from time to time read it to him. I may also mention that the young man also attends a Christian Sunday-school, and is very diligent in reading his Bible.

FROM THE RECORDS OF KINDRED INSTITUTIONS. LONDON SOCIETY.

M. PETAVEL'S TOUR.

(Continued from page 128.)

"A Discussion on the Trinity.-The chief rabbi of Marseilles was quite friendly towards us, and this surprised us the more as he is reputed to be hostile to the preaching of the Gospel, and had turned an evangelical missionary out of doors. His great argument is always the unity of God. My father endeavoured to make him distinguish between an arithmetical, abstract and dead unity, and a living or metaphysical unity. One is one, and cannot be three; but consider any object whatsoever it is necessarily composed of a substance, of a form, and of a bond of union, or a force, an energy that unites the substance and the form, and makes of them one and the same thing. Man, who is one, is no less a spirit, a soul, and a body. Why should there not be in the Divine nature, in the image of which we were created, something corresponding more or less to the triple nature of man?

"Jewish and Christian principles as regards Proselytism.-The rabbi repeated what he had said to us the last year, that he did not at all see the necessity for an enlightened man to change his religion; the Jew ought to remain a Jew, and the Christian a Christian. The name is of no consequence; one is at liberty to think what one pleases, provided one remains where nature placed us by birth. He would never go and disturb the families and flocks under my father's ministry in Switzerland, by inciting them to follow him, a Jew, and to invoke God according to a new rite.

"It is a great trial for a missionary to be obliged to seem inferior in generosity and liberality of views to those to whom his Master sends him. It is true that he can allege, in such a position that, if Judaism does not positively prescribe proselytism, the Gospel makes it the most formal of precepts. 'Go ye, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' (Matt. xxxiii. 19). One knows besides what were the principles of the ancient synagogue, with regard to proselytism. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye

make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves.' (Matt. xxiii. 15). The Jews only renounced proselytism definitively, when they were reduced to occupy themselves exclusively about their own preservation. Every man of heart will always feel the pressing need of imparting to his fellow-man the ideas which he believes to be good. Now it is not ideas that the Christian announces, it is eternal life.

"Modern Judaism.-Though apparently asleep in its indifference, the synagogue of Marseilles does not remain inactive. A vague impression of the insufficiency of the actual state of their worship, torments secretly a numerous class of Israelites. Tired of a sterile religiosity, they seek to replace the life that is ebbing, either by modifying the old traditions, and renewing the exterior forms, or by giving themselves over to a sort of mystic rationalism. Two young Israelites, distinguished in more than one respect, but strangers to the Gospel, declared to us that they had nearly renounced frequenting the worship of the synagogue, because it did not satisfy the wants of their souls. 'We regret,' said they, that the old members of the synagogue, and the consistory, do not seek to satisfy the just exigencies of the new generation. One must either considerably shorten the Hebrew ritual, and celebrate the greatest part of the service in French, or cause the young people to be henceforth better instructed in the sacred language. The Supreme Being does not content himself with the adoration of the lips; and the prattle of parrots speaking Hebrew, would be as good as the vain repetitions of a people ignorant of what they pronounce. The consistory itself in several of its members is no longer Jewish, except by tradition.' 'Is it necessary to speak to me of revealed religion?' said the President himself to us. "The magnificent order of this universe, and the benefits which a paternal Providence scatters around us with so great abundance, speaks to me loud enough, both of the Master that governs us, and of the sacred duties that bind us to Him. Have I not besides, a reason and a conscience to direct my steps, and a heart to inspire me with generous feelings. Here,' said he, pointing to his heart, here is something that tells me I ought to be frank, loyal, disinterested, compassionate; here I feel that thankfulness towards a benefactor, is a virtue worthy of a well-born man, and that ingratitude is execrable.' 'It is in some respects with religion as with the fine arts,' answered my father. Every one of us has more or less a moral and religious instinct; and every one has, more or less, the instinct of the fine arts. But as in music or in painting, there are great masters that we admire and seek to imitate,

because, rising by the power of their genius above the men of their age, they have realised, or sought to realise, in their immortal works, an ideal that was floating more or less vaguely in the instincts of the multitude;-so in religion, and in religion more than in any other domain, there are distinguished models, which the everlasting God presents to our erring and sinful humanity: there is a Moses that gave the law, there is a Christ who accomplished it, and then offered Himself as an And the honour we bestow on those whom expiatory victim. the Most High himself presents to our imitation, is not stifling or disfiguring in man the religious feeling, on the contrary, it is exalting it.

"An Aged Jewess, a Believer in Christ-There lives at Marseilles a maiden-lady, of eighty years of age, but still full of intelligence and vivacity. A Christian friend introduced us to her. She received us at first rather coldly, but the Lord was working in her soul. She confessed her Saviour at our second visit. Her spectacles were lying on the 'Letter to the Synagogues,' which we had given her. 'I believe most truly,' said she to us, that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah, the Son of God; all must go to him. He came to save not only his people of Israel, but all men. He will come anew.' The accent of deep conviction with which she uttered these words, as well as the emotion produced by so great and unexpected a joy, transported us. From that moment we did nothing else but give glory to God, and converse about the return of our beloved Messiah and the consolation of Israel. The lady being now very old and much attached to her people, does not feel herself called upon, for the moment, to separate herself from them by a formal baptism; but she will not fear to profess her faith before whosoever shall ask her the reason of it, and to attend Christian worship whenever she thinks fit. The Lord is faithful, and He will guide her himself by his good spirit, and perfect in her the work He has begun.

