Poetry.

HYMN FOR THE JEWS.

LORD, in these latter days

May showers of blessings fall,
And Israel join in psalms of praise
To GOD, who rules o'er all.

May all so bright foretold,
The future pathway gild;
And visions seen by prophets old,
Be happily fulfilled!

After a night of grief,

May joy at morn arise:
Comfort and glad relief

On all the nations rise.

Chiefly on Zion's hill,

Whose sides thou dost adorn,
With every laughing vale and rill,
And sheaves of ripening corn.

And from that hallowed Mount,
"The joy of all the earth,"
Salvation flow as from a fount,
And heavenly dew have birth.

From thence to all around
Shall all the people raise;

And pealing anthems loud resound,
With thankful songs of praise.

S. SHEPHERD.

Chelsea, Nov. 11, 1853.

NO JEW A CHRISTIAN ?

In reply to the extraordinary assertion, that no Jew ever became a sincere Christian.

No Jew a Christian ?— Will they own,
St. Paul was born a Jew ?1
The blest apostles-every one!
The Blessed Saviour, too?

Think how the passover He kept ;2
Fulfilling there His Word!3
How o'er Jerusalem HE wept ; *
Her own, her pitying LORD!

2

True son of Abraham; who joyed
To see his Saviour's Day;5
Whose faith supplied the present void,
And blessed the coming Ray.

While Moses caught the promise clear,
And spread its glorious light,
The howling wilderness to cheer-6
Were they not Christians bright ?

And he who walks with Moses still-
(The only real Jew!)

His Law, his Prophets, to fulfil—
Will soon be Christian too!7

Christian and Jew! for life and death,
In Christ, their root, "Both One!"s
Read, then, "O ye of little faith!"
And every doubt disown.

London: Printed at the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution, Palestine Place, Bethnal Green.

THE JEWISH ADVOCATE.

FEBRUARY, 1854.

THE ANNUAL LETTER FROM THE BISHOP OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, AT JERUSALEM.

THE good Bishop Gobat, following the example of the late Bishop Alexander, sends an annual letter to Christians in England, giving an account of the work which, under the divine blessing, is being carried on in Jerusalem, amongst both Jews and Gentiles. In the letter which has just been published, there is much that is deeply interesting about the spread of the Gospel amongst the superstitious and ignorant people called Christians, in Jerusalem and in other places in the East; but our limits only allow us to record what the Bishop writes about the Society's work amongst the Jews. On this important subject the Bishop's letter says:

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There is scarcely any new feature worth mentioning, either in the general character of the Jews here, or in our relations with them. There are still many Jews to whom we have no access; many, especially the rabbies, who still entertain a deep aversion and hatred to Christ and Christi

anity, as well as to the missionaries; and yet, upon the whole, the prejudices of the mass are being gradually softened; an imperfect knowledge of the truths of Christianity is insensibly spreading; and it is surprising to discover how many Jews there are who seem to be intellectually convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, or, as they more readily express it, that Christianity is at least as good as Judaism; but, attachment to relatives, the habit of dead forms, and the love of sin, prevent them from making any good progress. We have had a good many of this kind for months under regular instruction without any apparent benefit. Sometimes on discovering their hypocrisy and wickedness, we feel it our duty to separate altogether from them: at other times they themselves, seeing that they do not better their condition by their connection with us, return to the Jews; now and then they go to the Roman Catholics, in hope of some temporal advantages; but I believe they do not gain much by the change, even in a temporal point of view. They get their food and lodging, as with us, as long as they go on tolerably well. This is the least which can be done for inquirers, as long as they are supposed to be sincere; considering that from the moment they are known to inquire after the truth of Christianity, they are all, almost without exception, so absolutely destitute of all things that they must be fed gratuitously, or starve.

"At the present time there are some young men among our inquirers under instruction who promise to become living members of the body of Christ, vessels of mercy, and perhaps, (may God grant it!) instruments of blessing in the hands of their Saviour, to carry His name and commend it

*

by a holy life among their brethren after the flesh. Since last letter, seven adult Jews have been my received into our Church by baptism, two of whom, I regret to say, have not done well; while I believe that the remaining five are walking, in some measure, in a manner worthy of their calling. If we were as anxious to multiply the number of our proselytes, whatever their character might be, as we are sometimes represented, we could baptize them by dozens every year; but we are more and more convinced that, in order not to fill our Church with chaff, we must submit our inquirers, even the most promising, to a longer period of probation, before admitting them into the Church.

"Several of our proselytes have died, and others have left, so that the number remains very much the same. Two or three of them prove by their zeal in the cause of Christ, and in general by their whole behaviour, that they are under the influence of sanctifying grace. Others, I believe the largest class, live orderly, are regular in attending the means of grace, and endeavour to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow; but they are weak, and need a greater measure of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. A third class I fear consists of tares, who for some time had the appearance of wheat, but now prove by their lives that they have brought over with them many bitter roots of Judaism, together with all the evils of their old corrupt nature. These cause us a great deal of anxiety and trouble, but we must have patience with them, as the Lord had patience with us when we were his enemies. These, and all the members of our congregation, I would

* 1852.