THE ANCIENT SCRIPTURES AND THE MODERN JEW THE ANCIENT SCRIP- TURES AND THE MODERN JEW B y DAVID BARON, Author of " Rays of Messiah's Glory," &c. & & & SECOND EDITION LONDON : HODDER AND STOUGHTON & jt 27 PATERNOSTER ROW MCMI Three Shillings and Sixpence PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION printing of a second edition of this book * within the same year that the first edition was published is a matter of thankfulness to the author, who has received a large number of appreciative letters about it ; and it may be regarded as a proof of growing interest in the stupendous question with which it deals. The press notices, too, have, on the whole, been favour- able. What adverse criticism there has been, has, so far as I know, been directed almost entirely against the expository part of the volume, partly on account of my attitude in relation to the views of a certain school of modern criticism with regard to the Old Testament Scriptures. Some of my reviewers have also expressed regret that the subject of the " Modern Jew," which is so interesting in itself, should not have been treated independently of the Scriptures. But " I believe, and therefore have I spoken." The Jew still remains the most irrefutable witness to the historical character and vii 2095040 viii PREFACE supernatural element of the Scripture narrative, and it is only in the light of the revealed plan, that we can see light, on the very comprehensive and perplexing " Jewish Question," which, apart from Scripture, will for ever remain an enigma beyond solution. September ; 2gt/i, 1901. PREFACE ONE or two explanations are all that is necessary by way of preface to this work. It will be noticed that it is divided into two parts. The first consists of connected expositions of some of the most striking pro- phetic utterances in the ancient Scriptures. They are in- dependent Bible Studies of very solemn and momentous subjects, but arranged in a continuous and progressive order, showing that the revolving centuries unfold an eternal purpose, and that prophecy was history written in advance, in order, as I said elsewhere, " that in suc- ceeding ages men, by comparing the Divine forecasts in Scripture with the actual condition of things, might learn to know that there is an omniscient God ; one who first makes His counsel known, and then causes all things to work together towards the carrying out, and fulfilment, of that which He declared beforehand, should come to pass." I have had no controversial end in view in writing these pages, my aim being simply, by the help of God, ix x PREFACE to show the harmonies of Scripture, and to unfold His wonderful and gracious purposes as revealed in His holy Word. While so engaged my eyes and heart have been continually lifted up to the God of Israel, not only for light and guidance, but that He would condescend to use this inadequate and unworthy effort, as a means of blessing and spiritual profit to His people. It was my intention, had time permitted, to add four or five other expositions to the first part of the volume, but much pressure of other work, in this country and abroad, has prevented my doing so at present. In the second part, in which I have embodied material from some of my articles in The Scattered Nation, and from one or two previously published booklets, my aim has been to present from a Christian and Bible stand- point an all-round view of " The Jewish Question " a question which will press itself more and more upon the attention of the nations, and the development of which must be watched with the greatest possible inte- rest by all intelligent observers of the signs of the times, who believe in the words of the Psalmist, that " when the Lord shall rebuild Zion, He shall appear in His glory." To those who are themselves " watchmen on the walls of Zion," some of the facts in the second part may be already familiar, but I venture in all modesty to quote the following words of Pascal, as applicable to this part of the book : " Let no one say I have said nothing new. The disposition of my matter is new. In playing tennis two men play with the same ball, but one places it better. It might as truly be said that my words have PREFACE xi been used before. And if the same thoughts in a diffe- rent arrangement do not form a different discourse, so neither do the same words in a different arrangement form different thoughts." As will be seen, I have allowed one of the most eloquent of modern Jews himself to state the case of the " general condition " of his nation at the end of the nineteenth century, the remarkable address quoted, being as far as possible, a literal rendering by Mrs. Baron, of that which Dr. Max Nordau delivered at the first Zionist Congress in Basle. I have also embodied a short article, or rather address, on " The Religious Condition of the Jews from a Christian Point of View," by my esteemed friend and fellow-worker in the " Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel," the Rev. C. A. Schonberger. I need only add that to many of my readers I shall not appear altogether a stranger. It is about sixteen years since my first attempt towards the elucidation of parts of the Hebrew Scriptures was published in " Rays of Messiah's Glory," and although there are passages in that book (at present out of print), which require re- writing, and I am even more conscious now than I was at the time of its publication of imperfections in its plan and composition, the Lord has been pleased to put His seal upon that unworthy effort to magnify His Word, and Him who is its very life and substance. Many have been the testimonies, some even from very highly honoured servants of Christ, to light and blessing received through its pages. Since then some of my smaller publications have had a fairly large circulation xii PREFACE both in England and America, one of them, "The Jewish Problem ; or, Israel's Present and Future," having been translated into six different languages. And now I commend this book, the result of spare moments saved in a very busy life of service for Christ among His own nation, to Him who condescends to bless the things that are weak and small, and pray that wherever it goes it may carry a blessing with it, not only to Christians, but to my own brethren and " kins- men according to the flesh," for whom my heart does not cease to yearn, with the yearning of Him who shed tears over Jerusalem, and who died for " that nation," and not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. DAVID BARON. 23, BOSCASTLE ROAD, LONDON, N.W. November yd, 1900. CONTENTS PART I THE ANCIENT SCRIPTURES. PAGE I. THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" < . I ii. THE "ICHABOD" PERIOD AND THE RETURN OF THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH . . . . 41 III. THE SILENCE OF GOD : HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN 63 I. In Relation to the Church, 77. ii. In Relation to Israel, 83. in. In Relation to Christendom, 90. IV. THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL . . -99 (A Prophetic Drama of the End of the Age.) PART II THE MODERN JEW i. A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE . 133 (Numbers and Distribution of the Jewish People.) xiii v CONTENTS PAGE II. THE GENERAL CONDITIONS OF THE JEWS AT THE CLOSE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY FROM A JEWISH POINT OF VIEW .... 147 III. THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE JEWS AND CAUSES OF JEWISH UNBELIEF IN CHRIST, FROM A CHRISTIAN POINT OF VIEW . . .167 IV. RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS AND SECTS AMONG THE JEWISH PEOPLE . . . . .l8l V. THE PRESENT ATTITUDE OF THE JEWS IN RE- LATION TO CHRISTIANITY . . -197 VI. ANTI-SEMITISM ..... 207 VII. ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS . 227 (The Zionist Movement.) viii. ISRAEL'S MISSION TO THE WORLD, AND THE CHURCH'S MISSION TO ISRAEL . . . 259 IX. ANGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE TEN " LOST " TRIBES , ' . -277 (A Letter to an Inquirer.) " And the Lord said unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend and an adulteress, even as the Lord loveth the children of Israel, though they turn unto other gods, and love cakes of raisins. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley : and I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days ; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be any man's wife : so will I also be toward thee. " For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without an image, and without ephod or teraphim : afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king ; and shall come with fear unto the Lord and to His goodness in the latter days." HOSEA iii. THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" r I ^HE short chapter of five verses (Hosea iii.), JL which is to form our first subject, divides itself naturally into two parts, the first three verses being the record of a symbolical transaction, and the last two verses a verbal prophecy. The two parts are, however, vitally connected, for the symbolism of the first verses serves as an illustration of the truth presented in the prophecy, while the prophecy is an explanation of the symbolical transaction. There is, in fact, but one great truth in reference to Israel in this chapter which the Spirit of God wants to teach us in a twofold way ; first by an illustration, and then by a verbal explanation. If we want to know the meaning of the seemingly strange transaction recorded in the first part of the chapter, we find it in a sentence in the first verse, which says that it is " according to," or " like unto, the love of Jehovah for the children of Israel " ; and being an illustration of so lofty and glorious a theme, it is worthy a careful consideration. The prophet is told to go again and love a woman * 1 Some have supposed the transaction to have been ideal and that it did not form an actual experience of the prophet's life ; but 3 4 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" who is beloved of her " friend," or her " husband " (as it is rightly rendered in the margin of the Revised Version), but who is an adulteress. There can be little doubt that the " woman " is Corner, of whom we read in the first chapter ; and the " friend " or " husband " is the prophet, who went through this sad experience in his wedded life in order that himself and his family might serve as "signs and wonders in Israel" (Isa. viii. 18), in order to set forth realistically before their very eyes Jehovah's attitude to and dealings with His faithless people. To begin with, when the prophet first took her into marriage relationship with him there was nothing lovable about Corner ; she was, in fact, a poor fallen woman. It was undeserved favour and great condescension manifested on the part of the prophet which placed her in the position of his wedded wife; but it is just for this very reason that this transaction seems, though imperfectly, to set forth " the love of Jehovah towards the children of Israel." Why did God first choose Israel to be a people unto Himself? Was it because of any- thing good or lovable in them ? Np ; wholly of grace and sovereign was the love of Jehovah towards the children of Israel. In Deuteronomy, after warning them not to think that it was because of anything in them not because of their goodness, or righteousness, for they were a " stiff-necked people " ; not because they were greater or more in number, for they were " fewest of all people," God condescends to give a reason for His choice, and it is a strange and wonderful reason. " I loved you," He says, " because I loved you," because I while the truth it is meant to illustrate would not be affected, even though it were a figure without actuality in real life, the whole account is so realistic, and even passionate, that it seems to me impossible to regard it as anything but literal history. THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 5 chose to love you, and "because I would keep the oath which I had sworn unto your fathers," which oath and promise was also wholly of grace and not of merit. But let us proceed to the second stage of the prophet's relation and attitude to this woman. After she became his wedded wife she forsook him and went to another man, but in spite of the intensity of her guilt and her ingratitude, the prophet did not cease to love her. This is touchingly expressed by the words, " beloved by her mate, yet an adulteress " ; and in this, too, it resembles God's dealings with and attitude to Israel. Wonderful was the relationship into which the stiff-necked nation was brought. Well might Moses in his last words exclaim, " Happy art thou, O Israel, who is a people like unto thee ! " " For thy Maker is thy husband : Jehovah of Sabbaoth is His name." But instead of entering into the blessedness of this relationship with Jehovah, Israel " looked to other gods," and committed spiritual adultery with idols ; and instead of finding all their joy in fellowship with Him, they became sensual, and " loved flagons of wine " or " cakes of raisins." And yet, although the condition of Israel is well illustrated by this poor adulteress, the blessed truth which this transaction is meant to teach, and which Christians are so slow to learn, is that Jehovah still loves Israel. Yes, even now, while righteously given over into the hands of her enemies, a proverb and a byword among the nations, Israel is, and remains, " the dearly beloved of His soul" (Jer. xii. 7), and God narrowly and jealously watches the conduct of the nations toward them (Zech. i. 14, 15) ; for, although fellowship is broken off, and " in a little wrath He has hid His face from them for a moment," the marriage bond between Jehovah and the nation He has betrothed unto Him for ever (Hosea ii. 19) is indissoluble, and His " gifts and 6 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" calling are without repentance." "Jehovah, the God of Israel saith that He hateth putting away " (Mai. ii. 16). This, His wonderful covenant faithfulness, is Jehovah's secret towards them that fear Him. " I am Jehovah," He says, " I change not ; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." And this infinite grace and " love of Jehovah " toward the children of Israel find their parallel also in the experience of the Church. Why did God call us from among Jew and Gentile during this present dispensation to be "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation"? Was it because we were better or wiser than the rest of the world ? Oh, no, " for ye see your calling, brethren," says the Apostle, echoing the warnings which were given to Israel of old, "how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence." Was it for our goodness or righteous- ness ? Oh, no ; " but God commendeth (or displays) His own lovt toward us " (Rom. v. 8) a love inconceivable by man " in that while we were yet sinners," utterly lost and utterly wretched, " Christ died for us." Israel's history and God's dealings with them is no encouragement to the Christian to think lightly of sin and of backsliding from God, for we see that God is a jealous God, visiting the sins of His people even more than on the sins of the world; but it also displays the marvellous faithfulness of Jehovah and His love towards His redeemed, which all the many waters of their sins and backslidings cannot quench. THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 7 In the second verse we get a glimpse of the innate worthlessness of Israel and all such as are typified by poor Gomer. Sin, in her case, as it always does, im- plied a certain kind of bondage, so that she had to be bought back from the sharer of her guilt. But what is the price she is valued at ? Just half the price of a dead slave (Exod. xxi. 32), 1 with an homer and a half of barley thrown into the bargain. The redemption price which the great God actually pays for those as worth- less as this poor woman is more than tongue can tell. It cannot be estimated by all the precious but corrup- tible things known to man. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx or the sapphire ; the gold and the crystal cannot equal it, and "the exchange of it shall not be for vessels of fine gold." It is nothing less than the precious blood of Christ, " as a lamb without blemish and with- out spot." We must touch on one more significant item in the symbolism before we proceed with the verbal prophecy. Having bought Gomer back, the prophet gives her a charge. " And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide (or remain) for me many days ... so will I also be towards thee." There was to be a neutral period. She was no more to follow sin, but she was not yet to enter into her conjugal rights. Meanwhile her husband would be her guardian, and ultimately there would be a full restora- tion of the fellowship implied in the marriage relation- ship. The symbolical significance of this is, I believe, as follows. A remnant of the nation was brought back 1 Keil, in /oc., thinks, however, that the "homer" and "lethech," which together made fifteen baths or ephas of barley, might also be valued at fifteen shekels, so that the silver and barley together may perhaps have been equal to the full price, or rather the full amount of compensation for a slave if gored to death. 8 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" from Babylon after the seventy years' bondage, and then commenced the neutral period during which Israel is neither guilty of their old besetting sin of idolatry which, as already explained, is regarded as spiritual adultery nor are they living in fellowship with Jehovah ; for, although there has been an outward return, there has never yet taken place that national change of heart for which God is waiting before He can return unto them in mercies. Indeed, soon after the commencement of this period Israel, though no longer guilty of idolatry, showed how their heart was still alienated from God by disowning Him who is " the brightness of His glory and an exact representation of His very Being." But there is hope in their end. Israel, though sitting desolate and, to human view, forsaken, abides through these " many days "for God, who will yet fully restore the blessings of the relationship into which He once entered with them, even as He announces through this same prophet : " I will betroth thee unto Me for ever ; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness : and thou shalt know Jehovah " (Hosea ii. 19, 20). We now come to the verbal message which explains the symbolism of the first part of this chapter. The connection will be seen at a glance if we compare the words addressed to Gomer in verse 3, " Many days shalt thou abide for me," with the first words of verse 4, " For many days shall the children of Israel abide." Israel, then, stands in relation to this woman as anti- type to type, and the many days of the neutral condition of Gomer was but a foreshadowing of the "many days" of the neutral condition of Israel in relation to Jehovah and to idolatry. The fourth verse is, I might say, the great prophecy in the Old Testa- THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 9 ment with regard to the Interregnum, a period covered by the image of Daniel ii. and the New Testament expression, "the times of the Gentiles" the time during which the sceptre is departed from Judah, and representative governmental power is entrusted to the Gentile nations until those times are fulfilled, and Zion becomes the centre of government for the earth, and the place whence God's law will go forth, as never before, to all nations. It is of interest to observe that the most authoritative Jewish commentators have themselves admitted that the fourth verse of our chapter gives a graphic description of the present condition of the Jewish people. I translate the following passage from one of the greatest of Rabbinic writers. 1 Speaking on the expression " many days," he says : " These are the days of this present captivity, in which we are in the power of the Gentiles, and in the power of their kings and princes, and we are ' without a sacrifice and without an image,' i.e., without a sacrifice to God, and without an image to false gods ; and ' without an ephod, and without teraphim,' t.e., without an ephod to God, by means of which we could foretell the future, as with the Urim and Thummim ; and without teraphim to false gods. And this is the present condition of all the children of Israel in this present captivity." To this interpretation every critical Bible student, whether Jew or Christian, must subscribe. We shall see presently what this admission on the part of a great non-Christian Jew implies. 1 Kimchi, commonly called by the Jews " Redak," from the initial letters of " Rabbi David Kimchi," was born in Narbonne in 1160, and died about 1235. So great was his fame that the Jews applied to him, by a play of words, a Talmudic saying (Aboth. iii. 17), adapted to mean, " No Kimchi, no understanding of the Scriptures." io THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" The order of the words in the fourth verse is some- what different in the original from what it is in the A.V. It begins with the expression, " many days :> " Many days shall the children of Israel abide" and then it goes on to describe the special conditions under which they will abide. The words " Yamim rabbim " ("many days") are a Hebrew idiom denoting a long, indefinite period, embracing days, years, centuries, or even millenniums, and the first item in this remarkable prophecy really is, that for a long, unmeasured period the children of Israel would " abide," that is, remain or continue to exist. I have elsewhere dealt fully with the marvel of the continued existence of the Jewish nation, 1 but I would here in passing simply remind my readers that if the Jewish people, in spite of all the forces which have for many centuries been brought to bear against them with terrible severity, still lives, it is to testify to the truth of this and other statements of the Word of God. God has said, " Many days shall the children of Israel abide," and therefore no force in the universe is able to move them. God has called them 1 See my book, "The Jewish Problem." "The world has by this time discovered," said Lord Beaconsfield, " that it is impos- sible to destroy the Jews. The attempt to extirpate them has been made under the most favourable auspices and on the largest scale ; the most considerable means that man could command have been pertinaciously applied to this object for the longest period of recorded time. Egyptian Pharaohs, Assyrian kings, Roman emperors, Scandinavian crusaders, Gothic princes, and holy inquisitors have alike devoted their energies to the fulfilment of this common purpose. Expatria- tion, exile, captivity, confiscation, torture on the most ingenious and massacre on the most extensive scale, a curious system of degrading customs and debasing laws which would have broken the heart of another people, have been tried, and in vain. The Jews, after all this havoc, probably more numerous at this date than they were during the reign of Solomon the wise, are found in all lands, and prospering in most." THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" n "Am Olam," the "everlasting people" (Isa. xliv. 7, Hebrew), and therefore the Jewish nation has proved indestructible. But the marvel of Israel's continued existence be- comes intensified if we examine the conditions under which they abide. Apart from the little word trans- lated "without," which in the Hebrew is repeated five times, there are but six words used by the pen of inspi- ration to portray the condition of Israel during the Interregnum, and these six words contain more than a whole volume that could be written by the most eloquent human pen. The six words are arranged in three couplets, or pairs of contrasts, which graphically describe a neutral state. The three pairs of contrasts, or opposites, are these : I. " Without a king and without a prince." II. " Without a sacrifice and without an image." III. " Without an ephod and without teraphim." Let us examine each one separately. " Without a king and without a prince" What this means is, without the king of God's appointment, and without a prince of their own choice. When Hosea uttered this prediction he could already almost hear the sound of the steps of the Assyrian army on its way finally to overthrow the kingdom of the ten tribes. Hosea's ministry, which commenced in the reign of Jeroboam II., extended into the reign of Hoshea, the last king who reigned in Israel a period of about sixty years so that the prophet may himself have witnessed the fulfilment of the threatening part of his prophecies, in the overthrow of Samaria, and the captivity of the ten tribes. But the prophecy with which we are dealing is not limited to the northern kingdom of the ten tribes, the term *' the children of 12 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" Israel " being, I believe, used in the proper and larger sense as embracing all the descendants of the one man who by the Divine authority was called " Israel." The geographical centre of prophecy, except when otherwise stated, is always Jerusalem, and in Divine forecasts of the chief outlines of Jewish history the schism between the ten tribes and the two, which was permitted by God as a punishment on the house of David, and was to be but temporary in its character, is overlooked. We know that Samaria was finally over- thrown in the year 721 B.C., when the history of the ten tribes as a separate kingdom terminated for ever. When the great restoration takes place God says, " I will make them one nation in the land upon the moun- tains of Israel ; and one king shall be king to them all : and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all" (Ezek. xxxvii. 22). The one king who shall be " king to them all " is the true David, " David's greater Son," who will raise up the tabernacle of David, and " close up the breaches thereof," caused by the defection of the ten tribes ; and He is " the Lion of the tribe of Judah." Judah continued as a kingdom about one hundred and thirty years longer after the captivity of the ten tribes, until the sceptre was finally plucked out of the hands of the house of David by Nebuchadnezzar, that " head of gold " of Daniel's great vision, the first king of the four great world-powers, whose united course makes up " the times of the Gentiles." Now, there is a point in connection with this subject which is of immense interest, showing also that prophecy does indeed emanate from the omniscient God who alone knows the end from the beginning. About the time of the final overthrow of Judah, in the reign of the last king who sat on the throne of David, another prophet THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 13 was sent by God with the following mysterious and startling message on this subject : " Thus saith the Lord God : Remove the mitre, and take off the crown : this shall not be " (or, " is no more it" I no longer recog- nise it) : " exalt the low, abase the high " (let anarchy and usurpation of the throne of David continue). " I will overturn, overturn, overturn it : this also " (whatever men may put up instead of Davidic rule on Mount Zion) " shall not be " (shall not be permitted to continue long) " until He come whose right it is ; to Him it shall be given " (Ezek. xxi. 25-27). And as God has spoken by the mouth of His prophet so it has been. Centuries elapsed between Ezekiel's prophecy and the coming of our Lord Jesus. Nineteen centuries have elapsed since, but there has been no restoration of the throne of David ; no one of the seed of David reigning over Israel on Mount Zion. Some might think of the Hasmonean and Herodian kings of Jerusalem as militating against the truth of this assertion, but these were but incidents in the process of the overturning and usurpation foretold in the above prophecy. The Hasmoneans were priests of the tribe of Levi, who, though heroes and martyrs For Israel's faith and worship, had no right to assume royalty, which dignity in Israel God promised and confirmed by oath as an everlasting possession to the house of David ; and as for Herod, he was an Idumaean and Roman vassal. " This also shall not be, until He come whose right it is ; to Him it shall be given." Who is it whose right it is ? Who is the true and lawful King of Israel ? Of course every Christian answers, " Jesus," He was born " King of the Jews " (Matt. ii. 2), and even on the cross on which He died was written " Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." This is truth, but not the whole truth. The rightful King of Israel is Jehovah* for the i 4 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" uniqueness of Israel's high calling consisted more par- ticularly in this, that it was destined to be a theocracy that is, a people whose visible head and leader is God. If we want to know what is implied in a theocracy we find it expressed in one verse by the prophet Isaiah when speaking of a future time when it shall be fully realised : " For Jehovah is our judge, Jehovah is our law- giver (or war prince), Jehovah is our King; and He will bring us salvation," or " He also will be our Saviour" (Isa. xxxiii. 22). " Jehovah is our king " : hence at an early period of Israe'ls history when they came to Samuel saying : " Make us a king to judge us like all the nations " ; and Samuel, in not altogether unselfish displeasure, prayed to God about it, the Lord answered him saying, " Hearken to the voice of the people . . . for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them " (i Sam. viii. 7). Well, God " gave them a king in His anger, and took him away in His wrath." Saul, at the time of his election, was just such a one as answered to man's ideal of a leader and king, but although he was granted a fair trial, he proved a failure, and serves as an object-lesson that man's rule is not like God's. Eventually God Himself appointed a royal family in Israel ; but what was God's purpose in the establishment of the Davidic house ? Was it not that from that family there should ultimately spring one in whom the theocratic ideal would be fully realised ; one who, " although of their brethren," and " from the midst of them " (Deut. xviii. 15-18) should yet be Jehovah-Zidkenu the mighty God, whose reign would be the reign of God, and whose kingdom would be " the kingdom of heaven " on earth? In the interval the mere human kings of the house of David were regarded as types, and God's repre- sentatives. Thus we read that when Solomon com- THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 15 menced his rule " he sat on the throne of 'Jehovah as king instead of David his father (i Chron. xxix. 23). The throne was Jehovah's, and Solomon and his successors only occupied it until the real king, Jehovah's true representative should appear. Hence it is that even when Israel had kings they were always pointed onward to another king: " Behold a king shall reign in righteous- ness, and princes shall rule in judgment " ; or, in the words of Jeremiah, " Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper." Did they not have kings at the time these prophecies were uttered ? Yes ; but those kings were mere shadows filling up the gap in time until the true king should be manifested, " He who is the blessed and only potentate, King of kings and Lord of lords." This also is the reason why in the Old Testament the coming of the Messiah is sometimes spoken of as the advent of God : " Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah," and yet He who was thus to come is the sent One, " the man whose name is the Branch." In the fulness of time one in whom this ideal was fully realised did appear, and before His birth the fol- lowing announcement was made to His mother : " Be- hold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus " (what can be more human ? but it goes on) ; " He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever ; and of His kingdom there shall be no end." Here is that One for whose manifestation the ages were waiting, the " Im- manuel," God in man, "He whose right it is," not merely because through His mother He is the true Son of 16 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" David, but because He is the Son of the Highest ; the irradiated brightness of His glory, and exact representa- tion of the very Being of God, who, as we have seen, is the true King of Israel. Oh, if Israel had known the day of their visitation ! if they had recognised that the child born in such humble circumstances in one of their families was none other than the long-expected Messiah, " the Lord of glory," the long indefinite period of the " many days " would have terminated, and Israel would no longer have been without the longed for king. But Israel did not know, neither did they understand, and instead of hailing Him with acclamation, they said, " Not this man we will not have this man to reign over us." Early in the ministry of the Lord Jesus, impressed by His miracle-working power, they would have taken Him by force and made Him king, but their ideals of the Messianic kingdom were altogether different from His. They wanted a kingdom, but Christ preached the kingdom of heaven, or of God ; and so afterwards, when they saw that their carnal expectations would not be realised, they did indeed put a crown on His head, but it was of thorns. They handed Him over to Pilate, and when that weak Roman functionary ironically remon- strated with them, saying, " Shall I crucify your king ? " they replied, " We have no king but Caesar " ; and having thus deliberately put themselves afresh under the yoke of Gentile rule, they are permitted to have a good long taste of it, in order that they may learn the differ- ence between the rule of God and the yoke of the Gentiles. This is why the children of Israel still " abide without a king," and until they bow their knee in lowly homage before Him whom in ignorance they once despised and scorned, they will continue so to remain. Anyhow, this is an indisputable fact, that the Lord Jesus of Nazareth is the last in Jewish history whose descent THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 17 from the royal line of David can now be established by sufficiently authentic proof. There are Jews and Gentiles at the present day who cavil at the New Testament genealogies, overlooking the fact that there is ample proof in the New Testament of the Davidic descent of our Lord, apart even from the genealogical records. But the difficulties in the genealogies arise not from inaccuracies, but from obscurities, which could, I believe, easily be cleared up if the national and tribal records from which they were compiled were still extant to appeal to. But since the destruction of the second Temple all these national genealogical records have perished, and apart from a few worthless traditions there is nothing that any Jew now on the face of the earth can appeal to to prove even from which tribe, not to say from which family, he springs. There is neither a tribe of Judah nor a separate Davidic family now existing, and yet the true king of Israel must prove Himself a son of David ! 1 There is also this fact to be remembered, that when the claims of our Lord Jesus to Davidic descent were first asserted, they could easily have been disproved had it been possible to do so. Now, the Scribes and Phari- sees among whom Christ moved were not at all slow to bring up anything they could possibly adduce which they thought would disprove His claims. Wilfully ignorant, for instance, that He was born in Bethlehem, they stigmatised Him as a " Nazarene," and said, " Search and see, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet " ; yet although he was universally addressed as " Son of David" even by the beggars who sat by the wayside, and by a poor Gentile woman on the borders of Tyre and Sidon, His enemies never even ventured to whisper 1 See for an examination of this subject, " Die Worte Jesu," by Professor Gustaf Dalman, pp. 260-266. 3 i8 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" that He was not of the house of David. Afterwards^ when Paul and the other apostles went everywhere pro- claiming " Jesus Christ of the seed of David " as the very foundation of the gospel which they preached (2 Tim. ii. 8), if the Pharisees could have proved this one statement to be untrue, it would for ever have closed the mouths of these men, whom they regarded as a trouble and danger to the nation. They had serious consultations as to what could be done to put a stop to the wonderful movement in favour of Jesus of Nazareth. They threatened the apostles, they beat them, they again and again cast them into prison, but they never once dared say that He whom they preached as the seed of David and heir to His throne (Acts ii. 25-30) was not of the house of David at all. On the other hand we find that down to the sixth century, when the Talmud Babylon was compiled, the fact that Christ was of the Royal Davidic house was written deep on the conscious- ness of the Jewish nation, and shines out even from beneath the blasphemous legends which the Rabbis in- vented about Him in self-justification. 1 And not only 1 The following passage from Talmud, Sanhedrin, fol. 43, a., is most striking. " There is a tradition : On the eve of the Sabbath and the Passover they hung Jesus. And the herald went forth before him for forty days crying, ' Jesus goeth to be executed, because he has practised sorcery and seduced Israel and estranged them from God. Let any one who can bring forward any justifying plea for him come and give information concerning it,' but no justifying plea was found for him, and so he was hung on the eve of Sabbath and the Passover. Ulla said, 'But doest thou think that he belongs to those for whom a justifying plea is to be sought ? He was a very seducer, and the Allmerciful has said, " Thou shalt not spare him, nor conceal him." ' But the case of Jesus stood differently because he stood near to the kingdom." Laible, in " Jesus Christ in the Talmud," renders the last words, "for his place was near those in power," but this is unsatisfactory. The name actually used in the original in this passage just THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 19 is Israel " without a king " (or the king of God's appoint- ment) ; they are also without a prince of their own choice, the Dispersion having made it an impossibility for them to have one head to rule and guide them ; and it is an interesting fact that although since the modern emancipation of the Jews they have a large share in the government of all civilised nations a share altogether out of proportion to their actual numbers, and men of Jewish birth have been successful leaders of great parties, and even prime ministers they themselves are under Gentile rule, and cannot be governed by one of their own nation. quoted is W " Yeshu/' which is an abbreviation of " Yemakh Shemoh vezikhroh," " Let his name and his memory be blotted out." This blasphemous substitution of " Yeshu " for the precious name "Jesus" often occurs in Rabbinic literature, but Christian friends will remember that it is not our Lord Jesus as we know Him that poor Israel in ignorance thus blasphemes, but the cari- cature of Him as presented to them by apostate, persecuting Christendom in the dark ages. Often the only way left to the Jews to avenge their terrible sufferings and massacres was to write blasphemously of Him in whose name they were ignorantly perpetrated. Over against poor Israel's ignorant blasphemy of " Yemakh Shemoh vezikhroh " God has uttered His decree that the name of Jesus " shall endure for ever ; His name shall be con- tinued as long as the sun ; and men shall be blessed in Him ; all nations shall call Him blessed" (Psa. Ixxii. 17). That the legend refers to a well-known custom in the procedure of the Sanhedrim in trials for life, there is I think, no doubt, be- cause one of their great maxims was, that "they sat to justify and not to condemn." That this humane custom of calling on those who had anything to bring forward in favour of the accused to come and declare it, was not observed in the trial of Jesus of Nazareth, for reasons well known to readers of the Gospel, is certain, but, as I have already stated, from beneath the blas- phemous legend invented as a justification for poor Israel's blind leaders in reference to their conduct to the Holy One, there shines out this truth, that up to the sixth century, when the Talmud was compiled, it was admitted by His enemies that He was not only of the Davidic house, but that " he stood near to the kingdom." 20 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" II. " Without a sacrifice and without an image" " Without a sacrifice to God," as Kimchi well para- phrases it, " and without an image to false gods." There is a striking fact which we may notice, by the way, in connection with this pair of contrasts, and that is, that the prophet Hosea, in search for one word by which to characterise the true religion of Israel in contrast to idolatry, lays his finger on the word "zebbach" (" sacrifice"). There are men at the present day, both Jews and Christians, and some who are even occupying the position of teachers, who represent that the Old Testament Scriptures, instead of being a coherent, harmonious, though progressive, 1 and (apart from the 1 The following is from an excellent booklet, " Bible Study," by Rev. David M. Mclntyre, Glasgow : " An immense amount of research has been expended during recent years in deter- mining the personal element which is apparent in all the Sacred Writings. One thought which has been persistently worked out is the progress of doctrine. That progress is not a development from barbarism, for the first Word of Scripture is an utterance of God, the first promise has in it the anticipation of completed redemption, the first act of worship looks steadfastly to Calvary. We acknowledge that there is in the earlier Scriptures imma- turity, but it is such as is seen in the sprouting seed, the up- springing blade, the unripe ear immaturity which contains ' the promise and potency' of perfected life. We frankly confess that the doctrine moves forward into fuller light and more measured statement, but it moves along the high level of inspira- tion from the first. The progress of doctrine of which we speak is a progress that is sensible neither of conflict nor of reconcilia- tion. The promise of the end is in the opening chapters ; the resonance of the first word vibrates in the last. It is a progress presided over by one mind and that the mind of Christ. The two elements in this progress are, a fuller content of truth, and a closer relation to the Person of the Redeemer. We may realise its character by placing together the first utterance addressed to faith, and the last ' In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' ' He which testifieth these things saith, Surely, I come quickly.' " THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 21 New Testament) relatively incomplete, revelation from God, consist of a patchwork of " codes," not one of them of so early a date as was believed for millenniums by both Jews and Christians, until these very modern gentlemen, possessed of a powerful intuitive faculty for discernment, were raised up to detect the fraud. Thus they have asserted that while, in the writings attributed to Moses (which according to them consist for the most part of clumsily forged documents in the Exilic and post-Exilic periods), stress is laid on sacrifice as a divinely appointed institution, the prophets utterly repudiate the idea of a Divine appointment, or a Divine regulation of sacrifice. The reasoning upon which this theory has been based I will not stop here to examine, but this I will solemnly state, that those who would put Moses against the prophets, and the prophets against Moses, are equally ignorant of the spirit of both. There are grand underlying harmonies in the Scrip- tures where " the natural man " professes to see only contradictions. Here is a prophet, and a pre-Exilic prophet too, who characterises the true religion of Israel by the one word " sacrifice " ; and truly there is no other word that could so well summarise the Divine system as unfolded in Moses and the prophets as the word "zebbach," which here and elsewhere (see Isa. i. 11) stands for slain sacrifices in general, and not for the "peace- offering," in which sense it is sometimes used. 1 There are Jews and Christians at the present day 1 " rQ1[ (zebbach), a sacrifice (whether the act of sacrificing, &c.), an offering, a victim ; opposed both to nn?p (mincha), a bloodless offering when so contrasted (i Sam. ii. 29 ; Psa. xl. 7) ; and to n^iJ? (ohloh) a burnt-offering, holocaust ; so that POT (zebbach) denotes sacrifices of which but part were consumed, such as expiatory or eucharistic offerings " (Gesenius). 22 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" who boast that they no longer believe in the necessity of sacrifice and that which sacrifices prefigured ; but such Jews have as little in common with the teaching of the Old Testament as this kind of Christians have with the doctrines of the New Testament. Let any honest-minded man turn over the pages of the Old Testament, and I can confidently declare that from Genesis to Malachi he will meet in every part one prominently outstanding object, and that object is an altar, with which of course is bound up both priest and sacrifice. On that altar there is an inscription which explains the meaning of the whole sacrificial system of the Old Testament, and it reads thus : " The life of the flesh is in the blood : and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls : for it is the blood whic'i by reason of the life maketh atone- ment " (Levit. xvii. 1 1, Hebrew) that is, life covereth life; the life of the innocent offering in the blood poured out on this altar " covereth " J the life forfeited by the guilty offerer. And turning from the Old to the New Testament there still meets us on almost every page one prominent outstanding object ; and the most prominent object on the pages of the New Testament is a cross. And what is the cross ? It is an altar, on which the most stupendous of all sacrifices was offered the one sacrifice to which all the sacrifices of the Mosaic economy pointed even Christ, "who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot unto God," so that in Him we might find "redemption by His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace." And on the New Testament altar, too, there is an inscription. I do not refer to the actual inscription placed upon the cross by Pilate, perhaps in mockery, which nevertheless describes the 1 The primary idea of the Hebrew " khapare." THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 23 royal character of the victim, but to His own, and to the Apostle's statements which explain the terrible necessity and true significance of Calvary ; and this is how it reads : " The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." " He who knew no sin was made sin on our behalf that we might be made the righteous- ness of God in Him." "And without shedding of blood there is no remission" (Matt. xx. 28 ; 2 Cor. v. 21 ; Heb. ix. 22). On this, as on every other essential doctrine, there is perfect accord between the teaching of the Old and the New Testament. And Israel now is " without a sacrifice." Ever since the destruction of the second Temple, soon after the coming of Christ, they have not been permitted to offer any kind of bloody sacrifice. There is no morning or evening lamb of burnt-offering; they still observe the " Day of Atonement," but where is the blood of atone- ment, and where the priest who on that day was to make an atonement for them to cleanse them, that they may be clean from their sins before the Lord? (Lev. xvi. 30). The Jews still keep the feast of Unleavened Bread, but where is the " Zebbach Pesach " (Exod. xii. 27), " the sacrifice of the Passover," the blood of which sprinkled on the doorposts sheltered Israel's firstborn in Egypt ? On the Passover evening when gathered around the " Saider " the solemn family ritual in commemoration of the deliverance of the nation from Egyptian bondage a piece of half-burnt shankbone is all that lies on the table to remind them of the lamb appointed by God, which they once used to offer and feed on. There is perhaps no more striking com- mentary on this item of Hosea's prophecy, and no more pathetic picture of Israel's present condition, than is presented by their liturgies. In that lying before 24 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" me, which is in daily use among millions of Jews in Russia, Galicia, and throughout Eastern Europe, after prescribing certain portions dealing with the sacrificial regulations in Leviticus, and in the Mishna to be recited, there follows this prayer, which I translate : " Lord of the universe, Thou hast commanded us to offer a continual sacrifice in its appointed season, and that the priests should stand in their service, and the Levites in their ministry, and Israel in their ap- pointed place. But now, through our iniquity, the Temple is destroyed, and the continual sacrifice has ceased, and we have neither priest in his service or Levite in his ministry. . . . Therefore let it please Thee, O Lord our God, and the God of our fathers, that the words of our lips (by which is meant the repetition of the portions of Scripture where sacrifices are commanded), may be esteemed and received and acceptable before Thee, as if we had offered the con- tinual sacrifice, and as if we stood in our appointed position." After reading the Mishna connected with the pouring and sprinkling of the blood of the different sin-offerings, there follows this prayer : " May it please Thee, O Lord our God, and the God of our fathers, that if I am guilty of (a sin for which I ought to bring) a sin-offering, that this ritual may be acceptable before Thee as if I had brought a sin-offering." The same prayer follows after the recital of the portion dealing with the trespass-offering, the peace- offering, and the other offerings. From this, as well as from some other customs, we see that deep down in the consciousness of the Jewish nation the belief is rooted that sacrifices are a necessity as the ground of fellowship with the " Holy One of Israel," and at the same time there is the liturgic solemn confession of the patent fact that for these THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 25 " many days " they are " without a sacrifice." As to the prayer that the mere recital of the command may be acceptable as if the offering was actually presented, as well might we believe that the mere reading over of a creditor's account is equal to the paying of it ! And not only is the present condition of Israel characterised as " without a sacrifice," they are also " without an image." x In the past, and until the " many days " of the Interregnum period set in, it was either the one or the other, for whenever they forsook Jehovah they always turned to idols, but now 1 The marginal reading and reference to Isa. xix. 19, 19 in the A.V. is misleading, for it leads unlearned readers to think the "image" is an emblem associated with the worship of Jehovah. S"Q!D (Mazehvah), which is from 3.2 (Nozab), is used thirty-one times in the Old Testament, and means (i) a pillar or monument; (2) a standing image or pillar devoted to idolatrous uses. In Genesis, where it is found nine times, it is used exclusively in the first sense (Gen. xxviii. 18-22, xxxi. 13, 45, 51, 52, xxxv. 14, 20) ; but from Exodus onward, from the time of the Divine appoint- ment of one sanctuary when the putting up of a Mazehvah was strictly forbidden (Lev. xxvi. i), and in all the other books of the Old Testament, excepting Isa. xix. 19, 19, where it is used in the first sense of a pillar or monument which Egypt will erect to the true God, and Exod. xxiv. 4 (where it is used of the twelve pillars of the altar which Moses built at the foot of Mount Sinai, as representing the twelve tribes of Israel), the word is always used to describe an idolatrous object or the image of an idol ; and in the prophets it is used as the emblem of Baal worship. It was for raising Mazehboth that Israel was finally carried into captivity " and they set them up Mazehboth (" images," A.V.), and Asherim upon every high hill, and under every green tree, and they burnt incense in all high places as did the nations whom the Lord carried away before them : and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger . . . therefore the Lord was angry with Israel and removed them out of His sight" (2 Kings xvii. 10, u, 18). That Hosea used Mazehvah as a symbol of idolatry may be seen from the only other passage in his prophecy where this word is used, namely, in chap. x. i, 2. 26 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" it is neither the one nor the other. In Babylon Israel was finally purged of all idolatrous tendencies, and since then they have manifested the greatest abhor- rence of everything bearing the remotest resemblance to idolatry. Of course there is another kind of idolatry : there are the " idols of the heart " (Ezek. xiv. 4), which are quite as hateful in the sight of God as images of wood and stone, but with this our passage does not deal. As a matter of fact, as far as the gross forms of idolatry are concerned, the Jews now are entirely free from it, and have been for these "many days" since the Babylonian Captivity ; and even their prejudice against Christianity is partly due to the fact that the outward aspect of it, especially in countries where the Latin and Greek Churches prevail, has led them to regard it as idolatrous an estimation which is, alas ! to a large extent justified. III. " Without an ephod and teraphim" This is the last of the three couplets, and on this point, too, we can have no better explanation than the words of the great Jewish commentator : " Without an ephod to God, by means of which we could foretell the future as with the Urim and Thummim, and without teraphim to false gods." In the ephod, as already stated, were set the Urim and Thummim, through which, in some mysterious way not at present fully known to us, 1 God revealed His will to Israel. At the consecration of Joshua as the suc- cessor of Moses, God commanded that he should stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of Urim before the Lord (Numb, xxvii. 21). Later on, in times of perplexity, David, for instance, had 1 See Appendix I., " Urim and Thummim," at the end of the book. THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 27 only to say to Abiathar the priest, " Bring hither the ephod," and by its means he inquired of the Lord God of Israel, who condescended in this manner to make known His will to His servant (i Sam. xxiii. 9-12, xxx. 7, 8). From this we see that though the ephod formed part of the high priest's outfit, it was a phase of the priesthood which reminds us of the prophetic office inasmuch as through it God spoke a prefigurement in this respect of the time when both offices shall meet in one glorious Person, through whom God was to speak His last words, and who, though the great prophet, shall also be "a priest upon His throne." In fact, on carefully analysing this remarkable prophecy, we find each of the three great Messianic offices referred to in the three pairs of contrasts which we are considering. The first speaks plainly of the " King " ; the second of " sacrifice," with which of course is bound up the idea of priesthood; and in this last we have a reference to the revealing of the mind of God, which is more properly connected with the prophetic office. Is it accidental that just these three great offices which man needs for his relations with God are those which Israel is now " without," but which on the other hand have always been associated by the Church with Jesus Christ ? Oh, no ; it is for the very reason that they are all merged and fulfilled in Christ, that poor Christless Israel, so long as they reject Him, is deprived of the blessings which flow from them. But at any rate, thus much even a Jew does not deny, that this prophetic word in the last couplet brings before us another patent fact. Israel now is " without an ephod." As they are without a king and a priest, so it is also the time of God's long silence, and in ignorance of the cause they continue to cry out, " Why withdrawest 28 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" Thou Thy hand ? O God, how long shall the adversary reproach ? . . . We see not our signs ; there is no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long" (Psa. Ixxiv. 9-11). Yes, there is neither sound nor hearing, nor is there one among them who can tell what Israel ought to do. But not only are they " without an ephod," but as in the other pairs of contrasts, so here too, they are also without that which is the direct antithesis to it, namely, the " teraphim? or speaking oracles of the heathen. 1 Apart from our passage there are only seven other scriptures in the Hebrew Bible where the teraphim are introduced, but these suffice to show that they were not only idols, the use of which is classed together by God with "witchcraft, stubbornness, and iniquity" (i Sam. xv. 23), but that they were a peculiar kind of idols, namely, those used for oracular responses. The first mention of the teraphim is in connection with Jacob's flight from Laban, in Gen. xxxi., and in the light of the other passages there seems probability in the explanation of Aben Ezra 2 that Rachel stole them in order that her father might not discover the direction of their flight by means of these oracles. The second place where we find them is in that strange narrative about the Ephraimite Micah, and the Danite expedition to Laish in Judg. xvii. and xviii., where we get a sad and characteristic glimpse of the condition of some among the tribes in those days, " when there was no king in Israel and every man did that which was right in his own eyes." This narrative supplies an illustration of the fact that not only is 1 See Appendix II., " Dean Farrar on the Teraphim," at the end of the book. * See Aben Ezra in loc. Gesenius traces " Teraphim " to the unused root " Toraph," which in the Syriac has the significance of " to inquire." THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 29 man incapable of himself to find God, but that, left to himself, he is incapable of retaining the know- ledge of God in its original purity even when once divinely communicated; and that even the things revealed, apart from the continued teaching of God's Spirit, are liable to become corrupted and distorted in his mind. Here we have a sad instance of a certain knowledge of Jehovah mixed up with the worship of "a graven image and a molten image," which were abomination in His sight, and the illegitimate use of the divinely instituted ephod, which was only to be borne by the high priest, joined together with the pagan teraphim. But the point to be noted is that here also these teraphim were used for oracular consulta- tions, for it was of them that the apostate Levite of Bethlehem asked for counsel for the idolatrous Danites (Judg. xviii. 5, 6). In Ezek. xxi. 21 we find the exact antithesis to David's consulting the ephod in the pagan king of Babylon " consulting with images " (literally, " tera- phim ") in reference to his projected invasion of Palestine. 1 Now it is clear that in olden times, when- ever by apostasy and disobedience fellowship with Jehovah was interrupted, and when in consequence there was no revelation from Him, " neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets," Israel turned to the pagan teraphim, or like poor Saul they " sought unto 1 The only other instances where teraphim are mentioned are i Sam. xix. 13-16, from which we gather, first, the sad fact that idolatry was practised by Michal, the daughter of Saul, and, secondly, that the teraphim must have had some resemblance to the human form since the idol could be mistaken for the body of David. There were no doubt larger ones in the temples, and smaller ones of all sizes, and for idolatrous purposes in the houses. The last mention of these is in Zech. x. 2, which is referred to below. 30 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" such as had familiar spirits, and wizards that peep and that mutter." But ever since the Babylonish Captivity Israel has been free from this, as from the other forms of gross and outward idolatry. A parallelism, in its spiritual significance, is to be found in Christendom. What the ephod or the prophet was in olden times, Holy Scripture is now. It is even " a more sure word " than voices from heaven, or answers by Urim and Thummim. The Scriptures, first spoken by holy men of God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, are now " the oracles of God" themselves speaking with voices which carry their own conviction to hearts honestly seeking for truth, and ever confirming them- selves in the world's history and in the Christian's experience ; but men in the present day, even in Christendom, stumbling at the supernatural element in them, as if there could be a revelation of the Infinite and Everlasting One without such element, turn away from these oracles often on the flimsiest grounds, and instead are giving heed on the one hand to the specula- tions of a " science falsely so called," and on the other hand " to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils," and are thus in a measure already supplying an illustration of the solemn words of the apostle, that if men receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved, " God shall for this cause send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie" (2 Thess. ii. n, 12). For of the modern Christian teraphim it is as true as of the ancient pagan ; to adopt the language where they are last mentioned in Scripture, " they speak vanity," or " wickedness " ; and as for their " diviners," or false prophets representing them, "they see a lie, and tell false dreams ; they comfort in vain " (Zech. x. 2) ; for it is a comfort not well founded, and will not stand the test of death or of a judgment to come. THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 31 " AFTERWARDS." But the prophecy does not stop with describing the present it goes on to the future. " Afterwards," it says, after the " many days " of the Interregnum when the " times of the Gentiles " shall be fulfilled, and the period for the treading down of Jerusalem accomplished, " shall the children of Israel," that is, " all Israel," as the great apostle to the Gentiles assures us, in contrast to the remnant who seek and find God now "return, and seek Jehovah their God and David their king." They shall " return " to their land, but, better still, to their God. The word translated here " return " is the Hebrew for repentance. It is the word the prophets so often used when they cried, " Turn ye ; turn ye, for why will ye die O house of Israel ? " but they have never yet as a nation returned to God, neither will they return until the Spirit is poured upon them from on high, and the work of grace begins in their hearts. Then " a voice will be heard upon the high places, even the weeping and supplication of the children of Israel, because they have perverted their way and have forgotten Jehovah their God." And in the midst of this weeping and supplication the voice of God will finally break in saying, " Return, ye backsliding children ; I will heal your backslidings," and then will come the immediate glad response, " Behold we come unto Thee, for Thou art Jehovah our God"(Jer. iii. 21,22; see also Zech. chaps, xii. to xiv.). And not only will they " return," but they will seek " Jehovah their God." Now and for a long season Israel hath been " without the true God," and without a priest to teach them the true meaning of the law. These words from 2 Chron. xv. 3 proclaim a present as well as an historic fact, and por- tray perhaps the saddest feature in connection with the present condition of Israel. In spite of religiousness 32 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD ' and great zeal, Israel is now "without the true God," and if we inquire for the reason it is found in the words of our Lord, " I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life ; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me " ; and again, " This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." " No man hath seen God at any time," nor can we see or truly know Him except the only-begotten of the Father declare Him unto us ; and by rejecting Him even the revelation in the scriptures of Moses and the prophets has become obscured to Israel, for that too was a revelation of God in Christ. Therefore the prophet says that they will not only seek Jehovah their God, but also " David their King." Now it is unnecessary to prove that " David " here stands for David's greater son, or Messiah. The Jews themselves have so understood it. Even the Rabbis, in commenting on the parallel passage in Jer. xxx., where we read that " In that day . . . they shall serve Jehovah their God and David their king whom I will raise up unto them," have said, "David their king whom I will raise up unto them," and not "whom I have raised up unto them " showing that it is not King David who reigned in Jerusalem some four hundred years before who is meant, but the Messiah who is to be of David's seed, as it is written in Jer. xxiii. 5, 6, and other scriptures. In truth, He is the true David, the " Beloved," the King and Man after God's own heart, in whom the promises of the kingdom are centred. There are a number of passages where the name David is applied to Messiah the king in the prophecies, but those in our passage in Hosea iii. and in Jer. xxx. 9 are especially remarkable : " They shall seek Jehovah their God and David their king " ; " They shall serve Jehovah their God and David their king," showing that there is THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 33 neither true seeking nor true serving of Jehovah God if we do not also seek and serve David (Messiah) the king, notwithstanding all that poor Israel now thinks to the contrary. Now let us return for a moment to the first of the three pairs of contrasts in the fourth verse of our chapter " Without a king and without a prince " and by com- paring that statement with another prophecy of Israel's future, observe a most beautiful truth about the Lord Jesus in relation to that nation. 1 In Ezek. xxxvii. 21-25 we read, " Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel : and one king shall be king to them all : and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions ; but I will save them out cf all their dwelling-places wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them ; so shall they be My people, and I will be their God. And David, My servant, shall be king over them, and they all shall have one shepherd ; they shall also walk in My judgments, and observe My statutes and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob My servant wherein your fathers have dwelt ; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever : and My servant David shall be their prince for ever " (Ezek. xxxvii. 21-25). And David My servant shall be King over them . . . 