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MATTER FOR THOUGHT.

AMONG inquirers there may be some who are inquiring after "matter for thought,' while their own souls know not the grace and truth which are in Jesus Christ. We would ask your leave, therefore, Reader, to inquire of you, Can you say, as in the presence of God, "My sins are forgiven, my iniquities are covered ?" If not, we

would draw your attention to the question,—

IS GOD'S WAY OF RECEIVING MAN, AND YOUR WAY OF GETTING RECEIVED BY GOD THE SAME?

When God gave man leave to eat "flesh" (Gen. ix. 3-5) he told them not to eat "the blood" which was in it. 66 'Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." Why did God forbid to eat the blood? He Himself tells us (Lev. xvii. 11—14) “The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls; FOR IT IS THE BLOOD THAT MAKETH AN ATONEMENT for the soul. Therefore I said,... No soul of you shall eat blood."

In Exodus (xxiii. 18; xxxiv. 25) it is written, that no leaven is to be offered with the blood upon the altar. Leaven is the emblem of malice and wickedness.

The way that an atonement was made by blood was this:-The sinner, or offending party, took some animal alive, and putting his hand upon its head, confessed his sin; then the animal was slain: this was called sacrifice. By this action a man as it were cast himself as A SINNER upon God's mercy; for he confessed by so doing that he for his sin deserved the death to which he put the victim, and then he was counted innocent, as if his life were begun over again.

Now, what the true meaning of the blood offered without leaven was, true Christians know right well, for it is that which in itself and by itself is their only ground of trust and hope in God. It was "the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times" (1 Pet. i. 19, 20). This is He, the only begotten Son of the Father, the Lamb of God (John i. 29-36), who was sacrificed BY GOD for sin, and raised again from the dead by the power of the Spirit in a new life: He of whom it was written (Zech. xiii. 6) "And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Awake, O sword, against мY shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." A man, even the Son of man, with hands pierced right through, as by the nails of the cross, yet alive again-and He declared to be the Fellow of Jehovah of Sabaoth!!! Through those wounds in his hands the blood flowed when alive formerly He was put to death in the house of His friends. But what means that blood? Truly it has a voice of its own, and it speaketh better things than that of Abel (Heb. xii. 24). It is the grand subject of the Holy Spirit in His witnessing that Jesus is the Son of God. For Jesus came by water and by blood, not by water only, but by water and blood. These three, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood (by which water and blood Jesus came), are now God's three witnesses on earth; and their testimony agrees (1 John v. 5-8). By faith we see Jesus risen and ascendedas the Lamb in the midst of the throne, the Lamb that was slain, and behold he is alive again for evermore! And we know how he came there, even by the cross, and the water, and blood which flowed from his side, when it was pierced by the soldier after death: "and forthwith came thereout blood and water" (John xix. 34). We Christians know Jesus crucified alive again for evermore; and because we know Him we are sure we must have the Spirit, for without the Spirit no man can know Him (1 Cor. ii. 11-16). The Spirit, as we have Him, was given after Jesus' resurrection (John vii. 39), and as a consequence of His acceptance in heaven (Eph. iv. 8); and if so, then, His very presence with us bears witness, that the death of Jesus has taken place; and so of the water and blood, which, flowing from his side, proved His death.

Death is a fearful thing; but death by shedding of the blood is a horrid thing. Does

not nature recoil from blood? Oh blood is a horrid thing! What an object of disgust is a slaughter-house! The tabernacle and the temple were places in which blood was a most familiar and constant object. Well, but what is the blood of bulls and goats, or of any other creature, compared with the blood of one of our fellow-men, seeing" man was made in the image of God" (Gen. i. 26, 27; ix. 6)? Can we not all feel that the blood of one man is worth more than the blood of many oxen? Well then, what must God think as to the value of the blood of many men when compared with the blood of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, in whom He was well pleased-who was God manifest in the flesh? Must not Abraham have been very glad when he found he was not obliged to shed the blood of his son and heir, Isaac, but only that of a ram? Surely his having been willing to do so, showed how greatly he loved and feared His Almighty "Friend." What shall we think of Him who, being God, gave up His only begotten Son and Heir for his weak, sinful, ungodly enemies!

