amongst men which proclaim his power, and come forth like spiritual beings clothed with the apparel of facts, which makes them visible from the unseen world, to assure us of our close contact and immediate connection with the invisible and immutable God of heaven. Fulfilled predictions are as much mathematical demonstrations of the truth of the Bible, as the subject can admit. They are facts which prove other facts, as our own existence proves the existence of our grandfathers. Their study is accompanied with an expansion of mind as well as an enlargement of faith, and the telescope which has enabled us to behold a distant country and connect it with our own, can be the next instant turned upwards to a contemplation of those heavens, where the Christian shall shine and dwell in the stars for ever and ever.

Nor is then the practical use of the unfulfilled predictions to be neglected or despised. It cannot speak with the same authority, for in its minute details it is not history, but prophetic anticipation. Unless our judgment is in constant watchfulness, the imagination may become too ardent. Mistakes may result from many particulars, yet the great object can be affirmed without hesitation. The end, the glorious result, the change in nations is always most deliberately revealed, whilst the gradual process is frequently obscure, entangled amidst details, and purposely confused. Yet in this enquiry the state of our mind is one of pure faith. We believe in the promises of God, and therefore we seek and enquire. We become familiar with the different portions of the Scripture. Our minds are led to compare, reflect, and examine the smallest,

as well as the grandest outlines of the inspired pen. In every chapter there is cause for praise, and over all the spirit of prayer presides. The majesty of the eternal Godhead becomes clearer and yet more divine. The work of the only-begotten Son is associated with every portion of the enquiry, and his saving presence, like gold in the richly-embroidered garments of Aaron, pervades the whole Scripture. The Spirit of God speaks in every page. And the only danger arising from such enquiries is in that too highly elevated frame of mind these studies produce, which by rendering the Christian less careful of the petty yet important details of his daily existence, would have a tendency to make him less a practical and hard-working man in all things where his duty is found, than the Gospel and the Church design him to be.

DISSERTATION V.

Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress I will scatter you abroad amongst the nations. But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen, to set my name there. NEHEMIAH i. 8, 9.

THE TITLE DEED TO PALESTINE.

THIS passage quoted by Nehemiah, was delivered by Moses, about 1500 years before the birth of our divine Lord, to the Jews, on entering into possession of the land, which God had four hundred years before, declared with an oath by himself should be their possession for ever. They are the title-deeds of the Jewish nation to Palestine, sealed by Jehovah, and witnessed and drawn by the Great Legislator. If they existed by themselves in the Bible, the covenants of the Title having been performed, their possession of the land would be valid and undeniable. They constitute the leading point in my case for them, and as no Christian will venture to dispute the will of God and his ownership of the soil, none will dare to deny that if they fulfil the annexed condition, and seek God in a Mosaic

sense, the country shall still be their own, and they shall live within its boundaries.

There is no limit to the period of the prediction. It is so general that it touches both extremities of time, and from the date of its delivery to the end of the last year of this world, as there is no limitation of the nonfulfilment, so only let the covenant be performed by the Jew, and the Omnipotent and Immortal God is bound to effect his part of the agreement, and the nation shall be gathered into Judæa and restored. There is no curtailment of the promise in respect of distance, any more than there is any limitation in regard to time. Wherever the heaven forms the canopy of the earth, and a visible horizon is seen, however distant from Judæa, and under whatever polar or equinoctial skies the Jewish homes may be placed, natural difficulties, mountains, seas, oceans of sand or water; political obstacles, national foes and pagan adversaries, mahometan or papal cruelties; scorn, exile, poverty, or language, no obstacle shall prevent the accomplishment of the general and distinct promise. The Jew, if he returns to God in his heart, shall be restored to his own land, for his title to it and the means of obtaining it are both the same-the Power and the Will of Jehovah, the God of heaven and Creator of the earth.

It was thus applied by the noble Jew, from whose book the passage is selected, twenty-three centuries ago, and one thousand years after its delivery. Nehemiah, who filled the confidential office of cup-bearer to one of the great monarchs of the second empire, perceived that the main principle on which Jewish prosperity was suspended, could be discovered in this declaration of

the will of God. He therefore repeated it in prayer to Jehovah, as an argument which was irresistible with him, because it pleaded his own words, which were, as they always must be, a law, and the only irrevocable law unto himself and his own actions. The Jews had fulfilled the condition by repentance, and in a partial return to Judæa, God had convinced them that he could.

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never deny himself." A greater measure of prosperity in assisting them to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple was now sought by Nehemiah,1 as one of their NEHEprincipal nobles. And believing in the promise, he consequently addressed God to give him the means for effecting a visit to the land of Palestine, with money, and authority from the king to assist them, in erecting once more the Jewish state and people into some degree of rank and consideration amongst the nations of the world.

How well he succeeded in this arduous undertaking it is unnecessary for me to describe. We have only to peruse this precious chapter of sacred history, which in beautiful simplicity describes his own proceedings, to feel convinced, that the good hand of his God was indeed upon him; and that then as now, the Jew who will faithfully apply the conditional promise shall receive a corresponding reply, and that his nation will be restored, and brought by individual families, though not at first in all their millions, again, once more, and finally to the country of their forefathers, as in the type Jer. iii. 14, of their first restoration under Ezra and Nehemiah.

16.