"They stated that they could no longer suffer a man among them who was so immoral, so irreligious, and who excited so much scandal; and since no Christian court could decide on these Jewish sins, it was requested that the chief rabbi should be heard, and that I should be discharged. I replied: and respecting the last two points on which most stress seemed to be laid, I observed first, that it had been my father's dying request that I should neither fast nor lead the synagogue service on the anniversaries of my parents' death, as the custom had originated in a superstition; and, secondly, that according to a medical testimonial which I laid before the court, my sick wife had been prohibited from using the 'dipping bath;' but the decision of the chief rabbi was, that as I had confessed my wife neglected the bath, while, at the time, it was proved that she had taken my arm in walking, I was worthy of death according to Levit. xx. 18, and must be discharged from my office forthwith. I protested against this barbarous decision, and prayed to submit it to another Rabbinat. My petition was granted, but the rabbi of the district, Mr. L. B. Bamberger, of Würzburg, declared that he fully agreed with the chief rabbi, and added that my wife also was worthy of death.
"In consequence, I was discharged, lost the salary yet due to me, though the Government had approved of my official labours, and I was adjudged as having forfeited even my claim upon the States Institution for the Relief of Orphans and Widows of German School Teachers, as well as my right to the 133 florins which I had already paid into that Institution. With this bitter experience, and provided with most satisfactory testimonials from my immediate superiors, I left my native country, and went with my wife and children to the free town of Frankfort, where I enjoyed perfect peace in the capacity of a private tutor. From this brief sketch it will sufficiently appear that the rabbinical Jewish religion leads to and justifies the most revolting injustice and cruelty, a reproach which cannot be brought against Christianity."
Stern, Joseph Paul, a native of Hungary, where he had been a teacher and then a merchant, came to Jerusalem in 1851, at the age of thirty-five. Becoming ill he was admitted on application to the L.J.S. hospital, where, one may say, without a shadow of a doubt, that he was truly converted, and was baptized on Good Friday of that year. Henceforth he devoted his life to preach the grace of God as manifested in Christ Jesus, to his brethren in season and out of season. He was only a Scripture reader, but few could resist his entreaties to accept salvation through Christ, and the Jews feared him as well as respected him, for he often rewarded them good for evil. In 1860 he visited his relatives in Hungary, when he preached Christ to them, and escaped being poisoned. In 1872, when the Rev. A. Bernstein visited him in his sickness and administered the Holy Communion to him, he asked to be dressed in his best clothes, for he expected to go to the marriage of the Lamb. But he lingered yet for a while and died in 1873, uttering with his last breath—"Christ is all."
Stern, Maximilian Christian Heinrich, was baptized by Dr. Poper at Frankfurt, in 1846, when two of his brothers became Christian preachers in America. He was then fifty-two years old. His family followed his example two years later. In 1856 he published "Die Jüdische Zeitrechnung." He died in 1861. (See "Jewish Missionary Intelligence," 1846, page 123).
Sternchuss, Rev. P. H., after a course of preparation in the L.J.S. Missionary Training College, was sent, together with A. J. Behrens, to open a mission at Safed in 1843, where they held a daily service and tried to have intercourse with the fanatical Jews, but were boycotted by them. In 1844, they were both ordained in Jerusalem, and Sternchuss accompanied Stern to Bagdad, whence he itinerated to Mesopotamia, visiting Hillah and Ezekiel's tomb twice, he also visited Persia. The trying climate, the galling reproaches and persecutions, and the hardships which those early missionaries in the East endured, soon told upon Sternchuss, so that he had to resign on account of ill-health in 1850, but continued still for a short time to labour for the Society in the West of England.
Tartakover, Rev. E. M. Very little information can be obtained about this servant of Christ, but that little is most interesting, inasmuch as it embraces a reflective comment on a long period of Church history in which Palestine and the Jewish residents there had no Hebrew Christian minister of the Gospel. On October 30th, 1842, Tartakover was ordained in Jerusalem by Bishop Alexander. Such an event as the ordination of a Jewish convert had not been witnessed in the Holy City since Apostolic times.