1 This section is transferred here from my book, "The Jewish Problem," as it is important to the context and a full understanding of this prophecy. 4 34 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" and My servant David shall be their Prince for ever'' Here is both Israel's King and Prince in the same person. But, you say, do not the two terms substantially mean the same thing ? No ; the word in the original trans- lated " prince " in this passage does not mean prince in an hereditary sense of the word. " Nassi," the term used, signifies one exalted^ or elected by the freewill of the people. What a glimpse we get here of the change that will come over Israel at the appearing of Jesus Christ ! At His first coming Israel as a nation deliberately rejected Him. "Not this man, but Barabbas ! " they said ; and as to Christ, " Crucify Him ! Crucify Him ! We will not have this man to reign over us!" was their cry. But the national verdict with regard to Jesus Christ will be revoked ; the grand mistake of the Jewish people shall yet be acknowledged and repented of. Instead of " Crucify Him ! " they will cry " Hosannah ! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord ! " They will recognise His claims, not only as " the King," the One whose right it is to reign over them ; but they will deliberately declare Him their " Nassi," their elected, or exalted one. This simply means that Israel will ratify God's choice. David himself, whose name Messiah bears, is a beautiful type of Christ in this, as in many other respects. In i Sam. xvi. we read of his being chosen and anointed king over Israel by the command of God. But what followed ? Did he at once commence his reign ? For fifteen years he was a fugitive ; his claims were un- recognised ; his home was the cave of Adullam or the wilderness of Judah. There was another king who hated David and disputed his sovereignty. Meanwhile, instead of a throne on Mount Zion and the hosts of Israel, his court was outside the camp, and his following THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 35 consisted of his brethren and all his father's house : " And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented " a strange, typical lot, not at first numbering altogether more than about "four hundred men." But at last, after years of rejection, the people's heart turned to- ward him, " and the men of Judah came, and " as if he had never been anointed king before " there (in Hebron) they anointed David king over the house of Judah " (2 Sam. ii. 4). Thus it is with Christ. From His incarnation He was designated King of the Jews. Jehovah Himself has anointed Him as His king on the holy hill of Zion ; and it was even then announced that " the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever ; and of His kingdom there shall be no end." But my people knew not the day of their visitation ; and for all these centuries have resolutely, as a nation, refused to acknow- ledge His claims. Meanwhile, also, the god of this world, " the prince of the power of the air," is permitted in the infinite wisdom of God to usurp Christ's sovereignty over the nations ; and the followers of our blessed, glorious Master are a mere handful of individuals from all nations, who spiritually are like that motley crowd in the cave of Adullam, " in distress, in debt, and discontented, or bitter of soul," because of a sense of sin and sorrow. These are painfully conscious that Jesus Christ is not yet accepted king over the earth ; for instead of a crown, which will come by and by, we have to take up His cross and follow Him "without the camp, bearing His reproach." But as sure as there was a cross planted for Him on that Golgotha, outside the walls of Jerusalem, so surely, if the word and oath of our God stand for anything, is there yet to be a glorious 36 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" throne for our Redeemer and Master on Mount Zion. " The stone which the builders have rejected has become the headstone of the corner ; " and, however marvellous and improbable in our eyes, Israel shall yet "serve Jehovah their God and David their king," and delibe- rately elect Him, whom during centuries of unbelief they have despised and rejected, as their " Nassi " their freely chosen ruler and Prince. Another beautiful glimpse into the time and circum- stances of Israel's seeking and finding Christ, is to be found in the words of the same prophet at the end of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth chapters : " I will go and return to My place till they declare them- selves guilty, and seek My face ; in their affliction they will seek Me early." In their fulness these words can only be understood in the light of New Testament history. It is our Lord Jesus who, by His spirit, speaks through the mouth of the prophet. He was the Lamb of God, but by reason of their unbelief and the judgments which have befallen them in consequence of His rejection, His first coming to them, as depicted in the preceding verse, has been " as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah : He has torn and gone away." Whither has He gone ? The answer is : " to My place " to " the glory which He had with the Father J before the world was " (John xvii. 5). Having come from God He went, when His mission of suffering and death was accomplished, to God (John xiii. 3), and there, at His Father's right hand, He will remain " till they declare themselves guilty." The word here is the same, and seems to me to be designedly taken by the prophet from Gen. xlii., where we read the confession of Joseph's brethren in the midst of their trouble in Egypt. " We are verily guilty" they said one to another, " concerning our brother, in that we saw the THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 37 anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear ; therefore is this tribulation come upon us. ... Behold, also his blood is required" (Gen. xlii. 21, 22). So it will be with Israel in relation to the Messiah, the Beloved of the Father, whom also they sold for thirty pieces of silver, and whom they have believed all this time to be dead. The day is drawing nigh when this greater than Joseph, who meanwhile has been exalted a Prince and a Saviour, will reveal Himself to His own brethren, but not until, by the aid of the " spirit of grace and supplications which will be poured out upon them," "they declare themselves guilty" of the most terrible crime in their national history, even the rejection and crucifixion of the Son of God, and their own brother according to the flesh. And it was in the time of trouble that this heart- searching among Joseph's brethren took place, and the confession was wrung from them. So it will be with Israel. " In their affliction," in their tribulation (the word being the same as is used to describe " Jacob's trouble " in Jer. xxx. 7, and other scriptures) " they will seek Me early." Then the prophet, reaching out to- wards these promises from afar, and eager to hasten that longed-for time, says : " Come, and let us return to the Lord, for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us, in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight." " One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." For nearly two such millennial days since the Dayspring from on high has visited us, has the national history of Israel been sus- pended, and the nation itself been as dead, but the third is the resurrection day, when the Lord will quicken and help Israel "at the breaking in of the morning" (Psa. 38 THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" xlvi. 5, Hebrew). " Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning, and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." And when once Israel learns to know God in the face of Jesus Christ, and has unveiled to them His absolute truth and righteousness, as well as His infinite love, " they shall fear toward Jehovah and His good- ness in the latter days." His love and forgiveness which they will experience on the ground of re- demption will not make them think lightly of sin, or to have low views of God's holiness. A filial fear will take possession of their hearts in relation to Him, in whom alone they will find, even as we do now, all their blessedness ; in the loss of whose fellowship they will have discovered the cause of all their misery. Yes, this is the effect which the grace of God has on the regenerate heart : " With Thee there is forgiveness that Thou mayest be feared." This is not the terror of the ungodly, but a fear springing from a sense of forgive- ness and acceptance a fear which dreads to offend against love so wonderful, and which cannot bear to think even of the possibility of being once again excluded from the fellowship of Him whose loving- kindness is better than life. And all this will take place in the " latter days." This brings us to the same landmark of time as indi- cated in the inspired forecast of the history of Israel given by Moses at the very beginning of their national career (Deut iv. 30). " In the latter," or " last days," " the days of Messiah," as Jewish commentators themselves explain, which to them will not begin until they shall say : " Blessed is He that cometh in the name of Jehovah ! " Israel's sin and sorrow shall end ; the yoke of Gentile rule shall THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 39 be broken ; men shall no more serve themselves of him, but "they shall serve Jehovah their God, and David their king, whom God will raise up unto them." For thus said Jehovah : " Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them." II THE "ICHABOD" PERIOD AND THE RETURN OF THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH " Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned ; that she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. "The voice of one thai crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a high way for our God. " Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low : and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain : and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together : for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. "The voice of one saying, Cry. And one said, What shall I cry ? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field : the grass withereth, the flower fadeth ; because the breath of the Lord bloweth upon it : surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth : but the word of our God shall stand for ever. " O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain ; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength ; lift it up, be not afraid ; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God ! Behold, the Lord God will come as a mighty one, and His arm shall rule for Him : behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd, He shall gather the lambs in His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that give suck." ISA. xl. i-u. II THE "ICHABOD" PERIOD AND THE RETURN OF THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH WITH the fortieth chapter begins the second half of the Book of Isaiah, the last twenty-seven chapters forming a separate and continuous prophecy by itself. This grand prophetic Messianic epic of the Old Testament, the centre and heart of which is Christ, forms one of the very richest portions of God's self- revelation. Sublimely grand is its very style and language. " There is in fact no more Johannic book in the whole of the Old Testament than this book of consolation," says a great German Bible student. 1 " It is like the product of an Old Testament gift of tongues. The fleshly body of speech has become changed into a glorified body, and we hear, as it were, spiritual voices from the world beyond, or world of glory." It is remarkable and masterly in its structure, for as we proceed we find the one larger cycle of twenty-seven chapters divided into three smaller cycles of nine chapters, each interlinked with the other, and ending with the same refrain of peace and blessedness to the righteous, and "no peace to the wicked." 2 1 Delitzsch. 2 See Appendix III. on the structure of the second half of Isaiah at the end of the book. 43 44 THE "ICHABOD" PERIOD AND Wonderful also is its comprehensiveness, the whole order of the New Testament being anticipated in it. It begins where the New Testament begins with the ministry of John the Baptist, the voice crying in the wilderness, and it ends where the New Testament ends, with the new heavens and the new earth, wherein shall dwell righteousness. A certain school of modern criticism, of some of the representations of which I am bold to say that they apply to the study of Scripture a wisdom which is certainly not from above, claim most positively to have discovered another author for these last twenty-seven chapters ; or to speak more accurately, being positive only in putting aside the claims of the Son of Amoz under whose name they stand, and who was believed to be the writer by the compilers of the Old Testament canon, and by the Apostles of the New Testament, these gentlemen are at a loss to find the real author, and not unfrequently call their pseudo Isaiah by the significant name of the "Great Unknown." 1 On my shelf yonder there stands a book on Messianic prophecy by a clever writer, and in the section devoted to the second half of Isaiah I was greatly struck when reading it with the frequent repetition of the phrase the " Great Unknown." The words impressed me as of solemn significance. Prophecy is not of man's origina- tion, but emanates from the Great Omniscient God. " Holy men," Scripture assures us, " spake as they were moved (or borne along) by the Holy Ghost." Now God forbid that I should characterise alike all who have been entrapped by the novelties and the daring 1 " Great " the writer of these chapters certainly was, but for that very reason we may doubt his being unknown, or that there was any necessity of a work which bears on its very face the true prophetic stamp being smuggled in under another name to give it authority. THE RETURN OF THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH 45 of this school, but of many of them I must utter the sad conviction that it is the Holy Spirit, the real author of prophecy, who is the "Great Unknown," or they would not speak and write of Scripture as they do. Once granted that prophecy is supernatural in its essence, and that there is nothing improbable in the fact that one speaking from the mouth of God could definitely foretell things to come, and speak of things and persons which as yet were not, as though they were and most of the arguments in favour of a later date and different author for these chapters fall to the ground. As to the supposed differences in language and style, I can only state that to one dissimilarity it would be easy to point out many marked features both of style and language which are peculiar alike to both parts of the Book of Isaiah. One little link which binds together the two halves of this prophecy shines out in connection with the subject we are about to consider, namely, the Revelation of the glory of Jehovah. Isaiah's earlier prophecies terminate with the thirty- fifth chapter, that wonderfully sublime paragraph which contains, in germ, most of the leading thoughts of the last twenty-seven chapters. 1 Following that, we have four chapters of contemporary history, containing the account 1 Delitzsch, who to the grief of many, finally gave way in a measure, to the rationalistic pressure around him, and accepted the theory of a later authorship of the last twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah, says in his commentary on the thirty-fifth chapter that it is "like a mosaic" from passages in the second half of the book, and continues : " We have intentionally avoided crowding together the parallel passages from chapters xl.-lxvi. The whole chapter is, in every part, both in thought and language, a prelude of that book of consolation for the exiles in their captivity. Not only in its spiritual New Testament thoughts, but also in its ethereal language, soaring high as it does in majestic softness and light, the prophecy has now reached the highest point of its development." 46 THE "ICHABOD" PERIOD AND of Sennacherib's invasion ; the destruction of his army ; Hezekiah's sickness and recovery ; and of the embassy sent by Merodach-baladan, ostensibly to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery, but in reality, as we know also from 2 Chron. xxxii. 31, to "inquire of the wonder that was done in the land," in the great reverse which befell the arms of Assyria, whom Babylon, till then a subject power, was before long to supersede. In that thirty-ninth chapter we have a most striking definite an- nouncement to Hezekiah of the seventy years' captivity among the very people whose ambassadors he had tried to impress with the importance of his kingdom, and the riches of his treasures. " Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of Jehovah of Hosts. Behold the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon : nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away ; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon." This announcement forms at once the threshold and the standpoint of the last great prophecy written at a later period of the prophet's life. The captivity has become ideally a present fact to the prophet, and in vision he already beholds the land desolate, the Temple destroyed, the people pining in Chaldean bondage ; and it is just like God, to open up in advance, a stream of consolation, to accompany the faithful remnant all through the weary wilderness march of the shorter, and of the present much longer captivity. But to return from the short digression. What is the climax to which we are gradually led up in the earlier prophecies of Isaiah? It is found in the second verse of the thirty-fifth chapter, " They shall see the glory of THE RETURN OF THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH 47 Jehovah, the excellency" (or "the majesty") "of our God." And what is the great theme of the last twenty- seven chapters ? It is the same. The central thought of the prologue, or introduction, consisting of the first eleven verses of chapter forty is : " And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together," which is explained in the last of the brief four sections into which the introduction is divided, by the words : " Behold the Lord God will come with strength and His own arm shall rule for Him ; behold His reward is with Him and His work before Him." It is from this blessed announcement that the streams of comfort flow ; it is for this glorious culmination that the way is to be prepared, and all the twenty-seven chapters but unfold the process by which this grand consumma- tion will finally be brought about. " The glory of Jehovah shall be revealed." I wonder if we all understand what is meant by the expression, " The glory of Jehovah." I fear that some expressions that are much on our lips, are but little understood by us. Let me then state at the outset that the words, " Khebod Jehovah " (the glory of Jehovah), in the Hebrew scriptures, always mean the glory of the personal presence of Jehovah ; the glory surrounding and attendant on the visible manifestations of Jehovah on the earth. In order to elucidate this important subject, let me draw your attention to several different scriptures. No sooner did God bring Israel out of Egypt than, in keeping with His purpose of a theocracy, He Himself came, and took His place at the head of that nation, and the visible symbol of His as yet invisible presence was the pillar of cloud, which at night turned into a pillar of fire. The first mention of this symbolical cloud is in Exod. xiii. 21, 22, where we read: "And Jehovah 48 THE "ICHABOD" PERIOD AND went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way ; and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light ; to go by day and by night. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people." In verse 19 of the following chapter we have this pillar of cloud associated with the Angel of Jehovah, for we read : " And the angel of God which went before the camp of Israel removed and went behind them ; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind them." Now I need only point out in passing that there is only one Being in the Old Testament who bears the name of the " Angel of Jehovah," and that is Messiah, the Son of God, the second Person in the Blessed Trinity. The word angel, either in the Hebrew or Greek, does not in itself denote the nature or quality of the messenger. It may be one of the heavenly messengers or spiritual intelligences whom we usually call by this name. It may be a man, or it may be He who pre-eminently is the Messenger of God to man, of whom we read " last of all He sent His Son." It was this Divine Angel or Messenger of Jehovah, who, when the time arrived for the bringing Israel out of Egypt, appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and said of Himself, " I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," so that Moses, recognising Him to be God, was afraid and hid his face (Exod. iii. 2-6). And it was He also who " in His love and in His pity redeemed them, and bare them, and carried them " all the days of old, and went before them in His pillar of cloud all through their wilderness journeys. He is called the " Angel of God's Presence " (or " of His face," Isa. Ixiii. 9), because He is the only face or THE RETURN OF THE GLORY OP JEHOVAH 49 personal manifestation of God which man has ever seen, or can see, and who, after His incarnation, could there- fore say in answer to the yearning desire of man, " Show us the Father and it sufficeth us," " He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father " ; and He is " the Angel of the Covenant," even the Divine Lord who was suddenly to come to His Temple to inaugurate the new dispensa- tion. When once the Tabernacle was built for His dwelling-place, the symbol of His special presence in the midst of His redeemed people was always asso- ciated with the sanctuary. Thus we read of its dedica- tion in Exod. xl. 33-35: "Moses finished the work" (that is, of putting the Tabernacle together). " Then a cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of Jehovah filled the Tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of meeting because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of Jehovah filled the Tabernacle." " So it was always ; the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night " (Numb, ix. 16). When in process of time, after the establishment of the kingdom of Israel, the permanent " House " or " Palace " l of Israel's true King took the place of the movable tent, we read the same thing in connection with the consecration of the Temple as we do of the Tabernacle. "And it came to pass when the priests were come out of the holy place that the cloud filled the house of Jehovah so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud ; for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of Jehovah" (i Kings viii. 10-11). " So it was always." I would not assert that all through the frequent lapses into apostacy, and in the latter evil 1 During the time of the Theocracy there was only one word for Temple and Palace. 5 50 THE "ICHABOD" PERIOD AND days of the history of the kingdom, the people could always see the symbol of God's presence with them, but so long as the first Temple stood He did not finally withdraw from the people He was pleased to call His inheritance ; and Israel's high priests on entering once a year into the Holy of Holies were conscious that there, " between the Cherubim," God dwelt as in no other nation, although His presence fills the universe. Thus it continued until a particular point in the history of Israel, recorded in the Book of Ezekiel. The prophecy of Ezekiel forms a very important link in the progress of Old Testament revelation, but it is specially im- portant for the light it throws on two great events in Jewish history. One of these events is the de- parture of governmental power from Judah. This is announced in the remarkable passage in chapter xxi. 26, 27, and was explained in a preceding section of this work. 1 But secondly, simultaneous with the removal of governmental power the prophet saw the departure of the glory of Jehovah from Israel. The connection is most significant. The true King of Israel, as already explained, was Jehovah, and the removal of crown and mitre, and the departure of the sceptre from Judah therefore really meant the withdrawal of God from them. We all remember the touching account the prophet gives of the departure of the glory in three earlier chapters. 2 First he sees it in its wonted place between the Cherubim in the Holy of Holies then he sees it lift itself from off the cherub and move to the threshold, where it evidently remained for awhile. Then he sees it move again, this time mounted on the Cherubim, the * See " Without a King and without a Prince," page 13. Ezek. ix, x., xi. THE RETURN OF THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH 51 symbols of God's executive power on the earth, and passing out by the east gate it " stood," or remained hovering, over the court, " So that the court was full of the brightness of the glory of Jehovah." Again he sees it depart from the court of the temple and stand over the city. Have you ever asked yourself the reason of this slow and deliberate departure of the glory from Israel ? Why not depart from them at one bound ? Oh, my dear friends, in symbolical language God the Father thus spoke to His rebellious but beloved people the very words that Jesus spoke to Israel centuries later : " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not." He did not want to leave them. Oh, if they had but repented and cleansed their way, then would He not have taken His presence from among them. " For the space of three years and a half, said Rabbi Youchanan, the Shekhinah was sitting upon the Mount of Olives thinking peradventure Israel might repent ; " T but instead of repenting they only grew bolder in their sins, and, as God Himself pathetically complains to the prophet, they literally drove Him from their midst by their wickedness. " Son of man," he says, " seest thou what they do, even the great abomina- tions that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary " (Ezek. viii. 6). So that the prophet again sees the glory of Jehovah going ' Quoted by M. Margoliouth in his " Lord's Prayer," from the Preface to the Kabbalistic commentary on the Book of Lamen- tations, Aychah Rabatha. He also points out "that this was just the time that our Saviour laboured personally to bring His own to repentance and while on the Mount of Olives wept over the holy city." 52 THE "ICHABOD" PERIOD AND up from the midst of the city to the Mount of Olives (chap. xi. 23), and after it " stood " there for some time it finally departed. Since that event there is one word written across Jewish history, and that one word is " I-chabod " where is the glory? For the Lord has withdrawn Himself, and the glory of Jehovah has departed from His land, and from His people. They then went to Babylon, and when the seventy years were expired the comparative handful who returned commenced to build a Temple, and while they were engaged in that task the first of that great trio of post-Exilic prophets, " Haggai, the messenger of Jehovah, in Jehovah's message " (chap. i. 13), was commissioned to make to them the following announcement : " Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory ? and how do ye see it now ? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing ? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord ; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest ; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work : for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts : according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remaineth among you : fear ye not. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea and the dry land ; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come : and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts ; and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts " (Haggai ii. 3-9). Now it is certainly true that in its fulness this, like THE RETURN OF THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH 53 every other prophecy in the Old Testament which announces Messiah's advent, looks on to the second coming and to a time yet future. There is truth even in the rendering of the ninth verse of this passage adopted in the margin of the Revised Version, which, instead of "the glory of this latter house," translates it " the latter glory of this house," which is more literal, and corresponds with the third verse of the same chapter, though the inference drawn from it by some, that the primary reference of the " latter " or " last " glory of " this house " is to the Temple yet to be built in the future, is very doubtful. The Temple of Solomon and the one they were then building was, in a sense, the same house, because there was a living link connecting the two, in the lives of some of the old men, who had returned from the seventy years' exile, to whom the prophet was speaking, who had seen " this house " (Solomon's Temple) in its first glory, before it was destroyed by the Chaldeans, and were now eye-witnesses of its restoration, though on a much smaller scale. But there is no such link between the second Temple and a temple yet to be built more than nineteen centuries later. Anyhow, the fact remains that it was to encourage them in the task in which they were then engaged that Haggai was sent, and when the prophet spoke of " the house, this one," those who heard it could only have understood it as referring primarily to the Temple they were then building. But then there are two important questions which naturally suggest themselves to every intelligent student. First, What is the glory promised in Haggai's prophecy? Second, Where was the glory ? As to the first point a great deal of learned trash has been written, the under- lying fallacy of which is the assumption that it is an outward or material glory that the prophet is here 54 THE "ICHABOD" PERIOD AND speaking about, overlooking the fact that the expression Khebod Jehovah ("the glory of Jehovah"), when used in connection with Beth Jehovah ("the House of Jehovah"), has a technical meaning, and signifies the glory of the manifestation, or personal presence of Jehovah, which filled the Temple, which was His dwelling-place. But then comes the second question. Where was the glory ? When the Tabernacle was finished we read of its consecration. " A cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of Jehovah filled the Tabernacle." This, by the way, shows us what true consecration means. Any thing or place or person of which God takes pos- session becomes consecrated and holy. The Tabernacle was planned and made under Divine superintendence. When all was finished Moses put it together, but it was not yet holy to the Lord until the symbolical cloud of His presence came and covered it and His glory filled it Thus it became consecrated and holy and no Israelite dared enter it, and even Israel's high priest only once a year, and that on the ground of shed blood. But this is a digression. When Solomon's Temple was finished we again read of its consecration, the symbolical cloud and the glory of Jehovah filled the house, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud. But when the second Temple was built we never read of any such occurrence in connection with it, and as a matter of fact it never was after this manner formally taken possession of by God, nor was it in this sense ever consecrated. Where was the glory? According to Jewish historians themselves there were five things present in the first Temple which were lacking in the second Temple. I. The ark and its contents. II. The holy fire which descended from heaven to consume the sacrifices in token of God's acceptance. III. The Urim THE RETURN OF THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH 55 and Thummim. IV. The spirit of prophecy. 1 V. The Shekhina glory. As a matter of fact we know from Jewish as well as from heathen writers that the Holy of Holies in the second Temple, through the nearly five centuries of its existence, was a vacuum an empty place, waiting for God to come and take manifest pos- session of it. Where, we ask again, was the glory? Nearly five centuries elapsed, and in the interval Herod, to gain favour with the Jews, was, at the cost of great labour and expense, completing considerable alterations and enlargement of the Temple ; but Josephus, who is our authority on this subject, and who gives us the full account of the alterations carried out by Herod, is careful to emphasise that it was still the same house, and that in the history of the Jews hitherto there have been only two Temples the one built by Solomon and destroyed by the Babylonians, and the other built by Zerubbabel and afterwards enlarged and beautified by Herod. 2 One day to "this house" a poor young woman 1 The canon of the Old Testament being closed with Malachi, who prophesied soon after the completion of the second Temple, the subsequent silent centuries of its existence may well, from their standpoint, be characterised by the absence of " the spirit of prophecy." 8 This is what Josephus says, speaking of the destruction of the second Temple : " Now, although any one would justly lament the destruction of such a work as this was, since it was the most admirable of all the works that we have seen or heard of, both for its curious structure and its magnitude, and also for the vast wealth bestowed upon it, as well as for the glorious reputation it had for its holiness, yet might such a one comfort himself with this thought, that it was fate that decreed it so to be, which is inevitable, both as to living creatures and as to works and places also. However, one cannot but wonder at the accuracy of this period thereto relating ; for the same month and day were now observed, as I said before, wherein the holy house was burnt formerly by the Babylonians. Now the number of years that passed from its first foundation, which was laid by King Solomon, 56 THE "ICHABOD" PERIOD AND of the House of David brought her first-born child to be presented to the Lord " and to offer a sacrifice accord- ing to that which is said in the Word of the Lord, a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons." At the very same time an aged man, to whom it was revealed by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ, was led by the Spirit into the Temple, and seeing the Child Jesus, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said : " Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel" The central promise in Haggai's prophecy in relation to " this house " had to wait long for its fulfil- ment, but here at last was the greater glory ; here was the real Presence. Later, after His entry on the Mes- sianic office, when Christ, with a scourge of cords, drove before Him out of the Temple the money-changers and sellers of doves saying, "Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise " that was its consecration. But there were not many, alas, whose eyes were opened to recognise the Divine glory of this holy Child. There was an aged Simeon ; there was " Anna, a prophetess " ; there were those " that looked for re- demption in Jerusalem," to whom this holy woman probably prophesied the near approach of the Saviour. After His entrance on His public work there was a Nathaniel, a Peter, a John, and the company of other till this its destruction, which happened in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, are collected to be one thousand one hundred and thirty, besides seven months and fifteen days ; and from the second building of it, which was done by Haggai, in the second year of Cyrus the king, till its destruction under Vespasian, there were six hundred and thirty-nine years and forty-five days" (" Wars," vi. 6-8). THE RETURN OF THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH 57 apostles and disciples to whom it was given " to be- hold His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth " ; but as to the nation, they saw in Him no form nor comeliness, and when they beheld Him they saw no beauty in Him to desire Him, and what was foretold by Isaiah came to pass : " He was despised and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and there was, as it were, the hiding of the face from Him; He was despised and we esteemed Him not." In the end, after He had for three and a half years with outstretched arms continued to call Israel to Himself, but without response that which was symbolised by the departure of the Glory from the Mount of Olives, received a second, personal, and more striking fulfilment, when Jesus, also slowly and reluctantly, after shedding tears of sorrow for Jerusalem, and from the same spot whence the prophet saw the Glory depart, finally ascended out of sight. He led His disciples out as far as Bethany (on the Mount of Olives), and He lifted up His hands and blessed them, " And it came to pass while He blessed them He was parted from them and carried up into heaven." And since that event since the departure of Jesus from Israel and the world, the word I have already quoted is written more legibly and in letters of fire across the eighteen or nineteen centuries of Jewish history : " Icha- bod." Where is the glory ? The Temple destroyed ; the land a continual desolation ; the people given over to be tossed to and fro among the nations. But will the present state of things continue for ever? Will man on earth no more behold the visible display of God's glory ? For answer we take up the words of the fortieth chapter of Isaiah with which we started : " And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh 58 THE "ICHABOD" PERIOD AND shall see it together, for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it." Ezekiel, who saw the departure of the glory of Jehovah, also, in his visions of the future, beheld its return ; and from the same direction whence it departed. " Afterwards," we read, " He brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east, and behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east, and His voice was like the noise of many waters, and the earth shined with His glory. . . . And the glory of Jehovah came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. So the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court ; and behold the glory of Jehovah filled the house." And what is this but the same announcement in symbolical language made to the "men of Galilee," just as the Lord was departing from them, that "this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye have seen Him go into heaven " ? As man in the glorified body He ascended, and " this same Jesus," as the "Son of Man," bodily, He shall return. Visibly, with a cloud He was received out of their sight, and "in like manner," visibly, "with the clouds of heaven," He will descend again. It was from the Mount of Olives they saw Him finally depart ; and on the same spot, " upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east," His blessed feet "shall stand in that day " (Zech. xiv. 4). Then, and not till then, will Isaiah's prophecy be ful- filled. " And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it." But let us for a moment touch on the difference between the past and the future. I. In the past Israel saw the glory of the personal THE RETURN OF THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH 59 presence of Jehovah only in symbol, and then the glory was always associated with the cloud, which while re- vealing also concealed ; for man was not yet able to bear the full unveiling of His majesty, and even Israel's prophets, who heard His voice, and were borne along by His power, had wonderingly to cry : " Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel the Saviour ! " And even when in the fulness of time He came, in whom all the attributes of Jehovah were em- bodied, who was " the effulgence of His glory and an exact representation of His very being," we still observe the same principle at work of concealing while revealing Himself; for there was the "emptying of Himself"; there was the veiling of His glory; there was "the hiding of His power." How else could man have approached Him and lived ? How else could He have patiently endured the contradiction of sinners, and the dulness and frowardness of His own disciples, during those years of suffering as the Lamb of God ? But by and by, " the glory of Jehovah shall be unveiled? and will be no longer in symbol, but in bodily presence. There will be no longer a cloud to hide His glory from our eyes ; no longer as in a glass darkly, but face to face, for " He shall be manifested and we shall see Him as He is." II. In the past it was only men of Israel who beheld even the symbolical or veiled glory of God, but by and by " all flesh shall see it together? for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it. "Behold He cometh with clouds ; and every eye shall see Him ; and they also which pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn because of Him. Even so. Amen." We shall behold the unveiled glory of that face once so marred for us, and beholding it shall be finally and everlastingly conformed to that same image to be for 60 THE "ICHABOD" PERIOD AND ever "like Him" (i John iii. 2); the escaped of Israel " shall look upon Him whom they have pierced," now manifested in His true glory and power, and shall " mourn " and be saved (Zech. xii.) ; while a Christ- rejecting world will behold Him too, and seek to hide themselves in the caves and the rocks of the moun- tains ; and say to the mountains and to the rocks, " Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb " " at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with the angels of His power, in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus . . . when He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be marvelled at in all them that believe ... in that day " (2 Thess. i. 6-10, R.V.). This is the hope of Israel and of this sin-burdened earth. Not till then will the world be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea ; not till then will the inhabitants of the earth learn righteousness, or the dream of universal peace be realised. And it is the hope of the Church. " For the grace of God, bringing salvation," says the apostle (Titus ii. 11-15), "hath appeared to all men." This is a terse summary of all that is implied in the first Advent. It was a marvellous display of the grace or undeserved favour of God to man ; a glorious Epiphany, as the word is in the original, on the darkness and hopeless- ness of the world. But no sooner does grace bring salvation to us than it becomes our school of discipline, and the great Teacher in that school is the Holy Spirit. And these are the lessons which we have to learn, by means and processes often very trying to flesh and THE RETURN OF THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH 61 blood, namely, that " denying ourselves in reference to ungodliness, and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly." This sums up the whole of Christian character and conduct both from the negative and positive side in relation " to this present age." But what is our attitude and expectation in relation to the future ? Here it is : " Looking for " (or " awaiting with expectation ") " the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" Here is the same blessed hope of the appearing of the glory of the personal presence of the great God and our Saviour brought over from the Old Testament into the pages of the New, and all those who have become subjects of grace are pointed to it as the goal and consummation of their blessedness, and are told eagerly to look for it. Two Epiphanies are spoken of in this comprehensive scripture. One is already past, and that was the Epiphany of Grace, which shone forth at the incarnation and cul- minated on Calvary ; but the other, to which both apostles and prophets bear witness, is yet future, and is the Epiphany of the Glory, when Christ shall come to claim His own, and when our eyes shall behold the King in His beauty. " And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He shall be manifested we may have confidence, and not be shamed away from Him at His coming." Ill THE SILENCE OF GOD HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN " God, even God, the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof. " Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined forth. " Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence : a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. " He shall call to the heavens above, and to the eajlh, that He may judge His people. " Gather My saints unto Me ; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. " And the heavens shall declare His righteousness ; for God is Judge Himself. Selah. " Hear, O My people, and I will speak ; O Israel, and I will testify unto thee : I am God, even thy God. " I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices ; and thy burnt offerings are continually before Me. " I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds. " For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. " I know all the fowls of the mountains : and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. " If I were hungry, I would not tell thee : for the world is Mine and the fulness thereof. " Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats ? " Offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving ; and pay thy vows to the Most High : " And call upon Me in the day of trouble ; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me. " But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare My statutes, and that thou hast taken My covenant in thy mouth ? " Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest My words behind thee. " When thou sawest a thief, thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. " Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. " Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother ; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. " These things hast thou done, and I kept silence ; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself : " But I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. " Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver : " Whoso offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifieth Me ; and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God." PSA. 1. (R.V.). Ill THE SILENCE OF GOD HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN The Second Advent in Relation to the Church, Israel, and Christendom IT must be obvious, even to the most superficial student of the Scriptures, that we have in the Old Testament two distinct series of prophecies referring to the coming and person of the Messiah ; the one de- scribing Him as coming in humiliation, "lowly and riding upon an ass " ; "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; led as a lamb to the slaughter, and pouring out His soul unto death ;" while the other series speak of Him as coming in visible power and great glory, and receiving dominion and a kingdom, so that " all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him." " His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." The Jews many centuries ago puzzled .over the apparent discrepancies in the picture of Messiah, drawn by the prophets on the pages of Scripture, and at last invented a characteristic solution of their own. There must be two different persons, they said ; and they called the one Messiah Ben-Joseph, who must suffer and die; and the other Messiah Ben-David, who should 6 6 5 66 THE SILENCE OF GOD come in power and reign. 1 Of course this explanation is absurd, for there is no trace of two Messiahs or of a Messiah Ben-Joseph anywhere in the Old Testament. Christian commentators and theologians have had their own way of explaining the difference, and this has been by applying two different principles and methods of interpretation. The prophecies of Messiah's suffering, they said, must be taken literally ; but those speaking of His coming in manifest glory, and of a throne on Mount Zion, must be explained spiritually, or referred to the reign of Christ in heaven. But the system of the two principles is scarcely more satisfactory, and has even less consistency about it, than the Jewish one of the two persons ; for if a prophecy of a glorious appear- ing of Messiah to reign over the earth is not to be taken literally, why should one describing an advent in suffer- ing be so explained ? The true solution which should commend itself to the minds of all God's people is that there is but one person, Jesus Christ ; one principle of interpretation for all prophecy, whether fulfilled or un- fulfilled, to believe and take God's Word as it stands, but that there are two advents one in humiliation, the other in glory ; one to suffer and die, the other to take unto Himself His kingdom and reign. To the two distinct series of prophecies announcing two different advents, two well-known prophetic scrip- tures may be taken as key passages. The first is Micah v. 2, which tells us that " the Ruler in Israel," whose origin is Divine, and whose goings forth are from the days of eternity, will be born as a child in Bethlehem Ephratha. The second is Dan. vii. 13, 14, where we see Him no longer as a child born on earth of a Jewish 1 See on this subject of the Jewish doctrine of two Messiahs a note on p. 44 of my book, " Rays of Messiah's Glory." HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN 67 virgin, but as "the Son of Man," coming with the clouds of heaven to receive the homage of the world. These two scriptures, which are only representative, each in its line, of many others, cannot surely describe the same advent, and we may also ask the question how, as Son of Man, can Messiah come with clouds from heaven, except He was first taken up into heaven for the very name " Man " implies a human origin ? The answer is simple and fully supplied by Scripture. Though " God blessed for ever," He is made of a woman, and " took hold of the seed of Abraham," and being found in fashion as a man, He, for our salvation, "humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." " He was buried according to the Scriptures," but He was not left in Sheol, nor did God suffer His Holy One to see corruption. " On the third day He rose again," also " according to the Scriptures," and in accordance also with that which prophets and psalmists sang in advance, " He ascended on high, leading captivity captive," and there as the God-man, at the right hand of the Majesty, He now sits as our blessed High Priest, waiting until His enemies shall be made His footstool, when He shall descend again in power and great glory. To this truth both apostles and prophets bear witness. This, however, is only a word of introduction to the exposition of one of the most sublime scriptures in the Bible, with regard to which the testimony of the Church throughout the ages has been almost universally agreed that it refers to the second series of prophecies of which we have spoken, and describes the appearing in glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. In order to impress us with the power and majesty of the glorious Being whose advent the psalm announces, 68 THE SILENCE OF GOD He is introduced by an array of Divine titles, the order and conjunction of which is only paralleled in one other passage in the Old Testament. 1 El Elohim Jehovah are the three august and blessed names with which this Psalm commences, and they are in keeping with the great subject it teaches, for while He is represented as appearing at last as the El and Elohim, the mighty and awful God of power and judgment, the terror of the ungodly, He also comes as the faithful covenant Jehovah of redemption, to gather His saints, and to consummate His everlasting purposes of love and mercy towards them. This glorious Lord of Majesty " hath spoken." It is from the mountain-top of prophetic vision that the inspired psalmist describes the certainties of the future. The Divine programme here unfolded is so certain of accomplishment, that in relation to the Church, to Israel, and the world, from the standpoint of God's purpose it can already be announced as past, or in the very act of accomplishment. The first verse is His call of attention to the whole universe in reference to the great events which are about to take place. When He came the first time the words of Isaiah were fulfilled in Him, " He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street." He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth ; but now He comes speaking, and at His voice the earth trembles " from the rising of the sun until the going down thereof." The chief and central act of the prophetic drama which is unfolded in this Psalm is that announced at the end 1 Twice repeated in solemn oath by the two and a half tribes in Joshua xxii. 22. HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN 69 of the second verse, " God hath shined ! " And what is this but an Old Testament proclamation of the Epiphany, or shining forth of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ ? In the Psalms this expression is found three 1 times, and these are all based on that remarkable passage, in Deut. xxxiii. 2 : " Jehovah came from Sinai, burst forth (as the rising sun) from Seir unto them ; He shined forth from Mount Paran, and He came from the myriads of His holy ones ; from His right hand went forth a fiery law unto them." The imagery of this passage is beautiful, the figure being borrowed from the breaking of the dawn and the progressive splendour of the sun rising. Oh, what a wonderful event in the history of the world and of Israel was the revelation of the glory of Jehovah on Sinai ! What a bursting forth of light on the moral darkness of this earth ! But alas ! by reason of the weakness of the flesh it was not the light of life, but rather of death, for it revealed to us our sin and utter helplessness, and the perfect holiness of the God who is " a consuming fire." But the law contained not only the promise, but was in itself also a preparation for the gospel ; and, there- fore, in the fulness of time, though not attended by outward splendour as on Sinai, another Epiphany (2 Tim. i. 10) of God our Saviour took place, bring- ing not "a fiery law," but the gospel of His grace, which abolished death and brought life and immortality to light. The acceptable year of the Lord ushered in by that Epiphany is rapidly running to its close, and although for nigh nineteen centuries favour has been preached to the wicked, yet has he not learned righteous- ness, and men are beginning to ask if the faith founded by the Son of God has not already proved a failure, 1 Psa. 1. 2, Ixxx. i, xciv. I. 7 o THE SILENCE OF GOD and scoffers boldly say, " Where is the promise of the coming, and what sign is there of any change or inter- ruption of the present state of things?" Even the professing Church, lost for the most part in worldliness and error, seeks to strike its roots in the earth, crying peace and progress, and acting as if all things will for ever continue as they are. But, as already shown, this earth shall yet again see the glory of the personal presence of the Lord, and, as sure as there was an appearing of Christ in humiliation, so surely will there be a shining forth of the Son of God in glory and majesty, and this time in the com- bined character of Lawgiver, Judge, and Saviour. The centre of the future Epiphany of God's glory will be "Zion," even as Zion was the focus of all God's revelations in the past. The earthly centre for the carrying out of His gracious purposes in relation to the nations, has never been, and never can be changed, for ' Jehovah hath chosen Zion ; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is My rest for ever : here will I dwell; for I have desired it" (Psa. cxxxii. 13, 14). Yes, to Zion shall come the Redeemer, but from Zion, and Israel as the centre, His glory will radiate to earth's utmost limits. And Zion shall then be "the perfection of beauty." The word " Zion " comes from a root which means a dry, barren place or arid wilderness, and in this its original condition it is a type of Israel. If the renown of the moral beauty of Israel in the past went forth among the nations, there is no praise due to them, for in themselves they ever formed most unpromising material. " From Me is thy fruit found," God says ; and it is wholly owing to the power and skill of the great Husbandman that so barren a plot of ground was trans- formed into a fruitful garden. " Thy beauty is perfect through My comeliness which I put upon thee," saith the Lord (Ezek. xvi. 14). HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN 71 At present the land and the people are seen again in their naturally barren and desolate condition. " They called thee an outcast, saying, This is Zion (a barren, unpromising plot of ground), which no man seeketh after" (Jer. xxx. 17) ; but as surely as this has been ful- filled, so surely will Zion, covered once again with God's glory, be the very " perfection of beauty," and " a praise in the midst of the earth." The Epiphany of the second verse is explained by the Parousia which is the subject of the third verse : " Our God shall come (or ' cometh '), and shall not keep silence." Oh, what a startling announcement to some ! " Behold He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all the tribes of the land shall wail because of Him. Even so. Amen ! " But this verse chiefly describes the manner of the mani- festation of the awful presence and majesty of God : " He shall not keep silence." 1 Compare this with what He says in verse 21:" This hast thou done, and I kept silence." Or rather, contrast this announcement of a visible manifestation and inter- position on the part of the great God, with the present long period of silence. In looking back on the ages that are past we see that God has His times for speak- ing and His times also for keeping silence. There are notable pauses, during which God seemed to have withdrawn Himself from man in so far as visible interposition was concerned. * In my remarks on this sentence of the psalm I take the liberty of making free use of notes made many years ago in my inter- leaved Bible of a powerful address, to which it was my privilege to listen, by that true father in Christ, the late Dr. Horatius Bonar, who, together with his two worthy brothers, Andrew and John, were the representatives in Scotland of those who waited for the Lord's appearing. 72 THE SILENCE OF GOD In Eden we hear " the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day," but soon that blessed converse ceases on account of the Fall. The last echoes of that voice die away, and there ensues a period of silence during which men lived and the world made progress, in the sense in which it always does, until the silence was broken, and Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying : " Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among men, of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly men have spoken against Him." After Enoch another pause of long centuries set in, and the earth again went on developing in the old way, until the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and until it became manifest in the sight of the heavens that " every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually." Again God spoke, and again it was in judgment. He sent the Flood ; but it was judgment blended with mercy, for a few that is to say eight souls, were saved by means of the ark, which He commanded Noah to build. After the Deluge the world began anew ; man had a fresh chance. God withdrew Himself from open inter- position, and for a space of long centuries there was silence. But what was the result of the new test ? The world again made progress, and man developed what was in him, until by the end of the time " dark- ness covered the earth and gross darkness the peoples." But in the midst of the universal darkness the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, saying, " Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house." From this point of time onward, from Abraham to Malachi, a period of more 73 than fifteen hundred years, may pre-eminently be called a time of God's speaking. There were, indeed, in the course of this age both longer and shorter spells of silence, but it nevertheless remains a fact that the chief characteristic of the period of Israel's national history, up to the point when "the times of the Gentiles" set in with the destruction of the first Temple, was that it was a time of God's self-revelation, and manifest interpositions. At sundry times and in divers portions and ways God spake unto the fathers by the prophets. Won- derful, astonishing fact ! fifteen long centuries at one stretch bearing witness to the fact that the great God hath spoken ! Was it a long successional lie ? Was it a continual self-deception as infidels and rationalists would have us believe ? Oh no ; the whole history and continued existence of Israel, the Divine and won- derful character of the words preserved to us, and the consciousness of the Christian cry aloud against so monstrous a supposition. But after this long period of speaking there followed again a long interval of about four centuries which was suddenly broken by the cry, " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ! " From this time there recom- menced another period of revelation on the part of God, during which He spoke His most wonderful words of all through His Son, and through the apostles by the Spirit. But the period of New Testament history, lasting about ninety years, soon ends. The last echoes of that voice die away on the barren rock of Patmos in the words, " Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus," and there sets in this long silence, the longest silence the world has yet experienced. How wonderful, how long, how deep, how mysterious is this silence ! How often have the hearts of God's people grown impatient under the long 74 THE SILENCE OF GOD strain ! How often has the Church cried, " How long, O Lord, how long ? " but there is neither audible voice nor sound. Will this long silence never again be broken ? Will God never again outwardly and manifestly inter- pose in the affairs of man and in the government of the world ? The answer of this sublime scripture is, " Our God cometh, and shall not keep silence." But before considering further this great and awful event, let me remind you that there is deep significance even in God's silence. (a) The silence of God is designed to drive man to that which He has spoken ; He would remind us of His Word, which in His good providence is preserved to us, and which is sufficient and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- ness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. Out of it He still speaks by His Spirit, although not by audible voice, to all who have ears to hear. In it He tells thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of thee. {b} The time of God's silence is another testing-time for man under more favourable circumstances than in preceding ages. It is a time of opportunity for the full development of good and evil, so that when God again interposes it may be manifest to principalities and powers that " He is justified when He speaks, and clear when He judges." And what has been the result ? While God has been silent, man has taken the opportunity of speaking, and his words are ever more foolish, proud, and blas- phemous against the Most High, as may be seen from the press and the literature of the present day. But out of his own mouth man shall be judged, and all his thoughts and words shall be " set in order " before him, and rise up in judgment against him. HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN 75 (c) The period of God's silence is the period of His longsuffering, which, in the riches of His goodness, is designed to lead men to repentance. The continued length of that period gives us a glimpse into the in- finitude of the patience and forbearance of the everlasting God, but man should be the last to complain about it, since it lengthens the time in which God commendeth His love and undeserved favour to men, and in which peace and pardon is proclaimed to the vilest sinner. The Christian, too, becomes more reconciled to the long delay in his Master's return by the thought that in the interval the acceptable year of the Lord is still running its course, and that by the preaching of the gospel multitudes of souls are being gathered into the company of the redeemed, to the praise and glory of Him who died to save them. But the time of God's long-suffering, protracted as it is, has its limit. It is a set time appointed in the eternal counsel of God, and at the exact "day and hour," known to the Father, it shall cease, the long silence shall be broken, and to the world the day of vengeance shall commence by the coming of our God. Then "Jehovah shall cause His glorious voice to be heard and shall show the lighting down of His arm, with the indignation of His anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scatterings and tempest and hail- stones" (Isa. xxx. 30). " A fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him." This is explained in another scripture in Isaiah (Ixvi. 15, 16): "For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh : and the slain of the Lord shall be many " and forms also the basis 76 THE SILENCE OF GOD of that sublime and terrible description of the descent of the Son of God " in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power" (2 Thess. i. 8, 9). The main object of His coming is stated in the fourth verse : " He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth that He may judge His people." In this term both His earthly and His heavenly people are included. In times past the heavens and the earth are often called upon as witnesses of Israel's apostasy and consequent punishment. Thus at the very beginning of their history Moses again and again says, " I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it." Thus Isaiah cries, " Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth : for Jehovah hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have re- belled against Me." And the same heavens and earth which were witnesses of the commencement of God's controversy with Israel, shall also behold both the climax of judgment on their apostasy, and also the faithfulness of the Righteous Judge in executing vengeance on their enemies in the day when their transgressions shall have an end, and His own covenant people be finally delivered. And professing Christendom shall then be judged too, for " when the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN 77 his goats. And He shall set His sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world . . . and to them on His left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels . . . and these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." And the individual Christian also, though free from all condemnation in his person, shall then be judged in his works, " for we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in His body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad" (2 Cor. v. 10). But the great and solemn event of His glorious appearing is viewed in this psalm in relation to three different sections of humanity, namely, the Church, Israel, and the apostate nations of Christendom. Indeed, the psalm divides itself into three almost equal parts, the key words of which are, " the saints " (verse 5), " Israel" (verse 7), and " the wicked " (verse 16). I. IN RELATION TO THE CHURCH. To the redeemed the central point in "that blessed hope " of Christ's return is " our gathering together unto Him" (2 Thess. ii. i). Oh, it is Himself we long to see ; to behold that brow once crowned with thorns, and that face once marred by sorrow and suffering more than that of any other man ! It is for the fulfilment of His sweetest and most precious of promises, " I will come again and receive you unto Myself," that our hearts yearn. And this blessed consummation is brought before us in the fifth verse, where the inspired Psalmist, lifted by the Spirit of God, like the Apostle 78 THE SILENCE OF GOD John, into the very midst of the apocalyptic events hears the very words of command to the angelic hosts as they fall from the lips of the descending Lord, "Gather My saints together unto Me." Yes, the hour is come when in His progress to the earth, attended by the hosts of heaven, there shall be a pause, and He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matt. xxiv. 31); for this Divine proclamation for the gathering of His saints, is not their gathering unto Him in death, as some have misinterpreted it, but is the same as announced by the apostle, when " the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God ; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then, we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall we ever be with the Lord " (i Thess. iv. 13-18). " The first experience which is before the redeemed is resurrection" (i Cor. xv. 51-55), but along with the resurrection of the sleeping saints comes the transfor- mation of the living. The earth being still the place of imperfection and sin the scene of death and judgment the Church is to be taken out of it. We shall meet Him in the air. When Christ descends the Church ascends. The earth's atmosphere is about two hundred miles in height room enough for the Church to meet Christ in it. I suppose the rapture of the Church will resemble somewhat the ascension of Jesus after His resurrection. And after the transformation comes the meeting. Oh, most inexpressible and indescribable glory ! We are to see Jesus face to face the glorious Son of God, the brightness of the Father's glory. HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN 79 We talk of access to kings and queens, but what will it be to be ushered into the presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords ! We could not bear the glory and the brightness now, but then we shall be fitter for it ; for we shall be made like Him (i John iii. 2). We shall see Jesus ! that Jesus whom we know (oh, so im- perfectly !) now, and love, though not having seen as yet. " The same Jesus " who is already familiarised to us who spoke the Sermon on the Mount ; who wept at the grave of Lazarus ; who prayed in the upper chamber at Jerusalem ; who spoke the loved I4th, and prayed the wonderful i/th of John. "The same Jesus" that wept over Jerusalem the Christ of infinite com- passion, tenderness, pity, and truth. The Jesus who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever of Bethlehem and of the bosom of the Father, the Redeemer, Life, and Righteousness of His people. Him we are to see, and when we see Him we shall be like Him evermore see Him and evermore be like Him !" J And if we want to know who are the " saints " who shall thus be gathered to Him, the answer is, " Those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice ; " or, literally, "Those that have cut My covenant over the sacrifice." The expression " cut " is explained by the ancient custom of cutting the slain animals and arranging the pieces so that the covenanting parties could pass through the midst. In this way they pledged their lives to the fulfilment of the contract and called down the fate of the slain sacrifices on themselves in case of unfaithfulness. But note the expression, " My covenant." Ah, in that word " My," lies the safety and blessedness of God's redeemed people, for, when God made promise to Abraham, in which promise are con- tained the blessings of the gospel to all who are of faith 1 H. Grattan Guinness. 