NEANDER, Auguste. [16] On the 17th of July in the year 1850, an imposing

funeral _cortège_ slowly wended its way through the streets of Berlin,

attended by a Royal carriage and by numerous Government officials,

clergymen, professors and students of the Universities of Berlin and

Halle, assembled to pay their last tokens of respect and esteem to the

distinguished man who was being carried to his final resting-place.

Along the whole route from the residence of the deceased to the

cemetery, a distance of two miles, immense crowds of people thronged the

streets, filling all windows, doors, and available places of

observation. Before the hearse were carried the Bible and Greek

Testament of the man who had done more than any of his contemporaries to

keep alight in Germany the torch of pure and undiluted Christianity. The

whole scene was a striking tribute to the worth and work of the eminent

professor and Church historian, Auguste Neander, who for thirty-eight

years had exercised unbounded influence in the domain of theology, not

only in the University of which he was a distinguished ornament, but

also throughout Europe. And this man was a Christian Jew, whose

conversion and devotion to Christianity were destined to be fruitful in

great results, the end of which we have hardly seen to-day.

[16] Biographies of Eminent Hebrew Christians, by the Rev. W. T. Gidney.

David Mendel, to give him his original name, was born at Göttingen of

poor Jewish parents on January 10th, 1789. He was a scion of the famous

Mendel family, connected by descent with the great Jewish reformer

Moses Mendelssohn, whose successful efforts to elevate and uplift his

then degraded race ended in all his descendants eventually embracing the

Christian faith. In the words of a modern Jewish historian, whose love

of truth led her to place on record what must have cost many a regret to

avow:--"As we read the story of the wise and liberal philosopher, who

broke through the barriers and let in the light of learning and of

social countenance on mediæval benighted Judaism, we shall see that the

very children of the emancipator were dazzled by the unaccustomed rays,

that his sons wavered and his daughters apostatized, and that in the

third generation--only the third--the fetters which degraded were called

degrading, and the grandchildren of Moses Mendelssohn, the typical Jew,

were Jews no longer."[17]

[17] Lady Magnus, "Outlines of Jewish History," ch. xxxvi. p. 284.

Young David Mendel received his early education at the gymnasium or

public school at Hamburg, it being his parents' intention to bring him

up in the legal profession, in which, there is very little doubt, he

would have become distinguished. In 1806, however, having, through the

influence of two fellow-students, Chamisso the poet and another named

Neumann, embraced the Christian faith, he determined to devote himself

to the study of theology, and thenceforth the whole course of his life

was altered. At his baptism he had taken the Christian names of Johann

Auguste Wilhelm, after those of his two friends, to which he added a

new surname, Neander, or the "new man," and the new aims of his life

were thus expressed in a letter which he wrote to the pastor who had

baptized him: "My reception into the holy covenant of the higher life is

to me the greatest thing for which I have to thank you, and I can only

prove my gratitude by striving to let the outward sign of baptism unto a

new life become, indeed, the mark of the new life proclaiming the

reality of the new birth."

Auguste Neander, as he was thereafter known, now entered the University

of Halle, where he studied Christian dogmatics under the celebrated

Professor Schleiermacher, whose speculations in doctrinal theology

verged very closely upon heterodoxy, and who is pronounced by an

authority to have been "the greatest theological writer that Germany has

produced since Luther, and, indeed, he may be called the founder of

modern rationalism on its better side."[18] Intercourse with this

erratic and brilliant genius produced no perceptible taint of

rationalism in the mind or scholarship of the scarcely less brilliant

pupil, whose public teaching contrasted so powerfully with that of his

erstwhile master. "It was a sad and singular sight," wrote the

biographer of Neander, "to behold his former teacher, Schleiermacher, a

Christian by birth, inculcating in one lecture-room, with all the power

of his mighty genius, those doctrines which lead to the denial of the

Evangelical attributes of Jesus Christ, whilst in another his pupil

Neander, by birth a Jew, preached and taught salvation through faith in

Christ the Son of God alone."[19]

[18] Peter Lombard, in "Church Times" of Nov. 21, 1902.

[19] "Memoir of the Life and Writings of Dr. Neander," prefixed to the

English translation of his "General History of the Christian Religion

and Church."

When Neander left Halle he repaired to his birthplace, Göttingen, to

pursue his theological studies in the university of which Planck was at

that time the leading spirit. It was there that Neander acquired the

practice, so conspicuous in his writings, of taking nothing for granted

and digging deep to the very _origines_ of things. It was this

invariable reliance solely on first hand and primitive information which

makes his literary work so valuable. In 1811 Neander became a private

"coach" at Heidelberg, in the university of which he was appointed a

professor of theology in the following year. Youthful as he still was,

his fame had by this time spread far and wide, and within a few months

he was elected to a similar position in the recently founded University

of Berlin, which the King of Prussia desired to elevate to the foremost

rank among the sister universities of his kingdom, and to make a great

centre for the teaching of theology. There Neander remained till the day

of his death, fully justifying his selection as one of the leading

lecturers in that seat of learning.

The foregoing are the chief events in an otherwise uneventful career,

entirely passed as scholar and tutor within the sheltered seclusion of

university life. It has been said that such an atmosphere makes for

self-indulgence. Of course, it may easily degenerate into this state.

And yet how many university dons could we name, whose saintly and

scholarly lives, long hours spent in teaching, and nightly burnings of

the midnight oil give the lie to such a sweeping assertion! That it was

far from being the case with Neander the following slight sketch of the

man himself, his labours and his writings, will abundantly demonstrate.

Neander was of an exceedingly lovable disposition, humble-minded,

retiring, pious and zealous. He was as simple as a child in the ordinary

and every-day concerns of life, eccentric and singular beyond

description, absent-minded to the last degree, and generous to a fault.

His charity was unbounded. His wants being few, he could give the bulk

of his income to others. The proceeds from the sale of his numerous

works were devoted to philanthropic and missionary purposes. He could

never keep any loose cash in his pocket, or turn away his face from any

poor man. If he did not part with the well-worn coat off his back it was

because he preferred to bestow the new one hanging in his wardrobe.

His industry was prodigious. Being a single man, for he never married,

he could devote all his time and energies to his calling--which was that

of scholar, writer, and lecturer. He was never ordained, and so never

preached in the ministerial sense of the word; but he never lectured

without teaching Christianity in its practical as well as doctrinal and

historical aspect. Religion was never obscured by theology. His lectures

were attended not merely by under-graduates and students, but also by

leading professors of his own and other universities--Protestants and

Romanists alike sitting at his feet. Three lectures a day he invariably

gave, and those on different subjects. To the students he was a father

and a counsellor, ever ready to bestow, though never eager to thrust,

his advice upon all who sought it. He was universally beloved for his

kindness of heart and his gentleness, and respected and admired for his

talents, scholarship, and teaching powers.

The supreme object of Neander's life, studies, and labours, is thus

concisely stated by himself in the preface of the first edition of his

_magnum opus_:[20] "To exhibit the history of the Church of Christ as a

living witness of the Divine power of Christianity, as a school of

Christian experience, a voice sounding through the ages, of instruction,

of doctrine and of reproof, for all who are disposed to listen." Neander

was not merely the historian of the dead past or _laudator temporis

acti_. To him the past was indeed great, eloquent, and glorious, but he

regarded it chiefly as the beginning of a greater present and a more

glorious future, and as the foundation of the stately building of the

Church that is being reared throughout the ages. He had unquenchable

faith in the abiding presence of Christ in His Church, and of its

consequent power to mould and transform the world. The parables of the

leaven and of the mustard seed were pregnant with meaning to him, and in

his history he elaborately traced the process of development in the

past centuries--a process which amounted to a steady and ever forward

progress, even furthered by all attempts to hinder it. And this, because

Christianity is a Divine power which descended from heaven at the

Incarnation of Christ, and gave a new character to the life of the human

race.

[20] "General History of the Christian Religion and Church."

We can well understand how exhilarating and energising such teaching as

this must have been when directed, as it was of set purpose, to

counteract the then new-fangled doctrines of Schleiermacher, and more

especially of Strauss, who in his "Life of Christ" had sought to

eliminate from Christianity all that was Divine, and therefore to

destroy its regenerative power on the hearts and lives of mankind.

To Neander, then, a Christian Jew, an immense debt of gratitude is due

from all who hold the Catholic faith undefiled. He stemmed for a time

the tide of Rationalism which threatened to engulf in its turbid waters

not only Germany, but the whole of Christendom. His aid was expressly

chartered to undo the harm caused by the speculative teaching of

Strauss. When others would have suppressed the latter's work by force,

Neander, discountenancing such carnal weapons, boldly and mercilessly

met his heresies by the issue of his own "Life of Christ."

We have already dwelt upon his two greatest works. We can only barely

mention the others. They were, to give them their titles in

English--"The History of the Planting and Training of the Christian

Church by the Apostles," "Biographies of Julian the Apostate, St.

Bernard and St. Chrysostom," "Anti-Gnostikus, Development of the Gnostic

System," "Memorabilia from the History of the Christian Life," "Unity

and Variety of the Christian Life," numerous essays contributed to

religious periodicals, and "Memoirs of the Proceedings of the Berlin

Royal Academy of Sciences."

Neander's restless activity doubtless shortened his life, and death

overtook him before the work which he had set himself to do was done. He

had completed his "General History" only to the middle of the fourteenth

century. He died whilst dictating a page of this unfinished history,

with the words, "I am weary; I must sleep; good night;" upon his lips.

To another famous historian, Bede, it was granted to see, but only just

to see, the completion of his labours. When dying, the amanuensis who

wrote for him his translation into Saxon of the Gospel according to St.

John, said: "Master, there is but one sentence wanting." Bede answered:

"Write quickly!" and when the sentence was written, he replied: "Thou

hast the truth--_consummatum est_," and with the _Gloria Patri_ upon his

lips, he breathed his last. Neander's work is like a broken column, and

yet who shall say it had been better otherwise? Surely not those who

believe that "man is immortal, until his work is done."

NEANDER, Rev. John, thus wrote of his conversion to a sincere

acquaintance:--"My dear friend,--Cheerfully do I respond to your call,

and as briefly as possible will I relate to you, how wonderfully God

has dealt with me; how He, the Almighty God, looked down upon me while I

was yet deeply sunk; how He called me, and lifted me up from the dust;

and how He brought me out of darkness into His marvellous light; praised

be His name. Amen.

"I was born in the year 1811 at Neubrûck, in the province of Posen. My

parents were strict Talmudical Jews, my father especially, a zealous,

learned Talmudist. They had consecrated me to the office of a rabbi,

even while I was at my mother's breast; which office being considered

then, as it still is, a most holy vocation. On my having attained my

eighth year, and being able to read Hebrew, my father engaged for me a

teacher of the Talmud, who resided in the house, and from early in the

morning until late at night he laboured with me in the Talmud; now and

then he also read the Pentateuch and Jarchi's Commentary with me.

"Until I was twenty-three years old, I studied at different Talmudical

schools in Posen, and having attained to that degree which qualified me

for the office of a rabbi, I returned to my father's house, where I

devoted myself entirely to the study of the Talmud. You are well

acquainted with the course of life led at rabbinical schools; I have

therefore no occasion to give you here an account thereof. I lived

earnestly engaged in this study, because it was my parents' warmest

wish; and I moreover hoped thereby to attain to a high position amongst

my nation, and flattered myself that I should hereby be qualified for

the community of the Chassidim, and consequently to reach the presence

of God.

"I plunged myself into the deep labyrinth of rabbinical subtleties and

sophistry; entangled myself in a chain, composed of thousands of links

of trivialities; exhausted myself in endeavouring to be enlightened on

this, or on that matter; but I only got deeper and deeper into the

labyrinth; not a ray of light penetrated its dark recesses. At length

the employment became exceedingly disagreeable to me; the zeal which was

so ardent in my youth (alas! it was a blind zeal), cooled more and more

in proportion as it became clearer to me that the words of the different

rabbis, the former and latter, are truly not agreeable to God's most

Holy Word; and I discovered, that the persuasion that their ways lead to

the truth is a vain persuasion.

