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north country-"the people left of the sword, who found grace in the wilderness." (Jer. iii. 12-19; xxxi. 1-21.)

We would here ask, "When and in whom were these prophecies fulfilled, if not in the Teutonic race, the people whom we identify with the tribes of Israel, led, at the appointed time, into the very places specified-" the isles afar off" and "the wilderness of the people," in the north-there received into the bond of the covenant, made His witnesses, and the messengers of His grace to all nations,-pre-eminently so the Anglo-Saxon race, the heirs of the birthright blessings.

And now,

multiplied and increased into the predicted "hosts of nations," their "goodly heritage," even the land given for an inheritance to their fathers, waits their return, though not to the exclusion of Judah; but these must first receive the Spirit of adoption before they can be made partakers of the blessing. "Left few in number," as foretold of the disobedient portion of Israel (Deut. xxviii. 62), the Jews have indeed been, as Mr. Isaacs remarks, "an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations" (ver. 37). But on what grounds does he add, "From that terrible distinction none could escape :if escape were possible, it would have made void the word of God?" Did not the devout Jews at Pentecost escape it, and all the churches of Judea that believed? And, in like manner, "backsliding Israel," reached by the word of His grace, also escaped it, having already lost their name, as did the believing Jews when they received Him whom "the nation abhorred." Where are now the descendants of those believing Jews, and by what name are they known, but as Christians?-the greater portion of them, probably, amongst us in these lands of the north, separated, for well nigh two thousand years, from the doom and curse of unbelieving Judah. And was not as positive a promise made concerning the believing portion of Israel,

as concerning the disobedient and unbelieving? Is it not distinctly stated, in the same Scripture (Deut. xxviii.), that, "if they hearkened unto the voice of the Lord, He would set them on high above all the nations of the earth?" And, to fulfil this His promise, were not the Jews who believed sent "unto the nations which spoiled them after the glory" (Zech. ii. 8), even the people whom Jehovah had formed for His praise? And foremost amongst these messengers was the great apostle of the Gentiles. True, he ministered the Gospel of the grace of God to all on his path through Greece, Dalmatia, Illyricum, and Rome, as his Lord and Master had done to Samaria, and others not of Israel, whilst plainly declaring that "He was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and that He had "other sheep not of that fold, whom He must also bring; and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd." (John x. 16.) And these "other sheep" were the primary object of the mission of His servant Paul, as he himself testified, when, by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, he declared the Lord's purpose, as spoken by the prophet Hosea, concerning the cast-off house of Israel: "I will call them My people who were not My people, and her beloved who was not beloved. And it shall come to pass that, in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people, there shall they be called the children of the living God," "vessels of mercy," truly "afore prepared to glory" (Rom. ix. 23-26); the "no people" and "foolish nation" by whom the Jews were to be provoked to jealousy ;" not therefore the polished and refined Greek, or the proud and powerful Roman, but the despised "Scythian and barbarian,"-the long outcast, but not forgotten, house of Israel. Their very name had been taken from them, and known only by the name of the peoples amongst whom they so long sojourned, now were they, through abounding grace, and under the guidance and protection of the mighty God of Jacob, "to be exalted above all the nations of the earth."

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not himself so realised the difference between "taking up the cross," "the reproach for Christ," whatever the present trial, as to feel how different is any thing that expression implies from the burden of the judicial sentence on his unhappy people persisting in their sin and unbelief? And with reference to his remark on the feeling against the Jews, so long entertained, even by the most eminent Christians, such as Luther; without justifying that feeling, we cannot but recognise in it a further fulfilment of Jehovah's indignation against that guilty race (Is. lxv. 12-15), "Because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spoke, ye did not hear

therefore shall

ye leave your name for a curse unto my chosen for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call His servants by another name"-called after Him whose name the Jew blasphemes-therefore the almost instinctive dislike of those to whom that name is precious, "Christ the Lord." The marked change of feeling, however, in this respect, we quite admit, and hail it as a remarkable sign of the times, together with the interest the Lord's people now so much more generally take in the Jews -typified, we believe, in the closing scenes of his life whom we claim as the illustrious ancestor of the Anglo-Saxons.

