THE JEWISH HERALD.

FEBRUARY, 1873.

Editorial.

HIS first month in the new year has been a busy one in connection with the British Society. The Rev. Josiah Miller has entered upon his duties as Secretary, and has made himself acquainted with men and things belonging to the new sphere of Christian work, thus in the good providence of God opening before him. It is the duty of every Christian person who reads these pages to join in prayer that much blessing may attend his superintendence of the various operations of the Society.

Personal influence has greater and wider ramifications than we are apt to suppose, and it is impossible in any particular case to tell where is its beginning, or what will be its ending. An apparently trifling action may awaken sounds and cause emotions which, in their results, may vibrate through eternal ages. Great and solemn responsibility is therefore thrown upon individual Christians, and each one in his own sphere, whether engaged in the active struggle and vortex of life, or sitting more serenely by himself apart, should with earnestness of heart and sincerity of purpose exclaim: "What wilt thou have ME to do?" Were there more of this patient, humble, loving watchfulness there would be far more work done and result seen.

The Committee have met thrice during the month, and have considered many things relative to the well-being of the Society with anxious care and much desire for heavenly guidance. Our friends from without can hardly imagine how many matters arise from time to time requiring judgment and decision, nor how many questions present themselves for solution. There is need, therefore, for much affectionate sympathy. The Home for Jews, referred to in another page, is one object of peculiar solicitude; its support has been made a separate NEW SERIES, No. 2.

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fund from the general expenditure of the Society, and subscriptions do not flow in as readily and as continuously for its maintenance as could be wished. It is desirable that all friends of the Jews should realise the importance of this branch of the work of the Society, and should afford more maintenance and pecuniary help.

The new series of the Jewish Herald, as we hoped, appears to be exciting attention in certain new quarters, many more copies having been already sought for. The Editor has received, also, many letters-all friendly in tone and kind in purpose-offering advice, suggestions, and literary contributions. The feeling expressed respecting the Society in general, and the magazine in particular, is gratifying and encouraging, and if all propositions cannot be met, nor all suggestions be carried out, the Editor is duly sensible of the kindly intentions, and begs a continuance of such remarks in the same spirit. All shall be done that lies within his power to render the periodical attractive and useful.

Friends of the Jewish cause may materially help by giving the Herald away-causing it to penetrate where it has never been seen before, and so creating many little centres of interest. This constitutes one great object we have in view in the arrangement of its contents, and as on this occasion there is more matter than usual, we hope to awaken corresponding interest. The valuable paper by Dr. Edersheim, as well as some of the other contributions, will be especially welcomed. Among the events of the month, the death of the ex-Emperor of the French is connected indirectly with Jewish matters; first, because of certain writings which have from time to time appeared connecting him, however improbably, with their possible future; and next, because as a ruler he was always a friend of Israel-tolerant and kind, with an eye, we have been given to understand, looking at the nation in the light of its great destiny. But he is gone, and his body rests on English ground, and his achievements, whether for good or for evil, remain inscribed on the page of history.

In the paper called "Judaica," especially devoted to notices concerning Jews and Judaism, some interesting and suggestive items of current information will be culled by those who "take pleasure" in the stones of Zion, and who "favour the dust thereof” (Psalm cii. 14), and we need all that is calculated to stir us up to pray and to help on this behalf, for "the time is short."

1873.

Palestina: the Land of the Jew.

CHAPTER III.

"I HAVE set Jerusalem in the midst of the nations and countries round about her," wrote the Spirit of God by Ezekiel (v. 5), twenty-five centuries ago. These words, wrongly understood, led the imperfectly informed writers of the middle ages to declare that the city was actually the centre of the earth. Earlier still, Jerome uses the expression "umbilicus terræ,"—the central boss of the world,-and there is a fanciful yet curious Rabbinical similitude to the same effect: "The world is like to an eye; the white thereof is the ocean all surrounding it, the black is itself, and the pupil is Jerusalem, whilst the image therein is the holy Temple." We have in our possession a fac simile of that most singular geographical production of the thirteenth century, the Hereford Mappa Mundi, a representation of the round world, with literal and figurative delineations strangely intermixed, and in the centre of the large circle is Jerusalem, with all other then known nations, peoples, and countries clustering around and radiating from it. In very deed, however, "the city" has marvellous advantage of position over all its fellows, and several learned prophetical writers have discoursed on its physical eminence. Major Phillips, among others, and the Rev. J. G. Gregory, in his "Earth's Eventide," show the effects which would be relatively produced by certain organic changes which Ezekiel and some of the other prophets appear to foretell, and which would make, as the former writer says, "Jerusalem to become literally the central city of the earth, standing upon the highway for all nations."

We will now suppose that we are hovering—as one of those "birds flying" spoken of in Isaiah (xxxi. 5)—over Jerusalem in the early grey of a long day of Eastern summer, prepared to start on our Southward flight. There lies the Holy City, slumbering and silent: the spot concentrating the interest of Christendom, and celebrated alike in ancient and in modern song, in sacred and in profane history. In its midst a succession of events has transpired, all bearing directly upon the Jew first, and, through him, more or less upon the whole human race, from the first colony of the Jebusites, in times far away, to the crucifixion of the Messiah, and the subsequent ruin and desolation of the city and of the land. Through those streets have the armies of many countries marched in the pomp of military array: the civilized Egyptians, the stern Assyrians, the triumphant Babylonians, the invincible Romans, the steel-clad warriors of the Crusades, and the turbaned soldiers of the Crescent. Many a time did Israel's God give deliverance, and the enemy was either beaten back or destroyed; and then did the fastnesses of Zion, her lofty ramparts, and the Temple courts, resound with acclamations of joy and triumph. But after solemn warning and deserved chastisement, after God's infinite forbearance and loving kindness, the long threatened and final blow fell. The nation had refused to "reverence the Son” (Matt. xxi. 37), and had crucified Him, the long promised Messiah. Desolation dire and dread and utter despair soon overtook the land, and Israel's sons and

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daughters went forth exiles and wanderers into all countries, becoming “a proverb and a bye-word" as the curse foretold, whilst from that time to our

own

"On Judah's plains no throng is viewed,

The voice of joy is still;

There is no festive multitude

On Judah's holy hill."

