NEGLECT OF ISRAEL.

THE following passage in a private letter from a friend-a truly converted Israelite-appeals so forcibly to every Christian feeling, that we cannot resist the inducement to lay it before our readers.

What a glorious result might we not expect, did all who profess Christianity as their religion so feel for Israel! How great my sorrow is at seeing Christians so indifferent to this cause I have not power to describe; but the Lord knows that I have "great heaviness and continual sorrow " in my heart on this account. I do frequently check myself, when filled with a desire to bless and praise my Lord, and to rejoice at his great mercy to me. Ah! I feel confounded at such moments; for I ought to lay down in the dust and weep, and lament for the gross darkness that covers my people, and none to have pity on them. I feel that, if possible, I ought never to have joy in my heart, nor a smile on my countenance.

How did not my heart sink within me; and how sad did I not feel, when, on last Sabbath-day, I approached the Lord's table, and when beholding great numbers of Christ's people thronging up to the altar, and I found myself a solitary Jew! Ah! it was sweet and refreshing to come and feast upon the precious bread and wine prepared for them by Israel and Israel's God. But are there no poor Israelitish wanderers, to whom, out of gratitude, they might have offered the crumbs that fell from their Master's

table? Was that precious blood, of which they then partook, not shed for the Jew too? And can they accuse me of uncharitableness, when I say that they are to be blamed, that, amidst that throng around the Lord's table, there were not a hundred instead of one solitary member of the house of Israel? Oh, I know that to some such language appears harsh, but it is owing to a want of information on this subject.

I see the multitudes of Jews in all parts of the earth perishing for lack of knowledge. I feel convinced that if they heard Jesus preached to them faithfully, and Christianity practised in its purity, they will believe. "The gospel of Jesus is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first." This is God's word and will; but unbelief keeps us away from them: we do not trust to God's word, we wish to be first convinced, and when the Lord condescends to do even this, even then we refuse to act. Other hindrances come in our way-suspicions as to the reality of conversions. Oh! my dear sister, what will the end of these things be? The sure word of God says, "Israel shall be saved;" then have we not reason to tremble for those who have a name to live, who are called by the name of Christ, and yet refuse to do the will of God? Yea, verily. If the Lord, in his most mysterious providence, contrives to save the Jewish people, who are beloved for the fathers' sakes, will those escape who were strictly charged to seek their conversion, but who actually refused to obey this charge?

I could wish to bring this simple but searching question before the Christian world at large. May God in mercy look down upon both Jew and Gentile, and remember not their sins.

LETTER,

FROM FREDERICK MYCONIUS, PASTOR OF GOTHA, AND THE HIGHLY VALUED FRIEND OF LUTHER,

TO ROSARIUS.

MY DEAR ROSARIUS,

I am again so ill as to keep my bed. Not only my voice but all my bodily powers are greatly reduced. Having been, on a former occasion, brought back from the borders of the grave, by the messages, the letters, and the prayers of our revered father Luther, I have now lived six years in weakness, and almost in a dying state. I discharged the duties of a living man, and performed, as well as I could, the services of the Lord's house, till the fourth Sunday in advent, when, finding the symptoms of my disease returning upon me, I exhorted the church, with the voice of one crying in the wilderness, and with all the ardour of which I was capable, to remove all hindrances and prepare the way of the Lord in their hearts. wards fell sick, and now lie here silent and satiated with life, so as to wish rather to die than to live, when I can be of no use. I have written to our reverend father, Luther, who has been the person that has hitherto detained me, (and willingly I have been detained to serve the Lord, and assist him, instructing the church, as a mother, herself languid and fainting, admonishes her children,) that if I could,

I after

and the Lord should give me strength, I should be willing to continue my services; but as this seems unlikely, to beg that he would dismiss me with his parting blessing. I desire, however, that the will of the Lord, and not mine, may be done. All things depend on his will-sickness, weakness, recovery: and conformity with his will is our highest gain. Yet, if it might please him, Oh how gladly should I be dissolved, and be with Christ, rather than live here a dumb and useless burden. Through the complaint in my throat, I can scarcely take either meat or drink, yet I delight myself with the heavenly manna: and as I lay on my bed I have just been reading the Psalm, "Wherefore do the heathen rage," &c. and adoring the "child given unto us." Blessed be God, who so refreshes me in the midst of my pains that I quite forget that I am ill! O Lord Jesus, what can we render unto thee? what return can we make to thy wise and faithful servant, (Luther,) whom thou hast set over thy family, that by him thou mightest thus feed us with thy word? Farewell, my dear Rosarius: and if you hear that I am committed to the grave, be assured that nothing is buried but my skin and bones, my sins, and the old man, that he may be perfectly delivered from the poison of the devil, from sin and death. But the inner man, who is renewed from day to day, who lives in Christ that " loved me, and gave himself for me," and with whom my life is "hid in God," that as he lives so should we live also," the new man, I say, shall never die, but shall enjoy the life of everlasting rest and peace, far from all the perturbations of this world. If ministers be removed, Christ will raise up pastors, doctors, apostles, for the in

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crease of his body the church, and will be ever with you.

Ah, Lord Jesus, preserve, govern, strengthen, deliver, and defend all thy faithful servants! Amen, and amen! Remember me to Cruciger and Eber. Pontanus, who visits me daily, salutes you. Fail not to write to me, and do not plead your many engagements. My complaints would have hindered me, if I would have suffered them, but I have risen in spite of them to write this; and now return to my bed. May pain and disease do whatever God bath bidden them! Let them not spare, for" in the midst of wrath he remembers mercy," and " with every temptation makes a way to escape."

Again, farewell.

From Scott's Continuation of Milner's Church
History!'