"October, 1854.
"'Dear L.,—I have at last taken courage to reply to some of your letters, datesn'importe. I have read "The Book and its Story," the missionary's aid for converting the blind and the stupid. I read it with much interest, and I pray ardently it may bring the whole world to believe, as I now do, that Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, was ordained to be crucified to take away all our sins; and that by believing in Him we shall be saved. Madame R. lent me the Old and New Testament bound together. The Old Testament I almost knew by heart, but the New I had never before read. I have studied it closely during many evenings, which has sorely pained my eyes; but, oh, how plainly and typically the Bible shews the coming of Messiah! I have thought so long since, before you endeavoured to bring me to believe. Oh, my dear L., had God so ordered your abode close to me, I should have listened better than by your letters, and perhaps been baptized ere now. Pray keepvery secretthe words of this letter. I cannot say more. My heart is too full."'My country residence of ten weeks did not improve my health. The fatigue was too much for me at my time of life. I continue very feeble. The Lord's will be done! If He heals me, I shall be healed;if He saves me, I shall be saved. Thanks to our Heavenly Father the cholera is over at Marseilles. I have lost my poor landlady, she died in the country, leaving Marseilles to escape the cholera. I went with regret, as I was not afraid. I completed last week my eighty-first year, so excuse the defects, for my age's sake. "He is in the Father, and the Father is in Him." Amen.—Your truly affectionate,"'Lydia Montefiore."
"'Dear L.,—I have at last taken courage to reply to some of your letters, datesn'importe. I have read "The Book and its Story," the missionary's aid for converting the blind and the stupid. I read it with much interest, and I pray ardently it may bring the whole world to believe, as I now do, that Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, was ordained to be crucified to take away all our sins; and that by believing in Him we shall be saved. Madame R. lent me the Old and New Testament bound together. The Old Testament I almost knew by heart, but the New I had never before read. I have studied it closely during many evenings, which has sorely pained my eyes; but, oh, how plainly and typically the Bible shews the coming of Messiah! I have thought so long since, before you endeavoured to bring me to believe. Oh, my dear L., had God so ordered your abode close to me, I should have listened better than by your letters, and perhaps been baptized ere now. Pray keepvery secretthe words of this letter. I cannot say more. My heart is too full.
"'My country residence of ten weeks did not improve my health. The fatigue was too much for me at my time of life. I continue very feeble. The Lord's will be done! If He heals me, I shall be healed;if He saves me, I shall be saved. Thanks to our Heavenly Father the cholera is over at Marseilles. I have lost my poor landlady, she died in the country, leaving Marseilles to escape the cholera. I went with regret, as I was not afraid. I completed last week my eighty-first year, so excuse the defects, for my age's sake. "He is in the Father, and the Father is in Him." Amen.—Your truly affectionate,
"'Lydia Montefiore."
"'What word can express my surprise,' writes that lady, 'at the declaration contained in the former part of this letter! An actual declaration in the belief of a crucified Redeemer! Over and over again did I read the words, "And I pray ardently that the whole world may believe, as I do now, that Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, was ordained to be crucified to take away all our sins, and that by believing in Him we shall be saved." Could this be from one of whom it was said only two years before, "She is an out-and-out Jewess?" The Lord did at last convince her that Jesus was the Messiah of whom Isaiah spoke in his liii. chapter, as he writes: "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and by His stripes we are healed. He was cut off out of the land of the living."' Her desire for immediate baptism daily increased; and she frequently made it a subject of conversation with her Christian friends. At a subsequent visit she said to me, 'The Lord has given me a deep sense of my former sins, but I have rolled them all on Jesus for pardon, andnow I shall not be happy until I am baptized.' I again told her seriously to consider the step she was about to take, in declaring she was not ashamed of Jesus; and asked her whether she had made up her mind to endure persecution for Christ's sake. She said, 'My confidence is in God; He will not lay more upon me than I am able to bear.' The conversation that day was more about faith in God, and less of man, which I was very glad to hear. At another visit, when speaking about baptism, I said, 'Now, suppose you are baptized, and your friends should ask you whether it was true,—what would you say?' She said, 'I would tell them it was quite true, and that I felt assured, if they searched the Scriptures prayerfully, as I had done, God would remove the veil from their eyes, as it has pleased Him to remove it from mine; and then they would also believe in Jesus, the true Messiah, and in the power of His resurrection, as I have done.' It was truly delightful to see how gradually the fear of man subsided, and her confidence in God daily grew stronger. I accordingly introduced the Rev. J. Monod, who very kindly visited her several times; his visits were much blessed to her; and having been satisfied with her faith in Christ, he baptized her on Thursday, January 18th, 1855.
"We spent the previous evening with her, and I read St. Paul's conversion, and the sufferings of our Saviour, which affected her much, and I earnestly asked God to be with us on the following day. She said: 'How thankful do I feel that the fear of man is entirely removed from my mind, so much so that Ihave not only told my intentions to my servant, but have given her leave to publish it abroad, and told her, should she meet my relations, how to tell them of it; in fact, I wish all my relations to know it, and I pray God they may be brought to the knowledge of truth ere they die."
Moritz, (Moses) Johann Christian, was one of the most distinguished of the early missionaries of the L.J.S. He was born at Bernstein (Pomerania) in 1786. His mother died when he was only four years of age. Before she expired she blessed him, and said, "You will live to see the advent of the Messiah. Remain steadfastly in the faith of your fathers, that you may have a rich share in their Kingdom." These words made a strong impression upon the child and were realized by him in a different manner than the mother expected. Moritz received a Talmudic education from private teachers, but modern literature attracted him most. His father and his teacher warned him against it, and indeed they had reason for doing so, for he began to express his doubts about the divine origin of the Talmud, and one rabbi declared that his mind was deranged and that he would eventually become a Meshummad. On account of his disagreement with his stepmother, Moritz left his home at the age of 16 and went to Berlin to an uncle. At that time Prussia had suffered much from the war with Napoleon, and Moritz went to London in 1807, and brought a recommendation to the rabbi Dr. Herschell. The rabbi received him in a friendly manner, andwarned him to beware of the missionary Frey, yet he did not regard it. The quiet Sunday in England impressed him, and enquiring of Jews for the cause of it, they said, "If we Jews should keep the Sabbath holy, as the Christians here do their Sunday, the Messiah would soon come." This utterance he considered as a hint to him for seeking to become acquainted with Christianity. He then got a New Testament and read day and night, comparing it with the Old. He felt his sins and took refuge in Jesus by faith, which he at once confessed before the Jews. His father was informed of his son's intention to become a Christian, and he came to London and tried his best to win him back to Judaism, but had at last to leave him with imprecations and the assurance that he would never get anything of his property. Moritz went then to the German Pastor, Dr. Steinkopf, by whom he was instructed and baptized. In 1811, he went to Gottenburg, Sweden, where he maintained himself by giving lessons and selling books. In 1817 he was introduced by Lewis Way to the mission, and having received a special call from the Czar Alexander he went to Russia that year and laboured till 1825. At that time he wrote two letters to the Jews, based on Jer. xxxi. 31-34. (Elberfeld, 1820.) In 1825, after being in the Missionary College, he entered the service of the L.J.S., and was sent to Hamburg, where he at once formed a Prayer Union. From Hamburg he itinerated to Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Bavaria, Würtemberg, receiving God's smile and blessing upon his efforts wherever he went. In1843, he returned to Gottenburg where he testified to his brethren of the truth of the Gospel till 1868, when he died in the Lord, after 42 years service under the L.J.S. It may be mentioned that his wife, a Swedish lady, who shared his toils and hopes with him for fifty years, died in 1864, and after her death he gave all her savings to the L.J.S.
