Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ Part 28

"1. That I had not only permitted my female scholars to come to the synagogue on Sat.u.r.days, but had commanded them to do so, in order to attend to the religious instructions which I there imparted.

"2. That I had cut my beard in Omer.[24]

"3. That, on one occasion, being called up to the reading of the Torah, I had appeared with gloves on.

"4. That I kept a Christian servant.

"5. That on the anniversaries of my parents' death, I did not lead the synagogue service: and,

"6. That, although I would not allow my wife to use the 'dipping bath'

(Tauchbad), I would persist in giving her my arm.

[24] The period between the Pa.s.sover and the Feast of Weeks.

"They stated that they could no longer suffer a man among them who was so immoral, so irreligious, and who excited so much scandal; and since no Christian court could decide on these Jewish sins, it was requested that the chief rabbi should be heard, and that I should be discharged. I replied: and respecting the last two points on which most stress seemed to be laid, I observed first, that it had been my father's dying request that I should neither fast nor lead the synagogue service on the anniversaries of my parents' death, as the custom had originated in a superst.i.tion; and, secondly, that according to a medical testimonial which I laid before the court, my sick wife had been prohibited from using the 'dipping bath;' but the decision of the chief rabbi was, that as I had confessed my wife neglected the bath, while, at the time, it was proved that she had taken my arm in walking, I was worthy of death according to Levit. xx. 18, and must be discharged from my office forthwith. I protested against this barbarous decision, and prayed to submit it to another Rabbinat. My pet.i.tion was granted, but the rabbi of the district, Mr. L. B. Bamberger, of Wurzburg, declared that he fully agreed with the chief rabbi, and added that my wife also was worthy of death.

"In consequence, I was discharged, lost the salary yet due to me, though the Government had approved of my official labours, and I was adjudged as having forfeited even my claim upon the States Inst.i.tution for the Relief of Orphans and Widows of German School Teachers, as well as my right to the 133 florins which I had already paid into that Inst.i.tution.

With this bitter experience, and provided with most satisfactory testimonials from my immediate superiors, I left my native country, and went with my wife and children to the free town of Frankfort, where I enjoyed perfect peace in the capacity of a private tutor. From this brief sketch it will sufficiently appear that the rabbinical Jewish religion leads to and justifies the most revolting injustice and cruelty, a reproach which cannot be brought against Christianity."

STERN, Joseph Paul, a native of Hungary, where he had been a teacher and then a merchant, came to Jerusalem in 1851, at the age of thirty-five.

Becoming ill he was admitted on application to the L.J.S. hospital, where, one may say, without a shadow of a doubt, that he was truly converted, and was baptized on Good Friday of that year. Henceforth he devoted his life to preach the grace of G.o.d as manifested in Christ Jesus, to his brethren in season and out of season. He was only a Scripture reader, but few could resist his entreaties to accept salvation through Christ, and the Jews feared him as well as respected him, for he often rewarded them good for evil. In 1860 he visited his relatives in Hungary, when he preached Christ to them, and escaped being poisoned. In 1872, when the Rev. A. Bernstein visited him in his sickness and administered the Holy Communion to him, he asked to be dressed in his best clothes, for he expected to go to the marriage of the Lamb. But he lingered yet for a while and died in 1873, uttering with his last breath--"Christ is all."

STERN, Maximilian Christian Heinrich, was baptized by Dr. Poper at Frankfurt, in 1846, when two of his brothers became Christian preachers in America. He was then fifty-two years old. His family followed his example two years later. In 1856 he published "Die Judische Zeitrechnung." He died in 1861. (See "Jewish Missionary Intelligence,"

1846, page 123).

STERNCHUSS, Rev. P. H., after a course of preparation in the L.J.S.

Missionary Training College, was sent, together with A. J. Behrens, to open a mission at Safed in 1843, where they held a daily service and tried to have intercourse with the fanatical Jews, but were boycotted by them. In 1844, they were both ordained in Jerusalem, and Sternchuss accompanied Stern to Bagdad, whence he itinerated to Mesopotamia, visiting Hillah and Ezekiel's tomb twice, he also visited Persia. The trying climate, the galling reproaches and persecutions, and the hards.h.i.+ps which those early missionaries in the East endured, soon told upon Sternchuss, so that he had to resign on account of ill-health in 1850, but continued still for a short time to labour for the Society in the West of England.

