IT is impossible to give the exact number of Jews living in the world, for the simple reason that no census can be taken of them. In fulfillment of Prophecy they are now scattered into the comers of the earth and the inlands of the sea Perhaps there is no country, no nation, no territory in which the Jew is missing. But recently remnants of the Hebrew race were discovered in Africa, and there are Jews in the interior of China and elsewhere. Everywhere the Jew witnesses by his presence in the great dispersion to the truth of the Bible.

Gentile hatred and superstition, especially m the middle ages, often attempted to make an end of the Jews. These attempts were the manifestation of the same power which prompted Haman of old to have all the Hebrews slain. Satan hates the Jews, because they are God's earthly people with a wonderful destiny. And he hates them because He who has defeated him and who will make an end of his power shortly, came according to the flesh from that nation. Often the poor blinded Gentiles, instruments of Satan, triumphed because they thought the Jews were getting less and less and would soon be gone from the face of the earth. But like the bush Moses saw in the desert, the fire burned, but the bush was not consumed, so the Jews were persecuted and not consumed. The preservation of the Jew is a miracle. Indeed, the greater the persecution, like in Egypt of old, the greater the increase. And what happens to the nations which touch the burning bush? Think of Spain, unhappy Spain. Over four hundred years ago they drove out the Jews from their country under the most cruel circumstances. To-day the sin of the fathers is visited upon the children. It is also said that Jewish financiers control every railroad in Spain; the whole country is unhappy and under a curse. God is faithful to His Word, "I will curse them that curse thee." Russia is an illustration of this word in our days. She is getting a part payment for her cruelty to the Jew, the balance will be paid on the day of the Lord.

That the Jewish people have wonderfully increased during the last fifty years is a startling fact. The natural increase is a sign of God's favor upon them as His earthly people, "like the sand of the sea" they were to be and bye and bye in the kingdom age they will cover the whole face of the earth, and as they were a curse among the nations so will they be a blessing.

Not many years ago we read in geographies and statistics that the Jews number about seven million. To-day no one would give this figure. The lowest estimate is ten million, and some state that eighteen and twenty million are nearer the truth.

The new American Jewish Yearbook contains the following numbers:

Professor Heman, of Basle, Switzerland, a man who has been deeply interested in the Jews for many years and who has given the subject a careful study, has recently declared that the Jewish population of the world is at least 19,000,000.

His estimate is that, in Europe 11,000,000 of Jews reside, and outside of Europe, 8,000,000.

The United States has 1,000,000. In Europe, Russia has 5,500,000; Austria-Hungary, 1,860,000; Germany, 568,000; Roumania, 300,000; Great Britain, 200,000; Turkey, 120,000; Holland, 97,000; France, 77,000; Italy, 50,000; Bulgaria, 31,000; Switzerland, 12,000; Greece, 6,000; Servia, 5,000; Denmark, 4,000; Sweden, 3,500; Belgium, 3,000; Spain, 2,500. Portugal has only 300 Jewish residents.

We believe the statistics of the Jewish American Yearbook are too low and the statements of Mr. Heman are too high. Most likely fifteen and one-half millions of Jews living in the world in 1904 comes nearer the truth.

The Jewish American Yearbook underestimates the Jewish Russian population and while in the main correct as regards Europe, the number of Jews living in non-European countries is placed much too low.

We think, from close observation, that in the United States over one and one-half millions of Jews reside, and they are continually increasing; Jewish immigration is at present very large again. The largest Jewish city of the world is Greater New York, over 500,000 reside in this great metropolis. The New York Jewish quarter is the largest of its kind which ever existed in the history of the world. It has its own language, the Yiddish, its theatres and a semi-Oriental life is kept up. Here, as elsewhere, they are strangers in a strange land, though thousands call America their Palestine and New York a better Jerusalem, still they are "a people dwelling alone."

The continued increase of the seed of Abraham is one of the signs of the times.