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There was, therefore, now no longer room for supplication in their behalf. Jeremiah must cease to plead for them. God had decided to cast them off; and, therefore, he would not hear his prophet for them: nay, were Moses and Samuel, whom he had so much honored while they were living, by answering their prayers, to stand before him, they could not prevent his casting them out of his sight. And, if to their prayers were added those of Noah, Daniel, and Job, they would not avail more than to deliver their own souls by their righteousness. Ezek. 14: 14. Much as God was disposed to favor his covenant people, especially when their cause was plead by his honored servants, their destiny was sealedthe day of forgiveness was past-the day of rebuke and chastisement had come.

There is a limit we see to the divine patience, in respect to nations, as well as individuals. In regard to both, God waits just as long as the welfare of his kingdom and the honor of his name will permit. The pious of a nation may by their prayers for a time, and, in some instances, for a long time, avail to retard national judgments. But they cannot prevail with God, nor ought they to desire it, to tolerate wickedness, or to save men in their sins. When a nation continues to wax worse and worse, notwithstanding the favors and mercies of God on the one hand, and his warnings and judgments on the other; and, especially, when they insult and persecute his prophets, he may, in his own good purpose, seal their doom: and then there is no redemption. The prayers of his people will have no other effect than to secure to themselves the divine blessing. They will reap the benefit of every humble supplication; while the more they pray, especially if the wicked nation know it, and do not repent and reform, the more signal will be their destruction.

Gloomy is the state of a nation, when God says to his own people: "Pray not for them, for I will not hear you." Let us hope that such a day will never come, in respect to

the descendants of the pilgrims. Who would have predicted such a doom for the covenant people of God; so honored; so favored with divine manifestations in their behalf for centuries? And are we more secure than they were? Will God tolerate in us that which brought down his direst judgments upon them? Let us not presume; let us remove those sources of wickedness, which tend to demoralize and corrupt the nation; let us guard our public councils from the influence of men of corrupt and licentious principles. Then will God throw around us the everlasting arms of his protection. And, as years revolve, the tide of our national prosperity will flow broader and deeper. In the beautiful language of inspiration: "Our sons will be as plants grown up in their youth, and our daughters as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace." "Happy is that people whose God is the Lord."

Long as the morn her course shall run,
Or men behold the circling sun,

Lord, in our land support thy reign!
Crown her just councils with success,
With truth and peace her borders bless,
And all thy sacred rights maintain.

EZEKIEL.

PROMISED BLESSINGS MUST BE SOUGHT.

Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.-Ezekiel xxxvi. 37.

THE Lord never forgets his people. He may find it necessary to rebuke, to afflict, and even scatter them among the heathen-under whose oppressions they may suffer calamities the most terrible-but his "loving kindness will he not utterly take from them, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail."

We find, in this chapter, the foregoing gracious assurance. It contains two distinct, but cheering prophecies; both having reference to an improved condition of the Jews-the one temporal, the other spiritual.

"The

They were now in Babylon, in captivity; and there God had decided they should remain some forty or fifty years longer. Yet the day of deliverance would come. mountains of Israel should yet yield their fruit to the people of Israel," v. 8; the "cities" should be "inhabited;" the "wastes" should be "builded;" the "old estates" should again be "settled."

But these temporal blessings were not a moiety of what God had in store for them. Rich spiritual mercies should flow in upon them. "I will sprinkle clean water upon you;" by which imagery, God expressed the spiritual blessings he designed for them-" and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness; and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you," v. 26: “And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God." v. 28.

That these promises had primary reference to the return of the Jews to Judea, at the expiration of the Babylonish captivity, admits of no doubt. And they were fulfilled. The Jews were restored; and many of them may have been renewed and sanctified; and all were, from that time, preserved from idolatry. But great numbers still lived in a state of alienation from God; nor was the outward condition of the Jews so prosperous, after the captivity, as it had been before that catastrophe; and yet, according to these prophecies, and especially that in the following chapter, (xxxvii.) we should expect that it would have been far more prosperous.

It seems, therefore, unavoidable, that we should refer their complete fulfillment to some future event-to an era when they shall be restored to their own land-there to flourish to the end of time. "Say unto them, thus saith the Lord God,

Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall no more be two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so they shall be my people, and I will be their God. And David my servant shall be king over them; and they shall have one shepherd: they also shall walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, to do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children, and their childrens' children, for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore." Ch. 37: 21-28.

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These passages, and those of similar import, strengthen the opinion that, after the Jews shall be converted to Christ, as they will be, for they shall be graffed in again," and shall serve "David their king," they shall be restored to their own land.* "Then," remarks Dr. Scott, "these promises will be fulfilled to them in their fullest sense; and the subse

*The author is well aware that interpreters of Scripture are divided on the ques tion of the literal return of the Jews. He has here followed the popular belief.

quent parts of the prophecy will be literally accomplished, in the sight of all the nations. And the Jews are, no doubt, preserved a distinct people, on purpose to make way for this great display of the Lord's power and truth; and thus to demonstrate to all the world the divine original of the holy Scriptures."

But, "Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them."

Of the nature and variety of the instrumentalities, which God will employ, by which to accomplish these glorious designs, we are, in a great measure, left in ignorance. But there is one here specified-and a powerful one it will proveviz: prayer. At the proper time, God will pour out his spirit upon them. They will begin to turn their thoughts upward to the God of their fathers. They will think of their fathers' sepulchres, and the land which contains them; of Zion, "beautiful for situation-the joy of all the earth;" of Jerusalem, their once "happy home;" and, as they once sat by the "rivers of Babylon," and "wept, when they remembered Zion," so, in all lands, where they are scattered, they will weep-they will lift up their voice in supplication to their fathers' God. And God will hear; he will direct them to "David their king;" he will turn their thoughts and affections to Jesus-long despised, and long rejected-and they will own him; and, with the wondering and admiring Thomas, they will open their eyes upon his beauty and glory, and exclaim, "My Lord, and my God!"

And, at length, converted to Christ, they will return to their own native hills. The rose of Sharon will be again seen, in all its pristine beauty. Carmel will exult in the fatness of its olives; and Lebanon glory in its cedars. And then, in those streets, where the shouts of the blind and infuriated mob cried, "Away with him!"—"Crucify him!" shall be heard the ransomed sons and daughters of Israel, crying, "Hosanna! blessed is he that cometh in the name of the

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