Mossa, Nathaniel Immanuel, gives the following particulars of himself:—"I was born on October 29th, 1833, at Friedland, near Beskow. My father was a Jewish merchant, first in that town, and later in Spandau, where I passed my boyhood. When I had completed my studies at the Werder Gymnasium in Berlin I entered the University in order to study medicine. I graduated in 1858, and the next year passed the State Examination. I then entered the army for one year as a volunteer doctor, and was sent to Spandau, and then to Jüterberg. Here, in the hospitable house of Dr. Gross (later in Barmen), I learned Hahnemann's method of treatment. After having finished my military year's practice, I settled in Bromberg, and soon found a promising sphere of activity. This, however, was interrupted by my participating in the military expeditions of 1864 and 1866. Also in 1870 I was called to serve in the army as physician, and took part in the siege of Strassburg, and likewise of Belfort, and returned home with the decoration of the Iron Cross. I then renewed my medical work at Bromberg, and continued it for twenty years, and was also a contributor to the 'General Homœopathic Periodical.' Owing to the precarious health of my only child, Iwas at length obliged to exchange the northern cold climate for that of the south, and hence settled in 1883 at Stuttgart. In 1894, in addition to my medical work, I undertook in 1894 the editorship of the above-named journal. I have also for some years acted as President of the Committee of the Society of Homœopathic Physicians at Würtemberg.
"As for the story of my spiritual life, I may say, with all humility, that our gracious Lord favoured me early in my youth. Already as a school-boy I had the opportunity of learning the Gospel, since the Bible was our book for reading in my first Christian school. I was at that time much attracted by the works and utterances of Jesus, and deeply touched by His death, and impressions perseveringly strong were made upon my mind. The instruction and earnest converse I had with two fellow-workers of the British Society, Dr. Koppel and Dr. Fürst, helped me."
This short extract from Dr. Nathaniel Immanuel Mossa's autobiography is supplemented by the information supplied by Pastor de le Roi concerning him:—
"One day a Jewish Rabbi of his town asked him to give an address to Jewish prisoners, and he took for his text: 'Seek ye the Lord while He is to be found, call ye upon Him while He is near,' and he illustrated the text by the example of the prodigal son. This was the turning point in his life. He himself began to seek Him until He found Him or was found by Him. He afterwards went toBromberg, where he heard Koppel giving an exposition on Isa. liii. and he joined in his labours as a doctor in the Institution at Salem. Koppel recommended him for baptism to the L.J.S. missionary Bellson, in Berlin. Later in life he settled in Stuttgart, where he was a great comfort and support to Gottheil, and after his death, he himself acted as missionary of the British Society there till he was called home."
Myers, Rev. Dr. Alfred Moritz, was born in Breslau, of strict orthodox parents. At the age of twelve his teacher was a famous Talmud rabbi, and he lived and moved and had his being in the Talmud and in nothing else. Consequently he became disgusted with it, and when he heard that two missionaries had arrived in Breslau, he visited them and received tracts from them. For this he was punished, and when his mother died, he left his home for London in 1830, and then went to Liverpool, where he heard the Gospel from the Rev. H. S. Joseph, and after many inward struggles was baptized in 1839. He studied theology, and became a clergyman of the Church of England, and a famous preacher. He was Vicar at Barnet, and afterward of All Saints, Dalston. He wrote an autobiography, "Both one in Christ," London and Liverpool, 1839, "The History of a young Jew," Chester, 1840. "The Jew" translated into German, 1856. He wrote also for children—"The Peep of Day," "The Night of Trial," upon the first missionary at Southsea, "Line upon Line," "Reading Disentangled." He died in 1880.
Nachim, Rev. M., born in the town of Odessa in 1836. He writes:—
"I was initiated into the covenant on the eighth day (according to the Jewish rite), and I received the name of Reuben, after my grandfather, who had been chief rabbi. I do not know the time when I began to learn Hebrew, but I do remember I was not quite eight years old when I commenced to study the Talmud.
"In the year 1854, I started on a journey to Palestine. When in Constantinople I met a Hebrew Christian colporteur named Solomon, who offered me a New Testament.
"Up to this period of my life I had never heard there was such a book in existence! That dear Christian man induced me to visit the London Jews' Society's missionary (the Rev. Dr. Stern). Space does not permit me to go into detail, but that memorable visit, which lasted several hours, thanks be to our Heavenly Father, changed my future life. It was then for the first time I heard that Christianity was not, as I had been led to believe, a system of idolatry, but based on Moses and the Prophets, and I left Dr. Stern's house with a burning desire to hear more, and learn more about it. For two years I visited Dr. Stern constantly, and the more I learned of the saving truth as it is in Jesus, the more agonized was my struggle; but at last, though my pillow was oft bedewed with tears, as I realized fully what decision for Christ would involve, I was enabled by Divine grace to say, 'I count all things but loss, forthe excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things;' and on September 16, 1856, I was baptized in Constantinople by my beloved spiritual father, Dr. Stern, and I then received the name of Michael (who is like unto God). From that time I had an earnest desire to witness for Christ amongst my brethren; and in 1860 I entered the mission field in connexion with the London Jews' Society, with whom I remained till November, 1869, and then I commenced my missionary labours with the British Society.
"In closing this brief outline of my life, I desire to express my deep gratitude to our gracious Lord, who has permitted me to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Russia, Roumania, Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey and Bulgaria, and has blessed the message to many a Jewish heart, and to the salvation of many souls. I have also been privileged to preach the Gospel to many members of my own family, holding influential positions in Russia, and I am thankful so say that nine of my cousins have been baptized.
"My future is in God's hands, and my earnest prayer is, that the remainder of my life may be more fully dedicated to His service and for His glory."
