are and if they can prosecute their work with so much ardour amidst all the other avocations of the world, surely you may find opportunities for prosecuting the work of God, without the least disarrangement of your ordinary business. Secret willingness of heart is fertile in expedients, according to the true proverb, "Where there is a will there is a way." Is it not a duty in stewards to be faithful? Yea; and a most solemn duty. And how, then, shall we be faithful to our divine Master, if, having received opportunities and means to be applied for the benefit of our fellow-men, and for the doing of the Lord's work in the earth, we appropriate the whole of those resources to our own use, to the gratification of our senses, the indulgence of our sloth, or the feeding of our pride.

Now, bear the word of exhortation, and be assured, that whatever delusions the world may supply, and however deceitful your hearts may be, in arguing upon the distance and the uncertainty of the event of Christ's coming-be assured that to us, individually, the day must be fast approaching the time is short-the world is fading from you at every step-diseases are at hand-death is on every side-and there is but one ground, one hope of safety,-BE READY. Jesus is the way.

Take no exception, my brethren, at this plain dealing. It is your place to pay attention to the Word of God, and woe unto me if I speak it not so far as He has taught it to me. Take no exception, therefore, against me, but take exception against yourselves for being in such a state that the telling

IIO

THE CITY OF CONFUSION, ETC.

CONFUSION,

SER. III.

of the truth wounds you. Repent, and believe the gospel; for to all who repent and believe, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ will be a joyful · and glorious theme of praise, and they shall join our prophet in the chapter before us, in singing with one enraptured voice, "Lo! this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord, we have waited for him; we will rejoice and be glad in his salvation !"

SERMON IV.

THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, IN ITS CONNEXION WITH THE PRESENT DISPERSION AND COMING RESTORATION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE.

"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sake. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."-ROм. xi. 25-29.

HE second coming of our Lord is announced

THE Sue in the Holy Scriptures in connexion

with four leading themes which embrace the whole subject: 1. The present dispersion and coming restoration of the Jewish people. 2. The present suffering and coming glory of the elect Church. 3. The present proud prosperity and coming utter destruction of ungodly men. And, 4. The present groaning misery and the coming renovation unto blessedness of the whole earth.

It is to the first of these topics that I desire to

call your attention, my brethren, on the present occasion.

In our text we learn that blindness, or rejection in part, hath happened to Israel only for a time, until an appointed season, elsewhere called "the times of the Gentiles," shall be fulfilled. This interpretation of the passage harmonises the apostle's meaning with our Lord's statement in the 21st chapter of St Luke, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Blindness in part, saith St Paul, hath happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentile times, not persons, shall come in. Not persons, because to interpret this clause of persons would be to subvert the whole argument of the chapter, the drift of which is to prove that as the fall of the Jews was the occasion of a blessing to the world, in opening a way for the preaching of the gospel among the nations—the diminishing of the Jews, as the apostle expresses it, thus proving the riches of the Gentiles, much more the restoration of the Jews, shall be life from the dead to the whole world. If, however, we interpret the clause before us to mean Gentile persons, and so understand the apostle to say, that before Israel's return the fulness of Gentile persons, or, in other words, all mankind, shall be come in; then to whom can Israel's return be "life from the dead," seeing that all will be already alive before her return?

Thus the integrity of the apostle's argument, and the parallel statement of our Lord, compel us to conclude that during the times of the Gentiles,

or present dispensation, Israel is involved in unbelief; but that then the whole nation shall be saved, for their Deliverer, or, as it is written in Isaiah, "the Redeemer shall come to Zion,"* and God shall fulfil the promise of His covenant to them in taking away their sins. In the meantime, as concerning the gospel which they have rejected, they are enemies, for the sake of you Gentile churches to whom that gospel is come; but in the end, as touching the purpose of God concerning that nation, and their selection from among the nations, they are beloved for their fathers' sakes. The promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, concerning their descendants, considered nationally, shall assuredly be fulfilled; for the gifts and calling of God are sure, coming from Him with whom there is no repentance, no change of mind, no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

To see this subject in its full force, we must look back before we look forward. Consider, therefore, 1. The light of Israel previous to Christ's first coming. 2. The darkness of Israel since her rejection of Christ. And, 3. The predicted brilliancy and blessedness of Israel at the second coming of her glorious Messiah.

1. Before the first coming of the Lord Jesus the Jews were the sole depositaries upon earth of the saving knowledge of the true God. They were the chosen channel for the transmission of the promised seed, in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed. And they were the mainspring of

* Isaiah lix. 20.

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