he came to my house, where we again entered into a religious conversation. He expressed his great respect for Christ and Christianity, and also told me he had read the epistle to the Hebrews, and that now he will prosecute his inquiry without any prejudice. He asked me for several tracts, and also for a Hebrew New Testament, with which request I willingly complied. He promised, if he could, he would again call upon me next Saturday. I believe the man to be an earnest inquirer after the truth, and my prayer is that the Spirit of God, whose especial office it is to convince and convert, may savingly convince this Jewish teacher, that there is no other name given under heaven whereby a man can be saved, except through Jesus Christ our Lord.

A third communication reads thus:

At the commencement of another year, I feel grateful to the God of Providence, who has kept me beneath the shadow of His wing, and who, according to His precious promises, has not "left me, nor forsaken me." The year which has passed away has been, on the one hand, a year of great anxiety and care, but, on the other, we may truly say that it has been a year of spiritual planting in the garden of the universe; thousands, yea, tens of thousands, who were gathered in this great metropolis during the summer season, for the purpose of seeing the great temple of the arts, had the Gospel proclaimed to them by the faithful heralds of the Cross; and whilst, personally, I can only speak of 2000 Jews who received the Gospel from my own hand, at the well-known BIBLE-STAND, I have good reason to believe that many heard the Gospel message and received the New Testament within the walls of the Exhibition, and in the various hotels accessible to the missionary.

You will be glad to hear that the Bible-stand has not completed its work yet, but that it has been taken to the Crystal Palace immediately after the Exhibition was over; and, having been painted afresh, was put up at the South-eastern transept of the Palace. The Word of God is still continued to be given away in seven different languages; and the English Testament, divided into twelve parts, is sold from the English department to the English people at cost price. I am also exceedingly happy to say that Mr. A, a Christian Israelite, and a fruit of your society's labours, is superintending the whole of the seven departments; he was recommended to the Bible-stand at the opening of the Exhibition to take charge of the German department; he was privileged to converse with his own countrymen about the Saviour, whom he had so recently found to be the Redeemer of his soul, and distributed several thousands of portions of the New Testament to them, the results of which distribution were glorious, for I have seen several letters from influential men of Germany, directed to Mr. A-, thanking him for the Scriptures he was so kind as to give them, and requesting him to send them some more by post, for they were willing to pay any expense accruing. He proved himself at the Bible-stand a young Christian worthy of his post; and on the 8th of December, he resumed his active work at the Crystal Palace. On my visit to the Crystal Palace last Saturday, I asked him specially about the work amongst the Jews, and it is most delightful to listen to his simple story, how he converses with them, and how be points them to the Messiah as their only hope and salvation; and, rejoins he, "the more I speak to others about Christ, the more I feel my own soul to be blessed," according to the old philosophy of the Bible, "iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." The number of Jews who called at the stand up to last Saturday, were 96; each of these received portions of the New Testament in the

Hebrew language, and many were so delighted with their presents, that they would not leave the stand without giving a contribution towards this cause.

My private visitations to the house of Israel have been accompanied with a measure of success. I should like to see a little more earnestness and decided conversions; but I trust in the promise of God that "in due time ye shall reap if ye faint not." I meet, occasionally, brethren who received books from me at the Exhibition, and was quite surprised how some could repeat whole histories of the Gospels; this shows that they have been reading them carefully. Thus have I had a view in the garden, where flowers of every hue and description may be found; some white for the harvest, others just beginning to bud, and yet others which are bearing fruits to the glory and honour of our Redeemer.

MANCHESTER.

MR. NAPHTALI writes from Manchester :—

In the exercise of my ordinary duties during this month I was grieved to witness the death of a fine little child of Mr. D—, one of our sincere inquirers. This painful affliction came upon him quite unawares, and has almost overpowered himas he was already unwell. In this state of deep affliction and sorrow, I had to remind him that through much affliction we must enter the kingdom of heaven; and I was very thankful to find that it was sanctified to him, and made a lasting impression for the good of his soul. Hence he betook himself more earnestly to reading, and seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Oh, that the Lord may have mercy upon him, and finally save him and his family! Then, again, one of our respectable converts has been disinherited by his father because of his faith in Christ. Howbeit, our brother manifests great resignation, and abides by the Truth as it is in Jesus, among the saints in light; and I am thankful to find him steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work and faith of the Lord.

I am also glad to observe that Mr J, another of our respectable inquirers, is calling upon me for regular instruction and conversation; and as an intelligent man I trust that it will improve his knowledge, both in the information of the Scriptures of truth, and that of the truth as it is in Jesus.

