Iliewitz, Alexander, a medical missionary long connected with the Society's work in Jerusalem. It would not be easy to mention a missionary who, throughout a long career of labour, had shown more loving sympathy for his brethren, or more patience and self-denial in labouring for their good, than he did. He was not a theologian, or a Talmudical scholar, and was not fitted for carrying on learned disputations with highly educated Jews. But he had a simple, trustful faith, which made him never tired of proclaiming the way of salvation. A learned rabbi, widely celebrated for his profound knowledge of the Cabbala, complained that he had dared to preach Christ to him. "I did not send for him," said the rabbi indignantly, "to tell me that the Messiah has come. I sent for him to prescribe for my bad feet." He was in a special way the friend and helper of the poor and unlearned. He used to tell a sad story about a young Jew of this kind who died of cholera in 1865. When dying, this poor lad whispered to Mr. Iliewitz as he stood by his bedside, "You have often told me to 'kiss the Son lest He be angry.' He is angry! He is angry!" and so passed away.
His early life was one of continuous trial and struggle. His father died before he was born. At an early age he left home and became apprentice in a surgeon's shop at Berditcheff, where he remained three years. He then removed to Odessa, and afterwards to Galicia, where he stayed eight years with a surgeon. He entered the college at Lemberg, passed the examinations, and received his medical diplomas.
The crisis of his life was now approaching. He was taken ill, and this made him think about his soul. "I knew the Almighty God," he wrote at a subsequent period, "only from nature. I saw how gracious and merciful He was towards me, and therefore I lifted up my hands and eyes to Him, and prayed in my ignorance: O Lord, Thou hast made me so that I could learn many scientific and useful things, grant me now also opportunity to be better informed of Thy Holy Name. In this also the Shepherd of Israel heard me." After his recovery he removed to Pesth, where he met missionaries; he was taught the way of salvation. In 1845 he was baptized, and in 1856 he was sent to Bucharest. Two years later he was transferred to Jerusalem as assistant medical missionary, in which capacity he laboured until within a year or two of his death. He passed away on June, 1895, aged 80. Many will rise hereafter and call him blessed, having received the first seeds of eternal life through him.
Immanuel, Siegmund (Salomon Jacob), born in Hamburg, 1792, died at Minden, 1847. Seeking for true religion, he found it in the Gospel, and embraced Christianity in 1809. When still a student at the Gymnasium of Altona he wrote a treatise entitled, "Animadversiones ad Coluthe carmen de rapta Helena cum specimine Versionis Germanicæ." He then studied theology at Helmstadt, Göttingen and Leipzig till 1813. After being a private teacher at the house of the Russian General Berdiageff he, in 1814, became state teacher at Hirschberg, in Silesia, and in 1821 was appointed Principal of the Gymnasium at Minden, which position he held until his death. He was the first principal to introduce gymnastics into the school curriculum (1831), and to divide the Gymnasium into departments of arts and sciences (1840). Among Immanuel's works may be mentioned: "Die Anfänge der Reformation und die Gründung des Gymnasium in Minden" (Minden, 1822), "Declamation Unterricht auf Schulen" (ib. 1824), "Historischer Unterricht auf Gymnasium" (ib. 1827), "Gutachten über Herrn Lorinser's Schrift zum Schutze der Gesundheit auf Schulen" (Bieldfeld, 1836).
Isaacs, Rev. Albert Augustus. The cause of missions to Jews possessed a very intelligent and warm-hearted advocate in the Rev. Albert Augustus Isaacs, who was himself, as his name indicates, of Jewish parentage, and who throughout his long life, identified himself with every movement for the welfare of his brethren according to the flesh.
Mr. Isaacs was born in the island of Jamaica, on January 24th, 1826, at Berry Hill, a coffee plantation, of which his father was the owner. Jamaica was at that time one of the most prosperous colonies of Great Britain. His father, Isaac Isaacs, had become a convert to Christianity some years previously. We have no authentic particulars of his father's life, although we have an idea that in the story of "The Star of Peace," by "Ben Abram," which ran through the first two volumes of "The Everlasting Nation," the adventures of Isaac Da Costa, in Jamaica and in England, were those of his own father.
