THE JEWISH HERALD; AND RECORD OF CHRISTIAN EFFORT FOR THE Spiritual Good of God's Ancient People. "PUBLISH YE, PRAISE YE, AND SAY, O LORD, SAVE THY PEOPLE, THE REMNANT OF ISRAEL." VOL. XIV.-NEW SERIES, VOL. V. LONDON: PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE JEWS. OFFICE: No. 1, CRESCENT PLACE, BLACKFRIARS, BY JOHN SNOW, 35, PATERNOSTER ROW. The Jewish Herald, AND RECORD OF CHRISTIAN EFFORT FOR THE SPIRITUAL GOOD OF GOD'S ANCIENT PEOPLE. PUBLISH YE, PRAISE YE, AND SAY, O LORD, SAVE THY PEOPLE, THE REMNANT OF ISRAEL." PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE Hosanna! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!" POETRY is a primal element in man's nature, of which Song is the plaintive or joyous expression. The morning stars would not have sung together at a finished creation, unless there had been a responsive chord in Eden-and songs would not await the newly-arrived spirit of the just in heaven were not that spirit attuned to their melodies. Creation, Grace, and Glory* are celebrated by song. Poetry first attracts the infant listener to the story of the Bible, to the love of Christ, and to the calm and tranquil joys of heaven. It cheers the weary pilgrim on his way, soothes the bed of sorrow when no argument of prose can go down to the depths, or rise to the heights of Christian experience. It whispers when no other voice can be borne; the traveller bears the harp in his hand when his mortal vestments are dropping from him, nor ceases to listen. to its broken string until, "on the other side," he receives the lyre, " strung and tuned by love divine," to sound in God the Father's ear no other name but that which has been his joy and confidence all the journey through. There are no songs like those of the Bible, no melody, perhaps, like that of Hebrew voices; and when those voices shall be everywhere consecrated to Him who died on Calvary, and reigns amid the harmonies of heaven, prophecy shall have received its full accomplishment. "One song employ all nations, and all cry, * Job xxxviii. 7; Luke ii. 14; Rev. v. 9. VOL. XIV.-NEW SERIES VOL. V. From distant mountains catch the flying joy, At this season of annual congratulation and festive joy let our souls dwell on the exciting prospect. Let the poetry of the Bible entwine around our hearts its sacred truths, and wake up our imaginations to survey the joys prepared for all who love the Lord; and let us not be satisfied till one after another of the sweet singers of Israel have joined our song, and are prepared to circulate throughout the world their own Hallelujah to God and the Lamb. "Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness; those that remember thee in thy ways;" and "the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion, with songs, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads." Let the joy of the Lord, then, be our strength, and, as we enter on another year of privileged service, while we cherish the spirit of deepest humility, let praise mingle with our prayer, and our hearts rejoice in the hope that Christ is, and will be, magnified in the gathering of lost sheep to His fold. Jesus and Jerusalem. THE WEEPING PROPHET. In the whole of the wondrous history of the Lord Jesus, as associated with Jerusalem, there is not (excepting always His most wondrous passion) a more touching scene than that which is portrayed by the evangelist Luke, in xix. 41-44. "And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee around, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the dust, and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thec one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." In these words the tender and the terrible are strikingly blended. Three things at once stand forth requiring our most earnest attention :-Mercy rejected; Judgment impending; the Saviour weeping. "The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ," had been rejected in and round Jerusalem; the Saviour had delivered discourses full of sublime truths set forth in most simple language; He had held conversations displaying the most loving condescension, and conducted controversies in a spirit of combined faithfulness and meekness hitherto unknown. But all was in vain, though in connexion with these loving words stupendous miracles had been wrought. Jerusalem "knew not the time of her visitation;" "knew not the things which belonged to her peace." She put from her, with suicidal hand, a cup brimming over with happiness. The tidings brought to her were full of blessing. The Gospel which Jesus preached, and which is still before our eyes, might well be called the " glad tidings of peace." Herein is revealed the character of God as "the very God of peace," gracious, merciful, and ready to forgive;" in Christ reconciling, through Christ blessing. When received in the love thereof it reconciles to God, slays the 66 enmity of the heart, and brings it into a state of friendship and fellowship with the Father of Glory. It calms the storms of passion in the soul, and satisfies all its vast desires. It employs the renewed heart in a new and delightful service, and begets in it hopes of a glorious inheritance-a peaceful rest in the full realisation of all that God hath promised. All this was rejected by Israel. After all His loving invitations to come to Him, and receive from Him; after He had lifted up His voice and cried, "If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink;" after all His yearnings to become the fountain of happiness and purity to sin-parched, sin-loving, sin-degraded souls,-He had to record against them, "Ye would not." He had to report to Him that sent Him, "O! righteous Father, the world hath not known thee." Sad thought, "they knew not the time of their visitation!" They might have known, they ought to have known; their ignorance was wilful because willing, and willing ignorance is wilful rejection. Let these solemn sentences, which Jesus spake concerning the men of Jerusalem, be well pondered, as a justification of God in His after-dealings with them, and as a warning to all to whom words of peace are yet spoken, and whose day of visitation yet lasts. "And ye will not come unto me that ye might have life" (John v. 40). Jesus said unto them, "If ye were blind ye should have no sin, but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth" (John ix. 41). "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin, but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father" (John xv. 24). Mercy being spurned, judgment sore and overwhelming impends over the rejectors. They mocked the hand which held forth the olive-branch of peace; but how will they escape that red right hand which wields the rod of judgment? Alas! this they feared not. They did not think they had done anything so very bad, or even at all bad in rejecting the loving words of Jesus. The deceitfulness of sin and a prayerless familiarity with truth had hardened their hearts, and, as a nation, judicial blindness was fast settling down upon them. In them was fulfilled the awful and oft-quoted words of their sublime prophet (Isaiah, vi. 9, 10). They had "closed their ears, shut their eyes, and made gross their hearts;" and now God said, "be it so, "take your own choice!" Then the things which were for their peace became "hid from their eyes." This was true of them nationally, and in this respect is true still. There were individuals then who received Christ, there have been some in all ages since, and thanks be to God there are still even in our times a considerable number of Jews who, enlightened from above, have welcomed the good news of peace with God through the blood of the Cross. And we cannot say at any time of any single individual "it is hid from thine eyes; " and therefore "to every creature," whether Jew or Gentile, we may still say, "be ye reconciled to God." What fearful carnal security bound the blinded nation of whom the Lord spake! Though wrath was impending, they still said, "The temple of the Lord are we," "we shall have peace." Those who, of all others, have most reason to fear are often most secure. They have a false refuge which serves to shut out the view of the danger; but affords no real protection from it. How many everywhere are in this sad condition! Some sheltering themselves in general views of God's mercy-some under their own services and doings-some in purposes of repentance-some in a sound creed or busy profession-some in past feelings; but nothing short of being |