"I was about twenty-five when with a painful heart I perceived this. I

had no firm foundation to rest upon; nothing on which to lay hold. I

stood as on broken ground; my heart torn, and nigh to perish with

anguish. About this time I was teacher in a town in Germany, where I had

above twenty pupils, whom I had to educate, and bring up as men and

Israelites; and every Saturday I had to deliver a public lecture on

portions of the Old Testament. All this placed me in a terrible

condition; I had to preach up and defend that, against which my heart

revolted; dissemble I would not, yea, I could not.

"In the early period of my life as a teacher, I was zealous for the

rabbinical Judaism of the present day. I tormented and exhausted myself

endeavouring, by the works of the law, to lead a life pure and holy

before my God; for even when a child I conceived sin to be an abhorrence

to God; the thunders of Sinai sounded and resounded in my heart; the

mighty word proceeding out of the mouth of the Almighty God, 'cursed is

he who does not keep my law,' pressed me down to the ground at that

early period of my life; as with flaming letters it was written in my

heart, 'God is a holy God! God is a righteous God! who abhors sin; in

whose presence, none but those who are pure, and free from sin, and who

live for him only, can abide.' From all my toil, however, I found no

peace; far, far from me was the rest for which I so much longed.

"I had intercourse with a few individuals who called themselves

Christians. I sought them out for the purpose of discussing with them

scientific subjects, and now and then to study the Old Testament with

them; of these some were students in theology, and others teachers; they

used to assail the revealed word of God most terribly. Through them I

became acquainted with the criticisms of de Wette, Eichhorn, Dinter, and

others, and it was not long that I stood up a zealous defender of modern

Judaism; I became a rationalist. We are deceived! exclaimed I to my

community, terribly deceived! the Talmud and the Psakim are a tissue of

errors, and so forth. Still the storm in my heart did not subside; it

continued to roar and to rage; I was not free; before it was chains of

superstition that shackled my heart, now those of unbelief; chains

forged by profane hands, by such fools as say, 'There is no God.'

"As I looked on these contradictions, and on this work of ungodly men, I

trembled, and entered the field against these impudent deniers of God;

but with weapons, alas! I knew not at that time, and so I was in a

terrible condition. I felt as if closed in by a wall; I panted after the

breath of life; I longed after liberty, and hoped that the enigma would

solve itself; but far off appeared to me the hand which should lead me

into the haven of peace; and the light which I searched after in all the

writings of men, proved but darkness; they were broken cisterns, and my

soul, which was languishing and nigh to perishing, did not find the

water of life. I lay at times the whole night on the hard floor,

chastised my body, yearned and cried aloud. The old Jews, to whose

knowledge these austerities came, held me for a saint; and the modern

Jews said to me: 'Don't be a fool.' Oh! these were years of anguish and

terror; I was often nigh to despair. The compassion and grace of God,

whom I did not know at that time, alone held me up; the hand of the

mighty covenanted God of my forefathers covered me, and it was His

eternal love that preserved me from sinking.

"I tore myself with force from the circle of those who surrounded me,

and I was chiefly alone and secluded. I betook myself, as it were, to a

desert of books. Alas! the speculations of men only filled my head,

while my heart remained empty. My thirst after the truth, after God's

truth, was not quenched; I read now and then in the Pentateuch; but the

books of the Old Testament were locked up to me, and the old and new

commentaries of the rabbis did not satisfy me. That the New Testament is

a key to the Old I had not the least conception at that time; and, as I

was then an enemy to Christianity, I never read the New Testament.

"At this time of severe struggle, I received a visit from my father, to

whom I communicated my distress of mind; it pained him deeply, and he

pressed me to return home with him immediately. To my question, 'What

shall I do then?' he replied, 'You shall do nothing else but learn the

Torah, you have no occasion to trouble yourself about earthly things,

and as soon as you shall be seated in the circle of the Chassidim and

students of the law, it will be well with you.' Family matters obliged

my father to return quickly, and I begged him to allow me to remain for

a short time longer in Germany, until I should be enlightened on that

which distressed me so much. Shortly after that I was sent for by a

Jewish community, in the north of Germany. I hurried thither with joy,

where I took possession of a very pleasant post.

"My heart, however, remained wounded, and peace was far from me. The

Jews of that place were very indifferent about religion, and it was not

required that I should deliver a public lecture on the Sabbath. I looked

for religious men, but amongst the Jews there was not one in whom there

was a striving after the only good; my exhortation to them to elevate

themselves to the fulness which cometh from God, and my admonitions,

were all in vain; nevertheless, the pupils clung to me with much love;

and they listened to me attentively when I related to them the history

of the kingdom of God in the time of the Old Testament dispensation.

"But my heart continued cold even here; the great deeds of God filled me

with awe, and the history of our people, as well as my own course of

life, only opened more the wounds of my heart. 'The Balm of Gilead' I

knew not, and the instruction I imparted was only mechanical, without

life, and without warmth.

"I visited the clergymen of this town, and I found some of them

different from any I had seen before; they talked of the revealed word

of the Old Testament, with warmth of heart and enthusiasm, and I heard

for the first time a powerful testimony to the Christian doctrine; my

whole heart was stirred up against it, the ground burned under my feet,

and I hurried away purposing never to return again.

"Still there remained a thorn in my heart. The fifty-third chapter of

Isaiah as well others in the Old Testament, to which my attention was

drawn, were too strong for me; doubt raged in me, and the questions,

What if it be really true? What if the Christians are right? left me no

peace.

"A few weeks elapsed, and I could no longer endure my trouble; I greatly

desired to be enlightened, and that, by means of the common medium of

all truth, Holy Writ alone.

"I began to read the New Testament, and to compare it with the Old, and

it wonderfully unfolded itself to me; more and more I discovered the

great mystery of redemption. In the Old Testament, in all God's

contrivances, a voice called to me, and I heard the voice of God,

through Moses and the prophets, saying: Jesus Christ the crucified, is

the true Messiah, the true Saviour, whose name is Jehovah Tsidkenu, the

Lord our Righteousness. I was roused especially by the ninth chapter of

the Acts; I was made acquainted, after much wrestling and fervent

prayer, that Jesus is the source of salvation, and of eternal life to

all, who, by the efficacy of His blood, are cleansed from the guilt and

pollution of sin, and through Him can call God, Abba, Father. I

perceived that faith in the triune God is the victory which vanquishes

the world.

"I could not remain silent about this; my heart was filled with it; I

tasted the friendship of God, I rejoiced and was constrained to exclaim,

'My Redeemer liveth;' and this I announced to my pupils, talked of it in

the circles of Jewish families, and publicly and aloud gloried in the

ground of my hope in the rich promise vouchsafed to me, by the mouth of

a mighty covenant God: Be comforted, all thy sins are forgiven thee, thy

debt is paid and annulled, through the great and only atoning sacrifice,

through 'the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.'

"There was a tremendous tumult among the Jews; some of them came to me,

and gave themselves much trouble by various means to turn me away from

the Lord, mine and my father's God. The community wrote all about it to

my father, from whom I received a letter which placed me in a most

painful position. He prayed and cried, 'Come to us, and remain a Jew.'

My mother received from this news a severe blow, and she was laid on a

bed of sickness, and great were her sufferings; my sisters, brothers,

and relatives mourned in secret. It was a hard struggle--life and death

depended on my decision.

"I cried and wept bitterly, and riveted myself firmly to the word of

life, that alone should be my guide, my stay, and my staff; and praised

be God, the Sun of Righteousness lighted me, and His beams fell warm and

full of life on my heart.

"'Whoso loveth father and mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me.'

This was spoken by Him who has power to save and to condemn. I could not

do otherwise than obey Him, who once said to the patriarch Abraham, 'Get

thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's

house, unto a land that I will show thee.' I was obliged to tear asunder

the ties which bound me to my beloved relatives, who still remain dear

to me; painful as it is to flesh and blood, I was constrained to do so

for the Lord's sake; and I exclaimed aloud in the presence of the Jews

who at this time surrounded me, and who, not knowing what they did,

endeavoured to hurl me down to the abyss of destruction: 'I cannot do

otherwise, I must acknowledge Him, I must believe on Him, who is my

Redeemer and Saviour; His name is Jesus Jehovah; I cannot do otherwise,

should they on account of it cut me in pieces. Woe unto me, if I deny

Him, the Lord Jesus; therefore it is well with me, that I perceived

through the grace of God, that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and

the life, praised be His name. Amen.'

"Now was I able to rejoice, and with David to exclaim, 'Bless the Lord,

O my soul, and forget not all His benefits' (Psalm ciii. 2).

"After I had been duly instructed in the saving truth of the Gospel, I

was publicly baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, on

December 9th, 1839, by the Rev. Mr. Müller."

NEUMAN, Rabbi, was converted through his intercourse with a Christian

merchant in Leeuwarden, Holland. He afterwards translated the tract,

"Light at Eventide," into Dutch. ("Jewish Intelligence," 1855.)

NEUMAN, Dr. R., was born at Brody in 1788. His father was a rabbi and

gave him a Talmudical education. In 1807 he came to Dessau in Germany,

where he wrote a Commentary on Amos, Nahum and Malachi, and became a

director of a free school for poor children at Breslau. Through his

intercourse with two Christian professors, and especially with the

L.J.S. missionaries McCaul and Becker in 1823, he learned to know Jesus

as his Saviour, and was baptized there, together with his wife and three

sons, by Professor Scheibel, in the Elizabeth Church. A Dr. Cohen, who

was a teacher under him, followed his example. Subsequently he rendered

service to the L.J.S. by revising the text of the Hebrew New Testament.

He died in 1865.

NEUMANN, Karl Friedrich, was born in Reichmansdorf in 1793, studied at

Heidelberg and Munich, and was baptized at Munich in the Evangelical

Church in 1818. Subsequently he went to Venice and studied Armenian. In

1828 he went to Paris, and in 1829 to London, and from there to China.

There he collected several thousand volumes of all branches of

literature, which are now in the library of the Munich University. He

became professor in 1833, M.P. in 1848. In 1863 he retired to Berlin,

when he died in 1870. Some of his works are the following:--"Die Völker

des südlichen Russlands" (Leipzig, 1847.) "Geschichte des Englischen

Reiches in Asien"; "Geschichte der Afghanen"; "Geschichte Oestreichs";

"Geschichte der Vereinigten Staaten." A translation of Gützlaff's

"History of the Chinese Empire"; "Geschichte der Armenischen

Literature," Leipzig, 1834, and English translations of Armenian

Chronicles.

NEWMAN, Rev. C. S., was first in the service of the Scotch Church and

laboured at Jassy and at Constantinople. In 1855 he resigned, and after

joining the Church of England was sent by the L.J.S. to Constantinople,

where he laboured successfully until he was called to higher service.

NEWMAN, Rev. Louis, a convert and student of the L.J.S., was ordained in

the American Episcopal Church, and laboured among the Jews in

Philadelphia with blessed results all his life. He was a great Hebrew

scholar.

NURNBERG, Rev. Nahum, was born in Russia, his father dying very early.

His mother and her children then went to live with her father, who was a

strict Jew, and as such Nahum was brought up. When about nine years old

an uncle adopted him and took him to Breslau to be educated. He became a

favourite with the proctor of the University there and at Berlin, and

through them he obtained a good deal of tuition. He also did

journalistic work, and in 1851 he came over to England to report on the

Great Exhibition. He stayed on in Hull as a correspondent. Whilst there

he came under the influence of the Rev. John Deck, by whom he was

eventually baptized. Later on he was, after finishing his course at the

L.J.S. missionary college, appointed a missionary of that Society, first

in England, and then in Roumania, but returned to this country as his

real home after a year's work, owing to the death of his wife. Soon

after he took orders, and engaged in parochial work, until 1879, after

which he retired, until his much lamented death on January 30th, 1904.

OCZERET, Rev. Leo, a native of Tarnopol, Galicia, was converted in

Jerusalem, and studied afterwards at the college of the L.J.S. in

London. His Jewish _fiancée_ also became a Christian. After being

stationed in Paris for about two years he was sent to Jerusalem and was

ordained by Bishop Hannington. In 1884 he was sent to reopen the mission

at Safed, and at first he had trouble with the spirit of fanaticism

which had ever existed among the Jews there; but gradually, by patience

and love, he won the hearts of many, so that when he became ill they

came to visit and console him. One old man even assured him that during

a whole fortnight he recited fifty Psalms (according to the custom of

pious Jews during illness) for his recovery. Oczeret went at last to a

hospital in Vienna, whence he wrote to the Committee, "Let the Lord's

will be done! Pray for us all. I do not give up every hope yet to work

for my Lord and Master, and to serve faithfully the Committee, to whom I

am wont to look as to a father." But though still young, he had finished

his course, and went to receive the crown of glory.

