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A LETTER FROM A JEW FROM YEMEN.

MR. JAMAL'S PREFACE.

JERUSALEM, July 9, 1890.

On one of my late missionary visits to the Yemenite colony of Siloam, I have come across the following correspondence, which took place between a Yemenite of Siloam and one of their Rabbis at Yemen. As the correspondence is so simple, and shows there is a sense of inquiry among some Yemenites here, I thought it would be interesting to translate them literally, and enclose the Hebrew copies of the same. The following was forwarded from Jerusalem by one of the Yemenites of the colony of Siloam :

No. 1.

'Peace be unto you from the Most High God, and to our brethren the Rabbis who are residing in the village of "Shirag," of the Yemen district; may the Lord preserve you!

'It is not unknown to you that we have come up to the Holy City Jerusalem-may it be restored! We beg to inform you that there is a community of Nazarenes (Christians) in Jerusalem belonging to the English. The world is full of them; they are numberless, they are just people and benevolent. Their religion is like the Israelites in every goodness. They keep the ten commandments which were received by the Prophet Moses on Mount Sinai. Their sabbath is the first day of the week, on which they hold their devotional services like the Israelites. They possess a new covenant in the place of circumcision.

"We are staying in the slope of the Mount of Olives in poverty and helplessness. They are always merciful to us, and we are surprised how could the Rabbis hate them. I now send you a copy of the New Testament. It is a drop in the ocean of books like it. We pray you to consider attentively its contents. When you have read them, do write and tell us what you think about it. We expect your answer soon.'

No. 2.

The following is a translation of a Hebrew letter from Yemen, in answer to the foregoing:

'Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee!

'Rabbi Yihya, son of Rabbi Yihya Sabary, of the village of Shirag, sends his many compliments to you, with supplications that the peace of God may rest upon the sanctuary of the great City and its residents, and upon all the Holy Land, and upon those who left their homes and country, and all their possessions, and went up to the Holy Land in order to share in the happiness of Jerusalem with them that dwell therein. May the Lord extend His mercy to you, and give you long life and provide for you, and preserve you from all sickness and calamity, Amen! so let it be, O God!

'Your letter I have duly received, and all its contents I have closely read. With regard to the Christians, you mention that they are religious and benevolent people. We can say nothing, because we have never as yet seen a Christian, and they are not to be found in the whole of Yemen. And with regard to the book you have sent us, we have never seen the like here. You say that it is a book of an ocean of their religious books; we, therefore, before giving our opinion, request you to send us some other books of theirs, that after examining them we might know what their religion is like, because that religion is quite a new thing to us, of which we never heard since the destruction of the first Temple, when our emigration from the land of Israel took place.

To my dear friend and brother, Daoud Sabary.'

No. 3.

The following is an answer to the letter from Yemen sent from Siloam :

'Many compliments and thousand salutations to my brethren of the children of Israel, who are residing in the village of Shirag, of the country of Yemen, and especially to all the chiefs and Rabbis. May the faithful God, whose dwelling-place is in the heavens, send down upon you His blessing, and give you of the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth!

'I beg to inform you that I have duly received your letter. In compliance with your request, I now send you some other books; read them over and over that you may be able to give your opinion candidly. If you like them, I shall send you many others, or I myself will bring them over to you. I entreat you, by the honour of the Messiah, of whom it is written "until Shiloh come," to write fully upon the subject. The books and tracts I now send you contain wise proofs and facts. Do not think in yourself they were easily obtained. They are worth two pounds, and he who kindly gave them paid one dollar and a half to the bearer, who is now leaving for Yemen; and because the bearer is a Yemenite, the Rabbi who gave me the books consented to send them, otherwise he would not give them, and it took me three days' labour until he complied with my request. May the merits of the Messiah of whom they speak, open your hearts.

May He be willing to bring you soon to Jerusalem, that we may meet you in health and safety. Please bless the bearer who shall deliver to you the books. Let me have your answer immediately.

'I now inform you of what happened to us when we quitted our Yemen country-may it be wiped out and desolated! * We left Jedaideh for Suez, and after we travelled all over Egypt we came to Alexandria, and then we came by steamer to Acca, and then we went up to Jerusalem, taking Tiberias on our way, and so we came up to Jerusalem penniless and homeless. Thus we were obliged to resort to caves in the slope of the Mount of Olives, near Siloam, where we stayed three weeks in a most deplorable state. Jews and Jewish Rabbis, being aware of our condition, showed us no pity, but when the Christians heard of our distress they sent us one of their Rabbis, through whom they provided us lamps and mats and food, and had they not pitied us, we should-God forbid-have been perished.

'And he who nourishes one soul from the children of Israel, is as if he nourished a whole world.' †

These Christians are always fond of giving alms, are pious, and lovers of peace. They are never angry with anybody; their prayer-book is of a Jewish style.

'Now let me inform you about Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah. He was born of the Virgin Mary, the Prophetess of Bethlehem of Judah, and brought up in Nazareth, and then came up to Jerusalem, and appeared in the second Temple, according to the account given of Him in the book which I forwarded to you. That is, "the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former;" and had 400 disciples, made wonderful miracles, raised the dead, cleansed the lepers; afterwards the Jewish Rabbis were angry with Him and killed Him, and He was buried, and after three days in the grave rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, as it is written, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool."

