United Free Church of Scotland

JEWISH MISSIONS

Our Debt to Israel

PUBLICATIONS OFFICE

121 GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH

232 ST. VINCENT STREET, GLASGOW

[1]

OUR DEBT TO ISRAEL

Exhibited by

Rev. Principal W. M. CLOW, D.D.

Rev. WILLIAM DICKIE, D.D.

Rev. W. M. CHRISTIE

And the Editors: Rev. J. MACDONALD WEBSTER and Rev. W. J. COUPER, M.A.

INTRODUCTION.

Is there any race that has done more for the world than the Jewish, and is there any race that has received less credit for it? Even while he mourns the setting of the "glory that was Greece," everyone looks back to the Greeks as world teachers and is grateful for the tuition they afforded in beauty. Rome is universally regarded as the source of civilised law and order, and the legal codes of the nations are the evidence of their gratitude for the inspiration they have received. Through the Jews came the highest of all gifts, but to-day there are few to do them reverence or acknowledge the debt owed them. Perhaps the reason is not far to seek. In religion the mind and heart leap past all intervening agents and render homage to the Great First Cause: from Him alone comes down every good and perfect gift, however it may be mediated to the enriched receiver. Recalling only the great mercy he has obtained, the "sinner saved by grace" ascribes the glory and wonder of it to God alone. He is right, but the Jew, the medium of the blessing that is thus gratefully confessed, is forgotten and no acknowledgment goes out to him for the humble part he has played in the great transaction.

Gratitude as Motive.

The obligation to preach the gospel to every creature is never founded on mere gratitude, but it would be wicked to omit gratitude as a motive in spreading the news. The Christian missionary goes out to the heathen field partly because of the sense of debt he feels for his own salvation. Every preacher urges his message because he himself has experienced its blessed effects on his own soul. How many have a kindly feeling towards the Jew because they have deliberately concluded that the salvation they enjoy came to them through his kindred? It would be hard to dissociate the Gospel from the Jew even on the part of those who never saw a Jew in their lives. Its language is Jewish; its original historians were Jewish; its first preachers and missionaries were Jewish. It was Jews who bore the first brunt of heathen opposition to it, and it was the martyrdom of Jews that at last obtained its supremacy and triumph in the civilised world. The Christian Gospel is saturated with what is Jewish. Does all this not create an obligation of gratitude? Is it possible to accept all that the Gospel brings and callously to leave beyond its benefits those who perfected it? Is gratitude to be an unknown virtue in Christian hearts when Jews are concerned?

Love as Motive.

It is necessary, however, to exceed mere gratitude. A Conference was recently held on Jewish Missions, and the first speaker laid it down as essential that "love" should be the motive and attitude of every approach to the Jew. There are centuries of prejudice and suspicion to remove, and the Jew

_____

The Jewish Register. Vol. IV. No. 13. Feb. 1922.

_____

requires to be convinced that the Christian seeks him only because he loves him and desires his good. In the past the Christian regarded the Jew as one to be exploited when he himself was in need. Story and play show the bankrupt Christian hunting out the banker Jew so that by threats or at the cost of usurious interest he may be taken out of his difficulties; and this idea—that the Jew is useful and desirable only when the Christian is desperate—has become ingrained in the Jewish conception of Christians as a whole. Something has indeed been done to prove that the Christian faith has no such implication by the readiness with which the Church provided for Jewish need in their time of War distress, by the open handed way Christian statesmen have furthered Zionist aspirations and by the welcome which has been given to the converts who have been clamouring for baptism during recent years. Much, however, still requires to be done, for the Jew is not yet convinced that Christian Missions are directed simply by an earnest desire for his betterment. He looks upon all evangelical effort as attempts to conquer and disparage him, and it is necessary that the Christian should show what he really intends, and the spirit in which he undertakes it, and that that spirit and intention are moved by nothing less than love.

The Jew may not be a loveable character—as a rule he is not. He has had centuries of persecution and restriction to warp him, and what he is now is largely the product of Christian wrongs done him in the years that are past. But does the Gospel place limitations upon the love it enforces? Does it ask us to cherish only the worthy or labour only for the noble? Jesus received sinful men and companied with outcasts. He came to seek and to save the lost, and doubtless the majority of those were unlovely and ignoble and selfish and mean. How many missionaries come to love the rude tribes to whom they minister? Their biographies contain numerous examples of the affection cannibals and men of like type have inspired. Are Jews worse than these and do their reputation and character diminish for Christians the obligation their Lord laid upon them to love every creature? Can the Church withhold its love from those to whom it owes so much?

Dr. A. N. Somerville, Evangelist.

One of the most apostolic of modern missions was that conducted by the late Dr. A. N. Somerville. In his old age he undertook an evangelistic tour on the Continent, and part of his time and energies was devoted to the Jews of the cities he visited. He had no special equipment for work among them, but he knew what he and his Church owed to the race, and he gained the confidence of his hearers by the way he acknowledged the debt. The writer has before him a synopsis of the usual address he gave. He enumerates the part Israel took in building up the Scriptures, and shows how every doctrine and practice that bring comfort to the human heart are derived from them. The first missionaries to spread the evangel through the world were Jews and God sent the Saviour through the same race. It was a stirring recital and warmed the hearts of the hearers towards the preacher. It is related that at Gibraltar Dr. Somerville discoursed in this discerning fashion on the question of "the glory of the latter house," and showed that the glory lay in the personal coming of God in human form to that house. A Jewish schoolmaster was so affected that he flung his arms around the preacher and kissed him on both cheeks. On leaving a week later Dr. Somerville returned the affectionate salute. One of the ways to win the Jew is thus undoubtedly through his heart, and nothing is more likely to stir it than a fervent acknowledgment of all that we owe his race.

Proofs of the Debt.

The papers gathered together in this brochure are intended to be an exposition of some of the things we owe to Israel. At best the various writers merely outline the debt. The papers are not exhaustive either

in subject or in treatment, but they may be taken as saying to Jew and Gentile alike that the Church is anxious to acknowledge its obligations and in some measure to repay its debt. Debt means duty, and an acknowledgment of debt should soon be followed by a discharge of duty.

_____

OUR OBLIGATIONS FOR THE OLD TESTAMENT.

By the Rev. Principal W. M. CLOW, D.D.

