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troversies commenced with Rabbies, the Jewish people provoked to emulation, and new vigour given to their own endeavours to remove the moral reproach so long hanging over their nation. An Episcopal Chapel, built for their spiritual instruction, springs up, as it were, out of the earth, raised, if not "without hands," yet, certainly, without ostensible means. In the space of one short year, an hundredt descendants of the House of Abraham are heard to sing within its walls, "Hosannah to the Son of God!" At the end of the sixth year of its existence, this rapid and extraordinary exertion seems at once to suffer a paralysis, and the whole, as a mere ephemeral novelty, appears nigh to dissolution. The warmth of public zeal abates, the hopes of individuals are disappointed, the supporters of the system

are withdrawn-the machine of the Society, complicated and embarrassed, appears to be at an utter stand. At once a new era commences, light springs up in darkness, resources are found in a desert. The peculiar circumstances of the So ciety, which would have involved any Institution of a mere worldly nature in utter confusion, are over-ruled to the production of more harmony and order than had ever before existed. The differences of religious persuasion are made to produce and nourish the principles of Christian love. Private feelings are sacrificed to public good; the very principle on which the Society was founded, is abandoned for its immediate preservation. Under the influence of a Christian spirit, worthy of the best ages of the Church, all denominations concerned in the general promotion of the cause, concur, at a public meeting, in consigning the conduct of this important cause to the exclusive management of the Established Church; and on

the seventh anniversary of the Society above mentioned, the very day on which it had assumed its first ostensible name and character,) a new Institution arises, not one present efficient member of which had any concern in the primary In

stitution." P. 5.

Our readers, we hope, will excuse

* The history of this Episcopal Church would not be without its moral, did our limits permit us to enter upon it. We have heard of various pretences under which subscriptions were obtained towards the building; and of some subscriptions which were reclaimed, because these pretences were not realized. If its means were not ostensible, at least an ostentatious display was not wanting to procure them. See account of the laying the first stone, Jewish Repository for May, 1813. REV. t "There are usually seven or eight Jews at the Lord's Table at the Episcopal Chapel." (10th Report, p. 28!!!) REV

us, if, after having gratified them by this highly wrought narrative, we now proceed to lay before them a very homely, but, as we believe, authentic statement. It is drawn, indeed, from adverse sources; but the particulars which it details are either supported by the admissions of individuals who best knew the facts, or corroborated by strong circumstantial evidence: and they are further rendered credi ble by the silence of that Society, which, if it has been unjustly accused, is, on all accounts, deeply interested in their refutation.

• An obscure foreign Jew professing Christianity, who, after failing in an attempt to qualify himself as a strolling player, had served his time as a shoemaker, disgusted with manual labour, suddenly felt an inclination to become a Missionary; and was recommended, as such, to the Missionary Society in England, to be sent by them to Africa. Arrived in England, however, his mind became suddenly enlightened upon the subject of his future destination; he found himself called to duties of a higher order than mere missionary occupation, and discovered that his talents fitted him rather for the meridian of London, than for the kraals of the Hottentots. Having succeeded in persuading the Missiona ry Society to educate him for the ministry here, he was clothed, fed, and instructed in one of their seminaries;

and, in due time, employed in the Dissenting Chapels as a Missionary to the Jews at home. Ambitious, however, of more power and distinction than his patrons chose to give him, and forgetful of all the favours he had received, and the implied conditions on which they were bestowed, he deserted them, joined the newly formed "London Society," and, by insinuation and management, obtained from them a liberal income, and considerable influence in the disposal of their funds, and the conduct of their concerns.

While under his auspices, impostors without number were suffered to prey upon the Society; the most shameful immoralities were practised by its pretended converts; the association

itself was disgraced, its income wasted, the royal patronage which had been obtained, withheld, the public interest lost, and the more respectable Jews insulted, and confirmed, if they needed confirmation, in their own faith, by the misconduct of those who had undertaken to convert them. And thus the crisis was produced to which Mr. Way alludes.

"The warmth of public zeal abates, the hopes of individuals are disappointed, the supporters of the system are withdrawn; the machine of the Society, complicated and embarrassed, appears to be at an utter stand."

