United Free Church of Scotland

JEWISH MISSIONS

The Success of Jewish Missions

PUBLICATIONS OFFICE

121 GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH 232 ST. VINCENT STREET, GLASGOW

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The Success of Jewish Missions,

Set forth by Rev. L. ZECKHAUSEN, London Jews Society

Rev. DAVID BARON, Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel Rev. Dr. ARNOLD FRANK, Irish Pres. Mission, Hamburg

And the Editors: Rev. J. MACDONALD WEBSTER and Rev. W. J. COUPER, M.A.

INTRODUCTION.

THERE is no more common assertion than that it is difficult to convert a Jew, and many have used the assertion to decry all effort to bring him to the knowledge of Christ. "It is as possible to convert the Jews," Luther is reported to have said, "as to convert the devil." It is not wonderful that Jews themselves should harbour the idea, for the belief that their brethren cling tenaciously to their faith must act as a deterrent on some who would like to abandon it, but that Christians should acquiesce in it is past astonishment. How did they themselves come to hold their present beliefs if not through Jewish converts to Christianity? How did the Christian faith at first spread throughout the known world if not through Jews who had come to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the true Messiah? Christians who would emphasise the difficulty, in fact, betray ignorance of the history of their own faith, for were

not "about three thousand" of these immovable Jews converted in one day at Pentecost?

Jewish Movements towards Christianity.

It is of necessity impossible to measure accurately the proportion of gain that has come to the Christian Church from Jewry. It has been calculated that at the time of Christ the Jewish people numbered 4,000,000. By the Middle Ages they had been reduced to 1,000,000. What had become of the remainder and of the natural increase that should have accrued to them as a people? No doubt, forced conversions during the Crusades and such methods as those employed by the Inquisition in Spain account for much. But room must be left for sincere conviction. Jews may label the great majority of conversions to Christianity as the effects of "assimilation," but assimilation cannot always be a mechanical process, or the Jewish people must be set down as mentally and morally incompetent—which they are not. In the eighteenth century Moses Mendelssohn thought he could use Jewish culture for world advancement. The more intimate contact with Gentiles which the movement involved had a result the opposite of what he anticipated, for the whole of his descendants are now Christian. In fact, when Jews come vitally into contact with the Christian faith, they find it congenial and attractive spiritually. Sometimes the connection issues in mass movements towards Christianity. In 1819, 1,236 out of 3,610 Jews in Berlin became Christians, and for years afterwards there were secessions at the rate of 122 per annum. The Great War revealed Jew and Gentile to each other as never before, and a mass movement, as in Hungary and Ukrainia, was the result.

Jewish Baptisms.

We are not, however, without some real guidance regarding the number of Jews who have become converts to Christianity. De le Roi, a missionary of the London Jews

_____The Jewish Register. Vol. IV. No. 14. May 1922.—One Shilling per annum._____

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Society, has made a calculation of the baptisms that took place throughout the world during the nineteenth century. While his figures must largely be approximate, they have been accepted by Jews themselves as substantially correct. He gives the baptisms as follows:

PROTESTANTS.

United Kingdom, 28,830 Germany, 17,520Holland, 1,800Norway and Sweden, 500Denmark, 100 Switzerland, 100 France, 600 Austro-Hungary, 8,356 Russia, 3,136 Asia and Africa, 100 Australia, 200North America, 11,500

72,742

The numbers for the United Kingdom include 5,330 conversions by British missions abroad.

ROMAN CATHOLICS.

Germany, 5,000 France, 1,800 Austro-Hungary, 36,200 Russia, 12,000 Italy, 300 Asia and Africa, 500 North America, 1,500

57,300

The figures for North America include those for Holland and Switzerland.

GREEK CHURCH.

Austro-Hungary, 200 Russia, 69,400 Rumania, 1,500Turkey, 3,300Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia,

100

74,500

More recent statisticians regard De le Roi's estimate as very conservative, and the actual numbers are probably between 225,000 and 250,000.

It has been computed that of every 156 Jews in the world one is a Protestant Christian, whilst the proportion from the other non-Christian religions is one to every 525. If the ingathering from the heathen and Moslem world had been in the same ratio as that from among the children of Israel, there would have been a total of seven million converts from the non-Christian Gentile world instead of only two to three millions during the nineteenth century. Investigators have also discovered that the Protestant Jewish converts who enter the Christian ministry are three times more numerous than those from the ranks of converts from other non-Christian faiths.

Causes of Conversions.

When Jews find it impossible to deny the success of the Gospel among their fellows, they betake themselves to the insinuation that the conduct of these so-called converts cannot retain the respect of reasonable men. Their change of belief can be attributed only to interested motives. Some have found it convenient to become Christians, they urge, because worldly position has tempted them, or because persecution has forced them to 'vert for safety's sake, or because they have intermarried with the alien, or because they have become religiously indifferent as to what creed they profess. Recently a correspondent from Jerusalem called attention to the fact that "here in Eretz Yisrael (i.e. Palestine) the missionaries are exceptionally successful in their underhand work. Here they have fertile ground for their labours, and in Jerusalem every week young Jews are converted."

By way of discrediting the movement still further, he adds that the majority of these young Jews are "poor people from Eastern Europe who cannot find work and are without any means of subsistence," and so are "an easy prey to the missionaries." Even Christians hold the view that Jews

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change from self-interest. The Evangelical Lutheran General Mission to the Jews resolved, in 1890, to curtail their work "as mostly only Jewish vagabonds, the scum and outcasts of the people, become baptised." More remarkable still, a prominent German missionary to the Jews declared that no Jew has ever been baptised through conviction. We are assured that it is impossible to bring an accusation against a whole nation, and it is also manifestly impossible that such general denunciations can be true. There are Jewish religious imposters, but there are also sincerely converted Jews.

The Alleged Cost of Conversions.