"I AM debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians." So wrote Paul, with a swift glance backward to his youth. We also are debtors to Teuton and Norseman and Celt for gift and aptitude, as these leap in our blood. We are debtor to Roman and Norman for ideals of government, and order and law. We are debtors to the Greek for the daring of his thought, and the devotion of his passion for beauty. But our indebtedness to the Jew rises into moral and spiritual spheres, whose impulses control our wills, whose horizons quicken our souls. As Jesus said," Salvation is of the Jews." Our richest inheritance is the gift of the Hebrew race.

This inheritance has been engrossed in the Hebrew Scriptures. In the providence of God, Jewish scholarship, as if to further the cause of that Lord whom its leaders rejected and crucified, gathered together the literature of their race and bound it into their Sacred Rolls. In that unique library we have the learning and the wisdom, the controlling aims and inspiring hopes, the impassioned prayers and the immortal songs of the people of God.

The Old Testament as History.

As we attempt some estimate of cur indebtedness to the Jewish race for his scriptures we think first of their value as history. Here we have the only record which discloses the Eastern mind to the Western. But for these scriptures the manner of life, the customs and the habits, the compelling imperatives and the gleaming ideals of Oriental life would have been almost unknown. No traveller's record greatly enlightens us. The chasm between East and West would have been unbridged. But here upon page after page, in histories as marvellous for their brevity as for their wealth of knowledge, in biographies which have made the Hebrew heroes and saints more real to us than these of our own national story, and in the transcript of the speeches of their leaders and the prayers of their saints, we have the East set as in a picture. Mr. H. G. Wells has been attempting a chronicle of the history of the world. It is a partial, scrappy, indefinite record without even an approach to an enlightening interpretation. It portraits are pale, colourless and unreal. But in the Old Testament we have, in brave and clear outline, the story of the march of civilisation as it can be seen in the doings and sayings of the most gifted human race. It is presented to us as it began in the customs of partoral simplicity, as it grew in complexity and delicacy, and as it developed into the splendour of a wide dominion touching every other dominant race. Rabinadath Tagore has attempted to acquaint the Western mind with the inwardness of the Eastern mood. His pages are vague, almost hazingly mystical, and without meaning, to the plain man of the West. But open the Old Testament and the modes of life, the manner of thought and expression, the loves and hates and ambitions of an Eastern people, are illuminated. We breathe the atmosphere, walk in intimate converse with the personalities, and throb with the desires, of the noblest. What a debt we owe to the Hebrew for his scriptures as an instrument of education!

The Old Testament as Literature.

Scarcely less significant is their power as literature. There is no form of writing, from a single lyrical cry to a skilfully woven and richly embroidered narrative, or to an orator's moving appeal, which cannot be found within these books. Here the Jew rises to a height which no other has

approached. The measured and sonorous phrases of the Roman jurist are repeated in our courts of law. The exact and plastic speech, and the deep insight and love of art which crown the Greek, have their permanent and inspiring power. It is not an accident that the New Testament is written in the tongue spoken by Xenophon and Plato. But for clean-edged simplicity, for wealth of figure and of parable, for picturesqueness and poignancy of statement and appeal, the Hebrew tongue is unsurpassed. Even in their English dress its classic passages are set in words which are coins fresh from the mint of the impassioned heart. In our own day when a novelist seeks a title which will set, in an arresting phrase, the subject of his pathetic romance or dire tragedy, he picks a striking sentence from this Old Testament scripture as his title. All our masters in literature confess their debt to the Hebrew Bible. In their quotations and references, in their almost unconscious use of its figures, incidents, and the characteristic utterances of its personalities, they give evidence that they have drunk deeply of the wells of the Hebrew mind and imagination. The common speech of the people is enriched by the words which the Hebrew peasant loved.

A Book of Morals.

Neither of these does more than touch a still higher distinction. The Hebrew scriptures are pre-eminently books of morals. There is only one other scripture to set beside the Old Testament, and that is the New, but even this New Testament is indebted to the Old. There are pages of the Old Testament whose ethical elevation is not the highest. There are counsels which Jesus rejected. There are deeds which cannot be justified to the conscience taught by Christ. These are the mirror of the age in which they were written—an age when a nobler mind could not be attained. But that great code in the Ten Commandments is unimpeachable in its sublime morality. The Hebrew ideal of character is still the aspiration of believing men. The great ends for which they lived are still our ideals. Their moral imperatives bind and loose the conscience as soon as they are heard. The appeals for doing justly and loving mercy are the golden sentences of social, national and international intercourse. The Roman summoned mankind into a court of law. The Greek led them into a chamber of wisdom. The Hebrew still calls humanity into a sanctuary where the voice of God is heard, and men kneel down in a glad consecration to holy living.

A Revelation of God.

In these articles of the inheritance all the races within the circle of our modern civilisation have shared. But there is another indebtedness, incomparably great, which the disciple of Christ set down as chiefest of all. That is the revelation of God. It is not the final disclosure, for the Hebrew had not beheld the glory of the Word made flesh. Yet he saw God's footprints on the pathway of time. He discerned the working of his hands in the events of history. He marked his going in the sanctuary. He heard His voice calling behind him, even when he went astray. He was conscious of His presence in every hour of need. The Hebrew race have been the seers of humanity because they had eyes to see God, and they have been the prophets of all believing men, because they have had ears to hear His voice. This truth reaches its consummation, not only in the great historic fact that these scriptures prepared a people and generated a moral atmosphere, not only in the corresponding fact that they drew in outline the daring conception of the God whom no man of them had seen, or could see, but in this, that Jesus was born of this Jewish race, brought up within a Jewish home, was led and inspired by these Jewish scriptures, and came not to destroy them but to fulfil. We are not called upon to estimate the indebtedness of Christ Himself to the Hebrew Bible, although that is disclosed in His teaching to the scribes, and to the multitude, and to His own. But we are called upon to estimate afresh our

indebtedness both for the significance of the fact of Christ, and for the understanding of His words and His life, His death and His everlasting priesthood of men.

A Manual of Devotion.

