The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-10-23 00:00:00

CHRISTIANITY AIONGST THE JEWS.

The anniversary meeting of the Society for Promoting
Christianity amongst the Jews, was held last evening,
in the hall of the Collegiate Instqutioni Shaw-street.
The deptitation froth the parent gaiety ecrnsidted of the
Reir.. C. N. Pleiirl;, Chaplain cf the 111olYnedX Asyititn,
Dublin, and the Rev. T. liigaiite,a; central asso-
ciation, secretary, metropolitan &stmt. The meeting
was rather numerously attended, andiatriong'st those
present we, noticed the ReVs.,D...Anderson, S: P. Bout-
flower, J. T. ButleroV..Clemeatsou, J. Crump; Dixon,
Charles Guest, 15. J. Hirsch, J. ,Herbert Ijoneg,:Wilfred
Leveson Dr. Lowe (hon., sec.), IV. Mavnerd; R.
Moore, :5... F... Pickle, F. A. Power, D.Ryci6ft, 11.
Stephens G. W. Warr, W. H. Wright, T. P. Ball,
J. A. Baily; II: Carpenter, T. Cowan, W. H. Denny,
Arthur Gore, P. F. J. B. Hains, John James, C. W.
Lawrence, L.-- Lawsdn, J. IPAllister, T. Moore, 8.. Oatse,
J. O. Powell, T, Robinson, W. R. Stephens, W. H.
Vernon, Hilbert Woodward; Adam Hodgson (vice-
president', J. R. RounthWaitei Holden,• H. J.
Webster`,, M. Collet, H. Flalheael (hors. gm), H,
Evans, &c, TVe body of the frail and galleries
were occupied by ladies

The meeting was adVertised to` take filarae at hal4as" t,
.
six o'clock, and soon after that hens the Red, Mc.'Lesie
announced that the Rev. Canon M'Neile, D.D., who was
to have presided,, would not be in:attendance until seven
o'clock ; therefore, Until he arrived, Adam Hodgson,
1 Esq., would take the chair. In so doing, he said, that
however they might regret the abience of Dr..lll'Neile,
by his residence in Chester, it was a getttee of infinite
pleasure that occasionally he came amongst their, and
with his untiring attention, and with his enereiei that
never slept, assisted in the institutions which he
bad always taken so deep an interest in this town.
After singing a hymn and offering up a prayer, the
Rev. Mr: Harke read the atiiitial report, which stated that
that th4e. had Wen a slight increase in the nttmher of
the ohnrelle is'hi.Oi .liasliadVedated the eause of the
Jews, Al there Was a slight inere*ast,in the, tteasitrees
account, which might be attributed pTinerp.6llly
.t 0;. ,a
-large donation. The report went on to say that eighty-
seven Jews had attended divine service in the German
church ; ' seventy-six had attended prayer meetings,
forty-seven had, the secretary hoped, received some pro-
fitable information, and there had, out of eleven
enquirers, been oueshaptised in London. The treasurer's
baladoe sheet ehoWed that the increase of this Branch
SOUUttsWas 8 ,12s. M. (inchiding a donation of
£lOO from Miss kliiabetlt, Shand), and that after
deducting the necessary working dpenSea, #731 IN. Id.
had been forwarded to the Parent Socetf.
During the reading of the report, the Reit. `anon
M'Neile entered the building, and was received with
the most enthusiastic applause. Mr. Adam Hodgson
having vacated the chair, and the Rev. Dr. MeNeile
taken his position as president of the meeting,
The Rev. Canon said : It was certainly a great plea-
s-tire te Meet With old friends, and it was very.pleasurable
to'' be So Weitorned by them., (Applause.) He was
rejoiced again. to Meet them on that sacred occasion.
They were .all aware, of the ininte,diate object of the
society. It was a missionary society, aY-i'd frothing but
a missionary society. In that respect that seeieiv If*,
in harmony with all other societies founded upon the
'Christian religion, which had for' their object the
spreading of the commands of the heavenly message.
