of many generations. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers." And then the same Divine Promiser who, in ver. 16, calls Himself by the name "the God of Truth" (or, as that rather means literally, "the God of Amen" (Delitzsch), the God who pledges and guarantees His word for all that He has spoken) utters the beautiful declaration which stands at the head of this chapter, (vers. 18, 19)-" But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying." That word, "nor the voice of crying," has been rendered by one commentator by the strong epithet "screaming;" by Bishop Lowth "A distressful cry." May there not be here a contrasted reference to those loud 'screamings' and 'distressful cries' which

have again and again risen from these eighteen times 'besieged walls?' Be this as it may, that "crying" is to be no more heard in her. Jerusalem becomes, as the name implies, "the vision of peace." The vision is turned into a reality. These wails of horror and despair, which are spoken of in her last great siege, by Josephus, as waking the echoes of her adjacent hills and valleys, are never again to break upon the ear: her God has uttered the benediction, "Peace be within thy walls." Thus then will Jerusalem, her sister cities, and the whole Land of Promise, so long doomed and degraded by their sins, and which might righteously have had the curse-mark of disinheritance set on them for ever, become to "the nations of the saved," of which they will form the glorious and glorified centre, the grandest of all comments on the Apostle's words, "Where sin abounded grace did much more abound" (Rom. v. 20). Nay, farther, if we accept the literal interpretation of one of the closing utterances in this Manual of Comfort in

its connection with other parallel prophecies, are we not warranted in entertaining the belief that these restored and christianised children of Abraham will yet become the great Apostles and Missionaries of the world? From Jerusalem, the metropolis and mother-city of future Christendom, they are to go forth as bearers of the glad tidings once sung on the plains of their own Bethlehem-" And I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord, out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord" (lxvi. 19, 20). The "Evangelistess Zion" of the fortieth chapter,

will thus say, not to "the cities of Judah" only, but to the cities and kingdoms of the world, "Behold your God." What God? Who other than "the God of Amen,"-He who will then be owned, and rejoiced in, by those who so long disowned Him, as "the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness" (Rev. ii. 14); and in whom all the promises of God "are Yea, and in Him Amen” (2 Cor i. 20).

"Glorious things" (future as well as past) "are spoken of thee, O City of God!" (Ps. lxxxvii. 3). May the Churches of Christ-even in the midst, it may be, of present discouragment and trial-be stimulated in their mission and responsibilities towards "the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and so enjoy the blessing promised in one of these chapters to all who love God's ancient people-who seek to "build the old waste places, and to raise up the foundations of many generations "-"Thou shalt be called the Repairer of the breach, the Restorer of paths to dwell in " (lviii. 12).

Let us close, by rehearsing the Prophet's adjuration and prayer, along with the sublime corresponding answer. Both of these have already been considered in reference to the figurative and spiritual Jerusalem; but they will bear repetition in their literal application to the dispersed tribes of Israel. Israel's prayer, "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, the generations of old" (li. 9). Fehovah's answer (Isa. lxii. 1-7)-" For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed