*

ple and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord.” For “ the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. Then, from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering : for my name shall be great among the Heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts.'

The restoration and conversion of the Jews will usher in those glorious scenes so graphically sketched by the pencil of prophecy in the chapter immediately following our text. No sooner will “the Lord come to Zion, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob,” than the address will be made to the converted and restored nation : “Arise, shine! for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. thine eyes round about, and see : all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows ? The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending * Zech. viii. 23, 3, 22; Isa. ii. 2,3; Mic. iv. 1, 2; Malachi, i. 11.

Lift up unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.'

We cannot more appropriately conclude this Lecture than by reciting Pope's beautiful paraphrase of the passage just quoted.

In crowding ranks on every side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!
See barb'rous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light and in thy temple bend !
See thy bright altars throng'd with prostrate kings,
While every land its joyous tribute brings !
The seas shall waste, the skies to smoke decay,
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;
But fix'd his word, his saving power remains
Thy realm shall last, Thy own Messiah reigns."

LECTURE SIXTH.

THE HARVEST OF THE CHURCH.

ST. MARK, CHAPTER IV. VERSE 29. ** And when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth

in the sickle, because the harvest is come."

This is the conclusion of the parable of the seed which a man sowed in his ground, and which advanced through the different stages of growth; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear: and when the grain had ripened, then the harvest was gathered. In this way our Lord illustrates the advancement of his Church, or the Gospel dispensation, till the final judgment shall take place at his second coming. He uses a similar illustration in the parable of the wheat and the tares, which grow together in the same field until the harvest-when the wheat will be gathered into the garner, but the tares will be cast into the fire. Thus the righteous

.

and the wicked live together in the world, and even in the visible Church, and will continue to do so till the last day, when a separation will take place. “The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels."

The world is fast preparing for this consummation. We behold an apparently paradoxical state of things around us. Daring infidelity on the one hand, lively faith upon the other. Under one aspect of society, we behold most affecting exhibitions of the disorders, heresies, and wickedness which mark “the last days ;” and on the other, a bold profession of the truth, an eager attention to spiritual things, indications of increasing unity and purity in the Church, and a holy zeal and benevolent energy in the work of propagating the Gospel which would have done honour to our religion in its best days. It is now very

much 66 it was before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans: the Jewish state was ripening for judgment; at the same time the Christian-Jewish Church was in its full activity and diffusiveness. Two harvests are before us: a harvest of tares for the burning, a harvest of wheat for the garner. Two reapings mark the great day of tribulation: the harvest for the Son of Man to gather to his glory,—the vintage for the Son of Man to tread in his wrath."*

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