ARE you ready for another talk about the Jews, Elsie? “Archie asked, soon after the tea-things had been removed, on the evening following the one on which Archie had expressed a wish to hear about Jewish children.
By way of answer Elsie shook up the sofa-pillows, arranged her brother's couch just in the way she knew he liked to have it, and gave a very loving kiss to the questioner.
“Yes, you are ready and willing too, I can read it in your face," Archie continued with a smile; "only I hope you won't get tired before I get to the end of all the questions I am going to ask.”
“Ask me just one at a time, Archie dear, and I will answer you as well as I can; but please not to be very disappointed if I am not able to tell you quite all you wish to know.”
“I should like to hear about the feast of the Passover. I think I understand why God told the Jews to keep it, because He wanted them always to remember the night when they left Egypt. Mr. C. told us all about it the last time he preached the gospel here. I forget some of the things he said, but I know he explained how the angel sent by God to destroy the first born of the Egyptians, passed over the houses of the Jews, not because they were good people, but because on the door-posts and over the door a bright red mark told how, in every house, a lamb had been slain and the blood sprinkled, so the people who had obeyed God were safe, quite safe, for God had said, 'When I see the blood I will pass over you.' (Ex. 12:13.)
“But I should like to know if the Jews keep the Passover in quite the same way in which it was kept so long ago.”
“Many of the Jews, both in England and in other countries, still celebrate the passover, though not quite in the same way in which it was once observed. A lamb is no longer the offering, and we—who, through grace, know the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, of whose precious blood that of the lamb slain in Egypt was only a type or shadow, became on the cross, more than eighteen hundred years ago, the Sin-bearer, for in 1 Peter 2:24, we read of Him as the One ‘Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree'—cannot help seeing the hand of God even in this.
“Fowls are offered instead of a lamb by many of the Jews, and in some places each Jew, as he gives his fowl to the person appointed by the Rabbi, or Jewish teacher to kill the offering, places his hand for a few moments on the head of the offering, and repeats a form of Hebrew words, of which the meaning is, ‘This is my offering, my exchange, my substitute; this goes to death, and I unto a blessed life.'
“But as this is only one of the customs, I must tell you of others, I think you have seen and tasted what are called Passover cakes. Do you remember what they were like?”
“Oh yes, Elsie; I think I never saw cakes rolled out so very thin. But if all the bread eaten by the Jews was like them, it is easy to understand why we always read in the Bible about breaking bread instead of cutting it as we do. I wonder if bread is often made in the same way now?”
“I think most, if not all, the bread used in the Bible lands, is still baked in the form of flat, thin cakes, or made into small rolls. Customs do not change quickly in those hot countries, and a very interesting account of how bread is often made is given by a missionary, who, not many years ago, traveled through Palestine and Syria. He says, ‘The corn is ground by women in a hand mill made of two large stones. Two women seat themselves on the ground, one on each side of the mill, a handful of corn is then put into a round hole in the center of the upper stone, and ground by the stone being pushed backwards and forwards from one to the other.
“‘The flour is then made into a paste by being mixed with water, a woman then takes a small ball of this paste between her hands and flattens it into a cake, which is baked among the cinders or before the fire.'
“But we have got away from our subject of the Passover.
“Passover cakes are placed on the table, and cups filled with what is called Passover wine. The week before the Passover had been a busy time, as the house and even the cups, plates, and spoons had to be thoroughly cleansed.
“When the father returns from the synagogue, the children gather round him to receive his blessing. Laying his hand on the head of his sons, beginning with the firstborn, he says to each, ‘The Lord Jehovah bless thee, my son, and make thee like the sons of Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh,' while to the girls the form of blessing used is, ‘The Lord bless thee, my daughter, and make thee like Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah.'
“The mistress of the house, or the eldest daughter, pours water over the hands of all present, the youngest child goes to the door, and, holding it open, invites the prophet Elijah to enter, and the Passover feast begins.
