and phrases. In Palestine, Hebrew itself is often used as the medium of conversation. This very important sphere has been little occupied by the London Society; but it is to be hoped that, besides their stations at Tunis and Constantinople, they have now found a resting place for their mission in Judea itself, which may, under the blessing of the God of

* From the last number of the Jewish Intelligence, published in April, 1839, we learn these interesting facts respecting the mission at Jerusalem. Three or four months ago, a converted Jew, Mr. Pieritz by name, was sent out to that field of labour by the London Society, and his ministrations having been especially blessed in shaking the confidence of a well educated young Rabbi in the authority of the Talmud, and in inducing him to profess his faith in Christ, the Jews solemnly bound themselves, under a ban, or excommunication, to hold no intercourse whatever with Christians or Christianity. In this juncture, when every approach by the missionaries was being repulsed on the part of the Jews, the Society most providentially secured the services of Mr. Gerstman, a Jewish convert and physician, who, on his arrival with his medicine chest in the Holy City, broke the spell, and gave a new impulse to missionary activity. The plague happened to be raging at the time, a circumstance which threw every door wide open to welcome Mr. Gerstman. He describes the destitution of the Jewish people there as most appalling. Several families live together in the same little dark, damp, and dirty room, and they depend almost entirely for their subsistence on the alms of the dif ferent congregations in Europe and elsewhere. It is proposed to at tempt the formation of something like an hospital in Jerusalem, and already a small sum of money has been collected in England for that purpose. In a letter from Mr. Nicolayson, one of the missionaries in Jerusalem, to Dr. M'Caul in this country, the object contemplated is thus explained. "Be not alarmed at the name Hospital.' We are not going to erect a palace like the hospitals in London. Our idea is this: If we receive one pound only, we will spend that in procuring a little broth, and other such necessaries, for those poor Jews and Jewesses who are recovering, and for want of it must relapse into more hopeless misery and suffering. If we receive five, or ten, or fifteen pounds, we will do the samé on a proportionably extended scale. If we get twenty pounds or more, we can then take a clean and airy room, and receive the most helpless and destitute into it." The effect of this will be to teach the Jews, in the language of kindness, in Jerusalem itself, that Christianity is the religion of Him who went about healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. The moral influence of such an undertaking upon Jews and Moslems, in Palestine, will be incalculably great; while it will serve to bring those who are relieved directly under the instruction of the mission, and present the exertions of Christians to the local and higher authorities in a favourable light. The apostle Paul, speaking of the collection which the Christians of Macedonia and Achaia had made for the poor saints at Jerusalem, says, "Their debtors they

Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, form a rallying point of interest and influence to the surrounding Jewish population. From the number of the Jewish Intelligence for November, 1838, we learn a fact most deeply interesting. It was resolved by the London Society in 1837, that a Protestant church should be built at Jerusalem, in which the Hebrew Liturgy of the Church of England might be read.* A subscription was immediately entered into, and a large sum contributed; the Archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, ordained a clergyman to the charge; and now we are informed, in a letter from that gentleman, that Episcopal service has been commenced at the mission-house in Jerusalem, that ground has been actually purchased by him as a site for a Christian church on Mount Zion itself, and that preparations are going on for its speedy erection. One good 'will manifestly result from this. The Jews in the East are wont to associate Christianity with Popery, and the picture-worship of the Greek church; and they have been known, although they believed in the New Testament, to shudder at the profession of our holy faith, lest they should thereby become idolatrous, dishonour the first and second commandments of the law, and deny the unity of God. Now, they will not be able to help observing that the Christian religion is not idolatry, as they had supposed it to be. We rejoice in this, bidding the London Society God speed, and only hope that the time may not be far distant when the gospel shall go forth from Mount Zion to are. For if the gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things."

* At present, Protestant service is conducted in the mission-house every Sabbath, by Mr. Nicolayson, who preaches in the forenoon in English, in the afternoon in Arabic, and in the evening in German, besides reading the Liturgy in Hebrew. On the 5th of July last, he administered the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper for the first time it has been administered in Jerusalem, in the order of the English Church. There were in all four communicants. He writes that there are more proselytes and inquirers, (some of them Nicodemuses, who come by night for fear of the Jews,) than he can find means of supplying with employment, and thus rescuing from a state of star

vation.

ancient Israel in more simple purity, so as to prevent the most distant suspicion from arising in the mind of a Jew, that aught of external ornament is connected with the spiritual service of Him who is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth.

The attempts made by our Scottish Zion on behalf of the Jews are more briefly told than we could wish. It is true that, in the Directory for Public Worship, every minister of the Church of Scotland is enjoined to pray for the conversion of the ancient people of God, as well as for the fulness of the gentiles, the fall of antichrist, and deliverance from the cruel oppressions and blasphemies of the Turk; but they have not been singled out as the object of that peculiar solicitude, and prayer, and zeal, which the Divine dealings with them in every period of their past history, and their glorious prospects for the future, unquestionably demand of us. Previously to the meeting of the Assembly of 1838, all the notice of the Jews we have been able to find in the records of our church is in the years 1653 and 1690. On those two occasions, fasts were appointed by our highest ecclesiastical authority, and every minister was desired to remember ancient Israel in his supplications. Nor must it be disguised, that the movement of last year originated not with the clergy, but with the laity. It is to one of the inhabitants of Glasgow,* a lineal descendant of the

* Robert Wodrow, Esq., great-grandson of the celebrated historian of that name. This gentleman, in February, 1838, drew up the following memorial, which, having received the signatures of several pious inhabitants of Glasgow, was presented to the Presbytery. The brethren warmly supported the subject, which had been so opportunely brought before them, and unanimously transmitted an overture, founded on the memorial, to the General Assembly, which met in the following May. Ten or twelve more overtures from other Presbyteries and Synods followed. Thus did the Church awake, and behold its duty to Israel.

