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his attention, he thus cursorily disposes of this important question:-"The Jews exhibit one of the most striking instances of national formation, unaltered by the most various changes. They have been scattered for ages over the face of the whole earth; but their peculiar religious opinions and practices have kept the race uncommonly pure.' Now it must be admitted, that this, so far, is not very philosophical. It is merely saying they are separate, because they are separate. The question is, how came they to adhere, so strictly and so long, to their peculiar religious opinions and practices, under the various circumstances of their outward condition? The Romans adopted the opinions and practices of the Greeks; the Goths those of the Romans: and when Christianity was promulgated, Greeks, and Romans, and Goths, adopted the opinions and practices of certain poor Galileans. How is it, then, that the Jews, scattered among all these nations, have kept aloof from them all, retaining their own peculiar opinions and practices? Surely it is not too much to expect that a philosopher, in assigning any reason whatever for their so doing, would, if he could, give a better reason than that they did so because they did so; and, therefore, surely it is not too much to conclude, that since he does not give a better, he has none better to give. And thus we perceive how a well-informed, acute, and useful man—a great man, so long as he confines himself to his legitimate sphere-unwittingly brings glory to God by his own discomfiture, when he presumes to assail that holy ground, which Jehovah hath consecrated to place his name there.

It may be urged, that the writer's object was simply to enumerate, among the varieties of organization, that one exhibited by the Jews, and not at all to discuss the question of why they continue a separate people. To what purpose, then, is their separation spoken of at all? Still more: Why is any reason assigned for it? The truth is, the separate state of the Jewish people, in opinion and practice, is too closely connected with the evidences for the inspiration of the Scripture, to be a matter of real, however it may be of affected indifference, to any of our modern Sadducees.

"There hath visited us a preacher such as never preached to a reckless world before, on repentance and judgment to come, since the days of Noah; a preacher who bears the sign of his commission stamped upon the man, both in body and in mind; a preacher who, like Adam, can speak from experience, of the sorrows of ruin and degradation: a preacher who has been preaching ever since the church of Christ upon earth began, and shall preach until the end draw nigh. What? is there in* Lawrence on Physiology, &c.—Page 468.—Edit. 3.

deed a corner of Christendom unpenetrated by that mysterious stranger, who, bearing in his peculiar features the lineaments of Abraham, and thus at a glance announcing to us from what high estate he hath fallen; cherishing in his spirit all the sullen pride of ruined greatness; exhibiting in his dealings all the caution and timidity of the despised stranger! attracting by his attachment to the carnalities of his abrogated law, continued mockery and derision; moving by his superstition, his obstinacy, and his blindness, the pity of some, the contempt of others, the neglect of all; deprived even of the only ordained assurance of pardon, by being denied all means of sacrifice;and holding in his hand the word of God, without a spirit to understand it;-is there, indeed, any church in Christendom, before which the Jew, this awful monitor, has never appeared? Oh! his prophetical character seems to cling to him still; everywhere he appears as God's herald to warn against disobedience, to proclaim his judgments; and wherever he appears, there should be, as in the presence of the prophets of old, humiliation and awe. Thus doth this preacher, traversing daily Christ's kingdom, unceasingly admonish churches and individuals; and, standing in our luxurious cities, should be to us as Jonah amid Nineveh, summoning us to repentance and mourning."*

Thus they remain, present in all countries, and with a home in none: intermixed, and yet separated: neither amalgamated nor lost; but like those mountain streams which are said to pass through lakes of another kind of water, and keep a native quality to repel commixture, they hold communication without union, and may be traced, as rivers without banks, in the midst of the alien element which surrounds them.

Yes, my brethren, only the hand of God can do this. The Jew remains a problem which infidelity can never solve. A nation, now in the close of the eighteenth century of her dispersion, as distinct from the fluctuating multitudes of the nations, as the islands of the ocean are from the surrounding waves. The waves rise and fall, rage and subside again into quietness; but the firm rooted rocks of the islands remain unmoved. The empires of the earth, from Nimrod to Napoleon, like the waves of the sea, have chafed each their little hour of rage (rage, too, in persecuting bitterness) against the rock of Judah and have each sunk out of vision to rise no more. But the Jewish nation, the mountain of the Lord's house, based on a sure foundation, has stood, and stands, and will stand established in the top of the mountains, that all the earth may know and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the * The Church of God-by the Rev. R. W. Evans, p. 89.

Lord hath done it, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it, according as it is written: "This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise."

It is upon the vehicle of this nation, then, that we carry you forward to one of the most indisputable arguments for the literal interpretation of the prophecies, concerning the second coming of Christ. For, let us ask, to what end has this nation been so preserved?

