it can only be stitched up after the thirty days, but never thoroughly repaired. The coffin being now closed, and covered with a black cloak, the corpse is carried to the grave, when the funeral procession follows. No female is permitted to join. In older times females formed a separate procession; and lamentations were chorally sung by them and the males. The females and the music are now, however, entirely dispensed with. As it is considered a meritorious act to assist in the interment of the dead, the Jewish funerals are generally numerous; and every one is expected to aid, were it but for a few steps, to convey the deceased to his last resting place. When they arrive at the burial ground, the coffin is carried into a hall built for the purpose, called Beth Chaïim, i.e., house of the living. The coffin is then opened, to see whether anything has been displaced; if so, it is adjusted. The lid being again closed, the rabbi repeats a prayer on the occasion. The corpse is then carried on a bier towards the grave. When they have advanced a few paces, they put it down, and all present say as follows: "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has formed you (the dead) in judgment; fed and cherished you in judgment; and killed you in judgment; and knowest the number of you all in judgment; and in a future time wilt cause you to live again in judgment. Blessed art thou, O Lord, the restorer of life to the dead." The corpse is then carried forward to the grave, which lies from north to south; and whilst it is lowered into the earth, those present say, Let it come in peace to its appointed place." Returning from the grave, each plucks some grass and says, "They shall 66 spring forth from the city, as the grass of the earth;" after which they wash their hands at a pump which has been erected for that purpose, and say, "He (the Messiah) will swallow up death for ever; and the Lord God will wipe away all tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people will He remove from off all the earth; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." HISTORY OF A YOUNG CONVERT. A YOUNG BELIEVER. ANOTHER of those lately baptized at Warsaw is Sarah, now Caroline Auguste, a young Jewess aged eighteen years, who was brought up in great ignorance, but anxious to be better informed. She had been for four years in the service of a reader in the synagogue, but in consequence of her wages being withheld by her master on the ground of a pretended and unfounded charge that she had spoiled or defiled his kitchen utensils by trepha (viz., unclean) meat, she left her situation and went to the house of a Gentile neighbour, a Roman Catholic, expressing her wish to become a Christian. This neighbour, however, said to her, "If you wish to become a Christian, don't become a Roman Catholic, for then you would only get from one mess into another; but come with me to a friend, and he will direct you better than I can." This friend was a Protestant Christian, a nice old man, and a regular attendant at our prayer and missionary meetings at the Institution, where I used to see him always in the same place, and very attentive. To him they went, and he brought them directly to me, saying, "Sir, we have brought you a Jewess who wishes to become a Christian; we commit her into your hands." So saying, they were going to leave, when I stopped them to ascertain further particulars about her. They gave me an account of her history as above stated, for the Roman Catholic had known her for some time, and gave her a good character; and having heard the whole, and knowing also how much ignorance there is among the Jews on the subject of the differences between Christian communities, I first stated the various points on which Roman Catholics and Protestants were agreed, and then also gave an account of the various points of difference, in the correctness of which the Roman Catholic, who had listened all the while, fully concurred. After this I said to the Jewess, "You have now heard what the views of Roman Catholics and Protestants are with regard to Christianity, if you now wish to become a Christian, which will you prefer?" She immediately said, "I wish to become a Christian according to the Protestants." This being settled, I enquired whether she had a passport and her daily tax receipt, which every Jew or Jewess requires who is not a native of Warsaw. The poor girl had got neither, and I was obliged to tell her to get first these necessary documents, as else we could not give her instruction without great risk. The result of her application was, that for want of a passport, and for neglect and inability to pay the arrears and fines of the daily tax, she was arrested, and after having spent a most miserable life in prison for a whole week, with a mixed multitude of thieves and vagabonds, all sleeping on the bare ground, she was sent to her native town in the North of Poland, having to walk all the way by the side of a Cossack who was on horseback. After a month she walked back to Warsaw, provided with a passport obtained at her native place, and presented it to me with great delight, thinking that now all was right; but the passport ought to have been delivered at the gate of the city where she entered, and for having neglected this, and also in consequence of the arrears of the former daily tax and fines remaining unpaid, she was again arrested and put in prison for a week, in order to be passed again to her native place, under the escort of a Cossack. Her sufferings in prison were great, and she was in the deepest distress, but as at last I ascertained the rights of the case why she was imprisoned, and that by paying to a Jew who had farmed the tax, all his demands, she would be set at liberty, I got this matter settled through the aid of a respectable inquirer. The poor girl got released at the moment when she was just about to be carried off again by the Cossack, who was already mounted on his horse, she standing by his side in the courtyard, and when she was really at liberty and placed in clean lodgings with a Protestant couple, her joy was unspeakable. She burst into tears, and hardly knew any bounds to her gratitude. She was now taken under regular instruction by Brother Becker, as I was then on the eve of leaving Poland, and after due preparation for three months, she was baptized by the Rev. Mr. Spleszynski on the 30th July, in the Protestant Church, in the presence of a large congregation who had assembled to witness the interesting ceremony. One of the missionary families have kindly received her into their house, in order to teach and qualify her better for service in Christian families. That secret inquirer, who interested himself so much in poor Sarah's case, and by his personal exertions got her release, has since become a regular candidate for baptism. He was a worldly-minded young man, who was brought up by his so-called enlightened parents in entire ignorance of religion, but my frequent conversations with him opened his eyes and excited a desire to know the Gospel. He had to endure much persecution from his rich relatives, which at one time made him again stagger in his resolution, but yet he perseveres, and is now preparing for baptism under Mr. Becker. MOUNT HERMON.* HAVE you ever wondered why Mount Hermon should have so many different names in Scripture? Sometimes simply Hermon. Then BaalHermon, Sirion and Shenir, names given it by the Sidonians and Amorites. Again, Sion, which is translated by the Samaritans as "Snowy Mountain." It is true that from such texts as Joshua xiii. 11, you perceive the reason of this from the words, "All Mount Hermon"! But a view of the mountain fully explains the enigma. It is not a conical mountain, like Tabor, with one high sum * From Van de Velde's Narrative of a Journey through Syria and Palestine. |