right hand of God. Oh! for the grace of humility and teachableness in the study of God's Word, that our hearts may be prepared for the mighty signs and wonders which are coming upon the earth.

Again; learn an argument for the premillennial Advent of Christ. The ten tribes will not be restored until the return of Messiah.

They who hold a restoration of the Jews before the millennium, endeavour to evade this conclusion by saying, that there may be a gathering of Jews to Palestine, and a gradual softening of heart and conversion of the nation in preparation for the great and terrible day of the Lord.

That many of Judah and Benjamin are now collecting at Jerusalem and the adjacent cities, no one can doubt who reads the periodical information which is supplied respecting the movement now going on amongst the Jews. That many more, yea, multitudes, will flock as doves to their windows shortly, and be amongst the first to meet the Lord at His coming, we do not hesitate to affirm (Isa. xxv. 9; Zech. xii. 10); but what becomes of the permanent possession, the righteous government, the saints sitting upon thrones judging the twelve tribes, the provisions and details of the eternal covenant? What, in

short, defines the national restoration, but the truth declared by St. Paul to the Romans? (xi. 25-29,) "Blindness in part is happened unto Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins." "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance." Now, if a single tribe be excluded or omitted, the promise is void. For when the Son of man cometh to restore all things, to introduce millennium, then the twelve tribes will be gathered unto Him. "Then shall the children of Judah, and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days." "In the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

Men would measure the introduction of Millennium by the gradual recovery and conversion of individual Jews to the faith. But no such sign is needed. We are ever looking for some new indication, some surer mark for the approach of the King; but what remains? Is not the Scrip

ture plain? "There shall be no sign given but the sign of Jonas the Prophet." (Hos. vi. 1-4.)

Finally, learn how deep an interest this subject throws around all missionary operations. We are accustomed to measure our responsibility to the heathen by a comparison of their numbers. We speak of the millions of idolaters, and the thousands of Jews who are perishing for lack of knowledge. And many indulge the hope that by little and little, religion will spread over the dark places of the globe, until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea. But let us pause for a moment. Where are the ten tribes? Where are their mysterious families, which for above 2,000 years have been multiplying and increasing into an immense multitude, which, at the given signal, shall come forth like Lazarus from the grave, at the bidding of Jesus? Who knows how far your missionaries, who are preaching in Asia and India and China, may be preparing the way of the Lord by directing the hearts of Israelites to the way of peace? I never hear of a new opening for a missionary, whether in China, or Borneo, or Bokhara, without the feeling that the day of the Lord draws nigh.

Yes, my beloved friends, Israel's nation is the index of prophecy, and it is well for those who

keep their eye intently fixed upon a returning Saviour, and a returning people. Contempt of the Gentiles marked the decline of Israel, and contempt of Jewish privilege, and scriptural glory, will mark the apostasy of the latter day.

"Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the Lord hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? Thus they have despised my people, that they should no more be a nation before them!”

There is a consummation when Gentiles are gathered in, but who shall tell the glory of that day when the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and before his ancients gloriously?

APPENDIX A.

SINCE the lecture was preached, a friend has forwarded to me the following objection :

“I perfectly agree with you in the diverse nature of the covenants, in the perpetuity of the one, and the transitory nature of the other. The one being wholly a covenant of grace, or rather the covenant of grace, and the other a conditional and legal covenant, as Heb. viii. But what I contend for is, that the heirs of the covenant of grace, the Abrahamic and everlasting covenant, are not Abraham's seed after the flesh, but his spiritual seed: those who are partakers of his faith, whether Jew or Gentile.

"In proof whereof I would adduce Rom. iv. 9—17, ix. 6, 9, 23, 24; Gal. iii. 7; in which passages believing Gentiles are equally with believing Jews called children of Abraham, of Sarah, of the promise, &c., and as such fellow-heirs (Eph. iii. 6); and unbelieving Jews are not counted for Abraham's seed, or inheritors at all, but, like Ishmael, are to be cast out."

This objection, so far as it relates to the argument in my sermon, raises the question, whether the believing Gentiles and Jews, under the Christian dispensation, are a substitution for the literal Israel, composed of circumcised believers and unbelievers? or, in other words, whether the Christian Church, consisting of the election in Christ, does not take the place of the circumcised nation ?

To this I reply, that Gentiles were from the beginning included in the covenant of grace, which had not its origin, but was renewed in Abraham; that the apostle's argument (in Rom. iv.) is based entirely upon this principle. The contemporaneous existence of a natural and spiritual seed is recognized throughout, and the blessing comes through the natural to the spiritual seed.

"Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness when he was in uncircumcision, and why? that (ver. 11) he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations." But this did not exclude the natural seed. Spiritual promises, it is true, were made to a spiritual seed, but temporal promises were also made to a natural seed. And it is not correct to say that the spiritual promises were confined exclusively to the circumcision during the early periods of the world, although the temporal were. There were Gentile children of promise all along, few in number, under the darker dispensation, but when a fuller and brighter day arose, they multiplied exceedingly, and as a spiritual seed greatly outnumbered the spiritual seed of the circumcision, but this did not arise out of any change in the