Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ
"The Jews have many nice customs and rites as well as beautiful prayers.
When the Spirit of God will some day revive this people, then will many
a Jewish form and custom, which is now performed like an empty ceremony,
be exercised in spirit and leave a blessing. One of these customs is,
that after the service on the Sabbath and on feast days, the children
approach the parents, who lay their hands on them and bless them.[13]
Also, when a Jew goes on a journey, the members of his family follow
him and pronounce a blessing. It was so before Goldberg started on his
journey that his mother-in-law laid her hands on his head, blessed him,
and then added: 'Farewell, we shall never see one another again.' Yet
Goldberg could not believe that these parting words would be fulfilled.
When on his journey back he spent a night at Regensburg, and awoke early
in the morning, there suddenly appeared to him near his bed, the form of
a friendly woman, dressed in white, who looked at him complacently. He
recognized her as his mother-in-law, looked at his watch, it was four
o'clock, and was greatly astonished. He rose up and resumed his journey,
and when he arrived at Frankfort, he met a Jew from Neuwied, of whom he
enquired after his family, and was told by him that they were all well,
and at last that his mother-in-law had died. Now he understood the
meaning of the apparition. He used often to refer to this event and say:
'You know that I am no believer in ghost stories, yet I have, myself,
experienced, and am convinced, that spirits can be in communication with
one another.' Deeply moved, he returned to his family, and his arrival
was to them a great comfort.
[13] This custom is very seldom seen nowadays.
"We should have thought that all these experiences would have caused
Goldberg to think right earnestly of making his peace with God, but this
was not yet the case. When a man does not read the Word of God with
prayer, and does not seek the influence of the Holy Spirit, no
conversion can take place in his heart. Goldberg, at this period, had
lost all faith in the Bible. He belonged to a society of so-called
enlightened Jews at Neuwied, who contributed to a periodical entitled
'Measaph.' He, himself, wrote many nice Hebrew articles, with the object
of enlightening his co-religionists, though his own mind was yet
surrounded by darkness. His Jewish friends and some Christians used to
read novels together, and lived according to the pernicious principles
which the frivolous books inculcated. But though he was a member of this
circle, yet the good hand of the invisible God kept him from falling
into gross sins, so that all his experiences of Divine help and
protection contributed, at least, to maintain in him the fear of God. He
used often to speak of this with great thankfulness.
"The Lord had also continually given him a cross to bear, in order to
bend his stiff neck. In those times of dreadful wars, Goldberg, on
account of his knowledge of the Polish and Russian languages, was often
obliged to act as interpreter among the troops of these nations who had
their quarters there.
"In 1814, he was called one evening, very late, to quiet an uproar that
had arisen among the Russian soldiers. This accomplished, he returned
home late in the night, and in the darkness he did not observe a waggon
that stood in the way, and fell over the shaft and broke his leg; and,
consequently, was laid up for several weeks.
"In November, 1815, a daughter was born to him; another, four years of
age, suddenly died on the same day. His wife, likewise, fell into a
dangerous illness, which lasted twenty-four weeks, and from continued
watching by her bedside, he became exhausted and extremely dejected. He
described his experience of that time thus:--'Placed in a condition of
tedious misery and all kinds of sorrow, and not having a single
sympathetic soul to comfort me, I became utterly dejected. I could not
think of God with a feeling heart, and, therefore, suffered
indescribable pangs in body and soul. When once I lay down at midnight,
and placed my miserable condition vividly before me, a feeling of
despair seized me, and I cried out: "Lord, how long?" But immediately
God set me up by instilling a beam of hope within my soul, that He would
soon deliver me out of my trouble. This new hope revived me, and I felt
peace; my wife, also, became better that very night and felt a
refreshing influence. Then I went in a corner, wept and prayed for the
help of God in the sense of Ps. xxxii. and xxxviii., and vowed to the
Lord to read again His Word with reverence, and to place myself entirely
under His guidance, and to be no longer so distrustful. From this moment
another Spirit had the rule over me. Injurious books which had led me to
unbelief were laid aside, and the Bible had a new attraction for me. Now
also a longing after the promised Redeemer revived in me. In this
manner, He who searches the hearts, and is near to them who seek Him in
sincerity, prepared me gradually for the time when He, as the good
Shepherd, would completely open the door to His fold for me, and
translate me out of the darkness into His marvellous light.' So
Goldberg could speak after he had already come to the knowledge of
Jesus; but the way in which this was brought about was, in its
beginning, obscure. He, himself, tells of the first occasion thereto:
"'In August, 1817, a learned Jew, who had recently come from London,
where he was teacher for a long time, sent for me, and told me, in a
cautioning tone, that a certain gentleman had visited him on that day
and put the astonishing question to him whether there were not some Jews
there who would be inclined to read the New Testament in the Hebrew
language; in which case he could supply them with it gratis. Then, he
added, that there is in London a Society for Promoting Christianity
amongst the Jews, having agents abroad of whom this gentleman must be
one, and, therefore, I should beware of coming in contact with him. But
this communication effected a different impression upon me to that which
was intended. The gentleman against whom I was warned was neither a
preacher nor a missionary, but a universally respected merchant, by the
name of Keetman. I had a great desire of becoming acquainted with this
dangerous man, who took so much trouble to visit the Jews and to talk to
them on religious matters, and as I was not in the habit of visiting
people without any occasion, this desire increased the more. At last I
ventured, one Saturday, to go to Mr. Keetman, and say to him that I had
heard that he had Hebrew books, and if he wished me to copy them I
should be ready to do so.' In this manner Goldberg became acquainted
with an earnest and warm friend of Israel, and this acquaintanceship
formed a new chapter in his life, which I cannot better designate than
his awakening."
