the opening of a channel in the Red Sea, the feeding with manna, the fall of Jericho, the standing still of the sun and of the moon, connected with their first being built into a nation, or where the united glories of the whole land as in the reign of Solomon?

Surely if any future event is plainly revealed, the literal restoration of the Jewish nation to their own land is clearly revealed. If the Word of God be the warrant of all faith and hope in what is to come, then have we full warrant to expect this. For my part, my brethren, I confess before you, I believe with simplicity what God has, as it seems to me, plainly spoken on this matter, and I look forward to it as an event yet to come with perfect and entire assurance. I call you also as Jehoshaphat called the Jews of old, Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. (2 Chron. xx. 20.)

PARDON AND HOLINESS to the whole nation are farther blessings here promised. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against me, and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.

This is the source and this is the crown of all the other blessings. This meets the deepest and the most urgent of all a sinner's wants. This

takes all the promises out of the form of a conditional covenant, dependant on man's faithfulness, and places them upon the immoveable basis of God's grace and truth.

We have here the two chief wants, the two great and most irremediable wants of men and of nations, their guilt and their pollution through sin, effectually provided for by the God of all grace. This is one of many similar assurances of his love to Israel. How strong, for instance, are the Divine expressions of grace to them! In those days and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found. (Isaiah L. 20.) And again, Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. (Micah vii. 19.)

It is indeed true that the Jews in rejecting Christ, and opposing the preaching of his Gospel to the Gentiles, have most awfully sinned against God. But here is the Divine assurance of forgiveness. The full chorus of all those triumphant songs of prophecy, poured forth in the richest strains of melody, by the glowing inspiration given to Isaiah, first breaks forth upon our ears in its heart-gladdening repetitions thus,-Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably unto Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that

her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. So in our text there is a repetition, an accumulation of expressions, and a fulness of statement, as if the Lord would dispel every doubt, and leave no room for mistake. The all is twice repeated; the against me twice repeated; the expressions showing their sinfulness are five times repeated, and all are covered and removed with pardon and cleansing; thus every desponding feeling is met, and full warrant given, notwithstanding all their aggravated and lengthened sins, for returning to God in entire confidence. Oh, what a Father's yearning heart of full love God has to his people, that above two thousand years since he should lay up this treasure of comfort for them!

But when will these things take place? The spiritual benefits of the promise are obtained by the believer in Jesus already. Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you, the forgiveness of sin, and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. It is for you, and for me, and for all who will now come to Christ. We lose no spiritual blessing of the Old Testament by believing the literal application to Israel. Come,

then, now to Jesus, and we too shall find rest for our souls.

If you yet farther ask when shall these things be realized in the literal Israel, through their also saying, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord? I reply, a certainty as to the time is not, I apprehend, to be attained. Our Lord before his ascension thus met this most interesting question, It is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power. He had, however, afterwards, as we see in the Revelation, the sealed book given to him to unloose the seals. We may have, I doubt not, such an approach to just anticipation as may very greatly strengthen faith, and guard us against the infidelity of the world, saying, Where is the promise of his coming? This I believe to be the very object and design of those numerous prophecies which have been called chronological, from the dates intermingled with them, and which we are assured at the time of the end shall no longer be sealed up, but the wise shall understand.

I would guard, however, here both you and myself most expressly against positively fixing dates, the exact knowledge of which God has purposely left in obscurity, lest we should rest in a mechanical fixing of dates, and be ensnared by a spirit of fatalism, and not attain that spirit of

dependance, watchfulness, and preparation of heart, with which our safety and spiritual prosperity are so much connected. Yet while I do this I am convinced, and I wish to spread the conviction, that prophetical dates are given for the use of the Church of Christ, and are to be unsealed in the latter days. And I add that as far as I can judge by those dates which are given to us in the Scriptures, to show the length of Israel's captivity, the time of their scattering appears to me to be just closing. I venture to proceed yet farther, and suggest for reflection and consideration some of these dates. Believing it to be calculated to strengthen your faith, and awaken your attention to the remarkable signs of the times in which we are living. I will suggest three dates which SEEM to have a termination in 1843; for our ignorance, and the obscurity of chronology itself, call us to speak with hesitation and real diffidence.

The whole period of Israel's affliction is called in the Scriptures the times of the Gentiles, and more explicitly, seven times, or 2,520 years. (Lev. xxvi. 18. 21. 24. 28; Daniel iv. 25; Luke xxi. 24.) If we reckon from the completion of ISRAEL'S captivity by Esarhaddon, 677 years before Christ, this period will expire 1843. Another period of 2,300 days or years is mentioned