ye know that it hated me, before it hated you. 
 If ye were of the world, the world would lovff 
 his own ; but because ye are not of the world, 
 but I have chosen you out of the world, there- 
 fore the world liateth you. Remember the 
 word that I said unto you, the servant is not 
 greater than his lord. If they have perse- 
 cuted me, they will also persecute you; if they 
 have kept my saying, they Avill keep your's 
 also." (John xv. 18—20.) Nothing, surely, 
 but an overpowering conviction that this Avas 
 the true Messiah, sent of God, could have 
 induced men to follow a leader who held out 
 prospects so little inviting. 
 
 The Acts of the Apostles, which I now read 
 for the first time, interested me powerfully. 
 The resurrection of Christ, His ascension into 
 heaven, and the miraculous gifts of the Holy 
 Uhost conferred on the apostles, occupied my 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 25 
 
 attention for a considerable time. I found tlio 
 difficulties involved in supposing them to bo 
 false were niucli greater than the difficulty of 
 believing the events as stated. In regard to the 
 resurrection of Jesus, for example, the apostles 
 and other disciples who profess to have seen 
 Him, could not be deceived ; the only other 
 hypothesis is, that after having discovered 
 Jesus to be an impostor, by his not rising from 
 the dead, as he declared he would do, they had 
 agreed among themselves to continue and pro- 
 mulgate the imposture, by announcing the 
 same unattractive doctrines, and inculcating 
 the same self-denying precepts. Then as 
 regards the miraculous powers of the apostles, 
 tliere is no middle line between truth and 
 deception ; fanaticism may do much, but it 
 cannot raise the dead. After a strict and 
 careful examination, I came to the conclusion, 
 that these wonderful narratives are as well 
 established as any history in the Old Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 The account of the conversion and subse- 
 quent conduct of Saul of Tarsus, gave me more 
 insight into the true nature of Christianity 
 than anything I l>ad previously read. Here 
 
 D 
 
26 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 was a man, honestly zealous for the law, filled 
 with indignation against those who he thought 
 were seeking to subvert it. " I verily thought 
 with myself that I ought to do many things 
 contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth ; 
 which thing I also did in Jerusalem ; and 
 many of the saints did I shut up in prison ; 
 and being exceedingly mad against them, I 
 persecuted them even unto strange cities." 
 (Acts xxvi. 9 — 11.) This man became con- 
 vinced that Jesus whom he persecuted, was 
 indeed the hope of Israel, the Saviour of the 
 world ; and what a change took place in him ! 
 From being the zealous Pharisee, admired by 
 the priests and rulers of the day, he became 
 the despised Nazarene, branded by his former 
 friends as " a pestilent fellow," and a " mover 
 of sedition," " What things were gain to me, 
 those I counted loss for Christ ; yea, doubtless, 
 and I count all things but loss for the excel- 
 lency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my 
 Lord ; for whom I have suffered the loss of 
 all things, and do count them but dung, that 
 I may win Christ, and be found in Him ; not 
 having mine own righteousness which is of 
 the law, but that which is through the faith 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 27 
 
 of Clirlst, tlie rig-liteousness which is of God 
 by faith." (Phill. iii. 7—9.) 
 
 As I came to understand the doctrines of 
 Christianity more clearly, I was struck with 
 the super-human wisdom of the epistles. Such 
 a deep insight into the evils of the human 
 heart ; such an ample exposition of the reme- 
 dies for these evils ; and yet such a distinct 
 recognition of man's natural aversion to the 
 remedies, and incompetence to overcome this 
 aversion by his own unassisted efforts. It is 
 easy to perceive the beauty of a character ha- 
 bitually influenced by self-denial, humility, 
 and a constant sense of the presence of God, 
 and the reality of eternal truths ; but how dis- 
 tasteful to man's carnal nature, is the personal 
 exercise of these virtues ! That my neighbour 
 should be humble, and self-denied, and indif. 
 ferent to worldly riches and honours, I can 
 highly approve ; but to be told that I must be 
 all these, is " a hard saying." " Love not the 
 world, neither the things that are in the world. 
 If any man love the world, the love of the 
 Father is not in him. For all that is in the 
 world, the lust of the fliesh, and the lust of the 
 eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father 
 
28 JKWISII AVlTNESi^ES 
 
 but is of the workl." (1 John ii. 15, 16.) 
 When wc feel how consonant to our natunvl 
 desires are all these things we arc thus for- 
 bidden to love, "we might naturally suppose it 
 is impossible to obey this command. But Paul 
 tells us how this difficulty is overcome ; the 
 love of things seen and temporal is cast out by 
 a higher love : " For the love of Christ con- 
 strainetli us; because we thus judge, that if 
 one died for all, then were all dead ; and that 
 he died for all, that they which live should not 
 henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him 
 which died for them, and rose again. There- 
 fore if any man be in Christ, he is a new crea- 
 ture ; old things are passed away ; behold all 
 things are become new." (2 Cor. v. 14, 15, 17.) 
 Were I to relate the impressions made on 
 me by the various portions of the gospels and 
 epistles, it would rather be a commentary on 
 the New Testament, than a statement made to 
 my brethren according to the flesh, of the way 
 in which God led me to believe in Jesus of 
 Nazareth. The more I examined into the 
 truth of Christianity, the more did the question 
 aj)pear to be narrowed into a small compass : 
 Jesus of Nazareth was either the promised 
 
THAT JEfiUiS IS THE CHRIST. 29 
 
 Messiah, or an impostor and deceiver. The 
 'New Testament is either a revelation from 
 God, or an invention of lying and wicked men. 
 After mature deliberation, I was forced to come 
 to the conclusion that Jesus is the Messiah, 
 and that the New Testament is, equally with 
 the Old, the word ot God. 
 
 But this conviction, so far from bringing 
 peace with it, seemed at first to increase the 
 trouble of my soul tenfold. All the hatred and 
 prejudice with which I had been accustomed 
 to view Christianity, instead of being subdued, 
 were rekindled in full vigour ; and my heart 
 shrunk with aversion from that which my 
 understanding was fully convinced was true. I 
 will not dwell long on my state of mind at this 
 period ; those who have experienced it need 
 not to be told its anguish ; and to those who 
 have not, the account would be unintelligible. 
 " What man knoweth the things of a man, save 
 the spirit of man that is in him ?" " The heart 
 knoweth its own bitterness." 
 
 One day I cast myself upon the ground and 
 
 wept bitterly before the Lord, entreating Him 
 
 to give me peace. I besought Him that He 
 
 would give me to feel what Paul experienced 
 
 d2 
 
30 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 when he said ; " Being justified by faith, wc 
 have peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. " ( Rom, v. 1, ) Long did I continue 
 my supplication ; rememberingthatElijah,when 
 on Carmcl, sent seven times before he received 
 the ans\yer to his prayer ; — but still no peace 
 came. Suddenly these words of Jesus came 
 into my mhid : " Hitherto ye have asked no- 
 thing in my name, " (John xvi. 24.) I cannot 
 describe the reluctance I felt to pray in the 
 name of Jesus ; and yet I saw how inconsistent 
 was this reluctance, with the belief that He is 
 the Saviour of the world. The struggle of that 
 moment can never be forgotten. At length I 
 was enabled to cry out : " Lord, I believe that 
 Jesus is the Messiah, the Redeemer, and Kinfjr 
 of Israel, who was wounded for our transgres- 
 sions, and bruised for our iniquities ; for His 
 sake have mercy upon me and give me peace." 
 No sooner had I offered this prayer than my 
 burden was removed ; the peace of God that 
 passeth all understanding entered into my soul; 
 I felt that I was redeemed from destruction, 
 that God loved me, that Christ had died forme, 
 and washed me from all my sins in His own 
 blood; that guilty and sinful as I was by nature, 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 31 
 
 I was now "justified freely by grace, through 
 the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.'" (Rom. 
 iii. 24.) 
 
 I am well aware how much of enthusiasm 
 and folly may appear in this ; not only to .Tews, 
 but to those who, while professing themselves 
 to be Christians, have never yet seen the ne- 
 cessity of a radical change in the heart and 
 affections, which must take place in every man 
 before he can become a child of God. But 
 the mode in which this change is spoken of in 
 Scripture, — being " born again," — becoming 
 " a new creature, " surely implies something 
 much more than an increased attention to the 
 performance of outward worship, and the duties 
 of social life. And I would solemnly and ear- 
 nestly entreat all who may read this, whether 
 Jew or Gentile, to examine diligently whether 
 these things be so ; whether it indeed be true, 
 that " except a man be born again, he cannot 
 see the kingdom of God." (John iii. 3.) 
 
 The enjoyment of inward peace was soon 
 followed by outward trial and affliction. I felt 
 it right to inform my beloved relations of the 
 ciiange that had taken place in me. Those 
 whose affections cling round their home, and 
 
32 
 
 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 who fondly remember tlie protectors of their 
 early years, may conceive my feelings on re- 
 ceiving the reply to my communication, of 
 which the following is an extract : 
 
 " Thou wicked one, may thy name be blotted 
 out ; tnou hast united thyself with the assembly 
 of the wicked. Thy father and grandfatl>er, 
 with all thy relations, will go together to the 
 grave of thy sainted mother, and announce to 
 her the sad tidings. Cursed be the day where- 
 in thou, wicked one, seed of the serpent, wast 
 born. Woe is me, for the Lord has afflicted 
 me. Thy name shall henceforth be blotted out, 
 and no more named by us ; and may the hot- 
 test judgments of the Almighty fall upon thee, 
 because thou hast forsaken the God of Israel, 
 and joined thyself to idols. " 
 
 This was indeed bitter ; but it was part ot 
 the promised inheritance. " In the world ye 
 shall have tribulation. " I could, from my 
 heart, bless them who thus cursed me, and 
 pray for them who thus despitefully used me. 
 
 Many years have elapsed since the change 
 took place, of which I have thus endeavoured 
 to give an account; and during all the time I 
 can testify that " goodness and mercy have 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 33 
 
 followed me. " The truth that at first brought 
 peace has day by day become more precious to 
 me. Like luy brother Paul, I can say : " I am 
 not ashamed of the Gosjsel of Christ ; for it is 
 tlic power of God unto salvation to every one 
 that belicveth ; to the Jew first, and also to the 
 Greek " (Rom. i. 16.) 
 
 R. H. H. 
 
34 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 JEWISH WITNESS.— No. II, 
 A. D. S. 
 
 In due and perfect appreciation, " through 
 the light which has, by the grace of God, 
 visited me from on high," of the insjjired 
 words of the Apostle Paul, I would commence 
 this narration by reminding my readers that 
 none can confess that Jesus is the Christ but 
 by the Holy Ghost. This is, indeed, also a 
 faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, 
 not only to the Jew, surrounded as he is by 
 stumbling blocks, togetlier with the adverse 
 circumstances of his education ; but also to the 
 Gentile Christian, however stimulated by ex- 
 ample, through immediate connection with the 
 Christian life, as well as from his earliest 
 infancy being taught to reverence that blessed 
 and honored name, so oppositely regarded by 
 the Jew. We hear, continually, exclamations 
 of wonder at the Jew's unbelief, but if we do 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. vO 
 
 indeed contemplate spiritual things with car- 
 nal understandings, how much more is it a 
 matter of astonishment, in one from his infancy 
 possessing the direct advantages of example, 
 and education derived from excellent Christian 
 parents, who esteem it not only a paramount 
 duty to God, but in affectionate solicitude for 
 the welfare of their children, endeavour by 
 every means to inculcate that faith so necessary 
 to present and future happiness. Is it not 
 then more surprising that these exertions, 
 exercised from duty, as well as parental love, 
 should not always be blessed ? To whom then 
 is the arm of the Lord revealed? Let 
 God reply for himself. "All things are de- 
 livered unto me of my Father ; and no man 
 knoweth the Son but the Father ; neither 
 knoweth any man the Father save the Son, 
 and he to whom the Son will reveal him." 
 The Son then is the only channel of commu- 
 nication, without him, there is ."either access 
 to, nor conception of, our God. 
 
 It is a blessed thing that, under the new 
 dispensation, there is no exclusion at all ; that 
 the invitation is to every one that thirsteth 
 (Avould to God that the thirst was as general 
 
36 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 as the invitation) ; it is indispensable that a 
 thirst shonld he felt, before the comfortable 
 provision can be appropriated ; many may 
 pretend to drink from the living- waters, but it 
 is impossible they can know how welcome, 
 how all-satisfying- the antidote is, who have 
 not really experienced the want of it ; if the 
 thirst once exist, we know that the Lord is 
 faithful to satiate the hungry soul ; — but how 
 to convince those who, in the emphatic lan- 
 guage of Scripture, are termed blind, deafj 
 snared in holes, hid in prison houses? Can 
 words give a more accurate idea of utter help- 
 lessness, more powerfully express human 
 incapability of affording relief? It is our 
 happiness to know that although there is a 
 diversity of operations, there is but one spirit, 
 and that spirit is not straitened ; that it is bound- 
 less and inscrutable in all its ways and means. 
 When a Christian congratulates a new convert, 
 the almost immediate inquiry is — how did the 
 Lord make himself known unto you ? — with an 
 eagerness, as it were a natural expectation, 
 next to certainty, to hear more of the innu- 
 merable dealings of Him who promised to lead 
 the blind by a v/ay which they knew not. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 37 
 
 I will now conclude the remarks with which 
 I have prefaced this narration, by observing 
 that I have not thought proper to enter into 
 any family matters. Suffice it to say, that my 
 father, being high in estimation among the 
 Israelites, he cannot but look on a son becom- 
 ing a Christian, as a bitter disgrace ; and I, 
 understanding the feelings of my family (for I 
 have experienced them), am not surprised that 
 they regard my brother abroad (whom the 
 Lord, in His mercy, has also chosen) and 
 myself, as perfectly insane upon this subject. 
 Persecuted or not, when the call comes to a 
 child of Abraham, from many causes its effects 
 are the same as in the case of our illustrious 
 ancestor ; we are called to come away from 
 our kindred, and from our father's house, to 
 evince an implicit and full confidence in Him 
 who has called and promised the blessing. 
 And while I do not upbraid my brethren for 
 their feelings tOAvards us who have embraced 
 Christianity, neither is it my intention to ridi- 
 cule those observances practised by the Jews ; 
 the most of which being ordered by the books 
 of Moses, it is not surprising that they are 
 
 viewed with extreme reverence and affection 
 li 
 
38 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 by my brethren; and as they still arc hy them 
 considered to be pleasing- in the sight of" God, 
 they should be sacred from ridicule. 
 
 At a very early age, my brotliers and myself 
 were instructed in the Hebrew language, and 
 the history of our nation, by a Rabbi, who, for 
 that ])urpose, attended my father's house. I 
 engaged in these exercises with my whole 
 heart ; I remember one imperative injunction 
 of our master, viz. — never even to mention the 
 name of Jesus Christ ; that as often as we did 
 so, it would be a sin against God. Having 
 received this injunction irom one whom I re- 
 garded with respect and affection, and whom 
 1 naturally confided in as perfect in the law, it 
 was many years after ere I could, without 
 remorse and fear, utter the forbidden name. 
 I was not more attracted to it, when I heard 
 myself derided and reproached as being a Jew 
 by my boyish companions ; and not by them 
 alone, but frequently even by grown persons, 
 called Ciiristians. I reliectcd then that it Mas 
 necessary we should bear the curse incurred 
 by our forefathers, and pi'edicted by Moses. 
 (Allow me here to state, that the Jews generally 
 V>elieve that the sius ot the fathers are visited 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 39 
 
 OTi the children.) It was, at the same time, 
 always most pleasing and consoling to reflect 
 that as the Lord, in his wrath, according to his 
 word, had scattered us throughout the world, 
 and we had become a Ly-word, a proverb, 
 and a reproach, in like manner, of His mercy, 
 He will fulfil all His gracious promises con- 
 cerning His ancient people, profusely spread 
 throughout the Old Testament : — " Thus saith 
 the Lord ; if heaven above can be measured, 
 and the foundations of the earth searched out 
 beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel 
 for all that they have done, saith the Lord." 
 (Jer. xxxi. 37.) 
 
 My aversion to Christianity increased with 
 my age and education. As I became the 
 more acquainted with the several histories of 
 the nations, I beheld in all, accounts of the most 
 horrible massacres of my brethren, together 
 with bitter persecution ; and saw more than 
 sufficient of the latter remaining at the present 
 day to remind us but too faithfully of the har- 
 rowing truth of the former. What book of 
 history can you open, and not see recorded 
 there the most fiendish atrocities committed on 
 those, whom, although they have so bitterly 
 
40 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 sinned against God, — what can man lay to 
 their charge ? How gross, how devilish, these 
 persecutions necessarily appear to the Jews, 
 when they reflect that they were wholly unj)ro-- 
 Yoked! How must Christianity have appeared 
 to them when they saw His banner, with many 
 an idolatrous emblem, uplifted in one hand, 
 while the sword of slaughter was swayed in the 
 other, by its professed and boasted advocates ! 
 Their religion was the slanderous and impious 
 plea for the robbery and murder of the Jews. 
 When I reflected on these things, need I say 
 that I viewed the New Testament with such 
 horror and disgust, as destroyed any appetite 
 I might have had from curiosity to peruse it. 
 No one could make me believe that ever a 
 Jew could sincerely embrace Christianity ; that 
 the basest could be guilty of such unpardonable 
 wickedness, of such impious ingratitude to the 
 God of our fathers, who had preserved us 
 through all our misery and wanderings. I 
 should have thought it much more possible for 
 me to fly through the air, than that I should 
 ever become a Christian ; and I should have 
 unhesitatingly chosen the most torturing death 
 as the alternative. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 41 
 
 I often think liow gradnally, almost imper- 
 ceptibly, I was led to Christ; and how He suits 
 His Avay of revealing Himself to our several 
 diversified situations and conditions. How 
 wonderful must have been the transition from 
 darkness to instantaneous light that occurred 
 to Paul! How overwhelming the discovery, 
 that He, for whose persecution he was com- 
 pletely armed, and on his way to prosecute, 
 was Christ the Lord ! The sudden discovery 
 would have proved too much, if he had not, at 
 the same time, been wonderfully supported by 
 that love which Avas manifested towards himself. 
 Every conversion is wonderful — miraculous ; 
 but they are frequently brought about by a 
 variety of, humanly-speaking, insignificant 
 causes, till the light comes as vividly and effec- 
 tually as it did at once to Paul. I was residing 
 at Greenwich about the commencement of the 
 year 1842, The last Sunday of my stay I was 
 prevailed on to accompany some friends to 
 church. For the first time I heard a portion 
 of the New Testament read ; the 6th chapter of 
 the Book of Matthew was one of the morning- 
 lessons. It was with extreme admiration and 
 surprise, not to say uneasiness, that I intently 
 e2 
 
42 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 listened to tins continuation of our Lord's ser- 
 mon on the mount. I was touched -with the 
 love that manifestly bi-cathed tliroug-h every 
 sentence, — the just censure of hypocrites, — the 
 necessary caution, — but my heart thrilled at 
 the simple but eloquent a])peal to our senses, 
 respecting the goodness and care of God 
 towards his smallest creatures, and how mucli 
 we should confide to His continual watchful- 
 ness. I was indeed astonished at the simplicity, 
 beauty, and comfort of the passage ; so replete 
 with zeal to God, and with love to man. I 
 cannot say I was then converted, but Avhat I 
 heard had taken such hold of me, I could not 
 rest till I read more of this novel and beautiful 
 doctrine. My soul seemed to relish it, and to 
 desire a more copious draught ; besides, I could 
 but imperfectly remember that which I had 
 heard but for the first time. I longed to read 
 that chapter ; and I think, shortly after, when 
 I got possession of a New Testament, it was 
 the first portion to which I referred. I need 
 scarcely say with what eagerness I devoured 
 the contents of this blessed book ; these "new 
 things" declared to us, and promised by Je- 
 hovah to our fathers. 1 anxiously searched 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 43 
 
 and compared different passages of Scripture, 
 till, in a very short time, in the solitude of 
 my chamber, I was mourning over Him who 
 was wounded for my transgressions, who was 
 bruised for my iniquities. I wept when I con- 
 sidered, if there was any sorrow like unto His 
 sorrow, — His humiliation, — His patient suffer- 
 ing amid all His numerous and diversified trials, 
 — His life's mournful history of unexampled 
 pain and anguish, — His death of torture. His 
 rod had now smitten the heart of rock, and, if 
 I may be permitted to use such a figure, living- 
 waters gushed from my eyes, in which I was 
 baptized. I have been asked to describe how 
 I felt my need of a Saviour. It has been urged 
 that it is necessary "we should feel lost before 
 we can be found/' but I never felt I had need 
 of a Saviour till I found Him, I cannot point 
 out any particular passage that was the means 
 of revealing Him. His ways are unsearchable 
 and past finding out. When I attempt to de- 
 scribe the feelings I experienced, I perceive the 
 impossibility of expressing that which is indeed 
 unspealioble. When the Lord Jesus first ap- 
 peared to me. He did not tell me " I Avas lost," 
 but that I was found ; and I can well remember 
 
44 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 my tumultuous feelings at perceiving ray mi- 
 raculous preservation, — my gratitude to Him 
 who had rescued me. It appeared to me then, 
 that I was on safe ground ; but oh ! how great, 
 how terrible, the danger I had escaped! My 
 heart and soul were lifted up to my Redeemer, 
 who pointed to His wounds as the tremendous 
 price He paid for my ransom. 
 
 There were several things in the New Testa- 
 ment that I could not, at the time, comprehend. 
 I knew nothing, had heard nothing, of com- 
 mentaries; but I remembered that " Counsellor" 
 was one of the names by which our Messiah 
 was to be called ; I therefore prayed to the God 
 of my fathers, that for the sake of Him, the 
 pei'fect one, he would guide and counsel me in 
 my perplexity ; " Lord ! I believe, help thou 
 my unbelief," was the spirit of my prayer. 
 Picture me then alone, although in the midst 
 of multitudes (for I was, at that time, perfectly 
 solitary, there was none to whom I could or 
 would confide the peculiar circumstances of 
 my situation); picture me with the pages of this 
 hitherto "sealed book" open before me; con- 
 sider that, from that day to this, the light that 
 had shone upon part, was gradually diffused 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 45 
 
 over tlie whole, — that I have had frequent oc- 
 casion for the solution of difficult passages, but 
 I implicitly confided in Him whose hand alone 
 had led me out of darkness. I looked up in- 
 finitely above man for instruction, — I mis- 
 trusted, I regarded with the greatest suspicion, 
 the opinions of my fellow-men, that were so 
 strangely discordant, as appeared in the great 
 diversity of sects ; I was aware of my extreme 
 fjillibility, my urgent need of advice; but I 
 remembered too, the gracious invitation of 
 our blessed Saviour, warmly registered in my 
 heart, " Take my yoke upon you, and learn of 
 me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye 
 shall find rest unto your souls." Consider all 
 this, then try and conceive the gratitude I owe 
 to the Lord who heard and so eftectually an- 
 swered my prayer. I have tested, experienced, 
 and can fully testify to, the faithfulness of 
 Isaiah's encouraging words, "God will be very 
 gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; 
 when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. 
 And thuie ears shall hear a word behind thee, 
 saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye 
 turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the 
 left." 
 
46 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 Shortly after my conversion, I was anxious 
 to attend a place of worship, and accordingly 
 went to a chapel of ease, near where I was re- 
 siding. I prepared my mind that I was going 
 where our Lord would specially be in the midst. 
 After the prayers and lessons were finished, I 
 heard an impressive and eloquent discourse. 
 It appeared (and if any but God had previously 
 known my intention of visiting that chapel, I 
 should have imagined it designed) expressly an 
 address to me; the text was 2 Cor. v. 17. 
 "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a 
 new creature: old things are passed away; be- 
 hold, all things are become new." The next 
 Lord's day I was astonished with another ex- 
 traordinary text, for the subject of the morn- 
 ing's discourse, and so applicable to my position. 
 Zecli. xii. pt. of the 10th v= "And they shall 
 look upon him wliuui they have pierced, and 
 they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for 
 an only son." Conceive my extreme astonish- 
 ment at hearing this remarkable passage, for 
 let me here state distinctly, I had no recollection 
 of ever meeting with it before. One of the 
 many hindrances to the conversion of the Jew.s> 
 is, I am convinced, owing to tlic prayers and 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHKIST. 47 
 
 Scriptures being read in the Hebrew language, 
 and so very few of them understanding it 
 sufficiently to be their own translators, are 
 either imposed upon by an entire perversion of 
 tlie sacred pages, or they unhesitatingly submit 
 the many parts that are incomprehensible to 
 the judgment of the Rabbis. "For the Lord 
 hath poured out upon them the spirit of deep 
 sleep, and hath closed their eyes : the prophets 
 and their rulers; the seers hath he covered. 
 And the vision of all is become unto them as 
 the words of a book that is sealed, which men 
 deliver to one that is learned, saying, read this 
 I pray thee: — and he saith, I cannot, for it is 
 sealed ; and the book is delivered to him that is 
 not learned, saying, read this I pray thee, — 
 and he saith, I am not learned." (Isaiah xxix. 
 10 — 12.) Again, " Behold the days come, saith 
 the Lord God, that I will send a famine in tlie 
 land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst lor 
 water, but of hearing the words of the Lord ; 
 they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the 
 Lord, and shall not find it." (Amos viii. 11, 12.) 
 I must not dwell upon the particulars of my 
 jourrieying; let me but briefly state that my way 
 has been through many obstacles, and through 
 
48 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 many temptations. I have had to encounter 
 the sneei' from some, the curse from others; 
 tliere has been the advice with threatcnings, 
 and also the insinuating counsel clothed in ap- 
 parent love, much more requiring caution of my 
 fellow-men, I have had much experience of my 
 great weakness, of my deceitful heart, and amid 
 all, through all, with constant and confiding 
 affection I have clung to the strength of the 
 Lord my God. Leave me not for a moment 
 
 my Father! has been my continual prayer. 
 With respect to the many and different sects, 
 
 1 regarded them all with the greatest suspicion, 
 naturally imagining that they could not he all 
 right, and very possibly might be all wrong. 
 What was I to do? I was impelled by duty 
 and affection to confess the Lord Jesus, in 
 every possible way before men. Wliom was I 
 to join? The Churchmen vehemently railed 
 against the Dissenters, and the Dissenters 
 railed against the Churchmen ; I had neither 
 curiosity }ior inclination to enquire into that, 
 which I satisfied myself, could be but a 
 frivolous contention ; and of a militant, or 
 fighting church of Christ, save against spiritual 
 foes, I had no conception. I recollected how 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 49 
 
 these very dissensions once confirmed nie as 
 to tlie trutli of the Jewish faith ; I again re- 
 flected on the increased stumbling-blocks in 
 the way of my brethren, caused by these dis- 
 sensions. I determined to join no party; my 
 lieart was open to the Lord, and with His help, 
 would display my faith in Christ by my life ; 
 make it the theme, as far as possible, of every 
 conversation, and would lose no opportunity to 
 confess the Lord Jesus Christ before all men. 
 Subsequently I have anxiously considered 
 whether I was not, by keeping aloof, increas- 
 ing the very evil I was deprecating; by 
 separating from all, I stood condemned of 
 the charge that I myself preferred against 
 others, and therefore determined at length to 
 join myself to a Christian church ; the more 
 readily too, as I thought, through the medium 
 of many circumstances, I could trace the 
 hand of my heavenly Father that had guided 
 me through so many difficulties, pointing out 
 to my observation that which is most con- 
 formable to His word. 
 
 Although my opinions may not exactly 
 coincide with others on unimportant points, 
 I need scarcely say, that I love all who love 
 
 F 
 
60 JEWISH WIINESSES 
 
 our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity ; and by 
 His love shed abroad in my heart I deeply 
 commiserate, and am unceasingly anxious for 
 those who still remain outcasts from the 
 kingdom of our glorious Messiah. 
 
 The longer I am acquainted with Christi- 
 anity, the more I contemplate its manifold 
 beauties, the more I am constrained to love 
 Him who brought me within the pale of its 
 hallowed influence. How often do I desire 
 the goodness of the Lord to pass before me ! 
 Surely he has magnified His name above all 
 his word. 
 
 That blessed truth, "God is love," a Christian 
 only can understand, and that imperfectly ; it 
 is but dimly discernible to those who have not 
 looked on its bright and glorious appearance 
 in the face of God's anointed. The great love 
 of our God is manifest, in giving us all things 
 richly to enjoy, in opening His hand and 
 satisfying the desire of every livuig thing, Li 
 framing this beautiful world for man, in nm- 
 dering it jiroductive of all things necessai'y for 
 his existence, and in adding so many otho's 
 for his comfort, how poor our gratitude for all 
 these and other innumerable blessings! But 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 51 
 
 •when we turn to that highest, that most 
 wonderful expression, " God so loved the 
 world that he gave his only begotten son, that 
 whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
 but have everlasting life," all other mercies 
 shrink into nothingness beside the unspeakable 
 gift. This is the greatest mystery of all — 
 " God manifest in the flesh," in our nature, 
 a relationship that places us infinitely above 
 angels ; for " unto which of the angels saith he 
 at any time, thou art my son." " Behold what 
 manner of love the father hath bestowed upon 
 us, that we should be called the sons of God ; " 
 and faith that worketh by love, can lay her 
 hand upon this exalted privilege, and call 
 this sure and certain hope her own. 
 
 Now, instead of looking on Christianity as 
 idolatry, I discover that it is only a Christian 
 who can know God; that it is only through 
 Christ we can truly behold him. " This is life 
 eternal, to know the only true God and Jesus 
 Christ whom he has sent." By the new and 
 living way I behold more clearly the infinite 
 magnitude of His greatness, the incompre- 
 hensibility of His being, the immaculate purity 
 of His character, and His long-suffering good- 
 
52 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 ness; I am enabled more fully to comprehend, 
 and to join with my whole heart, the song- to 
 His praise ; " He remembered us in our low 
 estate; because His mercy endureth for ever." 
 At the same time I perceive the extreme sin- 
 fulness of sin, which required such a tre- 
 mendous sacriiice for its expiation ; and while 
 the forest of Lebanon, and all the beasts 
 thereof, could not be sufficient to atone for, or 
 cleanse from, its guilt, God " provided himself 
 with a lamb for a burnt-ofFering," which not 
 only obtains eternal redemption for us, but 
 also brings in everlasting righteousness. " The 
 Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the 
 world," is also " the Lord our righteousness ; " 
 oh ! blessed, for ever blessed, is the way in 
 which righteousness and jieace thus embrace 
 each other, where mercy and truth meet 
 together. 
 
