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JERUSALEM.

Sufferings of the Jews from Disease and Poverty, and the Benefits derived by them from the Society's Hospital and Dispensary.

THE following deeply interesting letter has lately been received from Dr. Macgowan. The Committee of the Society will be very thankful to receive any contributions in money or useful articles of clothing, for the poor of Israel in Jerusalem. Dr. Macgowan says:

"It has frequently been my wish during the last month, that our friends in England could get a peep at the hospital on one of my days for the admission of patients. The scene that would meet the eye would be one of uncommon gratification and interest. They would see the waiting-room full of patients, besides a crowd of others thronging the doors of the hospital, who had been too late for admission, but who are patiently waiting in the hope of being attended to, when the first applicant shall be dismissed. Every three or four minutes the door of the consultation-room opens, and out comes a patient with his prescription in his hand, which he takes to the dispensary, which is situated on the other side of the street. This lasts for about two hours, during which the crowd of patients in the street are waiting, some standing, others seated, or lying on the ground or on the steps of the door. Some of them, naturally enough, lose patience, and on the opening of the door, endeavour to force their way into the consulting-room, and are with difficulty prevented from doing so. Their turn, however, comes at last, when it becomes necessary to discriminate between those who really require advice, and those who are

suffering from want. To the most necessitous of the latter a ticket is given for the matron of the hospital, who is in attendance in an adjoining room, and who, on receiving the ticket, gives out of her stores, which have been provided by the kind friends in England, some articles of clothing, flour, or relief in a little money, according to the wants of the applicant. With what a deep interest would those benefactors of the friendless and destitute children of Abraham listen to their tale of distress, and witness the lively expressions of gratitude, thankfulness, and blessing, from the God of Jacob that burst from their lips!

"In the great majority of cases of sickness to which I am called, there is such an inability to procure the articles of food, that the patients would inevitably perish of want, were they not supplied to them. Several instances have come to my knowledge of persons who have literally died of hunger during the last year. A little girl was brought to the hospital two weeks ago in a weak and suffering state, her mother had recently died of dysentery brought on by eating indigestible food. She had been reduced to eating bran, and suchlike unwholesome nourishment. The child was

Some neigh

orphan into

suffering from the same complaint. bours had kindly received the little their house, and they brought her to the hospital to be taken care of. Two other little orphans under similar circumstances had previously been brought and left in the hospital. Instances of the kind frequently occur in which orphan children who are left destitute are brought sick to the hospital; but it is embarrassing to know what to do with them after they have recovered. Whenever Jews arrive from other

parts of the Holy Land, the principal point of attraction to them is the hospital. We frequently meet with parties of Jews newly arrived standing before it, and eyeing the building with great earnestness and curiosity. Sometimes they send me a request to be admitted to see the inside of the institution. Yesterday morning two respectable looking Jews, evidently from their appearance of the better class, and strangers in Jerusalem, were observed standing opposite the hospital, regarding it with great attention whilst engaged in earnest conversation with one another. In fact, the institution is now generally known as a refuge for sick destitute Jews, so much so that frequent instances occur of foreign Jews arriving in a bad state of health, making immediate application for admittance as a matter of

course.

"In speaking in one of my former Reports of the opposition made to the hospital, I mentioned that the present Pasha of Jerusalem had been induced to take a hostile part against us in consequence of the misrepresentations of the Rabbies. It has happened, singularly enough that the Pasha has been under the necessity of requesting my attendance for his daughter, a child of seven years of age, who had been seriously attacked by fever. By the blessing of God, my treatment of the case was successful, and I have reason to believe that the parents of the child are duly sensible of the important service which I was enabled to render them."

THE CRUSADE,

AS PREACHED BY THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER.

I.

FROM royal and baronial hall

Poured the Crusaders forth of old,
From hamlet-hearth and cloister-wall,
From peaceful roof and iron hold:
And all for what? To vainly rear
On God's own seat a human throne,
And, battling for a sepulchre,

To sink, unfit, into their own!

II.

Alas! alas! 'twas not for thee

To strive to bless what God had cursed,
Oh, frail and fallen humanity,

In low ambitions idly nursed!
A human monarch yet shall sit
Upon the throne of Israel,
But He alone for that is fit,

Within whose flesh doth Godhead dwell.

III.

Oh, not like theirs is our Crusade,
A strife to win an empty tomb;
Not ours a warrior host arrayed,
To seek a cavern's lamp-lit gloom.
We come the heralds to declare,

That grave a long-forsaken prison,
And say to those who worship there,
"He is not here, for he is risen !"

IV.

Not ours with clang of deadly steel

To make thy ruined streets resound,
City of Peace! Not ours to kneel
Blood-stained on Zion's holy ground!
No! Peace to man, his peace with God
We come to publish forth alone,
And crimson with no blood thy sod,

Unless, for Thee, to shed our own.

* An idea taken from a well-known missionary sermon,

by Rev. John Angell James.

Macintosh, Printer, Great New-street, London.

THE JEWISH ADVOCATE.

FEBRUARY, 1847.

BIBLE HISTORY OF THE JEWS.

CHAPTER XXI.

THEN Some of the Hivite tribes, Gibeonites, and others, dwelling in those parts, seeing Joshua's great power, and that the God of battles was with him, thought it safest not to encounter him, but to secure their own safety by artifice. They knew that he would not treat with them as Canaanites, whom he exterminated wherever he came; so "they did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors; and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up; and old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy." In this state, like travellers wearied with the length of their journey, they appeared before Joshua at Gilgal, saying, "We be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us." Deceived by their appearance, and forgetting to ask counsel of the Lord, Joshua made peace with them, "to let them live;" and the princes of the congregation sware unto them. At the end of three days, Joshua

VOL. III.

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