lowly. All his encomiums were bestowed on qualities of mind, the reverse of those which the Jews expected to see exemplified in their Deliverer. They could not understand him, when he intimated the sufferings which awaited himself, or them. When he went so far as to predict the utter demolition of their ecclesiastical polity, and the ruin of their temple, nothing more was wanting to satisfy them that he was either a madman or a blasphemer. On the truth of his predictions, therefore, the justice of his claims seem, in a great measure, to have rested. If the events took place according to his word, his claims as the Messiah were established. This, then, was the triumph of Christianity. It was an appeal to fact, which was not to be resisted. The prediction has been fulfilled; God has vindicated the cause and the claims of his Son.

Fourthly. The destruction of Jerusalem, and the present situation of the Jews, are circumstances of unspeakable importance in establishing the general truth of the Christian religion. If the Messiah, who was predicted in the Old Testament, has not appeared, how is it possible, that one should ever arise to answer the description of the prophets? From the time of their dispersion, their scattered families were mingled, and their genealogies lost. The race of David, from which the Messiah was to spring, is as undistinguishable as any other race. Even their tribes are confounded, and the glory of Judah has perished with the rest. The expected Prince was suddenly to appear in his temple; but the temple is now no more. If, then, the Messiah is yet to come, how is he to be known?

The present circumstances of the Jews, all over the world, which have continued eighteen hundred years, circumstances so peculiar and unparalleled, seem to indicate

some great transgression, the effects, if not the guilt, of which are not wiped away. Compare their situation with that of any other people, and you find no parallel. They seem to be reserved to confirm the very gospel which they rejected, to testify to facts to which they would not listen, to keep uncorrupted those very prophecies which foretold their present fate, and to bear eternal witness to their authenticity.

What, then, was the great crime of this unhappy people? The sufferings of that generation, among whom our Savior appeared, would seem a fable in history, were they not so circumstantially related. Everything in the history of the Jews points to a singular providence; a desolation has come upon them, which has no example, and which yet has no limits. Wretched people! What has been your crime? The traveller, as he wanders over Palestine, and calls your history to remembrance, is lost in wonder, till he ascends the hill, where the Lord of glory was crucified by your fathers, the image of the cross bursts upon fancy, and that fearful exclamation occurs to his mind, "His blood be on us, and on our children!" and thus the mystery is resolved, the judgments of Jehovah are vindicated.

From the fearful fate of a nation once so mighty, let us learn to bow down before that Providence which directs the destiny of empires. What has often been may again. be; and there is not a man on earth, who is uninterested in the fate of the nation to which he belongs. If the Jews were punished for their treatment of a Savior in whom they did not believe, what have those to expect who profess to believe in him, and still live in disobedience to his commands?

THE CIRCUMSTANCES AND BENEVOLENCE OF THE

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS.

THE earliest Christians seem to have been bound together by ties stronger than any before known; and to have exhibited a model of union, affection, faith, and zeal, which has justly excited the admiration of subsequent ages.

It has been the unadvised practice of too many of the advocates for Christianity, to represent in too humiliating a manner the circumstances of the first converts, to enhance, as they have imagined, the impediments, which existed, to the first reception of this divine religion. It appears not to be true, either that all the disciples of our Lord, or that all the first converts of his apostles, were men of illiterate minds, or indigent circumstances. Had they been all illiterate, the history of our Savior would not have been written with such unaffected simplicity of language, and, in some cases, such purity and elegance. And I think it is clear, that some of the earliest followers of our Lord were by no means dependent on the charity of others.

James and John left their ship and their hired servants, when they began to follow Jesus. Peter had a house at Capernaum, where our Savior sometimes dwelt; and he, with his brother Andrew, said to Jesus, "We have left all and followed thee;" which implies that he and the other apostles, in whose name they spoke, had something to leave.

It is said, that John was a relation of Caiaphas, the high priest; and our Savior, when he was on the cross, committed his mother to the care of John, and he took her to his own home. It is hence natural, to conclude that he was able to provide for her.

Matthew was called to be a disciple of Jesus, when "sitting at the receipt of custom ;" that is, as we should say, in the collector's office. We may well suppose that this was not entirely unprofitable, as we are told, soon afterwards, by Luke, that he made a great feast, to which Jesus and his companions were invited, as well as Matthew's acquaintance and his brethren in office. But, whatever may be supposed to have been the worldly circumstances of Jesus and his disciples, he did not suffer his little company to forget the poor. They had a common stock for these and other purposes; yet, to show how little they depended on this for their support, it was committed to the care of Judas, who seems to have been in the habit of purloining from this little treasure of our Savior's beneficence.

If we consider the situation of other followers of Jesus, we find that Mary Magdalene was able to minister to him of her substance; and, if we may judge from the quantity of spices which were prepared by his followers to embalm his dead body, they could not have been in very indigent circumstances.

Mary, the sister of Lazarus, was so profuse in the use of the precious ointment which she poured on the head of Jesus, just before his death, as to excite the murmurs of bystanders. Joseph of Arimathea, who begged the body of our Lord, was a rich man, and Jesus was buried in his sepulchre. And the invitations, which our Savior received, to the tables of the rich Pharisees, prove that

neither he nor his disciples could have been regarded in a contemptible light, on account of extreme dependence and

want.

We find, also, that, after the first effusion of the Spirit, a prodigious number of converts were made, consisting of Jews from all parts of the world, who had come to Jerusalem to worship. The picture, we have of them, represents them as united in affection, and profuse in their liberality. So great was their number that they, probably, found it necessary to divide into smaller societies for worship and communion. The apostles, we are told, were in the habit of "breaking bread from house to house," that is, as I conceive, the different houses, where they met for worship. They are described as united together in the purest affection, and animated by the most unbounded generosity. Though, in such a number of converts, there must have been men from all ranks of life, yet we are told, that none of them lacked. "For as many as were possessors of houses, or lands, sold them; neither said any of them that aught of the things, which he possessed, was his own; but they had all things common; and distribution was made unto every man, according as he had need.”

It has been supposed, that, in this primitive circle of converts at Jerusalem, there was a literal community of goods, and that their whole wealth was thrown into a common stock, and placed at the disposal of the apostles; and that this was not a mere voluntary act, but expected, as a thing of course, from all the converts on their professing Christianity. If this were the fact, it is a little extraordinary, that this state of things did not longer continue, that we have no traces of it in the subsequent history, and that it was not imitated in some of the other churches, which