I said that He that made atonement by sacrifice laid his hand upon the victim's head and confessed his sins over it. This brings to my mind three things in connection with that atonement on which we rest-First. The arm stretched forth and resting upon the head of the victim reminds me of the sinner's being connected by faith with the Son in His sufferings for sin-when He gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified of in due time (1 Tim. ii. 6); as it is said :-The just shall live by His faith (Hab. ii. 4, Rom. i. 17). "By His knowledge (or by the knowledge of Him) shall my righteous servant justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities (Isa. liii. 11). And surely if I know that Christ died in the plaee of sinners, I must say, "There is no condemnation for me." Secondly. As done by God's commands, it points me to God's laying His hand upon Christ, and having laid our sins upon Him, visiting them in judgment there upon Him, according as it is written: "He looketh upon men; and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light." Yea, "He is gracious unto him and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom" (Job xxxiii. 27, 28, 24). This was Christ, "who gave Himself a ransom for all" (1 Tim. ii. 6). The Just One suffering in the place of the many unjust (1 Pet. iii. 18). He who knew no sin being made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. v. 21). Being delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification (Rom. iv. 25). Read Isaiah liii., and see how "He was wounded for our transgressions: He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him: and with His stripes we are healed......The Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all....... For our transgression was He stricken.......When it pleased the Lord to bruise Him..... to put Him to grief"-His life was forfeited instead of ours. Thirdly. As the man received his own life back again, the victim being substituted for him in death, the arm so stretched forth to gather life, reminds me of that union in His new life in the Holy Ghost between Jesus risen and all His people- they are ONE with Him. In death He was alone-substituted for us, the Just One for the many unjust; but in resurrection the church was in Him, "Risen with Christ...our life is hidden with Him in God" (Col. iii. 1-4). The Spirit is life because of righteousness (Rom. viii. 10), and enables us to mortify the deeds of the body and to live unto Him who died for us, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again (2 Cor. v. 15). Is this your way? It is not the way of the world: it is not the way of many who think themselves, and are thought by others, in our days, very religious. Are you willing for God, of His own goodness, to love you and treat you as He does the risen Jesus -because He died for sinners? This is God's way. For it is "the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare at this time, His righteousness: that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith" (Rom. iii. 22—27).

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ON THE RESTORATION OF THE NATION OF ISRAEL.

PART II.

"All Israel shall be saved; as it is written :-There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob."-Roм. xi. 26.

OUR minds should distinctly recognise, that when we find any promise revealed in God's word, of whatever kind it be, we may feel assured that it must be fulfilled; so that the only question ought to be, Is the accomplishment of the promise past, or is it future? Has it yet taken place, or does it still remain to be accomplished?

It will be evident to every one that there are promises of blessing in the land to the nation of Israel; all would, I believe, admit that some portion of the prophecies of Scripture relate to them; we have, for instance, such predictions as this:—“ It shall come to pass that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build, and to plant, saith the Lord" (Jer. xxi. 28). In reading such predictions as these, I see at once that it is a matter of distinct revelation, that as Israel had been scattered by God on account of sin, so should they be gathered and restored by Him in grace. What we have to ask is, has this been fulfilled? has Israel been restored according to the promise of God? or is that which has thus been prophesied yet to be fulfilled?

There are seven obvious reasons, which clearly prove to my mind, that these prophecies are yet unfulfilled. I might easily state many more as proving this, but these few will suffice; for each of them separately is conclusive, and the whole unitedly prove the point clearly and incontrovertibly. Now the only time since the captivities of Israel first began, which could be assigned as affording a semblance of a fulfilment of the prophecies of restoration, was when Judah was permitted by Cyrus to return from Babylon, and when many actually did go back to Jerusalem and restore the temple, their descendants continuing as the nation in Judæa. This is the only semblance of an accomplishment which can be assigned, and the following reasons distinctly meet any who would press the bulk of Old Testament prophecy concerning Israel and Judah into the circumstances of that return.

