THE JEWISH ADVOCATE.

MARCH, 1852.

THE FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE JEWS.

PROPHECY.

II.

IN our quotations from the prophecies respecting the Jewish nation, we shall not attempt any lengthened exposition of the passages brought forward. Those who are opposed to the literal restoration of the Jews, either apply the prophecies which speak of their return to their land, or of their restoration, to their going back from Babylon, or treat them as allegorical, and attempt to apply the bright parts of them to the Christian Church. We shall simply shew that neither of these applications can be made of the prophecies which we now proceed to quote in their chronological order.

The first Prophet who has left us any express prophecy concerning the dispersion of the Israelites, and their final restoration, is Moses.*

* "Observations on the Prophecies relating to the Restoration of the Jews,' by Joseph Eyre, Esq., originally published in 1771.

I.

Levit. xxvi. 32. " And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it.

33. "And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after and you, land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.

your

44. "And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am JEHOVAH* their God.

45. "But I will for their sakest remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am Jehovah."

Here we have a promise of not abhorring or utterly destroying them; but of remembering the covenant which the Lord made with their an ́cestors, &c. Now the purport of this covenant we find, Gen. xiii. 14, 15, And the Lord said unto Abram, Lift up thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward, and eastward and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed For

EVER.

So it ought to be translated, not only here, but in all other places of the Old Testament, where the same word occurs; Jehovah being the proper name which God had assumed, to be distinguished by from all other lords and gods.

The words, their sakes, here mean the sakes of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, mentioned ver. 42. Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember, and I will remember the land.

Now how this covenant can be said to be remembered, if Israel is to continue dispersed, and to be for ever excluded from the land here spoken of, is what we can by no means conceive. As to the return from the Babylonish captivity, it will not at all answer the intent of the promise. Because the being restored to their own land for a few ages, and afterwards for nearly four times as long a period being dispersed among all nations, without any hopes of a return, can never be the true meaning of giving that land to the seed of Abram for ever.

II.

Deut. iv. 27. "And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, &c.

29. "But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shall find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

30. "When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient to his voice:

31. ("For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which he sware unto them."

This prophecy, as appears by verse 30, relates to the latter days, which in Scripture generally signify the times after the coming of Christ; and, therefore, cannot be applied to the return from the Babylonish captivity.

III.

Deut. xxx. 1. "And it shall come to pass when all these things come upon thee, the blessing and

the curse that I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee,

2. "And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice, according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul;

3. "That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.

4. "If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee.

5. "And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it: and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers."

Among the things which should come upon them, which are described at large in the two preceding chapters, it is particularly said, verse 64, chap. xxviii., And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other. Therefore this captivity, from which the Lord will bring them back, cannot be the Babylonian; during which, they were very far from being scattered among all people from one end of the earth to the other. Observe farther, verse 5, that the Lord promises to do them good, and to multiply them above their fathers; which last circumstance does not appear to have been their case, during the time that they possessed their land, after the return from Babylon.

HISTORICAL NOTICES OF THE MISSIONS OF THE SOCIETY.

CENTRAL PRUSSIA.

Berlin.

IN our Historical Notices* of the Missions of the Society, we come now to the important station, the name of which stands at the head of this article.

"BERLIN may be considered as a central point from whence the movements, in these days, towards reform in Judaism, proceed. Many of the Jews at Berlin are intelligent and clever men, as well as highly respectable in their character and the position which they fill in society. These circumstances tend to give weight to their views and wishes respecting the changes, which they desire to make in the worship of the Synagogue and which have caused much division in the Jewish community.

"The worship of the Reformed Jews at Berlin can hardly be called Jewish. Only two or three Hebrew phrases occur in the whole service, which, with the organ and choir constantly chaunting, resembles the Roman Catholic worship more than any thing else.

"This district contains about 37,000 Jews, in the following proportions: Brandenburg, 18,000; part of Pomerania, 4,200; Province of Saxony, 5,500; Kingdom of Saxony, 1,000; Brunswick, 2,000; Saxon Principalities, 6,500; besides the important casual accession of the numbers who assemble from all countries, at the great fairs of

Historical Notices, published by the Society.