Naphthali, Israel, was one of the earliest missionaries of the British Society. He was appointed in 1842, and laboured mostly in Manchester. In 1851 he could report twenty-three converts as the fruit of his labours. In 1870, it was recorded that through his instrumentality fifty Jews acknowledged Jesus astheir Saviour, amongst whom was Aaron Sternberg, who afterwards became an earnest missionary of the same Society. Naphthali was an earnest, spiritually-minded Christian; who reached the age of 86, and died in the Home for Aged Israelites in 1886.
Nathaniel, (Julla), a North African Jew, was one of the earliest Jewish converts in England after the Reformation. He was baptized in the parish church of All Hallows, Lombard Street, London on April 1, 1577, by the Rev. John Fox, who preached a sermon on that occasion on Rom. xi. in Latin. That sermon was published in English by James Bell in 1587. Nathaniel, too, gave an address to the congregation after his baptism. ("Jewish Intelligence," 1827, pp. 28, 321, 406, 445.)
Navorsky, son of Moses bar Hayim, who lived in the Archduchy of Posen in the seventeenth century. His father was a tenant farmer, and when he died the Polish nobleman, to whom the farm belonged, after demanding from the widow the payment of false debts, which she refused to pay, drove her away from the farm, seized her son and had him forcibly baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. When the Saxons invaded Poland, one of their officers gave the nobleman a dog for him in exchange. This officer, being a Christian man and a member of the Moravian brethren, treated him kindly and instructed him in the truth of the Gospel, of which he had hitherto been in total ignorance. Later he joined the Lutheran Church and lived a pious Christian life. He died in 1750.
Neander, Auguste.[16]On the 17th of July in the year 1850, an imposing funeralcortègeslowly wended its way through the streets of Berlin, attended by a Royal carriage and by numerous Government officials, clergymen, professors and students of the Universities of Berlin and Halle, assembled to pay their last tokens of respect and esteem to the distinguished man who was being carried to his final resting-place. Along the whole route from the residence of the deceased to the cemetery, a distance of two miles, immense crowds of people thronged the streets, filling all windows, doors, and available places of observation. Before the hearse were carried the Bible and Greek Testament of the man who had done more than any of his contemporaries to keep alight in Germany the torch of pure and undiluted Christianity. The whole scene was a striking tribute to the worth and work of the eminent professor and Church historian, Auguste Neander, who for thirty-eight years had exercised unbounded influence in the domain of theology, not only in the University of which he was a distinguished ornament, but also throughout Europe. And this man was a Christian Jew, whose conversion and devotion to Christianity were destined to be fruitful in great results, the end of which we have hardly seen to-day.
David Mendel, to give him his original name, was born at Göttingen of poor Jewish parents on January 10th, 1789. He was a scion of the famous Mendelfamily, connected by descent with the great Jewish reformer Moses Mendelssohn, whose successful efforts to elevate and uplift his then degraded race ended in all his descendants eventually embracing the Christian faith. In the words of a modern Jewish historian, whose love of truth led her to place on record what must have cost many a regret to avow:—"As we read the story of the wise and liberal philosopher, who broke through the barriers and let in the light of learning and of social countenance on mediæval benighted Judaism, we shall see that the very children of the emancipator were dazzled by the unaccustomed rays, that his sons wavered and his daughters apostatized, and that in the third generation—only the third—the fetters which degraded were called degrading, and the grandchildren of Moses Mendelssohn, the typical Jew, were Jews no longer."[17]
Young David Mendel received his early education at the gymnasium or public school at Hamburg, it being his parents' intention to bring him up in the legal profession, in which, there is very little doubt, he would have become distinguished. In 1806, however, having, through the influence of two fellow-students, Chamisso the poet and another named Neumann, embraced the Christian faith, he determined to devote himself to the study of theology, and thenceforth the whole course of his life was altered. At his baptism he had taken the Christian names of Johann Auguste Wilhelm, after those of his twofriends, to which he added a new surname, Neander, or the "new man," and the new aims of his life were thus expressed in a letter which he wrote to the pastor who had baptized him: "My reception into the holy covenant of the higher life is to me the greatest thing for which I have to thank you, and I can only prove my gratitude by striving to let the outward sign of baptism unto a new life become, indeed, the mark of the new life proclaiming the reality of the new birth."
Auguste Neander, as he was thereafter known, now entered the University of Halle, where he studied Christian dogmatics under the celebrated Professor Schleiermacher, whose speculations in doctrinal theology verged very closely upon heterodoxy, and who is pronounced by an authority to have been "the greatest theological writer that Germany has produced since Luther, and, indeed, he may be called the founder of modern rationalism on its better side."[18]Intercourse with this erratic and brilliant genius produced no perceptible taint of rationalism in the mind or scholarship of the scarcely less brilliant pupil, whose public teaching contrasted so powerfully with that of his erstwhile master. "It was a sad and singular sight," wrote the biographer of Neander, "to behold his former teacher, Schleiermacher, a Christian by birth, inculcating in one lecture-room, with all the power of his mighty genius, those doctrines which lead to the denial of the Evangelical attributes of Jesus Christ, whilst in another his pupil Neander,by birth a Jew, preached and taught salvation through faith in Christ the Son of God alone."[19]
When Neander left Halle he repaired to his birthplace, Göttingen, to pursue his theological studies in the university of which Planck was at that time the leading spirit. It was there that Neander acquired the practice, so conspicuous in his writings, of taking nothing for granted and digging deep to the veryoriginesof things. It was this invariable reliance solely on first hand and primitive information which makes his literary work so valuable. In 1811 Neander became a private "coach" at Heidelberg, in the university of which he was appointed a professor of theology in the following year. Youthful as he still was, his fame had by this time spread far and wide, and within a few months he was elected to a similar position in the recently founded University of Berlin, which the King of Prussia desired to elevate to the foremost rank among the sister universities of his kingdom, and to make a great centre for the teaching of theology. There Neander remained till the day of his death, fully justifying his selection as one of the leading lecturers in that seat of learning.
The foregoing are the chief events in an otherwise uneventful career, entirely passed as scholar and tutor within the sheltered seclusion of university life. It has been said that such an atmosphere makes for self-indulgence. Of course, it may easilydegenerate into this state. And yet how many university dons could we name, whose saintly and scholarly lives, long hours spent in teaching, and nightly burnings of the midnight oil give the lie to such a sweeping assertion! That it was far from being the case with Neander the following slight sketch of the man himself, his labours and his writings, will abundantly demonstrate.
Neander was of an exceedingly lovable disposition, humble-minded, retiring, pious and zealous. He was as simple as a child in the ordinary and every-day concerns of life, eccentric and singular beyond description, absent-minded to the last degree, and generous to a fault. His charity was unbounded. His wants being few, he could give the bulk of his income to others. The proceeds from the sale of his numerous works were devoted to philanthropic and missionary purposes. He could never keep any loose cash in his pocket, or turn away his face from any poor man. If he did not part with the well-worn coat off his back it was because he preferred to bestow the new one hanging in his wardrobe.
