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(Continued
from previous issue)
To the Editress of the Christian
Lady’s Magazine.
Mr. M’Neile appears to imagine that we were never
acceptable to the Lord, or had access to Him except through the merits of
sacrifices. He is completely and entirely mistaken—for the Eternal
“heard our groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, and with
Isaac, and Jacob, and God looked upon the children of Israel and had
respect unto them when they cried, and their cry came up unto Him by
reason of their bondage,” —Exodus 2:24, 25, and 28,—and as we were
in Egypt, so we are now. The children of Abraham, the seed of Isaac, He
remembereth and heareth us now, as then, and we have access to Him
even as our ancestors of Egypt; sacrifice offerings were instituted before
the Egyptian bondage; but there is no mention of their being necessary
to obtain the merciful hearing of the Eternal, at a time when they could
not be continued. Instead of having “no access to Him,” we are
expressly told what we are to do at the period of our second captivity in
the chapters I have already quoted—Levit. 26:40, 41, 42, 43, 44, and 45,
and the whole of chapter 30 of Deut.; also chapter 4:27, 28, 29, 30,
31—so as to obtain not only access but forgiveness. There
is not the very smallest mention of either the necessity of sacrifice or
high priest through whom to offer our prayers, nor the very
faintest allusion of atonement to render them acceptable. Lest we
should become disheartened and despairing, born the utter impossibility of
our now obeying all the ordinances of the law, as were observed when we
were in our own beautiful land: Moses expressly tells us how we may
obtain hearing and forgiveness in the lands of our captivity; expressly
tells us we have but to pray with firm faith in the infinite mercy
of the Eternal, not in our own righteousness, to be heard and
answered;—to repent; to acknowledge former transgressions and the
punishment of our sins; to come with lowly contrition and humble
faith—and we shall be forgiven and restored in the Lord’s own land.
Mr. M’Neile argues from the gospel, which book, no Israelite may
acknowledge divine; he explains the pure, changeless, unalterable Word of
God, by his peculiar belief, therefore, however satisfactory his
quotations may be to his own creed, they can in no possible way affect an
Israelite. Even those from the Old Testament, seeming so unanswerable to
gentiles, are meaningless to us; because we acknowledge not that book by
which alone gentiles are taught to read the Bible. Even, therefore,
though the field of argument may appear the same, it is in fact impossible
to be so. An Israelite reads and believes the Bible alone—the
covenant of the law, the promises and threatenings as they are written,
explained, only by the light of the past, the condition of
the present, and from these two proved epochs—faith for
the future. An Israelite needs no more than these, and his Bible. A
Christian never looks into the Bible, but as he believes it explained by
the gospel. It is in vain for him to assert he argues from the Bible
alone. He neither does nor can; for long before he is conscious of
it, the gospel alone is his guide and explainer of the Bible. And as he
feels it impossible to divide the two, so is it impossible for the
true heir of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the first-born of the Lord, to unite
them. He may say he does so for ambition, for gain, for bread;
but never yet has a true Israelite, who knows, loves, studies, and
believes his Bible, become Christian from conviction. I do not call
those Israelites who know nothing of their faith—nor converts
those who became Christians, when they had been nothing—and who were
perchance first guided to the Bible by Christian guides. I speak of the
true-loving, lowly-minded, faithful Hebrew; whose sole weapon of defence
and shield of glory is the Word of God.
Mr.
M’Neile's next paragraph* is solely relating to Christian doctrines, and
rests between you, dear madam, and himself: I shall not, therefore, refer
to it, except to express my regret, that any fellow-creature can entertain
such fearful and condemning doctrine, as to assert there is any one
person, who, earnestly seeking to know and love the Lord, is yet utterly
cast off from divine blessing and subjected to the Eternal’s abiding
wrath. How dare man with his weak and limited understanding and sinful
inclinations and finite thoughts, pronounce such judgment on the ways and
nets of the Eternal!
I
will not, or rather I will endeavour not to doubt Mr. Hugh M’Neile’s
professed love for us; but if he truly desire our salvation, let him leave
us to our God—to Him whose witnesses we are; who hath promised without
any condition annexed to the blessed promise whatever, that though “for
a small moment I have forsaken thee, yet with great mercies
will I gather thee. In little wrath have I hid my face from thee,
for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on
thee, saith the Lord, thy Redeemer.” With such blessed promises, ay,
hundreds of such ever near us—it is vain, utterly vain, for weak finite
man to tell us, unless we acknowledge a crucified saviour, that we are
utterly and eternally cut off. No such condition is annexed to the blessed
words proffered to us; no such condition throughout the whole of the Old
Testament, is made the means of our salvation.
