greater wonders even than these. But, above all, the same Almighty Power, "he who stretcheth out the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him," even he himself must form within them that preparation of heart which he alone can. That also he will do, and the means are at hand. As in our own case, individually, repentance toward God, a certain degree of repentance, needs must precede our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; so with them also nationally, THE LAW shall be their schoolmaster to bring them unto Christ. What else may this passage possibly signify?

"And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out into the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: and the Lord thy God

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will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." (Deut. xxx. 1-6.)

Consider the position of this passage in the close of so great a prophecy, and surely it cannot intend merely a conditional promise, but rather an absolute prediction of an event decreed. This is one of those prophecies which ought to prompt their own fulfilment. The ultimate exaltation of this people must begin by a voluntary and profound humiliation before God, here, among the nations: by acknowledging the faithfulness and truth of Jehovah, both in the blessing and the curse; by confessing that they have walked contrary to him, and that he also hath walked contrary unto them; by accepting the punishment of their iniquity; by praying, Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; by keeping his commandments and his statutes, which are written in the book of the law, and turning unto the Lord their God, with all their heart, and with all their soul. Such was the posture of Daniel, and of the penitents among his people, on the eve of their emancipation from Babylon.

Long since the Jews themselves have had a proverb among them, that if Israel would but repent to-day they should be restored to-morrow; and it is a true proverb. The two houses of Israel and Judah (which, like the rest of the world in our day, no doubt are in a state of agitation and transition)—how far, I say, these, scattered so widely as they are, may at the present moment do absolute homage to the law of Moses, we of the Gentiles have no accurate means of ascertaining: we hear good reports, indeed, from some quarters; and if such a preparation of hearts which God hath touched, shall really be going on to any adequate extent; in such a case, their repentance being once begun, their restoration is at hand. Already the breath of heaven is in the day-spring of the east. The whole world waits. For what? For this repentance; only for this previous degree of repentance; and, ere long, the land which the Lord sware unto their fathers to give it them; the land from which they have been proudly driven, they shall possess it; "and they shall no more be plucked out of the land, which I have given them, saith the Lord God."

But if this degree of repentance be not yet begun, O what a work were here for an Elijah, if he would but come! He would turn the whispers of the prophets into the voice of a trumpet, the

trumpet of Sinai: How long will ye not be ashamed of this blind zeal for two laws? How long halt ye between two opinions? As ever ye hope to see your Messiah, hear Moses, hear the prophets, hear the word of the Lord; thus saith the Lord of hosts: "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb, for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments." Alas! will their Elijah never make his appearance? Why tarry the wheels of his chariot? But I remember Isaiah intimates, that when he shall appear, it will be in their own land (indeed, he must needs be a great traveller else); from the top of Carmel shall he hear the sound of an abundance of rain, the latter rain of the Spirit; and in the wilderness, and upon the banks of the Jordan, shall he preach and prosper.

And now, my brethren, with regard to ourselves: Be it that we are only sinners of the Gentiles, and that our forefathers were not directly guilty of this blood (a fact, however, the certainty of which belongs only to Him who shall one day assort their forgotten families; He who shall one day rescue both from sea and land the seminal atom of every glorified body, he only knoweth how far this is true), howbeit, their forefathers at least were the means of our being washed in that blood. Their fathers slew the prophets; yet, such is the

force of truth, they built their sepulchres; they slew even the Messiah, but they built his sepulchre also, Christendom. One way or other we are intimately bound up with this people; and our bounden duty it is, at the very least, to do all our possible to undeceive and convince them that Christianity is a system not offensive to God, not injurious to his ancient people; and, above all, see to it, that in all your intercourse with the unconverted part of that nation, you never derogate -no, not in the least degree, from the authority of the law of Moses: them at least it binds. Certainly, I shall not affront this congregation so much as to exhort them to leave off contempt. I know it is said that the Jew is still the butt of sport, and term of scorn, to the meanest of our people; perhaps, but certainly to none else. God in heaven be praised! that in this part of the world, at least, if the Jews continue, as they ought, separate from all nations, yet all others no longer separate themselves from the Jews. Scorn is no longer their portion. And let all Christians indeed be assured, that the Jews feel their friendship. How should they not? Are they not men? If you have despised them, did they not resent it? And if you honour them, do they not feel it? They do, they must,-the human heart cannot