 Christ has revealed himself to my soul as 
 the author and the messenger of the new and 
 better covenant, established on better promises, 
 " ordei'ed in all things, and sure." If I am 
 cast down on account of former awful iniquity. 
 Ho comforts me with the assurance that " His 
 blood clcanseth from all sin ; " if I mourn over 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRISa'. 53 
 
 remaining- corruption, His blessed and cheer- 
 ing word bids me " Fear not, for His righteous- 
 ness shall sustain me." If I reflect on the 
 wondrous attributes of His inconceivable per- 
 fection, and my unworthiness, my insignificance, 
 my languid love, my feeble prayers, again He 
 reminds me that we know not how to address 
 Him, or what to pray for, as we ought, but 
 the Spirit witnesseth our infirmities, and 
 maketh intercession for us. When I listen to 
 the doctrine, delivered in the name and power 
 of God, from the mouth of Him to whom 
 Moses desired us to hearken ; when I hear 
 my ruined condition so faithfully exposed by 
 Him, I am constrained to exclaim, Lord ! to 
 whom shall I go? Thou hast the words oi 
 eternal life. Who else can deliver from the 
 curse that cleaveth to every one " that con- 
 firmeth not all the words of the law to do 
 them"? (Deut. xxvii. 26.) Shall we not 
 implicitly confide in him, who is a hiding-place 
 from the wind, and a covert from the tempest? 
 (Isa. xxsii. 2.) Apart from the divinely ap- 
 pointed means, where can we find shelter? 
 And oh ! how necessary is it, that we should 
 F 2 
 
54 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 obtain refuge ere it is too late. It is no ligbt 
 tiling. — It is our life! 
 
 The wrath of God's fiery indignation will be 
 the storm, the pains of hell will be the tempest. 
 But before God appears either in the one or 
 the other, let us hearken to him in the still 
 small voice, in the love-breathed advice ; 
 " kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish 
 from the way, when his Avratli is kindled but a 
 little. Blessed are all they that put their trust 
 in Him." (Ps. ii.) 
 
 My heart's desire and prayer to God for 
 Israel is, that they might be saved, and that 
 Jerusalem, " which has drunk at the hand of 
 the Lord the cup of his fury, which has 
 drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and 
 wrung them out," may be bidden, with the 
 constraining jiower of Jerusalem's king, to 
 arise and shine ; when Jiidalis harp, taken 
 down from the willows, and attuned to the new 
 song of Moses and the Lamb, shall, in swelling 
 strains of harmonious melody, conspicuously 
 and loudly accompau}- the increasing shouts 
 and songs of praise to " the lion of their tribe, 
 — to Israel's glory." 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 55 
 
 Oh! may he, "whom the people despised, 
 whom the nation abhorred," be speedily 
 universally hailed Lord of all, the only Prince 
 and Saviour to give repentance unto Israel, 
 and remission of fcins. 
 
 A. D. S. 
 
56 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 JEWISH WITNESS.— No. III. 
 A. E. 
 
 " Tho Lord is my light and my salvation, 
 wlioui shall I fear? The Lord is the strength 
 of my life, of whom shall I l>e afraid ? Though 
 an host should encamp against me, my heart 
 shall not fear." (Psa. xxvii. 1 — 3.) " I trusted 
 in thee, O Lord : I said, Thou art my God." 
 (Psa. xxxi. 14.) Yes, this be our motto! 
 Enmity and opposition of every sort may await 
 us ; sorrow and grief may befal us ; but if 
 God be our God, what does it matter? " Thou 
 art my God ! " Oh blessed word, essence of 
 the Gospel — of the joyful message of salvation 
 which has gone out to all lands ! We, wlio 
 before were captives to sin, are now free ; we, 
 who before lived in enmity with God, are now 
 His children. The gulf which separated us 
 from Him is filled up ; the veil whicli was 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 57 
 
 between ns and the Holiest of all, is rent, the 
 Saviour is come, and thou Jehovah, art my 
 God ! For nnto us is born this day a Saviour. 
 So do ■sve sing in joyful remembrance of the 
 day of our new birth. And how should we 
 be elevated above all temporal and earthly 
 trouble and pain, did we consider that God 
 not only so loved the world, that He gave His 
 only begotten Son for it, but that He has 
 taken us out from amongst the thousands of 
 our brethren, and drawn us by the force of 
 His love, — attracted us by the liglit of his 
 grace, that we should show forth His praises, 
 who has thus called us out of darkness. 
 
 The world may scorn us, our brethren dis- 
 trust us, and what is more trying than either, 
 but few, very few, in the church of Christ, 
 may stretch out the hand of welcome to us ; 
 yet, if God be our God, we murmur not, we 
 fear not ; we are filled with joy and peace in 
 believing. In ourselves we are weak ; but 
 in the Lord Jehovah w^e have righteousness 
 and strength : even in the midst of trials our 
 joy abounds ; and if all on earth is cold and 
 cloudy, we can in spirit retire into a region 
 of unclouded sunshine and perpetual spring. 
 
68 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 "And wherefore all this joy?" AskesL 
 thou, my brother of the house of Israel ; for to 
 thee do I address these lines : " if by any means 
 I may provoke to emulation them tliat are 
 my flesh, and may save some of them." (Rom. 
 xi. 14.) Ask the man to whom his righteous 
 sentence of death has been read, — who now 
 waits in his dungeon, expecting from hour 
 to hour that this sentence will be put in exe- 
 cution, — when lo ! his prison bars are opened, 
 a free pardon is presented to him, and he goes 
 forth from his darksome cell to the green and 
 smiling earth ; — ask him wherefore he is joy- 
 ful ! Such a deliverance has been oars, and 
 shall we not rejoice ? Between eternal con- 
 demnation and eternal happiness there is a 
 mere bridge, a narrow way, and that way is 
 Christ Jesus. If the following brief notice 
 of my life shall convince even one of my 
 brethren of this truth, I shall be more than 
 recompensed for the disagreeable feelings that 
 accompany the public avowal of tliat secret 
 experience of the soul, that we feel to be 
 most sacred. 
 
 Born of wealthy parents, 1 passed my child- 
 hood joyfully, unconscious of the sinfulner-:"^ 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 59 
 
 wiliiiii me. From my earliest age, all my at- 
 tention was directed towards study, which I 
 loved above everything ; and the greatest 
 punishment my parents and teachers could 
 inflict on me, was a threat that I should be- 
 come a merchant. In looking back on this 
 period, however, I can scarcely remember an 
 evening when I went to sleep without having 
 prayed in my heart, and poured out before 
 God, all my little joys and sorrows. I re- 
 member, that I often left my playfellows, in 
 order to come to God ; and the contempt which 
 1 had to endure on that account, made me 
 only come more frequently. Even much later, 
 at the age of twelve years, I rose during the 
 night, for prayer, moved by a feeling I cannot 
 describe ; I was often bathed in tears, but I 
 rose again from my knees without being com- 
 forted. At an early age I entered the Gym- 
 nasium, where, among all the Jewish students 
 I was the only one to whom the prizes were 
 allotted during four years. At that time, I also 
 diligently studied the Bible ; and my thoughts, 
 when I read the prophecies of Isaiah, were, 
 that the times of the Messiah would be those, 
 when the Christians would return from their 
 
60 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 idolatry, to the one God, whom the Jews adore. 
 Against Christianity itself I was very inimical, 
 seeking every occasion to oppose it ; and at- 
 tacking, with violent disputes, every person I 
 could. Previous to this period, even before 
 I was ten years old, all those arguments, which 
 I now hear so often objected against Chris- 
 tianity, by grown up persons, had occurred to 
 myself; such as, that if God thought that 
 Christianity was necessary, all men would 
 have been born Christians ; and how three 
 could be one, &c. I was very fond of reading 
 tlie Psalms, and continued till my thirteenth 
 year to be a modern Jew, or a pious Deist, 
 who, besides his deism, has still some rem- 
 nants of Jewish ceremonies. This was the 
 period, when, as I expressed it at that time, 
 I became conscious of myself; or, as I now 
 say, the old Adam awakened within me in 
 all the pride of knowledge. Philosophy, and 
 rhetoric, poetry, and the belles-lettres, were to 
 me a kind of second Minerva, — the very god- 
 dess of wisdom, whom I worshipped. From 
 the time I entered my philosophical curriculum, 
 I became in fact a Pantheist, and was a great 
 admirer of Greek mythology ; the only dif- 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 61 
 
 ference between my religion and theirs being-, 
 that they personilied single manifestations of 
 the universal Godhead, which I did not. As 
 to my sins, according to the Pantheistic theory, 
 I derived them from the matter connected with 
 God in me ; and I thus understood why the 
 Greeks had represented their Gods, as sinning 
 like tliemselves. In fact, nothing was sin in 
 my estimation ; nothing was, in reality, objective 
 at all ; everything became subjective ; and this 
 concrete subject, in one word, the idol self, 
 became the object of my heart's adoration. 
 One thing did not suit my system, and that 
 was the idea of eternity. That was evidently 
 to the human mind inconceivable ; and how 
 then could such a thing exist ? And whence 
 was matter ? When, the first thing, even 
 granted tliat men arose by development of 
 nature ? and there we come again back upon 
 eternity. Why not even now such a develop- 
 ment ? These questions puzzled me so much 
 that I sometimes returned to my old deism, 
 seeking light in prayer ; but rose unanswered 
 with as heavy a heart as I had knelt down. 
 This also serves to explain my continued ob- 
 servance of the Jewish festivals. 
 
 G 
 
62 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 About this time, I was, through a sudden 
 change of" circumstances, thrown alone and 
 unfriended into the wide workl ; and amid the 
 stern realities of life, many of my poetic 
 fancies left me. By a striking leading of 
 providence, I became acquainted with those 
 Christians who afterwards became my fathers 
 in the Lord. I at first avoided their company ; 
 but in a short time, I was obliged, through 
 a wonderful concurrence of circumstances, to 
 spend two hours daily with them. My pre- 
 judices were soon removed, and we became 
 very intimate friends ; and I could not help 
 greatly admiring in them the lioly life mani- 
 fested as the result of Christian principles. 
 My conscience was now awakening, and I 
 wondered, whence this internal judge came? 
 Was it from education ? If so, whence again 
 this opposite principle which I found in me, 
 the inclination to do evil rather than good ? 
 There were contradictory principles in me ; 
 a voice admonishing to follow after righteous- 
 ness, and an inclination and tendency to sin ; 
 which latter I soon perceived to be of a 
 spiritual and not a material origin. I began 
 to understand that the voice wWiin me was 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 63 
 
 as it were the echo of something without, and 
 what was that? Was it a universal spirit, as 
 I had been accustomed to call it ? But wliat 
 could a universal spirit be, according to the 
 Pantheistic theory, but a number of single 
 spirits, an aggregate of individual consciences? 
 This view being inadequate to solve the mys- 
 tery, it must needs be the echo of something 
 objective, of something, thovigh in some degree 
 within, still also out of and above men — of 
 God, of a personal creating, governing, judg- 
 ing God ! 
 
 At this time, I had finished my philosophical 
 studies, and pas-ed my examinations, that I 
 might leave the country in order to pursue 
 my education at a university of higher rank. 
 
 I left accompanied by the anxious 
 
 prayers of my Christian friends, who saw very 
 well that by my going away, all hope of my 
 final conversion, humanly speaking, was lost ; 
 and who could only recommend my soul to 
 the especial care of the great Bishop, Jesus. 
 And their prayers were heard ; for when I 
 had arrived in the city, in which I hoped to be 
 provided with means for carrying on my 
 journey, I found myself unexpectedly so desti- 
 
64 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 tute of these, and met with so many other 
 discouragements, that for the present I relin- 
 quished my plan and returned to my former 
 place of abode. I now entered upon a very 
 hard and trying time as to outward circum- 
 stances ; and the stern school of poverty 
 brought me more and more away from an 
 ideal region into that of realities. I gave 
 myself with more earnestness than ever to 
 my studies ; chiefly because I thought to 
 find in them comfort and consolation for out- 
 ward pressure and dreary isolation in this 
 world. The more I thought, the more I found 
 how unable I was to think to any good pur- 
 pose. I saw more and more clearly that my 
 former religious system had proceeded from, 
 and was based upon egotism. I was now 
 brought more and more to perceive, that God 
 and self are not identical, but opposed to each 
 other; for the self in me was in direct contrast 
 and opposition to God. This helped to solve 
 one of the chief objections, which Satan raised 
 in me against the truth of Christianity. For 
 when he saw his kingdom about to perish, 
 he endeavoured with the utmost of his jiower 
 to win me wholly again, and to make of me, 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 65 
 
 who internally was persuaded of the immor- 
 tality of the soul, of a judgment seat, and a 
 judging, holy, just God, a complete Atheist. 
 He presented before my eyes a loving and 
 merciful God ; telling me that such a God 
 could in consistency with His holiness be 
 nothing but a loving and pardoning Father, 
 seeing that anger and hatred, being sinful, 
 could have no place in God. The consequences 
 which can be drawn out of this dogma, it is 
 needless here to state. Suffice it to say, that 
 by-and-by I was enabled to see, that though 
 God could not be really angry (this expression 
 being only assumed, because, we men could 
 not find a name for a feeling which is not 
 in our nature), still sin being diametrically 
 opposed to God, who is holiness, the rebel, as 
 a matter of course, must be punished by the 
 eternal law of God. But there I met again 
 with the difficulty, that all men are sinners, 
 and that there is no way of escape for any 
 one from the justice of God to His mercy, 
 seeing that the latter could certainly not over- 
 balance the former ; both attributes subsisting 
 in God in the highest perfection. 
 
 In such studies and reflections the winter 
 G 2 
 
(56 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 had passed, and I had the whole time received 
 Christian instruction ; always listening, never 
 objecting, under the impression that God alone 
 could show me what was truth. Towards the 
 spring, my outward circumstances had very 
 favourably changed, and thus a great obstacle 
 to my conversion was removed ; for I for- 
 merly feared that my JcAvish brethren would 
 ascribe it to the pressure of temporal neces- 
 sity. At the same time my health had broken 
 down through hard study and outward priva- 
 tions ; and some of my old and forgotten sins 
 arose in the light of an accusing conscience. 
 How was I to escape the just judgment of 
 God ? What could help me ? Repentance ? 
 This could perhaps amend my future conduct, 
 but it could never atone for ])ast sins. Good 
 deeds ? In performing these, I could only 
 fulfil my dut}^ and that imperfectly ; and how 
 could I expect thereby to blot out the guilt, 
 which I was heaping up daily? Tliere 1 stood, 
 comfortless, without God, without hope in the 
 world, I began to regard the Bible in a new 
 light. I compared it with contemporary books 
 and what a difference did I find ! Who has 
 taught jMoscs the religion he preached ? Who 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 67 
 
 sustained him under all his trials ? Who had 
 enabled the authors of the Old Testament to 
 give such a true description of the human 
 heart, one so widely differing from that given 
 by the Grecian philosophers, who, in point of 
 science, certainly stood far higher than the 
 Jews ? And then, how the open recital of the 
 faults of the men of God, of whom it treats, 
 impresses the stamp of truth on the whole 
 Bible narration ! That book cannot be Avritten 
 as all other books are ; it must be divinely 
 inspired; its histories and miracles must be 
 true, and God must have revealed himself to 
 my fathers. But then certamly He must have 
 shown them a way of mercy and life eternal. 
 At this state I was much perplexed by the 
 opposing claims of Judaism and Christianity, 
 both of which profess to spring from the same 
 scripture source. But of this I will speak 
 afterwards. 
 
 When I was under this great anguish, not 
 knowing where to flee, my conscience testifying 
 against me, I tried to escape from myself; I 
 fled the church which I had till then regu- 
 larly attended, but how was I to attempt to 
 flee from the Almighty? My anxiety only 
 
00 JEWISn WITNESSES 
 
 increased from day to day. Then it was, that 
 one day, my eye met the g-racious and won- 
 derful invitation of God. (Rev. xxii. 17.) 
 *' Let him that heareth, say, come ; and let him 
 that is athirst come." O Lord, how thirsting 
 am I, but how, and wliere shall I come? '' And 
 whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
 freely." Here then is a fountain of life opened 
 for every one ! Even for the chiefest of sin- 
 ners ! Even for me ! I read the words over 
 and over again ; and my heart thrilled within 
 me from a mingled emotion of joy and pain. 
 
 1 was as one thunderstruck. From this mo- 
 ment I date a new era in my life, even the 
 heginning of my conversion through the un- 
 speakable grace of God vouchsafed to me the 
 chief of sinners. 
 
 The Bible, wherein my eye met with this 
 blessed truth, that " Avhosoever will, may take 
 of the water of life freely," I have still, and 
 hope to preserve all my life long. Among all 
 the precious passages declaring to fallen men 
 the unspeakable love of God, as revealed in 
 the face of Jesus, the Messiah, this will of 
 course always remain the most precious to me. 
 I showed to my teacher, and father in the 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 69 
 
 Lord, the passage wliicli had so much struck 
 me ; and he used it to enforce more and more 
 upon me, the necessity of immediately accept- 
 ing of that invitation. But how could I do so, 
 without knowing whether Jesus were really 
 the Messiah or not? For, as I before said, 
 here I met with two different great systems, 
 which both professed to be based upon the 
 Bible, viz., Judaism and Christianity. True, I 
 saw immediately, that the present Judaism 
 (whether orthodox or reformed) could in no 
 wise claim to be based upon the Bible. For 
 what is Judaism without sacrifices, without 
 temple and high priest ? Nothing but hollow 
 forms, for those were the essence of it ; and 
 how can man now, consistently with the Bible, 
 escape the curse of God hanging over him, 
 that remaineth not in all things which the 
 Lord commandeth? How can fasting, prayers, 
 good works, &c., alter the immovable justice 
 of a holy God, which requires the punishment 
 due to sin? God cannot, according to His 
 nature, accept the sinner in himself, his 
 penitence, fasting, prayers, and good works, 
 be they ever so numerous and great. I speak 
 here of a real fasting ; for I need not mention 
 
70 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 the worthlessness of a mere outward abstinence; 
 when one wishes the day to be soon over, that 
 the fasting and prayer may have an end, that 
 lie may be discharged of that troublesome 
 duty, which is not a privilege but a punishment 
 to him. This, I am sorry to say, is the feeling 
 of many of my reformed brethren. And then, 
 how can we do good works, even if we try to 
 do them in the best possible manner, so long 
 as we are in our natural state ? What is our 
 intention in doing them, seeing that Go<l 
 judges the heart? Is it with a view to our 
 own individual benefit, temporally or spiritu- 
 ally, or does the love of God constrain us? 
 Have we any ultimate object besides ourselves? 
 ' — These, and questions of a similar nature, led 
 me to discover, that any thing which is done 
 by us, cannot possibly justify us ; or, in other 
 words, " by the deeds of the law, no flesh can 
 be justified." By nature we are all hicluded 
 under the wrath and curse of God ; and 
 Judaism (whether modern or orthodox, whether 
 Deism or Jewish Popery), which still pretends 
 to work out salvation in such a manner, is 
 hence utterly contrary to reason, and deviating 
 from the word of God, as expressed in the 
 
THAT JESrS tS THK ClUUST. 71 
 
 Old Testament. But let us see, on the other 
 hand, what the Bible itself otters us, as an 
 atonement for our sins; for we showed above, 
 that the Bible, having proceeded from a merciful 
 and loving, as well as a just and holy Jehovah, 
 must open for us a way of escape. Sin-offer- 
 ing has now ceased ; but even if it were again 
 established, could it in i7se//'justify the sinner, 
 or could a dumb animal reconcile for man's 
 transgression? In itself certainly not; but still 
 it is said, Leviticus xvii. 11, "The life of the 
 flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you 
 upon the altar, to make an atonement for your 
 souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atone- 
 ment for the soul." And so the blood in the 
 sacrifice being the atonement, it must, though 
 of no value in itself, still have had some 
 spiritual meaning ; and what is that ? 
 
 It was at this stage of my inquiry, that I 
 read the history of Jesus more diligently ; Tie 
 being pointed out to me as the essence of that 
 which the sacrificial blood typified, which again 
 brought me back to a careful and impartial 
 study of the prophets, and especially Isaiah. 
 I cannot look back upon this period without 
 still, as it were, feeling in my heart the echo of 
 
72 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 the effect, which the fifty-thh'd chapter of this 
 prophet made upon nie. Is not here a 
 sufficient explanation given of all the seeming 
 m3'steries? Take it simply as it is, without 
 trying to supply artificial, inconsistent, and 
 oftentimes utterly absurd comments ; and will 
 it not at once point to a lamb, to a sin-offering, 
 one, through whose stripes believing sinners 
 are to be healed ? And feeling that I am a 
 dying sinner, why should I not accept this 
 healing so graciously offered ? Let me rather 
 seek to find out wdiether their really is healing 
 under His wings ; and let me more closely in- 
 quire into the precious truth herein revealed. 
 For, if the explanation thus afforded by the 
 prophet be true, then it must also give a key 
 to all the difficulties of this kind in the Old 
 Testament; and, ojjening the spiritual meaning 
 of the law, must enlighten our eyes with light 
 from above, even Avith the illuminating and 
 warming sun of Jehovah. Oh, if jjeople were 
 only as willing to seek truth as God is willing 
 to reveal it, how few^ would remain in fatal 
 ignorance, instead of the millions who are so 
 now ! How must, after a little careful reading, 
 even the truth of these words appear to us ! 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 73 
 
 "Novum Testamentuui in vetere latet, vetus 
 ill nove patet. 
 
 New Testament lies in the Old concealed. 
 
 And., through the New, the Ohl becomes revealed.'" 
 
 When arrived at this period of my spiritual 
 inquiry, I must thankfully acknowledge the 
 great profit, which, under God, I derived from 
 the perusal of an excellent book (Confessions 
 of a Proselyte), written l)y my esteemed friend, 
 Dr. Frankel, of Elberfeld ; of which, I regret 
 that no English translation has yet appeared. 
 This very valuable work helped to clear up a 
 great many difficulties, and to show me, under 
 the direction of God's Spirit, the following- 
 truths, which I will just mention briefly. It 
 taught me that the Old Testament reveals the 
 existence of a Trinity in Unity In addition 
 to the direct assertion thereof, in the Old 
 Testament, I may here bring forward a few^ 
 things that occurred to my mind, in order to 
 show the reasoning, as far as I can remember 
 it, through which I came to mental conviction; 
 wliieli may, by the blessing of God, be use- 
 ful to some of my brethren, who may be in 
 the same position as I was then, God, as 
 being eternal love, must necessarily be Three- 
 II 
 
74 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 One, As subject, He is the eternal /; and, 
 according' to his nature as love, necessarily 
 objectivising Himself (the eternal 27i07i) ; and 
 the produce of both these, the common love of 
 the eternal / and eternal Thou (if I may be 
 allowed to call it so, for we are men, and have 
 no expressions for things which surpass human 
 knowledge, and can only be practically taught 
 by God himself), the connecting bond of these 
 tico is the Holy Spirit, (1 Cor. ii. 2). It seems 
 to me unnecessary, and contrary to the object 
 of the present narrative to enter more fully on 
 the point, and to cite here, as I might do, the 
 opinions of Schelling, Frauensfads, yea, even 
 Hegel, and many others; and I must leave it 
 to the study of my brethren, affectionately 
 warning them, however, of the insufficiency 
 of a mere head- knowledge, and directing them 
 to the onhj effectual way (as the course of my 
 narrative will also show), that of coming 
 prayerfully to God, who is willing to open 
 both our minds and hearts to this blessed truth. 
 If the divine nature of the Messiah is proved, 
 the Trinily is of course undeniable. I will not, 
 however, expatiate on the point liere, as it has 
 been so ably done by many others, but I will 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 75 
 
 ask only one question: If the fifty-tliird of 
 Isaiah refers to a man, is it not absurd to 
 suppose that one sinful man can atone for 
 another? Volumes, indeed, could be written 
 on this point, and innumerable passages of 
 scripture cited, to show, that God himself is to 
 be our righteousness. Were I to cite and 
 e.x])lain the vai'ious passages referring to it 
 v.'hich worked upon my own mind, it Avould 
 draw out the present narrative to an undue 
 length. 
 
 One word more only on this subject. The 
 reader Avill remember one difficulty I met with, 
 and vv'hich I have stated, but not answered, 
 because I had not arrived at the period of my 
 history where I could do so : I mean, how the 
 justice of God requiring the eternal death of 
 every sinner, any one could escape it I or, in 
 other words, hov/ justice and mercy could be 
 united. I defy any one to explain this 
 difficulty, except in the vray the Bible does, — 
 through the sacrifice as a type of, and in 
 dependence upon, tlie death of the Messiah ; 
 or in the fulness of time, by tiie sacrifice itself, 
 through the death of the Messiah, offered up 
 once for sin, and making hereby an eternal 
 
76 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 atonement. Having l)orne the curse of God 
 lor men, eternal salvation is thereby introduced 
 into the world. Here then is a punishment 
 required by the justice of God; and His 
 mercy, having, in this very justice, so strikingly 
 revealed itself, can now enter on its most 
 glorious manifestation. This greatest of all 
 wonders, mercy and truth, are met together,— 
 righteousness and peace have kissed each 
 other! This it was which removed every 
 difficulty, and explained the mystery. And 
 canst thou, O my brother, stand unmoved 
 when thou beholdest it .'' Canst tliou refrain 
 from the contemplation and meditation of this 
 blessed, glorious, and wonderful truth? the 
 greatest measure of love, yea, such love as 
 only God can have manifested in this very 
 justice. " O the depths of the riches, both of 
 the wisdom and knowledge of God ! How 
 unsearchable are his judgments; His ways 
 past finding out ! " 
 
 Having been convinced of the Trinity, as 
 well as of the divine nature of the Messiah, 
 the question occurred, whether this Messiah 
 had come or not; and on this j)oint I was soon 
 instructed to see that Jesus is the Messiah. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 77 
 
 Who could read the history of the mock and 
 lowly Jesus and not ci*y out — no ! this cannot 
 be a deceiver ? And if he is not a deceiver, 
 then he must be the son of God. Here is no 
 middle way. Who that reads, in the last chap- 
 ter of any one of the gospels, the account of 
 His death (perhaps more especially so in St. 
 John), could deny the 7nore than human 
 patience, forbearance, and humility of Jesus ! 
 Besides, whence have these fishermen, who 
 first received and preached the Gospel, become 
 apostles? And well may we here ask, with 
 the Jews of old, are not all these which speak 
 Galileans? and how hear we every man in our 
 own tongue, wherein we w^ere born? Do we 
 not find our very hearts laid open in their, or 
 rather, in the Holy Spii'it's writings? And 
 whence the power to perform miracles publicly, 
 which are recorded again ])ublicly, and v»ritten 
 down and handed over to those who had been 
 present at their performance? And will you 
 tell me, that if that had been true, all Jews 
 would have believed in Him? I point to you 
 Jeremiah, who seemed to prophesy in vain, and 
 to the striking passage in St. Luke, xvi. 31, — 
 " If they hear not Moses and the prophets, 
 h2 
 
78 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 neither will they be persuadetl, thongli one 
 (even) rose from the dead." (Comp, Isa. xxix. 
 9 — 15.) Whence the strength of the a])Ostles, — 
 whence their courage, — wlience their perseve- 
 rance? How are all the scripture testimonies 
 to the Messiah fulfilled in Him? How has 
 also Gen. xlix. 10, Daniel, ix. 26, 27, been so 
 strikingly brought about ? Surely those co- 
 incidences are not accidental ; for, in the first 
 place, nothing is accidental ; and tlien all this 
 has been jDrophesied of in connection with the 
 Messiah. Out of the acknowledgment of the 
 above-mentioned great truth the others all 
 followed in my own mind, as natuiMl conse- 
 quences. Having come now so far iu my 
 narrative as to be able to say my mind was con- 
 vinced of the truth of Christianity, I will, before 
 concluding this portion, take a view of the 
 position in which I stood. I knew then that 
 the Bible (both Old and New Testament) was 
 the word of God ; that therein a Triune just 
 and holy God was proclaimed, tlie Father, Son, 
 and Holy Spirit ; that God had promised and 
 sent His Son as the Messiah into the world ; 
 and that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah: — 
 and by this knowledge the first step was made. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 79 
 
 God's Spirit had convinced me of my sin and 
 misery ; my mind was by him enlightened in 
 the knowledge of Christ; but not yet "was 
 my will renewed, and I persuaded and enabled 
 to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to me 
 in the Gospel." ( Westminster Assembly's 
 Catechism.) Whatever man can learn and 
 know by his intellect, I now knew and had 
 learned ; but it had not yet reached my heart; 
 I had not yet experienced the teaching of the 
 Spirit within. A good work had commenced, 
 but the stony heart Avas not yet taken away; 
 and I could only say, with my brethren of old 
 (Acts ii. 37), " Men and brethren, what shall 
 we do?" When in this condition, I thought, 
 in my ignorance of the new birth, that all that 
 could be done was now done; and I intended 
 then to apjDly for baptism. But my heart 
 being yet unchanged, I began to feel what it 
 meant to be about to leave father and mother, 
 to take the cross and to follow Christ. What 
 would the consequences of this stej) be i Not 
 only should I lose all my present worldly pros- 
 pects thereby, which weighed comparatively 
 little in my estimation, but what would the world 
 say ? what would all those say, who knew and 
 
80 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 esteemed me before? Would they not tliiuk 
 that I had wholly changed my formerly re- 
 spectable character ? Would not my brethren, 
 and even all the Christians, despise me now ? 
 How did I judge before of all those who be- 
 come proselytes? But then, what reason is 
 there for so doing ? Is it not Ijoth unreason- 
 able and unjust to hate a man because he 
 entertains a different opinion from our own? 
 And how then is the injustice of others to 
 restrain me from doing ray duty? But then 
 tlie Jews looked upon me for future defence 
 and support in their struggles ; and is it fair 
 now to disappoint them, and to leave the 
 weaker and oppressed party, and betake myself 
 to the stronger and oppressing one ? But then, 
 if the latter be in the right, is it not my duty 
 to follow them? And then, finally, and worse 
 than all, what will my parents say? I dare 
 not even hope that my mother will allow me 
 to enter her house any more. But still it is 
 my duty, and I must, therefore, do it, be the 
 consequences what they may. 
 
