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Poetry.

Ar the late Anniversary Meeting of the very useful and excellent Society undernamed, an enlightened friend of Israel, well known for his forensic ability, introduced, as a part of his speech, the following appropriate

LINES FOR

THE OPERATIVE
CONVERTS' INSTITUTION.

JEWISH

I.

"PRAY for the peace of Jerusalem,

They shall prosper that love thee:"
Oh, let this motto be seen as a gem,
Shining in beauty above thee.

II.

The Rabbies of old were often known
Their scholars to charm by saying—

That the Ark was illum'd by a glittering stone
With glory around it playing.

III.

Whether it was a fabled thought,

To gladden instruction brightly;-
By fanciful brains to being brought,-
We cannot determine rightly;

IV.

But this we know, in the darkest hour
Of the Jew's deep gloom and sadness
The word of truth has a wondrous power
To fill him with joy and gladness!

V.

And, when he has learn'd its lessons well, He works with his hands right gaily; "Endures as seeing the Invisible,'

And worships the Saviour daily.

VI.

Workmen of Palestine Place, be glad;
Cheerfully learn and labour;
Ye have more joy than the ancients had,
Who gloried in pipe and tabor!

VII.

"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem,'

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Pray without doubt or ceasing;

And fruit from the branch of Jesse's stem
Ye shall see with delight increasing.

VIII.

Print on your hearts this bright record,—
Bind it that nought may sever,

"Jesus of Nazareth," "Christ the Lord,"
Is "King of the Jews" for ever.

* In the Institution, Printing and Bookbinding are taught to Jewish Converts. This establishment has been, and is a most useful auxiliary in the Missionary work of the London Society.

LONDON: Printed at the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution, Palestine Place, Bethnal Green.

THE JEWISH ADVOCATE.

NOVEMBER, 1848.

THE CONFLICTS OF A BELIEVING JEW.

THE agony of the awakened spirit is often unutterably aggravated in the case of our Jewish brethren, when from a sense of their danger they are led to enquire into the truths of Christianity. Besides that troubled heart which grieves over the many sins of the past; and besides all the doubts and fears which necessarily encompass the soul of one who has been brought up in unbelief, and taught, from earliest childhood, to reject the claims of Jesus as the Messiah of Israel, there are the fears of opposition and off-casting by those who are most dear to him, and the apprehension of the cold incredulity and suspicion which he may expect to meet with from many Gentile Christians, even from those who love and honour Christ. A very interesting little work, written by the Rev. Alfred Moritz Myers, called "The Jew, or the Crisis of Judaism Exemplified," contains deeply touching illustrations of this painful fact.

The following quotations show how fierce a conflict is excited in the mind by its own enquiries, and how painful are the results, as it regards those who are nearest and dearest to the truth-seeking Jew.

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The following is the account of the first dawn of light on the mind of the Enquirer :

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At last the hour is come-my heart is too full to forbear, my secret overwhelms me....Listen then; some months back, as I was meditating on the present condition of our people, contrasting their melancholy state with the transcendent glory of our fathers, as they were worshipping in the holy temple, I became sad, and my spirit was greatly troubled within me. The long captivity of our nation-our altered circumstances in the lands of our dispersion-our degraded subjection to the kings of the Gentiles-our long tale of unparalleled sufferings-our disappointed hopes of the Messiah-all-all passed before me in quick succession; and as with my mind's eye, I gazed at the desolation of our beloved city and temple, and followed our poor people into their enemies' lands, and there beheld them scattered like sheep without a shepherd-oppressed and trodden down -my heart sank within me; tears started to my eyes, and I wept in the bitterness of soul. For some minutes I indulged in this grief. At last I lifted my eyes towards heaven, and with trembling lips and anxious look, I asked How long? Scarcely had I uttered the words, when my whole frame was terribly shaken by this sentence which irresistibly fastened on my soul, WHEN THOU SHALT RETURN!' This was so instantaneous that it seemed like a voice answering from heaven. For some moments I remained utterly paralyzed. Gradually recovering from the severe shock I had sustained, I looked about me tremblingly, as if actually expecting to see a vision. All was silent. Again I attempted to lift my eyes towards heaven, but shrank back

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instinctively, as if I dare not encounter the eye the Eternal, and involuntarily from my inmost soul, I re-echoed the, heavenly voice, When thou shalt return!'

6

I

"Impelled by some unaccountable necessity, I turned towards the spot where lay a volume containing the Torah, (the law of Moses), and utterly unable to restrain myself, I rose mechanically from my seat and seized the book. Instantly it lay open before me, and my eye rested on this passage in the fifth book of Moses- But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes, which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.' Deut. xxviii. 15. felt irresistibly constrained to read on; and as in these open pages I saw spread out before my anxious gaze a complete picture of our long continued captivity, and an exact description of our present degraded state among the nations, for the first time I was led to connect the sins of our people with their punishment. Not until that moment was I aware that our 1800 years of sorrow, in all its aggravating circumstances, had been denounced against us by Jehovah Himself! Here, in our holy law, I saw that Moses, 3000 years ago, had depicted with the certainty of inspiration, that if we sinned against Jehovah we should be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth and become an astonishment, a proverb and a byword among the nations: that the stranger that is within us should get up above us very high, and that we should come down very low-that the Lord would make our plagues wonderful, and of long continuance that we should be scattered

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