The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-10-22 00:00:00

Etterature.

NOTICE

A:Pilgrimage to the Land of my Fathers. By the Rev.
M. Margoliouth. 2 vols. Bvo. London: Richard

The w

:er of the

Levin. Dubli

v and history
tdina critics o

1 :,hat have Intel
w and interest
,otters, add
dies, Litt

Dtiche,
avocati

y of tas

n over in

to be overlooked by

the proper c
The lett

ce, Italy, North

cation occupied much of
nteresting people the
ition. The following
k, dated Jerusalem,

letter writt
Easter
this vt
Chris

Sunday, 1848

to our readers

f the Society for Promoting
are so powerfully pleaded in

anity among the Jews

`• On my return home, I have several visitors among the
Jerusalem Jewish converts waiting upon me. Each had a
different story to relate, in connexion with his history, conver-
sion, trials, persecutions, &c. They made my heart bleed, and
my eyes run down with water many a time. Alas I little do
Gentile Christians know of the bitter trials which fall to the

would sympathize with the latter more sincerely, and would
hesitate before they enunciate that disgusting query . Do you
think he is sincere ?' Does tiny one, possessing a moderate
share of common sense, think that a Jew would embrace
Christianity simply because be had a desire to be hated, and
traduced, and malt; '

Members of the Synag'ogue,
e members of the Church?

What p.aradox,

if they dont

:erity of a Jewish el
ptized Jews do nc

do not a

fford instances of consummat

. So do the clergy of onr beloved Church ; but the
cannot prove the rule in either case. I choose one
ch I listened to-day, for the
Ividential leading of a
lot of the Cross.
nd, in the Empire

benefit of tl
proud, conei
" Dr. Kiel

very clever in his professio
for upwards of twenty yea]

lst in his native country, and
red a large military hospital.
he Gentile physicians in his
s, he imbibed a great many of
oat fatally the religion he was

land, whO were

bred in, and' he became a would-be-wise rationalist. All at
once an uncontrollable fancy took bold upon his mind to isit
the Holy Land. Why and wherefore he could not divine; for
his patriotic virtues were exceedingly impaired by the contact
of infidel Christians; but go he must. He reduced all his
property to ready cash, and left Russia with his lucrative
situation, accompanied by his wife and (laughter, and, after a
few months travelling, they arrived here. Dr. K.'s skill in
the medical department was soon apparent among his brethren,
and, as they had no Jewish physician, his arrival was hailed
by the Synagogue with a great deal of gratification. He soon

ehiefs of.his nation here

in tue year 1841, mr. E. Tartakover was sent out by the
London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews,
to act as one of the Missionaries in the Holy City. Poor Mr.
T., soon after his arrival, was taken very ill with opthalmia,
and stood in danger of losing his sight. D. K. knew Mr. T's.
family he visited, therefore. the blind missionary, and said :
"I am very sorry to find you under such painful and distress-
ing circumstances; it appears that the flood of light which
you fancy Christianity shed upon you, deprived you of your
phys'cal sight, and after all, I, in my unbelief enjoy the light
of Heaven more liberally than you do.' Mr. T. replied in the
style and manner a resigned Christian does under such circum
stances. He told his Elinhaz t-

tat his soul enjoyed an amount
of life for which he was more thankful than if his eye was
illumined, and that he would rather that his bodily eye be
dark, than his eye of faith unenlightened. Dr. K. said: 'You
are at perfect liberty to enjoy what dream you have got: I am

speak of ; but it grieves me mnch to see you in this plight. I
know your family well, and I should be elad to be of some
service to you in this trying dilemma. Where is the medicine
you use ?' Mr. T. told him the locality it was placed in, and
the Hebrew doctor examined it, and pronounced it an infalli-
ble drug to perpetuate the patient's blindness. He sa,d to
Mr. I'.. ' If you are at all anxious to recover your sight, I beg
of you to give up this horrid drug. Put it by; do not tell
your physician that I havecnnntermanded his prescriptions.

I will furnish you with medicine, which I venture to;tssert,
will enable you to behold the light again in the course of a
week. I will come to see you daiiy.' Mr. T. obeyed, and
before the week elapsed, Mr. T. was enabled to catch a glimpse
of light. Dr. K. was regular in his visits; Mr. T. spoke con-
stantly of the hope set before him, and the very day Mr.
Tartakover began to open his physical eyes, a light broke in
upon Dr. K.'s moral eyes. The physician threw himself an
humble suppliant at the foot of the Cross, exclaimincr : How
true is it that the Lord leads the blind in a way they know not I
What a mercy that I was dissatisfied with my native country !
What a cure was effected by your disease I T wa■ blind hot

now I see; I was lost, but now am found !' Mr. T. related to
the late bishop the whole of this deeply interesting episoCe.
The Right Reverend Dr. Alexander took the physician into
his immediate care; he instructed him, and baptized him,
protected him, and obtained support for him ; whilst the
credit of curino. Mr. T. was tacitly accorded to the authorized

In his letters to the Duchess of Manchester, the Misses
Ashton, and his daughter, Mr. M. gives several pieces of
Hebrew music, chaunted by the mourning remnants of
" Judah's wandering tribes" at midnight. as well as at
the "-place of wailing" in Jerusalem, of which a descrip-
tion is given in the following letter to Miss Ashton, dated
June, 1849 :

"When I visited Nablous, the principality of ancient
Samaria. I was staying at the house of a Syrian Christian,
which adjoined the Jewish quarter. From the terrace of the
house I lived in, I could see and hear all that was going on in
the Hebrew district. I was obliged to leave that beautifully
situated city at midnight ; and when I was just on the point of
descending the terrace of the house, where I was writing my
"Evening Notes," and a I around was quiet and serene, enjoy-
ing the repose of sleep, the following little verse first broke
upon my ear:—

On account of these things and on account of those do I
constantly weep.
My eyes, my eyes do flow with water.

Eien-foi the destruction of our holy house
Which was trampled upon and trodde
I will never cease to mourn, year by year,
A holy lamentation, on account of the holy thing, and on
account of the sanctuary.'

!n doim

" All the pious Jews get im at midnight, and sit down on
the ground in mourner's attitude, and bewail the calamities
which has befallen them, their country, their temple. and their
religion. The music I send you was chanted by several vene-
rable old men, whose voices, though somewhat tremulous,
were yet clear and stentorian ; the effect was therefore raptu-
rous to my ears."

We are unable to print here the music of this beautiful
elegy, which for its quaint and plaintive melody is un-
surpassed by anything we have ever heard.

Mr. Margolioutn s work will not only prove interesting
to the Christian and the literati, but also to the antiqua-
rian, the Biblical scholar, the politician, and the musi-
cian. The work is dedicated to the Bishop of Chester, by
whom the author's talents are justly appreciated, and is
one worthy of an attentive and careful perusal by all per-
sons who feel interested (and who does not ?) in the Holy
Land and God's chosen people.