PALGRAVE (Cohen), Sir Francis, born in London, July 1788, died there

July 6th, 1861, son of Mayer Cohen, a member of the London Stock

Exchange. He was an infant prodigy. At the age of eight he made a

translation of Homer's "Battle of the Frogs" into French, which was

published by his father (London, 1796). He embraced Christianity, and

married a daughter of Dawson Turner, the historian. He was called to the

bar in 1827, devoting himself to pedigree cases. In 1832 he published

"The Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth," which is generally

regarded as the earliest important study of English constitutional

history founded on the records. He was knighted in that year, and became

deputy-keeper of Her Majesty's records, in which capacity he issued

twenty-two annual reports of great historic value. His most important

work is "A History of Normandy and England," 4 vols., London, 1851-63.

Palgrave had four sons each of whom attained distinction of various

kinds.

PALGRAVE, Francis Turner (1824-1902), editor of the "Golden Treasury of

English Songs and Lyrics," Professor at Oxford.

PALGRAVE, Robert Harry Inglis (born 1827), editor of "The Dictionary of

Political Economy."

PALGRAVE, Sir Reginald Francis Dunce (1829-1903), Clerk of the House of

Commons.

PALGRAVE, William Gifford (1826-88), Eastern traveller and author of "A

Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia" (London, 1865) and

other works.

PALOTTA, Professor C. W., a native of Hungary, by birth and education a

gentleman. Coming to England early in the sixties of the nineteenth

century he was induced by a friend to attend the lectures and classes of

Dr. Ewald, and after due instruction was baptized in the Jews' Chapel,

Palestine Place. Not long after, he was sent by L.J.S. as missionary

assistant to the Rev. F. G. Kleinhenn, at Bucharest, whose daughter he

married. From 1866 he laboured for two years itinerating through Servia

and Bosnia. He was the first missionary who took the Gospel to the Jews

in those countries. In 1868 he was stationed at Jassy, where he laboured

until 1871, when he settled at Vienna as a professor of languages.

Palotta was a gifted man and zealous missionary, and throughout his

Christian life he took a great interest in the mission to the Jews, and

voluntarily helped them in Vienna and also in Paris during the

exhibition in 1879.

PAULI, Rev. C. W. H., was born in Breslau in 1800 and was named Zebi

Nasi Hirsch Prince. His father who was a rabbi, gave him a thorough

rabbinic education. Already at the age of 21, being then a religious

teacher, he published "Sermons for Pious Israelites," in which he

emphasized the teaching of the Bible rather than that of the Talmud.

Whilst thus endeavouring to teach pure Mosaism he came in contact with

the L.J.S. missionary, C. G. Petri of Detmold, and received from him a

New Testament, of which he began to make use in his teaching. The Jews

then declared him crazy, and he resigned his office and went to Detmold.

From there he was sent to Minden, where he was baptized December 21st,

1823. His sponsors were Baron Blomberg and Major Grabowski. The former,

who through the influence of the L.J.S. founded the mission at Detmold,

then recommended Pauli as a missionary to the Posen Society. A year

later he went with Petri to England and studied at Cambridge. From there

he was called to be Lecturer of Hebrew at Oxford. In this capacity he

laboured there for thirteen years, during which time he wrote various

books, his "Analecta Hebraica" deserving special mention. In 1840 he

received a call from the L.J.S. to go as a missionary to Berlin, where,

by his learning and piety and loving disposition, he made a salutary

impression upon the Jews. In 1844 he was transferred to Amsterdam, and

laboured there till 1874. The results of his activity there appeared

from time to time in the "Jewish Intelligence." He then retired to

Luton, where he died in 1877, with the words upon his lips: "Into Thy

hands, O God, I commend my spirit. My Saviour is near."

PAULY, a Jewish savant, was baptized at Hamburg in 1810. He lived with

an unbelieving brother in Berlin, at the time when Pauli was stationed

there, who had the privilege of administering the Sacrament of the

Lord's Supper to him on his dying bed when he was eighty years of age

(Annual Report, 1843, p. 60).

PHILIPPI, Dr. Friedrich Adolf, was born in Berlin in 1809. His father

was a banker and belonged to the circle of the Mendelssohns. Philippi

received Christian impressions at school, and in riper years he received

from a fellow student a treatise entitled "Glocktöne," by Court Chaplain

Strauss, which caused him to attend his sermons. His uncle Jakobi, the

mathematician, had at that time become an Evangelical Christian. This

event, too, caused him to seek for the truth until he found it for

himself and was then baptized by Pastor Zehme in Grossstädtel, near

Leipzig, in 1829. Later on he studied theology under Hengstenberg, and

became professor at Dorpat and later at Rostock. He was the author of

the following works:--"Die Lehre von dem thätigen Gehorsam Christi,"

1841; "Glauben's Lehre," 1853; a posthumous work, published by his son,

"On the Epistle to the Galatians and the Synoptics." He died on August

29, 1882.

PICK, Aaron, Biblical scholar, was born at Prague, where he was

converted to Christianity and lectured on Hebrew at the University. He

lived in England during the first half of the nineteenth century, and

was the author of translations and commentaries of various books of the

Bible. His works comprised a literal translation from the Hebrew of the

twelve Minor Prophets (1833), of Obadiah (1834), and of the seventh

chapter of Amos, with a commentary. In 1837 he produced a treatise on

the Hebrew accents, and in 1845 he published, "The Bible Student's

Concordance." He was besides the author of a work entitled, "The

Gathering of Israel or the Patriarchal Blessing as contained in the

Forty-ninth chapter of Genesis. Being the Revelation of God concerning

the twelve Tribes of Israel, and their ultimate Restoration."

PICK, Abraham, a native of Senftenberg, Bohemia, was influenced by his

brother Israel to examine the evidences of Christianity, and then had

intercourse with a Scotch missionary, the Rev. Daniel Edward, in 1866,

and at last was brought to the Lord by the Rev. Abraham Herschell, who

also baptized him in 1869 at Stuttgart together with his wife. His

daughter Catharine was already baptized through Edward, at Breslau in

1857. His daughters, Rosie and Philippine, were baptized at Kaiserswerth

by the Scotch Free Church missionary, Van Andel, and his daughter Regina

and his son Joseph were baptized at Kornthal in 1878. His daughters

Charlotte and Therese were baptized in Switzerland by Pastor Bernoulli,

and Elizabeth was baptized by Pastor Axenfeld in Cologne. The whole

family became in various ways useful workers in the service of the

Master, and in 1879 they had the joy of knowing that seven of their

relatives had confessed Christ in baptism. Abraham Pick became

afterwards the agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society at

Lemberg, where he laboured for many years in spreading the Word of God

in Galicia and in the Bukowina, where he and his family were almost the

only sympathizing friends of the L.J.S. missionaries.

PICK, Israel, a brother of the above, had received a strict Talmudical

education. When he came to the age of discretion he began to waver

between rabbinic orthodoxy and freethought, but he felt an inward call

to do something great for the emancipation of his brethren and for

restoring the Jewish kingdom. At first he was engaged in journalistic

work at Vienna, and then he became a preacher and teacher in a synagogue

at Bucharest, where he endeavoured to infuse vital religion into the

congregation, but had to leave them disappointed. His enthusiasm for the

temporal and spiritual welfare of his people caused him to correspond

with missionaries and to lay before them a plan for the establishment of

a Hebrew Christian National Church. He also addressed a letter to that

effect to the Jews in Amsterdam in 1853, but received no encouragement

anywhere. At last he embraced Christianity and was baptized by Daniel

Edward at Breslau in 1854. On this occasion he wrote: "A Word to my

People," afterwards "The Star of Jacob," "Kol nidre night," "Is there no

Physician there?" In all these writings he displayed almost a

prophetical spirit, speaking from the fulness of a heart inflamed with

love to his people, and no less to his Saviour. This enthusiasm led him

eventually in 1859 to Jerusalem, and then he was heard of no more. The

probability is that he was killed somewhere in Palestine.

PICK, Joseph, after studying in Basel and in the L.J.S. College, was

appointed missionary at Strassburg in 1877, and in 1888 he was

transferred to Cracow. He was a gifted and an energetic man and laboured

in both places under peculiar difficulties. In 1897 he visited London,

and on his return died rather suddenly, his loss being deeply felt by

all who knew him.

PICK, Rev. Dr. Bernard, was baptized in Berlin in 1861. Later he went to

the United States, where he studied theology and was appointed to a

church at Rochester, New York. He was a prolific writer. The following

were from his pen: "The Mission among the Jews," in the Encyclopædia of

Biblical, theological and ecclesiastical literature (New York, 1881, pp.

166-177). "The Talmud, what it is and what it knows about Jesus and His

followers" (New York, 1887). "Luther as a Hymnist," 1888. "Historical

Sketch of the Jews since the destruction of Jerusalem," 1887.

PIERITZ, G. Wildon, born at Klecko in Posen, in 1808, baptized 1835,

laboured as a missionary of the L.J.S. in the forties of the nineteenth

century at Jerusalem, in Damascus, and subsequently settled at Oxford,

where he was engaged in teaching. He was a learned and spiritually-minded

man, as his articles in the "Hebrew Christian Witness, 1874-5," testify.

He was the author of "The Gospels from the Rabbinical Point of View,"

London and Oxford, 1873.

PIERITZ, Rev. Joseph Abraham, was a missionary of the L.J.S., stationed

at Bristol in 1844, and laboured amongst the Jews generally in the West

of England, also in Dublin and other places. He afterwards went out to

British Guiana, and became rector of the parish of St. Patrick, Berbice,

where he died in 1869, aged sixty-five, as the result of a carriage

accident. His funeral was taken by the Bishop, and was attended by over

2,000 persons.

POLAN, Rev. Mark, was born at Wilna, a town known as the "Jerusalem of

Lithuania," where a high type of Judaism prevailed and where Rabbinical

learning flourished, and where also the Greek churches mostly

represented a sensuous and ritualistic Christianity. At Wilna there is a

flourishing trade in cereal products, and Mark's father was a corn

merchant. His parents gave him a rigorous religious training. His mother

could speak Hebrew well, and the boy was instructed in the Talmud and

other Rabbinical writings. As an illustration of the sectarian rigour of

the Jews at Wilna, it may be mentioned that a law having been passed

compelling education in the Russian language, the Jews proclaimed a Fast

and made provision for the private tuition of their children.

Young Polan left his native place in 1872 intending to proceed to

Australia and join a relative there. A change of plan, under pressure

from home, led him to linger first at Königsberg and then in London. In

London he soon came in contact with missionaries. His aim, however, was

not enquiry but opposition. Rumours then reached his friends that he had

become a Meshummad, but careful enquiries satisfied them that their

suspicions were mistaken and he was left unmolested.

But the living God was also watching and guiding. Gradually his attitude

to Christianity began to change. For one thing, the absence of images in

the English churches made an impression upon him. The first Christian

book that he read was the "Pilgrim's Progress" in Hebrew. Then there

came eager readings of Commentaries written on St. Luke, Acts, Romans

and Hebrews by Dr. Biesenthal, once a rabbinical Jew; he was thus led to

a careful study of the New Testament. In the Rev. Theodore Meyer the

enquirer at last found a wise and loving instructor and friend. From the

first, Mr. Meyer's erudition and sincerity drew forth the confidence and

interest of the young Jew.

After four years' instruction, Mr. Polan came forward for baptism, and

it was arranged to take place in Park Church, Highbury. An incident,

however, happened which led to its postponement. On the eve of his

proposed baptism he had a dream which led him to withdraw, and was the

cause of severe and protracted mental struggles. It is said by the

rabbins, and believed by the Jews, that in Paradise a dark veil is made

to hang before the parent whose child has become an "apostate." In his

dream Polan saw his mother in Paradise behind the dark curtain. The

effect upon his mind was such that he could not face baptism; nor did

he, until nearly a year afterwards. It may have been that the first

decision was resting mainly upon mental conviction of the truth. At any

rate, there followed more serious consideration and prayerful searching

of the Scriptures, with the result that a certain word of the Lord

reached his heart and touched it with signal power. The word was: "Let

not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me."

