have mercy upon her, but upon her new brother, the new Lord Mayor. May God increase the goods and - prosperity of this Company, of your Master, and of the gentleman who brought us here this evening to see you."

A SUGGESTIVE EPISODE IN MODERN JUDAISM FROM AMERICA. THE Syracuse Morning Standard, of the 12th of October, contains the following startling report, to which the Anglo-Judæo weekly the Jewish Chronicle, of the 13th ult., but briefly alludes. The reporter was evidently a Gentile, unskilful in the technical terms of the Synagogue:

"A very unusual fraternisation among religious bodies took place Saturday and Sunday, October 11th and 12th. As is well known, Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath, and it is so observed by the congregation of Rabbi Cohen, or the Rev. Dr. Cohen, as he is usually known outside his own church. In the forenoon of that day, Rev. Mr. Mundy, of the Independent Church, responded to an invitation most cordially given by the Rabbi and church officers, to deliver a discourse in the synagogue, in Mulberry Street. The services commenced at nine o'clock, and at that hour a goodly number of people, mostly from Dr. Cohen's congregation, had assembled. Rev. Dr. Mundy sat inside the altar beside the church reader. The usual services, including the reading of the Scriptures from the manuscript roll, were conducted by the Rev. Dr. Cohen; there were responsive services also by the priest and the very fine choir.

"Then came the discourse by Rev. Mr. Mundy; it was a plea for Christian unity, on the great basis of a common brotherhood in the spirit of God. Brethren and friends,' were the first words of the preacher, 'it is with mingled feelings of pain and pleasure that I stand before you.' Mr. Mundy affirmed that he was grateful for the invitation of the Rabbi and officers of the congregation; this gave him much pleasure, but as he stood there he could but recall the long past; he could but think of how the blood of the children of Israel

stained the garments of the Christian Church. Protestants had suffered much from Catholics, but the Jews had suffered far more. The Hebrews brought knowledge, and experience, and wealth into Europe, and of the latter we robbed them. After all this wicked treatment they had invited him, a Christian, into their sacred place, to speak to them. He was glad to say that we, as Christians, had learned something from them; we thank the Jews for the history they had transmitted and for this opening of their temple. All religions had their uses; none were wholly good, and none were entirely bad; these were suited to the habits of those who used them. But it had been the habit of some to claim that they only had the right way; this was true of Mohammedans, and Hebrews, and Gentiles. Out of this idea had come wars; had come ignorance and barbarism. Now he hoped that all had learned that we had one God, the Father, and that we are all brethren; that we were bound together by a oneness of interest. We may call ourselves Jews and Christians, and pull apart as far as we may, and yet we are bound together. So it was in religion; we are indebted to the Mohammedan, to the Egyptian, and to others, and are now eating the fruits they planted. It was time for us to recognise the brotherhood of religions, to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with God, and thus be His children. His belief and worship was indeed different from theirs, and yet why should this separate them? They had the same God and were seeking the same height of goodness only by different means. The true Church of God was not Jewish or Christian; it contained all good men, belong they to what sect or church they will. All who have the good spirit of God belong to the brotherhood of the spirit. It was a most ancient organisation; it broke down the barriers by which men were separated; it was found in the breast of the Buddhist and the Mohammedan, as well as in that of the Christian. The great leaders, Confucius and Mohammed, and Moses and Jesus, were but a cluster of brothers. Let

PP

us come out upon the tower of the thought raised by the prophet: 'We have all one father, and God has created us all.'

[Dean Stanley, and Professor Max Muller could not have improved this specimen of broad Churchism! But what said the TEACHER COME FROM GOD? and His Holy Aposstles? Would to God that Drs. Stanley, Muller, and Mundy, gave greater heed to the inspired teaching of the New Testament, than to their own puny uninspired vagaries.]

