THE

SCOTTISH CHRISTIAN HERALD,

CONDUCTED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH.

THE position which the Jews occupy in the pre- | fore-ordained of God, and foretold in the records sent aspect of the world, as a people, is not a of inspiration ages before it became a subject fit to little striking. At all times, indeed, since their be engrossed in the record of history. Again and incorporation as a nation, the events of their his- again the fearful doom that should overtake them tory have been objects of the most intense and in the latter days, was announced by their own universal interest, as these have, in the arrange-accredited prophets, while as yet they stood high ments and evolutions of Divine Providence, been in the divine favour, and were full in the career of intimately interwoven with the highest destinies a growing prosperity. In the words of Moses, of the other kingdoms of the earth. But in the the distinguished leader and lawgiver of their inposition which they hold at present in the relative fant tribes, the prediction is thus recorded: "When distribution of national blessings, there is some- thou shalt beget children and children's children, thing peculiarly impressive and instructive. They and ye shall have remained long in the land, and stand precisely in the place which they themselves shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, assigned to the Gentiles of old, when the glory of or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in their commonwealth flourished in its integrity, the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to and they rejoiced in the possession of all the bless- anger; I call heaven and earth to witness against ings of their national covenant. Then they were you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish acknowledged as the peculiar people of God, whom from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to he treated with special favour, and honoured with possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, distinguishing mercies above all people that were but shall utterly be destroyed. And the Lord upon the face of the earth; while they repudiated, shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall vilified, and reproached the other nations as aliens be left few in number among the heathen, whither and outcasts, disowned of heaven, and shut out the Lord shall lead you." Deut iv. 25. By Isaiah from all interest in the inheritance of the divine (vi. 9.) and Hosea (ix. 17.) not to mention others love. But now the scene is reversed. The Jews of the intermediate prophets, the same dread deare the despised and rejected among the nations.nunciation was repeated. And in the latter days The wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. of their commonwealth our Lord declared to them, Deposed from their high estate, and stripped of at the conclusion of the parable of the rebellious all their boasted privileges, their civil polity ex-husbandmen; "Therefore I say unto you, The tinct, their temple erased from the face of the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given earth, and their country trodden down of strangers, to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." -they are scattered abroad throughout the world, Matt. xxi. 43. as a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach,―a proverb and a bye-word among the

nations.

Nor is this signal reverse in the condition of the Jewish people to be regarded merely as one of the contingent casualties that happen in the revolutions of nations. It was the revealed purpose of the divine counsel from the ancient of days. It was No. 9. MARCH 2, 1839.-14d.]

And why, it may be asked, this singular treatment of God's ancient people? What reasons shall we assign for the rejection of the Jews, their abandonment to the miserable infatuation of a headstrong infidelity, and their continued dispersion among the nations of the world? How shall we account for an event so strange, a phenomenon so utterly unparalleled in the history of our [SECOND SERIES, VOL. I.

race? Can it be a mere act of arbitrary power on | nation, afforded equal evidence. "I say, then,

the part of the Almighty, an example of premeditated reprobation in which, as he delighted of old to bless the descendants of Israel with surpassing favour, so now it is his pleasure to visit them with a peculiar curse, dooming them to the helpless condition of an irrevocable exclusion, and leaving them the victims of irremediable despair? No, verily; though the question should remain for ever an inexplicable mystery, we dare not think thus dishonourably of the character of Jehovah, or of the administration of his government. But the mystery has in part been unfolded. The works and ways of God are ever in perfect consonance with the unity of his designs. As the original selection of the Jews to the highly favoured condition of God's peculiar people was intended, not for their own exclusive benefit, but for the benefit of the world at large, so are we taught to regard their rejection as an event purposely designed to conduce to the same scheme of universal benevolence. Whatever other ends it may have been meant to subserve, this one, we are assured, formed a prominent object in the intentions of the divine mind-it was intended to operate as a special instrument in the hand of Providence in working out the gracious purposes of redeeming love. "For I would not, brethren," says the apostle, "that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, (lest ye should be wise in your own conceits,) that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in."

hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people, whom he foreknew." Rom. xi. 1, 2. And he distinctly intimates that the individuals of his kindred, according to the flesh, were still fit objects, no less so indeed than the Gentiles, to whom the saving truths of the Gospel might be addressed, and who might, through faith in these truths, be the happy subjects of a saving conversion. "For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Rom. x. 11-13.

