our fathers in this land. "Lord, wash me thoroughly." (Ps. li. 2.)

ISRAEL'S RESTORATION.

Ver. 40. "If they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me.”

Hear, O Israel! Does this not call thee to consider thy unbelief? Is there nothing calling thee to "look on Him whom thy fathers pierced?" What are "thy father's sins ?"

Vers. 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45. "And that also they have walked contrary unto me; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the Lord."

"I am Jehovah;" therefore, he remembers his covenant with Abraham. As he manifested that name on the first Exodus (Exod. vi. 3), though for a long time before he showed only his all-sufficiency,* so shall he manifest it by his acts at the final Exodus of Israel from all the lands of their dispersion.

Here we have, so to speak, a permanent fact, or truth,

on which to rest the proof of Israel's restoration to their own land. It is this: the covenant with their fathers contained a grant of the land; and the God of Israel is Jehovah. Whenever Israel serves the Lord, Israel obtains all that that grant contains. "If they confess," then, lo! they must return home also. Israel's repentance and Israel's restoration to their old estates go together. When, as in Micah vii. 9, the Jews confess and accept, or admit as righteous, what they suffer, then their restoration is at hand. It is true, they may return before they repent; but the land is not theirs until they repent. And I think this is the meaning of Ezekiel xxxvi. 37. "I shall yet FOR THIS be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." It is Israel's prayer to the Lord, when repentant, to settle them in their land and restore to the land its fruitfulness. See the whole chapter.

Ver. 42 is very remarkable in the Hebrew. It is literally, "I will remember my covenant, Jacob," &c. There is no "with." May God not be speaking here to these patriarchs whose God He is at this moment, and saying, "I will remember my covenant, O Jacob, made with thee! and my covenant, O Isaac, with thee; and I will remember my covenant, O Abraham, with thee, and the land wherein thou wast a stranger?" The land, too, wherein his own Son was a Man of Sorrows, can that land ever be forgotten? The cross was there; shall not the throne be there too?

Ver. 43 repeats the cause why there ever was desolation at all, and how long it is to continne. In ver. 44, the first words NT, "Yet for all that," should rather be, "Yea, moreover, I shall do this."—(Rosenmüller.) This is the renewed declaration of the Lord's

וְאַף זאת

determination to restore them: and hence, some of the German Jews who are fond of conceit, mark this word , as "The golden Aff"

,אַף

All is done in free love. It is covenant-mercy.

"Sal

vation to Him that sittth on the throne, and to the Lamb!"

Ver. 46.

"These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses."

He seeth the end from the beginning. He knew the kind of people whom he had chosen. For see, at the foot of Sinai, he speaks in this prophetic strain, warning them of what he sees coming on. He knew their hearts; he did not choose them for their worthiness; he manifested grace in them. From Sinai he looks down the stream of ages and sees their sin, and yet goes forward to manifest his love and make them the objects. "There is none like the God of Jeshurun."

Entire Devotion to God,

INDUCED BY THE FOREGOING VIEWS OF HIS CHARACTER.

YE ARE NOT YOUR OWN, FOR YE ARE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE; THEREFORE GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY AND IN YOUR SPIRIT, WHICH ARE GOD'S."-1 Cor. vi. 19, 20

CHAPTER XXVII.

Vers. 1, 2. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them."

No

THE Connection of this concluding chapter with all the preceding has been considered a difficulty with many. But most obviously the connection is that of feeling. wonder God takes up the subject of self-dedication and the devoting of all that a man has; for might not any one expect that the preceding views given to God's mind and heart would be constraining? We find in Scripture, that the link of connection between one narrative and another often lies in the feelings understood to be produced in the reader of the story, or feelings likely to arise. Thus, in Mark xi. 25, "When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any," is suddenly introduced; but on being examined, the reason turns out to be, that that feeling of ill-will to others is one of the hindrances to the prayer of faith which our Lord was

anxious to lead them to. So, also, the feast of Levi to Christ, and the question of John's disciples and the Pharisees about fasting, is placed by two Evangelists just after Levi's conversion, though Matthew shows that it occurred at the time Jairus came. The link of connection is, Christ exhibited as a Saviour for sinners, apart from all ceremonial observances, led the mind to go out in the direction of occurrences that bore upon that point.

In this chapter, after the Lord has unfolded his system of truth, the impression left on every true worshipper is supposed to be, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits?" As Paul, after unfolding the way of life and righteousness in the first eleven chapters of Romans, begins at chap. xii. 1 to address his readers, "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." For true has it ever been, that "the grace of God that bringeth salvation" is grace that "teaches us" to deny ungodliness, and to be a peculiar people. (Titus ii. 12.) Indeed, we might almost venture to say, that Micah vi. 8, was uttered in this very feeling, and with a view to these very ordinances-" He hath showed thee, O man, what is good," in these sacrifices and ordinances that are full of grace and truth; and now, if thou askest how the grateful feelings of thine accepted soul are to be met, lo! here is provision made for their outpouring: "What does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" So far as we do not give to God this recompense of a life thankfully devoted to him, we cannot but cry with Ephraim Syrus, σε ταλανίζω τον ἐμον βιον ότι άχρηστος ὑπαρχει” 6 Ι pronounce my life wretched, because it is unprofitable.”

I