position in which this hitherto despised race are now permitted to stand.* It is even said, though no official recognition of the fact has yet, as we believe, been published, that the whole of

The only instance on record of favour having been shown in former times to the despised Jews by any of the rulers of the earth, after they had been expelled from the land which God gave to" Abraham and his seed as an everlasting possession," is in the memorable attempt of the noted apostate, the Emperor Julian, who, about the middle of the fourth century, resolved to restore the Jews to Jerusalem, and to rebuild the Temple on Mount Moriah, which might eclipse the splendour of the Church of the Resurrection on the adjacent hill of Calvary; but as God's appointed time for their restoration was not then come, the truth of the saying, "Man proposes, but God disposes," was manifested by "an earthquake, a whirlwind, and a fiery eruption, which overturned and scattered the new foundations of the Temple," as the sceptical historian Gibbon relates, and thus the work was prevented from being completed. Gibbon supposes that Julian's object in this futile attempt was-1st, to throw contempt on prophecy, and the truth of that faith from which he had apostatized; 2ndly, as a polytheist, to multiply the number of his gods, by adding the national Deity of the Jews to those which he already owned; 3rdly, to emulate, "such was his appetite for bloody sacrifice," in the Temple to be built, the conduct of Solomon, who had offered, at the feast of the dedication, 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. While, however, Gibbon is compelled to admit the attempt of Julian, and to record its failure, as attested by Christian writers, such as Ambrose, Chrysostom, and Gregory Nazianzen -the latter of whom declares "the preternatural event which caused the suspension of the enterprise was not disputed by infidels "-it is melancholy to observe the intense scepticism of the historian with regard to any statement of a Christian writer unless confirmed by a heathen, as he reflects on Gregory's account with surprise, by saying "his assertion, strange as it may seem, is confirmed by the unexceptionable testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus." ("Decline and Fall," xxiii.) Connected with this unsuccessful attempt to rebuild the Temple, Philostorgus, an ecclesiastical contemporary historian, relates the following singular occurrence:-" At clearing the foundation, a stone was taken up that covered the mouth of a cave, cut out in the rock, into which one of the labourers, being let down by a long rope, found it full of water to the middle of the leg. Having carefully viewed the cave on every side, he found it to be four-square. This was the report he then made. Being let down again, he observed a pillar reaching a little above the water, whereon lay a book, wrapped up in clean and fine linen. Being drawn up, the linen was seen to be fresh and fair; and at the front of the book was found, written in capital letters, to the great surprise of all, but especially of Jews and Gentiles, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (Lib. viii. 14.) The truth of this story will be properly estimated by knowing that Philostorgus was born within five years after the event had occurred, and that he became an Arian. He therefore never would have brought forward such a remarkable testimony in favour of the Godhead of Christ against the heresy of Arius, unless it had been a fact.

Syria-in other words, the very land which God gave to Abraham and his seed as an everlasting possession-has been mortgaged by the Sultan of Turkey to the rich Jewish capitalists. If this be the case, a very important step has been taken towards the first, or political restoration, of the Jews to the land of their fathers. European nations seem to contemplate the nearness of the time for attempting this, if we may judge by the societies, which have very recently sprung up in our own country and elsewhere, for colonizing the Holy Land with Jews. About four years ago (A.D. 1854), The Official Gazette in Wurtemberg published some account of the plans now rife in that country for emigration to Palestine. A "Society for the bringing together God's people in Jerusalem" has constituted itself, and, among other proceedings, has prepared a petition to the Bund at Frankfort, the purport of which is as follows:-"That the Assembly of the German Confederation will be pleased, through the agency of the two great powers of Germany, to induce the Sultan to permit the 'Society for bringing together of God's people in Jerusalem,' to found communities in the Holy Land under the following conditions:-1. Self-government in all civil and religious matters, that they may be able to be arranged entirely according to God's word. 2. Security for person and property against the arbitraments of Turkish officials, and against uncontrolled and oppressive taxes. 3. Exemption from Turkish military service. 4. Guarantee of the same rights to every one who shall subsequently become a member of this Society, whether he may previously have been Christian, Jew, or Mahommedan, Turk, or foreigner. 5. The assignment of the Holy Land to these communities, in order that they may settle there conformably to the object and purpose which they have stated above." Who can hesitate to admit the significancy of this move on the part of the German people, as a notable sign of the times with regard to the restoration of the Jews to their own land?

3rdly. Another important sign is, the gradual gathering of the Jewish people in the land of Palestine. Whereas formerly, after the Roman desolation had commenced, and the Jews were prohibited from dwelling in the city of Jerusalem, to which they were so fondly attached, and were obliged to purchase permission even to gaze at it from a distance; and in subsequent years, when the (if possible) still heavier persecution of the Mahommedan rulers of Syria was inflicted upon the despised race of Israel, wherever the followers of the false prophet had sway, the Jews were either

excluded from the land entirely, or else they were there in such small numbers that they were unobserved and unrecognized amongst the mass of their conquerors, the present century has witnessed a marked change in this respect, and there are now, it is calculated, about 15,000 descendants of Abraham located in Jerusalem alone, who may be looked upon as a sort of "first-fruits" of that great in-gathering of the house of Israel, which the land, given to them as "an everlasting possession," we have reason to believe, is ere long destined to witness.

