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PALESTINE was chosen as the
first sphere of the Church of Scotland's Mission to the Jews; and although
its occupation was long deferred, it has now become not the least hopeful of
our missionary stations. A year or two after the Mission to the Jews had
been sanctioned by the General Assembly, no step had been taken for its
working till the deputation to Palestine was appointed with a view to future
action. But in the event, our first mission was not in the Holy Land but in
Budapest, which the deputies visited on their return; and there the God of
Israel blessed our efforts with precious and ample first-fruits, which
filled us with gratitude and hope.
The deputation to Palestine
owed its origin to the health of Robert M'Cheyne having been weakened by
overworking in the Lord's vineyard. When his friends were
considering what might be
best for his restoration, Dr. Candlish, always, fertile in Christian
expedients, stopped me one day in the street with the suggestion, "What
would you think of sending M'Cheyne to Palestine?" With my cordial
concurrence, he followed it up with his own ceaseless
energy, till the memorable
deputation was sent forth, with Andrew Bonar (M'Cheyne's special friend) and
the venerable Dr. Keith and Dr. Black. Many still remember M'Cheyne's lines
:—
"How pleasant to me is thy
deep blue wave,
Thou Sea of Galilee!"
For many years subsequent to
the deputation, Palestine lay still unoccupied by us; and a devout and
honourable lady, Mrs. Smith of Dunesk, sister to the Earl of Buchan, and a
daughter of the famous Henry Erskine, left £500 for a mission to the Jews in
their own land. To her belonged the distinction of having laid the first
stone in the Church of Scotland's Mission to Israel. Her love for them was
intense; that "salvation is of the Jews" was with her a firmly-cherished
text; and she grieved that the churches were so slow in seeking "the lost
sheep of the house of Israel." A year or two before their cause was taken up
by the church, she placed £100 in my hands, and said, "Put that into the
bank for the Church of Scotland's Mission for the Conversion of the Jews." I
hesitated to take charge of the generous gift, because not only was there no
such mission, but the subject had never been mooted in the Assembly. She
replied, "Let it remain in the bank till the church takes it up." When I
took it to the bank, the banker at first declined to receive it, because
they could not open an account for a mission that had no present or
prospective existence. But, after talking it over, he took it, with the
words, "Very well; we never refuse money." However, the tide of evangelical
life and of zeal for the salvation of the lost was then rising rapidly
amongst us, and in less time than I could have conceived possible the
General Assembly founded its Mission for the Conversion of Israel.
Most sadly, for one
generation after another, through long aces, has the chosen race of Israel
been despised, oppressed, and persecuted by the Gentile world. The first
Convener of our Jewish Committee, the venerable Dr. Keith, told me that a
friend, when kindly speaking of him to another, added the qualifying
exception, "But he has a strange notion; he believes in the conversion of
the Jews." In our own day, "Shall I give water to the murderer of my Lord?"
was the scornful repulse by a Dutch Boer to one of the sons of Jacob who
humbly begged a cup of water to quench his thirst under the extreme heat of
a scorching summer, which had dried up all the wayside springs. "Go away,
dog," he replied; "shall I give water to the murderer of my Lord?"
For eighteen centuries this
denial of a cup of cold water to the Jew has been and still is the too
frequent response of many who profess themselves followers of Him who said,
"Give me to drink," as he sat wearied and thirsty by Jacob's Well, and who
has opened the fountain of life freely to us and to all who thirst for its
waters. For His murderers He prayed,
"Father, forgive them; for
they know not what they do." Let us hasten to use our high privilege of
carrying to their children this free gift of the living waters, that along
with us they may drink and live.
"Let him sink; he is only a
Jew," was the voice of the careless onlookers at Cracow some years ago as
they stood on the banks of their river, into which a young man had fallen,
and witnessed his dying struggles to regain the shore. From the banks of the
Vistula there soon rose a second and heartier shout. "It's all up with
him," they now cried in a tone of triumph; "he is sinking," when another
young man broke through the crowd, who tried to hold him back, and plunging
into the river brought the drowning Jew to the shore, unconscious but saved.
The jeers of the bystanders for saving the life of a Jew were the only
salutations that greeted the brave and noble deed; but these suddenly ceased
when the scene was reversed, and they learned that the drowning man was a
Christian and his brave rescuer a Jew!
The world's history is
hastening to its crisis, and the day may not be far distant when "the
remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the
Lord, as showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for
the sons of men." Meanwhile let us all be moved with pity for our neglected
brother, as we stand ourselves saved upon the shore and see him beating for
life against the stream. Let us hasten to his rescue, saying to each other,
"Let him not sink, for he is a Jew," of the seed of Abraham and of the
kinsmen of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who came to seek and to save "the lost sheep of the house of
Israel."
Who can tell but that many
now living may yet witness that event of world-wide magnitude—the repentance
of the Jews unto life in the day of their visitation, when "all Israel shall
be saved"? Although they have made their heart like an adamant stone, the
promise remains sure that their heart of stone shall be taken away, and a
new heart shall be given unto them and a new spirit, when the spirit of
grace and of supplications shall be poured upon them, and they shall look on
Him whom they have pierced. As Joseph made himself known to his brethren
when he said, "I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt," and as
Christ revealed Himself to Saul of Tarsus, saying, "I am Jesus of Nazareth,
whom thou persecutest," so, in the day of their calling, the Lord will say
unto Israel, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren." Day by day even now
He is saying, "Since I spake against Ephraim, I do earnestly remember him
still; I will surely have mercy upon him." And the day is fast fastening
on when He "will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth." In
that day the Lord "will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have
sinned against Him;" and it shall be unto Him a name of joy, a praise, and
an honour before all the nations of the earth. |
