Book into Wen-li, or classic style, blending with it as much as possible

the English and American Prayer Books, with the hope that all missions

of the Anglican communion might use it in China. Although this hope was

not gratified, the book was for many years the only one in use in all

the American missions, and formed the basis of the colloquial versions

which have since superseded it. In 1879 the Bishop went up the river to

Wuchang, and began the translation of the Apocrypha. He had only

completed one book when he was smitten down during the intense heat of

the summer of 1881, and his physicians ordered his removal to Europe,

whither he went the following spring. He was under treatment from 1882

to 1886, at Geneva in Switzerland. In 1883 Bishop Schereschewsky,

unwilling to retain an office whose duties he could not discharge,

resigned his Bishopric.

With wonderful perseverance he now devoted all his energies of mind,

which remained unimpaired, to the work of bringing the Scriptures within

the reach of the Chinese nation. Fully acquainted with their language in

its different forms, and being not only a skilful Sinologist, but one of

the most learned Orientalists in the world--and that by the testimony of

Professor Max Müller--using a pen as long as he could hold a pen, and

then, owing to paralysis, working on a typewriter with the two fingers

which he could control, he translated the Old Testament from the

original Hebrew into the Mandarin dialect, leaving to a secretary only

the reduction of the typewritten words into the Chinese character. For

twenty years, day after day, in China, and for a while in Massachusetts,

and more recently in Japan, when he was near a printing-press which he

could use, he worked under disadvantages which would have put an end to

the courage and the labours of almost any other man. Not long before his

death he completed his greatest work, the translation of the whole

Bible, including the Apocrypha, into the Wen-li dialect. He also wrote

Chinese grammars and dictionaries, and translated the Gospels into

Mongolian, preparing also a dictionary of that language. He died at

Tokyo, on October 15th, 1906.

We may add the following extract from the Bible Society's memoir of the

Bishop, written by the Rev. Crayden Edmunds, M.A.:

"His early training, whereby he came to know Hebrew better than any

other language, specially fitted him to become a translator of the Old

Testament. This peculiar fitness was soon recognised by his missionary

colleagues, who about 1865 entrusted him with the translation of the Old

Testament into Northern Mandarin. He also worked on the Peking Committee

as a translator of the New Testament. His version of the Old Testament,

first published by the American Bible Society in 1875, has since been

repeatedly issued by both the A.B.S. and the B.F.B.S. A revised edition

appeared in 1899. But a still greater work was his translation of the

whole Bible into Easy Wenli; he added the New Testament in this case,

in order to secure uniformity; both Burdon and Blodgett's, and Griffith

John's versions of the New Testament being in a somewhat different

style. This Bible the A.B.S. published in 1902.

"The significance of Bishop Schereschewsky's achievements, however, lies

not so much in their extent and scholarship as in their testimony to the

indomitable courage of the man and his devotion to his work. Six years

after his consecration as Bishop he became paralysed, and had to resign

his episcopal jurisdiction. His malady increased till it left him with

the use of only the middle finger of each hand. Fortunately his

intellect remained unimpaired, and with these two fingers he was able to

type out his MSS., which were afterwards rewritten in Chinese characters

by his secretary.

"But the toil was well worth while. To this man alone has it been

granted to give to the two hundred and fifty million Mandarin-speaking

Chinese, as well as to the mass of readers in China, the Oracles of God

as found in the Old Testament. Reviewing, therefore, his life in the

light of these facts, we may surely trace the divine purpose in taking

him from one task, for which a successor would without difficulty be

found, and setting him free for another, for which his whole previous

life had been a unique preparation. As a translator his influence has

been far wider than it could have been as a Bishop, and Chinese

Christians will ever remember, with gratitude to God, the great scholar

who out of weakness was made strong--who laid so well and so truly the

foundations of the Bible in their greatest vernacular, and in the more

popular form of their written language."

SCHLOCHOW, Rev. Emmanuel, was born at Wingiz in Silesia. His father

being indifferent to religion, he had no religious education, and became

only aware that he was a Jew when his fellow-Christian scholars

mockingly reminded him of it at school. This he could not endure, and

his father advised him to go to a Roman Catholic priest and be baptized.

However, he was then a thorough infidel, and at one time, on account of

some disappointment that he had met with, he bought a pistol and was

about to commit suicide, when the Scotch missionary Cerf knocked at the

door of his room, and not only rescued him from taking away his life,

but by God's help enabled him to devote that life to His service. He was

converted and baptized in 1848. In 1851 he became connected with the

L.J.S., and was sent as a missionary in 1853 to Jassy, where he remained

three years. In 1856 he was appointed to Alsace, and had his station at

Strassburg, whence he itinerated to France and the Rhine provinces, and

met everywhere acceptance among Jews and Christians. In 1874 he went

with the Rev. A. Bernstein on visits to several rabbis in Alsace and

Lorraine, when they were cordially received and had profitable

conversations. He then was transferred to Crefeld, but much suffering

from asthma obliged him to retire to Worthing, where he died in 1876,

and upon his tombstone in the churchyard there can be read the words in

Hebrew, "I know that my Redeemer liveth," so that he still preaches to

Jewish visitors.

SCHÖNBERGER, Rev. C. A., after embracing Christianity, studied at Pesth

and Basle and Leipzig, laboured for some time as a Scotch Free Church

missionary at Pesth, where many Jews attended his lectures. He was

ordained in Stuttgart in 1867, laboured then at Prague till 1872, when

he entered the service of the British Society, and was sent back to

Prague, and from there he was transferred to Vienna, where he was very

efficient and realized the fulness of blessing upon his ministry. Some

of his converts became preachers of the Gospel among Jews and

Christians. About 1892 he returned to England, and on account of illness

resigned his office. After the death of his brother-in-law, Dr. Saphir,

he felt that he was called to supply in some measure his influence on

behalf of the Jews, and he connected himself with the work carried on by

Rabbi Lichtenstein at Pesth, and joining the Rev. David Baron, they both

founded a mission in East London, under the name of the "Hebrew

Christian Testimony to Israel," where a great work has been going on

ever since in their own mission-house in Whitechapel Road, whence the

Gospel has been carried by word and literature to Hungary, the Danubian

Principalities, and Russia.

SCIALITTI, Rabbi Moses, an Italian Jew, was baptized on Trinity Sunday,

1663 by Dr. Warmestre, Dean of Worcester, at the Church of St. Margaret,

when the Bishop of Chester, Dr. Samuel Collins, the Countess Lucy of

Huntingdon, and other persons of high standing were sponsors by proxy.

Scialitti subsequently addressed a letter in Italian and English to the

Jews, stating the grounds for his embracing Christianity, and exhorting

them to go and do likewise.

SCHUFFAMER, Rabbi Elisha, came from Salonica to Jerusalem, and was

through the preaching of Dr. Ewald converted to Christianity and

baptized in 1848. He then returned to Salonica to fetch his family, but

four of his children had died, yet his wife followed him to Jerusalem.

There he was employed for a time as layreader, and was afterwards

transferred to Cairo, where he had a Bible depôt.

SCHULHOF, Dr. M., a Jewish convert, was a medical missionary of the

British Society. In 1854 he published: "Notes on Diseases in Turkey in

reference to European troops and Memoir of the remittant fever of the

Levant."

SCHWARTZ, Rev. Dr. Karl (Solomon), was born at Meseritz in Posen in

1817. His father, Isaac Schwartz was a merchant, and gave him a strict

rabbinic education, cherishing the hope that he would one day become a

teacher in Israel. To this end he was sent to Berlin in 1832 to study at

the rabbinic Seminary there. In the lectures the professors occasionally

compared Judaism with Christianity, to the disadvantage, of course, of

the latter. This excited in Schwartz a desire to examine Christianity

for himself, so he took the first step by exchanging the Seminary for

the Gymnasium. During the course of his studies he was instructed in

Christianity and baptized October 18, 1837. He then studied theology for

a year at Halle, under Tholuck, and then under Neander, Hengstenberg,

and Twesten, for four years at Berlin. At that time he used to give

lessons in foreign languages to the inmates of the Berlin House for

foreign missions, when his landlady said to him once, "It is all very

nice for you to teach these young men foreign languages in order that

they may be qualified to preach the Gospel to the heathen. Have you at

all thought of your own brethren who live in your own neighbourhood

without the light of the Gospel?" This was a word in season. Thereupon

he entered into correspondence with the L.J.S., joined the Church of

England, and was ordained deacon by the Bishop of London on March 20,

1842, and was sent by the Society to Constantinople. On his way there he

sojourned for awhile at Pesth, where his lectures on Isaiah liii. bore

good fruit, and it seems that he then got engaged to Maria Dorothea, a

daughter of Israel Saphir. He did not remain very long in

Constantinople, because his connexion with the Scotch Mission at Pesth

caused him to join the Free Church of Scotland, and he was sent by that

Church to Berlin, where he was stationed from 1844 to 1849, and he went

then to Prague, but settled in the same year at Amsterdam. There he

found that the Dutch Jews were not so accessible as the Jews in Hungary,

Turkey, and Germany, so he adopted the method of preaching special

sermons in churches and inviting the Jews through advertisements to

attend them. In 1850 he issued a Dutch paper, giving expositions of

Messianic prophecy and the like, for circulation among the Jews. This he

edited for several years. In 1856 a mission church was built for him,

and his first sermon then was on Zech. iv. 6. In that church he baptized

quite a number of Jews. On Sunday, August 1, 1858, Schwartz ascended the

pulpit to preach to a congregation of 1,200, on St. John xii. 26, and

while bowing down to offer up prayer, a young Jew quietly crept up the

steps and stabbed him with a dagger in the left shoulder so that he was

saturated with blood, and had to be carried home in a fainting

condition. The attempted assassin was put into prison, where Schwartz,

after his recovery, visited him but did not succeed in bringing him to a

better mind. However, a near relation of his became a Christian after

that event; and a Jewess, too, was thereby induced to come to Schwartz

for instruction and baptism. After fifteen years' arduous labours in

Holland, Schwartz accepted a call in 1864 from the congregation of

Trinity Chapel, Newnham Street, London, to succeed Ridley Herschell. In

London he founded a home for enquirers; and edited a periodical

entitled, "The Scattered Nation." In 1866 he founded "The Hebrew

Christian Alliance," and delivered lectures, besides preaching twice

every Sunday. In this good work he continued till August 24, 1870, when

he died on his knees at the age of fifty-three, and was buried near his

friend, Ridley Herschell.

