the greatest capability for restoration and renewed life. The Israelite, despised till he became despicable, has yet, by God's providential dealings, become in a manner indispensable to the social existence of the world. Alas! up to this day, that people have supplied the nations of the earth with silver and gold, whose high calling it once was (and will be again) to scatter among them the riches of the knowledge and the glory of God.

"Yes, deep indeed, was Israel's fall, and grievous to all who love him are his wounds, his misery, and his reproach. And yet by the side of his vices, odious in their nature, and so greatly detested by the nations, there were still to be found some virtues and good qualities which the Israelite never lost, even in the time of his greatest misery. Unhappily hardened against faith in Christ Jesus, he has ever continued constant to his belief in Moses. He sometimes sets an example which may make Christians blush, of temperance, of chastity, of obedience to lawful authority, mercy, and benevolence. His activity is equal to his skill. Though cruelly tormented and provoked, he can yet forgive injuries. Beneath the proof-armour of insensibility, put on as a shield against the contempt of those around him, he often possessed deep feelings of kindness. Amid all his sufferings from without, family peace and a happy home were usually his portion. Wearied with long days and weeks of labour and insult, he found repose in the bosom of his family, by the light of his Sabbath lamp. There, the Israelite, so constantly, so universally spurned, became again a patriarch. He broke the bread and blessed the cup, after the manner

of his forefathers, after the manner of that very Jesus and his Apostles, whom, to his own sorrow, he so blindly refuses to acknowledge. The very expression of his countenance betrays, even in its degeneracy, a far nobler origin than a careless and superficial world would care to recognize or even to look for.

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Oftentimes the countenance of the Israelite himself brings before our imagination one of the noble and amiable characters of the Old Testament; nay, has furnished a model to the painter, when representing the King of Israel upon the

cross.

:

"The peculiar features, both of Israel and his history, consist in striking contrasts. The most marked election, and the most terrible reprobation the blessing of Abraham, the pastoral chief, and the curse of Judas's thirty pieces of silver; the rejection of the Messiah, and yet the ever-abiding and close connexion of the Messiah with the Jews."

MISSIONS TO THE JEWS.

JERUSALEM.

The House of Industry.-This is an institution at Jerusalem calculated to be eminently useful in teaching poor converts and enquirers a trade, by which they may be able to earn a living, when, through embracing Christianity, they have lost the means which they had of doing so amongst the Jews. Hitherto it has not had many inmates, yet, from Mr. Nicolayson's and the Superintendent's letters, it appears that the future prospects of the establishment are more cheering.

At present there are six Jews receiving the benefits of the House of Industry. Of these the Master says:

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'Considering that our inmates are working men, and not students, I think that the progress which some of them have made in Biblical knowledge, and in the English language, is quite remarkable; and I must also add that some have so far advanced in their respective trades, that even before their term of apprenticeship expired, they would have been able to earn their own living by their own industry."

Mr. Nicolayson gives the following account of one of the present enquirers, who is learning a trade in the House of Industry:

"J. Tis an Hungarian Jew, originally a talmudic teacher, but subsequently a regular school teacher in German and Hungarian, and as such a man of some acquirements (as well as of years), of much intelligence and of remarkably candid mind, open to truth, though he was but little acquainted with Christianity, and still less interested in it, or attracted by it while in his native country. The late wars however in that country, induced him to quit it, and on his landing at Jaffa, he became acquainted with Mr. Hanauer there. The arguments of the latter made considerable impression on his candid mind; and being in ill health at the time, Mr. Hanauer gave him a line to Mr. Calman, to obtain admission for him into the Hospital. There he read first the Bible, then the New Testament, in Hebrew, with deep interest. Calling on a patient there, two or three weeks ago, who is a member of our German congregation, (then dangerously ill, but now convalescent,) I saw there this inquiring Israelite for the first time. Being nearly recovered, he ob

tained leave to come to my house, and Mr. Calman kindly brought him the same evening. Finding not only his mind impressed with the truth, but his heart open to, and his soul athirst for, the grace of the Gospel, I endeavoured to show him God's own plan for man's salvation, from the first promise of the Bible and throughout all the Prophets, as revealing His thoughts of mercy and purposes of grace towards man as a sinner, from first to last; and then as effected by Christ, and centering in the fulness of grace that is in Him : and it was truly delightful to see, not only how readily his mind apprehended and appreciated each new feature in that plan, as it was presented, in the course of tracing it as a whole through the successive parts of the Scriptures, but how he felt it also meet each new want of his heart, which it disclosed to him.

"Since then he has pursued this course of studying the Scriptures at the Hospital, assisted occasionally by Mr. Calman, Mr. Reichardt, and Mr. Hershon, and having arrived at a full and practical conviction of the truth of Christianity, as the salvation of God, he applied for admission to the House of Industry, ready to learn any trade; and we have just admitted him also as apprentice to the new trade just introduced, that of turning."

Poetry.

THE LANGUAGE OF HEAVEN.

I LOOKED forth on the midnight skies,
As star by star went by,

Telling the power and love of God,
To lands far off and nigh.

And to their calm, pure, shining eyes,
Such eloquence seemed given,
I deemed bright looks alone could be
The language known in Heaven.

I listened whilst the happy winds
To flower and streamlet sung,
And bursts of joyous minstrelsy
Through grove and woodland rung,
A wandering breeze swept fitfully
Eolian chords among,

And then alone sweet music seemed,
Heaven's own appropriate tongue.

I heard the last low gentle words
By a loved sister spoken,

Just ere the silver chord was loosed,
And the golden bowl was broken.
And through long years it seemed to be
That they must speak above,
The same dear language which expressed
Her never-changing love.

Yet holier, lovelier than the sound
Of our own native tongue,

When every tone brings thoughts of one
Long passed to Heaven's pure throng,
Is the sweet language of that land
The Saviour's footsteps trod,-
Oh, surely, thus the ransomed speak
Before the Throne of God.

A thousand tongues our thoughts may find
We knew not of before,
When clothed with immortality,

We wake to sin no more.

But ever to our fallen race,

Through Christ redeemed forgiven,

The language which He spoke will be

The sweetest heard in Heaven.

J. T.