Address to the Christian Public by a Committee of the Board.
James Dodson
[from American Missionary Register, Vol. II. No. 8, February, 1822. p. 321-326.]
The Directors of the American Society for meliorating the condition of the Jews, have great pleasure in presenting these documents to the public, confident that their Christian fellow-citizens will also have pleasure in perusing them. Long, very long, has the house of Israel been in bondage among the nations; but a time of release has been promised of God, has been hoped for both by them and by us, and is now certainly at hand. The signs of that time have appeared, and are every year becoming more distinctly visible. Apathy to the miseries of the circumcision is no longer universal; and contempt for the person of a Jew ceases from the bosom of the Christian.
There was a time, when the seed of Abraham alone constituted the Church of God, and when a Jew would scarcely credit that men of another race were admissible to the communion. It required miracles to convince the Hebrew Christians, that “God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” The Jews, generally obstinate in their prejudices, and zealous for their ceremonies, but heedless of the lights of their own prophets, hardened themselves against the uncircumcision. They have since met with an awful, a long, and a just retribution. The Churches of the nations, providentially indeed, but on their part criminally, also obstinate in their prejudices and alike heed less of the lights of prophecy, have turned away their heart from the children of Jacob. The nations would scarcely believe that a Jew could be honest, or could again be made to cultivate the useful arts of life like others. The descendants of Abraham have been supposed incapable of ploughing the field, of watching the fold, and of gathering the fruits of the vine and the olive. In the estimation of many it is still next to a miracle for a Jew to become a Christian; and next to an impossibility, that the race of the Hebrews should exist together as a nation or even as a colony. Such prejudices are mischievous, because they prevent exertions to meliorate a condition which they have themselves continued if not created; for, to the general neglect or oppression of the Jews, by the nations, we must look, as the chief and immediate cause of that moral condition which is often quoted as the apology for continued neglect.
Facts are necessary to remove these prejudices; and the facts must be furnished. They already exist, and they are increasing both in number and in interest. Jews, distinguished for talents and integrity, are passing from the synagogue into the church; and distinguished Christians are taking them by the hand. Benevolent Societies are rising up among the nations to encourage the spirit of inquiry, and to direct the inquisitive Israelite to the Star of Jacob. The Rabbi Bergmann, Messrs. Marc and Adler, and many others, have seen and confessed “that Jesus is the Christ;” and such men as Dr. Steinkopff, the Count von der Recke, and the Rev. Louis Way, and our own Boudinot, have appeared to give them welcome to the church. Associations of learned and zealous Christians are engaged in behalf of the ancient people of the covenant. In London, in Edinburgh, and in Frankfort, in Alberfeld, and in Basle, such Societies are formed; and Princes also are engaged in meliorating the condition of the Hebrews. Alexander, at the head of the vast empire which he so ably governs, has turned his attention to the subject of Jewish colonization, and is making the experiment; and the benevolent Adelberdt, Count von, der Recke, von Wollmarstein, is endeavouring to effect the colonization of evangelized Israelites, in the vicinity of the Rhine, with design to co-operate with the American Society for meliorating the condition of the Jews. From him we received as his envoy a Christian of the circumcision, Mr. Jadownisky, who is now under our own eye, prosecuting his studies. Mr. Jadownisky is a young man of promising endowments. Born and educated a Jew, he has not read Moses and the Prophets in vain. His occupation, as a teacher, gave him opportunity of extending his acquaintance among Christians, and of studying the great question concerning Jesus of Nazareth, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another ” Persuaded that Jesus is the Christ, he by the grace of God received the word with gladness, and was baptized in the month of April, 1821.
The accompanying documents explain the nature of his mission to America; and his own address to the Society is proof of his talents. He is now 22 years of age, and is ardently pursuing studies to qualify him for the ministry of the Gospel, as a messenger of mercy to the House of his Fathers. The Board have undertaken, in hopes of aid from the Christian public, to provide for the maintenance and education of this gentleman for the work to which he is devoted.