Under the power of this word this earnest seeker emerged into the light.

Ultimately, in 1878, he openly confessed Christ by baptism, the

ordinance being administered by Mr. Meyer in Park Church, Highbury.

The inevitable ostracism and persecution, with their attendant

sufferings, followed. It was a welcome mitigation to the new convert's

trials that his father did not entirely cast him off. And the spirit in

which he suffered may be gathered from the reply he sent to his brothers

and sisters, when, at his father's death, they hurled over him their

anathemas, telling him that his name had been expunged from the family

register. "It has caused me great pain," he wrote to a friend, "but

though my name is not now in the family tree, it can be found in the

Lamb's Book of Life."

In those days Mr. Polan was a member of Park Church, Highbury. The

pastor at the time was Dr. Edmond, who, with Mr. Meyer, proved a

spiritual father to the young Hebrew Christian. There he was surrounded

by strong missionary influences, and through the Fellowship Association

which supported two foreign missionaries, a desire in him was awakened

to become a messenger of the Cross in the foreign field.

In 1878 Mr. Meyer wanted a helper in his mission to the Jews, and Mr.

Polan was invited to take up the work. In this opening he recognised a

call of God to give his life to testifying for Christ to his Jewish

brethren. For twelve years he served as a valued helper of Mr. Meyer,

like a son with a father, busily engaged in district visitation and

taking part in the services. Personal studies also occupied his

attention, and he found time to his great joy and profit to attend the

course of lectures on "Systematic Theology" delivered at Queen's Square

by the Rev. Principal Dykes.

On the retirement of Mr. Meyer, Mr. Mark Polan succeeded to the headship

of the Mission to the Jews in East London. In 1888 he became an elder in

the John Knox Church, Stepney.

POPER, Rev. Heinrich, D.D., was born at Breidenbach, Germany, in 1813.

His father died before his birth, and his mother went back to her home

at Hildesheim. There he prepared himself to be a teacher, and began to

give lessons to Jewish and Christian children at the age of fourteen.

Later he came to the conviction that the Talmud was not in accord with

the Bible, and after three years inward struggle, he came to England and

was baptized by Reichardt in 1839. He was for a time in the Operative

Jewish Converts' Institution, and then in the Hebrew Missionary College,

and in 1844 he was sent as missionary to Frankfort-on-the-Main, where

he laboured with great efficiency until his departure in 1870. In 1859

Dr. Poper reported that there probably were from five hundred to a

thousand proselytes in the district. (See "At Home and Abroad," by the

Rev. W. T. Gidney, 1900.)

POSNER, Sigismund August (Löbel), was born in 1804, of wealthy parents

at Auras in Silesia who gave their children a strict orthodox education;

he was well instructed in the Bible. When studying at Berlin, Mr. Lachs,

Director of the Deaf and Dumb Institution, sowed in his heart the seed

of the Gospel, which took root and led eventually to his conversion, and

he was baptized by Pastor Schultze in 1828. His father was at first

grieved, but became afterward friendly to him. He studied theology and

became a very earnest preacher of the Gospel, so that only decided

Christians liked to hear him. He died in 1849. His biography was

published by Professor Tholuck for Sunday reading.

RABINOWITZ, Joseph, was born at Resina on the Dniester, September 23,

1837, and died at Kischineff, 1899. He was the son of David ben Ephraim,

and belonged to a rabbinic family. On the early death of his mother, her

father Nathan Neta took him to be educated at his house. When he was six

years of age he could repeat the Song of Solomon by heart. He remained

with his grandfather till 1848, when he went to other relations. At the

age of thirteen they betrothed him. Being compelled by an imperial ukase

to acquire the Russian language, his eyes were opened to a new world of

literature, and he began to think for himself. In 1855 Jehiel

Hershensohn (Lichtenstein), his future brother-in-law, gave him a L.J.S.

New Testament in Hebrew, declaring at the same time that possibly Jesus

of Nazareth might be the true Messiah, at which news he was very much

surprised. However, the immediate effect was that he left the Chassidim

and went back to Orgeyev to his grandfather, and studied the Bible more

and Russian law, so that he could act as a solicitor among his people.

In 1856, he was married, and was then regarded as an influential citizen

of the town, especially when it was seen that he took an active interest

in the education of children and that he contributed important articles

to the Jewish newspapers, and gave lectures at Kischineff, in which he

advocated the principles of reform and progress. In 1878 he wrote an

article in the Hebrew paper, "Haboker Or," in which he requested the

Rabbis to work for the improvement of the condition of the Russian Jews

by teaching them the necessity of becoming gradually an agricultural

people, and he showed this by his own example in cultivating his garden

himself. Not long afterward persecutions broke out in Russia, and he

went to Palestine on a mission of enquiry with a view of establishing a

Jewish colony there. But when he arrived in Jerusalem and became

acquainted with the sad temporal and spiritual condition of the Jews

there, his heart sank within him, and he was about to leave the Holy

City in despair, but before doing so he went to the Mount of Olives.

There he sat down in deep meditation, and reviewing the sad history of

his unfortunate people, the thought came to him as an inspiration: "The

key to the Holy Land is in the hands of our brother Jesus." This thought

he made then the matter and basis of his future work. Returning to

Kischineff, he drew up thirteen theses, the substance of which was that

Jesus is the only Saviour of Israel as well as of the whole world. With

great courage and enthusiasm he then endeavoured by word and pen to

propagate his conviction, and gained in a short time many adherents both

at Kischineff and in other towns of Bessarabia. Having in 1885 published

his "Symbol of the Israelites of the New Covenant" in seven articles,

Professor F. Delitzsch and the Rev. John Wilkinson encouraged him, and

in Glasgow an association was formed in 1887 for the support of his

movement. Rabinowitz was baptized in Berlin by Professor Mead, of

Andover U.S.A., in 1885, and henceforth his mission work took a more

decisive but also perhaps a more restrictive character. He was asked by

Provost Faltin, pastor of the Lutheran Church at Kischineff, to join

that Church, but for good reasons he declined to do so, as neither he

nor his adherents who had just come out from the synagogue could worship

in a church where there was a crucifix. For still stronger reasons he

could not join the Russian Church as he was asked to do by the highest

authorities. Consequently he had to build a hall, in which he preached

the pure Gospel as long as he lived. The result of this movement was

that not only Rabinowitz, and his wife and seven children with his

brother and family, and other individual Jews who heard the Gospel from

his lips publicly confessed Christ as their Saviour, but also that the

attitude of the Jews in general toward the person of our Lord has since

then changed for the better.

RAGSTATT, Friedrich de Weile, was born at Metz in 1648. His father David

was a teacher in several congregations, and naturally gave him a good

Jewish education. At the Jewish school, he learned from the Talmud the

old tradition that the Messiah was to come after 4,000 years had elapsed

since the Creation. This led him to enquire, and eventually he was

instructed by Dr. J. Alex. Neuspitzer, pastor of the Reformed Church at

Cleves, in 1671. In 1672 he entered the University of Leyden, and in

1677 he became pastor at Assenen; and then in 1680 at Spyk, in South

Holland, where he officiated till he died. Ragstatt was the author of

the following works:--(1) "Jefeh Maréh" (Amsterdam, 1671), written in

Latin, in which he endeavoured to prove, as against the Jewish

controversialists, especially Lipman of Mülhausen, the Messianic mission

of Jesus. A Dutch translation of this work, which contains also an

account of Shabbathai Zebi, was published at Amsterdam, in 1683. (2)

"Viytmunden--de Liefde Jesu tot de zeelen," _ib._ 1678. (3) "Van het

gnaden Verbond," _ib._ 1613. (4) "Two homilies on Gen. xlix. 10, and

Mal. iii.," The Hague, 1684. (5) "Noach's prophetie van Bekeering der

Heyden," Amsterdam, 1688. (6) "An Address delivered on the occasion of

the baptism of the Portuguese Jew, Abraham Gabai Faro," _ib._ 1688. (7)

"Brostwepen des Geloofs," _ib._ 1689. (8) "Jesus Nazerenus Sions König

on Ps. ii. 6," Amsterdam, 1688.

RAPOPORT, the well-known banker in Paris, was baptized with his wife,

two sons and four daughters, by Pastor Abric at Passy in 1879.

RICARDO, David, was born in London 1772, of a Portuguese family, and

died in 1823, at Gatcomb Park, Gloucestershire. He embraced Christianity

in his youth (see Brockhaus, 12, 523) and was therefore forsaken by his

father. He entered the Stock Exchange with little means and amassed a

fortune. He was the author of "Principles of Political Economy and

Taxation," 1817. In 1819 Ricardo entered the House of Commons for

Portarlington. Nearly all his brothers became Christians. To his memory

there is a professorship at the London University by the name of

Ricardo.

RICIO, Peter, son of a Jewish jeweller, was born at Berlin in 1809, and

died in 1879; he distinguished himself as a Christian in his

investigations in physical science. Amongst other works, his "Lehre von

der Rechnungs elementale," became epoch-making and secured for him the

membership of the academies at Petersburg, Göttingen and Munich, and the

degree of Doctor from Paris.

ROHOLD, S. B. The story of his conversion is thus told by himself:--

"It was in the well-beloved city of Jerusalem that I was born, and there

also my early days were spent. More than half the inhabitants of

Jerusalem are Jews, and mostly very pious, having come from all parts

of the world to be buried in the Holy City when they die. The belief

amongst these Jews is that when Messiah comes there will be the

resurrection, and the bodies of those who were buried beyond Jerusalem

will have to suffer much rolling until they reach the city. Thus to

prevent this they have their burying place in the ancient city, being

zealous for their religion, without enquiring as to whether they are

really right in doing so. My father's family was very well known,

belonging to one of the most pious sects of Jews in Jerusalem. It was

the great delight of my father to speak of his ancestors, who were great

rabbis; and for half a century he occupied an honoured rabbinical

position himself in Jerusalem (Rosh Hashochatim). My dear mother also,

whose ancestors were leading Jews amongst the rabbis, was fond of

telling us wonderful stories of her grandfather, who was a famous

disciple of the great Geonim of Wilna. Needless to say, both my parents

were careful to train their children in the religion of their

forefathers. Being the youngest son of the family, I was much petted,

and they did their utmost to bring me up in the fear of God, and in all

the customs, rites, and rabbinical traditions, whilst they taught me to

look upon Christianity as idolatry. Truly my parents loved me very much,

and did all in their power to educate me in what they believed to be

right, and their one desire was that I might occupy the seat of my dear

father, to which all my teachers gave them full hope. Thus the early

part of my life was spent in study within the home circle. It was in

the year 1893 that I had conversation for the first time with

Christians.

"In that beautiful spot, the so-called Garden of Gethsemane, I one

evening met two servants of God, who began speaking to me. At the time

it seemed that I had gone into the Garden merely by accident, but now,

as one looks back over the past, it can be clearly seen that a loving

unseen hand was guiding me. These two Christians explained to me from

the Scriptures how that Jesus of Nazareth is in very deed the promised

Messiah, Israel's greatest hope. As they reasoned with me, there was one

passage of Scripture which I could not get over, that 'the sceptre shall

not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until

Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.'

"With this new light upon the Word of God I was given to understand that

the promises regarding the coming One told not only of His glory and

majesty, but also of His suffering and death (Isaiah liii. and Psalm

xxii.).

"Slowly I began to see how great and true Jehovah is, and how that His

divine word regarding the Messiah has been literally fulfilled in Jesus

Christ. I saw my helpless condition, and realized as never before that

my own righteousness was as filthy rags. And oh, what joy came to me,

when the gracious promise of God was fulfilled, a promise which came to

me now with such a new meaning. 'A new heart also will I give you, and a

new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart

out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put

My spirit within you.' (Ezekiel xxxvi. 26, 27).

"Having then accepted Jesus Christ as my own personal Saviour, I began

to wish that my own loved ones might know Him, whom to know is life

eternal. But I feared to tell them of my new-found treasure, and it is

impossible for me to describe the unrest and agony of soul that I passed

through in consequence. It was only at the Throne of Grace that comfort

could be found, and there I sought the strength and help I so much

needed. After this it seemed very clear that the Lord was speaking to me

through His Word, and was thus answering my prayer for guidance. The

word which came to me was that given to Abram of old--'Get thee out of

thy country, and from thy kindred and from thy father's house, unto the

land that I will shew thee.' (Genesis xii. 1).