But,' although there was nothing peculiar in the objects
of the society, there was something peculiar in the Made
of carrying those objects out, because there were peculiar
circumstances attending it. The Jews were a peculiar
people; arid: 'therefore' peculiar aid had to be applied
in carrying out a rh'issio'n to them. The Jews were
fallen • creatures the sane of tiles all were; and the
Jews were expelled, like Adam, ati'd ever since have
been conceived in sin and born in iniquity's The
Jews might be redeemed by the Son of Odd,
himself a Jew, who died, upon the cross for them, as he
died for all. The Jews might be saved by means of
the Gospel, which was given to the Jews first, and then
to the Gentiles. But his attention had lately been most
seriously called to the Jews—particularly to those in
Gibraltar, -and even in Jerusalem itself. The whole
Aleyfist population in Gibraltar usually was from 2,000
to 25500, but last year it was swelled to-7,000,-in con-
sequence of the perseelition that class had met with in
-North Africa and in Morocco. from' these persecutions
many of them escaped, and made for the nearest point
of safety, , and that point was where the 'flag .of
liberty floated, on the rock of Gibraltar. The condition
of the Jews at Gibraltar had been described ,as that of
extreme destitution and misery, but it was also said that
their desire to possess the Word of God was most
remarkable: He would give them one instance amongst
Many, others, Which had struck him as being most
peculiar. There Was one man who was daily seen in
the streets begging; and Was in the habit of going to
the house of the missionarts and his destitution was so
great that he would gladly beg a farthing, ashalfpenny,
or ' a penny, indeed, . anything he Coin get,
and for several months he was glad io' 'receive
what he could get from the. missionary. In the,niontli of
April last the same man called at the missionary's house
in the same garb of misery and destitution; but at that
time he did not ask for money, but he asked him to
sell him a copy of the,Bible. He was desirous of pre-
sentirtg itto hint Without payment, but iii order to test
his sincerity he produced an octavo Bible tolerably well
bound, and asked hint fin. the money to pay for it.. The man
undid a large dirty handkerchief; which had been rolled
round his head as a turban, and eareftrily toelefrom its folds
first a farthing, then a halfpenny and then amity, until
he got the sum of 92d., when he said, . " Ofir yott gave
me this, and I have been starving myself to buy the
book, but I have not enough. Let me have a little one,
that will not cost se much, for I can't buy that." The
missionary gave him the book, when the man raised
himself up, and pointing to heaven said, "First He,
then yott, gave inc this book." (Applause.) There 'vas
a sight. From that incident, then, was there not en-
couragement to read the Word of God, when there was
manifestly such a
,demand for it . (Applause.) Again,..
touching Jerusalem. Dr. Dalrymple says there is a
multitude of Jews congregated, not. only in Jerusalem
itself, but -also in the adjoining cities. He states that
the number is ,very great, and that the misery amongst
them is also very great,' and he describes their charac-
teristic 'as living in absolute idleness. There are some,
it is tree, who get a living by 'selling smallwares, but
there .is not one who gets his living by labour , not
one mechanic who gets his ' living by the Sweat of
his brow. As a striking proof of this miserable state of
things, he would mention
_.an instance. Some time
since Sir James Montef/ore • went to Jerusalem:
He had a large sum of money .to expend—
from £20,000 to £30,000, for the purpose of alleviating
the distress' of . the Jewish population ; and he' was
anxious to make arrangements to expend: it in 'the best
possible manner. To achieve that objeet,.he thought
that ..the •best way was to build .a loge work-
house, wherein to teach them some handicraft trades.
He made- a :public notice of his intentions but before
he could get a house large enough he wanted mechanics
to build it, and masons and carpenters, andhe announced
that the preference would. be given to Jews ; but out of
the vast population there was not one Jew came forward
—there was nut
sone Jew mechanic in Palestine—not
one who Was able to assist in the building of the-house.
What a state of degradation ! What could be done with
such a people? , They could not introduee mechanics'
institutions amongst them, nor young men's associations,
nor could they deliver a series of lectures amongst thens :
they could not bestow a free library (applause) ,upon
than ; but he would' tell them what they could do for
them, with a very little trouble, and at a little
cost. They could confer upon them that which
was better than mechanics' institutes, however, profit-
able they might be—better than young men's societies,
scientific' lectures=—better 'far (without speaking in dis-
paragement of the noble-hearted and 'liberal-minded
giver) than even a Free Library--they could bestow.
on them the pure and enlightening. Word of ' God.