TARTAKOVER, Rev. E. M. Very little information can be obtained about this servant of Christ, but that little is most interesting, inasmuch as it embraces a reflective comment on a long period of Church history in which Palestine and the Jewish residents there had no Hebrew Christian minister of the Gospel. On October 30th, 1842, Tartakover was ordained in Jerusalem by Bishop Alexander. Such an event as the ordination of a Jewish convert had not been witnessed in the Holy City since Apostolic times.

TOMORY, Rev. A., after finis.h.i.+ng his theological studies at Edinburgh, was appointed by the Free Church of Scotland as a missionary at Pesth in 1853. In 1864 he was transferred to Constantinople, where he carried on a most faithful and fruitful work, both evangelistic and educational, during the remainder of his earthly pilgrimage, and left a worthy memorial in the home for enquiring Jews which he founded at Galata.

TREMELLIUS, John Immanuel, was born at Ferrara in 1510; and died at Sedan, October 9th, 1580. He was educated at the University of Padua, and baptized in the Roman Catholic Church about 1540, through the influence of Cardinal Pole, but embraced Protestantism in the following year, and went to Strasburg to teach Hebrew. Owing to the wars of the Reformation in Germany, he was compelled to seek refuge in England, where he resided at Lambeth Palace with Archbishop Cranmer in 1547. In 1549 he succeeded Paul f.a.gius as Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge. On the death of Edward VI. he revisited Germany, and, after some vicissitudes, became Professor of the Old Testament at Heidelberg in 1561. He ultimately found a home in the College of Sedan, where he died. His chief literary work was a Latin translation of the Bible from the Hebrew and Syriac. The five parts relating to the Old Testament were published at Frankfurt between 1575 and 1579; in London in 1580, and in numerous later editions. Tremellius also translated into Hebrew Calvin's Catechism (Paris, 1551), and wrote a Chaldaic and Syriac grammar (Paris, 1569).

TURCKHEIM, Rev. Ernest Julius, had been, at the age of twenty-one, master of a Jewish school at West Hartlepool, where he gave great satisfaction to the parents of the children, so that they wished him to become their minister. In order that he should be able conscientiously to discharge his duties, Turckheim applied himself to a diligent study of the Old Testament. This in itself made him more serious than he had been before. Meeting with Mr. J. Alexander, then agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society at the Crystal Palace, he received from him a New Testament, and through reading it earnestly he became convinced of the truth of Christianity, and was baptized in 1873. He then studied at the London College of Divinity, and was ordained at York in 1875-6 to the curacy of St. Thomas there. In 1878 he was curate of All Saints', Derby. In 1879 he became curate of All Souls', Langham Place, London. In 1882 he was appointed to the living of Hale Magna, in Lincolns.h.i.+re, where he did good work until his death in 1907.

Speaking at the L.J.S. anniversary meeting in 1893, he said:--"A Jew by birth, a Jew by training and practice till I was twenty-four years old; a Jew still by every feeling of national loyalty and sympathy, I thank G.o.d that I can say, nevertheless I am also a Christian. And it is as a Jew and a Christian I have responded to your invitation, and am standing here to-day and make this solemn confession of my faith. It is due to the grace of G.o.d, it is due to the power of His Word, which is the power of G.o.d unto salvation, unto every one that believeth--to the Jew first.

It is due, I must add, to the patience and forbearance, to the love and labours, to the life and death, to the mediation and sufferings for me of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is due to the prayers of G.o.d's people, it is due to this Society. It is due to all of you who labour and pray, and make substantial sacrifices for the promotion of Christianity amongst the Jews. It is due that we Christian Jews who have, by the grace of G.o.d, been brought out of Jewish darkness into the blessed and happy position of pardoned sinners by the blood of the Cross, that we should fearlessly declare with no uncertain sound, that whilst we are Christians by grace, we are still Jews by nature, by race, and by sympathy, and thus take a humble part in testifying to the blessed and everlasting truth that G.o.d has not cast away His people, that there is still a remnant according to the election of grace. It is twenty years since I ventured my eternal welfare with Jesus of Nazareth.

After twenty years of mature deliberation and trial, I once more take my stand beside the Ethiopian eunuch, and declare to-day, with my heart full of thankful gladness and humble faith, 'I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of G.o.d.' Twenty years, we must observe, is a period wherein a man can make a test of a step that he has taken, and I never, never, for one moment, have wavered in my conviction that 'there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,' than the name of Jesus Christ."

