hundred and thirty millions of immortal beings, fashioned by the same hand, sustained by the same care, fed by the same bounty, bought with the same precious blood, and destined like ourselves, to to eternal happiness or misery-to dwell with God and Christ, and holy angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, or with Satan and his company in dark and dreadful regions of punishment. was Of these 730 millions, 411 millions are stated to be lying in the grossness of Heathenism, Idolaters worshipping wood and stone, given over to a reprobate mind, sitting in the shadow of death, upon whom the light of the sun of righteousness has never risen, and are consequently, "without hope and without God in the world," even as St. Paul describes the desperate condition of the Ephesians, before the Gospel preached unto them. Overwhelming consideration, at which the mind shrinks back into itself. They know not Him, in whom " they live, and move, and have their being," though "he is not far off from every one of them." They know not that they are sinners by nature and by practice, and liable to wrath and condemnation. They know not the precious Saviour who "died to redeem them from all iniquity." They are ignorant of Him, whom to know "is life eternal;" even Jesus Christ," the way, the truth and the life." One hundred and forty millions more are said to be victims to the delusion of the Arabian Imposter, followers of Mahomet! Unconsciously fulfilling that prophecy in the Book of Daniel (ch. viii. 9.) in which he speaks of "the little horn" springing up in one quarter of the dominions of the he goat, which is the King of Grecia," "and out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land, and it waxed great, even to the host of heaven and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them; yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down." "Sad and painful thought! One hundred and forty millions of men involved in the meshes of this cruel superstition, occupying the fairest portions of the earth, treading under foot the Holy City itself, and quenching the light of the churches, planted and watered by an Apostle. Again; there are about one hundred and twenty millions, who are called Christians, and are such at least in outward profession, and no doubt the Lord has his hidden ones in the midst of them; but of the great mass, they are lying under the puerile superstitions and idolatrous ceremonies of the Greek and Latin churches. "They are given over," as St. Paul testifies in his 2 Thes. ii. 11. "to a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." One hundred and twenty millions furnishing the ranks of the Apostasy! But there may be said to be still fifty millions more who have escaped the snare; they have "come out of Babylon" and protest against her corruptions; they "touch not the unclean thing," and refuse "to worship the beast, or to receive his mark in their right hand or in their foreheads." Oh if profession and practice coincided; if orthodoxy included "holiness to the Lord," what a spectacle a church of fifty millions, sincere and devoted worshippers of Christ, would present to a dark and benighted world ! But how many of these have but "a name to live and are dead." How many possess but "the form without the power of godliness;" and when you deduct from this fifty millions of the sons of the reformation, those who have fallen into open infidelity, neology, rationalism, antinomianism, and the multiform way of error in doctrine and practice, we may well be reminded of the pathetic exclamation of our Lord, "when the Son of Man cometh shall he find faith on the earth." To sum up our account, a number which is variously stated as ranging from three to nine millions must be added. Suppose we take them at six millions of souls,-what are they? They are not idolaters. They worship Jehovah, the great Being who made heaven and earth, and all things. They are not Deists, in the modern acceptation of the phrase, led only by the light of nature; (how weak and glimmering is that light;) to them has been committed the word of revelation, in the lively oracles of God. They are not followers of the false Prophet of Mecca, they believe in Moses and the true Prophets, "holy men of old, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." They expect a Messiah yet to come, to be the Saviour of his people, but alas, the vail is upon their hearts; their eyes are shut, their minds are darkened, they know not Jesus; they bow not before that only name which is given in heaven and earth, whereby they must be saved; they call not upon him, they will not have this man to reign over them; they are in open rebellion against their King; they are Jews! Look back again at our statement.So many hundred millions involved in Heathen darkness; so many ranged under the standard of the crescent; so many still in spiritual Babylon, partakers of her abominations; so many denying the faith and fallen from their first love. And the whole House of Israel, six millions of living men "the seed of Abraham," "the friend of God," denying, rejecting and blaspheming "the Christ of God." Where, we ask, where is the accomplishment of prophecy; is this the fulfilment of