MARRIAGE OF MISS ANNIE DE ROTHSCHILD AND THE HON. ELIOT CONSTANTINE YORKE. HE nuptial rite which has been solemnised on Wednesday, the twelfth ultimo, in the Parish Church of Wimpole, is entitled-for many reasons which we will not stop to explain-to a record in our magazine. We consider that day as the commencement of a new era in the annals of Anglo-Hebrews; an era which will furnish a most interesting and eventful chapter in the history of the Jews in this country, the heading of which will be the one which we have given above. The circumstance is a most suggestive one; here is a young Jewess, one of the wealthiest in the land, one highly gifted in intellectual talents and attainments, of no ordinary mental culture, of the most refined tastes and accomplishments; one who has recently elicited the applause and laudations from a certain portion of magnates in the republic of letters, as joint author of "The History and Literature of the Israelites, according to the Old Testament and the Apocrypha." The synagogue organ in this country could not do enough in its praises of the two sisters, the authors of the work referred to. Every scrap which contained a favourable allusion to the work-no matter whether the critic's praise was "praise indeed" or otherwise-was reproduced in that singular Jewish Weekly of Finsbury Square. The two sisters- Sir Anthony de Rothschild's daughters-became a sort of twin idol to the Jewish community. But lo, and behold, one of the sisters is married to a Christian!!! What is more-in a Christian Church!- according to the rites and ordinances of the Liturgy of the Church of England! Even Nathan Meyer's blasphemous diatribes against Christianity, published in the Jewish Chronicle, produced no effect upon her mind. Nor did that hazy foggy leader, entitled "Conversion and Conversionists "-evidently written as a last but covert warning for the behoof of Miss Annie de Rothschild †-tend to change her mind. Those who are conversant with the Liturgy of the Church of England need not be told that "THE FORM OF SOLEMNISATION OF MATRIMONY is one of the most solemn in that BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. The service, however, received an additional token of impressive solemnity by the village choir singing on the auspicious occasion the following beautiful hymn : "How welcome was the call, And sweet the festal lay, When JESUS deigned in Cana's hall To bless the marriage day. See our FIRST SERIES, p. 99. We have an analytical article ready on that curious essay, which appaared in that organ on Tuesday, the 7th ult., but are obliged to postpone its publication to our next issue. At present we can only say, with all the protestations of the essayist that he approached his theme "without bitterness," without " vituperative excrescences," and with "unfevered pulses ;" with all his strivings to suppress and smother those passionate offsprings, they constantly assert their presence in every paragraph of that leader. As to its burden, we refer our readers to an article in our FIRST SERIES, pp. 44, 45, consisting of strictures on some lucubrations of the Antichristian Jewish organ, and of a certain sermon by the Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Synagogue. Let us just transfer a few of the sentences and prayers from that solemn service, in intimation of its suggestive character in this particular instance: "And the Priest, taking the Ring, shall deliver it unto the Man, to put it upon the fourth finger of the Woman's left hand. And the Man holding the ring there and taught by the Priest, shall say, "With this Ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. "Then shall the Priest join their right hands together, and say. "Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder. "Then shall the Minister speak unto the people. "Forasmuch as M. and N. have consented together in holy wedlock, and have witnessed the same before God and this company, and thereto have given and pledged their troth either to other, and have declared the same by giving and receiving of a Ring, and by joining of hands; I pronounce that they be Man and Wife together, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. "And the Minister shall add this Blessing. "God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, bless, preserve, and keep you; the Lord mercifully with His favour look upon you; and so fill you with all spiritual benediction and grace, that ye may so live together in this life, that in the world to come ye may have life everlasting. Amen.” The bigoted Jews, and their oracle in Finsbury Square, are very sulky at all this. Not at all unnatural! Their feeble Weekly has lately delighted the Jewish community, by reports of Gentile girls, in Americathat land of paradoxes-professing judaism on the days they were married to Israelites. We do not begrudge them those proselytes. They have been lately congratulated on the success which attended the efforts of "the Revs. Messrs. Furst and Rosenthal, likewise Mr. Abraham Laconski" of Hull, in teaching a young Jew how to cheat a Hebrew Christian Clergyman of the Church of England, under the pretence that he, the young Jew, wished to be further instructed in the truths of Christianity. Well, we do not envy their speciality in that branch of education. As for their pupil, with his aptitude for learning such lessons as the Jewish reverend gentlemen, and "likewise Mr. Abraham Laconski" of Hull, teach, his proper place is in the synagogue of which his tutors are the ministers. Here, however, is quite a different thing. Either the Hon. Mrs. Eliot Constantine Yorke was, on her wedding day, an arrant hypocrite, or convinced that Christianity was after all the religion of Moses