Another method by which discredit is sought to be cast upon Hebrew Christians is to call attention to the cost of Jewish missions. A hostile Jewish critic pointed out that over a series of years one society spent from £600 to £3,000 on one conversion, and that it cost the same society £28,439 to baptise 28 Jews. Our genial contemporary, Punch, not long ago joined these mercenary opponents, and after indicating that on the average it cost £1,000 to convert a Jew, jocularly said that he knew many Jews who would be happy to change their faith at a smaller figure—surely an unworthy gibe. A militant Rabbi recently declared that the money employed on Jewish missions would be better used "in a determined attempt to save the remnant of Israel from the hands of heartless persecutors and murderers." All of which criticism shows a lamentable ignorance of the spirit of Christianity and of the command of the Christian's Lord and Master.

Some Testimonies.

Perhaps enough has been said to prove that the Jew is not so obstinate and unapproachable as common rumour has it. The following statements on the successes of missionary societies—some of them by Jews who have themselves been converted to Christ—should do much to dispel the delusion, and give a new impetus to the Church to buckle herself afresh to the work.

THE MOTHER OF MODERN JEWISH MISSIONS.

By the Rev. L. ZECKHAUSEN.

I AM requested to write on the Success of Jewish Missions from the angle of the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews. I cannot pretend that I like either the title or the limitations imposed upon me, and that for the following reasons:

"Statistics," Chalmers says somewhere, "are kept by God," and in no field of Christian activity is the saying more true that "one soweth and another reapeth" than in the work among Jews. With many a missionary on the Continent it is the exception, rather than the rule, to baptise a Jew whom he has won for Christ or led to a serious study of the New Testament. Local conditions are often too much against it, and this has not only been the personal experience of the present writer at Cracow and elsewhere, but can be read on many a page of Gidney's History of the London Jews' Society.

Figures no Test.

Opening that volume by the merest chance, my eye caught some words, referring to Posen, that are typical of scores of other places. "By the year 1850," we read, "when the Mission had been established in Posen twenty-five years, but few baptisms had been recorded. Bellson baptised only one Jew, Graf three, and Hartmann seven; although forty-two baptisms of Jewish converts known to Graf had taken place at Posen and eight other towns in the district. The harvest of the Posen Mission was reaped elsewhere (and generally not by missionaries of the Society), few Jews daring to make an open profession of Christianity in the duchy, on account of the persecution which would certainly come upon them. In fact, the great majority of Jews baptised in Europe during the first half of the last century came from Posen

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and Russian Poland, where they were, in the first instance, awakened to the truth by the Society's missionaries."

One is entitled, therefore, to claim that the more than 7,000 direct baptisms from Judaism the London Society is credited with, represent in reality but a fraction of the men and women it has been instrumental in leading to Christ. But great as this claim may seem, the London Society has an even greater one, which calls for recognition alike by Church and Synagogue, little as the latter may be disposed to admit it.

The Interest of Great Men.

Anyone studying the history of the London Society cannot help being struck by the fact that in the first half of the 19th century it succeeded in enlisting among its most earnest and enthusiastic supporters many of the best men of the day in England—men who stood for all that is good and noble in English Christianity and civilisation, and whose moral influence is still unmistakably felt even to-day. It must indeed be a good and commendable cause that can claim to have been advocated and urged as a sacred duty upon the Church by men of the standing of William Wilberforce, Henry Thornton, Zachary Macaulay, Thomas Babington, Charles Simeon, Thomas Scott, Sir Robert Grant, Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Erskine, Lewis Way, and W. E. Gladstone, to take but a few out of an imposing list of names that could be almost indefinitely lengthened.

It was the social and political influence of these men that not only enlisted the support of many an earl and duke, many a merchant prince and high dignitary of the Church, for the work of the Society, but also awakened sympathy outside England for the downtrodden Jew and carried it into the highest circles of Europe. The Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, became the Society's first Patron, and, accompanied by the Lord Mayor of London and a distinguished body of office-bearers and dignitaries, laid the foundation stone of its first mission church.

King Frederick William III. of Prussia and Emperor Alexander I. of Russia were personally won by the indefatigable Lewis Way and his influential friends for the cause of Jewish evangelisation, and they gave the Society's missionaries in their respective countries most valuable assistance in the propagation of the Gospel. And that interest in the Society's work the Kings of Prussia, at least, maintained for a great many years, heading the lists of the contributors to its funds by an annual subscription of £25, which was continued up to the year 1895.

Now, it is self-evident that nobody can really be said to care for his neighbour's eternal welfare who is not also prepared to see that common justice be done him in the affairs of his everyday life. And so we find it but natural that, during the long struggle of the Jews of England for their social and political emancipation, most of the friends and champions of their cause in both Houses of Parliament and in the Press should have been men sitting on the Committee of the Society whose aim it was to promote Christianity among them.

Daughter Societies.

To have succeeded in arousing the Evangelical Churches of Great Britain and the Continent to a sense of their duty towards the Jews; to have succeeded, though indirectly, in calling into being a stately number of missionary societies, upon whom she may look as her daughters and younger sisters; and to have, on the whole, succeeded in keeping up the interest of her own denomination undiminished for more than a hundred years—this, it seems to me, is the greatest claim to success the London Society may be entitled to put forward.

The World-wide Field.

Though called "London" Society, its work, at different times, has been almost as widely spread as the Jewish dispersion itself, for, besides many places in England and Ireland, it sought to reach the Jews in Holland, Germany, the Scandinavian

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countries, France, Italy, Greece, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Roumania, Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Egypt, Tunis, Algiers, Morocco, Arabia, Abyssinia, and Canada. It even made an attempt to get at the "Orphan Colony" of the Jews in China, and found ways and means of sending missionary literature to the secluded Jews in the oases of the Sahara and in the rocky fastnesses of the Atlas Mountains. It has provided the Scriptures and missionary literature in at least a dozen different tongues. It has founded schools, churches, hospitals, dispensaries, book-depots, homes for inquirers, and industrial establishments in many different parts of the world.

A Missionary Epic.

The success, in the narrower sense of the word, as expressed in Mission baptisms, has naturally varied in the different countries and at different times, but some sort of visible result there has been everywhere. The baptismal registers of the Society's mission churches in London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Jerusalem, etc., run into many hundreds each.