66

REV. DR. COHEN AT REV. MR. MUNDY'S CHURCH.-The announcement in the papers on Saturday that the Rev. Dr. Cohen would preach in the Independent church yesterday forenoon, caused that place of worship to be filled to overflowing. The preliminary services were conducted by Rev. Mr. Mundy, and were of the usual character. Rev. Dr. Cohen commenced his discourse with expressions of adoration to God, of thankfulness for the opportunity to exemplify the command, Love thy neighbour as thyself.' He would take for his text the same words chosen by Mr. Mundy, and found in Malachi,

Have we not all one Father? hath not one God created us?' The ills to which human life is heir were noted, and they were cited as incentives for love to our neighbours. The existence of God was shown from the fact that we are created things, which implies the existence of a Creator. This was my, your, and our God. The speaker then said he had been invited to give his views of Jesus. They did recognise the existence of a historical personage, named Jesus of Nazareth, born in the year 3761. He was a good, high, and excellent scholar and philosopher; when he had grown to manhood he became a great Rabbi and teacher, and was finally crucified. But this act was repeated in history; for example, John Huss was burned in 1415, July 6; and why? He had done no wrong; he was only a reformer, put to death because the Pharisees and Sadducees of his time saw he was destroying their power. Martin Luther was another example. The Pharisees were not all dead yet either; they

were still carrying on the work. But they would say Jesus was the Son of God? Well, in the name of God, who said he was not? [!!!] Not the Jews certainly, for they did recognise Jesus as the Son of God, as a Rabbi, as a man of high culture, as a reformer. God had called all men His sons, and in this sense only was Christ His son. The Reformed Jews did not believe a Messiah had come. They held and prayed and worked for the redemption of mankind through the supreme power of love, and this was the Messiah, this was God. whole life, through good work, should be a preparation to meet God. We can all enter that heaven of which Abraham spoke, by heeding the injunction in the words, 'Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.' The grave will serve as the grandparent of all reunion. True religion caused no strife and separation; it incited to brotherly love and to obedience of the command, Love thy neighbour as thyself,' for has not one God created us all ?"

Our

[What a terrible illustration of the unchangeable character of unbelieving Judah and Israel! How fearfully does Dr. Cohen's flippant harangue recall the inspired words of the Evangelical Prophet:-"For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts. Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed."* Yet modern Israel, and modern "broad Churchmen," would have us believe that the Jews of the period are now safer under uninspired teachers than they were in days of yore under inspired ones!!!]

THE ISRAELITISH ORIGIN OF THE

PATHANS.

WE have been favoured with the following extract from a letter by a

* Isaiah ix, 13-16.

to think that our readers will be interested in the communication:

The following facts regarding the wild border tribes who inhabit the north-western frontier of India may prove of interest to you. I have culled them from an official memorandum lately issued by Brigadier-General Sir Charles Brownlow, K.C.B., who again simply collected together notes and reports made by various civil and military officers.

The Pathans (accent on last syllable) are a nation divided into numerous tribes, sections, and clans, who themselves trace their descent to the Israelites through Afghana, son of Yaremiah, Son of Saul, king of Israel, and state that they wandered to the mountains they now inhabit after the Captivity, and that at the summons of some of their brethren who had settled in Arabia they embraced the Mohammedan faith, large numbers of them joining in the wars of the prophet, under the leadership of the proselyte of their branch, named Kees, who received the title of Pathan from Mohammed, and, returning to his native mountains, converted the remainder of his nation. The prophet is said to have foretold to those early supporters of his creed that their nation would always be scattered, turbulent, and impatient of monarchical institutions. The Patháns attach the greatest importance to the preservation of their genealogical traditions, which are handed down from father to son with the greatest care, as the basis of all their rights and possessions; and this fact should receive due weight in estimating the value of their traditional descent from Saul, king of Israel.

The general government of all Patháns is democratic; the chiefs, or "mullicks," are indeed representatives of the tribe, clan, or section to which they belong, but they possess no independent power of action, and before they can be privileged to speak in "Jeerga," or council, they must have collected the wishes on the subject under consideration of the bodies they represent. The men of a village

