Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ
Jews, strict in their customs and in the observance of Jewish laws and
traditions. He came to the United States when he was sixteen years of
age. In 1895 he had the position of department manager in one of
Pittsburg's largest stores. His brother was half owner of this
enterprise. Plans were under way to admit him into a partnership in the
firm, which would have made him to-day--had he chosen "the way of the
world"--a man of wealth, with an annual income of 15,000 dollars.
Just prior to this he had married a charming and accomplished Jewess. In
the matter of religion he had wandered from Judaism to infidelity. Being
dissatisfied with unbelief, he began to "search the Scriptures"--both
the Old and New Testament--which resulted in the opening of his eyes;
he began to appreciate his own sinfulness, and was thoroughly convicted
of sin, the need of repentance, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. His
conversion took place on March 19th, 1895, and resulted in a most
striking change of both conduct and thought.
He continued to engage in earnest studies and to make it known to his
friends and acquaintances that he had found Him of whom Moses and the
prophets wrote, even the Messiah. Some months later he felt called upon
to announce his determination to forsake business and become a servant
of the Lord among his own people, believing he was being led by God even
as his forefathers Abraham and Moses.
As a result of his decision he was baptized, and set out to illumine the
spiritual darkness of "his brethren according to the flesh."
The Jews were very greatly disturbed at this conduct of one of their
prominent young men, and here the trials and troubles of Maurice Ruben
began. They made repeated efforts to induce him to forsake his "change
of life," but their efforts were futile. His wife ostensibly left their
comfortable home with her mother to visit friends in the West.
On a Sunday evening in August, subsequent to his conversion, he was
awakened from his slumber by the ringing of the door-bell. Responding
thereto he found himself face to face with two policemen. He was placed
under arrest and taken to the police station without a warrant of law.
He was given no explanation as to the charge which had been preferred
against him, and neither on Sunday nor Monday did a magistrate appear to
give him a hearing. He was, however, visited twice by two physicians,
who conversed with him in a mysterious manner. They introduced
themselves as insanity experts. Two days and two nights in a felon's
cell, with worse than a criminal's treatment, was a most trying
circumstance. Yet God was there to minister strength unto him. (St. Luke
x. 19.) He was visited on the second day by his wealthy brother, who
kindly informed him that he had been crazed by religion and was to be
sent for treatment to a sanatorium. He was taken that evening by
officers of the law to an asylum for the insane.
In the course of a few days he was pronounced by the superintendent of
the institution to be a perfectly sane man, but he was unable to release
him. His Christian friends endeavoured to intercede for him, but without
avail, and consequently this tried child of God was called upon to
endure the humiliation of five weeks' confinement in a mad-house, and
given the same treatment accorded to hundreds of demented folk in the
institution.
He was visited several times by his wealthy brother who offered him his
liberty if he would leave Pittsburg and go West, but he took a firm
stand and gladly refused to do anything except to remain in the city and
preach the Gospel of the Son of God to his brethren. A man of
considerable business interests in the city, Mr. J. B. Corey, finally
heard of him through the daily papers, and was led to call upon him in
company with a number of the officials of the institution. Mr. Corey and
the gentlemen found Mr. Ruben in his little room reading the Bible. A
short conversation satisfied the visitors that steps must be taken to
obtain the freedom of this man. Mr. Corey then instituted _habeas
corpus_ proceedings before the late Judge White.
At the close the judge frankly informed the wealthy brother and the
insanity experts that they and all connected with this outrageous infamy
ought to be sent to prison, and that the alleged demented man was saner
than those who had pronounced him insane.
Mr. Ruben at once began to prepare himself for his missionary work, and
sometime later opened up headquarters in Congress Street--the centre of
the Jewish Ghetto--and suffered much persecution. For the first few
years he was interfered with and maligned in every way imaginable. His
street meetings were frequently broken up, and he was hooted and stoned
by the Jewish element. "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall
suffer persecution." God, however, led him safely through all his
difficulties and trials, and enabled him to found the New Covenant
Mission, Pittsburg, Pa.[21]
[21] "The People, the Land and the Book," New York, January, 1906.
RUBINO, Dr. Joseph Karl Friedrich, was born at Wetzlar in 1799. He
became professor at Marberg in 1831. His intercourse with earnest
Christians at Cassel, and especially with a converted Jewess, known in
Germany as Mother Jolberg, led him to investigate the question at issue
between Judaism and Christianity for himself, and being convinced of the
truth of the latter, he made a public confession of it by baptism at
Cassel in 1842, and lived a consistent life. On the evening before his
death he said to friends, "No other foundation can any man lay than that
is laid, even Jesus Christ."
RUNHOLD, Karl Wilhelm (Zacharia Lehman), Ph.D., was born at Hamburg in
1777. His father was a silk merchant there. At the age of twenty-two he
became an evangelical Christian, graduated at Rostok in 1812, and
distinguished himself afterwards as a writer. He edited the
"Gemein-nützigen Unterhaltungs blätter," the "Allgemeine Theater
Zeitung," and the "Archive für Theater und Literatur" in Hamburg. He
died in 1841.
