infidels too, to answer that question in one way; and that is a way so painful that I will not now dwell on it but another answer may be given.They were suffered to remain in unbelief, to be a standing argument against infidels. For if all the Jews had believed, they would have melted down into the common mass of Christians; all distinction between Jew and Gentile would have been lost, and infidels would have said, "There never was such a nation as the Jews of whom the Bible speaks, and none but fools would believe the incredible tale, any more than we now believe in pigmies, or in fairies." But here are the Jews with their Bible in their hand. Deny it who can.

These living witnesses present themselves to confront infidels in every land. We have them in England, as every child knows. They are in France also, and they attracted the attention of Buonaparte, who convened a grand assembly of them in Paris, to accomplish some political scheme, which has never yet been developed. Jews abound in Holland for one quarter of Amsterdam, the capital, is inhabited by them. They form a large part of the inhabitants of Spain, though, on account of the religious persecutions of that country, they often exist in secret, where they are little suspected. In Germany, they are numerous, and learned, and powerful. Whole towns and districts, in Poland, are inhabited by Jews, who are said to form more than a million of the population, and to have lately joined in arms for the recovery of the liberty of that oppressed people. In the Turkish empire,

they abound. They are found in the East and West Indies, and in the vast continent of America. And in fact where are they not?

Every where, they are the same peculiar people. Every where, by fulfilling, they prove the inspiration of the words of Scripture, uttered four thousand years ago: "The people shall dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the nations." Every where they have the same ancient language, and the same sacred books; the same singular rites; and are looking for the same grand event, the coming of some great deliverer, to gather them from their dispersion, and restore them to the land of their fathers.

For that people, that is found every where, and at home no where, was once a most compact and powerful nation, in a fine country of their own. Ask them where it was, and they will tell you. It was on the borders of the Mediterranean sea; bounded on the north by the mountains of Lebanon, well known for its lofty cedars; on the south, by Egypt, the country from which they were brought forth by mighty miracles; on the east, by the famous river Euphrates; and by the Levant, or Mediterranean, on the west. You see they did not live in a terra incognita, a land in the moon, or a region which cannot be found. It is a country as

well known as England.

And why are they not there now? Ah, that is a question well worthy of rational inquirers after truth. How long have they been driven out of that land, and scattered into every nation under heaven?

Almost two thousand years, as the history of England, and of almost every European nation, will shew. Moses, their lawgiver, told them, about four thousand years ago, that if they did not obey the law he gave them from God, they should be driven out into every nation under heaven; and Jesus told them, that if they did not believe in him, the Romans would come and destroy their capital city, Jerusalem, and their national existence, so that others should possess their land, and they should be dispersed in all other lands.

But infidels may say, "How do we know that they have been dispersed so long, or that they ever lived in Palestine, which is called the holy land?? You may easily know that, and thoroughly satisfy yourselves, if you choose to inquire. Read the history of Europe, and you must become familiar with what are called the Crusades, in which our Richard I. called Cœur de Lion, or lion's heart, was so deeply engaged. These wars were undertaken to recover the holy land, in which Jesus lived, among his own nation of the Jews, from the power of the Mahometans, who still have possession of it. This carries us back almost a thousand years, and shews that the Jews have been dispersed so long. But many, who are not familiar with history, know something of Shakespeare, and are well acquainted with his character of Shylock the Jew. This is sufficient to shew that Jews were well known in the age of which the poet speaks; and that they were then dispersed in various countries, and were living in Venice; for Shakespeare, it is well known, has

adapted his characters to historic facts. The history of our own country, in the times of the Henrys and Edwards, often records the persecutions which the Jews suffered in England whenever a needy king wished to strip them of the wealth which they acquired by trading in all lands. All other history presents similar facts; so that you might as well doubt whether there are gentiles now, as question whether there have been Jews, from the time of Jesus Christ, down to the present day. When you go back to the Roman history, you read of the war in which Vespasian and Titus his son, destroyed the Jewish nation, and commenced its dispersion. Tacitus, the well known Roman historian, tells us how Pompey first subdued the Jews and entered into their temple, where he found, to his surprise, no image of a god. During the civil wars of the Romans, Judea fell to the lot of Mark Antony, who gave the kingdom to Herod, whom Augustus still farther favoured. While Tiberius reigned they were quiet, and it was in his reign that Christ was crucified; but when Cæsar attempted to set up his image in the temple, the Jews took up arms.

Judea was afterwards reduced to a Roman province, which Antonius Felix governed with cruelty. The patience of the Jews lasted, until Gessius Florus governed the country, and then war broke out. But Vespasian, in two summers, conquered all the country except Jerusalem. The temple was a sort of citadel, but at length there were prodigies which some interpreted as if the deities had left the temple, but others put a different construction on them;

for it was supposed that a prediction was contained in their ancient sacred writings, that the East should rule, and that some who should spring from Judea should have universal empire. A hope of the Messiah urged on the Jews, while the Romans applying the prediction to their commanders, pressed the siege till the city fell.-Tacit. Annal. lib. 5, cap. 9—13. The Roman generals were accustomed, when they had conquered a country, to return home in triumph. On these triumphs immense sums were squandered. Lofty arches were erected, that under them the victors might enter into Rome. Of these, there still remains one that was constructed to celebrate the triumphant return of Titus from the Jewish war. This arch contains sculpture which exhibits the triumphal procession. There you may see the Roman soldiers carrying on their shoulders the golden candlestick and the golden table of shew-bread, and other vessels of the temple at Jerusalem, which are described in the Bible, as made by Moses, at the command of God. The Jews are so mortified at this monument of their defeat and dispersion, that they will not go under the arch, but enter into Rome through a little door at the side, like that which once opened into the foot-path, at the side of the arch of Temple Bar, under which our kings enter into the city.

Drawings of this arch of Titus may be seen, with the sculpture representing the procession, and the golden trumpets and candlestick, and table. These are memorials of the truth of the Old Testament, shewing that the things described in the