In Persia, there was not a single Jewish Christian some forty years ago. Now there are regular communities of them, with churches and schools, at Teheran, Ispahan, and Hamadan, and they number more than 200 adult members between them. The communities are largely self-supporting, that of Hamadan having a minister of its own, the Rev. Ezekiel Haim, one of the early converts of the Mission in Persia.

The story of the Mission to the Jews of Abyssinia—the Falashas, as they are called—is little short of an epic, with its tale of wonderful achievements, its trials, sufferings and fiery persecutions, the steadfastness

of the numerous converts, several of whom were deemed worthy of the martyr's crown, and the great hope for the future, when European missionaries are once more allowed to settle and work in that distant land.

Schools and Hospitals.

And who can adequately gauge the importance of the Society's numerous mission schools, with their formative influences upon generations of Jewish children? Through the splendid schools at Bucarest, in Rumania, there must have passed close on ten thousand Jewish girls of the better middle-class, all of whom have received definite instruction in the New Testament, and carried away with them impressions that are bound permanently to influence their lives.

Very considerable indeed is the number of Christian ministers and missionaries that passed through the Society's schools and training institutions in London, Jerusalem, and elsewhere, and it is no exaggeration to say that many of its best workers have been recruited from the ranks of the Society's young converts.

The hospitals at Jerusalem and Safed, besides showing the Jews Christian kindness and helping to remove deep-seated prejudices, have been a great stimulus to the wealthier Jews to care for their own poor by providing them with hospitals of their own, and have so literally served as a means "for to provoke the Jews to jealousy." And the same, in a lesser degree, can be said of the dispensaries in London, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Dublin, etc.

The Lord has granted this measure of success to the work of the London Society in the past, and, with His continued blessing upon its efforts, it confidently looks forward for "showers of blessing" in the future, until all Israel is saved.

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HEBREW CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY TO ISRAEL.

By the Rev. DAVID BARON.

THIS brief article is written particularly with a view to show that in our experience the preaching of the Gospel amongst the

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Jews has not proved such a failure as Jewish Rabbis and the Jewish Press sometimes represent, and as many Christians suppose.

The "Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel," being only twenty-nine years old, is one of the youngest existing agencies for the evangelisation of the Jewish people. Our object is partly expressed in the name of the Mission. We are profoundly conscious of Israel's need and helplessness apart from Christ. We have also the conviction that Hebrew Christians, apart from all sectarian aims, have a special call to the task of evangelising their people, and that there is room in the field for their testimony. We do not say that none but Hebrew Christians can or shall do mission work among the Jews, neither do we believe that every professing Jewish Christian is of necessity fit to be a missionary to his own people. But we do believe that, when a Hebrew Christian gives proof of being called of God for this work, he has in a special sense a mission from God to his own people—similar, though not in the same degree, to the calling of the prophets and apostles. In a peculiar manner and

in his very person he is a witness to the power of Christ's Gospel, and to the fact that there is still a "remnant according to the election of grace."

Our Special Task.

Ours is in no wise intended to be a rival to other Missions, but auxiliary and supplementary to them. We do not seek to found a sect or party, nor do we work in the interest of any particular Church. Our aim is to permeate our Jewish people with a true knowledge of our Lord Jesus as their Messiah and Redeemer. The special task to which we have devoted ourselves is the continuous systematic teaching and preaching of the Word of God. We seek to do this by missionary tours and at our centres of work in London, Berlin, Budapest, Kieff (where a Hebrew Christian Church has been formed), Riga, and Paris.

In the London Mission House, where our headquarters are, a Bible reading for Jewish men has gone on every evening all these years, with the exception of a few weeks in the height of summer. At these gatherings whole books from the Old and New Testaments have been systematically and minutely gone through. The great purpose has been to show that Christ is the centre of the whole of God's self-revelation; that in the New Testament we have the true development and fulfilment of the law and the prophets; that the Name of Jesus is the only one given among men whereby we must be saved; and that, so long as the Jewish nation persists in denying or ignoring Him, their house will remain desolate, and they themselves continue to be wanderers among the nations.

For many years, until the War gave a shattering blow to our work among the men from which we are gradually recovering, it was a gladsome sight for anyone who has the salvation of Israel at heart to see night after night fifty or sixty or even more Jewish men—representatives of nearly the whole diaspora—following with open Hebrew Bibles before them, and without a word of interruption, the long and close exposition; they listened quietly and reverently while the speakers—men of their own nationality—extolled Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God and Redeemer of Israel.

The chief burden of the daily Bible Reading has fallen on the shoulders of the Rev. C. A. Schönberger ever since he and the writer started the Mission. He is a brother-in-law of the late Dr. Adolph Saphir and is himself another of the notable sheaf of the first fruits of the Scottish Mission at Budapest, which included Alexander Saphir and his family, Alfred Edersheim, and Alexander Tomory. Last year, at the age of eighty, Mr. Schönberger removed to our sphere in Berlin, and the main share of the daily exposition is now taken by the Rev. J. I. Landsman, another veteran Hebrew Christian.

Among the Young.

Other departments of work, directed to reach both men and women, may be passed

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by, but our labour among the young may be specially referred to as showing that persevering spiritual toil among the Jews is not without fruit. For over a quarter of a century our Sunday School for Jewish children has been carried on. These children come with the permission of their parents, who themselves are more or less influenced by the Gospel. Without exaggeration it may be said that hundreds of Jewish boys and girls who have passed through the classes have as good, if not better, acquaintance with the

fundamental truths of Christianity than the average Sunday School children in connection with the Churches. Their eagerness in learning Scripture, especially the New Testament, is remarkable. A few years ago several of the older Jewish girls learned by heart the whole of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Several, who for years attended Sunday School and other classes and were baptised as soon as they were grown up, have given us much joy by the steadfastness of their faith and their fervent love and zeal for the Lord Jesus Christ. Some are now teachers, and one of our boys has been a very acceptable preacher among Christians and devotes all his leisure time to Christian work, while supporting himself independently in business.

Christian Literature for Jews.

