wonder of the world" "Blessed indeed was that people who had the Lord for their God." To them pertained "the adoption" of sons, "the glory" of the Shechinah, the visible Majesty of God" the covenants of promise," renewed so often to their ancestors," the giving of the law" in all its accompanying terrors on Mount Sinai; they had the only acceptable "service" in which Jehovah would be approached, and "the promises," and the patriarchs, and last of all, and more than all, from them "as concerning the flesh," "Christ came who is over all, God, blessed for ever." Such were the Jews. II. WHAT ARE THEY?

Ichabod! the glory is departed; the ark is taken, the temple is thrown down; the holy incense ascends no more to perfume the mercy seat; the mitre has fallen from the priest; their nobles are led away captive; they have neither ephod, nor teraphim; the people are "scattered and peeled."Still they "dwell alone in the midst of the nations,"-preserving their distinct characteristic features, clinging to the reminiscences of by-gone greatness, anxiously expecting their Messiah, they know not that he has come "and returned to his place."-In the very language of their prophet Amos "God has sifted them among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve." They remain, a by-word, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse.' "Wrath has come upon them to the uttermost ;"guilt lies heavy upon their souls. For 1800 years God has been taking vengeance, and fulfilling upon them their own fearful imprecation" His blood be upon us and upon our children."

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To bring the astonishing contrast of their former glory with their present humiliation more visibly before our eyes; to realize the picture for a moment, as if their sorrow was our own; let us imagine the numerous population of this land uprooted from the soil of their fathers; that soil to which they cling with their deepest cherished and holiest affections. Suppose them dispersed and driven out, wanderers upon the wide world; every where insulted, oppressed, tormented, persecuted. Their very name expressive of all that is mean and despicable, cunning and rapacious. The sight of their misery so far from awakening sympathy, a provocation of further aggression.

Suppose too that we carried into the land of of our banishment the torturing remembrance, that we had once been the favorites of the Almighty; the depositaries of his truth; the preservers of religion; who only had the Bible, and its promises to call our own. And that now all this were reversed. God no longer gracious. The service no longer accepted. The Bible darkened in its interpretation, and the law and the testimony overlaid through human traditions.

"Our holy and beautiful house where our fathers served God, thrown down and razed to its foundation;""no stone being left upon another :" " strangers devouring our pleasant places." To deepen the shadows of our picture let us add, the sense of conscious unworthiness, and that our sins had drawn down this terrible vengeance: put in what Moses predicted,

trembling of heart, sorrow of mind, failing of eyes," and the bitter agony of a wounded spirit. All this may serve to paint the parallel. And what has brought these fearful judgments upon the ancient people of God? O hear and tremble; it is the admonition of an inspired apostle himself, it was unbelief. Unbelief turned all their blessings into curses, it can equally spoil yours. They thought scorn of that pleasant land, and believed not his word."- "Thou standest by faith, be not high minded but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he spare not thee."

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Again and again they provoked the Most High God, their Redeemer.Slighting his commandments, believing not his promises, rebelling against his laws. They joined themselves in alliance with the surrounding nations, they partook of their idolatrous rites; therefore God gave them over into the hands of their enemies. He brought them back from Babylon, and as respects idolatry, (the most grievous sin in the sight of a Holy and Jealous God) ever since they have been blameless. Wherefore then this last captivity, why this chastisement sorer than all which went before, enduring not for 70, nor 700,-but 1700 years and more; and still their cup of misery unexhausted? They rejected the Holy one of God; they crucified their Messiah; they preferred a murderer in his place!" not this man, but Barrabas."Then came the Roman army and burnt up their city; then one million, one

hundred thousand perished in the siege; then was there found no wood remaining to crucify them upon, no purchasers for their children turned into slaves. Such are the Jews since the day of their palmy greatness; we see them still, poor without pity, rich without respect. An innate feeling of dislike seems to take possession of the natural man when he beholds them. It would almost appear as another form of " the enmity" put between the seeds of the woman and the serpent; and many a one amongst ourselves may be conscious of the revulsion of feeling, and the struggle with his understanding it cost him to look with reverence and affection on a Jew!

