carriage-road, and starting from the station in the traditional Valley of Rephaim, passes the supposed sites of Baal Perazim, Bether, the Rock Etam of Samson, into the Valley of Sorek and Samson's country. The Deir Aban Station is situated a few minutes' walk from the ruins of Beth-Shemesh, and is in full view of Zorah (now Sara'), Samson's birthplace, near which still stands an ancient altar, supposed to be hewn out of the very rock mentioned in Judges xiii. 19. Whether really Manoah's altar or not, it is, as the well-known German Orientalist, Professor Merx, of Heidelberg, remarks in a letter to me, 'Ein einzig, echtes wunderbares Monument der Urzeit,' an 'unique, genuine, and wonderful monument of primeval times.' It stands on land belonging to the Artouf colony, the new houses of which are in sight on rising ground, about a mile distant to the north of the railway station. Our visit was one of the most cheering and hopeful we have ever made. Two of the original settlers still hold out, as well as one who came a year or two after the first establishment of the colony, and a fourth came to the place a few months ago with his family, and has set up a steam-mill, with which he is doing pretty well, all things considered. The most encouraging feature is that these settlers have for some time past succeeded in making a livelihood, and this will be so much the easier for them now that the railway has practically made Artouf so much nearer both to Jerusalem and Jaffa. Of the four settlers, two have their families with them; a third

has not yet

IN PETTICOAT LANE, LONDON.

I

The Rev. F. L. Denman reports :-"One little incident may be worth recording. I was walking along Petticoat Lane, looking out for an opening to give tracts or to speak, but not one appeared. At last, a man standing at the corner touched his hat to me. spoke to him about Christianity. Whilst doing so, a Hebrew Christian came up to me and shook hands. We talked a little, and when he had gone, I said, Here is a converted Jew.' But the man said he was a Jew. I asked him if he would like to read anything about religion, he said he would, so I gave him something in Jargon, also a copy of Israel's Messiah,' which he said he would read. Two other Jews now came up, to whom I gave tracts. An old Jew, who was standing by would not take a tract; he said it was too late, he had lost his sight. I forget whether I was able to say a word to him, as a crowd now came about me. I offered Israel's Messiah' to one Jew, who said he did not know English, so I gave him a Jargon tract, which was torn out of his hand by a Jew and thrown to the ground. Another Jew cried out, 'What do you come down here for with such rubbish ?' another said, 'Are they for theatres?' I told them they contained 'the Truth.' Three Jews now took tracts which apparently must have passed into other hands, as two were returned to me

brought his family, but hopes to be able to do so ere long; the fourth is unmarried. We examined the houses; though still unplastered inside, they are roofed in and habitable, and are ever so much more comfortable than the old wooden sheds in which the poor people had to live for so many years. One of the settlers, who came to the place without a penny in his pocket, and who had to maintain himself by his labour, now showed us a great heap of durra all his own, the result of his harvest, and a large stock of pigeons all the progeny of one single pair. He has besides been able to send money to his family at Constantinople. All this was most encouraging. Some help is of course still needed to wall up the good well sunk by the settlers through the chalk rock in the western valley, so as to prevent its being filled up with boulders brought down by the winter torrents, and to make it possible to utilize it for irrigating the plain south of the settlement, to plaster the houses, &c., &c., and I trust this will be forthcoming when the above facts are known, and also the brighter prospects apparently in store for Artouf."

of them who are bad enough.' Another said, Why don't you leave the poor harmless Jews in the East End alone, and go to the rich West End Jews?' I answered that the rich Jews will not listen like their poorer brethren. It was so when our Lord was on earth. The poor have the Gospel preached unto them;' it, was the poor who received Him. This gave me an opportunity of referring to the suffering Messiah, and to His coming again in glory. I told them that He was their Saviour, and the only propitiation for their sins. As usual after such conversation, there came abuse, and then more than one in the crowd insisted that I was a Jew, looked like one, and would not believe; my denial, though I said I wished I were a Jew. Several now said they knew my name, it was Bernstein. When I said it was not, they said I was a relation, father or brother, I forget which. They said he was a bad man, and I was connected with him. As they would not listen anymore, I left amidst jeers. I was thankful that I had been allowed to say what I had. As I left

I was followed by a Jew, to whom I spoke when I got round the corner into Goulston Street. He was not a Christian, but said he had been spoken to before by Missionaries, took a copy of 'Israel's Messiah,' and seemed most grateful for all I said to him. He said, you must expect all that jeering from the Jews down here.'

