Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ
endeavouring, by the works of the law, to lead a life pure and holy
before my God; for even when a child I conceived sin to be an abhorrence
to God; the thunders of Sinai sounded and resounded in my heart; the
mighty word proceeding out of the mouth of the Almighty God, 'cursed is
he who does not keep my law,' pressed me down to the ground at that
early period of my life; as with flaming letters it was written in my
heart, 'God is a holy God! God is a righteous God! who abhors sin; in
whose presence, none but those who are pure, and free from sin, and who
live for him only, can abide.' From all my toil, however, I found no
peace; far, far from me was the rest for which I so much longed.
"I had intercourse with a few individuals who called themselves
Christians. I sought them out for the purpose of discussing with them
scientific subjects, and now and then to study the Old Testament with
them; of these some were students in theology, and others teachers; they
used to assail the revealed word of God most terribly. Through them I
became acquainted with the criticisms of de Wette, Eichhorn, Dinter, and
others, and it was not long that I stood up a zealous defender of modern
Judaism; I became a rationalist. We are deceived! exclaimed I to my
community, terribly deceived! the Talmud and the Psakim are a tissue of
errors, and so forth. Still the storm in my heart did not subside; it
continued to roar and to rage; I was not free; before it was chains of
superstition that shackled my heart, now those of unbelief; chains
forged by profane hands, by such fools as say, 'There is no God.'
"As I looked on these contradictions, and on this work of ungodly men, I
trembled, and entered the field against these impudent deniers of God;
but with weapons, alas! I knew not at that time, and so I was in a
terrible condition. I felt as if closed in by a wall; I panted after the
breath of life; I longed after liberty, and hoped that the enigma would
solve itself; but far off appeared to me the hand which should lead me
into the haven of peace; and the light which I searched after in all the
writings of men, proved but darkness; they were broken cisterns, and my
soul, which was languishing and nigh to perishing, did not find the
water of life. I lay at times the whole night on the hard floor,
chastised my body, yearned and cried aloud. The old Jews, to whose
knowledge these austerities came, held me for a saint; and the modern
Jews said to me: 'Don't be a fool.' Oh! these were years of anguish and
terror; I was often nigh to despair. The compassion and grace of God,
whom I did not know at that time, alone held me up; the hand of the
mighty covenanted God of my forefathers covered me, and it was His
eternal love that preserved me from sinking.
"I tore myself with force from the circle of those who surrounded me,
and I was chiefly alone and secluded. I betook myself, as it were, to a
desert of books. Alas! the speculations of men only filled my head,
while my heart remained empty. My thirst after the truth, after God's
truth, was not quenched; I read now and then in the Pentateuch; but the
books of the Old Testament were locked up to me, and the old and new
commentaries of the rabbis did not satisfy me. That the New Testament is
a key to the Old I had not the least conception at that time; and, as I
was then an enemy to Christianity, I never read the New Testament.
"At this time of severe struggle, I received a visit from my father, to
whom I communicated my distress of mind; it pained him deeply, and he
pressed me to return home with him immediately. To my question, 'What
shall I do then?' he replied, 'You shall do nothing else but learn the
Torah, you have no occasion to trouble yourself about earthly things,
and as soon as you shall be seated in the circle of the Chassidim and
students of the law, it will be well with you.' Family matters obliged
my father to return quickly, and I begged him to allow me to remain for
a short time longer in Germany, until I should be enlightened on that
which distressed me so much. Shortly after that I was sent for by a
Jewish community, in the north of Germany. I hurried thither with joy,
where I took possession of a very pleasant post.
"My heart, however, remained wounded, and peace was far from me. The
Jews of that place were very indifferent about religion, and it was not
required that I should deliver a public lecture on the Sabbath. I looked
for religious men, but amongst the Jews there was not one in whom there
was a striving after the only good; my exhortation to them to elevate
themselves to the fulness which cometh from God, and my admonitions,
were all in vain; nevertheless, the pupils clung to me with much love;
and they listened to me attentively when I related to them the history
of the kingdom of God in the time of the Old Testament dispensation.
"But my heart continued cold even here; the great deeds of God filled me
with awe, and the history of our people, as well as my own course of
life, only opened more the wounds of my heart. 'The Balm of Gilead' I
knew not, and the instruction I imparted was only mechanical, without
life, and without warmth.
"I visited the clergymen of this town, and I found some of them
different from any I had seen before; they talked of the revealed word
of the Old Testament, with warmth of heart and enthusiasm, and I heard
for the first time a powerful testimony to the Christian doctrine; my
whole heart was stirred up against it, the ground burned under my feet,
and I hurried away purposing never to return again.
"Still there remained a thorn in my heart. The fifty-third chapter of
Isaiah as well others in the Old Testament, to which my attention was
drawn, were too strong for me; doubt raged in me, and the questions,
What if it be really true? What if the Christians are right? left me no
peace.
"A few weeks elapsed, and I could no longer endure my trouble; I greatly
desired to be enlightened, and that, by means of the common medium of
all truth, Holy Writ alone.
