Jer. xxxi. 7 — 9. Thus saith the Lord ; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations : publish ye, praise ye, and say, 0 Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together : a great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping, and with supplica-
tions will I lead them : I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble : for I am a fatlter to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born.
IT was expressly commanded by God, that all the males belonging to the twelve tribes of Israel should go up thrice every year to worship the Lord at Jeru- salem. If we paint to ourselves the concourse which this would occasion at the appointed seasons, we may form some conception of what shall take place, in due season, from every quarter of the world. If it be said, that the land of Israel will be too small to hold the numbers that, in that case, would be assem- bled; I answer, that this very circumstance is adverted to in prophecy, where it is said, " The land shall be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants ; so that they shall say, The place is too strait for me : give place to me that I may dwell a." That the Jews shall be restored to their own land, is, I think, as plainly de- clared in Scripture, as any truth in the Bible: though, if any be disposed to doubt it, I am not anxious to maintain a controversy respecting it ; because, how- ever important it may be to the Jezvs, it is to us a matter of small moment. To me it appears, that the preceding chapter, together with that before us, is fully upon this point. But, at all events, the future conversion of the Jews is absolutely certain, and in- deed is universally admitted : and the multitudes of converts to the Christian Church in that day will be a visible accomplishment of the words preceding my text, which say, that " the watchmen on the Mount Ephraim will cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion, unto the Lord our God ! "
In reference to the restoration of the Jews, we have in our text,
I. A command to us —
The Most High God is he that speaks to us in this place ; and he enjoins us here,
1. To take an interest in the welfare of his people —
a Isai. xlix. 19, 20.