 I now attended public worship regularly on 
 Sunday, and most striking was the difference 
 in which, in my estimation the preaclied word 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 81 
 
 now appeared to nie. Formerly, it was either 
 an oifence, or, at least, intolerable foolishness 
 to me ; it either roused my conscience, or be- 
 came a wearisome rejietition of (what I tlien 
 thought) the same fable. But now, with what 
 intense attention I listen to the declaration of 
 the truth of God ; of that which I found now 
 to be the only wisdom, in the absolute sense of 
 the word ! I went to my beloved teacher in 
 the Lord one Sabbath, after service, to ask 
 baptism from him ; but after a short conver- 
 sation, he refused it for the present. I went 
 home mourning. To be separated from all 
 my old friends and my family ; to sacrifice 
 all ; and still not to be received into the Chris- 
 tian church ! But the wound inflicted thereby 
 proved to be, by the blessing of God, a most 
 salutary one. Here the account of my mental 
 conviction, which I have given very shortly 
 and imperfectly, ends, and the history of the 
 renewing of my will, as I trust, begins ; 
 which I Avill briefly narrate ; but before 
 quitting this part of my subject, let me ask 
 any dear brother, according to the flesh : 
 Does this not stir thee up, at least to inquire 
 whether Jesus be the Messiah or not ; or dost 
 
82 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 thou still, without impartial or careful perusal 
 of Holy Writ, declare Christianity to be foolish- 
 ness, not worthy even of thy attention ? or 
 darest thou go forward and say, in spite of all 
 the exjicrience had by many of thy l^rethren, — 
 in spite of the truth of God, clearly revealed in 
 the Old Testament, — no, I will not hear ? 
 Awake, ere it is too late! awake, ere thou canst 
 not awake any moie ! awake, ere thou awakest 
 in hell ! 
 
 It is not without a certain kind of fear that 
 I enter now uj^on an account of that blessed 
 work, which, as I humbly trust, the Spirit of 
 God began in me. 
 
 When I had thus been refused baptism, I 
 returned home with a heavy heart, and urged 
 the next day, my teacher to tell me, why he 
 had not admitted me into the outward church. 
 He showed me in few, but impressive words, 
 how little knowledge I had as yet of my own 
 sinfulness, and how little I could consequently 
 have experienced of the grace of God ; my head 
 might be convinced, but this could as little 
 warrant my admission into the church, as it 
 could procure me a heavenly inheritance. This 
 went deep into my heart. To hnow, and still 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 83 
 
 perhaps to perish ! What, if death were just 
 now spreading- his wings over me ? I hear the 
 moving of my watch ; behold, how one minute 
 drives the other, and one hour the other ; antl 
 one week, and month, and year the other! 
 Every moment, as it passes, carries me in its 
 flight nearer to the grave, nearer judgment, 
 nearer hell, if I be unconverted. Oh ! brethren 
 these are all well-known truths ; but they cease 
 to be notions, they become fearful realities, as 
 soon as God's Spirit applies them to the heart. 
 I went home, and prayed. Here was another 
 epoch of my life. I prayed till my heart grew 
 warmer and warmer, and I felt what it was to 
 pray, By-and-by God's sun began to shine 
 into my heart, and I beheld something, both 
 of the dreadful depths of my depravity, and of 
 the glory of Jesus on the cross, exalted a prince 
 and a Saviour. At that time my heart ap- 
 peared to myself like a glass of clear fountain 
 water, examined with a microscope : the same 
 water, which was formerly thought so pure, is 
 now seen to be full of little insects ; a little 
 world, moving and stirring about. So also 
 with me, pride, vanity, and unbelief, had never 
 appeared to me so dreadful, till the Spirit of 
 
84 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 God held before me the coinniand of a jnstand 
 holy JehoA'ah. "For I was alive without the 
 law once : but when the commandment came, 
 sin revived, and 1 died." 
 
 My anxiely for a new heart g-rew till t!ie 
 blessed Jesus began to send me some answer. 
 It would be needless to try to describe my feel- 
 ings at that time. I am only thankful that I 
 was led to write down, every evening, some of 
 ray thoughts, which I carefully preserve, as a 
 refreshment to my soul, when sometimes near 
 to despair. How happy was I then in my first 
 love ! I forgot all around me. I laid aside 
 my once so cherished studies, and gave myself 
 wholly to the reading of God's word, and 
 prayer, with the exception of some time, which 
 I devoted to the reading of some parts of the 
 excellent book of that eminent father in Israel, 
 Dr. Keith. 
 
 I submitted now quietly to the refusal of 
 baptism, knowing, that the Lord would send it 
 in His own good time. And so He did ; and 
 that, through the instrumentality of a person, 
 from whom I could have least expected it. As 
 students do genei'ally, and poor ones especially, 
 I liad shared in the use of my little room, with 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 85 
 
 a yonng Rabbi, who, linving- finished with great 
 eminence liis Talmudical studies, gave now liis 
 whole attention to other sciences, which we 
 hence prosecuted unitedly. Many a night we 
 sat together on our narrow bedside, reading- 
 together, and drawing with profound delight, 
 from the broken cistern of an unhallowed lite- 
 rature. Many an evening we had, after a hard 
 day's work, leaned togethei at the window, 
 exchanging our thoughts, desires, and cares. 
 Thus, the bond which connected us became 
 stronger' and stronger. My friend had some- 
 times visited my teachers, but standing on the 
 verge of infidelity, he had kept aloof from the 
 invitations of the gospel. He could not but 
 observe the change of mind which was going 
 on in me : no more did we unite in stud}-, or 
 the exchange of feeling ; sometimes, though I 
 tried to conceal it, he found me with my face 
 covered with my hands, as if praying ; he also 
 saw me continually reading the New Testa- 
 ment. All this excited his doubts about me, 
 to vt'hich he gave finally utterance, and which 
 I answered frankly, by telling him, that I was 
 convinced of the truth of Christianity. Amazed, 
 he could not understand how I had not vet 
 
86 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 publicly professed Jesus, and after having ex- 
 plained all, and having* once more solemnly, in 
 tlie presence of Jehovah, questioned nie, ho 
 bade me follow him. Silently we went through 
 the streets, to my beloved father in the Lord, 
 whom my friend questioned harshly, about my 
 being not yet admitted into the church, since I 
 was surely a Christian, In consequence, a day 
 was appointed for conversation with me in re- 
 ference to that holy ordinance. 
 
 When again returned home, my friend ex- 
 plained to me, Avhat I could easily understand, 
 how, on account of his relations, he could no 
 longer live with me in the same house, though 
 his love to me (as he had shown a short time 
 before) would remain unchanged. 
 
 The next evening, I made the first, and 
 indeed, not the easiest sacrifice to my faith, by 
 leaving that little beloved room, which had 
 witnessed so many transitions in my life. 
 
 My friend visited now my house only late at 
 night, or very early in the morning, in order 
 not to be observed. 
 
 Soon after, I was publicly admitted into the 
 church ; having before made all my Jewish 
 acquaintances aware of it. General was the 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 87 
 
 expression of sorrow among all of them; who 
 (I am happy to say) never regarding- me as a 
 man who acted against his conviction, treated 
 mc always after with the very same esteem, 
 which I had enjoyed before. I cannot attempt 
 to describe the feelings which agitated me on 
 the day of my baptism : my evening thoughts 
 of this day being as follows : — 
 
 " He tliat has a voice, let him lift it up to 
 heaven, loudly praising. He that lias a tongue, 
 let him speak with it of the wonders of our 
 God ; he shall not want words, nor shall he 
 lack sounds, for God is with him, and in him 
 Let him, who desireth joy, come to our Lord 
 and let him, who seeks after pleasure, hasten 
 to his Messiah. For in Him alone there is 
 delight, in Him alone is salvation, in Him 
 alone is eternal life." 
 
 1 became now, in every sense of the word, 
 a child ; my pleasures, my whole trust, was in 
 my Father; relying upon him, I went boldly 
 forward making joyfully my profession, and 
 defending my belief against all attacks. That 
 was a tune of happiness : no remorse was 
 following me, no care was troubling me ; all 
 round me was spring, because in me there was 
 
88 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 now spring. Tlie place where I lived had for 
 centuries not been visited by true gospel 
 preaching, which Avas carried there only by my 
 beloved teachers. Hence (for they taught me 
 nothing but Christ) it is explainable how igno- 
 rant I was of the unhappy divisions in the 
 Christian church, of which I became first aware 
 when betaking myself to the university. I 
 was asked, whether I was a predcstinarian or 
 not ; not whether a believer or not, but whether 
 a Hefornicd or Lutheran. The love to Jesus, 
 His kingdom, and my poor blind brethren, 
 which had animated my teachers to leave their 
 home, and to seek for perishing souls, I 
 imagined to l)e genei'ally prevailing in that 
 country from which they came, and 1 tliought 
 it a Paradise on earth. Poor child that I was, 
 I saw at present only two classes of men ; those 
 few who were disciples of Christ, forming a true 
 union through faith, and the others all standing 
 without. I knew Jesus and His body, the 
 church : and the devil and his body, the world. 
 No trials from false friends had as yet over- 
 taken me : I had no idea, as yet, of those fair- 
 speaking, backbiting, all-sweet, and all-hating 
 creatures who too often call themselves Chris- 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 89 
 
 tians. Alas ! I was soon to be mournfully 
 distippointed ; and instead of being comforted 
 by all who professed Christ, I was soon left to 
 the comfort which Jesus alone offers. But I 
 will rather be silent on this point, as it calls 
 forth too many bitter recollections. 
 
 The first fortnight passed thus in the richest 
 and purest delight, when I Avas called upon to 
 behold, every day, new beauties in my Re- 
 deemer. Some like-minded men, who were 
 looking forward to the same ordinance which 
 I had already received, together with oui 
 pastors, formed a flock of men whose happiness 
 was unmingled and undisturbed. I find it is 
 impossible to speak about the patriarchal sim- 
 ])licity and the strength of the bond which 
 united us : we were in fact one family, whose 
 head was Jesus Christ liimself. Soon I was 
 called upon finally to select the calling in life 
 which I would follow. I trust I was guided 
 by the Lord to decide on the ministry, with a 
 view to the missionary work ; the preparation 
 for which, I trust, will soon give place to the 
 office itself. My thoughts on it were, at that 
 time, as follows : — 
 
 i2 
 
90 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 " Since the time of my conversion, I calmly 
 observe every day bringing- me nearer to death. 
 I have merely one desire before I depart, one 
 which I cannot suppress, one which God has 
 put into my heart, and Avhich will not expire 
 even with my last breath ; that is, to be in the 
 service of my Saviour — to Avin souls for the 
 kingdom of heaven from my outcast brethren ; 
 and thus to be in God's hand the weak instru- 
 ment to collect, perhaps, some of the lost sheep 
 of the house of Israel. This is my daily prayer, 
 and I am sure that the Lord will, in his- un- 
 speakable grace, o])on a way for it, seeing that 
 I 'pray in the name of Jesus for it. Wiien I 
 have attained that, then I will die joyfully in 
 the liord, for I know that my Saviour liveth, 
 and sitteth at the right hand of God, and 
 shall give me a place in ' the new Jcrasa- 
 em. 
 
 But of this and many other circumstances 
 ((rom reasons easily to be understood) I cannot 
 speak any more ; sufRce it to say, that the 
 Lord has opened a way, and that till the time 
 that I entered upon my professional studies, I 
 exhoitod publicly and privately all to come 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 91 
 
 and to receive Jesus freely offered in the gospel. 
 On a missionary tour to my native place, I met 
 with the first persecution, both from my own 
 relatives and the world. But the Lord held 
 me up, and gave me in his unbounded mercy 
 a soul for my hire, which, by its wonderful 
 conversion and consistent profession under 
 great trials, formed afterwards one of the 
 brightest ornaments of the Saviour's church. 
 A heavy trial awaited me also here. Before 
 my baptism 1 had not informed my parents of 
 the step I was about to take, knowing too well 
 their disapproval of it ; and here not wishing 
 to offend them more than necessary by direct 
 disobedience to their express command, sinful 
 fear had kept me silent as to the step I had 
 taken; but now I was obliged to write to them 
 concerning it. Well may the reader imagine 
 with what feelings I did so. But I had made 
 it a matter of much prayer; and to my surprise 
 and delight, some time after, 1 was restored, 
 not only to their love, but enjoyed their con- 
 fidence more than ever. The Lord has been 
 also pleased to bless some of my weak labours 
 in his vineyard ; and my friend, the young 
 Rabbi also was stii'red up to an earnest enquiry, 
 
92 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 the results of which, after so long an interval 
 begin now, by the instrumentality of more effi- 
 cient labourers, to appear. 
 
 Quickly these six months, the happiest of 
 my life, passed away, and a new relation began. 
 Since then the Lord has been pleased to disci- 
 pline me by more or less chastisements and 
 trials, of which I cannot speak. But if the 
 Lord leads only, what matters it how? We 
 know that he leads to green pastures, and to 
 rjidet waters (perhaps in tears and sorrows) ; 
 and here we might well say, that the least in 
 the kingdom of heaven is greater than even 
 John. My defence is of God, who preserves 
 the upright in heart. In Thee " our fathers 
 trusted ; they trusted and Thou didst deliver 
 them." If God is for us, who may be against 
 us ? yea, if the whole Avorld rise, if a host 
 encamp against us, still He will stand at our 
 right hand, lest we be greatly moved. He will 
 hide us in his pavilion at the evil time, fill our 
 cuj), anoint our heads with oil, and make us to 
 shout aloud for joy ! Blessed be His holy name 
 for ever. 
 
 Let us now beware, brethren, lest we write 
 or read to our own condemnation ; for this 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 93 
 
 brief and iiuperfect narrative will testify against 
 us, if we believe not. Oh ! may God grant 
 that we all may meet at the right liand of 
 Jesus, where there is fulness of joy for ever- 
 more. 
 
 A. E 
 
94 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 JEWISH WITNESS.— No. IV 
 ISAAC DA COSTA. 
 
 I cannot present the JcAvisli "Witness, No IV. to my 
 readers ^vitllOut a few words of affectionate exhortation 
 to my dear bretliren. They repeatedly state, that it 
 is only ignorant and uneducated Jews who embrace 
 Christianity. Absurd as this assertion is, it is so often 
 repeated that it passes current witli many, who have 
 neither opportunity nor inclination to inquire into its 
 truth. Through the kindness of my beloved brother, 
 who has yielded to my urgent entreaties, not only to 
 give an account of his conversion, but to give it with 
 his name, I am enabled to show my dear brethren of 
 the house of Israel, that one of the master-minds of the 
 day, one who is not only the greatest poet that Holland 
 has produced, but is equtdly renowned as a philosopher, 
 a theologian, and a politician ; this man, brought up in 
 hatred and contempt of Christianity., has been brought 
 by the force of truth, and the power of Divine grace, to 
 be a humble disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. O 
 brethren ! Ought ye not to enquire whether ye be not 
 rejecting the truth of God, to your own condemnati<Hi " 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 95 
 
 You request of me, dear brother, some 
 account of my conversion to the Christian 
 religion, and to the faith in Jesus Christ; and 
 I cannot refuse to tell the things which tlie 
 God of our fathers has wrought in my soul. 
 I will cheerfully join my testimony with that 
 of my brethren, both by nature and in grace, 
 who endeavour to instruct others and to teacli 
 their hearts by I'etracing the ways of God 
 towards them in His providence and His grace. 
 To set His dispensations towards me in a 
 clearer light, I must refer to many long- past 
 events. A son of Israel is constantly reminded 
 that his personal history is closely linked with 
 that of his fathers. I must then crave in- 
 •dulgence for prefacing my account with some 
 particulars respecting my parentage, which I 
 derive from one of the Jewish famiJies that 
 have for several ages dwelt in the Spanish 
 peninsula. Some of my ancestors in that 
 country professed Catholicism, first by com- 
 pulsion ; and afterwards (a case by no means 
 uncommon in the history of our people in 
 Spain and Portugal) from conviction, or, at 
 least, in sincerity. Humanly speaking we 
 might still have inhabited that country, and 
 
96 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 professed the Romish fkith ; but one of the 
 members of our family, Canon Trcsoni^, of the 
 collegiate church of Oporto, gave uj), in con- 
 sequence of his doubts on religion, his office 
 and his country to return to tlie Synagogue of 
 his ancestors, 
 
 We learn from various biographical works* 
 the history of Gabriel {Judaic Uriel) da Costa 
 (Latin, a Costa) who with his younger brothers, 
 was circumcised at Amsterdam, where, after 
 falling into complete infidelity, his life ended 
 very unhappily. It is from one of these 
 younger brothers, Joseph da Costa, that I take 
 my descent, by the direct male line. My 
 family belonged, during two centuries, to 
 the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue in 
 Amsterdam, where it enjoyed all the privileges 
 which Holland then presented to my nation 
 in its exile and tribulation. My father, who 
 shared in the sentiment of dcvotedness to the 
 house of Orange, so common amongst the 
 Jews, and who Avas therefore very inimical to 
 the revolution, educated me in the same prin- 
 
 * Exemplar Vitce Humancp, printed at the end of the 
 Colloquy of Limhorch w'llh Prahio, Bayle, Diet, 
 Historique, art. — A. Costa. Wolf, Bib. Rabbin, &fc. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 07 
 
 ciples. He was a very upright man, and 
 gifted with a large share of good sense ; and 
 my education was to him an object of the most 
 afiectionate care and solicitude. His religious 
 princij)]es were by no means those of a strict 
 Jew, although he maintained a decorous re- 
 spect for the outward ordinances of religion. 
 My mother was much more inclined to the 
 religious observances of modern Judaism. 
 
 From childhood my mind had been partially 
 influenced by a sort of religious instinct, a 
 vague desire to know and serve God, whilst I 
 was, at the same time, involved in doubt and 
 uncertainty, both as to Revelation itself, and 
 with regard to the ordinances, and the oral 
 traditions of the Rabbis. At times I strenu- 
 ously addicted myself to the devotional use of 
 the prayers, the rites and commandments of 
 my religion ; at others, I relapsed into doubt, 
 and gave way to a distaste for all these out- 
 ward observances. The scoffing and irreligious 
 philosophy of the eighteenth century inspired 
 me with horror; and my attention was earnestly 
 directed to the acquiring of an intelligent con- 
 viction respecting the existence and govern- 
 ment of God, and the immortality of the soul. 
 
 K 
 
98 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 But the books I consulted in my search into 
 these high interests failed to afford me satis- 
 faction. Their arguments were not of sufficient 
 weight fully to convince me of their truth, nor 
 did their reasonings fix me in complete in- 
 credulity. Materialism alarmed, distressed, 
 and shocked me. But the subtleties of Plato, 
 of Mendelsohn, and others, could not reach my 
 heart, nor warm it. My mind was at that time 
 far from being convinced of the historical f^ict 
 of Revelation, or of the veracity of the Old 
 Testament, of Moses, and the Prophets. And 
 although in the midst of this uncertainty, I 
 still clung to the great recollections of my 
 nation, from a feeling of natural pride, my 
 commerce with unbelievers, and my study of 
 philosophers, had wrought in my mind so far 
 as to exclude the idea of an immediate and 
 positive revelation. I had formed a sort of 
 deistical system, in which were mingled rab- 
 binical and Mosaic principles. I looked upon 
 Jesus Christ as a light proceeding from Israel 
 for the illumination of the Gentiles: meanwhile 
 the vanities of the world and sin ruled in my 
 daily life. Such was the state of my mind 
 when in the providence of God two events 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 99 
 
 occurred which had a marked influence on my 
 future course. 
 
 My father, perceiving my inclination for 
 study, destined me to the career of jurispru- 
 dence, a pursuit which, though formerly closed 
 to the Jews, had been partially opened to them 
 since the revolution of 1795. From the age 
 of thirteen to fifteen years (1811 — 1813), having 
 attended regularly the Latin classes in my 
 native city of Amsterdam, I began a course of 
 lessons with the Professor of Antiquities and 
 Literature, a man of learning, and possessed of 
 a highly refined taste. His historical lectures 
 gave him ample opportunity for asserting and 
 setting in a conspicuous light the truth and 
 high authority of the writings of Moses, and 
 he earnestly vindicated those records from the 
 sophisms and fallacies of Voltaire, and the 
 other sceptics of the age. The idea of a 
 jjositive revelation was now awakened in my 
 mind ; I began to believe in the divinity of the 
 Old Testament, and this great truth gradually 
 developed, was to me as a beacon amidst doubt 
 and obscurity. Revealed religion, the divine 
 authority of the Bible, is an historical fact. 
 
 My study of the Bible history was soon 
 
100 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 followed by enquiries which originated partly, 
 I must own, from national pride. In the 
 midst of the contempt and dislike of the world 
 for the name of Jew, I had ever gloried in it. 
 I began, therefore, to study the history of our 
 families, and of our nation, in Spain and 
 Portugal, in respect to its theology — its poetry 
 — its attainments in science — its political and 
 diplomatic position, taking a general review 
 of its prosperity and of its astonishing calami- 
 ties. Throughout their history, both ancient 
 and modern, I perceived something so extra- 
 ordinary as to be quite inexplicable, unless we 
 view the Jews as the subjects of remarkable 
 privileges, and of as remarkable downfall ; of 
 a special election of God, and of an enormous 
 crime on the part of the elect people. It was 
 thus that the consideration of modern Judaism 
 prepared me for the knowledge of that religion, 
 Avhich alone is the solution and the fulfilment 
 of the pure and divine Judaism of the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 Another circumstance in my life tended to 
 my further enlightenment. The perusal of 
 the ancient classics, the political events of 1813 
 and 1815, even the study of the history of my 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 101 
 
 fathers according' to the flesh, awakened in my 
 soul the faculties of poetry. As a youthful 
 poet, I was presented by a learned Hebraist of 
 our nation to the greatest of our Dutch con- 
 temporary poets, the celebrated Bilderdyk 
 (who died at the age of 75 years in 1831). 
 He was a remarkable man in all respects, and 
 one whose political and religious convictions, 
 and originality of mind and character, had 
 armed all this present age, at least in his own 
 country, against him. Misunderstood, perse- 
 cuted, banished (in 1795), harrassed by all 
 sorts of misfortunes, he had found from his 
 youth, strength and consolation in the gospel 
 of Christ. Attached in heart to the truths of 
 the confession of the Reformed Churches, he 
 had besides early perceived the glorious future, 
 announced by the prophets to the ancient 
 people of God, and how their conversion to the 
 Messiah, crucified by them, would be one day 
 to the nations at large like life from the dead. 
 From thence arose a particular attachment to 
 Israel for their fathers' sake, and for the love of 
 Christ, who sprung from Israel according to 
 the flesh. Very naturally, I felt strongly 
 drawn towards this extraordinary man, I 
 k2 
 
102 JEWISH WITNE>^SES 
 
 Ijecamc his tliscii)le, and also Jiis intimate friend 
 for eighteen years to the diiy of his deatli. It 
 is to him, under the hand of God, and tlirough 
 His adorable grace, that I saw the light which 
 led me to the Christian religion, and to the 
 faith in Jesus, my Saviour, and my God. Not 
 that Bilderdyk ever sought to make a ])roselyte 
 of his young disciple. AVith a wisdom Avhich 
 I can attribute to nothing but the direction of 
 the ^Vlmighty, he rather endeavoured not to 
 sway my mind by the influence which his 
 superior intelligence gave him over me. He 
 only endeavoured to render me more of an 
 Israelite than is consistent with the wisdom 
 of the present age. He spoke to me of the 
 Old Testament; he directed my attention to 
 the prophecies, to the proiiiises given to the 
 fathers, to the portions of revealed truth, pre- 
 served even in the traditions of the Rabbis 
 (Messiah Ben David and Messiah Ben Joseph, 
 kc. Sic.) Especially he tried to make me feel 
 that the true Christian shares in the hopes of 
 Israel in regard to a glorious reign of Messiah 
 upon the throne of David ; and that on the 
 other hand (it is thus that he expressed himself 
 in a i)iece of poetry which he addressed to me 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 103 
 
 in 1819), the sincere Jew is a Christian in 
 hope. 
 
 Soon the hand of God led us further on. It 
 was in 1820. Bilderdyk and I were engaged 
 in a deeply serious conversation on the things 
 of God and of truth. In the ardour of dis- 
 course he happened to say to me, that tlie 
 ancient Jews themselves had acknowledged a 
 plurality of persons in the ineffable unity of 
 God. That God seeing himself, contemplating 
 himself, reflecting himself, begot his Son from 
 all eternity; and that the Son is He whom 
 Christians adore in the person of Jesus Christ 
 crucified. 
 
 Then did my eyes perceive the first rays of 
 new light. I began to read the New Testa- 
 ment ; I read that unspeakably sublime and 
 blessed word (John i. 6 — 14), " In the begin- 
 ning was the Word, and the Word was with 
 God, and the Word was God, and the Word 
 was made flesh." I began to feel an abhor- 
 rence of sin, for which the Saviour himself 
 manifested in the flesh, had suft'ered the death 
 of the cross. I perceived the fulfilment of the 
 prophecies of Isaiah, xi,, liii., Ixi,, and in Psalms 
 xxii. ex., Sec, &.C. I adored — I believed , and 
 
104 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 Ijy degrees this faith oi^erated upon my con- 
 science and my practice. Religion -was no 
 longer merely a sublime speculation, or a great 
 national interest ; I found that I must become 
 the property of Jesus Christ, that I must live 
 to Him, and by Him. Twenty years have 
 elapsed since that period. Shame in the sight 
 of God and before men befits me in recording 
 so holy an obligation. But He who called 
 me from the midst of darkness is faith- 
 ful. He will not suffer me to quit this life 
 without having truly glorified him with my 
 li])s, and in my life, by the faith whicli alone 
 saves. During the early days of my con- 
 victions I had, though with some hesitation, 
 opened my mind on the subject, to my friend 
 Capadose. We soon entered into a full dis- 
 cussion of it — and our conversations were more 
 and more directed to the great questions of 
 the truth and salvation ; we read and examined 
 together. A third inquirer into the Scriptures 
 and the truth in Christ, was soon after joined 
 with us. God gave me, in 1821, a wife whose 
 choice from the first communication we had 
 together on this all-important subject, was in 
 accord with my own. By a remarkable provi- 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 105 
 
 dence of our God, Hannah Belmonte, my 
 cousin, betrothed to me in 1820, had been 
 (through a train of family circumstances) 
 brought up in a school of Christian young 
 ladies. Having been admitted to share their 
 religious instructions, she became acquainted 
 with the catechism of Heidelberg, and had 
 heard the blessed name of Jesus before I 
 did. From the time I imparted to her -svliat 
 was passing in my own mind, she became to 
 me a beloved sister in Christ, as well as a 
 faithful companion in the trials of life, and in 
 the search after eternal life through faith in our 
 great God and Saviour. Together with our 
 I'riend Capadose, we were baptized the 20th 
 October, 1822, at Ley den ; and the Lord after- 
 wards added to us three other members of our 
 family. We kept up a good understanding, 
 and uninterrupted communion of feeling with 
 my mother-in-law Belmonte, and her eldest 
 daughter, Esther ; though we were far from 
 anticipating the happy change and renewal of 
 heart and life, Avhich quickly developed itself. 
 By the Divine blessing, a conversation that 
 my mother-in-law and I had together, one 
 evening, w^as made the means of arousing* her 
 
106 JEWIsn WITNESSES 
 
 to a serious concern for the salvation of her 
 sowl, and this example was soon followed by 
 her daughter. Both displayed great eagerness 
 for Christian instruction, and shortly after they 
 openly confessed the name of the Lord Jesus, 
 and were baptized by the venerable and pious 
 Pierre Chevalier (pastor of the Walloon church 
 in this town) — and who is now with them be- 
 fore the throne of the Lamb. 
 
 Our mother, then aged sixty-eight years, 
 survived her baptism two years, a period which 
 she devoted almost entirely to prayer and 
 studying the Scriptures, especially the New 
 Testament, her previous reading having been 
 confined to the most frivolous jiublications. 
 Perfect peace was the portion of her latter 
 days, and her last words were, " Come Lord 
 Jesus!" Her daughter Esther, who after- 
 wards married the worthy son of the Walloon 
 pastor, our intimate friend and brotlier, Mons. 
 J. Chevalier, after a most edifying course of 
 devotedness to her Lord and Saviour, died in 
 her confinement in June, 1840, Her soul 
 also reposes in peace in the bosom of Abraham, 
 and in the full fruition of His presence who 
 redeemed her with His blood. 
 
THAT JESUS TS THE CHRIST. 107 
 
 Another meinber of our family, wlio had 
 become a disciple of Christ, and had been 
 baptized some time after us (but quite in- 
 dependently of us), had preceded our dear 
 sister in death ; delivered from the depths 
 of sin by the healing grace of the Lord, he 
 had found pardon and eternal life through 
 the new and living way of the blood of Christ. 
 After having studied theology, he was about to 
 assume the pastoral charge of one of our 
 churches, when he was called to his rest. 
 
 To God the most holy, be thanksgiving and 
 praise for his unspeakable mercies in life, in 
 death, and tiirougliout all eternity. Amen. 
 
 ISAAC DA COSTA. 
 
108 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 JEWISH WITNESS.— No. V, 
 DR. CAPADOSE. 
 
