great measure, evoked in the bosom of modern Judaism a desire to avail itself of its own hidden treasure.-Compiled by P. A.

VERIFICATION OF PROPHECY.

Several rabbis went up to Jerusalem with Rabbi Akiba. When they arrived at Mount Zophim (the seer's) they rent their garments; when they arrived at the "Mount of the Temple" they saw a fox running out of the "Most Holy of

-such was the name of the inner) מבית קדש הקדשים Holies

most part of the Temple). They began to weep, but Rabbi Akiba smiled. " Why dost thou smile?" asked they; and "Why do ye weep?" rejoined he. "Shall we not weep," said they, "seeing foxes inhabit the place of which Scripture says, 'And whoso he cometh near he shall die?"" "For this very reason, I smile," said he, "because Isaiah has said, 'And I took to me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Berechiah.' In what relation can Uriah and Zechariah stand to each other, when Uriah lived during the first Temple, and Zechariah during the second? But their respective prophecies are purposely connected to show that the fulfilment of the one proves the veracity of the other. Uriah prophesied, Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field' (Micah iii. 12). Zechariah prophesied, 'There shall yet old men and women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem' (Zech. viii. 4). Unless the prophecy of Uriah were fulfilled, I feared that the prophecy of Zechariah would not either be fulfilled; but now since the prediction of the former has this day been fulfilled before our eyes, it affords strong evidence of the verification of the latter." The rabbins thereupon exclaimed, "Akiba, thou hast indeed comforted us."-Quoted by Rev. Dr. ADLER, in his sermon 1) naw "n′′¬′′n.

6

A JEWISH PARLIAMENT.

I question whether many are acquainted with Parliamentum Judaicum. Yet such a one was held, being the 25th of Henry III., as properly deserves that title. For the king directed writs to the sheriff of each county, commanding them to return before him, at Worcester, upon Quinquagesima Sunday, six of the richest Jews from every town, or two only from places where there were but few, to treat with him, as well concerning their own, as his benefit; and threatening the sheriffs that if they failed, he would so terribly handle them, that they would remember it as long as they lived. Great, no doubt, was the surprise of those unhappy people to find themselves thus all of a sudden made councillors to the king, after so many years spent in ignominious servitude. I would almost think he was desirous to become Jew himself; when they observed how little he regarded the Christian Sabbath by appointing it for their day of meeting. But whatever sanguine hopes this great honour may have inspired them. with, when they came to understand no other part of his Majesty's most gracious speech but that he wanted money -they must raise him money-he had called them together to think of ways and means; to furnish him with twenty thousand marks; their consternation was inexpressible. But there was no remedy. Liberty of speech for this one time was denied in Parliament; and they were only commanded to go home again and to get half of it ready by Midsummer, and the remainder by Michaelmas.BLUNT. Early History of the Jews.

A FEMALE HEBREW SCHOLAR.

An extraordinary knowledge of Hebrew was possessed by a Christian lady named Anna Miriam Schurman. She

was descended of a noble family resident at Cologne, and was born in 1607. She was considered as a prodigy of her age, for not only did she excel all women in all kinds of needlework and embroidery, in painting, poetry and music, but she also understood thoroughly the Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldaic, Syriac, Ethiopic, Greek, and Latin, and spoke fluently the French, English, and Italian languages. She carried on a correspondence in Hebrew with some of her literary friends. Two of her letters are in the 'ny, and display a curious specimen of the proficiency in Hebrew of a lady, not of the Jewish faith.— Extracted from the Bikurai Ha-ittem for 1824.

HOUSE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Berlin. The house once inhabited by the celebrated Jewish philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn, No. 68, Spandau Street, was recently bought by the Jewish Community for 35,000 dols. (£5,000), for the purpose of establishing a Jewish Charity School for children of both sexes. In the house was found a marble tablet bearing this inscription: "Here lived a sage, not less distinguished for his great wisdom, than for his pure morals and his exemplary life."L'Univers Israélite, 1846.

ON THE BAPTISM OF JEWS.

Saint Gregory the Great, who died in 687, wrote to the Bulgarians: "No violence must be done to the Jews, for what is not done voluntarily, cannot be good." Pope Innocent III. published an ordinance (1199) in which he takes the Jews under his protection against every injury. "However blameable (he writes) the unbelief of the Jews, they should nevertheless not be subject to grave persecutions from the faithful, considering that they serve as a

confirmation to the Christian faith. No person should be coerced into baptism, but if anybody manifests of his own accord a desire of becoming a Christian, he must not be prevented from receiving baptism, for those who submit under violence cannot be true believers. The fourth Council of Toledo says:-"As for the Jews, the Holy synod orders, not to offer violence to any person in order to bring him to the faith; for God enlightens with His grace him He chooses, and hardens him He chooses not"! Saint Thomas, who died in 1274, said, "It has never been customary in the Church to baptise the children of Jews against the will of their parents."-Journal of Sacred Literature, Third Series, page 453.

This is preceded and followed by some pungent remarks respecting the (then recent, 1859,) abduction of Mortara.

HEBREW CIVILISATION.

The peculiarity of the Hebrew civilisation did not consist in the culture of the imagination and intellect, like that of the Greeks, nor in the organisation of government like that of Rome; but its distinguishing feature was Religion. To say nothing of the Scriptures; the prophets, the miracles of the Jews, their frequent festivals, their constant sacrifices, everything in their collective and private life was connected with a revealed religion; their wars, their heroes, their poetry had a sacred character; their national code was full of the details of public worship; their ordinary employments were touched at every point by divinely appointed and significant ceremonies. Nor was this religion, as were the religions of the heathen world, a creed which could not be the common property of the instructed and the ignorant. It was neither a recondite philosophy which might not be communicated to the masses of the people, nor a weak superstition controlling the conduct of the lower classes and

F

ridiculed by the higher. The religion of Moses was for the use of all and the benefit of all. The poorest peasant of Galilee had the same part in it as the wisest rabbi of Jerusalem. The children of all families were taught to claim their share in the privileges of the chosen people.Contrast with Gentiles. And how different was the nature of this religion from that of contemporary Gentiles! The pious feelings of the Jews were not dissipated and distracted by a fantastic mythology, where a thousand different objects of worship, with contradictory attributes, might claim the attention of the devout mind. "One God," the Creator and Judge of the world, and the Author of all good, was the only object of adoration. And there was nothing of that wide separation between religion and morality, which among other nations was the road to all impurity. The will and approbation of Jehovah was the motive and support of all holiness; faith in His word was the power which raised men above their natural weakness, while even the divinities of Greece and Rome were often the personifications of human passions, and the example and sanction of vice.

The pious Hebrew was always, as it were, in the attitude of expectation. It has been well remarked, that while the golden age of the Greeks and the Romans was the past, that of the Jews was the future. While other nations were growing weary of their gods-without anything in their mythology or philosophy to satisfy the deep cravings of their nature; with religion operating rather as a barrier than a link between the educated and the ignorant; with morality divorced from theology-the whole Jewish people were united in a feeling of attachment to their sacred institutions, and found in the facts of their past history a pledge of the fulfilment of their native hopes.-REV. J. S. HowSON. Life and Epistles of St. Paul.