"To leave those who are dear to one, the relations and friends, yes,

even to leave all for Christ's sake, is not easy; yet I knew it would be

best to do what appeared to be the only right thing. It was a hard

command to obey, but still I had the Lord's promises to take with

me,--'Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world' (St.

Matthew xxviii. 20). 'If ye shall ask anything of the Father in My name,

He will give it you' (St. John xvi. 23). Trusting therefore in God

alone, and persuading myself that He would be faithful in fulfilling His

promises, I started on my journey. And by the help of Almighty God I

came to England, arriving here as a perfect stranger, not knowing the

language, and without an earthly friend. It was a time of great

temptation, but the God of my fathers kept me. Letters came from my

friends and relations in Jerusalem, trying to persuade me to go back,

and my dear father said it would bring down his grey hairs in sorrow to

the grave if I did not return. Truly I felt the presence of my Redeemer,

and realized that He had called me. This joy filled my heart, and the

peace which passeth understanding was my portion. I praise God for those

Christians who have learned to sympathize with His ancient people. The

Lord raised up kind friends who helped me through my difficulties, and

daily I learned more of my Saviour's love, and found that 'His goodness

faileth never.' His word says, 'They who put their trust in Him will

never be put to shame,' and as I trusted, so I proved the truth of it.

After spending some time in England, the way opened for me to enter the

Bible Training Institute, Glasgow.

"Here I had opportunity of studying the Word of God, for which I was

very thankful. At length a call came for me to enter active service in

the vineyard of the Lord at the Bonar Memorial Mission to the Jews of

Glasgow. On this work the Lord was pleased to set His seal, sending

friends to encourage me, and in other ways blessing me abundantly."

ROMANN, Nathaniel, was born at Kobylin, Posen, in 1819, and was educated

in the rabbinic schools of Lissa and Breslau, attending also at the

latter place lectures at the University. From the reformed rabbi, Dr.

Geiger, he learned to reject the Talmud, and from the missionaries

Teichler, Caro, and Cerf, he learned to accept the Gospel, and to become

a whole-hearted Christian. He then became a teacher in a Christian

school at Zieginhals. In 1851 he was accepted by the L.J.S. as a

candidate for missionary work, and after preparing himself in their

college, he was sent to labour in Breslau and Berlin, where he

discharged his duties faithfully, becoming a blessing to many Jews, till

his death in Berlin in 1871.

RONKEL, Philipp Samuel Van, was born at Groningen, Holland, in 1819. His

father was a teacher in a Jewish school, and when Pauli visited him, he

shewed him a New Testament, which he often read, but concealed it from

his son. Pauli said to him, "You may hide the New Testament from your

son, but you cannot thereby frustrate the counsel of God." Philipp was

well educated in rabbinic law, but he found no pleasure therein, nor did

the services in the synagogue attract him. He was brooding upon

something which his parents could not find out. At the age of nineteen

he entered the academy of Groningen, and studied classics. A professor

there drew his attention to the influence which Jesus exercises upon

thinking humanity. From that time the personality of the Saviour

occupied his mind, and he began to read with delight the poems of Da

Costa. Just then he was requested by the Jewish congregation at Leerdam

to deliver a sermon at the dedication of a new synagogue, and he took

for his text Haggai ii. 10, and manifested in his sermon that he was

inclined towards Christianity. It then happened that a Christian pastor

visited a poor sick woman, but she refused to have his services. Ronkel

then tried to see what he could do with her, and succeeded in getting an

attentive hearing from her to his stories about good women of the Old

Testament. She then asked him to read the Bible, but he had not one with

him, and her own Bible she had torn to pieces when the pastor visited

her. Then she asked him to pray, but he had never offered up an

extempore prayer. In this perplexity he thought he could repeat the

Lord's prayer in Dutch, which he had learned in Greek. He then repeated

it with such fervour that the woman shed tears. This was the turning

point in Ronkel's life. He took now the decisive step, and was baptized

on Christmas Day, 1856, Da Costa being one of the witnesses. He became a

true Christian, according to the testimony of his own father. Later he

became one of the most eloquent preachers in Holland, and the Lord

prospered the work which He had committed to his hands.

ROSENBERG, Rev. L., wrote the following brief sketch of himself shortly

before he died:--"My parents were by birth Austrian Jews. By occupation

my father was a landed proprietor and my mother carried on a drapery

business. There were four children of the marriage, three boys and one

girl. I was born on April 5th, 1828. My mother and three children died

at a time when I was too young to remember them. My father was baptized

into the Christian Church. I received a good secular and religious

education, enough to lead me to avoid bad company; not so much to honour

God as to honour myself in order to be respected and esteemed so as to

mix with the best society.

"Ignorant of and prejudiced against Christianity, how wonderful were the

dealings of the Lord with me will be seen from the following

record:--About 1841 I visited Constantinople. Here a young Jewish friend

persuaded me, after much effort, to go with him to a Mission House,

where we heard a godly sermon preached before a gathering of young

Israelites, by the Rev. Dr. Schwartz, who, later on, was Pastor of

Trinity Chapel, Edgware Road, West London, and also a member of the

Committee of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among

the Jews. His Scriptural discourse awakened in me a desire to know more

about Christianity, and I often went to hear him preach at the Chapel of

the Prussian Embassy on the fore-noons of the Lord's Day.

"Having for a few years been convinced of the truth of Christianity, I

studied the Old and New Testament together, praying morning and evening

for light.

"About 1844 I again visited Constantinople on my way to Asia Minor for

hunting, with a view to becoming a naturalist by profession, collecting

wild animals, birds, and insects of all sorts for the museum. It was

whilst hunting on the top of Mount Olympus that the glorious scenery and

the power of God's Word, created as it were, a voice within me, ordering

me to leave all things, and I returned to Constantinople, and was

baptized by Mr. Allen, son-in-law of Dr. Duncan, the well-known 'rabbi

Duncan' of Edinburgh.

"Again I returned to Broussa, and on my own account I preached the

Gospel for a whole year to Jews, Armenians, and Greeks, from among whom

many, through Divine grace, were converted.

"Thus encouraged I went to Malta, where for about six years I studied

literature and theology in the Protestant College there, and in return I

gave lessons to boys in different classes, four hours a day. To complete

my preparations for the ministry of the Church I studied both in London

and Edinburgh.

"The Jewish Committee of the Established Church of Scotland engaged me

for about seven years, during which time I laboured as one of their

missionaries at the stations of Salonica and Smyrna, with encouraging

results, through the Divine blessing resting upon the Jews, Armenians

and Greeks. After this, on my resignation, I returned to Edinburgh and

London.

"Whilst in London the Committee of the Malta Protestant College, to whom

I was well known, and amongst whom were the late Lords Shaftesbury,

Calthorpe and Kinnaird, engaged me, and I went to the East to establish

British Schools for boys in all the principal towns bordering on the

Mediterranean and Black Seas. I established in Cairo a large boarding

and day school, and for over two years I worked on until my health

completely broke down, and, acting upon medical advice, I resigned and

came to London.

"On August 21st, 1865, I was engaged by the Committee of the British

Society, and ever since then I have been labouring, in Adrianople,

chiefly among the Jews, but also among the Armenians and the Greeks.

During the first ten years I baptized forty Jews, whilst other enquirers

of mine have been baptized in Constantinople, Smyrna, Jerusalem and

London. Many unbaptized Jews, Armenians and Greeks, have also been led

to believe in Jesus as the Saviour of their souls." He died in 1905

after more than forty years missionary work in Adrianople.

ROSENBERG, Samuel, M.D., was baptized at Constantinople about 1873. He

accompanied General Hicks on his compaign in the Soudan, where he lost

his life with the rest of the expedition.

ROSENBOHM, a Jewish convert in Sweden, was tutor of Hebrew at the

University of Upsala, in 1720. At the Coronation of King Friedrich, he

delivered a rabbinic oration, and likewise at the conclusion of peace

between the Kings of England, Denmark, and Prussia. (Wolff Bib. Heb. 3

N, 2138 a).

ROSENFELD, J. F. (Asriel), was born in 1807. His parents brought him up

piously, and married him at the age of fourteen. Coming in contact in

Berditsheff with a Scotchman, he received from him a New Testament. He

then went to Warsaw, became an inmate in the House of Industry, and

learned the trade of bookbinding, was baptized in 1828, and afterwards

laboured zealously as a missionary in Poland until his death in 1853.

ROSENSTRAUCH, Max, was born at Lemberg, on September 1, 1837. His

parents Moses and Scheindell, were strictly orthodox, and brought him up

in the straitest customs of strict Judaism. As he grew up, they were

proud of his Talmudical knowledge, their intention being that he should

become a rabbi. When seventeen years old, family circumstances compelled

him, however, to go into business, and he was apprenticed to a merchant,

with whom he remained ten years. In 1865, he accepted the post of a

schoolmaster in Jassy. Whilst there he heard of the Hebrew learning of

the Rev. W. Mayer, one of the L.J.S. missionaries, and formerly a

scholar in their mission schools in London. From him he received a New

Testament, which he read with eagerness, leading him to take Christian

instruction for eighteen months. Soon after this a strange event took

place in his life. He had left Jassy, and was on a steamer going to

Odessa, when the engine broke down. There being danger, the Captain

called upon all the passengers to pray. This Max Rosenstrauch felt he

could not do in the Name of Jesus Christ; all he could say was--"Lord,

teach us to pray." Later on the captain gave an earnest address to the

passengers on St. John iii. 14, 15; this he did not fully understand, but

what he did made a lasting impression upon him. In 1867 he was in

Kischineff, and of this period he says, "It only awakens in me painful

reminiscences. My Talmudical supports had been broken by the instruction

received at Jassy, and I fell altogether into unbelief. I could perform

neither Jewish nor Christian prayers. I did not even believe in the

existence of God. I sometimes disputed with the Scotch missionary, Mr.

Tomory, and Mr. Daniel Landsmann, and they knew me as a thorough

infidel Jew. At Odessa I lived as an atheist, and I had no intercourse

with any Christian. I was busy the whole day at a boarding-school, under

Mr. Trübitsch. At Kischineff my slumbering conscience was aroused, and

an unspeakable struggle agitated my heart, until the Lord opened my

eyes, and in every page of the Bible I saw the glory of Him who said, 'I

am the Light of the World.' In His Name I was baptized on Easter Day,

1868." After some years of missionary work with continental societies,

he joined the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the

Jews, in which he remained till his death, November 3, 1900. The

"Prayer-book for Jewesses" and his "Catechism for Jews," which he wrote,

have been most useful in his work, and in that of the above Society

generally.

ROSENTHAL, Rev. Michael, Vicar of St. Mark's, Whitechapel, who died at

the age of 63, was a converted Jewish rabbi, who for thirty years

carried on an earnest missionary work among the Jews of East London. The

story of his conversion is a remarkable one. Young rabbi Rosenthal, a

Hebrew of German extraction, was a profound Talmudist, and as strict and

zealous a Jew as was Saul of Tarsus before the journey to Damascus.

Rosenthal was sent on missions in connexion with the faith of his

fathers to Asia Minor, to North Africa and other countries, and finally

to England. On a steamboat he met a very learned and able man, who he

believed was a Jesuit. The man was certainly a Roman Catholic, and he

possessed a good deal of rabbinical lore. Rosenthal, as a strict Jew,

observed all the dietary and other laws of his people, and took his

meals separately. The supposed Jesuit ridiculed his scruples, and one

day, when the young rabbi was dining alone, touched his bottle of

claret, thereby, of course, rendering it defiled. Rosenthal was angry,

and the man saw this and taxed him with over-niceness in ceremonial

observance. "Do you really think," he asked, "that God is pleased by

your rejecting things that are good enough for the captain and other

people on the ship, and that you really serve Him by making yourself so

different from anybody else?" They had some conversation, which left a

great impression on the young rabbi's mind. One argument used by the

supposed priest had considerable effect. The Jews in the course of their

history during the last nineteen hundred years have acknowledged no

fewer than twenty-four Messiahs, all of whom have turned out to be

false, either impostors or self-deluded fanatics. Can a nation that has

made the gigantic mistake of accepting twenty-four false Messiahs claim

to be infallible in rejecting a twenty-fifth? All these false Messiahs

have appeared and been accepted since our Lord lived on earth except

"Judas of Galilee," who was a contemporary of Jesus Christ. Some time

after his arrival in England Rosenthal became acquainted with Dr.