 Haviug presented my readers with an account of the 
 conversion ofM. Da Costa, I think it will be interesting 
 to follow it up by that of his frienrl, Dr. Capadosc, who 
 was baptized along with him. His touching narrative 
 was published more than nine years since, and is doubt- 
 less known to many of my readers ; but I feel sure they 
 will read it again with new intei'est, after having perused 
 that of Da Costa. I have considerably abridged it; 
 in some passages, therefore, it is rather the substance 
 than the actual words of the original narrutive. 
 
 I will no longer delay, dear friends, to comply 
 with your request tliat I would communicate 
 iu writing the mode in which it jdeased the 
 God of" all grace to bring me to the knowledge 
 of Himself, and to lead me out of darkness into 
 His marvellous light. 
 
 Being deeply sensible that it was not of 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 109 
 
 myself I souglit after God, but that my com- 
 passionate Lord came to seek me when I was 
 lost, it would be false modesty if I were now to 
 withhold an account which, when verbally 
 communicated, interested and edified many 
 dear friends, who therein traced the great love 
 of the Saviour towards a poor sinner like me, 
 and thus were led to ascribe all the glory to 
 Him whose name is blessed for evermore. 
 May this glory be the only object I shall keep 
 in view in this account ! Such is the sincere 
 desire of my heart ; and I ask of God to guide 
 my pen in truth and sincerity, that I may be 
 kept from all self-seeking, into which the neces- 
 sity of speaking of myself might betray me. 
 
 Although I was by birth a Portuguese 
 Israelite, I was by no means zealous for the 
 religion of my fathers. My education was 
 rather moral than religious ; and though 
 taught to hate vice, and to love what the world 
 calls virtue, I owe it entirely to the grace of 
 God that at an after period I was preserved 
 from open impiety. 
 
 At an early age I was captivated by science 
 and literatnre. I was fond of balls, plays, and 
 every worldly amusement ; but study afforded 
 L 
 
110 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 me still greater satisfaction. I became ac- 
 quainted with the works of Voltaire and 
 Rousseau at an early period of my life ; but 
 their false principles, and still more, the fright- 
 ful consequences of their system, as exhibited 
 before my eyes in the history of the French 
 revolution, preserved me, by the divine mercy, 
 from their hurtful influence. My parents 
 having destined me for the medical profession, 
 I considered it my duty to acquire the know- 
 ledge requisite for this calling ; but I felt more 
 inclination for the study of the theoretical 
 sciences, and for philosophic research. 
 
 My friends were nearly all young men who 
 made an outward profession of Christianity ; 
 but the Lord had given me one friend among 
 my near relatives.* As we were both Israelites, 
 and had been intimate from childhood, our 
 views on all subjects were very similar. (Dr. 
 C here proceeds to state their intercourse with 
 Bilderdyk, which, as it is in substance the same 
 as the account given by Da Costa, I pass 
 over). The religious element, if I may call it 
 so, had not as yet entered into my soul. In 
 my early childhood, it is true, I had often felt 
 
 * M. Da Costa. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. Ill 
 
 an undefined need of prayer ; and when about 
 nine years' old, had asked my parents to give 
 me a book of prayers, either in the French or 
 Dutch language, that I might understand them 
 better.* I strongly urged my younger brothers 
 and sisters to the same practice ; and this was 
 the more remarkable as I had very seldom 
 seen any one engaged in prayer in my father's 
 house. From that time, amid all the changes 
 of my outward life, I never omitted the per- 
 formance of this duty ; and until my conver- 
 sion to Christianity, it constituted all my 
 religious worship. The prayer I used ended 
 with these remarkable words : — "I wait for 
 thy salvation, O Lord ! " I have preserved 
 the book containing it, and never look upon 
 it without adoring the goodness of that " God 
 of my salvation," who has condescended to 
 bestow upon me, at a matured age, the bless- 
 ing that the child of nine years' old, hardly 
 knowing what he asked, failed not to solicit 
 from Him every night before he lay down to 
 rest. 
 
 During the period in which I was engaged 
 
 * It is the general custom of the Jews to use the 
 Hebrew language in private as well as public prayer. 
 
112 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 in my studies, I occasionally experienced very 
 peculiar emotions. A poor woman used to 
 sing jisuhns in the street on Saturday evenings, 
 to excite the compassion of the passengers; 
 and more than once have I left my hooks to 
 listen to her, overpowered hy emotions Avhich 
 I could neither comprehend nor describe. At 
 the theatre also, wheji Joseph in Eyypt was re- 
 presented, my tears flowed at the sound of the 
 morning prayer, which was imitated from the 
 Hebrew. At the synagogue, however, which, 
 for the sake of decorum, I still frequented, 
 nothing had the least jDOAver to interest me. 
 On the contrarv, the unmeanino; ceremonies 
 which appealed not to the heart, the want of 
 reverence, the bawling noise, the discordant 
 singing, and lastly, the employment of a lan- 
 guage of which three-fourths of the congrega- 
 tion did not understand a word, disgusted me 
 so much, that I ceased to attend it regularly, 
 liaving always a great aversion to hypocrisy. 
 
 In the mean time, as if the tempter had 
 foreseen what was afterwards to take place, 
 he induced my friend and myself to change 
 our mode of life. We disliked half measures, 
 and could not endure the modern Judaism 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 113 
 
 which chooses at its pleasure to dispense with 
 the requirements of tlie Mosaic law; we there- 
 fore resolved to become Israelites indeed, 
 rigidly observing all the prescriptions of the 
 law, and thus compelling Christians to enter- 
 tain a higher respect for the Jewish religion. 
 National pride was now our ruling motive. In 
 this spirit, and with these views, we began 
 assiduously to read the Bible. But, oh ! the 
 shame and wretchedness of the unconverted 
 heart! We could not get beyond Genesis. 
 Constant ridicule and jesting, and oftentimes 
 even blasphemy, (Lord, enter not into judg- 
 ment with us !) were upon our lips instead of 
 prayer ; so that I at length told my friend it 
 was better to abandon our reading altogether 
 than to engage in it in such a manner. 
 
 Thus our proposed plan vanished like smoke. 
 My term of study was nearly completed. This 
 was in 1818. I took my degrees in medicine, 
 left the university, and returned to my native 
 city, Amsterdam, full of bright prospects for 
 the future. I had an uncle there, one of the 
 first physicians in Holland, a learned man, 
 and highly esteemed by the principal families. 
 Having no children, he took me into his house 
 l2 
 
114 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 and adopted me as his son and successor. I 
 Avas thus introduced at once to an extensive 
 circle of acquaintance; kind and respectable, it 
 is true, but with whom Christianity was a mere 
 outward profession, acconij)anied by an entirely 
 worldly life. None of these ever spoke to me 
 on the subject of Christianity. I have even 
 heard some of my young friends make a boast 
 of their infidelity, and speak without reverence 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ. I once expressed 
 my astonishment at this, and said, that though 
 I did not believe in Jesus, I thought that those 
 who worshipped Him, and did not consider 
 Him to be God, were mere idolators. A 
 young physician who Mas of the party, who 
 was afterwards savingly converted to God, 
 told me some years after, how much ashamed 
 he felt at the time, when receiving such a 
 reproof from an Israelite. 
 
 In the midst of constant occupation, in the 
 diligent pursuit of scientific knowledge, I yet 
 felt an aching void within. I had been subject 
 from childhood to an oppression of the chest, 
 which made me pass many sleepless nights ; 
 and in these hours of wakefulness I often 
 thouglit, " Why am I upon the earth? Why 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 115 
 
 was I created a man ? Should I not be a 
 thousand tunes happier if I were one of the 
 lower animals? I should not then endure 
 what I noAv suffer in my body and in my soul." 
 Often did I cry out, " O that this day were my 
 last!" Yet I was not disquieted on account 
 of my sins, else I should have shuddered at 
 the thought of death ; I was under the burden 
 and curse of sin, without knowing it, or seeking 
 for the remedy. 
 
 One day I went to pay a visit to my friend 
 who had been lately married. He had just 
 received a letter from the celebrated professor 
 already mentioned. "Would you like me to 
 read it to you," said he, " together with some 
 beautiful verses he has addressed to me ?" I 
 gladly assented to the proi)Osal. The verses, 
 in which he described, with power and feeling, 
 the glorious hopes of Israel, concluded with 
 the words, " Friend, be a Christian, and I die 
 content." At these words, which he pro- 
 nounced in an under tone, my indignation was 
 roused; my friend, it appeared to me, was less 
 shocked than he ought to have been. " Take 
 cai-e," said I, "there is a plan laid to seduce 
 us." I left him immediately. 
 
116 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 This occupied my thoughts all the rest of the 
 day. I could not imagine how a man of such 
 profound learning could heheve the Christian 
 religion. From that day, however, both my 
 friend and myself began attentively to examine 
 the word of God ; and when we walked to- 
 gether we conversed on those passages that 
 had struck us most. Having begun with the 
 Gospel of Matthew, it was striking to me to 
 perceive, that so far from seeking to subvert 
 the authority of the Old Testament, he made it 
 the basis whereon to build the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 My friend and I spent several months in 
 this way, becoming daily more interested in 
 our researches. At length, with thoughts and 
 feelings very different from those which for- 
 merly possessed us, we again determined to 
 read the Scriptures together. For this pur- 
 pose we retired to a room in my father's house; 
 and I can never think without emotion on 
 these hallowed hours which we sjDent together, 
 as in the presence of the God of our fathers. 
 Our interest increased as we proceeded. My 
 mind, wearied with vain speculations, now saw 
 a new and boundless field open before it, to- 
 wards which it was irresistably attracted ; and 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 117 
 
 thus before I bad ever beard of the electing- 
 love of God, I bad experienced the power by 
 which He draws to Christ those souls whom be 
 designs to bless. This study of the word of 
 God became at length the most urgent desire 
 of my soul. Merely to know the truth did not 
 satisfy me : I felt that I must really possess it, 
 and live on its substance. I understood not 
 then the work that Avas going on within me; 
 but I occasionally expei'ienced moments of de- 
 light arising from the conviction that divine 
 assistance and protection accompanied the 
 course I was pursuing. 
 
 One nigbt, when reading the fifty-third 
 chapter of Isaiah, I was so much struck with 
 its resemblance to the account of the sufferings 
 of Christ which I had read in the Gospels, that 
 I was almost convinced I had got another 
 Bible instead of my own ; being scarcely able 
 to believe that this chapter, which may be truly 
 entitled an abstract of the Gospel, was really 
 in the Old Testament. "How," thought I, 
 "can any Jew, after reading this chapter, doubt 
 that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah!" 
 Whence could this strong conviction arise? I 
 had often read this chapter before ; but now I 
 
118 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 read it with the light of the Spirit of God. 
 From this inoiuent I recognized Christ as the 
 promised Messiah, and this gavx' an entirely 
 new character to our meditations on the >vord 
 of God. It Avas the dawn of a glorious day to 
 our souls, the light of which increased more 
 and more, enlightenhig our minds, warming 
 our hearts, aud even then bestowing upon us 
 unspeakable consolation. Many of the enigmas 
 of life, which had hitherto puzzled and dis- 
 tressed me, were now explained ; every thing 
 seemed to revive around me, and the object 
 and interest of my life were entirely changed. 
 Happy days, thus gladdened by a sense of the 
 Master's presence! Never can I forget them! 
 I believe it was by divine direction that my 
 friend and I did not disclose to any one what 
 was passing in our minds; and that we con- 
 fined ourselves to the study of God's word, 
 laying aside all other books except Heydeck's 
 "Defence of the Christian Faith." This learned 
 man had been a Rabbi in Germany, and hav- 
 ing embraced the Romish religion, was made 
 Professor of Oriental languages at Madrid. 
 This book, written with great talent, and much 
 knowledge of Scripture, is a defence ofChristi- 
 
THAT JESUS 19 THE CHRIST. 119 
 
 anity against Rationalism. Its perusal was use- 
 ful to us in two ways ; we found that the 
 powerful logic with whicli lie combated the 
 reasonings of Voltaire and Rousseau, entirely 
 deserted him when he attempted to defend 
 Popery against the doctrines of the Reforma- 
 tion. 
 
 Whenever I had any leisure in the morning, 
 I used to shut myself up to read the word of 
 God, as I dared not peruse it in my uncle's pre- 
 sence. One day I had been particularly con- 
 sidering the following passage in Isa. vii. 14, 
 " Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a 
 son, and shall call his name Emmanuel." On 
 going down stairs I found a Jewish physician, 
 a friend of my uncle's, waiting for him in the 
 ante-room. He was turning over the leaves 
 of a new edition of the Bible. "There," said 
 he, " is a fatal passage we cannot easily wrest 
 from the Christians." It was the very passage 
 I had been meditating upon. My soul was 
 deeply moved, and I again perceived the guid- 
 ing hand of my God. "Why, then," I replied, 
 "should we not confess the truth ?" My uncle 
 now entered, and inquired what subject we 
 were discussing. The physician informed him ; 
 
120 ' JEWISH AVITNESSES 
 
 and knowing- iny uncle to be deeply versed in 
 the Rabbinical writings, asked him what the 
 Rabbis say on the passage. "Alas!" said my 
 uncle, "only a mass of nonsense." With a 
 beating- heart I listened to this admission ; and 
 inwardly tlwnked God for having- permitted 
 me to liear these words from the lips of one 
 whose Rabbinical learning made him to be 
 considered as an authority by the Jews. 
 
 All these various circumstances convinced 
 me more and more that truth is to be found 
 in Christianity alone. I could not now be 
 satisfied with mere knowledge, I longed for 
 love. Then it was that the sun of righteous- 
 ness shed abroad in our hearts, not only the 
 light that illuminates, but the quickening 
 warmth that enables the soul to live the life 
 of God. I saw that love had led the Saviour 
 to seek me. I perceived also my OAvn sinful 
 and miserable condition ; but this feeling 
 seemed absorbed in a sense of the divine love. 
 In Christ I found my life, — the centre of all 
 my thoughts and affections, — the sole object 
 that could fill the void in my heart, — the key 
 of all mysteries, — the principle of all true phi- 
 losophy, yea the truth itself. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 121 
 
 I dull}' felt more and more the necessity of 
 openly avowing my sentiments. I can record, 
 to the glory of God, that the certainty of losing 
 a considerable property, if I declared myself a 
 Christian, (-vvhich the event has confirmed) 
 never for a moment entered into the scruples 
 which made me hesitate. I dreaded the eJfFect 
 of the disclosures on the kind relative who had 
 treated me as his son ; on whose choleric tem- 
 perament it might produce an impression that, 
 at his advanced age, might be fatal. Doubt- 
 less, had my faith been stronger, I should have 
 broken through every obstacle; but I could 
 only suffer in silence, at the same time earnestly 
 praying to God to come to my aid, and op)en a 
 way before me. 
 
 And the God of mercy attended to the voice 
 of my supplication. It was my uncle's custom 
 to read the ncAvspaper aloud after dinner. One 
 day when I was sitting opposite to him in a 
 state of great dejection, he read out the follow- 
 ing news from Hamburgh: — "We have just 
 witnessed a very interesting event. A Rabbi, 
 after having announced to his co-religionists 
 in the synagogue, that au attentive examination 
 of the prophecies had convinced him that 
 
 M 
 
122 JEWISH ■WITNESSES 
 
 Messiah has already come, and having made a 
 confession of the Christian faitli, was baptized 
 a few days since in this city, and received as a 
 minister of the gospel." On reading this, my 
 uncle said the following words, which the 
 position I was then in rendered so remarkable: 
 " If this man has acted from self-interest, he is 
 worthy of contempt : but if from conviction, he 
 ought to be respected." Oh, Christians ! You 
 Avho can sympathize in the feelings of those 
 like-minded with you, need I describe to you 
 Avliat passed in my mind at this solemn 
 moment? In a transport of joy I fell on the 
 neck of the venerable old man, saying, " Yes, 
 uncle, and it is God who makes you feel thus ; 
 know that he whom you love with the tender- 
 ness of a father, is in the same case with this 
 Rabbi ! " I pronounced these words in such 
 violent agitation, and in a tone so unusual, 
 that my poor uncle thought I was out of my 
 senses. He left the room for a few minutes, 
 as if to allow me to recover myself; and at his 
 return began to speak on a different subject. 
 
 I could see that although my uncle was 
 annoyed at what had passed, he did not attach 
 to my words the importance they deserved. I 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 123 
 
 therefore resolved, after having strengthened 
 myself in God, to make the same declaration 
 to him the following day. He could no longer 
 shut his eyes to what had taken place ; and a 
 heart-rending scene followed. He beat his 
 breast, lamented that ever he was born, and 
 exclaimed, in the bitterness of his soul, that I 
 was about to bring his grey hairs with sorrow 
 to the grave. His reproaches went to my 
 heart; but the Lord strengthened and com- 
 forted me, and enabled me to show the dear 
 old man such marks of tenderness as at length 
 somewhat soothed him. 
 
 When the change became known to my 
 family, they first used gentle means with me 
 in the hope tliat these new notions might pass 
 away ; but finding I grew bold, and ventured 
 to preach the gospel to them, they resorted to 
 harsh treatment. It was a season of deep 
 trial to my soul. This state of things increased 
 the ardent desire I felt publicly to confess 
 Christ. My family wished me to go into 
 Germany, or some other country, for this 
 purpose ; but to this I objected, lest it should 
 appear as if I were ashamed of the step I was 
 about to take. My friend and I at length 
 
124 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 decided on Leyden as the place where we 
 sliould receive the rile of baptism. The 20th 
 of October, 1822, was the day so ardently 
 desired, on which we were admitted members 
 of the church of Christ. Kneeling in the 
 presence of the congregation, before the God 
 of our fathers, Viho is the true God — Father, 
 Son, and Holy Spirit — we had the unspeakable 
 joy, unworthy sinners as we were, to confess 
 before the Christian church, the blessed name 
 of that great God and Saviour who had come 
 to seek and save us when we were lost. Glory 
 be to God. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 125 
 
 JEWISH WITNESS.— No VI. 
 JOHN NEANDER. 
 
 The following letter from my dear brother Neander, 
 was written in German. From tlie similarity of names, it 
 may hi right to state, that he is not Dr. John Angustus 
 Neandtr, the well-known historian. The author of this 
 letter i5 now in America, endeavouring to impart the 
 knowledge of the Saviour to our brethren in that country. 
 
 I woild especially direct those who feel interested in 
 the present religious state of the Continent of Europe, to 
 observe what Neander says of the impressions made on 
 his mini by his intercourse with German students of 
 theolog5. My own recent experience abundantly con- 
 firms the truth of his statements as to the nature of the 
 religious views prevalent among them. 
 
 My dear friend, 
 
 Cheerfully do I respond to your call, and as 
 
 briefly as possible will I relate to you, how 
 
 wonderfully God has dealt with me ; how He, 
 
 the Almighty God, looked down upon me, 
 
 m2 
 
126 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 while I was yet deeply sunk ; how He called 
 nie, and lifted nie uji from the dust ; and how 
 He brought me out of darkness into his mar- 
 vellous light ; praised be his name. Amen. 
 
 I was born in the year 1811, in Ncubruck, 
 in the province of Posen ; my parents were 
 strict Talmudical Jews, my father especially, a 
 zealous, learned Talmudist. They had conse- 
 crated me to the office of a Rabbi, even nliile I 
 was at my mother's breast ; which office being 
 consider«?d tlien, as it still is, a most holy vo- 
 cation. On my having attained my 8t\ year, 
 and being- able to read Hebrew, my father 
 engaged for me, a teacher of the Taliuul, who 
 resided in the house, and from early in the 
 mornino- until late at night he laboured with 
 me in the Talmud ; now and then he n'so read 
 the Pentateuch and Jarchi's Commentjry with 
 me. 
 
 From my 14th, to my 23rd year, J studied 
 fiir different Talmudical schools in P'.;en, and 
 having attained to that degree which jualified 
 me for the office of a Rabbi, I returnel to my 
 father's house, where I devoted myself entirely 
 to the study of the Talmud, You \re well 
 acquainted with the course of life led at Rabbi- 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 127 
 
 nical schools, I have therefore no occasion to 
 give you here an account thereof. I lived 
 earnestly engaged in this study, because it was 
 my ]iarents' warmest wish ; and I moreover 
 hoped thereby to attain to a high position 
 amongst my nation, and flattered myself that 
 I should hereby be qualified for the community 
 of the Chasidim and consequently to reach the 
 presence of God. 
 
 I plunged myself into the deep labyrinth of 
 Rabbinical subtleties and soj^histry ; entangled 
 myself in a chain, composed of thousands of 
 links of trivialities ; exhausted myself in en- 
 deavouring to be enlightened on this, or on 
 that matter ; but I only got deeper and deeper 
 into the labyrinth ; not a ray of light pene- 
 trated its dark recesses. At length the em- 
 ployment became exceedingly disagreeable to 
 me; the zeal which was so ardent in my youth, 
 (alas! it Avas a blind zeal), cooled more and 
 more in proportion as it became clearer to me, 
 that the words of the different Rabbis, the 
 former and latter, are truly not agreeable to 
 God's most holy word ; and I discovered, that 
 the persuasion that their ways lead to the truth, 
 is a vain persuasion. 
 
128 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 I was about 25 years old when with a painful 
 heart I perceived this. I had no iirra founda- 
 tion to rest upon; nothing on which to lay hold. 
 I stood as on broken ground ; my heart torn, 
 and nigh to perish with anguish. About this 
 time I was teacher in a town in Germany, 
 where I had above twenty pupils, whom I had 
 to educate, and bring up as men and Israelites; 
 and every Saturday I had to deliver a public 
 lecture on portions of the Old Testament. All 
 this placed mc in a terrible condition; I had 
 to preach up and defend that, against which 
 my heart revolted ; dissemble I would not, yea, 
 I could not. 
 
 In the early period of my life as a teacher, 
 I was zealous for the Rabbinical Judaism of 
 the present day. I tormented and exhausted 
 myself endeavouring, by the works of the law, 
 to lead a life pure and holy before my God; 
 for even when a child, I conceived sin to be 
 an abhorrence to God; the thunders of Sinai 
 sounded and resounded in my heart; the mighty 
 word proceeding out of the mouth of an Al- 
 mighty God, "cursed is he who does not keep 
 my law," pressed me down to the ground at 
 that early period of my life; as with flaming 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 129 
 
 letters it was written in my heart, "God is a 
 holy God! God is a righteous God! who abhors 
 sin; in whose presence, none but those who. 
 are pure, and free from sin, and who live for 
 him only, can abide." From all my toil, how- 
 ever, I found no peace ; far, far from me was 
 the rest for which I so much longed. 
 
 I had intercourse with a few individuals who 
 calljd themselves Christians. I sought them 
 out for the purpose of discussing with them 
 scientific subjects, and now and then to study 
 the Old Testament with them ; of these some 
 were students in theology, and others teachers ; 
 they used to assail the revealed word of God 
 most terribly. Through them I became ac- 
 quainted with the criticisms of de Wette, Eich- 
 horn, Dinter, and others, and it was not Icn;^- 
 that I stood up a zealous defender of modern 
 Judaism; I became a Hationalist. "VV^e are de- 
 ceived! exclaimed I to my community, terribly 
 deceived! the Talmud and the Psakim are a 
 tissue of errors, and so forth. Still the storm 
 in my heart did not subside ; it continued to 
 roar and to rage ; I was not free ; before it 
 was chains of superstition that shackled my 
 heart, now those of unbelief; chains forged by 
 
130 JEWI8H WITNESSES 
 
 profane hands, by such fools as say, " there is 
 no God." 
 
 As I looked on these contradictions, and 
 on this work of ungodly men, I trembled, 
 and entered the iield against these impudent 
 denyers of God ; but with weapons, alas ! I 
 knew not at that time, and so I was in a terrible 
 condition. I felt as if closed in by a wall ; I 
 panted after the breath of life; I longed after 
 liberty, and hoped that the enigma would solv^e 
 itself; but far off appeared to me the hand 
 which should lead me into the haven of peace; 
 and the light which I searched after in all the 
 writings of men, proved but darkness ; they 
 were broken cisterns, and my soul, which was 
 languishing and nigh to perishing, did not find 
 the water of life. I lay at times the whole night 
 on the hard floor, chastised my body, yearned 
 and cried aloud. The old Jews, to whose 
 knowledge these austerities came, held me for a 
 saint; and themodern Jews said tome: "Don't 
 be a fool." Oh! these were years of anguish 
 and terror; I was often nigh to despair. The 
 comj)assion and grace of God, whom I did not 
 know at that time, alone held me up; the 
 hand of the mighty covenanted God of my 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 131 
 
 forefathers covered me, and it was his eternal 
 love that preserved me from sinking. 
 
 I tore myself with force from the circle of 
 those who surrounded me, and I was chiefly 
 alone and secluded, I betook myself, as it 
 were, to a desert of books, Alas ! the specula- 
 tions of men only filled my head, while my 
 heart remained empty. My thirst after the 
 truth, after God's truth, was not quenched ; I 
 read now and then in the Pentateuch ; but the 
 books of the Old Testament were locked up to 
 me, and the old and new commentaries of the 
 Rabbis did not satisfy me. That the New 
 Testament is a key to the Old I had not the 
 least conception at that time ; and, as I was 
 then an enemy to Christianity, I never read the 
 New Testament. 
 
 At this time of severe struggle, I received a 
 visit from my father, to whom 1 communicated 
 my distress of mind ; it pained him deeply, and 
 he pressed me to return home with him imme- 
 diately. To my question, " What shall I do 
 then ?" he replied, "you shall do nothing else 
 but learn the Torah, you have no occasion to 
 t -ouble yourself about earthly things, and as 
 soon as you shall be seated in the circle of the 
 
L*32 JEWISTr WITNESSES 
 
 Cliasidim and students of the law, it v/ill be 
 well with you." Family matters oblig-ed my 
 father to return quickly, and I begged him to 
 allow me to remain for a short time longer in 
 Germany, until I should be enlightened on 
 that v/liich distressed rae so much. Shortly 
 after that I was sent for by a Jewish com- 
 munity, in the north of Germany. I hurried 
 thither with joy, where I took possession of a 
 very pleasant post. 
 
 My heart, however, remained wounded, and 
 peace was far from rae. The Jews of that 
 place are very indifferent about religion, and 
 it was not required that I should deliver a 
 public lecture on the Sabbath. I looked for 
 religious men, but amongst the Jews there was 
 not one in whom there was a striving after the 
 only good ; my exhortation to them to elevate 
 themselves to the fulness which cometh from 
 God, and my admonitions, were all in vain ; 
 nevertheless, the pupils clung to me with much 
 love ; and they listened to me attentively when 
 I related to them the history of the kingdom of 
 God in the time of the Old Testament dispen- 
 sation. 
 
 But my heart continued cold even here ; the 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 133 
 
 great deeds of God filled me with awe, and the 
 history of our people, as well as my own course 
 of life, only opened more the wounds of my 
 heart. "The Balm of Gilead" I knew not, 
 and the instruction I imparted was only me- 
 chanical, without life, and without warmth. 
 
 I visited the clergymen of this town, and I 
 found some of them different from any I had 
 seen before ; they talked of the revealed word 
 of tlie Old Testament, with Avarmth of heart 
 and enthusiasm, and I heard for the first time 
 a powerful testimony to the Christian doctrine; 
 my whole heart was stirred up against it, the 
 ground burned under my feet, and I hurried 
 away purposing never to return again. 
 
 Still there remained a thorn in my heart. 
 The liii. of Isaiah as well as other places in the 
 Old Testament, to which my attention was 
 drawn, were too strong for me ; doubt raged 
 in me, and the questions, what if it be really 
 true? what if the Christians are right? left me 
 no peace. 
 
 A few weeks elapsed, and I could no longer 
 endure my trouble ; I greatly desired to be 
 enlightened, and that, by means of the common 
 medium of all truth, holy writ alone. 
 
134 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 I began to read the New Testament, and to 
 compare it with the Old, and it wonderfully 
 unfolded itself to me ; more and more I dis- 
 covered the great mystery of redemption. In 
 the Old Testament, in all God's contrivances, 
 a voice called to me, and I heard the voice 
 of God, through Moses and the prophets, 
 saying : Jesus Christ the crucified, is the true 
 Messiah, the true Saviour, whose name is 
 Jehovah Zidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. 
 I was roused especially by the 9th chapter of 
 the Acts; I was made acquainted, after much 
 M'restling and fervent prayer, that Jesus, is the 
 source of salvation, and of eternal life to all, 
 who, by the efficacy of his blood, are cleansed 
 from the guilt and pollution of sin, and through 
 Iiim can call God, Abba, Father. I perceived 
 that faith on the triune God, is the victory 
 which vanquishes the world. 
 
 I could not remain silent about this ; my 
 heart was filled with it ; I tasted the friendship 
 of God, I rejoiced and was constrained to ex- 
 claim, "my Redeemer liveth ;" and this I an- 
 nounced to my pupils, talked of it in the circles 
 of Jewish families, and publicly and aloud 
 gloried in the ground of my hope in the rich 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 135 
 
 promise vouchsafed to me, by the mouth of a 
 mighty covenant God : Be comforted, all thy 
 sins are forgiven thee, thy debt is paid and 
 annulled, through the great and only atoning 
 sacrifice, through " the Lamb of God that 
 taketh away the sin of the world." 
 
 There was a tremendous tumult among the 
 Jews ; some of them came to me, and gave 
 themselves much trouble by various means 
 to turn me away from the Lord, mine and my 
 father's God. The community wrote all about 
 it to my father, from whom 1 received a letter 
 which placed me in a most painful position. 
 He prayed and cried, " Come to iis, and re- 
 main a Jew." My mother received from this 
 news, a severe blow, and she was laid on a 
 bed of sickness, and great were her sufferings ; 
 my sisters, brothers, and relatives mourned in 
 secret. It was a hard struggle — life and death 
 depended on my decision. 
 
 I cried and wept bitterly, and riveted myself 
 firmly to the word of life, that alone should be 
 my guide, my stay, and my staff; and praised 
 be God, the Sun of righteousness lighted me, 
 and his beams fell warm and full of life on my 
 heart. 
 
