|
In the October number we gave publicity to some
remarks we felt called upon to address to the public, against the vile
calumnies which so many pious people think themselves authorized to
fulminate against <<518>>the Jews. Since then we have obtained a copy of the
communication of “Ludwig,” which gave rise to the controversy. We
therefore give it now to the Jewish public, together with the
ill-tempered remarks of Dr. Dowling, and his coadjutor, the Rev. John
Lillie the late Editor of the Chronicle. By the by, since the delectable
exhibition of overweening love for Israel, Mr. L. has yielded the chair
editorial to the Rev. Alexander H. Wright, and we wish him a
little more candour than his predecessor. But we need not tell our
intelligent readers anything to forestall their judgment, as the words
of the articles speak for themselves. Still we may state in conclusion
that despite of the insinuation of the Editor of the Chronicle, Ludwig
is a Christian minister, and we hope not the less sincere for his
admiration of the Jewish character.—Ed. Oc.
(From the New York Tribune)
“To Rev. Drs. Dowling, Tyng, M’Laren, &c.
“I heard with surprise, indignation, and profound
regret, the speeches delivered last evening before the association which
has been named insultingly, a Society for Meliorating the
Condition of the Jews. I crave your patience for a few words of truth
and reason upon the subjects discussed there; and that the impulse under
which I write may not be misunderstood, introduce myself to you as a
Christian minister, whose blood, according to his best knowledge, has
not mingled with that of Israel in a thousand years, but whose
opportunities of judging of the present character and condition of the
Jews cannot have been less favourable than those of any one in your
assembly, though he were a convert from the Synagogue.
“I suppose that to the intelligent student of
ancient or modern history it is by no means necessary to urge that the
Hebrews have been, and are in an intellectual point of view, the first
of nations. The fathers of religion and civilization, and the
conservators of science and the arts during the long ages of heathen and
Christian darkness, down to the revival of learning and the true worship
in the fifteenth century, they have since then, with all their crushing
disabilities, contributed far more than their proportion to the common
stock of learning and philosophy, literature and art. Do you doubt it?
Consult the rolls of illustrious names which even in the present century
it has furnished, in investigation, reflection, and creation.
“But, shuffling, you ask, Have I been in the Jew
quarters of London, Paris, and Rome? Have I walked through Chatham
Street in New <<519>>York? Yes: and I have been in Wapping and St. Giles’s, in
London, on the Isle de la Cité in Paris, between the Piazza del Popolo
and the Tiber in Rome, and through the Five Points in New York, which
with just as much reason may be cited to illustrate the tendencies of
Christianity and the character of Christians. These continual
references to the conditions and occupations of the lower classes of
Jews are mere insolence. Vague rumours of the oppressions suffered by
Greeks, Poles, and other baptized heathens, kindle to a resistless flame
the sympathy of Christendom; the Senate is in a tumult of stormy
indignation that a few vagabond Papists have not succeeded in robbing
the Pagans of Yucatan; and we can scarcely get through the streets here,
without being overrun by some tomfool ‘demonstration’ in behalf of the down-trodden Irish. But the poor Jew, for
fifteen centuries, has been shut out by custom and statute from all
honourable occupations, forbidden the exercise of liberal arts, and
denied the right to trade in such merchandise as a Christian might
handle, and you call him a ‘dealer in old clothes;’ you have robbed him,
and called him poor; held him in the mire, and complain that he is
filthy; made him an outlaw, and say he is a bad citizen; monopolized all
the means of creditable living, and charge him with struggling through
low, and base or questionable pursuits. Walking yesterday along one of
the wharves, I saw a ruffian of the size of a man, knocking down as fast
as he could rise a poor, crippled boy, and every time his stalwart arm
beat against the sufferer, the devil taunted him, ‘Why don’t you
stand?’ Jehovah! the Justice of thy Law, the wisdom of thy
Providence, it is not for any mortal man to doubt. Thine ancient people
suffer the penalties of their guilt: shall the pent seas of thy fury
forever be restrained from those whom thou hast chosen in after times,
and who have so much more abused so much richer mercies?
“While recognising the piety of the Jews in Europe,
as illustrated by their melancholy pilgrimages to the desolate but holy
city which is so sacred in their memories, it was declared by one of
you, that ‘a large majority of the Jews in this country
are practically infidels.’ By what authority was this said?