SCHWARZENBERG, Rabbi Abraham, lived in the little town of Kasimir in

Poland, and was employed by a Jewish merchant who at last became a

bankrupt, yet on account of his Talmudic learning was chosen as rabbi at

Lublin. Schwarzenberg, who was an upright, conscientious man, knowing

that his master had deceived many poor people, took offence thereat, and

reproached the Jews for not acting according to the law in this matter.

After this some one gave him a New Testament which missionaries had left

in the town. After reading it he persuaded others also to read it, and

exposed himself to persecution. He then went in search of the

missionaries, and coming to a Roman Catholic priest he expressed a wish

to be instructed and baptized, but the priest told him that he must

first of all lay aside the New Testament. Schwarzenberg concluded that

he was not a missionary, and went to Lublin, where he had heard there

was an Evangelical minister. This worthy man looked upon him with

suspicion and received him coldly, so he went to a river and dipped

himself three times in the name of the Holy Trinity. At last he heard

that the missionaries resided in Warsaw, so he tramped at once to

Warsaw, where Dr. McCaul instructed and baptized him in 1828, in his

65th year. In spite of his age Schwarzenberg began to learn German in

order that he might intelligently take part in the services of the

Church of England. His mode of life was quite that of a Polish Jew, with

long fore-locks and dressed in a long kaftan with girdle. He used to say

that a converted Jew must have a changed heart, but not a change of

dress. He maintained himself by selling fruit in the street, and also

worked voluntarily as a missionary. The police had an order to protect

him against the Jews, though when he was in a lonely street he was often

stoned by them. In this manner he ran the Christian race until 1842,

when he departed at the age of eighty to be with Christ.

SEGALL, Rev. Joseph F., a native of Piatra (Moldavia), came with a

number of young friends into possession of missionary literature which a

colporteur from Bucharest had left in the town in 1874. This they

studied secretly in rotation. After being solemnly impressed by the

truth, they wrote a letter to the Rev. F. G. Kleinhenn, asking for

admission to some institution in which they might learn more of the

Gospel. Mr. Kleinhenn replied that he had no such home, and could not

encourage anyone to come to him except on his own means and on his own

responsibility. However, one day Segall and his friend Suffrin appeared

at Mr. Kleinhenn's house, and he had to take them in. They were then

instructed by Mr. Kleinhenn and Mr. Bernstein for some considerable

time, and then baptized. The history of the two runs to some extent

together. The relations of each tried their utmost to win them back to

Judaism, but they had grace given to them not to yield. In the same year

Mr. Bernstein, then stationed at Strasburg, was the medium of their

being admitted by Dr. Heman, at Basel, into his home for proselytes, to

be trained for future usefulness. After finishing their course of study

they applied to the L.J.S., passed through its missionary college, and

were appointed missionaries. Segall was stationed at Birmingham, and

ordained by the Bishop of Worcester in 1877-8 to the curacy of St.

Martin. Subsequently he was appointed to the charge of the mission at

Damascus, where he also acted as chaplain to the English colony there.

SIMON, Erasmus, was one of the earliest converts of the L.J.S. This

excellent man seems to have been a native of Holland. In London he made

the acquaintance of J. Frey, and heard the Gospel from him and was

baptized. In 1820 he was appointed to work under the Rev. A. S. Thelwall

at Amsterdam. In 1829 he formed a society called the "Friends of the

Hebrew Nation," under the patronage of the Bishop of London. This

society rented three houses in Camden Town for Jewish enquirers, and

started the "Operative Jewish Converts' Institution." Amongst its

inmates were the future founder of the British Society for the

Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews, Ridley Herschell, and

Wertheimer, the future well-known bookseller. The former was one of

twelve candidates for baptism presented by Simon to Bishop Blomfield,

who baptized them in St. James', Piccadilly.

SIMSON, Martin Eduard, son of a banker, German jurist and statesman,

born Nov. 10, 1810, at Königsberg, and died at Berlin, May 22, 1899. He

embraced Christianity as a young man, studied law, and in 1833 he became

professor of Roman law, and three years later a judge. In 1848 he

received the title of "Rath" in the higher court. In 1848 he was sent

as a deputy from Königsberg to the National Congress at Frankfurt, and

was soon raised to be its president, and had the honour to offer the

crown of the German Empire to King Frederick William IV. of Prussia.

Subsequently he held high offices of state, and in 1879 he was appointed

first president of the German Supreme Court at Leipzig; in 1888 he

received the decoration of the Black Eagle of Prussia and was ennobled.

In 1892 he retired to private life. He was the author of "Geschichte des

Königsberger Ober Tribunals." Of his three baptized brothers, one became

professor of Oriental languages at Königsberg, and the other two lawyers

at Berlin.

SKOLKOWSKI, J., was a native of Calwary in Russian Poland, baptized at

Königsberg, and then studied at the L.J.S. Missionary Training College

in London. In 1849 he laboured as a missionary in London, Cairo, Lublin,

Gnesen, and Posen, and then, in 1869, at Königsberg. "His annual

reports," says the Rev. W. T. Gidney, "supplied most interesting details

of mission service, together with glimpses of the social condition,

pursuits, and religious opinions of Jews, among whom he devotedly

carried on the work of preaching Christ and Him crucified, until his

retirement in the beginning of 1888, after a long service of very nearly

forty years."

SOBERNHEIM, Dr. Joseph Friedrich, an earnest convert in Berlin in the

middle of the nineteenth century. The history of his conversion is as

follows. A student had pawned a New Testament with a Jew for a paltry

sum of money, and when he came to redeem it, the pawnbroker, having in

the meantime read it and become a Christian, gave the student a hundred

Louis d'or as a token of gratitude because he had through this book come

to a saving knowledge of Christ. This Jewish convert was instrumental in

the conversion of nine other Jews, among whom was Dr. Sobernheim and his

father. He was esteemed as an author of medical works. He wrote:

"Handbuch der Praktischen Arzenimittelehre" (Berlin, 1844), "Beiträge

zur Phänomenologie des Lebens," _ib._, 1841. He died in 1846. ("Jewish

Intelligence," December, 1864.)

SOLOMON, Rev. Benjamin Nehemiah, was born at Lemberg in 1791, and in due

time became a rabbi. In 1814 he came to London, and through the

instrumentality of J. Frey became a Christian, and was ordained in 1817.

He then accompanied Lewis Way on his missionary journey through Holland,

Germany and Russia, both preaching the Gospel to the Jews everywhere.

Lewis Way having obtained for him permission from the Emperor Alexander

to work in Poland, he first of all translated the New Testament into

Yiddish, for the use of Polish Jews. In 1821 he accompanied McCaul to

Warsaw, but from Amsterdam he wrote to Thelwall that the condition of

his wife and children in Galicia obliged him to return home. His own

father declared to the missionary Smith, in 1827, that he was living as

a Christian.

STAHL, Friedrich Julius, son of a banker, jurist and publicist, was born

at Munich, January 16, 1802, and died at Bruckenau, Aug. 10, 1861. He

became a Christian in his eighteenth year, and was baptized at Erlangen

in 1819. Already at the age of fourteen he discussed religious topics

with his fellow scholars. The writings of Thiersch had a great influence

upon him. After he had become a Christian, he acted as a missionary to

his own family and brought his parents and brothers and sisters to the

Saviour. He studied law at the Universities of Wurzburg, Erlangen, and

Heidelberg. In 1834 he represented the University of Erlangen in the

Bavarian Parliament. In 1840 he became professor of law at the

University of Berlin, where his lectures drew an audience of all

classes. His idea of Christianity was that it should pervade the whole

life and also the State. According to Lord Acton, Stahl had a more

predominant influence and shewed more political ability than Lord

Beaconsfield (Acton, Letters to Mary Gladstone, p. 103, London, 1904).

His writings are as follows, "Die Philosophie des Rechts nach

Geschichtlicher Ansicht," 2 vols. (Heidelberg, 1830-37); "Ueber die

Kirchenzucht" (1845-58); "Das Monarchische Princip" (Heidelberg, 1845);

"Der Christliche Staat" (_ib._, 1847-8); "Die Revolution und die

Constitutionelle Monarchie" (1848-9); "Was ist Revolution?" (_ib._,

1852), of which three editions were issued; "Der Protestantismus als

Politisches Princip" (_ib._, 1853-4); "Die Katholische Widerlegungen"

(_ib._, 1854); "Wider Bunsen" (1856); "Die Lutherische Kirche und die

Union" (1859-60). After his death were published, "Siebenzehn

Parlamentarishen Reden" (1862), and "Die Gegenwärtigen Partien in Staat

und Kirche" (1868).

STEINHARDT, son of the landlord for many years of the L.J.S. schools at

Bucharest naturally came in contact with the mission there, but no one

of the family shewed any inclination towards Christianity, yet the seed

sown in the son's heart bore fruit in time. He went to Constantinople

and was baptized there. Then he became a city missionary in New York,

studied theology, and became, in 1871, pastor of a Swiss congregation in

Fountain City, Wisconsin, and in 1882 at Louisville, Ky.