JEWISH IMMIGRATION IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND.

EWISH immigration has been lately brought prominently before the public; so much so, that the Government felt constrained to send two Commissioners to the United States to investigate the regulations ruling the admission of destitute aliens into that country. As is usually the case in the discussion of questions affecting the general welfare of the community, feelings had much to do in stirring up inquiry as to the number of Jews who have of late years settled in England, which is as much exaggerated on one side as it is minimised on the other. But that the Jewish population in many, probably in all, the centres of commerce and industry, such as Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds, has grown considerably, not merely by natural expansion, but by influx from abroad, is far too evident to be denied. In all these towns extensive districts, occupied not long ago by Christians, are now almost in the exclusive possession of Jews. And this growth, which is still advancing, and the quiet extrusion of the Gentile element, while it creates ill-blood between the two races, is also a fruitful source of anxiety to the clergy, who are deprived of their ordinary parishioners, and find themselves surrounded by a people whose language they do not understand, and whose creed is fundamentally opposed to their own.

"This is the case," writes the Rev. M. Wolkenberg, among many others in a certain parish in Liverpool where the Christian population is being gradually pushed out by Jewish settlers from abroad of the poorest class, who will, ere long, be its only inhabitants. We shall then have the curious spectacle presented to us of a church without worshippers, spacious school accommodation without scholars, and an elaborate parochial organization rendered useless. This is not a pleasant prospect to contemplate. But apart from this, any right-minded minister of the Gospel must feel deeply depressed at the sight of a large community springing up around him who spurn the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, and who, if left to themselves, will most surely exert a baneful influence upon the Christian population, and, in fact, are doing so already. Why, then, not employ the existing parochial machinery for their evangelization, the more so, as the Society's Missionaries, possessed of the necessary qualifications for such a work, are on the spot, and eager to render every possible help?

It was with a view to the realization of this most desirable object, that we sought and obtained an interview with the incumbent of the church, who

entered readily into our proposals. Accordingly invitation cards will, God willing, soon be issued to the Jews in his name to meet us every Saturday at the Parish School-room for the study of the Scriptures. They will also be asked to attend the Sunday Evening Services at the church, when subjects of special interest will be brought before them from the pulpits, sometimes in their own vernacul. At the same time efforts will be made to induce them to send their children to the church schools, both on Sundays and on weekdays. And, in order to gain our ends the sooner, we shall endeavour to enlist the personal co-operation of the church workers, and as far as possible utilize the whole existing parochial machinery.

"We are not ignorant of the arduous nature of the task set before us. Difficulties and obstacles of no ordinary kind beset our path. We shall have to overcome deep-seated prejudices, engendered by ignorance and intensified by persecution. But the messenger of the Cross need never be deterred by the powers of darkness; for stronger are those that are for Him than those who are against Him. Progress may be slow, and the immediate results, if reality and not show only be our object, may not strike the eye; but our reward is sure, for in due time we shall reap the fruits of our labour in the Lord."

"Another result—and a permanent one-of the large influx of foreign Jews into this country has been the formation of Jewish settlements in the smaller industrial and commercial centres in this district, where no members of this race had been known to exist before. Consequently, the Evangelist finds his sphere enlarged, at the same time that, owing to the same cause, the number of Jews in his immediate neighbourhood has largely increased, and with the renewal of the immigration now apparently setting in, bids fair to rise still higher and make additional demands. upon our attention.

