Massena. All that is known about him is a tract, published at Strassburg, in 1859, entitled "Massena ein Wahrer Israelite oder die Kraft Gottes."
Massiah, Rev. J. P., was curate of Holy Trinity, Stepney, in 1883, when he received some Jews into the Church.
Mathai (Shimon), Adam Rudolf George Christoph, was born at Fürth, Germany in 1715, and was instructed in the Talmud by his father Jaidel, a teacher in the Beth-hamedrash there. At the age of sixteen, he went to Prague to continue his studies, and on returning home he, too, became a Talmudic teacher. Just then he narrates, in the preface of his "Description of the Jewish Sabbath": "When I considered the corruption among my people, doubts arose in my mind about the rabbinic system of religion, and I began to study its doctrines, rites and ceremonies, and found that they did not agree with the Word of God." The name Jeshua sar happanim, in the service for the New Year, struck him as very mysterious, and he began to enquire as to which of the angels this name referred. At last, after long enquiry, he became convinced of the divine origin of Christianity and applied to a pastor in Fürth for baptism in 1748. However, on account of the commotion created among the Jews, he went to Nürnberg, where he was baptized the same year.
Matthews, Rev. Aaron, after embracing Christianity with his wife, was appointed a missionary of the British Society in London in 1867, where he laboured successfully for some years. Then he accepted a call to be minister of a Baptist Chapel in Liverpool, which position he only held for a few years. Then he opened a mission to the Jews at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and afterwards laboured amongst them in Glasgow with considerable blessing on his labours, attracting the Jews by his fervent and devotional spirit as well as his Hebrew learning.
Mayer, Samuel Morum, was born in 1797 at Friedenthal; and died in 1862. His father was a rabbi, his grandfather was appointed by King Friedrich grand rabbi, who gave the grandson a good Jewish education, so that at the age of ten he could repeat the Psalter in Hebrew with Mendelssohn's translation. A pastor also privately taught him classics. He was then sent to a Talmud School, but the Talmud did not satisfy his thirst for useful, solid knowledge, so he sent a petition to the King asking for permission to enter the Gymnasium. This was granted in 1815. He studied there and subsequently became a celebrated lawyer. Government offices were offered him on condition of his embracing Christianity, which he repeatedly refused, but held a professorship unconditionally. However, he investigated the doctrines of Christianity himself, and was baptized in 1834. He was then persecuted by his relations, but he rendered them good for evil. The following is a list of his works in their chronological order; with one exception they were published at Nürnberg. "Beschreibung des Jüdischen Sabbath," 1750; "Die Verderbniss des heutigen Judenthums," 1752; "Beschreibung des Jüdischen Neujahrfestes," 1755; "Beschreibung des Jüdischen Purimfestes," 1758; "Beschreibung des Jüdischen Yom Kippur," 1760; "Sammlung Talmudisches Lehrsätze," Schwabach, 1763; "Abhandlung von der Verleumdung," 1765; "Sendschreiben an Rabbi Peloni aus der Stadt Lo-Theda," 1766; "Kurzgefaste Talmudische Lehrsätze von der Nothwendigkeit sich in den Ehestand zu begeben," no date; "Beweis von der Uebereinstimmung der alten Israelitischen Kabbalah mit der Lehre des Apostel Paulus," no date; "Beweisgrunde von der Uebereinstimmung der Altjüdischen Lehre mit der Lehre der Christen," 1770; "Kristliche gesinnte Erklärung der Kabbalisten über das Hohelied," 1776.
