burned up and renovated; "and be eaten, as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves.” The bleak winds of autumn sear the oak, and we should be almost inclined to pronounce it dead; but the substance or sap is still there. And when the vernal sun warms it into new life, the green foliage will again appear. "So the holy seed," the believers in and partakers of Christ's spirit, "are the substance" of Israel. They will come back, and with Abraham and Christ inherit the land of promise, and be heirs of the world.

If it be objected, that the expressions, "cities, houses, land," &c., do not refer to the whole world, but only to the holy land and its cities and houses, I ask, if it has ever yet happened? If it has, then the blindness pronounced on them is already ended; and must have ended whenever the cities, houses, land, &c., were desolated as described. But if it be yet future, I ask when will that land be desolate, except when all the earth beside shall share the same fate?

Verses 26-27. "And so, all Israel," the holy seed, as above, who shall return, as the substance of the seared oak, "shall be saved," in the kingdom of God and unto eternal life. "As it is written" in Isai. lix. 20, "There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." This is nearly a literal render. ing of the Septuagint version; while the reading of our translation of the passage is a literal rendering of the Hebrew, as follows: "And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob." The obvious meaning is, that the Redeemer will come to set up

the throne of his father David on Mount Zion, and begin his glorious reign; and he will come to all the Jewish people who turn (now, have turned, then) from transgression, and receive the Saviour; and will raise and glorify them with himself.

Or, if we follow the rendering in Romans, then it means, the Deliverer came out of Zion, was the son, according to the flesh of David, the king of Zion. He shall, then, when the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, "turn away ungodliness from Jacob;" and from all Jacob's true seed, by remov. ing all the effects of the fall which the best of Christians endure. "For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." We are now justified by faith; but the fruits of original sin, and of our own acts of disobedience, are not removed; nor will they be, until God justifies us at the day of judgment; and removes all these direful effects. He will then take away all the sins of his people, and their effects will cease; and in the twinkling of an eye, at the blast of the last trump, announcing that justification, every saint will spring into immortal life. This is God's covenant to his people.

"But

Verses 28, 29. "As concerning the gospel, they [the Jews] are enemies for your sakes." Because you, Gentiles, are permitted to come in and share in the blessings of the gospel, the unbelieving Jews are enemies to the gospel. as touching the election, they are beloved, for thẹ fathers' sakes." Although the Jews for your sakes are enemies to God and his gospel, yet, the election or believers are beloved of God, whether they be Jews or Gentiles by nature,

"For the

fathers' sakes." For the sake of God's covenant with the fathers, that in them all the families of the earth should be blessed. "For the gifts and callings of God are without repentance." He does not change his promises to justify, love, and save all who are of the faith of our father Abraham.

Verses 30-32. "For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief;" through Jesus Christ, the stumbling-stone, the cause of their fall and unbelief, you are admitted into the church, and to union with Christ. "Even so have these also, now, not obtained mercy," are broken off from Christ and the church, that through your mercy, your earnest efforts to bring them to Christ, they also may obtain mercy," may be brought into Christ's body, the true church, and be saved forever.

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"For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all;" that he might save them by his mere mercy, through faith, and not by the deeds of the law. They must all come on one common ground, whether Jews or Gentiles, and be saved by the mercy of God, or they must perish.

Verses 33, 34. "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor ?"

I have thus given what I conceive to be the true meaning of this most difficult and important portion of God's word. I have not written for strife or debate, but if possible to arrive at the

truth on the great question of the ingathering of the Jewish people as a people, to the fold of Christ. It must be admitted that the doctrine, if taught at all in the New Testament, is taught in the 11th of Romans. But I ask the attentive reader of these pages, if it can be found there? If not, then the doctrine nowhere exists in the New Testament, or in the Bible. Every Jew is as free to come to Christ as the Gentile; and God will just as surely have mercy on him if he will come, as he will on a Gentile. And when they shall turn to the Lord, the veil that is over them shall be taken away. Probably as many Jews, in proportion to the whole number, have been converted since Christ, as there have been of the Gentile world. They are but a speck compared with the multitude of Gentiles; and so the number of conversions among them is apparently small. But I know of no age when there were none who professed to be of the stock of Abraham, who believed not in Christ. They have had an equal opportunity with the Gentiles to obtain gospel blessings.

IV. OTHER REMARKS ON THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS.

The idea that either Jew or Gentile will obtain mercy after Christ appears, is most preposterous. It would violate some of the most plain declarations of God's word. We have already learned, from the 6th of Isaiah, that the blindness of the Jews is to continue until the Lord have removed men far away, and the earth is desolated. This will not be until the day of judgment and perdi

tion of ungodly men. Then the saints will be removed, and the wicked destroyed; a new heavens and earth be made, and the holy seed return and possess it.

The Lord Jesus, in the 13th of Luke, taught the Jews, that when once the master of the house has risen up and shut too the door, that they, the Jews, the children of the kingdom, they who were the natural heirs to it through their relation to Abraham, should be cast out into outer darkness, where will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, and see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God. More; they shall come from the east and from the west, from the north and south, and sit down with patriarchs and prophets in the kingdom of God, while themselves are thrust out. They will then seek to enter in, but shall not be able. They will plead, but find no admission.

Again; Paul teaches the same thing in Romans, 2d chapter, where he declares that God will render to every man who doeth good, glory, honor and peace, to the Jew first, and then also to the Gentile; but to every soul of man that doeth evil, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile; "in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus, according to my gospel." Keep in remembrance, reader, that the doom of blindness is on them until the day of judgment. And then indignation and wrath is their portion.