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moments of expiring life to have shared in the labours, and to have partaken in the triumphs of such a cause; and to be able to exclaim with Simeon, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation!"

But it is now time to draw these remarks to a close. I consider, therefore, lastly,

The connexion which the restoration and conversion of the Jews bears with the hopes and expectations of the Church of Christ, and with the future glory of the Redeemer's kingdom.

I leave to those who follow me the various details and circumstances, as to the nature and character of this millennial kingdom; and whether by a personal reign of Christ, or not, to each man's own peculiar view and interpretation. I beg here to express my own decided conviction, that if we wish now more particularly to introduce the Jewish cause to the conscience and hearts of the British public, we must do so in a spirit of calm and impartial investigation; with a constant reference and appeal to the authority of the Holy Scriptures; avoiding a dogmatizing spirit; allowing for many shades of opinion in a subject so confessedly difficult and mysterious as prophetic interpretation. But there ought to be an agreement upon the grand outline, or there

will be a want of uniformity, where uniformity is not only desirable but essential; viz., that all the hopes of the Church are suspended on the restoration and conversion of God's ancient people. For this she prays; for this she waits in anxious expectation; for this "the watchmen upon her walls" are commanded "never to hold their peace, day nor night;" "to keep not silence," and "to give the Lord no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." Until this event takes place the Church will be "in the wilderness;" in a depressed state; in her humiliation and bondage. But when the Lord shall have mercy upon Zion, she will then put on her "beautiful garments," and enlarge the place of her tent, and stretch forth the curtains of her habitations. She will lengthen her cords, and strengthen her stakes, and break forth on the right hand, and on the left. The conversion of the Jews will be the lever that will raise the world.

"If the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness ?"

"If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?*

* Rom. xi. 12, 15.

The Grandeur of this event.

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The Prophets, in contemplating this great event, employ the most lofty and magnificent imagery. Rapt with the vision of the glory that was to be revealed, they abound in sublime addresses, and in the most impassioned exclamations. "O Zion," says the prophet Isaiah, "that bringeth good tidings, get thee up in the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!"* Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy on his afflicted."+ And while Zion, remembering the long period of rolling years, since God hath withdrawn his loving mercy, mournfully exclaims, "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me;" he replies, with accents of affectionate regard, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold! I have graven thee on the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." "For thy waste and thy

desolate places, and the land of thy destruction

*Isaiah xl. 9.

+ Ibid. xlix. 13.

shall even now be too narrow, by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away."*

Such are the consolatory assurances of Jehovah to his people; while widowed Zion, seeing her long estranged Lord returning to her, and her children coming from afar, and gathering around her, lifts up her eyes with mingled astonishment and adoration, and exclaims, "Who hath begotten me these?" "What hath God wrought?"

Manner and circumstances of their conversion.

"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born."+

"And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east, and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south."

* Isaiah xlix. 14-16.

+ Zech. xii. 10.

"And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem." "And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one."*

That the Jews, thus converted, will become the great missionaries to the whole world, seems to be clearly inferred from the following passages:

"And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.”+

"Ye shall be named the priests of the Lord. Men shall call you the ministers of our God."‡

"In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you for we have heard that God is with you." §

Who so fit to proclaim the glad tidings of the Gospel, as the illustrious monuments of its transforming power and grace? From what lips can divine truth flow more persuasively, than where the heart is overpowered with gratitude and love? Scattered, too, as they are among all nations, their conversion will consequently exhibit so universal a spectacle of the power, faithfulness, mercy, and † Exod. xix. 6.

*Zech. xiv. 4. 8, 9.
Isaiah Ixi. 6.

§ Zech. viii. 23.

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