in the earth. In those days Juda shall be saved . . . and this is the name that they shall call Himthe Lord our Just One' (Jeremias, xxiii. 5-6). Hence the Jews when disputing whether our Lord were the Christ, said, 'Doth not the Scripture say, that Christ cometh out of the seed of David?' (John vii. 42).

It was the glory of the Jews that the promised Saviour, the Christ, the Sacrifice and Propitiation of the whole human race, the Almighty Liberator, was to be of their race and country-yet, dreadful to say, when He came, they rejected Him, they put Him to death. 'He came unto His own, and His own received Him not' (John i. 11). And as they rejected Him, He rejected them. They put Him to death, and He gave them up to their enemies, who burned up their city Jerusalem, cast them out of their country, and they have been a wandering people ever since.

Let us pray for the Jewish nation, that they may turn to their Lord and God whom they have crucified.

O seed of Abraham, O Son of David, O Adonai and leader of the house of Israel, who didst appear to Moses in the burning bush, and didst on Mount Sinai deliver to him Thy Law; O Key of David, and sceptre of the house of Israel, who openest and no one shutteth, who shuttest and no one openeth; visit not, O dear Lord, the sins of the fathers upon the children, continue not Thy wrath for ever, but spare this poor nation, which was once so high in Thy sight, and now hath fallen so low. O remember not those old Priests and Scribes, the Pharisees, and Sadducees, remember not Annas and Caiphas, Judas, and the insane multitude. who cried out 'Crucify Him.' In wrath remember mercy. Forgive their obstinacy and forgive their impenitence-forgive their blindness to things spiritual, and their avowed love of this world and its enjoyments. Touch their hearts

and give them true faith and repentance. Have mercy, O Jesus, on Thy own brethren-have mercy on the countrymen of Thy Mother, of St. Joseph, of Thy Apostles, of St. Paul, of Thy great Saints Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David. O Lord, hear: O Lord, be appeased: O Lord, hearken and do (Dan. ix. 19): delay not for Thine own sake, O my God, for Thy Name was once named upon the city Jerusalem and Thy people.

(3)

JESUS THE LORD OF GRACE

HEN

WHE

our Lord rejected His own countrymen, the Jews, who had rejected Him, He chose other nations instead of them. Thus the Holy Evangelist, after saying, 'He came unto His own, and His own received Him not' (John . II-13), adds, 'But as many as received Him, to them He gave power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in His name: who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' That is, so that men believed in Him, whatever was their race or country, He made them His sons and gave them the gifts of grace and the promise of heaven. He had warned the Jews of this, before their time of grace was over. 'I say unto you,' He said, 'that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation

Ι

bringing forth the fruits thereof' (Matt. xxi. 43). And hence St. Paul, His great Apostle, when he found the Jews would not listen to Him, when they 'gainsaid and blasphemed,' shook his garments (Acts xviii. 6) and said, 'Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean; from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.' And if God cast off His own people, the Jews, so, much more, will He cast off any other people who casts off Him. Hence the same St. Paul says, 'If some of the branches (Rom. xi. 17-21) (that is, the Jews) be broken (off), and thou (that is, a man of some other nation) art ingrafted in them (instead), and art made partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree; boast not. . . . Because of unbelief they were broken off; but thou standest by faith; be not high-minded, but fear. For, if God hath not spared the natural branches, fear lest He spare not thee.' This misery has happened to this country, to our own England; God chose it and blessed it for near a thousand years;