the consecration at Christ's church on Mount Zion, was to be celebrated on January 21st, 1867, and to invite them to unite with him and the Christians at Jerusalem, in humble thanksgiving to God for all the mercies and blessings which have been received from Him during the last twenty-five years, and in fervent believing prayer for the success of the work among the Jews and others, for the fulfilment of His gracious promise in favour of His ancient people and the speedy coming of His kingdom.

The bishop goes on to state that the great difficulty this year has been, and is still, the generally prevailing distress and_misery. One proselyte has gone back to the Jews, and a few native Protestants have gone back to their former churches. They have been driven to take this step by their destitution, in order to get work and bread. As to those that are without, whether Jews or Gentiles, they seem when the Gospel is preached to them, to have only one answer to all arguments and entreaties, viz. "Give us bread." The fact, says the Bishop, that I have been enabled through the liberality of Christian friends in Europe, to afford relief to thousands of poor Jews during and after the cholera, seems to have greatly softened their prejudices against Christianity, in consequence of which the missionaries have had more easy access to them, and more intercourse with them, bringing the Gospel of Christ nearer unto them than on any former year and this not altogether without effect; for there are many who are at least well convinced of the truth of Christianity, and some have come so far as to inquire.

The divers institutions of the Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews have continued to be valuable auxiliaries to the mission. The missionaries and other agents of the Society have visited more places where the Jews reside in large numbers.

The missionaries of the Church Missionary Society have continued their work amidst much opposition both here and at Nazareth.

The members of the Church of England continue to live in brotherly love with the brethren of the German Evangelical Church. The German deaconesses continue their work of love in their hospitals, where they receive and nurse from 500 to 600 patients annually; and in their school, where they are educating about fifty poor girls in the principles of the Gospel. They are enlarging their establishment with the view of benefiting more patients and children. An hospital for lepers, under the patronage of a pious German and a noble lady, was expected to be opened on the 21st of Jnauary, 1867.

After this general review the bishop proceeds to give a sketch of the work carried on by him in different parts of his diocese.

One of the first objects after my arrival was to disseminate the Word of God, but as in many places only one or two in a thousand could read, it became necessary to open schools. Twelve schools have been established, ten of which are out of Jerusalem. The most important of the twelve schools is the diocesan boys' school, which, when six years ago many orphans of murdered people of Damascus and the Lebanon were sent to me, I converted into an orphanage. Several of those orphans were in the school when last year the cholera broke out, and the plague reduced many

to starvation. I could not resist the prayers and tears of these emaciated little ones and those who brought them applying for admission, until my school-house was filled, though I had not the means of feeding and clothing them, and no help in this land. Many Christians, especially on the Continent, sent me help, and whilst thanking them I would commend these poor children to their further charity and Christian benevolence. Many missionaries and catechists were employed, one at Shesamar, in Galilee, balf way between Nazareth and Acca, who, besides ministering to a small Protestant congregation, is endeavouring to evangelize the Druses, Moslems, and the nominal Christians of the neighbouring villages. Another is stationed at Nablous, another at Jaffa. So much for Palestine.

"The last letters I have received from my agents in Abyssinia were written before the arrival of Mr. Rassam. The king was still friendly towards them. Several Jews had been converted and the converted Jews of Guda were labouring under them in their several trades, so that they had Christian congregations who were freely allowed to edify themselves together. They were still at liberty to read the Word of God, and to preach to large congregations in several churches. There was a great demand for the Word of God, and yet, though in the midst of a calm, they were expecting a tempest."

The bishop concludes by commending all these works, carried on in much weakness, but begun with an eye to the glory of God, to Christian sympathy, prayer, and support. "That God our Saviour may reward you a thousand-fold in this life, and in that great day acknowledge before men and angels what you have done to these little ones, is the faithful earnest prayer of your humble servant and brother,

"S. A. HIEROSOL. "Jerusalem, Nov. 23, 1866."

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No country in the universe can prefer claims to the consideration of mankind equal to those of Palestine. It is a land alike revered by Jew and Gentile; its memory indissolubly associated with what is to them dearest and most sacred. At its name a holy thrill vibrates through the human heart; its very sound strikes a chord which sympathetically re-echoes through the innermost recesses of the soul.

