presided over by the esteemed pastor of that place, the Rev John Angell James, and other ministers of the town and neighbourhood were present, and took part in the proceedings of the evening. The Secretary of the parent society, and the Editor of the Herald attended as a deputation. Another meeting, held at the same hour, at which Mr. Edward Baines, of Leeds, delivered a lecture on the subject of voluntary education, diminished the attendance at Carr's-lane, both of ministers and people. But the meeting itself was most delightful. A hallowed and subdued feeling seemed to pervade the hearts both of speaker and hearers; and this was in no small degree sustained by the entire absence of all those outward expressions of approval which are common to most of our public gatherings, whether for religious or political purposes.

The chairman struck the key-note at the right pitch, and gladdened all the friends of the Jews then present by the avowal of a deeper interest than ever in the spiritual condition of the children of Abraham, and by the expression of his resolve to continue to exhibit that increased concern for them as he had already done, on the sabbath previous, by calling the attention of his numerous and influential congregation, from time to time, to the wretched spiritual condition of the outcasts of Israel. This is what is wanted. If our ministerial friends would now and then remind their people that our elder brethren yet exist in a state of sad and fearful alienation from our common Father, and that on us is devolved the duty as instruments, to entreat them to return and reenter the paternal home, our societies for the conversion of the Jews would never lack friends, nor languish for the want of necessary funds to carry on their operations.

An excellent report was read by Mr. Wright, the newly-elected secretary, an indefatigable worker, from whose accession to office the committee anticipates much advantage. Details were given of the society's operations at home, on the contiment of Europe, and in Asia and Africa; and an unmistakably deeper feeling of concern for the salvation of the Jew awakened in the hearts of the audience. Mr. Jaffé, the missionary at Birmingham, gave encouraging statements of the openings and occasions of usefulness that had presented themselves in his sphere of labour, and that had been embraced, during the past year. To the ladies, by whom the funds transmitted to the parent society are raised, cordial thanks are due for their quiet, unostentatious, and persevering labours.

The anniversary service of the MANCHESTER and SALFORD Auxiliary was commenced by a sermon preached by the Rev. G. W. Conder, of Leeds, at the Wesleyan Chapel, Grosvenor-street, on the Wednesday evening. The meeting on Thursday was distinguished by the large number of ministers on the platform, who, by their presence and co-operation, testified the warm interest they felt in the cause in which the Society is engaged. The beautiful church of the Rev. A. Munro, A.M., was most kindly lent for the occasion; and in the absence, through illness, of Mr. Alderman Kershaw, M.P., who had kindly promised to preside, Mr. Munro took the chair. His opening address was to the point; adverting briefly to the subject of the meeting, expressing his own sympathy with it, and his desire that the audience night have their hearts drawn more to the consideration of the eternal welfare of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The report, which was written and read by the Rev. A. E. Pearce, the secretary, was a

comprehensive digest of the society's general operations, together with details of the labours of the missionary at Manchester, Mr. Naphtali. It was an admirable document, and appeared to produce the desired effect upon the audience. Among the ministers who addressed the meeting was the Rev. Mr. M'Caw, who had formerly laboured at Gibraltar. His statements of the work of God among some Israelites, whom he was in the habit of meeting in that place, were deeply interesting and most powerfully influential in confirming the attachment of Christian friends to the cause of Jewish spiritual emancipation. The tone of the meeting was admirable, and was sustained to a late hour. The heart of the deputation was abundantly cheered by the cordial spirit which was evinced by ministers and people throughout the whole of the proceedings; and this was still further enhanced by the announcement, that the Rev. Dr. Halley was about to deliver to his congregation a course of ten lectures on Sabbath evenings, upon the past history, present condition, and future prospects of the Jews. We repeat the statement already made-"this is what is wanted."

May many servants of Christ follow the example of the pastors of Birmingham and Manchester; and the friends of Israel, there and elsewhere, throughout our land, receive the best blessings of Heaven for the sympathy shewn, and the aid afforded, in the good work of Jewish evangelization.

BAPTISM OF MR. REISS.

On the morning of Christmas day a large and respectable congregation assembled in Trinity Chapel, Edgware-road, when after prayer and reading of the Scriptures, the Rev. Ridley H. Herschell delivered a very excellent discourse on Rom. i. 16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ," &c. After which the ordinance of baptism was administered to this brother of the seed of Abraham, by the Rev. W. C. Yonge; Mr. Reiss having previously answered affirmatively to several questions proposed to him by his pastor, and delivered a statement of his history and present views. We cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of giving this statement as much as possible in the very words of our friend, although he is imperfectly acquainted with our language, fearing lest by improving the letter we should lose the spirit of this interesting document.