(Cheers.) It was for that purpose they wese met. .It
Was for that the society asked, and he called upon them to
renew their exertions and give liberally towards its support.
Thcirfriend Dr. Cumming had-been recently lecturing
on the probable future of. England. Ile said the "pro-
bable" future, because Dr. Cumming did not pretend
sto prophesy, although he had- been libellously charged
with such presumption. He (the speaker) believed that
. thoSe who had advanoed that charge were themselves
aware that it was unfounded. Dr. Cumming did rust
pretend to prophesy, but he did attempt to understand
to the best of his ability what it had pleased God to say
in his Holy -Word ; and every man who belieyed the
Bible was bound to do the same. Dr. Cumming had
'been lecturing on the future of England and Israel, and
especially on the winding up of the present political
Complications—sufficiently complicated they are—in
the East. The " sick man " was very sick, and bad
just been only saved from death by a strong dose of
French steel, administered by that Imperial phyaician
France. (Laughter.) How long French steel .might
agree with the sick Turk remained to be seen. In the
West revolution was doing its work, annexation was
doing-, its work, non-intervention was doing its werk,
and in spite of all this—in spite of all his delinquencies,
of all his past faults, of the lies he had told, or the
cruelty he had practised,—one was tempted to pity the
poor Pope, reduced as he was to beggary, and disregarded
as he is in his begging by the "high sons of the church."
(Laughter.) "Pity the sorrows of a poor old man."
It was amazing, and Would be still more, if the subject
was not of so grave a nature—it was amazing to find
how some of the Pope's friends were then writing on the
temporal power of the Pope, as if--as they had been forced
to give it up, that the Church.of Rome might be bene-
fitted by it. They said it was a benefit to them to get
rid of it. ' What, they now meant to say, that all tath
bad been written on the temporal power of the Church
of Rome was wrong—that the bishops were all wrong ?
What they said as to the temporal powers of the Chris-
tian Church was true, but was it true of the Church of,
Rome ? They all knew that proveos were useful as an
aid to memory, and that it was a clansmen proverb that
" It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good ;" and now
when our Roman Catholic friends have given up the
.attempt to apply the "mountain on the top of the
Mountain" to the Church of Reme
agree with Protestants in saying th perhaps they would
at the prophecy did
not' apply to . the Christian Church at all, and that
they had been robbing the Jews of one of the
brightest gems of prophecy, and have been attempt-
ing 'to place it in the tiara of the old man at Rome.
After that digression he would come back. to the pro-
bable future of Israel and England. There was some-
thing more than probable about it. The rev. dootor
then went on. to say that Dr. Cumming had taken his
reasoning from the 38th and 39thchapters of Exodus
and the 18th of Isaiah ; and with his accustomed
acumen 'he supplies the names of the nations ;—that
England is the nation that is described as being famous
for its ships, and that through her instrumentality they
1
, would become the. possessors of their .own land again,
To accomplish that there would be more than human
agency----there. would be more than the arm of flesh,—
there would be that secret posVer before which the
strong arm had to yield to the weaker. He concluded
his address by a powerful appeal on behalf of the
society, and said that as he had arrived late so he
might. have to depart early ; but .if he left before the
Meeting concluded they all knew the cause, and so
,he begged to offer •an apology. The rev.' doctor con-
cluded amidst the most enthusiastic cheering. .
The Rev. Mr. HALSTEA.D then rose, and moved "That
the report now read be printed and circulated,, together
with the statement of accounts, under the sanction of
the committee. " In the course of his remarks he alluded-
to the great changes which the last half century had
brought about in the moral, social, and spiritual state
of the Jews. During that time, too, they had risen to
• positions of influence and importance in the councils of
Europe. People very often asked what had been the
result of the operations of this society; and although
this was a very fair question to ask, it was a most diffi-
-1 cult one to answer. It was true that they could point
I' to 800 baptisms in the Palestine Chapel, and 300 bap-