That indebtedness of the Christian man has many aspects. We have bound up the Old Testament with the New, because it remains the story book of our children, and the green pastures and still waters of the whole flock of God. We give it a leading place in our public worship, for we still hear the voice of God speaking through it, as those who wrote the record heard it at the first. We treasure not only its history and biography, but its glowing prophecies, because we understand what the prophets often only dimly described—the grace and truth of their Messiah and ours. But most of all, to multitudes of Christian men the most honoured place is to be given to the book of psalms. There may be some of the psalms which we cannot sing. There are others whose outlook is more limited than ours. But the greater number by far are to be included in those imperishable songs whose vision is so daring, whose faith is so unfaltering, whose rapture is so uplifting even in our dullest hours. The neglect of them impoverishes our worship, for, only now and again, is some aspiring Christian believer quickened to that intensity of faith and that passion of devotion which will enable him to write a hymn of praise that can be set beside the psalms of the Hebrew saints.

The Obligation the Book brings.

These are only broad outlines of the riches of our inheritance in the Jewish scriptures. The obligations which they enforce we need no more than mention. It is a part of the reproach of Christ that we, who are His followers, are so disloyal to what we know to be the passion of His heart. If Paul longed after the conversion of his race, whom he dared to name the "Israel of God," we can be quite sure that Jesus breathes with a divine passion which Paul's could not approach. Yet how little does any Church do for the Jew? Every Church, and our own among them, is to be condemned for its selfish apathy. The sum we give to Jewish missions is contemptible. If it be said that our success in making converts is so pitiable as not to be worth the mention, there is a twofold reply. The first reply is that there are more converts than ignorant men know, and that no other field attains a higher percentage. The second reply is that the number of converts is amazing, when we realise the inadequacy of the equipment and the burdens we lay upon our heroic missionaries. Surely, if we will review our indebtedness to the Jewish people, and if we will attempt to conceive what the conversion of this race would mean to the cause of Christ, we shall be silent and ashamed of our past, and be eager to repay some part of the debt we owe to the Jew.

_____

THE GIFT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

By the Rev. WILLIAM DICKIE, D.D.

HOW seldom it crosses the mind of the ordinary reader that he is indebted to the Jewish people for that book which is his principal rule of Christian faith and practice. Many of us read our New Testament with an unconscious elimination of its Jewish features, as if it were written in our mother tongue. It is nevertheless essentially a Jewish book written by Jews and mostly for Jews; with its roots striking deep into Jewish history and tradition; distinctively Jewish in its environment and mentality; dealing with Jewish life in village and city, in synagogue and temple. Jesus Himself was a Jew, and of Him we have four portraits drawn from different angles. The "Acts" are the biographies of two great Jewish missionaries. The Epistles are casual letters written to Christian communities by Jews. The Apocalypse is a Jewish vision of triumph and comfort deriving its form and colour from Jewish sources.

Surely no Christian in any land, who in any tongue reads his New Testament with deliberation, can fail to realise his indebtedness to the Jew for this priceless contribution not only to Christendom but to humanity.

Its Work for Civilisation and Missions.

The magnitude and extent of our debt for the New Testament are impressed upon as when we think of the transcendent part it has played, and is playing, in the civilisation of the world. There is no book which holds a place beside it, not only in the number of copies issued from the press but in the number of different races and peoples among whom it is circulated. The New Testament has an appeal which has demanded its translation into every language and into every dialect in the world; and yet, strange to say, no people has been so much despised and persecuted by the world as the people who produced it?

In the history of Christian missions the New Testament holds a unique position. It is remarkable that its Jewishness has never proved a hindrance to its value as the handbook for the propagation of the Gospel among the heathen. Without editing or comment or exclusion of parts, it can be put into the hands of the most subtile Hindu or of the most savage African. The presentation of the New Testament in the mother tongue of the heathen is the first duty of the missionary. It is the foundation on which the Church is built in every land. It may be said that both at home and abroad the New Testament has been our greatest missionary. There are few missions which cannot say that it has been their most efficient force in evangelisation.

The Book of Jesus Christ.

When we ask why a book written by Jews and mostly for Jews thus carries its appeal to every nation and to every age, and why a book which had its origin in one of the smallest and most exclusive nations, is now recognised everywhere as the highest exposition of personal and social ethics as well as of spiritual religion, only one answer can be given. It deals on every page with Jesus Christ, at once the flower of the Jewish people and the representative of mankind. He lived the human life amidst a Jewish environment, and yet He thought for all ages and planned for them; struck the deepest spiritual chords which vibrate in all hearts, Jew and Gentile, civilised and savage alike. He is the great Universal, the world's Man, the always Contemporary.

Its Universal Characteristics.

We can better understand the unique world-appeal of the New Testament when we note some of its chief characteristics. In its essence it is concerned with the eternal problems which are common to every man's soul. It gives us Christ's answer to the three quests of man—his relation to God, his relation to his neighbours, and his relation to himself. Christ addressed Himself to Jews but in terms of common humanity. The Apostles discovered His message transcended all limits of nationality and time. The New Testament, accordingly, is a book of life and always a living book, searching every man's conscience and dealing with every man's deepest concerns.

Again, the New Testament deals with the eternal principles of life and conduct. It is not a book of rules. From its pages we have to discover the principle and make the rule for ourselves; and we have to surrender ourselves to the Spirit of Christ before we can discover the principle or frame the rule. It is this centrality and inwardness of appeal, this absence of mediateness and mere contemporeity which gives the volume its place as the unique book of the soul.

Though a book dealing with great principles, the New Testament is not a book of abstractions. It is amazingly concrete. It presents us with definite instances in which the principle is applied and enshrined. Even the Sermon on the Mount which expounds many of Christ's greatest spiritual and ethical truths, is strikingly concrete. The same is true of the Epistles. They were not written as handbooks for the guidance of the Churches in after ages.

They were casual letters penned with reference to immediate emergencies which demanded advice or encouragement. Yet we find in them universal principles of Christian conduct and of Church life which can be applied with equal validity in London, Paris, Calcutta, Pekin, Fiji, or Livingstonia as in Jerusalem, Corinth, Ephesus or Rome. It is because the New Testament presents us with the great truths of faith and the great principles of life at work in living instances, though full of local colour and alive with Oriental imagery, that it appeals to the imagination of men everywhere, and stimulates the mind to seek out it inner and eternal significance, which is their open secret, their spirit and life.

The Book of the Soul.

