THE YEAR OF CHRIST'S REDEEMED.

Is. lxiii. 4.

THE Year of Christ's Redeemed! would it were come!
Bright stars look down upon the New Year's birth,
Longing to raise once more the glorious hymn,
They sang with angels o'er the unstained earth,
And nature wearies to exchange the notes,
Which ever, in low breeze, or billowy main,
Speak of the curse, for some rejoicing chords,
Fitting to swell redemption's thrilling strain.

The Year of His Redeemed! would it were come!
The burdened Christian's fervent lips repeat,
As, soiled with battle, stained, and worn, and faint,
For grace and strength he seeks the mercy-seat.
He knows not what this untried year may bring;
One thing he knows, when Jesus shall appear,
He shall be like Him, by His presence saved,
And fear no enemy, and shed no tear.

The Year of Christ's Redeemed! would it were come!
For Zion's recompense is promised then,*

And who, with beating heart and glancing eye,
Does not add joyfully his loud Amen ?

For Israel shall " see evil" never more,†

Nor hold "the cup of trembling" in her hand;"‡
But double joy shall compensate her woe,
And beauty crown her long deserted land.

Would it were come! We will not give Thee rest;
Thou Star of Jacob, till Thy radiance beam
O'er Salem's zone of hills, and Carmel's mount,
And Galilee's blue wave, and Jordan's stream.
Oh, take thy sceptre, long-expected King;
That sceptre, by the "Man of sorrows won;
And, this year, let the kingdoms of the world
Be "kingdoms of our God and of His Son."
Leyland.

* Is. xxxiv. 8, + Zeph. iii. 15.

J. T.

Is. li. 22.

THE JEWISH ADVOCATE.

FEBRUARY, 1852.

THE FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE JEWS.

PROPHECY.

THERE are three questions respecting the Jews which call forth replies, embracing the whole of their history as a nation. What are they? What will they be? What were they? obtain answers to these questions from the Bible. We can That blessed book informs us of their remarkable origin, and of the purpose of God in separating them from the rest of the nations; gives us their history from the first, with only a brief interval, till they had filled up the measure of their iniquity by rejecting the Gospel preached to them by the Apostles, and had become like a dry and withered tree, only fit for the fire.

That blessed book describes also their present condition, and tells us what they should be, both as it regards their religion and their temporal affairs, in its inspired prophecies. Prophecy is history written before-hand by the holy men whom God taught by His Spirit. Now we may be much mistaken as to the application of many

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prophecies, and may not be able to say to what nation, or people, or part of a nation, or community they refer; but it is not thus with the prewritten history of Israel. The name of Israel is not blotted out from amongst men. The people abide, marked out by facts which cannot deceive, and we can have no difficulty in reading in the prophecies the outlines of Israel's present state and history. THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL shall abide many days, without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without a teraphim.

- That blessed book points out the future history of Israel. There cannot be any mistake, generally, as to the people intended, when ISRAEL is the subject of the prophecy. We do not hesitate at once to admit this when the prediction speaks of punishment, when it marks out a people who were to be a proverb and a bye-word amongst the nations; when it describes the branches broken-off because of unbelief; when their religious and political condition, as it is known to be and to have been, are the burden of the prophets' vision, that is when we walk by sight: there should therefore be no difficulty, one would imagine, when Israel is the subject of great and precious promises, and the object of an everlasting love, or as still beloved for their fathers' sakes. Why, when we come to the Scriptures and read prophecies yet to be fulfilled, should we alter our rule of interpretation? By doing this, we make the Scriptures the most uncertain of all writings, and admit, in fact, that any man may make whatsoever he lists out of the prophecies of God.

We wish our readers to go with us to the Bible, not to prove the correctness or incorrectness of any interpretation of particular prophecies, nor to examine subjects connected, as many wise and good men believe, with the future destiny of Israel, such as the Millennium and the personal reign of our Lord during its happy years but to trace, briefly, the gracious designs of our heavenly Father, (whose gifts and calling are without repentance,") which are yet to be fulfilled in the history of His ancient people and through their instrumentality, to a dark and unhappy world.

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We cannot read the Old Testament carefully without being struck, forcibly, by the fact that a very large proportion of its prophecies and nearly all its history refer to one peculiar people. Many contend that all the prophecies about the restoration of the Jews, were fulfilled when part of the nation returned to Canaan from Babylon; that, therefore, there are no promises in store for them as a nation, and that such as speak of good things to come, for Judah and Israel, for the land of Israel, for Zion and for Jerusalem, are to be applied only to the Church. This is the Roman Catholic view, and on this she founds her claim to dominion over all Churches, and indeed over all nations; and the Pope asserts his right to deprive sovereigns of their dominions, and to absolve their subjects from all allegiance, and as in the case of Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth, to curse and excommunicate even the mightiest monarchs who dare to think for themselves. "The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." Who is spoken of here?

The

Pope says, and many Protestants say, "the Church;" and the former, in days gone by, could bless the Armada of Spain and send it forth with the proud title of invincible, towards the dominions of a heretic Queen, to destroy, or convert, a heretical nation. But of whom speaks the prophet? Of a people, distinct from Gentiles, or nations, whose sons come from far, whom the ships of Tarshish shall convey, their silver and their gold with them, whose walls the sons of strangers shall build up: yet who had been forsaken and hated and desolate. The Church is chiefly Gentile, composed of men of many nations, and therefore cannot be the object of this promise. The context determines the question, and points not to Rome, nor to England, not to any Gentile Churches, but to the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

The Lord said unto the prophet Jeremiah (chap. i. 10), "I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant." The Pope, in his bulls of excommunication against Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth, applies these words to Peter and to his successors, the Popes of Rome. Now is this a correct application? Was Jeremiah either Peter or the Pope? God said, I have this day set thee over the nations. Now what Protestant will follow the Pope in such a misapplication of Scripture as makes God, when he addresses Jeremiah, mean Peter and the Pope? Now the same principle of interpretation is adopted when we make Israel, Judah, Zion, Jerusalem, the land, mean neither Israel, Judah, Zion, Jerusalem, nor the land; but the Church.