sinner! unconverted sinner! art not thou the Jew that pierced him? Have not thy sins wounded him? And wilt not thou then be the "Israelite indeed" to "look upon him and mourn?" O, look and be saved, look, look, and live!

And now the burning fire has fully done its work upon that once sterile field, and the barren land is rendered even more fruitful than in times past. The nation having been delivered unto Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, has now been completely restored to God, and its spirit fully saved in this the day of the Lord Jesus. The reader, although he may not have seen, may yet perhaps have read, a description of the burning of one of the great North American prairies, which is said to be one of the grandest and most terrible spectacles in nature. He may have followed in spirit the rushing and roaring of that tremendous and destructive element, as it swept rapidly along the plain; rushing through the long rank grass with a noise like thunder, and consuming everything in its progress; while volumes of dense black smoke rose upward to the sky and he may have pictured to himself the utter desolation that followed, and the melancholy aspect of that immense plain, after the fire had done its fearful work upon it, as it stretched out before him, burnt up and boundless; presenting one uniform black surface like a vast field of charcoal. Such will Israel be" when the Lord shall wash

away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of JUDGMENT, and by the spirit of BURNING" (Isa. iv. 4). He may have read also of the verdant and flowery appearance of that same prairie, after the first plentiful rain had fallen upon it after the fire; presenting to the eye, as it then did, nothing but one immense sea of green, carpeted with flowers. Such will Israel be when "the Spirit is" again "poured upon him from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field," so that "the fruitful field shall be counted as a forest" (Isa. xxxii. 15).

The reader may have read likewise of the utterly barren and desolate appearance of the plains of Africa before a season of rain; and more especially after a period during which the terrible Harmattan has prevailed, when everything is dried up and withered by that desolating wind, or burnt up by the scorching heat of a tropical sun; and yet, that even in one night, after the windows of heaven have been opened upon it, and the clouds have dropped down their dew, the whole land has been suddenly transformed into one immense tract of verdure, blooming with gorgeous and attractive flowers. In the former state we see Israel-" at that time" when "it was said to this people, and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to

cleanse, even a full wind from those places (margin, a fuller wind than those) shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them" (Jer. iv. 11, 12, see also Hosea xiii. 15)—“ made like a wilderness and set like a dry land" (Hosea ii. 3). But when "the heavens drop down" upon him "from above, and the skies pour down righteousness" (Isa. xlv. 8), then "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing" (Isa xxxv. 1, 2). "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped: then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water" (ver 5-7). "Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever” (Isa. xxxii. 16, 17). "For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody" (Isa. li. 3). "He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face

:

of the world with fruit" (Isa. xxvii. 6). "Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people" (Joel ii. 18). "Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice for the Lord will do great things" (ver. 21). "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them, I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah-tree, and the myrtle, and the oiltree; I will set in the desert the fir-tree, and the pine, and the box-tree together; that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the holy one of Israel hath created it” (Isa. xli. 17-20). "And all nations shall call you blessed : for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts" (Mal. iii. 12). "And their soul shall be as a watered garden: and they shall not sorrow any more at all” (Jer. xxxi. 12); "for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord" (v. 13, 14). O, "ye that are the Lord's remembrancers" (Isa. lxii. 6, margin), “let Jerusalem come into your mind" (literally "let Jerusalem be uppermost in your mind" Jer. li. 50);

" and give him no rest till he" thus "establish, and till he" thus" make Jerusalem a praise in the earth" (Isa. lxii. 7).

To notice God's future dealings with Israel, and his future purposes with regard to that nation after their conversion, would be foreign to our present purpose. We should, indeed, have much wished to have closed this subject with this glorious instance of God's longsuffering grace and mercy, but truthfulness and consistency of interpretation oblige us to add, that if the whole passage in Hebrews, which we have been considering, refers not only to those who may be saved from such a state, but also to those who may be lost, and will finally be left to perish in it, then the apostle's argument necessarily also requires that the burning here referred to should not only be considered as a burning, primarily, for the improvement of the subject of it, but also, secondarily, as a punishment—we mean an ultimate punishment-in which case the burning would no doubt, in the ultimate sense, signify the burning of hell fire-that "lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Rev. xxi. 8). And, for ought we know to the contrary, some enlightened but unconverted backsliders: be burnt in the first sense, may without such burning producing in them the effect