STERN, Dr. Henry A., was born of Jewish parents on April 11, 1820, at

Unterreichenbach, in the Duchy of Hesse Cassel. Subsequently the family

removed to Frankfort-on-the-Main, where they resided in the quaint old

"Judengasse," now a thing of the past. Though educated in this town with

a view to the medical profession, Stern, when about seventeen years of

age, decided to follow commerce, and to that end repaired to Hamburg. It

was there, in the providence of God, that his attention was first drawn

to Christianity, by noticing some Christian literature in a glass case

near the house of the London Jews' Society's missionary, Mr. J. C.

Moritz. The impression subsequently obtained by its perusal was

increased when, on arrival in London, in 1839, Stern was induced by a

fellow-lodger to attend a Sunday afternoon Hebrew service in Palestine

Place, conducted by Dr. Alexander McCaul. Thoroughly awakened, Stern

sought the missionary the next day, and, indeed, for many days, until he

became a recognized enquirer, and was eventually admitted into the

Operative Jewish Converts' Institution. There he was further carefully

prepared in Christianity, and baptized on March 15, 1840. For two years

longer he remained in the Institution, working at his trade, but it was

very evident that Stern, by his learning and gifts, was eminently fitted

to be a missionary, and consequently he was taken into the Society's

College for a further term of two years.

In 1844 Stern received his first missionary post, and was sent to

Bagdad. He left London under the direction of the Rev. Murray Vickers,

accompanied by three other young missionaries. They broke their journey

at Jerusalem, where Stern was ordained deacon by Bishop Alexander, on

July 14 of the same year. Arriving at Bagdad, Stern threw himself into

his work with great zeal and ardour.

The Jewish population of Bagdad then consisted of about 16,000 souls.

The whole trade of the town was in their hands, and they were supposed

to be the most wealthy class of the community. They manifested the

greatest anxiety to obtain the books published by the Society. Day after

day the house of the missionaries was filled to overflowing with Jews of

all ages, ranks and stations, and the streets near were crowded all day

by numbers of Jews, Stern being constantly stopped as he walked along

them. The bazaars, khans, and the Beth Hamedrash, were visited, and

supplied frequent opportunities for proclaiming the Gospel.

The eagerness manifested by the Jews of Bagdad to enter into discussion

on the subject of Christianity, and more especially the application of

two enquirers for regular instruction, stirred up active opposition on

the part of the rabbis, and an excommunication was issued against all

who should have intercourse with the missionaries. This had the desired

effect. For six or seven months no Jew was seen in the mission house.

Then, gradually, some ventured to come by stealth; and, soon, from

twelve to twenty again visited the missionaries on Saturdays, several of

whom were of the most respectable Jewish families in Bagdad. The Jewish

authorities, however, did not relax their vigilance, but threatened to

repeat the anathema.

In the winter of 1844 Stern made a journey to certain places on the

banks of the Euphrates, going to Hillah, where he visited the synagogue

and Jewish schools; the tomb of Ezekiel, greatly venerated by the Jews;

Meshed-Ali, a Moslem town with a few Jews; Cufa; the tower of Belus

(Babel) or Birs Nimroud; and the ruins of Babylon. In 1845 Stern and a

fellow-labourer, the Rev. P. H. Sternchuss, improved the time during

which missionary operations in Bagdad were suspended, in consequence of

the _cherem_ mentioned above, in making a missionary journey into the

interior of Persia. They held much interesting intercourse with the Jews

of Kermanshah and Hamadan. On November 21 of the same year, the two

missionaries embarked on the Tigris for the purpose of undertaking a

second journey in Persia. They visited Bussorah, Bushire, Shiraz, and

several other places where Jews resided. Both in synagogues and Jewish

schools, and also at their lodgings, they proclaimed the unsearchable

riches of Christ to considerable numbers of their Jewish brethren.

The deadly scourge of cholera prevailed in Bagdad to an alarming extent

in 1846, and in a very few weeks several thousands were suddenly taken

off by it, and missionary work was consequently suspended. The Jews

thought the visitation was owing to the fact that many of their brethren

had imbibed the doctrines of Christianity, and their opposition became

most violent. A second _cherem_ was pronounced in the synagogues against

the missionaries and all holding intercourse with them.

Notwithstanding the violence of the rabbis and the ignorance which

prevailed, especially amongst Jewesses, the missionaries met with many

to whom they were able to declare the love of the Redeemer, and several

received regular instruction. Of the Bagdad Jews in general they

said:--"A spirit of enquiry pervades all classes of Jews in Bagdad The

rabbis are fully sensible of it, and endeavour to do everything in their

power to check this extraordinary movement."

In 1847 a temporary retreat to Persia was thought advisable, during

which Stern preached the Gospel to many hundreds of Jews, both in

Chaldæa and Persia, and extensively circulated the Scriptures in the

Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Armenian languages. This

was a great achievement in a region hitherto noted for intolerance,

bigotry, poverty, fanaticism, and superstition.

On the arrival from home of fresh supplies of books, the lodgings of the

missionaries were crowded for days together, from morning till evening,

with eager applicants for the sacred treasure. The missionaries were now

well known to many of the Jews in the surrounding countries, from the

journeys which they undertook from time to time. They sent the Word of

God to the wilds of Kurdistan, the deserts of Khorasan and Turkistan.

They were privileged to admit two Israelites, one of Bagdad and the

other from Bushire, into the Church of Christ by baptism. Others

received instruction from them for a longer or a shorter period.

On their return to Bagdad, a room belonging to the mission was fitted up

for Divine Service, and usually from twelve to fifteen Jews attended the

daily morning service, at dawn of day; the instruction of enquirers

taking place immediately afterwards. An English service was held on

Sunday morning, and a Hebrew service in the afternoon during winter. An

operative converts' institution was opened.

In August, 1850, a Jewish doctor was baptized, which incident produced

another severe anathema from the rabbis against all who should have any

intercourse with the missionaries. "In order to make the interdict more

impressive," wrote Stern, "the horn was blown, and all the books of the

law unrolled." This was repeated several days. Jews, in large numbers,

however, began to call at the depôt which Stern opened; and he affirmed

that there were many who had learned the Truth from reading the New

Testament. In 1851 and 1853 two other baptisms were recorded. After

eight or nine years spent in Mesopotamia, where Mrs. Stern's health had

greatly suffered from an attack of cholera, Stern was transferred to

Constantinople in 1853.

There he found a larger and even more important sphere of work--totally

different, as he had now to deal with Spanish instead of Eastern Jews.

They were down-trodden and oppressed, and their pitiable state was not

improved by the extensive conflagrations, which periodically devastated

their quarter. Numbers, however, became enquirers, notwithstanding

severe persecution, and some were baptized. The mission schools were

well attended, and the medical mission, conducted by Dr. Leitner, did

excellent service. Stern visited Adrianople, Salonica, and other towns

with large Jewish populations.

The year 1856 was signalized by a visit to the Karaites and other Jews

in the Crimea. At Baktchi-Serai, Stern was surrounded by Jews, "all

anxious to buy Gospels," and was the guest of the chief rabbi, who

shewed him the cemetery of the Karaites--strangely called "The Valley of

Jehoshaphat"--with its 40,000 sculptured tombs, and in which myriads more

had been interred, to whose memory poverty or indifference had raised no

monument. At Simpheropol, Stern preached in the synagogue and sold a

number of New Testaments and Pentateuchs. On one occasion he had the

privilege of addressing British troops in their quarters in the Crimea.

Stern made a second journey in the same year--to Arabia.

The space at our command is totally inadequate to describe the incidents

of that romantic and perilous journey, in the wake of Joseph Wolff who,

just forty years before, had engaged in the same pioneer work. Stern had

to take precautions for his safety, adopting native dress and passing as

the "Dervish Abdallah." At Safon, a beautiful mountain town, the report

that a man who spoke Hebrew, and yet was no Jew, dressed like a

Mohammedan and yet ignored the Koran, caused much sensation amongst the

Jews, who flocked to see him, and to whom he preached in a synagogue.

This was repeated at other places. At Sanaa he was occupied for twelve

days, with very little rest at night, preaching to the multitudes who

congregated wherever he went. The last day of his visit there he

characterized as "the happiest of my life, the happiest of my missionary

career."

After a visit to England in 1857, Stern returned to Constantinople,

taking up again the threads of his settled missionary work there.

In 1859 Stern embarked on the first of his most memorable journeys to

Abyssinia. Mr. J. M. Flad had been working in that country as one of the

"Pilgrim Missionaries" from St. Chrischona. More Christian labourers,

however, were needed; and so Stern was despatched from Constantinople to

found an English mission, if possible, amongst the Falashas--some

thousands of Jews dwelling in the highlands of the interior. Flad now

joined Stern, and the two worked hand-in-hand together. The results of

this preliminary visit were thus summed up by Stern, who, having

accomplished his purpose, repaired to England in 1861:--"I visited, in

company with Mr. Flad, the Bishop of Jerusalem's Scripture Reader,

upwards of thirty Falasha settlements, and saw the priests, and all

those that could read, from more than fifty-five other places. The

desire to obtain the Word of God exceeds all description; young and old,

the man standing on the verge of the grave, and the youth just rushing

into life's happiest whirl, heedless and indifferent to the pain and

difficulties of the road, followed us for days and days, till we yielded

to their unwearied entreaties, and from our scanty stock supplied their

communities with copies of the sacred volume."

