history of this Israel, which is one day "to be saved."
restored to the favor of God, and shall become a holy nation and a blessing to the world.
So much for the interpretation of our text. I shall now proceed to invite the attention of my readers to four points respecting Israel, which every friend of the "Jews" should endeavor to keep always fresh and green before his mind. Trite and familiar as they may seem to some, they are overlooked and forgotten by others. But I do not hesitate to say that a firm grasp of these four points is the foundation of any real and abiding interest in the Jewish subject and cause.
1. I ask you then, in the first place, to consider the very peculiar past history of this Israel, which is one day "to be saved."
For the facts of that history I shall simply refer you to the Bible. Whatever modern skepticism may be pleased to say, the story of Israel which that venerable old Book records is as trustworthy as the story of any ancient nation in the world. We have no more warrant for disputing its accuracy than for disputing the accounts of Egypt, Assyria, Persia, and Greece, related by Herodotus. On the contrary, there is continually accumulating evidence that the Old Testament memoirs of the Jewish people are thoroughly trustworthy and true.
Israel, then, we find for nearly 1,500 years was more favored and privileged by God than any nation in the world. David might well say, "What one nation in the earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to Himself?" (2 Sam. 7:23). It was the only nation in the earth to which God was pleased to reveal Himself. "To them were committed the oracles of God." (Rom. 3:2). While all other nations were suffered to walk in their own ways, and to live in moral and spiritual darkness, the Jews alone enjoyed an immense amount of light and knowledge. The humblest priest in Solomon's temple was a far better theologian than Homer. Daniel, and Ezra and Nehemiah knew more about God than Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras, and Cicero, all put together.
The Jews were brought out of Egypt by miraculous interposition, planted in Palestine, one of the choicest corners of the earth, and fenced off and separated from other nations by peculiar customs and ceremonies. They were supplied with a moral law from heaven so perfect, that even to this day nothing can be added to it or taken from it. They were taught to worship God with ceremonial rites and ordinances, which, however burdensome they may seem to us, were admirably adapted to human nature at that early stage of man's history, and calculated to train them for a higher dispensation. They were constantly warned and instructed by prophets, and protected and defended by miracles. In short, if mercies and kindnesses alone could make people good, no nation on earth should have been so good as Israel. While Egypt, and Babylon, and Greece worshipped the works of their own hands, the Jew alone was a worshipper of the one true God.
But Israel, unhappily, we find, were a people always prone to backsliding and falling away from God. Again and again they fell into idolatry and wickedness, and forsook the Lord God of their fathers. Again and again they were chastised for their sins and delivered into the hands of the nations around them. Midianites, Philistines, Ammonites, Syrians, Assyrians, Babylonians were rods by which they were repeatedly scourged. From the time of the Judges down to the end of Chronicles, we see a sorrowful record of constantly recurring rebellions against God, and constantly recurring punishments. Never, apparently, was there a nation so stubborn and obstinate, and so ready to forget instruction, so mercifully dealt with and yet so impenitent and unbelieving.
Finally, we find Israel at the end of 1,500 years given up by God to a fearful punishment, and allowed to reap the consequences of their own sins. After repeatedly rejecting God's prophets, they headed up their wickedness by rejecting God's only begotten Son. They refused their true King, the Son of David, and would have no king but Caesar. Then at last the cup of their iniquity was full. Jerusalem was given up to the Romans. The holy and beautiful temple was burned. The