The new era then commenced; but it was marked by occurrences, which, as Mr. Way has chosen to involve them in studied obscurity, we will venture to state more clearly. The Society had been originally conducted upon dissenting principles, and was then joined only by those churchmen, who were willing to give their time and money to an institution, whose converts were instructed in a meeting-house by a Jew, educated by Dissenters, and receiving all his notions of Christianity from their teaching. But when its profuse and foolish expenditure of the enormons sums which had been levied on the credulity of the public, had involved the Society in financial difficulties; when its debts were great, and its creditors clamorous; the Dissenting members of the Institution, with a wariness which the conduct of its directors fully justified, refused to advance inore money. Nothing, therefore, remained, but to appeal to the less cautious liberality of their Church of England associates; and to conciliate them, the direction of the Society was thrown into their hands by a willing abdication on the part of the Dissenters; the meeting-house was shut up, the rules altered, the committee re-cast, and, under the management of those churchmen who before had felt no objection to the broad basis, it suddenly became a Church of England Society, and as such was loudly and perseveringly recommended to those whose good-humoured liberality and pious credulity had been tolerably well ascertained. Such then was the

new era; and thus was "the conduct of this important cause consigned to the exclusive management of the Established Church," (p. 7.) that is, of persons, many of whom had before sat in the committee with Dissenters, and expressed no disapprobation of the meeting-house, the Jew-dissenting teacher, and all those arrangements which made it, what it was henceforth nominally to cease to be: we say no

ninally, because, though Mr. Way calls it a "new Institution," we shall soon show that little was altered but the name.

The meeting-house indeed was shut up; but the Dissenting Jew convert, Mr. Frey, was continued in the pay of the Society as a teacher; and in that capacity he was sent down to Stansted, to superintend those who were there breeding up as future converts, under the patronage of Mr. Way. In the Report of 1816, one whole year after the regeneration of the Society, this appointment, and the reasons which induced a committee of churchmen to make it, are thus announced.

"A door not being at present opened for Mr. Frey's ordination in the Established Church, it has been judged expedient by your committee to give him a destina

tion which connects him with this establishment. He has, therefore, been stationed in the immediate vicinity of the young men above mentioned, and the three youths educating by the Society, have been removed from their former situation, and placed under his charge, where they have the advantage of all the means of grace provided for their brethren. Another young man who was baptized some years ago, under the patronage of the Society, and has since been employed in the printing-office, having expressed a desire become a Missionary, has also been put under the tuition of Mr. Frey, at the expense of a benevolent individual, to whose acquaintance he was introduced in a providential manner." Sth Report, p. 24.

No other testimony, we conceive, will be required, to prove that the change in this Society had been more nominal than real. "The conduct of the cause" was indeed consigned to members of the Church; but the principles on which it was conducted had suffered no alteration. Neither the converts, nor the Missionaries of the Society could be expected to become very sound churchmen under the tuition which they "judged it expedient" to afford them; nor would any persons who were really anxious for the security and welfare of our excellent establishment, be well content to entrust one of her institutions to those who could endeavour to procure ordination for Mr. Frey; a man of dubious morals even then, a man whose conduct in the Society had already attracted notice and animadversion, whose religious principles were wholly imbibed from Dissenters, who continued to be a Dissenting teacher, and was ready, if they could have employed him, still to officiate in that character.

Fortunately, in this instance, the vigilance of our ecclesiastical rulers defeated the expectations of these consistent churchmen, and the door was shut against Mr. Frey. We sincerely hope that no future occurrences may suggest reasons for regretting that a similar caution was not observed on another occasion; and that the chosen companion of Mr. Way's travels may prove worthy of the sacred order into which he has been admitted.

As we conceive that the best evidence of the principles of this Institution is afforded by its conduct, we could not allow any weight to arguments built upon alterations in the list of its managers, were they as great as Mr. Way has chosen to represent them. He has ventured to assure the Right Rev. Prelate whom he addresses, that "not one present efficient member of the new Institution had any concern in the primary Institution." P. 7.

