ARE WE JEWSf 26* 



ARE WE JEWSf 



IN his Study of Sociology, Herbert Spencer imagines 

 * an independent observer, living in the far future,' 

 speculating in perplexity concerning the Judaisms of 

 the religion of our time and country. 'Yet,' says 

 this future observer, ' though the English were greatly 

 given to missionary enterprises of all kinds, and though 

 I sought diligently among the records of these, I could 

 find no trace of a society for converting the English 

 people from Judaism to Christianity ! ' This future 

 observer remarks with surprise on the rigid observance 

 of every seventh day, * which had been deliberately 

 discountenanced by the Founder of the Christian reli- 

 gion.' But such utterly rigid Sabbatarianism, such 

 inflexible woodenness of observance, as the inhabitants 

 of St. Kilda, headed by their minister, have recently 

 displayed, for the edification of the adjacent islands of 

 Great Britain and Ireland, is not supposed to have 

 come within the ken of the future student of our times. 

 On the 12th the Government gunboat ' Flirt ' arrived 

 off St. Kilda with seed, corn, and provisions for the 

 islanders ; and the commander, regarding the an- 

 chorage as unsafe, wished to land the provisions at 

 once ; but the St. Kildians refused to render any 

 assistance, because the labour might not be concluded 

 by midnight, and the next day was the Sunday. They 

 expressed their willingness to trust in Providence that 