His industry was prodigious. Being a single man, for he never married, he could devote all his time and energies to his calling—which was that of scholar, writer, and lecturer. He was never ordained, and so never preached in the ministerial sense of the word; but he never lectured without teaching Christianity in its practical as well as doctrinal and historical aspect. Religion was never obscured by theology. His lectures were attended not merely by under-graduatesand students, but also by leading professors of his own and other universities—Protestants and Romanists alike sitting at his feet. Three lectures a day he invariably gave, and those on different subjects. To the students he was a father and a counsellor, ever ready to bestow, though never eager to thrust, his advice upon all who sought it. He was universally beloved for his kindness of heart and his gentleness, and respected and admired for his talents, scholarship, and teaching powers.
The supreme object of Neander's life, studies, and labours, is thus concisely stated by himself in the preface of the first edition of hismagnum opus:[20]"To exhibit the history of the Church of Christ as a living witness of the Divine power of Christianity, as a school of Christian experience, a voice sounding through the ages, of instruction, of doctrine and of reproof, for all who are disposed to listen." Neander was not merely the historian of the dead past orlaudator temporis acti. To him the past was indeed great, eloquent, and glorious, but he regarded it chiefly as the beginning of a greater present and a more glorious future, and as the foundation of the stately building of the Church that is being reared throughout the ages. He had unquenchable faith in the abiding presence of Christ in His Church, and of its consequent power to mould and transform the world. The parables of the leaven and of the mustard seed were pregnant with meaning to him, and in hishistory he elaborately traced the process of development in the past centuries—a process which amounted to a steady and ever forward progress, even furthered by all attempts to hinder it. And this, because Christianity is a Divine power which descended from heaven at the Incarnation of Christ, and gave a new character to the life of the human race.
We can well understand how exhilarating and energising such teaching as this must have been when directed, as it was of set purpose, to counteract the then new-fangled doctrines of Schleiermacher, and more especially of Strauss, who in his "Life of Christ" had sought to eliminate from Christianity all that was Divine, and therefore to destroy its regenerative power on the hearts and lives of mankind.
To Neander, then, a Christian Jew, an immense debt of gratitude is due from all who hold the Catholic faith undefiled. He stemmed for a time the tide of Rationalism which threatened to engulf in its turbid waters not only Germany, but the whole of Christendom. His aid was expressly chartered to undo the harm caused by the speculative teaching of Strauss. When others would have suppressed the latter's work by force, Neander, discountenancing such carnal weapons, boldly and mercilessly met his heresies by the issue of his own "Life of Christ."
We have already dwelt upon his two greatest works. We can only barely mention the others. They were, to give them their titles in English—"The History of the Planting and Training of theChristian Church by the Apostles," "Biographies of Julian the Apostate, St. Bernard and St. Chrysostom," "Anti-Gnostikus, Development of the Gnostic System," "Memorabilia from the History of the Christian Life," "Unity and Variety of the Christian Life," numerous essays contributed to religious periodicals, and "Memoirs of the Proceedings of the Berlin Royal Academy of Sciences."
Neander's restless activity doubtless shortened his life, and death overtook him before the work which he had set himself to do was done. He had completed his "General History" only to the middle of the fourteenth century. He died whilst dictating a page of this unfinished history, with the words, "I am weary; I must sleep; good night;" upon his lips. To another famous historian, Bede, it was granted to see, but only just to see, the completion of his labours. When dying, the amanuensis who wrote for him his translation into Saxon of the Gospel according to St. John, said: "Master, there is but one sentence wanting." Bede answered: "Write quickly!" and when the sentence was written, he replied: "Thou hast the truth—consummatum est," and with theGloria Patriupon his lips, he breathed his last. Neander's work is like a broken column, and yet who shall say it had been better otherwise? Surely not those who believe that "man is immortal, until his work is done."
Neander, Rev. John, thus wrote of his conversion to a sincere acquaintance:—"My dear friend,—Cheerfully do I respond to your call, and as briefly as possiblewill I relate to you, how wonderfully God has dealt with me; how He, the Almighty God, looked down upon me while I was yet deeply sunk; how He called me, and lifted me up from the dust; and how He brought me out of darkness into His marvellous light; praised be His name. Amen.
"I was born in the year 1811 at Neubrûck, in the province of Posen. My parents were strict Talmudical Jews, my father especially, a zealous, learned Talmudist. They had consecrated me to the office of a rabbi, even while I was at my mother's breast; which office being considered then, as it still is, a most holy vocation. On my having attained my eighth year, and being able to read Hebrew, my father engaged for me a teacher of the Talmud, who resided in the house, and from early in the morning until late at night he laboured with me in the Talmud; now and then he also read the Pentateuch and Jarchi's Commentary with me.
"Until I was twenty-three years old, I studied at different Talmudical schools in Posen, and having attained to that degree which qualified me for the office of a rabbi, I returned to my father's house, where I devoted myself entirely to the study of the Talmud. You are well acquainted with the course of life led at rabbinical schools; I have therefore no occasion to give you here an account thereof. I lived earnestly engaged in this study, because it was my parents' 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 forthe community of the Chassidim, and consequently to reach the presence of God.
"I plunged myself into the deep labyrinth of rabbinical subtleties and sophistry; entangled myself in a chain, composed of thousands of links of trivialities; exhausted myself in endeavouring to be enlightened on this, or on that matter; but I only got deeper and deeper into the labyrinth; not a ray of light penetrated its dark recesses. At length the employment became exceedingly disagreeable to me; the zeal which was so ardent in my youth (alas! it was 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.
"I was about twenty-five when with a painful heart I perceived this. I had no firm foundation 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 me 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 the Almighty 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 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, however, 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 called 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 acquainted with the criticisms of de Wette, Eichhorn, Dinter, and others, and it was not long that I stood up a zealous defender of modern Judaism; I became a rationalist. We are deceived! 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, nowthose of unbelief; chains forged by 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 field against these impudent deniers 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 solve 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 the modern Jews said to me: 'Don't be a fool.' Oh! these were years of anguish and terror; I was often nigh to despair. The compassion 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 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 speculations 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 I communicated my distress of mind; it pained him deeply, and he pressed me to return home with him immediately. To my question, 'What shall I do then?' he replied, 'You shall do nothing else but learn the Torah, you have no occasion to trouble yourself about earthly things, and as soon as you shall be seated in the circle of the Chassidim and students of the law, it will be well with you.' Family matters obliged 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 which distressed me so much. Shortly after that I was sent for by a Jewish community, 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 me. The Jews of that place were 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 elevatethemselves 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 dispensation.