Such they are, and they are more.A surprising change has come over their spirits. For a long time absorbed in the traffic of the world, "laden with thick clay," amassing wealth, and by their success only presenting themselves objects of temptation to the spoiler; the mind of the nation would appear to have awakened, and in some sense to be in preparation for its coming destiny.— Though still degraded, "and put with the dogs of the flock;" they are no longer openly ill-used. Christendom seems to feel some touch of remorse for their past treatment. Restless aud impatient as they have ever been, they can now talk of returning to Jerusalem, without provoking fresh persecution. The chains of superstition are melting away before the spirit of free enquiry. They are turning too from the fables and follies of the Talmud to the pure and unadulterated fountains of living waters. Many are already saying in their hearts, "who will shew us any good?',—“ Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon them!"

For the first time they have sympathisers in their suflerings.-Enlightened Christians are ready to aid their endeavours, cheer them in their hopes, and encourage them in their prospects of restoration. Societies are formed, in our own country, and upon the continent of Europe, for the purpose of promoting Christianity among the Jews. The Church begins to see her own interest in their future, and it may be not distant glory. Already there is "a noise and a shaking" amongst them, it needs but the sound of the Gospel, the word of preach

ing, to call them into life and spiritual existence, when "they shall stand upon their feet an exceeding great army."This respects futurity, and leads to our third consideration.

III. WHAT THEY shall be !—

History and the page of inspiration are full of the past-our own eyes look upon the present-prophecy unfolds their coming greatness.

Prophecy has been well termed, anticipated history, and to this I am about to bring your minds, that we may learn the destinies of God's people. But my brethren, I find that here I must depart from my design. My wish was in this my third division, to adduce from the Prophets, passages and texts bearing upon the restoration, re-settlement, conversion, and kingdom of Israel; to prove from "the more sure word of prophecy," though it be for the present "a light shining in a dark place," that these things "must needs be." The subject however will not admit of this contraction, it will not bear to be condensed: and the fair discussion would lead us far beyond the proper limits of a discourse, and the time usually devoted to this exercise.— The difficulty lies in this, that I should have to quote not verses but chapters; not from one or two, but from nearly all the inspired writers, from Moses to Malachi.

That the selection itself would give undue preponderance to one passage, leaving uncited another equally convincing. May not my object, which is to interest and instruct you, to awaken your affection towards God's people, and forward your zeal in their behalf, be better attained, if I can by any means induce you to search the Scriptures for yourselves, whether these things be so.

I promise you that if you will address yourselves to the task, with simple minds, desirous of knowing the truth, divested of prejudice, and willing to take what is written, as it is written, and under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, which you must especially ask for in prayer,—you will find_

1. The recovery of the Jews from their dispersion, their being brought back into the land of Judea, the re-building of their Temple, and the re-settlement of their kingdom under the reign of David their Prince, again and again foretold by nearly all the prophets from Isaiah to the

last, that is, as well in those who wrote after, as before their return from the Babylonish captivity.

2. You will bear in mind, that as no record exists of the ten tribes of Israel having ever been brought back; that rather they are considered as mingled, (not lost) amidst the tribes of the earth, so there is distinct and positive mention of the future reunion, of Ephraim and Judah, like the two sticks in the hand of Ezekiel; and of their being conjoined in fraternal affection, "Judah no longer vexing Israel," nor "the Jews having no dealings with the Samaritans."

3. You will perceive that while the inspired writers of the New Testament, freely quote from their spiritual blessings, giving full participation in them to "all the Israel of God," seeing that all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus," and 66 sure to all the seed," there remain behind blessings purely temporal, to which we lay no claim, no more than to their threatened punishments, which we have seen so literally fulfilled.

4. You will find the events connected with the second Advent of our Saviour God; the blessed hope of the Church, and his glorious appearing, intimately associated with their future fortunes, as speaks the Prophet Micah, "I will surely assemble of Jacob all of thee: I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah as the flock in the midst of their fold, they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. The Breaker is come up before them, they have broken up, and have passed through the gates, and are gone out by it; and their King shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them." (ii. 12-13.)

