SOME weeks afterwards, when in Paris, I was walking along the Rue Rivoli, when I saw a gentleman approaching me whose face I thought I knew, and coming nearer I at once recognized the very man whom my uncle sent to bring me back to Judaism. I stopped him, and after having begged his pardon for so doing, said, “I think I have had the pleasure of seeing you in London.”
“It is very possible,” he replied, “but I have no recollection of ever having met you.”
“That may be,” I rejoined, and without saying another word, I took from my pocket the pencil-case he had given me, and holding it before him, said, “Do you know this?”
“What!” he exclaimed in great astonishment and delight, “are you Mr. M—? How happy I am to meet you again. I am truth’s captive at last; a Christian, a happy Christian.”
He took me by the arm and on his way home said, “When your uncle told me that you had become a Christian I answered that it would be easier to make me fly than to persuade me to believe in Jesus, but now I see what is impossible with man is possible with God.”
Arriving at his residence he introduced me to his Christian wife, who said that she had known me by name long before, her husband having always spoken of me in the most affectionate way. He then gave me the following account:—
“The conversation I had with you on that memorable day I called on you I could not drive from my mind. Your parting words, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,’ clung to me, and I could not get rid of them. My conscience became alarmed, and I accused myself for not having lived a strict Jew. I had of late eaten Teraphath or Gentile food, which I knew was wickedness. I had not been so regular in my attendance at the synagogue services on the sabbath days of late, nor put on my phylacteries during morning prayers, which I ought to have done; and so to quiet my conscience I solemnly resolved, yea vowed, to become more religious. I fasted once every week, repeated my Hebrew prayers with tears, and when I thought I had not pronounced a word exactly as it ought to have been I went over them a second time; I showed kindness to the poor, etc., and all this to my disappointment did not satisfy my troubled conscience or allay my fears. I felt ‘Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth’ (Psa. 40:1212For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. (Psalm 40:12)). I had no peace nor rest, and wherever I went I carried with me a sense of misery. I felt something of what Job must have done when he said, ‘The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me’ (Job 6:44For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. (Job 6:4)). Many times did I wish that your uncle had visited you himself instead of sending me. The very idea of becoming a Christian made me shudder, and yet secretly my desire was to become the disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“One day as I was in great mental distress I thought there could be no harm in my reading the New Testament. If it really was what I had been taught, i.e., a fabrication of falsehood, then it could have no power over me; but should it not prove to be false, then I thought my duty was diligently to examine its claims. With trembling hands I opened the sacred volume. No Gentile Christian can readily understand what a Jew’s feelings are when for the first time he reads the New Testament, and prays in the all-prevailing name of Jesus. In reading carefully I was very much struck with the truthfulness of the whole narrative. Jesus appeared to me to have said and done exactly those things which an impostor would not say and do; and after mature deliberation I was compelled to come to the conclusion that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and that the New Testament is equally with the Old the word of God. When I used to read Moses and the prophets, I always found that which I could not understand; but the New Testament sheds a radiance on every page of the Bible, making that clear which was once dark and mysterious to me.
“I had often read the account of the brazen serpent (Num. 21:6-96And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 7Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 8And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 9And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. (Numbers 21:6‑9)), but had never understood its spiritual import until I read in the New Testament, ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (John 3:14, 1514And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:14‑15)). I could at once see that what the brazen serpent was to the poor wounded Israelites, Christ’s forgiving love was to me a perishing sinner.
“I was more than once affected to tears when I read the lamentation of the Saviour over Jerusalem, ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!’ (Matt. 23:3737O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matthew 23:37)). The account of His crucifixion astonished me greatly; yea, I was amazed at His meekness and love, and I can never forget the impression His dying prayer for His murderers made on me, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ When I read these things I said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God’ (Matt. 27:3434They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. (Matthew 27:34)). The Lord enabled me to see the connection between His sufferings and my sins, and His gracious invitation to sinners in Matt. 11:2828Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28), ‘Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ I went to Him as I was; all I brought to Him was my sins, and them He washed all away in His precious blood, and sent me away rejoicing.
“Having found the Messiah of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, I was anxious to communicate His love to my relatives and friends, and to make a public confession by baptism. This I communicated to my family, and my mother, on hearing that her only son had become a Christian, hurried many miles in deep distress to see me.
“She spent a whole day with me, while I strove to show her that Jesus was the true Messiah, but all in vain. She then said, as she had spent so much time in hearing my arguments in defense of Christianity I must accompany her home, that she might invite some of her Jewish friends to argue with me on my erroneous views. We travelled by the same train, but my mother was so bitter against me that she would not share the same carriage. Here I felt that a deep estrangement had taken place, and the family chain was broken.
“Arriving at our destination, a private room was engaged at an hotel for the interview, and here for three long hours my mother and the Chief Rabbi of the city employed every art of persuasion to make me recant, but the Lord enabled me to stand firm and steadfast in the faith. These were sad three hours, they were the most painful I experienced in all my life, my dear mother being in tears all the time, while the Rabbi used every argument in his power against my becoming a Christian, but nothing could shade my faith in the gospel; neither the Rabbinical threats, nor the rationalistic sophistry could move me, and the Lord Jesus enabled me to remain faithful to the truth. I was baptized in the name of the Lord Christ, and eventually some of my family also became Christians, and my mother was reconciled to me, and what is more, at her death a New Testament was found under her pillow.”
And now having added his story, I feel that my own must here close. More I could have said, but sufficient has been recorded to show to my readers how greatly my brethren according to the flesh need their prayers and efforts, and how richly blessed is any word, when uttered in faith and simplicity, to their inquiring hearts. Besides this, I cannot help feeling that this truthful story of the faithfulness of God in helping His children in times of affliction, must tend to strengthen the trust of many who know what it is to pass through deep waters of trial.
Since my conversion, I have had one burning desire in my heart, that is, “to spend and be spent” in the service of my precious Saviour, by winning souls for Him from among scattered Israel, and by encouraging my Gentile brethren to make more earnest efforts in their behalf. He has already graciously given me many souls for my hire, and seals to my ministry, and I still look to Him to make these my last days my best and brightest in His blessed cause.
Looking back, I see the faces of those angel attendants, goodness and mercy, which follow the Christian all through his life’s journey; and I thank God that the prospect before me as the remaining years pass on, is of the mansions which the Lord hath prepared for those that love Him.
(Extracted).