s any whose names have come
echoing down to us along "the corridors of time." However, if the
Christian stranger should let his eyes wander thitherward he is to be
forgiven. Hebrew is a difficult tongue to follow if you are ignorant of
it, and, save where there is no singing, which is very fine, the reading
of the prayers is not very impressive. Nor do the gentlemen around, all
wearing black hats and silk scarfs over the coat, appear to be much
impressed. They sit with their prayer-books in their hands, in
appearance as calm and unmoved as real West-end Christians of
unquestioned respectability. At a certain interval the ark is unlocked,
the roll of the law is taken reverently to the platform, where it is
uplifted on all sides that all may see it, and then, when the reader has
finished, it is borne back and deposited in the ark as formally and
reverently as it was taken out. After a little while, as you begin to
weary, one of the individuals on the platform leaves it. He wears a
black gown and bands, he ascends the pulpit and preaches with his hat on;
that is the Rev. Mr. Marks. He is thought much of by the younger and
more educated Jews. As a preacher, much is to be said in his favour: he
is short, he delivers himself well, his style of address is popular, and
he gives many an Old Testament lesson. He demands of Abraham's
descendants Abraham's faith in God, and obedience to Him. The Christian,
of course, misses much. We worship a Messiah who has come; the Jews
still, with sad and weary eyes, look onward, waiting His advent.
Wherever civilization and science go hand in hand, wherever humanity
reaps "the long results of time," whether in the old world or the new,
wherever the great Caucasian race multiplies and nourishes, there, more
or less, is there a living faith in the mission of Christ as a Divine
teacher, as the comforter of human sorrow, as the healer of human woe, as
the model for all to follow who aspire upwards to heaven and to God. In
Europe there are 280 millions of Christians, and but very few of Jews.
Everywhere they are an immense minority.

"The cedars wave on Lebanon,
But Judah's statelier maids are gone."

The Jews are not a proselyting people, but they are becoming increasingly
anxious that the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob should not forsake the
God of their fathers; and about thirty years ago certain of the London
Jews agitated for a reformed mode of worship, as they deemed,