He
is right, that in looking to our own righteousness alone, we are
indeed likely to stumble; and that our trust must be in the pure
righteousness of God, to perfect our feeble efforts and bring them unto
Him; but we look to God alone. In our captivity, we have no high
priest, nor do we need one, for the offering up our prayers. The
priests and officers of the temple were but part of the ecclesiastical
polity of the Jews. A brief survey of the narratives of the Bible,
particularly of the parents of Samson, of Hannah, David in his wanderings,
&c., will prove unanswerably, that the Jewish nation never needed mediators
to bring up their prayers before God, or to render them acceptable; and in
our captivity, as we are so repeatedly told, we have but to repent,
acknowledge the transgressions of our ancestors and its chastisement, and
turn once more to the Lord—for in the Lord shall Israel be saved with an
everlasting salvation; “ye shall not be ashamed, nor confounded world
without end.”
I
know not, my dear madam, how to apologize for writing to you so much at
length; but in attempting to refute your correspondent’s heavy charges
against Israel, it was impossible to do otherwise. Justice might demand
the insertion of this letter into your Magazine. I do not demand it;
because I well know, that it might be twisted and turned by mere
superficial readers, into disrespect against the religion of that dear and
noble country, where Israel has now for some centuries found a home. Such
indeed is neither intended, nor I trust written. I have but come forward
to defend—to prove that there are some Israelites, who not only glory in
their Faith, but are bold enough to avow it, and give their reasons for so
doing; some Israelites, who look but to the Bible as their only guide to
God, and their only guard from man.
“Far
rather would I be annihilated this moment, than cease to believe on Him
who gave himself for me.” Such a sentiment (your own words, dear madam),
I can not only understand, but appreciate and love; because I too feel
“far rather would I be annihilated this moment,” than desert the faith
of my fathers, of Moses and David, and so deny the God of love, one of
whose chosen servants and witnesses I am. I can feel with all those who so
love their own faith, that they would die for it. I can feel with all
those, whose prayers would lead all their beloved to the same fountain,
the same goal, as they believe in and seek themselves. I can understand
your wish, that the chosen of the Lord should worship with you and
acknowledge the same Saviour; because I too feel—“Would that the veil
could be removed and all nations know the God of Israel as He is,
without the need of the bloody sacrifice to which alone they look;”
though from my belief that all the varied religions of the world are
working the Eternal’s will, I can better wait His time than you, in your
prayers for us. It is, because we have so many feelings in common that,
despite the wide difference in our actual belief—the spirit in our
hearts is the same, that I have thus ventured to address you, and freely
answer the letter of your correspondent. Your observations upon it, I
acknowledge, with thanks; for they are such as to raise, not degrade, the
people of the Lord in the eyes of the gentile world. One observation, I
take the liberty to correct; because it is not quite in accordance with
the Hebrew belief.
Speaking
of the Jews as still heirs of Judea, you add “Of course, if they do not
choose it, they will not be forced by their brethren, or by us, to
re-occupy their ancient territories.”* According to our belief, there
will not be a choice left us; simply, because at the Lord’s
appointed time, we shall be gathered as we were from Egypt, only to a much
greater extent, from the “North and from the South, from the East and
from the West.” The spirit of the Lord will so work within us, that not
one of us will linger in the lands of our captivity—and this will be the
grand distinction between our final redemption and our former one from
Babylon, where the greater number remained captives by choice—thus
proving it is not of this redemption, the prophets speak. We shall
not indeed be forced, because every man’s spirit will be his own
incentive—and not one man, woman, or child, the old, the feeble, and the
weak, will be left behind. The prophets teem with these consoling and
strengthening words.
And
now, my dear madam, leaving you to forgive all that may seem presumption,
all that may read more harshly than intended in this letter—I shall
conclude, and remain with the purest feelings of respect and regard
towards yourself and those who think with you on my beloved nation,
Your
true friend,
A Daughter of Israel.
NOTE—We
request our readers to compare the sentiments of our fair correspondent
with those advanced in
the sermon in
the present number.
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