CHAPTER I. FRANCE-ITALY-MALTA-GREECE. "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy, and I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease.”— ZECHAR. I. 14, 15. THE subject of the Jews had but recently begun to awaken attention among the faithful servants of God in the Church of Scotland. The plan of sending a Deputation to Palestine and other countries, to visit and inquire after the scattered Jews, was suggested by a series of striking providences in the case of some of the individuals concerned. The Rev. Robert S. Candlish, D.D. Minister of St George's, Edinburgh, saw these providences, and seized on the idea. On the part of our Church, the thing was done suddenly;" but it soon became evident that "God had prepared the people.": The Committee of our General Assembly, appointed to consider what might be done in the way of setting on foot Missionary operations among the Jews, were led unanimously to adopt this plan after prayerful and anxious deliberation. Our own anticipations of the result of our inquiries might be described by a reference to Nehemiah. We thought we could see that, if the Lord brought us home in safety, many people would 2 2 ORIGIN OF THE DEPUTATION. ask us "concerning the Jews that had escaped and were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem ;" and that our Report might lead not a few to" weep, and mourn, and fast, and pray, before the God of heaven," for Israel. We have good reason to believe that this has been the effect. In Scotland, at least, many more "watchmen have been set upon the walls of Jerusalem," men of Nehemiah's spirit, who keep their eye upon its ruins, favouring its very dust, and who "will never hold their peace, day nor night, till the Lord make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." It was a token for good at the very outset, that Dr BLACK, Professor of Divinity in the Marischal College, Aberdeen, and Dr KEITH, Minister of St Cyrus, whose writings on the evidence from fulfilled prophecy have been so extensively read and blessed, were willing to give themselves to this work, along with two younger brethren, Rev. R. M. M'CHEYNE, Minister of St Peter's, Dundee, and Rev. ANDREW A. BONAR, Assistant Minister of Collace, Perthshire. Mr Robert Wodrow, an Elder of our Church, whose whole heart had yearned over Israel for many a year, was also appointed by the Committee, but ill health compelled him reluctantly to decline. Being all of one mind in regard to Israel, and eager to seek their good, a few weeks sufficed to have every preparation completed. Those of us who had Parishes to leave behind, felt that, in a case like this, we might act as did the shepherds at Bethlehem, leaving our flocks for a season under the care of the Shepherd of Israel, whose long lost sheep we were now going to seek. Nor have we had any cause to regret our confidence, and one at least of our number found this anticipation of the Good Shepherd's care more than realized on his return. 1 Isa. LXII. 6, 7. As we went on our way through Glasgow, Greenock, and Liverpool, the members of our Church commended us to the Lord. On our arrival in London, the officebearers and members of the London Jewish Society, and many other Christian friends in the city, shewed us no small kindness. The Religious Tract Society furnished us with their publications in various languages. What we saw of the Jews there, and of the operations of the London Society among them, was very useful to us. Provided with Lord Palmerston's passport, and letters to her Majesty's foreign Consuls, through the kindness of Sir George Grey and Lord Ashley, as well as with letters to friends and merchants in the various countries we expected to visit, we were commended to the Lord in Regent Square Church the night before we set out. Many prayers also followed us, and the prayers of our brethren have not been in vain. We sailed from Dover on the morning of 12th April 1839. Soon its white cliffs-its chalky hills-were left behind, and after three hours' sail over a boisterous sea we landed in Boulogne. We felt, as the shores of Albion faded from our view, that we needed, in our circumstances, the faith of Abraham, when it was said to him, "Get thee into a land that I will shew thee;"1 for we knew not what was to be the result of our journeying among the seed of Israel. A pillar to the memory of Napoleon, upon a height near the shore, attracts the eye in approaching the harbour of Boulogne. No sooner had we landed, than the demand for our passports, the pacing of the gens d'armes along the shore, and the general aspect of the people, reminded us that we were in a less favoured land than we 1 Gen. XII. 1. |