applied by Paul, as fulfilled in the ingathering of the Gentiles. "Then, (i. e. at some period subsequent to the ingathering of the Gentiles) shall the children of Judah, and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land; for great shall be the day of Jezreel.”

The prophecy of Amos closes with a similar prediction. "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David, that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen which are called by my name, saith the Lord that doeth this. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes, him that soweth seed, and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them; and I will plant them upon their land; and they shall no more be pulled out of their land, which I have given them, saith the Lord God." No doubt can exist that this passage looks forward to an event yet future.

There is another passage of the Old Testament, which is such a vivid description of the spiritual prosperity of Israel, in the day of restoration, that I cannot deny myself the pleasure of quoting it. It is the closing paragraph in the prophecy of Zephaniah. "Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.The Lord hath taken away thy judgments. He hath cast out thine enemy; the king of Israel, even the Lord is in the midst of thee; thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not; and to Zion, let not thy hands be slack." The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. I will gather them

that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden. Behold at that time, I will undo all that afflict thee; and I will save her that halteth, and will gather her that was driven out; and I will get them fame and praise in every land, where they have been put to shame. At that time I will bring you again, even in the time that I gather you; for I will make you a name and a praise among all the people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord."

Let us now attend to somé evidence which the New Testament offers to this point. In the 23d chapter of of Matthew, 38th verse, our Lord, after making the solemn admonitory address to Jerusalem, which we find in the verse preceding, observes thus, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." This undoubtedly expresses the desolation which took place soon after; and under which Jerusalem lies at the present moment. Why was it left desolate ? Our Lord assigns the reason in the next verse. "For I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.".

Christ was the king and protector of Jerusalem. When he abandoned it, and gave it up to be wasted by his enemies, it was necessarily desolate; and it must be finally desolate, unless he shall appear to raise it from its ruins. But there is an express promise, in a quotation just made from Isaiah, that it shall not be finally termed desolate; and the passage now before us most evidently implies, that the desolation to which it is subject is but temporary, and that Christ will appear to remove it. "Till ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Then they shall see him again. They shall welcome him with believing con gratulation; and the desolation shall cease. In the 21st. chapter of Luke, 23d and 24th veses, we have these words, spoken by Christ. "For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall

be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Certainly these words teach, that there will be a period put to this triumph of the Gentiles; that Jerusalem shall cease to be trodden down by them; and of course, that it shall be raised gloriously from its ruins. But as the dispersing of the people among all nations, and the treading down of Jerusalem are synchronical events, they must cease together. A restoration is then to take place.

This is evidently the event which Peter has in view, in his address to his Jewish auditors, Acts; iii. 20, 21. "And he shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you; whom the heavens must receive, until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the world began." The event of the reassumption of the land, and the reestablishment of Israel in it, as their proper inheritance, and in the enjoyment of all the spiritnal blessings of a sanctified state, is undeniably the restitution, on which all the prophets have insisted from Moses to Malachi. This is the main subject of the consolations they administer, the delightful theme of their most animated descriptions. The heavens have received the Savior only for a time; or till the period when this restitution is to be effected shall arrive. The words then clearly imply, that a restoration will take place.

Let us now have recourse to the 11th chap. of Paul's Epistle to the Rom. a chapter which has furnished us much instruction on other parts of our subject. At the eleventh verse the Apostle asks, "I say then, Have they (the rejected part of Israel) stumbled, that they should fall? Is their condition, as a part of the posterity of Abraham, hopeless? Is there to be no recovery,no reanimation of the lifeless branches? Is this apostacy final? "God fordid." This reply is an emphatic negative. There will then be a reverse of the present state of this people. The Apostle adds in the next verse, "Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the

diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness? Here the same happy reverse is taught, as a certain future event. The same idea is communicated in the 15th verse, For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, What shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead ?" This question evidently supposes the fact of their be ing eventually received; and in a manner which shall be the exact counterpart to their being cast away. Pursuing the figure of the olive tree, the Apostle says in the 24th verse, "For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed into a good olive tree, How much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?" There is nothing problematical here. Nothing can be more certain than fact. Yet the Apostle here states, that as certain as is the fact of the ingathering of the Gentiles, so certain is the reinsertion of the natural branches. The residue of the chapter concurs in the proof of this point. But there is no need of pursuing the proof which it furnishes. Perhaps it will here be said, that there will be an end to the blindness and unbelief of this people, and that they will gratefully em. brace Jesus as the true Messiah, is conceded; but this may take place without their being restored to the land of Canaan; and there is nothing in this chapter, which as sures us of this event; therefore it does not prove the thing for which it is produced. To this it is replied; the reinsertion of these broken off branches into the good olive tree, can mean no less than their occupying the place which they held before they were broken off, Occupying this place, they necessarily partake of the fatness of the olive tree. This is the blessing; the entire blessing secured in the promise. But the land of Canaan is expressly a part of this blessing. Their being brought back then under the covenant, must necessarily restore them to the enjoyment of this land. Besides it is undeniable, that this event, which the apostle has his eye upon, is the scene which all the prophetic promises above quoted respect. A general

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