When we regard the New Testament as the book of the soul—the only book of the soul—in our most profound relations to God through Jesus Christ, and through Him to our neighbour and ourselves, we take it at its true and supreme value. We rid ourselves of the idea that it is a book of proof-texts for theological doctrines or ethical theories or social systems. It becomes to us intimate, revealing, heart-searching, soul-winning—a book to read alone with God. And when we remember that the book is the product of the Jewish people, and that the Christ, whose name is writ large on its every page, was Himself a Jew, we realise the debt which we personally, as well as the whole world, owe to that smallest and yet greatest of nations. The debt is one which every Christian at least should delight to honour and to seek to repay.

_____

THE SYNAGOGUE AND THE CHURCH.

By the Rev. W. M. CHRISTIE.

IN Scotland we are so generally well satisfied with the excellent working of our Presbyterian Church organisation that we seldom give a thought to its origin. As a rule we let the statement that we got it from Geneva pass without question, and it is only when some one bewails our lamentable position beyond the pale of the "historic episcopate" and our scant enjoyment of "uncovenanted mercies," or when it is declared that no definite church system has been prescribed, that we venture to "look unto the rock whence we are hewn, and to the pit whence we are digged."

The synagogue was presbyterian, and the Apostles even before they became followers of the Lord Jesus were members of the Presbyterian Church of Israel. Many years later the Apostle James, in speaking of a Christian assembly, calls it a synagogue, and we shall see that in every detail of church government and worship our Church to-day corresponds to the synagogue model.

The Courts of the Church.

All that was necessary to the starting of a synagogue was a company of ten men ever ready to meet at the stated hours of prayer. The eleven in the Upper Room were therefore sufficient to constitute a perfectly legal synagogue of the Nazarenes. From such members a "session" of not fewer than three "elders" was chosen, and one of them had to be learned in the Law. This last, doubtless, corresponded to the officiating "minister," who was elected by the congregation, but who had to be examined and have his qualifications certified by a Commission of the Sanhedrin. He was known in the synagogue as "sheliach hazzibbur," the exact equivalent of "the angel of the Church" (Rev. ii. 1). The session exercised all the powers of church management and ecclesiastical discipline.

There were, however, Courts of Appeal, and a case might be carried from the session to the smaller Sanhedrin, usually of twenty-three members meeting in the larger towns, and corresponding to our Presbytery. A further appeal might be taken to the great Sanhedrin, that is, to the General Assembly. We have thus before us the whole Presbyterian system, including the College Committee and the "Exit Examination."

We can understand also the deliberations described in Acts xv. The matter taken up there was a case of appeal from the Presbytery of Antioch to the General Assembly at Jerusalem. The Presbytery evidently consisted of a number of churches, as, in addition to those of Antioch, its membership embraced "the men of Cyprus and the men of Cyrene," and "Barnabas," together with "Paul and other teachers" (Acts xi. 11, 22-24, 27-28). James was the "Moderator" and the Assembly issued "authoritative decrees," while the churches by their submission, recognised that the authority was competent.

Praise and Prayer.

The services of the synagogue were pretty well fixed at the beginning of the Christian era, and consisted of singing, prayer, reading of the Scriptures, and the sermon. The singing was conducted by the Hazzan or "precentor," but he had various minor duties, and during the week generally acted as teacher of the young—a fact which recalls to our memory the old days when the village "dominie" was master of song on the Sabbath. The music was a kind of cantillation, by means of which the singers were enabled to get ever a far greater number of songs than a modern congregation would care to attempt. The Psalms had the principal place, but "piyutim" or hymns were early introduced, and it is not unlikely that in some of the rhythmic quotations of the New Testament we have fragments of these. The use of the Shophar or ram's horn, too, in certain of the synagogal services shows that in principle and practice instrumental music was recognised, and is consequently no innovation in the Christian Church.

Prayer was at first free but a few sections of what in the Jewish Prayer Book is known as the "Eighteen Benedictions" were already fixed in the time of our Lord. Rabbis in those days had the custom of giving to their disciples a short form of prayer summarising these Benedictions and to this corresponds the form that Christ has transmitted to us in "The Lord's Prayer."

Reading and Preaching.

The readings were from the Law and the Prophets. Till the time of the Maccabees the former only had been used, but during the persecution it was forbidden, and the Jews sought comfort and help in the Prophets, and when the day of liberty dawned they retained the sections from both, thus giving to the synagogue and later to the church "two lessons" at each service. It was the section from the Prophets that Christ read in the synagogue at Nazareth.

The sermon has a curious origin. Its birth-certificate is to be found in Neh. viii. 8. Israel in captivity had forgotten their own Hebrew tongue and had adopted the Aramaic, and their old Bible would be to them a sealed beck unless the leaders "gave the sense" in the common speech. Literal translations was not always sufficient, and further explanation had to be given which, with the lapse of time, led the way to a "running commentary," and finally to the sermonising commentary we find in what the Jews call Midrashim or studies.

The Collection.

But we must not omit the collection. The Jew, fettered by rabbinical rules, could carry no burden on the Sabbath day, and money to the Jew was a burden. Promises, however, were given at the Sabbath services, and the "session treasurer" went round and took up the collection on the Sunday. No change was necessary, for Paul was able to instruct the Christian Church in the enjoyment of Gospel liberty (1 Cor. xvi. 1-3) to see to the collection when they came together on the Christian Sabbath.

All these things we owe to the synagogue, and surely the enjoyment of such liberty and blessing as Presbyterian Christianity has given us implies a debt even to these whom Divine Providence prepared to work it out for us. The synagogal system was hammered out by Israel in blood and tears. The Captivity taught the Jew how to worship God in a strange land without the aid of the central sanctuary. The persecutions under Antiochus aided the formation of our

order of service, and the very beginnings of the Hebrew Prayer Book—the most beautiful liturgy in the world—re-echo the toils and the agonies endured till the synagogal system was completed, suited in the Divine Providence in its democratic and representative workings to meet the conditions of every age and clime.

_____

THE JEWS AND WORLD CULTURE.