Speaking in Exeter Hall in May of the next year, Stern said, "During my

stay in that country, I was amazed at the excitement created by our

preaching through the various provinces we visited. Frequently, hundreds

of Christians and Jews would meet together near our tent with the Word

of God in their hands, converse and investigate those truths which we

had been preaching."

Flad and a fellow-labourer named Bronkhörst, who had joined him,

continued to carry on the work with much success, and on July 21, 1861,

the first fruits of the mission were gathered in, twenty-two Falashas

receiving Holy Baptism. On August 4, nineteen more were baptized. This

encouraging success led to Stern going out again to Abyssinia in

September, 1862, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Rosenthal. We cannot

follow the details of the work for the next two years, but must sum them

up in Stern's own words:--"We have in the course of two years, without

being allowed to form a separate community, rescued a considerable

number of Falashas from their unbelief, and nominally, but not

virtually, united them as a living, active and spiritual element, to the

dead Church of the Amharas. We have circulated about one thousand whole

copies and portions of Scriptures; we have given an impulse to the study

of the written vernacular; and we have stirred up a spirit of enquiry

among Jews and Amharas, which must either terminate in a spontaneous

reform, or lead (which is far more probable) to our expulsion and a

relentless persecution." The latter surmise proved to be only too true.

The following circumstances eventually led to the imprisonment of the

missionaries. King Theodore had despatched to the Queen of England, by

Consul Cameron, a letter, to which, from some strange reason, no reply

was vouchsafed. A similar letter to Napoleon III. was indeed answered,

but the verbal message accompanying it gave dire offence. Theodore

resolved to be revenged on all Europeans, and to "humble the pride of

Europe," as he said, meaning England and France.

Some expressions in Stern's book, "Wanderings among the Falashas in

Abyssinia," as to Theodore's humble origin, also gave offence to the

dusky monarch. When Stern paid him a visit, in order to ask permission

to return home, the opportunity thus offered for revenge was seized.

Stern had with him two servants. The hour of the visit was unfortunately

ill chosen, and his servants' knowledge of Arabic so limited, as to

render their mode of interpreting so offensive to the King, that he

ordered them to be beaten,--an order so effectually obeyed, that they

died in the night. Stern, unable to endure the scene, turned round, and

in his nervousness _bit his finger_,--unaware, or forgetful, that such a

gesture was in Abyssinia indicative of _revenge_. At first, the King

seemed inclined to overlook the matter, but subsequently, urged on by

those around him, Stern was struck down insensible, and, on recovery,

bound hand to foot and consigned to prison.

For four and a-half years Stern remained a prisoner. It is impossible to

describe his terrible sufferings and perilous position during that long

protracted "period of heart-rending and heart-breaking martyrdom."

Rosenthal was the next victim; subsequently Consul Cameron, Flad and his

wife, Mrs. Rosenthal, Consul Rassam, Lieutenant Prideaux, Blanc, Kerans,

and others, were in turn imprisoned. Flad was shortly afterwards

released, in order to be sent to England on an embassy to Queen

Victoria, his wife and children being held as hostages for his return.

The prisoners remained in captivity--with a slight interval of freedom

in the spring of 1866--first in one place, then in another, and

subsequently at Magdala--until Easter, 1868. An English expeditionary

force, under Sir Robert Napier, had arrived to effect their deliverance.

In answer to the demand of the English General, and perhaps in order to

propitiate him, Theodore ordered the release of his prisoners. This

tardy act of justice did not save him. A battle was fought on Good

Friday between the English army and the hosts of Theodore, who was

decisively beaten. On Easter Monday the stronghold of Magdala was

stormed and captured, and Theodore fell by his own hand. Most graphic

accounts of these stirring days were sent home by Stern and Flad, the

latter of whom prefaced his remarks with the appropriate words, "The

Lord has turned our captivity: we are like unto them that dream. Our

mouth is filled with laughter, and our tongue with praise. We say, The

Lord has done great things for us! The Lord has done great things,

whereof we are glad."

The release of the missionaries by the military expedition sent out to

vindicate the honour of the British nation, and to recover the person of

its official representatives, was a wonderful answer to believing and

persevering prayer. The missionaries returned to England in June, 1868;

and, on July 3, a special meeting for prayer and thanksgiving was held

at the Freemasons' Hall, the Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G., in the chair,

when all the released missionaries, with their wives, were present, and

in a few words told of their wonderful deliverance, and the Almighty arm

which had wrought it.

It may here be mentioned that though since 1869, no European missionary

has been allowed in Abyssinia, the London Society's mission has never

once been suspended, notwithstanding overwhelming odds and almost

insuperable obstacles! Other missions have been given up for a time when

dangers threatened--this has held on its way through the fostering care

of Mr. J. M. Flad, who has supervised it from a distance, and the

indomitable courage of the native missionaries. Like the early

Christians, they have overcome by "the blood of the Lamb, and by the

word of their testimony: and they loved not their lives unto the death"

(Rev. xii. 11). Famine, war, bloodshed, imprisonment, ecclesiastical

jealousy, civil strife, the Dervish invasion, the coming of the

Italians, have been potent enemies--powerful enough to harass and to

impede, but not to stop the work. Indeed, it has flourished beyond

expectation, and, in spite of ignorance and want of freedom, the Gospel

has spread amongst the Falashas, 2,000 of whom have been baptized.

We now come to the last period of Stern's life (1870-1885) which, though

free from stirring adventures and dangerous situations, was none the

less active and full.

For some time after his return Stern was incessantly and altogether

engaged in narrating his experiences to crowded audiences in every part

of the country, who hung, with breathless interest, upon the terrible

yet fascinating story of the Abyssinian mission. In subsequent years

Stern could very rarely be persuaded to recount the horrors of the past.

On one occasion, and that only, in response to the persuasive entreaty

of friends in a south-coast town, did he ever tell the wonderful story

of his sufferings and achievements in that far-off land. Either the

innate humility and modesty of the man, or painful memories, made it

most distasteful to unlock the door of the past.

In 1870 Dr. Ewald resigned his work as senior missionary in London. It

was no easy matter to find a man qualified to succeed him. Only one

seemed possible, and that was Stern, whose health, undermined by his

unparalleled sufferings in Abyssinia, no longer permitted him to serve

the Society in the East. He was appointed Ewald's successor from the 1st

of January, 1871, and brought to his new sphere a ripe and unrivalled

experience in Jewish missionary work, gained, as we have seen, in

Persia, Turkey, Arabia, and Abyssinia; and an acquaintance with a dozen

or more languages, an invaluable possession for a missionary in the

metropolis, who has by personal intercourse and correspondence to deal

with Jews of different nationalities. Though Stern missed in England the

refined courtesy of the German, and the religious gravity of the

Oriental Jew, and consequently those winning qualities which helped on

friendly intercourse and mutual interchange of convictions between

missionary and Jew, he yet found that most of the Jews in England were

able to discuss religious questions calmly and dispassionately. The

three chief means which Stern relied upon to win his way amongst the

Jews were circulation of tracts, domiciliary visitation, and special

sermons in Spitalfields and Whitechapel. The last were highly

successful. Jews attended in large numbers, attracted by the fame of the

preacher, and the glowing and burning eloquence which flowed from his

lips as he pointed them to the Messiah. An attendance of from 400 to 500

Jews was of frequent occurrence. A German prayer meeting was substituted

for the service hitherto held on Friday evenings, in order to draw

together some of the 2,000 proselytes, and numerous enquirers then in

London. This paved the way for the establishment, later on, of the

"Hebrew Christian Prayer Union."

Thousands of Jews were addressed in public and in private, in streets,

houses, shops, churches and mission halls.

A mission hall, situated in Whitechapel, was made a useful centre, where

meetings on Saturdays and other days were generally well attended. There

was a daily Bible Class held for Jews. Conversions and baptisms were

numerous; but, as Stern said in 1876, when speaking of results, and his

words are true for all time, and in every place as well as

London:--"Conversions, however few or many they may be, are not the

gauge by which the progress of mission work amongst the Jews can be

ascertained. A man may be thoroughly convinced of the truth of the

Gospel, and yet hesitate to take the final and decisive step. He may

shrink from the persecution, the trials, the troubles, and the

sacrifices a public profession of his faith would entail. Of course no

one, who is truly concerned for his soul's eternal welfare, should be

ashamed to avow his convictions. Nevertheless, a strong faith and ardent

love are indispensably necessary to enable a catechumen to break through

the ties of cherished affection and friendship for the Gospel's sake.

That all are not destitute of these heavenly gifts, ever-recurring

instances testify. The greater majority, however, prefer to conceal

their religious sentiments. They go to church, join in the services, and

even contribute to missionary societies, and yet nominally profess to be

Jews."

Stern not only worked in London, but also held special services for Jews

in many other towns. He combined with his mission work the supervision

of the "Wanderers' Home," a most useful institution for the reception of

converts and enquirers.

In 1874, on the thirtieth anniversary of his ordination, his Hebrew

Christian and other friends presented him with a testimonial--a silver

tea and coffee service--as a slight token of their esteem; and in 1881

the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of

Divinity. In 1884 he was elected a member of the Committee of the

L.J.S., where his vast and varied experience was of the utmost use; and

he was also elected an Associate of the Victoria Institute.

Stern's work in London was carried on to the time of his death, which

occurred, after much suffering, on May 13, 1885. The funeral service was

held in the Episcopal Jews' Chapel, Palestine Place, on May 18, in the

presence of a large and sorrowing congregation, and his mortal remains

laid to rest in Ilford Cemetery. He was twice married: first, in 1850,

to Miss Charlotte Elizabeth Purday, who died in 1874; and secondly, in

1883, to Miss Rebecca Goff, daughter of S. D. Goff, Esq., of Horetown,

Co. Wexford.