"I began to read the New Testament, and to compare it with the Old, and
it wonderfully unfolded itself to me; more and more I discovered the
great mystery of redemption. In the Old Testament, in all God's
contrivances, a voice called to me, and I heard the voice of God,
through Moses and the prophets, saying: Jesus Christ the crucified, is
the true Messiah, the true Saviour, whose name is Jehovah Tsidkenu, the
Lord our Righteousness. I was roused especially by the ninth chapter of
the Acts; I was made acquainted, after much wrestling and fervent
prayer, that Jesus is the source of salvation, and of eternal life to
all, who, by the efficacy of His blood, are cleansed from the guilt and
pollution of sin, and through Him can call God, Abba, Father. I
perceived that faith in the triune God is the victory which vanquishes
the world.
"I could not remain silent about this; my heart was filled with it; I
tasted the friendship of God, I rejoiced and was constrained to exclaim,
'My Redeemer liveth;' and this I announced to my pupils, talked of it in
the circles of Jewish families, and publicly and aloud gloried in the
ground of my hope in the rich promise vouchsafed to me, by the mouth of
a mighty covenant God: Be comforted, all thy sins are forgiven thee, thy
debt is paid and annulled, through the great and only atoning sacrifice,
through 'the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.'
"There was a tremendous tumult among the Jews; some of them came to me,
and gave themselves much trouble by various means to turn me away from
the Lord, mine and my father's God. The community wrote all about it to
my father, from whom I received a letter which placed me in a most
painful position. He prayed and cried, 'Come to us, and remain a Jew.'
My mother received from this news a severe blow, and she was laid on a
bed of sickness, and great were her sufferings; my sisters, brothers,
and relatives mourned in secret. It was a hard struggle--life and death
depended on my decision.
"I cried and wept bitterly, and riveted myself firmly to the word of
life, that alone should be my guide, my stay, and my staff; and praised
be God, the Sun of Righteousness lighted me, and His beams fell warm and
full of life on my heart.
"'Whoso loveth father and mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me.'
This was spoken by Him who has power to save and to condemn. I could not
do otherwise than obey Him, who once said to the patriarch Abraham, 'Get
thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's
house, unto a land that I will show thee.' I was obliged to tear asunder
the ties which bound me to my beloved relatives, who still remain dear
to me; painful as it is to flesh and blood, I was constrained to do so
for the Lord's sake; and I exclaimed aloud in the presence of the Jews
who at this time surrounded me, and who, not knowing what they did,
endeavoured to hurl me down to the abyss of destruction: 'I cannot do
otherwise, I must acknowledge Him, I must believe on Him, who is my
Redeemer and Saviour; His name is Jesus Jehovah; I cannot do otherwise,
should they on account of it cut me in pieces. Woe unto me, if I deny
Him, the Lord Jesus; therefore it is well with me, that I perceived
through the grace of God, that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and
the life, praised be His name. Amen.'
"Now was I able to rejoice, and with David to exclaim, 'Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and forget not all His benefits' (Psalm ciii. 2).
"After I had been duly instructed in the saving truth of the Gospel, I
was publicly baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, on
December 9th, 1839, by the Rev. Mr. Müller."
NEUMAN, Rabbi, was converted through his intercourse with a Christian
merchant in Leeuwarden, Holland. He afterwards translated the tract,
"Light at Eventide," into Dutch. ("Jewish Intelligence," 1855.)
NEUMAN, Dr. R., was born at Brody in 1788. His father was a rabbi and
gave him a Talmudical education. In 1807 he came to Dessau in Germany,
where he wrote a Commentary on Amos, Nahum and Malachi, and became a
director of a free school for poor children at Breslau. Through his
intercourse with two Christian professors, and especially with the
L.J.S. missionaries McCaul and Becker in 1823, he learned to know Jesus
as his Saviour, and was baptized there, together with his wife and three
sons, by Professor Scheibel, in the Elizabeth Church. A Dr. Cohen, who
was a teacher under him, followed his example. Subsequently he rendered
service to the L.J.S. by revising the text of the Hebrew New Testament.
He died in 1865.
NEUMANN, Karl Friedrich, was born in Reichmansdorf in 1793, studied at
Heidelberg and Munich, and was baptized at Munich in the Evangelical
Church in 1818. Subsequently he went to Venice and studied Armenian. In
1828 he went to Paris, and in 1829 to London, and from there to China.
There he collected several thousand volumes of all branches of
literature, which are now in the library of the Munich University. He
became professor in 1833, M.P. in 1848. In 1863 he retired to Berlin,
when he died in 1870. Some of his works are the following:--"Die Völker
des südlichen Russlands" (Leipzig, 1847.) "Geschichte des Englischen
Reiches in Asien"; "Geschichte der Afghanen"; "Geschichte Oestreichs";
"Geschichte der Vereinigten Staaten." A translation of Gützlaff's
"History of the Chinese Empire"; "Geschichte der Armenischen
Literature," Leipzig, 1834, and English translations of Armenian
Chronicles.
NEWMAN, Rev. C. S., was first in the service of the Scotch Church and
laboured at Jassy and at Constantinople. In 1855 he resigned, and after
joining the Church of England was sent by the L.J.S. to Constantinople,