Great on the throne of the Gentiles, Joseph had forgotten his father's house and all his troubles, and become fruitful, naming his children Manasseh and Ephraim. But at the appointed time, the yearnings of his heart are awakened for his perishing brethren, and, in the consciousness of the mercy he had himself experienced, he pities and blesses them; not, however, from any ambition to be accounted of that despised race, though not ashamed to acknowledge them as his brethren, when all the predictions of his pre-eminence above them (of which they had been so jealous) had been so strikingly fulfilled. And even so with us -" chief among the nations," enriched with the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof, with the good-will of Him that dwelt in the bush, and raised to power and dignity, with ample means to minister to the temporal and spiritual need of others; it would be but a poor ambition in us to crave, or to pride ourselves on consanguinity with a people still in unbelief, and therefore still under the curse, and strangers to the covenant of peace; but, as true sons of Joseph, acknowledging the

us

goodness and mercy that have followed us, and made us great, our hearts yearn to bless our poor, perishing, and toolong-neglected kinsmen. And, if we seek to "provoke them to jealousy," pointing to our inheritance of the birthright blessings in proof of our claim to be their long lost brethren of the house of Israel, it is only that, as Anglo-Hebrew Christians, they may be stirred up to acknowledge with "the depths of the riches. both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, and that unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out." For such have they indeed been in our case; so marvellous, so unsearchable, that we ourselves have been slow to believe it; and how many hesitate and doubt and refuse to acknowledge it, because they cannot trace every link in the chain of blessing which has raised us from our depths of degradation and misery, as cast out and forsaken, to the exalted position to which, as a nation, the good pleasure of the God of Israel has raised us; graffed back, as the long predicted "fulness of the Gentiles" (Gen. xlviii. 19), into our own olivetree, to make known His salvation to the ends of the earth.

And if the Lord is now teaching us to recognise the truth of our relationship to Israel, it is, we believe, in order that we may be stirred up the more earnestly to cry, "O Lord, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel." "Loved with an everlasting love, and drawn with loving-kindness after Him" who pitied us in our low estate, we plead for them with Him as "the God of all the families of Israel," and because He has so favoured us as "Ephraim His firstborn," and that in contradistinction to Judah, as evident from the whole tenor of the prophecy. (Jer. xxxi.)

When, we would again ask Mr. Isaacs, and all who oppose our claim to that distinction, was that prophecy fulfilled, subsequent to the time of Jeremiah and the Babylonish captivity? and how can Ephraim have the predestined pre-eminence if merged and absorbed in Judah? Let our opponents, instead of merely denying or gainsaying our claim, explain the many Scriptures that have been adduced once and again in support of it. To refuse to acknowledge it on ethnical grounds, because of our admixture with other races (though this, we would observe, was predicted of Ephraim), would be as irrelevant as if Joseph's brethren, because of his al

liance with Asenath the Gentile, had refused to acknowledge Ephraim and Manasseh to be as truly and equally with them of the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

In conclusion, we would plead with our Jewish brethren, who have known the tender forgiving love and mercy of One greater than Joseph, no longer to oppose or ignore their relationship to those who have ministered unto them the bread of life. Neither let them cherish the spirit of the elder brother against the long lost prodigal, restored to all the blessings and honours of the Father's house; but rejoice with Him and them because of their union and re-union in the bonds of the new and better covenant. When Judah and Israel, with one consent, witness to that union, then may we anticipate the dawn of Israel's glory in their own land as at hand. Then also may we hope that Judah, still in unbelief, and hardened in it by their vain expectations and the false charity which upholds their claim to the promises, as Abraham's seed according to the flesh; -then, we say, may we hope that, by our united testimony, they may be led to acknowledge that "he is not a Jew, who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, whose praise is not of men, but of God." (Rom. ii. 28, 29.) Jan. 7. JEZREEL.

PROFESSOR DELITZSCH NO

MARIOLATOR.

To the Editor of the Hebrew Christian Witness.

DEAR SIR,-As the translator of Dr. Delitzsch's brochure, “Ein Tag in Capernaum," permit me to vindicate the learned author of the little work from the charge of countenancing Mariolatry, which your Ealing correspondent seems inclined to bring against him. I have no hesitation in saying that, had I discovered any tendency of the kind, my pen should never have aided in the circulation of what I hold to be a most direct violation of the second commandment.