THE many sinister associations that have gathered round the name of Jew have done much to obscure the real contribution he has made to the general culture and advancement of the world. Men have emphasised the crookedness of his financial achievements and the artificial social and political position he has reached through the accumulations of wealth he has made. They allege that he exploits nationality and does not hesitate even to promote wars if he may thereby gain some advantage to himself. They call him "The Conquering Jew," and oftentimes fail to realise that the description must indicate advancement for the world as well as for his own race. The prejudice so fostered has done much to discredit what he has actually done in science, art and literature as well as in exploration and discovery. Among the nations of equal size there is perhaps no race that has made a finer addition to the world's roll of fame. Jacob's other name was Israel, and even although it would be unwise to forget men like Trotsky, it is ungenerous not to remember those of the Jewish race who have added to the sum of human happiness and prosperity.

The limited space of an article like this will not allow of even a summary exposition of the genuine achievements of the Jewish people in post-Biblical times: it could easily be filled with a mere list of names of Jews who have been prominent in human service in various spheres. All that can be done is to sketch the broad lines of their beneficent influence and to set down a few of the outstanding names, most of which are known in English-speaking lands to-day.

Government and Discovery.

It is notable that in a realm where Jews have not a native right to exercise their gifts they have excelled. With no government of their own they have proved adequate governors of others. Wherever they have been politically emancipated, they have become prominent in civic and imperial rule. In our own empire at present the Secretary of State for India, the Viceroy of India, the Commissioner of Palestine, and the Governor of Queensland, not to speak of lesser functionaries, are Jews. The influence of Beaconsfield as a statesman is not yet exhausted. Jews are Members of Parliament in the chief States of the world. A Jew has been an Italian Prime Minister, and, mirabile dictu, another was recently Mayor of Rome itself. London has had at least five Jewish Lord Mayors. In short there is no government post, municipal, judicial or imperial, for which a Jew has not proved his fitness.

It would have been strange if the Jew, who in the Christian centuries has been a wanderer either by choice or by compulsion, had not sometimes regulated his propensity, and become an accurate and scientific traveller and explorer. Several have made notable contributions to geographical knowledge—in Arabia, Turkestan, Mesopotamia, Serbia and Greenland. At the beginning of last century Hermann Burchardt carried out remarkable journeys among the Arab peoples. In recent days Arminius Vamb��ry explored unknown tracts in Asia, while Emin Pasha (whose real name was Eduard Schnitzer) opened up certain of the African Lakes. Nansen and Sven Hedin have a mixed Jewish origin and share that distinction with Columbus himself.

Music and Literature.

Wagner, who is now known to have been a Jew, declared that Jews were devoid of musical genius, but both as instrumentalists

and composers they have risen to the front rank. All recognise such names as Mendelssohn, Joachim, Paderewski, Rubenstein and Sir Frederic Cowen.

Among those who have made a reputation in literature, perhaps Heine, the German lyrist, stands first. So many Jews have written in German that some have spoken of German literature as being in danger of becoming "Judaised." One of the greatest of modern critics was Georges Brandes who was of Danish nationality but who had to leave the country to escape persecution for his literary theories, to be received back again with signal honours. In our own land we have as living authors of note, Sir Sidney Lee, the editor of that most British work, the "Dictionary of National Biography;" Israel Zangwill, novelist, dramatist, poet and essayist; Sir Isaac Gollanz, the Shakespearean scholar, not to speak of many a lesser light. Zionism has given a new motif to literary expression, and there is no saying what may yet be expected. Fischer of Berlin and Calmann L��vy of Paris are publishers of world-wide reputation.

Art.

It would not have been astonishing if there had been no great Jewish artists. The misreading of the commandment as well as an almost total absence of art in their national history would account for the defect. Yet we do find notable Jewish names among those who have used chisel and brush. The highest name in modern Dutch art is probably Josef Israels. The statuary of Epstein—notably his "Christ"—and of Glicenstein have recently been much in the public mind. Copies of the pictures of Munkacsy, the Hungarian painter of "Christ before Pilate," as well as those of Hermann Goetze, the artist of "Despised and Rejected of Men," hang on many of our walls. Solomon J. Solomon is a Jew, and Marion H. Spielmann, the art critic, is of the same race.

Among miscellaneous workers we have such men as the philosophers Spinoza and Bergson; economists like Karl Marx; Joseph Wertheimer the educationist who suggested kindergarten for young children; Zamenhof, who invented Esperanto; and among scientists, Einstein, the discoverer of the doctrine of Relativity. There is probably no field of human knowledge or experience where Jews have not been prominent. The names of women, curiously enough, seldom occur. It is therefore well to set down that of Sara Bernhardt. Since their institution, at least six Jews have been awarded Nobel prizes.

Recent Workers.

As indicating, not merely the value of the Jewish contribution to human culture but also its wide distribution, the following may be quoted from the "Obituary" in The Jewish Chronicle for the Jewish year, 5682, which ended on 2nd October, 1921. Deaths abroad during that year included "the great philanthropist, Jacob Schiff; the brilliant writer, Joseph Reinach; Ernesto Nathan, the Jewish Mayor of Rome; Prof. Morris Jastrow, Professor of Semitic Languages and Librarian of the University of Pennsylvania; Dr. Simon Baruch, physician and surgeon, New York; Prof. Gabriel Lippmann, the eminent physicist; David Coblentz, a communal and charitable worker in Paris; Alfred Neymarck, the political economist; Naphtali Freedman, a member of the Duma; Rudolf Mosse, publisher; Abram S. Isaacs, Professor of Semitic Languages in New York; Prof. Marcus Brann and Rabbi Dr. Samson Hochfeld, of Berlin." The list for Britain includes Sir Bernard Oppenheimer, who instituted diamond workshops for disabled soldiers; Sir Robert Nathan, a distinguished member of a great Jewish family; Sir Felix Semon, the eminent laryngologist; Mr. Arthur Strauss, formerly M.P. for North Paddington; and Sir Ernest Cassel, the eminent financier and philanthropist.

In recording the name of Sir Ernest Cassel the Chronicle regrets that he "had long rejected the faith and race to which he was born" and that "his career is symbolic of the

great drift from Jewish life, which is the weakness and the misfortune of the Jewish race." As Christians we believe that however great have been the benefactions of the Jewish people to the human race, they have failed to render service where they were most fitted to give it—in the sphere of religion, and that when they receive their Messiah all the benefits they have already bestowed will be insignificant for their contribution then will be nothing less than "life from the dead."

_____

PAYMENT IN PART.

A THREE MONTHS' RECORD.