"But my heart continued cold even here; the 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 mechanical, 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 the Old Testament, with warmth 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 fifty-third chapter of Isaiah as well others 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.
"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 discovered 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 Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness. I was roused especially by the ninth chapter of the Acts; I was made acquainted, after much wrestling 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 Him can call God, Abba, Father. I perceived that faith in 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 exclaim, 'My Redeemer liveth;' and this I announced 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 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 muchtrouble 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 I received a letter which placed me in a most painful position. He prayed and cried, 'Come to us, and remain 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.
"'Whoso loveth father and mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me.' This was spoken by Him who has power to save and to condemn. 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, who still remain dear to me; painful as it is to flesh and blood, I was constrained 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 Him, I must believe on Him, who is my Redeemer andSaviour; 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; therefore it is well with 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.'
"Now was I able to rejoice, and with David to exclaim, 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits' (Psalm ciii. 2).
"After I had been duly instructed in the saving truth of the Gospel, I was publicly baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, on December 9th, 1839, by the Rev. Mr. Müller."
Neuman, Rabbi, was converted through his intercourse with a Christian merchant in Leeuwarden, Holland. He afterwards translated the tract, "Light at Eventide," into Dutch. ("Jewish Intelligence," 1855.)
Neuman, Dr. R., was born at Brody in 1788. His father was a rabbi and gave him a Talmudical education. In 1807 he came to Dessau in Germany, where he wrote a Commentary on Amos, Nahum and Malachi, and became a director of a free school for poor children at Breslau. Through his intercourse with two Christian professors, and especially with the L.J.S. missionaries McCaul and Becker in 1823, he learned to know Jesus as his Saviour, and was baptized there, together with his wife and three sons, by Professor Scheibel, in the Elizabeth Church. A Dr. Cohen, who was a teacher under him, followed his example. Subsequently he rendered service to the L.J.S. byrevising the text of the Hebrew New Testament. He died in 1865.
Neumann, Karl Friedrich, was born in Reichmansdorf in 1793, studied at Heidelberg and Munich, and was baptized at Munich in the Evangelical Church in 1818. Subsequently he went to Venice and studied Armenian. In 1828 he went to Paris, and in 1829 to London, and from there to China. There he collected several thousand volumes of all branches of literature, which are now in the library of the Munich University. He became professor in 1833, M.P. in 1848. In 1863 he retired to Berlin,wherehe died in 1870. Some of his works are the following:—"Die Völker des südlichen Russlands" (Leipzig, 1847.) "Geschichte des Englischen Reiches in Asien"; "Geschichte der Afghanen"; "Geschichte Oestreichs"; "Geschichte der Vereinigten Staaten." A translation of Gützlaff's "History of the Chinese Empire"; "Geschichte der Armenischen Literature," Leipzig, 1834, and English translations of Armenian Chronicles.
Newman, Rev. C. S., was first in the service of the Scotch Church and laboured at Jassy and at Constantinople. In 1855 he resigned, and after joining the Church of England was sent by the L.J.S. to Constantinople, where he laboured successfully until he was called to higher service.
Newman, Rev. Louis, a convert and student of the L.J.S., was ordained in the American Episcopal Church, and laboured among the Jews in Philadelphia with blessed results all his life. He was a great Hebrew scholar.
Nurnberg, Rev. Nahum, was born in Russia, his father dying very early. His mother and her children then went to live with her father, who was a strict Jew, and as such Nahum was brought up. When about nine years old an uncle adopted him and took him to Breslau to be educated. He became a favourite with the proctor of the University there and at Berlin, and through them he obtained a good deal of tuition. He also did journalistic work, and in 1851 he came over to England to report on the Great Exhibition. He stayed on in Hull as a correspondent. Whilst there he came under the influence of the Rev. John Deck, by whom he was eventually baptized. Later on he was, after finishing his course at the L.J.S. missionary college, appointed a missionary of that Society, first in England, and then in Roumania, but returned to this country as his real home after a year's work, owing to the death of his wife. Soon after he took orders, and engaged in parochial work, until 1879, after which he retired, until his much lamented death on January 30th, 1904.
Oczeret, Rev. Leo, a native of Tarnopol, Galicia, was converted in Jerusalem, and studied afterwards at the college of the L.J.S. in London. His Jewishfiancéealso became a Christian. After being stationed in Paris for about two years he was sent to Jerusalem and was ordained by Bishop Hannington. In 1884 he was sent to reopen the mission at Safed, and at first he had trouble with the spirit of fanaticism which had ever existed among the Jews there; but gradually, by patience and love, he won the hearts ofmany, so that when he became ill they came to visit and console him. One old man even assured him that during a whole fortnight he recited fifty Psalms (according to the custom of pious Jews during illness) for his recovery. Oczeret went at last to a hospital in Vienna, whence he wrote to the Committee, "Let the Lord's will be done! Pray for us all. I do not give up every hope yet to work for my Lord and Master, and to serve faithfully the Committee, to whom I am wont to look as to a father." But though still young, he had finished his course, and went to receive the crown of glory.
Palgrave(Cohen), Sir Francis, born in London, July 1788, died there July 6th, 1861, son of Mayer Cohen, a member of the London Stock Exchange. He was an infant prodigy. At the age of eight he made a translation of Homer's "Battle of the Frogs" into French, which was published by his father (London, 1796). He embraced Christianity, and married a daughter of Dawson Turner, the historian. He was called to the bar in 1827, devoting himself to pedigree cases. In 1832 he published "The Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth," which is generally regarded as the earliest important study of English constitutional history founded on the records. He was knighted in that year, and became deputy-keeper of Her Majesty's records, in which capacity he issued twenty-two annual reports of great historic value. His most important work is "A History of Normandy and England," 4 vols., London, 1851-63. Palgrave had four sons each of whom attained distinction of various kinds.
Palgrave, Francis Turner (1824-1902), editor of the "Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics," Professor at Oxford.
Palgrave, Robert Harry Inglis (born 1827), editor of "The Dictionary of Political Economy."
Palgrave, Sir Reginald Francis Dunce (1829-1903), Clerk of the House of Commons.
Palgrave, William Gifford (1826-88), Eastern traveller and author of "A Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia" (London, 1865) and other works.
Palotta, Professor C. W., a native of Hungary, by birth and education a gentleman. Coming to England early in the sixties of the nineteenth century he was induced by a friend to attend the lectures and classes of Dr. Ewald, and after due instruction was baptized in the Jews' Chapel, Palestine Place. Not long after, he was sent by L.J.S. as missionary assistant to the Rev. F. G. Kleinhenn, at Bucharest, whose daughter he married. From 1866 he laboured for two years itinerating through Servia and Bosnia. He was the first missionary who took the Gospel to the Jews in those countries. In 1868 he was stationed at Jassy, where he laboured until 1871, when he settled at Vienna as a professor of languages. Palotta was a gifted man and zealous missionary, and throughout his Christian life he took a great interest in the mission to the Jews, and voluntarily helped them in Vienna and also in Paris during the exhibition in 1879.