VAMBREY, Hermann, was born in 1832 at Szerdahely, on the Island Schutt, Hungary. He studied at Pressburg, especially modern languages, and became a member of the Reformed Church after his baptism. At the age of twenty-two he became tutor in a Turkish family in Constantinople, and later he travelled through Asia Minor, Armenia, Persia, Turkestan, Bokhara, Samarkand and the regions of the Oxus. Dressed as a dervish he pa.s.sed through all these countries unhurt, but was often in danger. He then published his experiences and acquisitions in these journeys, in the following works: "German-Turkish Dictionary" (Constantinople, 1858).

"Dsagataic Dictionary" (Hungarian), (Pesth, 1861). "An Etymological Dictionary of Torkatartaric Languages" (Leipzig, 1877). "The Russian Power in Asia" (_ib_., 1871). "Central Asia" and "Anglo-Russian Relations" (_ib_. 1873). "Travels in Central Asia" (_ib_., 1865).

"Sketches from Central Asia" (_ib_. 1868). "Wanderings and Experience in Persia" (1867). "Niguric Linguistic Doc.u.ments" (Innsbruck, 1870).

"History of Bokhara" (Stuttgart, 1872). "Islam in the 19th Century"

(Leipzig, 1875). "Moral Pictures from the East" (Berlin, 1876); and a number of other works. He wrote his autobiography under the t.i.tles, "Arminius Vambrey, His Life and Adventures" (London, 1883), and "Struggles of my Life" (_ib_., 1894).

VANORDEN, Rev. E., a Dutch Jew, who was baptized by Dr. Ewald in 1863.

He afterwards studied for the ministry in America and was sent as a missionary to Brazil, where he laboured at San Paulo for many years.

VENETIANER, Pastor A., son of a Jewish rabbi, was converted through the preaching of the Rev. C. A. Schonberger. He afterward studied theology in Serftom. In 1879 he became Pastor in Panseora, Hungary, and afterwards in Trieste, where he wrote a book ent.i.tled: "Die Evangelische reformite Kirche Cristo Salvatore zu Triest" (Trieste and Leipzig, 1887); and also an epistle to Rabbi J. Lichtenstein in Tapio Szele, ent.i.tled "Zum Zeugniss" (Vienna, 1886). Later on he became Pastor at Rohrbach, South Russia, where he supported the movement of Rabinowitz.

VICARS, Mrs. Murray, was the daughter of a wealthy Jewish merchant, and was brought to a knowledge of the Saviour through her intercourse with a Christian nurse. Her father, when attending the dedication of a new synagogue, took cold and became dangerously ill. His Jewish friends of the synagogue came to visit him, but were afraid to tell him that he was on the brink of the grave, and he died soon after. This brought her serious thoughts and led her to question the reason why the Jews shrink from mentioning the subject of death to a sick man. She had afterward to appear before a Court in reference to the property which her father had left and to take an oath before the magistrate. An Old Testament was then handed to her for that purpose, when she exclaimed before the whole a.s.sembly of Jews and Christians: "The New Testament is for me." This raised a great commotion, but having taken this decisive step, she did not hesitate to become a member of the Church by baptism. She afterward married the Rev. Murray Vicars, and went with him to Bagdad to labour amongst the Jews there. On their journey back to England on account of ill-health, her husband died at Ma.r.s.eilles, in 1850, and she settled at Brighton, where she founded a school for ragged children. It must be added that her sister, too, embraced Christianity, and she left three sons, clergymen of the Church of England, two of them are especially well known--the Rev. Charles Neil and the Rev. James Neil. The latter was inc.u.mbent of Christ Church, Mount Zion, from 1871-74.

The maiden name of Mrs. Murray Vicars was f.a.n.n.y Phillips; her brother Samuel was a distinguished man of letters.

WALLFISCH, Rev. J. H., was brought to a knowledge of Christ by Professor Ca.s.sel at Breslau, and after his baptism there he was for a time in the service of the Free Church of Scotland. He emigrated to the United States and, joining the Methodist Episcopal Church, became secretary of the Jewish mission of that body, founded an "Inst.i.tutum Judaic.u.m"

amongst the students of the Anglo-German College at Golena, and received from Milton College the degree of Doctor of Music.

WEISS, Edward, was converted through the instrumentality of Dr.

Zuckerkandl at Rustschuk, Bulgaria, in 1869, where he was for some time teacher in the mission school. On account of the Russo-Turkish war, he was removed by the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel amongst the Jews to Vienna, and a.s.sisted Salkinson. At least thirty of his enquirers were baptized there. The rest of his life was spent in preaching the Gospel at Pressburg, where he had frequent intercourse with the students of the Rabbinic Seminary there. He died in 1905.