I. It is written in Isa. xi., "It shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the SECOND TIME to recover the remnant of His people which shall be left from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea," &c. &c. (ver. 11). I scarcely need say that for this prophecy to be fulfilled, it is necessary that there yet should be a second planting of a remnant of the people of Israel in the land promised to their fathers. A remnant was brought back in the days of Cyrus, but there has been no second restoration. The hand of God was manifested in that which has already been; but here, in this prophecy, we have much that goes farther than anything which has yet taken place. Look at the terms in which the promise is stated; it continues thus :-" And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth," &c. This gathering of all the scattered ones, wherever they may be, is what belongs to the day here spoken of; this day must be future, because it is the SECOND restoration; and thus we are at once shewn that we need not inquire farther whether the prophecy in Isa. xi. has or has not been applicable to anything past:-its fulfilment is yet future.

II. In Jer. xxxi. 31, the promise of the restoration of Israel and Judah is spoken of as being under the New Covenant. The covenant to be made with them, there mentioned, is not according to that made at Mount Sinai, which they broke, but the very principle of its blessing is, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Now it was not until the Lord Jesus had shed His blood, that the New Covenant was sealed; it could not have been spoken of as being set up previously. Instead of immediate blessing coming to Israel when the blood of the New Covenant was shed, it came to pass that they as a nation were (though but for a time) broken off. They stumbled upon the Lord Jesus, and, according to His word, they were broken. Since then, there has been a gathering out both of

Jews and Gentiles; the Holy Ghost has quickened individuals to believe in Christ, and thus to receive the blessing of the New Covenant; but never since that day has there been any restoration of Judah or Israel to their own land. The return from Babylon can have no place in our thoughts with regard to this passage, for that was long previous to the days of our Lord. A passage in Jer. iii. bears closely upon this circumstance: 66 I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion......and it shall come to pass when ye be multiplied and increased in the land in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord; neither shall it come to mind, neither shall they remember it," &c. this clearly indicates a restoration when Israel will not stand at all upon the ground of the Old Covenant.

Thus do we see that the blessing of Israel depends upon that which they have never yet received as a nation—the forgiveness of their sins; as is also stated in Rom. xi. 27," This is my covenant with them when I shall take away their sins." That circumcision of heart which was foretold, Deut. xxx. 6, "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed," has never been received by them; "Uncircumcised in heart and ears," was the description which Stephen (Acts vii. 51,) gave of them then: so that the essential circumstance of Israel's blessing, their forgiveness under the New Covenant, proves the futurity of the promises with which it is connected.

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III. Another proof that the promised establishment of Israel in the land is future, is the permanence which shall then belong to their blessings. It is not said that they shall be restored, and then cast off again. The blessing of Israel, the land and Jerusalem, shall be "for ever." "I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me" (Jer. xxxii. 40). They shall inherit the land for ever” (Isa. lx. 21). "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 children's children for ever" (Ezek. xxxvii. 25). "Neither will I hide my face any more from them, for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God" (xxxix. 29). "Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion” (Joel iii. 20, 21). "I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel......and I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God” (Ẩmos ix. 14, 15). I would remark that these quotations from Joel and Amos conclude their prophecies, and that both arrive at the same point. Again, "The Lord shall reign over them [restored Israel] in mount Zion from henceforth even for ever" (Micah iv. 7). "The Lord hath taken away thy judgments; He hath cast out thine enemy; the King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee, thou shalt not see evil any more" (Zeph. iii. 17). "There shall be no more utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited" (Zech. xiv. 11). Jerusalem" shall not be plucked up or thrown down any more FOR EVER" (Jer. xxxi. 40). These are but a few of the passages which speak of the perpetuity of Israel's blessing in the land. Their knowledge of the Lord, forgiveness as a nation, the reign of the Lord over them in mount Zion, the establishment of Jerusalem, their inheritance of the land, are all particularised as being "FOR EVER." The only question then, as to whether these things be past or future, is this," Are these things so now ?" For if not, no restoration can have taken place, such as is promised. They returned from Babylon, but had no peaceable possession of the land; enemies were often oppressing them. Jerusalem was taken by one enemy after another, until it was destroyed by Titus. The people, instead of knowing the Lord, continue with a veil over their heart.