What shelter Mr. Way may claim under a latitudinarian interpretation of the word "efficient" we know not; but we learn, from a comparison of the Report for 1814, with that now before us, that his assertion is not to be understood au pied de la lettre. One of the present Right Rev. Patrons stands upon the list of Vice-Presidents for the year 1813, up to the moment of his promotion to the joint patronage. Shall we imagine that he is not, and has not been an efficient member? Shall we so stigmatize all the Vice-Patrons but one, and twelve

of the Vice-Presidents, among whom Mr. Lewis Way himself must be reckoned, all of whom appear on the Society's lists in Reports prior and subsequent to the change, though not always bearing the same rank in its scale of dignities? Or shall we judge thus harshly of all the Clerical members of the committee, and five of the Laity who are to be found on the list before the boasted reformation; or of the Treasurer, or the County Directors, or one of the Secretaries who was on the committee under the original constitution? Surely some of these persons were efficient members of the Institution, or wherefore were their names continued on the list? In either case something like deception has been practised. If they were non-efficient, it was scarcely dealing fairly by the subscribers, to allow them to imagine, that the funds they had so liberally supplied were managed by men of high respectability, whose names were only used as a decoy: if they were, and are efficient, wherefore is this disparaging insinuation thrown out against them? If the object of thus asserting that the affairs of the Society have passed into new hands, be to conciliate favour and obtain support, it wears too much the appearance of a libel upon them, and a fraud upon the public, to suffer it to pass without a mark of disapprobation. The honourable mind of the learned prelate, to whom this letter is addressed, will, we are sure, shrink from the very idea of being made in any way a party to such a representation.

( It is far from our intention to follow Mr. Way through the whole of his letter, or to comment on the various strange positions which it contains. If he can be delighted with his present wanderings; or if he received any pleasure from being surrounded by outcast Jews, clad in the tarnished finery of Monmouth-street, in silken robes, silver clasps, and faded turbans; and was disposed, for the sake of such a gratification, to submit to those depredations to which so suspicious an association subjected him, we know of no law which forbids. the indulgence of his whim. But we think it necessary to protest against his making a parade of these vagaries, in order to keep up a delusion, which diverts the public liberality from more useful and legitimate channels; and feeds that morbid appetite for religious extravagances, which is only increased by indulgence, and threatens to supersede the rational piety and well-directed benevolence which were the characteristics of our countrymen.

From the Report of 1818, we learn, that the whole complicated machinery of penny clubs, auxiliary associations, Ladies' societies, itinerant orators, and preachings throughout the kingdom, has been set in motion to aid the funds of the institution: and that its annual expenditure amounts to 10,000l. We are, therefore, impelled to ask, what good can rationally be expected to result from all this exertion and expenditure; is it likely that the conversion of the Jews will be effected through the instrumentality of such an association as this? Will any converts be made upon principles which the Church of England can sanction or approve ? or has any success hitherto attended the plan, which can encourage reasonable men to give it further support? We would willingly speak with tenderness of those who have hitherto stood most prominent as the managers of the Society; for notwithstanding we differ from them on many important questions, and on none more than on the expediency of such an institution as this, we are always ready to give them credit for a sincere desire to do good, and for an ardent zeal in the prosecution of those designs, which doubtless they consider to be praise-worthy and beneficial. But when we turn from them to the instruments which they have been induced to employ, in carrying the objects of this Society into effect, we are astonished to find them so unfortunate, or so careless, in their selection. The immoralities of one are stated to have driven him from the country;* another is reported to Judas Catarevus. See Goakman's "London Society examined," p. 19-22. VOL. III.

*

have been arrested on a charge of forgery, and strongly suspected of sacrilege ; a third, the most prominent and active character on the scene, appears to have deserted his original benefactors, and to have been ready to preach either in the meeting-house or the church, as his employers directed or paid him; and he is charged, moreover, with having quitted this country at last, because detection in practices disgraceful to his moral character rendered his further residence here, or employment by the Society, impossible. The fourth, after vacillatings for some time between Judaism and Christianity, is at last fixed in the Church; but even his friends appear to regard him with an eye of diffidence, and we have yet to learn what advantage the Church of England, or the cause of Jewish conversion, will gain from his exertions.

