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hath chosen-so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them." "Ephraim shall say what have I to Hos. xiv. 8. do any more with idols?" A change in many of their religious rites corrupted by so many centuries of isolation will arise. "When I will bring again the capEzek. xvi. tivity of Samaria and her daughters" (by the return of many of the ten tribes ;) "then I will bring the captivity of thy captives in the midst of thee."

53.

Under the similitude of two staves or sticks, another Prophecy assures us in connection with the restoration of the Jews, of the union between the houses of Ephraim and Judah. Their names are written upon the sticks by Ezekiel at the command of God. "For Judah one stick and his companions-for Ephraim another stick and his companions. Join them one to another into one stick, and they shall become one in thine hand. Behold, I will take the children of Israel, from among the heathen whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land, and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel-they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into Ch. xvi. 17. two kingdoms any more at all.” As a warrior at times, Jehovah speaks and declares how he will lead his people in the eyes of all nations. "When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man." " I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place

Verses 21,

22.

Mic. ix. 13.

them; for I have mercy upon them; and they shall

be as though I had not cast them off; for I am the Ch. x. 6,7. Lord and I will hear them. And they of Ephraim shall

be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine; yea their children shall see it and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord."

A sacred unity therefore of Religion and government under one king will exist in the newly-restored nation. They shall be no more at schism upon the orders of the priesthood, which really become in the lapse of centuries the preservation of truth, or when forsaken and liberty is abused, are equally destructive to its existence. One nation and one Church, obeying one real head, and uniform in their worship, will present a striking contrast to those years of turbulent warfare, and those centuries of desolate estrangement from the visible Church of God, which they have had and still experience.

How deeply does the Christian sigh for such times! Their influence would be extensive. More charity, and less scrupulosity of conscience, must result from such an example. Conscience in religious things is necessary, but it may become diseased. When this happens, what divisions, schisms, uncharitableness, falsehoods, faction, impiety, and hypocritical familiarity with God prevail! How wretchedly deceived are those persons who separate from a Church like ours, where there is pure doctrine, and the infallible authority of the word is alone allowed to speak ex-cathedra, and who seek to form new combinations of Christians! These persons only thoroughly agree in one thing, and obtain their dream of unity in hatred to that Church which has nursed them, whilst they differ individually from each other more than they dissent from her.

Gen. xvii.

8.

Gen. xiii. 10.

DISSERTATION IX.

For the Lord shall comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.—Is. li. 3.

THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF SOME MOSAIC PROPHECIES
-AN INTRODUCTION TO

5. THE ALTERATION IN THE NATURAL FACE, AND
PRESENT BARRENNESS OF THE HOLY LAND.

1.--PALESTINE, or the Holy Land, is a country of small
extent, lying in the Southern part of Syria, and reach-
ing from the foot of mount Lebanon in the north, to
the confines of the Dead Sea, and the mountains of
Edom in the south.
terranean sea on the
to beyond Jordan eastward, the whole country was
given originally to the first Jew Abraham, by the cove-
nant of God, and to his posterity for ever. It was a
land of great natural prosperity at the time, from the
salubrity of its climate and the fertility of the seasons.
Two harvests were not unfrequently reaped from the
ground in one year. The valley of the Dead Sea was
like the garden of Eden in its beauty and abundance
before its destruction. Every valley possessed its pe-

From the borders of the Medicoast of Zidon and Jean d'Acre

culiar soil and productions. The numerous chains of mountains drew down two annual rainy seasons into their capacious bosoms, and the quickening rays of a more than northern sun, warmed and kindled within the rich soil of every little nook and retired covert, the luxuriant fruitfulness of each species of fruit known to either temperate or Indian climates. It was "a good land," "a land flowing with milk and honey," in the abundance of the herbage which it presented to the numerous herds of cattle and sheep, which could be thus kept at little expence and great profit; and its loaded with the scent of the numerous very air was honey bees, whose labours were shortened and whose swarms multiplied without number, by the ever changeful yet never removed carpet of flowers which nature was always busy in spreading upon every portion of the country. Grapes were so abundant as to be a proverb for their luxuriance. And so common even now, as to be used by boiling like a kind of thick syrrup at every meal.* Corn and cattle, the two great sources of wealth to every country, were the staple commodities of the land. It seems to have been one of the earliest regions which man inhabited after the flood, and to have yielded for the longest period the pristine vigour of nature to man, after his life and strength were wisely diminished by God's providence from the era of the deluge. Giants, and men of might, the awful fathers of the present nations in Europe and the East, there strode in solemn dignity, or reposed amid the shadows of its hills and vast forest trees. after these mighty forms had been gradually removed,

And

* Elliott.

I

Deut. iii. 11, 13.

32.

their posterity still remained, and slowly became in each generation of less stature, amid the mountains of Palestine, when in every other part of the world the Numb. xiii. gigantic offspring was extinct. Natural causes operated to preserve such a race, and the atmosphere of the primeval earth still appeared to linger for several centuries around the deep vales and lofty pinnacles of this most lovely and most heathful of all lands, and at last. deserted them with regret.

In the possession of the Israelites, its natural powers of fertility became elevated to the utmost limits of prolific abundance, by the industry and perseverance of that nation. As each man became a small proprietor, so every family possessed an inheritance of ground which was made in all its capabilities a lovely garden. The sides of the roughest mountains were ornamented with wide terraces, which upheld the rich mould of a successive range of gardens, extending from the deep bosom of the valley to the cool and rocky pinnacles of the mountain. Each terrace as it rose into a cooler atmosphere, bore upon its breast a different crop, and was arrayed in the colours of every species of fruit, from the Pine-apple, that ripened in the sultry heat of the lowest regions, to the blushing orchard apple, and humbler berries of our own gardens, whose cool juices required the bracing atmosphere of the higher parts of the mountain ranges. Thus every portion of the land as a hanging or a wide extended garden, sent up a constant cloud of fragrance, like the incense of prayerful thanksgiving unto Him who was in a peculiar sense the Giver of all, and the king of this country.

It was a land of miracle from that awful day when

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