Wilkinson, then rector of St. Peter's, Eaton Square. The young rabbi was

tremendously impressed by Dr. Wilkinson's great abilities and spiritual

earnestness. "Here is a Christian," he said to himself, "who is

absolutely sincere and of great intellectual power. Can Christianity be

merely a modern form of Paganism when such noble souls as these profess

it?" He listened to Dr. Wilkinson, and was on the way to conversion when

the good rector advised him to have recourse to the learned Dr. Ewald, a

celebrated Jewish missionary of the L.J.S., for the solution of

difficulties which only a Hebraist could deal with successfully.

Rosenthal was eventually baptized by Ewald. He took orders in the

English Church, being ordained deacon by Dr. Jackson, Bishop of London,

in 1877. Four years later he was admitted to the priesthood, and he

served for thirteen years as curate to the Rev. S. J. Stone, author of

"The Church's One Foundation," at St. Paul's, Haggerston, devoting

himself chiefly to mission work among the East-end Jews. He organized

the East London Mission to the Jews, which first came under regular

diocesan management when the present Bishop of London was Bishop of

Stepney. In 1899 Bishop Creighton presented Mr. Rosenthal to St. Mark's,

Whitechapel, a parish which is inhabited almost entirely by Jews. He met

with a good deal of hostility from the Jews in the first years, but he

talked straight to them and gradually the opposition died down, and he

steadily pursued his mission work among them. His labours were attended

with considerable success. He said that he had himself baptized over six

hundred Jews and Jewesses.

ROSENTHAL, Wildan Charles (Simeon), a learned Jew in Jerusalem, was

baptized with his wife, son and daughter by Nicolayson in 1839. This

family were the firstfruits of the L.J.S. mission in the Holy City. His

daughter became the wife of Mr. Bergheim, the banker, a Jewish convert.

ROSSVALLY, Dr. Max L., an American Jewish convert in the latter half of

the nineteenth century. He had been an actor, and after his conversion

became well-known as a lecturer in America and in England. He displayed

great zeal in his endeavours to form a Hebrew Christian Union, and in

1877 it is recorded that two hundred converts were united together and

held monthly meetings in New York and in Brooklyn. Rossvally wrote "The

Dying Trumpeter and his Experience," a German version of which appeared

in Hamburg, in 1891.

RUBEN, Maurice, was born in Prussia, in 1856. His people were typical

Jews, strict in their customs and in the observance of Jewish laws and

traditions. He came to the United States when he was sixteen years of

age. In 1895 he had the position of department manager in one of

Pittsburg's largest stores. His brother was half owner of this

enterprise. Plans were under way to admit him into a partnership in the

firm, which would have made him to-day--had he chosen "the way of the

world"--a man of wealth, with an annual income of 15,000 dollars.

Just prior to this he had married a charming and accomplished Jewess. In

the matter of religion he had wandered from Judaism to infidelity. Being

dissatisfied with unbelief, he began to "search the Scriptures"--both

the Old and New Testament--which resulted in the opening of his eyes;

he began to appreciate his own sinfulness, and was thoroughly convicted

of sin, the need of repentance, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. His

conversion took place on March 19th, 1895, and resulted in a most

striking change of both conduct and thought.

He continued to engage in earnest studies and to make it known to his

friends and acquaintances that he had found Him of whom Moses and the

prophets wrote, even the Messiah. Some months later he felt called upon

to announce his determination to forsake business and become a servant

of the Lord among his own people, believing he was being led by God even

as his forefathers Abraham and Moses.

As a result of his decision he was baptized, and set out to illumine the

spiritual darkness of "his brethren according to the flesh."

The Jews were very greatly disturbed at this conduct of one of their

prominent young men, and here the trials and troubles of Maurice Ruben

began. They made repeated efforts to induce him to forsake his "change

of life," but their efforts were futile. His wife ostensibly left their

comfortable home with her mother to visit friends in the West.

On a Sunday evening in August, subsequent to his conversion, he was

awakened from his slumber by the ringing of the door-bell. Responding

thereto he found himself face to face with two policemen. He was placed

under arrest and taken to the police station without a warrant of law.

He was given no explanation as to the charge which had been preferred

against him, and neither on Sunday nor Monday did a magistrate appear to

give him a hearing. He was, however, visited twice by two physicians,

who conversed with him in a mysterious manner. They introduced

themselves as insanity experts. Two days and two nights in a felon's

cell, with worse than a criminal's treatment, was a most trying

circumstance. Yet God was there to minister strength unto him. (St. Luke

x. 19.) He was visited on the second day by his wealthy brother, who

kindly informed him that he had been crazed by religion and was to be

sent for treatment to a sanatorium. He was taken that evening by

officers of the law to an asylum for the insane.

In the course of a few days he was pronounced by the superintendent of

the institution to be a perfectly sane man, but he was unable to release

him. His Christian friends endeavoured to intercede for him, but without

avail, and consequently this tried child of God was called upon to

endure the humiliation of five weeks' confinement in a mad-house, and

given the same treatment accorded to hundreds of demented folk in the

institution.

He was visited several times by his wealthy brother who offered him his

liberty if he would leave Pittsburg and go West, but he took a firm

stand and gladly refused to do anything except to remain in the city and

preach the Gospel of the Son of God to his brethren. A man of

considerable business interests in the city, Mr. J. B. Corey, finally

heard of him through the daily papers, and was led to call upon him in

company with a number of the officials of the institution. Mr. Corey and

the gentlemen found Mr. Ruben in his little room reading the Bible. A

short conversation satisfied the visitors that steps must be taken to

obtain the freedom of this man. Mr. Corey then instituted _habeas

corpus_ proceedings before the late Judge White.

At the close the judge frankly informed the wealthy brother and the

insanity experts that they and all connected with this outrageous infamy

ought to be sent to prison, and that the alleged demented man was saner

than those who had pronounced him insane.

Mr. Ruben at once began to prepare himself for his missionary work, and

sometime later opened up headquarters in Congress Street--the centre of

the Jewish Ghetto--and suffered much persecution. For the first few

years he was interfered with and maligned in every way imaginable. His

street meetings were frequently broken up, and he was hooted and stoned

by the Jewish element. "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall

suffer persecution." God, however, led him safely through all his

difficulties and trials, and enabled him to found the New Covenant

Mission, Pittsburg, Pa.[21]

[21] "The People, the Land and the Book," New York, January, 1906.

RUBINO, Dr. Joseph Karl Friedrich, was born at Wetzlar in 1799. He

became professor at Marberg in 1831. His intercourse with earnest

Christians at Cassel, and especially with a converted Jewess, known in

Germany as Mother Jolberg, led him to investigate the question at issue

between Judaism and Christianity for himself, and being convinced of the

truth of the latter, he made a public confession of it by baptism at

Cassel in 1842, and lived a consistent life. On the evening before his

death he said to friends, "No other foundation can any man lay than that

is laid, even Jesus Christ."

RUNHOLD, Karl Wilhelm (Zacharia Lehman), Ph.D., was born at Hamburg in

1777. His father was a silk merchant there. At the age of twenty-two he

became an evangelical Christian, graduated at Rostok in 1812, and

distinguished himself afterwards as a writer. He edited the

"Gemein-nützigen Unterhaltungs blätter," the "Allgemeine Theater

Zeitung," and the "Archive für Theater und Literatur" in Hamburg. He

died in 1841.

SACHS, Marcus, was born of wealthy parents in 1812, at Inowrallan in

Posen. His father sent him to an uncle to study at the Gymnasium and

afterwards at the University there. During his studies he lost his faith

in Judaism and became a follower of Voltaire. In 1842 he went to

Edinburgh and became acquainted with the professor of theology, Dr. John

Brown, who made an effort to win him for Christianity, and gave him to

read the well-known book of Abbot Guenée "Lettres de quelques Juifs

Portugais, Allemands et Polonais à M. Voltaire." After he returned it

Dr. Brown asked him whether he would like to read a book which defended

the Christian religion? and on his affirmative reply he gave him

Limbroch's "Amica Collatio cum erudito Judæo." These two books removed

his prejudices, and he then began to read the New Testament, and after

months of enquiry, deliberation and prayer he decided to accept

Christianity by faith, and was baptized by Dr. Brown, April 5th, 1843.

He then studied under Dr. Chalmers, and was licensed to preach, and

became tutor of Hebrew in the Seminary of the Free Church at Aberdeen.

He is described as a most humble and loving Christian man by Dr. Saphir

and others who knew him. He died there on September 29th, 1869, passing

away with the leaves of autumn, a ripe sheaf into the garner of God.

SALKINSON, Isaac Edward, was born at Wilna, and died at Vienna, June

5th, 1883. According to some, his father's name was Solomon Salkind. As

a youth he set out for America with the intention of entering a

rabbinical seminary there; but whilst in London he was met by agents of

the L.J.S., from whom he heard the Gospel and was converted and

baptized. His first appointment as a missionary to the Jews was at

Edinburgh, where he became a student in the Divinity Hall. He was

ordained a minister of the Presbyterian Church at Glasgow, in 1859. He

was then a missionary of the British Society in various towns, including

Pressburg, and finally settled in Vienna (1876). Salkinson translated

"Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation" under the title "Sod ha-Jeshu'ah"

(Altona, 1858); "Milton's Paradise Lost," under the title "Wa Yegaresh

et haadam" (Vienna, 1871); Shakespeare's "Othello" and "Romeo and

Juliet," under the titles "Itiel ha kushi" (_ib._, 1874; preface by P.

Smolensky); and "Ram we-Yael" (_ib._, 1878); Tiedge's "Urania," under

the title "Ben Koheleth" (_ib._, 1876, revised); and the New Testament

under the title "Haberith Hahadasha." The last mentioned translation was

undertaken for the British Society in 1887; it was published

posthumously under the supervision of Dr. C. D. Ginsburg at Vienna in

1886.

SALVADOR, Yonkheer Moses, flourished at Amsterdam in the middle of the

nineteenth century. One of his ancestors built the Salvador house near

the Bank of England. It is said that the Salvadors were direct

descendants of the Maccabees, the Saviours of Israel, hence the name

Salvador, meaning Saviour. Moses Salvador was intimately acquainted with

Pauli and welcomed him to his house, where they discussed the subject of

Christianity. The result was that he joined the French Reformed Church,

at Haarlem in 1852. For a long time after his conversion he used to give

Thursday evening lectures on Christianity, which were attended by

Christians and Jews.

SAMANY, a native of Assesso in Abyssinia, was one of Flad's early

converts there. He had to undergo bitter reproaches from his mother and

relations on account of his becoming a Christian, but his reply to his

mother was that he loved her now better than before, and that he would

take care of her. Working on his weaver's stool he at the same time used

to speak to his two sisters of the "pearl of great price" that he had

found, and they too became Christians. During the imprisonment of the

missionaries, he attached himself to Waldemayer, who was free. After

the arrival of the English expedition he went to the coast, where he and

his companion Petrus were met by the Jewish traveller Halevy, who gave

them some money and promised to take them to Paris. Not perceiving at

once his intention, they accepted the money, but they brought it back to

him the next morning, and as he refused to take it back, they threw it

into the sea, although they suffered hunger at the time. Then they went

to Magdala, and afterwards with Flad to Europe, and were placed in the

training school at St. Chrischona, near Basle. But as Samany could not

stand the climate there, Flad took him to his own house at Kornthal, and

was then obliged to send him back to Abyssinia. On his return he and

Agashe preached the Gospel earnestly to the Falashas. Samany continued

to do so even from his sick bed. Conscious that the time of his

departure had come, he asked that the coffin which he had before

prepared for himself should be placed before him, then saying, "Father,

into Thy hands I commend my spirit," he entered into rest.