8o THE SILENCE OF GOD (Gal. iii. 8 ; Rom. iv. 9-25), and ratified the promise by covenant oath, " He sware by Himself" (Heb. vi. 13-20). He only, made promise, and pledged Himself to its fulfilment, for on that solemn night when the original unconditional covenant was made with the father of the faithful, after the animals were slain, and Abraham " divided them in the midst and laid each piece one against the other," a deep sleep came upon him, so that he was prevented from making any oath or promise : " And it came to pass that when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces." These were the symbols of God's presence, but Abraham did not pass through. The unconditional covenant of grace is therefore not a contract between two parties as the con- ditional covenant of the law was, but a gracious promise dependent on the faithfulness of God only for its fulfil- ment, and it is called a ." covenant " for the probable reason, that the promise of gospel blessings to man is the outcome of a covenant in the eternal counsels between the Father and the Son, in reference to man's redemption. It is therefore called "His covenant" and we enter into its gracious contents of blessings " over the sacri- fice." The true ratification of the covenant was not with the blood of animals. At the original " cutting of the covenant " with Abraham there were indeed animal sacrifices, and in connection with the Sinaitic covenant of the law we read that after Moses had spoken every precept to the people " he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God hath enjoined unto you " ; but what were all the Levitical sacrifices but types and shadows of the true Lamb of HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN 81 God ? and what was the constant shedding of the blood of bulls and goats but a constant reminder before the throne of God of the precious blood of Christ, which in the fulness of time would be shed once and for all for the remission of sins? It is in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ that all the promises of God became "yea and amen " to us, and it is only through the rent veil of His flesh that we enter into all the blessings of the covenant of God's grace. Hear, therefore, the great High Priest Himself, on the very eve of His vicarious death, proclaiming, "This is the blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins ! " And this, be it noted, is the chief and primary feature of all true saintship, for, in the verse in our psalm God's people are so called, not because of their con- dition, but on account of their relation to Him. Every one of the redeemed is constituted a " saint " by reason of the blood-mark upon him, and then sent forth in the power of God's Spirit to live in accordance with his new state. But the ground of his safety and hope of being gathered unto Christ at His appearing, is never his personal attainment in holiness, his attitude of ex- pectancy, or his zeal in his Master's cause, though these will come into the question of rewards, but only and alone the grace of God. All the " saints," therefore, from righteous Abel and those who "through faith obtained a good report" to the last sinner who to the end of this age shall be found to have sheltered under the precious blood and perfect righteousness of our Saviour Jesus Christ, shall be His "at His coming" (i Cor. xv. 23). Oh ! what a glorious meeting that will be when those who in the age before His advent " rejoiced to see His 7 82 THE SILENCE OF GOD day," and were by faith justified on the ground of redemption yet to be accomplished, and we, who since Calvary have been privileged to live in a dispensation of greater light and privilege, but not, alas ! of greater devotion or faithfulness, meet around the blessed person of the Redeemer to unite in the one song, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour and glory " " for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us unto God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and thou madest them unto our God a kingdom and priests ; and they reign on the earth." And in that great day " the heavens shall declare His righteousness ; for God is Judge Himself" ! Yes, when the intricate drama of the conflict between good and evil, which the great and all-wise God permits to be enacted on earth during time shall be finished, and when He at last again in the person of His Son appears as the Judge and King of the earth, "the heavens" principalities, powers, and heavenly intelli- gences, shall declare His righteousness, shall vindicate His glorious character, and magnify His justice in all His dealings with men and angels, while the redeemed Church shall sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty ; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of nations ! Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy : for all nations shall come and worship before Thee ; for Thy judgments (or, literally, ' Thy righteousnesses ') are made manifest ! " In relation to the Church especially His righteousness shall then be declared, and it shall be manifested how that He is just, and the justifier of them which believe in Jesus. HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN 83 " For God is Judge Himself." This is a solemn announcement of varying import. To God's people it is full of comfort, for it reminds them of the challenge, " Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is God who justifieth" ; while to the godless it is a statement full of terror, for it proclaims the fact that He, who is about to sit in judgment, is Elohim the searcher of hearts, from whom nothing can be hid ; whose knowledge is infinite, whose righteousness is inflexible, and whose vengeance is terrible. This first section, with the prologue of the first four verses, which contain a summary of the great truths in rela- tion to the Church, Israel, and the nations, more fully developed in the whole psalm, appropriately ends with a " Selah." This word, which is of doubtful derivation, was doubtless employed in the ritual use of the Psalms in the Temple worship to mark a pause. Probably the word indicated that the Levitical singers should pause while the players on instruments played an interlude or symphony. Once or twice we find it coupled with " Higgaion," the meaning of which has been suggested by two German scholars to be " pause," or " pause and meditate." Do the same, therefore, dear reader. "Pause" and consider, meditate on the great fact, awful circum- stances, and solemn issues to yourself, and to all men of His glorious appearing. II. IN RELATION TO ISRAEL. Let us now briefly examine the section devoted to the Jewish nation, consisting of verses 7-16. It begins with a solemn address : " Hear, O My people," and in the very form of this address we can read the promise of grace, for it shows that the " Lo-Ammi " period (Hosea i. 9, 10) is at an end, and that Israel has again become "Ammi" (" My people "). 84 THE SILENCE OF GOD When God is displeased with them He says, " This people " ; or speaking to Moses with reference to their sudden apostasy, He says, " thy people " ; but when- ever He speaks of them in grace, He always acknow- ledges the covenant indissoluble relationship that has been established between Him and the nation, and says, " My people." If we want to know the exact prophetic point of time when Israel as a nation will truly become " Ammi," God's own acknowledged people, we must go to the Book of Zechariah. There we read how that in the midst of their final great sorrow, when " it shall come to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third part shall be left therein," and when even this third part shall be brought into the fire to be refined as silver is refined, and to be tried as gold is tried, then " he shall call on My name, and I will answer him ; I will say, Ammi Hu ('it is My people') ; and he shall say, Jehovah Elohoi (' Jehovah is my God.')" The address continues, "O Israel, I will testify against thee," or " protest unto thee." The form of speech implies a strong desire on the part of the speaker, to obtain at last Israel's ear and heart for His message. The words translated " I will testify against thee " is a form of speech used for God's gracious reasonings with man with a view to bringing him to Himself. Thus we find the same words in Neh. ix. 29 : " And testifiedst against (or ' to ') them that Thou mightest bring them again unto Thy law.' But the subject of His solemn testimony or protestation to them in this psalm is not the law, as in the passage just quoted, but chiefly and foremost concerning His own glorious Person. " I am God, even thy God," or, as in the Hebrew, where the order of the words is more HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN 85 forcible, " God, thy God, I am." But we might ask, What does it mean ? Did not Israel know all along that God was God ? Alas ! no, never yet has Israel as a nation truly known or understood Him ; never yet have they fully entered into the blessedness or responded to the obligations implied in the relationship, " Thy God" This blessing of full knowledge and recognition of Jehovah or Elohim as their own, is ever held out in the prophets as the yet future experience of Israel. It is the constant refrain which runs through Ezekiel's visions of the future : " And they shall know that I am the Lord " ; even as it is the climax of the visions of the son of Amoz that in the day in the which the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, Israel and all flesh "shall know that I Jehovah am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer the Mighty One of Jacob." But there is a special secret here which Israel in particular has yet to learn. He who appears here in Divine power and majesty is the long-rejected Messiah. It is the greater than Joseph discovering Himself at last to His own brethren, saying not only, " I am Joseph " (Gen. xlv. 3) ; not only in His human character, " I am Jesus " ; but, " I am God." In the days of His flesh, when He claimed to be the Son of God, or when He said, " I and My Father are one," the Jews took up stones to stone Him, and when He appealed to them for which of His good works they were ready to stone Him, they replied, "For a good work we stone Thee not, but for blasphemy, and because Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God." Alas ! their eyes were holden then, and they knew not that His name was Immanuel, and that veiled in flesh there stood among them One whose goings forth are from of old, even from everlasting, and in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ; but " in that day " when 86 THE SILENCE OF GOD the spirit of grace and of supplications is poured upon them, and Messiah appears to them, saying, " God, even thy God, I am," Israel will respond, " This is our God ; we have waited for Him, and He will save us ; this is Jehovah ; we have waited for Him ; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." Yes, long-doubting Israel, like doubting Thomas, shall yet look up with adoration to the crucified, risen Jesus, and say, " My Lord and my God ! " Having revealed to them His glorious Person, He proceeds to instruct them in the subject of true spiritual worship and service. These two ever go together. Only He who knows God aright as Spirit, can worship Him in spirit and in truth. The temptation of Israel in the past, as alas ! of so many in Christendom at the present day, was to trust to outward form and mere ceremonial. Now these God puts aside as secondary in their nature. " Not in reference to thy sacrifices," He says, "will I reprove thee, and as to thy burnt- offerings, they are ever before Me. I will take no bullock out of thine house, nor rams out of thy folds." Do you think you put the great God under obligation to you because you bring Him an animal sacrifice ? " Behold, every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are ready at My hand." Even that which by My appointment of grace you bring to My altar is out of Mine own bounty. Or, have you sunk to the degradation of the heathen, who thought that their gods needed to be supplied by them with food and drink ? " Behold, if I were hungry I would not tell thee, for the inhabited world is Mine and the fulness thereof: will I eat the flesh of strong bulls, or drink the blood of rams ? " The very idea of such a thing is blasphemous. Nay, I will tell thee the 8; sacrifices which refresh the heart of God : " Sacrifice to God praise," or thanksgiving in acknowledgment of His mercies, and " pay thy vows " of national obedience and loyalty to the Most High. Or in the words of another Messianic psalm, " Praise the name of God with a song, magnify Him with thanksgiving (or ' by con- fessing ' His mercies) ; J this shall please Jehovah better than an ox or bull that hath horns and hoofs." These verses contain nothing against the truth, pro- claimed by Moses and the prophets, of the Divine appointment of animal sacrifices as a means of approaching God ; but they preach against the per- version and misuse of that blessed institution, and the trusting to mere outward form and ordinances, without exercise of heart, which is always a sign of apostasy from the living God a feature which is, as already remarked, noticeable in Christendom of the present day as it was in Israel of old. The significance which God intended that Israel should see in the Levitical sacrifices was a threefold one, i.e., a moral, a symbolical, and a typical one. Symbolically that animal led forth to death by the offerer, and slain on God's altar, was meant to teach him that this is just what he himself deserved, but that God in His infinite mercy accepted the death of the innocent victim instead. And this again with a heart rightly exercised, would have the moral effect of impressing him with the holiness of God and the awfulness of sin. Apart from these there was also the great typical truth continually set forth by the whole sacrificial and ritual system of the sufferings and substitutionary death and the various aspects of the character and redeeming work of the Messiah, who, 1 This is the significance of the Hebrew word. Todo also means confession (Psa. Ixix. 30, 31). 88 THE SILENCE OF GOD already in the Old Testament, is the Lamb who should be led to the slaughter, and who by His righteousness would justify the many (Isa. liii.). But when these moral and spiritual truths were lost sight of, then sacrifices became a form of mere outward ritual, and in that case were "vain oblations," and highly dis- pleasing to God. But in the day when Israel shall recognise Christ, and in Him learn to know God, and the true meaning of the sacrificial system, they will also know what it is, with or without divinely instituted ritual, to worship God in the spirit and truth, and by Him they will offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of their lips by giving thanks, or " confessing " His name (Heb. xiii. 15). The address to Israel concludes with an exhortation which is at the same time a prophecy and a promise : " And call upon Me in the day of trouble ; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me." This is often used by Christians with reference to themselves, and with perfect right, for in principle the exhortation and promise is true to every child of God. " God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." No one who trusts Him has ever called on Him in trouble without being delivered or " succoured," as the word in our psalm also means. It is true we may not always be delivered from the trouble, but, blessed be God, there is such a thing as being delivered in it ; and to receive for an answer, " My grace is sufficient for thee " (even with the thorn in thy flesh) ; " for My strength is made perfect in weakness." In view of the relation of the sufferings of this present time " to the glory which shall be revealed in us" by and by, we do not always know which is the greater deliverance, whether to have God specially near and present with HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN 89 us in the trouble (Psa. xci. 15), or to have it removed from us. But He knoweth our frame and remembers the weakness of our flesh, and graciously permits us to ask that, " if it be possible," the cup of suffering may pass from us, though, in the power of His Spirit we too should ever be ready to add, " O, my Father, if this cup may not pass from me, Thy will be done." And He will deliver us, if not by removing the burden, by sending an angel from heaven to strengthen us to endure it, so that we shall be able all the more to glorify Him. But, though there is this general principle in this passage applicable to the saints of God in all ages, it has primary and special significance in relation to Israel at the climax of their national history, and is in strict harmony with all the rest of this sublime prophecy which deals with the great events of the time of the end. As we have shown elsewhere, there is a culminating sorrow for Israel after a representative section is back in the land. " For then shall be the great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matt. xxiv. 21). "Alas! for that day is great, for there is none like it ; it is even the time of Jacob's trouble ; but he shall be saved out of it" (Jer. xxx. 7). For, in the very midst of that great day of " trouble," or " tribulation," or " affliction," ' the spirit of grace and of supplications shall be poured on the saved remnant, and, as we have already seen, Israel shall call on the name of their Redeemer and " be saved" not only from outward trouble, but also from their sin and unbelief. * The word is the same as in Deut. iv. 30, Hosea v. 15, and other scriptures which bring us up to the same prophetic point of time when Israel's sorrows come to a climax after their restora- tion to the land. 9 o THE SILENCE OF GOD It is to that blessed event that the prophecy and promise of this verse in our psalm primarily refers. Israel on the day of his greatest trouble, shall call on the name of Jesus and be delivered, and then from that " day " on, throughout the remaining years of their separate national existence on earth, " they shall glorify Him," or, as the word literally means, " honour " Him with that filial loving regard that a son owes to his father. 1 Then shall the chief end in Israel's call as God's first- born son among the nations be realised, and "this people " which He has " formed for Himself" shall in a special manner show forth His praise. III. IN RELATION TO CHRISTENDOM. We now come to the last section of this psalm (verses 16-23), addressed to a third party which is distinct from " His saints " (verse 5) and " Israel " (verse 7). " But to the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare My statutes, or that thou shouldest take My covenant in thy mouth ? " Who are these ? Not the nations who have not heard of the fame or glory of Christ, but professors in Christendom who know in a manner God's statutes, and who unworthily take His holy covenant in their mouth (verse 16). This feature marks them off at once from the heathen, and from those who are truly God's. The distinguishing characteristic of those who are true subjects of the new covenant of grace is this : " I will put My law in their inward parts, and will write it in their hearts ; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people " (Jer. xxxi. 33) ; but these have the covenant only in their mouth. 1 The word is the same as in the command " Honour thy father and mother." HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN 91 They cry indeed, " Lord, Lord," and are often so like the real and true that it is impossible for man to distin- guish (Matt xiii. 24-30), but they are the tares among the wheat ; the foolish virgins, who merely imitate the wise ; the goats among Christ's true sheep, to whom He shall say in that day, " I never knew you ; depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity." They are those represented by the evil servant who says in his heart, " My Lord delayeth His coming," and begins to smite the true men-servants and maidens in Christ's Church, and to eat and drink and be drunken ; to whom the Lord will " come in a day when he looketh not for Him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the un- believers (Luke xii. 45, 46). They are the same of whom the apostle warns us as especially manifesting themselves in the perilous times of the " last days," when " men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, ostentatious, arrogant, defamers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, irreligious, without natural affection, truce- breakers, intriguers, without self-control, fierce, despisers of good men, traitors, reckless, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof" (2 Tim. iii. 1-5). The very fact of their knowing and speaking of God's statutes is an aggravation of their guilt, and will increase their condemnation, for they are like that servant who knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, and who shall be beaten with many stripes (Luke xii. 47). Better far had it been for them had they been born in heathen lands, and never heard of God's grace or covenant faithfulness, instead of hearing it and responding only with their mouth. But the address continues : " And thou hatest in- struction, and castest My words behind thee." Here 92 THE SILENCE OF GOD are other striking features of apostate professors. They have God's statutes in their mouth, and it may be are very careful in chanting the responses as the solemn words of the Ten Commandments are read out to them in the church on a Sunday. They know also that " instruction in righteousness " is one of the chief ends for which these statutes were given by God, yet in their heart they hate instruction ; nay, in wilful rebellion they cast God's words behind their back in contemptuous disregard. This is no poetic fancy or exaggeration, but a graphic picture of what may already be seen even in Protestant Christendom, and what is becoming more and more manifest as the time of the end draws nigh. Alas ! Christendom is guilty of the very same things which characterised the last stages of Israel's previous apostasy which culminated in judgment. They also were disobedient and rebelled against God by " casting His laws behind their back " (Nehem. ix. 26), wherefore they were given into the hands of their enemies, and wrath came upon them to the uttermost ; and this to a more terrible degree will be the lot of Christendom. The casting God's laws behind their back is naturally followed by definite breaches of the commandments, as is brought out in the following verses : " When thou sawest a thief then thou consentest with him, and with adulterers is thy portion. Thy mouth hast thou sent out to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest down deliberately to speak against thy brother, and thine own mother's son thou woundest by slander." Here is the direct violation of the commands, " Thou shalt not steal" ; "Thou shalt not commit adultery"; "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." Atheists and sceptics may insist that man can properly fulfil his obligations to his fellow-men without the recog- HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN 93 nition of the authority of God or His Word, and may attempt to separate faith from ethics, but Scripture, and also history and experience, testify to the contrary. Men who turn their back upon the living God, and question the Divine authority of His revelation, are sure in time to break loose against their fellows. The commandments which the wicked are here accused of breaking, are all taken from the second table, on which is inscribed man's duty to man, and their violation is traced to the fact of their first alienating their hearts from all allegiance to God and then casting His law behind their back. It would seem almost incredible that such flagrant wickedness could exist alongside outward profession of religion, but experience of what is actually going on in our midst, and the world's " progress " as chronicled even in the secular press of this Protestant country, where the Bible has been an open book for centuries, and where almost everybody takes God's covenant in their mouth, proves the literalness and accuracy of this Divine forecast. Is it not but yesterday that we read of a prominent legislator being convicted of the vilest un- cleanness only a few days after he had made a speech at the laying of the foundation-stone of a chapel ? And still more recently have we not read of one guilty of defrauding the public presenting a gold communion service to the Cathedral Church of London? 1 1 While preparing these notes my eyes are directed to an article in the current number of a widely-circulated news- paper, the usual tone of which is rationalistic and abstract Unitarian. I quote a few sentences as a testimony from a mouth- piece of the world concerning its morals : " The revelations of the past few weeks might well give pause to any one who strongly believes in the progress of the world. The case (then before the Courts), followed by an article in The Times, which it is not extravagant to term the most startling journalistic article 94 THE SILENCE OF GOD And even among those who " declare God's statutes " as teachers and preachers, are there not some, even as in the apostle's time, who profess the truth in hypocrisy, and who, though transforming themselves as angels of light, and with feigned words make merchandise of many, are enemies of the Cross of Christ, " whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly," and whose real care is for " earthly things " ? Such are but samples and illustrations of " the wicked " in this solemn scripture to whom the words of warning are addressed. But what shall be said of the still more apostate " Christian " nations of the Continent, where the most shameless immoralities are often found hand in hand with the most incredible superstition, and where the name " Christian " to a pious Jew is the very synonym of lawless wickedness ? But we proceed to the solemn closing words of the address to this class of " the wicked " : " These things hast thou done, and I kept silence ; thou thoughtest therefore that I am become one altogether like unto thee, but I will reprove thee (or convince thee by reasoning), and set (all thy deeds and words) in order before thine eyes." The word translated " these things " is emphatic, as if to express, " To such lengths didst thou presume in thy wickedness, and I kept silence." Man has always of the year, revealed a deep-set corruption in our modern society more characteristic, we would fain hope, of old Rome, in its corrupt and licentious decay, than of modern England. . . . The Emperor Augustus vainly tried by law to stem the foul flood of gross degradation, which was the real cause of old Rome's down- fall. For that Niagara London society, or a portion of it which is called ' smart/ seems to be steering straight. ... If we turn from that sink of corruption to the financial world, the prospect is no brighter. . . . The race for wealth which characterises the present generation is not short of appalling." HOW IT SHALL BE BROKEN 95 misunderstood and misinterpreted the marvellous patience and long-suffering of the everlasting God. " Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" (Eccles. viii. n). Because the thunderbolts of God's wrath do not immediately fall, even the righteous have been some- times tempted to say, " How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High ? " The wicked, not knowing that it is infinite goodness which is the cause of infinite patience on the part of the Righteous and Holy One, have blasphemously insulted His majesty by lowering the standard of His absolute holiness, as the One who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and who cannot look upon evil except to abhor it They think, or hope, that they will find God altogether like unto themselves in their abominable complacency and compromise with sin. But God, who takes note of what man thinks, as well as of his words and deeds, warns him that he is mistaken. Far from thinking lightly of, or overlooking " the ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him," a full and minute record of them is kept in His book, and " in that day " when the book of God is opened, they will be " set in order " (or " in regular array ") before their eyes, and oh ! what a terrible indictment of professing Christendom, both collectively and individually, that record will be found to contain ! " The encouragement of anti-Christianity for the sake of gain, the coalition of Christian governments with the guilds of Mammon against justice, truth, religion, humanity, and liberty ; their covenants made and broken ; their rivalries and envies, highway robbery and rapacity ; their greed of gold and lust of supremacy ; 96 THE SILENCE OF GOD their defiance of Christian sentiment and of every appeal to virtue ; their despotism, pride, mis-govern- ment, duplicity, oppression of the weak, and guilty trade with the strong, and, most of all, their shedding of innocent blood all are here recorded with a pen unerring. No injustice is forgotten, no massacre or devastated homes, no crimsoned fields strewn with upturned faces of the dead. Nor is the name of one who took part in producing such scenes, or consented to the wrongs that begat them, misspelled, or his place of residence misread. The whole apostasy of Christendom, the Horn's loud-mouthed arrogance, and the words of the cry, ' We will not have this Man to reign over us,' are written in the ' Books,' and judgment by the records must pass on the kingdoms whose boast was their Christianity, culture, civilisation." x And not only these collective and national sins of Christendom, for which every member of the evil con- federacy is more or less responsible, will then rise up in judgment against them, but remember, man's individual open and secret sins, are recorded too, and will then be " set in order before his eyes," so that the opened book of his own conscience may attest the faithful accuracy of the terrible record kept by God, for although, as has been well observed, "sin does not purpose to remember or be remembered, it registers itself with perfect and unfailing regularity in two books the book of God, which shall be opened in that day, and on our own character, mind, and imagination. Only the blood of Christ can blot out sin from the one book, only the Spirit of God from the other." 2 We come now to the two last verses which form the epilogue to this wonderful psalm, and which are especi- 1 " Daniel's Great Prophecy," by Dr. Nathaniel West. 3 Adolph Saphir in " The Lord's Prayer." ally addressed to the last two classes dealt with, namely, " Israel " and " the wicked." " Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver." This is God's last word to the wicked, and it is a word of warning mixed with entreaty, for the first words of this verse might be properly rendered, " Con- sider, I entreat you," and shows God's heart of yearning even for the lost. Like the God of grace that He is, He cannot let them go on the way to perdition, even after they have spurned His authority, and cast His words behind their back, without a final appeal. " Con- sider," or be wise and repent, " for as I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live : turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye die, oh house of Israel ? " And oh sinners of all nations, " give glory to Jehovah your God before He cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for light He turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness." Oh, be wise and consider; flee for refuge to 1 the only hope set before you in the blood and righteousness of Christ, before God arises terribly to shake the earth, and to tear you in pieces with " none to deliver." But if ye will not hear, " My soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and Mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears," because of the hardness of your heart, and because of your deliberate choice of darkness rather than the light, and of death rather than life. The last words to Israel, which are also of application to us, are, " Whoso offereth (or ' sacrificeth ') praise glorifieth Me, and prepareth a way in which I may show him the salvation of God." * 1 This is the rendering of Delitzsch and the margin of the Revised Version, and I think it is the most satisfactory. 8 98 THE SILENCE OF G0t> The first part of this verse is a condensation of what He has already taught them in verses 14, 15, where, as we have seen, Israel's deliverance and salvation will come when they turn from mere outward and lifeless form and ceremony to worship God in the spirit and truth, and to praise Him for redemption already accom- plished. But thus also with hearts and souls humbled and attuned to God, a way will be prepared for more and more of the fulness of God's grace arid salvation to be revealed to them. In connection with the building of Solomon's Temple we read : " It came to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord ; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good ; for His mercy endureth for ever : that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord ; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud : for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God" (2 Chron. v. 13, 14). So also by and by, after Christ's manifestation to them, when Israel with one heart and voice lift up their sculs in praise and adoration to Jehovah, the God of their fathers, for all His wonderful dealings with them, and especially for His unspeakable gift of His only- begotten Son, and the individual and national blessings purchased by His precious blood, God's glory will appear in their midst and the fulness and riches of His salvation be manifested to them. IV THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL O praise the Lord, all ye nations : Laud Him, all ye peoples. For His mercy is great toward us ; And the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord ; for He is good : For His mercy endureth for ever. Let Israel now say, That His mercy endureth for ever. Let the house of Aaron now say, That His mercy endureth for ever. Let them now that fear the Lord say, That His mercy endureth for ever. Out of my distress I called upon the Lord : The Lord answered me, and set me in a large place. The Lord is on my side ; I will not fear : What can man do unto me ? The Lord is on my side among them that help me : Therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me. It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in princes. All nations compassed me about : In the name of the Lord I will out them off. They compassed me about ; yea, they compassed me about In the name of the Lord I will cut them off. They compassed me about like bees ; They are quenched as the fire of thorns : In the name of the Lord I will cut them off. Thou didst thrust sore at me that I might fall : But the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and song ; And He is become my salvation. The voice of re j oicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous : The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted : The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. I shall not die, but live, And declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore : But he hath not given me over unto death. Open to me the gates of righteousness : I will enter into them, I will give thanks unto the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord ; The righteous shall enter into it. I will give thanks unto Thee, for Thou hast answered me, And art become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected Is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing ; It is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made ; We will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, we beseech Thee, O Lord : O Lord, we beseech Thee, send now prosperity. Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord : We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and He hath given us light : Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. Thou art my God, and I will give thanks unto Thee : Thou art my God, I will exalt Thee. O give thanks unto the Lord ; for He is good : For His mercy endureth for ever. PSALMS cxvii. and cxviii. IV THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL A Prophetic Drama of the End of the Age THE series of six psalms beginning with the H3th and ending with the n8th constituted "the Hallel." x Hallel means praise, and although the whole collection of Psalms abounds in praise, this series was particularly so-called, because they formed the special praise, sung in the Temple courts in circumstances of great joy and solemnity, on the three great " feasts of the Lord " Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. But it was with the Paschal feast that the Hallel was more especially associated, and even to this day it forms the chief feature in the Haggadah 2 used in every pious Jewish home on the evening of the Passover, when they meet to " show " or " tell forth " the wonders of the Exodus from Egypt, and to express their hopes of another greater national redemption yet to come. In connection with that feast the Hallel used to be divided into two parts : the first part, consisting of Psalms 113 and 114, being usually sung at an early part of the 1 See my articles on "The Commencement of the Hallel" in Nos. 21 and 22 of The Scattered Nation. * Special liturgy. The word literally means the "telling," or "showing" forth. 191 loa THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL supper, and the second part, consisting of the last four psalms of this series, was sung at the end. On the night on which our Lord was betrayed, when He turned the service in commemoration of deliverance from Egyptian bondage into the blessed ordinance which should henceforth "show" or "tell forth" the greater spiritual redemption accomplished by the breaking of His own body and the shedding of His own blood this was doubtless the " hymn " or " psalm " (Matt. xxvi. 30) which they sang before He went forth to Gethsemane and Golgotha. The 1 1 ;th forms a fit and solemn introduction to the 1 1 8th Psalm, which is the climax of the Hallel. It will not be without profit if we briefly study the introduction first. Though it is the shortest psalm in the collection, it is most comprehensive. It is a psalm for Israel, yet it is universal and cosmopolitan, embracing in its scope " all nations and peoples," so that in the Epistle to the Romans it forms part of the Apostle's argument that Gentiles too are called upon to glorify God for His mercy. It is a thoroughly evangelical psalm, for it sings of grace and truth ; it is a beautiful psalm of praise, for it begins with a Hallelujah and ends with a Hallelujah, and there is a third fervent call to praise in between. But above all it is a prophetic psalm. The speaker is Israel, or that godly remnant of Israel who on that day will be made subject to God's grace. It is Israel, I say, who is here calling on the other nations, and in the lan- guage of David saying : "O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together . . . "O praise Jehovah, all ye nations ; laud Him ye peoples." The ground on which they are to praise Him is given THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL 103 in the second verse : " For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of Jehovah endureth for ever." The expression " merciful kindness," is, I think, the solitary instance in the Authorised Version of such a rendering of the word " hessed," which I prefer to trans- late by the word " grace." There is also an idiom in this verse which brings out a beautiful truth. The words rendered " great toward us " are literally " prevailed over us " or " overcome us." The figure which the idiom brings to my mind is that of a man who has been resisting some one who has been trying to overpower him, but is finally overcome and is thankful for it. I am always reminded by this verse of the solemn transaction in Jacob's history recorded in Gen. xxxii. On " that night," we read, " Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when He saw that He prevailed not against him, He touched the hollow of his thigh ; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as He wrestled with him. And He said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except Thou bless me. And He said, What is thy name ? And he said, Jacob. And He said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel : for as a prince hast thou power with God and with man, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked Him and said, Tell me, I pray Thee, Thy name. And He said, Wherefore dost thou ask after my name?" (which was not yet to be revealed). "And He blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel ; for I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved. And as he passed over Peniel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh." This symbolical transaction is a parable of the history and experience of the Jewish nation. Now is the "night" 104 THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL period of Israel's history, and a long, dark and dreary night it has proved. And it is the " Jacob " period of Israel's history. Not yet have they become a nation of "Israelites" "princes in all the earth " (Psa. xlv. 16), " having power with God and with man, and pre- vailing." There are, indeed, and ever have been from among them, those to whom the Lord already bears witness saying, " Behold Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile," but as far as the majority of them is concerned the name " Jacob " as yet describes them. And there is a man wrestling with them. Oh, although in the darkness of the night they see Him not, it is the Divine Angel of the Covenant (Hosea xii. 3, 5), " the man Christ Jesus." What are all His dealings with them, what are all their sorrows and sufferings, but His wrestlings with them in order to deliver them from their stubbornness, so that " their uncircumcised hearts be humbled," and they acquiesce in the justice and love of God in all His ways with them ? But so far they are resisting and cannot be prevailed over, until in the darkest hour of their night, in " the time of Jacob's trouble," their thigh will be put out of joint. Then all their self-strength and resisting power will be gone, and all that they will be able to do will be to cling to Him and cry, " We will not let Thee go except Thou bless us." Then Jacob will become " Israel," and the " wonderful " name of the Divine Angel, which to them is still "secret," will be revealed to them as "Jesus." Looking upon Him, Israel will cry also " Peniel " "the face of God"; for the "little moment" during which He has hid His face from them in anger will be at an end, and they shall behold " the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ," THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL 105 It is at this prophetic point of time that Israel calls on all nations and peoples to praise Jehovah because His grace, which they have so long withstood, has finally " overcome " them, and they see as never before, that His " truth " or " faithfulness " endureth for ever. Israel will then be brought into the same frame of mind as the Apostle Paul, whose history and conversion is typical of that of His people, in reference to whom he speaks of himself as "one born out of due time," and who gloried in the fact that his mighty Conqueror, whom he had so long resisted, was now leading him about in triumph * as a trophy of His victorious power, so that after the manner of the captives chosen to follow the triumphal procession, he might chant the praises of the Victor in all the cities of the Greek and Roman world ; for he learned the secret which we too must learn, that " our only true triumphs are God's triumphs over us ; that His defeats of us are our only true victories." How grace finally prevails we see in the next psalm. The 1 1 8th is not merely a " general " psalm of praise and prayer ; it is a prophetic drama, with many tragical points in it, which will be literally enacted in the future history of Israel, immediately before, and at, the Second Advent of our Lord Jesus. If we want rightly to understand this psalm and its chronological relation to the " things to come," we must be lifted by the hand of God into the future, and pre- suppose several events which are most clearly revealed in other parts of Scripture. I will remind the reader here of only one or two, with regard to which there can be no controversy. One of these events is the restoration of the Jews to Palestine in 1 This is the true sense of 2 Cor. ii. 14. io6 THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL a condition of unbelief. 1 Not a complete restoration of the whole nation, which will not take place until after their conversion, but of a representative and influential section. It seems from Scripture that in relation to Israel and the land, there will be a restoration, before the Second Advent of our Lord, of the state of things as they existed at the time of His First Advent, when the threads of God's dealings with them nationally were finally dropped, not to be taken up again "until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled." There was at that time a number of Jews in Palestine representative of the nation, but compared with the number of their brethren, who were already a diaspora among the nations, they were a mere minority, and those not in a politically independent condition. So it will be again. There will be at first, as compared with the whole nation, only a representative minority in Palestine, and a Jewish state will be formed probably under Turkish suzerainty. The nucleus of this politi- cally dependent Jewish state is already to be seen in the 120,000 Jews who have wandered back from all regions of the earth to the land of their fathers. Already Jerusalem is almost a Jewish city, while the thirty and more Jewish colonies 2 which dot the land "are so many milestones marking the advance which Israel is making toward national rehabilitation." And in no other country in the world do the Jews to the same extent represent the nation. If any one wants to see the whole Jewish people in miniature, let him go to Jerusalem and to the other Jewish settlements in Palestine. There you can see them from East and West, from India and from the 1 Those who need or desire proofs for such a restoration will find it in my small book, " The Jewish Problem," 3 See Appendix iv. THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL 107 burning plains of Southern Arabia ; from the extreme North of Siberia and the Caucasus ; there you can hear them speaking nearly all languages under heaven. Around this nucleus, a large number more, from all parts of the world, will be gathered, and there is no doubt that before long this part of the Zionist pro- gramme will be realised, and Palestine will become the " openly recognised, legally assured home " of the Jews. But what follows ? After a brief interval of outward prosperity there comes a night of anguish. " These are the words that Jehovah spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah," just after commanding the prophet to " write in a book " the fact that He would bring again the captivity of His people, and cause them to return to the land that He gave to their fathers : " We have heard a cry of terror, fear, and no peace. Ask now and see. Is it a man travailing with child? Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in childbirth and every face turned to paleness ? Alas ! for that day is great, so that none is like it ; it is even the time of Jacob's trouble ; but he shall be saved out of it " (Jer. xxx. 4-7). The cause and occasion of the night of sorrow for Jacob is the yet future siege and final gathering of the nations against Jerusalem. In some of the prophecies this solemn event is set forth with such clearness that it reads like history. " Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling unto all the peoples round about . . . and in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples ; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut to pieces, and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered against it. ... Behold the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee, for I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle : and the city shall be taken and the houses io8 THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL rifled and the women ravished, and half of the city shall go into captivity" (Zech. xii. 2, 3 ; xiv. I, 2). And not only will this be the case with Jerusalem, but it " shall come to pass that in all the land, saith Jehovah, two parts therein shall be cut off, ... and I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined and will try them as gold is tried." It is the time of Jacob's greatest trouble the very darkest hour of Israel's long night of sorrow. The enemy thinks his end almost accomplished ; he has but to lift his hand for one final blow, and Israel will be no more when suddenly in the clouds of heaven, attended by His angelic hosts and " all the saints with Him," Israel's true Messiah and Deliverer appears, "and His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem on the East." The enemies' hand stretched out to give the final blow becomes suddenly withered : " And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her stronghold, and that distress her, shall be as a dream, a vision of the night. And it shall be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth ; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty : or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite : so shall the multitude of all nations be that fight against mount Zion " (Isa. xxix. 7, 8). But simultaneous with their outward deliverance there takes place also Israel's spiritual redemption : " And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication ; and they shall look unto Me whom they have pierced : and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. ... In that day there THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL 109 shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for unclean- ness." Now, imagine Israel, at that time overwhelmed with the sense of God's marvellous grace in their deliverance, joining together in this glorious song of praise and triumph : " O give thanks (or literally ' confess ') unto Jehovah ; for He is good : For His mercy endureth for ever. Let Israel now say, That His mercy endureth for ever. Let the house of Aaron now say, That His mercy endureth for ever. Let them now that fear Jehovah say, That His mercy endureth for ever." The ground of this universal call to the entire nation solemnly to confess " the ever gracious goodness of God " is given in the narrative of praise which follows : " Out of my distress (or 'Out of the straitness,' or ' siege ' z ) I called upon Jah 2 ; Jah answered me in (or ' with ') a large place " by breaking the enemies lines which pressed me on every side: " Jehovah is on my side I will not fear, What can man do unto me ? Jehovah is for me as my help, Therefore I shall see my desire upon them that hate me. It is better to trust (or ' to hide one's self ') in Jehovah Than to put confidence in man." This 8th verse is said to be the middle verse of the Bible, and if so, there is no grander truth which could be more appropriately enshrined in this central position. 1 The Hebrew word can also be properly so rendered. 2 An abbreviation of nifP "Jehovah." no THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL It is the lesson above all others, which God desires to teach us through all His dealings with us : it is the truth which Israel will learn when they are at last brought to an end of themselves, and experience to the full the bitter disappointment of misplaced confidence in man. In times past they always sought an arm of flesh to lean on, and when national danger threatened "they called to Egypt, they went to Assyria" (Hosea vii. n) and trusted in their own strength, or in human alliances ; but in that day Israel will say : " Assur shall not save us ; we will not ride upon (or put our confidence in) horses (which come from Egypt) ; neither shall we say to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods : for in Thee the fatherless findeth mercy " : " It is better to trust in Jehovah than to put confidence in man Yea, it is better to trust in Jehovah than to put con- fidence in princes. Put not your trust in princes, Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth ; In that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the Lord his God : Which made heaven and earth, The sea, and all that in them is : Which keepeth truth for ever " (Psa. cxlvi. 3-6). The verses now following must seem hyperbole to those not seeing the solemn prophetic import of this psalm, but they are plain enough in the light of the other scriptures already indicated. We regard the con- clusion of the Hallel as " the prophetic expression by the Spirit of Christ, of that exultant strain of anticipative triumph wherein the virgin daughter of Israel will laugh to scorn the congregated armies " of the final Gentile confederacy. THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL m " All nations compassed me about ; yea, they com- passed me about : "In the name of Jehovah I will destroy them " (or, literally, " cut them off.") "They compassed me about ; yea, they compassed me about. But verily in the name of Jehovah I will cut them off. They compassed me about like bees" completely, persistently, full of hatred like the Amorites who, " as bees " (Deut i. 44), chased and beat down our fathers in Seir but suddenly "they are quenched as the fire of thorns. In the name of Jehovah I will verily cut them off." Then, turning to the leader of this confederacy the future king of the united armies of the apostate nations, or, it may be, addressing Gentile power as personified Israel says : " Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall, But Jehovah helped me. My strength and song is Jah, And He is become my salvation." This last verse is here transferred bodily frpm " the song of Moses and the children of Israel " (Exod. xv.) which they sang at the overthrow of their enemies in the waters of the Red Sea, and which is typical of the final overthrow of the nations which shall be confederate against Jehovah and against His anointed. It is also incorporated a third time by Isaiah at the end of that section of his prophecy called " the Book of Immanuel," which closes with that beautiful little millennial song of confidence and triumph (Isa. xii. 2) which Israel shall sing " in that day," the last words of which are : " Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion ; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee." 112 THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL The day when Jehovah will become Israel's " salva- tion " is that in which they will recognise their " Jeschua " their Jesus, whose very name in Hebrew is here used, and which, being interpreted, means " God's salvation." Then also, and as a blessed con- sequence, there will be " The voice of rejoicing and salvation in the tents of the righteous (because) " The right hand of Jehovah doeth valiantly. The right hand of Jehovah is exalted : The right hand of Jehovah doeth valiantly." The " right hand," which is a figure for energetic interposition, united to the almighty " arm," which in Scripture is the emblem of effectual power that carries through the thing designed, may well be used as a title of the Messiah, who is God's visible executive power in delivering His people, and in executing vengeance on the nations. This, again, has for its basis the " Song of Moses " in Exod. xv., where we read " Thy right hand, O Jehovah, is glorious in power, Thy right hand dasheth in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of Thine excellency Thou overthrowest them that rise up against Thee " which overthrow of Pharaoh and his host, forms but the historical foreground of the final overthrow of the con- federated anti-Christian world powers, at the time of the end. The next verse brings us to Israel's final shout of triumph, even as it has been their defiant answer to the nations all through the ages, who sought their exter- mination. " I shall not die ~but live, And declare the works of Jah." THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL 113 The cries of "Down with the Jews!" "Death to the Jews!" now raised by anti-Semitic mobs in the streets of Paris, Berlin, or Vienna, have been reverberating from age to age among the Gentile nations who have been brought in contact with this " Peculiar People." " Many a time (or ' O how greatly ! ') have they afflicted me from my youth up, Let Israel now say : O how greatly have they afflicted me from my youth up : Yet they have not prevailed against me ! " is the similar song of Israel in the i2Qth Psalm. Israel's national youth or childhood was in Egypt, and already there " the plowers plowed on his back, and made long their furrows." Pharaoh cried, " Death to the Jews !" and brought out an edict for their extermination. " But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew," and Israel passed through the baptism of suffering in Egypt with the defiant shout, " I shall not die but live, and declare the works of Jehovah."- Then, not to mention Canaanites, Philistines, Midianites, and the other small powers who were ever ready to afflict and harass them, there commenced the march of the great world powers Syria, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and savage Rome, who each in turn took up the cry, " Death to the Jews ! " But where are all these powers ? They have crumbled away and died, but Israel lives, and, they have not " prevailed over him." Then came the centuries of Dispersion, when it might be supposed that a comparative handful of men scattered on the great ocean of humanity would soon be swallowed up of the multitude. As a matter of fact, every force was brought to bear against them with terrible severity. Their 9 ii 4 THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL enemies were united, and seemed confident of success. The crusaders went from west to east with the cry, " Hierosolyma est perdita ! " I and perpetrated wholesale massacres of the Jews as a commencement of their " holy " wars. Again and again apostate Christendom in the dark ages showed its zeal for the Jewish Messiah, who teaches His followers to love even their enemies, by burning whole communities of Jews, numbering some- times thousands of souls, on one huge scaffold. But in spite of it all, Israel lives ; " they have not prevailed over him " ; for there are more Jews in the world after all the centuries of banishments, massacres, and untold sufferings, than there have been at any previous point of the world's history, and the Jews at the present day, as is proved from official statistics, in some parts of the world increase in proportion to their Gentile neighbours at the ratio of three to one. Well might the eloquent Michael Beers, in his "Appeal to the Justice of Kings," make use of the following language : " Braving all kinds of torments the pangs of death, and still more terrible pangs of life we have with- stood the impetuous storm of time, sweeping indiscri- minately in its course, nations, religions, and countries. What has become of those celebrated empires whose very name still excites our admiration by the idea of splendid greatness attached to them, and whose power embraced the whole surface of the known globe ? They are only remembered as monuments of the vanity of human greatness. Rome and Greece are no more ; their descendants, mixed with other nations, have lost even the traces of their origin ; while a population of a few millions of men so often subjugated, stands the test 'Or "Hep I Hep!" which is an abbreviation formed from the three initial letters of this Latin phrase. The English corrup- tion of it is " Hip ! Hip !" "5 of revolving ages, and the fiery ordeal of eighteen centuries of persecution. We still preserve laws that were given to us in the first days of the world, in the infancy of nature. The last followers of a religion which had embraced the universe have disappeared these eighteen centuries, and our temples are still stand- ing. We alone have been spared by the indiscriminating hand of time, like a column left standing amid the wreck of worlds and the ruins of nature. The history of our people connects present times with the first ages of the world, by the testimony it bears to the existence of those early periods. It begins at the cradle of man- kind; it is likely to be preserved to the very day of universal destruction." * The sorrows of Israel and the hatred of the nations is yet, as we have already seen, to reach a climax, when the cry of the confederated armies under the leadership of anti-Christ, will be : " Come, let us destroy them from being a nation, that the name of Israel be no more in remembrance " one more blow and the Jewish nation will be no more ; but even then the answer of the saved remnant, the nucleus of the blessed nation, will be : " I shall not die but live, and declare the works of Jehovah." Israel is indestructible. The bush may burn but can never be consumed, because the Angel of God's Presence is in it. And if we ask why this miraculous preservation ? the answer is given in the words, " And declare the works of Jehovah." This was the purpose of God from the very beginning in the call and election of Israel. "This people," He says, "have I formed for Myself; 1 These remarks are here transferred from my notes on the ngth Psalm which appeared in The Scattered Nation, October, 1899. n6 THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL they shall show forth (or ' declare ') My praise " (Isa. xliii. 