p. 27 | TWO DAYS WITH A JEW by John McMillan

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 27, 1876

TWO DAYS WITH A JEW.

By John McMillan

SINCE spending the greater part of two days in company with an intelligent Jew, I have more of a realizing sense than ever before of the liberty wherewith Christ has made the Christian free, and I also have more sympathy for the Jews after the flesh.

Learning that we observed the Sabbath of the Bible, this Jew wished to remain over the Sabbath with us. He is a native of Russia, understands Hebrew, French, and German, and speaks English imperfectly. He was free to answer all questions, and was all attention to reason and to learn.

He was brought up in all the manners and customs of the Jews. But he says that a ten years’ residence in the United States, has told heavily on his early training; and yet the amount of time and money that he spends in Jewish observances would put to blush the professing Christian who pleads want of time and means to serve the Lord according to the gospel. Any one, on reading “the law contained in ordinances,” cannot help being impressed with its burdensomeness, but the additional burdens imposed by the Talmud seem to be beyond human endurance.

The Talmud is a Jewish commentary on the Bible, and, like many other commentaries, it makes many smooth places rough and light places dark. Many of its teachings are right in principle, but the practice is carried to such an extreme that they cease to be a virtue. One instance: It forbids eating diseased meat. In order to enforce this injunction, no Jew is permitted to purchase meat of any kind that has been slaughtered by a Gentile, nor are Jews permitted to slaughter their own meat, not even to kill a chicken for their own table. The man who kills anything for a Jew to eat must spend years in the study of anatomy, under a Rabbi, and must have his diploma.

In non-essentials, the Talmud goes to extremes, while it often passes over the weightier matters of the law.

The Jew observes to the letter all the ceremonial feasts and fasts except those that require priest and temple service; these are observed by praying for the return of such service. The culmination of all their hopes is the coming of the Messiah, when the living shall return to Canaan and the righteous dead shall be raised and go with them. They have no clear view about the future of the wicked, but they have no doubt whatever but God will judge righteously in the matter. They believe in the unconscious state of the dead.

With them Moses is the chief of all created beings, and his writings (the five books) constitute their Bible. It is amusing to see how they hide his sin at the waters of Meribah Kadesh. They claim that if Moses had died, and God had assigned no reason for his death, they would all have gone into idolatry, because they all regarded Moses as divine.

My guest gave a different meaning to the word selah from any that I ever heard. He said its literal meaning in English is “the song for to-day.”

But while I was amused and instructed by much that he said, the great object of my conversation was to bring before him the plan of salvation as brought to light in the gospel, without arousing his prejudices. In this I was successful beyond my expectation.

As the New Testament writings alone had no weight with him, my only hope was in proving a harmony between the Old Testament and the New—between the law and gospel. Having the “Home Bible Analysis,” I was able to read to him all the prophecies about Jesus and their fulfillments, in close connection, without losing either time or his attention. As I read Isa. 61:1, 2, and its fulfillment as recorded in Luke 4:16–22, also Isa. 53:2, 3, and its fulfillment as recorded in Mark 6:3, and many other unmistakable fulfillments of the prophecies which he was compelled to admit were written under the dictation of the Spirit of God, it was evident, from the changes of his countenance and voice, that the Holy Spirit was at work upon his heart.

When I saw that he was able to bear it, I read to him Rom. 11. This affected him. Mingled feelings of fear and hope caused tears to flow. He said it would be a glorious thing if the New Testament was true, and all men could believe and practice its teachings.

He expressed a desire to read more at length on different subjects of the Christian faith if he could have works in German or Hebrew. I promised to send him reading matter in German as soon as I could get it. A tract expressly for the Jews, properly written and distributed, with the blessing of God, might be the means of breaking the chains of prejudice with which early teaching and precept upon precept have bound the understanding of many an unwilling slave. Their rulers will probably never listen to the plan of salvation, but now, as formerly, the common people would hear it gladly. A convert from Judaism, with his former zeal for the honor and glory of God, would be a host among time-serving, ease-and-pleasure-loving professors of religion.

JOHN McMILLAN.