My dear Brethren,-I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. The grace of God has changed the darkness of my mind into light. The filthy rags of my miserable self-righteousness are fallen, and my soul is clothed with the righteousness of my God. How great is the mystery of God revealed in Christ: Christ is the Alpha and Omega of the world: the Alpha and Omega of the Law and our perfection. The Son of God given up to the death of the cross, a ransom for us all, what a source of knowledge of our sin, feebleness, and helplessness, what a scale by which to appraise the holiness and justice of God, as well as his endless love! Should we not willingly humble ourselves at

the feet of our Saviour, who from the heaven of heavens, which cannot contain him, came down to be lifted up on the cross? What

a depth of the Godhead in the Gospel, the simplicity of which rejoices the heart of a child and the whole scope of which is yet unsearchable for heaven's angels!

But what is it that led me on to the faith in Christ? Is it a blind enthusiasm? No. The source of my faith in Christ is threefold, viz.: -philosophy, history, and the teachings of the Holy Spirit, in the true and entire sense of the word. The school of philosophy which I entered at Prague changed me from a Talmudical Jew into an infidel; the science of nature prepared me for a true philosophy, which awakened me at Berlin to reflect on Christianity.

Wanting the grace of God and the especial help of the Holy Ghost, I was yet convinced scientifically of the truth of the revelation of God in Christ. I was willing to become a christian, but the courage to confess the Lord publicly withered away before it came to action because the Lord was not with me. After a life of great activity and a vast experience of the world, God's good providence led me again to inquire into Christianity and endowed me with a more practical sense. I studied deeply the history of the origin of christianity, which notwithstanding the most rigorous criticism turned out very satisfactory to me. But with all this I was no Christian, because philosophy can give us an idea, and history can give us a fact, but neither can save us. What I wanted was a living faith in the Son of God which none can give us but the Father. God in his endless mercy loved me before I loved him, and he gave me the spirit of prayer. I prayed that the Father might send me the Holy Ghost. Soon I felt a deep consternation of mind on account of my own sinful and helpless state. The consternation of my soul was great, but, alas! how sweet is a holy sorrow that worketh repentance to salvation! A perfect calm entered into my soul with Christ, who is my Saviour and Redeemer, through whom we have peace with God. And now all ye of the Gentiles and Jews who were before, my brethren in unbelief, open your hearts and let the Spirit of God enter, that ye may become my brethren in faith and in the Lord.

But my spirit is grieved to see so many of my brethren yield themselves up thoughtlessly in a vessel without compass, without sail or rudder, to the waves of a tempestuous sea while the storm approaches. It is true that I have maintained the great struggle between faith and what is falsely called reason, and could perhaps speak a useful word upon it, but this solemn hour, this solemn place, the consciousness that I am redeemed through my Saviour, and the pain I feel that so many of my dear brethren despise the grace of God,-these all make it unsuitable to attack here the vain objections of the infidels. God, who knows the hearts of the children of man, sees my spirit prostrated before him in the dust, praying that of his free and endless grace he may give you the Holy Ghost, that you may be free and have liberty in the spirit, and worship God, who is a Spirit, in spirit and in truth. And now may God bring home with power to your ownselves what I have found always by the grace of God, in the words of our dear pastor (Rev. Mr. Herschell), upon faith, love and revelation.

In truth, faith is "Christ in us;" the more we long and pray to receive God in Christ the greater is our faith; so our faith decreases. in the same degree as the number of things grow which make our idols.

O! that the children of God would be mindful of this, that only communion with Christ in this life, can give us communion with Christ in all eternity, and surely they would then never persist in formality or fall into the modes of the heathen church of the Romish antichrist. And now I ask them who do not believe in Christ, is it reasonable to long after God as after the highest blessing? If a single breath of God holds us up during our whole life beneath, is it unreasonable to expect to receive eternal life with the gift of the Holy Ghost? or can God be unwilling to let us find him while he stirs up the longing of our soul to seek him earnestly above all? God forbid! For his dear Son encourages us with the assurance, "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." Love is incontestibly a perfection, and God, who is perfect in his attributes, must have loved, yea, "God is love," but where is the love of God so manifested as in our Saviour; he is God, revealed in the flesh, saving the children of man from their spiritual and temporal evils, despised, rejected, and condemned by his own people, crucified between thieves and murderers, praying in the struggle of death for his very enemies, and dying with the ever-living words upon his dying lips, "It is finished;" yes, it was finished with his dying for us. Where and when was the love of God manifested? "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." O! that the love of God were the pillar of the faith of all believers.

