A Converted Jew (2)

Smuggled Goods

My grandfather on my father’s side was also very religious. He had a farm which he rented out, and the rent supported him. He used to sit in a house every day which was close to the synagogue. There the learned Jews met together for the study of the Talmud and to ask each other questions. I am inclined to think, where we read of Christ meeting with the doctors, hearing and asking them questions, that the allusion is to the same kind of place.

My father and mother were very young when they were married. They had twelve children, eight of whom were living when at a later date I left my native country. My father was a wholesale woolen draper. The goods were all smuggled from Prussia. This was not considered any disgrace, or contrary to the Jewish religion, since all the towns in the Prussian territories did the same. My father went four times a year to Memel and Konigsberg seaport towns of Prussia, to purchase his goods, and then conveyed them to Petersburgh and Moscow. He was generally away from home about two months at a time, and sometimes longer. We kept four fine horses, and a man as driver, for some years. My father was very prosperous and accumulated a great deal of money but, before I left home, we were reduced in circumstances. He was captured in Russia by the Cossacks who were on the lookout for smuggled goods. He lost all his goods, and beside it cost a great deal of money to set him free again.

Blind Eyes Opened

I was the fourth child. When an infant, I had smallpox and measles at the same time, during which time I lost my sight. I remember my mother saying that the doctor who attended me said I would not recover, but if I did, I would remain blind. I indeed was blind for twelve months.

One summer day, the servant took me out for a little fresh air. As she was walking in the street with me in her arms, an old Gentile woman passed by and cast her eyes upon me. She stopped and asked the servant what was wrong with my eyes. The servant replied that I was blind because of smallpox. The old woman said, “I could cure him.”

The servant replied, “If you can, you would be well-rewarded,” but she also told her that she doubted her ability, as her mistress had consulted many medical men and they could do nothing for me. “However, if you will go with me, I will hear what my mistress says,” said the servant.

When my mother saw the girl coming and the old woman behind her, she was rather frightened, as the Jews in my country believed that many of the old Gentile women were witches. The servant told her what had occurred in the street between the old woman and herself. My mother then asked the old woman how this cure was to be effected. If it was by magic or witchery, she would have nothing to do with her.

She replied, “No, I will use simple means in your presence.”

My mother told her to come again in three or four days. Her motive for this delay was to write to her father to ask the lawfulness of it. The answer she received from her father was to this effect: that it was lawful providing that the woman did not kneel down to pray, or use any form of words, and that my mother would take good care to follow her father, the Rabbi’s counsel.

On the third day the old woman came back. My mother told her if she could cure me, she would be handsomely rewarded. The Gentile affirmed she could. She asked for a pewter plate, a piece of clean linen cloth, and a lighted candle. In the presence of my mother, she then took the piece of linen cloth, set it on fire, and put the lighted rag upon the back of the pewter plate. After the rag was consumed, it left a yellowish residue on the plate. This she took with a feather and applied it to the skin which had grown over my eyes, and continued to do the same thing once a day. After about two weeks I could see, although it left a great weakness behind, which I would carry to my grave.

The Lord used this weakness of sight to remind me of the superstition of the Jewish religion. Oh, the goodness of my covenant God in directing the means regarding His knowledge of past, present, and future! He knew what He intended to do with me: to call me by divine grace, to send me to preach the everlasting gospel — which requires much reading. Therefore, in His infinite mercy, He was pleased to restore my sight. Often I am overwhelmed with gratitude to the dear Lord while reading the Word. Especially since writing this little work, I have discovered so much weakness in my sight, that I bless His goodness for granting me the little sight I have, knowing that if He sees fit He can strengthen it still more. It has many times brought me to the throne of grace, to thank Him for past recovery and to pray for a continuation of the same.

— ES

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