As a preacher Stern was eloquence itself; as a writer he had a most

charming and picturesque diction. His published journals and books, like

those of Dr. Wolff, are full of the most romantic incidents of

missionary experience. His published works were: "Dawning of Light in

the East" (1854), being an account of his work in Persia, Kurdistan and

Mesopotamia; "Wanderings amongst the Falashas in Abyssinia" (1862); and

"The Captive Missionary" (1868), both narratives of his Abyssinian

experiences.

That he was of the spirit of which martyrs are made, the following

extracts from his letters, written during the long and dreary days of

his captivity in Abyssinia, clearly demonstrate:--

"Thank God, in the midst of my troubles, cares and anxieties, I enjoy

the profoundest calm and resignation. It is true there are days when the

heart pulsates with gratitude and joy, and there are days when it throbs

beneath the mortifying agonies of despondency. Sometimes I feel as if I

could not endure another week the fetters which encircle my limbs, and

confine me in painful inactivity to this desolate rock. Such rebellious

sentiments I generally try to suppress, and if this is impossible, I

seek comfort in the thought, that all is ordered in wisdom and infinite

love. Our heavenly Father hath, no doubt, an object in this protracted

captivity, and when once the veil of mystery is lifted up, every

incident and circumstance which hath wrung a prayer or extorted a groan

from the grieved soul, will prove to have been in harmony with the

designs of a gracious Providence, and fraught with inestimable

blessings."

And again, "Our nerves were horrible shattered, and our minds, too,

would have been unhinged, had not religion, with her solacing influence,

soothed the asperities and hardships of our existence. The Bible,

prayers, and a morning and evening exposition of an appropriate passage

were the exercises in which we regularly engaged. No bitter gibes, no

harsh expressions, no unbecoming word characterised our intercourse;

religion formed a wonderful bond of harmony, and when I looked on the

devout countenances that there hung over the inspired page, as I

commented on the selected text, I cherished the pleasing hope that the

clouds, so big with wrath, had been charged with showers of everlasting

mercy. At such a period--I say it solemnly--the punctured head, the

riven side, the pierced feet, and the heavy cross of redeeming love, is

a sight that nerves and supports the drooping and desponding spirit. In

my distress and sorrow, I threw myself on the bosom of a sympathizing

Saviour, and if I was not happy, I was at least resigned."

No one can estimate the abundance of spiritual harvest from the long

life of toil and labour which Stern spent to the honour and glory of his

Master. He sowed in tears, he led captivity captive, he turned many to

righteousness, and of him it may confidently be said, that he will shine

as a _star_ for ever and ever.[23]

[23] W. T. Gidney, "Biographies of Eminent Hebrew Christians," 1906.

STERN, Herman, gives the following sketch of his history:--"My father

was a rabbi and teacher of the Talmud at Prague, at Strakenitz, and

somewhat later at Bamberg. I had the happiness to be instructed by him

in the Bible and in the Talmud, from my tenth to my twenty-first year,

and during this period of eleven years, I also attended some Christian

schools. On the decease of my father, who died in his seventy-sixth

year, duty no longer demanded my residence at Bamberg, and having

applied to the then 'Court Commission' (Hofcommission) at Würzburg, for

the situation of Jewish teacher at Höchburg, which was at that time

vacant, I obtained it. The Jewish inhabitants of Höchburg were pious,

and previous to my coming there the children of the rich had been

instructed by private tutors. But as the former had been unwilling that

the children of the less fortunate Jewish parents should share this

instruction, these felt themselves obliged to petition the authorities

for the appointment of a public teacher, which was answered, quite

unexpectedly to the rich, by my installation. It was, therefore, to be

expected that the wealthier Jews would not be pleased with the new

school; and when at last the authorities would no longer suffer the

private tutors to remain at Höchburg, obliging the rich Jews to send

their children to the public school, the latter became to them an

object of hatred. This hatred to the school was now transferred to me,

and I was persecuted in every possible way. The wealthier Jews

complained of me, because I permitted the boys to sit bare-headed;

because I kept no wash-basin in the school-room, and what gave me most

trouble, though it was not raised into a point of accusation, because I

had often inculcated the duty of love to Christians, whom the 'Shulchan

Aruch,' denominated idolaters.

"I endeavoured to conform in my religious instruction to the letter and

spirit of the Holy Scriptures, and could not avoid alluding to the

defectiveness and emptiness of the synagogue ceremonial, as taught in

the Talmud and the Jewish code 'Shulchan Aruch.'

"This course was complained of before the chief rabbi of the district;

and for my own security, I requested the Government that the rabbi be

instructed to superintend the religious instruction of my school, and to

subject it to one or two examinations annually. Mr. Bing, the chief

rabbi, however, begged to be excused from doing so, stating that my

religious instruction did not please him. The Government then demanded

of the rabbi either to propose one of the existing religious compendiums

as a text-book for schools, or else to write one himself.

"The rabbi offered to do the latter. In the third year of my public

services, the Government sent me to the town of Heidingsfeld, and before

leaving Höchburg, I received a testimonial from the royal

school-inspector of the district, expressing the satisfaction my labours

had given to the Government.

"I had been nearly two years in the school at Höchburg, when the

Government sent me, and all other Jewish teachers of the kingdom, the

new text-book of the Mosaic religion which the rabbinical candidate, Dr.

Alexander Behr, had written, under the surveillance and direction of the

chief rabbi, Mr. Abraham Bing, and which the rabbi at Fürth, and many

other influential Jewish ecclesiastics, had adopted; Government

signifying at the same time that it was the desire of His Majesty the

King to have this book introduced in all Jewish schools. I received

joyfully this book, which promised to meet the urgent necessities of the

schools. But I was doomed to severe disappointment; the 160 octavo pages

which this volume contains, were almost entirely filled with ceremonial

laws, treating of phylacteries, inscriptions, fringes, circumcisions,

meats, the prohibition of shaving, the creed, &c. Not a word, and much

less an exposition of morality, of conscience, of virtue, of holiness,

of the condition and destiny of man.

"In that portion of the book which treats of God, there was an entire

omission of His power, His wisdom, His goodness, His mercy and holiness,

and of all the lessons derived from these attributes and perfections.

Not even the Decalogue found a place in this work.

"The Messiah (as well as many other similar predictions) it explained to

signify a period of time when all men should know God and serve Him.

"I directed the attention of the Government to this dead skeleton,

shewing that I could not receive this book as my guide in religious

instruction. I prayed for permission to follow my own course of

instruction, and pledged myself to have my lessons printed and submitted

to the chief rabbi.

"My petition was granted; and this was the beginning of trouble. My book

on the 'Confirmation of Israelites' followed in 1829. It was the more

gladly received by the public, since I confirmed all my positions by

quotations from the Talmud, which I translated literally. The second

volume, which I published in 1835, under the title of the 'Tree of

Life,' was as kindly received. Both these books continue as standards in

many schools of various countries, and prove that even the Talmudists of

the third, fourth, and fifth centuries drank from the evangelical source

of life. In like manner also, 'The Confession of Faith of the

Israelites,' as delineated in my works, the 'Confirmation,' pages

140-46, and the 'Tree of Life,' pages 226-243, remain in full credit

among the Jews to this day, nor have the rabbis ventured to say ought

against it, although it refers to the New Testament both in the text

itself and in the notes.

"Five-and-twenty years have I been openly inculcating these principles

in my schools and in the synagogues, and never have either the Jewish

deputies delegated by the Government to attend my public examinations,

nor the great number of Jews who assisted on such occasions, uttered an

objection; this is a proof that my religious principles were not a

baseless fabric, or, as is too often the case in the statements of our

rabbis, the result of mere whim or conjecture.

"The kindly, but often misconstrued feelings of His Majesty, Ludovic I.,

towards the Jews of his realm, which had been manifested by his

establishment of national schools for them, by the appointment of

regularly educated rabbis, the free admission of the Jews to all the

existing Christian scholastic institutions, and the manifold favours

enjoyed by Jewish mechanics, &c., were again shewn in the year 1836, by

his convoking of Jewish committees.

"These consisted of rabbis, Jewish teachers, and delegates of

communities. They met in all the provincial capitals of the kingdom in

the public edifices, where they held regular sessions, under the

presidency of a royal commissary, to solve such questions in

theological, scholastic, and social matters, as had arisen during the

then contemplated Jewish emancipation; and to give the Government their

advice.

"One of the questions before the Committee at Würzburg was--Whether the

Jewish doctrines acknowledge or reject the belief in the Trinity, as

contained in the Old Testament. The rabbis consulted on this weighty

point in private sessions, which I attended, having been chosen by a

majority of votes as one of the referees; and they thereupon declared in

the public session briefly that the doctrine of the Trinity is not

contained in the Old Testament, on which account also the Jews did not

acknowledge this doctrine.

"The president then demanded that every one agreeing with the

declaration of the rabbis should rise. All the rabbis, all the teachers,

and all the delegates (116 individuals) arose. I only remained sitting,

and then handed to the president a written notice, stating that I should

beg the rabbis, in a circular which should be printed, to give me an

explanation of various difficulties that I entertained on this point,

before I could accede to the declaration made by them.

"My circular, entitled 'Israelitism in its Excellency and its Burden'

('Israelitenthum in seiner Würde und Bürde) was printed during these

sessions (which lasted six weeks), and produced a universal sensation.

The rabbis took it very ill that I had ventured on this step,

notwithstanding I had been shewn, as in a camera obscura, in glaring

colours, my prospective misery; but they did not answer my circular.

Only Dr. Romann, the chief rabbi at Cassel, and Mr. J. Heidegger, a

teacher of the Talmud at Fürth, wrote each one a pamphlet against me.

Both of them, however, scarcely touched upon the point, and were

contented with abuse, cursing, and persecution.