The "Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel" has been enabled to render very useful service to Jewish Missions by the literature it has produced. From the beginning we were strongly impressed by the fact that, to evangelise the Jewish masses and particularly the younger generation, we need not only living missionaries and evangelists and a wider circulation of the New Testament, but also a living Christian literature, which—bearing in mind the history of the Jews, their peculiar manner of thought, their difficulties and prejudices—shall set forth, in a manner adapted to them, Christ in His true glory, and explain to them the great facts of our salvation. For the first time in the history of Jewish Missions we were able to publish in Hebrew the Life of Christ, the Life of St. Paul, a Harmony of the Gospels, with references and index, and about thirty-five other books and pamphlets in Hebrew, Yiddish, English, French, Italian, Hungarian, and Russian. Most of these have passed through many editions and have been circulated in tens of thousands among the scattered people all over the world.

Definite Results.

Even were we to suppose that Jewish Missions are as barren of results as some either ignorantly or maliciously represent, it would still be the duty of the Church of Christ to preach the Gospel to the Jews in obedience to His commands and to deliver its own soul. But the results have been great and wonderful. The Jewish Mission has a two-fold task—to gather out "the remnant according to the election of grace," and to prepare the nation for the time when, by their being born in a day, their wonderful history shall be consummated, when the Jews as a people shall look upon Him whom they have pierced. Both these objects are being accomplished before our eyes.

Many thousands of Jews have been brought to the knowledge of Christ within the past fifty years. We have seen real and definite conversions as a result of our Testimony. Among those led to a knowledge of Christ in our London Mission House, six or seven are now ministers of Gentile Christian congregations, others are missionaries in this country, Canada, and the United States. Further, that a great preparation work is being accomplished is manifest from the readiness of masses of Jews to hear about Christ and to read the New Testament. In the course of mission journeys in Germany, Austria, Hungary, North Africa, Egypt, Palestine, and Asia Minor, we have had Jews flock to our rooms—in some places from early morning till late at night—to hear about Christ. Even in the centres of Chassidic bigotry in Galicia and Rumania we have had our rooms packed with Jews eagerly discussing the claims of Christ, and many of them thankfully accepting the New Testament, while in Russia, just before the

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War, hundreds of Jews in different towns actually paid for admission to hear two of our missionary brethren lecture on true Christianity. In the Ukraine there seems to be a Christward movement among the Jews; as I write, I learn from a fellow-worker in Wolynia of meetings which are attended by a thousand or more Jews.

A Remarkable Illustration.

The changed attitude of many thoughtful Jews in relation to Christ may be taken as an encouragement to Christians to persevere in prayer and effort on Israel's behalf and to be full of hope in regard to the future, for, whatever maybe the outlook in reference to the other nations, in respect of this unique and peculiar people we may use the words of Adoniram Judson, "our prospects are as bright as the promises of God." As an illustration a remarkable passage may be quoted from a recent book by a prominent Jewish author. He remonstrates with the Jews for "their suicidal obstinacy in refusing to know anything of the greatness of Jesus." "What is this?" he exclaims. "Is it only the Jew who is unable to see and hear all that others see and hear? Are the Jews stricken with blindness and deafness as regards Christ, so that to them only He has nothing to say?" He then turns to the Christians, reminds them of their indebtedness to Jews for the best and the holiest that they possess, points out that it was through Jews they first heard of Christ, that if He was misunderstood, hated, persecuted by Jews, He was also accepted and loved by Jews, who by their love, faithfulness, and courage gave Jesus Christ to the nations, and who, with their life and death, paid for what Christians now call their own. He then continues: "The apostles and the evangelists were all Jews; the one hundred and twenty in the 'upper room' were all Jews; in the New Testament there is not a line which has not been penned by a Jewish hand, and which is not filled with the true Jewish spirit. And Christ? Did He not say that He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel?...And this Christ—is He to be of no importance to us Jews? Understand, then, what we shall do: we shall bring Him back to us. Christ is not dead for us—for us he has not yet lived; and He will not slay us, He will make us alive again. His profound holy words, and all that is true and heart-appealing in the New Testament, must from now be heard in our synagogues and taught to our children, in order that the wrong we had committed may be made good...and the curse turned into blessing, and He at last may find us who has always been seeking after us."*_________________

*"Der Judenhass und die Juden," by Von Constantin Brunner, Berlin, 1919._________________

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FRUITS IN HAMBURG.

By Rev. ARNOLD FRANK, D.D.

(Irish Presbyterian Mission).

ACCORDING to the circumstances and class of Jews, the adaptability of the missionary and the co-operation of his convener or committee, are the methods used in the Mission field. Hence the great difference in the modes of operation and in their visible results.

Distribution of Literature.

The distribution of literature on the streets, amongst the emigrants, and through the post to Rabbis, teachers, and other Jews, always was an important part of our work. Although this is a sowing in hope, we know of several emigrants who accepted New Testaments on leaving this harbour and were so powerfully influenced by what they read that their search for truth continued, with the result that they finally became Christians. A Jewish medical man in Prague was so interested in a booklet sent to him, containing descriptions of converted Jews, that he purchased a New Testament and thus came to a living faith in Christ. This is no isolated fact.

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Educated Converts.

It has been my privilege to lead many educated and well situated Hebrews to Christ. Only one or two instances. A Jewish lawyer came to me and said: "When a boy, a lady teacher I had at school told Christ's story in such a fascinating way and she herself was so amiable, that Christ's picture was enshrined in my soul. At first I could not but speak of Jesus, but when my father, a strict Jew, said if I did not discontinue naming Christ he would not allow me to attend the religious lesson, and as that was to me the most interesting of all the classes, I kept silent. Now I have finished my studies, am independent, and wish to be one of Christ's disciples." Another gentleman, a chemical manager of a factory, told me: "I had a strict religious upbringing, but since my student days I found no satisfaction in Judaism, and I would not like to train my children in a religion that gives neither life nor light. I feel myself drawn to Christ, especially since I saw His transforming influence in a person in my office." During a whole winter he came to me twice weekly for instruction. It was a real joy to lead this earnest, intelligent truthseeker to Jesus.

We could have baptised hundreds of Jews of this city if we did not insist on giving them a long course of instruction and did not aim at conversion.

Our Mission House.

In our congregation we have a good sprinkling of Jewish converts, but our Mission House has perhaps been our most fruitful agency. In it Jewish youths find a Christian home, work and religious instruction. Our daily Bible Class is attended not only by the inquirers living in the home; other Jews come also, so that we often had (before the War) as many as thirty men listening to the Gospel message. In the course of years thousands have thus heard the truth, and a large number has accepted Christ and been baptised.

Of these spiritual sons some thirty are engaged in direct Christian work. Three of them are ministers of the Gospel in England; three are Jewish missionaries in Manchester and Liverpool. Rev. J. Neugewirtz is superintendent of the Jewish Mission in Montreal. In the United States are some twenty in the Ministry and Mission field. One of them, Berger, is an earnest and successful Presbyterian minister in Dubugne, Ohio. In Russia four are Jewish missionaries. Rosenberg in Odessa, his wife and sister-in-law, found Christ in Hamburg and were, before the War, the best known workers in Russia. God's blessing has rested on their labours in a remarkable degree.

Three ordained ministers, four town missionaries and two evangelists in Germany, are converts of our Mission. The evangelists have been richly blessed in bringing souls to Christ and then being the means of forming congregations, which are now ministered to by other men. In addition to the

above there are many who, in various walks of life, have remained steadfast in their faith.

Deaconesses' Work.

House to house visitation is a most delicate though not an unfruitful task. In order to gain entrance to Jewish homes, we employ a number of deaconesses, who do private nursing, and this has proved less difficult and more satisfactory than a missionary's occasional visit, even if entrance were possible. The Sister lives for weeks or months in the home and has ample opportunity by her walk and conversation to illustrate the Gospel message.

First of all we had a flat in the best Jewish quarter, notified to the public that our Sisters were prepared to do sick-nursing. During the first year they were called to nurse in 120 houses, of which 80 were Jewish. After a time we found it necessary to reorganise this branch. We built a first-class hospital for some 75 patients. This institution has been almost self-supporting. We always have a number of Jewish patients.

Every Sunday a service is held in the different rooms; however, only if

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patients wish it. Daily the Sisters' choir sings Gospel hymns in the hall, so that all can hear. Every room has a Bible and texts on the wall. Some of our Jewish patients have been savingly impressed, and many others were deeply influenced by what they heard, and especially by the conscientious and self-denying work of the Sisters. The hospital is an unobtrusive, yet an effective Mission agency.

Our Missionary Monthly.

Another branch of our work is the publication of Christian literature, especially our monthly Zions Freund. The folding, stitching and dispatching of the 27,000 copies monthly of this periodical employ the inmates of our Mission House. Not a few Jews read it. Its main object is to interest earnest Christians in Israel's salvation. Thousands of believers have through reading Zions Freund recognised their duty to the Jews, speak kindly to them and tell them of their Messiah. We have thus a large band of fellow-workers, whose testimony has frequently borne precious fruit.

One example will illustrate this. A young Roumanian Jew, who studied chemistry in Berlin, lodged with a Christian family where Zions Freund was read. The landlady laid the paper on the student's table. At first he put it aside, but one day a picture on the front page attracted his attention. He saw it was a Jew who had embraced Christianity. He read the story and forthwith he did not only read the accounts of conversions, which every number contains, but also other articles. His interest in the Gospel was awakened. He finally came to our Mission House to receive regular instruction, was converted and baptised.

Only at one period have we had crowds listening to the Gospel—this was before the War, when thousands of Jews were emigrating—otherwise we have largely to do with individuals. I believe this personal work is more fruitful. I have learned not to gauge success by baptismal figures, but by the number of those who remain faithful.

SUCCESSES IN HUNGARY.

IN a speech delivered in Edinburgh in the jubilee year of Scotland's Jewish Mission, the late Rev. Dr. Adolph Saphir declared: "God has given you abundant success in your Mission. You have made many converts, and converts' converts....It is often said that there are few converts, but it certainly is not true....If the Jews lived together in one country, and if the converts from Judaism continued to live with their brethren, the assertion that there are but few Jewish converts would be perfectly impossible. But now they are scattered over the whole world."

On both counts Dr. Saphir's statement may be accepted as true. One reason why so many imagine that there is little success attending mission effort among Jews, is without doubt because converts are seldom gathered into organised Jewish Christian Churches. They lack the visibility of Chinese or African Christians, and because people do not see a "native" Church of Jewish converts expanding and labouring they are apt to suppose that little is accomplished. Nevertheless, converts are numerous, and the marvel is not that they are few, but that they number so many. Yet, is it a marvel? Is not the Gospel itself Jewish? And do we not accept the testimony of St. Paul, that its power is of God unto the salvation of Jew as well as Gentile?

"Pentecostal Days."

Dr. Saphir was thinking specially of our Mission in Hungary. It is generally spoken of as the Budapest Mission, but that is scarcely a correct designation, for the influence of the Mission has, almost from the start, extended over the whole of Hungary and far beyond it. Of this Mission the Rev. Gavin Carlyle, in his "Life of William Wingate," states, "No Jewish Mission has, we believe, been so successful. Its converts exercised a great influence in many parts of the world afterwards." From the earliest days it has had many converts "and converts' converts." What the actual numbers

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are none can reckon, but if all had remained together to form a Jewish Christian Church we may quite legitimately conclude that, prior to 1914, Hungary would have contained a Jewish Christian community numbering many thousands.

Within a short time after the arrival of the first missionaries in 1841, the Jewish community was deeply stirred and the ingathering soon began. Inquirers came to the missionaries in ones and twos, then in families and groups, and under evident signs of deep spiritual conviction confessed their faith in Jesus Christ. The inflow into the Church continued until, after the Revolution, the missionaries were expelled in 1852 by the Austrians, who for the time succeeded in putting their heel on the Magyars' neck. Evangelical Christendom the world over was moved, the Christian Church gained a new conviction of the power of the Gospel to appeal to the Jewish soul. So much were heart and imagination struck by the numerous conversions that "Pentecostal Days" came to be the expression used to describe the time and its events.

Famous Converts.

Among the converts were men of note. All the members of the influential Saphir family, including the one already quoted, were baptised. The eminent Professor Franz Delitzsch, in a letter to the General Assembly, remarked, with playful allusion to the name Saphir, that the foundation of the Mission was laid in sapphires. Another celebrated convert was Dr. Alfred

Edersheim, author of "The Life and Times of the Messiah," and at one time a minister in Aberdeen. We have also Rev. Alexander Tomory of Constantinople, whose son became a well-known missionary in Calcutta. In the lists are the names of Rabbi Husch; Professor Moritz Bloch (Balogh) of the theological college at Budapest; Dr. Wolff, Hebrew Tutor in Glasgow; Dr. Leitner, the famous orientalist; Rev. C. A. Schönberger, referred to in another article in this number; Drs. Gilbert, Thüritz, and Zuckerkandl, successful medical missionaries in London, Bucharest, and Rustchuk respectively; and many others. The influence of such men has been world-wide, and all the Churches are in their debt. To follow the "converts' converts" would lead too far afield, but note may be made of at least one of them. One of the early converts was Mr. G. R. Lederer, who emigrated to New York, and we have Saphir's authority for stating that he among others was the means of the conversion of Schereschewski, who became the first Christian Bishop in China and translated the Scriptures into the Chinese language.

Renewed Activity.

For some years after the expulsion of the missionaries little work was done—the Austrians had the upper hand and would not permit it, yet there was never a total cessation. The schools were maintained, with some results, under the protection of the Budapest Reformed Church. But in the early sixties the late Dr. Andrew Moody undertook the reorganisation of the Mission's activities, and thereafter the work was pursued with vigour and success. Naturally, the number of converts over given periods varied, but the ingathering was continuous. During the years 1904 to 1914 the converts numbered about one-and-a-half times as many as they did in the "Pentecostal Days."

In the meantime, however, it had ceased to be a custom to send converts to this country, and so "results" were less evident in the eye of the Scottish Christian public. Under the new political conditions in Hungary, the Jews obtained their freedom, and converts found an outlet for their abilities in the land of their birth. Very many of them hold distinguished positions in public life, and take an active share in the work of the Church. But many Jews also, who had received instruction in the Mission, went to other countries before baptism, and it was no uncommon thing for the workers to receive letters from old inquirers and old pupils telling that they had been baptised in Germany, England, or America.

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The Means Employed.

Throughout the whole history of the Mission the simple preaching of the Gospel has been one of the principal methods of work. But from early days the Mission Schools have had an extraordinary influence. Many thousands of pupils have passed through them, and in almost every town and village in Hungary Jews or Jewish converts are to be found who themselves or some of whose relatives received Christian instruction in our educational institution. The first missionaries and all their successors have laid emphasis on the production and circulation of Christian literature, and during the past half century the National Bible Society of Scotland and the London Religious Tract Society have nobly co-operated with the Mission. Regular colportage and, since the beginning of the present century, widespread itineracy have also been features of the work. Bible Classes, Sunday Schools, Clubs, Women's Associations have also played an important part. All these branches of activity are directed to the winning of the Jews, and they have been richly blessed.

But another factor in our Mission has had far-reaching effects upon the evangelisation of the Jews of Hungary. It is our association with the Hungarian Reformed Church. Hungarians themselves declare that the influence of the Mission for the good of that Church has been incalculable. Its ministers became the friends and fellow-workers of the missionaries. Many of its students have studied in Scotland, some of these laboured as assistants in the Mission, and others began their Christian service in connection with it. In all parts of Hungary ministers and members of that Church have taken a deep interest in the Jewish people for long years, and they have had the joy and privilege of receiving numbers of Jews into the Presbyterian Churches throughout the country. And now the greater results are manifest.

A Mass Movement.

During the past four years between 600 and 700 Jews and Jewesses have, after careful instruction, been baptised in the Mission itself, and the figures might have been increased indefinitely if we had only had more workers to instruct inquirers. But the movement of Jews into the Christian Church has been universal in Hungary during the period. The figures have been put as high as 30,000, and probably that is no exaggeration, although accurate statistics have not yet been prepared for the country as a whole, and even for Budapest itself only those for the years 1918 to 1920 are available. In that city alone during these three years no fewer than 7,406 Jewish people entered the Christian Church; of these 2,665 joined the Protestant Churches, 4,561 became Roman Catholic, and 180 were received into the Unitarian and other communions. Of the total, 62 per cent. were male and 38 per cent. female converts, almost all of them belonging to the intellectual classes.

Various factors gave impetus to the movement. With some social and economic considerations doubtlessly played a part, with some others fear of anti-semitism consequent upon the excesses of the Bolshevists entered. But many more had their eyes opened through the War and through Communism as such to the real meaning of materialism, which they saw to be undermining the moral order of the world, and they have turned to the Christian Church as the exponent and preserver of the higher moral values. Others again, observing that the leading Bolshevists were mainly Jews and how much destruction they wrought for the country, sought the fellowship of the Christian Church in order to show that they could not regard themselves either racially or religiously as belonging to the stock that produced such terrorists. Some few, who had been soldiers, were influenced by the example of Christian men in the army. But there are the many in whom definite and direct spiritual work had been

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going on and who were shown their way clearly by the circumstances of the time—the seeds of truth, sown in their hearts in many ways, not least of all in our Mission schools, germinated; at last they realised where they should find peace for their troubled souls and spirits, and so they made open profession of their faith in Jesus Christ, and now adorn the Gospel in the ordinary walks of life. There is no doubt whatever that the great ingathering is in large measure due to the labours of the Mission and of the Reformed Church ministers and workers, both in Budapest and throughout the country. The Word lay apparently dormant in heart and mind; but outward circumstances brought inward ferment. Once again God used man's extremity as His own opportunity, and the obedient hearts have seen Jesus—Saviour and Messiah.

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NEWS FROM OUR MISSION FIELDS.

FOR some reason our Jewish Missions are generally spoken of as "Stations," named after the cities in which their head-quarters are situated. The term is rather unfortunate, for it tends to narrow the conception which many have of our operations. It is as true to fact to refer to our Jewish Mission Fields as it is to speak of the "Fields" in Calabar, Livingstonia, or Manchuria, for work and influence extend far beyond the confines of any "Station."

Thus we have a field in the West of Scotland, where the bulk of Scottish Jewry is found. The head-quarters of the Mission are in the Gorbals of Glasgow, but work is not limited to that circumscribed area. Mr. Christie is in touch with Jews from far and near, both in a more or less intimate way, and also in public. The out-door gatherings at Gorbals Cross have been resumed, and those who congregate there to hear the Gospel preached are drawn from all Clydesdale and far beyond. The Mission House itself is a hive of activity. New enterprises have been started. One of the Bible Training Institute students, who are giving voluntary assistance, has a class studying the "Pilgrim's Progress;" others of them have begun a Christian Endeavour Society. More efficient help has been obtained for the Sewing Classes. The Jewish Mission Committee has given a temporary appointment to the Rev. Joseph Sinnreich, Ph.D., a Jewish Christian, who is a graduate of Berne University and an alumnus of Westminster College, Cambridge, ordained by the Presbyterian Church of England. The Jewish and Home Mission Committees are at present in consultation with the Presbytery, devising means whereby this great field may be better staffed and more adequately worked.

Regarding the field in Southern Palestine, the Girls' School work at Jaffa has hitherto been under control of a Joint Committee, but that Committee, acting with the authority of the General Assemblies, has arranged to transfer the Mission to the Church of Scotland Women's Association for Jewish Missions. The Association desires to bear a definite share in the evangelisation of the Jews in the Holy Land, and the new arrangement will secure both economy and efficiency. From Hebron there is no particular news, but it is a pleasure to record that Dr. Paterson's health is now fully restored.

With reference to our Sea of Galilee field, the most interesting item of information is that Mr. W. P. Livingstone, editor of the "Record," has been paying a visit to Dr. D. W. Torrance and his colleagues. Mr. Livingstone is well known as the author of missionary biographies, such as "Mary Slessor" and "Laws of Livingstonia." His pilgrimage to Palestine was undertaken for the purpose of gathering material at first hand for a "Life" of our veteran medical missionary to the Jews, who by his labour

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and the force of his personality has transformed Tiberias and made his mark on the whole of Northern Palestine. Dr. Herbert Torrance has agreed to continue for at least another year as assistant to his father. They and the rest of the workers have had a season of very hard work, but all of them are enthusiasts and optimists.

It has now been determined to open in the coming autumn a Girls' High School at Safed, our other centre of activity in Galilee. Miss E. G. Henry

has been appointed junior mistress, and it is expected that a headmistress will be found soon. Mr. Semple is still greatly hampered by lack of staff for the Boys' High School. May we ask again, whether there are no volunteers for work in the "city set on an hill"? It is all the more needful that workers be found for this important sphere, since the London Jews Society, although attached to Safed by many ties, has decided to leave the field to us in the interests of economy and better co-ordination of activity in Jewish Missions as a whole.

Turning to Turkey, we deeply regret to learn that Mr. Morrison, head-master of the Constantinople Schools, has had great anxiety about his wife's health. She lay for a time at the point of death, but has happily so far recovered. It will, however, be needful for her to come home to recruit. Other members of the staff have also been in bad health, and the burden thrown upon others has been consequently very heavy. But the work prospers. A large number of the pupils are now regular attenders at Church. Some of them, together with members of the staff, have constituted a choir to help at services. Our workers are in close contact with the masses of Jewish refugees from Russia, who throng Constantinople and are in the very direst straits. Any gifts to help them in their misery will be thankfully received.

As regards the field in Eastern Europe, donations for the proposed new Mission in Transylvania are coming in slowly, but we are still far off the amount of guarantee required. The present is a difficult time for collecting special funds, but the needs in this area are so great and the prospects so bright that the Editors appeal to readers to consider this supreme opportunity and do what they can to make a start in this land possible.

Budapest has recently been the scene of high festival. Mr. and Mrs. Beveridge arrived early in March, and on the 26th of that month he was formally inducted to his new sphere by Professor Macgregor. There was a service for the English people and another for the Hungarian-speaking public. Among those present were Mr. Balfour, at present acting on behalf of the Ambassador; Mr. Robinson, the British Consul; Count Bánffy, the Cabinet Minister for Foreign Affairs; Count Szapáry, the Hungarian Minister to the Court of St. James's; and many other leading men. Mr. Beveridge was welcomed by the Mission staff, the Presbyterian Bishops, Balthazár of Debreczen and Ravasz of Budapest, by representatives of the Theological Colleges of Budapest, Pápa, and Sárospatak, and of other public bodies. All paid tribute to the fraternal sympathy and much appreciated help of the United Free Church, indeed the gatherings bore unique testimony to the place which the Scottish Mission has secured in Hungary, and our new missionary is greatly encouraged by the generous and inspiring welcome accorded to him. In connection with the induction services other festivities of a social nature took place. At one of them the semi-jubilee of Miss Rau as a member of the staff was celebrated. The large hall was crowded to suffocation, and Miss Rau received warm and well-merited congratulations from the Committee, her fellow-workers, the Reformed Church, the School Board, the parents, and others. The Chief Inspector of Schools was also present representing the civil educational authorities, and after a congratulatory speech he handed to Miss Rau an address from the Government Department for Public Instruction—an almost unique distinction, in which friends see recognition both of the recipient's labours and also of our Church's educational work.

MATTERS OF MOMENT.

The Official Attitude.

Official Judaism, not the Jewish people, condemned the Lord Jesus, stoned Stephen, forced the split between Rabbinical and Christian Judaism; its attitude has remained the same throughout the centuries. Its policy with the people may be summed up in the words "ignorance and oppression." It excludes, for example, from the Table of Synagogue Readings such passages as Isaiah liii., and it is with surprise the Jewish people discover that chapter in their own Bible. A recent incident affords another example.

