Even though you should be unable, therefore, to understand why the Scriptures should be such as they are in this respect, supposing them to come from God, you may, at least, perceive that they are not such as would have come from Man. In this, as well as in many other points, they are just the reverse of what might have been expected from impostors or enthusiasts.

Lastly, it is worth while to remember that all the difficulties of Christianity, which have been brought forward as objections against it, are so far evidences in its favour, that the religion was introduced and established in spite of them all. Most of the objections which are brought forward in these days, had equal force, and some of them much greater force,-at the time when the religion was first preached. And there were many others besides, which do not exist now; especially what is called "the reproach of the cross;" the scorn felt towards a religion whose founder suffered a kind of death reckoned in those days the most disgraceful; and whose followers were almost all of them men of obscure station, of low birth, poor, unlearned, and without worldly power.

Yet in spite of all this, the religion prevailed. And that it should have made its way as it did, against so many obstacles, and difficulties, and objections, is one of the strongest proofs that it must have had some supernatural means of overcoming them, and that therefore it must have come from God.

LESSON XVII.

MODERN JEWS. PART I.

ONE of the difficulties with which the minds of some Christians are perplexed, is, that Jesus Christ should have been rejected by the greater part of his countrymen, the Jews; and that they who had been, according to our Scriptures, for so many ages, God's favoured and peculiar People, should be now, and for about seventeen centuries, without a country, and scattered as outcast strangers through the world.

Their present condition and past history are indeed something very extraordinary, and quite unlike what has befallen any other nation. But though we may not be able to explain all the circumstances relative to this wonderful people, it will be found on reflection that they furnish one of the strongest evidences for the truth of the very religion which they reject.

You know that when the Jews received the law through Moses, they were promised success and prosperity as long as they should obey the Lord; and that heavy judgments were denounced against them in case of disobedience. It was foretold that they should be defeated by their enemies, driven from their country, scattered abroad, and continually harassed and oppressed. These threats are set forth in various parts of the books of Moses, and most particularly in the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy. "Thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.

The Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues of long continuance. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other."-v. 37, 59, 64.

And the same is to be found in various parts of the writings of several of the prophets, who lived some ages after. In particular, there is one in Ezekiel, which agrees most remarkably in one very curious particular, with the state of the Jews at this day; namely, where he declares that they should, in the midst of their sufferings, remain a distinct people, unmixed with, and unlike other nations; although it appears that in his time, they were very much disposed to unite themselves with the rest of mankind, so as to become one of the Gentile nations, and to lay aside all the distinctions of their own race. "That which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone." (Ezekiel, xx. 32.)

Now we find in the Old Testament, that, in several instances, these judgments did fall on the Jews, and especially when they were carried away captive to Babylon. And some persons may suppose that these instances were all that Moses and the prophets had in view. But whatever any one's opinion may be, it is a fact, of which there can be no doubt, that the Jewish nation are actually suffering, at this day, such things as Moses and the prophets predicted. Whether Moses and Ezekiel had in view what is now taking place, or not, may be a matter of opinion; but it is a matter of fact, that what is now taking place, does agree with

their predictions. Jerusalem and its Temple were taken and burnt by the Romans, about forty years after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The Jews were driven from their country, and never allowed to settle in it again. Hundreds of thousands were sold as slaves; and the whole people were cast forth as wanderers among the Gentiles; and they have ever since remained a nation of exiles, unsettled, harassed and oppressed in many instances most cruelly, not only by Pagans and Mahometans, but also (to our shame be it spoken,) by Christian nations; and still remaining a distinct people, though without a home.

One of the most remarkable points relative to these predictions respecting the Jews, and their present condition, is this; that the judgments spoken of by Moses, were threatened in case of their departing from the law which he delivered, and especially, in case of their worshipping false gods; and yet, though in former times they were so apt to fall into idolatry, they have always, since the destruction of Jerusalem, steadily kept clear of that sin; and have professed to be most scrupulous observers of the law of Moses. And what is more, all the indignities and persecutions that any of them are exposed to, appear to be the consequence of their keeping to their religion, and not of their forsaking it. For a Jew has only to give up his religion, and conform to that of the country he lives in, whether Christian, Mahometan, or Pagan, and lay aside the observances of the law of Moses, and he immediately ceases to be reproached as a Jew, and an alien, and is mingled with the people around him. So that

the Jews of the present day seem to be suffering, for their observance of the law, just the penalties threatened for their departure from it.

At first sight this seems very hard to explain; but, on reflection, you will find the difficulty cleared up, in such a way as to afford a strong confirmation of your faith. First, you should observe, that the Jews themselves admit that a Christ or Messiah was promised them; and that to reject Him on his coming would be an act of rebellion against the Lord their God. Moses foretold that the Lord should raise up from among them a Prophet like Moses himself; and "whosoever should not hear that Prophet," God "would require it of him';" and that he should be destroyed from among the people." (Deut. XVIII. 15, 19; Acts II. 22, 23.) This is generally understood (as it is applied in the Acts,) to relate to the Messiah, or Christ; whom the other prophetical writers of the Old Testament (as both Jews and Christians are agreed,) more particularly foretold and described. Now we hold that the Jews have been guilty of this very act of disobedience, in rejecting the Christ. And though they, of course do not confess themselves thus guilty, because they deny that Jesus of Nazareth was the true Christ, yet, they so far agree with us as to acknowledge that the rejecting of the true Christ, on his coming, would be such a sin as would expose them to the judgments which Moses threatened.

To us, therefore, who do believe in Jesus, this affords an explanation of their suffering these judgments. But, secondly, besides this, you will perceive on looking more closely, that the Jews of these days do not really observe the law of Moses, though they profess