to be restored in tenfold splendour. The ly, though unconsciously instructed, he LORD hath overruled all things to the fur- guards it to this day, alike from friend and therance of his own sovereign purposes, foe. hitherto of wrath; now of returning mercy and surely it ill becomes us, when He would withdraw the covering from our eyes, to grasp it with perverse tenacity, and in act, if not in word, to declare that we will not see. Now, instead of digging for impossible mementoes of events that left no merely material trace behind them, to mar their deep spiritual significancy, our Christian tourists approach Jerusalem intent on the discovery of national antiquities, and to connect the present era with her past majesty and power. To this momentous revolution in the public mind we are indebted for the formation of a link that we hesitate not to say were essentially necessary to a right view of the LORD's work ; for by it we are gradually establishing the identity of sites which, as they are set forth with the most perfect topographical exactitude in prophetic Scripture, we must necessarily keep in view, while looking for its fulfilment. Let any simpleminded believer in the inspired character of the sacred writings read the following declaration, with a full regard to its closing words, and he cannot but enter into our meaning, nor, we should think, fail to arrive at the same conclusion. "Thus saith the LORD, "Which giveth the sun for a light by day, "And the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, We have looked upon Jerusalem as it was, when the Roman host advanced to compass it round; and upon Jerusalem, as it also was when the work of desolation had been completed, and the destroying army withdrawn from its lonely ruins. Jerusalem as it is presents an object of most surpassing, thrilling interest, through the astonishing change that in the course of a few years is observable, first in the minds and intents of those who visit the holy city, and secondly in the result of their investigations. The Christian religion, in its purity, seems to have prevailed there just while the church of the circumcision, a small band of those who had escaped to Pella, found a refuge among the ruins of Zion, and clung to the mouldering stones of their beloved city and Temple. They were, however, disturbed in their desolate retreat by the Roman tyrants, who, fearful lest one of David's royal house might yet escape to claim the kingdom, invaded even this harmless band, and murdered their chief pastor. From the period of Hadrian's Roman town, raised upon her holy hills, even to this day, has Jerusalem been a cage of unclean birds: never more so than when those who called themselves Christians held sway over her. Superstition, the most grovelling that can be imagined, and the most fearfully opposed to the word of God, with one hand heaped defilement on the mountain of the LORD's house, and with the other groped for miraculous crosses, found or feigned legends that enabled her to fix on this and that spot | LORD. as distinguished by some event in gospel history, and reared an idol fane upon each fabulous site. The nobler Turk made choice of the mountain which God had delighted to hallow, and ignorant man to profane; and there he built his mosque, and fenced again the ancient platform of the Temple courts, and, divine "Which divideth the sea where the waves thereof roar; "The LORD of hosts is his name! "If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, "Then the seed of Israel also shall cease "From being a nation before me for ever. "Thus saith the LORD; "If heaven above can be measured, "And the foundations of the earth searched beneath, "I also will cast off all the seed of Israel, "For all that they have done, saith the "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, "That the city shall be built to the LORD, "From the tower of Hannaneel unto the gate of the corner, "And the measuring line shall yet go forth "Over against it upon the hill Gareb, "Saying, Know the LORD: "From the least of them unto the great "For I will forgive their iniquity, "And I will remember their sin no more."* And then, without a break, follows the gracious and glorious declaration before quoted. and without a break, bears upon the sub-man his brother, ject with a force, that if not irresistibly convincing, must be met with a power of repulsion that we should tremble to possess. That the prediction is yet unful-est of them, saith the LORD: filled, one glance at the two concluding lines must prove; and immediately preceding the above passage is the promise of a new covenant, in virtue of which the Law shall be written in the hearts of the house of Israel. It was of old addressed to their ears, with the covenant, "Do this, What a solemn interest does all this and live;" but that law, so pure in its na-attach to the recent discoveries of learned ture, and so strict in its requirements, they and godly men, who have made it their could not fulfil they failed in their part business and delight to explore the anof the covenant, and so brake it. But cient boundaries, and to set up again the better things are in reserve for Israel; the long forgotten landmarks of the holy city! LORD will write that holy law not on ta- The tower of Hippicus is now identified; bles of stone, but in their inward parts; and springing from a piece of ancient and they shall render the willing service masonry, single stones of which reach to of loving, obedient sons, where as bonds- the enormous length of twenty-four feet, men, ruled by fear, they were not able to has been found the commencement of an bear the yoke of observances, into the arch, that evidently formed part of the deep spiritual tendency of which their bridge from the Temple to the city of Dahearts could not enter. The passage is vid. Nay, the very mosque itself has been so important, and has withal, by some un-subjected to the eager gaze of enterprising discriminating believers, been so grievous- Englishmen, and discoveries made that ly perverted from its true meaning by a justify the belief in the existence of founconfounding of "the law" with "the cov-dations, over which, indeed, the plough enant," that we cannot do better than cite it here. "Behold the days come, saith the LORD, "That I will make a new covenant "With