Pauli, Rev. C. W. H., was born in Breslau in 1800 and was named Zebi Nasi Hirsch Prince. His father who was a rabbi, gave him a thorough rabbinic education. Already at the age of 21, being then a religious teacher, he published "Sermons for Pious Israelites," in which he emphasized the teaching of the Bible rather than that of the Talmud. Whilst thus endeavouring to teach pure Mosaism he came in contact with the L.J.S. missionary, C. G. Petri of Detmold, and received from him a New Testament, of which he began to make use in his teaching. The Jews then declared him crazy, and he resigned his office and went to Detmold. From there he was sent to Minden, where he was baptized December 21st, 1823. His sponsors were Baron Blomberg and Major Grabowski. The former, who through the influence of the L.J.S. founded the mission at Detmold, then recommended Pauli as a missionary to the Posen Society. A year later he went with Petri to England and studied at Cambridge. From there he was called to be Lecturer of Hebrew at Oxford. In this capacity he laboured there for thirteen years, during which time he wrote various books, his "Analecta Hebraica" deserving special mention. In 1840 he received a call from the L.J.S. to go as a missionary to Berlin, where, by his learning and piety and loving disposition, he made a salutary impression upon the Jews. In 1844 he was transferred to Amsterdam, and laboured there till 1874. The results of his activity there appeared from time to time in the "Jewish Intelligence." He then retired toLuton, where he died in 1877, with the words upon his lips: "Into Thy hands, O God, I commend my spirit. My Saviour is near."
Pauly, a Jewish savant, was baptized at Hamburg in 1810. He lived with an unbelieving brother in Berlin, at the time when Pauli was stationed there, who had the privilege of administering the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to him on his dying bed when he was eighty years of age (Annual Report, 1843, p. 60).
Philippi, Dr. Friedrich Adolf, was born in Berlin in 1809. His father was a banker and belonged to the circle of the Mendelssohns. Philippi received Christian impressions at school, and in riper years he received from a fellow student a treatise entitled "Glocktöne," by Court Chaplain Strauss, which caused him to attend his sermons. His uncle Jakobi, the mathematician, had at that time become an Evangelical Christian. This event, too, caused him to seek for the truth until he found it for himself and was then baptized by Pastor Zehme in Grossstädtel, near Leipzig, in 1829. Later on he studied theology under Hengstenberg, and became professor at Dorpat and later at Rostock. He was the author of the following works:—"Die Lehre von dem thätigen Gehorsam Christi," 1841; "Glauben's Lehre," 1853; a posthumous work, published by his son, "On the Epistle to the Galatians and the Synoptics." He died on August 29, 1882.
Pick, Aaron, Biblical scholar, was born at Prague, where he was converted to Christianity and lectured on Hebrew at the University. He lived in Englandduring the first half of the nineteenth century, and was the author of translations and commentaries of various books of the Bible. His works comprised a literal translation from the Hebrew of the twelve Minor Prophets (1833), of Obadiah (1834), and of the seventh chapter of Amos, with a commentary. In 1837 he produced a treatise on the Hebrew accents, and in 1845 he published, "The Bible Student's Concordance." He was besides the author of a work entitled, "The Gathering of Israel or the Patriarchal Blessing as contained in the Forty-ninth chapter of Genesis. Being the Revelation of God concerning the twelve Tribes of Israel, and their ultimate Restoration."
Pick, Abraham, a native of Senftenberg, Bohemia, was influenced by his brother Israel to examine the evidences of Christianity, and then had intercourse with a Scotch missionary, the Rev. Daniel Edward, in 1866, and at last was brought to the Lord by the Rev. Abraham Herschell, who also baptized him in 1869 at Stuttgart together with his wife. His daughter Catharine was already baptized through Edward, at Breslau in 1857. His daughters, Rosie and Philippine, were baptized at Kaiserswerth by the Scotch Free Church missionary, Van Andel, and his daughter Regina and his son Joseph were baptized at Kornthal in 1878. His daughters Charlotte and Therese were baptized in Switzerland by Pastor Bernoulli, and Elizabeth was baptized by Pastor Axenfeld in Cologne. The whole family became in various ways useful workers in the serviceof the Master, and in 1879 they had the joy of knowing that seven of their relatives had confessed Christ in baptism. Abraham Pick became afterwards the agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society at Lemberg, where he laboured for many years in spreading the Word of God in Galicia and in the Bukowina, where he and his family were almost the only sympathizing friends of the L.J.S. missionaries.
Pick, Israel, a brother of the above, had received a strict Talmudical education. When he came to the age of discretion he began to waver between rabbinic orthodoxy and freethought, but he felt an inward call to do something great for the emancipation of his brethren and for restoring the Jewish kingdom. At first he was engaged in journalistic work at Vienna, and then he became a preacher and teacher in a synagogue at Bucharest, where he endeavoured to infuse vital religion into the congregation, but had to leave them disappointed. His enthusiasm for the temporal and spiritual welfare of his people caused him to correspond with missionaries and to lay before them a plan for the establishment of a Hebrew Christian National Church. He also addressed a letter to that effect to the Jews in Amsterdam in 1853, but received no encouragement anywhere. At last he embraced Christianity and was baptized by Daniel Edward at Breslau in 1854. On this occasion he wrote: "A Word to my People," afterwards "The Star of Jacob," "Kol nidre night," "Is there no Physician there?" In all these writings he displayed almost a prophetical spirit, speaking from the fulness of a heartinflamed with love to his people, and no less to his Saviour. This enthusiasm led him eventually in 1859 to Jerusalem, and then he was heard of no more. The probability is that he was killed somewhere in Palestine.
Pick, Joseph, after studying in Basel and in the L.J.S. College, was appointed missionary at Strassburg in 1877, and in 1888 he was transferred to Cracow. He was a gifted and an energetic man and laboured in both places under peculiar difficulties. In 1897 he visited London, and on his return died rather suddenly, his loss being deeply felt by all who knew him.
Pick, Rev. Dr. Bernard, was baptized in Berlin in 1861. Later he went to the United States, where he studied theology and was appointed to a church at Rochester, New York. He was a prolific writer. The following were from his pen: "The Mission among the Jews," in the Encyclopædia of Biblical, theological and ecclesiastical literature (New York, 1881, pp. 166-177). "The Talmud, what it is and what it knows about Jesus and His followers" (New York, 1887). "Luther as a Hymnist," 1888. "Historical Sketch of the Jews since the destruction of Jerusalem," 1887.