The Society, fellow-citizens, in behalf of which we now address you, was incorporated by the Legislature of the State of New-York, in March, 1820. “The object of the Society, is to invite and receive from any part of the world, such Jews as do already profess the Christian religion, or are desirous to receive Christian instruction, to form them into a colony, and to furnish them with ordinances and employment.” Hitherto the Directors have been without funds to effect a settlement, and without colonists to occupy under their care. Little has been done except creating a capacity for receiving donations from the benevolent, and for employing them, when circumstances called for actual exertion. The time for exertion is now arrived; and the means also begin to appear. The late excellent President of the Society, Elias Boudinot, whose praise is in the Churches, has bequeathed 4000 acres of land, as the site of the colony, in Warren county, state of Pennsylvania, or $1000, to aid in securing other lands for the purpose, at the option of the Board of Directors. The Directors have not yet decided on the alternative. An English gentleman, too, Mr. George Conquest, lately deceased in this city, has with great Christian liberality bequeathed for the benefit of the Society, the sum of two hundred pounds sterling, 889 dollars. We still stand in immediate need of funds; and to your contributions we confidently look for a supply.
The current expenses of Mr. Jadownisky must be defrayed. We are well assured, also, that colonists will offer themselves, of the description and upon the terms which the constitution contemplates, so soon as the Society is prepared to give them a suitable residence in our free and happy land. Therefore this appeal, accompanied with a request to the benevolent, to organize auxiliary Societies, in the different towns and counties of the several states of this great and growing commonwealth.
The conversion of the seed of Abraham is an event not only desirable but certain; and the colonization of the converts seems to be one of the best means for bringing the event to pass, and for answering the revealed designs of Providence, respecting that remarkable people. Scattered over the nations, and yet distinct in their dispersion, their condition in Society, as well as their own antipathies, is a barrier to their communion with Christians. Upon expressing doubts of the propriety of the service of the synagogue, they become suspected at home, without the prospect of gaining the respect of Christians. Upon professing Christianity, they must “leave their father’s house and the people of their kindred;” they are proscribed by the Jews, without the prospect of being received to the kindness and the confidence of those, from whom they have been so long separated: and, perhaps, it is the purpose of God that the distinction should be yet, at least for a time, continued. Say, however, that this is nothing but prejudice; still that prejudice is a wall of brass. The most obvious remedy is a colony of Christian Jews.
There are, it is true, in different parts of the world, and especially in our own city, persons of the Jewish race, who are an ornament to society. Individuals of known integrity, and of elegant accomplishments, would always secure access to the several civilities of Christian society: and every man, who makes an intelligent profession of his conversion to Christianity, may be assured of his ready reception to a Christian congregation wheresoever he offers him self: and yet, even in this city, of perfect political equality, without regard to race or religion, the Jew, who leaves the synagogue for the church, may calculate on frowns from his kindred according to the flesh, and on jealousies amidst his new connexions. Unless possessed of independence, such a one might calculate on loss of employment and of goods, as well as of the socialities of domestic life. It is worse with an emigrant. It is worse in Europe; and being worse in Europe, the converted Jew would feel inclined to emigrate. Lo! a stranger lands on our shores. Is he from France? he seeks out and meets a Frenchman. Is he a German, a Spaniard, or a Briton? he soon discovers a countryman. Is he a Jew? a Jew takes him by the hand. Is he a converted Jew? he has lost his cast, and feels himself solitary. To the Jew he is a Christian, and to the Christian he is a Jew: he is in fact both Christian and Jew, but he is in reputation neither, for by both he is neglected. What a Christian neglected in a Christian land? Alas! the name is too general, too often, too commonly abused and prostituted to be a recommendation to special attentions. This stranger is left alone, without a friend, without a home, and without employment, until he finds a colony of his own religion and his own race. And can any liberally-minded Jew or Christian object to the erection of such an asylum for the desolate? Humanity forbids the objection. Benevolence calls for the institution. Let Christians provide it; and the seed of Abraham will now look on, and by and by they will rejoice, and flock into it, as “doves to their windows.” From such institutions may yet arise hundreds of Missionaries to their own brethren, that will accompany them on their return to Zion, where they shall see, instead of the Crescent displayed triumphantly, the Cross in which they will glory.
