them as Ephraim and Manasseh, that they may grow up as young cedars on Mount Lebanon, and the wonderful spirit of Christ rest upon them, that they may produce acceptable fruits of the same; let also the wonderful right hand of the Father carry you through the tempestuous sea to the place desired; let goodness and mercy accompany you wherever you go; and finally let the glorious Counsellor kindly advise you to go back to the city of the great King, whereat may you advance in the ministration of the Gospel, through the power and wisdom of which Israel shall be restored to Jehovah their God, and to Christ their King, who will soon, I believe, elevate the kingdom of Israel at Jerusalem, and lift up the banner of the cross on Mount Zion! "Dear Sir, the rest of my thankful feelings towards you, which I could not express through ink and paper, I hope will be understood from themselves; because an allusion to the wise is perfectly enough. "I remain, &c., &c., 66 JERUSALEM. Jewish Schools. IN a recent letter, the Rev. John Nicolayson gives the following account of some of the schools of the poor Jews in Jerusalem. We rejoice to learn that he has access to them, and also the means of introducing so many copies of portions, as well as entire volumes of the Old Testament. May many of these young Jews learn, through Moses, and the Psalms, and the Prophets, to know the true Messiah! Mr. Nicolayson thus writes:"My visits to the Jewish schools are interesting and promising, from the intercourse they secure me with the teachers, and the opportunity of supplying them with books; and I also give them, occasionally, hints for bringing their schools into something more like order. At present they are conducted without any order whatever, and present scenes of as great confusion and disorder, as of misery and destitution. The schools are either narrow pent-up lofts, built across the arches or niches in the synagogue, close to the roof, for the accommodation of the women on the Sabbath; or else wretched lower rooms, outside of, but connected with the synagogue, with very little light and no ventilation. And the children are as ragged and filthy as they are disorderly, and mostly afflicted with sore eyes. 66 "I have occasionally visited these schools in past times, but either the masters were absent when I happened to come, or they seemed displeased at my presence. Now the case is reversed; if absent, one or more of the boys will run to fetch them, and when they come, they are very friendly and ready to enter into as much conversation, as the disorderly flocking together of the boys of all the other schools into the one I happen to be in, will allow of. 66 This understanding with the teachers came about in the following_manner. In my letter of last month, I observed that the calls for Hebrew Scriptures had become more frequent than usual. These were chiefly either from poor parents begging for books for their children at school, or else from boys who represented themselves as orphans. Such of these, as could read, and were truly destitute, I sent with a note to Mr. Juda Lions, at the depôt, to furnish them, unless he knew that they had either been supplied already, or were not likely to make good use of the book. "In the first week of the next month two of the teachers called on me, stating that among those who had thus received Bibles, there were some who had sold them again for a few piastres, and proposed that I should furnish such children only as really needed them for use at school, and that then they should be left there in their (the teacher's) charge, and they would become responsible for them. I readily agreed to so sensible a proposal, on condition that I should visit the schools myself first, to see what would be wanted, and have access to them at any time, to assure myself the books given remained there, and were made use of. To this they very readily agreed, and thus my intercourse with them commenced. "As yet, I have visited only seven schools; some of which I found occupied by two masters, each with his own set of noisy boys. In five of these they read only either their own Prayer-book, for the younger boys, or the five books of Moses and the Psalms; in the two others, the Gemara daily, the historical books and the Bible generally on Fridays. As such disorderly and dirty children wear out books rapidly, I wished to furnish the five schools with the five books of Moses and Psalms only; and as we have but few of these on hand, at present, I took down a list of the orphans only, as pointed out to me by the teachers, each in his own school. These amounted to about forty. I have as yet given the several teachers only one Bible for every two orphans; and promised to furnish each with the five books of Moses, as soon as I could procure a fresh supply. I hope to be able to add, also, one for every child in the several schools; for the parents of those who are not orphans are too poor to supply them. Their Prayer books are furnished them gratuitously, from Leghorn and Trieste. "All these seven schools are strictly poor schools (and might fairly be called ragged schools), and, as such, are kept at the expense of the community, and in or about the synagogues." THE SEA OF GALILEE. You ask me why I love that sea, With his blessed feet! Jesus walked upon its waves--- All other seas before! You ask me why I love that sea? "It is I, be not afraid!" There he softly whispered peace, All other seas before! You ask me why I love that sea? Musical with prayer! They have kissed and bathed his feet, Therefore love I Galilee, All other seas before! ELIZABETH YOUATT. London: Printed at the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution,Palestine Place. THE JEWISH ADVOCATE. APRIL, 1848. BIBLE HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CHAPTER XXXV. THE account of the conquest of Jerusalem, by David, is followed in the book of Chronicles by a list of 66 'the names of the mighty men whom David had" about him. The same list is also given in the twenty-third chapter of the second book of Samuel; from which it appears that these heroes, or "mighty men," were thirtyseven in number, including Joab, who was commander-in-chief of all David's forces. These warriors were divided into three classes: Jashobeam, Eleazar, and Shammah composed the first class; Abishai, Benaiah, and Asahel the second; and the third class was made up of the remaining thirty; of whom Asahel, afterwards killed by Abner, appears, at first, to have been the head. Over all the mighty men was Jashobeam, the son of Hachmoni, called Adino-he-Ezni, because he was a valiant man, and lifted up his spear against 300 men at once. The list in Chronicles is more numerous than that in Samuel, and differs in other respects. It was probably drawn up at a later period of David's life and reign. Wonderful |