Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ. Bernstein Aaron

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СКАЧАТЬ character of the Bishop, and the sound practical sense and valuable local experience of his coadjutor, Mr. Nicolayson, are sure guarantees that caution, charity, and conciliation will preside at all their efforts."

      In conformity with instructions received from Constantinople, proclamation was made in the mosques, that "he who touches the Anglican Bishop will be regarded as touching the apple of the Pasha's eye."

      The presence of the Bishop was soon felt in work amongst the Jews in Jerusalem. The daily services held in the temporary chapel on Mount Zion were a source of much delight to him, and also the large congregations. The Bishop thus summed up his episcopal duties for the first year: "We have had every ordinance of our Church performed in our chapel." The Bishop had held his first ordination on March 17, had baptized a Jew on Whitsun Day, and confirmed eight Hebrew Christians; married two converts; finishing up with the ordination of a Hebrew Christian missionary. The upper room proved all too small, and the building of the London Society's permanent church, which was to serve the joint purposes of a Cathedral, a chapel for British residence, and a mission centre, was proceeded with, although Alexander did not live to see its consecration. His episcopate was destined to be a very brief one, but its three years may well be described as "years of plenty." His letters shew how ardently he threw himself into his work, and how very near his heart it was. Outlying districts of his extensive diocese were visited; and the outlook was bright and promising.

      A great blow fell upon the work in the autumn of 1845, in his sudden death, on Nov. 26, after the short episcopate of four years. The sad event occurred in the desert at Ras-el-Wady, on his way to visit Egypt, which formed a part of the diocese of Jerusalem. A pathetic interest attaches to the Bishop's last annual letter, written before he started for Cairo, in which, speaking of his arrangements, he alluded to the "uncertainty of everything."

      As to the past he spoke with conscious satisfaction of the Divine blessing resting upon the work of Jewish converts baptized and confirmed, and amicable intercourse maintained with Jewish residents and strangers in Jerusalem, of opportunities at Jaffa, of his visit to Damascus, and of friendly relations maintained with the different churches. He thus concluded: "On the whole we have great reason to thank God and take courage, and to call upon our friends to join with us in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, on the memorable day, January 21, when we made our first entry into the Holy City. A day which is much to be remembered, even when the results, which have already followed in this short period, be alone taken into consideration; but a day which we trust will yet prove one of the most remarkable in the history of the Church, when the Lord 'shall build up Zion, and appear in His glory,' and when all, who now mourn for her, seeing her desolate and trodden down, shall rejoice for joy with her; and when God's people shall be delighted with the abundance of her glory."

      Mrs. Alexander thus described the Bishop's last days in the desert at Belveis, Nov. 3, 1845: "On setting out through the desert, each day my beloved husband and myself rode our own horses; we generally were in advance of the caravan, and we used regularly to chant some of our Hebrew chants, and sang the following hymns: 'Children of the Heavenly King;' 'Long has the Harp of Judah hung;' Psalm cxi.; 'Glorious things of thee are spoken;' all out of our own hymn-book; and never did his warm and tender heart overflow so fully, as when he spoke of Israel's future restoration. When I spoke to him about his duties in England, he answered, 'I hope, if invited, to preach my first sermon in England at the Episcopal Jews' Chapel;' and on my asking what subject he would take, he replied, 'I shall resume the subject I adopted when I last left that dear congregation;' namely, that none of these trials had moved him. (Acts xx. 24-28.)"

      His chaplain, the Rev. W. D. Veitch, reporting the death, said: "It was truly a heart-rending scene. In a tent, in the wild sandy desert, no medical help at hand, to see the widowed wife and fatherless daughter bending over the lowly pallet, on which were stretched the lifeless remains."

      "The immediate cause of death," wrote Mrs. Leider, who formed one of the party, "was rupture of one of the largest bloodvessels near the heart; but the whole of the lungs, liver, and heart, were found in an exceedingly diseased state, and had been so for a length of time; the accelerating cause, doubtless, was great and continued anxiety – such as the Bishopric of Jerusalem and its cares can best account for. I heard it said on this occasion that had his lordship not come into the East, he might possibly have lived to a good old age; but the mitre of Jerusalem, like the wreath of our blessed Lord, has been to him a crown of thorns."

      The body was taken first to Cairo, where Mr. Veitch preached the funeral sermon from the most appropriate text that could have been chosen – "So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab" (Deut. xxxiv. 5).

      On December 6, a mournful caravan set out from Cairo with the Bishop's remains, recalling the sad procession which returned to the Promised Land with the bones of Joseph. The cortège arrived at Jerusalem on the 20th of the same month, at seven o'clock in the evening, and proceeded at once to the English cemetery, where, by torchlight, the remains of the beloved and venerated prelate were deposited in their last resting place, the Rev. J. Nicolayson reading the service. Funeral sermons were preached by him in Jerusalem the next day, and in the Episcopal Jews' Chapel, London, on December 28, by the Rev. J. B. Cartwright.

      A letter of condolence to Mrs. Alexander, signed by thirty-one Jewish converts at Jerusalem, was the most eloquent testimony to the blessing which had followed the successful labours of the Bishop. The signatories said: "Next to yourself and your dear family, we consider ourselves the chief mourners; for we feel both collectively and individually that we have lost not only a true Father in Christ, but also a loving brother and a most kind friend. The suavity and benignity of his manner, which so greatly endeared him to all, and which gained him the highest and most entire filial confidence of every one of us, tend much to increase the keen sense we feel of our loss. The affectionate love he bore to Israel, which peculiarly characterised him, could not fail to render him beloved by every one who had the privilege of being acquainted with him: while his exalted piety, and most exemplary life and conversation, inspired the highest reverential esteem. He was a burning and a shining light; and when he was raised to the highest dignity in the Church, he conferred the most conspicuous honour on our whole nation, but especially on the little band of Jewish believers. With him captive Judah's brightest earthly star has set, and the top stone has been taken away from the rising Hebrew Church."

      We do not think that any more expressive words of the sterling quality of the Bishop's character could have been penned than these. And yet we should like to supplement them.

      Many friends testified their love and esteem for the Bishop by raising a most gratifying testimonial to his memory, amounting to over £3,000, which was handed to his widow and family. It is interesting to glance at the list of contributors after this lapse of time, for it reveals the fact that the Bishop was highly esteemed by rich and poor alike. Amongst the former we notice the names of the Dowager Queen Adelaide, the then Archbishops of Canterbury and Armagh, and the Bishops of London, Winchester, Ripon, Lichfield, Lincoln, Peterborough, Llandaff, Sodor and Man, and Madras. The Primate of All England spoke of Alexander having conducted the affairs of his Church with so much discretion and prudence, as to give no cause of complaint to the heads of other communions residing in the same city, and to win their respect and esteem by his piety and beneficence, and by his persevering yet temperate zeal in prosecuting the objects of his mission.

      He lived and worked in constant dependence upon the Holy Spirit whose power he conspicuously honoured. It was his invariable practice to impress upon those whom he was about to teach the absolute impossibility of their understanding divine things without His aid. This was as noticeable in his earlier years as missionary, as in his later ones as bishop. His conciliatory manner in dealing with Jews, his transparent love for his brethren, his calmness amidst opposition, did much to disarm the excited assembly at the Conferences in Aldermanbury, and the violent attitude of the mob when he revisited his Jewish relatives at Schönlanke. He was bold and fearless in the delivery of his message, faithful in everything, anxious above all things to bear testimony to the name and glory of his Master, and to make full proof of his ministry, whether СКАЧАТЬ