British Society for promoting the spiritual welfare of INTRODUCTION. THE subject of the return of the Jewish people to the favour of the God of their fathers is one of deep and surpassing interest and moment. The eye of faith, looking into the depth of the divine records, perceives this peculiar people, under the cloud of a frowning Providence, prepared in the fulness of time to be led forward and planted in the Lord their Righteousness, for a name and a praise in every land: (Isaiah lxii. 7.) It beholds them, not as the subjects of the divine hatred, but the objects of God's compassionate love: (Isaiah xlix. 15, 16.) It distinctly perceives that a regard for, and scriptural interest in this people, are co-ordinate with the progress of evangelical truth and personal attainment in the divine life; that neglect of them is an evidence of a sickly, as persecution is a conclusive testimony of a spurious and apostate Christianity. In all the churches of the Reformation, we find an awakening interest to the condition and prospects of the ancient people of God one of the most striking religious characteristics of the day: yet the Jewish mission being confessedly one of the most difficult labours of the Christian church, and one which, in the estimation of those great and good men who have been moved by the Holy Ghost to send after the lost sheep of the house of Israel, notwithstanding the exertions which have been made during the last forty years to lift up the testimony of Jesus amongst them, has never been taken up on a scale commensurate to its importance, or according to that plan likely to bring down the unalloyed blessing of the Great Head of the Church, in that fulness with which he is both able and willing to crown the labours of his faithful people. With respect to the manner in which the ancient people of God are to be approached, to conciliate their esteem, to overcome their prejudices, to gain their confidence, and to lead them dispassionately to examine the credentials of the christian faith, experience proves, that not doctrinal Christianity merely, but the manifestation of |