Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ
bigoted; indeed, he went about with a dagger for some time in the hope
of killing his cousin Lauria, a rabbi who had become a Christian. At
last, through the latter, he was led to study the Prophets, and
eventually the New Testament. After this his eyes began to be opened to
the truth as he saw fact and figure, and type fulfilled in Jesus of
Nazareth, who must have been the promised Messiah. The Talmud was put
aside for the whole written Word of God; this he studied at the risk of
being killed, the reading of even the Old Testament causing suspicion.
He had therefore to resort to all sorts of contrivances to enable him to
search the Scriptures. His own words tell out his feelings at this
time:--"My convictions deepened daily, and I longed to openly confess
the Lord Jesus; but I had not the courage to give up all for Him. All
sorts of thoughts swayed my mind, and often, when my conscience troubled
me, something would whisper to my troubled heart, 'When you grow up and
get your property you will be free to embrace Christianity, now your
wisdom is to hide your convictions.' But I was not happy, and continued
praying, and the Lord heard my prayer, for I was soon compelled to take
refuge with the Society's missionaries. In the house where I lived there
was a small synagogue. I was the only Levite in the congregation, so
that on days when the Law was read I had to read after the priest; as I
was going up to the desk my sash caught, and the tracts I had in it fell
out. The bystanders stepped forward to see what they were; on finding
their contents, 'Apostate,' they yelled, 'with these about you, you
desecrate our place of worship, and dare even to go up to read the Law!'
The whole congregation began beating me, and would probably have
murdered me, had it not been for one of them. As soon as I was free from
my persecutors, my only safety was in flight. I went to my room, and
committed myself in prayer to the Lord, and then went straight to the
house of Mr. Nicolayson." After a course of instruction he was baptized,
July 13, 1844, by Bishop Alexander.
After his baptism he found a situation in Cairo, in which he stayed for
several years, until he felt the missionary call. His employer did his
best to prevent him leaving, even to offering him a share in his
business. But his mind was made up, and he entered the Protestant
College at Malta, as a theological student, spending five years there.
He then offered himself to the Society, and in 1854 entered the Hebrew
College in Palestine Place. In 1857 he was appointed a missionary of
the Society at Bagdad. The results of his work are summed up in his own
words, "The mission was a great success, not from the number of
baptisms, but from the large numbers to whom we preached Christ." In
1867 he commenced his great work at Smyrna, where, through his labours
during eighteen years, many Jews were born again, and were baptized. In
1885 he left Smyrna. One who knew him and his work there wrote after his
death, "Mr. Eppstein will ever be remembered by thousands of Jews living
at Smyrna, and in the interior of Asia Minor. When his death became
known many Jews said, 'He was a good man, and loved our people.' He had
friends amongst the rich as well as the poor, whilst learned and
unlearned looked up to him for his great learning and Talmudical
knowledge."
In 1885, on the death of Dr. Stern, he was appointed head of the
Society's mission in London, a post for which he was singularly fitted.
He knew English, German, French, Hebrew, Yiddish, Spanish, Greek (both
modern and classic), Latin, Syriac, Chaldee, Felachi (the Nestorian
dialect of Chaldee), Persian, Italian, and Turkish. In 1893 he removed
to Bristol, in charge of the "Wanderers' Home." Here his work was
greatly blessed, as many as eighty-two Jews being baptized by him up to
1902. During his missionary career he baptized 262 Jews and Jewesses.
At last, in May, 1903, his call came to higher service. Shortly before
his death, though suffering greatly, he said he was "the happiest man in
the world," and again, "I thank God that He enabled me to lay hold of
the Pearl, and to lay hold of it with both my hands." The Society
suffered a great loss when Mr. Eppstein passed away to his eternal rest.
As a missionary he was to the end most able and faithful, and his life
and life work will ever be remembered with heartfelt gratitude to the
Almighty God for all that he was able to do through a life so fully
dedicated to His service, as was that of the late John Moses Eppstein.
EWALD, Rev. Dr. F. C.[12] In the middle of last century there was no
name more familiar to the friends of Israel than that of Dr. Ferdinand
Christian Ewald; and no missionary to the Jews was more highly honoured
for his work's sake than this distinguished son of Abraham.
[12] "Biographies of Eminent Hebrew Christians," W. T. Gidney.
It is somewhat difficult to write a memoir of one who was too modest and
retiring to say or to write much about himself: and who left but few
materials from which to frame a biography, for it was his express wish
that no lengthened life should be written. He felt that his record was
in Heaven, and that his works would follow him. As he has been at rest
for over thirty years, we think that the time has come when an account
of his life should be added to that of other labourers in the same
field, in which he was by no means the least conspicuous worker.
Ewald was born of Jewish parents, on September 14th, 1801, at the
village of Maroldsweisach, near Bamberg, Bavaria. His parents were poor,
and the education which the village offered was all they could command.
Such, however, was his ability that his friends raised a fund sufficient
to send him and his brother (mentioned on page 215) to a better school,
where he evinced a great aptitude for languages. Later on he entered the
missionary college at Basle. Whilst there he was baptized, in 1824, at
the age of twenty-three, by the Rev. Dr. Von Brunn, adding the name of
Christian to his patronymic. He remained at Basle for a few years
longer, during which the Society paid a part of his training expenses.