As for my general operations, I am thankful to report that, whether in the street in the shops, or in the houses, my poor brethren, now suffering, are very glad to meet with me and converse, and that about the salvation of their souls. Moreover, the tracts and other good books which they accept with avidity, and read searchingly, have made such impression upon their minds that their conversation always turns upon the Gospel of Christ.

JAFFA.

From Jaffa we have gratifying intelligence of the baptism of a Jewish Rabbi. DR. PHILIP writes:

In my last letter I gave to you a brief sketch of the history of Rabbi S——, to show how wonderfully sometimes God leads the wandering and bewildered Israelite, till at last the Saviour is revealed to him, and he becomes in reality a child of God.

I had every reason to be satisfied with him as an earnest inquirer, and as a growing convert in both the knowledge and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ever since he had come here, I gave him daily instructions, prayed with him and for him. A week before Christmas, he expressed his desire to be baptised, saying, that he thought the time had now come that he should confess Christ, and be made a member of His Church. I could not see the least reason to object, and after having thoroughly examined him again as to his knowledge of Christ's religion, and having seen a good deal of him, and traced his conduct for some time both in public and in private, I resolved to receive him into the Church, and accordingly baptised him on Sunday, 21st ult., when I gave a discourse to our small community, on the text (Rom. viii., 1), "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." May God soon add to the number of such truly humble and sincere followers of Christ!

I hold now again regular service on Sundays, in the house of our consul, but I cannot but express my heart's desire again to have a more regular and better suited place of worship here, viz.-a Protestant Church in Jaffa. Independently of our domestic devotional services, I have prayers in the evening, in Hebrew, at the Model Farm, and afterwards, I give an exposition on a chapter in the New Testament.

In a subsequent letter, dated February 7, Dr. PHILIP says:—

Since I wrote to you last my labours have been much interrupted by the inclemency of the weather. We have had here an extraordinary fall of rain, lasting for some time, making streets and roads almost impassable; and last week, for four days, almost all the shops were closed, all business suspended, and scarcely a single person to be seen in the streets. However, the stormy weather seems to have passed by now, and a few days' sunshine after these rains has given the whole country a beautiful green aspect, like the appearance of midsummer at home.

The rabbi of whom I wrote to you a few months ago, who was one of my patients, I am sorry to say, died a short time ago at Beyrout. When I heard of his death, I could have almost exclaimed, "A prince in Israel has fallen." I had much hope of the man, and many a conversation I have had with him, which encouraged my hope. If ever a Jew knew the truth, then it was this rabbi, and often when conversing with him I thought that he was not far from the kingdom of God.

I have had several applications of late for the Scriptures by Jews, and sold twelve copies of them, whilst giving gratis, upon request, several New Testaments to them. This is a very rare occurrence, but encouraging. Perhaps you will have noticed in all my correspondence that I mentioned very little of the disposing of Scriptures and tracts. But as I have now occasion to write about the subject, I must give you the reason why there is so little demand here for them. Some years ago there was here a Bible depôt, and a colporteur, and several missionaries in succession, and in my visits to the greatest part of our population here, both Jews and others, I find that almost every family is supplied with the Scriptures; some have several copies, and all have obtained them from the above sources, so that the word of God is here to be found almost in every house and family. But with the exception of the Jews, who make use at least of the Old Testament, the others do not read them, but often take them from their shelves and show them to me; but, alas! with all the evidences that they are never used-full of dust. I often tell them how faithless they are toward our heavenly Master, who has entrusted them with this great treasure, and remind them of the parable of the master and his servants, and tell them how much like

they are to the slothful servant, who hid the treasure of one pound in the earth till the master's return; and then the just dealings of the master with that careless servant. Our work is, indeed, and must be, a work of faith, but through faith it is also a work of hope. I often rejoice at the faint symptoms that my labours have not been in vain. I had only of late several cases-Jews with whom I had conversations a long time ago, and not seen them for some time-coming again to the dispensary to renew the conversations of a year past. One especially interested me, who had been absent for some months on business in Constantinople, where he met with the Scotch missionaries. He came for the very purpose to ask how he could believe. He said: "Both you and the missionaries at Constantinople have shown me to my satisfaction, that all the promises respecting the Messiah were fulfilled in your Jesus of Nazareth. I see it with my mind," he added, "but I cannot believe it with my heart." "Go to Him," I said. "It is true you can be convinced without Christ, but you cannot believe without Christ. Go to Him," I repeated, "pray to Him earnestly again and again, and cease not until, by the influence of His Holy Spirit, you feel that you believe of what you are convinced-that Jesus is the true Messiah, the Saviour of sinners; and as you are a sinner, rest not until you believe indeed that Christ is your Saviour." He seemed to be very much impressed by what I said, and promised to follow my advice. We are sowing; the time for reaping is not yet come. The seed which we sow has its winter in the ground; long the winter may last, but the spring, and then the harvest will surely come, and with God's blessing our reaping shall be more than a hundred-fold. It is an extraordinary, but I think a favourable symptom, that the Jews lose confidence in their own leaders, the rabbis; and, formerly unwilling to trust the Christian, and especially the missionaries, they now seek the latter, to take important affairs out of their rabbis' hands into their own.