From our elevated position we can look over the city as a map, and can trace the outline of her different quarters and streets, albeit the dust and ruin of eighteen centuries have choked them up to the height of many feet, obliterating numerous interesting landmarks. Once the triumphant challenge pealed forth, "Walk about Zion and go round her; tell the towers thereof, mark ye well her bulwarks, and consider her palaces" (Psalm xlviii. 13), and she is royal even in her low estate. The dark robe wrapped about her cannot altogether hide her fair and majestic form, nor can the accumulated dust and ashes cover all her beauties.

Foremost upon our gaze rises the hill Moriah, once crowned by Solomon's "holy and beautiful house," now trodden by infidel feet and bearing an erection for infidel worship. A vast chasm, forming part of the Tyropean Valley, separated this from the mountain of Zion, where David's house and Solomon's stately palace stood. A terraced causeway, 200 feet above the abyss, spanned it at the South-West corner, and formed that ascent by which the king and his court "went up to the house of the Lord," enumerated (2 Chron. ix. 4) as one of the wonders which so excited the admiration of the Queen of Sheba. This part of Jerusalem is now called the Jewish quarter, where the real owners of the soil dwell in poverty and wretchedness, periodically resorting to the "Place of Wailing" to beat their breasts and bemoan their country's ruin. The fearful Valley of Gehenna, or of the Son of Hinnom, which we shall afterwards refer to, sweeps round the walls of Zion to the South-East corner at the base of the Mount of Olives, whilst East and North-East runs the Valley of Jehoshaphat, with the river Kedron flowing through it. So round three sides there is a natural and formerly an almost impregnable rampart. Josephus speaks of three several lines of fortified walls in ancient Jerusalem, not one within the other, but enclosing different parts of the city, except where the abrupt and precipitous ravines made fortifications unnecessary; and these walls appear to have been rebuilt, exactly as they stood, by Nehemiah, after the 70 years' captivity. The first line encompassed the heights of Zion across the Tyropean Valley, by the Pools of Solomon, to the Eastern corner of the Temple. The second is supposed to have occupied the line from the Pool of Bethesda and Gate of Hannaneel, on the East, to the Fullers' Field, in the extreme West, at the angle where the great Assyrian host lay encamped in Hezekiah's time, and where Titus the Roman afterwards pitched his camp, when he had destroyed part of the fortification. The area between these walls embraces Herod's tower of Antonia, on the North-West, and what was called the Lower City, which was doubtless the chief seat of business then as at this day. Northwards ran the third wall, built by Herod and Agrippa, which took a far

1873.

wider circuit, embracing Golgotha and Bezetha. The road to Damascus passed through Ephraim Gate, near the centre of the second wall, and skirted the Tombs of the Kings, outside the third, striking Northwards to Gilead, Jezreel, and Nablous. We will return and describe the different parts of the city in detail on another occasion. M. E. N.

The Dealings of God with His ancient people

Esrael.

BY THE REV. DR. EDERSHEIM.

I.

AMONG the most instructive yet most humiliating lessons is that to be derived from our common mode of viewing the dealings of God. The mystery of His providence is always "above our thoughts;" not unfrequently it seems even to run contrary to them. We fail to apprehend it; we misunderstand it; and so we often arrive at conclusions precisely the opposite of truth. Thus we are prone to imagine that God has forgotten, when He most tenderly remembereth; that He neglects, where He most watchfully careth; or that He is not working, when all the time He is carrying forward His holy purpose to its appointed end. "So foolish" are we, and so "ignorant !" And these mistakes of ours-chiefly about His people, His promises, and His purposes-lead us wrong alike as to the past, the present, and the future; and that, because we do not sufficiently believe, nor sufficiently hope, nor yet sufficiently "love His appearing."

Scripture furnishes three notable instances of what we have just stated, and which will readily occur to most readers. They are the more appropriate to our present purpose, that they refer to God's dealings with His own children, to the future of His kingdom and the world, and lastly to His ancient people Israel. There is exquisite pathos about the first of them. The lament of Psalms lxxiii. and lxxvii. make one almost feel as if the writer had realised the unutterable misery connected by St. Paul with the failure of all our Christian hopes (1 Cor. xv. 19). For now, even when he remembers God, it is only to be "troubled," so that he "cannot speak;" his "spirit is overwhelmed ;" and his "steps well nigh slipped.” And all this, because he had misunderstood the mystery of providence in "the prosperity of the wicked," while “waters of a full cup are wrung out" to "His people." So he straightway writes down this unbelieving inference : "Hath God forgotten to be gracious, hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies?" Yet it is not really so! "His mercy is" not "clean gone for ever," nor" doth His promise fail for evermore "-and all this doubt and darkness, this almost failure of faith was only the "infirmity" of the troubled believer.

The other two instances we are about to mention are taken from the New