TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN DEAR MADAM, IN one of your articles for this month (August), written by your correspondent X. Q., on “Things of Old," I observe, in speaking of the Jews, he alludes to a thing positively denied by many able advocates of their cause, and I believe by no less an authority than Dr. M'Caul, in his two sermons preached before the Dublin University, i. e. that the Jews, since their first captivity, have never fallen into the sin of idolatry. How this comes to pass with men of wisdom, learning, and piety, or with any persons who diligently and carefully read the scriptures of truth, I can scarcely imagine; since this was a sin into which they were so very prone to fall, against which they are so frequently and so strongly warned, and actually declared by God himself to be one, if not the chief, cause of their being scattered in every part of the earth, before their rejection of Christ, though this latter was the cause of it afterwards. That they have fallen into and continued in idolatry, in a great measure, is probable, from the difficulty of clearly and unequivocally distinguishing and selecting the ten lost tribes, which have been dispersed into all countries, and so incorporated in many instances with the nations in their habits and customs, which we term heathen, that almost every trace of them is lost; and certain from the testimony, in several places, of the inspired writings, some of which, chiefly prophetical and referring to the latter days, I adduce as proof. They are the following, and more might be added:-Deut. iv. 28; xxviii. 64. Jeremiah xvi. 13. Ezekiel xxxvi. 25; xxxvii. 23, to be read with their contexts. If I am wrong, I shall feel glad to be corrected. The best and greatest of men are liable to error, and the greater the evil therefore in their propagating Wishing the blessing of the Lord to rest still more abundantly on your faithful endeavours, I am, dear Madam, error. August 29, 1840. Yours truly, ΑΚΡΙΒΗΣ. "MY GOD WILL BRING BACK." FOR the following stanzas we are indebted to the columns of the Morning Herald. They are written by the author of that stirring address to the Jews which occupied the last pages of our preceding number. לבני ישראל שלום לכם Oh land of Canaan-pleasant land! With milk and honey once-o'erflowing— Where once the rose of Sharon bloomed, Where white-flowered myrtles once were growing! All dreary now and desolate The olive and the cheering vine, Are trampled down by ruthless feet, In untamed majesty erect Still rise the peaks of Lebanon! In wreath of snow and cypress clad, * But all the cedar trees are gone! A few of the sacred cedars remain, but in the last stages of decay. Yet it shall rise-yet it shall spread, Though small at first-an infant's handYet it shall rise, and spread and cheer With genial showers the drooping land! Strong is the LORD-His word is sure! Strong is the LORD-and He hath sworn The rose shall bud and blossom yet, Where rankle now the briar and thorn. The Gentile nations plot and plan And kings combiné-and armies move- An upstart Pharaoh sends his swarms, The Maronite-the proud-souled Druse- Oh for the son of Jesse's lyre- To rouse the scattered tribes once more, *Isaiah lxiv, + Lamentations. Oh for the prophet Daniel's prayer- Oh, men of Judah !-men of Judah! Who love no more their father land? Oh, daughters of Jerusalem! How can ye braid your glossy hair,— 66 While Zion's hills lies waste and bare? Let my right hand forget its skill! I do not think on Zion still!”§ * Daniel ix. 16-19. ELIASHIB. † Isaiah lx. 9. Haggai ii. 8. Genesis xv. 18. "Unto thy seed have I given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great river-the river Euphrates." § Psalm cxxxvii. Anglice-My God will bring back. |