send their representatives to the council of a clan, and these again send theirs to that of the tribe, whose appointed chiefs are styled "elders and " greybeards." These meetings are often stormy, but when once a jeerga has determined on the course to be pursued, implicit obedience is incumbent on all, and the mullicks are forced to see that it is paid. The decisions of the jeerga are mostly guided by the usages of their unwritten code of honour, known by them as the "Puktoonwalee," a code which, though framed on principles of equity, yet teaches that an unavenged injury is the deepest shame, and a blade well steeped in the blood of retaliation the proudest of badges. But the mullicks who sit in jeerga do not appear to have larger hereditary possessions than their brethren, but simply to be leaders in war, and in times of peace agents for the clan or tribe in their transactions with their neighbours. The real power rests in the body of the adult male population, and yet this leadership is generally found to be hereditary in certain families of each clan or tribe. Such appears to have been the exact condition of the Canaanitish states in Abraham's time, though we are apt to attach more importance to them from the circumstance of their mullicks being known to us as "kings." Instances are numerous of their affairs being determined by the community at large, and not by the will of individuals. Thus the sons of Jacob proposing the conditions of an alliance with Hamor, the mullick of Shechem, were well received by him, but he would give no final answer till he had communed with the men of the city in the gate. Similarly Abraham, in purchasing land, dealt not with the king of the Hittites, but "bowed himself to the children of Heth." Throughout the sacred narrative the dealings of the patriarchs with the Canaanites are but as the simple occurrences of every-day life among many Pathán communities, especially the Eusuf-zaies (sons of Joseph), who are perhaps the most civilised of their race.

Other customs too are prevalent amongst them, which may be con

nected with the national tradition of their Israelitish descent. One, which resembles the "Passover " is observed for the purpose of averting impending death. A healthy animal of the herds or flocks is sacrificed, and distributed to the priests, who sprinkle the blood on the lintel and door-posts of the house where the patient lies. Another is similar to the law of the

scape-goat. In times of severe pestilence, when the visitation is looked upon as a Divine judgment for the sins of the people, a goat or calf is brought before a solemn assembly, and after being conducted round the village, the chief Moollahs (priests) lay their hands on its head, and turn it loose beyond the village limits. Among the Affreedees (a Pathan tribe, numbering 20,000 fighting men, who reside beyond British territory), the punishment of death by stoning, is another custom which points to an Israelitish origin. The stone is also employed as a pledge of faith at the ratification of treaties if two tribes determine to close a feud, or form an alliance, or if families or individuals become reconciled, and blot out the remembrance of former wrongs, vows are exchanged over a stone placed between the parties, and it is looked on as a witness to the contract. The Book of Genesis and Joshua contain instances of precisely similar practices.

I think I have now given you as much of Sir Charles Brownlow's memorandum as relates to the tradition among the Patháns of their descent from the lost tribes of Israel. You are at liberty to publish what portion of it you like. But please do not append my name to it, as I have quoted the words of others, chiefly those of Dr. Bellew and the late Major James.

It is estimated that the Pathans number above 200,000 fighting men. about 80,000 of whom reside within British territory. Great numbers of them, both from within and beyond our border, take military service under the British. They are, generally speaking, plucky soldiers, temperate, and capable of great physical exertion, but on those of the finest tribes who are born and bred in the

Hills, the sun of the plains has almost as great an effect as on Europeans.

In Memoriam.

MR. EDWARD LEVIEN, M.A., F.S.A. Ir is our melancholy duty to chronicle the death of an eminent Hebrew Christian brother, who was a frequent contributor to our magazine. Edward Levien was born in 1818, of highly respectable Jewish parents, nearly related to the distinguished Goldsmids. His parents returned to the TRUE FAITH, and were baptized and admitted into the Church of England, with their children, when the latter were yet of tender age. He was educated at the Shrewsbury Grammar School, under Drs. Butler and Kennedy, and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he took honours in classics. In that department he filled a professor's chair at Glasgow. His great skill in ancient manuscripts, and intimate acquaintance with historical lore commended him, in 1850, to an important post in the MSS. department of the British Museum. This post he held for nearly a quarter of a century, with advantage to the public and credit to himself. He was also Honorary Secretary of the British Archæological Association, to which he rendered essential service in promoting its prosperity, in various ways, literary and otherwise. His loss to that Association is as keenly felt by their Committee as by his most intimate friends. The catalogue of the British Museum has several pages devoted to his literary productions. Our personal acquaintance with the deceased dates only from the middle of 1871; since then we have often exchanged letters and ideas. We found his contributions to this our magazine-especially literary notices-acute, able, and correct. We shall miss his friendly intercourse very much. We found him a true, disinterested, and unostentatious lover of our nation, as every genuine Hebrew Christian is. He loved the Jews without money and without price. Had there been