"My school at Heidingsfeld was advised to institute a complaint against

me, as having, through my circular, shaken the basis of my religion, and

to found thereon a request for my removal. The Government, however,

declined entertaining the complaint; since, by issuing my circular, I

had adopted the very course which the rabbis themselves had pointed out

when asked how a Jew should proceed in case that religious doubts

should arise; since there was no supreme religious tribunal in existence

to whom the case might be referred; the rabbis having declared that in

such an event a circular letter stating the question should be addressed

by the enquirer to all Jewish theologians.

"These reasons were too weighty to encourage an appeal to the royal

'Ministerium,' although my opponents anticipated a favourable decision

from this event for themselves, notwithstanding their unholy aim.

"They, however, preferred to accuse me anew as having transgressed my

religion, namely, by having taught in my schools that in case of

necessity the Jews were permitted to break the laws relating to the

Sabbath in order to relieve a fellow-man.

"I was cited and heard, and having confessed the truth of the charge,

the royal 'Ministerium' resolved on my penal removal to the school at

Main-Stockheim.

"This severe penalty could not have been inflicted, if the rabbis had

not represented that Jews were not permitted to violate the Sabbatical

laws in order to relieve a fellow-man.

"I was therefore obliged to leave a town where so many persons and

objects were dear to me, and where I had enjoyed that rare happiness of

teachers--to instruct the children of my former pupils. I was forced to

leave two pretty little gardens which I had gradually raised on desert

spots, and the trees which I had planted at the birth of each of my

children.

"I departed; my wife and children followed me weeping, and the tears of

many others comforted me.

"In November, 1837, I arrived in the village of Main-Stockheim, the

place of destination, as the appointed Jewish teacher of religion. The

Jewish community belonged to the orthodox or pious class. I was shewn to

three small rooms as my residence, and their gloomy appearance was

little calculated to cheer my mind.

"I observed that this dwelling could not accommodate myself and family;

and begged the Jewish School-Community (Schulgemeinde) to grant me other

rooms, or else to enlarge these; but it was in vain. I was obliged to

convert the lobby into a dormitory for my children. The little rooms,

owing to their disproportionate loftiness, were cold and uncomfortable,

and so damp that we had thick ice within, near the windows. My wife and

some of my children fell sick; and I felt myself obliged, and in duty

bound, to petition the royal land-tribunal for the enlargement of my

dwelling, and my petition was shortly granted.

"But the Jewish Warden appealed to a higher tribunal, the Government;

and when the former decision was confirmed, they appealed to the

Ministerium. Much time was thus lost, and I obtained at last an

additional room and a cellar.

"My salary was so small that I had to live partly on my own means; and

yet the Jewish School-Community withheld from me part of the amount of

firewood granted me by law. Out of love of peace, I offered to

relinquish part of the withheld quantity of wood, if they would but

give the rest, so as to obviate the necessity of complaining to the

Government; but I was forced to complain.

"The suit passed again all the various Courts as before, and was decided

in my favour; the lawful quantity of wood was to be given me, and for

that which had been unjustly withheld I was to be indemnified. Although

I had declined to accept the indemnification granted me by law--a

refusal very cheerfully accepted by my rich community--yet they did not

neglect to avenge themselves upon me on the grounds of piety; being

aware that this was the likeliest way to compass their end. I was

accused of the following sins, which I had actually committed.

"1. That I had not only permitted my female scholars to come to the

synagogue on Saturdays, 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 Passover 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

superstition; 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 petition was granted, but the rabbi of

the district, Mr. L. B. Bamberger, of Würzburg, 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 Institution 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 Institution.

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 God 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 Jüdische

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

hardships 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 finishing 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 Fagius 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 Lincolnshire,

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

God 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 God, it is due to the power of His Word, which is the power

of God 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 God'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 God, 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 God 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 God.' 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 Schütt,

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

passed 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 Documents" (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 titles,

"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. Schönberger. He afterward studied theology

in Serftom. In 1879 he became Pastor in Panseora, Hungary, and

afterwards in Trieste, where he wrote a book entitled: "Die Evangelische

reformite Kirche Cristo Salvatore zu Triest" (Trieste and Leipzig,

1887); and also an epistle to Rabbi J. Lichtenstein in Tapio Szele,

entitled "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

assembly 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 Marseilles, 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 incumbent of Christ Church, Mount Zion, from 1871-74.

The maiden name of Mrs. Murray Vicars was Fanny Phillips; her brother

Samuel was a distinguished man of letters.

WALLFISCH, Rev. J. H., was brought to a knowledge of Christ by Professor

Cassel 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 "Institutum Judaicum"

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 assisted 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 God. (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 compassed 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 passed 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 embarrassment 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 Würzburg,

Frankfort-on-the-Main, Halle, Prague, Vienna, Pressburg, back again to

Vienna, Mölk, Munich, Anspach, 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 Tübingen 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-Münster, 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 Sussex, 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 title page of his

"Travels." Wolff left England in April, 1821, and with passing 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, Ashkenazim and Chassidim, 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

asserted that their forefathers had been carried from Samaria by the

Kings of Assyria and brought to Haran (Isa. xxxvii. 12), _i.e._,

Bokhara. The three months spent there by Wolff, especially amongst the

learned class, were fruitful, and he baptized as many as twenty. These

men had all remained faithful when he visited Bokhara again in 1844.

That second visit, more hazardous even than the first, was made with the

purpose of ascertaining the fate of Colonel Stoddart and Captain

Conolly,--two Englishmen, who, as subsequently transpired, had been

murdered. Wolff's arrival in the city was witnessed by 20,000 persons

shouting "welcome" to the enterprising traveller, whose costume--gown,

hood, and shovel-hat--roused no small astonishment. Wolff obtained

permission from the king for the Jews to repair their ancient

synagogue.[26]

[26] "Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara."

In 1833 we find Wolff in India, visiting the white and the black Jews of

Cochin, and the Beni-Israel of Poona, Calcutta and Bombay. This was not

an unexplored field, as the L.J.S. missionaries had been working there

from 1820 to 1830. Wolff found plenty to do, and at Calcutta, for six

successive days, talked twelve hours on end to all who came to his

"retreat."

Hitherto Asia had been the principal scene of Wolff's labours, but in

1835 he was in Abyssinia and in 1836 in Arabia, visiting the Yemen. At

Sanaa he expounded Isaiah liii. to the Jews, and subsequently baptized

four with their families. The Jews were polygamists, but apparently

dissatisfied with the state of things thus entailed.

Lack of space prohibits us from enlarging on Wolff's labours in the

East. His own descriptions remain to this day the most entertaining of

missionary annals, and bear witness to the wonderful activity of the man

whose striking personality, not unmixed with a harmless and naive

egotism, carried him through numberless dangers, and extricated him from

perilous situations. The restlessness of his nature, which in early life

impelled him to wander over Europe in search of light and learning,

developed in succeeding years into that consecrated fiery energy and

impulse which made him so peculiarly fitted to play the _rôle_ of

pioneer missionary. Many of his friends, as he said, "believed him to be

Elijah," though he archly added, "he always believed himself to be

Joseph Wolff!" But a pioneer he was in every sense of the word, and as

such rendered yeoman service to a cause, which more than all others,

perhaps, needs all the glamour and romance it can call to its aid. So

great was his dramatic power in describing his travels that Archbishop

Whately proclaimed him to be "a missionary Shakespeare."

Wolff had an iron constitution and a powerful frame, absolutely

impervious to matters of climate, and privations, however severe and

enduring. He records that, when travelling in India in 1832, he was

stripped of everything, and in danger of being "made into sausages," and

"had to walk without a rag of clothing on for 600 miles from the Hindu

Koosh to the Punjaub, through storms and snow!" He was relieved and

clothed at Cabul by Lieutenant Burnes. Wolff's character, wonderful

activity, and resources, were thus caustically summed up by one who

knew him:--

"He appears to me to be a comet without any perihelion, and capable of

setting a whole system on fire. When I should have addressed him in

Syria, I heard of him at Malta, and when I supposed he was gone to

England, he was riding like a ruling angel in the whirlwinds of Antioch,

or standing unappalled among the crumbling towers of Aleppo. A man who

at Rome calls the Pope 'the dust of the earth,' and at Jerusalem tells

the Jews that the 'Gemara is a lie'; who passes his days in disputation,

and his nights in digging in the Talmud; to whom a floor of brick is a

feather-bed and a box is a bolster; who makes or finds a friend alike in

the persecutor of his former or of his present faith; who can conciliate

a Pasha or confute a patriarch; who travels without a guide, speaks

without an interpreter, can live without food, and pay without money,

forgiving all the insults he meets with, and forgetting all the flattery

he receives; who knows little of worldly conduct, and yet accommodates

himself to all men without giving offence to any--such a man (and such

and more is Wolff) must excite no ordinary degree of attention in a

country and among a people whose monotony of manners and habits has

remained undisturbed for centuries. As a pioneer I deem him matchless,

_aut inveniet viam, aut faciet_; but, if order is to be established or

arrangements made, trouble not Wolff. He knows of no church but his

heart, no calling but that of zeal, no dispensation but that of

preaching. He is devoid of enmity towards man, and full of the love of

God. By such an instrument, whom no school hath taught, whom no college

could hold, is the way of the Judæan wilderness preparing.... Thus are

his brethren provoked to emulation and stirred up to inquiry. They all

perceive, as everyone must, that whatever he is, he is in earnest; they

acknowledge him to be a sincere believer in Jesus of Nazareth, and that

is a great point gained with them, for the mass of the ignorant and

unconverted Jews deny the possibility of real conversion from

Judaism."[27]

[27] The Rev. Lewis Way, quoted in "Travels and Adventures of Dr.

