glorious Jerusalem, which in such sort was adorned with His law-with His blood, friends, and consanguinity? Truly, let us make this reckoning, that the same may light upon us!"—Alas! we may take up the complaint for them and say, in the sweet but mournful language of their own Prophets, "Their holy and beautiful house, where their fathers praised thee, O Lord, is burned up with fire, and all their pleasant things are laid waste." "The elders have ceased from their gate-the young men from their music-the joy of their heart is ceased-their dance is turned into mourning-the crown is fallen from their head, woe is unto them because they have sinned. For this their heart is faint, for these things their eyes are dim.-Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by "

Wherever we behold a Jew, or hear of the claim of a Jew, there we should always recognize the most powerful, the most affecting appeal to a Christian's heart. As it has been admirably remarked by an eloquent preacher: "The redemption of the Jews :† is the hinge on which revolve the destinies of the

See Isaiah chap. lxv. Lam. chaps. i. ii. v.

The Rev. Hugh Stowell.

human race. We e may glean rich clusters before her deliverance, but not till then shall the full vintage be gathered. The exaltation of Zion shall be the elevation of a standard to which all nations shall flow together. When the Lord shall arise upon her, the Gentiles shall come to her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising. Are not then the claims of Israel transcendant? whether we regard their miseries, their injuries, their sorrows, or their prospects, how irresistible their appeal! Ought it not always to have been, ought it not now to be our watchword, 'first the Jew and after that the Gentile.""

At this very time is there not much to arouse us, and to encourage us to exertion in the behalf of God's ancient people? What think you my reader, of this heart-stirring appeal from one I have already referred to ?* "If a confession of my faith might be made a blessing to your souls, then I beseech you-I implore you, by all that is holy-by the value you profess to set on the word of God-by

* I desire earnestly to recommend to all who feel interested in the narrative of J. H. Marks, a small volume, by A. M. Myers, also a converted Jew, entitled "BOTH ONE IN CHRIST," which is just published by Seeley.

the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in glory-by the awaiting judgment, where we shall all meet round the tribunal of Jehovah, both Jew and Gentile, by the love you have for your immortal souls-by the sufferings which my christian profession has brought upon me, and by the agonies which the same causes in the heart of my aged parent: by all this, I implore you, be persuaded of the truth and sincerity of a confession which a Jew now makes before you in the face of heaven and earth, and before God, who will be my judge, that I believe that Jesus Christ, whom my Fathers have crucified, and whom I once hated, is the Messiah which should come into the world, and that He is our Saviour and our God."

Oh, if an unconverted Jew is indeed a standing miracle, and a mighty though unwilling witness for the truth of our holy Faith, how can we resist, unless under a more judicial blindness than that of the Jew himself, the appeal of one of their own nation, when, in the face of reproach and persecution, and every possible indignity and hardship, he takes his place at the foot of the Cross of Christ crucified, and there cheerfully and manfully declaring,

that he has "received the word in much affliction, but with joy of the Holy Ghost," implores you by the privileges which you value as your own soul, which you have received through the falling away of his own people, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, to comfort her dispersed and desolate children, and to bear engraven upon your very heart the unrepealed promise and assurance of the God of their Fathers, "Blessed is he who blesseth thee."

St. Peter's, Chester.

June, 1838.

CHARLES B. TAYLER,

THE NARRATIVE

OF

HENRY JOHN MARKS.

CHAPTER I.

"Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can shew forth all his praise?"-PSALM cvi. 2.

In compliance with your repeated request, I shall endeavour to state some of the many gracious dealings and merciful interpositions of our Heavenly Father with regard to the way in which he has been pleased to bring me out of the depth of Jewish darkness into the glorious liberty of the Gospel-from the power of sin and satan, to an inheritance incorruptible, wrought out for me by the vicarious sacrifice of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. "The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works." May we shew forth his loving kindness in the morning, and his faithfulness every night."

In the course of this narrative, I shall also relate some things connected with my wife's conversion; I need not, however, say more at

B