engaged in the very work of the Redeemer himself, and with an enlarged and joyful liberality let our whole souls be engaged in this blessed but arduous work. There is a hidden and secret but irresistible power and strength in the diffused gospel that makes even present disappointment only the means of farther reaches of divine goodness, and a fuller swell of overflowing blessing; yes, that spring-tide of wisdom, power, and love, is now rising that will not cease its flow till the whole earth be full of the glory of the Lord.

The whole of this subject eminently applies to the Saviour's dealings with the Jewish nation. How clearly his aim will be accomplished in their salvation! Isa. xxvii. 6. How great his discouragements in their lengthened unbelief! Isa. xlix. 5. How sted fast his persevering love to them! Isa. liv. 7-17. And what an issue of glory for the whole world will be their conversion! Isa. Ix. and Rom. xi.

DISCOURSE III.

THE MIND OF CHRIST RESPECTING THE JEWS.

[PREACHED IN BIRMINGHAM, APRIL 16, 1837, AND IN TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHAPEL, EDINBURGH, MAY 19, 1839.]

ISAIAH LXII. 1, 2.

For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory.

THE indifference felt towards the Jews by Christians at large has been very great. Much have they, in former ages, been oppressed and injured by those bearing the Christian name. The days of open persecution have hardly ceased, and days of neglect and unconcern have by no means passed away. True scriptural knowledge, as well as true Christian feeling, gives the church of Christ a deep interest in the actual state of the Jews.

My text speaks this with a power and life that 1 am almost afraid to injure by attempting to unfold and to manifest. It discovers to us, with the most vivid light, the Divine mind. And truly thankful do I feel, to be permitted, in God's gracious providence,

first to open this blessed subject, in this pulpit and in this city, on a festival of our church so adapted to such an occasion.

When we consider that it is now eighteen hundred years since the Holy Ghost was first poured out on Jews in Jerusalem, and so by them the Gospel came to us, well may we celebrate such a day by stirring up Christians to seek to return again to the Jews the blessings which they once gave to us.

May the Lord himself assist me to lay this subject before you, and may the same Holy Spirit be largely shed forth upon us.

I. The person speaking.

II. Those for whom he is interested.

III. What he desires for them.

IV. The earnest expression of those desires.

I. THE PERSON HERE SPEAKING.

It is the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the beginning of the former chapter, he is introduced as the speaker in these words: the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. We can have no doubt about this, as our Lord himself applied it to his own person in the synagogue at Nazareth.

The remainder of that chapter is full of promises of the restoration and conversion of the Jewish nation, and of its blessed effects on all nations. And now, in the beginning of this 62nd chapter, the Redeemer pours out his fervent desires for the accomplishment of this all-important object. The various expressions can have no inferior speaker. Thou shalt be called Hephzibah, that is, my delight is in her, applies preeminently to Christ.

Let us see then, very clearly, that our Lord Jesus Christ here speaks and here discovers his mind. To know what are his views and purposes is infinitely important to us, and I will lay this before you as discovered to us in his life.

Who can adequately describe all the toils of his most laborious ministry? His disregard of personal ease and comfort; his incessant preaching by day; his nights spent in prayer; his not having leisure so much as to eat bread; when hungry and thirsty himself, giving spiritual food and drink to sinners; always going about doing good, and not having where to lay his head for repose at night.

And what was his mind in all this!-the salvation of Israel. He expressly says, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. His apostles declare that, Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. He bids the twelve, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The word was first to be spoken to them.

And when they rejected that word, what was the mind of Jesus? See it on his last approach to Jerusalem; regardless of the acclamations of his faithful disciples that crowded round him, his heart was full of sorrow for Jerusalem; when he was come near, be beheld the city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace!

On more than one occasion, he appears to have thus sighed over the city; O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! (Luke xiii. 34; Matt. xxiii. 37.)

But when they had rejected him; when they had cried, Away with him, away with him, crucify him;

when they had spit upon him and scourged him, has he still the same mind? When they revile him on the cross, and bid him, with taunting words, Save thyself and come down from the cross; what are his thoughts then? Hear his words, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

But when he rose from the grave, when he gives his last commission to his Apostles, what are his directions? Let repentance and remission of sins be preached in my name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

See, then, here distinctly the person speaking; the mind of Christ is the mind set before us in this text. It is clear, whatever may be the reason of it, there is in the mind of our Lord Jesus Christ a deep concern for the salvation of the people of Israel in particular; a special regard for them, as will be yet more fully seen in the farther consideration of this subject. And if it be the mind of Christ, O how plain is the conclusion! it will be the mind of all his followers.

II. THOSE FOR WHOM HE IS INTERESTED. It is for Zion's sake, it is for Jerusalem's sake; and you will observe this is distinguished from the Gentiles and their kings, who come in a subsequent relation. It means, then, the literal Zion and Jerusalem in its primary sense; the Jewish nation as distinguished from the Gentiles, including, however, all the spiritual seed of Abraham.

We will first briefly notice, that the spiritual seed is included, and then dwell on the literal Zion.

1. THE SPIRITUAL SEED. All who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ are come to the Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. The Jews, as a distinct nation, as a body of people, have, for a season, fallen and been broken off, that a people from among the Gentiles might be grafted into their olivetree, enriched and saved through their fall. If ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according