If a wise man should ask. What are the modern virtues? and should answer his own question by a summary of the things we admire; if he should discard as irrelevant the ideals which by tradition we profess, but which are not found outside of the tradition or the profession — ideals like meekness, humility, the renunciation of this world; if he should include only those excellences to which our hearts are daily given, and by which our conduct is motived, — in such an inventory what virtues would he name?

This question is neither original nor very new. Our times await the reckoning up of our spiritual goods which is here suggested. We have at least this wisdom, that many of us are curious to know just what our virtues are. I wish I could offer myself as the wise man who brings the answer. But I raise this question merely to ask another — When the wise man brings his list of our genuine admirations, will intelligence be one of them? We might seem to be well within the old ideal of modesty if we claimed the virtue of intelligence. But before we claim the virtue, are we convinced that it is a virtue, not a peril?

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The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent and Other Essays by John Erskine (eBook)

In the pages following this introduction, we gladly accede to the requests repeatedly made by our friends and co‑workers in the Lord’s vineyard, namely, that we should write and publish the life story of the Founder of the American European Bethel Mission, Leon Rosenberg.

The life story of this man is most unusual, if not actually unique. It represents personal experiences of a rabbinical student, who eventually became a veteran missionary of the Cross of Christ. It documents experiences which took place in two different “worlds” — the rabbinical “world” into which Leon Rosenberg was born and in which he spent his early years, being very strictly reared until he reached a mature age of twenty, and the Christian “world” in which he lived after his spiritual regeneration.

The latter part of the early years, until Leon reached his twentieth birthday and graduated from a rabbinical seminary, were spent mostly in the gloom of uncertainty, deep longings and inner conflicts due to his burning thirst for knowledge and his quest for THE TRUTH.

The depth of such a spiritual conflict is known only to those who have experienced it. The gap between Rabbinical Judaism on the one hand, and Biblical Christianity (which we might call “Messianism”) on the other, seemed to be insurmountable. The power of THE LAW, the rigid demands of the sages and their precepts, had already deeply influenced his life, while the Light of the “sure word of prophecy,” as given in the prophetic books, was hidden and the study thereof forbidden.

It is indeed a miracle when one manages to find his way out of the confusing labyrinth of rabbinical “interpretations” and “explanations” of the Holy Writ as contained in the books of the Talmud.

On the other hand, the sometimes shallow and dogmatic way of presenting the claims of Jesus Christ, as the promised and expected Messiah of Israel on the part of those who represented Christianity, served only to deepen the inner conflict of the one whose life story we are venturing to publish.

It behooves the biographer to acquaint the reader with some of the early struggles of the hero of this biographical sketch in his search for proofs, substantiating the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth, and especially His deity as the Son of the Living God. The frequently heated arguments with those who presented those claims, will serve as an eye‑opener to many, and introduce them to a type or kind of Jews who are Jews not only because they were born such, but are Jews by deliberate choice. (Rom. 12:28,29)

Rabbinical Talmudic Judaism is an entirely different world from that of Christendom. So are some of the customs and rites, as well as the significance, which this cast of Jews attaches even to their observance of the Sabbath and other festivals in their mystical aspects. All these facts will be displayed before the eyes of the reader in this unusual life story, and he or she will find it very enlightening and profitable. The arguments, used by young Rosenberg to defend his faith, and how he eventually overcame the obstacles and stumbling‑blocks in his path to becoming a Christian, will be of assistance to many who are interested in the salvation of Israel as a nation, and of individual Jews.

The acceptance of Christ as his personal Savior was really a triumph of the grace of God in Leon Rosenberg’s life, and a real proof that “the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Rom. 1:16)

Although Leon Rosenberg’s struggle between “darkness” and “light” lasted for quite some time, praise God the final victory was the Lord’s, because Leon’s rabbinical zeal was reborn with him and was sanctified and yielded fully to “show forth the praises of Him Who had called him out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

The two different “worlds,” mentioned earlier, had been packed with thrilling experiences which must be related in this biography as they are radically different from one another. The first “world” was the world of Leon’s early childhood and youth, which were spent in rabbinical training, in preparation to follow in the footsteps of his father.

The experiences of the second “world,” after Leon’s conversion, fall into several time spans, the first of which began in Czarist Russia, with its rigid laws prohibiting the spreading of the Gospel under Pobedonoszev, the Procurator of the Holy Synod of the official Russian Church, known as the Russian Orthodox Church.

The marvelous leading of the Lord of this missionary took him not only to glorious heights and outstanding blessings, but also into the depths of a Jewish “pogrom,” including banishment to Siberia.

