THE JEWISH NEEDLE-WOMEN.

[Many of our readers are, most probably, ignorant of the existence of the "Philo-Judæan Society." It is a quiet, unpretending association of a few Christian ladies, who are desirous to go amongst the Hebrew women, not to make proselytes, but simply to commend to them the kindness of Christianity. The following interesting paper has been drawn up by one of the secretaries.-ED.]

"OCCUPY till I come.' -The duty is a plain and obvious one; the result lies with Him who is not a hard master, not an austere man," as the idle labourer would insinuate, "reaping where He has not sown, and gathering where He has not strawed;" whatever of talent or advantage in place and circumstance He hath endowed us withal, it is that we may be enriched by the boon; not, that by letting it lie waste and profitless it may accumulate in nothing save responsibility; but that by laying it out to the best advantage it may be productive of humble thankfulness in ourselves, and of increase a hundred fold to the glory of his name. He does not command us to bring up riches from the great deep, and consecrate them to his service, for He has not formed us to live in the waters. He does not expect us to gather in trophies from the worlds of light above, for He has not given us wings to traverse their starry pathways; but the earth He has made our field of labour. With feet He hath equipped us, that we may walk on its surface, threading its narrow lanes and neglected corners, entering its wretched tenements, exploring its garrets, its cellars, its dungeons, that we may visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. With hands He hath endued us, that we may minister to their necessities, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, placing the means of recovery, which a gracious Providence has ordained, within the reach of the sick and afflicted. With a tongue He hath furnished us, that we may

speak words of comfort and sympathy to the brokenhearted, even a word in season to him that is weary. With substance He hath endowed us, in various proportions, that according to our ability we may have to give to him that needeth. Here He hath sown, and here He will look to reap the fruits; here He hath strawn in abundance, and here He will expect to gather in an abundant harvest.

The sphere in which we are permitted to labour is, we think, an important one; it is one which has been almost entirely neglected by the Christian Church. We would remind our readers, that ours is the only Society for relieving Jews, as Jews; there are resources for them when they become Christians; there are institutions for them while receiving Christian instruotion; but the Philo-Judæan Society occupies ground untrodden before, and in which no fellow-labourers work by our side.

It is rough ground too; it has lain so long under the freezing influence of unbelief, without the shining upon it of the Sun of righteousness, that it is hard work to break it up; it well nigh blunts the edge of the feelings with which we ply our task. It would do so, if they were not continually sharpened by contact with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We have to contend with the deeply-rooted prejudices of the Jew; he cannot understand the principle upon which we act; he does not believe that we can go on year after year, showing kindness to his people for the sake of their absent King; asking for no return; forbearing to reproach them with their treatment of our Master. Never arguing the point of their obstinacy with them, but loving them for that Master's sake, and in obedience to his express commands, seeking occasion to do them good; leaving them to draw the right conclusion, albeit, they are slow in drawing it, that our Master and their King are one and the same person.

In looking around us, as we now do, at the close of another year, our eye rests upon some spots which appear to have but ill repaid all the care and pains bestowed upon them; these, however, we are happy to say, form but a small proportion to the whole, which wears, generally, a much more favourable appearance. In many cases industry has taken the place of idleness; and where formerly the visitor was appalled by the spectacle of rags and dirt, she now finds them tidily clothed, and an air of cleanliness and comparative comfort throughout; while, what is still better, we are permitted here, in some sheltered nook, to witness the buds of promise ready to burst forth, and there, blessed be God, the fruits also, the matured fruits of righteousness. These are precious indeed; they seem to us like spring's first flowers peeping above the winter snow; hostages they are, welcome hostages for what the summer shall bring forth. We say it confidently, shall bring forth; and if brought into contact with the man who affects to doubt the conversion of the Jews, we would point him to these snow-drops which have ventured even now, to appear in our warm borders, and under the genial influence which covers our home pathways, as proofs that as the season advances, the rose itself shall cover with its luxuriant blossoms the uncultivated field and the sterile wilderness. The one is brought about through human instrumentality; the beautiful perfection of the other, no hand of man shall mar. "I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them and of their children after them; and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me," Jer. xxxii. 39, 40.

There is a new class of cases, which we wish to bring before our readers; a class hardly worked and badly paid. There are establishments in this land

it.

which are a disgrace to it, and which will, we fear, unless the evil be removed, bring down a curse upon Hundreds of wretched objects here receive their por tion of work, for which they must in all cases furnish the thread at least, and when finished, the mean remuneration they receive would do little more than pay for that.

We spoke of these as a new class-in our reports they are new; but they have been brought before the public in many different ways; poetry and fiction have fent their aid to give a higher colouring to the appalling picture. But it appears to us that employing fiction upon such a subject would defeat the end we have in view. It has become too common a theme, even ridiculous in the eyes of this generation. The man who evidently allows himself great license in dressing up his characters, will hardly obtain that credit for the more important facts of the case, which is indispensable, in order to establish the existence of the crime he wishes to expose; and we much fear, lest from this cause, the minds of men have settled down in the midst of an oppressive system which they conceive to have been greatly exaggerated. On the other hand, we are aware that the subject has been ably handled by many; it may have been worn threadbare; nevertheless, at the risk of repeating an oft told tale, and without the hope either of adding any fresh facts, or of placing the old ones in a stronger light, we commence the task of relating, in brief words, what we ourselves have witnessed in visiting our own poor pensioners. Certain it is that enough has not been said, for the tyrants (we cannot call them by any milder name) who hold the yoke over these poor creatures have not yet been shamed into relaxing their grasp.

The details of the shirt-making business are well known; we have many of its victims; but there is another class of workers whom we consider to be still more cruelly dealt with. Several of our poor Jewesses

are occupied in making stays. These are hard work, especially the coloured jean, upon which the poorer class of females are usually employed; notwithstanding which, on these articles much labour is expended. We should like to place ourselves sometimes by the side of the Christian women of this favoured land, while these goods are exposed to their view in the shop windows, literally covered with good stitching, and ticketed up as cheap at 9s. and 10s. per pair; we should like to ask them what proportion of the profit they think, falls to the share of the poor slave who makes them; being quite certain that in their calculation they would never come near to the mark. We inform them that 24d. and 34d. are, by these task-masters, considered a sufficient remuneration. We could tell

many a tale of truth, stranger by far than fiction; we could trace the steps of many a child of sorrow to that dismal counter, and if there she excited your commiseration by her earnest entreaties, as the soiled work was returned upon her hands (well might it be soiled in torrents of tears) and as she received from her heartless employers the miserable pittance they called payment, we might, perhaps, induce you to accompany her back to her wretched abode, whither she returns to weep over the darkening prospect before her. She must now save time from the already short hours of sleep; she must save food from the already scanty meal; and, gloomy as the past has been, the future seems overcast with a still deeper gloom. We would bid you observe, as the fragment of coarse bread is returned to the shelf, in order that what many a lady would deem all too mean for her favourite dog may serve for another meal; and we would have you mark how her poor limbs shiver in their scanty clothing, while she leans over the little grate, and collects the scattered cinders with a careful hand. And, if we have failed to interest, oh! it is not because the heroine of the tale is not descended from a long line