"But whilst Palestine has such high significancy in the eyes of the Christian, with how much greater interest must it be regarded by the Jew? If the force of events have thrown him from that country, towards it he yet gravitates as to his natural centre. If torn from his native soil and planted elsewhere, towards it he yet inclines as to the sun which gives him radiance and vitality. Thrice every day he devoutly turns his face to the Holy Land, whilst offering up the most sacred of his prayers; and the service commemorating his deliverance from Egypt he concludes with the fervent wish, 'The next celebration at Jerusalem.'

March 1, 1867.

No wonder, therefore, that numbers of Jews cling with tenacity to a country the memory of which, from the cradle to the grave, is thoroughly interwoven with their holiest feelings and yearnings; that, 'taking pleasure in her stones and favouring the dust thereof,' they bid defiance to all kinds of misery, hardship and degradation, and do not consider the price too high for the purchase of the consolation of drawing therein their last breath, if not privileged to inhale in it their first, and of yielding themselves up to the beloved ground if this could not be given to them.

"But whilst in his faithful attachment to holy reminiscences-whilst in his unshakable faith in the promise of God, the Jew heroically resigns his native country, with its powerful associations, security, and comforts, and perhaps even affluence -is it fair that we, followers of the law, believers in the prophets, whose light, proceeding from Palestine, illumined our darkness, is it fair that we should look on with indifference at the struggle of the Jews in Palestine for earning a scanty subsistence? that, at the utmost, we dole them out a miserable pittance, barely allowing them to linger out an existence useless to the rest of the world and burdensome to themselves? True, there was a time when the intolerant policy of Turkey, joined to unwillingness on the part of the Jewish population to become instrumental in their own support, rendered any other assistance unavailable, save that in the shape of alms. But now that more enlightened views have removed all legal obstacles to endeavours for self-support on the part of the Jewish population-nay, when there is reason to believe that the Porte would lend its hearty co-operation to any scheme for that purpose; when that very population earnestly appeals to the world for the means of emancipating itself from the state of degradation entailed by pauperism, is it just that we should withhold from it a helping hand? Join, therefore, O brethren, join the Association formed for the purpose of lending that helping hand to the Jews in Palestine.

"To our brethren in faith we should say, Whatever your views, you cannot but respect the convictions of those who, anxious to fulfil the law of God in all its particulars, feel that this is practicable in the land only to which that law had a primary reference. We should further say, You have no hypothetical case before you; you have to deal with a stern reality. There is a Jewish population extant in Palestine, which, for generations, has been supported by European charity, and which still looks to the West for assistance.

This support was, moreover, at all times considered as a pious and most meritorious work, habitually and cheerfully bestowed, to which they had almost acquired a right by proscription. Can you allow a system to continue, as degrading and pernicious to the recipient as unworthy of and useless to the donor, when the alternative offers itself of converting pauperism into productiveness, privation into affluence, and misery into enjoyment? Can you allow it to be said that they who associate themselves with every philanthropic movement, who assist in relieving every species of misery among whatever nation and in whatever clime, should be deaf to appeals in behalf of those nearest to them, should be insensible to the misery of their own flesh and blood?

"To our Christian brethren we should say,

Your ancestors, in ages of darkness, were instruments in the accomplishments of the denunciations of our prophets against us; be you, in these enlightened days, as zealous to obtain the blessings promised to the benefactors of Israel. Remember it was said, 'I shall bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee.' Cooperate with us, assist us in ameliorating the state of our brethren in the Holy Land.

a land

"Palestine might be still as of old, flowing with milk and honey; a land of wheat and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil, olives, and honey. Nor is it less capable of producing silk, cotton, indigo, sugar, coffee, and tobacco. In short, all elements for prosperous agricultural settlements are extant. It is not less the cultivators that call for the land than the land for the cultivators. All that is necessary for the accomplishment of this object is capital and security of property. The former Europe and America in the first instance can supply; the latter must be the result, at first, of protection, and ultimately of a judicious internal government.