our hopes? Like Cleopas of old " we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel." But the heathen shall be converted.It is written, "Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." And Habbakuk declares (ii. 14) the time must come when" the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.' The day itself may not be far distant when the power of the great Imposter of the East, shall be "broken without hand," when" the Euphrates, by which many understand the Turkish Empire, “shall be dried up to prepare the way of the Kings of the east." Assuredly Babylon shall be thrown down, razed to the ground, never to be rebuilt, cast as a mill-stone into the sea. She may be for a season lifted up, the great ones of the earth may partake of her spells and her fascinations. "God may put it in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree and give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled." Those words are "whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming," as we hope to see her more and more "consumed by the spirit of his mouth." And though the whole house of Israel say, "Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts." God saith, "Behold, O my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel." For, saith the Apostle, "all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob."Reason may speculate and unbelief enquire, "how shall these things be?"But thus saith the Lord of Hosts: if it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in mine eyes! saith the Lord of Hosts."-Zechariah, viii. 6. My beloved, these are the sayings of the Most High, but their accomplishment is still future," Though the vision tarry, wait for it, it will surely come." Only wait, and watch, and pray. This is the subject which I promised to bring before you, and to which I now desire your attention. I know of none more calculated to affect your hearts, to impress itself upon your understandings, or to awaken grateful, admiring and adoring views of our God; to lead us farther and farther into the mysteries of redemption, or make us break forth, in rapturous exclamation, at the grand result, " O, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out." May the Spirit himself rest upon us, and guide us into all truth. May he rouse the careless and unconcerned to the matter of their own individual safety. May he impart more light, and joy, and peace to such of you as are God's dear children; strengthen us for present duty, and quicken all to greater zeal, patience and love, in the service of their Lord! 66 The grand development we say is future, yet certain. Now a question naturally arises as to the order of the events, or the mode of their accomplishment. The heathen are to be brought in; the Jews are to be converted. Do the Scriptures which reveal the facts, speak of their fulfilment in succession? They do. In the beginning, "the grace of God which bringeth salvation" was preached only to the Jews; the first messengers of the Gospel were forbidden to go into any "city of the Samaritans, or into the way of the Gentiles." After the resurrection and ascension of our Lord, though the command was general, and the commission co-extensive with all the fallen children of men, "Go ye into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature," they were directed to commence at Jerusalem, and they seem to have understood their charge at the most to refer to the tribes scattered abroad, those who had never returned from Assyria and Babylon, or to the proselytes from the Gentiles. In this contracted view, it pleased the Holy Spirit to leave the minds even of the Apostles themselves for full six years or more. They were still preaching the Gospel to Jews only, and Samaritans; and the Lord was "daily adding to the Church, (the Mother Church at Jerusalem) such as should be saved." In this way a part of the nation was converted, whom St. Paul calls, “a remnant according to the election of grace, and the rest were blinded." Rom. xi. 5-7. in the council at Jerusalem, upon the 66 From these and similar passages, then, we collect, 1st. That the Gentiles become a portion of the Church, and believing people of God, in the way of substitution, being (to use the imagery and language of the Apostle,) "grafted in upon the olive tree among the natural branches, to replace those broken off ; and with them made partakers of the root and fatness of the olive tree." That “their fall, and their diminishing is become our riches." Therefore, when we address you with the offers of pardon, peace, justification, and sanctification, through the blood and righteousness of our Redeemer, and by the operation of his Holy Spirit, we say, now is your accepted time, now is your day of salvation." And secondly, "though Jerusalem shall be trodden down for the times of the Gentiles;" though "blindness, in part, is happened to Israel, till the fulness be come in" a brighter day is nigh. "For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world;" that is, if their sin which has occasioned this casting away, has been the means of bringing about the death of Christ, thro' which the world is reconciled; God thus educing abundant good from overflowing evil" what shall the receiving of them be"-to what shall their happy conversion and restoration tend, but "life from the dead." Then shall the poor dead, forgotten, and neglected Gentiles, receive the quickening impulse of the Holy Spirit, and they too, shall "live unto God." The next step in the wise fulfilment of God's purposes was the calling of the Gentiles. For this there needed even miraculous interference, that the cloud of prejudice might be removed from the Apostles themselves as well as from the brethren which were in Judea. Peter was sent to preach the word unto Cornelius, and "while he yet spake, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard him, and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord."— After this, some time, the great Apostle of the Gentiles receives his mission "to turn men from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God," yet we find him declaring to the Jews in the synagogue, at Antioch in Pisidia, (Acts xiii. 46) "It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of of everlasting life, Lo we turn to the gentiles." You see that neither the judicial blindness of the nation, nor the admission of the Gentiles, took from Or to retrace our steps, the converIsrael their right of the first offer, nor sion of the world we regard as the final prevented individuals, whose hearts the consummation, connected with the comLord opened, (like Lydia's,) from believ-plete establishment of Messiah's kinging. Then we hear St. James declaring dom. The proximate event which goes before, is Missionary exertion, carried on, not as at present, by labourers few and far between, but by the children of Israel. Before this, we look for their restoration into their own land, and their conversion to the faith of Jesus. And our present and obvious duty is, (if we sincerely wish and pray that these things may shortly come to pass,) to "work together with God," to lend our assistance, and bend our aims in promoting his plans, seconding his providences and endeavouring as far as in us lies, to seek the salvation of Israel. Remembering that the Gospel we have received, is but a precious deposit, with which we have been entrusted; that " your merey is in order that they also may obtain mercy." In other words, we owe our conversion to their unbelief, they are to owe their's to our belief; and thence in quick succession, the living waters are to flow, for the healing of the nations, "that every thing may live whither the river cometh," "When the Lord shall be King over all the earth," yea, "King of Kings and Lord of Lords for ever!" Who are the Jews? The antiquarian replies, they are the most ancient and venerable people upon the face of the earth: while other nations have sprung up, each upon the ruins of the other, as the mushroom derives its birth from the fallen tree; while they vainly endeavour to trace their origin and are lost in the mists of a not remote superstition these alone can trace back their progenitors to the very cradle of our race.They have preserved their records unmixed with fables, uninjured by time; their lineaments unaltered since the days of Pharoah, and their manners the same as Moses and Abraham prescribed. The Philosopher regards their rites and ceremonies as the strangest, the most wonderful of any other people, distinguishing and separating them from all the rest of the human family; containing in things apparently trivial, lessons of wisdom, and shadows of future truths. He sees them alone preserving in the midst of grossest surrounding darkness, the knowledge and worship of the one living and true God, and as has been said, "children in the sciences and arts which embellish and civilize life, yet men in religious understanding." To the man of literature they are equally an object of interest. The people which has produced historians like Samuel, and Ezra, and Nehemiah-Statesmen, like Joseph and David-Warriors and Kings such as David and Solomon ; and Poets with whose productions the classic remains of Greece and Rome bear no comparison, are every way worthy his regard. To the Christian of this day, they are or ought to be still dearer. He derives his religion, the solace and comfort of his life, his hopes in time and eternity from them. His Bible comes from them. No pen has ever written, nor heart indited a good matter, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, save amongst them. They received and treasured up the heavenly oracles, and have transmitted them unimpared, even "those Scriptures which are able to make one wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus." The first preachers and propagators of the Gospel, the Holy Martyrs, the blessed Apostles were all Jews. The very author and finisher of his faith, was himself a Jew, born of a Jewish Virgin, and who even exalted, glorified and seated at the right hand of his Father, is still pleased to be distinguished as "the lion of the tribe of Judah." The student of prophecy, "searching like those of old the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow," discovers that in every link of the wondrous chain, from "the head of the roll," foretelling "the seed of the woman,' to the grand accomplishment, "shall bruise the serpent's