Is there not in the mere historical fact thus detailed to you, a presumption that they have been kept for some purpose? It would seem to have been interference in vain to have kept them thus separate, if, after all, they were to change with the course of time, and finally pass away like other nations, or be converted by the ordinary means into the Christian church. But if this nation is still to continue a nation,-still to be distinct from all other people,—if they are to continue to have a land, which, though they be exiles from it, is still their land, -if they have a tenure of that land in the sure purpose and promise of God,-if they have a king, who, though absent, is still their king, and who shall reign over them on the throne of David for ever,-then we see a reason, an adequate, a glorious reason, why they should be kept on earth,-apart from the nations; ready for their king, while he is kept in heaven, ready for them; and when he returns, then shall they be gathered from the nations to meet their king, and they shall acknowledge him as "THE LORD THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS, "and they shall say in his praise, "not, the Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, the Lord liveth, which brought up, and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land." Jer. xxiii. 6-8.

III. This is the subject we now turn to, namely, the predicted glory and blessedness of Israel, at the second coming of her glorious Messiah.

"All Israel shall be saved," saith the Apostle in our text. I do not at present enter into the question suggested by the expression, "in part," in this passage. "Blindness in part hath happened to Israel." It refers to the difference between the nation which was cast away, and that remnant which was not cast away, but which formed a part of the Christian church, and one member of which was St. Paul himself. Rom. xi. 1-5.

What I wish now to fix your attention upon, is the Jewish nation, as such. Blindness is come upon them, and will remain upon them, until the Gentile times are fulfilled; and then all Israel shall be saved, because then the King of Israel, the

Deliverer, the Redeemer, shall return, as it is written. This is written, as we have seen, in the fifty-ninth chapter of Isaiah, and therefore (it is important to observe this), that prophecy cannot be applied to the first coming of Christ, by any ingenuity of figurative or spiritual application; because St. Paul, writing subsequent to the first coming, quotes the prophecy as unfulfilled in his days; and as there has been no coming of the Redeemer to Zion since then, it follows that the prophecy is still unfulfilled.

We now refer to the particulars of that prophecy, where, after a description of the most awful judgments poured out upon Israel, we find the Lord turning his hand and proclaiming that they shall fear him, and come and return to him. "So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob;" or, as the Apostle quotes it, "shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." "As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; my spirit which is upon thee, and my words which I have put into thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever. When he shall turn them to the knowledge of Jesus, and take away all their sin by that blood which alone can cleanse from any sin, then this shall be his covenant,-that his word which he hath put into their mouth shall not depart out of it for ever.

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Mark, then, the Divine ecstasy of Isaiah in what follows concerning his beloved nation, and what forms, you will observe, a part of that prophecy, which we have already proved to be still unfulfilled. Carried forward by the Divine Spirit to the period of its fulfilment, and having the restored nation before him, with the Redeemer come to Zion; the Prophet addresses her as emerging from the darkness in which she has been hitherto enveloped, and causing light and glory, and beauty to stream forth from her, on every side. Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Then, before he proceeds with his strain, he glances back at the state of the world up to the period of this great event. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. Then to leave it as little ambiguous as possible, that it is the Jewish nation which is thus addressed, he adds, And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

The description of prevailing darkness in this passage does, indeed, present a difficulty at first sight, in the way of our interpretation. For, however characteristic such a description may be of the state of things previous to the first coming of our Lord, the general supposition (adopted without examination, and fostered in self-love) is, that it is not at all applicable to the existing state of things in these enlightened days. My brethren, there is something divinely significant in the Apostle's warning to the Gentile churches: Be not wise in your own conceits. Much that men call light is pronounced, by the word of God, to be darkness; and we hesitate not to declare, without the slightest risk of scriptural refutation; that darkness, gross darkness, is the true characteristic of the people of all lands to this day, not excepting the most favoured country in Christendom, and the most educated classes in that country.

General information, useful knowledge, liberality of sentiment, no bigotry, all creeds alike,-these compose the great Diana of our modern Ephesians. And what is general information, when thus divested of true religion? What are natural philosophy and natural history, however accurately investigated and luminously displayed, without the saving knowledge of God? If they deserve the name of light at all, it is but the coruscation of a meteor, to be succeeded by enduring darkness. Where is the philosopher, whose attainments in general knowledge can be compared with those of Beelzebub, who is, nevertheless, the prince of darkness? We do not depreciate natural science. In her own place, and for her legitimate ends, she commands our most cordial admiration, and most strenuous support. It is a slander, an unfounded and wilful slander against true religion, to say that she either fears, or frowns on, sound philosophy. But when science would usurp the seat and sceptre of revelation, and teach men to be proud of their own intellect, without or against God, it is the province of true religion to tell the usurper plainly that her boasted light is darkness, and to sound in her ear the words of the living God, whether she will hear, or whether she will forbear. Be hold all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in

sorrow.

And as for much that is called religion in the land, is it indeed light, the true light of the everlasting gospel of God? I am aware that it is called by a variety of most agreeable names, as charity, liberality, toleration: but what is its real name, descriptive of its real properties? My brethren, I say the truth, when I answer it is INDIFFERENCE. For, mark well the dis

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