From the second Temple until now the Christians are continually increasing, so that, as we heard, they number one thousand millions, and the million is a thousand times one thousand. The name of the Rabbi who sent the books to you is Rabbi Joseph Jamal-may God prolong his days in grace and happiness.

(Signed) 'DAOUD, SON OF JOSEF SABARY.'

* Mr. Jamal says all places are so spoken of in contrast to the blessings on Jerusalem.

This is an old proverb, Mr. Jamal says.

THOUGHTS ON ECCLESIASTES.

THE question, 'Is life worth living,' is not the murmur of discontent or the mocking doubt of scepticism. It lies deep in every thoughtful heart that has not yet found a satisfying answer; but it is often choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of the world, and covered over with a flowery surface, and it is well to have it brought to light and fairly examined, so as to force the conclusion that this present life would indeed not be worth living if self were its centre and this earth its circumference; that so, by its proved vacuity, the soul may be led to look above and beyond. This appears to be the purpose and plan of the Book of Ecclesiastes, wherein the poet walks with the questioning spirit through every phase of human experience to show that, without God, all is indeed vanity.

(Chap. i.) A picture of the restless monotony of the world's history. Generation after generation coming and going like the waves of the sea; some sparkling and dancing as they woo the golden sand; some dashing in gigantic majesty against the rocks; yet all returning as they came, at the bidding of an unseen power; the busy circuit of each man's history returning on itself like the whirling winds, just coming into existence with nothing, and going out of it with nothing; his life like a river, here rippling in the sunshine, there foaming in the cataract, and falling into the unknown ocean.

Yes, all is full of labour and of dissatisfaction; there is no apparent end or object. The eye may be filled with beauty, the ear with harmony, yet only to crave for more-for something enduring. Each man's history, internal and external, is only a repetition of those that have gone before him, and, as they are forgotten now, so shall he be forgotten when he passes away.

Disgusted with this too truthful picture, the poet turns to other pursuits; and here, while he identifies himself with the enquirer, and speaks of his own experience as one who had all the world can give at his command, it does not seem necessary to suppose that Solomon as an individual spoke and thought and acted as is here described; he speaks rather as a spectator, using his own kingly state as one point of observation. He examined the works of nature and the work of man, and behold! emptiness in all; and, seeing no remedy (for that which is wanting cannot be numbered;' man cannot correct the deficiencies of a blank), he now gives himself to present indulgence-let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die

laughter, mirth, wine, every sensual gratification; then, as craving something less empty, he surrounds himself with the lust of the eye and the pride of life. He builds houses, plants vineyards, adorns this beautiful earth to try to make it a home, gathers every Eastern luxury, and gratifies every taste and fancy, and for a time rejoices in his occupations. But again, Cui bono? he looks on the work of his hands, and, behold, all is emptiness. No end attained, no object, no purpose, no profit under the sun.

(ii. 12.) Then he turns to the more satisfying pursuit of knowledge, of which the poet well knew the enjoyment, and he sees that wisdom excelleth folly as far as light excelleth darkness. But yet, alas! the same event happeneth to all-cessation at death. Death, not even leaving a posthumous fame, that idol of the enlightened heathen, but ending all; for in the long days to come the wise man, like the fool, shall be forgotten. Therefore he hated life; he hated labour, whether in acquiring knowledge or in improving or adorning social existence, for in both the worker passes away, and he knows not who shall inherit his labour, or whether it shall be altogether despised and cast aside; therefore it is vanity, and a great evil. His life is full of toil, exertion, anxiety; and for what? for whom? After all, is the life of labour better than one of mere pleasure or self-gratification, both ending in nothingness? Sensual pleasure is at best a momentary oblivion of pain, while knowledge only gives an increased power to suffer; and sometimes we see the good things of this world taken from the laborious to give to the idle. All is a puzzle, all confusion, all is full of mystery, and all is emptiness and vexation of spirit.

Let us then turn to the quietude that comes with fatalism. Things are so; we cannot alter them, and so we must accept this objectless existence as our portion, and make the best of what is. There is an order in Nature's arrangements, things come and go and move under some rule or law, for there is a time for everything, each thing in its due season having a beauty of its own; yet man, beholding all, is unable to find out the work of God in it. All visible to the eye of sense is that there is no true good in anything, because nothing endures, all seems but a fleeting show for man's illusion given,' and, if it be so, reckless self-indulgence is man's best wisdom, as being all that he can really grasp and call his own.

Yet Conscience awakes, and tells him that there must be something beyond; that what God does has substance and endurance; that to His arrangements nothing can be added and from them nothing diminished; that there is a judgment discerning between right and wrong; and that there is a Judge Who will separate them, and Who will judge the world in righteousness. Were it not so, were there no conscience within, no Supreme Judge and Ruler, men would be as the beasts that perish, for, looking only at the things that are seen, that which befalleth man befalleth the beast-they both die, and

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