WOLF, Philipp, D.D., was baptized in 1554. He wrote "Spiegel der Juden,"

in which he brings proofs from Moses and the prophets that Jesus is the Messiah, and gives information concerning the Jewish prayers, some of which he quotes in German, and also in reference to the "Shem Hamphorath," or ineffable name of G.o.d. (Wolff, Bib. Heb. 3 N. 1830 c.)

WOLFF, Joseph. The two great missionary explorers of the nineteenth century were David Livingstone and Joseph Wolff. The labours of the former were chiefly confined to Negro races of the "Dark Continent"; whereas the latter made most extensive journeys amongst the various remnants of the tribes of Israel scattered throughout Africa and Asia.

The lives of both these great men touch upon all that is romantic and of thrilling interest in the wide range of exploration, and none the less so because they consecrated themselves to their Master's service, and, with a consuming zeal for souls, went forth to seek and to save the lost.

Joseph Wolff was the pioneer missionary to Jews in the Orient. Like St.

Paul, he, too, was "in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness." His almost superhuman efforts in the third and fourth decades of last century cast a halo of romance around Jewish missions, and laid the foundation for much subsequent work. Within the short period of sixteen years we find him visiting Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Asiatic Turkey, Persia, India, Bokhara, Abyssinia and Arabia--and some of these countries more than once. Verily, he compa.s.sed sea and land to make proselytes to the faith, of which he became such a doughty champion.

The life of this remarkable man naturally falls into three periods--his early years as a Jew; his missionary efforts amongst his brethren; and his last years quietly and uneventfully pa.s.sed in country parishes in England. Our chief concern is with the middle period, to which, however, we can do but scant justice, as its constant and restless action and stirring adventures overwhelm us with an embarra.s.sment of riches.

"Wolff," as he was simply called, after his grandfather, was born at Weilersbach, a small Bavarian village, in 1795, or 1796,[25] of Jewish parents, his father, whose name was David, belonging to the tribe of Levi. He was the rabbi of the small Jewish community of the place, numbering fifteen families, but soon after the birth of his son he removed to Halle. In his very early years the boy received a strict Jewish education, and at the age of six recited the Hebrew prayer-book every day. He was then sent to a Christian school, but apparently only to learn German. When Wolff was eleven years old he was placed at the Protestant Lyceum at Stuttgart, but growing dissatisfied with it, he went to reside with his cousin, Moses Cohen, at Bamberg, and entered the Roman Catholic Lyceum of that place. He there made up his mind to become a Christian and a missionary like Francis Xavier. But he was unsettled in the extreme in his search after the truth, and wandered to Wurzburg, Frankfort-on-the-Main, Halle, Prague, Vienna, Pressburg, back again to Vienna, Molk, Munich, Ans.p.a.ch, Saxe Weimar, Heidelberg, Soleure, and finally arrived at Prague. There he was baptized by the Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery Emaus, in the year 1812, at the age of seventeen, receiving the name of "Joseph." At his confirmation shortly afterwards he received the two further names of "Stanilaus Wenceslaus," which, however, he never used.

[25] Wolff himself is responsible for this uncertainty, having supplied these two different dates. "Travels and Adventures," vol. 1, p. 2, and "Missionary Journal and Memoir," p. 1.

Joseph Wolff was by this time proficient in the Latin, Persian, Chaldean, and Syriac languages, and entered the University of Vienna to study Arabic, Ecclesiastical History, and Divinity. There he remained two years. In 1814 he resided with Count Stollberg, and, like every one else, was much exercised at Napoleon's escape from Elba. In 1815 Wolff entered the Lutheran University of Tubingen to pursue his studies in Oriental languages and theology; but he left the next year on a pilgrimage to Rome, travelling on foot through Switzerland and Italy until he reached the Eternal City. Being introduced to Pope Pius VII., he shewed him a Hebrew Bible which had been the companion of his travels. Wolff entered the Collegio Romano, and in 1817 the Propaganda, from which his Protestant leanings, and neglect of scholastic divinity for the Bible, caused his expulsion in 1818. Wolff now returned to Vienna, lamenting that his missionary aspirations had been frustrated.

In his distress of mind he wrote to Hoffbauer, Vicar-General of the Liguorians, who received him into his monastery. Wolff was not happy there for more than a few months, and leaving Vienna, travelled through Austria to the Benedictine monastery of Krems-Munster, where he was well received by the monks. Too restless to remain long in any place, Wolff travelled through Bavaria, Switzerland, and France, entering first this monastery and then that. At Paris he met with Robert Haldane, who exercised a powerful religious influence over him; and with whom he journeyed to London.