Mayer, Rev. W., was educated both in the school and college of the L.J.S. in London. In 1855, he succeeded his brother-in-law, the Rev. A. I. Behrens, at Jassy, where he was assistant missionary for some time previously. He had there a most flourishing school, containing about 300 scholars. Mayer, who was a very intellectual man, was somewhat affected by the criticism on the Bible by Bishop Colenso, and he also was of the opinion that the Jews ought to have their own Christian Church. This led to his severance from the Society. He, however, remained in Jassy all his life, and revised the Roumanian Bible for the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Mendelssohn, Abraham, second son of Moses Mendelssohn the philosopher, was born in Berlin in 1779. In 1804, he married Leah, a sister of Jacob Levi Solomon Bartholdi. The latter having become a Protestant Christian in 1805, influenced his sister and brother-in-law to follow his example. Whilst his father had resisted the arguments and persuasion of Lavater to take this step, he declared:—"Formerly I was the son of my father, now I am the father of my son." Accordingly, he had his children—Felix, Fanny, Rebecca, and Paul—baptized in the Evangelical Church, under the additional name of Bartholdi.
Mendelssohn, Dorothea, a daughter of the philosopher Felix, became a Protestant in Paris in 1802.
Mendelssohn, Felix Bartholdi, was born at Hamburg, February 3, 1809, and died 1857. When he was four years old his parents removed to Berlin. His father at once procured teachers in music for him, as he had begun thus early to show great talent in that direction. His teachers on the piano were Louis Bezer, and Zelter, the friend of Goethe. The chapel choirmaster, Mr. Hennings, gave him instruction on the violin. The father of the poet, Paul Heyse, who later became the celebrated philologist, was his private tutor in the home of the Mendelssohns, where the intellectual aristocracy of Berlin frequently assembled. When Felix was nine years old he appeared for the first time at a public concert, where his remarkable performances won him great applause. Two years later, we find him in a Berlin Musical Academy, where he studied church music under Zelter's direction. When he was twelve years old, Zelter placed him in the Olympic in Weimar, where he made remarkable progress. When he was fourteen, we find him a guest at Goethe's house, and his host wrote thus to Zelter:—"Felix's productions astonish everybody." No one was more delighted at the boy's success than his father, who took pride in gratifying his son's every wish regarding his musical education, and the latter's diligence amply rewarded any outlay. Before Felix was out of his teens he had written four operas. His father accompanied him to Paris, where he had the education of the best teachers of the time. Soon after he went to London, where he wrote an original overture founded upon Shakespere's "Midsummer Night's Dream," which attracted the attention of the celebrated singer, Henrietta Sonntag, and won a great triumph for its composer—he was then twenty years old. He became a member of a Philharmonic Society. He spent some time in Rome, where he composed "Die Walpinges nacht," and arranged the one hundred and fifteenth psalm to music. He also visited Naples. This Italian town made a lasting impression upon his mind. He played before many of the crowned heads of Europe. King Frederick William IV. of Prussia was greatly interested in the young composer, and employed him to write the music for the "Tragedy of Sophocles." His success greatly excited the jealousy of the older musicians, but the King became his dearest friend. Mendelssohn played in 1841 before Queen Victoria. He thus described the occasion in a letter to his "dear little mother." "I asked Prince Albert, the Queen's husband, to play something on the organ for me. He complied. His playing—so beautiful and perfect—many an organist might have envied him. Then I played and sang my chorus from "St. Paul," "How beautiful are the messengers." When I had finished the first stanza, the Queen and Prince Albert joined in the singing. The Queen asked if I had any new compositions; if so, she would gladly have them printed. We went into her salon, where there was a piano. I played and sang again. She praised my playing and singing, and when I bade them adieu said: 'I hope you will soon visit us in England again.'" This brilliant career was speedily cut short. The death of his dearly beloved sister Fanny, in the spring of 1847, affected him seriously. All his compositions thereafter were melancholy. He became nervous and irritable. He could not apply himself to his work, but would sit for hours with his hands folded. After a brief illness he died on November 4, 1857, when he was only thirty-six. Three days after, he was carried to his grave by the side of his sister Fanny Hensel, in Trinity Cemetery, Berlin. Felix Mendelssohn was a favourite of the German people—a musical genius like Weber and Schubert. He put his whole life and soul into his work. His early death confirms Neander's words—also a Hebrew Christian—"Whom the gods love die young." God gave him a musical gift, which he delighted to use for His glory.
Mendelssohn, Henrietta, daughter of the banker, Alexander Mendelssohn, was baptized in Berlin in 1822.