Wolff," vol. i., p. 287.

General Sir Charles Napier said that Wolff had "worked harder for

religion, and had gone through more dangers for it, with a brave heart,

than any man living."

Of his life in England as a parochial clergyman, but little can be said

in this biography. He married, when a young man, the daughter of the

Earl of Orford, Lady Georgiana Walpole, with whom he lived happily for

thirty years, and whose son was Sir Henry Drummond Wolff. When he

settled in England, he became vicar of Linthwaite, a small village in

Yorkshire. His friend, Henry Drummond, after whom he had named his son,

wrote, "Your call is to be an evangelist for all the nations of the

earth, and for this you are fit; but, to use your own simile, you are as

fit for a parish priest as I am for a dancing-master." Wolff shortly

afterwards removed, on account of his wife's health, to the sole charge

of High Hoyland, another Yorkshire village, with about 120 souls. There,

too, he must have felt like a lion in a cage; and when, five years

later, he resigned his charge on the ground of not being able to meet

his expenses, and undertook his second journey to Bokhara, he must

indeed have rejoiced in an aftermath of the freedom and action of his

earlier career. One little incident is too good to be omitted. Before

Wolff entered upon the curacy, his predecessor, doubting the sentiments

of his successor, preached his farewell sermon from the text, "After my

departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you." Wolff remarks,

"However, he was very merciful, and made no allusion to the coming

'Wolff' in his sermon!"

On his return from Bokhara, Wolff was appointed to the living of

Isle-Brewers, in Somersetshire, with a population of 300, amongst whom

were two farmers, all the rest being peasants. There Wolff remained for

the remainder of his life, his talents and brilliant gifts being wasted

in such retirement, but his energy knowing no diminution. He built a new

parsonage and schools, defraying a portion of the expense from the

proceeds of his works and lectures; and erected a new church, for the

cost of which he laid all his numerous friends and everybody else, under

contribution by incessant correspondence and personal applications. He

was a father to his poor, and every winter supported thirty-five

families with the necessities of life. Wolff was the neighbour and firm

friend of George Anthony Denison, "dearer to him than any," although

theologically in the opposite camp. Amongst Wolff's other numerous

friends and acquaintances, we may mention the names of Sir Walter Scott,

Dean Stanley, Dean Hook, Alfred Tennyson, and Alfred and Margaret Gatty.

Wolff died in 1862, at the age of 66 or 67 years--a long life, when the

restless activity of brain and body is taken into account, and a full

life, in every sense of the word. He exemplified in his person the

saying, "It is better to wear out than to rust out." And his epitaph

might well have been, "The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up."

WOLFF, Oscar Ludwig Bernard, was born in Altona, 1799. After embracing

Christianity (the date uncertain) he held the professorship of modern

languages and literature successively at Weimar and at Jena, where he

died in 1851. His literary works appeared at Jena in 1841-43 in fourteen

volumes. The best known of his works are "Poetischer Hausschatz des

Deutschen Volkes" (Leipzig, 1839); "Hausschatz Deutscher Prosa" (_ib._,

1855) and "Geschichte des Deutschen Romans," Jena 1843.

WOLKENBERG, Rev. Marcus. Mordecai Wolkenberg (for such was his Jewish

name) was born in 1834 in Russian Poland. When quite young he was

smuggled over the border into Galicia (Austrian Poland) to avoid being

Christianized and trained for military service, it often being the

custom in the time of the Emperor Nicholas I. to seize Jewish lads for

those ends. Mordecai was placed by his parents with pious and orthodox

relatives at Brody, where he gained the interest of the famous rabbi of

the town, Salomon Kluger, and through his teaching soon acquired a good

Hebrew and Talmudical education. When quite a young man he was appointed

tutor in the home of the rich banker Cahner at Jassy, where he remained

about two years. During his stay there he made the acquaintance of the

Rev. W. Mayer, the L.J.S. missionary. After a time of great

heart-searching and deep spiritual experience, he was led to embrace the

Christian faith, and was baptized. Thereupon he had to pass through a

period of bitter trial and persecution, instigated chiefly by his

employer. His occupation had brought him in contact with many people.

All these forsook him when he made his public confession of

Christianity. At length he had to leave Jassy, and, after a while,

Marcus (as his name now was) went to the Malta Protestant College; later

on he came to London, when he read theology with the Rev. A. S.

Thelwall. In 1863 he was appointed an assistant missionary at Jassy.

This was a great trial to his feelings and faith, for it was there that

he first found Christ, and there, in consequence, that he had first

tasted the venom of religious hatred. Here, however, to his surprise, he

was sought for and visited by numbers of his former acquaintances. A

wide door, and effectual, was thus opened to him, one result of years of

patient school and other missionary work by those who had long laboured

in Jassy. Of this circumstance he says: "Most of these visitors were

teachers, some merchants, and others near relatives of one of the

wealthiest Jews here. Nor has the bold proclamation of the truth, on my

part, deterred them from continuing their intercourse with me." For

seven years he thus worked in Jassy and in Bacau for Christ, and with

much blessing. In 1870, owing to the illness of his wife, he had to

return to England; where he laboured successively in London, Manchester,

Birmingham, and lastly in Liverpool, where he died April 17th, 1900,

very much regretted by all who knew him, and not least by many Jews, who

spoke in the highest terms of his goodness, piety, and scholarship.

XERES, Jonah ben Jacob, was a native of North Africa, where he came in

contact with English Christian merchants and learned the truth as it is

in Jesus from them. In 1707 he came to London and was instructed and

baptized by Dr. Allix in 1709. He then wrote an "Address to the Jews,"

containing his reasons for leaving the Jewish and embracing the

Christian religion. (See Wolff Bib. Heb., 14, N. 823.)

The book is dedicated to the then Archbishop of York (in 1709), and

prefaced by an attestation to the respectability of the author by seven

London merchants, and another by the learned Dr. Allix.

"We, whose names are underwritten, merchants trading into Barbary in

Africa, do hereby certify, all whom it may concern, that we, each of us,

having formerly lived for several years in those parts, did then, as we

do now, personally know Jonah ben Jacob Xeres, who was born in Saphia, a

sea-port town on that coast. His parents, being Hebrews, were reputed

to be honest and substantial people; who employed much care in educating

this their son, Jonah, in the Jewish religion, and no less expense in

instructing him in the Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldean tongues. He the said

Jonah lived in that country a professed Jew, till the age of five and

twenty, or thereabouts; and always behaved himself sober in his

conversation, and no less just in his dealing, as some of us have

experienced, having had occasion to employ him on several accounts,

whereby, amongst other conversation, he had an opportunity of

discoursing with some in our factory about matters of religion; and, as

he now informs us, was thereby possessed with some notion, that the

Messiah had already come; whereby, being uneasy under such a weighty

doubt, he came over to England about eighteen months ago, in order to

acquire a full satisfaction. After some time here, he applied himself to

some of us to recommend him to some learned Divine for information;

whereupon he was sent to the Rev. Dr. Allix, on whom some of us have

since waited, who, requesting of us a character of the said Jonah, is

the occasion of this paper, which we do in all respects believe to be

true, and have a very good opinion of the probity and sincerity of the

above-mentioned Jonah; and that we trust upon his examination, he will

prove to the judgment of the Most Reverend the Archbishops, the Right

Reverend the Bishops, the Reverend the Clergy, and all other pious

Christians, to whom we recommend him, &c.

"Done at London, this eight and twentieth day of May, one thousand

seven hundred and nine.

"Peter Fleuriot, Samuel Robinson, John Lodington, John Adams, Val.

Norton, Robert Colmore, Thomas Coleman."

"These are to certify, that upon several discourses had with the

aforementioned Jonah ben Jacob Xeres, I have found him very well

acquainted with the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, and all

other Jewish and particularly Talmudical learning; so that he was

very ready, upon the chief objections that Jews make to the

doctrine, deity, and office of our Saviour. But, as he is endowed

with very good natural and acquired parts, I was the more able to

satisfy and convince him of the truth; so that, after having

examined by Scripture all the most material controversies, he hath

freely declared to myself, and his other friends, his desire to

renounce the errors and prejudices of his education in the Jewish

religion, and to embrace and profess the Christian faith.

"Witness my hand this 30th day of July, 1709.

"Peter Allix, D.D."

ZABANSKI, J., was born at Minsk in Lithuania. His father, a bigoted

Talmudist, sent him once on an errand to a Christian nobleman, who made

him a present of a Hebrew New Testament which, on coming home, he

innocently enough shewed his father, and was peremptorily told to take

it back. This excited in him the curiosity to know the contents of the

book, and he soon procured one. Detected in reading it, he was punished

by his father more than once, and at last the father got the police to

give him twenty-five strokes with a rod for disobedience. The

consequence was that he got ill and had to be taken to a hospital. After

being there nine weeks, he ran away, obtained a situation as a teacher

in a family for three years, where he got possession of a German New

Testament and Dr. McCaul's "Old Paths." He then returned to his father

and asked his permission to go abroad. As this was not granted, he again

ran away, and this time to Constantinople, where he heard the Gospel

from a missionary named Goldberg. Thence he went to Jerusalem, and was

admitted by Hershon into the House of Industry. His countrymen there,

who knew his father as a learned Talmudist, tried every means to snatch

him away from the Mission. They even went to Rachel's grave to pray for

his return to Judaism, and finally sent two Jews to his father to come

and fetch him, but Zabanski became a Christian and laboured afterwards

as a missionary of the L.J.S. from 1864 to 1867, and for a long period

as an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in Bulgaria.