We naturally find our interest in this talented and eager youth increasing on his arrival in England, in 1819, at the age of twenty-four, when he came under the notice of Mr. Henry Drummond, the Rev. Charles Simeon, the Rev. Lewis Way, and other well-known friends of Israel. Wolff made his way, as almost every baptized or enquiring Jew did when first arriving in this country, to "Palestine Place," the missionary headquarters of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, where all were sure of a hearty welcome. He attended the service in the Episcopal Jews' Chapel, conducted by the chaplain, the Rev. Charles Sleech Hawtrey, and, to use his own words, was "enchanted with the devotion and beauty of the ritual." Henceforth he considered himself a member of the Church of England. The Society sent him to Cambridge to be trained as a missionary, and to study theology under Simeon (himself of Jewish extraction), and other Oriental languages under Professor Lee. Two years' residence there, and a short course at the London Society's Seminary in Suss.e.x, were sufficient for the zealous young convert who was longing for active missionary service abroad. Mr. Drummond sent him forth on his career. His feverish anxiety to be thus employed is seen in his selection of the words of Francis Xavier, "Who would not travel over land and sea to be instrumental in the salvation of one soul?" as the motto for the t.i.tle page of his "Travels." Wolff left England in April, 1821, and with pa.s.sing calls at Gibraltar, and Malta (where he baptized a Jew) in due time he reached Alexandria. He spent three months amongst the Jews of that city and of Cairo, preaching in their synagogues, and distributing New Testaments. A visit which he paid to the Convent of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai, is interesting from the fact that the monks promised to pray for the conversion of the Jews.

Wolff's eyes, however, were fixed on the Holy City, and his work in Egypt was regarded by himself as a "preparation for preaching the Gospel of Christ at Jerusalem." He did so first in the synagogue of the Karaites; and afterwards made daily efforts for three or four months to reach the Sephardim, Ashken.a.z.im and Cha.s.sidim, both by word of mouth and circulation of the Holy Scriptures.

Towards the end of 1822, Wolff visited Antioch and Aleppo, just before the terrible earthquake visitation of the latter city, when hundreds of Jews confessed that the truth of the Gospel could not be denied. In the spring of 1823 he was again in Egypt following up his previous work, and going on to Jerusalem for Easter. His three months' labour there amongst the Jews, thus described by himself, "I lodged among them, and was engaged in preaching the Gospel from morning to night, and often all night," cleared the way for subsequent efforts.

In the same year Wolff visited Damascus, where the Jews eagerly accepted the Arabic Bibles which he had with him, and Aleppo, where he was again well received.

Wolff's account of his visit to Bagdad in 1824, and other cities of Mesopotamia, is most interesting reading. He seems to have visited the scattered communities of Jews, amongst all of whom he had easy access.

At Mosul he was shewn a Hebrew translation of the New Testament which had been made by a rabbi a hundred years previously. Left as a precious heirloom to the rabbinical college, it had remained neglected until Wolff pointed out its priceless value. At Orfa, the ancient "Ur of the Chaldees," Wolff found about fifty Jewish families, and some Jacobites, or Syrian Christians, claiming to be lineally descended from Jews who received Christianity through the preaching of St. James at Jerusalem.

Their peculiar ceremonies, as also their features, gave colour to their claim to be literal as well as spiritual children of Abraham.

In 1825 Wolff visited the various Jewish communities of Persia, who, perhaps, have better grounds than any other people to be regarded as descendants of the "Lost Ten Tribes." In 1827 and 1828 Wolff visited the Ionian Islands and Asia Minor. At Smyrna he awakened, as indeed he did everywhere, a widespread enquiry into Christianity on the part of the Jews.

Probably the most romantic and thrilling of all Wolff's experiences were those which he encountered at Bokhara in 1832. "Adventures to the adventurous" is a truism, and Wolff was bold and daring to the last degree, otherwise he would not have accomplished his purpose. He dressed as a Turkoman, and so obtained an audience of the king, when he was denounced as a Russian spy by the Jews. By his wonderful adroitness he overcame all opposition, and received permission to evangelize the Jews, but was forbidden to hold religious converse with Moslems. He took lodgings at the house of a Jew, and was visited by his brethren, who a.s.serted that their forefathers had been carried from Samaria by the Kings of a.s.syria and brought to Haran (Isa. x.x.xvii. 12), _i.e._, Bokhara. The three months spent there by Wolff, especially amongst the learned cla.s.s, were fruitful, and he baptized as many as twenty. These men had all remained faithful when he visited Bokhara again in 1844.