deep their convictions, that it will be as if they saw him face to face : as it is said, " They shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zionc."]
2. They shall be fertile in the fruits of piety —
[As they are destined to " take root downward, so are they ordained also to bear fruit upward d." In that day shall be fulfilled that gracious declaration of Jehovah, " I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely : for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel : he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon : his branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon e." Much, very much, is spoken in the Scriptures respecting the spiritual change that shall then be wrought in them : " God will give them a new heart, and a new spirit will he put within them ; and he will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh ; and will cause them to walk in his statutes, and to keep his judgments and do themf." In truth, the whole figurative language of prophecy, though primarily applicable to their temporal prosperity, has a further and far more important reference to their spiritual state : " Instead of the thorn, shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree : and it shall be to the Lord for a name, and for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off s.]
3. They shall be abundant in usefulness throughout the world —
[" They shall fill the face of the world with fruit." Yes, verily, they are God's appointed instruments for the conversion of the whole world. This is one end for which God, in his providence, has scattered them over the whole earth. He has sent them, unconscious and uncalled-for, even as the clouds of heaven, to pour out the blessings with which they are fraught, and to fertilize the desert places of the earth. The Prophet Micah speaks of them in these remarkable terms : " The remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, in the midst of many people, as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men11." It is thus that God has prepared the way for the conversion of the whole Gentile world. The Jews, in all the different countries of the earth, possess their own Scriptures, whereon Christianity is founded ; and, being conversant with the languages of the people amongst whom they sojourn, they will be ready to proclaim the truth the very instant that the veil is removed from their own hearts. And that this is their
c Isai. lii. 8. d isaj, xxxvii. 31. e Hos. xiv. 4 — 6.
f Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. * Isai. lv. 13. h Mic. v. 7.