(

To the Reverend the Presbytery of Glasgow,

Humbly showeth,

The Memorial of the undersigned Members of the Church of Scotland,

That your memorialists are deeply impressed with the importance, as well as convinced of the imperative duty, of efforts being made by

famous historian of the troublous period between the Restoration and the Revolution, that we are indebted under God for setting a scheme in motion, which, we

the Churches of Christ for the conversion of Israel, God's ancient people.

That the importance of this object does not lie in any superior value to be attached, individually, to the salvation of the soul of a Jew over that of a gentile-for in this respect all are equal in God's sight -but relatively, from the connection which is established, as your Memorialists conceive, in the clearest manner, in Scripture, betwixt the restoration of the Jewish people, and the full and universal establishment of Christ's kingdom among the gentiles; so as that, as it appears to them, it is utterly vain to expect the latter event until the former has taken place. In confirmation of which opinion, your Memorialists refer to Rom. xi. 12, 15, which two verses, in their apprehension, most distinctly intimate, or imply, that the recovery of the Jews will cause an accession of benefits and blessings to the gentiles, immensely greater than what accrued from their rejection; that the one, in fact, will complete what the other was the occasion of commencing; and that, until this event takes place, the world at large will remain comparatively dead.

That whereas it may be objected, and has actually been maintained by some, that this view is contradicted by verse 25 of the same chapter, where it is declared, "That blindness, în part, is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the gentiles be come in"-thereby intimating, as is alleged, that the fulness of the gentiles (by which is understood their full and universal enjoyment of gospel privileges and blessings) will be antecedent to the removal of Jewish blindness-your Memorialists would reply, that Scripture must be consistent with itself, and that the principle on which they would reconcile these apparently conflicting verses is this-that whereas in the two former the apostle is speaking of the fulness of the Jews and the fulness of the gentiles, in reference to their connection in the way of cause and effect, and in the latter verse, in reference only to their connection as regards time, a greater strictness of interpretation must be followed in the former case than may be allowable in the latter. For it is utterly impossible, in the nature of things, that an effect can precede its cause: and, therefore, when it is affirmed, or rather argued, verse 12, that the fulness of the Jews will enrich the gentiles far more than what ensued from their fall and diminution, we must of necessity believe that the casual event will precede the other; and when, in like manner, we are informed, verse 15, that the receiving of the Jews into the Church will be as life from the dead to the world, we cannot but infer, that this reinstatement of them in the privileges of God's people will go before that spiritual resurrection of which it is productive. But where events are spoken of in reference to the accidental circumstance of time, a greater latitude of expression may be used, and, in fact, often is employed in Scripture. And it is reasonable that it should be so in the case of great events, such as those before us, for their evolution is always gradual, proceeding by successive steps and stages, from their first beginnings to their

trust, will soon engage the sympathies, call forth the prayers, and receive the co-operation of the whole church and people of Scotland. But while there is

final completion. And thus, when two or more such events run nearly parallel to one another, or are mixed up together and are almost coeval, they may be described in a more loose and general manner than what is allowable when their mutual bearing and influence are spoken of—as preceding, or following, or accompanying one another, according to the particular point of progress in which they are viewed. And thus in the case before us, where it is said that "blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fulness of the gentiles be come in,” we are not necessitated to understand that any, thing more is meant than that the two great events spoken of will happen in the same era of the world's history, and be nearly contemporaneous. And, therefore, taking together the three verses which have been quoted, the conclusion to which they bring us is this-that at the time when the fulness of the gentiles is about to come in, and has in its first beginnings actually arrived, then Jewish unbelief shall terminate, and the converted Israelites become preeminently distinguished in carrying on and completing the glorious work.

That, in confirmation of this conclusion, your Memorialists would refer, in the first place, to verses 30, 31, of the same chapter, where the apostle declares it to be a design and purpose of God in conferring mercy on the gentile Church, that through that medium mercy may be extended to the Jews, evidently implying, as appears, a certain measure of revival, or sense of mercy felt, in a portion at least of the gentile Church, leading to sympathy and exertion on behalf of the Jews, at the time when the Lord is about to remove their blindness. And in the second place, they would refer to verse 26 of said chapter, in connection with Isaiah lix. 20, 21, from which it plainly appears, that the latter passage predicts the conversion of Israel; and the announcement of which event again is immediately followed by that sublime and triumphant song contained in the next chapter"Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. The gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the gentiles shall come unto thee." &c. &c.-strongly importing that the conversion of God's ancient people is a principal link in the chain of Divine providence, whereby the glory of the latter day is to be brought in. This point might easily be further confirmed by such a copious induction of proofs, drawn from the prophetical writings, as to demonstrate it beyond contradiction; but your Memorialists forbear. They feel that they owe an apology for having already trespassed so far on the patience of the Reverend Presbytery, and can only hope that they will regard with indulgence what might appear as presumption, in consideration of the vast, the incalculable importance which your Memorialists have been led, by the force of Scriptural evidence, to attach to the subject. And they trust to their further indulgence in adverting to the other leading idea with which they set out, namely, the incumbent duty lying on the churches of Christ to seek the conversion of Israel.