and the Prophets, which she has so diligently studied, as her work alluded to testifies. The former alternative cannot be entertained for a moment, even by the most frenzied Jewish bigot. We do not wish to pry into the lady's secret; nor should we for a moment blame her, if she is determined for a time, to keep her own counsel. We can well imagine her shrinking at the very idea that her penitential return to THE FAITH,promulgated at sundry times and in divers manners in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,-should be made a theme for newspaper paragraphs. We were ourselves called upon to baptize a large and influential Jewish family under the seal of secrecy. The present Primate and the Rector of St. George's, Hanover Square, can attest our statement. We wish the bride and bridegroom every possible happiness which a merciful God can bestow; but, above all, "joy and peace in believing." Should our Monthly find its way to the noble family of which a young, clever, accomplished, and amiable Jewess is now a daughter, a sister, a cousin, we would venture to intimate to every member of that family, that now more than ever should they give heed to the divine exhortation which commands the followers of Jesus to let their light shine before men. CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON PSALM LXVIII. 13. citation from Miss Whateley's work on Egypt, as an illustration of the passage which heads this paper : Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove, covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold." TRAVELLERS and temporary residents in Bible lands, influenced, no doubt, with a laudable desire to contribute their mite towards elucidating difficult passages of holy writ which refer to eastern manners and customs, kc., are often attracted by incidents which they apply to that end, and instead of illustrating, only weaken the metaphors employed by the sacred writers. We are afraid there is a class of contributors of articles to religious periodicals who are too apt, without due and serious consideration, to lay hold of those references as a rich contribution to the treasury of sacred literature, and thus weaken the cause they are attempting to support. An example of this nature is presented to the reader in the following "The roofs (of the houses) are usually in a great state of litter, which is often cleaned away with a palm branch. But one thing never seemed cleaned away, and that was the heap of broken pitchers, sherds, and pots, which, in these and similar houses, are piled up in some corner. A little before sunrise, numbers of pigeons suddenly emerge from behind the pitchers and rubbish, where they had been sleeping during the night. They dart upwards, and career through the air in large circles, their outspread wings catching the bright glow of the sun's slanting rays, so that they really resemble shining yellow gold; then, as they wheel round, and are seen against the light, they appear as if changed into molten silver, most of them being pure white, or else very light coloured. Every evening when they perform their gyrations in the air, the same appearance is observed. It was beautiful to see these birds rising, clean and unsoiled, as doves always do, from the dust and dirt in which they had been hidden, and soaring aloft in the sky, till nearly out of sight among the bright sunset clouds." Then follows a spiritual application to the believer, &c. Sober criticism cannot accept the application of the first clause of the passage to doves or pigeons at all, nor do the terms in the original Hebrew refer to their sitting, for the night, or during the heat of the day, among the litter, broken pots, and rubbish collected on the flat roof of an Oriental mansion. By such an application the figure loses its point altogether, and the beautiful contrast in the passage is destroyed. The verb, y, to lie down, thence to sleep, is never applied to a bird, and never to a beast; but once to Israel under the image of a lion. (Num. xxiii. 24.) In all other places of Scripture where used, it is applied to man. Nor does it ever mean prosperity, as certain German critics would have us to believe. Nor does the term mean the relics of crockery, and other rubbish, piled up in a corner on the housetop. Neither does the term apply exclusively to pots, but the root means to dispose, or put things in order, opposite each other, to keep what is set upon them in an even, steady position. Hence the word is applied, as Dr. Taylor states, *"to two stones, or andirons, set upon a hearth to support a pot in which meat is boiled. Ps. lxviii. 13: Though ye have lien among the pots,' or rather pot-ranges, where the suttlers or scullions dressed victuals for the camp, and where the strolling followers of the camp, who were not provided with tents, probably used to lodge for the sake of the warmth, and so were in a smutty, dirty condition, which is here used to signify being in a low, contemptible state." Parkhurst sheds a little clearer light upon this vocable by the following reference: "These fire-ranges, or rows of stones, used by the wandering *Heb. Concord., p. 2003. Arabs, are thus described by Niebuhr, Voyage, tom. i., p. 188 :-Their fireplace is soon constructed; they only set their pots (sur pierres detachées) upon detached or separate stones.' The Arabic cognate safi, or safiyat, means three stones, as large as a man's head, placed as a fire-range, on which to place the cooking-pot. Of these, safwat, a dish, or pot, seems a cognate. It would appear that lying among the pots and rustic fire-ranges denotes the most abject slavery, because it was the meanest slaves, or those who had been taken captive, and retained as slaves, who