AIX.

"Aix, in Provence, possesses a synagogue and a Schochet. Tarascon and Alais count but few Jewish families.

"We passed the evening of July 28th with an Israelite of Aix of great talent. He was reposing at his country seat, in the midst of his family and friends, by a fine clear moonlight. He withdrew from their society to come to us, and two or three of his friends soon joined him. One of them, a Roman Catholic (though at first we did not know it), took the lead in the conversation, and raised various objections. He neither understood the real interest that true Christians could take in

the Jewish nation, nor the hopes that they grounded upon them. Had not the Jews exclaimed at the moment of the condemnation of the Just One, His blood be upon us and upon our children?' and ought not the curse of the God of the Christians to pursue them from age to age? It was easy to refute him by the Gospel itself. Our opponent would not allow that God could be man, or that a man could be God. 'God is God, and man is man,' said my father to him; but there necessarily exists a point where the Divinity and humanity meet together, without which no relation could exist between them. This point is the God-man, the Messiah, both perfectly man and perfectly God. Man, says the Scripture, was created in God's image, that is to say, according to an eternal, a divine type, that existed in the bosom of God himself, and that was nothing else but Him, of whom it is written, 'He is the image of the invisible God,' the firstborn of every creature, the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person,' (Col. i. 15; Heb. i. 3)-the word of God and God himself. What is that ideal which man finds realized nowhere, and that remains no less the constant object of the sighs of all ages, but this prototype man, that increated wisdom of which the Book of Proverbs speaks, that Adam Radmon of the Kabbala, that Christ of the Gospel, that man Jesus, of whom a God of love certainly did not give the presentiment to the sons of men to abandon them afterwards to a hopeless search.' We then conversed about Jerusalem trodden under foot by the Gentiles, the signs of the times, and the necessity there now was that Israel, who had hitherto remained passive at the entrance of the temple of the new covenant, while the nations were entering into it in crowds, should come out of this forced inaction, to give glory with us to the God that has broken our fetters, and help us to accomplish the conversion of the world. This meeting was prolonged till a rather late hour. Our host remained silent almost the whole time; and, on our leaving, kindly accompanied us to the entry of his country-seat.

"At Tarascon we found an honest and upright Israelite, who employs himself, according to his degree of light, in procuring the welfare of his brethren. He has distributed, as he told us, in the midst of a thoroughly Catholic population, a great number of copies of the Scriptures which had been intrusted to him.

ALAIS.

"From Tarascon we went to Nismes, and from Nismes to Alais. Alais was a little oasis in our pilgrimage. We had been recommended to the numerous family that forms almost the whole Israelite congregation of that town by one of their

relatives, Mr. C—, of Geneva, the son of a Christian Jew. This relative was beloved of all the little tribe of Alais, and the love that they bore him was directed to us. They showed us a fine French Bible which he left at Alais, in one of his journeys. We read in it one of the Psalms of David, and announced Him who is the root and offspring of David, the bright morning star.

"The grandmother of the family, a woman of simple piety, seemed to take a singular pleasure in conversing about the goodness of her God, whose anointed was not yet clearly ma nifested to her. She had learnt by long experience, that true worship belongs to all the moments of life. I would not cross the street,' said she, 'without feeling myself authorised by God.' "In the evening, two of the members of the family came to attend a numerous meeting on behalf of Israel, at which my father was called to preside, in the house of the worthy pastor Dombres.

NISMES.

"On our return to Nismes, on Saturday morning, August 31st, we went immediately to the synagogue. The worship was near its close, but the Lord seemed to have ordered our visit. At Aix the Jewish Schochet, to whom we first applied, exclaimed after some moments of conversation, 'What a pity, gentlemen, that Mr. H- -C is not here!' He spoke

of an Israelite merchant, skilled in the traditions, and very fond of religious conversations. That exclamation was so often repeated, that the Schochet's regret became ours, and we left at our departure some of our works, addressed to Mr. HAt Nismes the people were coming out of the synagogue, and my father accosted a gentleman, with whom we traversed the great square of the town. When we were on the point of separating, my father, who had discovered in that gentleman sincerity and a cultivated mind, begged to have his address, and offered him a copy of his dissertation on the Kabbala. 'I come from Aix,' answered he;

'my name is H C. It is unnecessary then,' replied my father, 'to offer you the book, for it is already at your house.' Mr. H. C. - seemed no less astonished than we were, at this providential meeting. We saw him again the same day, at the house of the rabbi. This latter gentleman was absent last year when we passed through. We found him reading the Jerusalem Talmud; our reception was very favourable. The conversation turned upon the subject of Abarbanel, and he communicated to us the latter's interpretation of the revolt of Korah and its consequences; we ex