It argues a marvellous want of attention to the terms of Scripture, in those who read such repeated declarations of blessings which shall be "for ever," and then apply them to anything which has taken place once, but has now ceased.

IV. Again, the prophecies are addressed to both Israel and Judah, which proves that they were not fulfilled by the return from Babylon. This is shewn by Isa. xi. to which I have already referred. The Lord" shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off"

&c. (ver. 12, 13). Now, after the permission of Cyrus, it was not Israel and Judah that returned, but several of Judah (with which tribe that of Benjamin was incorporated), with very few, scarcely any, of Israel (or the ten tribes) amongst them. And it was but a small portion comparatively, even of Judah, who went back; the whole number, men, women, children, and servants, was under 50,000, (see Ezra ii.) whereas, long before we read that Jehoshaphat's army consisted of no less than 780,000 men of Judah, and 380,000 men of Benjamin; thus the total number of those who returned from the captivity was about one sixteenth of the men of war alone, of the single tribe of Judah many years before. So that there has not yet been a gathering together even of the dispersed of Judah; a few of them did avail themselves of the permission of Cyrus, but by far the greater number must have remained in the lands whither they had been driven. It is quite clear, that the return from Babylon cannot be that which is thus predicted.

In Ezek. xxxvii. we find the restoration of both Israel and Judah similarly foretold: "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 be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all" (ver. 22). Now this has not yet had a shadow of a fulfilment; Judah has indeed returned to the mountains of Judah; but Israel, from the days of Ezekiel to this present hour, has never again possessed the mountains of Israel. After Judah had returned from captivity, the mountains of Israel were possessed not by Israelites, but by the Samaritans ; and these very dwellers in the mountains of Israel were (as we see in Ezra and Nehemiah) the bitter enemies of the Jews. Samaria lay just between Galilee and Judæa, and we know when the Lord was upon earth, the inhabitants had no dealings with the Jews. They were not really Israelites, but the descendants of the nations whom Esarhaddon brought into the land in the place of the captive tribes; their origin and history are told in 2 Kings xvii.; and they were always regarded as most inimical to the Jews. Now the promise is distinct, that when Judah is fully blessed, the ten tribes likewise shall be blessed in their land. However distinct both the history of the two parts of the nation, and the respective circumstances of their future restoration may be, in the land they will be united, "and they shall be no more two nations."

Jer. xxxi. contains promises of blessing to Israel in the land :-"Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria" (ver. 5). This, as before stated, the Jews never could have done; for from the days when Jeremiah prophesied to this hour, they have never had the mountains of Samaria in possession at all. The prophet continues :-"There shall be a day that the watchmen upon mount Ephraim shall say, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion, unto the Lord our God" (ver. 6). This stands in beautiful contrast to all that has ever been. The Israelites who possessed Mount Ephraim (after the division of the kingdom), separated from the worship of the Lord their God in Zion. The Samaritan strangers who were planted there, did what they could to hinder the re-building first of the temple and afterwards of the city; and at length erected for themselves a temple in Mount Gerizim; in our Lord's days, instead of any in Mount Ephraim saying, "Let us go up to Zion to the Lord our God;" they would not receive Him into their villages, "because His face was as though he would go up to Jerusalem" (Luke xii. 53). Thus in the testimony to the united blessing of Israel and Judah, and in the predictions concerning the land of Israel, there is conclusive testimony that these prophecies are as yet unaccomplished.

V. Another satisfactory proof of the futurity of Israel's blessing, is that the prophet Zechariah, who lived after the restoration of Judah from Babylon, speaks of a restoration which had not then taken place, but which God would yet bring about. The viiith. chapter brings this distinctly before us. Mark particularly the 7th and 8th verses: "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness." Here is a distinct promise, and it was made to those who were returned from Babylon. The poor feeble remnant were thus told both that God was with them, and that He in His own time would gather together all His scattered people, and bring them back into their own land, both from the east and from the west, and that they should truly be His people, acknowledged by Him