The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-08-10 00:00:00

THE CLAIMS OF THE JEWS.

(From the Scottish Guardian.)
Now that the General Assembly has taken up the
cause of the Jews, and the attention of many Chris-
, tians is more directed to this subject than perhaps it
has ever been before, it may not be amiss to present
our readers, from time to time, with information and
argument which may be useful. We cannot do better
than make a few selections from the admirable works
of the Rev. Dr. M'Caul, one of the most eminent He-
brew Scholars_ of the-age; they are little known in this
part of the country, while they are highly instructive.
In a discourse, preached before the Jews' Society in
1833, in answering the objection that it is not the
right time to attempt the conversion of the Jews, he
favours his readers with the following interesting his•
torical detail. We have only to add, that the reproach
f !Which he speaks, viz., that no Christian body, as a
Church, had adopted Israel, is now wiped away—the
Church of Scotland having seen its duty to listen to
their claims:—

" There never has been a period of history in which the
Lord has not had a remnant among his people Israel. Had
the Christian Church continued from the days of the Apostles
to the present day in the diligent use of the means for the
conversion of the Jews, and in persevering earnest prayer
for God's blessing upon their efforts, and the Jews remained
notwithstanding in unbelief; Christians would have some
colour for saying the time is not come; but it is rather in-
consistent to neglect the means, and then ask why the end
has not been attained. When any man says the time for the
conversion of the Jews is not yet come, the true answer is,
How do you know ? Did you ever try ? The Christian
Church has certainly not made a fair trial, and has therefore
no right to make such assertion. For, in the first place, the
Christian Church has, from the earliest times, displayed a
spirit of hatred and even contempt of the Jews, which has
taught the majority ofthe Jewish nation t 9 regard Christians
as their bitterest enemies. I speak not now of the prejudices
of the illiterate, but of the deliberate acts of the councils and
rulers of the Church. One of the first acts of this kind was
the making the Jewish Sabbath a fast-day. From the earliest
times to the fourth century the practice had been to observe
the Jewish Sabbath as a holiday, as some suppose, in order
to facilitate their conversion. But the Church of Rome,
which soon displayed a decided opposition to the Jews, made
it a fast-day, that the separation might be marked and strong.
The Council of Laodicea completed this work, by ordering
the Gospels to be read instead of the Jewish lessons, and by
commanding Christians to work on the Sabbath. The Coun-
cil of Elvira, and several succeeding councils, forbid all
familiar and friendly intercourse with the Jews, under pain
of excommunication. Stephen Langton, and Hugo de Vel-
les, Bishop of Lincoln, extended this decree still farther, for
they denounced the same punishment upon any one who
should hold communication with the Jews, or even sell them
provisions; and to crown all, a decree was made; forbidding
a Jew to enter any Christian church. if to these public and
practical decrees of the chureh we add the injustice •with
which they were treated by christians in general—their syna-
gogues destroyed, or forcibly taken and converted into
christian churches—themselves driven from one conntry to
another, and in some cases they and their children forcibly
compelled to embarce christianity—who can say that the
gospel has been fairly preached to the Jews, or who can
wonder that they have continued in unbelief? Even if the
church had been zealous in preachin - to the Jews, and had
continued pure in doctrine, uo zeal or orthodoxy can com-
pensate for waut of love and compassion. Love is an essen-
tial part of the gospel, as well as of the christian character;
and where it has not been practically exhibited, the religion
of Christ has not been adequately preached. Moreover, the
ancient church appears to have made no provision for preach-
ing the gospel to the Jews. Some few of the fathers wrote
against the Jews in languages which they considered pro-
fane, and therefore did not read. But I cannot find that any
systematic attempt was ever made by the christian church.
Some few individuals were moved to seek the welfare of the
Jews, and their attempts were blessed. But the general in-
difference of the church for the welfare of the Jews is best
illustrated by the general neglect of Hebrew. In Gesenius's
History of Hebrew Literature, pp. 92-105, we find that from
St, Jerome to Raymund Martyn, a periodof nearly 800 years,
the study of Hebrew' was generally neglected, and that in all
this time the christian church did not produce one Hebrew
scholar of note. Until the time of lieuchlin, in the fifteenth
century, I know of no attempt to translate any part of the
New Testament into Hebrew; and until the efforts made by
this society, no endeavour was ever made to circulate the
whole New Testament in Hebrew, that the Jews might read
and believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. This
may appear of comparatively little importance, as, since the
Refroniation, there have been vernacular translations in the
protestant countries where they lived; but it must be re-
membered that it is not a century since even the European
Jews generally began to read the languages of the country
where they live. In Poland, but few have learned to read
Polish; the vast majority can read only Hebrew and Jewish.
And, even in this country, it is not a rare thing to find Jews
and Jewesses who cannot read English, though they can
speak it. Who can say then that Christ has been adequately
preached to the Jews, or who can wonder that they do not
believe? How should they believe in Him of whom they
have not heard? But to this is to be added, that from the
eighth to the sixteenth century, idolatry generally prevailed
in the christian church; and that that church, which has
beyond all doubt done the most for the conversion of Jews,
has stink the deepest into this sin. The Roman church has
at various times sought their conversion, and. the Dominicans
were particularly zealous, and, if we may judge from the
work of Raymund Martyn, well qualified from their know-
ledge of Hebrew. But who can say that they preached the
pure doctrine of christianity? Their efforts have only tended
to convey and fix in the minds of the Jews a false idea of the
Gospel. I have found in Poland that the word which signifies
an image generally has acquired the particular signification
of crucifix How, then, could the Jews stop to consider
Christianity, when they identified it with idolatry, which
their law forbids ? Or -how can we talk of the blindness of
the Jews, if they could not see the light of the Gospel, which
did not exist ? Since the Reformation the controversy has
been better studied, Hebrew more generally understood by
Christian divines, and some stumbling-blocks removed. In-
dividuals also have been interested for the Jews, but I am
sorry to add, that not one of all the Protostant Churches, so
far as I know, has made any attempt, as a Church, to preach
the Gospel to the Jews. They have not done even as much
as the Church of Rome. It it therefore a vain thing to talk
of the judicial blindness of the Jews. Let the Protestant
Churches first make the attempt; but let them not say that
the time is not come, when they have never tried whether it
be or not.

