"I just now observed, that our people expressly believe that a part of the Messiah's office is, that he shall be a temporal deliverer. If this belief be a correct one, my dear father, it would show just this—that, on the coming of the Messiah, he would find them in a condition which needed temporal succour. And was not their position at the appearance of Jesus one which needed help? Were they not suffering intensely from the galling yoke of their Roman masters: from the severe government of Herod, the deputy sovereign under Cæsar? Yes,' they will answer, and if this Jesus, of whom you speak, were the Messiah, we should have been delivered from this tyranny!' How can you tell what he would have done, had you believed upon him? The prophet describes the Messiah as first to suffer, and then to conquer; and from this very prophecy, the Jews have thought fit to invent what I may call a twofold Messiah-Ben Joseph the Sufferer, and Ben David the Conqueror. He is to be a conqueror-but in what way? Is it not in this ?—That all his enemies shall be put under his feet: that all his foes shall be bruised and made his footstool? And were not all the promises of deliverance made to his friends? Were not temporal blessings, in abundance, promised to these, and shame and confusion to his enemies? Undoubtedly. Evidently it was thus understood by Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. This fully appears in his beautiful and prophetic song, in reference to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people; as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began that we should be

saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant: the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.'

"And those who rejected, blasphemed, insulted, and crucified the Messiah, could it be expected that he would grant such heinous sinners temporal deliverance? That, at about the period of the coming of Jesus, the Jews were a most iniquitous nation, is proved by the testimony of Josephus; so wicked, that he observes, If God had not sent the Romans as his executioners, the earth would have opened and swallowed us up.' What a dreadful place! And, doubtless, the most crying evil of these people was their rejection and treatment of Jesus Christ the Son of God. How could such sinners expect deliverance? Did not Jesus weep and lament over Jerusalem, while he foresaw the punishment which would descend upon it, and the calamities which would befall it, for putting him to death? Listen, my dear father, to the thrilling passage, as I copy it from the gospel of St. Luke; and, O that, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, it may sink deep into your heart, is your loving daughter's prayer: And when he [Jesus] was come near, he beheld the city [Jerusalem] and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast

a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another! because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.' What a solemn subject for deep thought is this passage! How signally was it fulfilled !

CHAPTER IX.

LEILA'S LETTER TO HER FATHER CONTINUED.

"Do you ask me what deliverance Jesus wrought out for his friends-for those who believed on him?' Did he not deliver them from those awful calamities and sufferings which overwhelmed those who crucified him? Most certainly: he promised that he would do 80. Permit me, my dear father, to transcribe the passage. It is in St. Luke's gospel: 'And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights, and great signs shall there be from heaven; but there shall not a hair of your head perish. And when ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains: and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.' He promised his disciples that not a hair of their heads should perish;' and this promise he fulfilled. He warned them of the terrible events which were to happen, and that when they saw Jerusalem compassed with armies, they were

to flee to the mountains-to depart out of the midst of Judea. The disciples obeyed their Lord, and were kept amidst the desolating scourge.

"In reading the page of history we find that, in every case, nations are blessed in a ratio proportioned to their Christianity. Mark England! Christians really rule the world with a power which is irresistible. All heathen, idolatrous, and unbelieving nations are weak and helpless. Look at the Jews! they are quite at the exercise of the Christian will. And at the Mahommetans! they are impotent as their religion is baneful and false. Just so of the Pagan nations. When no Jew could approach the city of his fathers, a Christian church was peacefully flourishing in Jerusalem. Here, my dear father, it might not be out of place if I were to say, that you must not suppose that the spirit of persecution and oppression which has been so often manifested towards the Jews, is at all sympathized with by the real Christian. Oh, no! I have found it to be exactly the reverse. I find that the real and earnest Christians love and honour the Jews, as the nation from which sprang the Messiah; as the penmen of the Gospel; as the people to whom it was first delivered, and by whom it was first preached; as those who in the first ages of Christianity formed an impregnable defence of the Christian religion; as a proof of the Gospel; and, to say no further, as their brethren in Christ, he being the great centre-the great salvation both of Jews and Gentiles. 0, I always find that a true Christian is ready to acknowledge even that he is under obligations to the Jews which he can never repay. Father dear, with tears I beg of you, do not think unkindly of the Christians—