But while it is true that a remnant, according to the election of grace, shall be saved, and therefore that, even in their present state of dispersion, the Jews present an interesting field of labour to the efforts of Christian enterprise, it is no less true that the great majority of the nation have been consigned over to a state of judicial blindness and hardness of heart. And why is it that they are thus dealt with in the dispensations of Divine Providence? In answer to this question, we may observe,

I. That God thus deals with them in the exercise of his supreme sovereignty. The only rule by which the manifestations of the divine grace, and the distributions of the divine merIn prosecuting the subject, we shall endeavour cy, are regulated, is God's own good will and to enter a little more minutely into the considera-pleasure. He has a right to do with his own as tion of the reasons that may be assigned for this signal dispensation of divine Providence, the judicial blindness and rejection of the Jews; and then point at the practical instruction which the fact is fitted to convey.

seemeth good in his sight. He may give or he may withhold, just as he pleaseth; and when he has given, he may again take away the gift bestowed, and no one is entitled to challenge or gainsay his pleasure. When God, at the first, adopted the children of Israel to be his peculiar people above all the nations of the earth, it was not from any intrinsic excellence, any peculiar merit in them, that entitled them of right to so high a distinction, but his own free choice. This was again and again enforced upon their regards, by repeated declarations that they were solely and

they enjoyed above others to the unmerited grace of God. "Because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt; to drive out nations from before thee, greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day." Deut. iv. 37, 38. And again,

In considering the reasons that may be assigned in the arrangements of the divine government for the judicial blindness and rejection of the Jewish people, it is proper, at the outset, to premise, as a necessary qualification of the subject under discussion, that the judgment of heaven with which they have been visited, is not to be understood as an absolute and universal decree of repro-entirely indebted for the national honours which bation, by which every individual of the race, without exception, is abandoned to a hopeless infidelity. No. There is no view of the subject against which the apostle contends more strenuously than this. He tells us plainly, in the language of the text, that it is only "in part" that "blindness is happened to Israel." Whatever may befal the greater part of the nation in consequence of the judgment of heaven, he shows, from Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the a reference to the tenor of their former history, Lord thy God hath cast them out from before that "a remnant should be" saved " according to thee, saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath the election of grace." He holds himself up as a brought me in to possess this land; but for the proof and an example of the fact, that all the pro- wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive geny of Israel were not inevitably doomed to a them out from before thee. Not for thy rightstate of hardened unbelief and incorrigible apostasy; eousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost and of this all the other apostles, and many of the thou go to possess their land; but for the wickedearly disciples, who were members of the Jewishness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive

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you desolate." And so the apostle tells us, that they who were "the natural," that is, the original branches of the olive tree, "were broken off because of unbelief." It was not a mere act of sovereignty, which of right appertained to God in dealing out his gratuitous unmerited blessings as he saw it meet-it was, moreover, an act of penal judgment with which he visited them in righteousness, in depriving them of blessings which they had grossly abused, and fulfilling the terms of the covenant which he had made with them. The husbandman, in the parable, refused to render to the householder the fruits of his vineyard in their sea son, and because of this they were left to abide the vengeance of their offended Lord: and the Jews, because they stiffened the neck, and turned aside the head, and shut their eyes against the light of God's revealed word, were left to endure the misery of their own wilful blindness. gave them the spirit of slumber-eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear. Their blindness was at once heir sin, and the punishment inflicted on them because of their sin.