21). In a measure this has been fulfilled in the past, for it is through the lips of Jewish prophets and apostles that the wonderful "works" and the "praises" of Jehovah have been " declared " to the world ; but in its fulness this prophecy will only be realised in the future, after the final deliverance and conversion of the nation. Now poor Israel is "dumb," and the Church has taken his place as God's witness to the world, with the result that, after an opportunity of two millenniums in which to evangelise the nations, about two-thirds of the human race have never heard of the precious name of our Redeemer. But wait till "the eyes" of blind Israel "shall be opened " to behold their glorious Messiah, and the tongue of the nationally dumb man is unloosed to sing His praises (Isa. xxxv. 5, 6) then it will not be long before the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea. Not as though the Word of God has proved of none effect, for the number of God's elect are being gathered, but it is reserved for repentant Israel in the future to " declare the works of Jehovah " on a scale and in a manner such as the world has not known before. " Beautiful upon the mountains " will be the feet of Jewish evangelists, with souls fired with love to the once despised Jesus, bringing " good tidings," publishing peace to the nations, who will name them " priests of Jehovah and ministers of our God " (Isa. Ixi. 6), and the result will be that " many peoples shall go and say, Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, the house of the God of Jacob ; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths ; for out of Zion 1 The word is the same as in our psalm. THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL 117 shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem." Continuing the retrospect of his national history, Israel says : " Jah hath chastened me sore, But hath not given me over unto death." This is in agreement with the word of the Lord to them in Jeremiah xxx. 1 1 : " For I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to save thee ; for I will make an end of all the nations whither I have scattered thee, but I will not make a full end of thee ; but I will correct thee in measure, and not leave thee altogether unpunished." "Sore" indeed have been the chastisements which God has sent upon Israel, and terrible the corrections, but He never has and never will give them over " unto death," because He has sworn that as long as the sun and the moon endure, and the seasons continue, so long shall Israel abide " a nation before Him for ever " (Jer. xxxi. 35-37); and therefore, whenever they are in special danger, and it seems as if there were no more help or deliverance, the covenant - keeping Jehovah appears on their behalf, and the mighty God of Jacob becomes their Refuge. The next three verses follow in beautiful sequence. It is the custom in Israel to this day for any man or community who has escaped some terrible danger to go in solemn procession to the synagogue, to recite a special form of thanksgiving to God ; and this, in the day of their marvellous deliverance, will be done by the whole nation : " Open to me the gates of righteousness : I will enter into them that I may give thanks unto Jah : " ii8 THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL And the response of those who receive the solemn pro- cession (probably the Levites) will be " This is the gate of Jehovah," " The righteous (or ' the righteous nation,' Isa. xxvi. 2) may enter there, which having done," "all Israel" as one man will say " I give thanks unto Thee, for Thou hast answered me, And art become my salvation." A faint idea of what will then take place may be gathered from the following graphic and pathetic picture given by Motley of the thanksgiving service after one of the most famous sieges and wonderful deliverances in profane history. It was in 1574. For one hundred and thirty-one days the citizens of Leyden " had literally been living in the jaws of death." Thousands and thousands of the popula- tion of the devoted city had died of famine and pestilence, and yet the survivors, with their noble Burgomaster Van der Werf, held out against the Spanish tyrant. At last, on an October morning, when there seemed no more hope of their holding out, the relieving flotilla which had been so wearisomely long in coming overland, flooded by the breaking of the dykes, at last arrived, helped on by a providential storm, which sent a panic among the besiegers, causing them to flee at the very moment when an extraordinary accident had laid bare a whole side of the city for their entrance. This is what followed after the starving crowd, looking more like ghosts than men, had eagerly snatched at the bread which was thrown to them on to the quays from the ships. "The Admiral, stepping ashore, was welcomed by the magistracy, and a solemn procession was immediately THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL 119 formed. Magistrates and citizens, wild Zealanders, emaciated burgher guards, sailors, soldiers, women, children nearly every living person within the walls all repaired without delay to the great church, stout Admiral Boisot leading the way. The starving and heroic city, which had been so firm in its resistance to an earthly king, now bent itself in humble gratitude before the King of kings. After prayers, the whole vast congregation joined in the thanksgiving hymn. Thousands of voices raised the song, but few were able to carry it to its conclusion, for the universal emotion, deepened by the music, became too full for utterance. The hymn was abruptly suspended, while the multitude wept like children." So it will be with the spared remnant of Israel in the day of their final national deliverance, when in solemn procession they enter through "the gates of righteousness " to " give thanks unto Jah." They too will mingle weeping and " confessions " with their thanksgiving, for " in that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the whole land shall mourn . . . every family apart and their wives apart" (Zech. xii.). But the great comforter will be in their midst, and " as him whom his mother comforteth, so will He com- fort them, and they shall be comforted in Jerusalem," so that the note of praise will predominate, and the Hallel will then be sung as never before in their whole history. We now come to the passage in this psalm which is the most familiar and most often quoted, but the full significance of which can never be fully understood if taken away from its context. It is, indeed, a most pre- cious jewel in itself, but it is the striking setting of I 2 o THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL it which enhances its beauty and manifests its full brilliancy. " The stone which the builders refused Is become the head stone of the corner : This is the Lord's doing, It is marvellous in our eyes." That it is a glorious Messianic prophecy, of the suffer- ings of Christ and the glory that should follow, no one to whom the authority of our Saviour is worth anything can doubt, for He more than once uses and applies it to Himself. During the last three or four days before His cruci- fixion, His mind seemed specially to dwell on this climax of the Hallel, as we may judge from the solemn way in which he uses it in His last prophetic words to the Jewish nation (Matt. xxi. 42 ; xxiii. 39) ; and on the night on which He was betrayed, as He led His disciples in singing this " hymn " or psalm (Matt. xxvi. 30) in the upper room where He celebrated the Passover with them for the last time, we may be permitted reverently to imagine the thrill that went through His human soul on reaching these words, just as He was girding Himself to go forth to Gethsemane and Calvary for the joy that was set before Him, to endure the cross, despising the shame. But, I repeat, it is only in the light of the full context of the prophetic drama unfolded in this psalm that this passage can be understood. It is one of Israel's thank- ful " confessions " summing up their whole attitude to their Messiah from His first appearance in humiliation, to His second advent in glory According to a tradition, the figure employed in this ode, the groundwork of this short but comprehensive parable, was an actual occurrence, a real historical trans- THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL 121 action, which was well known to them at that time. In connection with the building of the Temple by Solomon, we read in I Kings vL 7 : " And the house when it was in building was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither ; so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building." For a long time it was generally supposed that the huge blocks of stone as well as the timber for the Temple were brought from Phenicia, until the discovery in 1852 of the vast sub- terranean quarries, which in one direction alone stretch 213 yards in a straight line beneath the city of Jerusalem. I shall never forget my rambles there one night* accompanied by a small party of friends well provided with torches. On the sides are still seen niches for the lamps of the quarry men, and traces of their work look- ing almost as fresh as if they had been done yesterday, though the hands that made them have crumbled to dust probably three thousand years ago. Here and there the rocky ground on which Jerusalem stands above is supported by huge pillars. The process of quarrying in those days was by water power, the blocks being separated from the rock by means of wooden wedges which were driven in, and wetted so as to cause them to swell. We came to one place which we named the workshop a huge hall strewn with chips and rock-dust. Here, most probably, in this subterranean place, every stone of the Temple " was made ready before it was brought thither," and prepared and marked for the position it was to occupy in the building above. The object lesson learned in those midnight hours is still fresh in my heart. I thought that it beautifully illustrated the process in connection with the spiritual Temple which is now being 122 THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL built "for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Now is the quarrying time the breaking away of the " living stones " from the hard rock of " this present evil world." Then there is the blow of the hammer, and the cutting of the sharp " tool of iron," which sometimes enters our very soul ; and the unpleasant painful gratings of the polishing instrument. But we may be sure that the great Master Worker, who has us in hand, gives not one unnecessary blow with the hammer, or one needless cut with the chisel, " for He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." * In view of the fact that " the sufferings of this present time " are designed by Him to fit us for the position we are to occupy in that Temple of which it is written that " every wit of it uttereth His glory," 2 we would rather, by His grace, not forego any part of the necessary preparation however painful the process, remembering that our "light affliction which (compared with the eternity of blessedness) is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." But to return to the tradition in reference to the Headstone of the corner, which is as follows. In planning and preparing the stones in this subter- ranean workshop, one was marked to occupy this crowning position, but " the builders," when they were actually putting the structure of the Temple together on Mount Moriah, and came to the point when the crowning stone should be put on which should give the building the look of finish and completion, looked upon it, and regarding it as too insignificant for this place of honour, " refused " or literally " despised " it. They took up one stone after another which they thought more worthy of this commanding position, but they did not fit. At last driven by necessity, or by Divine inter- 1 Lam. iii. 33, margin. * Psa. xxix. 9. THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL 123 position, they after all took up the stone with the mark on, and placed it there, and lo ! it fitted beautifully, and they sang : " The stone which the builders rejected is after all become the Headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing ; it is marvellous in our eyes." Now this probable actual occurrence in connection with the building of the Temple, the Spirit of God makes use of in this prophetic drama as emblematic of Israel's attitude in relation to their Messiah. Already from "the days of eternity," our Lord Jesus was ap- pointed to be Israel's head and crown of glory, and " Him hath God the Father sealed," as the rightful King of Zion, from the day of His birth in time. But when He was manifested to Israel, and when they should have welcomed Him with shouts of joyous acclamation, the " builders " those pharisaic and sadducean priests and lawyers who looked for earthly pomp and grandeur of which they saw none in Christ " despised " Him, and said, " We will not have this man to rule over us," and the words of Isaiah have been literally fulfilled : "He was despised and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief ; and as one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not." Since then Israel has tried to substitute others in His place, and has been innumerable times deceived by false messiahs and prophets ; but just as in the individual heart there is a place which only He can fill, so also does the Jewish " House" (Matt, xxiii. 38) remain "deso- late" and forsaken ever since they rejected Him. But this terrible unnatural antagonism to Christ on the part of " His own " nation, will not last for ever. Oh, there is a day coming when the eyes of " the blind shall be opened," and Israel shall recognise that He is just the very One whom they have needed, and for I2 4 THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL whom they have been waiting through the ages, and with lowly and contrite hearts will hail Him as their King and Redeemer. Then, in a sense more glorious than in connection with the building of the Temple, they will sing : " The stone which the builders despised, Is become the Headstone of the corner ; This is Jehovah's doing, It is marvellous in our eyes." Yes, then the mystery of Israel will at last be solved, and it will be seen that the whole thing was of Jehovah that even their guilty unbelief and rejection of Him was overruled to the enrichment of the Gentiles, and the consequent temporary " casting away of them " to the " reconciling of the world." Then the great Joseph will say to His brethren : " But as for you, ye thought evil against me ; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive." The joyous song continues : "This is the day which Jehovah hath made ; We will rejoice and be glad in it." Not the Sabbath, or Lord's Day, is here meant, in which sense the passage is sometimes quoted, but the great Day of Israel's national deliverance and conversion so full of momentous issues to the world the day of joy which will succeed their present long night of dark- ness and sorrow the day appointed by Jehovah, in which the nation " shall be born " into true spiritual life, and rejoice and be glad in their long rejected Messiah, " with joy unspeakable and full of glory." The drama is drawing to a close, amid the shouts of " Hosanna " to the Son of David on the part of the saved remnant of Israel, and their reverent salutation to the long absent King. 125 " Save now, we beseech Thee, O Jehovah (or " Hosanna," which is a contraction of the two Hebrew words used) : O Jehovah, we beseech Thee send now prosperity. Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of Jehovah." The meaning of which prayer is : Oh, let Thy people " now " at last enter into the spiritual " salvation," and the whole land into the outward " prosperity " which Thou hast long promised to charac- terise the blessed reign of Messiah over His people Israel. That the Jews generally at the time of Christ regarded this part of the Hallel as Messianic, is proved by the spontaneous manner in which they used it at His Triumphal entry into the city, when "the multi- tudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David ! " Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord : Hosanna in the highest ! " But, alas ! the true glory and spiritual significance of Messiah's person and work were then "hid" from the mass of Israel. It is probable that only three or four days later, when their expectations that He would now at last reveal Himself in His true character as Deliverer from the Roman yoke, and establish an outward visible kingdom were finally dashed to the ground, by His arrest and mock trials before the Jewish and Roman tribunals, some of the very crowds who thus hailed Him as the Son of David, cried with the priests and lawyers, " Let Him be crucified ! " Christ Himself, although it was necessary to allow this public homage as a sign and pledge of the time when He shall appear in His glory as Israel's true King, knew that He was going up to Jerusalem this time, not 126 THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL to be received and acclaimed as the expected Deliverer, but to be officially rejected. Three times over on His last journey He had warned His disciples as to what was awaiting Him : " Behold, we go up to Jerusalem ; and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death ; and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him ; and the third day He shall rise again." Therefore it was, that during this so-called triumphal entry, as the procession was descending the western brow of the Mount of Olives, that as " He beheld the city He wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things which belong unto peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyes " (Luke xix. 41-44). The people might cry " Hosanna ! Blessed be the Kingdom of our father David that cometh in the Name of the Lord ! Hosanna in the highest ! " (Mark xi. 9-10) ; but He knew full well that " the Kingdom " they were expecting was not like the one He then came to inaugurate, and that before that part of the Hallel could be fulfilled the stone must first be despised by the " builders," and Israel must in consequence be left for a long time in desolation and sorrow, until, in brokenness of heart, they return and " seek Jehovah their God and David their King." Anyhow, it is clear that our Lord applied the words used by the triumphal procession from this part of the Hallel to a time yet future, for in His solemn words of farewell to the Jewish nation, uttered subsequently to His public entrance, after pouring out His heart's pity in the memorable lamentation "O Jerusalem, Jeru- salem, . . . how often would I have gathered thy THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL 127 children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not ! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate " He adds, " For I say unto you, ye shall not see Me henceforth until ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord " (Matt, xxiii. 37-39). It is noteworthy that while the Hallel as a whole was the great song of praise at all the three great festivals, the Hosanna verses were especially associated not with the Passover, but with the Feast of Tabernacles. On the seventh day called " Hoshanna-rabba," the great Hosanna " that great " and most solemn day in this festival, a procession of priests was formed to the pool of Siloah, to draw water in a golden pitcher to be poured as a sacred libation on the altar the vessel containing it being borne aloft to be seen by all. 1 The joyous crowds of worshippers on that day, seen from one of the flat roofs of Jerusalem overlooking the Temple area, would resemble a forest in motion, for all carried palm branches in their hands which were more than a man's height in length. Willow branches also surrounded the high altar and drooped their green ends over the smoking surface of the fire which had been kindled for the morning sacrifice. Great silence would fall on the assembled throng as the choir of Levites commenced to sing the Hallel, to each line of which the people had to respond with " Hallelujah." Soon the whole crowd fell into order, and, led by the priests, marched in procession round the altar. Seven times they encompassed it. As the singers reached these verses and joined in the words, " Ana Adonai Hoschio-na ! " (" Hosanna ! make Thy salvation now manifest, O Lord "), " Ana Adonai Hatzlicha-na ! " 1 See " Israel's Hosannah," by Professor Gustaf Dalman, in No. 14 of The Scattered Nation. i 2 8 THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL (" O Lord, send now prosperity ! "), the people waved their palm branches and accompanied the song with loud exclamations of joy. And as they reached the words, " Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of Jehovah," the godly and spiritual among them would in their hearts greet the coming Messiah and King to whom they well knew that these words applied. Now of the sacred calendar of the history of redemp- tion prefigured in the " Feasts of the Lord," which Israel was called to celebrate, the Passover has been fulfilled, the Feast of Pentecost is fulfilling itself throughout this dispensation, but the Feast of Taber- nacles, the last in the cycle, which celebrated the completion of the harvest and the ingathering of the vintage, will not be fulfilled until after Israel's great national Day of Atonement, which will take place when they look upon Him who was pierced and mourn, is passed. Then when the number of God's elect from all the nations in this dispensation is complete, when the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, when the long-absent Master shall return to the now "desolate" house of Israel, when Israel's unbelief and consequent sorrows shall be ended, and the " Stone " once despised shall at last be exalted by them to be the " Head stone of the corner" it is then that the Hosanna will at last be sung to the Blessed One who cometh in the name of Jehovah, and that " salvation " and " prosperity " shall at last come to Israel and to the world. After the joyous and solemn acclamation of their King by the multitude, a voice proceeds from the Temple, " We have blessed you out of the house of Jehovah." This is supposed to be the voice of the priests or Levites from within the Temple, uttering benediction on the assembled multitudes without; which is pro- THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL 129 bable, but in its fullest sense it may be regarded as the voice of saved Israel, who, immediately they them- selves enter into blessing, will begin to bless the nations, by whom they shall be called " the priests of Jehovah ; ministers of our God." Yet once again, before the curtain finally falls on this prophetic drama, we hear the shout of happy Israel, and this time they acclaim their Deliverer not only as coming " in the name of Jehovah," but as Jehovah Himself. The twenty-seventh verse reads literally thus : " El (the Mighty One) is Jehovah, And He hath shined upon us ! '' " Great is the mystery of Godliness, God manifest in the flesh!" "The Son of David," in whose Epiphany or "shining forth" (compare Titus ii. n) the nation now rejoices, is " the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ," the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His Person, and overwhelmed with the visible display of His Divine power and glory, long doubting Israel bow their knees at last before Him, crying like Thomas of old, My Lord and my God " Thou art my God, and I will give thanks unto Thee ; Thou art my God, and I will exalt Thee ! " I have left out part of the twenty-seventh verse, which needs explanation. They are the words : " Bind the sacrifice with cords, Even up to the horns of the altar." The word " chag," primarily meaning " feast," and here translated "sacrifice," describes the special sac- rificial offerings at the great feasts, and the word in the original translated " unto " cannot mean " on " or "to," but " up to " or " until," " the horns of the altar" ; 10 i 3 o THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL the explanation of the idiom being that there was so vast a number of sacrificial offerings on those festivals, that " the whole space of the court of the priests was full of them, and the binding of them consequently had to go on as far as to the horns of the altar." * But it may be asked, How does this fit in with the sequence of events in connection with Israel's future ? Is there to be a restoration of a sacrificial ritual after the one great offering on Calvary and after the glorious Epiphany of Christ ? The answer must be that there is no other consistent or satisfactory explanation of the last eight chapters of Ezekiel, and many passages in the other prophets and the Psalms, except on the supposition that some of the divinely appointed feasts and a modified form of the sacrificial ritual will, for a time at any rate, be restored in the millennial dispensation as ordinances of com- memoration. It is a difficult subject, I admit, one on which even the most spiritual must speak with dif- fidence and pray for more light, but the following considerations may be suggested : 1 Dr. Andrew Bonar, in " Christ and the Church in the Book of Psalms," has a very ingenious rendering and explanation of this verse. He translates : " Bind the sacrifice with strong cords ! Let us away to the horns of the altar ! " And adds, "The last line is peculiar, for 'to the horns' can scarcely be connected with the verb to bind in the sense of hold fast the victim till you reach the horns of the altar. "The word 'ad' (up to, or until) is rather a particle of locality. In Lam. iii. 40 it occurs thus, ' Let us search and try our ways ; and let us return (let us go) to the Lord ! ' And so we take it here. The restored and grateful people are hastening to bring their offerings of praise to their God and King, stimulating one another's zeal ; ' Sursum Corda ! ' to the altar ! to the altar ! whose horns hold up to view the blood of sacrifice." THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL 131 I. The sacrifices and all the divinely appointed ob- servances were types, that is pictures of Christ and His one perfect offering ; but is it not possible for a type to point backward as well as onward ? The ordinance of the Lord's Supper points backward to the cross, and onward to His coming in glory. II. Israel as a nation has never yet understood the typical character of the sacrificial ritual, and "to this day when Moses is read this veil is on their hearts." Nevertheless, when as a nation " they shall turn to the Lord " the veil shall be taken away, and in the light of the full knowledge of Christ they will go back to these types in order to keep before them the all-sufficiency and perfection of the great Antitype, who will not be always present with them on earth, but with the Church in the heavenly Jerusalem. III. Jerusalem during the millennium will be the school where representatives from all the nations will go up to be taught in the ways of the Lord ; and it is beautiful to contemplate how by means of a divinely appointed ritual and sacrificial system converted Israel will realistically set forth to the whole world the atoning work of their glorious Messiah. That a sacrificial ritual has no place in the present dispensation is clear from the Epistle to the Hebrews and other New Testament scriptures. Those who endeavour to introduce into the Church a sacrificial ritual and a priesthood distinct from the great assembly of God's redeemed people, are either going back to the " weak and beggarly elements " of the law, and are two thousand years behind time, or they anticipate the millennium, when such a priesthood will again be introduced. In either case the system is out of time and out of place, for even the millennium can present no parallel to the Church of this dispensation. Then God will deal with nations as nations, but the I 3 2 THE CONCLUSION OF THE HALLEL Church of this dispensation is an election of individuals from all peoples. Among the millennial nations there will be differences and distinctions even as regard their relationship to God ; thus not only will Israel be the priests of the Lord to the other nations, but even Egypt and Assyria, &c., are to occupy positions different from the rest of mankind (Isa. xix. 24, 25), while it is the peculiar glory of the Church that in that holy congrega- tion, composed of individuals of every nationality, "there is no difference," for there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female ; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Rom. x. 12; Gal. iii. 28 ; I Cor. xii. 13). The home, calling, and blessings of Israel and the other nations in the mil- lennium will be earthly, and there will be a priesthood to correspond with such a state of things ; but ours is a heavenly calling, and our peculiar blessings are spiritual in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. i. 3, ii. 6 ; Phil. iii. 20 ; Col. iii. 1-6). But to return to the last two lines of the Hallel. It ends as it began, forming a complete circle of praise, and it leaves happy Israel calling upon the nations to magnify Jehovah with them and to exalt His name together : " O give thanks unto Jehovah for He is good ; For His mercy endureth for ever ! " PART II THE MODERN JEW A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE Numbers and Distribution of the Jewish People THE subject of Jewish statistics is a very difficult one, for in some parts of the world where they are scattered, it is almost impossible to obtain exact data as to their actual numbers. From earliest times in their national history, the Jews have had a religious aversion to being systematically counted, and in modern times, especially in countries where they are only "aliens," with scarcely any civil rights, and where the forced military service without any chance for a Jew of rising above the ranks is greatly hated, the ancient superstitious feeling against registration is strengthened by the desire to save as many of their sons as possible from military bondage, or themselves from the extortions and persecutions of corrupt officials. That the difficulty is a very ancient and continuous one may be gathered from the conflicting figures which are handed down to us by contemporaries of different periods of their history since the destruction of their Temple, and the desolation of their land, by the legions of Vespasian and Titus. Take, for instance, the number given of those who left Spain to commence their 135 136 A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE unparalleled and woeful experiences after the cruel edict of expulsion, which was signed by Ferdinand and Isabella at Granada in March, 1492. Zurita reckons their number at 170,000; Cardoso at 120,000; Abar- banel, the Jew, who was Minister of State in the Spanish Court at the time, in the Preface to his Commentary to the Book of Kings, puts them down at 300,000 ; while Miguel de Barrais and Mariana give us as high a figure as 800,000. Now all these were contemporaries. In an old history of Poland it is related that King Sigismund Augustus (1548-1572), alarmed at the fact that the Jews were increasing so rapidly in his kingdom, and also desiring to replenish his empty coffers, deter- mined on subjecting them to a capitation tax, from which, at a florin per head, he calculated on receiving about 200,000 florins. His surprise and that of his court, however, was very great, on rinding that the registration roll did not contain more than about 17,000 names. Of course scarcely a tenth of their actual number was returned by the Jews. Sigismund com- plained of this to his friend, the Bishop of Cracow, a prelate remarkable for the fact that in his superstitious age he did not believe in magic. " Bishop," said the king, "you, who do not believe in magic, or that the Evil One has anything to do with human affairs, tell me, I beseech you, how the Jews who yesterday were 200,000, have to-day, that a capitation tax is wanted, been able to conceal themselves so as to count scarcely 17,000?" The bishop is said to have replied that his Majesty must be aware that the Jews are clever enough for anything without requiring the help of the devil ; but if he had been less prejudiced he might have told him that if he had tried the same process of persecution and extortion on his Orthodox Catholic subjects, he A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE 137 would have found them equally clever in concealing themselves, with or without the help of the devil. I only mention these instances as illustrations of the difficulty connected with the subject of Jewish statistics. The tables in the footnotes are taken from "The Jewish Year Book" for 1899-1900, a fairly reliable work, edited by Mr. Joseph Jacobs, who bases his calculations on a statistical article by I. Loeb in " Diet, de Geographic," 1879.* Some of the figures are obviously below the actual number, and the totals put down for Africa and Asia ought, according to my estimation, to be at least doubled. 1 For the sake of comparison I give here also Professor Gustaf H . Dalman's figures in his " Kurzgefasstes Handbuch Der Mission Unter Israel," published Berlin, 1893, which are based on Pro- fessor Juraschek's " Geographisch-Statistischen Tabellen iiber alle Lander der Erde," compared with the " Annuaire des Archives Israelite" for 1886-1891. Professor Dalman's tables are as follows : (a) Europe : Austro- Hungary, 1,652,000 ; Belgium, 5,000 ; Bulgaria, 24,000 ; Denmark, 4,000 ; Germany, 579,000 ; France, 80,000 ; Greece, 6,000 ; Great Britain, 60,000 ; Italy, 45,000 ; Luxemburg, 850 ; Netherlands, 90,100 ; Portugal, 300 ; Roumania, 400,000 ; Russia, 3,236,000 ; Sweden, 3,800 ; Switzerland, 8,800 ; Servia, 4,400 ; Spain, 6,900 ; Turkey in Europe, 94,600. Total number of Jews in Europe, 6,301,550. (6) Asia : Afghanistan, 14,000 ; British India, 26,000 ; Persia, 19,000 ; Russian- Asia, 40,000 ; Turkish Possessions, 195,000 ; Palestine, 50,000. Total number of Jews in Asia, 294,000. (c) Africa : Abyssinia, 200,000 ; Egypt, 8,000 : Algeria, 48,500 ; Morocco, 200,000 ; Tripoli, 6,000 ; Tunis, 45,000. Total number in Africa, 507,500. (d) America : British North America, 2,500 ; Dutch Possessions, 2,700; Central and South America, 50,000; United States, 300,000. Total number in America, 356,200. (e) Australia and Polynesia : 16,000 Jews. Professor Dalman estimates the total number of Jews in the whole world between seven and half and eight millions, but his figures are in many cases below the actual number. : 3 8 A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE At the end of these tables, however, Mr. Jacobs says, " There are probably eleven millions of Jews existing in the world at this present time" Jews in Europe. Country. 1881 1891. Austro-Hungary 1,643,708 1,860,106 Belgium 3.ooo* 3,000 Denmark 3,94 6 4,8o England, &c 60,000* 101,189 France 63,000* 72,000 Germany 561,612 567.884 Greece 2,652 5,79 2 Holland 81,693 97,324 Italy 40,43 50,000* Luxembourg 777 I ' oo * Norway 34 Portugal 200* 300 Roumania 265,000* 300,000* Russia 2,552,145! 4,500,000* Servia 3,49 2 4, 6 52 Spain 1,902 2,500* Sweden 2,993 3,4 2 Switzerland 7,373 8 .69 Turkey 115,000* 120,000* Total ... 5,408,957 7.701,266 * Estimated numbers. f M. Loeb omitted 1,000,000 in Poland, 1881. Jews in Asia (after I. Loeb). Turkey in Asia 150,000 Persia 30,000 Russia in Asia 47,000 Turkestan, Afghanistan 14,000 India and China 19,000 260,000 1 In "The Jewish Year Book" for 1900-1901, edited by Rev. Isidore Harris, M.A., other tables are given, but the totals are about the same. The new editor adds : " The Jewish population of the world at the present time can hardly be less than eleven millions, and in all likelihood it is in excess of that number. A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE 139 Personally, I believe that the actual number cannot be much under twelve millions. Note this remarkable fact : Less than two hundred years ago the historian Basnage, who devoted much time and careful labour to this subject, estimated that the number of Jews had in his day, after centuries of untold sufferings, dispersions, and massacres, been Jews in Africa (after I. Loeb). Egypt 8,000 Abyssinia, Fellashas 50,000 Tripolis 60,000 Tunis 55,ooo Algeria and Sahara 43,5oo Morocco 100,000 1 Cape of Good Hope 1,500 318,000 yews in America. 2 United States 750,000 Canada, &c 7,000 Antilles 3,ooo South America 12,000 772,000 Jews in Australasia. Australasia 15,268 Jews in the World. Europe 7,701,266 Asia 260,000 Africa 318,000 America 772,000 Australasia 15,268 9,066,534 1 There are now probably some 20,000 in South Africa. 2 In 1882 a statistical inquiry established that there were 250,000 Jews in the United States. Between that date and 1891 380,000 were added by immigration, not to mention the natural increase. H o A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE reduced to about 3,000,000 x in fulfilment of the inspired prediction, that among the nations where they would be scattered, in case of apostacy from God, they would become " few in number " (Deut. iv. 27). But in less than two centuries they have multiplied again fourfold. This rapid increase, which has been specially notice- able since their so-called emancipation in this nine- teenth century, is a great puzzle to statisticians and statesmen who study the Jewish Question apart from Holy Scripture. The following is from a recent work which must be described as anti-Jewish in its tendency and un- satisfactory in many respects, except for some of its statistical information : " The first complete census of the Russian Empire was taken in February, 1897. The figures are not yet complete, but the Central Statistical Commission of the Minister of the Interior annually publishes figures of the rate of increase of the Russian population which de- monstrate the overwhelming importance of the Jewish Question to the ruler and people of Russia. In most of the text-books published on the subject of the Jewish population in the world the number of Jews in Russia is greatly underrated. "The late Sir Robert Morier, G.C.B., as British Ambassador for many years at St. Petersburg, gave great attention to the subject In 1891 he was of opinion that the Jewish population in Russia was about 5,250,000, the figures being arrived at by the statistics of birth-rate, death-rate, and conscription. The totals of the deaths, births, and marriages of the 1 See his " History of the Jews from Jesus Christ to the Present Time." English translation by Theo. Taylor, published London, 1708, chap, xxxiv., pp. 744-748. A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE 141 various religions in European Russia supply the abso- lute data. These figures have been elaborated by Mr. E. J. Dillon. The figures of the birth- and death- rates, when compared, establish the ratio between the two. For every 100 Russian Jews who died during the decade ending 1892, the number born was 171*42. The number of Orthodox Christians per cent, born in Russia during the same period was only I38'i4 per cent. This fecundity of the Jewish race is attributable to the universal practice of marriage, and to the phenomenally low death-rate ; 407 Orthodox Russian infants died out of every thousand. Only 232 Jewish children died. But these figures do not really indicate the rapidity with which the Jewish population is growing. Military service is immensely unpopular among the Jews, and they resort to many devices in order to free their sons from liability to serve in the army. One method is the concealment of the births of their children, and the number of Jews is therefore greater, and the death- rate is therefore lower than the official statistics actually show. " This relatively small death-rate of the Jews is noticeable, not only in Russia, but also in New York and Roumania. The Jews form but one-fifth of the urban population of Roumania, but they contribute no less than 63 per cent, of the entire annual increase, whereas the Orthodox Christians, who amount to 72 per cent, of the inhabitants of the towns and cities, contribute no more than 39*9 per cent, to the total increase. Both in Russia and Roumania the Jewish element is better fitted for the struggle for existence than any of the Christian sects. The devotion bestowed by Jewish parents on their children, the respect and tenderness paid to women during the critical events of their family life, enable the Jewish element in Poland to increase I 4 2 A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE twice as rapidly as the Christian sects. One-third of the population of Warsaw is Jewish, but the Hebrew increase is equal to that of the Christians, who form two-thirds of the population. The more Jews there are in a city the smaller the death-rate among the children. In Warsaw the Jews are one-third of the population, and the death-rate of 1,000 children during the first year of their lives is only 187. In Moscow, where the Jews are only 2 per cent, the death-rate of infants is 391. " The Russian people, with the exception of the Jews, have the highest birth-rate and the highest death-rate of all the peoples of Europe. Of all the races and religious faiths professed in Russia the Jewish element is the most fruitful. "In the cities and towns of the sixteen provinces which constitute the Jewish Pale, the Israelitish increase is four times more rapid than that of their Christian fellow-subjects. Their net annual increase amounts to 71-4 as compared with that of all the Christian de- nominations, which is only 17 souls. Their annual increase appears to amount to 80,000 a year, a rate which will continue to increase in the absence of pesti- lence, famine, or extermination." x The rapid increase of the Jews at the present day is a most significant sign of the times. The only parallel to it is to be found in the history of the last days of their sojourn in Egypt, in reference to which we read that "the more they afflicted them the more they multi- plied and grew." The same God who caused them to multiply so marvellously after centuries of cruel bondage, just before the deliverance from Egypt, is repeating the miracle now that the time is drawing nigh for the " dayspring from on high " once again to visit them. Anyhow, it is a powerful reminder to all 1 "The Modern Jew," by Arnold White. A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE 143 intelligent observers, even apart from prophecy, that the Jewish nation is not dead, nor is it likely to become defunct from exhausted vitality. The perplexity of some even Christian people on witnessing the revival of the Jewish nationality is very natural, because they can find no place for a revived literal Israel in their political or theological programmes. The attitude of such Christians in relation to the Jews has been humorously illustrated by that prominent Jewish witness for Christ, the late Joseph Rabinowitch, in the following story : During the last Russo-Turkish war, after a great battle, a certain number of men in a particular regiment were returned in the list as dead, and an officer with a company of soldiers were com- missioned to attend to the sad duty of seeing them decently buried. While engaged in this task they came across a poor man who was badly wounded, and left on the field for dead, but who had life enough in him to refuse to be buried. But the amusing part of the business was that the officer in command seemed very much perplexed. He asked the poor man's name, looked at his list, and then said, " Well, I do not know what to do with you ; in my list you are put down as dead." This, Mr. Rabinowitch said, is the attitude of many Christians in relation to the Jew. In their political and religious creeds the Jews as a nation are put down as dead, and even many true Christians, when reading in the Scriptures the exceeding great and precious promises which God made to Israel, say, " Oh yes, Israel that is a nation that once lived, but died some nineteen centuries ago, when they rejected Christ, and now ' Israel ' means no longer Israel, but the Church which has entered into their inheritance." But Israel, though seriously wounded, is not dead, and refuses to be buried ; and the remarkable signs of vitality which as a I 4 4 A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE people they are now manifesting, are in themselves sufficient to show that they are not merely a nation of the past, but pre-eminently the nation of the future. In reference to their distribution, there is this re- markable fact to be noted that although scattered over the whole surface of the globe, in fulfilment of the Word of God, " Lo, I will command and I will sift (or toss) the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve," yet the great bulk more than two-thirds of the entire nation have for many centuries past been located in Europe, and more especially in Central and South-Eastern Europe. Thus in the two great empires of Austria and Russia alone there are at least six and a half million of the Diaspora. Is it a mere coincidence that God, who has foreordained the course of Israel's wanderings, has in His providence arranged it so that the bulk of the nation should, during all these centuries, have been sojourners in that part of the world where the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the rejection of whom brought about their banishment, is at least nominally professed ? I humbly believe that God had a design in it. Israel, even in unbelief, is God's witness, and He intended that they should be a continual object- lesson and a reminder to the so-called Christian nations that " they also, if they abide not in His goodness, shall be cut off" (Rom. xi. 22). Then what a splendid opportunity was given to Christendom by the preaching of the gospel, and the exhibition of the power of Christ in their life, to pro- voke Israel to a holy emulation, and to make them feel that they have committed a grievous mistake in reject- ing their own Messiah and King, in whom the Gentiles have found life and salvation ! But alas ! Christendom, instead of being able to impress the Jew with the attrac- tiveness of Christ, and the transforming power of His A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE 145 gospel, has, on account of its idolatries and cruelties, proved a great repellent force and stumbling-block to the Dispersion in their midst. In one of his last addresses on the Jewish Question, the late Dr. Adolph Saphir pointed out the sad fact that, instead of the pro- fessing Church proving itself a power in the conversion of the Jews, it, from a very early period of its history, became corrupted by the great errors of Rabbinism. The two outstanding errors of modern Judaism are these : They have perverted and made of none effect the Word of God by their traditions, which they have exalted to an almost higher place than the Scriptures ; and secondly, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, they set about seeking to establish their own righteousness. Now these are also the two outstanding errors of Christendom. There is a Christian as well as a Jewish Talmud, and Christendom also, since it lost the understanding of Scripture, has departed from the simplicity of the gospel, and has substituted for it a system of salvation by works, which is not different from Rabbinism. ii II THE GENERAL CONDITION OF THE JEWS AT THE CLOSE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY FROM A JEWISH POINT OF VIEW II THE GENERAL CONDITION OF THE JEWS AT THE CLOSE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY FROM A JEWISH POINT OF VIEW '"T^HE following comprehensive survey was given JL by Dr. Max Nordau, at the first Zionist Con- gress in Basle, in August, 1897. It nas been translated by Mrs. Baron, from a special report in German. The footnotes are mine. " This picture might almost be tinted as a monochrome, for wherever Jews are dwelling in any number among the nations, there Jewish misery prevails. This misery is not that of mere common poverty, which, according to the unchanging lot of earth, is ever our unfailing companion. It is a peculiar misery which befalls the Jews, not as men, but as Jews, and from which they would not suffer were they not Jews. Jewish distress is of two kinds, physical and moral. "In Eastern Europe, in North Africa, in Western Asia, exactly in those lands where the overwhelming majority of Jews, probably nine-tenths of them dwell, Jewish misery is to be understood literally. It is a daily physical oppression, a terror of the day to follow, a torturous struggle to support a bare existence. In Western Europe the battle of life is of late somewhat 149 i 5 o GENERAL CONDITION OF THE JEWS AT THE easier, although indications are not lacking to show that even here it may become more severe. But still, for the time being the question of food and shelter, of safety of body and life, is less anxious. Here the misery is of a moral description, and consists in daily mortifica- tion of self-respect and sense of honour, in the rough suppression of their effort to attain complete mental rest and satisfaction which none who is not a Jew need deny himself. "In Russia, where the Jewish population is over five millions, and which is the home of more than half of the Jewish race, 1 our brethren are subject to many legal restraints. Only a small Jewish sect, the Karaites, enjoys the same privileges as the Christian subjects of the Czar. To the rest of the Jews residence in a number of the provinces is prohibited. Freedom of movement is only enjoyed by certain classes of Jews, such as merchants of the first guild, possessors of aca- demical titles, and so forth. But in order to belong to the first guild, a man must be rich, and there are few 1 This estimate of the number of Jews in the world, given at the first Zionist Congress in August, 1897, is considerably below the actual figure. At the fourth Congress in London in August, 1900, Dr. Nordau in a speech corrected his estimate in the fol- lowing passage : " When we began to preach Zionism, and to try to win followers and supporters for that movement, the wiseacres of our nation always urged the politico-anthropological argument, ' You speak of the Jewish nation ; there is no such thing ; Israel is not a nation.' We admit that as regards Western Jewry . . . that in those there is not left the slightest trace of Jewish national feeling, so speaking from their own sentiment they are right to deny the existence of a Jewish nation. But how many Jews are there in the world f According to the latest statistics, we muster about 12,000,000. Out of that number, perhaps, 300,000 have lost the national feeling. But the 11,700,000 who remain feel so con- vinced that they are a nation, that they would simply burst out into roars of laughter were anybody to seriously contend that they are not a nation." CLOSE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 151 Russian Jews indeed who are rich ; and also very few are the Russian Jews who can obtain an academical title, for the State, middle, and high schools admit but a very limited number of Jewish students, and foreign diplomas are not recognised by the law. To Jews in Russia many trades are closed which are free to all Russians. These unhappy ones are packed together in a few provinces where no opportunity is permitted them to exercise their talents and to prove their cap- abilities by lawful means. Education as provided by the State is very little accessible to them ; schools of their own they cannot provide, they are too poor for that. Whoever can leaves the land to seek abroad the oppor- tunities which are denied to him at home ; he who is not sufficiently young and courageous for this, remains in his misery and pines away intellectually, morally, physically. " Of Roumania, with its quarter of a million Jews, we learn that our brethren there are also without rights. They are only permitted to live in towns, and are at the mercy of every whim of the civil authorities, and even of the lower officials, and from time to time they suffer terribly from the bloodthirsty mob, and are in the worst possible circumstances. 1 Our Roumanian informant places the number of Roumanian Jews who are entirely without means of support at one-half of the Jewish population. " Horrible are the conditions which our reporter from Galicia reveals to us. Of the 772,000 Jews of Galicia, 1 Since then the condition of things in Roumania has become still less tolerable, and the year 1900 has witnessed the sad and pathetic spectacle of a tremendous exodus of Jews from that Balkan State which has the unenviable fame of being the most anti-Jewish in Europe. Hundreds of these Roumanian refugees have wandered across the whole of Europe on foot, from the Black Sea to the North Sea, some of them dying by the way. 152 GENERAL CONDITION OF THE JEWS AT THE Dr. Salz estimates that 70 per cent, are literally beggars by profession, who ask alms mostly without receiving them. "Of Western Austria, with its 400,000 Jews, Dr. Mintz informs us that of 25,000 Jewish householders in Vienna, 15,000, on account of poverty, cannot be assessed at all for Jewish communal purposes. Of the 10,000 who are so assessed, 90 per cent, have only the lowest possible tax laid upon them, and of this category of the lowest assessed, three-quarters are un- equal to fulfil their obligation. The written law in Austria, unlike that of Russia and Roumania, knows no difference between Jew and Christian. But the public authorities boldly treat the law as a dead letter, and custom recreates the Jewish ban, which the law had abolished. The sentiment of society which is inimical to the Jew makes it exceedingly difficult for him to make a living, and in the near future this will become wholly impossible. "The same cry of distress greets us from Bulgaria. Again we find a hypocritical law which recognises no difference of privilege on account of difference of creed, but which is set aside by the authorities ; again an enmity in all circles which everywhere repulses the Jews ; again misery and wretchedness, with no hope of improvement. "In Hungary the Jews make no complaint. They enjoy full rights of citizenship, can work and trade freely, and their condition continually improves. It is true that this happy state of things has not lasted sufficiently long for the majority of the Jews in Hun- gary to have worked their way out of the deepest poverty and attained to even a commencement of comfort. And we are assured by observers of the times that in Hungary also hatred of the Jew begins CLOSE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 153 to make its appearance, which may break out destruc- tively at the first opportunity. "The 1 50,000 Jews of Morocco,* and the Jews of Persia, whose number is unknown to me, I must leave out of count. Those whose plight is most miserable are power- less even to resist their wretchedness. They bear it with a dull endurance, and do not complain or attract our notice except when the rabble storms their Ghetto, plundering, abusing, and murdering. " The lands of which I have made mention determine the lot of over seven millions of Jews, and, with the exception of Hungary, they all oppress the Jew, and official and social disfavour reduce him to a condition of wretchedness and professional beggary, without pos- sible hope either by personal or united effort of being able to rise a single grade in the social scale. Those ' practical ' people who will have nothing whatever to do with useless visions, and direct all their effort to the seemingly attainable, imagine that the cessation of legal oppression would terminate the woes of the Jews in Eastern Europe. Galicia is itself a contradic- tion of this view ; and not Galicia only, for salvation by means of legal emancipation has been attempted in all the higher civilised states. Let us see what the experiment teaches. "The Jews of Western Europe suffer from no legal restrictions. They are free to go and come and develop their resources in the same way as their Christian compatriots. The social consequences of such free- dom ought without doubt to be the most favourable. Diligence, endurance, sobriety, and thrift, which are characteristics of the Jews, quickly brought about an amendment of their extreme poverty, which in many 1 The actual number of Jews in Morocco is at least 200,000. 154 GENERAL CONDITION OF THE JEWS AT THE lands would be entirely at an end were it not for Jewish immigration from the East. " The emancipated Jews of the past succeeded in a fairly short time in attaining to a measure of prosperity ; at any rate, the struggle for daily bread does not assume such dreadful forms as have been described in Russia, Roumania, and Galicia. But among these the second phase of Jewish misery appears, i.e., the moral. " The Jew of the West has daily bread but man does not live by bread alone. The Western Jew no longer finds his body and life endangered by the mob, but wounds of the flesh are not the only ones which give pain, and of which one may bleed to death. "The Western Jew looked on emancipation as truly effecting his deliverance, and hastened to draw from it all possible inferences. The nations let him know that he was mistaken in being so ingeniously logical. The law magnanimously established the theory of equality. Government and society so practised this equality as to make it a mockery, corresponding to the appointment of Sancho Panza to the brilliant post of viceroy of the island Barataria. The Jew naively remarks, "I am a man, and to me no man is a stranger." The answer returned is, " Softly ; your manhood is matter for cir- cumspection ; you lack a right sense of honour, the sense of duty, of morality, love of Fatherland, and love of the ideal. On account of this we must withhold our- selves from dealings with you which presuppose these qualities." None have ever attempted to substantially prove these accusations. At the most, now and again some individual Jew, an outcast from his race, and a reproach to humanity, has been triumphantly pointed out as a sample of Jewish character. But this is in accordance with a well-known law of psychology. " It is the usual practice of the human conscience to CLOSE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 155 seek some apparently reasonable foundation for the prejudices which have stirred up its passions. Folk-lore has long recognised this law of psychology, and has intentionally embodied it in expressive form. " The proverb runs thus : ' If a man wants to drown a dog, he says it is mad.' All manner of crimes are imputed to the Jews because their enemies would justify themselves in their abhorrence of the Jew. " I must give utterance to the painful truth : the nations who have emancipated the Jews have been self-deceived as to their true sentiments. In order for the emancipa- tion to have been complete it must have been perfected in goodwill ere ever it found expression in law. But this was not the case. The opposite was the case. The history of Jewish emancipation is one of the most remarkable chapters in the history of European thought. It is not come of the perception that a race has been shamefully sinned against, and that it is high time to atone for a thousand years of injustice ; it is simply the outcome of the straight-ruled geometrical manner of thought of French rationalism of the eighteenth century. This rationalism was simply bare logic without the slightest reference to living sensibility ; its principles were of the certainty of a mathematical axiom, and consisted in efforts to realise these visions of pure reason and to make them of account in the world. "Sooner let the colonies perish than one principle of reason," was the well-known cry, which shows the effect of rationalism on politics. " The philosophy of Rousseau and the encyclopaedists had led to the Declaration of the Rights of Man. From the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the inflexible logic of the men of the great Revolution had led on to Jewish emancipation. They established a legalised equality. To every man by nature certain rights belong ; 156 GENERAL CONDITION OF THE JEWS AT THE Jews are men ; it follows that they have human rights- And so the equal right of the Jew was proclaimed in France, and this from no sentiment of brotherly feeling for the Jew, but because logic required that it should be. Popular sentiment was against it, but the philosophy of the Revolution commanded that principle should rule over sentiment. Forgive me the expression which is free from any ingratitude, the men of 1792 emancipated the Jews purely from chivalry of principle. " The rest of Western Europe imitated the example of France, again, not from the force of sentiment, but because the civilised nations experienced a kind of moral obligation to make the attainments of the great Revolution their own. As France at the great Revolution gave to the world the metrical system of weights and measures, so it created also a kind of intellectual measure, which was willingly or unwillingly accepted by the other lands as the normal standard of civilisation. " A state which laid claim to a high grade of civilisation must necessarily have accepted some of the reforms of the great Revolution, such as representation of the people, freedom of the press, trial by jury, division of power, and so forth. Jewish emancipation became one of the indispensable signs of a highly civilised state, something like the piano which on no account must be missing in the drawing-room, though no single member of the family can play it. Thus in Eastern Europe Jewish emancipation came to pass not from heart com- pulsion, but merely in imitation of a fashion of the period ; not because the nations had resolved to extend the hand of brotherhood to the Jew, but because the leading spirits had recognised a certain European ideal of civilisation which required that their statutes should embrace Jewish emancipation. CLOSE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 157 " One land only remained uninfluenced by European thought, and this land was England. The English nation does not endure that important changes should be im- posed upon it from without ; it develops them from within. In England Jewish emancipation is a reality it is not merely decreed, but it is experienced. Long before it had become law it was perfected in the con- science of the nation. Without doubt a great and thoughtful nation will not be diverted from its course whether good or evil by any intellectual tendency of the time, and so it comes to pass that in England there are still individual instances of anti-Semitism. But then it is but an imitation of an old-world fashion re-dressed in modern foppish garb, giving itself out as the latest novelty from abroad and as something worthy of note. The account given by Mr. de Haas in his interesting report on the condition of the Jews in England is the most comforting in detail of all which will be laid before you. " Emancipation has wrought a complete change in the character of the Jew and made an entirely different man of him. " In pre-emancipation times the Jew without rights was an alien among the nations, but he never for a moment thought of resenting this. He felt himself to belong to a peculiar people who had nothing in common with the races of the lands in which they dwelt. He did not love the prescribed yellow badge on his mantle which proclaimed his nationality, because it excited the mob to treat him with violence, and justified their excesses in advance to the magistrates ; but of his own will he accentuated his peculiarity far more than the yellow badge could ever have done for him. When he was not confined in Ghetto walls by the civil authorities he made himself a Ghetto. He desired to dwell with his own, j 5 8 GENERAL CONDITION OF THE JEWS AT THE and to have none other than business connection with the Christian people of the lands. " To-day there is a suggestion of disgrace and humilia- tion in the word Ghetto, but whatever may have been its sense in the intention of the nations, it is not difficult to perceive that to the Jew of the past the Ghetto was no prison but a place of refuge. It expresses an historical truth to say that the Ghetto alone gave a chance to the Jew of surviving the horrible persecutions of the Middle Ages. Here he lived in a world of his own, where he dwelt apart, and which mentally and morally was his Fatherland. Here there dwelt also those for whose good esteem he cared, and with whom he could be of account ; here also was that public opinion whose approval was the aim of his ambition and whose contempt or disfavour was the punishment of unworthiness. Here all virtues peculiarly Jewish were appreciated, and more especially by their development was that admiration to be attained which is the eager desire of the human heart. What did it matter to them that outside the Ghetto men despised what they valued so much. They cared nothing for the opinion of those outside, for it was the opinion of ignorant foes. The Jew strove to please his own people, and the approval of these brethren was to him the whole sum of life. And thus the life of the Ghetto Jew was not stunted or crippled, but whole. Their condition outside the Ghetto was insecure, often seriously endangered, but within they developed their own peculiar life and thought, and there was nothing incomplete about them. They were harmonious beings in whom none of the usual elements of ordinary social life were wanting. The Jews were painfully aware of the value of the Ghetto as regards their religious life, and their one care was to compass it about with an invisible wall far higher and more impenetrable than the CLOSE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 159 stone walls which met the eye. All Jewish customs and practices were unconsciously directed to this one object of keeping the Jews distinct from the other peoples, to cherish the Jewish community, and to keep continually before the individual Jew the thought that to give up his distinctive peculiarities were to perish and be utterly lost "The aim at enforced separation was the origin of most of the ritual laws, the observation of which was considered by the average Jew as equivalent to his religion, and other purely external and strange marks of difference, principally of garb, and personal appear- ance which are common among Jews, were, when first received, religiously imposed, in order the more surely to guard their isolation. The Kaftan, temple locks, fur caps, and jargon, have certainly nothing in common with religion, yet in the East if a Jew attire himself in Western habit, and speak any language correctly, he is regarded with mistrust, as already almost an apostate from the faith, for he has destroyed those links which united him to his race, and they are aware that these alone secure adherence to their community, apart from which the individual Jew must perish morally and spiritually beyond hope of recovery. " This was the pyschology of the Jew of the Ghetto. Then came emancipation. " The law assured them that they were fully recognised citizens of the land of their birth. During its brief existence, it gave rise to expressions of sentiment from Christians, which gave the law a sound of hearty good- will. " Intoxicated with joy, the Jew hastened to break all bridges behind him. He had now another home, and no longer needed the Ghetto ; he had other associations, and needed no more to cling to the community of his 160 GENERAL CONDITION OF THE JEWS AT THE own faith. He adjusted his life immediately to the new order of things. Formerly all his effort was directed towards maintaining the strictest separation, now he did his utmost to approach, and to be in outward seeming like his neighbours. Instead of finding his safety, as hereto- fore, in legal observance, he gave himself up to mimicry of his Gentile countrymen. For one or two generations, according to the land in which he dwelt, this worked exceedingly well. The Jew might believe himself German, French, Italian, &c., and drew all the require- ments of his life from the same national source as his Gentile compatriots, a thing indispensable for the all- round development of the individual. " After a slumber of from thirty to sixty years anti- Semitism broke out afresh in the heart of the nations of Western Europe, revealing to the terrified Jew his actual position. He could still vote at the election of repre- sentatives of the people, but he found himself rudely excluded from all societies and assemblies of his Christian countrymen. He could still go where he would, but everywhere he met the warning : " No entrance to the Jew." He could still fulfil his duties as a citizen, but those privileges which are far more esteemed than the power to vote the acknowledged rights of talent and ability were unceremoniously denied to him. " This is the present condition of the emancipated Jew of Western Europe. His Jewish separatism is lost, but the nations make it plain to him that they still hold aloof from him. He shuns his fellow- Jew, for anti- Semitism has made him sick of them ; and his fellow- countrymen repulse him when he would be one with them. " He has lost his Ghetto home, and the land of his birth denies him a home. He has no ground beneath CLOSE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 161 his feet, no claim on any society to which he can belong as a full privileged and welcome member. Neither his personality or his services give him any claim on the justice, not to say goodwill of his Christian countrymen, while he has lost cohesion with his Jewish compatriots. He feels that the world is cruel to him, that there is no place on earth where he can find true sympathy when he desires and longs for it. " This is Jewish suffering in its moral aspect, which is far more bitter to endure than the physical, because it touches men of finer calibre and greater pride. "The emancipated Jew is unstable, uncertain in his relations with other men ; anxious in dealing with strangers, mistrustful even of the secret feelings of friends. He misuses his best powers in the wearisome attempt to conceal his own proper being, for he fears to be known as a Jew, and has never the joy of confessing himself for what he is in truth, which every thought and sentiment, every tone of voice, and every gesture of eye or finger, proclaims him to be. He is crippled in soul ; his outer life is not genuine, and consequently he is ridiculous, and abhorrent to all right-mindecl people, as everything that is false must be. All the Jews of Western Europe groan under this burden, and seek reliefer escape from it. They no longer hold that faith which gives patience to endure all trial because it recognises in it punishment from the hand of God who nevertheless loves them. They cherish no more the hope of the coming of Messiah, who should miraculously deliver and raise them to glory. Many seek to save themselves by forsaking Judaism, but anti-Semitism has no faith in the power of baptism to change the Jew, and even this hope of safety is but a poor one. Neither is it exactly recommendable that those whom it concerns should enter the Christian Church mostly still unbelievers 12 162 GENERAL CONDITION OF THE JEWS AT THE at heart with a blasphemous lie upon their lips. Of the minority of true believers I say nothing. 