" In spite of all these disadvantages, it has pleased God in
all ages to show the falsehood of this pretence by gathering
to himself a remnant from amongst his people Israel. We
have the testimony of St. Jerome, that the Church of the
circumcision, or Jewish Christians, continued, and was nu-
merous in his own time. He describes them as existing in
all the synagogues of the East; and though strongly opposed
to their zeal for the law, he bears witness to their orthodoxy.
He says particularly, that they rejected the traditions of the
Robbins, and believed in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the beginning of the fifth century we read of the conver-
sion of the Jews in Candia; in the sixth, of the Jewish inha-
bitants of Borium, iu Africa; in the seventh, of the Jews
in Cyprus, and other places; in the ninth century, of some
in France; in the eleventh, in Germany; in the twelfth, in
Germany, Spain, Normandy, and England. On one of the
rolls in the reign of Henry 111., the names of 500 Jewish
converts are recorded. Two of the most learned men of the
fourteenth century were converted Jews, Paul of Burgos,
and Nicholas de Lyra. The latter was the great precurser
of the Reformation. From him both Wickliffe and Luther
learned the true mode of interpreting the Bible. Tremel-
tins, the friend of our own Reformers, and whose transla-
tion of the Old Testament is one of the best extant, was a
converted Jew. Above a century ago, Wolfius, in his Bi-
bliotheca Hebraica, was able to enumerate more than 100
Jews who had written in defence or illustration of Christi-
anity. Thus God's Providence bears witness to his Word,
that there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek;
no irresistible blindness resting on that people, which may
not be removed by the preaching of the Gospel."