2. What encouragement we have to labour for our Jewish brethren —
[The object which we have in view is, not their restoration to their own land (that, I conceive, we may well leave in the hands of Providence, without presuming to interfere with it), but their conversion to Christ, and the everlasting salvation of their souls. Compare their present state of degradation and ruin with those periods of their history when God vouch- safed to them the manifestations of his love and favour ; and say whether we should not wish to restore them to their former happiness and honour? Yet I conceive that the blessedness that awaits them will as far exceed all that their forefathers ever enjoyed, as that of their forefathers surpassed any thing that was experienced by the heathens around them. Indeed we are told, that " the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound*." " Come, then, to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against all the enemies of our God" and of his Christ. Had you to attempt the work of their conversion without Divine assistance, I readily grant that you might well be discouraged : but when you see what God has promised them, and to what an extent his veracity and power are pledged to effect it, methinks you should all be animated with a holy ambition to become God's honoured instruments for their welfare. The indifference which has been shewn in relation to this work for seventeen hundred years may well fill us with astonishment : and even yet the Christian world is not alive to it as they ought to be. A very small measure of zeal in this great cause is regarded as extravagance. But shall Almighty God engage in it " with his whole heart and with his whole soul," and shall we be
lukewarm ? Arise, I say, to your duty. Your God is
already gone out before you : there is already " a stir among the dry bones ;" and the time is fast approaching, when we may hope to see them " arise a great army." Let zeal for God and love for man have their perfect work among you. Be like- minded with God himself, and in every possible way " rejoice
over them to do them good" so shall the time be
hastened forward, and " the kingdoms of the whole world, both of Jews and Gentiles, become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ."]
1 Isai. xxx. 26.