A stumbling-block.
Beware of Him.
Mal. i. 11."
There is scarcely any difficulty as regards the inscription on the left; the purport being a brief and clumsy account of the sculptor himself. The reason of the reference at the end of the second line may be a sort of justification for suffixing "Israelite" to his name; the following being the passage referred to: "One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel." The principal perplexity is presented by the inscription on the right, and especially in the second line; containing, as it does, a group of five Hebrew letters, so arranged as to defy the ingenuity of the most erudite lexicographer; there being no word of such construction in the whole range of Hebrew literature.
I must premise, before I proceed any further, by stating that I apprehend the sculptor to have been a zealous, though very eccentric, Jewish convert to Christianity; to whom it seemed good to put up that enigmatical sun-dial, with a view to attract the attention, and conduce the inquiry of his Hebrew brethren; which would afford him an opportunity of propounding his Christian views from his own design.
I take the Hebrew letters מ מ ש י ר to be the initials of the following words:[4]
[4] According to the first canon of cabbalistical interpretation, called Notricon. See The Fundamental Principles of Modern Judaism Investigated, pp. 13, 14.
"The King Messiah, the Shiloh, the Lord my Shepherd." Hence those characters follow the A.D. date of the first line, and are followed by the appropriate words in the third line, viz. "A stone of stumbling." The fourth line then comes as a sort of explanation of the preceding one: "And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, to both the houses of Israel; for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken." "See Isaiah viii. 14, 15." The fifth line, "Ps. cxix. 165. Ezek. iii. 20." consists of scriptural references as to the cause and effect of loving the law, and vice versâ; the first reference being, "Great peace have they which love thy law, and no stumbling-block for them" [according to the original]. The second reference being, "Again, when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die; because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand." The words in the sixth line, "A stumbling-block," evidently refer to 1 Cor. i. 23.: "But we preach Christ crucified; unto the Jews a stumbling-block." The "sculptor Israelite" may have feared that a reference to the New Testament would betray his motive, and therefore judged it prudent and expedient to omit it. The supposition that Bezaleel had 1 Cor. i. 23. in view is supported by the seventh line, "Beware of Him." The last line appears to be an appropriate conclusion; as the passage referred to describes the extent of the Lord's kingdom, as well as his reception by "all nations, tongues, and kindreds." "For from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a peace offering; for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts." Mal. i. 11.
One may well imagine an Israelite or two observing from the road the Hebrew characters ר ש מ מ—for they are very large, and are seen afar off—and after puzzling over their intent and purport for some time, proceed to ask for an explanation from the major-domo. The master, delighted that the bait caught, vouchsafes, in his peculiarly eccentric style, to lecture on his own device, and thus reads to his brethren A SERMON IN STONE.[5]