"Now, one hears and reads a good deal of this class of Israelites resorting by hundreds and even thousands into the Mission Halls, where, as if by the waving of a magic wand, they become dead all at once to all the feelings, habits, and the accumulated prejudices of centuries, which constituted the very essence of their being, loving where they hated, and hating where they loved a short time before. And this astonishing transformation is brought about by the voice of those whom they usually scorn as apostates! Strange, we who have met the same class of people by hundreds, have had no such experience; nor have those belonging to other agencies, who work in close proximity to us. We are thankful when we can get a quiet hearing, and the assurance that the tract given

will not be destroyed as soon as our backs are turned. Are we then less earnest and less faithful in seeking to win our unconverted brethren? No, our apparent lack of success is entirely due to inability, and, I may add, our extreme reluctance to dispense charity (even if we could do so) to Jews as a means of drawing them within the sphere of our influence.

66

Thus in visiting the Jewish communities recently formed in Southport and Chester, as well as in our daily intercourse with the Jews in Liverpool, we have had nothing to press upon their acceptance in addition to the message of peace, except the Scriptures, and these only for money. And what has been the result? Just what one may naturally expect it to be. Very few comparatively evinced a favourable disposition towards the Gospel; but we are sure, at all events, that they had no motives to hide their real feelings from us, and that we are not deceiving ourselves and the public, when we report their utterances in favour of Christianity. So far, therefore, the visits to Southport and Chester have been successful in stirring up inquiry, in dispelling prejudices, and in diffusing a correcter knowlege respecting Christ and Biblical Christianity.

"St. Luke's, Manchester, once a fashionable quarter, is now occupied by a large and rapidly-growing population of Jews, for whose spiritual enlightenment the rector, like a faithful minister of the Gospel, holds himself responsible, so far as it is in his power to promote it. He feels painfully-as all believing Christians and authoritative representatives of the Church in particular must feel-that, standing forth in their corporate capacity as an organized negation of the truth of the Gospel, the Jews, more than any other unbelievers, exert a baneful influence upon their Gentile neighbours. Hence the duty of Jewish evangelization must also press more heavily upon the Church, if only as a measure of self-defence. And even if we may not succeed in perceptibly affecting the Jewish masses, it is no small gain to maintain the Christian position, now and again, from the pulpit in the presence of large bodies of Jews and Christians, as is done in our Mission services.

"Moved by considerations like these, I felt impelled to yield to the urgent entreaty of the Rector of St. Luke's to hold a special service for Jews and Christians one Sunday evening in the spring. I did this the more readily, as he willingly undertook to contribute towards the expenses of the service. But his zeal did not stop here. In order to secure a large attendance of his Jewish parishioners, he called upon them at their own houses, and either handed to them, or sent them through the post, a circular letter of invitation, in which he assured them of his affectionate solicitude for their temporal and spiritual prosperity. The presence of some eighty Jews, among a large Christian congregation, attested the success of our Evangelistic service,

The Rev. S. T. and Mrs. Bachert have returned to Hamburg, after six months' leave of absence in England.

Mr. E. P. Arias made a Missionary journey to the following towns last month:-Bologna, Cento, Ferrara, Rovigo, Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Mantua, Viadana, Bozzola, Cremona, Monticelli, Fiorenzuola, Borgo S. Donino, Soragna, Parma, Reggio, Scandiano, Correggio, Novellara, Carpi, Modena, and Finale.

On Sunday evening, June 4th, a Special Sermon to Jews and Christians was preached by the Rev. M. Wolkenberg in the Cathedral Church, Manchester. The subject was "The Present World-wide Movement among the Jewish People viewed in the light of Similar Events which attended the close of the Babylonian Captivity," from the text Jeremiah 1. 4, 5.

The Rev. W. Becker, the Society's Missionary at Berlin, has issued, in pamphlet form, a biographical notice of his father, the late Rev. F. W. Becker, for many years Missionary of the Society. Its title is A Heroic-form in the Jewish Mission of the 19th Century." The biography is very well written, and forms No. 16 of the publications of the "Institutum Judaicum" in Berlin.

