subject, the Christian is led back to a contemplation of other harmonies subsisting in God's varied dealings with his people in former ages. How perfect, for instance, is the coincidence of the seed given to Abraham, not according to the course of nature, but in fulfilment of the Divine promise, and the birth of a Saviour, fulfilling to the very letter the word spoken by the prophet, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive!"

As the Israelites are the only people able to trace their origin from a single family, and a single patriarch, and thus follow up their descent from the father of mankind; so, on the other hand, are they the only people who have preserved, through a succession of centuries, a definite expectation of their future destiny, to which they have clung through every period of their long dispersion. This expectation rests upon the same prophetic Scriptures which foretold and described their present state of exile and suffering, which also announced the painful death and future glory of the Messiah, and with that glory connects the blessings of a spiritual and national restoration for Israel, light over the whole world, and peace upon all nations united with the ancient people of God, beneath the sceptre of the Son of David and the Son of God. The

Gospel confirms the prophecies and seals afresh these promises. The Apostle St. Paul, in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, beautifully concentrates, as in a focus, the prophetic rays of the Old Testament, when he says, "If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? The fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, and so all Israel shall be saved." In these few words a key is given by which the future destiny of the nations is laid open to us, while the prophecies of the Old and New Testament combine to form a complete commentary upon these words, which are, in fact, the centre of the whole future history of Israel and the Gentiles. Surely, when we rightly regard the annals of this people, reaching backward to the most remote antiquity, and looking forward to a futurity which has been long predicted, with its course lighted up by the gradual fulfilment of prophecy, we should not overlook the details of its darkest and saddest periods. It is, without doubt, a history of sorrows, and of almost unprecedented misery; for it tells of a people of sorrows on account of their sins. But should not this very peculiarity give it fresh interest in the eyes of the

Christian, who rests his salvation, his hope, his all, upon a Man of sorrows also, but of sorrow without sin?

In our days especially, the most striking circumstances and the most startling signs of the times concur to increase, in a remarkable degree, feelings of interest in the Jewish people. The times in which we live are such, that no one can deny their portent of a future, to which each day seems ready to give birth. A great inquiry agitates the minds and stirs the hearts of many as to what will be the final issue of all the revolutionary movements and complications which are now taking place, while, at the same time, the opposite principles of faith and Infidelity, superstition and science, combine to multiply daily changes in our moral and social life. The Christian alone knows the result to which all this tends, while, in singleness of heart, he examines and ponders the prophetic words of his Lord and Saviour,-that he shall come on the clouds of heaven, and then shall be fulfilled all that the prophets and holy men of the Old Testament have spoken concerning the Messiah of Israel, the Desire of all nations. He shall reign as King over the house of Jacob; the Lord God shall give him the throne of his father David.

He shall reign from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. Under his sceptre shall the twelve tribes of Israel be again united; all the nations of the earth shall share in their peace and glory, and bow together in submission to that sceptre of justice, truth, and love. The whole earth shall be covered with the knowledge of God, and the light of his glory; the wicked, and all the powers of wickedness, shall be destroyed, and the prince of this world cast out. Jerusalem shall rise, covered with glory, from her state of humiliation, as the dead who have believed in Christ come forth from their graves. The last book of the Bible sums up all these blessings in its closing words: "I Jesus am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. Behold, I come quickly."

Never, till our days, has the attention of men been so forcibly drawn to the Scripture prophecies of the Old and New Testament, nor the hearts of Christians so prepared to look for their accomplishment. This diligent search, this waking up of attention, forms the characteristic of a new era in the Christian Church, and the period from which we may date its commencement, is the latter part of the eighteenth century, at precisely the same period

when the epoch of revolutions began in the history of the world. This coincidence is the more worthy of remark, because at the moment when Infidelity is shaking the very foundation of the Papacy, and under the guise of philosophy and rationalism, threatening to undermine and endanger the Protestant Churches,-behold at once a fresh banner raised, and a new rallying point marked out, to direct the faith, the zeal, and the exertions of the Christian. On all sides, voices are heard, calling to a deeper and more careful investigation of the Revelation of St. John, and to more literal and faithful interpretations of the prophecies of Israel, which promise not only individual conversion and future bliss, but also the visible glory of Christ, and his reign upon earth, over Israel and all the nations. All this has naturally led to a deeper interest in the history and the fate of Israel; and this interest is a more remarkable sign of the times, because it coincides with the striving of spirit which is now taking place among the ancient people themselves. All the changes that have occurred in Europe, since the latter part of the eighteenth century, and those which are even now happening, combine to alter the whole social and political posi