136 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 " Wlioso loveth father and mother more 
 than me, is not worthy of me;" this was spoken 
 by Him who has power to save and to con- 
 demn. I could not do otherwise than obey 
 Him, who once said to the patriarch Abraham, 
 "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy 
 kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a 
 land that I will show thee." I was obliged to 
 tear asunder the ties which bound me to my 
 beloved relatives, Avho still remain dear to me; 
 painful as it is to flesh and blood, I was con- 
 strained to do so for the Lord's sake ; and I 
 exclaimed aloud in the presence of the Jews 
 who at this time surrounded me, and who, not 
 knowing what they did, endeavoured to hurl 
 me down to the abyss of destruction : " I 
 cannot do otherwise, I must acknowledge 
 Hinij [ must believe on Him, who is my 
 Redeemer and Saviour; His name is Jesus 
 Jehovah ; I cannot do otherwise, should they 
 on account of it cut me in pieces. Woe unto 
 me, if I deny Him, the Lord Jesus; thercTore 
 it is well Avith me, that I perceived through 
 the grace of God, that Jesus Christ is the way, 
 the truth, and the life, praised be His name. 
 Amen." 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CIiniST. 137 
 
 Now was I able to rejoice, and with David 
 to exclaim, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and 
 forget not all his hcnefits," Psalm ciii, 2. 
 
 After I had been duly instructed in the 
 saving truth of the gospel, I was publicly bap- 
 tized in the name of the Father, Son, and 
 Holy Ghost, on the 9th of December, 1839, by 
 the Rev. Mr. Mliller. 
 
 Yours, my dear friend, in the bonds of Christ, 
 
 JOHN NEANDER. 
 
 t\2 
 
138 
 
 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 JEWISH WITNESS. — No. VII. 
 HERMANN STERN. 
 
 The following narrative of Mr. Stern is abridged from 
 his " Glaubensgriinde fiir nieinen Uebertritt zum 
 Christentlmm." All that portion has been omitted, 
 which brings proofs from the Jewish prayer-book, and 
 Rabbinical authors, that the more ancient Jews beheved 
 in a plurality of subsistences in the Godhead ; because 
 the sight of so much Hebrew is repulsive to the general 
 reader ; and tliis line of argument, though useful to a 
 certain extent, is not such as to satisfy a mind really in 
 earnest. "What say the Rabbis ? is a question of very 
 inferior moment to the inquiry : What saitli the revealed 
 word of God ? 
 
 SKETCHES OF MY HISTORY. 
 
 My father was Rabbi and Teacher of the 
 Talmud at Prague, at Strakenitz, and some- 
 what later at Bamberg. I had the happiness 
 to be instructed by him in the Bible and in the 
 Talmud, from my tenth to my twenty-first 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 139 
 
 year, and during- this period of eleven years, I 
 also frequented some Christian schools. At 
 the decease of my father, who died in his 
 seventy- sixth year, duty no longer demanded 
 my residence at Bamberg, and having applied 
 to the then " Court Commission," [Hofcom- 
 mission] at Wurtzburg, for the situation of 
 Israelitish teacher at Hochburg, which was at 
 that time vacant, I obtained it. The Jewish 
 inhabitants of Hochburg were " pious," and 
 previous to my coming there the children of 
 the rich had 1:)een instructed by private tutors. 
 But as the former had been unwilling, that the 
 children of the less fortunate Jewish parents 
 should share this instruction, these felt them- 
 selves obliged to petition the authorities for the 
 appointment of a public teacher, which was 
 answered, quite unexpected by the rich, by my 
 installation. It was, therefore, to be expected 
 that the wealthier Jews would not be pleased 
 with the new school ; and when at last the 
 authorities would no longer suffer the private 
 tutors to remain at Hochburg, obliging the 
 rich Jews to send their children to the public 
 school, the latter became to them an object of 
 hatred. This hatred to the school was now 
 
140 
 
 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 transferred to me, and I was persecuted in 
 every possible way. The wealthier Jews com- 
 plained of me, because I permitted the boys to 
 sit bare-headed ; because I kept no wash-basin 
 in the school -room, and Avhat gave me most 
 trouble, though it was not raised into a point 
 of accusation, because I had often inculcated 
 the duty of love to Christians, Avhom the 
 Shulchan Aruch* denominated idolaters. 
 
 I endeavoured to conform in my religious 
 instruction to the letter and spirit of the Holy 
 Scriptures, and could not avoid alluding to the 
 defectiveness and emptiness of the synagogue 
 ceremonial, as taught in the Talmud and the 
 Jewish code Shulchan Aruch. 
 
 This course was complained of before the 
 Chief Rabbi of the district ; and for my own 
 security, I requested government that the 
 Rabbi be instructed to superintend the reli- 
 gious instruction of my school, and to subject 
 it to one or two examinations annually. Mr. 
 Ring, the Chief Rabbi, however, begged to be 
 excused from doing so, stating, that my reli- 
 gious instruction did not please him. The 
 
 * A Jewish code of laws. — Ed. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 141 
 
 government then demanded of the Rahbi 
 either to propose one of the existing religious 
 compendiums as a text-book for schools, or 
 else to write one himself. 
 
 The Rabbi offered to do the latter. In the 
 third year of my public services, the govern- 
 ment sent me to the town of Heidingsfeld, and 
 before leaving Hochburg, I received a testi- 
 monial from the royal school-inspection of the 
 district, expressing the satisfaction my labours 
 had given to the government. 
 
 I had been nearly two years in my school at 
 Hochburg, when the government sent me, and 
 all other Israelitish teachers of the kingdom, 
 the new text-bonk of the Mosaic relifjion which 
 the Rabbinical candidate. Dr. Alexander Behr, 
 had written, under the surveillance and direc- 
 tion of tlie Chief Eabbi, Mr. Abraham Bing, 
 and which the Habbi at Fiirth, and many other 
 influential Jewish ecclesiastics had adopted ; 
 government signifying at the same time that it 
 was the desire of his Majesty the King to have 
 th's book introduced in all Israelitish schools. 
 I received joyfully this book, Avhich promised 
 to meet the urgent necessities of the schools. 
 But I was doomed to severe disappointment ; the 
 
142 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 160 octavo pai^es Avliich this volume contains, 
 are almost entirely filled with ceremonial laws, 
 treating of pliilacteries, inscriptions, fringes, 
 circumcisions, meats, the prohibition of shaving, 
 the creed, &c. &c. Not a word, and much 
 less an exposition of morality, of conscience, 
 of virtue, of holiness, of the condition and des- 
 tiny of man. 
 
 In that portion of the book which treats of 
 God, there is an entire omission of his power, 
 his wisdom, his goodness, mercy and holiness, 
 and of all the lessons derived from these attri- 
 butes and perfections. Not even the Decalogue 
 has found a place in this work. 
 
 The Messiah, (as well as many other similar 
 predictions) it explains to signify a period of 
 time when all men shall know God and serve 
 him. 
 
 I directed the attention of the government 
 to this dead skeleton, showing that I could 
 not receive this book as my guide in religious 
 instruction. I prayed for permission to follow 
 my own course of instruction, and pledged 
 myself to have my lessons printed and sub- 
 mitted to the Chief Rabbi. 
 
 My petition was granted; this was the 
 
THAT JESUiS IS THE CHRIST. 143 
 
 beginning of trouble ; and my book on the 
 " Confirmation of Israelites" folloAved in 1829, 
 It was the more gladly received by the public, 
 since I confirmed all my positions by quotations 
 from the Talmud, which I translated literally. 
 The second volume, which I published in 1835, 
 under the title of the " Tree of Life," was as 
 kindly received. Both these books continue 
 as standards in many schools of various coun- 
 tries, and prove that even the Talmudists of 
 the third, fourth, and fifth centuries have drunk 
 from the evangelical source of life. In like man- 
 ner also, the Confession of Faith of the Israelites, 
 as delineated in my works the "Confirmation," 
 page 140 — 146, and the "Tree of Life," page 
 226 — 243, remain in full credit among the 
 Jews to this day, nor have the Rabbis ven- 
 tured to say ought against it, although it refers 
 to the New Covenant both in the text itself 
 and in the notes. 
 
 Five-and-twenty years have I been openly 
 inculcating these principles in my schools and 
 in the synagogues, and never have either the 
 Israelitish deputies delegated by government 
 to attend my public examinations, nor the great 
 number of Israelites who assisted on such ocea- 
 
144 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 sioDS, uttered an objeotioii ; ii proof this, that 
 my religious principles were not a baseless 
 fabric, or, as is too often the case in the state- 
 ments of our Rabbis, tlie result of mere whim 
 or conjecture. 
 
 The kindly, but often misconstrued feelings 
 of his Majesty, Ludovic I. towards the Israel- 
 ites of his realm, whicli had been manifested 
 by his establishment of national schools for 
 them, by the appointment of regularly educated 
 Rabbis, the free admission of the Jews to all 
 the existing Christian scholastic institutions, 
 and the manifold favours enjoyed by Jewish 
 mechanics, &c., were again shown in the year 
 1836, by his convoking of Jewish commit- 
 tees. 
 
 These consisted of Rabbis, Israelite teachers, 
 and delegates of communities. They met in 
 all the provincial capitals of the kingdom in 
 the public edifices, where they held regular 
 sessions, under the presidency of a royal com- 
 missary, to solve such questions in theological, 
 scholastic, and social matters, as had arisen 
 during the then contemplated Jewish emanci- 
 pation ; and to give government their advice. 
 
 One of the questions before the Committee 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 145 
 
 at Wurzburg was — Whether tlie Jewish doc- 
 trines acknowledge or reject the belief in the 
 Trinity, as contained in the Old Testament. 
 The Rabbis consulted on this weighty point in 
 private sessions, which I attended, having been 
 chosen by a majority of votes as one of the 
 referees ; and they thereupon declared in the 
 public session briefly that the doctrine of the 
 Trinity is not contained in the Old Testament, 
 on which account also the Jews did not 
 acknowledge this doctrine. 
 
 The president then demanded that every one 
 agreeing with the declaration of the Rabbis 
 should rise. All the Rabbis, all the teachers, 
 and all the delegates (116 individuals) arose. 
 I only, remained sitting, and then handed to 
 the president a written notice, stating that I 
 should beg the Rabbis, in a circular which 
 should be printed, to give me an explanation 
 of various difficulties that I entertained on this 
 point, before I could accede to the declaration 
 made by them. 
 
 My circular, entitled " Israelitism in its 
 
 Excellency and its Burden " {Israeli tenthuni 
 
 in seiner Wurde und Burde) was printed during 
 
 these sessions (which lasted six weeks), and 
 
 o 
 
146 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 produced a universal sensation. The Rabbis 
 took it very ill that I had ventured this step, 
 notwithstanding- I had been shown, as in a 
 camera obscura, in glaring colours, my pro- 
 spective misery; but they did not answer my 
 circular. Only Dr. Roraann, Chief Rabbi, 
 (Land Rabbiner) at Cassel, and Mr. J. Hei- 
 degger, teacher of the Talmud, at Furth, wrote 
 each one a sheet against me. Both of them, 
 however, scarcely touched upon the point, and 
 were contented with abuse, cursing, and perse- 
 cution. . 
 
 My school nt Heidingsfeld was advised to 
 Institute a complaint against me, as having, 
 dirough my circula}', shaken the basis of my 
 religion, and to found thereon a rerpiest for 
 my removal. The government, however, de- 
 clined entertaining the complaint ; since, by 
 issuing my circular, I had ado^Jted the very 
 course which the Rabbis themselves had 
 pointed out when asked how a Jew should 
 proceed in case that religions doubts should 
 arise ; since there was no supreme religious 
 tribunal in existence to whom the case might 
 be referred ; the Rabbis having declared that 
 in such an event a circular letter stating the 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 147 
 
 question should be addressed by the inquirer 
 to all (Jewish) theolog'ians. 
 
 These reasons were too weighty to encourage 
 an appeal to the royal "Ministeriuni," although 
 my opponents anticipated a favourable decision 
 from this event for themselves, notwithstanding 
 their unholy aim. 
 
 They, however, preferred to accuse me anew 
 as having transgressed my religion, namely, 
 by having taught in my schools that in case of 
 necessity the Jews were permitted to break 
 the laws relating to the Sabbath in order to 
 relieve a fellow-man. 
 
 I was cited and heard, and having confessed 
 the truth of the charge, the royal '■'■ Ministei'iurn' 
 resolved on my penal removal to the school at 
 Main- Stockkeim. 
 
 This severe penalty could not have been 
 inflicted, if the Rabbis had not represented 
 that Jews were not permitted to violate the 
 Sabbatical laws in order to relieve a fellow- 
 man. 
 
 I was therefore obliged to leave a town 
 where so many persons and objects were dear 
 to me, and where I had enjoyed that rare 
 happiness of teachers, to instruct the children 
 
148 JEAVISH WITNESSES 
 
 of my former pupils. I uas forced to leave 
 two pretty little gardens which I had gradually 
 raised on desert spots, and the trees which I 
 had planted at the birth of each of my children. 
 
 I departed ; my wife and children followed 
 me weeping, and the tears of many others 
 comforted me. 
 
 In November, 1837, I arrived in the village 
 of Mainstockheira, the place of destination, as 
 the appointed Israelitish teacher of religion. 
 The Jewish community belonged to the ortho- 
 dox or pious class. I was shown to three 
 small rooms as my residence, and their gloomy 
 appearance was little calculated to cheer my 
 mind. 
 
 I observed that this dwelling could not 
 accommodate myself and family ; and begged 
 the Jewish School-Community (Schulgemeinde) 
 to grant me other rooms, or else to enlarge 
 these ; but it M'as in vain. I was obliged to 
 convert the lobby into a dormitory for my 
 children. The little rooms, owing to their 
 disproportionate loftiness, were cold and un- 
 comfortable, and so damp that we had thick 
 ice within, near the windows. My wife and 
 some of my children fell sick ; and I felt my- 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 149 
 
 self obliged, and in duty bound, to petition the 
 royal land-tribunal for enlargement of my 
 dwelling, and my petition was shortly granted. 
 
 But the Jewish Warden appealed to a 
 higher tribunal (the royal government) ; and 
 Avhen the former decision was confirmed, they 
 appealed to the Ministerium. Much time 
 was thus lost, and I obtained at last an ad- 
 ditional room and a cellar. 
 
 My salary was so small that I had to live 
 partly on my own means; and yet the Jewish 
 School-Community withheld from me part of 
 the amount of firewood granted me by law. 
 Out of love of peace, I offered to relinquish 
 part of the withheld quantity of wood, if they 
 would bnt give the rest, so as to obviate the 
 necessity of complaining to government ; but 
 I was forced to complain. 
 
 The suit passed again all the various counts 
 as before, and was decided in my favour ; the 
 lawful quantity of wood was to be given me, 
 and for that which had been unjustly withheld 
 I was to be indemnified. Although I had de- 
 clined to accept the indemnification granted 
 me by law — a refusal very cheerfully accepted 
 by my rich community — yet did they not 
 o2 
 
J 50 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 neglect to avenge themselves upon me in the 
 way of piety; being aware that this was the 
 likeliest way to compass their end. I was 
 accused of the following sins, which I had 
 actually committed. 
 
 1. That I had not only permitted my female 
 scholars to come to the synagogue on Satur- 
 days, but had commanded them to do so, in 
 order to attend to the religious instructions 
 which I there imparted. 
 
 2. That I had cut my beard in Omer.* 
 
 3. That, on one occasion, being called up to 
 the reading of the Thora, I had appeared with 
 gloves on. 
 
 4. That I kept a Christian servant. 
 
 5. That on the anniversaries of my parents* 
 death, I did not lead the Synagogue service : 
 and, 
 
 6. That, although I would not allow my 
 wife to use the " dipping bath " (Tauchbad), 
 I would persist in giving her my arm. 
 
 They stated that they could no longer suffer 
 a man among them who is so immoral, so 
 irreligious, and who excited so much scandal; 
 
 * Tlie period between the Passover and the Feast of 
 Weeks. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 151 
 
 and since no Christian court could decide on 
 these Jewish sins, it was requested that the 
 Chief Rabbi should be heard, and that I 
 should be discharged. I replied : and re- 
 specting the last two points on which most 
 stress seemed to be laid, I observed first, that 
 it had been my father's dying request that I 
 should neither fast nor lead the synagogue 
 service on the anniversaries of my parents' 
 death, as the custom had originated in a 
 superstition ; and, secondly, that according to 
 a medical testimonial which I laid before the 
 court, my sick wife had been prohibited from 
 using the " dipping bath ; " but the decision of 
 the Chief Rabbi was, that as I had confessed 
 my wife neglected the bath, while, at the time, 
 it was proved that she had taken my arm in 
 walking, I was worthy of death according to 
 Levit. XX. 18, and must be discharged from 
 ray office forthwith. I protested against this 
 barbarous decision, and prayed to submit it to 
 another Rabbinat. My petition was granted, 
 but the Rabbi of the district, Mr. L. B. Bam- 
 berger, of Wurtzburg, declared that he fully 
 agreed with the Chief Rabbi, and added that 
 my wife also teas worthy of death. 
 
152 
 
 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 In consequence, I was discharged, lost the 
 salary yet due to me, though g-overnnient had 
 appoved of my official labours, and adjudged 
 as having forfeited even my claim upon the 
 States Institution for the relief of Orphans and 
 Widows of German School Teachers, as well 
 as my right to the 133 florins which I had 
 already paid into that institution. With this 
 bitter experience, and provided with most 
 satisfactory testimonials from my immediate 
 superiors, I left my native country, and went 
 with my wife and children to the free town of 
 Fj-ankfort, where I enjoy perfect peace in the 
 capacity of private tutor. From this brief 
 sketch it will sufficiently appear that the 
 Rabbinical Jewish religion leads to and 
 justifies the most revolting injustice and 
 cruelty, a reproach this which cannot be 
 brought against Christianity. It will be vain 
 to reply : " Christians have also committed 
 many unjust things, and the Jews of Bavaria 
 have remained too far behind the spirit of the 
 day, and are, therefore, cajiable of many 
 things, of which the better educated Jew 
 would feel ashamed." I admit that many 
 Christians have acted unjustly, but they never 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 153 
 
 (11(1 SO in conformity with the principles and 
 doctrines of Christianity. Christianity does 
 not justify evil, but Rabbinical Judaism does. 
 
 The acknowledged principles of the latter 
 scorn the Spirit of the age ; nor can it be 
 suft'ered to aft'ect them so long as Judaism is 
 to remain Judaism ; a fact this which the 
 great association of orthodox Rabbis, opposed 
 to the more enlightened Rabbis, ever have 
 endeavoured to prove, and are still continuing 
 to do.* The enlightened Israelites cannot 
 prove that the Talmudian Rabbinical Judaism 
 (the Judaism of the Bible has ceased since the 
 destruction of the second temple), is anything 
 else than what it really is ; but by their verbal 
 and real opposition to it prove that it is good 
 for nothing, and that one is obliged to abandon 
 it in order to be a rational and upright man. 
 It is only a pity that these men are generally 
 wanting in reverence for divine religion in 
 general, and in courage to profess Christianity, 
 which I am deeply persuaded, and will main- 
 tain before God, is true Judaism. 
 
 * The learned Rabbi Hirsli, of Emden, writing against 
 the Assembly of the Ref. Rabbis, says in No. 27 of the 
 ''Orient,'^ — "The Assembly has, in fact, renounced 
 Judaism by renouncing the Talmud." 
 
154 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 Whoever is not able to enter into the con- 
 nection of divinely arranged relations of things, 
 must needs contradict it and break it up. To 
 such a mind is the revelation of the old as 
 well as the new covenant, a subject vastly 
 too much modified ; as may be proved from 
 universal history, and as has been amply 
 proved by the memorable progress of Jewish 
 history since the crucifixion of Christ, and the 
 degeneracy of the Jewish religion into the 
 chaos of Talmud ical Eabbinism. 
 
 One may declaim, after one's own ideas or 
 knowledge — on the one invisible and incor- 
 poreal Deity ; on the precepts of universal 
 morailty ; but such abstractions are neither 
 revelation nor religion, and are at best merely 
 views and scholastic opinions of religion. 
 
 To palm this off as the index and the 
 essence of the Jewish religion, is to misrepre- 
 sent it as far as it did possess historical meaning 
 and significance. 
 
 The first volume of my periodical, " Die 
 Auferstehung,"* proves sufficiently, without 
 at all exhausting tlie subject, that the doctrine 
 
 * A weekly periodical, published by Mr. Stern, in 
 1844.— Ed. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 155 
 
 of the Trinity is not new in Judaism, however 
 positively this is denied. And it may be proved, 
 that it is precisely the groundless rejection of 
 this dogma, which appears in all the writings 
 of the Old Testament, that constitutes our 
 greatest guilt, and brought about the denial 
 and crucifixion of the Messiah. 
 
 This terrible blood-guiltiness which our 
 ancestors have brought on themselves, and 
 entailed on their descendants, the murder of 
 the most righteous and most exalted Israelite 
 whom the earth ever bore, the only sinless 
 Son of God, is still resting upon us ; and must 
 disturb every reflecting Israelite the more, 
 since he cannot find peace within any other 
 pale than that of Christianity, the true religion 
 of Judaism. 
 
 But the credibility and truth of the funda- 
 mental dogmas of Christianity, in their identity 
 with biblical Judaism will be seen in the fol- 
 lowing grounds of faith. 
 
 I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER. 
 
 Although I, who am a creature of the 
 earth, endowed with limited powers of mind, 
 am incapable of comprehending God, the only 
 
156 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 One, the Eternal, the Almighty, the Invisible, 
 the omnipresent Creator, the Governor and 
 Ruler of the Universe ; still millions of proofs 
 convince me that He is the God and living 
 Father of mankind, and, therefore, I believe 
 it. He is the Father in a much loftier sense 
 than I am able to comprehend ; for my con- 
 ceptions are imperfect and insufficient, when 
 contemplating the inferior creation; how much 
 more when judging of an order of beings 
 higher than myself, or of the Most High, 
 vv'hile the angels reply to the inquiry, " Where 
 is the place of his glory?" only by "blessing 
 Him," My ideas are borrowed from a human 
 father, who, as I know by myself, is fallible, 
 subject to passion, in every way limited and 
 liable to sin. My confession of the Father is 
 the amen from the depths of my heart. From 
 this amen gushes forth my amunah (my faith) ; 
 (Isa.lxv. 16.) a stream of sweet water, which 
 satisfies my thirst, and waters the whole of the 
 blessed inheritance which I have acquired ac- 
 cording to the direction of my Lord for ever. 
 I believe in God the Father, the first and only 
 source of created beings, which He preserves, 
 which He suffers to die, and to re-appear in 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 157 
 
 new forms and for new purposes. I believe 
 in God, the Father of His only begotten Son, 
 the Messiah, whom He has begotten from His 
 own essence from all eternity. 
 
 1 BELIEVE IN GOD THE SON. 
 
 All men are called by their Creator to be 
 holy, even as He is holy. The duty of com- 
 l^lying with it. every man who will use his 
 reason must feel. It was especially shown in 
 Israel — Israel would not hear the Lord Him- 
 self, and He acquiesced in this by His holy 
 decree made known in the beginning — viz., to 
 lead and to save mankind by Him who is sent 
 from God ; for man cannot see God himself. 
 (Exod. xxxiii. 20.) Moses was guided by the 
 Messenger of God (the Malach), and all the 
 sacred books testify of him. This Messenger 
 of God, the Messiah, is the heart of the 
 religious organization; every man has need of 
 it, without it there is no life in him. All the 
 books of the Old Testament carry the life and 
 blood to the heart ; and all the books of the 
 New Testament eject it from the heart through- 
 out the body. The Messiah came at the time 
 appointed, and in the appointed manner. God 
 p 
 
158 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 with us (Immaniicl), tlie Prince of Peace, the 
 An^-el, God, are the names given to him by 
 the Bible ; and the Jews called him " Salva- 
 tion" ( Joshua- Jesha). It was his province to 
 enunciate clearly the eternal rules of life, to 
 redeem mankind from its apostacy, to trans- 
 form it into a holy Israel, to establish a king- 
 dom of heaven where all who have erred may 
 be received unto liberty and pence. The Jews 
 of antiquity hailed the Messiah, and at His 
 entry in Jerusalem, cried to Him, Hosaima 
 (save us); but they afterwards denied Him, 
 notwithstanding- all tbe proofs of His faithful- 
 ness. The Jews of the present day, by their 
 manner of life and their many prayers, confess 
 the truth of the fundamental articles of the 
 Christian faith and of the divine nature of the 
 Messiah. And yet they deny Him without any 
 other reason than their blind obstinacy. They 
 even confess the resurrection of Christ, ascrib- 
 ing, however, this sublime phenomenon (which 
 occurs also twice in the old covenant) to the 
 powers of the Shem-hamphorash, which they at 
 the same time define to be the belief in the 
 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and yet — deny. 
 The precepts of the Thora (the five books of 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 159 
 
 Moses) were considered by the Jews of all 
 ages as divine ; and tliey are divine, but enno- 
 bled and fulfilled by the Messiah. 
 
 But if Christ be denied, and not acknow- 
 ledged as the promised Messiah, then the pre- 
 cepts of the Thora remain what they were — 
 viz., a collection of symbols — which, the moral 
 precepts excepted, are no longer of any appli- 
 cation. Even the Mosaical moral laws would 
 appear imperfect on this supposition ; for in 
 them man is valued at the price of gold ; the 
 Israelite is brother only to the Israelite ; 
 vengeance is permitted, &c. &c. It is on 
 account of the inapplicability and the imper- 
 fection of these laws that Judaism has grown 
 poor and worthless ; Rabbis will stand opposed 
 to Rabbis as of yore, and Judaism has degene- 
 rated into a most unreasonable and impotent 
 I'abbinical mechanism, according to which, as 
 has been shown, a man is sentenced to die who 
 will not be as inhuman as Judaism would have 
 him. But the doctrine of the new covenant — 
 i.e. of the Messiah — which is truly Israelitish, 
 testifies, by its divine origin, to its eternal 
 truth by that universal love, loyal to God, and 
 redeeming the world, which forms the focus 
 
160 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 into which all its rays are drawn. Here you 
 behold a doctrine which rouses the mind, a 
 moral which affects and wins the heart. Here 
 is a just delineation of the human being in its 
 perfection ; power and tenderness, justice and 
 compassion, vivacity and calmness, clearness 
 and depth, the simplicity of a child and wisdom 
 profound, elevation and familiarity, in wonder- 
 ful harmony ; no loop-hole or hiding-jjlace for 
 the ungodly. 
 
 Therefore I believe in God the Son ; therefore 
 I must believe in Him. I believe in Him as the 
 Messiah, bringing happiness and salvation to 
 the human being, without whom the Holy 
 Scriptures would be a comj)ound of untruths ; 
 without whom God could not be God. 
 
 I believe in God the Son, because the Holy 
 Scriptures of the old covenant point continually 
 to Him ; because they command us to kiss the 
 Son, that we may not go astray, proclaiming 
 salvation to all those who put their trust in 
 Him. (Ps. ii. 12.) I believe in God the Son, 
 because His death, as well as His life, was a 
 resurrection, and faith in Hiui promises a resur- 
 rection, a new birth unto God . 
 
 God the Son will build the holy temple on 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST, 161 
 
 earth. AVitliout faitli in Him life is a sepulchre; 
 without it man is cajjable of worshiping wood 
 and stone ; capable of calling the Ijeliever a wor- 
 shipper of idols, and to be cold to those whom 
 he should meet with gratitude and devoteduess. 
 The death of the Son, David sung in his 
 Psalms (Ps. ix. x.) ; therefore I rejoice in Him 
 and shout for joy : of Him is my song in the 
 great congregation, and I pay my vows in tlie 
 presence of those that fear Him. (Ps. xxii. 26.) 
 " Thou hast maintained my right and my 
 cause ; thou satest in the throne judging 
 right." (Ps. ix. 4, &;c.) Thy omnipotence, Thy 
 doctrine, the power of Christianity, has pre- 
 served me to eternal life, and has protected me 
 in hours of temptation. How very easy was 
 it not made for me to have betrayed Thee! If 
 I had but risen from my seat I should have 
 been a traitor. The Levites persecuted me, 
 and have condemned me to death ; but thanks 
 unto Thee, O my salvation. Thou hast led me 
 through fire and through water, and hast pre- 
 served me. I will no longer remember the 
 past, nor the old ; for Thou hast created new 
 things. It shoots forth even now, will ye not 
 perceive it? (Isa. xviii.) My strength and my 
 p 2 
 
162 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 whole life sliall henccibrth be devoted unto 
 Thee, my God. My sufferings never can 
 become so great that Thy example sliouhl not 
 afibrd me comfort and relief. Be therefore 
 still my Guide, my Beacon-light in the dan- 
 gerous voyage of life. 
 
 I BELIEVE IN GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 If we reflect on the essence and the working: 
 of the Holy Spirit, as delineated in the Old 
 Testament writings, as far as God has given 
 us the ability to do so, and as far as it appears 
 to be necessary for the regulation of oar con- 
 duct, the conviction gains upon us afresh, that 
 the gospel, or the glad tidings of the Messiali, 
 contains divine oral laws, and the application 
 of the written doctrines. 
 
 When it is said in Gen. i. 2, the Spirit of 
 Elohiui (plural) moved on the face of the water, 
 or when he said to Moses (Num. xi. 17), " I 
 will take of the Spirit that is on thee and put 
 it upon them ," or in ver. 25, They prophecied 
 as long as the Spirit was on them, but no 
 longer, it must appear to every candid mind 
 that by the Spirit of God is not meant a mere 
 influence, but a real, active being; for to say- 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 163 
 
 that an inflaence was moving over the Avater, 
 to pass upon one person while leaving another, 
 to rest jor a time upon certain individuals, is 
 absurd. 
 
 In Exod. xxviii. 3, we read : God has filled 
 those who were wise (meek) in heart with the 
 spirit of wisdom, but that this spirit (1 Sam. 
 XV. 21 — 26), has left the king Saul, because he 
 feared God less than the people ; which be- 
 lieved, as they still do, that God loved sacrifice 
 more than mercy. (1 Sam. xvi. 14.) 
 
