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burned on account of the false accusation of having crucified a child. Often has such a base and slanderous charge been made against them. Our readers will find a painfully interesting account of one such accusation, in a little work published by Mr. Wertheim, Paternoster-row, London, entitled, "St. Werner's Chapel; or, the Crucified Child of the Rhine." The chapel erected to commemorate the fabled miracle, which brought this deed of cruelty to light, stands yet, the monument of Gentile barbarity clad in the garb of Christianity. Its existence is an insult to the Jew, and can only give intensity to the scorn with which he must regard a system that brands his nation with the barbarity of a crime, from which every heart must shrink with horror. When the Jew hears related the legend of this St. Werner's Chapel, he must indeed feel that his nation is captive. He needs not the "by-word and the proverb," the sneer and the reproach which everywhere meet him, to recall the language of the weeping prophet or the petitions of his own Morning Service, or to make him enter with all his soul into the following beautiful portion of his Liturgy, which is repeated on the ninth day of the month Ab :

"Comfort, O Lord our God! the mourners of Zion, and the mourners of Jerusalem, the city that mourns, which also lay waste and is destroyed; reproached and desolate; who mourns for the sake of her children; that is solitary for her inhabitants, robbed of her honour, desolate without the inhabitants of her dwellers; with her head ashamed like unto a barren woman that beareth not. She is overwhelmed with sorrow because her inheritors are worshippers of

images, who smote thy people Israel with the sword and slew wilfully the saints of the Most High. Therefore Zion with bitterness weepeth, and Jerusalem lifteth up her voice. O my heart! my heart grieveth for those that were slain; O my bowels! my bowels for those that were killed for thou, O Lord, with fire hast consumed it, and with fire thou wilt again rebuild it; as it is written, for I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about it, and will be the glory in the midst of her. Blessed art thou, O Lord! the comforter of Zion, and the builder of Jerusalem."*

In the midst of all their sorrows, one hope is ever dear to the devout Jew. That hope rests on God's promise to restore his nation and say unto Zion, "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." This hope he expresses in his daily service in the synagogue and in his private prayers. We add one or two sentences from the Morning Service :

"O sound the great cornet as a signal for our freedom; hoist the banner to collect our captives, so that we may all be gathered together from the four corners of the earth. Blessed art thou, O Lord! who gathereth together the outcasts of his people Israel."

"O be mercifully pleased to return to Jerusalem, the city; and dwell therein as thou hast promised. O rebuild it shortly even in our days, a structure of everlasting fame, and speedily establish the throne of David thereon."

"O cause the offspring of thy servant David speedily to flourish, and let his horn be exalted

*Daily Prayers, p. 33.

in thy salvation; for we daily hope for thy salvation. Blessed art thou, O Lord! who causest the horn of salvation to bud."

We add here only one more extract from the "daily prayers," and we entreat our readers to remember the word of the Lord to themselves, that they may unite with outcast Israel in the prayer for deliverance. "Ye that make mention

of the Lord keep not silence, give him no rest until he establish and until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." *

66 'Hear our voice, O Lord our God! O have compassion and mercy upon us, and accept our prayers with mercy and favour; for thou art Omnipotent! Thou hearkenest to prayers and supplications, and from thy presence, O our King dismiss us not empty, for thou hearest the prayer of thy people Israel in mercy."

"THY WORD IS TRUTH."

THE friends of a dying Christian as they stood around her bed, asked of her one favour, which was, that she would with her fast-ebbing strength, speak one sentence of encouragement to them in their future journey through this world.

The

dying creature looked at them, and seeing a Bible beside her, laid her hand upon it, and slowly and solemnly, but with a happy smile, said, "This is truth;" and then closed her eyes on all below, to open them upon the blessed vision of all she had hitherto seen by faith, and rejoiced in. Well might the friends of this believer thank God for her dying testimony to the truth of *Isaiah lxii. 6, 7.

his most holy Word. And one, yet journeying on, would add her living testimony to its truth, and would speak, not of that internal evidence, which is in the heart and experience of every child of God, but of some evidences which, from time to time, arrested her attention as she tracked the footsteps of the children of Israel through "the great and terrible wilderness," or wandered with delight amidst the rich valleys and fertile hills of Syria.

Only desert travellers know the value of water. The hart panting after the water brooks, or, as it is in the margin, "braying after water," can be well understood by those who have seen the eagerness of the animals as well as men to reach some hoped-for spring or pool. And those who have been separated by uncounted miles of desert sands from the habitations of friends or countrymen, can well unite the two main cravings of the body and the heart under such circumstances, and say with Solomon, "As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country."

We had travelled four days from the convent on Mount Sinai, and had during some hours suffered much from a drying, parching wind, with a burning sun over our heads, when the Arabs gave a shout, and announced that water was near! We really forgot our fatigue and hastened forward, already imagining the satisfaction with which we should enjoy an unlimited draught. But words cannot convey to the mind of an untravelled reader, the distress we felt when, on approaching the pool, we found it had been so long frequented by the beasts of the desert that the waters were tainted and unclean,

and forbad us even to dip in our heated hands, much less to cool our parched lips. It was a bitter disappointment! At a distance, the sun had shone upon the water, and it looked bright and clear! While the recollection of what we had anticipated, and the sound of the poor camels, drinking in their three days' portion, seemed to increase our thirst. Here, then, was a picture of the pleasures of this world. They are polluted; and though the scenery around us was lovely, yet nothing could satisfy us or incline us to linger and pitch our tent. The unclean waters spoke to us, as does God's Word, of all things here below, "Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest, because it is polluted; it shall destroy you even with a sore destruction." Well may the Christian pilgrim rejoice to know that even through this wilderness world a stream does flow, which is pure and clean and satisfying, and he who drinketh of its waters shall never thirst, but they shall be in "him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

MISSIONS TO THE JEWS.

JERUSALEM.

THE following extracts from letters, addressed by Dr. Abeken, an excellent Prussian clergyman, to his Excellency the Chevalier Bunsen, give an interesting and encouraging view of the missionary work at Jerusalem. They shew, too, how important the Bishopric established in the Holy City is, for the promotion of the great work of making known the blessed truths of the Gospel to the Jews and others in the East.

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