5. And you will see how in the wise fulfilment of God's designs, "that he might have mercy upon all," the final and general conversion of the world is reserved for them, who are to evangelize the earth. "The receiving of them will be, as life from the dead." "When the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass that tarrieth not for man, nor waited for the sons of men." When as the Lord saith by the mouth of his prophet Isaiah, "they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles; and they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord,

out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord." Then shall" all flesh see the salvation of God." and "the earth be filled with the knowledge of his glory, as the waters cover the sea."

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It has been already observed, that since the days of the Apostle, we see no such thing as national conversions. The work of adding souls to the Lord goes on quietly, silently, "one of a city, two of a family," as the Lord is pleased to give efficacy to his word. The stones are shaping in the quarry, and the materials being collected for the erection of his house. But when we see the Jews themselves go forth as Missionaries of the cross, preaching the faith which once they destroyed;" when "the Spirit of grace and supplication has been poured out" on themselves, and they shall seek to turn others to the Lord, then "shall ten men 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." Then "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.'

How admirably do we see them qualified for their task as preachers to the nations. No need of a second pentecostal miracle, as regards the gift of tongues! Gathered out of all lands, knowing all languages, familiar with customs, manners, modes of thought and feeling, inured to hardship and selfdenial, witnesses themselves of the power of converting grace, testifying what they know, not as proselyting to their own opinions, but declaring "words of life," in sobriety and truth; we may well expect great results to follow. That "the earth shall be made to bring forth in one day, and a nation be born at once."

Contemplate the issue of this wondrous dispensation. What glory will accrue to God? How much peace on earth, and good will towards men ! How all the attributes of Jehovah shall shine forth in more resplendent lustre before men and angels!

Then shall be fully manifested the riches of his forbearance, and patience, and long-suffering towards his prodigal

children now brought home, together with his electing love, wherewith he had loved them from the beginning; cared for, watched over, humbled, proved and chastened them, to do them good at the latter end.

Then the efficacy of that precious "fountain opened for sin and uncleanness for all the house of David, and for all the inhabitants of Jerusalem" shall be seen and admired. The value of the blood, the prevailing power of the intercession of the Saviour truly known; his ability to save to the uttermost, and the spotless garment of his righteousness clothed in which the bride, the Lamb's wife, hath made herself ready.

And the power of the Holy Ghost shall be alike magnified in their conversion from sin and unbelief, breaking down the stony hearts, giving them hearts of flesh; taking away all iniquity, burying their sins in the depths of the sea, and making of them, "a willing people," in the day of Christ's power and kingdom: enlightening, comforting, sanctifying, saving!

How will He rejoice in that day, that good shepherd, "who sought out his sheep out of all the places where they had been scattered in the cloudy and dark dark," who has now brought them home, laying them on his shoulders, carrying them in his bosom. He who wept over Jerusalem, when he drew nigh unto the city-touched with its approaching calamity, shall then be, "a wall of fire unto her and the glory in the midst of her," "he shall rest in his love, he will joy over her with singing."

The holy ones, who are said to have taken flight from the sanctuary, the night previous to its destruction shall now clap their hands rejoicing not over one sinner that repenteth, but over millions and millions of fallen men recovered and brought back, to make our happy family in heaven and earth. While all the courts of the temple resound with loud Hosannahs to the Son of David.

Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, the ancestors of this holy and happy nation shall join to swell the song of praise, "to Him that loved them and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and hath made them kings and priests unto God," and " they shall reign on

the earth."

Every motive calculated to operate on the heart, commends this subject to your notice. Whatever moves the will, excites the affections, strengthens faith, or quickens hope, will be found intimately bound up with Israel's glory. The honor of Messiah, the extension of his kingdom, the time when the will of God shall be done on earth, even as it it in heaven," depends on their prosperity.

We heard of, and thanked God for fifty villages in distant India, coming to the knowledge of the truth, and being solemnly baptized unto the Lord, through his blessing upon Christian Missionary exertion; how much more should we prize the calling in of the natural children, that more "labourers may be found for the fields now white for the harvest."

I call upon you by your zeal for the glory of God, and by the love you bear to the souls of perishing millions that you lay this cause to heart, and "first giving yourselves to the Lord," then seek to do good in every way you can to his people."