If we proceed to investigate the conduct of the presumed, or pretended converts of the Society, the picture which it presents will be too disgusting to look upon. If the hitherto uncontradicted narrative of Mr. Goakman be not exaggerated, grievous indeed has been the misapplication of public liberality, and gross the deception of those by whom it has been administered: and if it be exaggerated or false, let the misrepresentations and misstatements be publicly and speedily proved. When, however, we turn from the charges made by avowed enemies of the Society, to the statements of its zealous friends, what rational ground for hope do even they afford us. Mr. Way speaks too vaguely upon all which relates to the state of the continental Jews, to satisfy an inquiring mind. We anticipate no successful termination of the Society's labours from such facts as these; that a professor, at Deventor, advertises for pupils, whom he may instruct in the Hebrew language; (p. 21.) that a

Also Sailman's " Mystery unfolded," p. 61, 62.

† See Sailman, p. 43. Goakman. 61.
+ See Sailman, p. 47-50.

See the Letter signed Nochman Menker, published by Sailman, in his Mystery unfolded, p. 57, 58. 23

Rabbi, at Posen, received Mr. Way with civility; (p. 33.) that a post-master at Polangen, though a Jew, permitted him to leave a Hebrew Testament in his house; (p. 35.) or that the Jews at Berlin, are disciples of Moses Mendelsohn. (p.24.) Nor can we be much more satisfied with what are called "the encouraging incidents which have happened at our own doors." (Report, 1818, p. 29.) We read, indeed, of some thirty boys, and as many girls, who are at present in the school; but we are not told whether they are the children of Jewish parents or not, and we know how easy it is to sweep the streets of hungry and ragged children, and to detain them for a time by good food, new clothes, and sugared words. We hear also of seven or eight Jews at the Lord's table, of whom there is reason to think well; better reasons we hope than those which induced the Society to form an equally favourable opinion of Judas Catarevus, of Josephson, of Jacobs, of L. Leon, and others, by whom it has been brought to shame.* Well, indeed, does Mr. Simeon remark, that it should not

"Content us to proselyte the Jews to mere nominal Christianity. It is to no purpose to bring their bones together, and cover them with flesh, unless their souls be made alive to God, and they become living members of Christ's mystical body." Report, 1818. p. 16.

We very much fear that few such real Christians have been, or will be made by this institution. Mr. Abrahams, we suspect, has stated the truth, when adverting to the thousands which have been expended in visionary attempts to convert Jews, he asks;

"What have they bought for their money but deception? Even those outcasts which the temptation of money has beguiled to enlist under the banners of that Society, would be exceeding happy to return to their own congregation, if they thought they would be accepted." Abraham's Answer to Simeon, p. 13.

This advice, therefore, is well worthy of consideration; and if Mr. Simeon and his friends may hesitate in adopting it upon the recommendation of a hostile Jew, when they recollect

* See Goakman and Sailman-Passim.

upon what authority they are direct ed, first and principally to do good to the household of faith, they may receive it as an evangelical precept.

"Let me recommend you," says he, "to withhold your light from us, and bestow it where it is more required. Endeavour, first, to enlighten upwards of one hundred different sects of your own profession, and make it appear to them which sect is right; for was there any Jew willing to embrace Christianity, the many dif ferent sects would confuse him so as not to incline him to put faith in either." p. 21.

Of this we are sure, that the readiest mode of recommending Chris tianity to those who are without, is to rectify the opinions and conduct of those who are within. When our Jerusalem is built as a city that is at unity in itself, then the Jews and Gentiles may be expected to flow into it; but while every fanatical teacher sets up for an Apostle, while every benevolent enthusiast advocates a new plan of conversion or instruction, while the people are carried about by every wind of doctrine, and the very ministers of the Church, who should be the guardians of unity, are, some of them, by their will worship, and independency, the promoters of division, that predicted time may be considered as still far off from us. Our Zion herself must first be established in the beauty of holiness, her breaches repaired, her wounds healed, her dissensions pacified, her pure doctrine asserted, her apostolic discipline restored to its due authority, before the great work of Jewish or of Gentile conversion can be successfully carried on, or they, whose first duty is owed to her, can consistently or blamelessly devote their time or faculties to such an undertaking.

FOR THE CHRISTIAN JOURNAL
BISHOP HICKES.

THE following extract from an Epistle of this truly excellent and primitive prelate, to the author of a book against which he wrote, shows at once the independent and evangelical character of his mind.

"THESE are the men, whose oracle you are, and whose party language

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