From Mr. TENNYSON (Poet Laureate) :

"I am unable to be present at the Mansion House on February 1. Not the less am I dismayed by the reports, of this madness of hatred against the Jews (whatever the possible provocation), and of the unspeakable barbarities consequent. If they are not universally denounced, it can only be that they are so alien to the spirit of the age as to be almost unbelievable. The stronger the national protest the better. Our Government, however, may have reason to fear that it may do more harm than good by official intervention."

The Master of Balliol, Oxon (Prof. JOWETT) wrote:

"The cruelties which have been inflicted on the Jews in Russia, as narrated by the correspondent of The Times are detestable, and should be denounced by the unanimous. opinion of civilised nations."

From His Grace the DUKE OF WESTMINSTER.

"I am unable to attend the meeting to-morrow. I cannot, however, repress my feeling of horror and of indignation at the barbarities and ruin worked upon the defenceless Jews in Russia. I am afraid there can be no doubt as to an enormous amount of great and hideous wrong-doing, but we want more information, to obtain which every effort should be made, and for acquiring which I believe the Russian Government are willing to give facilities. Meanwhile, I can well understand and can sympathise with the feeling that prompts thousands of our fellow-countrymen to give vent to their indignation against the perpetrators of these barbarities, and of sympathy with those who have suffered and are suffering under these enormities."

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From His Grace the ARCHBISHOP OF CAnterbury.

My dear Lord,-It is a distress to me that I am for

bidden by my medical attendant to take part in the meeting your lordship has undertaken to call together, to enter an emphatic protest against the recent outrages to which the Jewish people have been exposed. Unable to attend myself, I have asked Canon Farrar to be present (cheers), and express the horror with which I contemplate the disgrace brought on the Christian name by these shameful persecutions."

VI.

Sermon by the Rev. W. PAGE ROBERTS.

Preaching at St. Peter's, Vere Street, the Rev. W. Page Roberts said: "You know I am no friend to pulpit politics, but if politics are out of place in the pulpit, thank God morality is not out of place there, and when we see immorality like that which now disgraces Russia, it is our duty to call attention to it, and boldly to condemn it. It is for us, with others, to do what we can to keep the national conscience sensitive, to maintain a high moral public opinion, and such an opinion will not be without power. The public opinion of its neighbours may be a real strength to a right-minded Government. We may not think that the outrages from which the Jews are suffering in Russia have the countenance of the Government. But they have not been instantaneously and sternly repressed, and once more we see this singular people the victims of ungoverned barbarism. How much the world owes them, and with what strange coin it has paid them for their services! Why we owe more to them than to any nation in the world. Greece and Rome are nothing to Jerusalem. I need not think of eminent men and services in modern days, nor yet of the time of which it has been said that together with the Spanish Arabs they kept alive the flame of learning

during the deep darkness of the Middle Ages.' I take the Bible, Old and New Testament, as a contribution to the wealth of the world, which should make us look upon a Jew with gratitude whenever we see him. What are Horace and Cicero to Isaiah and Paul? We are indebted for our religion, and herein for our civilisation, to the Jews. And yet this is the nation which Christians have ravaged in almost every century. We may blush for the crimes of rabble crusaders, for those of our own country in the time of John, and for those of Spain at the close of the 14th century. But is it not time that these things had come to an end? Do these burning ravaging Christians know that their Saviour-the God they worship-was a Jew? We may plead semi-barbarism as an excuse for the past. Well perhaps it may be pleaded for the Russia of the present. But at least no such plea can be put up for Germany, which lighted the conflagration which now devastates Russia, and for her must remain the sterner condemnation. Humanity, gratitude, and the Christian religion alike, call upon us to denounce the crimes from which an eminent and helpless people are now suffering."

No. VII.

THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA.

Sermon by the REV. H. R. HAWEIS.

THE REV. H. R. Haweis, incumbent of St. James', Marylebone, in the course of his admirable sermon on the Russian atrocities made the following observations :- "The position of the Jews in history is unique, their character is exceptional. We owe them a debt which we have repaid for centuries with nothing but usurious cruelty. We owe them a debt which nothing but free handed liberality and out

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spoken sympathy can discharge. Who are the Jews? What is their history? What is their present position, and what is the right Christian policy towards them? The late atrocities in Russia and Prussia have made them 'crucial' points and burning questions' in more senses than one. The Jews are one branch of the great Semitic race that spread itself between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. To the Israelite branch we owe religion in its simplest form, monotheism, morality in its severest form-the decalogue, the inseparable union of morality and religion touched with the afflatus of love in psalm and prophecy. Outwardly, Israel has always been a pathetic, even a romantic figure. The 'Wandering Jew'is more than a legend. The same figure, weird, but irresistibly attractive, crosses the stage of history under various disguises, always full of sublime paradox, always inspired, always humiliated, always triumphant and irrepressible.” The preacher then enumerated the acts and characters of the leaders of the Jews in biblical times, and proceeded to briefly describe their history and treatment in Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome, France, and Spain. He then continued: "The causes of persecution have been avowedly religious. In reality they were secular. The Christians often attacked the Jew's ability, and oftener wanted the Jew's money. Whenever the Jews became rich the Christian began to feel that he had crucified Christ, and deserved to be robbed. Nothing is, however, more misleading than to say that the Jewish nation slew Jesus. Jesus was crucified by a timid Governor, Pilate, in obedience to the clamour of a Sadducean priesthood, who were as much hated by the people as Jews were hated by that priesthood. The crucifixion of Christ by the Jewish nation was an historical fraud, not the only one but very nearly the worst. To Russian Christians we must now

say, you cannot put down the Jew; you cannot prevent him from growing rich and prosperous. If you would share in that wealth and prosperity instead of owning it as receivers of stolen property or coveting it as forbidden fruit, there is but one way. You must give the Jew equal rights, put his life and property under the same protection as your own. We might also remind the Protestant Church in Germany and the Greek Church in Russia of an obscure precept common to the religion of the Christian and the Jew, 'Whatsoever things ye would men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.'”

No. VIII.

Abstract of the Sermon delivered at the Western Synagogue on the 28th January, 1882, by the REV. DR. HERMANN ADLER, M.A., Ph. D., Delegate Chief Rabbi, on "The Persecution of the Jews in Russia."

IN olden times when any supreme national crisis arose, it was the practice of our fathers to consult the sacred volume, so that they might learn from its pages what it was incumbent upon them to do. It is told in the Talmud that they took a schoolboy fresh from his studies and said to him, "Repeat the text thou hast learnt in school." Now do not think that this was a mere superstition, a kind of divination. Our sages knew full well that in a time of national trouble the prudent schoolmaster would teach his young charges such Bible texts as would afford them guidance and wholesome practical counsel for the crisis. Such a passage from Sacred Scriptures has been continually in my thoughts since the time that the terrible news from Russia arrived. It tells us the duty of the hour with a pathos and emphasis such as only inspiration can supply. The words are to be found