"Granny's Chapters" (on scriptural subjects) / The New Testament, with a Sketch of the Subsequent History of the Jews.

by Lady Mary Ross

One thing we must remark about the higher class of Jews in the present day—they are very charitable, not to their own people only, but also to Christians, helping even to support Christian schools.

It is said that there is in these days a growing feeling amongst the Jews, that the Messiah must have come unobserved by them. Let us pray, that through this feeling, they may be led to see and acknowledge, that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed that Messiah. Great efforts have been made, and are still being made, for the conversion of the Jews, but with little success at present. The time is not yet come for them to be brought into the fold, and made one flock with the Christians, under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord.

But the time will come, when by some means or other, the Lord God Almighty will do this thing, for the Scriptures contain very many prophecies as to the restoration of the Children of Israel to the favour of God. The Scripture predictions of future happiness for the Jews, will as surely be fulfilled, as those have been, which foretold the miseries that have fallen upon the once chosen people of God.

The whole history of this remarkable nation, the chosen people of God, warns us in a most forcible manner of the evil of sin, which made the Almighty at last cast off the people whom He had so loved, and whose sins He had so long borne with. Let us learn from this, that sin persisted in will bring destruction upon any people; though, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, those who repent of it and forsake it, shall be forgiven.

The history of the Jews gives also the clearest proofs of the truth of prophecy.

To go no further than Moses, let us see how exactly his words have been accomplished in the sufferings of the Jews. His prophecies, fulfilled in part when the children of Israel and Judæa were carried into captivity, also describe most truly the circumstances of the Jews, since the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, a.d. 72, put a final end to their existence as a nation.

Moses says, "And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people from one end of the earth even to the other." In the sketch which has been given of the Jews, we have read of them as being found in all parts of the known world.

Again, their condition, as described by Moses, "Thou shalt only be oppressed and spoiled evermore," exactly agrees with all that has been said of them. We have seen that, in the East as well as in the West, they have been continually "oppressed" by the cruel laws and heavy taxes of the rulers of the various countries in which they sought refuge, as well as by the violence of the people, who have repeatedly "oppressed" them in every way, robbed them, "and spoiled" them of all their possessions. Again Moses says, "The Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, even great plagues, and of long continuance." No people have ever suffered so much as the Jews: their "plagues," or calamities, have indeed been wonderfully great, and of "long continuance," carried on, as we have seen, with little intermission through 1,700 years.

Some of the calamities inflicted upon the Jews were especially foretold; for instance, "Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people"; and "Thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see." We have read that the children of the unhappy Jews were cruelly taken from them by force, and "given to another people," to be educated as Christians. Their despair on this and other occasions, when they saw that their children were likely to fall into the hands of their enemies, drove them to madness; and in their frenzy and despair, they often destroyed their families and themselves. They were indeed made "mad," by the sight which their eyes had seen.

Again Moses tells them, "Thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb and a by-word among all nations, whither the Lord shall lead thee." The amazing sufferings of the Jews, and their existence through them; their obstinate attachment to their own religion; and the manner in which they have constantly believed in impostors declaring themselves to be the Messiah,—must ever be an "astonishment" to all who read their history: and, whether justly or unjustly, their avarice, usury, and hard-heartedness, did everywhere become a "proverb." Even now, if any person is peculiarly avaricious and miserly, it is not unusual to hear his neighbours say of him, "Oh, he is quite a Jew,"—meaning that he has those bad qualities ascribed to the children of Israel. In short, the name of Jew has been a "by-word," or term of reproach, signifying all that is bad; and the treatment of the poor creatures has been in accordance with such notions. Then again, rulers have forced them to wear marks on their clothes, and have made their condition as low and disgraceful as possible: the people have insulted and abused them, and treated them rather as brutes than as fellow creatures. Pagans, Mahometans, and, sad to say, Christians also, have alike persecuted them; making their very name a "proverb" and a "by-word," in every part of the world whither they have been scattered.