Think of the danger incurred already by our past neglect; remember those awful passages of just retribution upon Israel's foes, "I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease, for was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction," and “ I will feed them, that oppress thee, with their own blood as with sweet wine."Ireland has had no share in their biiter persecutions-nor has she been numbered amongst the ten kingdoms of the beast, Thank God for this. Alas we have still enough to answer for, in the way of superstition and opposition to the truth. Yet England who was the first to ill treat them, confiscating their property, and banishing their persons from her shores, is now also foremost in endeavours to bring them to Christ. The London Society for promoting their conversion, has been carrying on its operations for two and thirty years. More than forty Missionaries are employed, of whom 23 are themselves converts from Judaism; and about 3000 altogether have been rescued from unbelief, and baptized into Jesus for the remission of sins.

The Society employs no means, but such as are strictly scriptural and reasonable. You agree with the principles of the Bible Society. The Jewish

Society circulates the Scriptures, both oi the Old and New Testament in the language of their fathers, the sacred tongue of the Jews; and they are willing to hear, receive, and read the history of Jesus of Nazareth, whom their fathers crucified, when written in Hebrew. Upon the same common feeling of the natural heart, which clings to its early associations, we know that our fellowcountrymen in Kerry and else where, the Irish speaking population, will clasp their Bible to their hearts, and cling to its possession in spite of former prejudices and priestly denunciation.

I know you love Missionary preaching, and you have generously, from time to time, contributed to assist that most interesting of all our religious Societies, the Established Church Home Mission; now the London Jewish Society is equally desirous of preaching the Gospel, but she begins with the "Jew first."

If I thought any other inducement need be presented to win your co-operation, and engage your hearts, I would add that" every thing is carried on in strict conformity with the doctrine, discipline, and ceremonies of our own Church.

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In conclusion, I present you with the further gratification, of doing good, after the very manner in which St. Paul himself lays it before the Church of Rome, (xv. 26-27) "It hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor Saints which are at Jerusalem. It hath pleased them verily, and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakes of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things." There are at this day, "Saints," yea poor Saints" at Jerusalem. I do not mean the corrupt and superstitious devotees who perform their pilgrimages to the holy sepulchre, a "bodily exercise which profiteth nothing." But worshippers after the form of our own Catholic and Apostolic Church; ministered unto by a clergyman regularly ordained by the Bishop of London, and who have the daily service of our Book of Prayer. At present they meet in an "upper room,' ," and morning and evening, prayer and praise are offered up, in the very Liturgies we make use of ourselves, translated into Hebrew for the use of the converted Jews. The Psalms of David are sung by them, in the language of their fathers,

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with the music of our own land. plot of ground also has been purchased on Mount Zion; building materials collected, and a church is to be proceeded with immediately, with suitable residences for the Missionaries. This is Britain's greatest honor, her brightest victory!She has now done what Europe combined, attempted and failed in; in vain the armies of the Crusades planted the earthly symbol of the cross, in vain they left for a time a mortal King at Jerusalem. Now, will Christ himself be proclaimed, by our pure and scriptural Church? Now, will Christ be exalted, "an ensign to the people," and "the Decree" declared. "I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion !" even "Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews."

The Jews are said to be of most tenacious memory; to this day, the epochs of their dispersion and sufferings are recorded in their almanacks, and brooded over in their minds, let us hope they may be equally affected by benefits, and that in the day when signal distress shall come upon the nations, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, that England and her Church may be found sharers in their prayers and their blessings.

Many providences also concur, to set before us now "an open door" to approach them. But there is no time to be lost. Rousing from the sleep of centuries they are in danger of falling into infidelity. The transition is small from superstition to scepticism, and in rejecting the fables of the Talmud, we may fear lest some deny Moses and the Prophets, and make shipwreck even of the faith they have. Many are said to be waiting, but the accomplishment of a few more years, when if they find themselves disappointed, they will renounce their hopes of Messiah altogether!

Now then is the time, for the Church to awake to duty, and put forth all her energies. Now is your season of opportunity, to do good especially to this ancient "household of faith"_" ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth."

Beloved," Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love her." AMEN! AMEN!