GOLDENBERG, D., was born in Piatka, Volhynia, in 1805. His father, Hayim
Baruch, was a learned rabbi, and consulted by others on difficult
rabbinic questions. His grandfather was a Zadik or wonder rabbi, and
used to talk to him about the speedy coming of the Messiah. At the age
of 10 his parents found him a bride, and at the age of 17 he was
married, and went to live with his father-in-law in Tschidoroff. Passing
through a severe illness, he began to think earnestly about the state of
his soul before God. He felt the burden of his sins and frequently
prayed for the advent of the Redeemer. His friends advised him to divert
his mind by more diligent study of the Talmud, but he remained restless.
At this time, in 1821, cholera visited the place, and he dreaded to die.
Passing by just then a Christian school, he heard the children pronounce
the ineffable name of Jehovah, which attracted his attention, so he
bought a catechism to see what the Christian doctrine was, but he laid
it aside. Then he received a packet of tracts and a New Testament from
Myerson, who got them from the L.J.S. missionary Moritz when he visited
Berditscheff. He was not long after convinced of the truth of the
Gospel, visited Moritz, and with his friend went to Berlin, where he was
instructed and baptized by Pastor Schultz ("Jewish Intelligence," 1824).
His father came to Berlin and tried to win him back to Judaism, but
when he found that he was thoroughly in earnest and happy in his faith,
he left him in peace in a friendly manner. Goldenberg went then to
London, and was thence sent to Poland, to witness for Christ among his
brethren.
GOLDINGER, Tobias W., was a L.J.S. missionary in Poland in the forties
of the nineteenth century, where he laboured successfully. He was, under
God, the means of the conversion of a number of Jews, one of whom may be
named here. Goldinger had once given the "Life of Friedrich Augusti" to
the son of Rabbi L. Altschiller, of Marronopol, and this led to his
eventual conversion. The case attracted at the time much public
attention, as the young man passed through a great struggle with his
family, but came out triumphant. Goldinger laboured latterly at Breslau,
where the writer had the privilege of making his acquaintance at the end
of 1872, and was very much impressed by his gentle Christian spirit. It
is a pity that Pastor de le Roi, who was at that time his colleague, did
not give us more information about him. It is probably because
Goldinger, like many other Jewish converts, out of modesty was reluctant
to publish to the world his personal history.
GOLDSMID, Frederick, is known to have laboured as a successful
missionary in India.
GOLDSTERN, Israel, a native of Lemberg, Galicia, educated in strict
orthodoxy. Already in his early manhood he became President of a Talmud
Union. Failing in health, he journeyed to the Bath Heines, and on his
way met a Christian merchant who, in a conversation, convinced him that
the Talmud has no Divine authority. This shook his faith in modern
Judaism. For two years he had no peace of mind. His widowed mother, in
order to divert his attention, got him married. But it did not last long
before he came into collision with his family on account of his
religious views, so he left for Constantinople, whither his wife
followed him. Eventually he was baptized by Pastor Bonnet, in Cologne,
in 1875, while his wife still hesitated to take the decisive step. His
father-in-law, when he found out the place of their residence, brought a
suit against him for embezzling his property, because before he left
Lemberg he had pawned his wife's ornaments, which he himself had given
her. However, his friends at Cologne, paid the whole sum. He afterwards
studied theology at Barmen, and became missionary of the Westphalian
Rhenish (now called West German) Society, under which he has been
labouring with much blessing upon his efforts ever since. He succeeded
the writer at Frankfort-on-the-Maine.
GOTTFRIED, Johann Adam (Nathan), born at Altona in 1726, died in 1773.
After losing his father in his youth, his mother sent him to an uncle,
who was a diamond cutter in London, to learn the trade. There he somehow
heard the name of Jesus and got to love it. He soon returned, and his
mother went with him to another relation, Rabbi Koppel Fränkel, at
Fürth, under whose auspices he made rapid progress in Jewish learning,
so that at the age of 17 he was asked to take charge of a school in the
country. Two years before, two rabbis predicted that he would yet become
a Meshummad. The Jews in former days used sometimes to call a sharp boy
Meshummad or ganov (thief). At the age of 21 he passed by an evangelical
church at Sulzberg, and listened to the worship there, and was solemnly
moved. Henceforth he studied the Scriptures, especially Isaiah liii., as
he had heard that Christians refer to it. The result was that he made a