Have you read their journals? Have you visited their places of worship?
have you sat by their firesides, analyzed the teaching of their
children, or listened to their prayers. Do you know anything
about the subject? Had you said simply that they were Infidels, as a
tree is known by its fruits, the question would have been difficult of
solution; but the word ‘practically,’ challenges a direct comparison of
the entire Jewish population with the entire Christian population, (i.
e. all the inhabitants of the country who are not Jews,) in regard
to intelligence, manners, morals, <<520>>and piety. Behold your practical
infidelity! Do the Jews furnish one-half their proportion of
the criminal calendar? do they claim one-quarter of their share
of the public charities? Did you ever hear of a single instance
of Jewish prostitution? Do you believe that one-tenth as large a
proportion of the Christians (i. e. people who are not Jews) in
this money-getting nation, would, for one-sixth of the week close all
their places of business, and desist from all their usual occupations,
in obedience simply to a religious obligation? If so, point out the acts
of faith which entitle the Christians to comparison with the Jews in
this respect. It is all false—scandalously false. The Jews search the
Scriptures more, even the New Testament of our Lord; they are more
earnest in prayer; they are more constant in the recognition of the
Divine Mercy; as a body, they abound far more in the fruits of the
spirit, than the American Christians. I am very sorry to think so. But
my acquaintance with ‘the Jews in this country’ is extensive and
intimate, and this conviction has increased with the careful and
unrestricted observation of many years.
“Gentlemen, your Society for Meliorating the
Condition of the Jews should be disbanded. The maintenance of its
officers is not a sufficient incentive to its support. Compare the
results of its labours with the results of other Christian and
philanthropic efforts, and you will find that they bear to them and to
the means by which they are produced, a melancholy disproportion. This
is not the way to convert the Jews. Something may be done to enlighten
and convert them in Mohammedan and Pagan countries, by such an
association; something may be done for their conversion, by relieving
them from the civil disabilities under which they exist in almost every
country but our own. Here, you can do little but by cultivating a good
Christian literature; by applying more and more the doctrines of the
Gospel to social questions, by making the light of Christianity so much
brighter and more cheerful than that of Judaism, that they may see it
and walk in it. Upon this subject I could say more, but I have occupied
already more than the editor could well spare at such a time; and I but
repeat, disband your Society, and ask the people to support such
enterprises as produce some fruits that they can see.
Ludwig.”
(From the Jewish Chronicle.)
Ludwig and Philo-Israel
Two days after the anniversary, a very rancorous
attack was made on the Society in the New York Tribune. A correspondent
of that paper, after “introducing himself to the Rev. Drs. Dowling,
Tyng, <<521>>M’Laren, &c., as a Christian Minister,” proceeded to take those
gentlemen to task for something said at the meeting, and to denounce the
name, motives, &c., of the association. A friend of the cause thought it
worth while to prepare the following “Answer to Ludwig,” which we
extract from the journal above named:—
“To the Editor of The Tribune:
“Leaving out the ‘indignation,’ permit me to say,
that, in common with multitudes of your readers, I have read with
‘surprise and profound regret’ the fierce attack of your correspondent
‘Ludwig’ upon this excellent institution, in his letter addressed to
Rev. Drs. Tyng, Dowling, &c., in The Tribune of to-day; and that
more especially after the interesting, accurate, and able Report of the
Anniversary, from your accomplished reporter, in the paper of the
previous day.
“I presume, Mr. Editor, that more than one solitary
individual could be found, of those who have attended the Anniversaries
of the present week, that could say of every one of the noble
institutions whose claims have been advocated with so much eloquence in
this city, what your correspondent says of this: ‘I heard with surprise,
indignation, and profound astonishment, the speeches delivered,’ &c.
Opposers and objectors may be found to every good cause on earth. I have
reason to know, however, that 99-hundredths of those present on that
occasion formed a far different conclusion, and that they were equally
edified and delighted with the eloquent addresses delivered; and
certainly the readers of The Tribune have too much good sense to
consider the anonymous opinion of one person, however earnestly
expressed, to weigh to the prejudice of the Society, against the
deliberately-formed opinions of such men as Rev. Dr. Tyng and the other
speakers at the Anniversary—or of such men as Rev. —,* the celebrated
converted Jewish Missionary of London, one of the
Vice-Presidents; or Rev. —, the amiable, pious, and learned Jewish
Missionary of the Society to his brethren in this city—or of such men as
Rev. Drs. Milledoler, (the venerable President,) De Witt, Sprague,
Krebs, Skinner, Cheever, Cone, Williams, Dowling, Durbin, Alexander, and
others of the most eminent of the American clergy, who are members of
its board of officers.
“Had ‘Ludwig’—instead of, like certain persons
referred to by the Apostle Jude, ‘speaking evil of things which they
know not’—seen fit <<522>>to examine the publications of this Society, he would
have learned that the grand object of this excellent Society is the
conversion of the Jews, ‘beloved for the fathers’ sakes,’ to the gospel
of Christ, (though some who call themselves ‘Christian ministers’
might perhaps be found, who would deny such conversion to be an
amelioration of their condition,) and that, for years past, the
instances of success in this work have been numerous and encouraging;
had he perused from month to month, in the pages of the ‘Jewish
Chronicle,’ the interesting journals of Rev. —, who is a relative of
his great namesake, — the historian,* also a converted Jew—had he
perused these journals, he would have discovered that this Society has
as much claim to be reckoned among those which produce ‘fruits which can
be seen,’ as the Home Mission, the City Tract Society, or any other
which aims at the conversion of souls.”
(To be continued.) |