There are at the present day, about eight millions of Jews, independently of the remnant of the long lost ten tribes of Israel scattered among the Gentiles. With more than half the Bible in their hands; assiduously following the ceremonies of the ancient Church of God; teaching their sons and their daughters to read Moses and the Psalms; daily looking toward Jerusalem, in expectation of the Messiah; and yet without an altar or a sacrifice, without faith and without a Saviour, they invite Christian sympathy and exertion. But even unto this day the vail is upon their heart; and every saint desires that it be done away in Christ. Their souls are precious as the souls of others; there should be corresponding exertions in this age of liberal and magnanimous enterprise for their conversion. They have facilities, for a speedy and general conversion, which most of the heathen do not know. They have civilization, literature, revelation and a weekly sabbath; they have ordinances and places of public worship; they have officers to read the law to the people and to offer up praise and prayer to God. Christians too are under special obligations to give them the Gospel. We are their debtors:—From them the Gentiles received revealed religion, “the goodly land and the pleasant heritage;” to them originally belonged “adoption and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all. God blessed for ever. Amen”
They have been, moreover, our auxiliaries, in the war with infidelity. The Jews are witnesses for Christians that the Old Testament is both authentic and uncorrupted ; dispersed and yet distinct, their very existence is proof positive of the truth of the prophecies both of the Old and the New. Their conversion as it is predicted, must be attempted: and the attempt must ultimately succeed.
If the Jews are to be converted into the faith of Jesus Christ, they must either come into the church individually, so as to sink their distinctness in the mass of Christian professors, or appear at their conversion as still the seed of Jacob. It would seem, that the latter is the event necessary to fulfil the prophetic predictions, and best calculated to put for ever to silence the objections of infidelity. In order however to prepare for a national restoration of the Jews to the Messiah, there behooves to be established in several nations some rallying point to preserve their distinctness, and to make it strikingly apparent. This consideration, if well founded, prevents the circumcision from being, at any time, previously to conversion, politically amalgamated with the Gentiles; and even at their conversion from falling indiscriminately into the ranks with their fellow Christians. Though all the people assemble under the same Captain, the house of Israel and the house of Judah must not only be united, but must also be distinctly recognized by all the Gentiles returning to David their King, “ and joining themselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant.”
The final restoration of the Jews to their own land is not at all problematical. When they were yet in the loins of Abraham their increase was predicted, and they did become a multitude. When they were united under Princes of the house of David, their dispersion was foretold, and they have been scattered. When the people and the rulers rejected the Messiah their conversion was promised; and it shall be accomplished; for he that promised is also able to perform. In every condition, and for the space of fifteen hundred years, from Moses until John the Divine, their restoration has been prospectively set forth by the prophets. The apostle Paul amidst the fury of their infidelity spake in terms, not to be misunderstood. “For I would not brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved.”
At the close of the Jewish monarchy; on the captivity of the profane and infatuated Zedekiah, the tributary King, the last of the house of David that reigned in Jerusalem, the prophets announced, that after a long dispersion, and subsequently to the appearance of the Redeemer on the earth, the seed of Jacob should be restored to the covenant and be happy and powerful in their covenanted land. “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side and bring them into their own land; and my servant David shall be their Prince for ever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them—an everlasting covenant: and the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for ever more.”
Few, indeed, of the modern Jews have an opportunity of reading Ezekiel and the rest of their own acknowledged prophets. Otherwise greater fruits might be expected from their use of the Scriptures. Their teachers neither read the prophets in public, nor expound them in sermons to the people. Very few have access in private to an entire copy of the Old Testament; and many even of their synagogues content themselves with a copy containing only Moses and the Psalms. Yet there is a shaking of the dry bones. These bones shall live. The sinews and the flesh, and the skin shall come upon them. The breath shall be in them, and they shall stand upon their feet, an exceeding great army—the whole house of Israel. “I the Lord have spoken it.’”
Let us then, fellow-citizens, co-operate with our God in this spiritual resurrection. Let us impart of our goods and our prayers for the purpose. As fellow virgins of the daughter of Zion, let all the Churches of the nations, while endeavouring to extend their own particular welfare and usefulness, unite in exertions to bring the oldest daughter of the King in raiment of wrought gold and needle work to the palace, into which they shall enter, with rejoicing.
When Josiah, the last pious king, the last real sovereign of the house of Judah, fell at Megiddo, the beauty of Israel departed, and the land was left in mourning. For upwards of two thousand three hundred years, they have now been looking for the Son of David to resume the government and raise them up among the nations. Thus, it was foretold. The time is at hand. The sixth vial is poured out. The consternation of unbelieving nations will speedily follow, and “in that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem,” preparatory to the triumphs of the Israelitish restoration, “as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megeddon. At evening time it shall be light. Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, there shall be no more destruction, and the Lord shall be king over all the earth.”
By order of the Committee,
Donations for the American Society, for meliorating the condition of the Jews, will be received by any of the officers.