IN our December issue the proposal to open a Mission to the Jews in Transylvania was referred to. Since then a further step has been taken. The Committee have definitely decided to go forward, subject to the condition that a guarantee of funds be secured. Several sums have already come to hand, and a statement regarding the needs of Transylvania and our invitation to enter it has now been issued to the members of the Church. All that is required is eighty promises of ?5 for each of five years. Surely this is well within the means of the Church. Some Sunday Schools or Bible Classes, Women's Associations, or Congregations, as well as individuals, may wish to have a stake in the work of evangelising the quarter of a million Jews who live in this most interesting land without any missionary at all in their midst. The Editors will be happy to hear from any wishing to help, and will receive sums of any amount, as well as promises covering a period of years, for the opening up of this new Mission Field.

Regarding Budapest, there has been general rejoicing in Hungary that Mr. Beveridge is going out as Senior Missionary. In connection with his acceptance of the call, a very unusual thing occurred, but one which should give him and all interested in the evangelisation of Eastern Europe satisfaction and stimulus. Two days after it became known that Mr. Beveridge had accepted the appointment, the Aberdeen Free Press devoted a leading article to our new missionary, the work he has already done, and the duty he is undertaking. He means to begin at Budapest on 12th March, and on the invitation of the Committee Professor Macgregor has kindly consented to proceed to Budapest for his induction. The last such function at Budapest was in 1911 when Dr. Wells, Moderator of Assembly, inducted Mr. Campbell.

Our workers, after two winters of starvation from lack of fuel, are rejoicing in the results of the new heating-system which has been installed. Work in all branches progresses comfortably and satisfactorily. The pupils number 534, of whom 378 are Jewish. The Girls' Home has 40 full boarders and 16 day-boarders. The numbers attending Sunday School have also increased. At Christmas time the Women's Association held its annual festival and provided nearly 200 of the very poorest people with gifts of clothing, which members had made. The membership of this Association is now over 100, and of these three-fourths are Jewesses or Jewish-Christian women. The average attendance at their weekly gatherings is about seventy. In the course of the year eighteen new members were added to the Church.

At Constantinople rapid progress is being made under Mr. Morrison's leadership. The number of pupils in school is 290, of whom seventy-five per cent. are Jewish. Unfortunately neither an assistant master nor an assistant mistress has been found; there is work waiting for them in one of the most interesting and important missionary spheres in the world. A company of Girl Guides and a troup of Boy Scouts have

been formed, and the Old Boys' Club continues to prosper. The condition of the large number of Russian Jewish refugees, who wander the streets of Constantinople, is most lamentable; cases of plague have been reported and typhoid has been prevalent. To help to relieve distress among these poor Jews the Committee sent a small grant recently—all that was left in the Special War Fund.

We are happy to learn from Hebron that Dr. Paterson's health, which was causing great anxiety at the time of our last issue, has been restored. The workers at this Station had a much-needed holiday over the Christmas season.

From Tiberias, Dr. D. W. Torrance reports that repairs and alterations have now been carried out and everything is at last in working order in the old hospital. The labour involved has been great. The equipping of the Women's and Children's hospital is now being attended to. Last year no less a sum than ?1,159 was received from patients for fees, and Dr. Torrance expects that the new hospital will be practically self-supporting. He inquires whether some generous donors would not provide Tiberias with a motor ambulance, as the suffering endured by patients during transport to the hospital is terrible.

The native evangelist and the bible-woman carry on their quiet but effective work. At Christmas the Institution was the scene of unwonted happenings. A lady interested in Tiberas kindly provided what was needed for a Christmas treat. The amount was sufficient to cover many requirements. Patients received gifts and could scarcely believe that the articles gifted were "to keep." The whole native staff was remembered. And, chief thing of all, the maimed, the halt, the blind were gathered together and feted as never in their lives before. Blessings were called down upon the kindly Scottish lady for her practical Christian sympathy.

At Safed, Mr. Semple has got work into swing and sees reason to be satisfied with the prospects of the Boys' High School. He has 47 pupils on the roll, and a Hostel has also been successfully started with Mrs. Semple as honorary Matron. Recognition of this enterprise has already come from high quarters, for Colonel Cox, the Governor of Galilee, went up from Nazareth formally to declare the school open. If this work is to prosper as it deserves to do, Mr. Semple must not be left so short-staffed. The English master so urgently needed has not yet been found. Are there no volunteers? It may also be noted that none has yet come forward with the ?10 bursaries asked for, nor has anyone offered so far the magic lantern and accessories which would be such an acquisition for the work. It may be mentioned that the Women's Jewish Mission Committee hope to open a High School for Girls in Safed next autumn.

Regarding the work at Glasgow, Mr. Christie reports that apart from a couple of days at the New Year, the mission premises were open every night since the last report. This now includes Saturdays, as a number of the Bible Training Institute Students have on these evenings conducted a Social Hour, especially for young men like themselves. They have also given other help, and carried on out-door meetings as far as possible. Miss Stewart, who for a lengthened period did Gospel and Rescue Work is now the Church Sister. Her past experience is already proving of value, and both young and old have "taken to her." Influenza and unemployment may be said to be epidemic in the district, and from the former many of the young folks have suffered. We have had considerable difficulty during the past two months through the persistence of the slum children around, mostly Roman Catholics, seeking admission to our meetings. They have come in scores, but to work among them is "not our business," and to admit them would mean that the Jews would be driven away. It seems there is work for somebody here.

From time to time in these notes reference has been made to the Jews: Special War Fund and the Hungarian Relief Fund. It will interest our readers to know that both have

been highly successful. For the first, a total of ?25,612 was received, and, besides serving to relieve the appalling distress among Jews in various countries during the war, it is by means of this Fund that it was possible to set our Jewish Mission work agoing once more. For the second of the two Funds the receipts amounted to no less a sum than ?25,578, and hereby the naked in Eastern Europe have been clothed, the hungry fed, the diseased healed, and many saved from death. A remarkable feature of these Funds is the extraordinarily small amount required for their administration. The gross sum of ?51,190 was raised and distributed at a cost of less than 4 per cent. Although the Funds for technical reasons have been officially closed, readers may note that the needs are still very great, and arrangements have been made to remit sums for relief, if these are sent to the Jewish Mission Secretary.

_____

MATTERS OF MOMENT.

Jews and the New Testament.