He subsequently graduated at the University of Erlangen. In 1829 he was
accepted as a student in the Society's College, and in 1832 he entered
the service of the Society. He took Lutheran orders in the same year,
being ordained at Lörrach, near Basle, by the Decanus Hiltzig. These he
subsequently laid aside, when he was ordained by the Bishop of London,
in 1836.
In the early part of 1832, he visited his native country for the purpose
of seeing his mother, his sister and her husband, who resided at
Bischberg, near Bamberg, and were still of the Jewish faith. His sister
told him, before he parted from her, that she believed that Jesus was
the Messiah and Redeemer. His brother Dr. Paulus Ewald, had already
renounced Judaism, and was Lutheran Pastor at Merkendorf, Bavaria.
Ewald's missionary career naturally falls into three periods: the first,
1832-41, spent in the Barbary States; the second, 1841-1851, in
Jerusalem; and the third and last, 1851-1874, in London. His work was
thus both wide in extent and lengthened in duration.
Ewald commenced his work in Africa on September 17th, 1832, by opening
a mission at Algiers. The Rev. John Nicolayson, of Jerusalem, having
visited that city in the spring of that year, and having met with a
cordial reception, came to the conclusion that the newly-emancipated
Jews (_i.e._, from the Moorish to the French dominion in 1830), were
ripe for a missionary effort. Consequently Ewald was sent out in the
autumn. His reception, however, was chilling in the extreme.
The moment he landed he was told by the Custom House authorities, when
they saw the Bibles which he had brought with him for distribution, "You
have chosen the worst part of the world for your good intentions; there
is nothing to be done in that way here." His answer was, "This book, the
Bible, has already done great things, and I trust the Lord will bless it
also in this country." Discouragement crossed Ewald at every turn, for
he wrote: "All those whom I met with, and to whom I stated the object of
my mission, told me that there was nothing to be done here, because the
people are too bad--that the Jews are the worst set of people that exist
in the world--and that most of the Europeans who have come over are the
outcasts of human society. I believe this to be true, but I think,
because this is true, I am in my proper place; the Gospel of Christ is
able to convert man, to convert even publicans to righteousness."
Ewald commenced to work amongst the Jews speaking to them and selling
his Hebrew Bibles. On one day he sold as many as nineteen copies for
twenty-six francs, a large sum from poor Jews; but they would not take
the New Testament. He also hired a house, intending to have services
there for Jews, when the French Governor-General sent him a letter
forbidding him to preach. This was a great blow, virtually suspending
missionary operations, and Ewald left Algiers.
His next attempt to found a mission in the Barbary States was more
fortunate, and he had the honour of establishing the Society's mission
in Tunis, in 1833, laying the foundation of the extensive and
encouraging work now carried on by the Rev. C. F. W. Flad, the son of
the Society's veteran Abyssinian missionary, Mr. J. Martin Flad.
At the time of Ewald's appointment to Tunis, which was before the days
of the French occupation, the Jews were greatly oppressed by the native
population. Indeed his very first experience, gained before his actual
arrival, gave him an insight into the way in which this persecution was
carried on. At Goletta, the port of Tunis, he met more than 300 Jewish
men, women and children, who were seeing some of their friends off to
Jerusalem. He says:--
"I saw a specimen of the cruel treatment the poor Jews meet with in this
country. Some of those who accompanied their brethren to the Goletta sat
down upon a bank, from which they could look to the ships where they
embarked for Jerusalem; but soon there came a Moor with a stick in his
hand, and drove them away. An old Jew, with a white beard, spoke some
words to the man which I could not hear, as I was standing too far off;
on this the Moor got into a passion, and smote the poor Jew repeatedly
in his face. I cannot express what I felt when seeing this--'O! that the
Salvation of Israel would come out of Zion; O! that the Lord would bring
back the captivity of His people; then,' and only then, 'will Jacob
rejoice, and Israel be glad!' Now poor Israel is oppressed everywhere
more or less."
Ewald made a very successful beginning amongst the Jews of Tunis, and
found an open door in that dark and benighted country. Within three
months he had sold 398 Bibles, New Testaments, and portions in Hebrew,
Arabic, Italian, Greek, Spanish and French, for in so many different
languages had the work to be carried on.
He instituted a service on Sunday, and had much intercourse with Jews,
including several rabbis, one of whom was excommunicated for visiting
him. Ewald used to visit the Jewish quarter with his pockets full of
tracts.
In July of 1834 Ewald visited Monastir and Susa, at both of which places
he was able to proclaim the Gospel to numbers of Jews. He was back at
Tunis in September, and at once resumed his intercourse with Jews. He
says:--"I have from morning till night every possible opportunity for
preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ Jesus our Lord to Jews and
Mahometans, sometimes in my own dwelling-place--at other times in their
habitations, or shops, synagogues, or in the market-place. The desire to
read and to possess the Word of God is daily increasing among the
remnant of Israel in this country. Even the very poor save a few