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CHAPTER    XVIII

AROUSING THE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE
IN BEHALF OF THE WORK AMONG THE JEWS

1. With literature started for the Jewish people, with a mission begun in their behalf, the burden came to me that other places and cities where the Jews lived, must have something done for them in order that the lost sheep of Israel might be aroused to realize that the time had come when they must give their ears to listen to the gospel.

2. In connection with the work, we began the publishing of a monthly magazine, The Good Tidings of the Messiah. There were two reasons for issuing this journal. As we met the people of God in other cities, we were nearly always confronted with this great question:

“My brother, we have in this city thousands of Jews. We believe that they ought to have the blessed gospel of Jesus. But they are so opposed to the good tidings of the Saviour that the minute you talk to them about Jesus, they become enraged, and will scarcely give you their attention. What can be done? Have you any way by which they can be reached? What are the methods you employ to bring this truth to the Jewish people?”

3. Questions touching this subject came from persons in the North, the South, the East, and the West. We found everywhere a desire on the part of thousands of God’s children to help the Jews, a spirit of willingness to do something for them; but there seemed to be a lack of knowledge. ^(p227) Hence it was felt a necessity to publish a magazine for the benefit of the people who desired to learn how to reach the Jews. Secondly, we wished to impart such knowledge and information as would open to the minds of those who desired to instruct the Jews in the gospel, certain phases of scriptural truth with which the Jews are familiar. (a)

4. It must at once be recognized that the Jew will have nothing to do with the New Testament. To him it is either a sealed book, or else a bad book. Till the Jew has read it for himself, or is in some way made familiar with it, it is a sealed book. Hence you cannot try to convince him that he ought to believe in the Messiah, Jesus, because it says so in the New Testament. He must know these facts and truths from Moses and the prophets.[1]He must see these great and wonderful promises and prophecies from his own Bible, T’nach; and from these books he must be convinced that there was not only a true Messiah to come, but that this Messiah has already come, and this Messiah is Jesus. We know, however, that while there are many persons who love the word of God, and a great number who love the Old Testament, there is not a large number even of good Christian people who know very much of these special scriptures and prophecies of the Old Testament which point specifically to Jesus as the Messiah.

5. Hence the reason and necessity for the publication of this little monthly paper. ^(p228) We are glad that during the five years of its existence the dear Lord has blessed its feeble efforts, and there are scores, we believe hundreds, of God’s children who five years ago took very little interest in the work among the Jews, who today are deeply interested to have the Jews know this blessed Jesus as well as the Gentiles. (b)

6. There came to us many invitations from different parts of the land to tell the story of the work among God’s ancient people. Privileges and open doors were granted to us at many camp-meetings and churches in large cities in the Central and Middle West, as well as all through the East. We began an educational campaign in behalf of the work among the Jewish people. God gave us many opportunities and many open hearts. On every hand hundreds of people came to us asking questions as to how to break down this awful prejudice, and calls came in loud tones for literature to give to the Jewish people.

7. Another thing was very interesting in this campaign work. We call this public effort the beginning campaign work, for we believe that the time will come when from all parts of the land there will arise many calls, not only to give information concerning the Jews, but also to give this blessed, pure and undefiled gospel of Christ to the tens of thousands of the lost sheep who are coming to these shores, (c) We were at this time educating the people to see that one reason why the Jew feels as he does towards the Christian religion and towards the Christian people is because of what the Christian religion has done to him and his ancestors.

It may not be generally known that the two most Christian powers in the world to the Jew are Russia and Rome. To the masses of the children of Abraham, these two are the highest ideals of Christianity. ^(p229) Knowing what the readers are familiar with concerning the horrible massacres and butcheries of the Jews by these two powers, the Jews have concluded thousands of times that the Christian religion is a bitter and persecuting religion, and therefore no Jew should have anything to do with it. If a Jew does have anything to do with the Christian religion, it is because, either he is ignorant of the history of the Jews, or else he has done toward his brethren as Judas did toward Jesus.

8. Perhaps the reader will be interested in just one or two illustrations of this thought which have come under my observation: while I was visiting in a Jewish home one day, the lady of the house said to me:

“If there is a God, the Jews should not believe in Him.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, “You, a Jewess, talk that way? It is dreadful.”

“You would talk that way, too,” she said, “if you had seen what I have seen.”

“What have you seen, then?” I asked.

