I AM now about to record what I shall ever consider as the providential turning point in my life, the incident which led my steps into the presence of the true King of the Jews, the Light which illuminates the mind of every sincere seeker after truth.
One Saturday afternoon I had occasion to go into the Mile End Road. There I saw a large crowd of Jews, —and on inquiry I was told that a converted Jew was preaching. I pushed my way through the crowd, but when I came near the speaker he had evidently finished his discourse, for I only heard him say, “We all agree in the main doctrines, namely, that the Bible is the only sufficient guide in all matters necessary to the salvation of the soul. We all, therefore, profess to reject any teaching contrary to the word of God. And we all agree, as I have plainly proved to you from the word of God, that He that was predicted by the prophets, and anxiously waited for by all the godly Jews of old, is none other than Jesus of Nazareth. He came precisely at the time appointed (Gen 49:1010The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. (Genesis 49:10); Dan. 9:25, 2625Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. (Daniel 9:25‑26)), and accomplished the object for which He was preordained; for ‘he was wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquities’; ‘and he bare the sin of many.’” (Isa. 5314In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. (Isaiah 54:14)). Then the preacher closed by begging his bearers to read the Bible without prejudice, and with prayer for guidance from on high, “this being,” he said, “the only means” by which they could be led to drink at the fountain of life; and then bade them farewell, saying, “I hope to be here again next Saturday about the same time.”
I was in a fury of indignation, and shouted at the top of my voice, “Yes, and I shall be here too. You are a deceiver, you believe in a deceiver; I will not soil my lips by pronouncing his name, and you wish to deceive us by making us believe that the Crucified One was the Messiah; but I will meet you and soon make short work of your arguments,” and I was about to strike him with my umbrella, but was prevented from doing so by someone in the crowd.
But still greatly exasperated, I turned to the people, and told them that I was quite ashamed to see so many intelligent-looking young men willing to have their minds poisoned by listening to such trash, which they must hear from the fellow who had just left them. They could never learn any good from such men, for they were enemies to our Rabbis and to our holy religion.
“If you want to know,” I said, “what cruelties the Jews have suffered from those who believed in that Nazarene, you have only to read the history of England, and you will find enough there to make you shudder....Let us resist every effort to estrange us from our God. We will all be here next Saturday to hoot that young apostate from this place.”
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