SAMSON, Lewis Paul, was an English Jew by birth, the son of a Dutch

"sopher" (writer of scrolls of the law and of phylacteries). When a boy

he used to hear Dr. McNeile at St. Jude's, Liverpool, and in other ways

came in contact with Christian influences. When he became forty years

old he was asked by his children to hear them repeat a portion of

Scripture which they had been taught at school. It happened to be Isaiah

liii., and it proved to be the turning point in his life. Like many

another Jew, he could not believe at first that it was a part of the Old

Testament, but it led eventually to his baptism by a Hebrew Christian,

who was one of the Society's missionaries.

His public profession of Christianity made him an object of abhorrence

to his brothers and sisters, though later on they learned to respect him

for his simple, unswerving faith, and some of them, it is believed,

became Christians. He continued his occupation, but at the same time was

an active worker in St. Jude's parish, until his appointment under the

Society. He was a man of one book and that book the Bible, which he knew

almost by heart. Many a Jew was struck by his intimate knowledge of the

Word of God, and none ever doubted his being a true believer, however

much they disliked his invariably holding up Christ before them. Many of

the poor Jews, both converted and unconverted, missed him, after his

death, as a friend in need, who often used to minister to their

necessities out of his scanty earnings. At one time, he was known to

have lived for weeks on sixpence a day, to save up the money which he

had borrowed and advanced to a Jew who either could not, or would not,

repay. No wonder that so many Christians learned to love and respect him

as "an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile."

SAPHIR, Rev. Adolph, D.D. We learn from him the story of his conversion

in one short sentence: "I, at that time, a lad in my twelfth year, was

the first of our family to accept the Gospel." Mr. Wingate, who gives

an account of the event, says that the Jews testified to Adolph's being

born again from on high. "We heard that the Jews were saying that the

Holy Ghost had fallen on Saphir's son, and that he expounded the

Scripture as they had never heard it before." In the autumn of 1843,

Adolph went to Dr. Duncan in Edinburgh, that he might perfect his

knowledge of English, where he remained six months, and then went to

Berlin, and studied at the Gymnasium from 1844 to 1848, acquiring a

thorough knowledge not only of German literature, but also of German

philosophy. In 1848-49, he was tutor in the family of Mr. William Brown

in Aberdeen. In 1854, after finishing his theological studies, he was

ordained to the Presbyterian ministry, and licensed as a preacher in

Belfast. He then laboured as a missionary to the Jews in Hamburg for one

year. Then he had the charge of a church in South Shields, and in 1861

he received a call to Greenwich, where people from various churches

flocked to hear him. In 1872 a church was purchased for him at Notting

Hill, where his ministry was always attended by all sorts of earnest

Christians, especially his Thursday morning lectures. This was also the

case wherever he went to preach. Saphir's love and devotion to his

people and to the cause of missions was boundless. He died April 4,

1891, a few days after his wife. His last sermon was on the text, "And

Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." The following

are some of Saphir's works: (1) "Who is a Jew?"; (2) "Who is an

Apostate?"; (3) "Expository Lectures on the Epistle to the Hebrews";

(4) "The Hidden Life"; (5) "Our Life Day"; (6) "Found by the Good

Shepherd"; (7) "Life of Faith"; (8) "The Compassion of Jesus"; (9) "The

Everlasting Nation"; (10) "Christian Perfection"; (11) "The Unity of the

Scriptures"; (12) "Christ and the Scriptures"; (13) "The Lord's Prayer";

(14) "Israel's Present and Future"; and (15) "All Israel shall be

Saved."

SAPHIR, Israel, brother of the famous satirist at Vienna, was living in

Pesth in the first half of the nineteenth century, where, owing to his

erudition and character, he exercised great influence upon the Jewish

community, and was regarded by them as another Gamaliel. Coming in

contact with the Scotch missionaries, Dr. Duncan, Mr. Wingate, Mr. Smith

and Dr. Schwartz, he heard the Gospel from them, and when convinced of

its truth he did not hesitate to embrace it. This is described by his

son in a few words: "Through the instrumentality of the Scotch

missionaries my father saw the truth as it is in Jesus, and was received

into the Christian Church in 1843 at the age of sixty-three years."

SAPHIR, Philipp, an elder brother of Adolph, was rather inclined to

worldliness, but became serious when there was an inundation in Pesth,

and he had tried to save life. In 1842 Rev. Dr. Schwartz passed through

Pesth on his way to Constantinople, and Philipp heard his addresses to

Jews, and was impressed, becoming conscious of sin and the need of

pardon. He was baptized in the Calvinistic Church of Pesth, in 1843, by

Superintendent Paul Török. He wrote afterwards to Mr. Schwartz: "I was

admitted into the Church of Christ. I cannot describe my feelings to

you. Ah! the infinite love of God! He has given me much peace, nothing

will deprive me of it. I am happy, joyful; my soul is with God. I praise

Christ every hour." He then, being nineteen years of age, went to

Carlsruhe to be trained as a teacher, and on his return to Pesth in

1845, at once set to work and organized a Y.M.C.A. Becoming ill, he

taught poor Christian and Jewish children gratis from his sick bed "The

Evangelical doctrine as he found it in the Word of God." He died

September 27, 1849, whilst his father knelt by his side with two friends

engaged in prayer. The daughters of Israel Saphir all became devoted

Christians. One was married to Rev. Dr. Schwartz, and the other to Rev.

C. A. Schönberger, both well known in the Christian Church.

SAUL, Aaron, was baptized by the L.J.S. missionaries in 1812. Lewis Way

took him to his Seminary. He however did not become at once a

missionary, but engaged in business and held the office of Clerk in

Palestine Place Chapel, and taught in the Sunday School for twenty-seven

years. He devoted himself especially to the care of enquirers and to the

circulation of the "Old Paths" and other missionary literature among the

Jews in London. From 1841 to 1843, he laboured as missionary at

Brussels, and died in London, Jews following his funeral.

SARGON, Michael, was born of Jewish parents at Cochin in 1795, and died

about 1855. He was converted in 1818, through the preaching of J.

Jarrett of Madras, and became the first missionary of the L.J.S. to the

Jews in India. In 1820 Sargon visited his parents at Cochin, who

received him kindly, and for a time the Jews there seemed to have no

objection to discussing with him his new faith. A local committee was

found in Madras with Sargon as the representative missionary. Madras

became the centre of the Society's work in India. In 1822 Sargon had 116

Jewish children under his charge at Cochin, but in 1824 he was

transferred to Bombay, where he opened, under the auspices of the

L.J.S., a school exclusively for Jews. In Cochin Sargon baptized a Jew

and two Jewesses in 1828. He and his brother Abraham continued their

educational activity for nearly thirty-nine years after the Society had

ceased to give a grant to the Bombay mission. (Report of L.J.S., 1821.)

SCHAPIRO, B. A. M. One summer morning in the year 1890 there visited the

reading room of the Hebrew Christian Mission, 17, St. Mark's Place, New

York, a Hebrew lad of nineteen years, with bright eyes and curly black

hair. He had just arrived there from Germany, although he was a native

of Poland. The boy's keen, intelligent countenance attracted the

attention of the Rev. Jacob Freshman, Superintendent of the mission, and

as several Jewish men were having a lesson in English, that gentleman

suggested that the young Jew should become a member of the class. The

stranger knew no English, the teacher had no knowledge of Polish or

Russian, consequently their conversation was carried on mainly by

pantomime, and with the help of one of the scholars, who acted as

interpreter. Jews are naturally fine students, grasping knowledge with

avidity. The new arrival proved no exception to the rule, and so before

the forenoon ended he had learned the English names of the articles of

furniture in the room, the days of the week, the numerals from one to

ten, and also how to write his name, "Benjamin Aaron Moses Alexander

Schapiro", in English script. Long after, when he had learned to speak

English with ease, we asked: "Why did your parents burden you with such

a number of names?" "Because," was his answer, "they hoped and wished

that I might combine in my character, when I came to manhood, the

qualities of patriarch, priest, prophet and king." He was a fine Hebrew

scholar, and carefully followed in a Hebrew Bible the Psalms which the

other pupils read in English. We found at our next visit the new pupil

awaiting our coming. His countenance glowed with pleasure, as he

cordially grasped our hand and proceeded to dispose of our satchel and

umbrella. That morning he read several pages in an English primer. When

we went again we found that Benjamin had taken his departure, though

urged by the superintendent and his kind wife, for they both had become

greatly interested in him, to make their house his home for an unlimited

period. His proud, ambitious spirit chafed at the thought of becoming a

burden on the hands of strangers, so he started out to earn his own

living, an entirely new experience in his case. Hitherto he had never

been called upon to solve the three vital problems: "What to eat,"

"What to drink," "Wherewithal to be clothed." His brief stay at the

mission proved, however, a very important epoch in this young life. The

seeds of Gospel truth were sown in his heart, and afterwards quickened

by the Holy Spirit, sprang up, budded, blossomed, and ultimately bore

the fruitage of earnest work for the Master. Two years had elapsed since

our first meeting. One evening, at the close of the service in a Hebrew

Christian Church, we were cordially greeted by a young man. The native

dress had been changed for American, the hair arranged in a different

style, etc. So great was the transformation that at the first glance we

failed to recognize our quondam pupil and friend. He then told us what

had befallen him since we last met. He had, soon after leaving the

mission, found employment with Mr. Benjamin Clayton, a butcher at

Jamaica, L. I. Imagine, if you can, what a trial it must have been to

one brought up to a strict observance of the tenets of orthodox Judaism

to have to handle "Gentile" meat, especially the abhorred pork. A

Christian man who dealt at the shop became interested in the young

stranger, seeing him to be the possessor of talents which ought to be

improved and developed. This kind friend placed him under Christian

tutors.

Eventually Mr. Schapiro was converted, and publicly confessed Christ,

and united with a church in Brooklyn. Soon after taking this important

and decisive step he was convinced that it was his bounden duty and

glorious privilege to tell the story of a Redeemer's love to his own

people. Very visionary seemed the project. How could he, a youth who had

not yet attained his majority, a stranger, a foreigner, a "despised"

Jew, without means, with few friends, accomplish this mighty

undertaking? Faith laughs at impossibilities. Enthusiasm is ever

contagious. A few friends became interested, amongst others Mr. Horatio

S. Stewart, the gentleman who had previously provided him with a

scholarship at Pennington Seminary. The first Jewish mission work in

Brooklyn was inaugurated in that part of the Twenty-sixth Ward known

commonly as "Brownsville." Here a colony of Polish and Russian Jews had

taken up their abode. A small hall was hired and services held on

Saturday afternoon. Great was the excitement, tremendous the opposition.

Jews gathered in crowds, anxious to hear what the youth might have to

say concerning his apostasy from the faith of his fathers. Men thrice

his age plied him with questions regarding Christianity, quibbles

mostly; occasionally, perhaps, an enquirer might have been moved with a

genuine desire to know the truth. The young missionary, however, was

enabled to possess his soul in patience, and with quiet dignity to repel

their attacks. The following incidents will serve as representative

specimens of these interruptions: Once, when the missionary was giving a

brief exposition of the first chapter of St. John's Gospel--"In the

beginning was the Word," etc., "'Logos' as 'word' here is in the Greek

synonymous with 'Memrah' in the Rabbinical writings," he remarked. A Jew

sprang to his feet in a second. "You cunning Mr. Missionary!" he

shouted--"trying to prove your statements from the Talmud, which you

profess to disbelieve, because you cannot prove them from the Old

Testament!" Quick as a flash came the rejoinder: "David, in the

thirty-third Psalm, sixth verse, says: 'By the "word" of the Lord were

the heavens established.'" The assailant was effectually silenced, but

so angry was he at having been outwitted in public by one so much

younger than himself that whenever he chanced to see the missionary

approaching he would quickly cross to the other side of the street.