Albert was his second son, and was sent to England for his education, which was received at Maze Hill, Greenwich, under Dr. Smithers. The religious instruction in the school, and preparation for confirmation, though slight in themselves, led him to serious reflection, and were the means of deciding him to give his heart to Christ at the age of fourteen, and they influenced his future career. When he left school Albert returned to Jamaica for four years, at the expiration of which time, on the recommendation of Canon Carus, he entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, being a contemporary of one who afterwards became master, Dr. Perowne, and of Bishop Moule, of Mid-China. Young Isaacs' residence at Cambridge was marked by a strict adherence to his collegiate studies, which he commenced daily at five o'clock in the morning. His religious life was very fruitful, he being a teacher in the Jesus Lane Sunday School, the founder of the Cambridge University Prayer Union, and the organizer in his college of successful efforts on behalf of the Bible Society and the Church Missionary Society. He himself ardently desired to become a missionary, his sympathies being especially drawn towards East Africa. The door, however, was not open in that direction, and so after taking his degree in 1850, he was ordained in the same year by Dr. Davys, Bishop of Peterborough, and licensed to the curacy of the parish church in that city, of which the Bishop's son, a well known evangelical of those days, was the vicar. If our supposition about "Ben Abram's" story is true, the following information from the last chapter but one of the "Star of Peace" is interesting. We read there that Isaac Da Costa (his father) had so arranged his movements as to be present on an occasion of great interest to himself and others, and with no little pleasure was looking forward to the opportunity of witnessing his son's ordination. He had been unable to say what might be the day of his arrival, as the voyage from Jamaica to New York was made at irregular intervals, and it would appear that he arrived too late to witness that rite, for we read, "All was silent as the night in the little cathedral town in which Da Costa's son had begun his ministerial work. It was late when the last train arrived from the west, and a cab containing the father drove to the lodgings of the son. The sound of a bell vibrated upon the ears of those who were slumbering; but it was not so loud as to arouse them to consciousness. But early in the morning a messenger arrived from the chief hotel to announce the arrival of Mr. Da Costa. Telegrams were not so far available in those days as to enable him to communicate the fact of his arrival. It was Saturday night, and Da Costa had calculated on the enjoyment of the services of the Lord's Day amidst the scenes of his son's labours. As these consisted of four separate services—in whole or in part—he had the evidence that his lot was not cast in idle, although it was in pleasant, places."
Mr. Isaacs remained in the curacy at Peterborough for two years, discharging his ministerial duties with zeal and ability. In 1852 he became an association secretary of the L.J.S., having charge of the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincoln. The following year he was appointed assistant clerical and association secretary for the north metropolitan district. Mr. Isaacs had married the eldest daughter of the Rev. J. M. Johnson, rector of Scoulton, Norfolk, and a niece of Lord Berners. She was a remarkably clever linguist and a student of Hebrew. She died in 1856, after a very brief married life. After her death Mr. Isaacs visited Palestine in the winter of 1856-7, and found the particulars gleaned during that visit of much subsequent use in his advocacy of the cause. He gathered the materials for subsequent books, took numerous views of the country, and bought a property near Jaffa called "The Model Farm," which, under an edict of the Sublime Porte, was made over to him as a British subject. He visited Palestine again in 1869, and was a traveller also in various parts of the world.
Mr. Isaacs married, secondly, in 1861, the eldest daughter of the Rev. S. H. Causton, Vicar of Highgate, and a niece of Lord Lilford, who died in 1866, leaving two children, Miss Annie Isaacs and the Rev. Wilfrid Henry Isaacs. Thirty years later, in 1896, Mr. Isaacs married Mrs. Peppin, the widow of Surgeon-Major Peppin, and daughter of James Herdman, Esq., of Zion House, co. Tyrone, Ireland, who survived him.
Mr. Isaacs was Jubilee Secretary for the L.J.S. during the year commencing February 15, 1858, and ending on the same date in 1859, which post entailed upon him much additional labour, to which he always looked back with considerable pleasure. He resigned his secretaryship in July, 1859, having served the Society with great acceptance for nearly seven years.