"The cities of Safed and Tiberias, harbouring a numerous Jewish population, are situated in a district in every respect adapted to an agricultural settlement. It is therefore proposed:First, to solicit from the Porte a grant of a portion of land between these cities, now totally waste and useless, uuder conditions mutually advantageous to the Government and the landholders. Secondly, to allow the settlement its internal government. This is a condition which it is not expected would meet with any obstacle, since such is the actual policy of the Porte towards its Rajah subjects, whose respective nationality and internal institutions it acknowledges. Thirdly, to take such measures in the infancy of the settlement as would secure the lives and properties of the settlers, the necessary scope for development and eventual self-protection.

"These objects the Association will endeavour to accomplish by some such measures as the following:

"Addresses to the Sultan for permission that Jews might occupy and cultivate, or otherwise turn to use, certain tracts of land; and for authority to form settlements, with privileges of internal government. Addresses to the Queen and foreign Governments for favourable interference with the Porte. Addresses to the Legislature with the same view.

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Subscriptions for supplying Jews in Palestine with cattle, sheep, and horses, agricultural implements, boats for the navigation of the sea of Tiberias, and nets for fishing, seeds, cuttings of useful trees and shrubs, and building materials. Plans and means for improving the ports on the coast and the roads in the interior, so as to give commerce and trade opportunities for development and increase.

"In order that such an Association should proceed with harmony, energy, effect, and prosperity, it would, of course, be most essential that its great objects should be worked out with honourable singleness of aim and effort on the part of all its members.'

THE UNIVERSAL ISRAELITE ALLIANCE.

We noticed in our last number the eloquent

speech of the President of this Alliance, M. Cremieux. The speech is full of matter, and very interesting. We extract the part, where M. Cremieux speaks about the education of women: I acknowledge, gentlemen, between ourselves, that I have always felt irresistibly drawn towards women (a laugh). I always held that the fate of our children, that is, the happiness of our lives depends on them, and I never understood the desire to keep them in a state of inferiority. I can specially not understand such a thing in a Jewish family. The pages of our history teem with records of heroic achievements in which they were the chief actors; contain the sweetest descriptions of their domestic virtues. I proclaim it loudly, that civilization is, without the help of an impossibility. To raise woman to our level, this is not lowering, but the lifting up of ourselves!

woman,

"When I was in Egypt, and visited Cairo, I perceived that the Jewish women were kept in a state of semi-slavery. The young rich girls were sent to schools. But such schools! In places under the ground, they spent the whole of the day in sitting lazily on stretched-out carpets. The daughters of poor people had no meeting place at all, and the women lived at home in a state of dependence and submission. Whilst the Jews, at our meeting in the great synagogue, overwhelmed me with tokens of respect and love, which I never shall forget, I scarcely saw a single woman among the crowd. I made up my mind to speak to them on this subject, and standing in the holy place, I said: 'Are you Mahommedans, to treat your wives in the same way as they treat theirs? Did not the God of Israel make a woman, flesh of your flesh? Is she not the mother of your children? Do you not read in our history about sweet women, models of virtue-a Rebecca, a Rachel, a Naomi; of devoted women, exalted by their heroism-a Deborah, or a Esther? What? Not far from Mount Sinai, with its dim outline all but before you, do you allow your wives to lie in submission at your feet? Are you, then, in Egypt, the grandchildren of Joseph, and still slaves, observing the customs of your masters? Or are you the descendants of the men that received the law from God Himself? Did not this

law put woman on a level with man, when it touchingly commanded, Honour thy father and thy mother? And how can your son honour his mother, if he sees that in the house of his father, she is not honoured in the same way as he is?" My words came home to them; on the following day, a Saturday, the blessings of the women were heard in unison with the acclamations of the men.

A LUXEMBURG MORTARA CASE.