1 A new sect of Marranos has thus come into existence, of far worse character than the old, in whom there was a yearning after truth, heart-breaking pangs of conscience and repentance, which frequently led them to seek atone- ment and purification by giving themselves up delibe- rately and of their own free-will to the sufferings of martyrdom. 2 "The new Marranos take leave of Judaism in anger and exasperation, and at heart, unconsciously to them- selves, and to their own shame and humiliation, they carry over towards the Christian Church the hatred which impelled them to that lie. I dread the future 1 It is well that Dr. Nordau acknowledges that there is at least "a minority" among Jews who have become Christians from conviction. For the rest he may be assured that right- minded Protestant Christians deplore even more than he does, the fact that Jews should nominally profess Christianity for the sake of worldly advantage and be received into the Church with minds unconvinced and hearts unsubdued to the gospel. Hypo- crisy is detestable, whether practised by Jew or Gentile. ' The Marranos were those who in Spain at the time of the Inquisition nominally adopted Christianity, but in their hearts remained Jews and hated the Romish system which compelled them to live a lie. Many of them afterwards escaped more particularly to Holland, where they threw off the mask and went to the other extreme of Jewish fanaticism. Many of them were put to most cruel deaths by the Inquisition. Most of the Sep- hardi (or " Spanish") Jews in Holland and England are descen- dants of Marranos. It is a sad fact that thousands of Jews, who, however, have long ceased to cherish the Hope of Israel- harassed by legal and social disabilities are being baptized and received into the Greek and Roman Catholic communions, without a spark of faith in their hearts and without any real-acquaintance with the doctrines of Christianity. This can be no matter of congratulation to earnest-minded Christians, but rather of humiliation, that Churches which claim to be " Christian " should have sunk so low as to be satisfied with such a mere outward adherence. CLOSE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 163 development of this new sect of Marranos, whose mind is poisoned alike against those of its own blood and those who are not of kin, and whose self-esteem is disturbed by the consciousness of a lie at heart. Other Jews there are who anticipate relief from Zionism, which, to them, is no fulfilment of a mystic passage of Scripture, but the way to an existence in which the Jew at last shall acquire the right to enjoy these simplest original necessities of being which are matter of course to all men beside himself in both hemispheres, i.e., a secure social standing ; a kindly fellowship : the possi- bility of using his energies to develop his own proper being, instead of misusing them to his own suppression, falsification, or disguisement. " Finally, there are other Jews who are indignant at the lies of the Marranos, but who are too much attached to the lands of their birth not to feel the renunciation which Zionism involves, as too hard and cruel for them to accept. " These madly throw themselves away with the hidden hope that in the remodelling which must follow the dissolution of the present order of things, hatred of the Jew may not be considered a commodity worth retain- ing. Such is the aspect which Israel presents at the close of the nineteenth century. " To put it in one word, the Jews in their majority are a race of despised beggars. More diligent and inventive than the generality of Europeans, not to speak of lazy Asiatics and Africans, the Jew is condemned to the direst poverty, since he is not permitted the free use of his abilities. Consumed with the fever of uncontrol- lable thirst for knowledge, wherever this knowledge is attainable to others, he finds himself repulsed, a very Tantalus of knowledge in our most matter-of-fact times. 1 64 GENERAL CONDITION OF THE JEWS AT THE " Gifted with enormous energy, by means of which he always rises from the miry depths into which he has been thrown, and in which his foes would fain bury him once for all, he dashes his skull against the impene- trable icy barrier of hatred and scorn which encompasses him. Essentially a social being, whose very religion recommends eating with three and praying in company with ten, as pleasing to God, he finds himself excluded from ordinary intercourse with his fellow-countrymen, and condemned to a tragic isolation. " One charge brought against the Jew is that he is ambitious. He, however, only strives for superiority because equality is denied him. He is reproached for his fellow-feeling with Jews the wide world over, but it is rather his misfortune that all Jewish solidarity ceased with the first sweet word of emancipation ; that in order to make room for the sole sway of love of fatherland he tore the last rays of Jewish unity from his heart. " Dazed with the storm of anti-Semitic accusations, he is beside himself, and often nigh believing himself the physical and mental monster which his deadly enemies represent him to be. Not seldom do we hear him say that he must learn from his foes, and seek to cure himself of the evils which they point out, not considering that the reproaches of the anti-Semites can work him no good, since they are not the result of observation of actual characteristics, but come of the working out of a law of psychology by which children, savages, and fools make other beings or things responsible for their own sufferings, and visit ill-will upon them. At the time of the Black Death the Jews were accused of poisoning the wells ; to-day the corn merchants accuse them of beating down the price of grain ; the artisans, of destroying small trades ; and the Conservatives that CLOSE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 165 they are in their principles opposed to a constitutional form of government. "Where no Jews exist, other associations, mostly foreigners, or even native minorities or societies, are accused of these evils. " In truth this hatred of the Jews proves nothing against the accused ; it proves only that they were already hated when their enemies, in their misfortune, began to look about for a scapegoat. " This picture would be imperfect were I not to add another feature. A saying held to be true by grave and thoughtful men, not necessarily anti-Semites, is that the Jews possess all the riches of the earth, and have all power and rule in their hands. These unhappy ones the possessors of power ! These who are not even in a position to protect their co-religionists against a miser- able rabble of Arabs, Moors, or Persians, who thirst for their blood ! These Jews, the personification of Mam- mon, of whom by far the greater number own not even a stone whereon to lay their head, or rag to cover their nakedness ! This is the mockery which drops poison into the wound which hatred has struck. True, there are some few Jews superfluously rich whose rumoured millions attract attention far and wide, but what has Israel to do with these? Most of them a minority, I willingly except belong to the lowest grades in Jewry, with a moral adaptation for callings in which millions are quickly made ask me not how ! " In an ordinary independent Jewish community such men could never rise to the esteem of their brethren, or receive from them titles of honour such as those with which they are decorated by Christian societies. " These money-pots, who despise what we honour and honour what we despise, know nothing of the Judaism of the prophets and the Tanaim ; of Hillel, Philo, 166 GENERAL CONDITION OF THE JEWS Ibn Gabirol, Jehuda Halevy, Ben Maimon, Spinoza, and Heine. "These Jews are the principal excuse for this new Jew-hatred, the causes of which are more economic than religious in their nature. For Judaism which suffers on their account, they have done nothing beyond throwing an alms which cost them nothing, and which keeps alive the cancer of Schnorring from which Judaism suffers. For ideal purposes they have never stretched out a helping hand, nor ever will. " Many of them forsake Judaism, and we wish them good speed, only regretting that they are at all of Jewish blood, though but of the dregs. " No one should be indifferent to the suffering of the Jews, neither Christian nor Jew. It is a great sin to let a nation whose worst enemies do not deny that it is highly gifted to perish mentally and physically. It is a sin against the nation, and a sin against civilisation in general, in whose service it would be no indifferent co-worker. "It may also become a grave danger to the nations to have embittered men of indomitable will, the weight of whose influence for good or evil is far above that of average men, and thus to render them opposed to the constituted order of things. " Micro-biology tells us that there exist tiny organisms which are perfectly harmless, so long as they live in the open air, but become the cause of frightful disease when deprived of oxygen. " Governments and nations may well beware lest the Jews in like case become a cause of danger to them. Sorely may they have to repent any attempt to exter- minate the Jew, who, as a result of their own guilt, has become an occasion of hurt to them." Ill THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE JEWS AND CAUSES OF JEWISH UNBELIEF IN CHRIST, FROM A CHRISTIAN POINT OF VIEW Ill THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE JEWS AND CAUSES OF JEWISH UNBELIEF IN CHRIST, FROM A CHRISTIAN POINT OF VIEW I HAVE special pleasure in embodying in my bird's- eye view of the Jewish nation the following able summary of their religious condition by my dear friend, Rev. C. A. Schonberger : The present condition of the Jews is intimately connected with their past history, with the dealings of God, of the Lord Jesus, and of the Apostles with them, as narrated in the Old Testament Scriptures, the Gospels, the book of Acts, and the Epistles. All ended, as we know, in the judgment which ultimately came upon them in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and in their forced dispersion among all the nations of the earth. We know that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah, that He came to His "own" and His own received Him not. How easy should it have been for them to receive Him, for He declared unto them the glad tidings of salvation. He brought to them the fulness of truth and grace of that God who had been previously declared to them by Moses and the Prophets. 169 i ;o RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE JEWS AND Me honoured the law, revealing its depth, and came not to destroy but to fulfil it. As an Israelite He came to Israelites. As a Prophet He spake to them as to a people who had been educated and trained by Prophets. He did everything that superhuman wisdom and love could devise in order to win them to Himself, to gather them as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but they would not. He was " rejected and despised " by the very people whose " Crown and Glory " He was to be. Rejecting Him, they rejected Jehovah Himself, the counsel of God and eternal life. How can we understand this ? What can be the true explanation ? Well, it is this : their hearts were not right with God ; they had the form of godliness, but knew not, and denied the power thereof. They boasted of the Temple, and all the while their hearts did not thirst after true communion with the living God. They boasted of the predictions of a Messiah which were given to them, but they did not sigh with broken and contrite hearts after true redemption. They were zealous for the law of God without understanding the spirituality of that law, and instead of its leading them to humble themselves and lament their unworthiness, they rather boasted and prided themselves in the way in which they kept it : and thus it was that hardness as well as blindness of heart fell upon them, and that the judgment of God visited His own beloved nation. It was a terrible visitation. No other nation has ever tasted the bitterness of the cup of the indignation of the Lord like Israel. The word of Amos became true to the letter "You only have I known of all the families of the earth : therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." They were driven away from their beloved city, and having seen the Temple, the sanctuary of the Most High, in which the glory of the Lord was CAUSES OF JEWISH UNBELIEF IN CHRIST 171 revealed, demolished, they wandered fugitives and exiles, till they were scattered over the- whole earth. God's judgment of Israel is the most terrible thing in history yet they have been preserved to this very day through the power of that very God who punished them so terribly. Here they are a monument of the truth of God's Word a monument, also, of God's faithful- ness. None of the persecutions which they have endured have availed to destroy them, neither have they broken their energy or subdued their indomitable will, or crushed their power of mind ; and no sooner was the great pressure which the nations so-called Christian nations put upon them, removed, than we see them prosper in every country, and take leading positions in every sphere of life, in commerce and politics, as well as in literature and art, showing that the Lord God has made them to be a peculiar people ; a nation to be perpetuated, and that it was He who gave them nerve to endure, in order that in the future, when His grace shall melt their hearts, they may be a mighty instrument to show forth His praise. There is still visible among scattered Israel something of blessing and influence, the effect of God's training through so many centuries. Their history since the rejection of Christ is unspeakably sad, yet we cannot help noticing that in the midst of Christless Israel some traces of the grandeur and beauty of their Father's house still linger. Behold their zeal for God, their zeal for the Scriptures, their zeal for the Sabbath day; behold the sacrifices which they make in order to carry out the injunctions of the law. Yes, there are many features in the Jewish character which we cannot explain in any other way than this that there is still a blessing resting on them, that the voice of God which was heard upon Sinai has still its echo in their hearts and consciences, and that 172 RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE JEWS AND the prayers which have been offered up on their behalf by patriarchs, kings, prophets and saints, are still held in remembrance before the throne of God. But when we look more closely at their religious condition, we find that without Jesus, who is both the centre of the Scriptures, and the key to open them, they are not able to understand the full and true meaning of the Scriptures. They reverence them, they have counted all the verses of the holy Book, and the exact number of its letters, and which is the middle verse and letter of each particular book of the Scriptures. They have watched over every iota and tittle of that record which they believe, and justly believe, was given them by God Himself. They hold in high esteem their Rabbis, who devote their lives to the study of the law and oracles of God ; and yet not knowing the centre and star of the Scriptures, not knowing that Jesus is the Messiah, not knowing the counsel of God, that through suffering He should enter into glory, they are not able to understand the scope of the Scriptures. All their minute knowledge of the letter does not help them. They cannot enter into the spirit of it. Both the Law and the Prophets must remain an enigma to them, for as the greater and more vital part of the law has vanished, as the Levitical dispensation has disappeared, as the Temple has been destroyed, as the sacrifices are no more offered, as the Priesthood, with its head, the High Priest, no more exists, oh! how impossible it is for them to account for the removal of things which God established, the discontinuance of those holy symbols which God Him- self instituted, and the absence of the glory. Israel at present is exactly in the same condition as their ancestors were in the wilderness, when Moses tarried in the mount and the people said, " We do not know what has become of this Moses," and appealed to CAUSES OF JEWISH UNBELIEF IN CHRIST 173 Aaron, " Now go and make us gods, for gods we must have." And so it is that Israel for the last eighteen centuries says " Moses " the whole Levitical dis- pensation, has been taken from us, our Temple is destroyed, our sacrifices are no longer offered, our whole holy ritual is gone. What shall we do ? We do not understand it. We must make some substitute for that which we have lost. We must invent something to take the place of these sacrifices. We must adopt some theory instead of the theory which God has given to us in His own Word. And thus it is that the Bible has become a sealed book to them, Look at the Law of Moses, of which they pride them- selves and boast to this very day. We know that that Law is so deep that it takes cognisance of the inmost secret springs of our life ; that it is so high that it aims at nothing less than love to God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength ; that it is so broad and comprehensive that it takes notice of all the details of our daily life, of our thoughts and hidden motives, as well as of our outward actions ; that it is, indeed, the Law of God, divine and wonderful. But, alas ! " the People of the Law " did not and do not understand its true meaning. Why was Jesus so delighted when that scribe said to Him that to love God with all the heart and to love our neighbours as ourselves was the whole law ? Why was the Saviour so pleased with him that He replied, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God " ? Why ? Because it was a rare thing to find a man who in sincerity of heart and mind understood the drift of the Law, its true meaning and original purpose, and who was thus able to condense all the different precepts and injunctions into this, its real aim love to God and to our neighbour. This had been and yet is the fatal error of Israel, that i 7 4 RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE JEWS AND instead of understanding the unity of the Law, they have regarded the Law as a compact which God made with them, in which He laid down a number of regulations ; and that if they observed so many of the 613 command- ments into which the scribes have divided it, they gave themselves credit for honouring it, forgetting that they could not break one commandment without breaking all, as it is so beautifully brought out in the Epistle of James " Do you not know that the Law is one ? " Do you not know that the Law is like a body, like a living organism, and that if you break one commandment you break the whole Law ? That if you transgress the will of God in one particular point you sin against God ? But Israel did not understand the unity of the Law, or its spirituality, and thus the purpose of the Law was not attained in them. What was the real purpose of the Law? The Law was not given that people should be saved by it, or feel comfortable under it It was given to show people how utterly corrupt is the heart from which comes our outer life ; to show people how exceedingly sinful sin is in the sight of God. It was not given for life, but for death, to bring people to despair about the depravity of their moral nature. In one word it was given that the heart should be broken, and not that it should become proud. In that Pharisee who went into the Temple to pray, enumerating before God his good deeds, and thanking God that he was not like other people, we have a striking example of mis- conception of the Law. In that man and all like him, the object of the Law is frustrated. He thought he had a surplus of credit in his account with God. He came as one eminent, distinguished, superior to all others, who had only to thank God for his own excellences. This Pharisee so much misunderstood the meaning of the Law that he exactly answers to those Romanists who CAUSES OF JEWISH UNBELIEF IN CHRIST 175 imagine that they can do more than both the Law and the Gospel require, and that their so-called saints have actually surpassed the requirements of God, and have thus accumulated merits beyond their own need, which may avail for others also. To such as these the Law in the one case, and the Gospel in the other, have become a cause of pride in the sight of God, instead of humility, and thus it is with the Jews to this day. They are still going about to establish a righteousness of their own, through their own works and merits, and they do not know that there is only one true righteousness for sinners, even the righteousness of God for us. They have the Scriptures, yet are not able to understand them, seeing that the typical dispensation has dis- appeared without being fulfilled. They have the Law, but are not humbled by it, since it has not wrought in them knowledge and conviction of their sin. Oh ! what a sad picture of Israel ! The truth which God ever impressed upon Israel was that in themselves they had nothing but what was bad, but that He was their salva- tion, He and He alone. This is almost entirely hidden from their eyes. That one expression which runs through the whole of the Old Testament, "My righteousness," is sealed to them ; they do not under- stand it. " Jehovah Zidkenu " (Jehovah our righteous- ness) they do not know, their supposed own righteousness stands in the way ; they think that this is sufficient, and sometimes they think it more than sufficient. This misunderstanding of the law and the sad frustra- tion of its object, dates far back in the history of Israel. The prophets had to contend with those who either made the law void or made it merely external, and the false prophets and their followers did their best to blind the people to its unity and spirituality. Soon after the return from Babylon the scribes and teachers of the law 176 RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE JEWS AND abounded, and in the course of time they acquired great power and influence until at last we have those doctors of the law, the Pharisees and Scribes, who are pictured to us in the Gospels, and concerning whom Jesus said that they made the Word of God void through their traditions. Tradition ! Why is it so dangerous ? Because it is heaped upon the Word ; because ultimately the Word of God becomes hidden by it, and lost sight of. They did not only corrupt the Word of God by their tra- ditions, but these theologians and teachers put them- selves between God and the people, drawing away the hearts of the people from God. And so it is that Israel is not only not able to understand the true meaning of the Scriptures, but is altogether misled by the traditions and additions of the elders, following much more their self-invented laws and regulations than the pure and God-ward teaching of the Word of the living God. This is just what Isaiah said : " O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths." And again : " For the leaders of this people cause them to err ; and they that are led of them are destroyed." Just what Jesus said also : " Blind leaders of the blind." And again : "Your house shall be left unto you desolate." The house is there, the foundations, the walls, the chambers. All is there ; the name of Jehovah, the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath, Passover, Pentecost, the Day of Atonement, the Festival of Tabernacles. It is all there, but it is desolate! He is not there. His life- giving Spirit is not there. They celebrate the Passover, but where is the Lamb which God has ordained for Him- self as a sacrifice ? They keep the Day of Atonement, but where is that blood without the shedding of which there is no remission of sin? They read the law of Moses, they peruse the words of the prophets, but a vail CAUSES OF JEWISH UNBELIEF IN CHRIST 177 is on their hearts, they cannot see Him of whom Moses and the Prophets testify. They weep, they mourn and lament over the destruction of Jerusalem, but they have not yet acknowleged the one great national sin on account of which this evil has come upon them. Joseph's brethren as recently shown in the Zionist Congress at Basle are in sore distress, but they have never yet confessed what they have done to their brother Joseph-Jesus. Oh, it is very sad ! And well may we have continual sorrow in our hearts on account of Israel. But there is yet another aspect of Israel which is still more melancholy. They have not learned faith in Christ from Christians, but that which they have taken in, is the unbelief of the so-called Christian world. The more educated Jews are well acquainted with everything that is said and written by nominal Christians and anti- Christians against Christ and Christianity. Masses of Jews all over the world speak now on this wise : " We do not see any miracles nowadays, so we do not believe that miracles have ever been. Moses, David, the Prophets, and Jesus were great men, wise men, men of great moral force and character. We respect, we honour them but there has been great progress in everything since their day, and we are not bound to receive what they teach, especially as regards the supernatural." A considerable number of Jews in all lands are decidedly rationalistic and not a few of them are outspoken agnostics, who have renounced all the promises of God to their fathers and are sunk in utter worldliness. They say : " Things remain as they were from the beginning. Where is the promise of the Messiah's kingdom of righteousness and peace ? " Thus in proportion as the old-fashioned Talmudism lost its hold upon the minds of the Jews, the influences 13 178 RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE JEWS AND of rationalism and scepticism have wrought great havoc among them, leading to downright unbelief in all positive and revealed religion. There are now everywhere Jews to be found who believe in the Old Testament just as little as in the New. And yet they keep together. What power is it that holds them together ? We know from the Word of God that it is God, the God of Israel, who keeps them together. Within the last twenty years the national consciousness of the Jews has been once more roused from its slumber, and now as was lately shown at the Zionist Congress it is more vigorous than ever before. They feel that they are a nation, and separate from the other nations. They feel they are still " a peculiar people," though dispersed among so many nations. They feel something of the peculiar position which God has assigned to them in the world, although they do not know exactly what it is. Thus we have this strange and contradictory condition of things. On the one hand they seem to be falling away from their old faith, and on the other they are drawing more closely together, reviving their national feeling. But Israel's nationality is unlike all other nationalities. It is more than natural, there is something in it which is beyond nature. Verily " the dry and dead bones " of Ezekiel's vision and " their coming together" were presented to us in that much spoken of Zionist Congress, but until the Spirit of the Lord breathe upon them there will be no life. Jesus, and Jesus alone, the " Prince of Life," the " Living One," can bring life to this nation. The truth and mystery of Israel is Jesus. What Israel is without Him is manifest, what Israel shall be when it will see and acknowledge and adore Him is beyond human thought, but it is described with prophetic and apostolic pens in the Scriptures. Without Him they do not know the CAUSES OF JEWISH UNBELIEF IN CHRIST 179 way of God, nor the truth of God, nor that life which is life indeed. Jesus is the Way : " No man cometh to the Father but by Me." There is no other way. Jesus is the Truth, the full and whole truth of God : " The law was given by Moses ; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." And Jesus is Life : " This is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." Although the Jews have the law, they cannot come to God, because Jesus is the Way. Although they have the Old Testament, they do not know the truth, because Jesus is the Truth and Life ! Until we come to see Jesus, until we come to the atonement He made for us, until we come to know the "Lamb of God," we do not know God the Father. Yes, there are sighs ; there are misgivings ; there are fears ; there are mournings ; there are longings, in the human heart towards God but adoption and true spiritual life there is none, where Christ has not kindled it. Israel in its present state, the Christless Israel, shows this to the whole world. Notwithstanding the great activity and energy of the religious life of the Jews, they have we say it with great sorrow no life indeed what they have is all carnal and this accounts for the phenomena that they have not been of much spiritual use to the world since Christ's coming. In Christ alone will Israel live again and be a blessing to the world. IV RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS AND SECTS AMONG THE JEWISH PEOPLE IV RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS AND SECTS AMONG THE JEWISH PEOPLE T3 ELIGIOUSLY, the Jewish nation over the whole Xx. globe may be divided into four classes. Without attempting to describe, I may just enumerate them, as this may help to form a sound judgment on the question of Jewish evangelisation. (a) First, there are the ordinary Talmudical or Con- servative Jews, embracing by far the largest part of the whole nation, and answering in many respects to the Pharisees in the days of Christ. Of most of these it may be said that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. They still cling to and are buoyed up in all times of persecution and suffering, by the hope of the speedy coming of the long looked-for Messiah, and a restoration to their own land. Their education is purely religious, or "Jewish." It begins with the Hebrew alphabet, goes on to the Prayer-Book, and from that to the Hebrew Scriptures, and culminates with that " encyclopaedia of human wisdom and human folly," as Dean Milman has well styled the Talmud, in which the mental ingenuity of the Jew finds sufficient scope for all the rest of his life. Of this class of Jews, forming, as we have said, the 183 184 RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS AND SECTS bulk of the nation, it may truly be said that they are " a people dwelling alone and not reckoned among the nations," of whose history, ways of thinking, and even language, they are ignorant. They move in a world of ideas of their own which are scarcely comprehensible to the ordinary Gentile. Like the Pharisees of old, they are often indiscrimi- nately condemned as hypocrites or fanatics ; but the truth is that, as amongst the Pharisees in the days of Christ, so among the Talmudical Jews, there are many Nathanaels, of whom it may be said that they are " according to the law, blameless " men walking con- sistently according to the light they have, and whose lives are noble examples of religious zeal and unselfish- ness ; though, alas ! it is true also that the minds of most have been perverted and their sense of sin blunted by the traditions of men, so that they are vainly going about seeking to establish a righteousness of their own. (&) Next we have the famous sect of the Chassidiin, which originated with that remarkable man Rabbi Israel Baalshem during the eighteenth century, and which has a following of perhaps three or four hundred thousand, with Galicia and Southern Russia as its strongholds. These have turned somewhat from the letter of Talmudism, and have gone in for the mysticism of the Kabbalah. They are ascetic in practice, and their particular tenets are " that purity and holiness, and not learning or knowledge of the Talmud, is the great requisite for obtaining a high spiritual life, and that the Holy Spirit operates still through certain chosen vehicles called Zadikim (righteous ones), who are endowed with miraculous gifts, and who are particularly qualified to be media- tors between God and their believing disciples." To the Chassid, the Zadik, or miracle-working Rabbi, is the same as the Pope to the bigoted Roman Catholic. AMONG THE JEWISH PEOPLE 185 Many will sell all they have and undergo all sorts of privation in order to make a pilgrimage to the man whom they believe to stand in the nearest possible relationship to God. To get the Rabbi's blessing is worth more to them than the whole world. There is nothing in a Chassid's estimation which the Zadik cannot attain by his prayers, and many are the books which contain the records of the miracles which he works. As to his cabalistic wisdom, it is simply wonderful. A story is told of a number of Chassidim on their way to Zadagora, to visit the great Rabbi, who fell in with another party who were returning after having seen him. Those going interrogated the party re- turning, who expressed their admiration as follows : " On Freitag zu nacht (commencement of Sabbath) the Rabbi preached ! Oh, so wonderfully ! Only the greatest saints present could understand what he said ! On Sabbath morning, the Rabbi spoke again, and this time it was marvellous ! He spoke so wonder- fully that not even the greatest saints present could understand him. Only he himself knew what he said ! Again on Sabbath evening the Rabbi spoke, and truly this time it surpassed all in wonder, for no saint could understand, neither could he understand himself what he said God only could understand ! " Awed and delighted with this description, proving the extraordinary sanctity of the man they were going to see, the interrogators pressed on their way. The Chassidic Jews hold the maxim that " Scripture is to be interpreted, not according to the letter, but according to the spirit," around which has grown the huge pile of Cabalistic literature, much of which stands in the same relation to Judaism as the writings of Svvedenborg to Christianity. 1 86 RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS AND SECTS The following extract from my journal of a visit to the Bukowina in 1898, when my companion, a Swedish missionary, and myself paid a visit to Zadagora, the seat of perhaps the most noted of the Jewish popes, may be of interest: "There are quite a number of ' Zadikim ' in Galicia and Russia, and while there is no doubt that some are downright impostors, who trade on the ignorant credulity of their devotees, there are others whose days and nights are wholly given over to religious and ascetic practices, and who are mistakenly seeking holiness and purity by a life of mere outward obser- vances. Among all these Zadikim the one in Zadagora has been perhaps the most famous, though in recent years, owing to a dispute among the brothers as to the succession, and owing to the fact that one of the sons of the late Zadik was suspected of being ' apikoress,' or, as some say, a secret Christian, on which account he met an untimely end, the family has lost somewhat in prestige. But still the road from Czernowitz to Zadagora, especially on a Friday, or before a great festival, may be seen lined with vehicles carrying pilgrims to this Jewish pope, who lives like a king in a palace, while the town itself is one of the poorest and filthiest in Galicia. " It was about eleven o'clock when we arrived, and accompanied by Mr. Reichman, colporteur of the British and Foreign Bible Society in Czernowitz, who came with us, made our way first of all to the palace, and the splendid private synagogue of the Rabbi, which stands opposite to it. The Rabbi, we found on inquiry, was still at his morning prayers, all by himself in a room adjoining the synagogue, but we might see the eldest son and future Zadik in the Beth-hammedrash. But already before we entered, some in talith (praying- shawl) and phylacteries came to the threshold gazing AMONG THE JEWISH PEOPLE 187 at the three strangers without peyoth (side-locks), which to the Chassid is a sure sign of apostasy. " Inside by a corner of the ' Oren Kodesh ' (' the ark of the law'), the Rabbi's eldest son, and heir- apparent, in a fine talith, and extra large phylacteries, stood, screened off from the others, finishing his prayers; while the gabbai (his attendant) was at hand waiting to carry his praying-bag and escort him to his house. On a long table to one side were lying about volumes of the Talmud and Cabalistic works, and while looking at some of them a number of ' saints ' gathered round to gaze at us. After a little the Schamess (beadle) came to tell us that the Rabbi would soon be going across from his praying-room to his palace, and that if we would stand by the entrance we could see him well. As to speaking with him, such a privilege is not granted to every one, and certainly not without an appointment, and a good deal of backsheesh to the Gabbaim, or body- guard, who are sometimes great rogues. " I happened to stand close to the side entrance of his private synagogue, when suddenly the door opened and the Zadik himself, a finely-built, tall man in silk kaftan, and with long beard and peyoth, walked out; as he passed me he steadily gazed at me for a moment, and then stopped and held out his hand, saying, ' Schalom aleichem.' I had just time to answer, ' Schalom-al-yedai- sar-Ha-Schalom' ('Peace through the Prince of peace'), when he was surrounded by two or three of the zealous Gabbaim, and passed on. The surprise among the company of the Chassidim, who stood looking on, was very great. That the Zadik should give his hand and say 'Schalom' to a suspicious stranger, perhaps an 'apikoress' was something wonderful. On the piece of road between the synagogue and his palace the Rabbi was besieged by a number of women, who stood with pieces of paper :88 RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS AND SECTS in their hands, on which were written requests for par- ticular objects, for which they wanted his intercession ; these they thrust on him imploringly. Some of these poor women had no doubt come long distances, and it was rather sad to see the stalwart, stout Gabbaim push them aside rather pitilessly, so that only two or three of the papers reached the Rabbi's hands. We were sad too, beyond measure, to see the credulity of these people, and their readiness to put confidence in their poor blind leaders, while all the time forgetting the true ' Zadik,' the alone ' righteous One,' who is at the right hand of the Father, and whose intercession alone can prevail." (c) Thirdly, we have the ever-growing Reformed section, of which the Jewish philosopher, Moses Men- delssohn, who was born in Dessau, Prussia, in 1729, is generally regarded as the father. This division includes Jews of very diverse opinions, ranging from those who only reject the traditions of the Rabbis, to those who have thrown overboard all revealed religion, and are avowedly rationalistic if not infidel. The strongholds of Reformed Judaism are Germany, Austria-Hungary, and America, though their "Temples" are multiplying even in Russia and Chassidic Galicia. As the Talmudic and Chassidic Jews may be said to be the representatives of the Pharisees of the time of Christ, so these Reformed Jews are in true succession of Sadducees, as may be gathered from the following Con- fession of Faith, or rather of unbelief, drawn up in 1888 by Dr. Krauskopf, head of the "Reformed" Jewish Community of Philadelphia : " We discard the belief in a God who is man magnified, who has his abode some- where in the interstellar spaces. We discard the belief that the Bible was written by God, and that its teachings are therefore infallible. . , . We discard the belief in the AMONG THE JEWISH PEOPLE 189 coming of a human Messiah who will lead us back to Palestine. . . . We discard the belief in bodily resurrec- tion, hell torments, all Biblical and Rabbinical beliefs, rites, and ceremonies and institutions, which neither elevate nor sanctify our lives." (d) The fourth religious division is numerically small, but is in some respects the most interesting section of the dispersed people. I refer to the Karaim, who may be styled the Protestants among the Jews, having never submitted to the yoke of the Talmud, and kept only to the written law and the prophets, and who have in con- sequence been much persecuted by the Rabbis and their followers, who have sometimes shown more bitterness against them than even against the Gentiles. Their stronghold is in the Crimea on the Black Sea, but there are small communities of them in other parts of Northern and Eastern Europe, and in the Orient They are in many respects different from Talmudic Jews, with whom they do not intermarry, and they have also been treated differently by the governments in the lands where they are settled. Thus, for instance, in Russia they enjoy full civil rights, while the four or five million of their Rabbinic brethren do not. Without entering into the somewhat difficult question of their origin, and the history of the development of their doctrines, I append here an extract from my journal written in Cairo on March 13, 1898: "Nine years ago, when I first came in contact with the Karaites in Cairo, I had a most interesting experience with the Rabbi in the synagogue, where I met him by appoint- ment, accompanied by two English Christian gentlemen. Unlike what is customary on entering the synagogues of the Talmudic Jews, we had to take off our boots at the door, and walk inside in our socks. This practice, the Rabbi told us, they base on God's command to Moses in Exod. iii. 5." igo RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS AND SECTS The following is a note in my diary written at that time : " The synagogue is a plain but substantial structure, looking almost new. It was built thirty-five years ago by special permission obtained from the Sultan of Turkey, by their chief Rabbi in Constantinople. Up to that time they used to meet in a catacomb, in the ground just below where their synagogue now stands. Until they received permission to build the synagogue they had no civil rights whatever, and the other Jews even intrigued against them with the authorities to have them expelled from the city, but now, thanks partly to the American and to some of the European Consuls, their existence is recognised, and their religion tolerated. " This small Karaite community has the honour of possessing one of the oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament in existence. It is a copy made in Tiberias, on the Lake of Galilee, by a learned Karaite Rabbi, who must have been a grand scribe, for it is beautifully written in the large square Hebrew characters. "It is not a scroll, as is often the case with old Hebrew manuscripts, but written on separate large square leaves of parchment, in a case of thin wood covered with a thin coating of leather. Originally it was a complete copy of the Old Testament Scriptures, but now the whole book of Job, part of the Pentateuch, and other fragments are missing. The first page, how- ever, which has been photographed for the Bodleian Library, and on which is the Jewish date (which I am sorry I neglected to copy) is preserved all right. It begins with a preface by the copyist, which ends with a prayer, in which the passage occurs, ' This is the Word of God ; may nothing be taken from it, and nothing be added to it' AMONG THE JEWISH PEOPLE 19! " I well remember a touching incident of this first visit. We were examining the old manuscript and some of their printed books, when I suddenly asked the Rabbi to tell us what he thought was the greatest need of the Jewish people. Without a moment's hesitation he replied, ' The coming of the King Messiah, the Son of David.' ' We, and millions of others,' I said, ' believe that the Son of David has already appeared in the time of the second Temple.' He remained silent for a moment, and then said, ' I know that the Protestants believe this, but our eyes have not yet seen the salvation of God.' There was something pathetic in his tone, and I could not but lift up my heart to God that the time may soon come when he, and all Israel, will ' see the salvation of God ' in the Person of Jesus, who was so called because ' He shall save His people from their sin.' Before we parted on that occasion I offered him a New Testament. He thanked me, saying that he had one given him twenty years before in Constantinople, by a friend now dead, which he would read. You can imagine that I was eager to see this old man again. With that object in view we went to the Karaite synagogue on Friday evening, at the commencement of the Sabbath, and it was a touching sight which there met our view. Unlike the different sects of Rabbinical Jews, the Karaites kneel in prayer. There was no candle or any artificial light in the building, as they are very strict in reference to the command, ' Thou shalt kindle no fire in thy dwellings on the Sabbath day.' It was service time, and the plain but neat and pleasant building, in which there are no seats, was fairly filled with men, all bending low on their knees, while my old friend the Rabbi, whom we could discern in the dim light at the other end of the building before the ark of the law, also on his knees, was leading their prayers, I 9 2 RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS AND SECTS to which the whole congregation responded now and again. Some of their prayers are expressive of an intense longing for the appearing of the Deliverer, and for ' the raising up of the horn of David.' Poor Israel ! If they would but look up and around them, they would see the very One for whom they have so long been waiting and praying, looking down upon them with infinite compassion from the right hand of the Father, saying, 'Oh, that My people had hearkened to My voice, and that Israel had known the day of His visitation then had their peace been as a river, and their righteousness as the waves of the sea ' ; then would Israel, instead of being a proverb and a by-word, be a praise and glory in the midst of the earth. But yet for a little while longer these things are hid from their eyes, until the Spirit be poured upon them from on high, and Israel looks upon ' Him whom they have pierced.' We waited till service was over, and then spoke a few words to the Rabbi, who appointed to meet us at his house this morning. " The people all waited till the Rabbi passed to his house, which is a little distance off, before they dispersed. His noble, patriarchal figure in flowing Sabbath robes and turban, walking with slow steps in all Oriental dignity, brought up to one's mind an ideal picture of our father Abraham, or of the high priest Aaron. " At ten this morning we arrived at his house, and were kindly welcomed by him on the threshold. His wife soon brought us lemonade, and we felt quite at home. Mr. Gordon drew out his sympathy by telling him that we feel much drawn to the Karaite Jews, because we too reject the Talmud and Rabbinical tradition, and take our stand on the Word of God, the difference between us and them being that we have not only the Old, but also the New Testament, in which we AMONG THE JEWISH PEOPLE 193 find the completion and hope given to our fathers. He told us that about thirty-five years ago, when he was a teacher in Constantinople, he had a friend, a Hebrew Christian, whom, said he, ' I loved as a brother,' who used to talk to him of these same things. It was this same friend, now many years dead, who gave him the New Testament. We were very happy to find that he was not now unacquainted with the contents of that blessed Book, and that he spoke of it with respect. In the course of our interview I had the privilege of reading to him several long passages out of the Gospels and portions of Rom. ix., x., and xi., from which we wanted to show him what Christians believe in reference to Israel's future, and how that future is wholly bound up with Christ. We remained about an hour and a half with him, and before parting we presented him with several Hebrew pamphlets, setting forth the claims of our Lord Jesus, which he very gladly accepted." The following short entry in my journal, written on May 17, 1897, refers to a visit paid to another Karaite community in quite a different part of the world : " At 2.5 we arrived in Halicz, which is about 2|- miles from the railway station. "It is beautifully situated on the right bank of the Dniester within sight of the Carpathians, and is com- manded by a hill which is crowned by a picturesque ruin of an ancient castle. Halicz was once the residence of the great Ruthanian lords, and from its name is supposed to be derived ' Galicia,' the name of the province, which was written at one time ' Haliczia.' There are a considerable number of Jews in Halicz, but our interest centred chiefly on the Karaite com- munity. " It seems difficult to ascertain how this small com- munity found its way to the borders of the Bukowina, 194 RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS AND SECTS they themselves not being very enlightened in their history ; but this much is clear, that they were invited to settle there by a Polish king during the period of the Tartar invasion, to act as interpreters, Tartar being the language which the Karaim speak among themselves. "Their quarter, which is inhabited exclusively by them, looks most picturesque, consisting of a very irregular long street of low, white houses. One is struck with the neatness and cleanliness of their dwellings both inside and out, as compared with the other Jews. The most prominent building is their temple, or synagogue, which has a very interesting in- scription outside, which is painted in the spaces of the design known as the ' Magin David ' (Shield of David, the traditional coat-of-arms of the Davidic house), a double crossed triangle. " In the centre are the words, ' This is the house of Jehovah, the great God. 1 In the outside spaces of the double triangle there is the pathetic prayer of Psa. Ixxxiv. 9, ' Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of Thine Anointed.' In the inside spaces there is the other similar passage from Psa. Ixxxix. 1 8, 'For with Jehovah is our Shield, and with the Holy One of Israel is our King,' and below, in a straight line, are the words, ' For Jehovah God is a Sun and Shield.' " We could not help longing for the day when Israel, with eyes open to the glory of Christ, will turn the above into prayers of their hearts, and ask God to look, not on them and their sins, but on the face of His Anointed, who is both Israel's Sun and Shield ! "After awhile the Haham, or one who temporarily acts as such, brought the keys and took us inside the synagogue. Several of his congregation followed. They seemed suspicious of us at first, the reason being, as I AMONG THE JEWISH PEOPLE 195 afterwards gathered, that some unscrupulous Jews who had visited the place had abused the confidence of the simple-minded Karaim, and stolen some of their valuable books and manuscripts. However, they soon convinced themselves that we were not of that class, and became quite frank and at ease in their manner. They showed us their remaining treasures in the way of books and manuscripts, and as they were explaining to us the history of an old copy of the Torah, we opened it at several places on the reader's desk, and pointed them to a few Messianic passages, which we explained as proving the claims of Israel's true King, who is now at the right hand of God, and who will soon be manifested in the clouds of heaven." In this classification I have not included the black Fallashas in Abyssinia, whose origin and history are subjects of great uncertainty, and who religiously cannot be included in the category enumerated above, inasmuch as they observe a sacrificial cult based on the law of Moses, ignoring the fact that, apart from the valueless- ness of any sacrificial system now that the great Anti- type has appeared, it is enjoined in that very law to which they seem to cleave, that the divinely appointed sanctuary in Jerusalem is the only place where sacrifices can be offered ; and even there only by priests of the house of Aaron. I have also omitted the other small section of black Jews, namely, the Beni-Israel in India, whose origin is likewise a subject of doubt, many Western Jews even disputing their geniune Israelitish descent. The whole Jewish nation, at any rate in Europe, is usually divided into two great bodies or families. The division which consists of the great bulk of the people who for many centuries resided chiefly in Poland and the north-westerly countries of Europe, and whose 196 RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS AND SECTS language varies from the lowest jargon, the "Jiidisch" or " Yiddish," to the most polished German, are called Ashkenazim (or " German," as the word means) ; while the other, who number perhaps not more than about one million, consisting of those whose home, till their cruel banishment in 1492, was Spain and Portugal and other places where the languages of these countries are spoken, but who are now spread chiefly over North Africa, Egypt, and the countries under Turkish sway, and who speak Judea-Spanish, are called " Sephardim " (Spanish). THE PRESENT ATTITUDE OF THE JEWS IN RELATION TO CHRISTIANITY ONE of the first questions which arise in our minds, after a bird's-eye view of the nation as a whole is presented to us, is, " What attitude do these different sections assume to Christianity?" I say to " Christianity " ; and looking over its history in relation to the Jews, one becomes painfully impressed with the fact that the term " Christianity " must be distinguished from Christ and the gospel. It may sound like exaggeration in the ears of Christians in England and America, when I say that millions of Jews are as ignorant of Christ as are the unevangelised tribes in Central Africa ; and as to the New Testament, except to a growing minority, its very existence is unknown. It is a fact that the great bulk of the " orthodox " Jews think and speak of the New Testament, when they first come in contact with it, as a modern produc- tion written by some missionary, so little do they know of its history and contents. In one of my missionary journeys about sixteen years ago I spent two or three days in the ancient town of Thorn on the Vistula. On the Sunday morning I went out by the riverside, where 199 200 THE PRESENT ATTITUDE OF THE JEWS I met a party of Galician Jewish " Chassidim," wood merchants, who owned some of the huge rafts that are being continually floated down the river from Russia and Galicia to Memel for export. After a few words of salutation I pulled out a Hebrew New Testament from my pocket, and asked them if they had ever seen this book, or heard of Him of whom it speaks. Taking it out of my hand, and coming across the name of Jesus, which in the Hebrew is "Jeschua," he looked up and said, " I know ; it is about Joshua " ; whereupon another took it out of his hand, and turning over some pages and seeing it was in the sacred tongue, and that some of the names such as Abraham, Moses, David, &c., were familiar to him from the Old Testament, he put it to his lips and reverently kissed it. They had never in their lifetime either seen or heard of the book before, and if they had known that it was the book on which the so-called Christians around them, whom they call " Goim," are supposed to base their religion, they would most probably have thrown it to the ground and spat upon it. " Christianity," or more correctly, " Christendom," the seven or eight millions of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe have seen and, alas ! felt, and it they hate with great detestation and abhorrence ; so that I can testify to this fact from experience, that there is less opposition to the gospel when first preached, on the part of the Jews who live in Mohammedan countries, like Morocco and Asia Minor, than there is on the part of those who live in Christendom. In 1899, while on a Mission journey in Slavonia, we visited in a town on the Danube a rich and learned Jew who is well known in that district. Before we parted, after a long discussion, the venerable old man stood up quite excited and said, "Look here, what I have IN RELATION TO CHRISTIANITY 201 read of the New Testament I like very much, but I don't see what this book has to do with the Christians around me. Christianity as you represent it I know nothing about, but I will tell you this, that if the Christ whom the Christians around vie worship was what they represent Him to be, then He deserved to be crucified" This is the language of a typical Jew speaking in the bitterness of his soul ; and what wonder, seeing that the outward aspect of Christendom and the cruelty of Christians has led the Jews in those parts to associate two ideas with the holy name of our Saviour, namely, idolatry and cruelty. The attitude of the Reformed and more enlightened Jews in countries like Germany, Austro-Hungary, England and America is somewhat different. Most of these are intelligent and educated, and are brought in constant touch with " Christian " thought and literature ; though it is a sad fact, greatly to be deplored, that the so-called Christian books which this class of Jews read, are written almost exclusively from the neological and rationalistic point of view, and only help to spread unbelief amongst them. Hence it is that though un- consciously they have been permeated with Western ideas, and cannot but see and feel that the coming of Christ has wonderfully affected the history of the world, speaking generally, the tendency of this class is towards rationalism and negation, and, from a gospel point of view, they are less hopeful than even the most bigoted of their orthodox brethren, who still tenaciously cling to the hope of Israel. Some prominent leaders of this " Reformed " or " Progressive " school have taken up the untenable and inconsistent position of regarding the Lord Jesus as a great and good man, and have even extolled the ethical teaching of Christ as in advance of Moses and 202 THE PRESENT ATTITUDE OF THE JEWS the prophets, while they repudiate utterly His claims of divinity, and regard Christian doctrine, especially the great and central fact of atonement, " as a return to the crude and barbaric ideas of primitive times, and altogether opposed to progressive views of religion." The attitude of these " enlightened " rationalistic Jews to the Person of our Lord Jesus, may be summed up in a letter of one of the best known Jewish writers, Dr. Max Nordau, in answer to one addressed to him by Pere Hyacinthe of Paris, in which he compared Dreyfus with Christ, and invited the Jewish people to revise the judgment which condemned Jesus of Nazareth, even as France ought to have revised that against Alfred Dreyfus. Nordau's reply was as follows : " I can only answer for myself, having no authority to speak for my brethren. It is not for me to discuss the question whether Jesus is a historical figure or a legendary synthesis of several real personages, or even a mythical incarnation of the thought and sentiment of the epoch in which tradition places His existence. In any case, He whom we see through the recitals of the Gospels is a figure typically and ideally Jewish. He observes the law ; He teaches the moral of Hillel, ' Love thy neighbour as thyself.' He is constantly preoccupied with eternal things ; He feels Himself in spiritual com- munication with God. He has contempt for what is mortal in Himself, and for all the ephemeral con- tingencies of eternal life. The same traits characterised the best Jews at the time of the Roman Conquest, and more particularly the Essenes, whose religious life was so intense. Like His origin, like His moral physiog- nomy, the language of Jesus is absolutely Jewish. For each of His parables we can cite one or more parallel passages from the Talmud. His prayer, the finest which a believer had ever invented, is a resum 210 ANTI-SEMITISM Semiten-Katechismus," a small book of four hundred closely-printed pages compiled by Theodor Fritsch, and published in Leipzig. It is one of the very vilest products of the nineteenth century, and carries its con- demnation within itself. The first part is in the form of a catechism, contain- ing twenty-one questions and answers, and the first question is, " Was Versteht man unter Antisemitismus?" (What is to be understood by anti-Semitism ?) And then the answer, " Anti " means against, and " Semitism" describes the character of the Semitic race. Anti- Semitism, therefore, signifies waging war with Semitism. As in Europe the Semitic race is almost exclusively represented by the Jews, we understand the term Semites as referring in its narrower sense to the Jews. An anti-Semite, therefore, in our case means an oppo- nent of the Jews (" Judengegner "). Into the long indictment which this oracle of anti- Semitism contains I will not enter. The fact is that the professional "Judengegner" on the Continent, has been morally blinded by his hatred and prejudice to the extent of being no longer able to distinguish between light and darkness, truth and falsehood, and often allows himself to be carried by his passions to the greatest lengths of injustice and villainy. In the eyes of the anti-Semite it is not only a question whether Jews, like other men, are sinners, or are greater sinners than others, but the Jew himself, from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, his very existence is an un- pardonable crime. His very virtues are brought up as accusations against him, and the whole literature of the world, from the writings of Cicero down to the ravings of the unspeakable Edouard Drummond of Paris, are ransacked, and often misquoted, in order to prove that every Jew who has ever had the impudence to live, has ANTI-SEMITISM iit been nothing else than an unmitigated rascal, to whom all the woes which have ever come upon the uncircum- cised are to be traced. For samples of anti-Semitic accuracy in quoting ancient or modern writers commend me to the collection of passages from Talmudic works and from the Bible which takes up a good part of this handbook. The promises of God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and passages from the prophets, are quoted as proofs of Jewish pride and arrogance, and when the prophets utter curses and scathing denunciations on account of sin, it is still brought up in proof against the Jews that they are, and ever have been, the very worst nation under heaven. It reminds one of the story told of the Roman Emperor, who, walking one day with his retinue, happened to meet a poor Jew on the roadside, who most humbly bowed and saluted. The Emperor stopped and cried out, " What, you, a Jew, have the impudence to salute the Roman Emperor ! Off with his head !" A little further on he met another Jew, who, observing from a distance what had been done to his unfortunate brother, simply stopped on the roadside, and in fear and trembling allowed the tyrant to pass by without saluting, whereupon the Emperor turned round and cried : " What, you, a Jew, have the impudence not to salute the Roman Emperor ! Off with his head ! " An instance how an anti-Semite reads Jewish history is supplied by the brief summary of the life of Joseph, who in words of Scripture is made out to be first an ungrateful profligate, who immorally assaulted the chaste and virtuous wife of his master Potiphar, and later on robbed and despoiled the famished Egyptians for his own ends, and for the enrichment of his tribe. How is it done ? Very easily : all you have to do is to string together some half-sentences broken off from 2i2 ANTI-SEMITISM their context, and quote a lie as if it were a truth, and the thing is done. But, as an instance how the anti-Semitic Diabolus can quote Scripture for his own ends, I will translate the section on Joseph verbally just as it stands. "Joseph in Egypten. "The Hebrew slave which thou hast brought unto us came in unto me to mock me ; and it came to pass as I lifted up my voice and cried that he left