 But that which comes and goes pre-sup- 
 poses sometliing which does not only enlighten 
 tlie spirit of man (for this might be done by 
 study and intercourse with the learned), but 
 something Avhich does purify and lift up even 
 the less enlightened beyond the boundaries 
 of man. 
 
 The Spirit of God, when it entered the 
 lienrt of man, rendered him "another man" 
 (1 Sam, X. 6); so that the human spirit dis- 
 appears when God pours out his spirit upon 
 man. (Joel ii. 28, 29.) 
 
 The Holy Spirit is not produced by the 
 jiower to prophecy, but, on the contrary, he, 
 as a self-existing Being, produces this power. 
 
164 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 As it is said of Saul : the Spirit of the Lord 
 will conic upon thee, and thou shalt prophecy. 
 The Holy Spirit, therefore, and the power to 
 prophecy, stand to each other in the relation 
 of cause and effect. 
 
 Now, then, it is the Holy Spirit, and not 
 mere enlightenment, which enables us to walk 
 in the laws of the Lord, in giving us a new 
 heart and a new spirit, differing in its asjDira- 
 tions from those of man at large. (See Ezek. 
 xxxvi. 26, 27.) The Spirit of the Lord, more- 
 over, gives us the spirit of (true) wisdom and 
 the spirit of (true) understanding ; the spirit 
 of counsel and of might, the spirit of the 
 (true) knowledge and of the (true) fear of the 
 Lord. (Isa. xi, 2.) It is admitted that the 
 mind of the human being is a s])irit from the 
 Lord ; but the self-existing Holy Spirit must 
 animate and guide the mind, or else it will be 
 'ed into error ; for when the Spirit of the Lord 
 left Saul, an evil spirit troubled him. 
 
 It is only when we seek by repentance and 
 faith, the outpouring of the spirit of gi'ace and 
 supplication, and when looking up to him 
 whom we have pierced, and mourning for him 
 as one that mourneth for an only son, and 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 1G5 
 
 heins: in bitterness for bim as one tbat is in 
 bitterness for bis first-born ; tbat God -will 
 take away out of tbe land tbe false teacbers 
 (wbo -would explain away tbe Messiab) and 
 tbe impure spirit. (Zecb. xii. 10; xiii. 2). 
 
 Kinicbi and Rasbi, tbe tAvo great leaders of 
 tbe Jewisb mind, confess (Comment, on Num. 
 xii. 2) tbat "tbe Spirit is speaking;" tlms 
 sbowing tbat it is not an influence Avhicb 
 obliged tbe propbets to speak, but tbat tbe 
 ■words of tbe propbet were tbe words of tbe 
 Holy Spirit — bence of self-existing, intelligent 
 personality — and not of a lifeless and unintelli- 
 gent power. But tbe leaders of Israel are 
 bis destroyers, (Isa. x. 1 — 4, and many otber 
 places), by denying tbe self-existing Spirit in 
 God ; tbus provoking Him against tbem- 
 selves, and against us if we follow tbem. (Isa. 
 Ixiii. 10). 
 
 My belief in God tbe Holy Spirit is, tbere- 
 fore, formed alone on tbe Old Testament; I 
 believe in bim, and confess tbat be, witb tbe 
 Fatlier and tbe Son, is tbe true and only God ; 
 of like essence witb tbem, not created, but 
 going fortb from tbe Fatber and tbe Son. I 
 believe in God tbe Holy Spirit, as animating 
 
JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 all the regenerate, and as purifying and sancti- 
 fying them more and more daily while walking 
 with God ; thus enabling them to serve God 
 Avith increasing righteousness and holiness. 
 I believe in God the Holy Ghost that he will 
 fill the hearts of the faithful with peaceful 
 assurance and firm confidence, to transform 
 them into children of God, and to exalt them 
 far above the men of the world. 
 
 I believe in God the Holy S])iritas sanctify- 
 ing and governing, not only the individual 
 members, but also the whole church united — 
 all the members, but one body — through 
 Christ the atoning Saviour; the most exalted 
 Israelite after God's own heart. 
 
 I believe that He, the Holy Spirit, will also 
 enlighten and animate my poor Israelitish 
 brethren, to embrace the immoveable and 
 saving truths of the gospel, so that they may 
 pray with a true heart. 
 
 Elohim Zeliaoth ! return^ we beseech Thee ; 
 look down from heaven and behold and visit 
 this vine ; and the vineyard w hich thy right 
 liand has ])lanted, and the ISo7i whom thou 
 madest strong for thyself Let Thy hand be 
 still upon the man of Thy right hand, upon 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE cnnisT. 167 
 
 tlie Son of man whom Thou niadest strong for 
 Thyself So will we not go back from Thee. 
 Awaken us, O Lord, and we will call upon 
 Thy name. Tarn us again, O Triune (Jehovah 
 Eiohim) God. Cause Thy face to shine upon 
 us, and we shall be saved. 
 
 I BELIEVE IN THE TRIUNE GOD. 
 
 The writings of the Old and New Covenant 
 in commanding me to worship God in a Trinity, 
 do not thereby mean to shew me what God is, 
 for how could I, poor worm of the dust, com- 
 prehend this? But their design is, to teach me 
 here how to worship Him: I am told to wor- 
 ship Him as God the Father, God the Son, 
 and God the Holy Spirit. Our impressions 
 respecting the unity of God are not impaired 
 thereby, but it is propounded in the manner in 
 which the divine doctrines would have us to 
 receive it. God would be to us not only a 
 Creator, but a Father. Should we refuse to be 
 His faithful children ? 
 
 He is all men's Father, yet He is not 
 comprehended alike, not loved alike, not wor- 
 shipped alike by all. We Israelites are es- 
 pecially called, commanded, and in duty bound, 
 
168 JEWISH -WITNESSES 
 
 to love God our !Elohini, with our whole soul, 
 miiul, and strength; God's parental love to 
 us, most undeserving, passes all conception. 
 Above and beyond all the other blessings which 
 flow upon us in common with other human 
 beings, God appeared to us as Man, the Son 
 of God, to unite Himself unto us ! The Word 
 became flesh, and dwelt and walked among us. 
 In the Son we behold the Father, and round 
 us streams His glory when we unite ourselves 
 to Him. The chasm that separated the crea- 
 ture from the Great Infinite has disappeared. 
 The Son who has come fortli from the Father, 
 knows the will of the Father, and He has no 
 oilier will than this;. He is the sublimest 
 ]";attcrn to us, because eveiy man is called to 
 enter through Him into filial relation with God. 
 He is the substitute, the Saviour, the benefac- 
 tor, the Son of God, the Son of Man. From 
 Father and Son jaroceeds the Holy Spirit, who 
 is to make us perfect. Through the Gospel He 
 breathes in us as the teacher, the comforter, 
 and the hel])er. A few traces of Him may be 
 found even in the Talmud, but they are dis- 
 covered with difficulty amidst the vast rubbish 
 of useless discussions upon the ritual. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THK CHRIST. 169 
 
 The Holy S})irit enlightens the soul, purify- 
 ing it and making it to rejoice. It is he who 
 makes us the children of God, and comes to 
 all who seek God with their whole heart. 
 
 We worship the one only God in the Father, 
 Son, and Spirit; whoever desires only one of 
 these, will not acknowledge and adore Him in 
 the manner in which He has manifested Him- 
 self to us, in which it is our duty to receive 
 Him. Such an one is rebellious against God 
 and willfully opposes Him. 
 
 The rabbinical age forsook spiritual Judaism, 
 which was yet engaged in a religious struggle 
 for develojnnent, adhering merely to the dead 
 and killing letter, and made that its exclusive 
 subject of discussion. They arranged " precept 
 upon precept, line upon line, precept upon 
 p]'ece])t, line upon line, here a little, there a 
 little," without any regard to the irresistible 
 and jn-opelling power of history; and the re- 
 ligion which was to teach the redemption of 
 the world through the Messiah, was reduced 
 to be the handmaiden of insignificant traditions. 
 
 This terrible degeneration of true religion, 
 effected by the guilt of man — these glaring 
 contradictions in the lecture-room of divine 
 Q 
 
170 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 truth, must excite a deep indignation in the 
 heart of all who feel the high calling of their 
 existence. But these circumstances make it 
 also a holy duty in every Israelite to throw off 
 the degrading cap and bells of rabbinical self- 
 righteousness; and, according to the claims of 
 morality, of life, of the family, of the country, 
 and of society at large, to choose, instead, the 
 diadem of faith in the Saviour, "the Holy One 
 of Israel;" and, by embracing the truth as it is 
 in Jesus, to remove himself from the dreary 
 dungeon of rabbin ism, into the illuminated 
 temple of the Messiah, which alone is the safe 
 and sufficiently spacious place of refuge for the 
 whole human race. 
 
 The embracing of Christianity is the only 
 condition of our salvation — the key to the 
 proper understanding of our sacred Scriptures, 
 of our prayers, and of the many instructions of 
 Jewish commentators on the Holy Trinity: it 
 is the solution of the problem, why God is so 
 much displeased with us — why he condemns 
 us — and why the word of God calls upon us 
 to plead loith our mother . Long before the 
 appearance of "the Holy One of Israel," of 
 the only and true Messiah, have the biblical 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 171 
 
 teachers of the old covenant already taught and 
 practised divme adoration to the Saviour, and 
 have sung hymns to the Son of God. We must 
 do the same, if it is not to be said of us forever, 
 that we "travail with iniquity, have conceived 
 mischief, and brought forth falsehood.' 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Faithful to these incontrovertible principles, 
 I have renounced Judaism and embraced Israel's 
 true rehgion — Christianity; my conscience was 
 not sufficiently large for all the erroi s tliat give 
 existence and continuance to Judaism. The 
 ceremony of my baptism was very edifying: Mr. 
 F.'s preceding explanation of its import, and of 
 man's continual struggle with the serpent, Avas 
 well calculated to arouse the serious attention 
 of every one present. That my religious conduct 
 was sincere and consistent, and that I was not in- 
 fluenced by any impure motives, the Rev. Mr. 
 F. proved from the concurring principles laid 
 down in my work, called " Confirmation ; ' 
 which jjamphlet was printed eighteen years 
 ago. I felt myself penetrated with a feeling of 
 the deepest gratitude towards my God and 
 Saviour, for the gracious assistance with which 
 
172 JEWISH AV1TNESSE8 
 
 he conducted and preserved me in my sorrow- 
 ful patl), and so mercifully sustained me until 
 this day. I now feel satisfied in the conscious- 
 ness of fulfilled duty; and, having proved the 
 lawfulness and the necessity of my step from 
 the Holy Scriptures, &c., I have reason to 
 hope, that no impure motives will be ascribed 
 to me by my late fellow-believers. Had I 
 been influenced by the prospect of temporal 
 advantages, I would not have deferred embrac- 
 ing Christianity until the sixtieth year of my 
 life ; for that is certainly not the age in which 
 people endeavour to make their fortune. He 
 who confounds the higher wants of the mind 
 with the temporal wants of the body, knows 
 neither his destination nor his calling, nor his 
 dignity, and profanes the divine nature of re- 
 ligion. I live in the hope, that He who has 
 called me and mine into life, will also be pleased 
 to give us the means of subsistence. Many 
 estimable Israelites,both learned and unlearned 
 men, liave fulfilled a similar duty before me, 
 without giving the slightest occasion for sus- 
 pecting them of impure motives. Such events 
 ought to serve the mass of the Jewish nation 
 as a guide in their own conduct; since the 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 173 
 
 most of them are, either from ig-norance, or 
 from an exclusive attention to their business, 
 or from prejudice, or from indifference, totally 
 unacquainted with the true position of Judaism, 
 and with the spirit of religion in general. If 
 we do not seek our salvation in Christianity, 
 our hope is an empty bubble. Our task is, as 
 the holy language indicates, to seek the future 
 in the past. Without Christianity, biblical 
 Judaism is indeed an illegible document; while 
 rabbinical Judaism is a false and interpolated 
 one. Both present a cloudy sky, without a 
 sun sufficiently strong to protect us from the 
 frost of the winter. The artificial lights of 
 Judaism show only forms without meaning and 
 truth — shadows without substances; and are 
 nothing but deceptive ignes fatui, which lead 
 the timid and confused wanderer from the right 
 path, disajDpear, and leave him in the mire. 
 The subject is too important to turn from these 
 reflections Avith indifference. Certain it is, that 
 to embrace Christianity does not mean to for- 
 sake, but to understand our religion ; while to 
 adhere to Judaism merely for the purpose of 
 preserving a mummy of former ages, at the 
 same time that the word of God is disregarded 
 q2 
 
174 JEWISH WITNESST.S 
 
 — that indeed would Le knowing our Creator 
 in order, designedly, to rebel against hiiu. 
 
 And now farewell, my Jewish brother, and 
 be happy, if thou canst be so, within thyself 
 and within Judaism. J renounce Judaism, be- 
 cause it afi'ords no safety to Israel (Micuh ii. 
 1,2: vii. ]— 7; Isa. v. 8 ; Jer. ix. 2— 5; Zeph. 
 iii. 4.), and because the latter can ojili/ then 
 look forward for help, when all will turn to 
 the Lord, and worship him in spirit and in 
 truth. I shall devote myself to thy atiairs, as 
 long as the Lord ^\i\\ preserve my life and my 
 reason. Faithful to my duty, I shall continue 
 to show thee the danger of thy illness, as well 
 as the best means for thy recovery; for / dare 
 not he indifferent to the danger of my brother. 
 But thou must also use the tried remedies, if 
 they are to have any effect; to reject them 
 from obstinacy, is unwise and sinful. I present 
 thee with the same invitation that I have my- 
 self received from our Heavenly Father. Let 
 us strive, then, together, to be dead to sin and 
 trespasses, and to devote ourselves to holiness 
 and to virtue. Let us confess that sin has been 
 a murderer from the beginning, and that man 
 can never be his own deliverer. 
 
THAT JKlUS is the CHRIST. 175 
 
 JEAVISH WITNESS.— No VIII. 
 SHALOME. 
 
 I have selected tlie two following Witnesses, as being 
 n.»t only interesting in themselves, but as giving evidence 
 of the unity of Christian experience in all ages. Siialorae 
 and John Xeres were converted to the faith of Christ 
 nearly a century and a half ago; they were surrounded 
 by circumstances widely differing from those of the 
 present day; yet the mental struggles of the one, and the 
 intell(!ctual diiHculties of the other, were precisely the 
 same as those of their more modern brethren. Our 
 Jewish brethren will observe that these men were led to 
 embrace the faiih of Jesus Christ, a hundred years before 
 "Conversion Societies" were thought of. 
 
 TiiC account of the conversion of Shalome, notwith- 
 standing its faults of style, and occasionally injudicious 
 mode of expression, is both interesting and instructive. It 
 is an instance of the too common, and melancholy fact, 
 that the c onviction of the understanding is not necessarily 
 followed by the surrender of the heart to God; and that 
 neither Jew nor Geniile is made a Christian merely by 
 
176 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 being baptized. And wliile I disclaim all intention of 
 setting up a standard of Christian experience, I would 
 atl'ectionately iutreat those of my baptized brethren who 
 seem to have found it a very easy matter to embrace 
 Christianity, who, as they have themselves told me, 
 consider having "got through the Catechlsmus," a 
 sufficient preparation for baptism, to study the mental 
 conflicts of poor Shalome; and to be assured, that 
 though it may not be needful they should suffer all his 
 terrors, yet that they know nothing of true Clu-istianity, 
 if they do not understand somewhat of his self-abasement 
 and deep conviction of sin. 
 
 Mr. Humphrey, the minister of the church in Rose- 
 mary-lane, observes, respecting the subject of the follow- 
 ing narrative, " I have had a considerable acquaintance 
 with Mr. Shalome, and I must needs say, I think he 
 hath given as uncontrollable a proof of God's dealings 
 with his soul, by way of conversion, as any one I have 
 conversed with since I came into the ministry. I have 
 observed a true strain of faith to run through his discourse, 
 and he hath given me sufficient reason to conclude that 
 he is a stronger believer than most of us Gentiles. The 
 conversion of this individual is an encouraging presage 
 of the happy re-ingrafture of the Jews into tijeir own 
 olive tree; an event witnessed by the Word of God, and 
 confirmed to us by this unusual act. By the one he has 
 declared what he will do, and by the other what he can 
 do. And as the word of promise may encourage us to 
 pray, so this instance of divine power to ho])e, that God 
 will cause breath to enter into those dry bones, tliat they 
 may live." 
 
that jesus is the christ. 177 
 
 a nanratia'e of the conversion of shalome 
 den shalomoh, given to the church of 
 christ, assembled at their meeting- 
 horse in rosemary lane, september 
 29th, 1699. 
 
 I hope, men and brethren, tliat "vvhat I am 
 about to say may prove as effectual as the 
 sermon which Peter preached to the men of 
 .Tudea and Jerusalem, at the hearing of wliicli 
 there was a universal crying out, " Men and 
 brethren, w'hat shall we do?" (Acts ii. 37.) 
 If that be your inquii'v, take Peter's answer, 
 " Y'ju must believe and be baptized, that the 
 Holy Ghost may come upon you." (ver. 18.) 
 
 I, Shalome Ben Shalomoh, was born of 
 Jewish parents, my father's name Shalomoh, 
 my mother's Leah ; was circumcised the eighth 
 day in Pusnouny, in Poland, where I lived till 
 I was twelve years of age ; at which time it 
 pleased God (who works all things for the 
 good of his elect) that all our family, myself 
 alone excepted, died from a great plague, 
 which had universally spread itself through 
 that land. Being left thus destitute, I had an 
 inclination to travel, and in my travels, a boy, 
 who was in the Duke of Brandenburg's army. 
 
178 
 
 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 came and said to me, " Why do you not turn a 
 Christian?" "A Christian," said I, "why, 
 think you I will worship images?" — for such 
 was my ignorance, that I thought all Christians 
 were Papists, there being none but Papists 
 who were called Christians in the country 
 where I was born — " Do you," said I, "believe 
 the Bible, the Old Testament, the five books 
 of Moses, the Psalms of David, and the Song 
 of Solomon ?" " Yes," said he, " we have all 
 these." " Do you," said I, "worship images?" 
 " There are," said he, " two sorts of Christians, 
 Protestants and Papists ; we believe no other 
 Saviour but Jesus Christ alone." " Well," 
 said I, " carry me to a minister." He accord- 
 ingly brought me to the Duke of Branden- 
 burg's minister, who opened to me something 
 concerning Jesus Christ, from the live books 
 of Moses; as, first, that in Gen. iii. 15, "And 
 I will put enmity between thee and the woman, 
 and between thy seed and her seed ; it shall 
 bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his 
 heel;" which appeared to me, when God 
 opened my eyes (for I could not see it before)^ 
 a lively representation of the death and resur- 
 rection of Jesus Christ ; as also from that in 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 179 
 
 Num. xxi. 9, when God commanded Moses to 
 lift up a brazen serpent on a pole, that every 
 bitten Israelite, looking thereto, might be 
 healed, did I learn that Jesus Christ was the 
 true brazen serpent, by believing on whom 
 alone it was that I could obtain salvation and 
 eternal life. He also endeavoured to show me 
 how that many of the Psalms were prophetical 
 of Jesus Christ, particularly Ps. ii. 7, " Thou 
 art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." 
 And Ps. ex. 1, "The Lord said unto my Lord, 
 Sit thou at my right hand," &c. And Ps. 
 xxii. 16', 17, 18, "The assembly of the wicked 
 have enclosed me, they pierced my hands and 
 my feet, I may tell all my bones, they look 
 and stare upon me, they part my garments 
 among them, and cast losts upon my vesture ;" 
 wliich did to me clear up something of what 
 Jesus Christ underwent as he stood surety for 
 His elect. From Isa. ix. 6, " For unto us a 
 child is born, unto us a son is given, and the 
 government shall be upon his shoulders ; and 
 his name shall be called Wonderful, Coun- 
 sellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting 
 Father, the Prince of Peace." I learned 
 something of the human nature of Jesus 
 
180 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 Christ. He also endeavoured, from Gen. i. 2, 
 n^an ^2^-\v nsn-iD D^nbs m-ii " And the 
 Spirit of God moved upon the face of the 
 waters," to evince to nie the being of the Holy 
 Ghost. The notion of a Trinity I took in from 
 Gen. i. 26, "Let iis make man;" and from 
 Gen. xi. 7, when God, coming down to see 
 the city and tower which the children of men 
 had built, saith, " Go to, let us go down and 
 confound their language." From Gen. xlix. 
 10, " The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, 
 nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, till 
 Shiloli come," &c. I saw that Jesus Christ 
 was the true Messiah, in which I was satisfied; 
 and though as yet I had nothing more than 
 the notion of things, yet, as the eunuch said to 
 Philip (Acts viii. 3ti), so said I, " What hinders 
 me to be baptized ?" And baptized I v.as, in 
 Berlign, in Brandenburg, and the Duke stood 
 my godfather. I became not a Christian for 
 silver or gold, but was constrained thereto by 
 the mighty power of Jesus Christ. I was 
 beholden to non?, but to the almighty power 
 God. After this I was recommended to a 
 minister in the city of Rynehiirg, on the Rliine, 
 by whom I was further notion:illy confii-nied in 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 181 
 
 the Christian faith ; and from that time I had 
 a mind to travel into England ; Avhere, under 
 the denomination of a Christian, I lived a great 
 while, revelling in all manner of wickedness, 
 committing iniquity with greediness. As I 
 grow older, I thought it was high time to 
 reform, knowing I must give an account oi 
 deeds done in the body. I then resolved to 
 lead a new life, and venture on the mercy of 
 Clwlst, wliich, though I prayed for night and 
 day, yet T could not find it. I made many 
 resolutions to live better, and broke them as 
 fast, knowing nothing of the person of Jesus 
 Christ; at length, I was, by continued prayer, 
 very solicitous for repentance ; yet, thought I, 
 should I re]jent, it will not avail me unless I 
 could forsake my sins ; to prayer I went, and 
 iji agony I was ; I iiung up mine eyes and 
 heart to heaven. " Lord Jesus Christ," said I, 
 " though thou wilt not show mercy to me, 
 though I must perish, yet will I trust thee still." 
 Terrors of conscience still pursued me, so that 
 1 often thought, through want of ease in my 
 conscience, though I should trust in Jesus 
 Christ, yet I should be damned. J thought 
 many times, as I passed over the fields, that 
 
 R 
 
182 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 I saw the Lord Jesus Christ coming in the 
 clouds ; upon which, when I began to consider 
 my own condition, I j^asscd judgment on 
 myself as one that deserved hell and damna- 
 tion. I found, as I thought, the devil binding 
 me in chains, which made me cry out, as Rom, 
 vii. 23, 24, " I am carried into captivity to the 
 law of sin which is in my members ; O wretched 
 man that I am, who shall deliver me from the 
 body of this death ?" The terrors of hell took 
 hold of me, I thought I saw the ])it of hell 
 ready to receive me. How to get peace of 
 conscience I knew not ; nothing but hell and 
 damnation sounded in mine ears. 1 thought I 
 must be damned if I turned not to Jesus Christ. 
 In these agonies of spirit I read once and again 
 the book of one Baxter, which I thought would 
 have been a great means of my salvation. But, 
 alas! that drove me more into hell; I thought 
 I should by it have sunk into utter de.sj)air, 
 I could find nothing in it for my consolation. 
 What course to take I knew not. I desired 
 the Lord Jesus to do a miracle upon me, in 
 breathing the breath of life into my soul, which 
 was dead in sin, as He formerly raised those 
 who were naturally dead from their graves. I 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 183 
 
 pleaded His power, as he in Matthew viii. 2, 
 "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean;'* 
 and cleansing I stood in need of, for I saw my 
 sin so black, that I abhorred myself in dust; I 
 thought I was not worthy to roll myself on 
 Jesus Christ ; yet I resolved to venture, I knew 
 I could but be rejected, as 2 Kings vii. 4, " If 
 M'e say we will enter into the city, then the 
 famine is in the city, and we shall die there ; 
 and if we sit still here, we shall die also; now, 
 therefore, come, and let us fall into the host of 
 the Syrians, if they save us alive, we shall live, 
 and if they kill us, we shall but die." I always 
 concluded prayer after this manner, " Lord, 
 though thou wilt not hear me, yet will I trust 
 to thee." I prayed (as one sensible of my own 
 insufficiency) that God would by His Spirit 
 teach me to pray. There was yet a secret hope 
 in me that God would call me. However, I 
 resolved to lean on the Lord Jesus, praying 
 that He would give me the spirit of Him that 
 raised Jesus Christ from the dead, to raise me 
 from the death of sin ; such was my afiectioii 
 to Jesus Clirist, that I often Avished myself in 
 a cnve, so that I might enjoy Him, though I 
 endured the greatest hardship. 
 
184 JE-WISII WITNESSES 
 
 111 these conflicts of spirit the devil set in 
 upon me, told me, " it was impossible for mc 
 to be saved;" "for," said he, "your parents 
 have wished a curse upon you ;" and insinuated, 
 as if I was by that curse bound over to eternal 
 damnation. "How," said he, "can you be- 
 lieve that the Son of God should be born of the 
 Virgin Mary ? or that he v»ho was born of her, 
 should be the Saviour of your soul ? Know 
 you not what a fellow (\vhich word went 
 through my soul) God knows he was?" "It 
 is impossible," said he, " that he should ever 
 save you." To whom I answered, and said, 
 " Satan, get thee behind me : God," said I 
 " and the Lord Jesus Christ are both one ; God 
 at first created the world out of nothing, 
 created man out of the dust, and of a rib taken 
 out of Adam made He a woman ; yea, Christ 
 Himself was overshadoAved by the Holy Ghost 
 in the womb of the Virgin Mary : and now, 
 O devil, what is too hard for such an Almighty 
 power which has done all tliis ? Thou hast no 
 jiower over Him, nor can'st thou disannul what 
 He hath done." After this, my inclination 
 stood bent to frequent the assembly of God's 
 people ; though whither to go I was at a loss. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 185 
 
 I lienrd tlierc were many churchrs ; one cried, 
 "Here is Christ;" another cried, "Here is 
 Christ!" I knew there was but one Christ, 
 however; and I tliought I would associate 
 myself with a sober people ; at length I went 
 among- the Quakers, but alas ! there I found 
 nothino- to my satisfaction, so that 1 was at a 
 loss again ; and so continued for many years, 
 going nowhcj-e, but lived without Christ, an 
 alien from the commonwealth of Israel, a 
 stranger to the covenants of promise, without 
 God in the world. At last my heart began to 
 burn within me ; whither, thought I, shall I 
 go ? I prayed that the Lord, if He had any 
 love to me, would show Himself to me in Jesus 
 Christ (for I always did, even when I lived in 
 the flesh, as many nominal Christians do, look 
 for God in the lace of Jesus Christ), and point 
 me out a way. At length I came to Whitc- 
 chapel, where my apprehensions concerning 
 my state were dreadful. I went one night to 
 bed, and there thought I heard a voice, dis- 
 tinctly saying, " Arise, arise ; if you look not 
 about you, and repent not, you must certainly 
 be damned." This was a sad sermon preached 
 to me, which, from a slavish fear and dread, 
 R 2 
 
186 JEWISH WITNESSliS 
 
 drove me to worship God, not from a sense of 
 His love, but as I said, from a fearful looking 
 for of judgment and fiery indignation: my 
 very heart trembled within me ! " Lord ! " 
 thought I, " it is high time to repent ; what 
 shall I do?" Meeting a young man, I told 
 him my sad condition. He told mc, " Unless 
 I was born again of the Spirit, I could not 
 enter into the kino-dom of God." This now 
 birth was altogether a mystery to me. " "What 
 shall I do, then?" said I. I fell to weeping. 
 •' Pray," said I, " help me to a minister — a 
 good gospel minister." I prayed many times 
 that God would direct me to a right church, 
 though with never so much affliction, the 
 Head whereof is Christ. I have often seen, 
 as I thought, Jesus Christ perfectly at the 
 right hand of God. He brought me to a 
 gospel minister, to whom I declared my mind, 
 who went evangelically to work with me ; ho 
 Avent far beyond Baxter. Baxter drove me 
 back ; but this gentleman told me there was 
 free grace for all that came to Jesus Christ. 
 This proved a happy day to my soul : he told 
 me the Lord accepts Jew and Gentile, as in 
 Gal. iii. 28. " Tliere is neither Jew nor Greek, 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 187 
 
 tliere is neither bond nor free, their is neither 
 male nor female, for ye are all one in Jesus 
 Christ." After some discourse with Mr. 
 Humphrey, who made some discovery to me 
 of God's Avay of salvation by free grace, of tlic 
 way of the work of the Spirit of God on the 
 spirit of a man, in raising him up from the 
 death of sin, I read in a book in which I found 
 th.e citation of that Scripture (John xvii. 26), 
 *' Father, I have declared unto them thy name, 
 and will declare it, that the love wherewith 
 thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in 
 them." And, thought I, now there is an open 
 door to come to God through Jesus Christ : it 
 came on my soul with such power, that it 
 appeared to me as if a door had been set open 
 for any to enter in who will, how abomi- 
 nably vile and filthy soever they be. I thought 
 I saw Jesus Christ, yea, the very GodJicad 
 shining round about me, through the manhood 
 of Jesus, for in Him dwells the fullness of the 
 Godhead bodily. (Col. ii. 9.) And now I am 
 persuaded, whether I direct my prayer to God 
 the First Person in the Trinity, or to Jesus 
 Christ the Second, it is the same ; they being 
 the same in essence, equal in power and glory. 
 