“The Jews use a great number of lights at their feasts. I once asked a young Jewess to tell me why forty-seven candles, one for each guest, should be lighted at a wedding-breakfast, as it was broad daylight, and the sun shining brightly? She answered, ‘We always say, The more light, the more joy; I do not know of any other reason.’”
“Thank you, Elsie; but I do not think I quite understand what you said about the prophet Elijah being invited to the feast. Please explain it.”
“Very many of the Jews are still expecting the coming of their Messiah. They think that His coming will be like that of a prince or great general, who will lead them to their own long-promised land, and again make them a rich and powerful nation; and they believe that just before His coming the prophet Elijah will appear and make all things ready for Him.”
“Now I should like to hear about Jewish schools. I suppose all the boys, at least, learn Hebrew. I think they must often find the strange-looking black characters very difficult to learn and remember?”
“I think in most Jewish schools some instruction in Hebrew is given to the boys who attend; but in many places they are only taught to read, not to understand or think about the meaning of what is read. I am afraid they are not really much wiser.”
“Are Jewish children ever allowed to attend Christian schools, Elsie?”
“Not when their parents are strict Jews, Archie; but I am very glad to be able to tell you that during the last thirty years, God in His grace has been leading many Jews to a saving knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, and at the present time nearly a hundred children, many of them the sons and daughters of converts from Judaism, are assembled every day but Saturday in very cheerful school-rooms, where they not only receive a good education, but are taught from the New Testament the story of a Savior's love. Many of them can say of the Lord Jesus, ‘He loved me, and gave himself for me;’ and very sweet it is to hear their glad young voices joining in hymns of praise to that Savior to whom Jewish children sang, ‘Hosanna! blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.' (Matt. 21:9.)
“Perhaps some day I may have an opportunity of taking you to visit the schools of which I have told you: they are in a thickly peopled part of London called Palestine Place. There are also other schools in which Jewish children may hear of Jesus and His love.
“Some time ago I was much interested in looking at a picture of a Jewish school in Cairo, where about thirty boys, and almost as many girls, are taught to read the scriptures in Hebrew and Arabic.
“On entering the room in which school is kept, the boys who are rich enough to be the owners of shoes or sandals, always, as a mark of respect to the teacher, leave them outside the door. But for the same reason they do not take off their caps or turbans.
“Have we come to the end of your questions yet, Archie? as I see it is almost eight o'clock, and I have a letter to write.”
“Not quite, Elsie. Please don't open your writing desk for another five minutes. There is just one thing more I want to ask you about.
“When you were talking to that old man from B., who came to mend our broken window last week, I heard him tell you he was a Jew, and that he never did any work on Saturday because it was his Sabbath. I thought it very strange, but I did not understand why he should say so?”
“If you turn to the opening chapters of Genesis, the very first book in the Bible, you will find the wonderful story of how, ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.' (Gen. 1:1)
“The work occupied six days, and as the story unfolds we read, ‘And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which he created and made.' (Gen. 2:3.) But sin, the sin of Adam and Eve, soon broke the rest of God, "Now we must pass over a very long time, more than two thousand years, when God had brought His people Israel out of the land of Egypt. The law, or ten commandments, was given to them by God through His servant Moses. The Hebrew word Sabbath means rest, and the seventh day was intended by God to be a time of holy and blessed rest for His people. The Jews were not allowed to do any kind of work on the Sabbath, not even to light a fire.
“Very soon that holy law was broken, and the Lord Jesus, after His death on the cross, lay in the grave all through the hours of the Jewish Sabbath, rising from the tomb early on the first day of the week.
“On that day Christians meet to remember, with thankful hearts, His death. It is not the Sabbath, though many dear children of God still call it so. The Lord's Day always seems to remind us, by its very name, that
“'Christ's grave is empty now,
Left for the throne above.'
And we remember too, His own promise, ‘I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.' (John 14:3.)
“Have I helped you at all to understand, by what has been said, the difference between the Jewish Sabbath and the Lord's Day?”
“Yes, thank you, Elsie, and I do not think I shall forget. But now I must set you free, or you will be writing long after I am in bed.”