the Mischna is a virtue that will certainly be rewarded ; but to study the Gemara is a virtue never to be surpassed.' Thus have they lost in superstition and error, the light which they might have received from the old covenant; the light by which the patriarchs, the prophets, and the saints of old rejoiced, is lost, or nearly so, to the Israelites of the present time, obscured by the darkness of their own traditions. Nor is it possible to avoid being struck by the extraordinary coincidence in the nature of the arguments by which the Rabbins endeavour to support their system, and those whereby the Roman Catholics claim obedience to the traditionary laws of their Church, as of equal weight with the written word of God.

Such was the nature of the studies in which the young Goldberg passed his youth; most of his time was spent with his grand-father, a Tsaddik of great celebrity amongst his people, whose fervent supplications for the speedy advent of the Messiah, uttered daily in the presence of the child, greatly impressed his imagination, and probably suggested to him in after years, when he found all other rites and observances miserable comforters, to have recourse to the same prayer. No doubts or fears however seem to have disturbed the early portion of his life, which he passed in serenity under the paternal roof, until in very early youth he was united to a wife chosen for him by his parents, according to the custom of the Jews, who are said to consider it a sin to live unmarried.

In accordance with that painful yearning for the sacrifices now taken away, which distinguishes the present

religious rites of the Jews, there are several occasions of life set apart, in which it is believed, that God expressly pardons all the past sins of the individual, and among these is marriage. And oh !' says another christian Israelite, the friend of David Goldberg, a mourner like himself under a sense of sin, 'when my parent blessed me at the close of the ceremony, and wished me a long life, I felt I would rather die upon the spot, with the certainty that my sins were forgiven, than live a long and perhaps sinful life without such an assurance." No such pang shot through the heart of David Goldberg; amidst the joyful congratulations of his friends, he closed the nuptial feast, with a speech upon a Talmudical tract treating of matrimony, in order to give, as is usual, among the class of Jews to which he belonged, a proof of his skill in Talmudical learning. After this event, he resided with his wife's parents at Tshidnow; and lest he should be overcome with grief at leaving his home, his affectionate father commended him to the friendship of two young men, Ephraim and Joseph Hirsh, in whose company he hoped he would find comfort and recreation of mind. Here for some time he continued to pass his life in study, with a conscience slumbering in the midst of human pride and self-sufficiency.

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The hour of awakening was however at hand severe illness brought death in all its terrors immediately before him; not death disguised under the heathen likeness of sleep, when the closed eyes, the expiring torch, the attitude expressive of mournful silence, conveyed but one idea to the soul, that of eternal repose :

nor death, as Christians, nominal Christians, 'making' as Dean Milner has observed, audaciously free with God's mercy,' have dared to depict it, as a happy release, a certain transition to a better world, no matter what the life here has been; who seem to have expunged from their creed the words "everlasting fire," and “eternal punishment:" forgetting that the same voice which said, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," and, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,"-spoke solemnly in many an awful warning, of "the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched." No such slumber had fallen upon the creed or the conscience of this rabbinical Jew he knew indeed the penalty which his sins had deserved, though he knew not the ransom. When Rabbi Johannan Ben Zachai was sick, his disciples came to visit him, and when he saw them, he began to weep.* They said to him, 'Rabbi, the light of Israel, the right hand pillar, the strong hammer, wherefore dost thou weep?' He answered them, 'If they were carrying me before a king of flesh and blood, who is here to-day, and to-morrow in the grave; who, if he were angry with me, his anger would not last for ever; if he put me in bondage, his bondage would not be everlasting; and if he condemned me to death, that death would not be eternal; whom I could soothe with words, and

* See " Attempts for the Instruction and Conversion of the Jews."-Published by Macintosh, 20, Great New Street, Gough Square.

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bribe with riches, yet even in these circumstances I should weep. But now I am going to the King of kings, the only blessed God, who liveth and endureth for ever and ever; who, if He is angry with me, His anger will last for ever; if He puts me in bondage, His bondage will be everlasting; if He condemns me to death, that death will be eternal; whom I cannot soothe with words nor bribe with riches; when further, there are before me two ways, the one to Hell, the other to Paradise, and I know not to which they are carrying me—should I not weep?' forth more bitter tears!

Surely no cause could call The young Goldberg, how

ever, does not seem even to have doubted his sentence; the impression of sin upon his spirit was so strong, that he saw before him Hell as the just reward of his deeds. He had recourse to Jehovah in prayer, imploring of Him pardon, and a respite, and promising more faithfulness in His service than he had hitherto shewn.

But how begin? and whence ?-the mind is free.
Resolve the haughty Moralist would say ;

This single act is all that we demand.

Alas! such wisdom bids a creature fly

Whose very sorrow is, that time hath shorn
His natural wings!

In full confidence of his own strength, he proceeded to put his resolutions into practice; withdrawing from all worldly pleasure, he subjected himself to the laws of self-mortification prescribed by the Talmud: in a few weeks his resolution began to waver, and he deviated from his observances; then as the terror of condemnation again awoke in his mind, again he flew back to

his old penances, until at last human nature obtained the victory, and he fell back after a few months into his previous habits. But not to rest-conscience would not be silenced-the fearful soul could not be appeased. Overwhelmed with a sense of total inability for such a struggle, and convinced by experience of the hopelessness of success, he seems now to have remembered his early dreams of the Advent of the Messiah, and to have imbibed a hope that if he could indeed be so happy as to see Him come, he should then be delivered by His power, from sin and the devil: for the tenth consolation of those summed up by the Rabbi Machir, who lived at the close of the fourteenth century,* relative to the appearing of the Messiah, was, that God would take away from Israel the evil principle, and all evil language, according to the promise in Ezekiel, "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them."

If individuals would pay more attention to their private history and experience, it is probable that there are few Christians who could not record from their own lives, signal answers to prayer. But there is such a disproportion between our thanksgiving for mercies received, and our petitions for mercies desired, that when hope has once become enjoyment, not only is the subject whatever it may be, dismissed from our prayers, but we forget too often how large a place it once found there:

'Let praises wear, what prayers have won.'

It might have been said of this Israelite, as of the de* See Allen's Modern Judaism.