188 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 As I was reatling the book referred to above, 
 it pleased God to dart in a beam of divine love 
 in Jesus Christ on my soul ; though, lor about 
 an hour and a half, my bed shook under me. 
 I (juivcred and trembled, and thought my very 
 heart was broken within me. " Loi'd,'' thought 
 1, " what shall I do to be saved ?" But it was 
 soon cleared up to me by the Spirit of the 
 Lord, that I should be saved by Jesus Christ, 
 and Him alone ; and I am sure there is salva- 
 tion in no other than in Jesus Christ; no, there 
 is not. And now I would give my body to be 
 l)urned ; yea, had I a thousand lives, I would 
 lay them all down, rather than be an unbeliev- 
 ing Jew ; for, saith Christ, " If ye believe not 
 that I am he (?*. c. the Messiah), ye shall die in 
 your sins — and whither I go ye cannot come." 
 (Jolm viii. 21, 24). This is a miserable sen- 
 tence to all unbelievers. I often wondered 
 when I heard ministers pray for unbelieving 
 Gentiles ; surely, thought I, the Gentiles all 
 Ijoliove in Jesus Christ. But alas ! believing 
 is (juite another thing than I took it to be, a 
 thing of far greater dithculty than most arc 
 aAvare of: he that comes to God must believe 
 that he is every way such as the Scripture 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 189 
 
 declares Him to be. (Heb. xi. 6.) He must be- 
 lieve that all His attributes are liiglily exalted, 
 and infinitely advanced in our salvation ; that 
 the law is much more highly magnified and 
 made honourable (Isa.xlii.21), by the obedience 
 of Jesus Christ, God and man, than it could 
 possibly have been by the perfect obedience of 
 sinless Adam ; he must believe, that Avliat 
 Christ has done and suffered for us, as our 
 surety, in our room and stead, is the only 
 righteousness whereby we are justified before 
 God, and accepted with Him ; and that this 
 very righteousness becomes ours, pleadable by 
 us by virtue of God's divine act of imputation, 
 Jesus Christ being all in all. (Col. iii. 11.) But, 
 alas ! by how few are these gospel mysteries 
 really and truly believed ? I am one in whom 
 the Covenant of Abraham is fulfilled, as it is 
 in all those who believe in Jesus Christ. But 
 if you do not believe, you must die in your 
 sins. I am afraid that my forefathers, (though 
 I must judge as charitably of them as I have 
 warrant for), yet I fear lest many of them are 
 gone down to the pit of eternal destruction ; 
 and yet I am " a brand plucked out of the 
 fire." (Zach. iii. 2.) Now if God saved not his 
 
190 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 own covenant cliildren, his own spouse, those 
 who were naturally in the root, what will 
 become of those who are grafted in, and yot 
 boiicve not that Jesus is the Christ? (1 Johnii. 
 22.) But I know, and am persuaded, " That 
 Jesus Christ loved me, and gave himself for 
 me" (Gal. ii. 20), which is the main point ; and 
 that by His death and resurrection my soul is 
 saved. 
 
 I see tliat Jesus Christ, as He is God, is my 
 Father; but as man, He is my elder brother. 
 It hath j)leascd God to discover to me some- 
 thing of the glory of that covenant that he 
 made with Abraham.* (Gen. xvii.) I am 
 
 * Inatteution to the nature of the Abrahaniic Covenant 
 lias been an occasion of much error respecting the state 
 of the people of God under the Old Testament dispensa- 
 tion. Those of the ancient Hebrews who were tanght of 
 God, could see through the tenijjoral economy of the 
 LuAV, and distinguish those eternal rewards of faith, 
 which were promised to the Patriarchs before the civil 
 establishment of their nation in the land of Canaan, when 
 the favourites of God were led about from place to place, 
 as pilgrims and strangers upon earth. 
 
 If by the Laws of Muses we understand the whole 
 revelation contained in the Pentateuch, it certainly pre- 
 sents us with tii;o different forms of theological polity ; 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 191 
 
 assured it is a covenant of grace, ratified and 
 confirmed in the blood of Jesus. God hath 
 given Himself to me in absolute covenant made 
 with Abraham, and to my seed as a part of 
 me. AA' hen I take the Lord's supper in faitli, 
 I see that, as really as the bread is broken, and 
 the w'lUG ponred forth, the body of Christ was 
 broken, and His blood poured forth for tlie 
 remission of my sins. Wlicn I recollect my 
 former state, that when I lay in my blood, and 
 w^as led captive by sin — when I thought not on 
 Jesus Christ ; yea, before I was born, Jesus 
 Christ thought of me, and laid down His life fur 
 me, and made satisfaction for my sin ; when, I 
 say, I consider these things, I am made to pray 
 
 under tlie former of wliicli, tlie servants of God were 
 ti-ained up to a spiritual life of foitli and hope, through 
 a course of perogrlnation and ])orsocution ; but under the 
 hif/rr, they wore exercised with a temporal settlement, 
 and a ceremonial ritual. The former law of faith, as is 
 argued (Gal. iii. 17), could not, however, be made of 
 none effect by the law of ceremonies which came after : 
 and the Jew who did not understand both, and think 
 himself bound to follow both, had no right to call himself 
 a disciple of Moses. — Ed. 
 
192 JEWISH WITNES.SES 
 
 for the S})irit of" praise, that I may glorify God 
 for ever, who by the riches of His grace hath 
 brought me in, as the first-fruits of that great 
 harvest of tlie Jews ; when a nation shall, be 
 born in a day. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 193 
 
 JEWISH WITNESS.— No. IX. 
 JOHN XERES. 
 
 The foll()-\viiig address to the Jews luboiirs under tlie 
 disadvantage of being given in detached extracts, forming 
 together not more than a fourth part of tlie original 
 vohnne. Part of the omitted portion consists of a line 
 of argument tliat has been mucli more ably liandled by 
 others, and the remaining part consists of those erroneous 
 views of the future destiny of Israel and of the earth, 
 ■which the author learnt from his Gentile instructors. 
 The book is dedicated to the then Archbishop of York, 
 (in 1709), and prefaced by an attestation to the respecta- 
 bility of tlie author by seven London merchants, and 
 anotlicr by tlie learned Dr. AUix. The dedication I 
 omit; but retain the two quaint certificates. Would that 
 my baptized brethren could always produce such satis- 
 factory credentials! 
 
 "We, Avliose names are underwritten, mer- 
 chants trading- into Barbary in Afrio, do 
 lierel)y certify, all whom it may concern, that 
 S 
 
194 JEWISH AVITNESSES 
 
 ■\ve, each of us, having formerly lived for sev'^eral 
 years in those parts, did then, as we do now, 
 personally know Jonah Ben Jacob Xeres, Avho 
 was born in Saphia, a sea-poit town on that 
 coast. His parents, being Hebrews, were re- 
 puted to be honest and substantial people; who 
 employed much care in educating this their 
 son, Jonah, in the Jewish religion, and no lesri 
 expense in instructing him in the Hebrew, 
 Arabic, and Chaldean tongues. He the said 
 Jonah lived in that country a professed Jew, 
 till the age of five and twenty, or thereabouts ; 
 and always behaved himself sober in his con- 
 versation, and no less just in his dealing, as some 
 of us have experienced, having had occasion to 
 employ him on several accounts, whereby, 
 amongst other conversation, he had an oppor- 
 tunity of discoursing ^^■ith some of our factory 
 about matters of religion; and, as he now in- 
 forms us, was thereby i)ossessed with some 
 notion, that the Messiah was already come; 
 whereby, being uneasy under such a weighty 
 doubt, he came thence for England about 
 eighteen months ago, in order to acquire a Aill 
 satisfaction. After sometime here, he a])p]ied 
 himself to some of us to recommend him to 
 
THAT JESnS IS THE CHRIST, 195 
 
 some learned Divine for information ; wlicro- 
 upon lie was sent to the Rev. Dr. Allix, on 
 whom some of us have since vraited, who, re- 
 questing of us a cliaracter of tlie said Jonah, is 
 the occasion of this paper, which we do in all 
 respects believe to be true, and have a very 
 good opinion of tlie ])robity and sincerity of the 
 ubo\ c-mentioned Jonah, and which, we trust, 
 u])on his examination, he will prove to the 
 judgment of the most Reverend tlie Arcli- 
 bisliops, the Right Reverend the Bishops, the 
 Reverend the Clergy, and all otlier j)ious 
 Christians, to whom we recommend him, &:c. 
 
 "Done at London, this eight and twentieth 
 day of May, one thousand seven hundred and 
 nine. 
 
 "Peter Fleuriot, 
 Sabiuel Robin son, 
 John Lodington, 
 John Adams, 
 Yal. Norton, 
 Robert Colmore, 
 Thomas Coleman. 
 
 "These are to certify, that upon several dis- 
 courses had with the afore-mentioned Jonah 
 
196 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 33en Jacob Xeres, I have found him very well 
 acquainted with the Holy Scriptures of the Old 
 Testament, and all other Jewish (particularly 
 the Talmudic) learning; so that he was very 
 ready, upon the chief objections the Jews make 
 to the doctrine, divinity, and office of our Sa- 
 viour. But, as lie is endowed with very good 
 natural and acquired parts, I was the more able 
 to satisfy and convince him of the truth; so that, 
 after having examined by Scripture all the 
 most material controversies, he hath freely de- 
 clared to myself, and his other friends, his 
 desire to renounce the errors and prejudices of 
 his education in the Jewisli religion, and to 
 embrace and profess the Christian faith. 
 
 "Witness my hand this 30th day of July, 
 1709. 
 
 "Peter Allix, D.D." 
 
 an address to the jews, by john xeres. 
 
 I should not be a true disciple of my Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, if I had not a tender affection for 
 you, and an ardent desire of procuring your 
 salvation. On Ilis cross he prayed for those 
 very persons who had crucified Him. (Luke 
 
THAT" JEeUS 18 THE CIiniST. 197 
 
 xxiii. 24.) It is therefore my duty, after His 
 example, to offer np my prayers to God, tliat 
 His anger being- at length api)eased, He would 
 l^lease to convert you, I think myself more 
 particularly obliged to this duly, because during 
 the time I have conversed with yon, which has 
 been above a year, you have not only been ex- 
 tremely civil, but have by all possible ways, 
 expressed your love and afTection for me. 
 
 I ;\m descended of a family which has been 
 settled at Siiphia, a sea-port town of Barbary, 
 in Afi'ica, ever since iho Jews were driven out 
 of Spain. And I was born there of a father 
 so zealous for his I'eligion, that, being able to 
 su})port the charge of such an education, he 
 designed to make me a Rabbin. Accordingly, 
 I have been brought up under the most famous 
 of our doctors, and, though I have not yet 
 been raised to that degree, many of you have 
 had the opportunity of knovtiug that I have 
 applied myself to study with some diligence, 
 and that I have made no small progress in all 
 those parts of learuing which are necessary to 
 qualify a person for that honourable title. I 
 have been very well versed in the Scriptures 
 "y:m\ my earliest youth ; and, for several years, 
 s2 
 
198 JEATISII WITNESSES 
 
 have been engaged in the study of tlie Tahnuds, 
 and of the Gemara, and 1 am sufficient master 
 of that learning, to pass a true judgment upon 
 it. I have for as long time been disturljed 
 with several difficulties, and having had in my 
 own country o])portunities of conversing with 
 Papists of Spain, and with Protestants of the 
 Church of England, I have been desirous of 
 learning from both of them their opinions, 
 with respect to those doubts which perplexed 
 me. I have been twice in Spain, and three 
 times in Portugal ; but the inquisition, under 
 the protection of Avhicli I have been, was such 
 a method of convincing and satisfying tlie 
 mind as T can never apjDrove of. The severity 
 of that tribunal was, in my mind, directly 
 opposite to tl)e spirit of religion ; and I couhi 
 not see but that those doctors allow as little 
 liberty of examination to the mind, as our 
 Rabbins, who require their scholars to pay 
 so blind, but entire a respect to their Mord 
 and authority, as to believe their right hand is 
 their left, if they please to affirm it. 
 
 The barbarous proceedings of the inquisition 
 being so unfit to work upon my mind, I came 
 over into England, hoping T might here meet 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST, 199 
 
 with satisfaction witli respect to the great diffi- 
 culties which disturbed iny mind. And by 
 the kind help of some of my friends, who 
 have known me almost from infancy, and who 
 arc able to give an account of my manners 
 and conduct, as they have been ])leased to do, 
 by the certificate that is prefixed to this ad- 
 dress, I have been directed to a Divine of 
 this Church, from whom I have happily re- 
 ceived a resolution of those doubts, and an 
 explication of those difiiculties, Avhich for so 
 many years, had taken up my mind. One 
 thing which in a very particular manner 
 engaged my attention to him, was, that having 
 been always offended with this maxim of our 
 masters, — My son, have more regard to the 
 words of the Rabbins than to the words of 
 the law, he began with an exhortation to use 
 my own judgment, and to consider seriously 
 the force of those objections we make to the 
 Christians, and to weigh imjDartially the 
 answers which he proposed. For this purpose, 
 he spent nearly four hours, in convincing me 
 of the absurdity of the pretended oral law, 
 which is so much talked of by our Rabbins, 
 and confuted those persons who have deprived 
 
200 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 our nation of their right of using a discretionary 
 judgment in matters of religion, by talking of 
 a great Sanhedrin which sat from INIoses till 
 the second destruction of Jerusalem ; and by 
 maintaining that the two Talmuds contain 
 the decisions of that assembly, to which we 
 ought to submit blindly, as to the greatest and 
 most Divine authority which was then in the 
 world. 
 
 All the arguments which you allege in 
 vindication of this opinion, turn upon some 
 passages of the Sacred Writings, wliicli you 
 wrest miserably, to answer your end and j)ur- 
 pose. I shall insist upon one or two of them, 
 and effectually expose the weakness of your 
 reasonings. 
 
 The first you usually insist u})on is taken 
 out of Exodus,* Write thou these words, 
 nbsn D"'~i2"tn ''S hv "^r. J^^ «^ P^ hedavarim 
 huelle, that is, For after the tenor of these 
 words, I have made,t &c. From whence you 
 infer tliat tlie oral law is meant, because God 
 
 * Ch. xxxiv. 27. 
 t To make tins argimient more clear to those who 
 do not iinderstnncl Hebrew, it may bo well to state, that 
 
 till' v,(jrd T- ;/'', si'^niHcs motif/'. — I''.!). 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHniST. 201 
 
 saitli, t3"*i!:nn '•Q 'h'J. al dc hadevarim, tliat is, 
 in your way of interpreting it HD '^/"^'D.W m\~i. 
 tora shehacd pe, to make a covenant accor(li!i<^ 
 to the oral law. Another place to the same 
 purpose is in Deuteronomy,* n"i^nn Jl'^D br. 
 al pe hatora. 
 
 But the first place is so far from establishing 
 the autliority of the oral law, that it proves 
 the direct contrary ; for the n. he, which is 
 twice repeated, and the n^t**. elle, restrains the 
 covenant to the words that are Avritten, as any 
 novice will easily perceive, who has the least 
 smattering in the original. And, indeed, On- 
 kelos and Jonathan met with no such thing 
 in the text, for they have translated it " after 
 the tenor," as it is in the English translation ; 
 for it must be confessed that that the n^:. pe, 
 often redounds in the Hebrew, as appears, upon 
 examination, from many 2)assages of Scripture. 
 
 Nay, you yourselves, must confess that the 
 particles nS b27, al -pe, n2D> kepe, and n^b. lepey 
 signify only, according to, and never denote 
 mouth. Add to this, that the particle '•D, ki, 
 foreshows the reason wliy IMoses was coui- 
 
 * Ch. vii. 9, 10, &c. 
 
202 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 inandcd by God to write these words — viz., 
 For after the tenor of these words I have 
 made a covenant with thee and with Israel. 
 AVhereas no reason can be assigned why Moses 
 was to write them, if he had been to make the 
 covenant according- to tlie oral law. As for 
 that passage in Deuteronomy, there seems not 
 the least dilKculty in it, tliis of Exodus being 
 first explained. For the Levites, or tlie judge 
 that should be in those days, upon the people 
 seeking to them, were to show them the sen- 
 tence of judgment, as it was written in the book 
 of the law, aiid they were obliged to abide by 
 that determination. 
 
 Upon the entrance mto the promised land, 
 it was foretold the people of Israel, that they 
 should have, in future time, a king set over 
 them, as well as all the nations round about 
 them hud ; and that after he should be fixed 
 n])on the throne, he was enjoined to write a 
 coi)y of tliis law in a book, by whicli, if ho 
 steered the course of his life, he was to have 
 great blessings to attend him ; neither, as I can 
 find, is there any injunction laid upon him, or 
 any other of the Jews, farther than the obser- 
 vance of the written law. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 203 
 
 To prove that tlic Talmud came in vogue 
 since the cstabllsliment of tlie Maliomctaii 
 religion, is no liard tasl;, for it proves itscl/ 
 plainly Ly the word Ishmael, wiiich tliey give 
 to the followers of Mahomet's doctrine. 
 
 I have good reason to believe, that it did 
 not arrive in Spain till the nintli century, at 
 which time the major part of the Jews utterly 
 rejected it, till in the days of Alphonsus, King 
 of Castile, it w^as received after this mn,nnor : 
 This prince had a physician, who v>'as a Jew ; 
 that same Jew, who was a Talmudist, per- 
 suaded his majesty to spare the lives of those 
 Jews who were then his subjects, and had 
 been guilty of sedition, and so sentenced to 
 death, provided they would own and embrace 
 the Talmud, which they did in order to save 
 their lives. This happened at the end of the 
 twelfth century. But it is to be observed, that 
 a very considerable part of the Jews, who are 
 spread in many parts of the world, disapprove 
 of and reject the Talmud to this very da3\ 
 
 But to conclude this head, That the Gemara 
 (which is only a full exposition of the Mishna) 
 is u plain imposition — is so easy to be discovered, 
 that there is no need I should spend many 
 
204 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 words about it. It is true, indeed, the liaLbis 
 mentioned in it are represented as very ancient, 
 and as men that lived many hurdied years bo- 
 fore it was compiled; for the compilers of it 
 had just so much sense as to mention those 
 Rabbis who had lived many ages before them, 
 as the authors of what they were pleased to 
 advance. And tlio reason of this their be- 
 haviour was — first, to avoid the jiersccutions, 
 which they justly feared, fi-om the Christians 
 and Mahometans, who, in several places of the 
 Gemara, were severely treated and reflected 
 upon. Secondly, to give their people to un- 
 derstand that the Karaite Jews were mere 
 Innovators in the Jewish religion. 
 
 By such arguments as these I was convinced 
 of the great error I long laboured under, and I 
 wish they may have the same effect upon your 
 minds. 
 
 I was extremely ])leased v/ith three parti- 
 culars in the method the Divine took, and by 
 Avhich I was thoroughly convinced of his sin- 
 cerity. 
 
 1st. A third person, who assisted at our 
 Conferences, gave me, the next day after every 
 conversation wc had together, during almost 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST, 205 
 
 three iiioiitlis, a slioit recapitulation of wliat 
 had been said on both sides, that so I uiiji'ht 
 carefully inquire \^hether I was fully satisfied 
 Avith his answers, and propose afresh those 
 difficulties which were not cleared up. 
 
 2rid. According- to his promise, he made 
 use of no argument in the dispute, but according 
 to the original, ex])lained by the parallel places 
 wliere the same subject is handled. 
 
 3i'd, He offered to supply me with all 
 Jewish books, such as the Talmuds, the ancient 
 Midraschim, the Jcv.'ish commentaries on 
 Scripture, and principally those which treat of 
 tlie controversy with the Christians; such as 
 the Chissouk Emouna, and Abarbanel, Avho is 
 most esteemed by our nation. And, before 
 our conversation began, he lent me such as I 
 desired to consult. After this, he easily con- 
 vinced mo that I ought to read the New Tes- 
 tament, whicli is the only rule of the Christian 
 faith ; and, that I might read it with the greater 
 ease, he gave me a version of it in Hebrew, 
 
 I ap])lied myself closely to the reading of th j 
 Gospel, and have found the following effects 
 ofit:— 
 
 1st. I understood the plan of the Christian 
 T 
 
20G JEWISH ■WITNESSES 
 
 religion better tliau I had done, from wliat I 
 had heard of it in my own country. 
 
 2n(l. Hereupon I found myself in a much 
 fairer way to receive satisfaction, with resj)ect 
 to my difficulties, than I had been before. 
 
 3rd. Hereby I found an exact conformity 
 between the books of Moses and of the prophets, 
 and of those of the New Testament, though 
 your doctors, prepossessed as they are with 
 prcyudicps, do all they can to make them con- 
 tradict one another. 
 
 1 earnestly wish you would read those books 
 as I have done; for, I doubt not, but you would 
 then SCO with admiration, that Jesus Christ, 
 dui-ing- His ministry, was taken up in the 
 following' affaij's: — 
 
 1st. In reforming- the corruptions whicli 
 were crc])t in among oar fathers, with respect 
 to several parts of that moral docti'ine which 
 God had prescribed by iNloses; of which cor- 
 r;i[)tions several are at this time found in your 
 Talmud authors by your doctors. And this 
 He could not do without stirring up the fury 
 of those persons, on whom He charged those 
 coiM'uptions so home. And this was, certainly, 
 the prinei])al cause of His death; for. He tells 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 207 
 
 them plainly enough that they knew He was 
 the Messiah; but that they were afraid they 
 should lose their own authority, if they sub- 
 mitted unto His. (Matt. xxi. 33.) 
 
 2nd. In establishing such pure and perfect 
 rules of morality and piety, as above all others 
 are fitted to raise human nature to the highest 
 degree of perfection. 
 
 3rd. In teaching the Jews the true sense of 
 some prophecies respecting the Messiah ; to 
 which tliey had not given sufficient attention. 
 
 4th. You would find, that in His discourses 
 He had interwoven several illustrious jjro- 
 phecies concerning those things He came to 
 suffer from the Jews ; concerning Avhat should 
 happen to His disciples; concerning the fate of 
 the Jews, who slioidd crucify Him ; concerning 
 the false Messiahs, who should abuse the cre- 
 dulity of our nation; concerning those things 
 which, after His death, should befall His 
 Church, which His disciples should form; con- 
 cerning the persecutions it was to suff'er, and 
 its prodigious increase unto that greatness in 
 which you see it now appear. 
 
 Can you read such relations without being 
 moved thereby, and without concluding that 
 
208 JEWISH "WITNESSES 
 
 since the Christian religion was opposed for 
 several ages, both by the Jews and by the 
 heathens, there is no more room to doubt of 
 the miracles Tvhich were wrought by Christ and 
 Ilis apostles, than of Moses, and of the pro- 
 phets that came after him? 
 
 AVhatsocvcr your Talmudist doctors have 
 objected against the miracles of Christ and of 
 His apostles, is frivolous cavil, and may, with 
 equal ease, be turned by an heathen against 
 Moses. 
 
 In pursuance of what I am about, I shall 
 consider some few passages in the Prophets, 
 which, according to you and us, have an un- 
 deniable relation to the coming of the Messiah 
 promised to our nation, in sundry places of the 
 sacred pages. 
 
 God's design, in separating Abraham with 
 the rest of the patriarchs, and afterwards the 
 Jewish nation, from the other part of mankind, 
 was, that it might be known that the ^lessiah, 
 according to the flesh, arose from that people, 
 and because Jacob was the first who restrained 
 that promise to the family of Judah, I shall 
 therefore make choice of this first prophecy, to 
 prove that the Messiah is already come. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 209 
 
 Jacob, upon his death-Lecl, ordered all his 
 sons to gather themselves together, and, ac- 
 cording to the uneri'ing Spirit he was filled 
 ■witlial, foretold to all his chiklren, what should 
 be their lot in the land of Canaan, whether 
 their state and condition should be prosperous 
 or unfortunate ; and, among the rest, when he 
 conies to Judah, he says :* " Judah, tliou ait 
 lie, whom tliy brethren sliall praise ; thy 
 hand, &c. The sceptre shall not depart from 
 Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, 
 until Shiloli come, and unfo him shall the ga- 
 thering of the peo]:)Ie be." These last words 
 afford us a threefold consideration: 1st. That 
 the ^sntr? Shebet, sceptre should be in Judah. 
 2nd. That in process of time, there should be a 
 -pn?::, MehoJii'k, that is, a lav.'-giver, a dignity 
 inferior to that of kings. And in tlie third 
 place, that nb^'lLS Sliiloh should come licforc 
 the departure of the t03tL^ Sceptre, and \:^nr2, 
 3IeJioI;ch, out of Judah. 
 
 Now, this prophecy of Jacob did not begin 
 
 to take place till David Avas made king, and 
 
 then it received part of its accomplishment. 
 
 And tliis sceptre i^nii', Shebet, (or kingly 
 
 * Gcii. xHx. 8, 9, 10. 
 t2 
 
210 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 power, as you, yourselves, confess, see Rashi, 
 Aben Ezra, Kimclii, and the Targuni has 
 translated that word by kings), continued to 
 the days of Zedekiah. After the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, the ppjiTS, McJiokeh took footing, 
 that is, an inferior order to kings (pprttt* 
 Mchokek, a jjrince or law-giver : Rashi upon 
 Ps. Ix. 9). For Zerubbabel was the first ppn)2, 
 3Ickokek, or Law-giver ; and this sort of go- 
 vernment continued for some time with some 
 little change and alteration, even under ilio 
 Maccabees, until the Romans laid waste the 
 Holy City ; since which time they have never 
 been able to make themselves a people, or 
 gain a possession of the land of Canaan. The 
 nVu?, S/iiloh, that is, the Messiah, as you, 
 yourselves, acknowledge upon that place of 
 Gfcn. Avas to come before the departure of the 
 12'2W, Sceptre, and of the ppnia? Mehokck, out 
 of tlie tribe of Judah, This is the meaning 
 of that prophecy. 
 
 Then with respect to the time, the Christians 
 have quite the advantage over your fore- 
 fathers. Jesus Christ came in the time ap- 
 pointed by God, and he suffered at the time 
 expressed l)y the prophets. Whereas, if the 
 
THAT JESUf? IS THE CHRIST. 211 
 
 Messiah you expect should come now, you 
 could not say he came to fulfil those prophe- 
 cies that speak of him, for they fix another 
 period for his appearance and his death — viz., 
 before the second destruction of Jerusalem. 
 But besides all this, if the Messiah did not 
 come at the time which was foretold by the 
 prophets, it follows, that you ought to reject 
 those prophecies as absolutely false. For 
 surely that prophecy deserves no better a cha- 
 racter, which, instead of being fulfilled, is con- 
 tradicted by the event. 
 
 Perhaps you will answer me, that the sins of 
 your fathers have been the cause that God has 
 not sent the Messiah at the time he had fixed 
 for his coming. 
 
 Upon this principle your Rabbins tell you, 
 that the appearance of the Messiah can only 
 be hastened by your repentance ; but herein, 
 they grossly impose upon you. For — 
 
 1st. To what purpose do they trouble them- 
 selves to find out different periods for the 
 coming of the Messiah, from those that are 
 past, since they can signify nothing without 
 your repentance? Yet their writings are full 
 of computations of the periods they assign for 
 
212 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 tlie Messiah's appearance. I dare venture to 
 say, that all the 2)eriods which have been lixed 
 upon by those your doctors, are past above 150 
 years ago. Read R. Saadias, llaniban, Bachai, 
 Ralbag, R. Joseph Ben Jacchia, Don Isaac 
 Abarbanel, and other calculators, you will see 
 that every one of them have fancied they hud 
 found out the secret notwithstandinc; the cuj-se 
 pronounced by your Taluuulists, who })ray that 
 all those who shall compute the times of the 
 Messiah, may burst asunder. 
 
 2nd. Why have they invented that ridicu- 
 lous imagination, which many of your learned 
 men have embraced, that towards the end of 
 those terms of years which they iix, God shall 
 raise up one or more very cruel kings, who by 
 dreadful persecutions shall force you to repent ; 
 and, that upon this, the Messiah shall ajipear 
 to deliver you'? Why should God take this 
 care towards the end of the terms, which they 
 now gather from the mistaken sense of some 
 prophecies, since he did not in those other 
 periods which your doctors acknowledge to be 
 l)ast? You must needs sec that these fancies 
 of your Rabbins are vain and groundless. 
 
 But I come to the point of the two Messiahs, 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CIIIIIST. 213 
 
 one of wliicli is to be the son of David, as the 
 other shall be the son of Joseph, of the tribe of 
 Ephraim. This is a late invention, which was 
 never heard of before the Talmud. The 
 Chaldee paraphrast of the prophets knows 
 nothino- of it ; but it is to be found in Onkelos. 
 And a mere fancy it is. 
 
 It is very likely that hereafter we shall be 
 told, that, as the Messiah the son of David is 
 to have the souls of Adam and of David, so 
 the son of Joseph shall have the souls of the 
 patriarch Joseph, and of Jeroboam. 
 
 The truth is, that this foolish notion is 
 gathered from the prophecy of Obadiah, who 
 speaks of the courage of the ten tribes after 
 their return from Assyria, who, he says, were 
 to be attacked by the kings of Syria, and after- 
 wards should subdue the Edomites. But this 
 prophecy was all fulfilled by the Hasmonoei, 
 under the Syrian kings, as it is related by the 
 most exact of the Jewish historians. 
 
 By the imagination of a two-fold Messiah, 
 the Jews have thought this story proper to 
 serve a very considerable design ; for they con- 
 cluded, that they should conceal from the 
 readers of the prophecies, the true meaning of 
 
214 JEWISH WITNESSEf5 
 
 those prophecies, which speak of tlic death of 
 the Messlali, the son of David, by teacliing, 
 that they should have their acconiphshnient in 
 the person of Messiah, the son of Joseph. 
 
 As this point of the coming of the Messiah, 
 whom you still expect, is one of the great 
 principles you go upon in your controA^ersy 
 with the Christians, you will not be displeased 
 if I again tell you, that by supposing the 
 Messiah is yet to come, you overturn the 
 authority of the ancient prophecies, and betray 
 your own cause to the atheists, and to those 
 Avho make a jest of religion. Jacob ])ro])hesied 
 that Shiloh, that is, the Messiah, should ap- 
 pear before your state should be utterly de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 After the seventy years of the captivity, 
 Zerubbabel and his successors, were the rulers 
 of the peoj^le, and governed till the times of 
 the Hasmomti, of whom seven governed you, 
 according to the prophecy of Micali v., and 
 eight bore the name of kings. Since then 
 you could never enjoy the supreme power 
 yourselves. The Romans set over you that 
 idol she[)herd, according to Zechariah's pro- 
 phecy, whom your own Josephus hen Oorion, 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 215 
 
 confesses to have been Herod ; and your civil 
 constitution has been irrecoverably overturned, 
 according to prophecy in Dan. ix. Hence it 
 necessarily follows, cither that Jacob's pro- 
 phecy was false, or that the Messiah, whoever 
 he was, did actually appear before your last 
 destruction. 
 
