'JEWS, TURKS, INFIDELS AND HERETICS.'

WE earnestly hope that the God of Israel will ere long put it into the hearts of some who have the power, to amend this passage, which occurs in our collect for Good Friday. It is one of the remnants of Popery that we cannot too soon, or too decidedly shake off. We are all aware that our Common Prayer Book is in many respects identical with the Mass-book of Rome; having been purged of the idolatries and other anti-christian falsities engrafted by Popery on a Christian ritual; and if this insulting juxta-position in which God's ancient people are placed escaped the notice of our Reformers, it is full time that we should repair their oversight.

It is the more incumbent on us, because to this day the same prayer is retained in the Missal, and used in the services of Rome, we being the 'Heretics' so considerately herded together with Infidels and Turks, and Jews. The Popish principle is one very simple in theory, very impartial in practice: i.e. to pray for us all, and to cut all our throats, as occasion may serve. The only distinction is that we, the Heretics, being baptized, are considered as lawful subjects of St. Peter's Papal throne, and execution is done on us as rebels and traitors against our rightful sovereign: Turks and Infidels are to be extirpated for the glory of God, that the church may inherit their possessions; and the Jew ostensibly

because his fathers did once what the Romish Priests assume to do every day, when they perform the "sacrifice" of the Mass; but really for his stern, unyielding, uncompromising hostility to idol-worship in every form. From the day of her first pagan invasion of the holy land, to this hour of her prolonged papal existence, has Rome persecuted the Jew. In every clime, in every age, under every form of her government, has she persecuted, hunted and massacred the Jew. From the sacking of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, to the outbreak of her ancient malignity at Damascus, A.D. 1840, Rome has applied her vampire tongue to suck the life-blood of the Jew.

But she prays for him so she does for us, and if he will cease to be a Jew and we cease to be Christians, she will gladly receive us all into her fold, and permit us to browse in safety in its poisoned pastures. We also pray for the Jew, that while he tenaciously holds the folded germ of eternal life, in his own blessed scriptures, it may blossom in his hand, and bear fruit, to gladden his heart and to nourish his soul. We pray for the Jew, but not as confounding him with the general mass of opposers of the gospel; or if we do, we have a different spirit indeed from that of Paul, who knew and respected the privileges of his race. "What advantage then hath the Jew, or what profit is there in circumcision? MUCH EVERY WAY," and again, "My brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ

came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." Such, so tender, so respectful, so honourable to them, is the language of the Apostle Paul, speaking moreover by the Holy Ghost; while we, with such pattern before our eyes, run over the indiscriminate list of Jews, Turks, Infidels and Heretics.'

The phrase has become so fashionable as to be frequently, and almost unconsciously quoted, in a strain of levity quite revolting to any well-regulated mind, which, if it cannot distinguish between an Israelite and a heathen, would at least leave some barrier between a prayer and a jest. We saw, not long since, in a provincial paper, a letter from some person in the suite of the Bishop of Jerusalem, who, describing in a very jocular strain the motley assemblage collected on the landing-place at Joppa, designated them 'Jews, Turks, Infidels and Heretics." Strong indeed must be the power of a habit that could at such a time, in such á place, and under such circumstances, manifest itself!

Not long since, the phrase was quoted, as breathing a peculiarly wanton insult against the house of Israel, by a writer in the "Voice of Jacob,” the Jewish Newspaper, who certainly was not aware that the jesting expression which he complained of, was a prayer of the English church for the re-establishment of the house of Jacob in the inheritance of their fathers! We marked this, and resolved never again to repeat before the King of the Jews what we should be ashamed to utter in the presence of a Hebrew gentleman. We pray for the Turk, as for one who is, on many points, far nearer the truth than is generally considered; and concerning whom there are prophetic intimations that the day

of the Lord's returning mercy to Israel shall bring life and hope to the poor Mussulman's soul: we pray for the Infidel, for all who withhold their assent from the Gospel-doctrine, as for those who are in gross darkness, and must in that darkness everlastingly perish unless the true light arise and shine upon them: we pray for the Papist as one sunk in abominable idolatries, holding a lie in his right hand, and in the belief of that lie exposed to eternal perdition; but we pray for the Jew as for our elder brother in the faith of God Creator and Preserver of the world; a friend to whom we are indebted for the only revelation of God's will to man, a chosen witness; once a dear son, a pleasant child, and still earnestly remembered by him who has chastised and afflicted him. We pray for the Jew, as for one whose fulness shall be the riches of the Gentile world, whose reception again into God's everlasting love shall be to us all "life from the dead." With regard to others, we are encouraged by knowing that "God will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth," but when pleading for the Jew, our thoughts cannot contain the fulness of the glorious promises that crowd upon us all sealed and ratified by that oft-repeated declaration, "I will bless them that bless thee." "They shall prosper that love thee." "Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the whole earth."

And, blessed be God! Israel is fast rising into an importance that will compel us all to turn our eyes upon the people, and to mark the Lord's dealings with them even previous to that time when, ac

cording to his word, against their own will, the scorning Gentile objectors "SHALL see, and shall be ashamed for their envy of the people." Oh, in that day, we shall not be ashamed, who, in our own humble sphere, and according to the ability given of God, have contended for the respect due to dear Israel in the day of their calamity, and rejoiced with unspeakable joy in the bright dawn of their coming prosperity.

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But God has declared that the Jew should be a 'proverb and a bye-word, a hissing, a scorn and a reproach, all over the world." Yes, and He has also said, "the people that afflict them I will judge." Where did he depute you to execute upon them this predicted woe, or in any way to scorn his chosen race? and why will you not watch against using terms of reproach, that wound the heart of your brother? The Liturgy of the Hebrew people is full of lowly confessions of national sin, devout submission to the present severe dealings of the Most High; and undoubting confidence in the promises, which are pleaded in every part of their devotional service. Their principal publication too, the Voice of Jacob, often referred to in these pages, besides being conducted with much ability and judgment, is one of the most gentlemanly productions extant; manly, generous, and dignified; and while we have been congregating our thousands in Exeter Hall, in behalf of the noble Gentile institutions that do honour to the church of Christ, our Hebrew brethren have assembled also, in promotion of objects highly laudable among themselves. Their Orphan Asylum, and many estimable charities, their schools, their projected College, and, last not least, a plan of rising interest and incalcula