Skye, where God is not-can you tell me where I shall find him?" The lady was struck, not more with the unusual nature of the address, than the deep-toned earnestness and solemnity of her manner. Her first impression was that of all the others to whom the poor child had spoken by the way; but she engaged in conversation with her, and became satisfied of her sanity. "Come with me," at last she said, "perhaps I can bring you to where you shall find God." She took her to her home. Next day was Sabbath. The wanderer accompanied her kind protector to the house of God. For the first time the Gospel was proclaimed in her hearing-it came "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" to her soul. She was an awakened sinner, and soon became a happy convert-lived for many years in the lady's familynever again returned to Skye-married and settled in the parish of Croy, near Inverness, and was one of the most eminent Christians of her day. She lived long, and was greatly distinguished for her devotedness and fervency as a follower of the Lamb. Often have the pious in Skye said to each other: "Who can tell but the prayers of her who was led, by a way which she knew not, to the knowledge of the God of Abraham, may be receiving their answer in the great work which, in this dark place, He has been pleased to produce?" And who can tell? If the Lord prepares by his grace, those who plead with him-those who lay hold on his strength will he not, in due time, answer them, and declare his faithfulness? Often, doubtless, were this good woman's earnest supplications offered up for her native isle; and if, though after a long time, the dayspring from on high did visit it, and the light which beams from Zion's hill, did shine into the vale where first she drew breath, who will say, but in granting this blessing, the Hearer of prayer had regard to her request, and fulfilled the word of his promise, that the seed of Jacob seek him not in vain. No one can estimate how great a blessing it is to have a friend-a child of God, to pray for him and no one can tell how valuable and important was the result, connected with the simple event now related, which separated an innocent individual from her country and kindred, that, far from her home, she might learn to pray to the living God, and that a long life might be passed in seeking light for those who sat in darkness, and times of refreshing for those who were perishing in a dry and barren wilderness.

THE INFIDEL'S DEATH-BED.
“Then must it be an awful thing to die."—BLAIR.
OH! 'tis an awful thing to die!

To die, and meet an angry God,
Whose Word we in the dust have trode;
A Saviour, whom we have passed by!
Rack'd on the fearful wheel of dread,
The thorns of guilt beneath our head,--
It is an awful thing to die!
Past deeds upon our mem'ry staring;
Remorse, like fiery serpent, rearing
Its burning crest, to madness stinging;
And wasted gracious moments wringing
The blood-drops from our memory,-
It is an awful thing to die!
Who would not rather live in pain?

Who would not with his misery cope,
And struggle with his woes, while hope
Still sung, though faint her syren strain;

Than die, and go we know not where-
Perchance to realms where stern despair

Shall ne'er unlock his chains again?
Better to bear the farewell parting;
Better to bear our friends' deserting;
Better to be in darkness pining,
While all around is sweetly shining,
Than on a couch of death to lie-
Oh, 'tis an awful thing to die!
The priest spake comfort to my soul;

He said "the worst might be forgiven;
The guiltiest find the path to heaven,
Their names be writ in mercy's roll."
He little knows it is too late;

He little knows the outcast's fate,

That cries and tears may not control.
The good man's prayers can nought avail me,
When fiends invisible assail me.

No heaven for me! vain, vain the offer;
Hell is my portion. I must suffer,

And suffer through eternity,—
My brain, my brain! Oh God, I die!
D. ARNOT.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

THE REV. PHILIP HENRY.
By the Authoress of the Sketch of "Olympia Morata," &c.
PART II.

HAVING considered Mr Henry's character as a Christian
minister, let us now view him in the retirement of
domestic life. Here, in every social relation, he abun-
dantly verified the apostle's portraiture of a faithful
bishop," one that ruleth well his own house,"—" an
example of the unbelievers, in word, in conversation,
in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." In April 1660
he married Katharine, the only daughter and heiress of
Mr Matthews of Broad Oak in Flintshire. Her father
was at first opposed to the marriage; but, being soo
won over by Mr Henry's meekness and prudence in
the matter, he gave his free consent, and settled upon
them, during his life, part of his estate, the whole of
which became theirs at his death. It is related of Miss
Matthews that some of her friends having urged against
Mr Henry that, "although he was a gentleman, and a
scholar, and an excellent preacher, he was quite a stran-
ger, and they did not even know where he came from;"
True," she replied, "but I know where he is going,
and I should like to go with him." This union was
crowned with much mutual happiness, and Mr Henry
took every opportunity of expressing his great thank-
fulness to God for such a blessing. Of his children,
(two sons and four daughters,) the eldest son died in
childhood, and he lived to see the others, not only com-
fortably settled with regard to this world, but living as
heirs of the kingdom of heaven. His son Matthew,
who writes his biography, was the well known author
of the commentary on the Bible.

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Having solemnly vowed at his ordination that he and his house should serve the Lord, he was careful to perform what he had promised. By prayer with and for his children, by giving them "line upon line and precept upon precept," by diligently teaching them the words of life, by talking of them when they sat in the house and by the way-side, when they lay down and when they rose up, and still more by the persuasive force of his own bright example, he taught them to "seek