A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

Simeon, Charles, 1759-1836 • SECTION 511

1262.~| The Conversion Of The Jews. 543

← Horae Homileticae — Volume 10 of 21

disgrace to the religion which they have professed to honour. What has the Society0, which has now ex- isted a dozen years, effected in their behalf ? There has been no want of zeal in them, or of liberality in the public ; and what have they done, but waste the public money in unprofitable speculations ? This is a clear proof, that the time for the conversion of that people is not come, and that there is no hope of effecting it by any human efforts.'

I hope it will be allowed, that I have stated with sufficient force what is urged by those who deride the efforts of the Society: and though I must declare, that these objections are by no means true, to the extent that they are urged, yet I willingly admit that they are true in part. I acknowledge also, that the difficulty of the work is great ; and that the efforts, which have been already made, have not succeeded so far as might have been wished, or so far as persons of a sanguine temperament, and unacquainted with the difficulty of the undertaking, were induced at first to expect : consequently, I acknowledge, that, in re- lation to this great work, there is abundant evidence that it is not " day."

But, if it be not "day" must it therefore be " night?" Does not my text speak of a time when it shall be "neither day nor night?" Allowing, then, that it is not day, I ask, Is it night ? Let any candid person hear and judge.

Consider the state of the Christian world. For eighteen hundred years, if we except a partial effort or two made in their behalf, the Christian world have been altogether asleep, as it respects this object : but now they have begun to awake to a sense of their duty, and to the necessities of this outcast nation. Societies have been formed in different parts of Bri- tain, for the express purpose of aiding the efforts of persons whose time and attention are mainly fixed on this object : and a work has been accomplished, a work which one would have supposed should have been executed many centuries ago, but which has

0 The London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews.

Public domain historical edition (1832-33); scan/OCR from Internet Archive.

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