ZECKHAUSEN, Rev. Leopold. The following is from his own pen:--

"I was born in December, 1862, at Kovno in Russia, of strictly orthodox

Jewish parents, and, with the rest of my brothers, I got the usual

education of rabbinical Jews. My mother, like so many mothers in Israel,

would fain have seen me devoting myself entirely to the Talmud. I was to

be the rabbi of the family. My inclinations, however, were in the

direction of secular knowledge, and my father was broad-minded enough

not to insist upon an exclusively rabbinical training. At the age of

eleven I was accordingly sent to the local Gymnasium, or grammar school.

After a stay of six years at this school I left Russia with the

intention of studying medicine at the University of Koenigsberg in

Prussia. But six months later financial difficulties, in which my father

found himself, necessitated my dropping the studies and accepting a post

offered me in an office (July, 1881.)

"Once in business I threw myself heart and soul into my new vocation,

and kept on rising steadily. At the end of ten years spent in business

houses in Koenigsberg, Frankfort and Amsterdam, I was offered a

partnership at Libau in Russia. I declined it, however, after some

deliberation, and decided to leave business for good (1891).

"That step was the outcome of another and a more important one, which I

had taken three years previously, and which proved to be the turning

point of my life. While still at my father's house I had begun to get

weary of the endless, and often meaningless ceremonies of rabbinical

Judaism. In Germany and Holland, surrounded by general religious

indifference and rampant scepticism, my faith in Judaism waned more and

more. I tried to make myself acquainted with Christianity, assayed to

study the New Testament, but not with the hope of finding in it truth

and peace. My studies were mostly of a critical nature. My Jewish

prejudices, though largely toned down by frequent intercourse with

Christians, were still potent enough to prevent an impartial

investigation. The difficulties of the Gospels seemed to me insuperable.

So I continued to drift further and further away from religious

influences, until at Amsterdam I found myself at a boarding house

in the company of some earnest Christian young men. They were

schoolmasters--intelligent, idealistic, eager to learn and to exchange

thoughts with others, and before very long we were on friendly terms.

Through their intercourse, the almost extinguished interest for

religious thought once more revived in me. Not that we ever went in for

regular theological discussions--mere politeness forbade that--but

Dante's 'Inferno,' Milton's 'Paradise Lost,' and other literary

productions with a religious basis, were often talked over among us, and

I could not help being impressed by the true, though unobtrusive,

religious fervour of those educated young men.

"I decided to look for a person competent to deal with my prejudices and

willing to assist me to a spiritual understanding of Christianity. An

Encyclopædia helped to the address of the London Society for Promoting

Christianity amongst the Jews, and a letter from the Secretary

introduced me to the Society's missionary at Amsterdam, the Rev. A. C.

Adler. I told that gentleman, on my first visit to him, that it was not

so much the history of Christ and Christianity as the spiritual element

of the New Testament that baffled me, and that I should feel obliged to

him for some light upon the subject. I did not pretend to any desire of

embracing Christianity, nor did Mr. Adler, on his part, so much as hint

at that eventuality. He most readily acceded to my request for

enlightenment, and suggested that we should read together the Gospel of

St. John. For some seven weeks I had the little expected pleasure of

listening to a masterly exposition of a book that had been till then the

least intelligible one to me in the New Testament. I shall never forget

the impression Mr. Adler's intelligent interpretation of that Gospel

produced upon my mind and heart. I felt myself literally introduced into

a new world--into that spiritual world of which the carnal mind and the

materialist know nothing. The person of Christ kept on growing before

and within me until I could think of nothing else. But I was not to

yield myself to Him without a struggle.

"Mr. Adler, with an unerring tact, restricted himself conscientiously to

the task of instruction. He asked no questions, nor did he invite me to

a confession of faith. Had he done so, I fear he had but succeeded in

repelling me, at least for a time.

"When I found myself face to face with the question:--'What think you

_now_ of Christ?'--pride of reason and lingering prejudice seemed to

assert themselves more. I at once suddenly ceased visiting Mr. Adler and

thought of getting Christianity out of my head entirely. I cannot tell

whether Mr. Adler still entertained the hope of ever seeing me again in

his study; I certainly intended that it should not be the case.

"The Lord Jesus, however, had become too strong for me to resist Him

successfully for any length of time. My peace of mind was clean gone,

and I had, for my own part, experienced the truth of our Lord's words,

'No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me, draw him.'

"After a time I was again at Mr. Adler's. When, in answer to my knock

there came his Dutch 'Binnen!' ('Come in!'), and I stepped into the

room, Mr. Adler came hurriedly up to meet me, and, taking both my hands,

exclaimed joyfully, 'You have come again. Then all is right. I knew you

would not come unless your doubts were conquered. I have been praying

for that.'

"A few days after this episode I received a telegraphic message

necessitating my immediate return to Germany. I took at once a train to

Zandvoort, a seaside place near Amsterdam, where Mr. Adler was at the

time with his family for their summer holiday. I told him I had to leave

Holland without delay and requested, as a special favour, that he would

admit me into the Church of Christ by baptism the very next day. Mr.

Adler looked rather perplexed. He was, on principle, he told me, opposed

to doing things in a hurry, and especially when baptism was under

consideration. But my case was so exceptional that he thought he saw in

it the Lord's doing, and could not therefore refuse my request.

"The following morning, Sunday, August 12th, 1888, Mr. Adler was in the

pulpit of his church, after explaining the reason of his unexpected

return to Amsterdam, he invited the congregation to be present at my

baptism that afternoon. Saintly old Mr. Bloch, late missionary of the

L.J.S., and the beadle of the church, acted as witnesses to my public

declaration of faith in Christ crucified.

"On the day following my baptism I had already left Holland, and was on

my way back to Koenigsberg. There I spent another three years, following

my commercial vocation and keeping up all along a pretty regular

correspondence with Mr. Adler, to whose instruction I owed so much. In

those letters he frequently reminded me of my Christian duty toward my

Jewish brethren, and invited me to offer myself for missionary training.

I doubted my qualifications for such a calling, questioned the

advisability of going back to college after an interval of ten years

spent in commercial pursuits, but at last I decided to follow the call,

and sent an application to London for admission into the London Jews'

Society's Missionary College. I was admitted there in December, 1891,

and remained associated with the Institution for three years and a-half,

till July, 1895.

"Having completed the course of my studies, I was attached to the staff

of the London Mission, thence I was transferred to work at Manchester in

1896, and exactly three years later to Jerusalem. Here I was ordained

deacon at Christmas, 1900, and priest on Trinity Sunday, 1902, by the

Bishop of the Church of England in Jerusalem and the East, Dr. Blyth.

Here also I was married to Miss Sara Jane Ellison, daughter of the late

Dean Ellison, of Shillelagh, County Wicklow, Ireland, April, 1901.

"I may be allowed to mention in conclusion that the decision to give up

my business prospects, in order to become a missionary to the Jews, was

soon amply rewarded by the Lord. My elder brother, with whom I had

exchanged many letters on the subject of Christianity ever since I had

embraced it myself, without apparently making much impression on him,

wrote to me now--having heard of the step I had taken--to express his

appreciation of what I had done. 'Whatsoever people may think of your

motives or your actions, there is probably no one that can put them down

at their proper value better than myself,' ran his note. 'I have seen

you during the last ten years steadily climbing the ladder of commercial

success, gaining in experience and reputation, and about to earn the

fruit of much labour, and then to throw it all deliberately over in

order to become a missionary! I cannot help admiring you. You have done

the right and proper thing. Though we differ in our religious opinions,

we do not on the point of principle. You have acted as I should have

expected an honest man, with soul above £ s. d. to act. It is refreshing

to find enthusiasm for ideal goods in our sordid age of materialism.'

"This brother of mine is now, I am grateful to say, himself a worker in

the Lord's vineyard, labouring with marked success as a medical

missionary amongst the Jews of New York, faithfully assisted by his

wife--also a convert from Judaism."

In 1902 the Rev. L. and Mrs. Zeckhausen were transferred from Jerusalem

to Cracow; and in 1908, on the death of his spiritual father, the Rev.

A. C. Adler, he succeeded to the headship of the L.J.S. mission at

Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

ZUCKERKANDLE, Dr., and his wife were converted and baptized in Pesth

through the instrumentality of the Rev. William Wingate. He was

afterwards a missionary of the L.J.S. in Bucharest, and later on he

entered the service of the British Society for the Propagation of the

Gospel among the Jews and conducted a school at Rustschuk in Bulgaria,

where he died in 1874. The widow came then to London, and laboured

amongst the Jewesses in Spitalfields for many years with great blessing

upon her work of love. She was probably the first to organize a Jewish

mothers' meeting.

ZUCKERTORT, G. J., father of the famous chessplayer, was won for Christ

through the preaching of the L.J.S. missionary Wendt, and was baptized

by him in 1831. In 1836 he was appointed assistant missionary at Lublin,

where he preached the Gospel to his own relations, one of whom, a

thriving medical doctor of the same name, confessed Christ and was

baptized with his four children in 1845, and his wife later, in 1849.

* * * * *

Transcriber's Notes:

Inconsistencies in spelling have been resolved in cases where it was

possible to divine the author's intent with a reasonable degree of

certainty. Otherwise variable spellings (such as Leipzig, Leipsig and

Leipsic) have been retained.

Page 118 There is a discrepancy in date of birth.

Quote: _Bernhardy, Dr. Gottfried, born in Landsburg, 1860, died 1875

... wrote "Syntax of the Greek Language," Berlin, 1829. "Grundriss der

Romischen Literatur," 1830. "Grundlinien der Encyclopaedia der

Philologie," 1832, &c._

Other sources say he was born March 20, 1800.

Page 406 Replaced "when" with "where". "In 1863 he retired to Berlin,

when he died in 1870."