CHAPTER XIX.

CONCLUSION.

Reflections on the Past—Promises for the Future—Duties for the Present.

Thus fell guilty Jerusalem—once the chosen city, the joy of the earth! Thus fearful retribution overtook those who had rejected and slain the Messiah!

And what is Judea now, after the lapse of eighteen centuries? Still an oppressed and desolate land—a land which has been ruled by Saracen, Christian, Turk; but never since that fatal day by a monarch of her own. A land in bondage to strangers, whose valleys, once flowing with milk and honey, now lie comparatively barren, showing that the curse of Heaven still rests like a blight upon them.

And where are the sons of Israel, the descendants of patriots and of heroes? Scattered over the face of the earth,—aliens in many lands, yet ever a distinct and peculiar people; jealously guarding the Scriptures of the Old Testament, though blind to their prophetic meaning; and yet looking for the appearance of their Messiah, and their own restoration to the land of their fathers.

Will the Jews ever be restored? Will they return as from Egypt and Babylon, and tread again the city of Zion? We turn to the words of prophecy, which shine like stars in the darkness, and select a few out of many:—“_Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will save My people from the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness._”[5] “_Ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel._”[6] “_And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong._”[7] “_I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born._”[8] “_Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem, for the Lord hath comforted His people, He hath redeemed Jerusalem._”[9]

Christian reader! let us not forget that the Lord worketh by human means; that to us, Gentiles, who walk in the light that first shone over the plains of Judea, is committed the sacred charge, by holy example, free liberality, and fervent prayers, to gather the outcasts of Israel “one by one” into the Saviour’s fold. “_What_,” wrote the Apostle of the Gentiles, pleading for his own beloved people—“_what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?_”[10] Well may we conclude in the words of the martyr prophet and psalmist king,—“_Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence; and give Him no rest till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth._”[11] “_Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces._”[12]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Haggai ii 9.

[2] Archbishop Usher supposed Ahasuerus to be Darius; Scaliger contends that Xerxes is described under that name; but both Prideaux and Josephus regard Ahasuerus as identical with Artaxerxes, who began to reign 464 B.C.

[3] In giving this and other such stories to the reader, the authoress thinks it right to remind him, that in such parts of Jewish history as are _not_ drawn from the sacred records (as in all other very ancient writings), such a mist often lies on the boundary which divides fact from fiction, that it is almost impossible to define it.

[4] 26 A.D., according to popular reckoning; but our Lord was born four years before what we term our era.

[5] Zech. viii. 7, 8.

[6] Isaiah xxvii. 12.

[7] Zech. viii. 13.

[8] Zech. xii. 10.

[9] Isaiah lii. 2, 9.

[10] Rom. xi. 15.

[11] Isaiah lxii. 6, 7.

[12] Psalm cxxii. 6, 7.