head," the character, fortune and future prosperity of Messiah and His people are inseparably united. And the devout and humble expectant in the second Advent of his Lord, whose blessed hope is fixed upon his glorious appearing, recognises that animating, soul stirring truth, as only approximating in Israel's conversion and future dominion upon the earth, "when they shall seek the Lord their God, and David their King, and fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days." Under every aspect they are a wondrous people. Consider their pristine greatness; their present degradation; their future glory. What they were: What they are: What they shall yet be. Three distinct views which I proceed to lay before you. 1. WHAT THEY WERE. From the earliest times, it would appear that in God's dealings with the world, he had in view the selection of a favored people, to be to him " for a name and a praise upon the earth." When unhappy Cain was driven an outcast from the church, and a wanderer from the face of the Lord, and Abel was translated to a better paradise than that from which Adam was expelled, then was Seth appointed for a seed in Abel's place, and his posterity began to call upon the name of the Lord;" that is, they assumed the title of the Lord's people. (Gen. iv. 26.) Again in the fourth chapter of Genesis we find them called "the Sons of God." Of Shem, the son of Noah, we read (ix. 26.) blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem." Shem had the Lord for his God; a blessing aud a promise which includes all that Omnipotence itself can do for his creature; and in the process of time the descendants of Shem were called to be God's chosen and peculiar people. Again was the earth overrun with wickedness, nothing save the covenant and promise would seem to have prevented the infliction of an another deluge upon a guilty world, when God called Abraham, alone, from beyond the flood, where with Terah his father he had served idols. How free, how sovereign is His grace! To Abraham God was pleased to reveal himself, making known his perfections, and promising him blessings-blessings both temporal and spiritual, or rather, the one the source of the other. He took him out of his country to confer upon him a better land. He gave him a Son, and a posterity, numerous as the sands of the sea, and as the stars of heaven for multitude; above all God declared that from him, the Christ should come, in whom "all nations of the earth should be blessed." From this time, God's dealings with Abraham's posterity fill the page of Scripture. The kingdoms and nations of the earth are of no consequence save as they were implicated in the history of Israel. God makes use of them as rods and Scourges for the chastisement of his children, to be thrown aside and disregarded when done with. The Assyrian, the Babylonian, the Persian, Grecian, Roman empires rose and fell: Judah, at times superior-at other times their captive, has outlived them all. God led his He people down into Egypt, to preserve them from present famine, and because the iniquity of the Amorites was not full. Honorably received at first, for the sake of their kinsman Joseph, they were evil entreated at the end. Four hundred years rolled over, still the promise was in abeyance, yet the fathers lived and died in faith; their cruel task-masters made their lives bitter with hard bondage, but God's eye was over them; he heard their cry; he sent them a deliver. brought them out of Egypt his mighty arm, his outstretched hand put forth for their protection; he divided the Red Sea before them; they passed over dry shod; the stony rocks gushed out water; the clouds dropped down manna,miracles were constant and daily, as the rising of the sun; he drove out the nations, their enemies could not stand before them. For forty years they traversed the wilderness, "their raiment waxed not old, neither did their foot swell," till at length God brought them into their promised land; a land, which Moses thus describes, "of brooks of waters, of fountains and depths which spring out of vallies and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and pomegranites; a land of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shall not lack anything in it." (Deut. viii. 7.) There God planted them, and gave them cities to dwell in. "The Lord himself was their Judge, the Lord their Lawgiver, the Lord their King." (Isa. xxiii. 22.) He gave them statutes, and ordinances, and commandments such as none other nation ever possessed before, "because he loved them, and would perform the oath which he had sworn to their fathers." Thus were they to him "a peculiar people above all the people that were upon the face of the earth." Follow down the current of their history, it was written for our instruction. Again and again the provoked their Redeemer, and they were given over into the hands of their enemies, "chastened, but not forsaken; persecuted but not destroyed." He sent them Saviours; he raised up Kings : Cyrus was his shepherd to accomplish his merciful purposes. Their cup of earthly prosperity was full; they had peace in all their borders; their commerce extended to the farthest regions of the globe; their temple was the |