Pieritz, G. Wildon, born at Klecko in Posen, in 1808, baptized 1835, laboured as a missionary of the L.J.S. in the forties of the nineteenth century at Jerusalem, in Damascus, and subsequently settled at Oxford, where he was engaged in teaching. He was a learned and spiritually-minded man, as his articles in the "Hebrew Christian Witness, 1874-5," testify.He was the author of "The Gospels from the Rabbinical Point of View," London and Oxford, 1873.
Pieritz, Rev. Joseph Abraham, was a missionary of the L.J.S., stationed at Bristol in 1844, and laboured amongst the Jews generally in the West of England, also in Dublin and other places. He afterwards went out to British Guiana, and became rector of the parish of St. Patrick, Berbice, where he died in 1869, aged sixty-five, as the result of a carriage accident. His funeral was taken by the Bishop, and was attended by over 2,000 persons.
Polan, Rev. Mark, was born at Wilna, a town known as the "Jerusalem of Lithuania," where a high type of Judaism prevailed and where Rabbinical learning flourished, and where also the Greek churches mostly represented a sensuous and ritualistic Christianity. At Wilna there is a flourishing trade in cereal products, and Mark's father was a corn merchant. His parents gave him a rigorous religious training. His mother could speak Hebrew well, and the boy was instructed in the Talmud and other Rabbinical writings. As an illustration of the sectarian rigour of the Jews at Wilna, it may be mentioned that a law having been passed compelling education in the Russian language, the Jews proclaimed a Fast and made provision for the private tuition of their children.
Young Polan left his native place in 1872 intending to proceed to Australia and join a relative there. A change of plan, under pressure from home, led himto linger first at Königsberg and then in London. In London he soon came in contact with missionaries. His aim, however, was not enquiry but opposition. Rumours then reached his friends that he had become a Meshummad, but careful enquiries satisfied them that their suspicions were mistaken and he was left unmolested.
But the living God was also watching and guiding. Gradually his attitude to Christianity began to change. For one thing, the absence of images in the English churches made an impression upon him. The first Christian book that he read was the "Pilgrim's Progress" in Hebrew. Then there came eager readings of Commentaries written on St. Luke, Acts, Romans and Hebrews by Dr. Biesenthal, once a rabbinical Jew; he was thus led to a careful study of the New Testament. In the Rev. Theodore Meyer the enquirer at last found a wise and loving instructor and friend. From the first, Mr. Meyer's erudition and sincerity drew forth the confidence and interest of the young Jew.
After four years' instruction, Mr. Polan came forward for baptism, and it was arranged to take place in Park Church, Highbury. An incident, however, happened which led to its postponement. On the eve of his proposed baptism he had a dream which led him to withdraw, and was the cause of severe and protracted mental struggles. It is said by the rabbins, and believed by the Jews, that in Paradise a dark veil is made to hang before the parent whose child has become an "apostate." In his dream Polansaw his mother in Paradise behind the dark curtain. The effect upon his mind was such that he could not face baptism; nor did he, until nearly a year afterwards. It may have been that the first decision was resting mainly upon mental conviction of the truth. At any rate, there followed more serious consideration and prayerful searching of the Scriptures, with the result that a certain word of the Lord reached his heart and touched it with signal power. The word was: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me."
Under the power of this word this earnest seeker emerged into the light. Ultimately, in 1878, he openly confessed Christ by baptism, the ordinance being administered by Mr. Meyer in Park Church, Highbury.
The inevitable ostracism and persecution, with their attendant sufferings, followed. It was a welcome mitigation to the new convert's trials that his father did not entirely cast him off. And the spirit in which he suffered may be gathered from the reply he sent to his brothers and sisters, when, at his father's death, they hurled over him their anathemas, telling him that his name had been expunged from the family register. "It has caused me great pain," he wrote to a friend, "but though my name is not now in the family tree, it can be found in the Lamb's Book of Life."
In those days Mr. Polan was a member of Park Church, Highbury. The pastor at the time was Dr. Edmond, who, with Mr. Meyer, proved a spiritual father to the young Hebrew Christian. There he was surrounded by strong missionary influences, and throughthe Fellowship Association which supported two foreign missionaries, a desire in him was awakened to become a messenger of the Cross in the foreign field.
In 1878 Mr. Meyer wanted a helper in his mission to the Jews, and Mr. Polan was invited to take up the work. In this opening he recognised a call of God to give his life to testifying for Christ to his Jewish brethren. For twelve years he served as a valued helper of Mr. Meyer, like a son with a father, busily engaged in district visitation and taking part in the services. Personal studies also occupied his attention, and he found time to his great joy and profit to attend the course of lectures on "Systematic Theology" delivered at Queen's Square by the Rev. Principal Dykes.
On the retirement of Mr. Meyer, Mr. Mark Polan succeeded to the headship of the Mission to the Jews in East London. In 1888 he became an elder in the John Knox Church, Stepney.
Poper, Rev. Heinrich, D.D., was born at Breidenbach, Germany, in 1813. His father died before his birth, and his mother went back to her home at Hildesheim. There he prepared himself to be a teacher, and began to give lessons to Jewish and Christian children at the age of fourteen. Later he came to the conviction that the Talmud was not in accord with the Bible, and after three years inward struggle, he came to England and was baptized by Reichardt in 1839. He was for a time in the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution, and then in the Hebrew Missionary College, and in 1844 he was sent asmissionary to Frankfort-on-the-Main, where he laboured with great efficiency until his departure in 1870. In 1859 Dr. Poper reported that there probably were from five hundred to a thousand proselytes in the district. (See "At Home and Abroad," by the Rev. W. T. Gidney, 1900.)
Posner, Sigismund August (Löbel), was born in 1804, of wealthy parents at Auras in Silesia who gave their children a strict orthodox education; he was well instructed in the Bible. When studying at Berlin, Mr. Lachs, Director of the Deaf and Dumb Institution, sowed in his heart the seed of the Gospel, which took root and led eventually to his conversion, and he was baptized by Pastor Schultze in 1828. His father was at first grieved, but became afterward friendly to him. He studied theology and became a very earnest preacher of the Gospel, so that only decided Christians liked to hear him. He died in 1849. His biography was published by Professor Tholuck for Sunday reading.
