Paul, and his becoming a chosen vessel. But the highest exhibition of it is yet to come, when the posterity of those who murdered his only-begotten Son are to be received again. What a view Zephaniah presents of this (iii. 17): The Lord thy God in the midst of thee (Jerusalem) is mighty ; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will rejoice over thee with singing. Surely this overflowing goodness to returning sinners should draw and win our hearts also. In restored Jerusalem being a name of joy, we have the very heart of God opened

to us.

God also accounts it A PRAISE AND HONOUR TO HIM. In their restoration all his glorious attributes and perfections will be illustrated and displayed. Recovered Israel will, in the sight of all nations, be such a full manifestation of the truth of God's covenant love, of the riches of his abounding mercy, of the deep wisdom of all his providence, of the righteousness of all his dealing, even with his elect people, and of the comprehensive and widening reaches of all his goodness, as will, through eternity, bring glory to his great name. It will be such an unveiling of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God and his completed righteousness, that, in the strong language of Jeremiah, the very name

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wherewith Jerusalem shall be called shall be, The Lord our righteousness.

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We see in this prophecy God has himself anticipated these results. 2,500 years since, he looked forward to them as a cause of Divine joy. It shall be, he says, to me a joy. That which gives joy to a child will not give joy to a man; that which gives joy to a man will not give joy to an angel. O how great and good must that be, which gives joy to God! After ages have passed in preparation, he reveals himself as looking forward, through ages to come, with personal joy in the accomplishment of these his own extended purposes of love. any despise this subject, O let them learn how far they are from the true greatness of the Divine mind! In the redounding of such joy and glory to God, we may learn how holy and how spiritual, how practical and how profitable this subject really is. Gentile unbelief of the Jewish restoration is not a matter of indifference, but pregnant with many spiritual evils. It fills us with high-minded thoughts of ourselves; it clouds from us the glory of God in all his dealings with the children of men. It leads us to hard thoughts of our Jewish brethren, and is opposed to God's own thoughts of love to them. Thus we become unfitted to be full witnesses of the name and character of the grace

and righteousness of God, both to Jew and Gentile.

On the other hand, faith in God's promises to his people Israel will increase all our sympathies with his present thoughts of love to them--will stir us up to earnest intercession for them, according with the very mind and the direct command of Christ himself (Isaiah lxii. 1-8), and will qualify us to be faithful witnesses to all nations of the righteousness and goodness of God.

I entreat you then, my brethren, to stand firm in the faith that all God's Word will be exactly accomplished. If our Saviour himself, in his last sufferings, when he could have called legions of angels to his aid, forbore to do so on the ground, how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be, learn in this distinctly, that nothing can hinder the exact, literal, and full accomplishment of God's Word.

2. THE EFFECTS ON THE WORLD AT LARGE are

lastly brought before us. All the nations of the earth shall hear all the goodness that I do unto them, and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness, and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.

The way in which the restoration of the Jews will affect all nations, is becoming increasingly evident, from facts that are arising before our eyes, and from the dispersion of the Jews among

all nations. Where have they not been scattered, and into what part of the earth have they not been meted out. They are spread over the East. They pervade each kingdom of the Western Roman empire. Russia, and Poland, and Prussia, have millions of Jews. The last Russian census gives 1,080,224 Jews in Russia, apart from Poland. Africa and America are not without them. How can they be gathered from the Niger to the Volga; from remotest China in the East to Portugal in the West, and from each accessible country of North and South America, without moving every

land, and making known wonderful works of God.

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through the earth the Various mighty effects removing all that is

of Divine interposition, hostile to Christ, and establishing his own holy and happy kingdom, seem to be wrought in suc cessive steps on the Gentile kingdoms during the progress of this wonderful work of grace.

Returning mercies to Israel are, in the Scriptures, after their temporary peaceable possession of their own land, in a partial restoration, followed by the opposition of the last form of Antichrist, who wages war against them when restored, and so brings down upon himself and his adherents God's terrible judgments yet to come upon an ungodly world. FEAR AND TERROR, then, under God's judgments, are the first effects of the full

victory and triumph of Israel. It is first they shall fear.

This is followed by TREMBLING AND REVERENCE for the majesty and mighty works of God. As the overthrow of Haman and the exaltation of Mordecai, caused the fear of the Jews to fall on every province and city of Persia, so the overthrow of Antichrist will affect all nations. The visible interference of God on Elijah's behalf in his contest with the prophets of Baal, made all the people fall on their faces, and cry out, The Lord he is the God, the Lord he is the God. The nations of the earth shall say, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. (Zech. viii. 23.)

With this will be joined ADORING WONDER AT THE TRIUMPHS OF REDEEMING LOVE. Thus all nations are invited to praise him, O sing unto the Lord, all the earth. O sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvellous things; his right hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory. It is such an illustration of redeeming love as must affect every living being. If the conversion of Saul was a pattern for them which should hereafter believe, and he became the great apostle of the Gentiles; what will this conversion of the whole nation be, but life from the dead to the world. God's boundless mercy to the Jews, and