“I have been right there in Russia, and have seen these Russian Christians come into the houses of the Jews. They would come up to the third and perhaps the fourth stories. They would see mothers with the children at the breast. They would tear away the children from the mother’s milk, dash the children to pieces, then take the mother by the neck, open the window wide, and hurl her headlong to the street and ground below, and there let her lie dying. And that is not all. It may be then you would see a crowd of these Christian people, headed by a minister [a Greek Catholic priest], with a hymn-book in his hand, singing Christian songs, thanking God in the name of Jesus that more Jews were being killed, and more Jewish blood was being shed. ^(p230) With the crucifix in one hand, with this Christian song-book in the other, you would see this mob of Christians going among the dying and the dead, as they lay there bleeding and mangled, rejoicing in their Christian religion that more Jews were being killed. Do you wonder that the Jews hardly believe there is a God?”

9 You can see, dear reader, what the Christian religion means to the Jews in Russia. While we were having this conversation, in the next room sat the mother-in-law of this woman, who had herself been in one of these massacres, and had fled for her life, but did not escape before she had received serious injury at the hands of the Russian mob. Brutality, barbarity, and massacre, — these are synonymous terms with the Jews in Russia for the Christian religion. Since they have seen the other kind of Christianity, and since they have never learned of the true, is it to be wondered at that the Jews feel as they do towards the blessed gospel of Jesus and towards these people who call themselves Christian?

10. One day while I was visiting with a prominent business man in one of the cities of Nevada, he seemed astonished to think that I, a Jew, could be a believer in this Jesus. He admitted that I was intelligent on the Bible, and understood the customs of our people; but he could not seem to understand how I could be an honest man and yet be a Christian. Said he:

“Why will you talk to me about the Christian religion? ^(p231) Have we not our own history of what was done to our people in Spain? Do you not know what the Christians did to the Jews during the days of the Inquisition? And do you not know that the Pope, one of the best of Christians, was largely the cause of that? This is the history which our people have handed down to us, and do you wonder that we Jews cannot have anything to do with this religion of Jesus?”

11. I then said to the man:

“But, my friend, the people in Spain who did that were not Christians. They knew nothing of the Christian religion. If they had, they never would have acted that way. Have you never read where Christ told the people to love even their enemies?[2] How could such people be Christians and then massacre the very brethren of the Messiah?”

“But,” he said, “you know they claim to be Christians. They call themselves Christians. In those days a person never did a thing but that he mentioned the name of Christ. All those persecutions against our people in Spain and in Morocco were done by those who called Christ their God, and who believed in Him. Why do you say, then, that they were not Christian people?”

12. And, my friends, there are tens of thousands of Jews in this land and in other civilized lands, who firmly and fully believe that such conduct is not only part of the Christian religion, but one of the fundamentals of the belief of those who claim to be followers of the meek and lowly Nazarene. (d) ^(p232) That is why many Jews who have even read some of the New Testament, act so surprised when they find such beautiful teachings in that blessed book, which are contradicted by the very persons who claim to follow it and to live by its teachings.

13. One of the greatest efforts, therefore, I found it necessary to put forth in this educational campaign, was to inform the people as to what constitutes the Christian religion in the mind of the Jew, and to educate the people to see how they may show the Jew what the real Christian religion is. Many have been the confessions made by people of their ignorance of the situation, and to many the whole question has been a revelation. The professed people of God have been so ignorant of the real situation that thousands have concluded that the conduct of the Jew was alone due to hatefulness and stubbornness on his part. (e)

14. It is true that the children of Israel are as sheep without a Shepherd.[3] It is true that they have been away from God because they have rejected their own Messiah. It is true that the sentence of disaster which the fathers pronounced at the trial of Christ has been hanging over the heads of their posterity for nearly two thousand years.[4] It is true that millions of their children have had a bitter cup to drink, which the forefathers filled up for them. Nevertheless, I am sure that, in the great day of God, there will be many a chapter in that heavenly record which will show that torrents of Jewish blood have been shed by those who styled themselves followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

^(p233) 15. It was indeed refreshing to find everywhere I went so many persons who wished to hear the story of how to lessen this prejudice, how to come near to the Jews, and how to give to the Jewish people some fragments of the bread of life which their ancestors have given to the Gentile world. I found the people, not only ready with their interest and with their sympathy, but glad and happy to do something in a material and practical way; and this gave me much courage and assurance that the Holy Spirit was about to bring better days to the lost sheep, and to arouse an interest in their behalf among the children of God.

16. Another interesting thing I found in this campaign: At many of these large gatherings, especially in the principal cities and at camp-meetings, Jews would come out to the services. It seemed a puzzle to many of them how a Jew could be a Christian. It is a common belief among the Jews that when a Jew is born thus, he cannot leave the religion in which he was born. Once a Jew, always a Jew, is the motto. So there were times when they would come out to hear, and occasionally they would even disbelieve that I was a Jew.