On another occasion a Jew said: "You know perfectly well how wrong and

wicked it is for a man to desert the religion of his fathers. Why, even

the Gentiles despise those who are guilty of such an act!" "What do you

mean by the religion of our fathers?" was asked in return. "Why, of

course, I mean the religion of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," the Jew

answered. "But Abraham departed from the faith of his fathers. This

'apostasy' was imputed unto him for righteousness. You reproach me

because I have departed from the religion of my fathers, which you claim

to be the 'true religion.' Listen for a moment to the witness borne by

Moses and the prophets concerning the religion of our fathers. Moses,

our great lawgiver, says: 'Understand, therefore, that the Lord thy God

giveth thee not the good land to possess for thy righteousness; for thou

art a stiffnecked people.' 'You have been rebellious against the Lord

from the day that I knew you.' Isaiah the evangelist, says of our

fathers: 'From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no

soundness in it, but wounds and bruises, and putrifying sores.' 'Ah!

sinful nation!' and mark the expression: 'A seed of evil-doers, children

that are corrupters.' In another place the same prophet says: 'Woe is

me, for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in

the midst of a people of unclean lips.' Jeremiah says: 'Can the

Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do

good that are accustomed to do evil.' The weeping prophet declares: 'All

these nations are uncircumcised, and the house of Israel is

uncircumcised.' Jehovah himself says to Ezekiel: 'Son of man, I send

thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath

rebelled against me; they and their fathers have transgressed against me

to this very day. For they are impudent children and hard-hearted.' The

suffering prophet again says: 'Thou art not sent to a people of a

strange speech, and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel; not

to many people of a strange speech, and of an hard language, whose words

thou canst not understand; surely had I sent thee to them, they would

have hearkened unto thee. But the house of Israel will not hearken unto

thee; for they will not hearken unto Me, for all the house of Israel are

impudent and hard-hearted.' Jesus the great teacher, said: 'Ye are of

your father, the devil.' Now, in view of all these assertions, can you

still insist upon my still adhering to the 'religion of my fathers.'

You say: 'The Gentiles despise those who have departed from the religion

of their ancestors.' That statement can be easily disproved from

history. Jesus, Paul and the other founders of the Christian Church all

apostasized from the faith of their fathers. Luther, a Roman Catholic,

became the leader of the Reformation. Neander, Edersheim, Saphir and a

host of other converted Jews have been indeed 'the glory of Israel, and

lights to lighten the Gentiles.'"

These Saturday services were continued for more than two years. An

evening school, where Jewish people, employed during the day, could

receive gratuitous instruction in English, was carried on with a great

degree of success. A protracted strike among the tailors, cloak-makers

and operators on men's clothing, the principal industries of this

settlement, reduced the people to the direst poverty; hundreds were on

the verge of starvation. In this, the time of their need, Mr. Schapiro,

at his own expense, opened a soup-kitchen in his rooms, himself serving

the tables, and for more than two weeks scores were fed. That no offence

might be given to their prejudices, the meat was "Kosher," that is,

bought at a Jewish butcher's, and prepared by a Jewish cook. This kind,

thoughtful treatment did much to disarm their repugnance against him as

a Christian. The missionary also opened a similar mission in the

Sixteenth Ward, Eastern District, where there is a Jewish population of

50,000, and for nearly a year carried on the two stations, holding a

service at Brownsville on Saturday morning, and a second one in the new

mission in the afternoon. Finally his committee deemed it best to

confine his labours entirely to the Eastern District station, as they

considered it the more hopeful field, on account of the large number of

Jews in the vicinity. Meanwhile a denominational mission had been

established in Brownsville. The Brooklyn Christian Mission to the Jews

has from the outset been interdenominational. This work in the Eastern

District was not inaugurated without opposition. The missionary and the

men who assisted him in the distribution of the notices for the services

and tracts were targets for the stones of crowds of Jewish boys. The

older people greeted them with sneers, derision, offensive epithets, and

sometimes with curses. Among the Jewish boys, Samuel ----, acted as

leader and instigator in the attacks. After a while he ventured into the

mission, intending to create a disturbance, and, if possible, break up

the services, but the story of a Saviour's love fell upon his ears, and

as has many times happened in the history of missions, he who "came to

mock remained to pray." Samuel was convinced, converted, and for two

years has been a consistent member of a church in this city.

After seven years of mission work, owing to the combined labour of

carrying on the service and collecting funds for the maintenance of the

mission, his health broke down and he gave up the work.

In June, 1900, Mr. Schapiro published the first number of "The People,

the Land and the Book." He had a theory that much of the variance

existing between Jews and Christians had its foundation in mutual

ignorance and misapprehension of their different religious beliefs. He

designed to reach both parties in a spirit of love.

Mr. Schapiro for eleven years had no home, no intercourse with his own

family. Having become an "apostate," he was worse than dead to them. All

his overtures for reconciliation were scornfully rejected. To be cut off

from all one's relatives, to have no home life, is ever a great

affliction, particularly to a Jew, for the Jewish attachment and

devotion to home and family are proverbial. A Jew who has embraced

Christianity can sing in all sincerity, "Jesus, I my cross have taken,

all to leave and follow Thee," for it is his veritable experience.

One day he chanced to meet a fellow-townsman, who, to his great

surprise, told Mr. Schapiro of the latter's cousin, who lived in New

York. Of course he lost no time in hunting up this relative. At first he

was greeted with sharp, bitter reproach, for his change of faith, but

when it was manifest that his love for Christ had not obliterated, but

rather intensified, his love of kindred, speedy reconciliation followed.

Mr. Schapiro learned that his father had lost his property, and also

that his eldest son had died. Letters were exchanged, and complete

reconciliation ensued.

The painful situation of the Jews in Russia made Mr. Schapiro anxious on

his family's behalf. Through the assistance of kind friends he was

enabled to bring over two of his sisters. They reached there one

Thursday, and a week later found employment. There were still eight

remaining at home, father, mother, brothers and sisters. Through the

efforts of the once deemed lost brother "Joseph" they were enabled to

go, and are now comfortably situated in their own home in New York.

Mr. Schapiro's life is not lacking in romance. Some years ago, while he

was conducting the mission in Boerum Street, a pretty Jewish girl of

thirteen, whose parents lived opposite, frequently attended the

services. After a while the family moved and Mr. Schapiro lost sight of

his little friend. After he had left the mission, and was conducting the

magazine, they chanced to meet again. Their renewed acquaintance ripened

into love, and a year after they were married. Mrs. Schapiro is a

charming little woman, bright and attractive. Their union has been

blessed with a darling little daughter, Beatrice Sylvia, now nineteen

months old. The former homeless wanderer rejoices in a pleasant,

tastefully arranged home, and a wife who delights to minister to his

comfort, and is hospitable in the extreme, always welcoming his friends,

and leaving nothing undone which can minister to their comfort.

This paper has already far exceeded the limits originally intended;

still it seems impossible to close it without some slight character

delineations. Mr. Schapiro, so the Jews who come from his native place

tell us, is of a good family; his father was a man of wealth and

position, and was noted for his rigid adherence to the tenets of

orthodox Judaism. One can easily understand how sore a trial it must

have been for such a Jewish father to have his son embrace Christianity,

and what in his opinion was still more disgraceful, to have that son

become a missionary of the Cross among his own people. Mr. Schapiro is

intensely fond of books, is a good student, ambitious to be thoroughly

educated, and is already quite a forcible speaker. Fearlessness forms

one of the strong points of his character. He is positive, liberal,

without being a radical, conservative, yet not bigoted. He has what is

an absolute requisite to all who undertake leadership of any kind--good

executive ability. Naturally sensitive, as a missionary among the Jews

he has had many a fiery ordeal to pass through and many hard reproofs to

bear. But to his credit, be it said, he has been enabled to retain his

patience and to exhibit a forgiving disposition. He had a very correct

idea of the propriety and reverence with which all religious services

should be conducted. Never using cant expressions, and although gifted

with a keen sense of the humorous, he never stooped to ridiculous

illustrations, which, though they create laughter, leave no lasting

impression for good. He has never sought notoriety. Mr. Schapiro is

still a young man, and like all young people, has much to learn, but if

health and strength are granted, he bids fair to become an able advocate

of the Messiah among his own brethren after the flesh, the Jews.[22]

[22] "The People, the Land and the Book," Miss Mary C. Sherburne. July,

1905.

SCHERESCHEWSKY, Dr. Samuel Isaac Joseph, from 1877 to 1883 missionary

bishop of the American Church in China. He was born at Tanroggen, in

Russian Lithuania, in the year 1831, and brought up in the religion and

learning of the Jews, graduating from the University of Breslau. The

reading of the New Testament in a Hebrew translation, which had fallen

into his hands, convinced him of the truth of Christianity. This must

have been the Society's version, as at that time Professor Delitzsch's

and Salkinson's versions were not in existence; and, therefore, the

Society was the first agent in the Bishop's conversion. Soon after his

confession of Christ he went to the United States. He acquired his

knowledge of Greek in the Theological Seminary at New York, which he

entered in 1857. The Christians with whom he first came into contact

belonged to the Baptist and the Presbyterian denominations; he was

baptized by a minister of the former, and studied theology in a seminary

of the latter body. But before he had finished his studies, he had

learned and acknowledged the position of the Episcopal Church, and was

admitted a candidate for holy orders under the Bishop of Maryland. In

1859 he was ordained deacon in St. George's Church, New York, and in the

following year was advanced to the priesthood in China, whither he had

accompanied the elder Bishop Boon on his return from a home visit.

In the autumn of 1861, Schereschewsky made a translation of the Psalms

into the colloquial. This was his first work. In 1863 he moved to Pekin

and began, with Bishop Burdon of Hong Kong, the translation of the

first Mandarin Prayer Book. The main part of this book, viz., Morning

and Evening Prayer, the Collects, and the Psalter, were his work; Bishop

Burdon taking the remainder of the Book. This was completed in 1864. In

1865 a committee of five leading Chinese scholars, Dr. Edkins, Dr.

Martin, Dr. Blodgett, Bishop Burdon and himself, undertook the

translation of the New Testament into Mandarin. This is still in use

generally throughout the Empire. The only other Mandarin version in

existence at that time was Dr. Medhurst's "Mandarin," which was based on

the so-called "Delegates' Version" in Wen-li. The Bishop began the

translation of the Old Testament himself into Mandarin, in the autumn of

1865, and finished this colossal undertaking at the end of eight years.

This, with the Mandarin Testament mentioned above, forms the ordinary

Chinese Bible in general use by Christians in China, and is read at

every service from the lecterns in the China Mission of the American

Episcopal Church, as mentioned in the organ of the Domestic and Foreign

Missionary Society of the American Church.

In 1875, Dr. Channing Moore Williams, the American Bishop for China and

Japan, having been assigned to the work in Japan alone, Dr.

Schereschewsky was elected Bishop of Shanghai. With great modesty and

self-distrust he declined the office; but being again chosen in 1877, he

was persuaded that it was his duty to undertake its labours and

responsibility. He returned as Bishop to Shanghai in the autumn of

1878, and, in the course of the year 1879, translated the whole Prayer

Book into Wen-li, or classic style, blending with it as much as possible

the English and American Prayer Books, with the hope that all missions

of the Anglican communion might use it in China. Although this hope was

not gratified, the book was for many years the only one in use in all

the American missions, and formed the basis of the colloquial versions

which have since superseded it. In 1879 the Bishop went up the river to

Wuchang, and began the translation of the Apocrypha. He had only

completed one book when he was smitten down during the intense heat of

the summer of 1881, and his physicians ordered his removal to Europe,

whither he went the following spring. He was under treatment from 1882

to 1886, at Geneva in Switzerland. In 1883 Bishop Schereschewsky,

unwilling to retain an office whose duties he could not discharge,

resigned his Bishopric.

With wonderful perseverance he now devoted all his energies of mind,

which remained unimpaired, to the work of bringing the Scriptures within

the reach of the Chinese nation. Fully acquainted with their language in

its different forms, and being not only a skilful Sinologist, but one of

the most learned Orientalists in the world--and that by the testimony of

Professor Max Müller--using a pen as long as he could hold a pen, and

then, owing to paralysis, working on a typewriter with the two fingers

which he could control, he translated the Old Testament from the

original Hebrew into the Mandarin dialect, leaving to a secretary only

the reduction of the typewritten words into the Chinese character. For

twenty years, day after day, in China, and for a while in Massachusetts,

and more recently in Japan, when he was near a printing-press which he

could use, he worked under disadvantages which would have put an end to

the courage and the labours of almost any other man. Not long before his

death he completed his greatest work, the translation of the whole

Bible, including the Apocrypha, into the Wen-li dialect. He also wrote

Chinese grammars and dictionaries, and translated the Gospels into

Mongolian, preparing also a dictionary of that language. He died at

Tokyo, on October 15th, 1906.

We may add the following extract from the Bible Society's memoir of the

Bishop, written by the Rev. Crayden Edmunds, M.A.: