CHAPTER X.

JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY.

ONE of the most pleasing facts of our times to every right minded man, is the change of opinion that is now taking place in the minds of Christians towards the Jews, and in the minds of Jews towards Christians and Christianity. Our object in this chapter is not to review this reciprocal modification of opinion and feeling, but merely to record the sentiments of some of the most intelligent Jews of our days with regard to Christianity and its founder. The first extract we shall make is from the beautiful discourse of the late eminent M. M. Noah, of America, delivered in New York, in 1844, and reprinted in this country. He speaks as follows: "The Jews, my friends, were but the instruments of a higher power, and in rejecting Jesus of Nazareth we have a great and overwhelming evidence of the infinite 'wisdom of the Almighty. Had they acknowledge him as their Messiah at that fearful crisis, the whole nation

* Jews, Judea, and Christianity. London: Hughes, St. Martin's-le-Grand.

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would have gradually sunk under the Roman yoke, and we should have had at this day paganism and idolatry, with all their train of terrible evils, and darkness and desolation would have been spread over the face of the earth. But the death of Jesus was the birth of Christianity; the Gentile Church sprang from the ruins which surrounded its primitive existence; its march was onward, beset with darkness and difficulties, with oppression and persecution, until the sun of the Reformation rose upon it, dissipating the clouds of darkness which had obscured its beauties, and it shone forth with a liberal and tolerant brightness, such as the Great Master had originally designed it.

"Had not that event occurred, how would you have been saved from your sins? The Jews, in this, did nothing but what God himself ordained, for you will find it written in the Acts of your Apostles, ' And now, brethren, I know that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.'

"It has been said, and with some commendations on what was called my liberality, that I did not in this discourse, on its first delivery, term Jesus of Nazareth an impostor-I have never considered him such. The impostor generally aims at temporal power, attempts to subsidize the rich and weak believer, and draws around him followers of influence whom he can control. Jesus was free from fanaticism; his was a quiet, subdued, retiring faith; he mingled with the poor, communed with the wretched, avoided the rich, and rebuked the vain-glorious. In the calm of the evening he sought shelter in the secluded groves of Olivet, or wandered pensively on the shores of Galilee. He sincerely be

lieved in his mission! he courted no one, flattered no one; in his political denunciations he was pointed and severe, in his religion calm and subdued. These are not characteristics of an impostor; but, admitting that we give a different interpretation to his mission, when 150,000,000 believe in his Divinity, and we see around us abundant evidences of the happiness, good faith, mild government, and liberal feelings which spring from his religion, what right has any one to call him an impostor? That religion which is calculated to make mankind great and happy cannot be a false one.

"While the Almighty raised up, enlarged, and extended the Gentile Church, gave to it power and dominion, he threw the mantle of his Divine protection over his chosen people, and has preserved them amid unheard-of dangers to this very day, numerous as they have been, but still distinct as a nation, preserving the Abrahamic covenant, walking in his statutes, and obeying his commandments; the same people whom he had brought out of Egyptian bondage, and to whom he had given the land of Israel as an inheritance for ever, and who is now leading us back in peace and happiness to repossess our ancient and promised heritage. Can the human mind imagine a miracle such as this which we have before us? Do you now perceive, Christians and brethren, why it was not designed by the Almighty that the Jews at that crisis should have acknowledged the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth? The secret things are for the Lord."

Dr. Raphael, late of Birmingham, but now in America, one of the finest minds of the age, in his lectures on the Post-Biblical history of the Jews, which he delivered

repeatedly in this country, expressed himself to the following effect,

"But if you are desirous of knowing the opinion of a Jew, ay, of a teacher in Israel, respecting the proceedings against, and the condemnation of the master from Nazareth, I do not hesitate to tell you, that I do not by any means feel bound to identify myself or my brethren in faith, with those proceedings, or to uphold that condemnation. The Sanhedrin of those days, composed both of Sadducees and party-coloured Pharisees, of timid, time-serving, and, therefore, unprincipled men, does not sufficiently command our confidence ; what we know of the motives of some of their acts is not of such a nature as to inspire us with that firm reliance in their integrity and piety, that we should at all feel bound to identify ourselves with them, or to maintain the justice of a sentence, solely because they pronounced it. On the contrary, in the absence of any Jewish account of the proceedings, and taking the account of the trial in the Gospels as entitled to that credence which contemporary history generally claims, I, as a Jew, do say, that it appears to me, Jesus became the victim of fanaticism, combined with jealousy and lust of power in Jewish hierarchs, even as, in later ages, Huss and Jerome of Prague, Latimer and Ridley, became the victims of fanaticism, combined with jealousy and lust of power, in Christian hierarchs. And while I, and the Jews of the present day, protest against being identified with the zealots who were concerned in the proceedings against Jesus of Nazareth, we are far from reviling his character, or deriding his precepts, which are indeed, for the most part, the precepts of Moses and the pro

phets. You have heard me style him the 'Great Teacher of Nazareth,' for that designation I and the Jews take to be his due. No enlightened Jew can or will deny that the doctrines taught in his name have been the means of reclaiming the most important portion of the civilized world from gross idolatry, and of making the revealed word of God known to nations, of whose very existence the men who sentenced him were probably ignorant; nor do I, and the Jews of the present day, stand alone in this view, since it was held by the great Maimonides six hundred years ago."

In addition to the quotations already made from one of the beautiful works of the late Grace Aguilar—a young lady of eminent gifts-one who was an honour to her nation, and the name of whom will be held dear by all who knew her, both Christians and Jews-we must make another bearing upon the present subject.

"That in former times the Christian should have been regarded with loathing, and hate, and terror, can astonish none acquainted with the history of persecution; but now that in all civilized lands we are protected, cherished, nay, often honoured and beloved, why should this feeling continue to rankle in the Israelitish bosom ? Treated with charity and kindness, why should we not encourage the same soothing emotions? It is alleged that it is dangerous to associate intimately with those of other creeds, that it is as dangerous to our faith as the open warfare of old. They are mistaken who thus think; were the Jewish religion studied as it ought to be by its professors of every age and sex: were the Bible, not tradition, its foundation and defence: were its spirit felt pervading the inmost heart, giving strength,