his garment with me and fled. "... Let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part in the seven plenteous years (without payment). "... And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea very much until he left off numbering, for it was without number. "... And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the corn which they brought. "... Joseph said, Give your cattle, and I will give you for your cattle if you have no more money. "... We will not hide from my lord how that our money is spent ; my lord also hath our herds of cattle ; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands. "... And he made it a law that they should give from every- thing a fifth. And so Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt in the country of Goshen, and they ruled over it and grew and multipled greatly." It is a sad fact that perhaps ninety-nine out of every hundred " Christian " readers of this vile production in Germany and Austria are so ignorant of Bible history that they are taken in by these parodies of Jewish characters as if they were actual history. I may mention that my first acquaintance with this " Antisemiten- Katechismus '' was in the drawing-room of a Christian Hospitz in Berlin, where it was evidently kept for the enlightenment of benighted Christian travellers. But is there no ground for the accusations of anti-Semites ? I am not one to hide up the sins of my people. There were no greater patriots than the prophets, yet they ANTI-SEMITISM 213 speak of Israel as " a sinful nation ; a people laden with iniquity," and many centuries of wanderings and oppres- sions have not tended to ennoble them. No, Israel in a state of apostasy from their God are not a blessing among the nations as they yet shall be (Zech. viii.), but this I say, that false accusations by anti-Semites through the ages, of crimes which they knew in their conscience they were not guilty of, has been Satan's chief means of hardening Israel's heart into a Pharisaic self-conscious- ness, and of blinding their eyes to their real state of need before a holy God. The true underlying causes and effects of modern anti-Semitism have been well summarised by Dr. Herzl in that remarkable pamphlet, " Der Juden Staat," which has given birth to the Zionist movement. " Modern anti-Semitism," he says, " is not to be confounded with the religious persecution of the Jews of former times. It does occasionally take a somewhat religious bias, but the main current of the aggressive movement has now changed. In the principal countries where anti- Semitism prevails it does so as a result of the emanci- pation of the Jews. " When civilised nations awoke to the inhumanity of exclusive legislation, and enfranchised us, our enfran- chisement came too late. It was no longer possible legally to remove our disabilities in our old homes. For we had, curiously enough, developed while in the Ghetto into a bourgeois people, and we stepped out of it only to enter into fierce competition with the middle classes. Hence our emancipation set us suddenly within this middle-class circle, where we have a double pressure to sustain, from within and from without. The Christian bourgeoisie would not be unwilling to cast us as a sacri- fice to Socialism, though that would not greatly improve matters. At the same time, the equal rights of Jews 2I4 ANTI-SEMITISM before the law cannot be withdrawn where they have once been conceded. Not only because their withdrawal would be opposed to the spirit of our age, but also because it would immediately drive all Jews, rich and poor alike, into the ranks of the revolutionary party. " Nothing effectual can really be done to our injury. In old days our jewels were seized. How is our movable property to be got hold of now? It is comprised in printed papers which are scattered over the world, locked up maybe in the coffers of Christians. It is of course possible to get at shares and debentures in railways, banks and industrial undertakings of all descriptions, by taxation, and where the progressive income-tax is in force, all our realised property can eventually be laid hold of. But all these efforts cannot be directed against Jews alone, and where they have nevertheless been made, severe economic crises, with far-reaching effects, have been their immediate consequence. The very impossi- bility of getting at the Jews nourishes and embitters hatred of them. Anti-Semitism increases day by day and hour by hour among the nations ; indeed, it is bound to increase, because the causes of its growth con- tinue to exist, and cannot be removed. Its remote cause is our loss of the power of assimilation during the Middle Ages ; its immediate cause is our excessive production of mediocre intellects, who cannot find an outlet down- wards or upwards that is to say, no wholesome outlet in either direction. When we sink, we become a revolu- tionary proletariat, the subordinate officers of the revolutionary party ; when we rise, there rises also our terrible power of the purse. EFFECTS OF ANTI-SEMITISM. " The oppression we endure does not improve us, for we are not a whit better than ordinary people. It is ANTI-SEMITISM 215 true that we do not love our enemies ; but he alone who can conquer himself dare reproach us with that fault. Oppression naturally creates hostility against oppressors, and our hostility aggravates the pressure, "It is impossible to escape from this eternal round. ' No ! ' some soft-hearted visionaries will say ; ' no, it is possible ! Possible by means of the ultimate perfec- tion of humanity.' Is it worth while pointing out the sentimental folly of this view ? He who would found his hope for improved conditions on the ultimate per- fection of humanity would indeed be painting a Utopia ! " I referred previously to our ' assimilation.' I do not for a moment wish to imply that I desire such an end. Our national character is too historically famous, and, spite of every degradation, too fine, to make its annihila- tion desirable. We might, perhaps, be able to merge ourselves entirely into surrounding races, if these were to leave us in peace for a space of two generations. But they will not leave us in peace. " For a little period they manage to tolerate us, and then their hostility breaks out again and again. The world is provoked by our prosperity, because it has for many centuries been accustomed to consider us as the most contemptible among the poverty-stricken. " It forgets, in its ignorance and narrowness of heart, that prosperity weakens our Judaism and extinguishes our peculiarities. It is only pressure that forces us back to the parent stem ; it is only hatred encompassing us that makes us strangers once more. "Thus, whether we like it or not, we are now, and shall henceforth remain, an historic group with unmistakable characteristics common to us all." To turn again to the oracle of anti-Semitism to which I have already referred, in answer to the question, " Wie soil die Judenfrage nun gelost werden ? " (Ho\v shall the 2 i6 ANTI-SEMITISM Jewish Question be solved ?) we have the following para- graph : " Either the Jews must procure some territory for themselves best if it were out of Europe (means they have plenty) and be allowed a definite period, say ten years, to depart from our midst, or, if they remain, the following enactment should be made : ' The Jews are only allowed to occupy themselves with agriculture or productive manual labour, in which they are to have only Jews as their assistants. From every other sphere and occupation they must be excluded, and for a non- Jew to be in any way in the employment of a Jew should be highly punishable to both parties.' " The laws emancipating the Jews, and which granted them civil rights, should be repealed, and they should only be allowed to exist as aliens under special law" (" Judenrecht "). I hold in my hand three curios of modern anti- Semitism. One is an exact imitation of a German railway ticket. On the front we read these words : " Nach Jerusalem (to Jerusalem). There, but not return, 4th class, 20 mark." Across one end the route and date are as usual indicated, which are " Germany Palestine," and across the other end, which usually has the initials of the railway company, the word " Isaac " is spelt out. Turning it over, on the reverse side we find the following inscription. First, in large letters, there is the Hebrew word "Kosher" ("clean"), a word with which things lawful for Jews to eat are usually sealed, and then this admoni- tion, " Fahre hin mit 100,000 Deiner Bruder and taufe in Jordan Dich doch Kehre niemals wieder" ("Go with 100,000 of thy brethren and immerse thyself in the Jordan, but never return "). The second curio is an anti-Semitic bronze medal bearing the arms of the city of Berlin, with the date, beneath which are the words, " Hep ! Hep ! " On the ANTI-SEMITISM 217 obverse side are the names of the three best known and most violent German Jew-haters, for whom it calls " Hoch ! " (" Hurrah ! ") " Vivant sequentes." The third is a ticket to a public concert in Vienna, the price of which is a florin, but beneath there is this saving clause, " Fur Juden ist diese karte ungiltig," which is equivalent to " Jews are excluded." The first of these curios expresses the aim and object of anti-Semitism, which is to drive them out of Christendom : " Go to Jerusalem, and never return ; " and the other two show us the weapons of anti-Semitism, by which they seek to accomplish their object, namely, by insult and exclusion, and if that will not answer, then " Hep ! Hep ! " This apparently harmless word is the symbol of blood and death to the Jews. It is formed as already explained, 1 of the initial letters of the Latin phrase, " Hierosolyma est Perdita ! " and was the watch- cry of the Crusaders in their attacks and wholesale massacres of the Jewish communities in their bloody march to the East. The Dreyfus case and the cries of " A bas les Juifs ! " " Mort aux Juifs ! " which have so recently rung through the streets of the city which calls itself " the mother of civilisation," are but symptoms of the implacable hatred of the Jew which underlies anti-Semitism. Nor are Paris and Berlin alone in their attempt to revive the cry of "Hep! Hep!" During several recent visits to Austria I had occasion to observe the consternation manifested in large Jewish circles at the developments of the anti-Jewish campaign in that tottering Empire. In Vienna a great municipal war which has helped to demoralise all the political parties, has ended, in spite of interpositions of the 1 See page 114. 2I 8 ANTI-SEMITISM Emperor, in the repeated election of a burgomaster and a vast majority of councillors who are avowedly pledged to make the life of the 125,000 in that city, and the nearly two million Jews in the Empire generally, as wretched as possible. Mr. Arnold White, in his "Modern Jew," speaks of the leader of the anti- Semites in Austria " as a man of great personal charm." This is a matter of taste, but his spirit in relation to the Jews may be judged from some of his public utterances, which breathe of fire and sword. It is not so long ago that a notorious Roman Catholic vicar near Vienna ended a series of weekly harangues against the Jews, delivered in his parish church, with the words, " Verbrennt die Juden zur Ehre Gottes. Amen." (" Burn the Jews to the glory of God. Amen.") " No one can deny the gravity of the Jews' situation," says Dr. Theodore Herzl, in that statesmanlike pamphlet from which I have already quoted. " Wherever they live in perceptible numbers, they are more or less persecuted. Their equality before the law, granted by statute, has become practically a dead letter. They are debarred from filling even moderately high positions, either in the army or in any public or private capacity. And attempts are made to crowd them out of business also. ' No dealing with Jews ! ' " Attacks in Parliaments, in assemblies, in the press, in the pulpit, in the streets, on journeys for example, their exclusion from certain hotels even in places of recrea- tion, become daily more numerous ; the forms of perse- cution varying according to the countries in which they occur. In Russia, impositions are levied on Jewish villages ; in Roumania, a few human beings are done to death ; in Germany, they get a good beating when the occasion serves ; in Austria, anti-Semites exercise terrorism over all public life ; in Paris, they are shut out ANTI-SEMITISM 219 of the so-called best social circles and excluded from clubs. Shades of anti-Jewish feeling are innumerable. But this is not to be an attempt to make out a doleful category of Jewish hardships ; it is futile to linger over details, however painful they may be. " I do not intend to awaken sympathetic emotions on our behalf. That would be a foolish, futile, and undignified proceeding. I shall content myself with putting the following questions to the Jews : Is it true that in countries where we live in perceptible numbers the position of Jewish lawyers, doctors, men of science, teachers, and officials of all descriptions, becomes daily more intolerable ? True that the Jewish middle classes are seriously threatened ? True that the mob are incited against our wealthy representatives ? True that our poor endure greater sufferings than any other proletariat ? " I think that this external pressure makes itself felt everywhere. In our upper classes it causes disagree- ables, in our middle classes continual and grave anxieties, in our lower classes absolute despair. "Everything tends, in fact, to one and the same conclusion, which is clearly enunciated in that classic Berlin phrase : 'Juden 'raus ! ' ( f Out with the Jews ! ')." But what is the meaning of anti-Semitism in relation to Israel's future ? A full answer to this question is given us in the Word of God. In Psa. cv., which sings the story of Israel's future redemption as pre- figured by their past history, we have these words : " Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham, and He increased His people greatly, and made them stronger than their enemies. He turned their heart to hate His people, to deal subtil ly with His servants, He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron whom 22 o ANTI-SEMITISM He had chosen." Then there follows a list of the plagues which He poured out upon Egypt, culminating in the slaying of all the firstborn in their land, " the chief of all their strength," so that " Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them fell upon them. . . . For He remembered His holy promise, and Abraham His servant And He brought forth His people with joy and His chosen with gladness." It is remarkable how history repeats itself, and in relation to Israel the words of the preacher may especially be applied : " The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be ... and there is nothing new under the sun." If we substitute the word "nations" for Egypt we have an epitome of the origin, development, and issues not only of the ancient but also of the modern phase of the Jewish Question in the three or four verses of the psalm which I have quoted. I. The origin of the Jewish Question in Egypt is summed up in the words : " He increased His people greatly, and made them stronger than their enemies." This is brought out still more clearly in the original account in Exodus, where we read : " And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them." It was on that account that the new Pharaoh who knew not Joseph became alarmed and took counsel with his people, saying, " Come on; let us deal wisely with them," the results of which were measures of repression, and when these did not answer, the pro- mulgation of an edict for their extermination. The modern phase of the Jewish Question originated and becomes from year to year intensified from the same cause. We have already seen how since the commencement ANTI-SEMITISM 221 of the nineteenth century, the Jews are multiplying at a rate which is perfectly marvellous. Look, for instance, at the following comparative table in reference to Austria, where the Jewish problem is assuming a more and more acute phase : Jews in Austria at various times (exclusive of Hungary"). Maria Theresa's Reign ......... 200,000. 1830 ..... ............. 355>ooo. 1850 .................. 476,000. 1869 .................. 822,000. 1880 .................. 1,000,000. 1890 ............ According to the same authority there were in Hungary in the reign of Joseph II. 25,000 Jews ; at the end of the last century there were 50,000 ; in 1830, 100,000; in 1847, 270,000; in 1870, 500,000; in 1883, 700,000 ; whilst at the present time the number has reached i ,000,000. And not only is it in point of numbers that God is again causing His people "to increase greatly," but by their superior wits and energy and by their habits of frugality and thriftiness He makes them " stronger than their enemies," so that in those regions where the bulk of the nation is to be found, wherever the Jew has a fair chance he naturally places his Gentile neighbour in a less favourable position in the struggle for existence. The superior ability of the Jew is openly acknowledged by anti-Semites, and often appealed to as a ground for the restrictive and repressive laws which are in vogue against them in some countries. The following is taken from a chapter which sum- marises "the case for Russian anti-Semitism" in a work from which I have already quoted 1 more than once : 1 " The Modern Jew," by Arnold White. 21* ANTI-SEMITISM " But there is still another element which the rulers of Russia are constrained to take into their consideration. The intellect of the Jew is masterful. His assiduity, his deadly resolve -to' get on, his self-denial and ambition surmount all natural obstacles. If all careers in the Russian Empire were thrown open to the Russian Jew not a decade would go by before the whole Russian administration from Port Arthur to Eydtkuhnen, and from Archangel to Yalta, must pass into Hebraic hands. This is a sober statement of facts." The same is true of other Continental countries. The following is a passage from an apology for anti- Semitism in Austria, which, though somewhat exag- gerated, is largely true : " The Jews are all powerfully represented in every walk in life that leads to influence and fortune. In the professions of law, medicine, and literature their numbers are out of all proportion to their quota of the popula- tion. Finance and commerce are practically in their hands. The great business houses, the banks, the railways that do not belong to the State, are all con- trolled by them. The Produce Exchange, and of course the Bourse at Vienna, Prague, or Budapest, are deserted on Jewish holidays. The press, with the exception of the Czech organs, is almost exclusively in the hands of Jews." The proportion of Jews in the Austrian Universities is far in excess of what might be expected from their actual number in the country. For instance, in the Vienna University in 1887-88, out of 6,530 students there were 2,500 Jews i.e., 40 per cent. In Vienna itself one person in every ten is a Jew, but the propor- tion of the Jewish population in the whole Empire is only 5 per cent. It is a notorious fact that an increas- ingly large proportion of the great specialists and best ANTI-SEMITISM 223 known Professors in Vienna are Jews or of Jewish origin. At the end of 1887, out of 660 qualified attorneys in Vienna 350 were Jews. Indeed, the faculty of law may almost be said to be a monppoly of the Jews in Austria, and also in Germany, where they form not only a large percentage of the attorneys, but also of the judges of the highest courts, and have, as in England and France, supplied from their ranks ministers of justice and judges of appeal. In Berlin 120 of the Professors and Privatdocenten are Jews, and in the whole of Germany there are about 400 Jewish Professors. II. The next step in the old Jewish Question in Egypt was that " He turned their heart " (that is, of the Egyptians) " to hate His people, to deal subtilly with His servants." This is how the great God causes the wrath of man to praise Him, and when His purpose is accom- plished "restrains the remainder." Pharaoh and his councillors said, "Come on, let us deal wisely with them," and attempted to solve the Jewish Question in their own way, namely, by persecution and extermina- tion ; but God turned the wisdom of the Egyptians into foolishness. " The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew." Instead of succeeding in drowning them in the Nile, Pharaoh and his host were in the end drowned in the Red Sea. But what is the meaning of His "turning their heart to hate His people"? It had a double significance. (a) In relation to Israel it was the means which God employed to stir up their nest and to make them willing to leave the land in which, until the persecutions broke out, they had been content to live for centuries. " For He remembered His holy promise, and Abraham His servant," and the time had come according to His own Divine forecast to Abraham (Gen. xv. 13, 14) that they should come out of Egypt, and take possession of 224 ANTI-SEMITISM the lands of the Amorites, whose iniquity was now full. (b} In relation to Egypt it was "an evident token of perdition " and precursor of the plagues which came upon it. The judicial hardening of the heart of Pharaoh and the Egyptians was in itself part of the punishment from a righteous God upon a cruel nation sinking lower and lower to the most contemptible depths of idolatry. God has often chastened His people " with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men," but He has no pleasure in the scourge which He employs, and as a rule uses for the chastisement of His people men or nations whom He designs to give up to destruc- tion for their wickedness. Now, in these respects, too, the ancient Jewish Question in Egypt finds its parallel in the modern phases of the problem which are accentuated by anti- Semitism. The millions of the poor and less cultured orthodox Talmudic Jews in Russia, Galicia, and Rou- mania have long ago been convinced that these lands cannot much longer remain their resting-places, and that it is about time for them to "arise and depart" toward that land for which they have never ceased to cherish a yearning desire ; hence the many colonising schemes and the more than thirty Jewish colonies which already exist in Palestine, consisting almost entirely of Russian and Roumanian Jews. The remarkable thing is that, as the result of the newest phases of the anti- Jewish movement on the Continent, the more cultured, wealthy, and rationalistic Jews are at last digesting the truths that it is not by the so-called "reform" move- ment which aims at assimilation with the nations that the Jewish Question will be solved ; for, after all their efforts in this direction for more than half a century and their desperate eagerness to strip themselves of all that is true and false in orthodox Judaism, as a kind of ANTI-SEMITISM 225 peace-offering to the mysterious, deep-seated antipathy of the Gentiles, they find that it is just against them- selves, more even than against the less cultured of their brethren in Russia and Eastern Europe, that the bitterest animosity is manifested, and that Christendom, though it is itself for the most part apostate from truth and from the faith of Christ, is even less reconciled to the rationalism and neology of the modern cultivated " Israelite," than it is to the Talmudism of the more consistent orthodox "Jew" who still wears his kaftan and peyoth. What is this but a repetition of the warning words which God in His providence has so often spoken to Israel : " And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all ; in that ye say, We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries." And in relation to the nations it is again an omen of approaching judgment which will culminate in the overthrow and destruction of the armies of the great confederacy, as shown in another part of this volume. "Jehovah frustratsth the counsel of the nations : He maketh the devices of the peoples of none effect. The counsel of Jehovah standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations." 16 VII ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS [Since writing the following analysis of Zionism in Basle in August, 1899, the fourth Congress, at which I was also present, was held this year in London. I prefer, however, to give my notes of the third Congress (which I have corrected where necessary and brought up to date) because on the whole it gives a better insight into the aims and spirit of the movement than the proceedings in London. It was written in the form of a journal for The Scattered Nation, but it will be found not the less interesting on that account.] VII ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS The Zionist Movement BASLE, August i$th. THIS is the first day of the great public meetings of the Zionist Congress. We began the day by a united prayer-meeting in my room in the Hotel Victoria, at 8.30, at which eight Hebrew Christian brethren were present. It was good for us, as those who anticipate our nation in allegiance to Zion's true King, in whom we have found life and salvation, to meet at the thrbne of grace to plead for our people, and especially for the delegates and leaders in this Zionist movement ; and that the day may be hastened when all Israel shall understand that wonderful inscription which was written on the Cross : " Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judaeorum." 9.45 a.m. I am now in my place at the journalists' table, in the body of the Congress Hall, among the delegates. What a splendidly convenient building is this Stadt Casino, popularly known as the "Jewish House of Commons." This large hall would seat about 2,000 people, and there are quite a number of other smaller halls and rooms in the building besides. 230 ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS In the body of the hall only delegates and journalists are admitted, the former all wearing the Zionist badge a large gold or gilt pin in the shape of a Magen David (traditional shape of the shield of David) with a blue silk rosette for background. The legend on the pin is the same as on the Zionist medal, designed by the renowned Jewish sculptor Beer. It is that of a poor wandering family, father, mother, with a babe at the breast, and two other children besides, the eldest of whom, a boy, has already a wanderer's staff in his hand. This group is meant to represent the whole " tribe of the wandering foot and weary breast." To them, in their hopelessness and dejection, an angel appears, in the shape of a graceful female figure, representing Zionism, or "the National Idea," who lays her right hand on the shoulder of the dejected man, and with her left points eastward, where the sun of hope may be seen rising on their ancient fatherland, on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. On the other side of this medal are words in Hebrew taken from Ezek. xxxvii., " Behold I will take the children of Israel from the midst of the nations and will bring them to their own land." ***** It is the appointed hour, 10 a.m., and the Congress is not yet opened. But look around at this indescribable scene of life and animation. There are, I should sup- pose, about 250 delegates, and they are all on their feet, divided into groups of twos and threes, noisily arguing and discussing with one another in almost all languages under heaven with an energy which is truly remarkable. Most of the delegates seem young or middle-aged men, only a few grey or white heads being visible in the company, and one is struck with the readiness, ability, and purposefulness which are written on most of the faces. A large proportion of them, as we see from looking over the list of names, are doctors of medicine or law, several professors, and a number of editors and literary men. There are also several lady delegates. Another feature which I note is the great variety of types which is represented here, from the Russian and Polish Rabbis in their long kaftans and peyoth, who are beginning to take their places at the back of the plat- form, to the most polished English gentleman, and men known in the fashionable saloons of Paris and Vienna. In fact, it is like the whole Diaspora in miniature. Next to me there sit several delegates from the Trans- vaal, while at several tables, a little to the left, is a targe delegation from America and Canada. But already, from the predominance of the Russian language in a large part of the hall, one is made aware that probably one-third of the whole number of the delegates are from Russia ; and no wonder, for nowhere in the world is the Jewish Question more pressing than in this great country of the North, where there are between four and five million Jews in a more or less chronic state of wretchedness. ***** It is twenty minutes past the time ; still the formal proceedings of the Congress are not opened, the reason, I am told, being that some of the leaders are still engaged in committee-rooms, discussing programmes and resolutions, which are to be presented for the consideration of the Congress. Meanwhile we might look round again on this extra- ordinary scene and ask by what right does this " Jewish Parliament " meet ? 2 3 2 ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS What proportion of the Jewish nation does it actually represent ? And what is its aim and object? Answers to these questions are found in the "Or- ganisations-Statut " and other official documents of the Congress. At the first two Congresses the representa- tive character of some of the delegates was somewhat questionable. Any "Verein," or Association of Jews, professing adherence to the programme formulated at the first Basle Congress in 1897, could send a delegate. But some of these " vereine " may perhaps have con- sisted of only ten or a dozen Jews, and it was therefore necessary, in order to test the real strength and progress of Zionism, to formulate the " Organisations-Statut," which now lies before me, and from which I translate the following items : (1) The Zionist Organisation embraces those Jews who approve of the programme of the Zionist Con- gress, and are annual subscribers of the shekel to its funds. (2) The chief organ of the Zionist organisation is the Congress, which is constituted of the delegates elected by constituencies of the required number of electors. (3) The Executive Council of the Congress is the " Aktions-Comite," which has its chief seat in Vienna, with Dr. Theodore Herzl as President. For election purposes the Zionistic Organisation is divided into " countries," " districts," and " associations," and each hundred shekel-paying members have a right to elect a delegate. There is no doubt that masses of Jews all over the world sympathise with this Zionist movement who are not yet formally enrolled members or shekel -payers, but I am informed that the delegates ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS 233 already in Basle this time represent 2,200 x mandates, of as many different constituencies. The minimum of the shekel is is. in England, 25 cents in America, and the equivalent sum in other countries. Some of the more popular Zionist leaders represent quite a number of different constituencies, but their vote only counts as one. So much for the actual representative character of the Congress. As to the aim and objects of Zionism, these have been formulated at the first Congress. " Zionism strives to procure for the Jewish people an openly recognised and legally assured home (offentlich- rechtlich gesicherten Heimatstatte) in Palestine. With a view to the realisation of this object, one of the means Congress contemplates using is the cen- tralisation of the entire Jewish people, by means of a general institution agreeable to the laws of the lands in which they are now dispersed, and to strengthen in them patriotic sentiments and a Jewish national self- consciousness." There is much from the Christian standpoint to criticise and to lament in the fact that the means proposed for the accomplishment of this great end are entirely material and political ; and that, so far, there is an utter forgetfulness of the cause of the long break in Jewish national history, and an ignoring of the words of their own prophets, that though He has doubtless used the nations to carry out His will, it was, all the same, God who scattered Israel on account of sin (Jer. xxxi. 10 ; Amos ix. 9), and therefore, though He may again use means to gather them, without God, and without repentance, they will never be restored in blessing ; nevertheless, even to the Christian, Zionism 1 At the fourth Congress in London in August, 1900, there were about 400 delegates present. 234 ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS is a movement which must be followed with the deepest interest, for what we are now beginning to see is nothing less than, to use the title of Professor Heman's book on the subject "Das Erwachen der Jiidischen Nation" " The Awakening of the Jewish Nation," after a sleep of nineteen centuries. A national awakening which, in spite of the dark but short night of trouble which still lies ahead, I greet as preparatory to the great spiritual awakening of Israel, the issues of which to the world will be as "life from the dead." It is from this point of view that this Jewish Parlia- ment is nothing short of a miracle, which, unknown as yet to the great actors, is brought about by the power of God. Here is a people which for two thousand years has been supposed to be dead, and whom the nations have done their utmost to bury out of sight, who have even said to themselves, " Our bones are dried and our hope is lost ; we are cut off from our parts " (Ezek. xxxvii. 1 1), beginning to live and move and to have a corporate being. What is this but the forming again of a living national body out of the " very dry dead bones, which for cen- turies were strewn over ' the open valley ' of Ezekiel's vision, preparatory to the time when the blessed Breath will come from the four winds, and breathe upon these slain, that spiritually, as well as nationally, they may live?" 10.30 a.m. A scene of great enthusiasm greeted Dr. Herzl a few minues ago, as he at last made his appear- ance, followed by Dr. Max Nordau, and other leaders of the movement. The whole assembly rise to their feet clapping, cheering vociferously, and waving handker- chiefs. These Zionists are evidently proud of their ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS 235 leader, who by his book " Der Juden Staat " may be said to have brought the whole movement into being. He is a fine-looking man, with noble features and faultless bearing. "Just look at him," whispers one close by. " Does he not look like a king ? " Dr. Herzl reads the opening address in German. His first word is one of thanks " an die schone, freie Stadt " Basle, which receives them so hospitably for now the third time. " Basle, the Basle Congress, the Basle Programme these words," he says, " already sound familiarly every- where among our people, carrying with them comfort and hope." J 1 I append the first part of Dr. Herzl's opening speech at the fourth Congress in London in August, 1900 : " Ladies and Gentlemen, I feel that there is no necessity for me to justify the holding of the Congress in London. England is one of the last remaining places on earth where there is freedom from Jew-hatred. This one fact will give you some idea as to the terrible state in which the Jewish nation finds itself. Through- out the wide world there is but one spot left in which God's ancient people is not detested and persecuted. But, from the fact that Jews in this glorious land enjoy full freedom and com- plete human rights, we must not allow ourselves to draw false conclusions. " He would be a poor friend of the Jews in England, as well as of the Jews who reside in other countries, who should advise the persecuted to flee hither. Our brethren here would tremble in their joy, if their position meant the attraction to these shores of our desperate brethren in other lands. Such an immigration would mean disaster equally for the Jews here, as for those who would come here. For the latter, with their miserable bundles, would bring with them that from which they flee I mean anti- Semitism. Still, I doubt not that for the next few days we shall be allowed to set up the nomad-tent of our discussions, because we wish to enter into public debate upon the settlement of the Jewish Question. "Between the intervals of Congress and Congress, our oppo- nents are industriously busy, endeavouring to cover our conten- tions and aims with a tissue of subtle misrepresentation, So that, 236 " For the third time," he continues, " we are here to discuss the grievances and the aspirations of our nation, which desires to be revivified. At the outset it might have seemed, perhaps it still seems so to some, that very little can be achieved by our coming here and making speeches speeches full of sighs. But those who are in doubt overlook the fact that in all representative bodies nothing is done except to make speeches. And who at every gathering, our first business is to clear away, with a few sharp axe-strokes, the fungus that has attached itself to the tree of Zionism. Notwithstanding all, we are happy to note that our tree is sound, is healthy, and is flourishing. Zionism seeks to find for the Jewish people a public, legally secured home in Palestine. This programme we established three years ago for ever. It must have responded to a very deep need, a very ancient yearning of our people, otherwise there is to be found no reason- able explanation as to why it has effected what it has, and met with the reception that has been accorded to it. I need not specially detail those effects at this time of day. Everybody knows them, everybody sees them, and everybody hears them. Four years ago one might have felt hesitation to speak of a Jewish nation, fearing to appear ridiculous. To-day he makes himself ridiculous who denies the existence of the Jewish nation. " One glance at this great hall, filled with delegates from all parts of the world, is sufficient, were there nothing else, to prove it. This fact means, not alone much for us, it also means some- thing for others. It not only opens up to every country a prospect of the settlement of the Jewish Question in a manner worthy of mankind, but it also contains at the same time the elements of a great perspective for the Orient. " Our reappearance in the land of our fathers, prophesied by Holy Writ, sung by our poets, yearned for midst tears by our stricken nation, and jeered at by miserable scoffers that return is a matter of political moment to the Powers that have interests in Asia. Permit me to quote a few words of the opening speech of the second Congress. In the year 1898, when that second Congress was held at Basle, the following words were said : " ' The land of Palestine is not only the home of the highest ideas and of the most unhappy nation, but it is also by reason of its geographical position, of immense importance to the whole of Europe. In time, and to my mind the time is not far distant, a ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS 237 will deny that speeches from such places exercise the strongest influence on the present and the future of the people ? Possessed of this knowledge, we have exerted ourselves to establish for ourselves a place from which our words will be heard this Jewish Tribune. As our people have no desire to return to the life of the past, but rather to awaken to the life of the present, it must before all possess a modern organ, in order to be able to give expression to the wish for existence. This tribune is therefore a precious possession, which we have acquired. Let us guard it effectually ! Through the earnestness and the tranquillity of our deliberations we can raise the authority of this tribune ever higher. Through indiscretion and disputes we should speedily destroy it. The tribune must be as elevated as the speeches that are delivered in it." road of civilisation and commerce will lead to Asia. Asia is the diplomatic problem of the next decade.' "These words of 1898 to-day sound banal, so amply have they been confirmed by the events of the last few months. The Asiatic problem grows from day to day more serious, and will, I fear, for some time be deeply tinged with blood. " It is thus of increasing importance to the nations of civilisation that on the road to Asia the shortest road to Asia there should be set up a post of civilisation which would be at the service of civilised mankind. This post is Palestine and we are those who are ready with our blood and our substance to provide this post for civilisation. Any student of politics must perceive, quick as lightning, that here is presented a valuable opportunity for providing an easy approach to Asia. On this post of civilisation, which will be speedily set up by the powerless Jewish people, under the suzerainty of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, no Power need look with apprehension. The Jews would be helped, others also, and at the same time ; but the greatest gainer of all would be the Turkish Empire. England, great England, free England, England commanding all the seas, will understand our aims. We may be certain that from here the Zionist idea will take its flight to higher and more distant regions." 238 ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS After referring, in passing, to the aims and objects of Zionism, he said : "We must continue our work assiduously, even if there have been no outward visible signs of progress during the past year. Even if nothing had happened which denoted a strengthening of our movement, an increase in its importance and its means, even then we should have to go on working indefatigably. But the past year was not a bad one for our movement. It was a good one. We have accomplished something, we have gone one step forward. " An important event which as usual was partly passed over in silence and partly made public in a distorted form was the reception of the Zionist deputation by the German Emperor in Jerusalem. The fact alone that the German Emperor had given his attention to our National Idea would have sufficed to give us confidence. Insignificant movements are not noticed in such high quarters." Turning to the mass of Zionists who keep aloof from the Basle Congress, and who think they can accomplish their ends by a process of slow colonisation, he says : " Some people wish to plant a population in the country without having beforehand made their entire plan public. If any one enters in the night and in the mist he must not wonder if he is met with the challenge, ' Halt ! who goes there ? ' All the worse is it for him if he cannot give a satisfactory and precise answer. More- over, his position is not such in which the answer will have no suspicious ring about it. We act differently. We declare our views in the open daylight, because, thank God, we have nothing to be afraid of, and we desire to obtain sanction before we undertake at all this most difficult of all experiments. For it is not a question ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS 239 only of getting people in, but also of their remaining, and remaining in security. " What is to be the nature of our present endeavours ? We will say it in one word : a Charter ! Our exertions are directed towards obtaining a Charter from the Turkish Government : a Charter under the sovereignty of his Majesty the Sultan. Not until we are in posses- sion of this Charter, which must embody the necessary public legal guarantees, can we commence a great practical colonisation. In return for the grant of this Charter we shall afford the Turkish Government great advantages. These transactions can, however, not emanate from Congresses which do not possess the necessary legal qualifications for such a purpose. For the purpose of these arrangements a special partnership must be created. This is the Jewish Colonial Bank. If any one should still put the question whether the Zionist movement is to be regarded as a serious factor, the hun- dred thousand subscribers x to the Jewish Colonial Bank have supplied the answer. The reply has come from Siberia, from the borders of China, and from the southernmost part of Argentina, from Canada, and the Transvaal. To-day the Colonial Bank exists." The last words of Dr. Herzl's opening address are pathetic. "Our appeal for support," he says, " goes forth to the upright of all creeds and nations, but we require no other external help than moral aid. ... A people is contending here for its existence, its honour, and its freedom. It desires to emerge from darkness into sun- shine. The present situation of the Jews tends towards three directions. The first is apathetic submission to insult and misery. The other is a revolt against a 1 There are now about 300,000 subscribers to the "Jewish Colonial Bank." 2 4 o ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS stepmotherly society. Ours is the third way : To soar upwards, to a higher degree of civilisation, to promote the general welfare, to prepare new paths for intercourse among the nations, and to seek an awakening for social justice. And just as our beloved poet gave forth songs out of his woes, so dp we prepare out of our sufferings progress for mankind whom we serve." Dr. Herzl's address is received with great acclamation, and after the nomination 'lists for the election of Presi- dent, Vice-Presidents, Assessors, and Secretaries for this third Congress are submitted to the delegates by Herr York Steiner, there is another scene of wild enthusiasm as the great orator of the Zionist movement, Dr. Max Nordau, ascends the tribune to speak on " The general condition of the Jews." To me it is a sign of the times in itself to behold this world-famed author of such terrible books as " Die Conventionellen Liigen der Cul- turmenschheit " and " Paradoxe," who did so much to destroy the faith of Jew and Christian, with a view to remove what was thought to be the only cause of separa- tion and estrangement between the two, now standing in this tribune, and with fiery eloquence, preaching the doctrine of Jewish nationalism and separation, and pro- claiming the fact in the face of the whole world, that the only solution of the ever more perplexing Jewish Question is that of a great exodus. But in this respect Dr. Nordau (like some of the other leaders) represents, in his own person, one of the most significant facts in connection with this Zionist movement, and this is the confession that it is impossible for the Jews to amal- gamate with the nations, even if they would. This, indeed, was the pathetic cry of the founder of the movement in his original manifesto. " We have honestly striven everywhere," he says, " to merge ourselves in the social life of surrounding com- ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS 241 munities, and to preserve only the faith of our fathers. It has not been permitted to us. In vain are we loyal patriots, in some places our loyalty running to extremes ; in vain do we make the same sacrifices of life and pro- perty as our fellow-citizens ; in vain do we strive to increase the fame of our native land in science and art, or her wealth by trade and commerce. In countries where we have lived for centuries we are still cried down as strangers ; and often by those- whose ancestors were not yet domiciled in the land where Jews had already made experience of suffering. " We are one people our enemies have made us one in our despite, as repeatedly happens in history. Dis- tress binds us together, and thus united, we suddenly discover our strength. Yes, we are strong enough to form a State, and a model State." But it is a greater power than " our enemies " who is keeping Israel distinct " in their own despite," and who, all through the ages, has continued to stir up the Jewish nest, whenever they have wanted to assimilate with the nations. It is the power of God, who swore, that " as long as sun and moon endure, Israel would abide a nation before Him for ever" of the irresistible Ruler among the nations, who has warned them long in advance that " that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say we will be as the nations, as the families of the countries. ... As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you ; and I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out." But it is hard to recognise the famous agnostic in the Zionist orator. Is it because the very association with 17 242 ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS Zionism has drawn him and some of the other leaders back to a measure of faith in the God of their fathers, whose hand is so clearly to be discerned in the history of their nation ? Or is it, as Professor Heman suggests, that the agnos- ticism and " Freigeist " of these cultured modern Jews is a mere outward garment, put on so as to be in fashion with the unbelieving Gentile world around them, but in reality covering hearts full of religious dissatisfac- tion, and longings for light and truth which neither effete Rabbinism, nor the corrupt forms of Christianity with which they are acquainted could supply ? Anyhow, as I am carefully following this masterly address of Dr. Nordau, there seems nothing in it to which from a Jewish point of view even the most orthodox of them could object, and as a matter of fact the Russian and Galician Rabbis in their long kaftans are among the loudest in their applause. Some of the passages in this speech are touchingly picturesque. Speaking of the origin of the Zionist movement and of the enthusiasm which pervaded the first two national assemblies in Basle, he says : " It seemed as if we were witnessing a miracle which affected ourselves and all around us. We felt ourselves part and parcel of a fairy tale, in which we saw our brethren, thousands of years buried, again become flesh and blood. We wanted, in the joy of this reunion, to rehearse the sad history of the hundreds of years in which we had been dead and in our tomb, in a grave which lacked the peace of the grave. In these three years the general condition of the Jewish nation in all lands has been ascertained. No modification occurs, or is likely to occur, unless Jews themselves bring it to pass." ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS 243 Discussing the various proposed solutions of the Jewish Question, he says : " Three things only can effect an improvement of their condition. Firstly, an entire change of the human nature of to-day, as it shows itself in its treatment of their helpless minority ; secondly, the self-effacement of the minority, implying change of faith, customs, traditions, and even of their features ; thirdly, trans- planting the Jewish nation to their own land, there to be no more a minority, tolerated merely, but a majority, with full exercise of civil rights. " You have already judged that this last-named third way is the only worthy one, the only one which promises any success, and we have voiced our Zionism in a last effort to apply a remedy for the sufferings of the Jewish nation." What strikes me in hearing and observing these leaders of Zionism is that they have evidently looked into the very soul of their people's long-continued misery, and are burdened with its weight. Listen to this pathetic plaint : " We are living like Troglodytes, in perpetual dark- ness. To us the sun of justice is not shining. We are living like the creatures in the depths of the ocean. Upon us press the weight of a thousand atmospheres of mistrust and disdain. We have lived for centuries in a glacial period, surrounded by the bitter cold of malice and hatred. Those are the permanent powers which have permanently influenced us, without noise, without incident, to give rise to sensational reports, yet under which we have retrograded steadily, gradually, and unmistakably." This, alas ! is all true, but oh ! when will Israel acknowledge the cause of it all ? When will they see not only the rod, but Him who uses it ? 344 " Who among you will give ear to this ? Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Did not Jehovah, He against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in His ways, neither were they obedient unto His law. Therefore He hath poured upon him the fury of His anger, and the strength of battle, and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew it not ; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart" (Isa. xlii. 22-25). Perhaps no part of Dr. Nordau's address was so loudly applauded by the entire Congress as his laconic reference to the so-called " Protest-Rabbis," of the Continent and England, who have ranged themselves in bitter opposition to the Zionists. I mention it because in this growing estrangement between the masses of the Jewish people, and these modern Rabbis, lies another point of great significance in connection with this Zionist movement. And what is the meaning of this opposition on the part of the Rabbis ? The answer is very simple : they are angry because the Zionists have unmasked the hollowness of their pretensions, and have shown them up to the world as strutting about with a lie in their right hand. These modern " reformed " Rabbis have tried to deceive them- selves and their followers into the belief, that their dispersion among the nations, instead of being a punish- ment for apostasy from their God, was, on the contrary, a blessing in fact the realisation of the Messianic ideal, for only as a Diaspora can they fulfil their mission of bearing witness to the nations. It may be news to the so-called Christian nations of Europe and America to learn, that these modern Rabbis are the true lights of the world, the salt of the earth, who must remain scattered to illumine the nations, and to ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS 245 preserve them from corruption ; and that it is to them, and to the Rabbis who preceded them, that the nations owe what knowledge they possess of the true and living God but so they speak and write of themselves. Now it was bad enough to hear it from missionaries and Christians that this is all false ; that neither from the "orthodox" Talmudic, who are the successors of the Pharisees, nor yet from the "progressive" or " reformed" Rabbis, who are no improvement on the Sadducees of the time of our Lord, did the Gentiles learn to know of the true and living God of Israel, but from the Jewish apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, the true light of the world, whose true glory these Rabbis have done their utmost to hide and misrepresent before their nation ; that since the rejection of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem, while the gospel of Christ has continued its triumphal march among the nations, the Synagogue has been struck with impotence, and unbelieving Israel with barrenness ; that the Jews in their dispersion have indeed a mission, but quite different from that of which these modern Rabbis and their disciples boast the mission, namely, of witnessing to God's righteous severity, as a warning to these " Christian " nations that they also, if they continue not in God's goodness, shall be " cut off." (Rom. xi. 22.) It was bad enough, I say, to hear all this from Christians, but for these leaders of Zionism to come and tell them "A plague on you and your so-called mission; the nations do not want us in their midst ; your antagonism to the national movement on the ground of ' the Messianic ' idea and patriotic love to the countries which have granted you civil rights, is but veiled hypocrisy, covering your selfishness, and fear lest your comfortable nests should be stirred. Should not the shepherds feed the flocks ? but ye modern ' progressive ' 246 ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS Rabbis and yqur rich worldly-minded followers, who by their wealth, and at the cost of the sacrifice of Jewish principles,, have succeeded in gaining for themselves a position" in Gentile society what have ye done for the masses of your people ? " In the words of Dr. Herzl's opening address " You are satisfied because your powers of imagination have been weakened by your favourable circumstances, and therefore are not able to understand us Zionists. But the poor and the wretched understand us ; they have the imagination created by distress. They know from the experience of to-day and yesterday what the pangs of hunger will be to-morrow. In this condition there are many hundreds of thousands of our people. . . . Judaism is an immense hostelry of misery, with branches through- out the world, and you not only do nothing yourselves, but hinder others, who by this national movement try to bring to them a ray of hope." No wonder that a number of these modern Rabbis hate Zionism, and have bound themselves into a union in order to "protest" and oppose ; and no wonder also that when Dr. Max Nordau, towards the end of his address, said, " I will not speak of the so-called Protest-Rabbis of the West. With those we have already settled, and I hope that soon the whole Jewish people will have settled with them," the whole Congress cheered and applauded. With Dr. Nordau's speech, the first public session of the Congress, which in some respects turned out to be the most interesting, was brought to a close. BASLE, August ijfJt. I have been at almost all the meetings in the Congress Hall from the beginning, and have followed with the utmost interest all the long and sometimes very agitated discussions on the subjects of "Organisation," "Finance," ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS 247 "The Colonial Bank," &c., but, excepting the first sitting, I find only very few notes in my -diary apart from those relating to conversations on religious and spiritual topics, with some of the delegates and visitors, which 'are not meant for the public eye or ear. The fact is that many of these discussions in Congress relate to what I may call inner Zionism, and though of very great importance for the future working of the movement, it is of no special interest to the outside world, or to those who watch Zionism from the stand- point of the Kingdom of God. A few impressions and incidents, however, I must record. First, I am more and more impressed with the dead earnestness of these elected representatives of the Diaspora. From the eagerness, and air of seriousness, in all their discussions, especially in their committee-rooms) and in the intervals between the public meetings, you might think that not only are they themselves on the very eve of the proposed exodus to Palestine, and that there is not a moment to lose in making the necessary arrangements, but that on this exodus depends the destiny of the nations, and that the settlement can brook not a moment's delay. Yesterday, after a sitting which lasted almost con- tinuously from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., with one or two short breaks, they assembled again at 10 p.m., for further dis- cussion on some points connected with " The Jewish Colonial Trust," and continued till a quarter past one in the morning, and to-day, when I arrived at the Town Casino about half an hour before the Congress opened at 10 a.m., the delegates were all in or about the build- ing, and there was as much hurry and bustle and noisy discussion as if they had only just assembled for the first time, after a comfortable night in bed. After carefully studying the various elements of which 2 4 3 ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS the Congress is made up, I am of the conviction that if Zionism does not as yet sufficiently represent the wealth and material resources of the Jewish nation, it does cer- tainly represent a large proportion of its heart and brain ; and as I look upon those hundreds of earnest, intelligent faces, gathered from all parts of the earth, and listen to the able, and often impassioned speeches made in different languages, I feel in my soul that Israel is God's great reserve force for the future blessing of the world, and my heart goes out in yearning for the time when " the Spirit shall be poured upon us from on high," and when these remarkable gifts, and this zeal and ability, shall be consecrated to the service of making known their long-rejected Messiah and King among the nations. One or two incidents in the continuous excitement of the last three days are specially worth noticing. One occurred yesterday morning, when, in the midst of an agitated discussion on the question of finance, a chassidic Rabbi I am not certain whether from Roumania or Galicia ascended the tribune, pulled out a manuscript from his pocket, and after reading in Hebrew and German Isa. Ix. 1-3, " Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee," &c., began to preach a sermon, the substance of which was a glorification of Israel. Personally, the picturesque figure, in the long kaftan and peyoth, whose face and voice reminded me very much of dear old Rabbi Lichtenstein, was a great object of interest to me ; but the Congress, bent on business, was in no mood for a sermon, and vociferously called on the chairman, who happened to be Professor Mandelstamm, to call the Rabbi to order, and to remind him of the particular point under discussion. But in vain. The chairman kept knocking with his ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS 249 hammer; Dr. Herzl himself more than once quietly whispered from behind to the Rabbi to come to the point; but what did he know or care about finance? Was he not a duly elected delegate ? He had laboured perhaps for months to prepare his sermon, and in as good German as possible, and now, with such a splendid opportunity before him, was he to be debarred from delivering it? So the chairman remonstrated, the delegates laughed, talked, shouted noisily, but the Rabbi bravely proceeded, until his voice was finally drowned, and he had with a sigh, and an expression of great sadness on his face, to fold his manuscript together, and descend from the tribune. DIE CULTURFRAGE. Quite a different reception was accorded this afternoon to another but much better known Rabbi, Dr. Gaster, the Haham of the Sephardi Jews in London. Dr. Gaster, who is a scholar, and a native of Roumania, from which country he was banished for being a for- midable champion of the cause of his oppressed brethren, represents " die Culturfrage " in the Zionist movement, but after reading his previous speeches, and listening to him very closely to-day, I am still at a loss clearly to define what is meant by it. Perhaps I am very dense, but I was glad to find that the president of the Congress was equally slow of com- prehension, for yesterday morning, in a most able reply to a number of criticisms from delegates on various shortcomings of the executive committee (one of which was that the culture question was not included in the agenda), Dr. Herzl humorously said, " Meine Herrn, I will repeat a question that I asked Dr. Gaster him- self this morning, in the course of private conversation, 250 ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS and that was : ' Please tell me what is this Culturfrage ? I have listened to many addresses on it, but I do not understand it.'" Dr. Herzl did not repeat Dr. Gaster's answer to his question, but proceeded to observe that if a particular phase of the Jewish " religion " is meant, then he is determined that it shall be excluded from the dis- cussions of the Congress, "because we Zionists respect every form of religious belief. Our movement is a national one, and religious discussions would only divide us." In justice to Dr. Herzl, and the other Zionist leaders, I must say that this does not necessarily imply that they are anti-religious, but that they have no regard for the strife between the various religious factions in modern Judaism. For my own part, I do not know what I would rather choose, whether to have religion altogether left out of their deliberations, or to have it brought up by men, whether "orthodox" or "progressive," whose concep- tions of God and spiritual truth are as opposed to the principles of Israel's true " religion " revealed in Old and New Testament, as darkness to light. For the present, Zionism, like all Israel, is religiously a heterogeneous mass, embracing in its following all shades of belief and unbelief, held together only by the " National Idea." One can understand, therefore, the anxiety of the responsible leaders to keep questions of cult out of its programme. But let me give a few of the more striking passages of Dr. Gaster's speech. I suppose in answer to Dr. Herzl's question as to "what is really meant," he said : " As a matter of fact, our culture question is one of the greatest prophetic dreams of our people, the greatest ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS 251 prophetic vision which our people have cherished throughout thousands of years ; the greatest ideal which has hovered before the spiritual sight, and which has deeply influenced the lives of our people. We have always had a great ideal before us, which is not to be compared with the ideals that have influenced other nations, and we have pursued this ideal, undismayed, through thousands of years. For we dream of possess- ing our own state on earth, where justice and love shall reign, and we name this heavenly state on earth the ideal of the Jewish people. It is entirely different to the efforts of the whole world, and therefore we have remained different, and I assert it here on a higher plane than all other nations of the world, for there is no other nation that can compare with ours. All the attempts that have been made against us, to degrade and persecute us, have failed, and we, as Zionists, now declare we remain as true to our ideal as were our ancestors thousands of years ago. You will naturally ask me, What is the connection between this heavenly state on earth with Zionism ? In fact the connection is of the closest. The one is hope, the other is reality. We have now before our spiritual eyes the picture of the glorious future, and this is the secret of our eternity and indestructibleness. If our bodies have been broken, our spirit has never been broken." This is partially true. The establishment of God's kingdom on earth, with Israel as the centre, was the divinely communicated " ideal " of Israel's prophets and seers, but between the present and the time when that ideal shall be realised lies Israel's repentance and conver- sion, about which Dr. Gaster, and the other repre- sentatives of the " Culturfrage " say, as yet, not a word ; the time when Israel's proud spirit shall at last be broken before God, and when in true contrition of heart they 252 ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS shall turn not only to Zion, but to Zion's true King, through whom alone, and never through Israel apart from Him, will this prophetic " dream " be fulfilled. Then Israel will no longer boast as if by their innate goodness and power they were on " a higher plane than all other nations," but in the spirit of Paul, the type of his nation, they will say, " I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious ; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief . . . By grace I am what I am." To me, one of the saddest passages in Dr. Caster's speech was the following, because it reveals an utterly mistaken view as to the real character and influence of Rabbinic Judaism : " When the Temple of ancient times was destroyed," he said, " the leaders of the spiritual party asked of the Roman conquerors not the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery ; they asked that the Jewish spirit should be liberated ; they prayed for one modest thing, only to open a school. This school has never ceased to exist. Its doors, once opened, have never been closed, and through these portals the spirit of mankind has been re-created to return here in a purified form. We have acquired knowledge from all quarters; but we have also worked in every direction as spiritual teachers of the highest teachings." Was this so ? I ask again. Was it from the portals of the synagogue or Beth-Hammedrash that the power went forth for the re-creation "of the spirit of man- kind"? I have already shown up this delusion. The utmost which the synagogue has done since the destruction of the second Temple was to shut ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS 253 in its antiquated doors, and preserve in isolation those within. Not from the synagogue, where the quibblings of Rabbis took the place of the reading of God's pure Word in Moses and the prophets, but from the new " House," the Ecclesia of the living God, of which Christ became the head, and the Jewish Apostles the stewards, did blessing and renewal come to the nations, and, it is a pity that Dr. Gaster being an historian does not seem to be aware of it. And as to the effects of Talmudism upon the Jews themselves, was it really " a liberation of the spirit " ? This is not the place to analyse the Talmud, or to show the part it has played in moulding Jewish character, even if I were able for such a task, but we know some- thing of the Talmud and its effects on the masses of the Diaspora, and I must endorse the conviction of many others who are capable of judging, that instead of "a liberation," the Talmud has brought poor Israel into a spiritual and even mental bondage, corresponding only to the outward bodily captivity, in which they have been since the Temple was destroyed by their Roman conquerors. The concluding passage of Dr. Caster's speech was a fine piece of oratory, with a germ of truth wrongly apprehended. " And now, in conclusion," he said, " what is there left for me to say ? " Only to remind you of an old legend, the legend of the Phoenix, to which our wise men long ago compared our people. The Phoenix is immortal, but in a specified time it grows old and weak, and is consumed inwardly ; it becomes ashes, and only a very small germ remains. This the priest takes to Heliopolis, the City of the Sun, where he guards the germ and gradually the Phoenix 254 ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS develops, and when it is fully matured, it shakes its pinions and takes flight to the sun to thank God for having permitted it to be born again. " We also have been burnt and scattered like the ashes of the earth. Only the germ remains, and now we Zionists, the priests of the new age, we come to bring the germ to the City of the Sun, of truth, of fidelity, of devotion. We preserve it and shall preserve it, until Judaism, like the Phcenix, rises again from its ashes and soars upwards to the sun of truth, carrying the nations with it." This reminded me of Isaiah vi., where to the prophet's question " Lord how long ? " God says : " Until cities be waste without habitation, and houses without men, and the land becomes utterly waste, and Jehovah have removed men far away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land. And if there be yet a tenth in it, it shall again be eaten up ; as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth when they are felled, so the holy seed is the stock thereof." There is, indeed, an indestructible germ " a holy seed " in Israel, which always survives the terrible judgments and desolations which befall them, and over this germ Israel's Shepherd and Great High Priest is watching. Before long He will carry it back to the city of God, and there under the rays of the sun of righteous- ness it will take root and live anew. Then " Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." FRIDAY, August i8th. It is the last day of the Congress, and being the eve of the Sabbath, a number of the delegates have already left, but still there is as much bustle and hurry as ever. The chief feature of the morning sitting was a speech in German by Sir Francis Montefiore, nephew and heir of ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS 255 the famous Sir Moses, whose name is still held in the highest esteem by the Jews in all parts of the world. Sir Francis is a fair-haired thorough English gentle- man, whose advocacy of Zionism shows that not all the Jewish monied aristocracy hold aloof from the move- ment. " I am with you," he said ; " my services, I can assure you, are ever at your command. For I shall indeed consider it the highest of all privileges if only, and in any way, be it even in the humblest of capacities, I can do but the least thing to further and promote this great and glorious cause," and to these assurances the delegates responded with tremendous cheering. The final sitting in the afternoon was taken up with election of committees and the reading of the report of the Palestine Colonisation Committee, after which there followed a scene of tumult, occasioned by Mr. Davis Trietsch, who, from the tribune, tried to unfold his plan for the temporary colonisation of Cyprus. The Russian delegates in particular, who will hear of no other land but Palestine, worked themselves up into a frenzy, and there was confusion till their motion was carried by Congress that Mr. Trietsch should not be heard. When calm was restored, Dr. Herzl dismissed the Congress with a brief and dignified speech, followed by tremendous cheering, during which all rose to their feet. A resolution of thanks to the president, and the third Zionist Congress passes into history, having certainly put the Zionist movement on a more consolidated basis than before. 