 Your ancient masters saw the force of this 
 reasoning, and therefore tell you, that he was 
 indeed born about the time of the last destruc- 
 tion, but conceals himself until a certain time, 
 when he will appear and destroy Rome. They 
 have invented several fables to countenance 
 this notion of the Messiah's birth, as attended 
 this particular circumstance, which they esteem 
 a very critical point. But, unhappily, their 
 OAvn party opposes them in this matter, and 
 much more generally asserts that the Messiah 
 is not yet born. 
 
 Your masters have invented fables concern- 
 ing tlie legislators, which they say they have ; 
 but wherever they are, they live incogjiilo, for 
 nobody could ever learn of any other masters 
 they have, than those who teach in their 
 schools. 
 
 Both you Jews, and we Christians, own and 
 
216 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 acknowledge that there neither is, nor can be 
 but one eternal ever-living God, the Creator 
 of heaven and earth, as we read in Dent.* 
 " Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is one 
 Lord." This being a matter so plain, and 
 self-evident, there is little need of fetching any 
 farther proofs from the sacred writings to 
 convince cither the one or the other ; or to 
 persuade them to the belief thereof. Let but 
 any considerate person ponder awhile with 
 himself, his own reason will necessarily induce 
 him to gather from various considerations the 
 existence of a God, and at the same time con- 
 vince him that there is but one. 
 
 The notion we frame to ourselves of a God 
 supposes this, for when we say we believe a 
 God, our meaning is, that we conceive him to 
 be an infinite being, of all imaginable and pos- 
 sible perfection. Now to suppose many infinile 
 and perfect beings, im])llcs an absolute contra- 
 diction, wherefore such a notion destroys a 
 plurality of Gods. 
 
 But as to the nature of the Deity, it is con- 
 fessed on all hands, that our shallow reason can 
 never conceive such an immensity, therefore 
 * Chap. vi. 4. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 217 
 
 we are oLlig-ed to have i-ecoursc to the sacred 
 pages, tlie only sure and safe guide in such an 
 inexplicable mystery ; and there we are like 
 to meet with the best and clearest information 
 we can expect in so nice and sublime a subject. 
 The sum of v.hat they teach is as follows : 
 Moses and the prophets after him (whose great 
 design was to establish the unity of the God- 
 head, and to extii-pate polytheism, then very 
 flagrant in the w^orld), wdien they speak of the 
 Almighty One, generally mention him after 
 such a manner, that the expressions they use 
 import in them a j^lurality in the one only 
 essence of the being spoken of. 
 
 What means else the frequent mention of 
 God by nouns of the plural number; as Gen. i. 
 1, n'^nb^ K-in n>il"'S~in Bereshit bar a Elohim, 
 where the word DTlbs EloJdm, which is ren- 
 dered God, is of the plural number, though 
 annexed to a verb of the shigular number, 
 whicli demonstrates as evidently as may be, 
 that there are several persons partakers of the 
 same Divine nature and essence? Otherwisej if 
 there was but one jjerson concerned in iiie 
 creation, why does Moses so oi'ten repeat these 
 expressions, " And God said let tliere be such 
 u 
 
218 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 and such tilings, and it was so." But the 
 reason why Moses repeats those expressions so 
 often, will appear, if we compare his descrip- 
 tion of the creation with that given by the 
 psalmist (Ps. xxxiii. 6,) in these words; "By 
 the word of the Lord were the heavens made, 
 and all the host of them by the rrn JRouach, 
 Spirit of his mouth;" where this phrase, "the 
 word of the Lord," answers to Moses' expres- 
 sion, "God said," and the spirit of his mouth 
 answers to Moses' expression, "The Spirit of 
 God moved upon the face of the waters;" and 
 it is farther plain, if we consult Proverbs viii. 
 30, Avhere God addressed himself to his eternal 
 wisdom, who in the beginning disposed all 
 things. 
 
 Add to this the celebrated place of Deut.* 
 "Hear O Israel," ")3'^nbw mn'' Jehova Eloe- 
 71011 ( in the plural number,) the Lord thy 
 God, is inw HMl^, Jehovah Ehad, One God. 
 From whence I thus argue, " He that is 
 la^nbs n"in\ Jehova Elocnou, and -jn« nyiV, 
 Jehova Ehud, is one in essence, and in that one 
 essence there are several persons. But God, 
 of whom it is said, " Hear O Israel," &:c., is 
 * Chap. vi. 4. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 219 
 
 l^fT^bw mn% Jehova Elohenou, and "rns mn\ 
 Jehova Ekad. Therefore the God worshipped 
 by the Jews, and of whom it is said, " Hear O 
 Israel, &c., is one in essence, and in that one 
 essence there are several persons. 
 
 And here I desire you, my brethren, to 
 observe, that the Christians do not from these 
 and such like places pretend to prove precisely 
 a Trinity of persons, but only indefinitely that 
 there is some sort of plurality in the Godhead. 
 For if this be once admitted as a thing sup- 
 posed by Scripture, viz., that a j^lurality of 
 persons subsists in the Divine essence, it 
 thence also follows, that there is no absurdity 
 in supposing that a Trinity of persons can 
 subsist in the Divine nature. Besides, if it be 
 farther demonstrated that the Great God 
 Jehovah is One, but one after such a manner, 
 as that a plurality of persons may without any 
 absurdity be admitted in his Divine essence, it 
 is plain, that if the Christians can prove that 
 this plurality of persons amounts but to three, 
 tlic'ir faith in the Holy Trinity is Avell -grounded 
 and established. 
 
 Nor can this plurality of persons, which the 
 Christians admit of, make as well for the 
 
220 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 idolatry of tlio Gentile world, as for the 
 Trinity which they worsliip and adoi'e. For 
 the Christians, as well as the Jews, very 
 strennonsly contend for the Unity of God, 
 but at the same time, grounding their faith 
 npon the word of God, tliey admit of a plu- 
 rality of persons in the Divine nature; to 
 which faith of theirs the Gentile polytheisin 
 lias not the least relation ; because tlie Heathen, 
 contrary to the express word of God, and to 
 right reason, worshipped a plurality of Gods, 
 that were different one from the other in 
 person, essence, and operation. So that it is 
 impossible for the Gentile world to prove after 
 the same manner, and from those very ex- 
 pressions which the Christians allege in de- 
 fence of a plurality; of persons in the Godhead, 
 to prove, I say, their almost infinite number 
 of Gods. For the plurality of j^ersons which 
 the Christians contend for, is an undivided 
 plurality, whereas their's was a divided plu- 
 rality, and by consequence, an indefinite num- 
 ber of divided Gods, ending (if I may so speak) 
 in many Ones; which plurality the Christians 
 as justly abhor as you do, it being contrary 
 both to Scripture and right reason. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 221 
 
 Your masters explain the prophecy in Deut. 
 xviii. 15, concerning a succession of prophets, 
 which God raised up among you ; whereas the 
 Christians with very good reason apply it to 
 the Messiah. 
 
 But let us grant for once, that your masters 
 have found out the natural sense of the place. 
 If it be allowed on the one hand, that for the 
 space of 1496 years, viz., from your deliver- 
 ance from Egypt, God kept this promise, how 
 comes it to pass on the other hand, that since 
 the time of Jesus Christ, that is for above 1 600 
 years, there has not arisen among you one 
 prophet to opjDOse those impostors, who from 
 time to time have appeared and taken upon 
 them the title of the Messiah, and thereby 
 brought upon you new miseries and calamities? 
 
 Nay, more than this, during your first cap- 
 tivity, God gave you prophets ; Daniel, for 
 instance, and his com])anions ; and Ezekiel, 
 who was carried away under Jehoiakin ; and 
 yet that captivity was to last but seventy years. 
 
 But he takes no such care of you as he did 
 at that time. He has sent you no prophet to 
 acquaint you how long these calamities shall 
 u2 
 
222 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 last, tliougli you have now more need of it 
 than ever. 
 
 I know very well, that to satisfy and quiet 
 your people, your masters assert (the ark being 
 destroyed when the first temple was destroyed, 
 and there being none in the second), that the 
 spirit of projjhecy was never bestowed under 
 the second temple, because it depended entirely 
 upon the presence of the ark, which was the 
 seat of the Shekinah. 
 
 To give a colour of truth to so gross an 
 error, they tell us, that the three last prophets 
 were the companions of Daniel, (x. 7). 
 
 But there is nothing more absurd. Zechariah 
 was the grandson of Iddo, who returned from 
 Babylon into Judea with Zerubbabel. Haggai 
 and he were cotemporaries. Malachi pro- 
 phesied a considerable time after them. 
 
 Nothing aj)ppars more absurd to a reason- 
 able man than that notion of your masters 
 Avhieh makes the appearance of your Messiah 
 to depend upon that of a constellation, which 
 is to come after a certain number of years. 
 
 Abarbanel pretends that when the Talmu- 
 dists curse those who calculate the times, they 
 mean such who are guided in their computa- 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 223 
 
 tlous by the stars only, without having any 
 regard to the proiDliecies. But after all the 
 vain endeavours he has used in regulating his 
 calculation according to the prophecies, ho 
 has added a computation by the course of the 
 stars too. 
 
 You know how well he succeeded. If he 
 had been in the right, your Messiah should 
 have appeared above 150 years ago ; whereas 
 you have never yet heard any tidings of him. 
 See his " Masmiah on Ezek. x." But this 
 book has been reprinted for all that. 
 
 The most remarkable thing is, that in follow- 
 ing this idea of the Heathen astrologers, though 
 he is indeed so modest as to subject it all to 
 God's will, he has run into all the extravagant 
 absurdities which one could have expected 
 from a judiciary astrologer, concerning the 
 time of the Messiah. 
 
 Do but read the twelfth of his " Wells of 
 Salvation," and you v/ill see such a collection 
 of ridiculous fancies of that nature, that you 
 will wonder a Jew, who knew how that art 
 was condemned by the prophets, should ever 
 lay so much stress upon the authority of it. 
 He does the same in liis Masmiah Joshua, and 
 
224 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 in his Commentaries on the Prophets, and on 
 the Five Books of Moses. You -will find in 
 his " Commentaries on Numbers xxiv.," that 
 the Jews are now in captivity, by the influence 
 of a certain constellation; and on Deut. xxxii. 
 you will find, that God, that he may punish 
 the Gentiles, disturbs the course of those 
 planets that are favourable to them. The 
 same thing he asserts on Isaiah xxxiv. He 
 affirms that Jesus Christ, and his disciples after 
 him, suffered death because he was born under 
 Mars. He tells us that his people shall be 
 redeemed under a certain constellation (Is. Iv. 
 17), as he was redeemed at first from Egypt. 
 And this he repeats on Jeremiah xxxiii., and 
 on Ezekiel xlv. He instanceth particularly in 
 the month Nisan. The same fancy he repeats 
 on Hosea i. and on chap. iii. 
 
 But the most ridiculous jest of these your 
 astronomical calculations, is, that your best 
 chronologers are not agreed concerning the 
 true duration of the world from its creation to 
 this present time : so that none of your com- 
 putations by the stars can be adjusted Avith 
 your account of the years of the world, accord- 
 ing to the prophecies. 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 225 
 
 But Abarbaiicl is not the only man wlio makes 
 tliis use of astrology. He only followed the 
 autliority of his masteis \Tho went before him. 
 
 Now tell me sincerely, can there be any 
 need of a more evident proof that you have 
 renounced the authority of jNIoses and of tlie 
 prophets, than what is gathered from this hy- 
 pothesis, which was first received- from the 
 Heathens, Avho were first led into it by the 
 deceits of the devil.'' 
 
 I shall add but one remark more, concern- 
 ing Isaiah liii. When your masters speak to 
 you of the Targum, they tell of a great many 
 miracles which were wu'ought to confirm its 
 authority, and make it unquestionable. And 
 yet your Rabbins make a jest of its authority, 
 and never pay any deference to it but when 
 they find it favours their notions. 
 
 The Targum applies Isaiah lii.. from v. 13, 
 and the whole of chap. liii. to the Messiah. 
 So does your Pesikta, and your ancient books, 
 the Tanchuma and Siplire. R. Moseh and 
 R. Nephtali are of tlie same opinion. But 
 read after this your other commentators, and 
 you will find, that R. Saadias applied the whole 
 prophecy to Jeremiah. Others suppose tlie pro- 
 phet to speak in general of any good man. 
 
226 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 Thus in the Tahnud one refers it to Moses, 
 another to R. Akiba ; Rashi, Aben Ezra, 
 Kinichi, Lipman, and Abarbanel, explain it 
 concerning the people of the Jews. In a word, 
 Abarbanel affirms, that it may also be under- 
 stood of Joeiah, Avho was slain by Pharoah 
 Neclio. 
 
 Hereby you see how you are imposed upon 
 by your several commentators, and how they 
 follow every man his own imaginations, with- 
 out expressing much concern for the truth. 
 
 If that prophecy speaks of the Messiah, as 
 your ancient authors agree it does, how can it 
 be applied to your whole nation, as you have 
 done for these five or six hundred years { Or 
 if it treats of a whole people, how can it be 
 explained of Josiah ? 
 
 Do not you perceive how your Rabbins im- 
 pose upon you? Their forefathers acknow- 
 ledged the truth, but the modern set have 
 perverted the sense of the prophecy, referring 
 it to the people, and not to the Messiah, to 
 whom it had been formerly applied. And 
 with what design? Why, to increase the num- 
 ber of the (juestions in controversy between 
 them and the Christians. 
 
 Be prevailed with to consider a little the 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 227 
 
 unfairness of such a way of proceeding. This 
 prophecy of Isaiah is one of those upon which 
 the Christians found one part of their system. 
 
 And, indeed, what judgment can be made 
 of your masters, who accuse Jesus Christ of 
 being a magician, and at the same time confess 
 that he raised the dead (Toledoth Jeshu); for 
 by that confession they must acknowledge tliat 
 God may give a magician the power of raising 
 the dead; and then adieu to all religion. 
 
 You have been all brought up in the belief 
 of a silly story, that Christ being cast ofi* by 
 the Rabbin who taught him, went away in a 
 fit of ill-humour, and laid two bricks athwart 
 each other, in the form of a cross, which he 
 made his disciples worship; as, indeed, about 
 the time when the Talmud was written, they 
 saw the Christians doing such things among 
 the Eastern Christians. 
 
 Now after this, say you, can we believe Christ 
 to be the Messiah that God was to send to us? 
 If your Rabbins had found such an institution 
 in the gospel, I confess you would have had 
 all the reason in the world to reject it. But 
 what you mention is nothing but a paltry 
 story, which your masters raised against the 
 
228 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 Christians, because of the blind zeal and fury 
 with which they raged when they Averc become 
 idolaters. I am informed, that there never 
 w^ere any images made nor worshipped by the 
 Christians for above 300 years after Christ. 
 But ought any man to reject the law of Moses, 
 which forbids idolatry under the severest penal- 
 ties, only because there was a time when Israel 
 and Judah served the calves which Jeroboam 
 made, and when they publicly worshipped the 
 images of Baal? The gospel, far from pro- 
 posing such objects of worship, plainly foretels 
 this corruption which should seize the Chris- 
 tians, just as you find in the books of Moses 
 predictions of the idolatry Avhich should reign 
 among the posterity of those men, to whom 
 God had given his law with so many miracles. 
 You are justly offended at the religious wor- 
 ship which is paid to saints and angels by the 
 Papists, who consecrate churches to them, and 
 apply themselves to them as to mediators be- 
 tween God and men. But those persons who 
 do thus are idolaters in the sense of the gos])el, 
 and of all true Christians. For the^c latter 
 believe that there is but one only mediator 
 between God and man, Jesus tlie High Priest, 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 229 
 
 Avlio, having nuulc a popitiation for our sins, 
 ascended into heaven, the true sanctuary, and 
 there intercedes for us to obtain the blessings 
 and graces of which we stand in need. 
 
 You are justly offended that the Church of 
 Rome, v.'hich prays for your conversion every 
 Easter, shoukl yet pretend to a right of per- 
 secuting you, in order to make you embrace 
 her opinions, contrary as they are to reason, 
 and to the law which God gave you on Sinai. 
 But if you read the writings of the evangelists 
 and apostles, you Avill find therein maxims 
 directly opposite to this spirit of persecution 
 Jesus Christ rebuked the zeal of his disciples, 
 when they called upon him to punish the 
 Samaritans, who had rejected him witli con- 
 tempt. And lie teaches, that the tares must 
 be spared until the harvest, that is, until the 
 day of judgment. 
 
 If it be true that the Messiah is come, and 
 did answer those characters by which He is 
 described in the revelation God has given us, 
 by rejecting Him you are guilty of the greatest 
 crime you can commit against God, who sent 
 Him to you. 
 
 If by the misfortune of your birth, you are 
 
 X 
 
230 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 engaged in a society -which hates Him, thougli 
 it be now actually under those Divine judg- 
 ments which He denounced against them, it is 
 your duty, at least when you have attained 
 such an age, in which you are capaljle of 
 examining matters of religion, to consider 
 seriously such important questions as theso 
 are, and to endeavour to attain such satis- 
 faction, that you may be assured you do not 
 follow blind guides. 
 
 You ai'e among those Cliristians who have 
 reformed from the errors, the i'ahc worship, 
 and the idolatry of the Roman Church. It is 
 your duty to improve this advantage you have. 
 The pastors of this church are such, against 
 whom you can have no exception, since they 
 teach this maxim, that no man is saved by the 
 faith of his pastor; but that all are obliged to 
 examine the doctrines that are pro])Osed to 
 them, but to embrace none except those which 
 shall a])pear unto them to be agreeable to the 
 Divine revelation. 
 
 There is no inquisition here, to use violence 
 with your conscience, and to oblige you to dis- 
 semble your real sentiments. I beg of you, 
 therefore, that you would make use of those 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 231 
 
 means, Avhicli the good Providence of God 
 favours you with, and as I hvy before you tlie 
 defence of the profession I have made of the 
 Christian religion in the Eeformed Church of 
 England, so I conjure you to examine it with 
 care and attention. 
 
 It is the effect of that great affection I 
 have for you in particular, and for all those 
 of mine own nation ; for I desire nothing with 
 greater earnestness, than hy my own example 
 and exhortations, to he instrumental in leading 
 you into the way of salvation, wherein the 
 infinite mercy and goodness of God has hap- 
 pily placed me, and wherein I am fully resolved 
 to persevere unto my life's end. 
 
 I pray to the Almighty with all my might, 
 that He would be pleased to enlighten your 
 uii)ids, and deliver you from those prejudices 
 you labour under; that so the great and funda- 
 mental truths here laid before you, may make 
 a deep and lively impression upon your heart-', 
 and be an effectual means to bring about your 
 conversion to the Christian religion, and not 
 rather serve to increase your condemnation. 
 
 JOHN XERES. 
 
232 
 
 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 JEWISH WITNESS.— No. X. 
 
 A SHORT NOTICE OF THE LATE 
 EMMANUEL SCHWEITZER. 
 
 "The memory of tl;e jii>t is blessfd." 
 
 Tlie following account of Emmanuel Schweitzer is 
 n.'i)rintcd verbatim from the " Voice of Israel," it ap- 
 jxaring to me unnecessary to alter the style from the 
 third, to the first person. I may simjily mention that lie 
 ■was a regular attendant on my ministry from the time of 
 liis being tirst seriously awakened, until his death ; and 
 that I was one of those who received his dying testimony 
 of the all-suiHciency of Christ and His salvation. 
 
 By the common consent of mankind, tlie 
 memory of the philosopher, of the patriot, and 
 of the poet, is accounted worthy of all honour; 
 while God says, " The memory of the just is 
 blessed." We, tlicrcfore, who profess to weigli 
 all things in the balance of the sanctuary, are 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 233 
 
 not called upon to make any apology to our 
 readers for introducing to their notice a de- 
 parted saint of God, who in this life was poor 
 and unknown, but is now one of the glorious 
 company who sing the ever new song of the 
 redeemed. 
 
 Did any of our readers ever encounter in 
 one of the steamers on the Thames, a man of 
 modest deportment, and rather diminutive size, 
 plying his vocation as a cutter of profiles ? 
 ^\e can imagine the look of good-humoured 
 contemptwith whichhis diffident request forem- 
 ployment was often complied with. It is indeed 
 cliaracteristic of vain man, that he " looketh 
 on the' outward appearance ;" and considers 
 not that the faded garment may cover a heart 
 more noble than his own ; that the mind which 
 dwells within that mean exterior, is not only a 
 partaker of the joys and sorrows common to 
 humanity, but may have traversed a range of 
 mental experience far higher than his own ; it 
 may have encountered struggles he has never 
 known, and achieved victories of which he has 
 not even an idea. 
 
 Emmanuel Schweitzer was born at Breslau, of 
 Jewish parents, in the year 1809. Being of a 
 x2 
 
234 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 delicate constitution, his early education was 
 much interrupted ; hut he had a p:rcat thirst 
 for knowledg-o, and very soon displayed a me- 
 chanical turn. lie was first apprenticed to a 
 draughtsman and engraver; but it was after- 
 wards thought better to teach him a mechanical 
 trade. ]3uring the term of his apjircntice- 
 ship, he suffered, as every Jew does, much 
 annoyance from his Gentile fellow-workmen ; 
 but his conduct was such as to gain him the 
 approbation of his master. 
 
 In 1835 he came to England, which was the 
 native country of his mother. Here he ob- 
 tained emi^loyment at his trade ; but an 
 internal ailment, from which he suffered , ren- 
 dered bodily labour painful and dii^cult; and 
 he at length abandoned it for the profession of 
 an artist. 
 
 He had been brought up by his parents as a 
 strict Jew ; but when he entered on the bu- 
 siness of the world, he became lax in his prac- 
 tice and opinions. He continued to pursue the 
 downward road of infidelity, until he landed in 
 complete Atheism. In this dark and hopeless 
 state he contiimed until January, 1842, when 
 it pleased the Lord to visit him with sickness, 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST. 235 
 
 tliat messenger ofincrcy. which is so often sent 
 to recal the wandering- sons of men to their 
 Father's house, During- liis iUness he was 
 visited by a Jewisli hrollicr, who had long- 
 known i)ir,i, nnd who had becVi for some years 
 a convert to Cliristiauity. The counsels which 
 Schweitzer liad rejected with scorn in the time 
 of health, were again offered him in this time 
 of affliction. In the prospect of death infide- 
 lity lias no consolation to offer ; the only hope 
 she can hold out is annihilation, a fate from 
 which humanity instinctively shrinks. The 
 message of a full and free salvation was a more 
 welcome sound ; and the sufferer listened pa- 
 tiently at least, if not with approbation. No 
 immediate change in his views appeared : but 
 the arrow of conviction had been fixed in his 
 heart ; and soon after his recovery, he told his 
 friend that he felt himself a great sinner. He 
 could not see Jesus as the promised Redeemer ; 
 and therefore saw no way of escape from the 
 just anger of a holy God. He had been ex- 
 b.orted to pray earnestly for light and guidance ; 
 he said he did not dare to pray in his own 
 words, but that his daily prayer to God was in 
 the Avords of Psalm xxv. 4, 5 : " Shew me thy 
 
2o6 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 ways, O Lord, teacli me thy paths. Lead nic 
 in thy truth, and teach me ; for thou art the 
 God of my salvation ; on thee do I wait all the 
 day." 
 
 His conscience was now so awakened that 
 he could no longer pursue his worldly calling 
 ou the Lord's day ; although the profits of that 
 day had hitherto been his chief support during 
 the week. He found much benefit from read- 
 ing " Baxter's Call to the Unconverted ;" and 
 told his friend he was almost convinced that 
 Christ was the promised Messiah ; but before 
 fully making up his mind on the subject, he 
 would like to hear the objections of some 
 leai-ned Jew. A meeting was arranged with a 
 clever and able disputant ; but his arguments 
 only more fully convinced Schweitzer of the 
 truth of Christianity. 
 
 During all this time he regularly attended 
 the preaching of the word, sometimes at one 
 place of worslii]), and sometimes at another ; 
 and was often powerfully affected by the tender 
 invitations of the gospel, as well as by the 
 danger and guilt of a state of impenitence. 
 To the instructions thus received, to that ordi- 
 nance of preaching whereby it pleases God " to 
 
THAT JKSUS I.-; TIIJ': CHRIST. 237 
 
 save them that hcheve," (I Cor. i. 21.) lie 
 atti'ibuted his conversion to tlie i'aitli of Clirist. 
 On tlie 13tli of May, 18-12, he was baptize;! ut 
 John Street Chapel ; it being his own wish to 
 be baptized by immersion. 
 
 From that time, until it pleased the Lord to 
 remove him hence, Schweitzer walked as a 
 sincere, humble, consistent, follower of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, He continued to prosecute 
 his calling during six days of the week ; and 
 on the Lord's day joyfully joined the assembly 
 of Christians to wdiose fellowshij) he was ad- 
 mitted soon after his baptism. The hajipy 
 liours he spent in the house of God, couipen 
 sated for the labour, the disappointments, the 
 precarious support, by Avhich he was tried 
 during the week. In the winter season, when 
 the steamers afforded no customers, he often 
 found great difficulty in getting employment; 
 yet he was never forsaken by his Heavenly 
 Father — help came at the moment it was 
 needed. " Often have I gone out in the 
 morning," said he to a friend, " with a heavy 
 vet a confidino: heart; and before evenins: I 
 liave been helped in a way that I knew not 
 of." His was indeed a life of faith, and his 
 
238 JEWISH WITNESSES 
 
 faith was often severely tried. We have seen, 
 that, at a very early period of liis enquiry after 
 Christianity, he gave up following his calling 
 on the Lord's day ; this v.as a sacrifice he was 
 often afterwards called to make. On one oc- 
 casion, when he was much in want of a sum of 
 money to pay what was due, he received an 
 offer of the exact amount required, if he would 
 attend on that day at a house in tlie west end 
 of London, to cut profiles ; which oifer he at 
 once rejected. Anotlier very lucrative opening 
 presented itself, that of attending in the re- 
 freshment-room connected with one of ihe 
 places of public amusement. He did this for 
 one evening, and gained as much in a few 
 hours as he ordinarily did in as many days; 
 hut though there was nothing positively sinful 
 in any thing he saw, or heard there, he yet felt 
 that attendance at such a place might bring a 
 stain on his religious profession, and life at once 
 abandoned it. When we say of any one — 
 " He left all and followed Christ," the world 
 asks, " What did he leave ? had he great pos- 
 sessions ?" In these days it does not often fall 
 to the lot of the rich to leave all for Christ's 
 sake; it is the poor alone who enjoy this 
 
THAT JESUS IS THE CIIUIST, 239 
 
 honor. IM'any a poor saint is oblig'ed for con- 
 science-sake to give up "all lie had, even all 
 his living." But their Fatlier knoweth what 
 things they have need of; and he forsakes 
 none of them that put their trust in him. 
 
 The internal ailments under which Schweitzer 
 laboured, increased much daring the two last 
 years of his life ; and often caused him such 
 excruciating pain, that he told a friend, had he 
 not been a Christian, and enjoyed the consola- 
 tions and bright hopes of the gospel, he would 
 have committed suicide. In the beginning of 
 September, 1844, he found himself so ill, that 
 he wished to go into an hospital. His Christian 
 friends objected to this, and offered to procure 
 him whatever attendance he might require, at 
 his own lodgings ; but he expressed his decided 
 preference for the airy apartments, and entire 
 freedom from outward cares, that those asylnms 
 afford. He Avas therefore admitted into Univer- 
 sity College Hospital. There, the friends who 
 visited him, were for more than three Aveeks 
 privileged to witness his])atience, his faith, and 
 his hope ; the serenity witli which lie looked 
 forward to death, not only as a ha])py release 
 from suffering, but as an entrance into life 
 
240 JEWISH WlTxNESSES. 
 
 everlasting-; a departiu'e to be wltli Christ — 
 with tliat Saviour wliom ho loved, and who 
 liad loved him. He fell asleep in the Lord on 
 the 25th of September, and the following week 
 was interred in New Bunhill Fields, Islington. 
 Though a stranger in a strange land, and for- 
 saken, (with one honourable exception) by all 
 his kindred according to the flesh, he was fol- 
 lowed to the grave by many sincere mourners. 
 Several of his converted brethren, and other 
 Christian friends who knew and loved him, 
 committed his body to the tomb, " in the sure 
 and certain hope of a blessed resurrection." 
 " Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord." 
 *' The sting of death is sin, and the strength ot 
 sin is the law ; but thanks be to God which 
 giveth US the victory, through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." 1 Corinthians, xv. 56, 57. 
 
 Dear brethren of the house of Israel ! we 
 affectionately ask you, i^ you can thus trium])h 
 over death ? Can you say — " O death, wliero 
 is thy sting ? O grave, where is tliy victory ?" 
 You know you cannot. 
 
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 REASONS WHY I, A JEW, HAVE BECOME A 
 
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 Articles on the History and Literature of the Jews. 
 
 Spiritual Expositions of the Jewish Ceremonies and Feasts, 
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 Notices of the Present State and Movements amongst the 
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 Spiritual Experience, &c., of Converted Jews. 
 
 Correspondence : Discussions on Unfulfilled Prophecy. 
 
NEW WORKS 
 
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 fHE CONVENT ; a Narrative founded on Fact. Ry Miss 
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 MODERN ORATOR, (The) containing a complete Col- 
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 C*KETCHES of FIFTY-SIX SERMONS ON CHRIS- 
 ^ TIAN MISSIONS, Original and Selected. By the Author 
 of " Four Hundred Sketches and Skeletons of Sermons," and 
 " Pulpit Cycloptcdia." 
 
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 guished British and American preachers, including Bishop 
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 land, Abeel, Dwight, Edwards, Ryland, Wardlaw, Griffin, 
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 student." — (Jonijregalional Mar/azine. 
 
lONDOU 
 
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Princeton Thpoloq.cal SeminarySpPff Library 
 
 1 1012 01014 2380 
 
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