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and which fully bear out what our correspondent has advanced.

It would be well sometimes to ask ourselves the question, what, in entering into religious controversy with the Jews, is our legitimate object? Assuredly we have no other work to perform than that in which Peter also, and the other Apostles laboured; and what that was is set forth clearly enough by the writer of the foregoing short letter: "To convince Israel that thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead, as foreshewn in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms." This is the point at which the Christian must aim; to set forth Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah of Israel. The simple language of Philip to Nathanael contains the sum and substance of the message: "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law, and the Prophets, did write; Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." When Simon Peter addressed to his Lord the confession of that faith on which our only hope is built, what were his words? "Thou art the Messiah; the Son of the living God." This was the great, the saving mystery that man could not discover: witness our Lord's reply-" Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." When Paul, as his custom was, entered on the Sabbath-day into the synagogues, he reasoned with the Jews out of the Scriptures; opening and alleging that the Messiah must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that the same Jesus whom he preached unto them was that Messiah. In his epistles he farther enlarges upon this saving truth, shewing that not only the

word of prophecy, but every ordinance, every rite and ceremony of the Temple service, were framed to bear upon and to illustrate it. Gently, affectionately, and with uniform respectfulness of language and manner, we find him, himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews, addressing the seed of Abraham, in the spirit and the tone of Peter, without a reproachful or an irritating word; and it is not easy to say from whence came the new light by which Gentile people, after the lapse of some eighteen centuries, are led to use a phraseology so different, unless they have unwittingly taken up the strain of the modern "Daughter of Babylon."

The Lord our God, in forbidding the most deadly of crimes, idolatry, warns His people that He will visit the sins of those who hate Him upon their children, to the third and fourth generation. Yet here is a sin, committed, as the Holy Ghost Himself expressly tells us, "through ignorance" both by people and rulers, and visited, because that ignorance was of a very criminal character, with such terrible punishments as the world never saw, upon that, and the succeeding generation; which now, at the end of, literally, thousands of generations, we dare to assert the Lord is still visiting upon the posterity of the offenders, an immense multitude of whom, be it remembered, repented and believed, and were adopted as His own, on the first preaching of the gospel. Really these are serious matters; and it behoves us to search more deeply the inspired word of God concerning them, without taking on trust the dreaming assertions of Monkish writers, which in the general course of theological study are forced on clerical scholars; and by them perpetuated

and propagated among the laity; until the simple work of declaring to the Jewish people that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Messiah of Israel, the Son of God, the Redeemer of a ruined world, and inviting them fairly to examine their own scriptures for the proof that He who will come to reign was first to suffer, and to rise from the dead,-instead of this, we have so entangled ourselves, and so insulted our elder brethren, by the admission of extraneous questions, and the adoption of unscriptural phraseology, that surely our excellent oil is more likely to break their heads than to soften their hearts.

It is a favourite remark among commentators that Paul's language to Agrippa, and on other occasions, proves him to have been a finished gentleman. Might it not be useful to bear in mind, when the Jews of our day are spoken of, that here, and all over the world, a vast proportion of them are finished gentlemen also; that they rank high in learning, in science, and in every branch of intellectual eminence, that they are daily becoming more sensible of their growing advantages; and that our inconsiderate habit of adopting such a style of thought and expression as Popery alone could ever have introduced among the professed followers of our Lord, is positively calculated to seal up in resentful prejudice and unbelief the souls that we most earnestly desire to win.

THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH.

IT is a remarkable circumstance, that those who have made prophetic dates their study, cannot stretch them beyond the year 1868, so that, supposing the time of restitution to take place then at the latest, there only remain twenty-four years wherein all those astounding events we are expecting, must take place. It is, however, just as likely that this time will be considerably shortened, and if we observe the signs of the times, which are sufficiently strong and abundant to induce us to believe that no farther signs can be expected by this generation, we may conclude that the present calm and prosperity will be suddenly broken up by some unexpected interference of Providence.

Now, it is evident that those Christians who are awakened to the study of prophetic truth, are fixing their eyes upon the three following occurrences, viz. the return of the Jews; the destruction of Popery, and the revelation of Antichrist; while a fourth event much more deeply interesting and important to them, namely, the rapture of the Church and the marriage-supper of the Lamb, is scarcely dwelt upon, and only thought of as succeeding to the other three at some distant period. But if it be so, all these events are evidently prepared and ready, only waiting the appointed hour that they might take place at any moment. It is not said that Popery is to sit as

a Queen at the time of her destruction, but to say in her heart "I sit a Queen," and that is now actually accomplished; for those who have travelled abroad in the last few years, or who have communication with Papists at home, know that this is literally their boast for they have regained sufficient importance to justify their human calculation, that now they are about to be restored to the elevation they lost, when the judgment sat to consume and destroy until the end.

Again We know that the Jews are so fully expecting their restoration and prepared for the signal, that they look for it daily; and the public mind is so accustomed to hearing of their return, that should it occur, it will only be looked upon as one of those political changes which have long been waited for.

Again-With respect to Antichrist; that the ele ments are ready for his manifestation, all admit; and it no longer seems doubtful to which quarter we may look for that head, which, like another Buonaparte, will for a time, subdue the earth.

But should we, the Church of Christ, be looking with assurance to these things taking place before our eyes, when the Lord tells us his coming to his Church will be like a thief in the night? If we know how many times the clock is to strike first, there can be no resemblance to the thief's approach, for the good man of the house knows not when he will come. But suppose the Lord should immediately make up the number of his elect, and meet them in the clouds, then truly will they " escape all those things' coming on the earth, and like Noah, enter the ark before the rain descends; and as he floated securely on the troubled waters which

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