1 1 I subjoin the following account of a pathetic incident at the close of the fourth Congress in London in 1900 : " At the close there was a very strange scene. The members rose and started singing a national Hebrew song. It was all in the minor key, ending with a refrain which sounded like the sad wail of a woman 256 ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS Before leaving Basle, let me bear my testimony to the kindness and courtesy of the officials and leaders of the Congress to the few Jewish Christians who were present in their midst. A spirit of tolerance has characterised the Zionist movement from the beginning, on which account it has attracted the sympathy of intelligent Christians, who have never ceased to cherish the hope of Israel's re- storation and future blessing. A REMARKABLE SCENE. As an illustration of this spirit of tolerance, I may refer to a scene which I witnessed in the course of this morning, when, during a pause in the proceedings of Congress, I found in the spacious lobby leading to the galleries of the large hall, a tall Franciscan monk, surrounded by quite a large number of delegates, who were noisily disputing with him on religious topics ; while on the outskirts of the little crowd was a dear, earnest Gentile Christian " Brother," with an open New Testa- ment in his hand, in which he was pointing out some particular passages to the Jews. in distress, or the moan of a suffering patient racked with pain, it reminded one of some of the sad plaintive songs of the negro slaves on the American plantations. It was weird and made one shudder so might slaves sing in their despondency when filled with an insatiable craving after freedom. But suddenly from another part of the hall came other sounds and another song. For a time it was difficult to distinguish it, both seemed mingled, but gradually the Hebrew slave dirge died away, the minor key gave way to the major, and England's National Anthem burst forth, and was taken up quickly by the Jew from Russia and New York, Roumania and South Africa, Jerusalem and Paris ; it was the song of a free nation, a nation that had never known slavery, a nation that had helped many to freedom. Would it begin the new century by helping the nation longest enslaved to a home they would never leave again, to a freedom they would never forfeit ? " ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS 257 It was indeed a case of extremes meeting ; to see these two men the one with the rosary and cross hano-. ing from his neck, and the other with the Word of God both arguing with the Jews. Before I was recognised by some in the party, I managed to overhear fragments of the discussion. The monk must be very different from the majority of his confraternity and of the Roman Church in general if what he said was true. He assured them that he was a great lover of the Jews, and that he believed they would soon go back to Palestine. " What about Deckert ? " interrupted an Austrian delegate. Deckert, I should explain, is that Catholic parish priest near Vienna referred to in another part I who not long ago preached a series of sermons against the Jews in his church, and ended one with the words: "Verbrennt die Juden zur Ehre Gottes. Amen." (" Burn the Jews for the glory of God. Amen.") The Franciscan professed not to know anything about this Deckert nor of any hatred on the part of the Roman Catholic Church toward the Jews. " You speak of love," interrupted another Jew, " but all we know is that for centuries we have experienced from the Christians nothing but hatred and cruelty." The dear " Brother " with the New Testament whose name, according to his own writing in my notebook, is Herr Alfred Rosshard, of Papperswyl gave me quite a hug when he discovered who I was, and pressed me to come and stay with him in his home. His words of testimony seemed much more effective than the monk's. When one of the Jews in the group appealed to him what he thought of the anti-Semites, he replied, " The 1 See page 218. 18 258 ZIONISM AND THE ZIONIST CONGRESS anti-Semites they are only a scourge in the hand of our God, but as soon as you return to Him, He will throw the hateful scourge from Him, and visit upon them all their own cruelty. No true Christian who loves his Saviour and his Bible can hate the Jews, but there are many false Christians, even as Christ foretold. But you must not judge Him by these false professors." To this I could only say " Amen." VIII ISRAEL'S MISSION TO THE WORLD, AND THE CHURCH'S MISSION TO ISRAEL " Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen ; that ye may know and believe Me, and under- stand that I am He; before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside Me there is no Saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed when there was no strange God among you ; therefore ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God." ISA. xliii. 10-12. " Ye shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." ACTS i. 8. VIII ISRAEL'S MISSION TO THE WORLD, AND THE CHURCH'S MISSION TO ISRAEL * AS we look at the passage quoted from Acts i. " Ye shall be witnesses unto Me," we cannot but be reminded of the very similar words addressed by God through the prophet Isaiah, to Israel as a nation, and we may well ask how is it, that instead of Israel at the present time witnessing for God among the nations, it is necessary that witness should be borne to Israel about their own God, their own Messiah, and their own Scriptures ? The answer is given by the Apostle Paul in Rom. xi. 25, " Blindness in part is happened to Israel." It is true that certain leaders among modern Jews claim still to have a mission, even at this present day, in their dispersion among the nations a mission, as they say, to bear witness to the unity of God. But if we examine this supposed witness that the modern Jew gives to the unity of God, we find it very defective ; for it is not a testimony to God as He has been pleased to reveal Himself in His word that is, as the infinite, 1 The first part of this chapter was an address delivered at the Mildmay Conference in June, 1897, the subject that year being "The Evangelisation of Our Own Generation." It was afterwards written out in full for the Missionary Review of the World, from which excellent magazine it is reproduced here. 261 262 ISRAEL'S MISSION TO THE WORLD, AND yet personal, triune, holy, loving God but a testimony to an abstract formula with regard to the unicity of the Godhead. Of a personal, living God, modern Judaism knows, alas, very little. As a matter of fact, it is not due to the testimony to the unity of God, as given by the synagogue, that Gentiles have been brought to believe in one living and true God, but to the more truly Jewish testimony as given by the Jewish Apostles of the New Covenant, who went about preaching one God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ; one Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ the righteous ; and one Holy Spirit, by whom the know- ledge of God is communicated to man ; and these three, one blessed Trinity. But, speaking generally, it is the boast of modern Jews that they are not a missionary people. Thousands of times have I had it thrown in my teeth by Jews in various parts of the world, who have said, "Why do Christians trouble themselves with trying to convert us ? We do not try to convert anybody." My reply usually is : " Why don't you ? If you boast of the fact that you are not a missionary people, you simply boast of your shame ; you simply testify to the fact that you are not now answering the purpose for which God called Israel into existence. Was not the very purpose of God in creating the Jewish nation that they might be wit- nesses for Him, to make known His name among the nations ? The fact that you are not now a missionary people is accounted for by the reason that you have no mission. In this respect it is true that the Kingdom of God has been taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. If you had a message you could not be silent, even if you tried, for you would find the word of God like a burning fire in your heart shut up in your bones, so that you would weary in for- THE CHURCH'S MISSION TO ISRAEL 263 bearing to run and communicate it to others." Israel at the present day has no message. The Jews do not, and cannot, bear witness for God, excepting that passive testimony which the diaspora gives to the righteous severity of God a testimony which, would to God Christendom took to heart, because it contains the solemn lesson to them, that they also, if they continue not in His goodness, shall be cut off. But has the purpose of God in relation to Israel in this respect, that they should be His witnesses, been frustrated, or has it been already accomplished in the testimony that the Jews gave in the past ? No ; the Jew has yet a future of testimony for God on the earth. "Blindness in part," as the Apostle Paul says, "has happened unto Israel," and it is "in part" in a double sense. It is partial in its extent, for there is the remnant, according to the election of grace, who are not blinded, but can behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ even now, and it is partial also in its duration. There is a great contrast in the Word of God in this respect, between the condition of the Jew now, and the condition of the Jew in the future. "Blindness in part has happened unto Israel," says the Apostle Paul in Romans xi. ; but we read of a wonderful transformation that is to come over the Jewish people. " Then," says the prophet, Isaiah xxxv. 5, 6, "the eyes of the blind shall be opened." The very nation that has been destined by God to point all the other nations to the Sun of Righteous- ness, has been itself struck blind, but it is only for a time. The present condition of Israel may be very beauti- fully illustrated by a touching incident which I heard not long ago. It was about a child who met with an 264 ISRAEL'S MISSION TO THE WORLD, AND accident and suddenly lost his eyesight. At first he did not know what had happened to him, and used to follow his mother about the house, crying : " Mother, mother, when will it be day? When will the sun shine?" The poor mother had not the heart to tell her child all at once that it was day, that the sun was shining, but that something had happened to his eyes. This is the condition of the Jews to-day. " We wait for light, but behold obscurity ; for brightness, but we walk in darkness." But "the eyes of the blind shall be opened." Soon the cry will go forth, " Arise, shine, for thy light has come ; the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee." And then " the Gentiles shall come to thy light and kings to the brightness of thy rising." The prophet continues: "Then the lame man shall leap as an hart." I never read this verse in Isaiah xxxv. without being reminded of Acts iii., where we have the account of a notable miracle that was wrought in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We read there about a poor man who was carried every day to the gate of the temple called Beautiful, where he begged for alms of those who were going to worship God. One day Peter and John came along, and he asked alms from them also ; but Peter, fastening his eyes upon him, with John, said : " Look on us ! " expect something different from us than you would from others ; and we read that he gave heed to them, expecting something from them. But Peter said : " Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I unto thee : in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk ! " and he took him by the right hand, and the lame man, leaping up, stood and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. My dear friends, that lame man is a type and parable of Israel. Israel is that lame man. Beautiful upon THE CHURCH'S MISSION TO ISRAEL 265 the mountains should be the feet of Jewish evangelists and preachers bearing the glad tidings of Messiah's Gospel to the nations ; but Israel is lame now and out- side the temple of God ; that is, out of communion with God, because the temple was the visible symbol of fellowship with Jehovah. They are like the poor lame man also in this respect, that all their thoughts are fixed on money. Money, money ; alms, business. I do not wish to say here, because it would not be true, that the Jew is exceptional in this respect. It is the tendency of the human heart that knows not the treasure that is at the right hand of God, to cleave unto the dust, and the Jew and Gentile are alike in this respect. I am only touching upon the fact that the Jew, like the Gentile, is at present occupied with worldly things, and he will readily deal with Christians in business. Peter and John have come to Israel and have said, " Look on us," and, blessed be God, there is a remnant whose eyes have been opened by the Spirit of God to see that power to heal lies only in the name of Jesus, and they are leaping and rejoicing. But as far as the nation is concerned, Israel is still sitting lame, incapable of going on an errand for God among the nations. For centuries it has been in that condition ; but will it always remain so ? Oh, no ! There is a greater One yet than Peter and John to pass Israel again. We sometimes sing a hymn, " Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." He passed by Israel once, and Israel was then already sick ; but Israel let Him pass without as much as touching the hem of His garment, and Jesus returned unto His place until they acknowledge their offence and seek His face. When He departed, He said : " Your house is left unto you desolate, for I say unto you, ye shall not see Me henceforth, until ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the 266 ISRAEL'S MISSION TO THE WORLD, AND Lord." Yes, Jesus will yet pass Israel again, and they will assuredly use the words of the prophecy from Psalm cxviii. which He quoted. Jesus will say to Israel, " Look on Me," and the spirit of grace and supplication will be poured out upon the Jewish nation, and they shall look on Him whom they have pierced. Jesus will again take Israel by the hand. " I will build again the tabernacle of David, which has fallen ; I will build again the ruins thereof;" and then "shall the lame man leap as an hart," and a tremendous sensation will be created on the earth. This is the hope of missions, and of the evangelisation of the world. When this national lame man is healed, all the peoples of the earth will see this wonderful miracle performed by Jesus Christ of Nazareth. We read in the same prophecy that at that time in the wilderness shall waters break out. This is a picture of Israel's present condition a wilderness, a howling desert, spiritually ; but God has said that out of this wilderness rivers will spring up for the refreshing of the whole world. Now, in the interval between Israel's rejection and Israel's reception of Christ, when the Jews shall be reinstated as the witnesses of Jehovah on the earth, the Church, which is made up of Jews and Gentiles, is put into the very position of Israel, both in relation to privilege and to responsibility, (a) In relation to privilege : " Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people . . . and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation," was God's word to Israel in Exodus, the Book of Redemp- tion : " Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased possession," says Peter, to all who have been redeemed with precious blood, whether Jew or Gentile. (b*} In relation to responsibility: "Ye are My THE CHURCH'S MISSION TO ISRAEL 267 witnesses," saith Jehovah, " and My servants . . . This people have I formed for Myself; they shall show forth My praise," are God's words to Israel : " Ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth," were the parting words of the ascending Christ to the Church : " That ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light." Yes, one of the chief ends of the Church's existence on earth is, that she may bear witness to the nations ; and in her witness she dare not lose sight of the Jew, for, as the late Professor Franz Delitzsch once said, at a great missionary meeting, " Gentlemen, if you speak about the evangelisation of the world, and forget the Jew, you are like a bird that tries to fly with one of its wings clipped." But generally I find that in speaking to Christians about the Jew, it is very easy to carry them with you if you speak of the Jews of the past the Jew of Bible history or the prophetic Jew of the future ; but when it comes to the actual Jew of the present day, and you want them to enter into the thoughts and mind of God in reference to Israel of the present, that is a most difficult task. Let me illustrate it practically. At the present day there is, perhaps, no country in the world where such a lively interest is taken in the Jew, and where so much is done in proportion for Jewish missions, as in Norway, although in Norway itself there are scarcely any Jews. You will ask how this interest in Israel originated in Norway. Well, it originated, for the most part, in the prayers and devotion of a noble-minded Christian lady. About fifty years ago, when the cause of foreign missions was taking hold of Christians in Norway, this lady's heart was 268 ISRAEL'S MISSION TO THE WORLD, AND moved by the Spirit of God with compassion for Israel. One day, as the pastor of her church was coming down from the pulpit, she said to him : " I am very glad to hear you always pray for the heathen, but I wish you would also include poor scattered Israel." The pastor turned round rather hotly, and said : " The Jews ! We have nothing to do with them. They have been cast off, and now it is the time of the Gentiles." She tried to reason with him, but it was of no avail. But one day she called on her pastor, and said to him : " I have a very sad story to relate to you, and I am sure it will draw out your sympathy." He said : " What is it ? " She replied : " Not far from here there lives a good man and his wife. They have one son, whom they love as their own lives. They did everything possible for him, but the son turned out most unworthy of his parents' love ; he returned it only with disobedience and ingratitude. After a time, when his conduct became no longer tolerable, with great grief of heart, they let him go, and he is now a wanderer. Instead of this son of theirs they adopted a poor gipsy boy. Him they put in their own son's room, gave their own son's clothing and books in fact, they treated him in every possible way as their own child. The boy was very happy, but the parents could not forget their own child. In the evening sometimes a mist steals over the mother's eyes, and a sigh escapes from the heart of the father, and when the boy asks, " What is the matter ? " the father answers, " Oh, our son, our son ; would that he would come back ; there is room in our hearts for him as well as you." But this the boy does not like, and now it has come to this, that every time the parents mention their son, he gets into a temper. What do you think of it ? " The pastor stood up and said : " Oh, the ungrateful youth ; if I were the parents, I would let him go ; he is not a THE CHURCH'S MISSION TO ISRAEL 269 bit better than the other." The lady paused a minute or two, and then said : " Dear pastor, forgive me ; Israel is that wandering son, and we are the gipsy boy ; and although God was obliged to send the Jews into captivity, and has ' given over the dearly beloved of His soul into the hands of her enemies,' His heart has not ceased to yearn for them, and His 'hands are still outstretched all the day long to His disobedient and gainsaying people.' Hearken ! ' Is Ephraim my dear son ? Is he a pleasant child? for, since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore my bowels are troubled for him. I will surely have mercy on him, saith Jehovah.'" The pastor's heart was won, and the result was the first society that was established in Norway for the evangelisation of the Jews. May God give us the same spirit of compassion, that our hearts may go out in pity with His for this poor national Prodigal Son ! Our testimony to-day to the Jews is with regard to Jesus Christ, that "this Jesus," whom they crucified and think to be dead, is Israel's true Messiah, exalted to the right hand of God, a prince and a Saviour. If time permitted, I should like to speak of the peculiar methods which we should adopt in our testimony to the Jew ; and also as to the right kind of witnesses who should be sent forth by the Church, because I believe that, to this day, God has His instruments adapted for this work, and for that work, and it is not every one who is called of God to be a missionary to the Jews. On this point it will not be out of place if I quote from a report of Professor Gustaf Dalman of the Leipzig Institutum Delitzschianum, as to the necessary qualifications of a properly equipped missionary to the Jews, with which I most heartily concur. 270 ISRAEL'S MISSION TO THE WORLD, AND " i. The missionary among the Jews must have a thorough knowledge of their languages. This com- prises not only a knowledge of the languages of Jewish literature, Hebrew and Aramaic ; and, if possible, a good practical acquaintance with the former, which is most extensively used by the Jews in their written communications, but also ability at least to speak German, and to understand Hebrew-German, or ' Yid- dish,' the vernacular spoken by two-thirds of the Jewish people. "2. The missionary must be acquainted with the religion of the Jews. Without this knowledge he will find it impossible to set forth our holy religion to Jews in such a way as to commend it to them, or even to be understood by them, much less to bring it home to heart and conscience. Those who are not cognizant of the world of Jewish religious thought, cannot conceive how unintelligible the terminology of our holy faith is to the Jew. Even the great scriptural key-words of Christianity Sin, repentance, faith, righteousness, Re- deemer, Christ-Messiah have a different meaning to the Jew, while, of course, all ecclesiastical terms are utterly incomprehensible to him. And thus experience has shown that the plainest and most heartfelt Gospel message coming from an untrained, though earnest Gentile Christian, will sound as a dark riddle in Jewish ears. " 3. The missionary should have studied the doctrines and sacred documents of the Christian faith in their bearings on Israel. Tracing the history of Israel through the Old Testament, and viewing their election and future in the light of law and prophecy, and noting the differences between the Jewish and Christian con- ceptions of Bible doctrine and statement, he should seek to obtain such a grasp of the Scriptures as to THE CHURCH'S MISSION TO ISRAEL 271 be able to meet and answer any difficulty or objection that may be propounded by the inquirer or caviller. "4. The missionary must be conversant with the history of the mission to Israel, its nature, aims, and methods, and the lines on which the work has hitherto been carried on. Practical knowledge and insight is best obtained by commencing work under the super- vision of experienced missionaries. "Even for the Hebrew-Christian candidate special training is most desirable and necessary. As a rule, his knowledge of Jewish and Hebrew matters is insufficient and incomplete, in spite of his former sur- roundings, and though his own faith be firm and clearly evinced, yet in the nature of things his grasp of Scripture truth cannot be such as to fit him, without any further training, for the work of an evangelist among his brethren. We cannot fix a high enough standard of attainment for those who desire to devote themselves to this work. A training that may fully qualify a man to go out and proclaim the Gospel to the uncivilised heathen world, is utterly insufficient for a worker among the Jews, although we would never have ourselves or others forget, that technical qualifica- tions and even Scriptural knowledge are worthless, unless accompanied by a living faith and the burning desire to promote the interests of Christ's kingdom among His brethren according to the flesh. Better to send out no missionaries at all than to send out such as are spiritually and intellectually unfit for their task." Tremendous injury to the Jewish mission has resulted from two causes : (i) The putting into the work of "workers," both Jews and Gentiles, who were utterly unfit for the holy and delicate task of holding up the banner of Christ before the Jews ; sometimes mere novices, whose cha- 272 ISRAEL'S MISSION TO THE WORLD, AND racters were not sufficiently tested ; or even brilliant impostors, who captivated the hearts of some whose zeal for the Jewish cause is not according to knowledge. In this part of the Lord's vineyard more particularly, we need not only the spirit of love and of wisdom and power, but also of a sound mind, a spirit of Scriptural sobriety, not dissociated from a true Holy Ghost enthusiasm, for the salvation of a people in whom is bound up the hope of the world, but in whose midst Satan is entrenched more powerfully at the present day than in any other nation. (2) There is also a great lack of knowledge of the peculiar people, and of God's present and future purposes in and through them, which is accountable for certain methods in some Jewish missions, which, how- ever much momentary sensation they may create, and however much interest they may arouse among Gentile Christians, can only work disastrously as far as the Jews themselves are concerned. I am not speaking as a theorist, but from knowledge and experience. After being permitted to serve the Lord in the evangelisation of my people for over twenty years, I am more and more convinced that in the Jewish mission, as in the Lord's work generally, it is not sensation, but self- sacrificing hard toil, and patient continuance in well- doing that will accomplish anything of permanent value for the glory of Christ. Then, as to the manner of presenting the Gospel to the Jews, a great deal might very usefully be said. For instance, Jewish opposition is sometimes owing to the fact that Christianity has been presented to them as a system, altogether detached from, and, to some extent, opposed to Moses and the prophets. Now, in order to remove such impressions, it is of the utmost importance in dealing with Jews to show them that the THE CHURCH'S MISSION TO ISRAEL 273 New Testament is in historic continuity, and true order of sequence to the Old Testament, and that there is not a single essential doctrine in the New Testament, the roots of which are not to be found in Moses and the prophets. This will not be successfully accomplished by always pointing the Jews to a few well-known Messianic passages, but by a methodic unfolding of Scripture as a whole. Indeed, if there is one need greater than another in the Jewish field at the present day, it is that of men mighty in Scriptures, who, in the power of the Spirit, can show to Israel how that, not only an isolated passage here and there, but that in the whole " scroll of the book it is written of Him" It is not my intention to enter into a review of Jewish missions, and into what has been accomplished within this century, so eventful in the history of Jewish emanci- pation and evangelisation. All I can do now is just briefly to remark on the great change in relation to the Gospel which is at present undoubtedly passing over the Jewish nation. Putting aside the vague, exaggerated reports based on no solid foundation, which lead those unacquainted with the facts of the case to believe that untold thousands of Jews are now pressing into the Church, and that we are on the verge of the entire nation becoming Christian, I have no hesitation in saying that the tone and attitude of large numbers of Jews in relation to Christ, in coun- tries where hard, persevering Gospel work has been carried on for some time, have undergone a remarkable change. It is a great thing in itself that the Christ-question is becoming familiarised in the minds of Jews, and that Talmudic Judaism is putting out its hand, however tremblingly, to receive the New Testament, and listening, though as yet with hesitating ear, as to who this Jesus of 19 274 ISRAEL'S MISSION TO THE WORLD, AND Nazareth, whom it has hitherto hated without knowing why, really was. To an eagerness on the part of many Jews in all parts of the world to hear of Christ and to receive the New Testament, I can bear personal testimony. In Ger- many, Austria, and the Balkan States, North Africa, in many places on the Mediterranean coast as well as in Egypt, Palestine, and Asia Minor, we have had Jews flock to us in some places from early morning till late at night to hear and dispute about Christ. Even in centres of Chassidic Jewish bigotry, in Galicia and Roumania, we have had our rooms packed with Jews in their long kaftans and peyoth, eagerly and respectfully discussing the claims of Christ, some of whom gratefully accepted the New Testament, which but a few years ago they would not even touch with their hands because they regarded it as an unclean thing. I cannot here enter into the causes which by the overruling providence of God have brought this change about, but I may just mention two. I. It is the outcome of nearly a century's prayerful toil on the part of Jewish missions and societies, some of whom, alas ! have not continued long in their first love and zeal, and are now in danger of degenerating into mere " organisations." What she has sown in tears more than half a century ago the Church of Christ is now permitted to reap in joy. It is a remarkable fact that however much interest in the Jewish mission cause has lacked in quantity, it has not lacked in quality. The sympathies of some of the holiest as well as the ablest of the servants of Christ within this century, have been enlisted in this truly Christ-like work, so full of hope for the world and in reflex blessing to the Church itself. While painfully conscious of the inadequacy and questionable means and methods which have sometimes THE CHURCH'S MISSION TO ISRAEL 275 been adopted, I am struck, in studying the history of Jewish missions, with the amount of self-sacrificing love, devotion, and sanctified ability which have been brought to this task. We sometimes hear it said that the most notable con- versions from among Jews my friends Joseph Rabino- witz and Rabbi Lichtenstein for example are not the results of missions to the Jews, but of the study of the New Testament. Every conversion, if true, is directly the result of the Word of God applied by the Spirit of God ; but how came it that Rabinowitz and Lichtenstein had New Testaments to read ? Until this century, until the Jewish mission saw to its translation and printing, there was no Hebrew New Testament for use among the Jews. II. Secondly, anti-Semitism and the grosser forms of persecution to which the Jews have been subjected in Russia and other countries, have contributed indirectly to bring about this spirit of change in the Jewish world in relation to the Gospel. Our God ever brings good out of evil and causes the wrath of men to praise Him. The whole movement, based for the most part on shallowness, lies, and inhumanity, by which these already apostate nations are hastening the filling of the cup of their iniquity, has nevertheless served to remind backslidden, apostate Israel of the long-standing con- troversy between them and their God, and has caused some to ask themselves what the sin can be which has brought upon them the retribution of so many long centuries, and in this indirect way their hearts have been to some extent prepared to listen to the claims of Christ. As may be said of all missions, so may it perhaps more especially be said of the Jews, the present is un- doubtedly a great day of opportunity for the Church of 276 ISRAEL'S MISSION TO THE WORLD God. A door is open as never before, and, blessed be God, the Church is awaking to a sense of her duty to the Jew, for never before has there been such an interest manifested in missions to the Jews. What is needed at this juncture above all things are the right kind of labourers men of God and with the fitness and ability for this peculiar work ; men with the faith of Abraham, and with the sincerity, and missionary zeal, and unquenchable love for Israel which charac- terised the Apostle Paul ; men who from the present darkness can look to the coming dawn when " all Israel shall be saved " and " the glory of the Lord cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." IX ANGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES IX ANGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE TEN " LOST " TRIBES (A Letter to an Inquirer) DEAR Friend, I shall endeavour to comply with your request, and to give you in this letter a few reasons for my strong aversion to the Anglo-Israelite theory, which I cannot help regarding as one of the saddest symptoms of the mental and spiritual shallow- ness of the present day. I am not a man delighting in controversy, and I only consent to your wish because I believe that you, like many other simple-minded Chris- tians, are perplexed and imposed upon by the plausi- bilities of the supposed " Identifications," and are not able to detect the fallacies and perversions of Scripture and history upon which the whole theory is based. The theory is, that the "lost" Israelites who were carried captive by the Assyrians under Sargon, are identical with the Saxae, or Scythians, who appear as a conquering horde there about the same time. These Scythians next swarmed westward into Northern Europe, and became the progenitors in particular of the Saxon invaders of England. The Anglo-Saxons therefore are the " lost " ten tribes, now identified. They are the Israel of the Bible, to whom belong the covenants and 279 2 8o ANGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY the blessings. It is owing to this fact that the British Empire is so great and prosperous. As to the Jews, they are not Israel at all, but, as the descendants of Judah, are still under the curse. In fact, the Anglo- Israelite by another and more mischievous method is doing exactly what the allegorising, or so- called spiritualising, school of interpreters did. The method was to apply all the promises in the Bible to the " spiritual " Israel, or the Church, and all the curses to the literal Israel, or the Jews ; but by this new system, while the curses are still left to the Jew, all the blessings are applied not even to those " in Christ," but indis- criminately to a nation, which, as a nation, is as apostate from God as any other of which " Christendom " is com- posed, though I thankfully recognise the fact that there are many of God's true people in it. The supposed ethnological and philological proofs for the British-Israel theory have been again and again demolished by competent authorities. Thus Professor Rawlinson, commenting on Mine's " Identifications," said that the pamphlet is not calculated to produce the slightest effect on the opinion of those competent to form one. " Such effect as it may have, can only be on the ignorant and unlearned on those who are unaware of the absolute and entire diversity in language, physical type, religious opinions, and manners and customs, between the Israelites and the various races from whom the English nation can be shown historically to be descended." As a matter of fact, there is as little abso- lute proof that the Anglo-Saxons are the Saxae, or Scythians, as that the Saxae are the Israelites. The Scriptural " Identifications " with which Anglo- Israel literature abound, turn out on examination to be mere verbal, and sometimes very childish quibblings on the English letter, depending for their success on the OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES 281 reader's ignorance of Hebrew exegesis. Some of their interpretations I can only characterise as bordering on blasphemy. Let me quote one or two examples. I. Great Britain is declared to be the stone cut out with- out hands which smote the image of Nebuchadnezzar* " We will see what is to be the future of the British Empire, or, in other words, the stone that smote the image. It is to become a great mountain and fill the whole earth. Our Colonial Empire, then, will continue to grow till it covers the whole world. We have tried to avoid extending our Empire many and many a time, and yet God has caused it to grow larger and larger, and I believe will still do so. We are already by far the greatest empire there is, or ever has been, and we shall yet be far greater. " The British Empire, again, can never be conquered. Daniel says, ' The God of Heaven shall set up a king- dom which shall never be destroyed : it shall stand for ever.' Consequently we shall never be conquered ; we must continue till the end of time, so that we are to continue to exist as the last Kingdom or Empire this world is to see." II. The smoke of London identified with the Shekhinah glory.' 2 " During their wanderings in the desert His presence was manifested by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, and during the captivity of the Two Tribes of Judah in Babylon He was with them, until, at the expiration of the seventy years, He stirred up Cyrus to release them. The same Lord still watches 1 " Nebuchadnezzar's Dream " in " The British Empire of Ephraim." A whole collection of similar perversions of Scripture may be found in an excellent pamphlet by Pastor Frank H White, called " Anglo-Israelism Examined." 2 From an article in Tine Banner of Israel. 282 ANGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY over the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel in England, and con- tinues to bless them. The same miracles that were wrought in Egypt were intended to foreshadow the realisation of God's future dealings with the Israelites ; and if a gigantic panoramic view of England could be taken from an elevation above the centre of the island at midnight, a temporal pillar of fire would be as remark- able from the blazing furnaces, the gas, and steam engines, as the pillar of cloud and smoke arising from the same sources in the daytime, marking the chief position and prosperity of Israel." Once again the solemn words of the apostle are ful- filled in the teachers of Anglo-Israelism : " Professing themselves to be wise they became fools," or how else could they descend to such impious trivialities, or dare to liken the glory of the Personal Presence of the uncor- ruptible Jehovah, of which the shekhinah cloud was the visible symbol, to the smoke ascending from "blazing furnaces" and "steam engines." III. Edward Him, author of the forty -seven "Identi- fications? is the promised Deliverer who should come out of Z ion. The following is taken from an article on Romans xi. 25-27, which appeared in " Life from the Dead," which was edited by Edward Hine himself: " Are the British people identical with the lost Ten Tribes of Israel ? And is the nation, by the identity, being led to glory ? If these things are so, then where is the Deliverer ? He must have already come out of Zion. He must be doing his great work ; he must be amongst us. It is our impression that, by the glory of the work of the identity, we have come to the time of Israel's national salvation by the Deliverer out of Zion, and that Edward Hine and that Deliverer are identical." OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES 283 I have said above that Anglo-Israelism applies the promises given to converted Israel indiscriminately to the English nation. It does not stop even here, as the above extracts show, but goes on to rob Christ Himself of His glory by applying to the British people prophecies which belong, not even to Israel, but to Israel's Saviour. I have seen, for instance, again and again, the second Psalm, with the address of the Father to the Son, " Ask of Me and I will give Thee the heathen (or ' nations ') for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession," interpreted of the British Empire ; while not long ago a champion of the British- Israel theory preached on the words of the Lord in Matthew, " Therefore say I unto you, the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof " taking it for granted that England is that "nation," which, as a nation, is bringing forth the fruits of God's kingdom. Now I need not explain to you that this is an utterly unspiritual and baseless assumption, for it is the Church God's elect and converted people out of all nations, which is that " nation," which during the period of Israel's national unbelief, bears fruit unto God ; as is clear from I Peter ii. 9, where believers in Christ are addressed as, " a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (eflvoe) that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light." But now discarding the whole heap of Anglo-Israel trash, let us glance at the question of the so-called " lost " ten tribes in the light of Scripture history and prophecy. Anglo-Israelism first of all loses the ten tribes, for whom it claims a different destiny from the Jews, whom it supposes to be descendants of the two tribes only, and then it identifies this " lost " Israel with 284 ANGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY the British race. But there is as little historical reason for the supposition that the ten tribes are lost, in the sense in which Anglo-Israelism uses the term, as there is Scriptural basis for a separate destiny for " Israel " apart from " Judah." The most superficial reader of the Old Testament knows the origin and cause of the unfortunate schism which took place in the history of the elect nation after the death of Solomon. But this evil was to last only for a limited time ; for at the very com- mencement of this new and parenthetical chapter of the nation's history it was announced by God that He would in this way afflict the seed of David, but not for ever. (i Kings xi. 39.) A separate kingdom, comprising ten of the twelve tribes, was set up under Jeroboam in 975 B.C., and its whole history, of about 250 years, is one long, dark tale of usurpation, anarchy, and apostasy, unrelieved by the occasional gracious visitations of national revival which light up the annals of the Judean kingdom under the house of David. After many warnings and premoni- tory judgments the kingdom of the ten tribes was finally overthrown in the year 721. B.C., when its capital, Samaria, was destroyed, and the bulk of the people carried captives by the Assyrians, and made to settle in " Halah and Habor, and by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes" (2 Kings xvii. 6 ; I Chron. v. 26). Before passing on I would beg you to notice two or three facts. I. Firstly, the kingdom of " Judah " after the schism consisted not only of Judah and Benjamin, but also of the Levites who remained faithful to the house of David and the theocratic centre. 1 Even those who were 1 According to Griitz, " History of the Jews," vol. L p. 186, the tribe of Simeon, which was merely a subsidiary of that of Judah, also remained faithful to the House of David, but this is doubtful. OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES 285 in the northern cities forsook all in order to come to Jerusalem, as we read 2 Chron. xi. 14 : " And Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem, and built cities for defence in Judah . . . and the priests and Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their coasts. For the Levites left their suburbs, and their possessions, and came to Judah and Jerusalem ; for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest's office unto the Lord." II. Apart from Judah, Benjamin, and Levi there were in the southern kingdom of Judah after the schism, many out of the other ten tribes whose hearts clung to Jehovah, and the only earthly centre of His worship which He appointed. Immediately after the rebellion, we read that " after them " (that is following the example of the Levites) "out of all the tribes of Israel, such as set their hearts to seek Jehovah, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Jehovah, God of their fathers. So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah" (2 Chron. xi. 16). In every reign of the kingdom of Israel numbers of the religious and more spiritual of the ten tribes must have seceded and joined "Judah." This we find to have been more especially the case during the times of national revival in the southern kingdom, and in the reigns of those kings who feared and sought the Lord. Thus, for instance, we read of Asa, that " he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, with the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon ; for they fell to him out of all Israel in abundance, when they saw that Jehovah his God was with him, so they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem . . . and they entered into a covenant to seek Jehovah God of their fathers with all their heart, and with all their soul " (2 Chron. xv. 9-15). 286 ANGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY There are also several other mentions of " the children of Israel that dwelt in the cities of Judah" and were subjects and members of that kingdom. III. The final overthrow of the northern kingdom took place, as we have seen, in the year 721 B.C., but when we read that the " king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria," we are not to understand that he cleared the whole land of all the people, but that he took the strength of the nation with him. There were, no doubt, many of the people left in the land, even as was the case after the overthrow of the southern kingdom by the Babylonians later on (2 Kings xxv. 1 2). The historical proof for my assertion is found in the fact that about a century after the fall of Samaria we find in the reign of Josiah some of Manasseh and Ephraim, "and a remnant of all Israel" in the land, who contributed to the collection made by the Levites for the repair of the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and joined in the celebration of the great Passover in the eighteenth year of that zealous and promising young king. These were the component elements of which the southern kingdom of "Judah" was made up, when it, too, reached the stage, when, on account of its idola- tries and apostasy from the living God, " there was no more remedy "(or "healing" 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16). It consisted, as we have seen, of Judah, Benjamin, Levi, and many out of all the other ten tribes of Israel, " in abundance." Jerusalem was finally taken in 588 B.C., by Nebu- chadnezzar just 133 years after the capture of Samaria by the Assyrians. Meanwhile the Babylonian Empire succeeded the Assyrian ; but although dynasties had changed, and Babylon, which had sometimes, even under the Assyrian r/gime, been one of the capitals of the OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES 287 Empire, now took the place of Nineveh, the region over which Nebuchadnezzar now bore rule was the very same over which Shalmaneser and Sargon reigned before him, only somewhat extended. 1 The exact location of the exiles of the southern kingdom we are not told, beyond the Scripture state- ments that all the three parties of captives carried off by Nebuchadnezzar (that in the first invasion in the reign of Jehoiakim, 606 B.C., and in the second, in the reign of Jehoiachin, 599 B.C., and in the final overthrow of Jerusalem, in the reign of Zedekiah, 588 B.C.), were taken " to Babylon " (2 Kings xxiv. and xxv. ; Daniel i.). Now Babylon stands not only for the city, but also for the whole land, in which the territories of the Assyrian Empire, and the colonies of exiles from the northern kingdom of " Israel " were included. Thus, for instance, we find Ezekiel, who was one of the 10,000 exiles carried off by Nebuchadnezzar with Jehoiachin, by the river Chebar in the district of Gozan one of the very parts where the exiles of the ten tribes were settled by the Assyrians more than a century previous. With the captivity the divisions and rivalry between "Judah" and "Israel" were ended, and the members of all the tribes who looked forward to a national future were conscious not only of one common destiny, but that that destiny was bound up with the promises to the house of David, and with Zion or Jerusalem as its centre, in accordance with the prophecies of Joel, Amos, and Hosea, and of the other inspired messengers who ministered and testified more especially among them until the fall of Samaria. This conviction of a common and united future, no doubt, facilitated the merging process, which cannot be said to have begun with the 1 See 2 Kings xxiii. 29, where the King of Babylon is called " King of Assyria." 288 ANGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY captivity, for it commenced almost immediately after the rebellion under Jeroboam, but which was certainly strengthened by it. Glimpses into the feeling of the members of the two kingdoms for one another, and their hopes and aspira- tions for unity, we get in the writings of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, who prophesied during the period of exile. The most striking prophecy in relation to this subject is Ezek. xxxvii. 1 5-28 : " The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions (that is, those of Israel who before the captivity fell away from the ten tribes and joined the southern kingdom) : then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel his companions : and join them one to another into one stick ; and they shall become one in thine hand." Then follows the Divine interpretation of this symbol : " Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his com- panions, and I will put them with him (or literally, I will add them upon, or to him), namely, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand. And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thy hand before their eyes. And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land ; and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel ; and one king shall be king to them all : and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all : neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES 289 detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions : but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them ; so shall they be My people, and I will be their God. And My servant David shall be king over them ; and they all shall have one shepherd ; they shall also walk in My judgments, and observe My statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land which I have given unto Jacob My servant, wherein your fathers dwelt ; and they shall dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children's children for ever : and David My servant shall be their prince for ever " (Ezek. xxxvii. 20-25, R.V.). Likewise Jeremiah in his great prophecy of the restoration (chaps, xxx. and xxxiii.) and future blessing, links the destinies of " Judah " and " Israel," or Israel and Judah together ; and speaks of one common experience from that time on for the whole people. " For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will turn again the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord : and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. And these are the words that the Lord spake con- cerning Israel and Judah " (Jer. xxx. 3, 4, R.V.). Now let it be remembered that the foreground and commencement of the restoration and future in these prophecies, especially to all the exiles at that time, was the restoration from Babylon, or Assyria, as it was sometimes called. So, Daniel also, towards the end of the seventy years' captivity, includes not only the men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem in his intercessory prayer, but " all Israel that are near, or far off, from all the countries whither thou hast driven them," who, he confesses, were alike involved in sin and judgment, and equally cast on the mercy of God on the ground of promises made to the fathers. 20 2 9 o AKGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY Now let us go a step farther. Just seventy years had elapsed since the first band of captives were carried away to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in the year 606 B.C. " That the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he issued a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying : Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth ; and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem that is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah." This proclamation, which was in reference to all the people " of the Lord God of heaven," was issued in the year 536, two years after the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, and was, we are told, promulgated " throughout all his kingdom," which was the same as that over which Nebuchadnezzar and his successors reigned before him, only again somewhat extended, even as the kingdom of Babylon was identical with that of Assyria, as already pointed out. Indeed, Cyrus and Darius I. are called indifferently by the sacred historians by the title of "king of Persia" (Ezra iv. 5), "king of Babylon" (Ezra v. 13), and the "king of Assyria" (Ezra vi. 22). The first response to this proclamation was a caravan of " forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty, beside their servants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven, and two hundred singing men and singing women," who, under the leadership of Zerubbabel, who was a lineal descendant of the royal house of David, and of Joshua the high priest, made their way from "Babylon to Jerusalem." Now the leading spirits of this returned party of OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES 291 exiles were, no doubt, " the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites " ; at the same time they included " all those " from all the other tribes without distinction, " whose spirit God had raised to go up to build the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem " (Ezra i. 5). They are no longer counted after their tribal origin, but in families, and after the cities to which they originally belonged, which, for the most part, are not easy to identify ; hence it is difficult to say how many belonged to "Judah," and how many to "Israel," but that there were a good many in this company of those who belonged to the northern kingdom of the ten tribes, is incidentally brought out by the mention of two hundred and twenty-three men of Ai and Bethel alone. Now, Bethel was the very centre of the ancient rival idolatrous worship instituted by Jeroboam, and though on the boundary of Benjamin, belonged to "Ephraim." Between the first organised large party of immigrants under Zerubbabel and Joshua, and the second under Ezra, a period of fifty-eight years elapsed, but we are not to suppose that in the interval there were no additions to the community, which now repre- sented the whole united nation in Jerusalem. We read, for instance, incidentally, in Zech. vi. 9, 15, of a party of four prominent men who arrived in Jerusalem in 519 as representatives of " the captivity " (that is, of those who still remained in those parts where they were exiles), bringing with them a present of silver and gold for the Temple, the building of which was resumed about five months before, as a result of the stirring appeals of Haggai. This shows that there was continual inter- course and communication between the community in Palestine and the majority of the people who were still " in Babylon " ; and we may be certain that little parties 292 ANGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY and individuals, "whose spirit God had raised," con- tinually found their way to the holy city. In 458 B.C. Ezra, "the scribe of the law of the God of heaven," in accordance with the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus, organised another large caravan of those whose hearts were made willing to return to the land of their fathers. Part of this most favourable royal pro- clamation, was as follows : " I make a decree that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites in my realm, which are minded of their own free will to go up to Jerusalem, go up-with thee " ; and in response to it "this Ezra went up from Babylon . . . and there went up (with him) of the children of Israel, and of the priests and of the Levites, and the singers and the porters, and the Nethinim, unto Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king " (Ezra vii. 7). This party consisted of about one thousand eight hundred families ; and apart from the priests, Levites, and Nethinim, was made up of " the children of Israel," irrespective of tribal distinctions, from all parts of the realm of " Babylon," or Assyria, now under the sway of the Medo-Persians. The narratives contained in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, under whose administration the position of the restored remnant became consolidated, covers a period of about 115 years, and brings us down to about 420 B.C. Jewish history during the second period of the Persian supremacy is wrapped some- what in obscurity, but we know that nearly through- out the whole period of its existence it was more or less friendly to the Hebrews. There was certainly no revocation of the edicts of Cyrus and of Artaxerxes permitting those " which were minded of their own free will to go and join their brethren in Palestine ; and that there were many other large and small parties of exiles OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES 293 who did so, subsequent to those mentioned in Ezra and Nehemiah, may be taken for granted. 1 Anyhow it is a fact that the remnant in the land grew and grew until, about a century and a half later, in the time of the Maccabees, and again about a century and a half later still, in the time of our Lord, we find " the Jews " in Palestine a comparatively large nation, numbering millions ; while from the time of the downfall of the Persian Empire, we hear but very little more of the Israelite exiles in ancient Assyria or Babylon. By the conquest of Alexander, who to this day is a great favourite among the scattered nation, the regions of ancient Babylonia and Media were brought compara- tively near, and a highway opened between East and West. From about this time settlements of " Jews " began to multiply in Asia Minor, Cyprus, Crete, on the coasts and islands of the ^Egean, in Macedonia and other parts of Southern Europe, in Egypt and the whole northern coast of Africa, whilst some made their way further and further eastward as far as India and China. There is not the least possibility of doubt that many of the settlements of the Diaspora in the time of our Lord both north, south, and west, as well as east of Palestine, were made up of those who had never returned to the land of their fathers since the time of the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles, and who were not only descendants of Judah, as Anglo-Israelism ignorantly presupposes, but of all " the twelve tribes scattered abroad (James i. i). As a matter of fact, long before the destruction of the second Temple by Titus, we read of currents and counter-currents in the dispersion of the " Jewish " 1 It is inconceivable," says Dr. Pusey, "that, as the material prosperity of Palestine returned, even many of the ten tribes should not have returned to their country." 