17. I well remember visiting a camp-meeting in the State of Wisconsin. It had been advertised that there was to be a lecture given on the Jewish Passover. I generally give this service in the same way in which the Jews observe it at the present time in the spring of the year. The object is twofold: First, it makes plain many things in the Bible which to many Bible readers seem obscure; second, it arouses an interest in the word of God among both the Jews and the Gentiles. ^(p234) Special invitations had been given to the Jews of the city to attend, and the whole Jewish section turned out to hear the word of God. When they entered the tent, they told the usher that the speaker was not a Jew; he did not look like a Jew, and he could not tell them anything about this feast as the Jews knew it.

18. When the service was over, several of the Jews went to the same man, and remarked:

“That man is a Jew all right; he knows all about the Jewish religion. He understands the Jewish people.”

As a result, it gave a good opportunity to meet some of the Jewish people, and there were those who were free and frank to admit that there must be something in the Bible about this Jesus, if it could be made so plain from the service of the Passover.

19. At another time, while attending a camp-meeting in the State of Pennsylvania, I went to a city where there was a factory employing nothing but Jewish help. Special invitations were given to the Jews to attend, and most of them improved the opportunity, and came. It was interesting to see scores of Jews present with Gentile friends, listening to the great prophecies of the Bible, and to the wonderful truths portrayed in the Old Testament. It was surprising to see whole families come to the cotton church, and sit for an hour or more to hear the word of God concerning Jesus, as portrayed in the law, and in the Psalms, and in the prophets. Many of the Jews stayed and asked questions, and some of them admitted that they saw the religion of Jesus in a new and different light.

20. Even though the Jew is not so persecuted in this land, the Old Testament is not generally taught by Christian people. ^(p235) When the Jew hears the word of God taught from the Old Testament by Christian people, and can be shown from the T’nach that Jesus is the Messiah, that there are prophecies being fulfilled at the present time from the Old Testament, and accepted by the Gentile Christians, it certainly arouses both his interest and his attention.

21. There were hundreds of Jews who came to hear at different places, and I believe that in the kingdom of God there will be souls saved who first heard the message of salvation at some of these services. Many Jews themselves would come and ask for literature, and in some cases I have known those who have accepted the Saviour, and are on the way to the kingdom of God.

22. But what encouraged me most was to see the change of sentiment on the part of God’s people towards the Jew. Thousands were awakened as out of sleep, and many came to learn that there was a work which must be done for the Jews, and that there was a way to do this work. It grew more and more evident that the Holy Spirit was awakening the hearts of the children of God to see the need of coming closer to the Jew, in order to show him Jesus from his own Bible, to condemn the course of conduct of those who professed to call themselves Christians, and at the same time to give to the Jew the word of God as known in the whole Bible.

23. Millions of pages of literature were distributed during this campaign, many hearts were led to Christ, even among the Gentiles, and a new experience dawned for the work among the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ^(p236) I was grateful to God and to His people for this open door, and for this privilege of awakening a little interest in behalf of my brethren, in order that they might hear the gospel warning and prepare for the return of their own Messiah and Saviour, Jesus.

 

On to chapter nineteen

 

EXPLANATORY NOTES.

PARAGRAPH 3 (a). — The reader will remember that the work for the Jews cannot be conducted along the same lines as work done for the Gentiles. When the apostles went to the Jews to preach the gospel to them, instead of taking a text from the Scripture and commenting upon that, they rehearsed the dealings of God with their ancestors; and after a time, the apostles would show how all these lessons were but a means of leading them to Jesus. See Acts 7, and Acts 13. See also Acts 17:1-3.  Back

PARAGRAPH 5 (b). — The first number of the Good Tidings of the Messiah was issued in September, 1906. It is a monthly magazine appearing ten times a year. This magazine has been discontinued, and in its place there is being published in the Yiddish language a quarterly magazine.  Back

PARAGRAPH 7 (c). — The Jewish Year Book, 1910-11, under the subject of “Immigration,” says: “The total Jewish immigration to the United States, through the three principal ports of entry, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, from 1881 to June 30, 1910, is stated to have been 1,473,167.’’

But the reader should bear in mind that many thousands of Jews have entered this country through the port of Boston, and many have come to this land by way of Canada. At the present writing there is a movement on foot to bring tens of thousands of Jews to this country by way of Galveston, Texas, to distribute the sons of Abraham all through the South. Before many years pass, there will be many millions of Jews in this country. We believe it is God’s opportunity to give these people the pure gospel, this country being a land of much more freedom and liberty than they are accustomed to enjoy in Russia and other European countries.  Back