perplexing and embarrassing, and must have occasioned constant misery to a conscientious mind. Happy would it be if his conduct was never in any degree imitated by those who have no such temptation to plead; if none were ever ashamed of the name of Christ, but were willing, boldly to avow themselves, both by word and deed, the faithful and devoted followers of the Lord, not only when the avowal is echoed by friendly lips and sympathizing hearts, but at all times, even when it may draw down upon them injury, loss, or contempt. The fear of man has strange snares, and draws from us all, at times, strange concessions to the world. Yet the Lord has said, "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels." Luke ix. 26. "The mark of Antichrist," says an old writer, "is in the hand, where a man can shew or conceal it at pleasure: but the servants of Christ are sealed in their foreheads, where it may be at all times evident." Oh! that all the servants of the Lord would bear His name so evidently set in their foreheads, (Rev. xxii. 4.) that all might see it. That they would esteem the profession of it, a precious ornament, not seeking to hide, but wearing it with honour and delight, saying, with St. Paul, "I glory in the cross of Christ."

Thus outwardly and visibly,

Oh, seal us for Thine own;

And may the brows that bear the cross
Hereafter wear the crown!

CHAPTER X.

SOLOMON DUITSCH, THE HUNGARIAN RABBI:
CONTINUED.

DUITSCH IS CHOSEN RABBI AT WESEL-TWO PRUSSIAN MISSIONARIES ARRIVE AT THE TOWN-THE RABBI'S CONFERENCE WITH THEM-CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH HE IS INDUCED TO MAKE OPEN PROFESSION OF HIS CONVICTIONS-THIS STEP DOES NOT PUT AN END TO HIS PERPLEXITIES.

WE next find Duitsch at Wesel, and again Rabbi of the synagogue; dejected, miserable, and perplexed. On the one side the words of the Lord, "Whosoever denieth me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven," were like a gnawing worm in his heart on the other side, doubts as to the truth of the Gospel, were ever rising up within him. Sometimes he called to mind the arguments and admonitions of the Priests he had met on the voyage to Bonn, and sometimes he thought of the words of the Rabbin in Saxony. At length he began to revolve in his mind, the intention of joining the Romish Church. Two temporal motives strengthened this intention: the first was, the extreme kindness and sympathy with which

he had, in the first instance, been treated by the priests, at Nystatel; the second, that by their means he thought he might be able to recover possession of his little daughter, the child of his beloved Jentild, a hope to which his heart yet fondly clung. He therefore wrote a letter to the Bishop of Keulen, but could not overcome his reluctance to send it; he at last put it by in his trunk. The following day, being the Sabbath, two Christian Missionaries entered the synagogue at Wesel. Duitsch remarked their devout attention whilst the law was being read, with much surprize, which was greatly increased, when having waited till the service was concluded, they arose and addressed the congregation in Hebrew, with such fluency that he could scarcely believe they were Christians. They took for their text, Isa. i. 14, 15; the Jews appeared to have heard them with anger and contempt, all except the Rabbi; who, much affected, restrained his impetuous brethren, and concealing his feelings, addressed the missionaries, pointing out to them, that though in these words the wicked Israelites were indeed strongly reproved, yet that the promise of pardon contained in verse 18 of the same chapter, was also sure. The Jews, offended at his even entering into discourse with the Missionaries, withdrew, and the latter requested the Rabbi that he would meet them in private, to which he readily agreed, and fixed upon a time and place for that purpose. He then went home, heard the remonstrances of his friends, at his having talked with those "despicable men," dined with them, and grace being said, immediately withdrew to the place.

where he had promised to meet the Missionaries, which was at the house of a man named Gros in Nederstreet, where he secured a private room for the purpose. One of the Missionaries, Mr. J. M. Meutet, soon after entered. The Egyptians, it is said, offered the peach to their idols, because the fruit resembles man's heart and the leaf his tongue, so that heart and tongue should go together: the understanding of the heathen condemned upon this occasion the conduct of this secret enquirer after truth; far indeed were his heart and tongue from being joined together! no word seems to have betrayed the inward conflict; yet the fearful Nicodemus who came to the Lord by night, was the same who afterwards openly confessed his love in the sight of all Israel, not to his risen, but to his buried Saviour. The Missionary began by shewing him from Dan. ix., that the time appointed for the coming of the Messiah was expired long ago; he then endeavoured to point his view to Christ as the true Messiah, having "bruised the serpent's head," and by His atonement, set forth in Isa. liii., gained for us the true righteousness before God. But the Rabbi was neither willing nor able to follow him so far. 'My friend,' said he, 'you proceed too fast. It seems you will by one stroke cast down a large tree, and even with one hand root it out from the ground. I do not believe you will do any good in this manner.' He then begged, that instead of entering upon what he called difficult chronologies,* they might, during

* The arguments of the ablest Jews, who have endeavoured to elude this prophecy concerning the time of the Messiah's

the short space of their interview, converse upon the more necessary points of the word of God. The Missionary then produced two books, the Old Testa

appearance, tend to shorten the monarchy of the Persians, which according to their account lasted but fifty-two years after Cyrus. Solomon Jarchi and Abarbanel follow this method; and by these means they make the seven weeks and three-score and two weeks, (i. e. 486 years, see Dan. ix. 15,) which were to elapse between the edict to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, to the coming of the Messiah, to end at the destruction of Jerusalem instead of at the death of Christ; but with reference to this scheme of shortening the Persian Monarchy, in order to prevent us from shewing how manifestly this prophecy is fulfilled in Christ, they have two great authorities against them, neither of them Christian : Josephus, their own historian, and Ptolemy. Ptolemy gave a rule of times, which cannot be suspected, because he composed it from ancient monuments. He reckons 477 years from the edict of Artaxerxes to the nineteenth of the reign of Tiberius, which agrees with our mode of reckoning within nine years: an inconsiderable difference considering the length of time and the antiquity of the chronology. But Porphyry, a testimony of equal credit, brings it still nearer, by reckoning the reign of Ptolomeus Lagus, as three years longer: also Ptolemy, in the monarchy of the Persians, has omitted Artabanus, Xerxes, and Sogdianus, usurpers who reigned almost three years. This brings the chronology within three years of the Christian reckoning. When we consider, that neither Ptolemy nor Porphyry in their chronologies could have had the remotest idea of reconciling Persian chronicles with Christian interpretations of Scripture, their testimony is quite sufficient to outweigh that of the celebrated Rabbins alluded to, whose distinct object it was, to unfasten the chain of Prophecy, from its glorious fulfilment in Jesus; See Basnage, Chap. xxii. Book iv. Simeon Luzati, a famous Rabbi of the seventeenth century, author of a work called 'Socrates,' which was written to prove that the greatest geniuses are liable to err when not guided by revelation, was chosen arbitrator in a dispute between two of his nation, (one of whom had embraced Christianity) concerning the accomplishment of Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks: the debate