The Courrier de Luxemburg relates the following story:

In Plassen-a little village at some distance from the town-lives a Jewish widow, who sent her daughter, 12 years old, to the school of the place, directed by the sisters. These pious sisters conspired against the young girl, and on Christmas Day they, with the help of some others, secretly baptized her. The mother did not know what had become of her child, and awaited her return with anxiety. At last she heard that the child was detained in the Roman Catholic church, and, on arriving there, was informed that the child had been baptized. The child was taken home, and several efforts were made during the night to break into the house and to carry her away; but the attempts were, fortunately, not successful. A complaint was lodged with the civil authorities, and a sum of money is raised to send the girl, who consented to her baptism with great reluctance, to another place.

The Echo du Luxemburg gives an account of the consecration of a synagogue at Arlon. This synagogue is, according to the Archives Israelites, the first in Europe built by and belonging to the state. The state paid two-thirds of the sum required.

THE 'HEBREW NATIONAL."

The first number of a weekly journal devoted to history and literature of the Israelitish nation has made its appearance. We shall wait before giving any opinion on the merits of our contemporary; we only remark that the name "Jew or "Jewish is to be excluded because the name Jew "always indicates a stigma on our race.'

Will it avail ? Do you suppose that the Hebrew nation shall cease to be a proverb and a byword ?

A CONVERSION.

To the Editor of "THE SCATTERED NATION."

MY DEAR BROTHER,-Soloman, a young man of about 24 years of age, was born of Hebrew parents, who professed to be Levites, and were merchants at Bagdad. He received a liberal education in Hebrew, at one of the Rabbinical colleges at Bagdad. He left his native land and came to Bombay, where he was entertained by a Jewish Missionary, with whom he had frequent discussions concerning the Messiah. He next went to Calcutta, and from thence he came up to Delhi, and stayed some time with the Rev. Mr. Tarasband, a Missionary of the Society for the

Propagation of the Gospel, with whom he had many conversations respecting the Messiahship of Jesus and the Sabbath. He came to Jallundha in 1865, and, after a trial of several months, I baptized him, on confession of Christ as his Saviour. He has ever since been reading English in the school, and has shown by his conduct that he has really cast himself at the feet of that Saviour whom he at one time derided, and whom his forefathers pierced.

You can make any use you please of the facts. related here. I can hardly add anything more. I am, &c., GOLUBINATH. Jullundha, December 11, 1866.

The Scattered Nation," April 1, 1867.

A FEW days ago I received a letter, and on the inside of the envelope, which contained six penny stamps and nothing else, these words were written: Fasted a meal to give a meal. I know not who sent this touching gift, and it matters little whether I know it or not, it is known to Him who has told us : "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. Verily, I say unto you they have their reward. But thou when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." The gift is appreciated by Him who saw the widow throw into the Treasury the two mites, and called unto Him His disciples, and said unto them : "Verily, I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast in more than all they which have cast into the Treasury; for all they did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all she had, even all her living." He will reward abundantly what was given in His

name.

I mention the gift in public not for his or her sake that sent it, nor do I speak of it so much in order to stir up our Christian friends who can help us though they need not deny themselves in a similar manner, but because I wish to place it before our Jewish readers. Since last November I have received about 700 letters from all parts of Great Britain and its colonies; and through all of them breathes a spirit of hearty love to Israel, of warm interest in all that concerns them, and more especially in their eternal welfare and their influence on the destinies of the world. Whence this sympathy with the Jew, whence this expectation for the Jew? Should not our Jewish brethren ask themselves what induces these Christians to think of and to pray for the Jew, who for many centuries was a proverb and a by-word, despised and cruelly persecuted? Whence this great difference, this almost marvellous change?

VOL. II.-NO. XVI.

I am not allowed to publish private letters but I felt at liberty to mention the fasting of a Christian to feed Jews who believe in Jesus as their Messiah. It is not with him a question of merit, for he knows that we cannot earn heaven by what we do, and blessed be God, we need not earn it, for it is secured unto all that believe by Him who did not give the spirit till "it was finished," and our salvation was secured for ever. No, not merit, but deep-felt gratitude to the King of the Jews moved him or her to show love to some of the Jews of that King. The love of the King constrained the giver to deny himself, even as Christ had taught His followers to do. But if Jesus of Nazareth can inspire all that truly believe in Him with so great a love to the people that once gave Him over to the Gentiles to be crucified, must He not be Himself the true friend of Israel? And if that be true, is it then not an awful thing to continue in open rebellion against Him, who never abandoned the title of the King of Israel?