the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; has passed, though above, not one stone was left upon another. Who could prevail to dig up the subterranean relics of that stupendous architecture? The press teems with discoveries, adding perpetually to the store of local information already "Not according to the covenant that I possessed; and we cannot choose but look made with their fathers, upon Jerusalem not merely as the dwin "In the day that I took them by the dled skeleton of what once was, but as hand the swelling germ, half rising from its "To bring them forth out of the land earthy bed in promise of what is to be. of Egypt; "Which my covenant they brake, * Jeremiah xxxi. 35-40. Once more, from the Mount of Olives, we will in imagination look down, and * Jeremiah xxxi. 31. contemplate the existing scene: and truly | within a few short years, animal life was we may still apply the lamenting apos- at a low ebb in Jerusalem; intellectual trophe, "How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people!" for an immense track of ground lies before us, destitute of a single building, not even a hovel or a shed appearing, where stately streets and crowded marts once attested the populousness of the mighty Jerusalem. The present walls enclose a mere fraction of it: they pass over the brow of Zion, leaving to the plough and to the browsing flock the greater proportion of the ground where David's city stood. Ophel, the long, narrow descent, reaching from the Temple wall to the valley of Hinnom, bounded on the west by the Tyropean, and on the east by the valley of Kedron, and appropriated to the multitude who served the Temple, bears not a dwelling on its desolate slope: nor can the eye distinguish the point whence rose the wall that girt it in. For a precipitous descent into the valley beneath, we now behold a swelling mass of ground, the accumulation of many centuries, where no doubt lies hidden a deep substratum of giant ruins, blocking up the entrance to subterranean caves. The site of fort Antonia is occupied by the house of the Turkish governor, and a slender minaret marks the memora ble area, forming, as in olden time, the north-west corner of the enclosure where stands the alien occupant of a spot that long was, and ere long again shall be, most holy unto the LORD. We look with something like toleration, if with complacency we cannot look, on Ishmael's strong grasp of Isaac's sacred mountain; for though he there worships a god whom his fathers knew not, he has purged the place of idols; and we must needs rejoice that the impious mummeries enacted in other parts of the city, are sternly held aloof from contaminating the threshing-floor of Araunah. life at a lower, and spiritual life there was none; this was Zion, whom no man sought after; but now from every part of the world the Gentiles congregate, they scarcely know for what, in her gloomy streets; and, "like doves to their windows," her own exiled race flock unto | her, their hopes rekindling under an influ ence that never yet moved the seed of Jacob in vain. While Gentiles of all climes and creeds plan, each after the model that his own imagination approves as best, the LORD God of Israel still keeps silence; and they who know his name, feel that their vocation is to watch, to pray, to wait. The whole Bible is one manual of prayer for such as look for the appearing of Israel's Messiah in power and great glory, to conquer and to reign. He went into a far country, far beyond the ken of mortal eye, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. Long has he been gone, and long and sore have been the afflictions of those whom He alone can comfort. Zion has been desolate and a widow, her children moving to and fro, crushed under a dispensation of unequalled wrath. Those of every other kindred, and people, and nation, and tongue, to whom he hath graciously extended the covenant of peace, and admitted to a spiritual participation in the blood-bought blessings of his grace, have likewise formed a small and a scattered remnant, through much tribulation entering the kingdom of heaven. While he is absent, all the foundations of the earth are out of course, vanity is written on its possessions, and pollution on its joys. We wait, we watch, we wrestle in strong supplication for the signs that shall herald his approach, telling us in language not to be misunderstood, the Lord is at hand. Very imperfectly have we followed through the sad stages of its mournful fall, the city, concerning which the LORD once said that He had chosen it, yea, desired it for his habitation. We have seen how Judæa was laid waste, Jerusalem made a heap, and the children of the covenant slaughtered, or carried away into the cruellest captivity, the most wide and prolonged dispersion ever known among men. Shall we then say, in the language of unbelieving doubt, "Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He cast off for ever?" No, we know that the fulness of the cup of troubling of which Jerusalem hath drank the dregs, and wrung them out, is a sure earnest of the abundance of that cup of blessing reserved for her when the days of her mourning are ended. The city shall be builded again, and the desolate wastes inhabited, and the people shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid. Sing, O daughter of Zion; “Be glad and rejoice with all the heart, "O daughter of Jerusalem. "The LORD thy God, in the midst of thee, is mighty; "He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; "He will rest in his love; He will joy over thee with singing. 1 "I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, "Who are of thee, "To whom the reproach of it was a burden. "Behold, at that time, I will undo all that afflict thee: "And I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out, "And I will get them praise and fame "In every land where they have been "The LORD hath taken away thy judg- put to shame. ment, "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. "In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not; "And to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. "At that time will I bring you again, "Even in the time that I gather you: "For I will make you a name and a praise "Among all the people of the earth, "When I turn back your captivity be fore your eyes, "SAITH THE LORD."* * Zeph. iii. 14. |