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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), August 1818, Edition 1 of 1, Page 532, MONTHLY RETROSPECTof PUBLIC AFFAIRS; OR, The Christian's Survey of the Political World.

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    • MONTHLY RETROSPECTof PUBLIC AFFAIRS; OR, The Christian's Survey of the Political World.
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      Untitled Article

      ( 53 £ )

      Untitled Article

      AMONG the many disgraceful circumstances / which marked the character of pretended Christians in the dark ages , their treatment of the Jews is a strong- instance of tbeir departure from the principles of him , whom they affected to worship not

      only as their master and teacher , but as their God . Jesus , the author of our religion , under God , was a Jew ; his apostles were all Jews ; for some time after his death his society consisted only of Jews . The Jews therefore must be considered as

      the original teachers and propagators of the Christian religion to the whole world . Whatever therefore may have been the real or pretended crimes of this nation , to it we Gentiles are indebted for having emerged from the horrid darkness , in which the greater part of mankind was , and is now immersed .

      As Paul beautifully expresses it , we the wild olive were grafted ou the true olive , and he intimates pretty strongly , that the rejected branch would in a future time be restored to its original root . The miraculous dispersion of . this nation , and its adherence to trre divine laws propagated

      by Moses , is continually appealed to by divines , -as a proof of the truth of the Chris , tian religion ; but in their writing- * is scarcely ever to be found a hint of the great advantage of this dispersion to the cause of truth . They have been the guardians of those books , which all parties of Christians unite in holding sacred : but more than this , they have been and are the

      witnesses to the great truth of the unity of God , and the unrivalled supremacy of one only Being in the government of the world . If by means of persecution these witnesses had been destroyed five hundred years ago , thifl truth would have been in the greatest danger of being lost in the corruptions of the times : but the watchful eye of Providence preserved the nation , which it first chose , and which it will never forsake .

      These remarks ore suggested by a enriouife cause brought before the Loud Chancellor , whose decision has in part been g * iven , but part lias been reserved till lis JLordtthip has made up his mind more fully on th i >* aubjeet . TJie question js of

      considerable importance ; not so much on account of the peculiar matter in agitation , but as it tends to shew , how far the Christians of the present day retain those prejudices , by which their ancestors so much disgraced themselves . The case was this .- at Bedford is a considerable charity

      Untitled Article

      for the inhabitants of that town , in which the Jews , in common with the rest of their fellow-townsmen , were accustomed to participate . This participation it seems was not pleasing to some of the trustees of this charity , and it was determined , that it

      should no longer be allowed . Upon this , the case was brought before the Chancellor , and it was argued with great skill . On one side was brought up all that prejudice could suggest against the Jews , which \ f as refuted by the usual manly eloquence and solid

      argument of Sir Samuel Roinilly . One curious argument against the Jews is not to be omitted , founded on the prohibition in the Jewish law against the worshiping- of linages . Now , as an image of the founder is ordered to be preserved , it was pretended , that he could never mean that Jews should be

      trustees , and of course by inference , that they should not participate in Ins charity . The pleader forgot , that , in the most holy place , were two images , spreading their wings over the ark , made by two workmen , in whom was a divine spirit ; and also that the second commandment is as

      peremptory upon Christians as Jews . The charity consists in a school , to which the inhabitants of Bedford may send their children , and in donations according * to their distresses . The Chancellor has decided , that the Jewish youth shall not have access to the schools ; but their

      participation in the other parts of the bequest he has left to a farther opportunity . Now this rejection of the Jews from the benefit of education , seems to have been dictated by the . same spirit which presides over what are falsely called the national schools ; and we should have thought that , when the Christians have been called uppn to contribute , and have contributed vast sums

      of money for the education of the Jewish youth in the principles of the Christian religion , this opportunity of giving * them education would rather have been sought after than rejected . For , it is from the

      Jewish parent , that we . should have expected a repugnance to his children entering- a Christian school , not fro m the Christian directors to prohibit it . Tlje school is under certain management , and the books -to be read are under

      Christain direction . What injury the introduction of Jewish youth to the school could produce , we are at a loss to discover ; hut the benefit of it is visible . It would gradually subdue the prejudice * of each party agoioit the ether 5 uiid , if the Jews did not

      Monthly Retrospectof Public Affairs; Or, The Christian's Survey Of The Political World.

      MONTHLY RETROSPECTof PUBLIC AFFAIRS ; OR , The Christian ' s Survey of the Political World .

  • Citation
    • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1818, page 532, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2479/page/60/