people. The Jewish church was a vine of God's planting, but they made void the word of God by their traditions, and brought down on their guilty heads the woes denounced by Christ on their chief city.-"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." When the king learned that those who were first bidden, refused to come, he "sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned their city." How well this agrees with the fate of the Jewish nation, you need not to be informed. Nor need I to advise you, how exactly the conduct of those invited to the marriage feast corresponds with the character of the Jews, and the usage which the primitive apostles received at their hands.

"Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation."

A question is now pertinent. If all the blood of martyrs which had been shed on the earth were to be required of that generation, in what was the retribution to consist? I am not ignorant of what will be answered, but is it correct? Shall we receive the dictum of man's wisdom, or shall we leave it to be answered by him who made the prediction? We prefer the latter. What then is it?

"Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."

Jerusalem was to be destroyed, and the inhabitants of Judea were to be scattered among all nations. The city was to be made desolate, and no man dwell therein, and all for the iniquities of the people. It was to be a hissing and a reproach, and a by-word, and the nation scattered and peeled. But was this all? Yes, for the time is yet to come, when they shall say, "blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."I speak this with confidence, because the word TILL is never used in predictions of this nature, but in the affirmative.

The darkness into which the children of the Kingdom were to be cast, is undoubtedly the darkness of mind in which they grope to the present day; for "blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in." He who is in a state of blindness, is most surely in darkness; and he that is outside the present blessings of the gospel covenant, is in outer darkness. When the master of the house, Jesus rose, and shut to the door, the Gentiles were within, and the Jews were shut out and this sentiment is clearly expressed in Acts 13.

"And the next sabbath-day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying,

I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.”

When Stephen rehearsed to the Jews the iniquities of their fathers, and their own stubbornness, what was the effect? Read and learn for yourself.

"Ye stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One ; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers. Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

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They gnashed on him with their teeth." Now I need not inform you, that this gnashing of teeth was in this world-No one can be weak enough to dispute. it. That the people who conducted so foolishly were in mental darkness, is not, and I trust will not be, a contested point. Then here is an example of a people or the children of the kingdom, in a state of darkness, outer darkness, and gnashing their teeth-and all in this state of being where sin and misery exist, and of whose existence we can take cognizance. But to show conclusively, that the darkness and gnashing of teeth relates to the situation of the Jews, in this world, I refer you to Luke 13, where our Lord clearly points out to us the situation of the Jews, when the gospel shall spread into Gentile countries.

"When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye began to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say,

I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And behold there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last."

By the Master of the house, we must evidently understand Jesus Christ, and by his being risen up, his resurrection. Having then closed the Mosaic dispensation, and opened the gospel kingdom, which should be preached to every creature, and the Jews not being prepared to receive a suffering Messiah, the door was shut against them, and opened on the Gentiles, agreeable to Paul's declaration, already quoted. The reason why the Jews did not then enter into the gospel kingdom, is thus expressed by Paul. "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." And again :

"What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at the stumbling-stone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and rock of offence and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed."

Perhaps enough has been said to satisfy your mind on this subject, but I shall suggest another consideration which seems to me of some consequence. After stating that men should come from the east, west, north and south, and sit down in the kingdom of God, he adds, "And behold! there are last which shall be first, and first which shall be last." You are aware that the Jews were the first people chosen for the depository of God's name-the first which composed a church to his praise. Proud of this privilege, they abused his mercies and considered themselves the only people to whom God would grant a revelation. Their privileges were great, as declared by the prophets and apostles, and are summed up by Paul in the following words;

"What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God."

They were therefore the first nation whom the Lord chose of all the nations on the face of the earth, as the medium through which the knowledge of the true God was revealed to the world; but being rejected through unbelief, from the gospel economy, the Gentiles, who had been last, became first, and thus the first became the last, under the new order of things. But that this change in the order of preferment had no bearing on the final state of the two sorts of people who are thus contra-distinguished, is evident by the declarations of a Jew, who was once known as the most violent persecutor of Christians. "I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid." After cautioning the Gentiles not to be wise in their own conceits, on account of the partial blindness of Israel, and stating that this must continue until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in, he adds; "And so all Israel shall be saved, as it