Tomory, Rev. A., after finishing his theological studies at Edinburgh, was appointed by the Free Church of Scotland as a missionary at Pesth in 1853. In 1864 he was transferred to Constantinople, where he carried on a most faithful and fruitful work, both evangelistic and educational, during the remainder of his earthly pilgrimage, and left a worthy memorial in the home for enquiring Jews which he founded at Galata.
Tremellius, John Immanuel, was born at Ferrara in 1510; and died at Sedan, October 9th, 1580. He was educated at the University of Padua, and baptized in the Roman Catholic Church about 1540, through the influence of Cardinal Pole, but embraced Protestantism in the following year, and went to Strasburg to teach Hebrew. Owing to the wars of the Reformation in Germany, he was compelled to seek refuge in England, where he resided at Lambeth Palace with Archbishop Cranmer in 1547. In 1549 he succeeded Paul Fagius as Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge. On the death of Edward VI. he revisited Germany, and, after some vicissitudes, became Professor of the Old Testament at Heidelberg in 1561. He ultimately found a home in the College of Sedan, where he died. His chief literary work was a Latin translation of the Bible from the Hebrew and Syriac. The five parts relating to the Old Testament were published at Frankfurt between 1575 and 1579; in London in 1580, and in numerous later editions. Tremellius also translated into Hebrew Calvin's Catechism (Paris, 1551), and wrote a Chaldaic and Syriac grammar (Paris, 1569).
Turckheim, Rev. Ernest Julius, had been, at the age of twenty-one, master of a Jewish school at West Hartlepool, where he gave great satisfaction to the parents of the children, so that they wished him to become their minister. In order that he should be able conscientiously to discharge his duties, Turckheim applied himself to a diligent study of the Old Testament. This in itself made him more serious than he had been before. Meeting with Mr. J. Alexander, then agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society at the Crystal Palace, he received from him a New Testament, and through reading it earnestly he became convinced of the truth of Christianity, and was baptized in 1873. He then studied at the London College of Divinity, and was ordained at York in 1875-6 to the curacy of St. Thomas there. In 1878 he was curate of All Saints', Derby. In 1879 he became curate of All Souls', Langham Place, London. In 1882 he was appointed to the living of Hale Magna, in Lincolnshire, where he did good work until his death in 1907.
Speaking at the L.J.S. anniversary meeting in 1893, he said:—"A Jew by birth, a Jew by training and practice till I was twenty-four years old; a Jew still by every feeling of national loyalty and sympathy, I thank God that I can say, nevertheless I am also a Christian. And it is as a Jew and a Christian I have responded to your invitation, and am standing here to-day and make this solemn confession of my faith. It is due to the grace of God, it is due to the power of His Word, which is the power of God unto salvation, unto every one that believeth—to the Jew first. It is due, I must add, to the patience and forbearance, to the love and labours, to the life and death, to the mediation and sufferings for me of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is due to the prayers of God's people, it is due to this Society. It is due to all of you who labour and pray, and make substantial sacrifices for the promotion of Christianity amongst the Jews. It is due that we Christian Jews who have, by the grace of God, been brought out of Jewish darkness into the blessed and happy position of pardoned sinners by the blood of the Cross, that we should fearlessly declare with no uncertain sound, that whilst we are Christians by grace, we are still Jews by nature, by race, and by sympathy, and thus take a humble part in testifying to the blessed and everlasting truth that God has not cast away His people, that there is still a remnant according to the election of grace. It is twenty years since I ventured my eternal welfare with Jesus of Nazareth. After twenty years of mature deliberation and trial, I once more take my stand beside the Ethiopian eunuch, and declare to-day, with my heart full of thankful gladness and humble faith, 'I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.' Twenty years, we must observe, is a period wherein a man can make a test of a step that he has taken, and I never, never, for one moment, have wavered in my conviction that 'there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,' than the name of Jesus Christ."