this number, from fifteen to seventeen thousand in Palestine. There are about eight thousand in Syria, comprehending the Jews of Damascus, forming a grand total of about twenty-four thousand Jews.*

The number, it is said, would be far greater, if the frequent recurrence of the plague, and the delay and expense of quarantine, did not interpose formidable obstacles to the return of the Jews.

In the meantime, what is the duty of the Christian public towards this singularly interesting and illustrious people?

No subject has been less understood than this controverted question. We have contemplated the Jew through the mysterious veil of the Divine purposes, instead of through the more intelligible and binding declarations of plain scriptural duty. We have suffered the emotions of Christian zeal, of sympathy for their misery, and gratitude for past obligations, to lie dormant; lest, in the exercise of these feelings, we should be found militating against the designs of Jehovah. We have permitted speculation to occupy the time that ought to have been devoted to action. We have even considered every effort of benevolence as visionary and useless, as if the time were not come, and

This calculation is founded upon an estimate taken by the Rev. J. Nicolayson, Missionary to the Jews at Jerusalem.

when come, that the process of conversion was to be effected by God's sovereignty, and not by man's instrumentality.

Let us then inquire what is the plain path of duty, remembering that "secret things belong to the Lord our God; but the things that he has revealed to us and to our children."

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.” * "For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake will I not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth."

“I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.+

Ministers of the sanctuary! ambassadors of Christ! behold your Lord's commission! Pray for grace to fulfil it with fidelity and zeal; and give the Lord "no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth."‡

Isaiah xl. 1, 2.

+ Isaiah lxii. 1. 6, 7. See also verses 10 and 11 of the same chapter.

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But words still more express and authoritative are to be found in the commission given by our Lord to his disciples; a trust and duty delegated to the Church, and binding in its observance, to end of time. "Go very ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Has any part of this Divine commission as yet been repealed? Is it not universal in its character, and without limitation in its object? Is not the Jew one of the great family of man? Or is he to be blotted out from the numerical list and catalogue of mankind, and to be denied the rights of humanity? Give him, then, at least his allotted share; and if the boon be intended for all, let the Jew enjoy his common right, and not be defrauded of his portion in the universal blessing.

The Jew, however, possesses not only an equal but a priority of right. The injunction of our Lord was "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."* St. Paul declares the Gospel to be "the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." The apostolical practice was in conformity with these declarations. St. Peter was specially appointed to be the apostle

* Luke xxiv. 47.

+ Rom. i. 16.

of the circumcision; and St. Paul, though invested with the office of apostle to the Gentiles, never failed first to enter into the synagogues of the Jews in every city, wherever he found them, proving that Jesus was the very Christ. What

was the measure of their success is attested by the fact that the first Christian Church was formed of Jewish converts; and that no less than three thousand souls were added to the Church under one single sermon of St. Peter. Nor ought the remark to be omitted, that however the Jews may be cast away nationally, they never were rejected individually; there was always, according to St. Paul, "a remnant according to the election of grace. ."* To that remnant, then, it is our duty to address the Gospel, leaving to God to whom and when he may see fit to apply it.

Alas! how have these positive commands and plain declarations been overlooked, and the Jew left to the world's neglect and contumely, and yet the world's benefactor! The medium of light and knowledge to all mankind, yet suffered to remain enveloped in prejudice and guilt! Left, too, to sink under this reproach and scorn, and live or die as he may-to feel the throbbings of a broken heart, or to learn the stern philosophy that can neither weep nor suffer-to grow callous by * Rom. xi. 5.

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repeated shocks, and find out the way to love nothing, and to hate everything, because the general object of estrangement and neglect. No man, whether Jew or Gentile, was ever yet reclaimed by modes like these. Let us, then, now try the experiment of love and mercy. The heart that is wounded and alienated by neglect, may be won by the accents of sympathy and love. The process of vegetation is retarded by the wintry blast, but it is called forth and nurtured by the vernal sun. Let us approach the Jew in the spirit and with the tidings of the Gospel. Let us pour oil into his wounds; let us direct him to the cross of the Saviour, to David's Lord and God; and addressing him with the zeal and winning affection of the apostle, exclaim, "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved." *

Having thus enforced the duty, I would now beg to remark

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The encouragement that we have to engage this cause, from the signal success that has already attended it.

The experiment has has already been made. Upwards of thirty years ago, an Institution arose entitled "The London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews."

+ Rom. x. 1.

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