And now, dear brethren, Jews or Gentiles; hard may it be at the beginning to change our lives and to enter the narrow gate, but if you renounce Satan, the world, and the flesh, you will gain God the Father, his dear Son, and the Holy Spirit as your friends for time and for eternity. Dear brethren, pray that you may receive the Spirit of God, the spirit of love and truth, that you may know by it your true condition. Are you not in a world full of changes and corruptions and do you not want a firm rock on which you may lean with surety? Are you not sinful and helpless, and need you not a Saviour? Are your thoughts not wandering and need you not to fix your heart upon the one needful thing, the Holy Ghost? Come, therefore, as long as it is the time of grace before the night comes, while the friendly call of the Lord is made, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." O! make speed, and come before this last invitation will speak like thunder in your consciences the terrible words too late! too late!

And now blessed be God, who in his tender mercy has guided me hither and created me a second time into a new life in Christ. Blessed be God, for now I have found in Jesus my God and my Saviour, my people of old and his prophets, yea, myself, for I was a lost and wandering sheep. But next to God I am indebted to my spiritual father (Rev. Mr. Herschell). God bless him, body and soul, that many of his brethren may be brought by his instrumentality to the Lord Jesus Christ. God bless Mr. Stalberg, who was often encouraging me by his zeal for the Lord Jesus Christ manifested by his labours and sacrifices for his brethren and of the house of Israel, whom he seeks to bring in the sheepfold of the Great Shepherd: it was by the means of this missionary that I was made acquainted with the Rev. Mr. Herschell.

I cannot but mention with gratitude Mr. Neuman; may God strengthen me to realize his christian advice so often spent on me. God bless them with whom we live under one roof in the Jewish home. God bless the house where so many of my brethren have found the Lord Jesus Christ; oh! that this house may become by the grace of God the birth-place of the spiritual life of many more. God bless this holy

assembly by whose prayer my spirit was often edified in Christ and to the prayer of whom I commend myself, that if sin aboundeth in me the grace of God may the more abound in me to life everlasting. Amen.

EXTRACTS FROM MISSIONARIES' JOURNALS.-HOME.

One of our missionaries, after having returned from a foreign station to his former district in London, makes the following remarks, which we commend to the serious attention of our readers:

If one may judge from the appearance of strangers who are crowding in every corner of the "Jewish Quarter," I should think there must have been, of late, a considerable influx of foreign Jews into the metropolis from almost every part of Europe, more especially from the kingdom of Poland. You cannot walk twenty steps without coming in contact with familiar forms; and you cannot avoid being struck continually with the well-known sound of the Judeo-Polish language falling upon your ear. As I was walking through the thickly populated streets with an errand of mercy, it could not but awaken the highest sympathy and commiseration on their behalf, in a two-fold point of view: firstly, upon their seemingly forlorn state as regards their temporal circumstances; and secondly, their more infinitely lost condition as regards their spiritual welfare. To come from a country like Poland, where devout Jews are still in abundance, and where religion, and the hope and consolation of Israel is still deeply venerated, to a place and locality like this, where ignorance and superstition the most gross, and what is still worse, infidelity in the vilest shape is reigning, is indeed, a matter deeply affecting to the thoughtful and feeling Christian. One who knows how easy the transition is, for an individual a little reflecting, whose mind has been nursed in superstition from its very infancy, to a total disregard and rejection of revealed religion, cannot but wish and exert himself to the utmost, if possible, to prevent such a disastrous effect taking place, which must ultimately end in the destruction of both body and soul. When I entered into conversation with some of them, they lent a very willing ear, and were at once alive to the importance of the subject which I brought before them. I found none of those vile subterfuges to which many of the modern Jews cling, when preaching to them of the Messiah, viz., that emancipation is their only hope, and none of those fallacies of human reasoning to allegorize and explain away the true meaning of the Word of God, but a firm adherence and belief in the inspired writings of Moses and the Prophets; I need not say how much that facilitated my intercourse with them. When once the Jew believes sincerely in the writings of the Old Testament, it is not difficult to point out to him in whom ancient prophecy and predictions centre, and to hold up Jesus before him as the God-man in whom alone we can find salvation. During the last few days, I have