On another occasion he slipped away from a marriage feast at which he had been present. He was soon missed; and one and another of the guests exclaimed at once, 'Where is the Rabbi V' A search was made, but nowhere could he be found. At length some one inquired, 'Have you been to the synagogue?' The parents of the bridegroom and bride caught at the suggestion — they hastened thither, and there they found him in the dark, engaged in prayer. They entreated him to rejoin the party and to bless the youthful couple with his presence. He replied, ' No, I cannot. You are joyful as is befitting the occasion of your meeting, but my heart is sad— sad; sad, when I think of the condition of my people.' They still urged him; when, to meet their wishes, he consented to rejoin the party on the condition that all music should be laid aside. A marriage party without music was an incident almost unknown amongst the Jews; but such was the attachment of his flock to the Rabbi, that the concession was made at once. And on his rejoining the party, marked attention was given to several addresses which he delivered, in the course of the evening, on the sins to which they and their nation were addicted.
Religion is the same in all, however different may be its manifestations in different circumstances; and I was informed that similar manifestations of its influence were not uncommon amongst the more humble of the Rabbies.
There was at that time a very prevalent expectation that the Messiah would appear in the course of that year. The expectation was founded on calculations made by many of the Taltnudists, from data drawn from prophecies in the Old Testament Scriptures; and I was told of one learned Talmudist, who had declared that if the Messiah did not appear in the course of that year, they were shut up to the conclusion that he must have already come; and if so, that Jesus of Nazareth must have been he. I have had no opportunity of learning the effects of the disappointment which followed this expectation.
Amongst the more learned of the Jews in those regions, I have reason to believe there were many who were not satisfied with Judaism. I made the acquaintance of one sing in the fact that they are everywhere spoken against; but that those who have suffered from what they are pleased to call their extortionate dealings, like the innocent fleeced lambs in Britain who sow not neither do they spin, but borrow from the Jews, have only themselves to blame for the calamities which have come upon such, — Dr Levaison, a learned Rabbi, who was profoundly versed in the Talmud, but found in it no satisfaction. While enquiring after the truth at one of the universities of Germany, he became acquainted with a distinguished professor, whose theological sentiments have secured for him a soubriquet importing that he is a personification of Pagan philosophy He gradually imbibed his sentiments, and in proportion as he did so he had to give up his Talmudical views, but he still felt that more was necessary to enable him satisfactorily to account for all the phenomena with which he was acquainted. In this state of mind he met with a priest of the Greek church, who was in the suite of a Russian ambassador at one of the German courts. He, carefully distinguishing betwixt ceremonies devised by man and truths revealed by God, directed his attention to the doctrines generally received as evangelical, and convinced him of the truth of Christianity. Not having met with evangelical Christians amongst Protestants, he came to St. Petersburg in the hope of there hearing more perfectly the principles of the religion he had embraced.
I endeavoured to ascertain the prevalent opinions of the Jews in regard to the nature and character of the Messiah, and found that of the Talmudists, almost all expected him to be only a man; among the Cabbalists, m&ny expected that he would he divine; but by many of the Jews it was expected that there would be two Messiahs,— one who has probably appeared already, in whom was to be, and has been, fulfilled the predictions contained in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah; and another who is to reign for ever. The former, as might have been expected, lived unknown; but there is more than one individual known to Jewish history whose life is supposed to fulfil what was foretold. None, however, excepting Christian Jews, appear to consider that Jesus of Nazareth was he. This is not wonderful, as few have access to the New Testament; and there is amongst them a distorted history of his life, which is calculated to hold him up to the ridicule, contempt, and execration of the nation. With regard to that Messiah, I found it believed that his death would be as a sacrifice for the sins of his people, and not merely an effect brought about, directly or indirectly, by the wickedness of the nation.