SACHS, Marcus, was born of wealthy parents in 1812, at Inowrallan in
Posen. His father sent him to an uncle to study at the Gymnasium and
afterwards at the University there. During his studies he lost his faith
in Judaism and became a follower of Voltaire. In 1842 he went to
Edinburgh and became acquainted with the professor of theology, Dr. John
Brown, who made an effort to win him for Christianity, and gave him to
read the well-known book of Abbot Guenée "Lettres de quelques Juifs
Portugais, Allemands et Polonais à M. Voltaire." After he returned it
Dr. Brown asked him whether he would like to read a book which defended
the Christian religion? and on his affirmative reply he gave him
Limbroch's "Amica Collatio cum erudito Judæo." These two books removed
his prejudices, and he then began to read the New Testament, and after
months of enquiry, deliberation and prayer he decided to accept
Christianity by faith, and was baptized by Dr. Brown, April 5th, 1843.
He then studied under Dr. Chalmers, and was licensed to preach, and
became tutor of Hebrew in the Seminary of the Free Church at Aberdeen.
He is described as a most humble and loving Christian man by Dr. Saphir
and others who knew him. He died there on September 29th, 1869, passing
away with the leaves of autumn, a ripe sheaf into the garner of God.
SALKINSON, Isaac Edward, was born at Wilna, and died at Vienna, June
5th, 1883. According to some, his father's name was Solomon Salkind. As
a youth he set out for America with the intention of entering a
rabbinical seminary there; but whilst in London he was met by agents of
the L.J.S., from whom he heard the Gospel and was converted and
baptized. His first appointment as a missionary to the Jews was at
Edinburgh, where he became a student in the Divinity Hall. He was
ordained a minister of the Presbyterian Church at Glasgow, in 1859. He
was then a missionary of the British Society in various towns, including
Pressburg, and finally settled in Vienna (1876). Salkinson translated
"Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation" under the title "Sod ha-Jeshu'ah"
(Altona, 1858); "Milton's Paradise Lost," under the title "Wa Yegaresh
et haadam" (Vienna, 1871); Shakespeare's "Othello" and "Romeo and
Juliet," under the titles "Itiel ha kushi" (_ib._, 1874; preface by P.
Smolensky); and "Ram we-Yael" (_ib._, 1878); Tiedge's "Urania," under
the title "Ben Koheleth" (_ib._, 1876, revised); and the New Testament
under the title "Haberith Hahadasha." The last mentioned translation was
undertaken for the British Society in 1887; it was published
posthumously under the supervision of Dr. C. D. Ginsburg at Vienna in
1886.
SALVADOR, Yonkheer Moses, flourished at Amsterdam in the middle of the
nineteenth century. One of his ancestors built the Salvador house near
the Bank of England. It is said that the Salvadors were direct
descendants of the Maccabees, the Saviours of Israel, hence the name
Salvador, meaning Saviour. Moses Salvador was intimately acquainted with
Pauli and welcomed him to his house, where they discussed the subject of
Christianity. The result was that he joined the French Reformed Church,
at Haarlem in 1852. For a long time after his conversion he used to give
Thursday evening lectures on Christianity, which were attended by
Christians and Jews.
SAMANY, a native of Assesso in Abyssinia, was one of Flad's early
converts there. He had to undergo bitter reproaches from his mother and
relations on account of his becoming a Christian, but his reply to his
mother was that he loved her now better than before, and that he would
take care of her. Working on his weaver's stool he at the same time used
to speak to his two sisters of the "pearl of great price" that he had
found, and they too became Christians. During the imprisonment of the
missionaries, he attached himself to Waldemayer, who was free. After
the arrival of the English expedition he went to the coast, where he and
his companion Petrus were met by the Jewish traveller Halevy, who gave
them some money and promised to take them to Paris. Not perceiving at
once his intention, they accepted the money, but they brought it back to
him the next morning, and as he refused to take it back, they threw it
into the sea, although they suffered hunger at the time. Then they went
to Magdala, and afterwards with Flad to Europe, and were placed in the
training school at St. Chrischona, near Basle. But as Samany could not
stand the climate there, Flad took him to his own house at Kornthal, and
was then obliged to send him back to Abyssinia. On his return he and
Agashe preached the Gospel earnestly to the Falashas. Samany continued
to do so even from his sick bed. Conscious that the time of his
departure had come, he asked that the coffin which he had before
prepared for himself should be placed before him, then saying, "Father,
into Thy hands I commend my spirit," he entered into rest.
SAMSON, Lewis Paul, was an English Jew by birth, the son of a Dutch
"sopher" (writer of scrolls of the law and of phylacteries). When a boy
he used to hear Dr. McNeile at St. Jude's, Liverpool, and in other ways
came in contact with Christian influences. When he became forty years
old he was asked by his children to hear them repeat a portion of
Scripture which they had been taught at school. It happened to be Isaiah
liii., and it proved to be the turning point in his life. Like many
another Jew, he could not believe at first that it was a part of the Old
Testament, but it led eventually to his baptism by a Hebrew Christian,
who was one of the Society's missionaries.
His public profession of Christianity made him an object of abhorrence
to his brothers and sisters, though later on they learned to respect him