The second time span of Leon’s Christian “world” was spent under the bloody Communist regime of Lenin with all of its horrors: starvation, imprisonment and even a death sentence.

The third time span was the time of Nazi cruelties, which cost the lives of Leon’s own daughter and her husband, along with many other relatives, of six assistants in his Mission, and of a great number of dear children of the “Bethel” Orphanage in Poland, who had to drink the bitter cup of affliction and death, together with millions of men, women and children of their kindred.

The fourth time span, and the most wonderful of all, was the one spent in the USA after the rebirth of the Bethel Mission there, and the establishment of the Jewish State in the land of Palestine. It was the best part of Leon’s Christian “world” with all the glorious experiences in the ministry of soul winning among many Jews in the USA and Israel. He repeatedly stated that the greatest lesson which God allowed him to learn through it all was that nothing in the world can separate us from the love of Christ. (Rom. 8:35)

Leon Rosenberg’s life was lived largely under the shadow of the Cross, and in many ways it can be likened unto that of the Apostle Paul, concerning whom the Lord said, “I will show him how much he must endure for My name’s sake.” Like Paul, Leon, too, learned to say, “We rejoice inasmuch as we are partakers of Christ’s suffering,” and that all sufferings for the sake of Christ “are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). He “banked” upon the promises “Who shall separate us from the life of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:35f.)

We are writing these pages with deep gratitude to God for His matchless Grace which has so gloriously enriched the life of this outstanding servant of His, and our prayer is that this story may be a blessing and a source of encouragement to all who read it.

Only One Life: A Story of Missionary Resilience (eBook)

I am about to relate what took place a long time ago in Ukraine, in an unknown but fresh and charming part of that country.

I like little-known lands. Travelers do not visit them. Left to themselves, they keep to themselves their retreats and their secrets, their flowers and their feelings, their hardships and their simple pleasures. Their history is not known to everyone. The customs of their people are their own; if they are proud of all this, it is without suspecting it. One finds there what one does not find anywhere else; people and scenes are new. These countries, without the world’s knowing it, oftentimes have their heroes, real heroes.

I admire also these heroes, especially if they are real heroes, upright and sincere.

When they do great things, they do not shout in a loud voice: “Behold! Behold! It is I who have done this! Come and reward me!” Being what they are, they cannot help being heroic.

But enough of philosophy, as my teacher used to say when he saw that we were not of his opinion. Let me relate the story.

In the little corner of Ukraine of which I am going to tell you, there was once a house, built like all houses in the country; and in this house lived a Cossack, Danilo Tchabane, and his family.

Do not, I beg of you, confound the Cossacks of Ukraine with those of Don, those bearded creatures with terrible round eyes, coarse speech, and impudent manners; they do not resemble each other at all.

The Ukrainians do not wear a beard until they are fifty years old. It follows that in this country you find either gray beards or no beards. The young men wear a mustache like the Poles. The Ukrainians are tall, strong, and slender; they have, mostly, regular features, clearly marked eyebrows, large almond-shaped eyes, a calm, noble expression, a little severe, which may sometimes appear sad.

Do you wish to know what the word Cossack means? Cossack is a Turkish word, and means “ warrior on horseback.”

During the time when Ukraine was a republic, and made war upon the Turks, the latter described the unknown heroes with whom they fought by the name of Cossacks. I will not relate all the wars of this republic; it would take too long a time. Suffice it to say, that for long years it was between two fires, as we say, great Russia and Poland. We might even say between four fires, if we should count the Turks and the Tartars. At last, not being able to agree with Poland, this republic had accepted the “fraternal” propositions of Russia.

“We are too weak to contend any longer with our neighbors. We have maintained the fight gloriously until now, it is true; but we will end by being crushed. Russia proposes an alliance with us, let us accept it.”

Thus thought and spoke the old Chief, Bogdan Khmielnitski, and the people agreed with him.

In the beginning everything was pleasant. Equality, fraternity, liberty, the Russians respected all; but, little by little, things changed.

In less than a year the people had a thousand reasons for asking their Chief Bogdan: “What have we done?”

The old chief, on hearing this, wept inconsolably.

“Let us try to remedy it,” he said, but he did not succeed, and died of grief.

After his death Ukraine had to undergo many trials. She was divided into two parties; one was for Russia, the other for Poland.

A third party was formed; this one was for the complete independence of Ukraine. Unfortunately, it was not very large. It is just at this time that our story begins.

Maroussia: A Maid of Ukraine by Marko Vovchok (Paperback)