4thly. It is stated that there have recently appeared certain false prophets in the land of Judea, claiming to be the promised Elijah, like Simon Magus of old, who "bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one (Acts viii. 8); each one seeking to delude the people that he fulfils the prophecy with which the Canon of the Old Testament closes: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” (Mal. iv. 56.) That the Jews are yearly expecting the fulfilment of this prophecy is clear from what Mr. Herschell notices in the Jewish celebration of the Passover at the present day. He says, "A second cup of wine, called Elijah's cup, is placed before the master, the door is opened, and a solemn pause of expectation ensues. It is at this moment that the Jews expect that the coming of Elijah will take place, to announce the glad tidings that the Messiah is at hand; and notwithstanding the disappointment, year after year, his arrival is still confidently expected." (See Bickersteth's Restoration of the Jews, p. 157.) What a commentary does not this human ceremony afford on the above mentioned prophecy of Malachi?

CHAPTER XIX.

THE JEW.

The twofold restoration of the Jews to the Land of Promise-First a partial one of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, in unbelief-Afterwards of the whole House of Israel, accompanied by miracles-The lost tribes-What and where are they? - Mentioned in the Apocrypha - By Josephus -By Jerome Where distinguished in the present day - The Jews of Bokharh-The Karaite Jews of the Crimea-The Jews of Arabia in the time of Mahomet-The future siege of Jerusalem described by Zechariah-The Jews attacked by Gog when settled in the land of their fathers-Prophecies concerning their restoration in Deuteronomy, Jeremiah, and Isaiah-The future government of the Jews when re-settled in their father land as described by the prophets.

WE have thus learnt what Scripture says respecting the restoration of the Jews to the Land of Promise-we have seen the hopes and expectations of the people themselves respecting this matter

-we have considered some of the pregnant signs of the times concerning it, and we gather from a variety of instructive symptoms that this great event, of such immense importance to the world at large, is now nigh at hand. We propose, therefore, by a further analysis of the sacred oracles, to show what is said of the way by which the long despised and scattered children of Israel shall obtain possession of their inheritance, and also of their state, and condition, and employment, when resettled in the land of their fathers. It may be seen from Scripture that we have ground for believing

I. That there will be a twofold restoration of the children of Israel to the land of promise.

II. That their future government, when resettled there, is distinctly laid down.

III. That the Land of Promise will be redivided in a different manner from what it was in the days of Joshua, and become more fruitful than ever it has been before.

IV. That the Temple of Jerusalem will be rebuilt in far greater splendour than any previous one, and that commemorative sacrifices will be continually offered therein.

V. That the Jews will then become successful missionaries of Christ to the distant nations of the earth.

I. There are so many passages in Scripture which appear to speak of the restoration of the Jews, sometimes before their conversion, and at other times subsequent to that state of blessing, that the only way to reconcile the apparent discrepancy is to suppose that there will be a partial, and what may be termed a political, restoration of the two tribes Judah and Benjamin, on whom rests exclusively the sin of crucifying the Saviour in the first place; and that after attacks have been made upon them by the armies of both "Gog" and "the Beast," there will be the final, miraculous, and universal restoration of the remaining ten tribes, the lost tribes as they are usually denominated, when

Though we cannot pretend to speak with certainty where the whole of the descendants of those who are commonly known as "the lost tribes of Israel" are to be found, such is the interest concerning this wonderful people, that it is remarkable to notice how many works have been published of late years with a view to show that such and such nations are the veritable missing people. There is, however, good reason to suppose that they have never migrated very far from the original scene of their deportation by Shalmanesar, when they were carried east of the river Euphrates seven centuries before the Christian era. We read in Scripture that during the eighth century B.C., "in the ninth year of Hosea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halan and in Habor by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes." (2 Kings xvii. 6.) In the fifth century B.C. the author of the Apocryphal book of Esdras speaks of them as dwelling in the region called Arsareth, a great way beyond the river Euphrates." (2 Esd. xiii. 40-7.) Josephus relates that when Ezra received the decree given by Artaxerxes in the seventh year of his reign for the arrangement of the worship at the Temple in Jerusalem, he "sent a copy of it to all those of his own nation that were in Media," and the historian adds, "that the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country (Media), wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers." (Antiq. xi., v., 2) Jerome, writing three hundred years subsequent to Josephus, attests that in the fifth century, the ten tribes still remained in the land of their original deportation. (See his Comment in Ezek. xxxvii. 15.) The following curious paragraph, which appeared some time ago in a German newspaper, under the head of Leipsic, seems to confirm the opinion that the chief body of them have remained in that same country ever since. "After having seen, for some years past, merchants from Tiflis, Persia, and Armenia, among the visitors at our fair, we