And David my servant shall be king over them ; and they shall have one Shepherd"." These things have never yet been fulfilled ; but they shall be fulfilled in their season. What though the Jews be like dry bones scattered over the face of the whole earth ? Shall any word that God has spoken respecting them fall to the ground ? No : the scattered bones shall be reunited, each to its kindred bone, and they shall rise up an exceeding great army, as the Lord has said.
In explanation of this vision, I will endeavour to set before you,
I. The present state of the Jews ;
II. Our duty towards them ; and
III. Our encouragement to perform it.
Let us consider, First, The present state of the Jews — Certainly nothing can be well conceived more un- promising than this. The obstacles to their conver- sion do indeed appear almost insurmountable. One most formidable barrier in their way is, the extraordi- nary blindness and hardness of their hearts. From the very beginning they were, as Moses himself tells them, a stiff-necked people : and their whole history is one continued confirmation of the truth of his assertion ; insomuch that any one who is conversant with the sacred records, but unacquainted with the plague of his own heart, would be ready to imagine, that their very blood had received a deeper taint than that of others. Certainly we should have scarcely supposed it possible that human nature should be so corrupt, as they have shewn it to be. We should never have conceived that persons who had witnessed all the wonders which were wrought in their behalf in Egypt, and at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness, should be so murmuring, so rebellious, so atheistical as they were during their forty years' continuance in the wilderness ; and indeed, with the exception of some occasional and partial reformations, even
* ver. 16—25.
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