294 AXGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY people. Thus Artaxerxes III., Ochus, on his way to re-conquer Egypt, " having taken Apodasmus in Judea, conveyed the Jewish population into Hyrcania near the Caspian Sea." When he made himself master of Egypt we read of his finding Jews there, and, being incensed against them on account of a stubborn defence against him of places entrusted to their keeping, " he sent part of them into Hyrcania, in the neighbourhood of the country which the tribes already inhabited, and left the rest at Babylon " ; while soon after many thousands were taken to Egypt by Alexander ; and Ptolemy Soter, one of his chief generals, who had become King of Egypt, and had invaded Syria and taken Jerusalem in 301 B.C., carried off one hundred thousand of them, and forced them to settle chiefly in Alexandria and Cyrene. To summarise the state of things in connection with the Hebrew race at the time of Christ, it was briefly this : I. For some six centuries before, ever since the partial restoration in the days of Cyrus and his successors, the descendants of Abraham were no longer known as divided into tribes, but as one people, although up to the time of the destruction of the second Temple, tribal and family genealogies were for the most part preserved, especially among those who were settled in the land. II. Part of the nation was in Palestine, but by far the larger number were scattered far and wide, and formed innumerable communities in many different lands, north and south, east and west. 1 But wherever dispersed and to whatever tribe they may have belonged, they all looked to Palestine and Jerusalem as their national centre, and, 1 Thus Strabo (quoted by Josephus in "Ant." xiv. 7, 2) could already say in his day that " these Jew had already gotten into all cities ; and it is hard to find a place in the habitable earth that hath not admitted this race and is not mastered by it." OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES 295 with the exception of those (and they were no doubt many) who had ceased to cherish " the Hope of Israel " and were gradually assimilating with their Gentile neighbours, were all one in heart with their brethren in the Holy Land. " They felt they were of the same stock, stood on the same ground, cherished the same memories, grew up under the same institutions, and anticipated the same future. They had one common centre of worship in Jerusalem, which they upheld by their offerings ; and they made pilgrimages thither annually in great numbers at the high festivals." Thus Philo could represent to the Roman Emperor Caligula that " Jerusalem ought not to be considered only as the metropolis of Judea, but as the centre of a nation dispersed in infinite places, who were able to supply him with potent succours for his defence. He reckoned among the places that were still stored with Jews, the isles of Cyprus and Candia, Egypt, Macedonia and Bithynia, to which he added the empire of the Persians, and all the cities of the East, except that of Babylon from whence they were then expelled." There is ample confirmation on this point in the New Testament. Thus, for instance, we are incidentally told in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles that among the representatives from the Diaspora who were found in Jerusalem at that memorable feast of Pentecost, who were doubtless there also during the previous Pass- over, when the crucifixion took place, were " Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and parts of Libya and Cyrene, and sojourners from Rome, Cretans and Arabians " all of them either Jews or proselytes miraculously hearing in their own tongues the mighty works of God, 296 AXGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY Here it is to be noted that, at the commencement of the Christian era, we find in this motley and cosmo- politan Jewish crowd representatives from Israelitish settlements in the very parts where they were carried by the Assyrians and Babylonians some seven centuries before, but who are all called " Jews," and all alike regarded Jerusalem as their national metropolis. 1 III. The name of "Jew" and "Israelite" became synonymous terms from about the time of the Captivity. It is one of the absurd fallacies of Anglo-Israelism to presuppose that the term " Jew " stands for a bodily descendant of "Judah." It stands for all those from among the sons of Jacob who acknowledged themselves, or were considered, subjects of the theocratic kingdom of Judah, which they expected to be established by the promised " Son of David " the Lion of the tribe of Judah whose reign is to extend not only over " all the tribes of the land" but also " from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." " That the name ' Jews,' " writes a Continental Bible scholar, " became general for all Israelites who were anxious to preserve their theocratic nationality, was the more natural, since the political independence of the ten tribes was destroyed." Yes, and without any hope of a restoration to a separate national existence. 1 " Everywhere we have distinct notices of these wanderers," says Dr. Edersheim, " and everywhere they appear as in closest connection with the Rabbinical hierarchy of Palestine. Thus the Mishnah, in an extremely curious section, tells us how on Sabbaths the Jewesses of Arabia might wear their long veils, and those of India the kerchiefs round their head, customary in those countries, without incurring the guilt of desecrating the holy day by needlessly carrying what, in the eyes of the law, would be a burden ; while in a rubric for the Day of Atonement we have it noted that the dress which the High Priest wore ' between the evenings' of the great feast that is, as afternoon darkened into evening was of most costly Indian stuff." OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES 297 What hopes and promises they had were, as we have seen, linked with the Kingdom of Judah and the House of David. Anglo-Israelism teaches that members of the ten tribes are never called " Jews," and that " Jews " are not " Israelites," but both assertions are false. Who were they that came back to the land after the " Babylonian " exile ? Anglo-Israelites say they were only the exiles from the southern kingdom of Judah, and call them " Jews." I have already shown this to be a fallacy, but I might add the significant fact that in the Book of Ezra this remnant is only called eight times by the name " Jews," and no less than forty times by the name " Israel." In the Book of Nehemiah they are called " Jews " eleven times, and " Israel " twenty-two times. As to those who remained behind in the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the Persian Empire, which included all the territories of ancient Assyria, Anglo- Israelites would say they were of the kingdom of " Israel " ; but in the Book of Esther, where we get a vivid glimpse of them at a period subsequent to the partial restoration under Zerubbabel and Joshua, they are called forty-five times by the name " Jews," and not once by the name " Israel " ! In the New Testament the same people who are called " Jews " one hundred and seventy-four times are also called " Israel " no fewer than seventy-five times. Anglo-Israelism asserts that a "Jew" is only a descen- dant of Judah, and is not an " Israelite " ; but Paul says more than once : " I am a man which am a Jew" Yet he says : " For I also am an Israelite." " Are they Israelites? so am I?" (Acts xxi. 39; xxii. 3; Rom. xi. I ; 2 Cor. xi. 22 ; Phil. iii. 5). Our Lord was of the house of David, and of the tribe of Judah after the flesh " a Jew," yet it says that it is 298 AXGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY of "Israel" "that He came, who is over all, God blessed for ever" (Rom. ix. 4, 5). Devout Anna was a "Jewess" in Jerusalem, yet she was " of the tribe of Aser." But enough on this point. IV. From the time of the return of the first remnant after the Babylonian exile, sacred historians, prophets, apostles, and the Lord Himself, regarded the "Jews" in the land as representatives of " all Israel," and the only people in the line of the covenants and the promises which God made with the fathers. At the dedication of the Temple, which was at last finished " on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year in the reign of Darius the king," they offered "for a sin-offering for all Israel, twelve he-goats according to the number of the tribes of Israel" (Ezra vi. 17). Similarly on the arrival of Ezra with the new caravan of immigrants they " offered burnt-offerings unto the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel . . . and twelve he-goats for sin-offering " (Ezra viii. 35), showing that the returned exiles regarded themselves as the nucleus and representatives of the whole nation. In the post-Exilic prophets we have no longer two king- doms, but one people one in interests and destiny, although they had formerly for a time been divided. To show that the revived nation was made up of members of the Northern, as well as the Southern kingdoms, the prophet Zechariah calls them by the comprehensive name of " Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem " (Zech. i. 19), or, "the house of Judah, and the house of Joseph " (Zech. x. 6). In the prophecy occasioned by the question addressed by the deputation from Bethel, in reference to the continuation of the observance of the fasts, he says : " And it shall come to pass that as ye were a curse among the nations house of Judah and OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES 299 house of Israel, so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing ; fear not, and let your hands be strong" (Zech. viii. 13). Here the formerly two houses are included ; together they are for a time among the nations " a curse," and together they shall be saved, and be " a blessing." Malachi, nearly a century later, when the people in the land had become a prosperous nation, and when, in consequence, the majority was rapidly falling into a state of religious formality and godlessness, addresses them as " Israel," or " Jacob," which surely includes all his descendants, in contrast to Esau and his descendants (Mai. i. 1-3). In the last words of the last of the post-Exilic prophets we have the expression "all Israel" addressed to the people in the land, and then the long period of silence sets in, lasting about four centuries, during parts of which Jewish national history is lost somewhat in obscurity. When the threads of that history are taken up again in the New Testament, what do we find ? Is there one hint or reference in the whole book to an Israel apart from " that nation " of the " Jews," to whom, and of whom, the Lord and His apostles speak ? There is, indeed, reference and mention of the Diaspora, "the dispersed among the Gentiles" (John vii. 35), forming, as we have seen, the greater part of the nation, and some of them still settled in the ancient regions of Assyria and Babylon, but wherever they were, they are all interchangeably called " Jews," or " Israelites," who regarded Jerusalem, with which they were in constant communication as the centre, not only of their religion, but of their national hopes and destiny. The " Israelites " who in the time of Christ were dis- persed among the Parthians, Medes, and Elamites (Acts ii.), were as much one with the sojourners in 300 ANGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as the "Jews" in Bagdad, Persia, or on the Caspian Sea to-day, are one with their wandering brethren in London, Berlin, New York, or Australia, although they then, as now (apart from the Hebrew which ever remains the sacred tongue, and thoroughly understood only by the minority), spoke different languages, and dressed differently, and con- formed to different social and family customs. But let me give you a few definite passages from the New Testament in justification of my statement that the Lord Jesus and the apostles, equally with the post- Exilic prophets centuries before, regarded the " Jews " as representatives of " all Israel," and as the only people in the line of the " covenant, and the promises which God made unto the fathers." (a) In Matthew x. we have the record of the choice, and of the first commission given to the apostles. " These twelve," we read, " Jesus sent forth, and commanded them saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not ; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" Of course the merest child knows that this journey of the twelve did not extend beyond the limits of Palestine, but the " Jews " dwelling in it are regarded as the house of Israel, although many members of that "house" were also scattered in other lands. In this charge of the Lord to the apostles, we see also by the way, in what sense Israel is regarded as "lost." Now Anglo-Israelites are very fond of this word, but they use it in an unbiblical and unspiritual sense. The ten tribes were in the time of Christ, even as they still are, " lost " ; but not because they have forgotten their national or tribal identity, but because they " all like sheep have gone astray, and have turned every one to his own way." Or, as Jeremiah patheti- OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES 301 cally puts it : " My people hath been lost sheep ; their shepherds [their false teachers and leaders] have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains ; they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten [not their national origin, but] their resting place," viz., Jehovah, who is the true "dwelling- place of His people in all generations. () On the first day of Pentecost, Peter with the eleven, addressed the " men of Judea," and the great multitude from among the dispersed "Jews," as "Ye men of Israel," and wound up his powerful speech with the words : " Let all the house of Israel, therefore, know assuredly that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom ye crucified." In the third of Acts, as "all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering," at the notable miracle in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Peter said : " Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this man ? . . . The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified His servant Jesus, whom ye delivered up and denied before the face of Pilate when he had determined to release Him. . . . Repent ye, therefore, and turn again that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. . . . Ye are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying unto Abraham, 'and in thy seed shall the nations of the earth be blessed.' " From Acts xiii. onward, we find Paul among the " Jews " in the dispersion, and how does he address them ? By the same name as Peter addressed their brethren in Palestine : " Men of Israel . . . the God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exhorted the people when they sojourned in the land of Egypt" (Act xiii. 16-17) ; and when he was at last brought to 302 AXGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY Rome, " and gathered the chief of the Jews " in that city to him, he assured them that he had neither done any- thing " against the people, or the customs of our fathers," nor did he come to Rome " to accuse my nation," but " because of the hope of Israel am I bound by this chain," namely, " the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers ; as he had previously explained before Festus and Agrippa unto which our tivelve tribes, earnestly serving God night and day, hope to attain " (Acts xxviii. 17-20; xxvi. 6-7). Paul knew of no "lost ten tribes," but on his testimony the " Jews " in Palestine and in the dispersion were the " Israel " of all the twelve tribes, to whom the " hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers " belonged. (c} And, as it is in the Gospels, and in the Acts of the Apostles, so also in the Epistles. It would be easy to multiply passages, but one more must suffice. The ix., x., and xi. of Romans form the prophetic, or " dispensational " section of that great epistle, and was written for the special instruction of Gentile believers in the "mystery" of God with Israel. Now I cannot, of course, stop here to give you an analysis of that won- derful and comprehensive scripture, which is also a vindication of God's ways with man ; but there is not a hint or suggestion in it of a " lost Israel," apart from the one nation whose whole history he summarises from the beginning to the end, and which is now, alas ! divided into the small minority the "remnant accord- ing to the election of grace" who believe, and the majority who believe not, until the day of grace for the whole nation shall come, and "so all Israel shall be saved, even as it is written, ' There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer ; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.' " But in the touching introduction to this section OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES 303 (Rom. ix. 1-6), in which the Apostle gives utterance to his " great sorrow and unceasing pain of heart " because of the unbelief of his own nation, " his brethren and his kinsmen according to the flesh," for whose sake he had been wishing, if it were possible, even to be himself " anathema from Christ " how does he call these un- believing " Jews " who had rejected their Messiah, and were blindly persecuting His servants? Here are his words : " Who are Israelites ; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises ; whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever. A men" Now I must try to draw this very long letter to an end. I have not followed Anglo-Israelism in all its crooked paths of misinterpretation of Scripture and history ; I have only shown you the baselessness of its foundations, and that the premises upon which the whole theory rests are misleading and false. I have also given you a summary of the true history of the tribes, which I trust may prove helpful to you in the study of God's Word ; and the conclusion at which you and every unbiassed person must arrive on a careful examination of the facts which I have adduced is, that the whole supposition of " lost tribes," in the sense in which Anglo-Israelism uses the term, is a fancy which originated in ignorance ; and that " the Jews " are the whole, and the only national Israel, representing not only the "two tribes," but "all the twelve tribes" who were " scattered abroad" I have thought it necessary to enter all the more fully into this point, because even some otherwise sober- minded teachers and writers, who are not Anglo- Israelites, have fallen into some confusion in dealing with this subject ; and no wonder, for already Josephus, who 304 ANGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY vaguely locates a separate multitude belonging to the ten tribes somewhere beyond the Euphrates (" Antiq. " xi. 1-2) a Jewish tradition which locates a mighty king- dom of the ten tribes beyond the fabled miraculous river Sabbatyon, which no one can cross because it throws up stones all the week, and only rests on the Sabbath ; and the Talmud (Jer. Sanhedrin, 29, c.), which speaks of three localities whither they had been banished, viz., the district around the above wonderful Sabbatyon, Daphne near Antioch, and the third locality could neither be seen nor named because it was continually hidden by a cloud all these show how early people's minds became muddled on this subject. 1 Some Christian writers have accepted the view that while some of the " ten tribes " amalgamated with the " Jews," there is nevertheless a distinct people somewhere, who are descendants of the Israel of the ancient northern kingdom, which is to be brought to light in the future, and, together with "Judah," will be restored to Palestine, and enter into the enjoyment of the promises. Thus the Nestorians who inhabit the inac- cessible mountains of Kurdistan (which is part of ancient Assyria), the Afghans, and even the North American Indians, have been variously identified as that people ; but this view rests upon what I believe 1 It has also been supposed that the references by Agrippa in his remarkable oration (reported by Josephus' " Wars," ii., xvi. 4) to those who dwelt " as far as beyond the Euphrates," and to " those of your nation who dwell in Adiabene," upon whom the Jews might rely for help in their struggle against Rome, but would not be permitted by the Parthians to render them any assistance were to some unknown settlements belonging to the ten tribes. But this is a mistake. These dwellers in Adiabene might or might not have belonged to the ten tribes, but they formed part of the known Dispersion and of "your nation" the Jews. OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES 305 to be a misconception of the meaning and scope of some of the prophecies. Even if it were true that the Nestorians, or the Afghans, or some other Eastern tribes are descen- dants of the original Israelitish exiles in Assyria, having more or less mixed themselves up by intermarriage with the surrounding nations, and having given up the distinctive national rites and ordinances, they have, like many " Jews " in modern times (who gradually assimilate with Gentile nations) cut themselves off from the hope of Israel, and are no longer in the line of the purpose which God has in and through that " peculiar " and separate people. In conclusion, let me very briefly call your attention to the remarkable prophecy in Amos ix., which will show you that the view which I have enunciated in my letter is the only one in keeping with the sure word of prophecy. The prophet Amos, though himself a Judean, his native village Tekoa being about twelve miles south of Jerusalem, was commissioned by God to prophesy more particularly to the northern or ten-tribed king- dom; and for that purpose he went and took up his abode in Bethel, which was the centre of the idolatrous worship set up by Jeroboam in opposition to the worship and service of the Divinely appointed sanctuary in Jerusalem. There, his duty was to announce the coming judgment of God on the Israel of the ten tribes, on account of their apostasy. The last para- graph of his book (chap. ix. 8-15), uttered not more than about seven years before the final overthrow of Samaria in 721 B.C., is one of the most remarkable and comprehensive prophecies in the Old Testament, and this is the inspired forecast of the history of the 21 306 ANGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY ten-tribed kingdom which is given in it: "Behold the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth ; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord. For lo, I will command and I will sift (or 'toss') the house of Israel among all the nations, like as corn is sifted (or ' tossed ' about) in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. All the sinners of thy people shall die by the sword, which say : The evil shall not overtake or prevent us." Here, then, we have the whole subject as to what is to become of the ten tribes in a nutshell. (a) First, as a kingdom they were to be destroyed from off the face of the earth, never to be restored; for its very existence as a separate kingdom was only permitted of God for a definite period as a punishment on the house of David : and when, after a period of about two hun- dred and fifty years of unbroken apostasy, it was finally broken up by the Assyrians, there was an end of it, without any promise of a future independent political existence. () But when it was destroyed as a kingdom, what became of them as a people ? This prophecy tells us : " Saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord " that is, they are to return to the house of Jacob. They are to form part of the one family made up of all the descendants of Jacob without distinction of tribes. But as one house of Jacob, or " of Israel " (as the next verse interchangeably calls them), something terrible and unique is to befall them ; and what is it ? To be " lost " for some two thousand six hundred years, and then to be identified with the Anglo-Saxon race? Oh no! this is what was to happen : " For lo, I will command and I will sift (or 'toss') the house of Israel among all nations even as corn OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES 307 is tossed about in a sieve "or, in the words of Hosea, another prophet who spoke primarily to the ten tribes, " My God will cast them away " (not for ever, as the whole book shows, but for a time), "because they did not hearken unto Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations" I draw your attention all the more to this point, because a good deal has been made by some writers of the expression in Isa. xi. where Israel is called " outcast," from which they infer that " Israel " is to be found somewhere in one place, in contradistinction to the "dispersed of Judah." But this is a fallacy. In Jer. xxx. Judah and Israel are together called "an outcast," but it by no means implies that they are therefore to be sought for and found in one particular region of the world. It is clear from the prophecies of Amos and Hosea, which, as we have seen, were primarily addressed to the ten tribes, that if they were in the first instance " cast out " by force, from their own land, as the word in the Hebrew means, it was with a view that they should be " tossed about " and " wander " among " all nations." Now note, Anglo-Israelism tells you to identify the ten tribes with one nation, but if you are on the line of Scripture and true history, you will seek for them "among all nations." And which people is it that is known all over the earth as " the tribe of the weary foot and wandering breast"? Anglo-Israelites call them "Jews" in the limited sense of being descendants of " Judah " ; but God's Word tells us that it is " the house of Israel? or " the house of Jacob " ; and, as a matter of fact, since "Judah" joined their brethren of the ten tribes on the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans in 588 B.C. the two have kept on their weary march together" wandering among the nations." Eastward 308 ANGLO-ISRAELISM AND THE TRUE HISTORY and westward (only a remnant of all the tribes returning to the land for a time), nowhere finding ease for any length of time, nor do the soles of their feet have rest, even as Moses, at the very beginning of their history, and long before the division among the tribes, pro- phesied would be their united experience in case they apostatised from Jehovah their God. And thus they will continue ever more mixed up and intermingled among themselves, with all genealogies lost, and not one of them either east or west being able to prove of what tribe or family he comes until the day when He that scattered Israel will gather him, and by His own Divine power and omniscience separate them again into their tribes and families. My last words on this subject must be those ot warning and entreaty. Do not think, as so many do, that Anglo- Israelism, even if not true, is only a harmless speculation. I consider it nothing short of one of the latter-day delusions by which the Evil One seeks to divert the attention of men from things spiritual and eternal. Here are a few of its dangers : I. It goes, sometimes to the length of blasphemy, (as shown in the extracts I have copied for you at the beginning of this letter), in misrepresenting and mis- applying Scripture. One of its foundation fallacies is that it anticipates the millennium, and interprets pro- mises which will only be fulfilled in that blessed period, after Israel as a nation is converted to the British nation at the present time. But by this process it makes all prophetic Scripture meaningless. II. It fosters national pride, and nationalises God's blessings in this dispensation, which is individual and elective in its character. It diverts man's attention from the one thing needful, and from the only means by which he can find acceptance with God. This it does OF THE TEN "LOST" TRIBES 309 by teaching that "a nation composed of millions of practical unbelievers in Christ, and ripe for apostasy, in virtue of a certain fanciful identity between the mixed race composing that nation and a people carried into captivity two thousand five hundred years ago, is in the enjoyment of God's special blessing and will enjoy it on the same grounds for ever, thus laying another foundation for acceptance with God beside that which he has laid, even Christ Jesus." After all, in this dispensation it is a question only as to whether men are "in Christ" or not. If they are Christians, whether Jews or Gentiles, their destiny is not linked either with Palestine or with England, but with that inheritance which is incorruptible, and undefiled, and which fadeth not away ; and if they are not Christians, then, instead of occupying their thoughts with vain speculations as to a supposed identity of the British race with the " lost " ten tribes, it is their duty to seek the one and only Saviour whom we must learn to know not after the flesh, but in the Spirit, and without whom a man, whether an Israelite or not, is undone. III. Then, finally, it not only robs the Jewish nation the true Israel of many promises in relation to their future by applying them to the British race in the present time, but it diverts attention from them as the people in whom is bound up the purpose of God in relation to the nations, and whose "receiving again" to the heart of God, after the long centuries of unbelief, will be as " life from the dead to the whole world." Excuse such a very long epistle, and praying that you may be led in all things by the Spirit of Truth, I am, Faithfully yours, DAVID BARON. APPENDICES APPENDIX I THE URIM AND THUMMIM NOTE TO CHAPTER I., PAGE 26. A LL that has been written on the subject, from Philo and *V Josephus down to this day, is more or less conjectural and much of it pure fancy. Apart from the views quoted below, it has been maintained by some that the response to an appeal to the Urim and Thummim was given by an audible voice to the high priest arrayed in full pontificals, and standing in the holy place with his face turned towards the ark ; while some com- mentators have given it as their opinion that the Urim and Thummim were two small oracular images which were placed in the cavity or pouch formed by the folds of the breastplate and which uttered oracles by a voice a view most objection- able, and altogether abhorrent to the spirit of Scripture. The most thorough handling of this difficult subject is that by a Hebrew Christian brother, 1 which I reproduce. It gathers up the Jewish and Rabbinic views and may be taken as the most probable explanation. The white linen habiliments of the priests signified purity and sanctity. They consisted of a coat, a girdle, and bonnet, and were common to priest and high priest, as described in Exod. xxviii. 40-43. There were several other garments peculiar to the high priest, when engaged in his holy office, especially when he had to enter into the Most Holy, on the Day of Atonement. Some of these glorious and significant garments deserve par- ticular notice and attention. The high priest first put on a long robe, which was called "the Robe of the Ephod," or Meeil. ' Benjamin Weiss in his book, " A Christian Jew on the Old Testament." 33 314 APPENDIX This vestment was of blue colour, and did not consist of several pieces sewed together ; it was woven throughout (Exod. xxxix. 31, 32). It had apertures left for the neck and for the hands. Such seems to have been the coat of our Saviour for which the soldiers cast lots (see John xix. 23, 24). At the bottom of this garment were fringes like the pomegranates of blue, of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof. Between every two pomegranates a golden bell was fastened ; so that between every two bells there was a pomegranate, and between every two pomegranates a bell. This long and curious robe was tied round about with a girdle, which was woven and embroidered with the same colours as those of the robe. The reason for putting bells on the hem of this robe is given in the following words : "And his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the sanctuary before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not" (Exod. xxviii. 35). This makes it evident that the sound of the befis was intended to impress upon the Israelites who stood in the outer court when the high priest entered the Most Holy, the awful holiness of that place, and to show unto them the shortness of time which the mortal high priest was allowed to remain in the presence of the Shechinah. Otherwise we can give no explanation why the sound was to be heard, " when he goeth in unto the sanctuary before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not." Over the long garment described above the high priest put on another short coat, called " Ephod." This was woven of blue, of purple, of scarlet, and of fine twined linen, and woven with gold threads, and curiously embroidered. It covered his front from his neck unto his girdle, where it was tied round about with a girdle of the same materials, and of the same workmanship. It had also two shoulder-pieces, which were to be joined behind, with two precious buttons. These two buttons were made of two onyx stones, set in sockets of gold. On these two precious stones the names of the twelve tribes of Israel were engraven six names on each of them, according to the birth of Jacob's twelve sons. See Exod. xxviii. 6-12. In the I2th verse we read, " And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod, for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel ; and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord, upon his two shoulders, for a memorial." An express intimation was thus made unto Israel that they could not stand before the holy Jehovah in them- selves. They required a Mediator to carry them, to atone for them, and to reconcile them to the Holy One of Israel. But THE URIM AND THUMMIM 31S even the high priest himself (type as well as antitype) could not appear with their names, to reconcile them to God, without the blood of atonement. In the above-described ephod there was left a square aperture over the breast. Into this aperture was placed a most wonderful piece of ornament. This ornament was the Choshen Mishpat, "the breastplate of judgment," which, according to the description in Exodus, was made as follows : Its materials were the same as those of the ephod, and were wrought with cunning work. It was made four-square and doubled. It was a span in length and a span in breadth. This breastplate filled up exactly the aperture left in the ephod and was fastened to it by golden rings and chains above, and by the girdle of the ephod below. Into the front of this breastplate four rows of precious stones were inserted ; each of these rows had three different stones, making twelve in all, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. On these stones the twelve names of the tribes of Israel were graven, one name upon each stone. Thus one had the name "Reuben" on it, in Hebrew letters, another " Simeon," a third, " Levi," and so on. The four rows of precious stones were set in ouches of gold, and so fastened that they could not fall out. In Exod. xxviii., from verse 15 to 28, a minute description is given of this breastplate, and also of the stones and their different names. In the 2gth verse we have the reason given for which that glorious ornament was made. " And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel, in the breastplate of judgment, upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the sanctuary, for a memorial before the Lord continually." The expression "Aaron shall bear the names of Israel upon his breast before the Lord," is exactly the same with the reason given in the i2th verse, concerning the two stones of the ephod " And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord, upon his two shoulders, for a memorial." So we see clearly that both the two stones of the ephod, with the names of the tribes of Israel on them, and the twelve stones of the breastplate with the same names, served the selfsame purpose, namely, that Aaron might bear the names of Israel as a memorial before the Lord. Now there remains one thing to be considered. It is this. Why was this ornament, with the twelve precious stones, called Choshen Mishpat, " the breastplate of judgment," while the two stones of the ephod, which had also the twelve names 316 APPENDIX of the tribes of Israel engraven on them, and which had seemingly the same signification as the twelve stones of the breastplate, were called only Avneh Sicharon, " stones of memorial," and not "stones of judgment"? This question will be answered when we read Exod. xxviii. 30 " And thou shalt put into the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before the Lord, and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually." From this verse we draw the following conclusions : ist. The breastplate, without the Urim and Thummim within it, had the same signification as the two stones of the ephod. So these twelve stones could also have been called Avneh Sicharon, "stones of memorial," as the some signification is ascribed to both. In verse 12 we are told that the two stones of the ephod were for a memorial, and in verse 29 we are told that the twelve stones of the breastplate were for the same purpose. 2nd. We see, from the 3oth verse, that the ornament with the twelve stones received the name Choshen Mishpat, " the breast- plate of judgment," only because the Urim and Thummim were put into it. When we read that Moses was commanded to put the Urim and Thummim into the breastplate there is no mention made any more of a memorial, as is done in verse 29. We merely read, " And Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before Jehovah continually." As soon as the Urim and Thummim were put into the breast- plate it was changed from a " breastplate of memorial " into a " breastplate of judgment." In Deut. xxxiii. we are told that Moses blessed the children of Israel before his death. In the 8th verse we read, " And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one " (viz., with the priests of Levi's tribe). And again, "They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law" (Deut. xxxiii. 8-10). From this it is evident that the priests were to be instructed by the Urim and Thummim in all matters of judgment. Therefore, when the Urim and Thummim were put into the breastplate it was called "the breastplate of judgment." Israel was commanded to have recourse with every hard matter of judgment, which could not be decided in the small towns, unto Jerusalem, unto the priests of the tribe of Levi, and unto the judge who was in office at that time (Deut. xvii. 8-n). In the I2th verse we read, "And the man that will do presumptuously, THE URIM AND THUMMIM 317 and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die." When the prophet Malachi complains that Israel has neglected to obey the priests, and has therefore violated the law, he speaks thus, in the name of God : " The law of truth was in his mouth (namely, in the mouth of the high priest), and iniquity was not found in his lips ; he walked with me in peace and equity and did turn many away from sin. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they (Israel) should seek the law at his mouth : for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts." All these expressions refer to the oracle of the Urim and Thummim, by which the priest was instructed of God in every matter of judgment. Every hard thing and every doubtful argument about the law was settled by it ; and as this oracle was directed by God there was no fear of the priest erring ; as the prophet says, " The law of truth was in his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." There was no need of instruction by the Urim and Thummim, all the days of Moses, with whom the Lord spoke in an audible voice from between the cherubim, out of the Most Holy. This oracle, therefore, was intended for the future after the death of Moses, as we read, "And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face" (Deut. xxxiv. 10). This evidently refers to the great privilege which the Lord was pleased to bestow upon Moses in speaking unto him in an audible voice (see Numb. xii. 6-9). When Moses ordained Joshua to be the leader of Israel in his place, we read as follows : "And he (Joshua) shall stand before Eliezer the priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of the Urim before the Lord ; at his word shall they go out, and at his word shall they come in, both he and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation" (Numb. xxvii. 21). Here we see, first, that the audible voice, in which the Lord spoke to Moses, was to cease after Moses was dead ; secondly, that Joshua was to stand before the priest, who was to ask for him the judgments or directions of the Urim. How absurd, then, is the opinion of some who maintain that the answer of the Urim was also by an audible voice ! If such had been the case, would not the voice rather have continued to speak from between the cherubim ? Such an opinion is surely against all testimony of Scripture, which says that after Moses there arose none unto whom the Lord spake directly. The 318 APPENDIX manner of the visions of the prophets is described in the twelfth chapter of Numbers, " If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make Myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream" (see verses 6-8). By the Urim and Thummim, therefore, must have been given signs and directions only, as it is said, " He shall ask counsel for him (viz., the priest shall ask for Joshua) after the judgment (or directions) of the Urim," not " after the words of the Urim," for it never answered by words. We have seen now how Joshua was ordered by God to come before the priest with every doubtful matter, and ask direction of the Urim. Let us now see what was the first difficulty in judgment that occurred in the times of Joshua, and how he asked counsel of the Urim. When Achan committed a trespass, in that he took of the accursed things of Jericho, the wrath of God was kindled against Israel, and they were defeated in their expedition against Ai. Joshua, therefore, rent his garments, and cast himself down in dust and ashes before the ark of the Lord (see Josh. vii. 7-9). Then we read in verse 10, " And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up, wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face ? Israel hath sinned ; they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them ; for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and have put among their own stuff." It was evident that the Lord spoke these words unto Joshua in the same manner as he spoke to the other prophets, namely, in a vision. When Joshua lay upon his face mourning and supplicating, he fell into a trance, and the Lord communicated unto him the reason of the punishment which he had sent upon Israel. But the name of the criminal the Lord did not tell unto him. As this was a public affair, the searching and finding out of the guilty individual was to be done by the oracle Urim, and publicly. Therefore the Lord was pleased, to show unto Joshua, for the first time, how to use the oracle and how to find out the guilty person who had the accursed things. We read : " Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to- morrow : for thus says the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel ; thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you. In the morning, therefore, ye shall be brought according to your tribes, and it shall be that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof ; and the family which the Lord shall take shall come by households ; and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man " (Josh. vii. 13, 14). THE URIM AND THUMMIM 319 From this direction given unto Joshua, we see that there was no such a thing as an audible voice here. Had this been the case, what need was there of so much trouble? The oracle could have said at once who the guilty person was, and to what tribe he belonged. We also see that the oracle was to be asked single questions ; and only single answers were to be expected, as the words of verse 14 show. The tribes were first to present themselves, and the oracle was to indicate the tribe to which the guilty person belonged. That tribe was then to present itself, and the oracle was to indicate the family of which the guilty person was a member. That family was then to present itself, and the oracle was to point out the guilty individual. We shall now describe the nature and construction of that wonderful oracle, and the manner in which its answers were given. We have already seen how the breastplate of judgment was made like a four-square box, a span in length, and a span in breadth. Into the front of it were inserted twelve precious stones of different natures and colours. They were set in golden frames, and were fastened to the breastplate, and formed the splendid front of the same. On each of these twelve stones the name of one of the sons of Jacob was engraven in Hebrew letters. One bore the name " Reuben," the other " Simeon," and so on. The front of this breastplate which contained these gems was not very thick, and the breastplate itself was empty within. Into the inside of the breastplate the Lord commanded Moses to put the Urim and the Thummim. The Hebrew word " Urim " signifies "lights," or "illuminators." It was no more than a lamp, with twelve lights, put into the breastplate. Within, each light was directed towards one of the precious stones, by which means the brilliancy and lustre of the gems were heightened to a great degree. But all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet did not occur in the twelve names on the breastplate. These four, p, . t3- n- were wanting. To supply this defect Moses was directed to make another stone with these four letters on it. This stone was called "Thummim," which signifies "the com- pleters," or " the perfecters"; inasmuch as these four letters upon it completed the alphabet, and perfected the oracle for the purpose of giving answers. These lights and perfecters were put into the breastplate whenever the high priest had to enter the Most Holy, or when a matter of difficulty occurred in Church or State affairs. The Urim, or illuminating lights, were supplied with holy oil, and kindled with that sacred fire which came down from heaven upon the altar at the dedication of the tabernacle 320 APPENDIX (Lev. ix. 24). This fire was carefully preserved in the tabernacle till the time of Solomon. When that king dedicated the Temple and brought sacrifices upon the new altar which he had made, fire came down again from heaven upon the altar (2 Chron. vii. 1-3). The wonderful manner in which the Divine revelations were made by this oracle may be explained in the following illustra- tion. When Joshua came unto Eleazar the high priest (according to his received commandment, Numb, xxvii. 21) that he might ask counsel for him, according to the judgment of the Urim, before the Lord, the high priest put on his holy pontifical robes, and above it the ephod with the breastplate, which was illumi- nated by the Urim, and had the Thummim joined to it, on the side thereof. The high priest then directed his face towards the Most Holy, entreating the Lord to reveal the guilty individuals, while Joshua presented himself with the twelve elders of the tribes of Israel, in the open court of the tabernacle. Then the high priest put the simple question, " Which of the twelve tribes have sinned ? " He looked upon the illuminated breastplate with its brilliant stones and saw that the first stone in the second row, which bore the name of Judah, was darkened and ceased to shine. Then he called with a loud voice, " Judah ! " The eleven princes were then dismissed, and the prince of Judah presented himself again with the fathers of the families of his tribe. The priest then again put the question, " Which family has sinned ? " He looked again upon the breastplate and found that the family of the Zarchites was taken. But as this name is composed of four different letters, , PI, 1 T. which were not to be found complete in any of the twelve names of the breastplate, he found these different letters in different names. Thus he had to look over all the stones. He then saw, first, that the letter T. in the name jSlST (Zebulun), was taken (viz., darkened) ; he next saw that the letter >, in the name pixn (Reuben), was taken. And when he saw no more letters upon the breastplate taken, and could make nothing of the two letters, 1, T. which he had already got, he looked upon the Thummim on the right side of the breastplate and found that of its four letters the letter Pi was taken. But no name was yet completed. He therefore looked once more upon the twelve stones, and found that the letter , in the name Joseph, was taken. Now he had a complete name, ^mt (Zarchi) ; he therefore called aloud that " Zarchi " was taken. In the same manner, when the family of the Zarchites appeared man by man, and when the priest asked, THE URIM AND THUMMIM 321 " Which man has sinned ? " he looked upon the stones and saw letter after letter taken, of which, when he put them together in the same order in which they were taken, he made the name HIT (Zabdi). He then communicated this name unto the public, and when they brought the household of Zabdi man by man, Achan was taken. When he was examined by Joshua he confessed his crime, in consequence of which he and all those who were involved in his crime were put to death as the Lord had commanded. Such wonderful services this holy breastplate, and the Urim and Thummim, rendered unto Israel all the time of Joshua. By it the land of Canaan was divided (Josh, xviii. 6-10). By it Israel was directed in battle. By it every difficulty was removed, and every great and hard matter of controversy in judgment was decided. After the death of Joshua Israel asked the Lord which tribe should go first to fight against the Canaanitcs. The Lord's answer by this oracle was quite brief. " Jehudah yaleh " (" Judah shall go ") (Judges i. 1-12). When Israel asked again who should go first to fight against Benjamin, the answer was, " Judah first " (Judges xx. 1 8). That this was done by the oracle is evident from the ninth verse of the same chapter, where Israel says, " We will go up by lot against it." Compare this with verse 18, " And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God " (or to Bethel, where the tabernacle stood at that time, as verse 27 shows), "and asked counsel of God." Compare this with Numb, xxvii. 21, "Who shall ask counsel for him, after the judgment of the Urim, before the Lord." In every passage in the^Old Testa- ment scriptures where it is said that Israel or any person asked the Lord, and He answered, reference is made to the oracle Urim and Thummim, except in the lifetime of Moses, with whom the Lord spake face to face. King Saul, in his victorious war against the Philistines, asked the Lord if he should pursue his enemies the second day, but received no answer, because Jonathan his son had ignorantly transgressed against his father's oath in eating of the honey. Then Saul brought the people before the oracle, and said unto them, " Be ye on one side, and I and Jonathan, my son, on the other." He then said, " Lord God of Israel, give a perfect lot." So Jonathan and Saul were taken. Again the priest asked between Saul and Jonathan, and Jonathan alone was taken. Jonathan then confessed his guilt, and his readiness to die for it ; but Israel prevailed with his father to spare his life (i Sam. xiv. 18-20, 26-46). In Saul's last and unfortunate battle the Lord would not answer him by the Urim 22 322 APPENDIX and Thummim because of his manifold transgressions (i Sam. xxviii. 6). He therefore betook himself in his despair to the witch of Endor (xxviii. 7-25). When he destroyed the priests of Noph, Abiathar, the son of the slain high priest, escaped and fled unto David, with the ephod and the oracle, Urim and Thummim. This rendered great and important services unto David, for he was instructed by it in all his afflictions and dangers. David was the first person who consulted it without the taber- nacle and was answered by it, for all the former consultations took place in the tabernacle, or at least before the ark of the covenant. But the Lord was pleased to answer David by this oracle in any place. According to the documents whence we have drawn the above information, this oracle ceased to answer after the death of David. Afterwards there was no other means of receiving instructions than by the prophets. Ezra and Nehe- miah indeed wished that the Urim and Thummim would be restored unto Israel in the second Temple (Ezra ii. 62-64; Neh. vii. 64-66), but neither ark nor cherubim, nor Urim and Thummim, were ever restored unto Israel. 1 Josephus indeed fpeaks of the breastplate occasionally shining during the second Temple, which shining, he says, ceased two hundred years before he commenced his work. But Josephus might have saved himself the trouble of making such an assertion, for we affirm on undeniable authority that neither were Urim and Thummim in the second Temple at all, nor did they in the first Temple return answers by shining, as that historian seems to imagine. Josephus would have acted much more honestly if he had let this matter alone altogether. APPENDIX II DEAN FARRAR ON THE "TERAPHIM" NOTE TO CHAPTER I., PAGE 28. N example of the handling of Scripture by the " modern " critical school may be found in an article on the " Teraphim " by Dean Farrar in the third edition of Kitto's "Cyclopaedia," which manifests the greatest confusion of thought imaginable. After summarising the earlier passages where the word is found, he comes to Hosea iii. 4, of which he says, "Here it would certainly be the primd facie impression of every unbiassed reader that the matzebdh and the teraphim are mentioned without blame as ordinary parts of religious worship. " Without, however, entering into the question (which perhaps cannot be decided) whether Hosea did or did not mean to com- mend or tolerate these material adjuncts to a v monotheistic worship, it is certainly not surprising that the reverence paid to the teraphim should have continued in Israel side by side with that paid to the calves, which beyond all doubt were intended to be mere Elohistic symbols." This is unpardonable ignorance on the part of a would-be teacher, for it confounds God and Belial, and the symbols of the worship of Jehovah with the symbols of idolatry. There cannot be the least question as to whether the prophet "did or did not mean to commend or tolerate these material adjuncts to a monotheistic worship," since he treats them not as appositions but as oppositions of the symbols of the worship of the true and living God. On this point the unconverted Rabbi whom I have quoted on page 9 has more spiritual and historical insight than the prominent Church dignitary. It is "certainly not at all surprising that the reverence paid to the teraphim should have continued in Israel side by side with that paid to 323 324 APPENDIX the calves" set up by Jeroboam, for both alike were idolatrous practices equally abominable in the sight of God, and a violation of His law. Further down in his article, after summarising Spencer's absurd arguments to the effect that the teraphim and Urim and Thummim were identical, he says, " On the other hand, if in the above passages we have convincing proof that the use of teraphim was common, if not universal, among the early Hebrews, there are other passages which show that it was condemned, and that strongly, by the stricter Jehovists." Some of " the main and certain results " which he gathers from his whole review of the subject are, " that the resort to teraphim was not a practice con- fined to Jews ; that their use continued down to the latest period of Jewish history ; and lastly, that although the more enlightened prophets and strictest later kings regarded them as idolatrous, the priests were much less averse to such images, and their cult was not considered in any way repugnant to the pious worship of Elohim, nay, even to the worship of him under the awful title of Jehovah. In fact they involved a monotheistic idolatry very different indeed from polytheism ; and the tolerance of them by priests, as compared with the denunciation of them by the keener insight and more vivid inspiration of the prophets, offers a close analogy to the views of the Roman Catholics respecting pictures and images as compared with the views of Protestants. It was against this use of idolatrous symbols and emblems in a monotheistic worship that the Second Commandment was directed, whereas the first is aimed against the graver sin of direct polytheism. But the whole history of Israel shows how early and how utterly the law must have fallen into desuetude. The worship of the golden calf, and of the calves at Dan and Bethel, against which, so far as we know, neither Elijah nor Elisha said a single word ; the tolerance of high places, teraphim and bcetytia ; the offering of incense for centuries to the brazen serpent destroyed by Hezekiah ; the occasional glimpses of the most startling irregularities, sanctioned apparently even in the Temple worship itself, prove most decisively that a pure mono- theism and an independence of symbols was the result of a slow and painful course of God's disciplinal dealings among the noblest thinkers of a single nation, and not, as is so constantly and erroneously urged, the instinct of the whole Semitic race; in other words, one single branch of the Semites was under God's providence educated into pure monotheism only by centuries of misfortune and series of inspired men." DEAN FARRAR ON THE "TERAPHIM" 325 This is a fine specimen of the new method : first misunder- stand Scripture statements, and then represent the Bible as made up of conflicting "Codes," some written by more "tolerant priests " and " Eloists," and some by " the stricter Jehovists," who differ on the legitimacy of such a cardinal point as idolatry which is most solemnly forbidden in the Ten Commandments. But some, at any rate, of Dr. Farrar's " certain results " are drawn purely from his own imagination. There is not the slightest ground on a careful examination of the eight scriptures in question in which the teraphim are men- tioned for the assertion that there is any difference of opinion in reference to them among the inspired writers. They all alike regarded them in the same light as iniquity, witchcraft, idolatry, and other " abominations " (i Sam. xv. 23 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 24), and if one or another simply refer to them in passing as a matter of history, as they do to some of the other notorious sins of Israel, without stopping at the time to denounce them, it is no more fair to argue from the negative that they approve of them, than is the Dean's astounding conclusion that Elijah and Elisha did not object to the worship of the calves at Dan and Bethel because, " so far as we know, they said not a single word against it " ! It never seems to have struck the writer that in their faithful witness to the one true and living God, and in their denunciations of all apostasy from Him, this sin too was included. We might as well argue that because, " so far as we know," they did not say a single word in particular against breaches of some of the other of the Ten Commandments of which Israel was guilty, that therefore they approved of those transgressions ! The only grounds which Dean Farrar adduces (in a note) for the assertion that " the priests were much less averse to such ' images ' and more tolerant to ' monotheistic ' idolatry " which, by the way, is an absurd paradox are the conduct of Aaron in the matter of the golden calf ; the story of the vagrant Levite Jonathan in those wild and ignorant times, " who for his board and clothing and ten pieces of silver a year hired himself out to the Ephraimite Micah to become the obscure priest" of a cult in which the imperfect knowledge of Jehovah was mixed up with a " graven image and a molten image," which are an abomination in His sight ; and finally the conduct of the pliable priest Urijah, who at the command of the wicked King Ahaz introduced into the Temple of God an altar after the fashion of an idolatrous altar which the king saw in Damascus. Now it would be quite as fair and logical to argue from the 326 APPENDIX fact that because two or three priests were guilty of the crime of murder or adultery that therefore the priests as an order were " less averse " and " more tolerant " of these sins than " the keener-sighted " prophets ! As to Aaron's conduct, into which, according to his excuse to Moses, he was driven out of fear for the people. Moses, too, was a priest, and what he and the whole tribe of the Levites thought of it is answered by their slaughter among the people in one day of three thousand men. And as to Jonathan, whom Dean Farrar quotes as an example of the priests, the inspired (priestly) chronicler (i Chron. xxiii. 15, 17) is so ashamed of him that he does not record his name among the sons of Gershom, and therefore stops with the firstborn. That Gershom had other sons may be inferred from the fact that of his brother Eliezer, who only had one son, the fact is recorded. This desire to efface Jonathan from the priestly register, or at any rate from the register of the family of Moses to which he really belonged, is to be observed from the insertion of the hang- ing Hebrew letter nun, by which the name of " Moses" is turned into " Manasseh" (see the Hebrew of Judges xviii. 30), by which the early scribes meant to convey the hint that he was more worthy to be a descendant of the wicked and idolatrous king of that name than of the great lawgiver. Then, finally, as to Urijah, who introduced that unauthorised altar into the Temple, the connection of which with the subject of the teraphim I fail to see, he was as much a model priest as Ahaz, by whose command he acted, was a model king. In the last paragraph of Dr. Farrar's article which I have quoted, we observe in veiled language the great fallacy common to this school of writers. Instead of judging the conduct and failures of Israel by the divinely revealed law, which was perfect from the beginning, they are apt to form certain notions about the law from the conduct of the people ; thus the non-observance or transgression of certain laws has been used by these writers as a proof of their non-existence at the time, and as an argument for the theory of a much later origin. It was not the result " of a slow and painful course " of disci- pline " among the noblest thinkers " that men finally arrived at "a pure monotheism and independence of symbols," but as the result of a self-revelation on the part of the true and living God, to which man is ever slow to respond. As already said in the section in Chapter I. which I have devoted to this subject, the history of Israel as of Christendom DEAN FARRAR ON THE "TERAPHIM" 327 teaches man the humbling lesson that not only can he not by searching find God, but that even when the knowledge of God is divinely communicated to him he is unable, left to himself, to retain that knowledge in his heart, and is apt to fall back into idolatry whether literal or spiritual. APPENDIX III THE STRUCTURE OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH NOTE TO CHAPTER II., PAGE 43. "HP HE Book of Consolations," as the Rabbis call the second J- half of Isaiah, consists for the most part of the general announcement of a glorious future of salvation and peace, but often the salvation which the prophet foretells, is denned and specified. The message embraces a twofold promise. First, the certain restoration from the Babylonish captivity, which is portrayed in terms which far exceed what actually took place at that restoration, and which will only be exhausted and fulfilled in the greater restoration of Israel "from all the four corners of the earth." The very instrument who should be the means of the minor restoration (Cyrus) is foretold, and called by name more than 150 years before he was born. But the theme with which the prophet's soul is full and to which his thoughts ever recur, even while he deals with the minor deliverance, is the grand redemption and salvation to be accomplished by one greater than Cyrus, even by Messiah a salvation of which Israel is the centre, and all the ends of the earth the circumference. In dealing with this greater salvation the relation of time is not observed. " Now, the prophet beholds the author of it in His humiliation and suffering, then the most distant future of Messiah's kingdom presents itself to his enraptured eye the time when Israel shall walk in the light of Jehovah and all the Gentile world shall be converted to Him ; when all that is opposed to God shall be destroyed ; when inward and outward peace shall prevail and all evil caused by sin shall be removed." Elevated above time and space, his own soul full of rapturous 328 SECOND HALF OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 329 enthusiasm for the Redeemer-King, Isaiah in these twenty-seven chapters surveys the whole development of the Messianic king- dom from its small beginning to its glorious end, and gives us the fullest portrayal of Messiah's person and mission, humiliation and exaltation to be found in the Old Testament. On examining this glorious prophecy closely we find that the twenty-seven chapters range themselves into three equal smaller cycles of nine chapters each, all ending with nearly the same solemn refrain, " there is no peace saith my God to the wicked." The subject is the development and certain overthrow of the evil and the wicked, who are excluded from all the blessings of Messiah's kingdom ; and the sufferings but final glory of the righteous remnant who are the subjects of that kingdom, whose King is described as passing through the same path of suffering to the glory that should follow. The subject treated throughout the three sections becomes developed and intensified as we go along until it reaches its climax in the last chapter. The first section is brought to a close at the end of chapter xlviii., where the blessedness of the righteous who are " redeemed " (verse 20) and peacefully led and satisfied even in the desert, is contrasted with the state of the wicked to whom " there is no peace." In the second division the same subject becomes intensified, there is development of both evil and good, righteousness and wickedness, and it ends with chapter Ivii. where "Peace ! peace !" is announced to the righteous, but the wicked have not only " no peace," but having grown in wickedness, have become like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters^ cast up mire and dirt. In the last division the destiny of both is brought to a climax and become fixed for ever. " Therefore thus saith Jehovah God, Behold My servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry ; behold My servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty ; behold My servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed ; behold My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart and shall howl for vexation of spirit. And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto My chosen, for the Lord God shall slay thee and call His servants by another name." This contrast is continued until finally we find the righteous dwelling for ever in the new heavens and the new earth wherein shall dwell righteousness, while as to the wicked who have transgressed against God, " their worm shall not die neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh." The heart and Messianic climax of the whole prophecy is to 330 APPENDIX be found in its inmost centre, which, instead of a prophecy uttered centuries in advance, reads like an historic summary of the Gospel narrative of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. Taking our position at this central point we are almost overwhelmed with the evidence of design in the very structure of this prophecy, for on closer examination we find that each book is subdivided into three sections of three chapters each, nearly corresponding to the divisions in the Authorised Version. Thus the middle book is xlix.-lvii. The middle section of the middle book is chapters lii., liii., liv., and chapter liii. is the middle chapter of the middle section of the middle book forming, as it were, the heart and centre of this wonderful Messianic poem, as well as the heart and centre of all Old Testament prophecy. The central verse of this central paragraph, which begins properly with chapter lii. 13, is : " He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement with the view to our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." The doctrine it enshrines (substitution) is the essence of the teaching in Old and New Testaments, as well as the central truth of the prophecy. It is moreover, the essence of the message of comfort with which the prophet begins (xl. i, 2), solving the problem as to how " her iniquity is pardoned." University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. UC? j Form L9 m m 3 115801125593 A 000046910 6