The next Quarterly Prayer Meeting of the London Society will be held (D.V.) in the Children's Room, Denning Road, Hampstead, on Thursday. July 13th, at 3 30 o'clock. The Rev. Canon Girdlestone, M.A., will preside. An address will be given by the Rev. C. Bradshaw Foy, M.A., Vicar of St. Mary, West Kensington. Denning Road is about five minutes' walk from Hampstead Heath Railway Station. Tea and Coffee 4.30 p.m.

The Rev. W. Becker, writes: "I have lately learnt of the death of my first convert in Breslau, Paul Gustrak, a native of Kischineff (Russia), who was baptized by me in 1885. He died on March 30th after much suffering. A friend, who visited him till the last, wrote to me before his death, 'He stands fast in the faith.' owner of the factory in Breslau, of which he was the foreman, and the president of the Young Men's Association, of which he had been a member since his baptism, gave him the best character. Eight days before his death he received the Lord's Supper.

The

In April, Mr. C. Urbschat, of Konigsberg, visited Heiligenbeil, Elbing, and Danzig. At the first-named place he called upon all the Jewish families, and preached a Mission Sermon before a large congregation. At Elbing, with a Jewish population of 500, mostly of the reformed class, he visited twelve Jewish families, among whom, though kindly received, he found very little willingness to enter on religious discussions. Mr. Urbschat also held a Mission service in this town. At Danzig he called upon twelve Jewish families, all his old acquaintances, and had much opportunity to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. He also held services in the Mission Hall.

The Rev. J. I. Cohen, the well known Secretary of the C.P.A., was kind enough to give the devotional address at the Monthly Prayer Meeting on behalf of the Metropolitan Mission of the Society at Palestine Place, on Friday, June 9. The Vicar of Islington, Mr. Barlow, was to have taken it, but the postponement of the Ordination by the Bishop of Liverpool to the Sunday after Trinity prevented his coming. At the next Meeting, on Friday,

July 14, the address will be given (D.v.) by the Rev. J. M., Eppstein, who is shortly removing to Bristol.

The Annual Distribution of Prizes to the School-children in Palestine Place was made on June 1st by Lady Kennaway, and was attended by a large number of the friends of the Society. The children also showed excellent knowledge of Scripture in the short riva voce examination to which they were subjected. During the afternoon a Sale of Work was held on behalf of the Schools, and many old scholars were present at the annual gathering held for them afterwards. In the evening the Anniversary Sermon was preached by the Rev. Canon Neligan, of Dublin. The collection and the proceeds of the Sale of Work amounted to more than £21. We have to thank warmly those many friends who have so kindly contributed to this result.

The Rev. A. C. Adler, of Amsterdam, reports that a Jew and a Jewess were baptized by him, the former on Ascension day, and the latter on Whitsunday. He says "The Jew hails from Roumania, and is 26 years of age. Having heard very little of the Gospel before, he found his way to my house. The acceptable time of the Lord seemed to have come for this Jew, for he soon became earnest in the search for truth, and anxious about his soul. Hence the hours spent by me in instructing him were pleasant and refreshing. After a few months' preparation, he expressed a wish for holy baptism, to which I acceded. The second candidate is a native of Holland, born and brought up at the Hague. She decided to come to Amsterdam in consequence of our late visits to, and our work in, that town. From her early youth, she appears to have been inwardly drawn towards Christianity, which she, even then, preferred to Judaism. Her mother was strenuously opposed to her leanings; but after the death of her parents, she felt attracted by the services of the 'Salvation Army.' Gradually, however, she wanted a firmer basis than the army offers in way of doctrine. With great application and zeal she availed herself of my teaching, both in Church and in private instruction. Having a good character from those who knew her, I gladly acceded to her request for holy baptism, which she received in the presence of a numerous congregation.

Besides the regular monthly lectures at Rotterdam, Mr. Adler also lectured at Utrecht and Delpt; and at the Hague he preached a Mission sermon.

IN SPITALFIELDS.

