Such is the testimony of the Lord Jesus Himself respecting that hour of Israel's history into which we are now advancing. We have need to beware, lest when we see Israel become like a "swept and garnished" dwelling, we should deceive ourselves into the thought that they are about to be made the habitation of the Lord! The most fearful hour of their corporate history is yet to come. The sense of its near approach may preserve us from saying smooth things and prophesying deceit, but it will not diminish energy nor deaden love to souls. Our knowledge of that which is awaiting them nationally, should only stimulate us the more to preach to them individually the gospel of the grace of God, if so be any might be saved. He who once wept over them, though He must resist the proud, will not break the reed that is bruised, nor quench the flax that smoketh. If the testimonies of the Prophets stand in fearful array against them, a sanctuary is still open for them in the Lord their Messiah: "He shall be for a sanctuary." Moses has said that it is blood and blood only that maketh atonement for the sin of the soul, and we only confirm his words when we say, that without shedding of blood there can be no remission; and that therefore the Head of Israel has suffered, in order that there might be preached through Him the forgiveness of sins. In the title of His name we still say to the scattered house

of Israel, and it is our joy to say it, "Men and brethren, through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and through Him all who believe are justified from all things." Such things we may say to them in all meekness and love as fellow-sinners together with them. But let us not deceive them with false words, nor cleave to them with flatteries. We shall find some among them, whilst their hearts yet remain unhumbled and unbelieving, firm in their adherence to the rites of their forefathers and to the name of Jehovah -an adherence that will stand in favourable contrast with much that is around them, especially when the liberality of the present hour has advanced into the infidelity and blasphemy of the end: yet it is only Pharisaism, a sign that the generation of the Pharisees has not yet passed away. We may find amongst others a tendency to relax the rigidity of Judaism, and to mention the name even of Jesus with respect, but it is only latitudinarian liberality—the Sadduceeism of old, an evidence that the generation of Sadducees has not yet passed away. And if we should see amiability, intelligence, philanthropy and a high tone of morality characterising many, and in appearance contrasting favourably even with Christianity, we have to remember that the house is described not only as swept," but "garnished.” With such feelings we shall not be disposed to hide either from Israel or from ourselves those

parts of the word of God which really bear upon the scenes into which we are entering. We shall tremble to quench the light of that awful testimony, and to substitute instead thereof, those promises of glory and of blessing which belong to other days, even when they shall have passed through the fires (Zech. xiii. 9), and looked upon Him whom they have pierced, and known the power of that fountain opened in the blood of the Lamb for sin and for uncleanness.

But such is not their present national prospect. The words of Ezekiel are too express to be

mistaken:

"Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Because ye are all become dross; behold, therefore, I will gather you into the midst of Ferusalem. As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and my fury, and I will leave you there and melt you ; yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be thereof; and ye shall know poured out my fury upon you."

melted in the midst that I the Lord have (Ezek. xxii. 19-22.)

ON ISAIAH X., XI., XII.

THESE chapters are so closely connected with the subjects we have been considering, that it seems almost necessary to remark briefly on them in a series of papers like the present. The tenth chapter, to which I have made frequent reference, is a prophecy of evil and of judgment; the eleventh and twelfth are visions of joy and peace. All three chapters are closely connected with each other, and should be read continuously.

The maturity of Israel's evil in Jerusalem at the time of the end is, as we have already seen, a continual subject of prophetic description in Isaiah. The tenth chapter delineates some of the features of this evil, and pronounces woe against it. "Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed, to turn away the needy from judgment," etc. Violence and rapacity are the characteristics of the scene. The fair speciousness that may for a season perhaps attach to the character and ways of Israel, when they first enter on their recovered land will soon vanish. The house "empty, swept and garnished,"

will soon change its aspect, when once the sevenfold energy of evil has settled there, and the dark realities of human character will again appear in unmitigated intensity.

It is against this evil that the last great king of Assyria will be sent the scourge of God thereupon. Assyria has ever been the plague of Israel. And when we remember that Israel's unsanctified energies will probably be the great instrumental means of reviving Assyria and Babylon, we can conceive how it will add poignancy to anguish, when they discover that they have hatched for themselves a viper's egg that breaks forth into a serpent to bite them.

But this chapter records more than their chastisement under the hand of man. The day respecting which it is said that "though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet [only] a remnant shall be saved," is one in which the consumption determined" is wrought, not by the hand of man, but by the Lord God of hosts.

"The

Lord God of Hosts shall make a consumption even determined in the midst of all the land." But the day of the Lord's judgment upon Israel shall be a day also of destruction to their oppressors. "The Lord of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him, (i.e. the Assyrian) according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb." "The indignation shall cease and mine anger (against Israel) in their destruction." The great king of Assyria shall fall, and Lebanon,