were doomed to sleep among the ashes. It seems to have been the custom among the ancient Greeks, to allot such a sleeping-place for their slaves as is described in Homer, where old Laertes is represented, in his rustic retreat, as sleeping, during the cold weather, where the slaves did,-among the ashes, near the fire, clad in a mean garb. Αλλ' ὅγε χεῖμα μὲν εὕδει, ὅθι όμωες, ἐνὶ οἴκῳ, Ἐν κόνι, ἄγχι, πυρὸς, κακὰ δὲ χροῒ εἵματα εἶται. Odys. xi. 189, 190. We have also read of a gentleman, whose unhappy lot it was, not long ago, to be taken captive by the Bedaween Arabs, and, being treated as the vilest slave, he was doomed to sleep at night among the ashes near the fireranges, sub Jove frigido, under the cold sky for his covering, while his cruel master and his family enjoyed the luxury of a tent. Viewing the metaphor in this light, it exactly tallies with the history of the ancient Hebrew people. After the death of Joseph, they were subjected to severe servitude in Egypt, and their degradation was equal to, if not worse than, that of the slave whose unhappy lot it was to lie in the ashes, among the pots and fire-ranges. During the time of the judges, they were often brought into bondage by their disobedience to God. The treatment they received from their Gentile masters was so severe, that their condition might justly be considered as "lying among the pots." To avoid the cruel and oppressive power of Midian, the children of Israel took refuge in the mountains, where they made for them. selves dens, and caves, and strong holds,*-places difficult of approach in the highest part of the mountain, where their oppressors and plunderers could not well reach without danger. (Judges vi. 1-6.) It would appear that wandering tribes in great numbers gathered themselves together from different parts of the east, and overspread the land of Israel about the time of harvest, and waited for it, to plunder the produce of the ground, the fruit of their toil; and the children of Israel were, in consequence, greatly impoverished, TNT, were very much reduced, worse than a slave among the pots. But, when they repented of their disobedience, and cried unto the Lord, He gave the word, which is power, by which He changed the unhappy condition of His oppressed people into a state of freedom, prosperity, and glory. The army of Pharaoh was overthrown in the Red Sea, and, after the settlement of God's people in the land of promise, the Almighty scattered the kings of Canaan, and of the neighbouring nations, that rose up against them. The language of this inspired poem evidently refers to those events in Israel's history. After repeated victory over their oppressors, God being their King, the children of Israel were enriched with spoil, both of silver and gold, in abundance. As the happy result of freedom and peace, they cast off their soiled garments, "shook themselves from the dust," and put on their beautiful garments, bespangled with snow-white molten silver and pure golden ornaments, glistening † like the dove. "performing its gyrations through the air, its outspread wings catching the bright glow of the sun's slanting rays ;" and all this blessed change was the result of freedom and prosperity. We may regard this beautiful figure as expressing the spiritual, as well as the temporal, prosperity of God's freed people. In Ps. xlv. the Church is represented as a bride adorned with the most costly clothing, inwrought, or interwoven (avp) with golden threads, and perhaps bespangled with T3, Arab. cogn. masad. A place difficult of access in the highest part of a mountain. tpp, Arab. cogn., rakrak, glistening. In the rabbinical writings the dove is termed, the golden, to shine or glitter like gold. ornaments of the gold of Ophir. The inspired poet, having addressed King Messiah as , God, he next ad dresses Him in reference to the goldenrobed queen, and says, " King's daughters were among thy honourable women; upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir" (ver. 9). Then, turning his attention to the spiritual bride, he strikes his lyre to sing in praise of her beauty and glory: "The King's daughter is all glorious within her clothing is of wrought gold" (ver. 13). The Church, clad with the beauties of holiness, is also thus described by the Prophet Isaiah (lxi. 10): "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." From a New Testament stand-point, this figurative language," Lien among the pots," may be viewed as depicting, most vividly, the unhappy condition of that portion of the Jewish people who reject the Christian religion. The burdens imposed upon them by the Talmud it is impossible for them to bear; a slavish fear, therefore, must sorely burden the conscience. Every soul of man, whether Jew or Gentile, unrenewed by the grace of God, is in a low, degraded condition, worse than that of a slave "lying among the pots." He is in bondage to the fleshly mind, and to Satan, by whom he is led captive at his will, and all his lifetime, while living in sin, a slave to the fear of death. But when both Jew and Gentile are brought to repentance toward God, and to faith in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, they are set free from all ceremonial burdens, and the slavish fear of death. They have then peace with God, and are clothed with the white robe of righteousness, and they are ornamented with the graces of the Holy Spirit, more lovely than the dove with her silver wings and golden feathers. This figurative language may be viewed as a striking and appropriate illustration of the present condition of the pious dead, and of their future glorified state in heaven. The grave is the house appointed for all living, Vide by man, 1837. By Dr. McCaul. |