The Rev. A. Bernstein reports :-"On the last day of the Passover, a sermon was preached by the Rev. S. T. Bachert in St. Mary's Church, Whitechapel, which was listened to attentively by a very large number of Jews. After the sermon, I had a most interesting discussion with quite a group of Jews in the street, in which a Christian gentleman assisted me. The subjects of discussion were the existence of God, the Divine Mission of Moses, the genuineness of faith, all of which they denied stoutly without the least blush in the presence of a respectable Jewess. I asked them to account for the keeping by the Jews of the Passover during all the centuries since the Exodus, and they said that both the Passover and Christian Easter were nothing else but the heathen feasts of spring. Though it was painful to hear Jews revile their own religion. I should have kept up the discussion for a long time, but an inebriate Jew came near, and poured abuse upon me, so I left them with my Gentile friend. I then went to a Jewish restaurant, where I met, beside the family of the house, a number of well dressed Jews, who thought that I evidently wished to partake at least of one Jewish meal during the Passover, in order to satisfy my conscience that I have kept the feast. This gave me an opportunity for a friendly conversation. I had several inquirers during the month who expressed a desire to receive Christian instruction from me with a view to

baptism, but they had no regular employment, and I was greatly perplexed to know what best to do. One inquirer, a very intelligent and sincere young man, whom I instructed for a month, left for America, but I hope, and am almost sure, that he will become a Christian there. Another young man was a native of Salonica, who only spoke Arabic, another from Jerusalem, and two from Russia. All of them seemed to be anxious to have the opportunity of becoming open disciples of Christ. The lectures on Saturday afternoon at the Mission Hall were continued by me without interruption, and though the attendance was not large, as I do not use any artificial means to draw Jews, yet those who attended were, I trust, benefited."

I am glad to report of a most interesting and unusual meeting for prayer and praise of Hebrew Christians that took place on Thursday evening of Passion Week, in a Mission Hall at Spitalfields. The Hall was quite full of Hebrew Christians and Jews, so that there was scarcely standing room. Six clergymen were present, including the Rector. I gave an account of the conversion of Bishop Joseph Schereschewsky, who, when attending a similar meeting in New York when the temporal and spiritual redemption of Israel was commemorated, was so impressed that he offered up a most solemn Hebrew prayer, and there and then decided for Christ. Mr. Eppstein delivered a most spiritual and impressive address. But the climax of all was the appearance of the venerable Rabbi Lichtenstein, who is known to the Christian world as having written several books proving the truths of the Gospel, and as having actually preached the Gospel in his synagogue at Tapio Szele, Hungary, for several years. For a long time he endured the persecutions of Jewish Synods and Rabbis until at last he was obliged to leave his post and to undertake the work of an Evangelist. And now he appeared amongst How shall I describe the address of this remarkable man, as he stood up in his Rabbinical cap with the Word of God in one hand and with the Jewish liturgy in the other, proving from both the Atonement and the Divinity of Christ? When pronouncing the Aaronic benediction, he occupied some minutes in explaining the doctrine of the Trinity. There was altogether so much freshness and ripe Christian experience and vitality in Rabbi Lichtenstein's address, that one could not but fancy that one was listening to the Apostle Paul, or Peter, or James. But all this proves to us, and to any one who is inclined to listen to facts, that the Gospel is even now the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek. We trust that the Christian public will have more opportunities of hearing Rabbi Lichtenstein, and that his visits to England will bring a great blessing to the Mission to the Jews.

us.

"One of my women is," reports Miss Schneider, "I am glad to say, earnestly seeking after the truth. She is the daughter of a Rabbi, and more educated than the common class of women generally are. Many mornings, between 11 and 1, when I am 'at home' for everybody, she comes to me and questions me about the Gospel. Such a work is a slow one. I think she must be a true inquirer, as she derives nearly all her livelihood from the Jewish Board of Guardians, and some one had already accused This might her before them, as going to the Missionaries. involve the ceasing of all her help, but she keeps still coming to the class, and also in the mornings. She is a widow, and has a son who goes to a Christian infant-school."

BOOKS RECEIVED.

In Christ; and other Sermons. By the Rev. Prebendary GORDON CALTHROP. (2nd edition.) London: Elliot Stock. Hymns for the Israel of God. By FRANCIS H. HOLMES. London; Simpkin, Marshall & Co.