LECTURE VII. ISA. lii. 9, 10. "Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God." We have now advanced, and, I think, established, from the sure word of God, these important positions concerning the Jewish nation,-1. Although many individuals among them may be, as many have been, converted to Christianity, and thereby incorporated with the church of Christ; yet the Jews, as a nation, shall be preserved to the end, a completely separate people. 2. So preserved separate, they shall be restored as a nation to the possession of that land wherein their fathers dwelled. And, 3. So restored, they shall have our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of David, to be their king. There remain two topics more, the subjects of many and most animated predictions, to which I now solicit your attention, and with which I shall conclude. 1. The restored Jewish nation shall have national pre-eminence in the earth. II. The restored Jewish nation shall prove a blessing to all the nations of the earth. On these subjects, the language of the prophets is sometimes that of ordinary prediction, but more frequently of rapturous apostrophe and admiration. Addressing the restored Jewish nation, as standing before their eyes in her glory and beauty, they proclaim her to be the glory and beauty of the whole earth: they call also upon the heavens and the earth to rejoice in her redemption, and the manifested glory of her God therein; and they hail the light of the Lord, which shall then have arisen upon her, as the attraction unto salvation of all the ends of the world. "Awake, awake! put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it; shout ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein; for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel. Break forth into joy, sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God." The beam that shines on Zion's hill, Shall lighten every land; The King who reigns in Zion's towers, I. The restored Jewish nation shall have national pre-eminence in the earth. This is the main point with Isaiah. He does indeed describe, with all but historical accuracy, the work of salvation by Messiah, at his first coming. He does indeed mourn, with Eolian plaintiveness, over the present degraded state of Zion, till Messiah returns with power as her Redeemer. But when that longed-for era is set before him by the Spirit, however the prelude of his strain may touch on other topics, and introduce the Conqueror as coming with vengeance on Moab, or Babylon, or Bozrah, it is but the prelude. The risen glory of the Jewish nation, is the brightness of the field of view, in his prophetic glass. There he hastens, there the chorus rests, and swells, and prolongs, and repeats its tones of ecstatic harmony. The soul of the seer is satisfied with the theme. The Spirit of the Lord is willing that he should be so. "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee; the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah, all they from Sheba, shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the Lord. Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee. And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee; for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee. Therefore, thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. The sons also of them that afflicted thee, shall come bending unto thee; and all they that |