It is a perversion of the truth to say that the Jews of the present day are responsible for what their fathers did eighteen centuries ago. We believe with the prophet Ezekiel: "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father;" but we believe with the same prophet: "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Every Jew that rejects the claims of Jesus to the Messiahship ratifies the judgment pronounced by his fathers against Him as a blasphemer and as far as lies in him crucifies Christ afresh. Hence his hatred against every Jew that acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah, and to this day Jesus repeats the question, "Why persecutest thou me ?" What the Jew does to the Christian Jew proves what he would do to Jesus if He were not beyond his reach. Notwithstanding that it is the prayer of our hearts that Israel might be saved, it is the earnest longing of thousands and tens of thousands of Christians in this and other Protestant countries that the Deliverermay speedily come and turn away ungodliness from Jacob, yea sure I am there are not a few who with

4

fasting and prayer wrestle with God on behalf of that people, which touching the election is beloved for the fathers' sake.

Does it then not behove every Jew to read the New Testament which teaches and instructs Gentile-Christians thus to act toward Israel, and to intercede in their behalf? No GentileChristian truly loves the Jews except the love

April 1, 1867.

of Christ be shed abroad in his heart; but if Christ is the fountain of all love to you, will you go on with hewing to yourselves cisterns which can hold no water and refuse to draw out of the wells of His salvation, to taste of His goodness, to drink the living water, which springeth into everlasting life?

A LAMPSTAND is the proper designation of the next vessel in order, for it had "seven lamps." It was composed of a central shaft, or stem, and six branches, three springing out of each side. Shaft and branches were "beaten" out of one entire piece of gold, weighing a hundred weight. With a sketch of the vessel in my remembrance, as delineated on the arch of Titus, I imagine that the branches were of the same length, each one composed of three almond-shaped cups, springing out of a "knop and a flower," at its junction with a curved arm, which connected it with the centre stem. At the upper end of each branch was a socket for the lamp.

The central stem, or shaft, had four almondshaped cups, with knop and flower ornaments, there being apparently a knop and a flower below each pair of branches, and one at the apex to receive the lamp. The shaft, therefore, was more highly ornamented than the branches which sprang from it, and was elevated above them.

What a "spirit of wisdom and understanding "--what a mind of exquisite perceptionmust not Jehovah have given to the workmen for the execution of this most beautiful vessel,* for in the process of beating out the form of the whole in detail must have been continually before them, to have secured the perfect fashioning of each lovely flower and fruit.

There are distinguishing marks on this vessel that will guide us to its signification. *Exod. xxxv. 31, 32.

The bowls, or cups, were "made like unto almonds." The almond tree is the first that bursts the bonds of nature's wintery death; its beautiful blossoms present the first returning sign of the vitality of the groves and gardens; by it we know that "summer is nigh," when the earth will be once more clothed with verdure, giving forth fruit and flowers, and anticipating in its luxuriance the day when the fallen "glory of Jehovah shall cover the earth." This herald almond tree is therefore a fit emblem of life out of death, or resurrection, and is used to express it symbolically in another place, when Levi's budding, blossoming, and almond-bearing rod determined the question of the priesthood being vested in Aaron,* who was a type of the Messiah, the Son of God in resurrection,† the Great High Priest, in whom is life, which is "the light of men," and the only source of acceptable fruit to God, both in. Himself and as to His people.

The material was all pure gold, the expression—as already asserted—of Divine excellence and glory, intrinsically and essentially in reference to the Son of God, and characteristically in those united to Him by one spirit. The shaft and the branches together are seven, and the lamps are seven; yet as the vivifying power of the branches is supposed to be derived from their union with the stem, the whole is to be looked at as one vessel, giving a unity of light, and that light as being on *Numb. xvii. 1-10. † Heb. v. 4-6.