A considerable storm has been raging in Jewish circles over the audacious and unwonted procedure of one of their ministers. It appears that the leader of Hampstead Synagogue has outraged every Jewish feeling by consenting to expound the writings of St. Mark, not for the purpose of inculcating any truths the gospel might contain but simply to indicate from it how the Jewish attitude of antagonism to Christianity might be sustained. From a educational point of view it was a laudable enterprise and had the Chief Rabbi's approval. The action of the minister, however, has been denounced as "without precedent in Jewish history," ''playing with fire" and ''a fallacious expedient," while a few have spoken of it as "a courageous effort." The storm of protest proved too strong for the teacher and the expositions were brought to an end, not before hard things had been said of the Chief Rabbi for countenancing such unorthodox proceedings. The whole incident is only another example of the nervous condition to which fanatical Jewry is reduced when it is brought face to face with Christianity. It distrusts contact with Christianity as Roman Catholics do the distribution of the Bible. It fears the appeal which Christ makes, and it knows that knowledge of the gospel means loss to the synagogue. Such an obscurantist policy defeats itself in the end, but it also indicates what the Christian Church ought to do. The closer the contact of the Christian with the Jew by means of sermon, interview and literature the greater the likelihood of conversions.

The Balfour Declaration.

Nothing in the history of Zionism has caused more perplexity and disappointment to Jews than the terms of Mr. Balfour's Declaration of 2nd November, 1917. It declared that the British Government "viewed with favour the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people." Without much consideration of the actual terms of the Declaration Zionists rushed to the conclusion that this meant the handing over of Palestine exclusively to the Jewish people; that a Jewish commonwealth was sooner or later to be established; that all other nationalities were to occupy a subsidiary place in the new state; that, in short, Palestine was to "become as Jewish as England is English." Many things tended to give the enthusiasts pause as the months passed. There were repeated statements by persons in authority that the favour had no such all-inclusive meaning, and the native Arabs made strong protest against the assumption. Gradually Zionists were coming to recognise that the promise was not so extensive as they had imagined

and some of them saw in the fact the debacle of Judaism itself. A fillip has again been given to their hopes by a speech Mr. Balfour made in America on 11th January. Dispassionately examined it adds nothing to what has already been said. There is no more precise definition of what the "National Home" implies and there is no extension of the terms of the Declaration. "I stand to-day," says Mr. Balfour, "where I stood when I made the Declaration in 1917, that Palestine should be the National Home of the Jews." If the extremists can discover hope in such a saying they certainly have zeal without knowledge.

The Jew in English Literature.

Rabbi Salis Daiches of Edinburgh has discovered another mare's nest. This time it is the iniquitous proceeding of a Glasgow secondary school in studying, in a mixed class of Jewish and non-Jewish girls, a prose version of Chaucer's Prioress's Tale. The tale is an old-world legend that a little boy was foully murdered by Jews because, as Chaucer says, they were stirred up thereto by "the serpent Satan that hath in Jew's heart his wasp's nest." The Rabbi finds in the story a possible incentive to hatred of Judaism and its professors, and indignantly demands that the book containing it should be withdrawn from circulation. No one can detest anything that would lead to anti-Semitism more than the writer, but surely this is carrying protest too far. Jews themselves are never weary at the present time of relating the murder of Jews by Christians from religious animosity, and their papers are filled with accounts of the truly devilish deeds in Russia and Poland during recent years. But there must be no whisper that murder may also be done from similar motives on Christians by Jews. Least of all can this be done under the guise of the study of English literature. There is no question here of the infamous charge of ritual murder: it is an ordinary sordid slaughter by fanatics. The Rabbi must be reminded that Jews are not a century old in Glasgow; that they require to conform to what is befitting in the land of their sojourn; that the citizens of Glasgow have to complain of many foreign and anti-Christian practices introduced into the city by his co-religionists; and that English literature cannot be expurgated to suit Jewish palates any more than it can be edited to eliminate possible offence to any other nationality. We owe a debt to Israel, but it cannot be paid by rewriting English literature.

_____

SIDE-LIGHTS ON JUDAISM.

Jews and Christian Science.

An American Rabbi has become alarmed at the number of Jews who are drifting towards this, one of the latest American "fancy" religions, and he has been searching about for a reason. He has published his conclusions in a pamphlet entitled "Why Jews turn to Christian Science." He finds in it no trace of "true idealism" but only "gross materialism" for Christian Science deals only with the comfort of the body and has no message for the soul. He condemns those Jews who think that they can maintain their Judaism and yet accept the new teaching—a view which a Jewish reviewer of the pamphlet says "no doubt arises from the well-known characteristic of the Jew, desiring to have the best of both worlds in everything." Perhaps the most noteworthy confession the Rabbi makes "refers to the failure of the synagogue to satisfy the spiritual longings of the Jews." " I believe that Jews have turned to Christian Science," he says, "because there is among American Jews to-day a very real spiritual hunger and unrest, a hunger which orthodoxy, as it is, cannot satisfy, an unrest which Liberal or Reform Judaism does not avail to compose,

a hunger and unrest which are due in no small part to an explicable and even justified discontent with the synagogue, Orthodox and Liberal alike." Christians surely can rejoice at this hunger for it at least aids them to point to that Bread of Life, of which if a man eat, he shall never hunger again.

A Medi?val Survival.

The persecution sustained by Jews in the Spanish Peninsula is well-known. The Inquisition made bloody holocausts of them and as a people they were deported wholesale. Numbers of them to escape were fain to profess a nominal Christianity. but the fact that they had 'verted was remembered by the name given to them—"Converts" or "New Christians." It is interesting to know that certain of their descendants are still to be found in Portugal. Though outwardly conforming to the Christianity of the land they have maintained their separateness and individuality. "In appearance there is no mistaking the Jewishness of these people," says a recent visitor to them. "They marry for the most part among themselves, and are of the classic Sephardi type. They are very conscious of their Jewish nationality and have preserved very distinct Jewish traditions. They keep the Sabbath, for instance; light an oil lamp on Friday night; observe the Day of Atonement, and Passover. On the other hand, they know nothing of circumcision, nor of the other Jewish festivals. They know that pork is not Kasher; the old people do not eat it at all. But in view of the fact that it constitutes the principal food of the Province they do not abstain altogether, it being merely taboo on Sabbaths and Passover and forty days before the Day of Atonement. They also abstain from hare and fish without scales. On Passover they eat unleavened bread, which they call 'Holy Bread.'" It is a strange mixture, but were circumstances favourable for evangelising, as they now appear to be in Portugal under the new regime, it should not be difficult to carry these interesting people into the fold of a pure Christianity.