WE may here insert the following extract from Dr. PHILIP'S Tour in Philistia:

:

Generally on tours for one or two days, I travel quite alone, and for a longer tour I take a servant along with me, and the governors, who know me, honour me with an irregular trooper; I take him, not as a protector, but as a guide. I have my good horse, well saddled, my trooper before me, my servant behind me. Behind, on my saddle, I have buckled a few comforts in the way of clothing, and a small pillow; under my saddle cloth, I have my blanket; before me, on the saddle, my plaid and Mackintosh, and a pair of pistol-holders. Though the latter look very alarming they contain nothing dangerous or fearful within. The one contains my Bible, a few tracts, and one or two more books; the other a few refreshments for the day. I never carried and I never carry arms, because I think they are not necessary. Therefore, travellers here should not carry arms; composure of mind, faith in God, and a moral command 1 find are the best arms. But to return to my night's quarters. A small earthernware lamp, giving a very dim light, was fixed in a hole on the wall. The apartment was a square shelter, with several arches connected by wooden beams, and thatched over with a mixture of clay and straw. The roof within was all covered with cobwebs, sufficient to make a large mosquito curtain, had it been possible to stitch them together. The place had no windows and no ventilating openings, except the door. In the back-ground there was a platform of clay, and here was the true bed-chamber. The man to whom the place belongs had spread a

straw mat, with a cushion and bed-cover upon it, for my night's comfort; for the cushion and cover I thanked him very much, whilst I kept the straw mat for my bed. Upon this I lay down, with my own pillow and blanket; my servant and my soldier alongside of me on the same platform; and our horses stood in the foreground of the same room; and then the door was shut. But soon the door opened again, and a few friends of my servant came in to have a talk with him, whilst several others sat before the door, holding a usual Arab conversation about oxen and goats, olives, piastres and paras. Sleepless upon my place for a considerable time, I looked up towards the cobwebs, which, from the reflection of the dim light, seemed to have a silvery gloss, and presented to me all kinds of figures and shapes; but almost every look upward seemed to bring down one of the Haneen spiders, as large as a pigeon's egg, with five legs on each side, of a length from two to four inches, and two sharp claws. I killed a number of them with one of my boots; but this was not all. Looking from time to time around me, almost every look discovered a scorpion, some of which I killed, and some I called my servant to kill, until at last, when I saw that there was no end of these unpleasant companions in a bed-chamber, I drew my blanket over my head, wrapped myself well up, and after some hours, concurring in the opinion of Volney, viz., "that the ruins of Ashaloth are known only by their scorpions," I fell asleep, and reposed with tranquillity till the morning dawned, when I thanked and blessed the Lord, and hastened out to the fresh air, which I felt so reviving after having been shut up during the last night in this close room, with my servant, my trooper, and our three horses. Soon I was again surrounded by a number who rose early to see the hakem, and then, after having taken a cup of coffee and a morsel of bread for my breakfast, our horses were speedily saddled and packed, and we continued our journey. But in passing one of the narrow streets, I was invited to stop at the house of a friend of my servant, where another cup of coffee and meal-cake-fried in an iron pan, steeped in oil-awaited me. I could not refuse to share in the frugal meal-I partook of it, but not with much relish. We passed on our way, over several thrashing floors, through an olive grove, by the old Khan and Wely of Ashdoth, and so continued our way towards Meydal. The road to Ekron (the present Akir), to which I shall refer in another paper, we passed on our left.

BRESLAU.

Mr. SCHWARTZ, writing from Breslau, states that :

The combined action of superstition and ignorance, at all times the bane of the human mind, and under which, in common with other nations, the Jews have for ages been groaning, has relaxed its hold, of late, to a very remarkable degree. That nation, once the victim of furious and tyrannical rabbinism, is beginning to rouse itself and to shake off fetters that have for centuries been the curse and ruin of their otherwise strong minds, and to free themselves from shackles which reduced them to the melancholy condition of miserable slaves to a perfidious system. I have had intercourse for the last few weeks with a vast number of Polish Jews, both from Russian and Austrian Poland, who illustrate peculiarly the above remarks. In every instance, and even with Russian Jews, who are very apt to oppose Christianity with rabbinical arguments, this mode of defence has been abandoned, and they candidly confess their worthlessness, and endeavour to maintain their ground by the Scriptures only, and with which they appeared to be well acquainted. On the other hand, those who