Continental Sabbath-Keepers.
In an article on the Biblical Sabbath in the Jewish Chronicle of the 2d of July, Dr. Benisch thus writes of the Continental Christian Sabbath-keepers of Europe:— “This class of ‘Judaisers,’ as their opponents would sneeringly call them, have only in our day made a public profession of this doctrine, because the principle of religious liberty recently established in some continental countries permitted them to throw off the mask of conformity which they were compelled to assume in consequence of the fierce persecution to which the dominant religion had subjected them. It is, for instance, certain that the interior of Russia harbors a considerable number of Christians of this class, known by the name of Sabbotnicki (keepers of the Sabbath), who, however, being subject to cruel penal laws, dare not publicly follow their convictions. Thus we are informed by a cotemporary that in several villages of the Paulow district, four hundred persons have been arrested who belong to the sect of the so-called Jewish Christians. They came to Novgorod from Kieff in the 14th century, and greatly multiplied in the reign of Iwan III. The Court of Charkoff considers that if all these sectaries had to be punished, the population of whole villages would have to be transported to the Caucasus. Something similar is just now being reported from Hungary. A paper published at Buda-Pest very recently gave a lengthy and most interesting account of a body of Magyars who, now that religious toleration has become a reality in that kingdom, have come forward with the confession that in conformity with the creed held by their fathers for generations, they have at all times celebrated the Sabbath—in secret of course—and wish now to do so publicly.”—Sabbath Memorial.