One never heard of a Jew being forbidden to enter a Mohammedan mosque, but for him to attend a service in a Church is a more unpardonable sin than the eating of swine flesh. Over a "sin of commission" of this kind by a leading Jew officialism is much perturbed these days. Sir Alfred Mond, who, though nominally a Jew, has "remained aloof from Jews and Judaism," ventured a few weeks ago to attend his daughter's marriage in a Christian Church. Personally he is beyond the reach of the petty persecutor, but officialism puts him in the pillory, denounces his conduct as "glaringly inconsistent," regards his position with "some dubiousness," and indicates "its manifest invidiousness." At the same time the assertion is made that the marriage ceremony "constitutes a Christian sacrament," and thus the people are still invited to identify the Christian faith with the Papal communion.

Here is evidence of intolerance and of the desire to keep the people in darkness. But the people are learning to take note of the attitude. And when the Jew rises to a full appreciation of his liberty, the Rulers of the Synagogue will have difficulty in missing the lessons, that the policy of ignorance does not pay, and that tyranny only digs its own grave.

The Arab Question.

Very wide misapprehension exists as to what the people of Palestine really are. In dealing with Europeans they call themselves "Arabs," because they use the Arabic tongue, and the Jew has taken up for them that same designation. There seems to be no reason, however, beyond that of language for giving them that name. The Arab Conquest of Palestine was a very rapid matter; there was no extirpation of the population, and very little Arab immigration. Small settlements were made at Nazareth, Cana, and elsewhere; but it must be remembered that "the peasantry of a country survives every revolution."

For Galilee at least this is demonstrable, for there the people are guilty of the same confusion of the gutturals in speaking Arabic that betrayed Peter as a Galilean, when he in Jerusalem spoke Aramaic. The error of speech has persisted through the centuries and even with change of tongue. The peasantry are, in short, the descendants of the old Israelitish people, formed by the union of Hebrews and Canaanites, and accordingly not only racially, but in virtue of occupancy, have a better right to their share of the land than even the Jews.

But apart from the action of a few Jewish "Junkers," we do not think the Jews have really denied their right. The remark of a young hot-head to a group of peasants, "You Arabs must go to the East of Jordan, you belong to the Shereef," did threaten trouble, and the singing of a Hebrew song with the refrain "The Christians to destruction" is calculated to cause soreness, and lead to an indictment of the whole nation. These and even smaller things have been used by interested parties to create ill-feeling, and if possible bring about disturbance. It is worthy of note, however, that the peasants have not initially been the disturbers of the peace. Careful investigation shows that in nearly every case the malcontents themselves, their fathers or

grandfathers, were immigrants from Lebanon, and further that they had been taught or influenced by the Jesuits.

—Observer.

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SIDE-LIGHTS ON JUDAISM.

The Blessing of Jabez.

A Jewish poet recalls the prayer of Jabez in I. Chron. iv. 10—"Oh that Thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that Thy hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldst work deliverance from evil, that it may not pain me." The poet then gives a wider significance to the prayer:

In days of yore did Jabez pray To Israel's God, with heart so pure,

"Oh that Thou wouldst bless me indeed,And make Thy holy word endure.

Preserve me, too, from sinful ways,From evil thoughts and deeds secure.

My borders wide, through Thy right hand,No pain let hurt, all wounds let heal.

Oh that Thou wouldst bless me indeed,"His soul in anguish did appeal.

God heard his prayer when he did plead,"Oh that Thou wouldst bless me indeed."

Like all mankind, Israel desires to be blest, but there is one appointed method in all such requests: they must be in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A Synagogue Incident.

Not many months ago Mr. Israel Cohen visited Harbin, that Russo-Chinese town of Eastern Asia, and reported what he saw. One Sabbath morning he spent in the great synagogue of the place, and part of his account of the transactions there runs as follows. He describes the scene without one word of condemnation of the sacrilege. "The 'Shammash' [i.e. the beadle] conducted me to the upper end, where I was given a seat near the Rabbi of Harbin and his reverend colleague from Chita. Presently I realised the importance of the beadle when he took up a position in front of the Ark and, delivering three resounding slaps to his innocent prayer-book, began to offer up by auction the honour of being called up to (read) the Law. 'One rouble—two rouble—three rouble,' he cried, keeping a wary eye on each succeeding bidder....When he reached the last 'lot,' the coveted 'Mafter,' the bidding soared unusually high, and the honour was secured for ten yen (then worth thirty shillings) by my Sabbath host, who graciously transferred it to me. Apparently I discharged my task to the complete satisfaction of the 'Shammash.'" Does not the description remind us of at least two scenes in the New Testament—Jesus in the Synagogue and His scourging of certain Temple merchants.

Jews and the Accumulation of Wealth.

It is little wonder that the notorious aptitude of the Jews as a people for acquiring money should invite explanation from them. Here is how a

Breslau Jewish professor accounts for it, and it will be noticed that he misrepresents the Christian attitude in doing so. He would not deny to Christianity a certain attractiveness in its elevation of poverty and renunciation of material wealth as an ideal; but Judaism rejects this teaching, he says, because it perceives in it a narcotisation of human effort, a paralysis of all the motives that make for human progress. Judaism holds the mean between the Christian depreciation of the goods of this world and the Marxian materialist doctrine which concentrates upon the problems of wealth and its distribution without regard to the higher interests of mankind. Judaism never despises wealth, but its acquisition is always to be regulated by the principles of justice and regard for the needs of the unfortunate. Judaism teaches that a rich man can enter the kingdom of heaven—if he proves himself worthy. It will be interesting to compare this judgment with our Lord's teaching on the same subject.

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THE "REGISTER FUND."—Since last issue, in addition to the Annual Subscription, the following sums have been received as donations in aid of the circulation:—Miss A. A. M'Clymont, 9/-; Miss Richards, 4/-; Rev. A. J. Macnicol, 3/-; Mrs. Baddiley, 2/6; Rev. Dr. M'Intosh, 2/-; Mrs. R. S. Duff, Rev. Dr. Fairweather, Mr. A. Gartshore, Miss Gartshore, Mr. S. H. Gladstone, Miss Macgregor, Miss M. Watson, Miss Smiles, 1/6; Mr. J. Boyd, Miss Falconer, Rev. D. Hall, Rev. T. Kerr, Mrs. Reid, 1/.