Rabinowitz, Joseph, was born at Resina on the Dniester, September 23, 1837, and died at Kischineff, 1899. He was the son of David ben Ephraim, and belonged to a rabbinic family. On the early death of his mother, her father Nathan Neta took him to be educated at his house. When he was six years of age he could repeat the Song of Solomon by heart. He remained with his grandfather till 1848, when he went to other relations. At the age of thirteen they betrothed him. Being compelled by an imperial ukase to acquire the Russian language, his eyes were opened toa new world of literature, and he began to think for himself. In 1855 Jehiel Hershensohn (Lichtenstein), his future brother-in-law, gave him a L.J.S. New Testament in Hebrew, declaring at the same time that possibly Jesus of Nazareth might be the true Messiah, at which news he was very much surprised. However, the immediate effect was that he left the Chassidim and went back to Orgeyev to his grandfather, and studied the Bible more and Russian law, so that he could act as a solicitor among his people. In 1856, he was married, and was then regarded as an influential citizen of the town, especially when it was seen that he took an active interest in the education of children and that he contributed important articles to the Jewish newspapers, and gave lectures at Kischineff, in which he advocated the principles of reform and progress. In 1878 he wrote an article in the Hebrew paper, "Haboker Or," in which he requested the Rabbis to work for the improvement of the condition of the Russian Jews by teaching them the necessity of becoming gradually an agricultural people, and he showed this by his own example in cultivating his garden himself. Not long afterward persecutions broke out in Russia, and he went to Palestine on a mission of enquiry with a view of establishing a Jewish colony there. But when he arrived in Jerusalem and became acquainted with the sad temporal and spiritual condition of the Jews there, his heart sank within him, and he was about to leave the Holy City in despair, but before doing so he went to the Mount of Olives. There he sat down in deepmeditation, and reviewing the sad history of his unfortunate people, the thought came to him as an inspiration: "The key to the Holy Land is in the hands of our brother Jesus." This thought he made then the matter and basis of his future work. Returning to Kischineff, he drew up thirteen theses, the substance of which was that Jesus is the only Saviour of Israel as well as of the whole world. With great courage and enthusiasm he then endeavoured by word and pen to propagate his conviction, and gained in a short time many adherents both at Kischineff and in other towns of Bessarabia. Having in 1885 published his "Symbol of the Israelites of the New Covenant" in seven articles, Professor F. Delitzsch and the Rev. John Wilkinson encouraged him, and in Glasgow an association was formed in 1887 for the support of his movement. Rabinowitz was baptized in Berlin by Professor Mead, of Andover U.S.A., in 1885, and henceforth his mission work took a more decisive but also perhaps a more restrictive character. He was asked by Provost Faltin, pastor of the Lutheran Church at Kischineff, to join that Church, but for good reasons he declined to do so, as neither he nor his adherents who had just come out from the synagogue could worship in a church where there was a crucifix. For still stronger reasons he could not join the Russian Church as he was asked to do by the highest authorities. Consequently he had to build a hall, in which he preached the pure Gospel as long as he lived. The result of this movement was that not only Rabinowitz, and his wife and sevenchildren with his brother and family, and other individual Jews who heard the Gospel from his lips publicly confessed Christ as their Saviour, but also that the attitude of the Jews in general toward the person of our Lord has since then changed for the better.
Ragstatt, Friedrich de Weile, was born at Metz in 1648. His father David was a teacher in several congregations, and naturally gave him a good Jewish education. At the Jewish school, he learned from the Talmud the old tradition that the Messiah was to come after 4,000 years had elapsed since the Creation. This led him to enquire, and eventually he was instructed by Dr. J. Alex. Neuspitzer, pastor of the Reformed Church at Cleves, in 1671. In 1672 he entered the University of Leyden, and in 1677 he became pastor at Assenen; and then in 1680 at Spyk, in South Holland, where he officiated till he died. Ragstatt was the author of the following works:—(1) "Jefeh Maréh" (Amsterdam, 1671), written in Latin, in which he endeavoured to prove, as against the Jewish controversialists, especially Lipman of Mülhausen, the Messianic mission of Jesus. A Dutch translation of this work, which contains also an account of Shabbathai Zebi, was published at Amsterdam, in 1683. (2) "Viytmunden—de Liefde Jesu tot de zeelen,"ib.1678. (3) "Van het gnaden Verbond,"ib.1613. (4) "Two homilies on Gen. xlix. 10, and Mal. iii.," The Hague, 1684. (5) "Noach's prophetie van Bekeering der Heyden," Amsterdam, 1688. (6) "An Address delivered on the occasion of the baptism of the Portuguese Jew, Abraham Gabai Faro,"ib.1688. (7) "Brostwepen des Geloofs,"ib.1689. (8) "JesusNazerenus Sions König on Ps. ii. 6," Amsterdam, 1688.
Rapoport, the well-known banker in Paris, was baptized with his wife, two sons and four daughters, by Pastor Abric at Passy in 1879.
Ricardo, David, was born in London 1772, of a Portuguese family, and died in 1823, at Gatcomb Park, Gloucestershire. He embraced Christianity in his youth (see Brockhaus, 12, 523) and was therefore forsaken by his father. He entered the Stock Exchange with little means and amassed a fortune. He was the author of "Principles of Political Economy and Taxation," 1817. In 1819 Ricardo entered the House of Commons for Portarlington. Nearly all his brothers became Christians. To his memory there is a professorship at the London University by the name of Ricardo.
Ricio, Peter, son of a Jewish jeweller, was born at Berlin in 1809, and died in 1879; he distinguished himself as a Christian in his investigations in physical science. Amongst other works, his "Lehre von der Rechnungs elementale," became epoch-making and secured for him the membership of the academies at Petersburg, Göttingen and Munich, and the degree of Doctor from Paris.
Rohold, S. B. The story of his conversion is thus told by himself:—
"It was in the well-beloved city of Jerusalem that I was born, and there also my early days were spent. More than half the inhabitants of Jerusalem are Jews, and mostly very pious, having come from all partsof the world to be buried in the Holy City when they die. The belief amongst these Jews is that when Messiah comes there will be the resurrection, and the bodies of those who were buried beyond Jerusalem will have to suffer much rolling until they reach the city. Thus to prevent this they have their burying place in the ancient city, being zealous for their religion, without enquiring as to whether they are really right in doing so. My father's family was very well known, belonging to one of the most pious sects of Jews in Jerusalem. It was the great delight of my father to speak of his ancestors, who were great rabbis; and for half a century he occupied an honoured rabbinical position himself in Jerusalem (Rosh Hashochatim). My dear mother also, whose ancestors were leading Jews amongst the rabbis, was fond of telling us wonderful stories of her grandfather, who was a famous disciple of the great Geonim of Wilna. Needless to say, both my parents were careful to train their children in the religion of their forefathers. Being the youngest son of the family, I was much petted, and they did their utmost to bring me up in the fear of God, and in all the customs, rites, and rabbinical traditions, whilst they taught me to look upon Christianity as idolatry. Truly my parents loved me very much, and did all in their power to educate me in what they believed to be right, and their one desire was that I might occupy the seat of my dear father, to which all my teachers gave them full hope. Thus the early part of my life was spent in study within the home circle. It was inthe year 1893 that I had conversation for the first time with Christians.