BERLIN.

Baptism of a Jew.

Extract from Rev. R. Bellson's Journal,

I HAVE NOW to mention a baptism that took place on Sunday, the 24th February. The convert was a Jew from Denmark, whom I had instructed for two months. He is a very respectable man, a hatter by trade, and one of those happy instances which require no pecuniary assistance. I had scarcely room to stand at the font, when I baptized him, so full was the chapel. Every chair, bench, and footstool, out of the vestry, pulpit, and reading desk were in use, and every spot where a person could stand was more than occupied. Besides which, I was told that at least 800 people could not find admittance at all. I am happy to say there were many Jews present, and I trust the word then spoken may have gone to the hearts of some of them. Some of the English congregation, who take an interest in the Jews, were also there, and were much edified. Our good cause is certainly and evidently on the increase here. A circumstance occurred within the last day or two, which I had to witness much oftener in the duchy of Posen. One of the Jewesses to whom I give Christian instruction, was sent for by the Jews, under pretence that a letter with money had arrived for her. But when she came to them, instead of money, they abused her very much, and freely bestowed their curses upon her for daring to embrace Christianity. They then opened a side-door, and in walked her mother, whom they had furnished with money to come to Berlin and take her daughter home; the latter they did not allow to stir out of the room again.

They sent another Jew to her lodgings, to fetch her things, and pay all she owed. This morning she was able to come and see me; her mother, however, followed her to the door, but refused to come in to me. She has not lived with her mother for twelve years, who is a poor woman, and cannot afford to give her even a meal. However, I don't know even now how the matter will end!

HEBREW LEARNING.

By the Author of "Historical Reveries."
WOULDEST thou know if they spoke true,
Whose songs were of an age of gold,
A happier state that man once knew?
Go search the Hebrew records old.

Remounting to forgotten days.
The secrets of remotest eld,
Unfolded to our wondering gaze
In Jewish writings are beheld.

What vague Egyptian legends dressed
In colouring wild and strange disguise,
What Grecian wisdom dimly guessed,
Shone clear to heaven-taught Israel's eyes.
Known well to them how once spread fair
Garden of God, thy stainless bowers,
Known well, alas! how blest they were
Who there abode in sinless hours.

Marvellous beings, finely wrought
Out of the dust, the senseless clod,
In God's own image made, and fraught
With soul, by thine own breath, O God!

Known well, alas! that now in vain
Might man, by broad Euphrates' side,
Roam seeking for that home again
He lost when all in Adam died.

Alas, to think that happy time
Is but a tale of old for us!
A happy tale, of holier prime

Ere earth was stained and darken'd thus.

When sin was not, and death was not,

And God came down to walk with man,Ah, still the soul hath not forgot

The bliss with which its race began!

And still within the human breast,
A vague impression lingering dwells,
A hopeless search, a sad unrest,
Which of its former glory tells.

And still, as men can testify,

At times the lion cow'd hath been,
Before the unquailing human eye,
And known its ancient sovereign.

Yet deeper read! The prophet-voice
That sighs within the bosom's cell,
Like that which bade the vales rejoice
Of angel-haunted Israel,

Tells not alone of bliss decayed,

Of guilt incurred and coming doom, But chants its burden undismayed,

Through woe and death, of heaven and home;

Nor vain the dream, God doth devise
Means for his banished to return,
Askest thou, wanderer, in what wise?

Go search the GOSPEL page and learn!

Macintosh, Printer, Great New-street, London.

THE JEWISH ADVOCATE.

MAY, 1847.

BIBLE HISTORY OF THE JEWS.
CHAPTER XXIV.

BUT this happy state of security did not last; again they sinned, and a dreadful punishment awaited them. The Midianites, those wandering tribes of the desert, who, to this day, utterly eschew a settled life, came up in numbers and overran the country, pasturing their cattle in the cultivated fields, and driving the Israelites to hide themselves in dens, in the mountains, and strongholds. "They came up with their cattle and their tents as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number." "They left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass;" so that the Israelites were greatly impoverished, and in their distress they cried unto the Lord.

Gideon, the son of Joash, the Abi-ezrite, of the tribe of Manasseh, was one day threshing wheat by the winepress at Ophrah-by the winepress ; for the use of the usual threshing floor, with the lowing of the oxen employed to tread out the corn, would have betrayed him to the Midianite oppressors. Whilst he was thus employed, the

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angel of the Lord came and sat under an oaktree close by, and spoke to Gideon, saying, “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." "Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee?"

Gideon knew not well who it was that spoke thus to him, whether a messenger from God or not. He pleaded his own unfitness for such a high calling. "My family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house!" But the angel yet insisted: and Gideon wishing to try him, dressed a kid and set it before him, and lo! the angel touching it with the end of his staff, fire came out of the rock, and consumed the kid as a sacrifice. Then Gideon knew to whom he had been talking; and prepared himself to obey the command laid upon him.

His own family were all idolaters: and had erected an altar to Baal. This altar Gideon was commanded to demolish that very night, and to build in place of it an altar to the Lord upon the top of the rock; to cut down the trees of the sacred grove for fuel; and to offer up one of his father's bullocks as a burnt sacrifice. All this he did, with help, secretly, in the night, for fear of his father's household and of the men of the city. In the morning, when the people of Ophrah saw what was done, they said, "Gideon, the son of Joash, hath done this thing." So they went to Joash and asked him to give his son into their hands, for he should die. But the old man said, "Will ye plead for Baal?" he be a God let him plead for himself." from that day Gideon was sometimes called "Jerub-baal," which means, "Let Baal plead."

"If

So