I must confess that, on turning to the chapter to which your correspondent doubtless refers (that headed "Noon," I think), I was at first inclined to judge as he does; but, on a closer investigation, I discovered, in that portion of the pamphlet, an anti

dote to all that exaltation of Mary that is now-a-days, alas! so common. For does not Dr. Delitzsch throughout make her subordinate to her Blessed Son ? In her portrait, as there sketched, we see much of womanly weakness, anxiety, and care; but nowhere do we find her raised even to an equality with the Saviour, much less to a superior position !

If your Ealing objector will read over the portion that offended him the second time, I think he will, perhaps, be induced to rescind his previous judgment. I am, dear sir, yours truly, Jan. 18th, 1873. A. F.O.I.

THE PROPOSED HEBREW CHRISTIAN COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE. To the Editor of the Hebrew Christian Witness.

DEAR SIR,-In reply to a communication in your July number, respecting "A Hebrew Christian Collegiate Institution," &c., I beg to say that I am one of those who believe in the literal fulfilment of Isaiah xi. 12. That the Lord will "assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth;" and though the time for this great ingathering has not yet arrived, still I would fain remind some of the wild olive branches of the debt of gratitude we owe God's ancient people, the olive tree, in imparting to us Christianity. Can we do better in evincing our debt of gratitude towards that nation than endeavour to return to them the word of life which they once rejected? Has not God said by His inspired Hebrew-Christian servant, Paul, "They also, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be graffed in; for God is able to graff them in again?" (Rom. xi. 23.)

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Let us who are believers in the power of prayer, consider whether the remnant according to the election of grace" among them being increased and strengthened would not pray more earnestly than we do "for the peace of Jerusalem," and thus provoke us to jealousy; for the promised blessing is sure: They shall prosper that love Thee." "For if the casting away of them" on their rejection of our blessed Saviour at His first coming were "the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be "at His second coming, "but life from the dead?" (Rom. xi. 15.)

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As a very humble means in promot

ing this good work, in furtherance of the above, I beg to offer £10 towards the fund for the establishment of the above-named institution, if ten persons be found to give each £10 also. Hoping that they whom God has blessed with the means to do so, will esteem it a privilege to offer their hundreds, I am, dear sir, A LOVER OF THE ANGLOHEBREW RACE.

Queries.

WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE LAST FIVE LETTERS AND UPWARDS OF MESSRS. ASHER AND CO.'S AND CHALDAIC, TALMUDICAL, RABBINICAL LEXICON ?

IN the year 1866, Messrs. Asher & Co., Foreign Publishers and Booksellers (of 13, Bedford Street, Strand, W. C.), announced a new edition, in grandiloquent terms, of the above lexicon. It was to be published in twenty-five parts, under the joint editorship of Drs. B. Fischer and H. Gelbe. The second name disappeared on the appearance of the third part in the beginning of 1867. The following parts were published very irregularly, and by no means with the promised improvements, up to the beginning of 1871, when the publication stopped altogether with part xxii, at the word

.פחם

Would Messrs. Asher & Co. condescend to furnish some explananation on the subject, or be induced to make the amende honorable by taking back the unfinished work and repaying the disappointed subscribers the sums which they have, in good faith, advanced? I am not the only aggrieved party.

Could not you and your staff, who are assuredly the most competent phalanx for the task, undertake an edition of that well conceived lexicon?

ONE OF THE AGGRIEVED
SUBSCRIBERS.

WHAT is the exact meaning of Πρωτ TOTOKOS TAONG KTLσEWS? (See Col. i. 15.) The Firstborn of every creature seems, at first sight, to favour the Arian doctrine that the Son of GOD is Himself a creature. Should it not have been translated Born or begotten before the whole creation? It was so understood by Justin Martyr. reason assigned immediately by the apostle bids us translate the words so, because by Him were all things created; for He who creates all things can be no part of the creation Him

The

self; and He is not only Creator, but Sustainer and Preserver of the universe which He has created. May it also be taken as the Firstborn, or LORD of all, answering to kλnpovóμos, or heir, in the corresponding passage in the Hebrews i. 2,-the primary meaning leading to the secondary? This suits the apostle's reasoning, that the creation and preservation of all things shows his original pre-eminence; and, on the same account, Πρωτότοκος ἐκ των νεκρων may be rendered not only the Firstborn from the dead, but Lord of the dead, that He might have in all things pre-eminence, that He might give to men both their first and their renewed existence, that He Himself was the first existing derivative Being, and, in His human nature, the first to rise and to enter heaven; for in Him it pleased GOD the Father that all fulness should dwell: and the description is concluded with the declaration that, by His Death on the cross, He had restored amity between men and angels by reconciling men-Gentiles as well as Jews-to their Maker. (Col. i. 1520.) He is styled absolutely rov ПIpwrоTOKOV, the Firstborn. (Heb. i. 6.)

Replies.

שראל

To the Editor of the Hebrew Christian Witness.

SIR,-In reply to the communication of "No Compromise in your January number, I beg to offer what has appeared to me, and to other unlearned acceptors of the English version of the Bible, a simple explanation of 2 Kings v. 18, 19.

The duties of Naaman's office seemed to require that, on certain occasions, he should accompany the king "when he went into the house of Rimmon to worship there." On these occasions the king "leaned on the hand" of Naaman. When, therefore, the king, leaning on the hand of Naaman, bowed himself down, how was it possible for Naaman to avoid inclining his body forward also? But so tender was his conscience, that he feared lest such an involuntary inclination should be regarded as an act of idolatrous worship.

Rendering the verbs in verse 18 in the past tense seems unsatisfactory; for why should Naaman single out one set of idolatrous acts from amongst the many in which he had doubtless been accustomed to engage?

W.

'HE HEBREW STUDENT'S LIBRARY. By the REV. DR. MAR

THE

GOLIOUTH.

I.

A new, improved, and enlarged English edition of Bythner's METHODICA INSTITUTIO LINGUÆ SANCTE. Forming a complete, intelligible, and comprehensive Hebrew Grammar.

II.

CLAVIS PSALMORUM. A revised, condensed, and therefore greatly improved English edition of Bythner's Lyra Prophetica Davidis Regis; sive Analysis Critico-Practica Psalmorum. Being the most perfect key to the study of the Original of the sublime Book of Psalms.

III.

An interlineary HEBREW AND ENGLISH PSALTER. Arranged in lines of metrical parallelism. With brief, but important critical and exegetical notes, in which the many egregious and reprehensible philological inaccuracies which disfigure and disgrace the interlineary translations of Montanus, Walton, and others, have been carefully guarded against.

A FEW WORDS FAMILIARLY ADDRESSED TO HEBREW STUDENTS.

I have been importuned upwards of these twenty years to prepare a useful vade mecum for the Hebrew student. I must confess that I have no tastenor do I think it to be my calling-for writing elementary works; I have therefore endeavoured, invariably, to recommend Bythner's LYRA PROPHETICA, either the original LATIN, or the English translations of the same, by Dee and Benmohel. I felt, however, in duty bound to warn my Hebrewlearning friends of the overwhelming number of inaccuracies which mar both the original and the English versions.

I have not bettered my condition by the recommendation and warning. I have been constantly appealed to for the last score of years, by Hebrew students, to point out the errors of Bythner's analysis of this Psalm and of that Psalm, to intimate Bythner's irrelevant matter in this page and that page; so that a considerable portion of my time was consumed in writing critical notes on Bythner, Dee, and Benmohel.

Of late, however, my learned Importunaters have altered their tactics; they have abandoned their small and piecemeal measures, and begun to agitate for a sifting and thorough reformation of Bythner and his translators. They positively gave me no rest, and in self-defence-to secure a quiet life from one quarter at least-I have undertaken the task, and here is its performance. Its completeness and accuracy will speak for themselves; I have only to offer a few statements re specting some of the principal features of alteration which I deemed incumbent upon me to make.

1. I dispensed with the Chaldee, Arabic, Syriac, Greek and Latin quotations-in which Bythner abounds.Those quotations, instead of expediting the student's progress, rather retard it. The study of Hebrew is the learner's immediate object, and I have endeavoured to give him the full value of the Hebrew word or sentence which he is now analysing. Woe betide the progress of a foreigner in the English language, if he-the German or Frenchman-set about reading the Vicar of Wakefield under the auspices of Littleton's learned English Dictionary.

2. I have eschewed the constant references to the numbers of the rules in the grammar. I know the waste of

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