Christian Converts to Judaism.

The Church has ever concentrated its attention on the desirability of converting Jews to Christianity but has practically never faced the possibility of Christians becoming Jewish in faith. Yet there have been examples of such proselytes. Perhaps no great stress should be laid on the case of Lord George Gordon, of the notorious "Gordon Riots" of 1780, who in his later years became a convert to Judaism; he otherwise gave abundant evidence of mental eccentricity. But there have been other examples though the number of them is but small. Recently the daughter of a well-known Scottish professor threw in her lot with Jewry. Mabon who was of Jewish descent but had been brought up as a Christian, returned to the Jewish fold. The great majority, however, of those who take the backward step are those who at one time or other professed conversion from Judaism to Christianity, or who, being Christians, married Jews and conformed to the religion of their spouses. Repentant Jews have to be baptised by immersion before they are admitted to their former status, and many of them lie down at the synagogue gates and allow their more faithful brethren to walk over them to shew their abhorence of their apostacy.

The Fifty-third of Isaiah

One of the most interesting of Old Testament passages for Christians must ever be Isaiah liii., and its interpretation must be of continuous importance for them. Hence "The Servant of Jehovah," just published by the Rev. David Baron, of the Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel Mission is attractive. Mr. Baron who is a well known Biblical expositor and is himself a convert from Judaism, precedes his valuable treatise with an account of the various Jewish interpretations of the prophecy. The stumbling block in the way is

the idea of a suffering Messiah. Early Rabbinic writers show much diversity of opinion though some interpret the passage as Messianic. Later there is a tendency to lay more stress on this view. Maimonides, for example, whose authority among Jews stands high, says that the passage "was given of God" to be a test of the genuineness of any claimant. Modern Jewish interpretations, however, refer the prophecy to the nation as a whole. Reason for this conclusion is found in the repugnance of Rabbinic wisdom to accept the idea of an expiatory Messiah, the loss of the key which the death of Jesus affords and the flattery which the theory involves for the Jewish people. Mr. Baron retorts that the interpretation is fallacious because historically Israel's suffering was not vicarious, voluntary or unresisting. He concludes that the omission of the prophecy from public reading is proof of "the bad conscience of the Synagogue" in the whole matter.

_____

UNIVERSITIES AT JERUSALEM.

THE erection of a Jewish University at Jerusalem reminds a Jewish writer of the tradition that at the destruction of the city by Titus in 70 A.D., Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai, feigning death, was carried in a coffin from Jerusalem to the camp of Titus without. That great Rabbi, the "Father of Wisdom," must have seen with the eye of the true prophet that the Jews were in danger of being stamped out. On his meeting Titus face to face therefore he did not ask for pity or suggest that the hand of the conqueror should rest lightly on the conquered: he pleaded that the little town of Jabneh should he spared. At Jabneh he erected what we should call today a Hebrew University, where the flame of Jewish teaching and learning was kept alive. A preacher had exclaimed "May the Redeemer come unto Zion speedily and in our day," and this writer, reporting the saying added: "The Redeemer of Zion—perhaps that may be the University of Jerusalem!" If the Messiah has become a University, and that University excludes the truth that the Messiah came nineteen centuries ago, what hope is there that that search for truth for which Universities stand will have its place in its curriculum? And if the preservation of the Jewish people depends on its zeal for learning what hope is there for the continuance of a race that deliberately excludes the truth?

New Publications.

The Committee have just published the following pamphlets and their perusal is earnestly recommended to all interested in the complex, but interesting, Jewish Question: "Compassion for Israel," by Rev. Joseph Trail, B.D., Rothesay; "Our Jewish Mission Cause," by Rev. G. Gordon Cameron, B.D., Bathgate; "The Veiled Face of Jewry or Jewish Objections to Christianity," by Rev. W. J. Couper, M.A., Glasgow; and "Jewish Needs and Missionary Methods," by Rev. Wm. Beveridge, M.A. Budapest.

THE "REGISTER FUND."—Since last issue, in addition to the Annual Subscription, the following sums have been received as donations in aid of the circulation:—A Friend, Aberdeen, Miss Miller, ?1; Miss Fraser, Mr. W. Gibson, Rev. J. A. Irvine, Mr. J. Nairn Marshall, Dr. Keppie Paterson, 9/-; Mrs. Binnie, Rev. J. M'K. Campbell, Professor Macgregor, Rev. G. S. M'Leod, Rev. J. Robertson, Miss J. W. Soutter, 4-/; Mr. J. D. Rose, 3/-; Rev. R. Birkett, Mrs. Burness, Miss Fithie, Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs. M'Intosh, Mrs. Macmorran, Miss Steele, 2/-; Miss Allan, Miss Band, Rev. J. Cables, Rev. W. Calder, Rev. P. A. G. Clark, Rev. J. H. Deas, Rev. F. Gordon, Mr. R. Gourlay, Mr. John Gray, Mrs. J. C. Gray, Dr. Hannington, Dr. R. A. Lendrum, Miss Marshall, Rev. J. Marr, Miss Macgregor, Rev. D. M. Macleod, Rev. A. J. Macnicol, Mrs. M'K. Newton, Mrs. Robertson, Rev. N. C. Robertson, Rev. R. Small, Mr. J. Small, Rev. A. L. Skene, Mr. D. Smith, Rev. T. C. Still, Rev. W. Todd, Mrs. Webster, Rev. Q. D. Whyte, Miss Williamson, 1/6; Rev. J. Allan, Rev. A. Beaton, Mr. A. Beveridge, Rev. D. Davidson, Rev. J. Dunn, Miss Brown Douglas, Miss E. Irvine, Mrs. Lamberton, Mrs. M'Crie, Rev. D. S. Maclachlan, Mr. G. A. Moody, Mrs. Pedersen, Rev. J. W. Purves, Rev. T. P. Rankine, Rev. A. M. Scott, Mrs. Steel, Miss Symington, Rev. J. Thomson, Mrs. Weir, Professor Welch, Mrs. Wood, 1/-.