no societies "for promoting Christianity amongst the Jews," he would gladly have endeavoured to do the work of an Evangelist amongst our brethren of the house of Israel. He

had a dread of his name being mouthed on missionary platforms, by the stipendiary friends of Israel; and so has his brother, who is a Clergyman of the Church of England. Edward Levien departed this life, for a better and a happier one, on the sixth ultimo, after three months' severe illness, much regretted and lamented by a large circle of friends. By no one more so than by ourselves.

Correspondence.

THE DANITE PROBLEM.

Broseley, 12th Nov. 1874. Dear Sir,-Although not a correspondent, a few of your words in this month's notices to those who are induce me to address you respecting the "New Solution" of the Apocalypse in the HEBREW CHRISTIAN WITNESS. I am desirous of prefacing what I have to say, by expressing my admiration of the manifestly great knowledge and wisdom especially evinced in your dealing with questions between Jews as such and believers in the crucified and risen Saviour.

I hope you will be able to bear with me whilst quoting in extenso your observations respecting the remarkable fact of the omission of the tribe of Dan from amongst those sealed for salvation of all the other tribes, as recorded in Rev. vii. 5-8. Your words which I would respectfully remark upon, are these,"We have no written authority to explain the circumstance. All the reasons which were proposed, were merely conjectures.- We are averse from guesswork in that which is not revealed in Holy Scriptures. If we were disposed to hazard an opinion, we should suggest the probability that the tribe of Dan was absorbed in one of his neighbouring tribes, Ephraim, Judah, or Benjamin.

We

have no more confidence in this our conjecture than we have in the farfetched guesses of others." Dear Sir, I venture to ask you, with no carping or disrespectful intention, but as an aged brother in the Lord, who has been many years "a man of one Book," whether Ephraim, Judah, or Benjamin were so situated in the land as your

words imply? Excuse me, dear sir, for asking you not to put my impressions of the remarkable utterances of Scripture about Dan and his tribe too suddenly amongst what you designate "far-fetched guesses." Doubtless what you say about written authority is, as a general principle, wise and true; but does not much of what we all (at least Christians generally), as a matter of course, deal with as written authority, necessarily consist in a great measure of our own inferences from Scripture? Many of those inferences, doubtless, include spirit-taught truths of precious practical value; but in the case of our most generally received uninspired interpretations of the types and shadows of the Law, and of the Parabolic utterances in the Psalms and Prophets there is a certain amount of vagueness, and of necessity, a coming far short, and often a going wildly beyond the mind of the Spirit, who, in some cases, helps our infirmity by explanations in the new covenant Scriptures which leave no. thing to be desired. The great body of inferential truth which has commended itself to the children of God generally, has proved itself sufficient to enable true-hearted Bible-searching servants of the Lord to know whether they are learning of Him and following in His track or not. Even in such questions as the present, and a variety of others which the Apocalypse raises in our minds, our Father does not discourage the inquisitiveness of His faithful children. Our God was graciously showing us how a friend should show himself friendly, when he said, "Shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do ?"

But, that I may be no longer tedious, I will at once say that the way in which the Scriptures relating to the Tribe of Dan have impressed my mind, is that God in dictating them, has been pleased (may I say necessarily? yes) necessarily for the fulfilment of His own word in Daniel so to word them that "none of the wicked shall understand" (till their judgment shall come upon them like a flash of lightning in their judicial state of unpreparedness), "but the wise shall understand." Those left out of the number of those sealed for salvation would surely be these "wicked ones."

Such Scriptures as Gen. xxx. 6; Gen. xlix. 16, 17; Isa. xiv. with its resurrected King of Babylon (is he identical with the demoniacal King who is over the occupants of the Abyss in Rev. ix. 11 ? another guess it may be said), and the whole of Judges xviii. wherein Dan is