tution, he was also admitted by Mr. West, and is in still. His attention and diligence in acquiring a knowledge of Christianity was equal to the others, and I am glad to say, they well improved the time allowed to them from the working hours. His conduct and deportment have also been satisfactory hitherto.

The privilege of baptizing them having been committed to me by the parochial minister, the Rev. Mr. Splezynski, we proceeded to church after we had united in prayer with the four candidates, and many proselytes at our house. We sung three verses of that beautiful baptismal hymn, "O Lord, with thee is salvation and grace;" and after prayer, I delivered an address to the candidates, from John i. 17: "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ;" pointing out to them the difference between the law and the gospel, the Old and New Testament dispensations, and then proceeded to the baptism itself in the usual manner. Among the large assembly present there were several Jews, and on going home an hour and an half after the commencement of the service (after we had signed our names to the civil acts to be taken up), one of those Jews yet stood before the house of the minister, surrounded by a large number of his brethren, to whom I spoke a few words on the same subject. May the Lord soon pour out his Holy Spirit on the whole house of Israel, that they may look upon him whom they have

66

pierced."

The Rev. B. W. Wright, at the conclusion of a deeply interesting account of a missionary

journey, speaks of the different classes of persons with whom he had met. The clergy he found everywhere willing to forward his work, though unable themselves to give much personal attention to the spiritual state of the Jews. Amongst the exceptions to this, says Mr Wright, was a singular instance of the providential dealings of God, a Christian clergyman, descended from a Jewish child, which was rescued from a burning house by a Christian officer, in the wars under Prince Eugene. The same God who touched the heart of the Christian officer with compassion towards the Jewish child, also taught the Christian descendant of this Jewish child to compassionate the ancient people from whom he came.

Out of twenty Jewish schoolmasters in Baden, five are secret believers in Christ; one or two were Talmudic Jews. The remainder intelligent men, but not strict Jews. One of these last said to Mr. Wright: "We are the true Rabbies, Sir; we have the growing population in our hands, and we teach to them and preach to them every day."

Of the Jews in general, in the north and west of Europe, Mr. W. says: Rabbinism has been shaken by an Almighty hand, the growing population are being educated, and therefore, during the present springtide epoch of preparation, it is our duty to make known unto them the way of life, and to scatter the seed of the Gospel amongst them, "while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work."

Poetry.

JUDEA DESOLATE.

Lamentations i.

She sits beneath her withering palm,
With desolation round;

And Gilead's self can drop no balm,
To heal her cureless wound:

Her hands, upheld to heaven in vain,
Are compass'd with the victor's chain.

And Salem's might is fallen now,—
The temple razed and strown;
And e'en what war had left laid low,
Its ruins overthrown.

Her warriors slain in battle fray;
Her daughters-captives far away

She sits beneath her withering palm,
In solitary state;

With not a hope to cheer or calm

The horrors of her fate;

And he who once illumed her path,

Hath now withdrawn his face in wrath.

H. ROGERS.

LONDON Printed at the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution,

Palestine Place, Bethnal Green.

THE JEWISH ADVOCATE.

NOVEMBER, 1847.

BIBLE HISTORY OF THE JEWS.

CHAPTER XXX.

66

BUT the immediate cause of Saul's final rejection was the following act of disobedience. He was commanded to go against the Amalekites, and utterly to destroy them, because they had laid in wait to destroy Israel "when he came up from Egypt." He was bid to spare none; but to slay "both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.' And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt." That is, over the whole extent of Arabia, of which Havilah was the boundary on the north-east, and Shur on the south-west. He obeyed God's order so far as the slaughter of the people were concerned, for he put them all to death; but he took Agag, their king, alive, perhaps as a living witness of his triumph; and "Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the

"This heavy sentence was pronounced against the Amalekites long ago (Exod. xvii. 14), and renewed at the entrance of the Israelites into Canaan, with a charge not to forget it." (Deut. xxv. 19.)-BP. PATRICK.

lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly."

"Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the Lord all night." When Saul returned, laden with spoil and leading Agag in triumph, Samuel went forth to meet him; Saul greeted him, saying, "Blessed be thou of the Lord I have. performed the commandment of the Lord." And Samuel said, "What meaneth, then, this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" Saul shifted the blame from his own shoulders upon the people's, and replied, that they had spared the best of the spoil to sacrifice unto the Lord. Then said Samuel, "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken, than the fat of rams."

Saul was no longer "little in his own sight;' he had become vain-glorious and conceited; he had thrown off the yoke of obedience to God and to his prophet, and this was his sentence, "Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king." As Samuel turned to go away from Saul, Saul laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle to detain him, and it rent. And Samuel said, "The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou."