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dren of Israel respecting their perpetual possession of Canaan are conditional; and it requires no argument to prove that the specified conditions were not fulfilled. And when, because of the violation of the covenant on the part of the Jews, they are banished unto a foreign land, and the prophets are directed to foreshow their restoration; yet that restoration is conditional, and as these conditions were fulfilled they were restored. But their continuance in the land of their fathers, after their return from Assyria and Babylon, was also conditional. And it may be, that the conditions were summed up in their hearty reception and proper treatment of the Messiah. But "he came unto his own, and his own received him not." His blood was upon the Jews and their children; and the Roman eagle fell upon his prey with terrible fury. In connection with this their last national overthrow we have no intimation of a literal gathering, nor have we the slightest allusion to the supposed future possession of Palestine by the tribes of Israel. We are aware that some such inferences have been drawn. Nevertheless we are persuaded that no such inference could have been drawn from an unbiased examination of the passages alluded to. The hypothesis was first formed from a false exposition of prophecy, and then the inference seemed to follow as a matter of course.

The sum of what has been said on the prophecies relating to the literal gathering of the Jews is as follows:-An opinion very gene. rally prevails, that the descendants of Abraham shall from the various nations in which they now dwell return to Palestine, commonly called their own land. But, on examination, it is found

First, That all the predictions respecting the return of the Jews to their own land were delivered before the Assyrian and Baby. lonian captivities, and refer to those events.

Secondly, That the return of a vast body of the Israelites to Ju dea after the proclamation of Cyrus was the fulfilment of those prophecies, as far as they can be understood literally; and this was the understanding of the prophets who flourished during that temporal restoration.

Thirdly, That those parts of the prophecies relating to the restor ation of Israel which have been explained literally, but which it is asserted could not have been fulfilled in the return of the Jews from the land of the north, will be graciously accomplished when "they shall look upon him whom they have pierced," and seek an evange lical Canaan-a "glorious rest," in and through his atoning blood.

Fourthly, That, beyond all contradiction, no single prophecy respecting a return to their own land was delivered to the Jews subsequent to the events of which we have spoken—namely, their restoration under Cyrus.

The conclusion therefore is, that the literal return of the Jews to their own land, or Judea, as a national event, is past and not future; and every assumption to the contrary is based interpretation of prophecy, and will not be realized.

upon a false

That this conclusion is fully sustained and demonstrated by the evidence of New Testament writers will be examined hereafter. In the meantime we beg to call the attention of the Christian Church to the present spiritually benighted and perilous condition of the Jewish race. In all parts of the world there are some of these ne

glected sons of Abraham; and in every part they present the same features of ignorance and depravity. Misunderstanding the Old Testament and rejecting the New, they are bigotedly opposed to evangelical religion, and mystified by talmudical writings and false glosses. There are exceptions, for there are inquiring Jews; but they are comparatively few who, thus inquiring, have received the truth in the love of it. There exists then strong necessity for vigorous and united exertion for the spread of the gospel among the Jews. Let none be beguiled by the false supposition that they must return to Judea before they can be converted to Christ, or receive the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Content to follow the leadings of Providence in reference to the political condition of the Jews, and rejoicing at every melioration of their temporal disadvantages which shall facilitate their conversion, let us to the Jews become as Jews, entering into their lot, and sympathizing in their misery, if by any means we may save some. And as there is such danger of being misled by human speculation about the future nationality of the Jews, and the expediency of their resettlement in Judea, we cannot forbear quoting the nervous and evangelical rebuke of the Rev. W. Jowett. In that author's admirable work, entitled "Christian Researches in Syria and Palestine," he thus remarks upon the subject above alluded to: "How much beneath the standard of right feeling in a Christian public would be such speculations on conquests, commercial contracts, or political expe. diency. How easily might multitudes of Christians be misled on topics of this nature! That for which the contributions, the efforts, and the prayers of the religious part of mankind should be especially desired in reference to the Jews is no other than their spiritual conversion; here no limit need be placed to guard the public mind against excess or error, but such as is common generally to all religious subjects." To this we may add the memorable words of Archbishop Leighton: "They forget a main point of the Church's glory who pray not daily for the conversion of the Jews."

It may be proper for us to say, that we assume nothing with respect to the inference which the writer of the above draws from the prophecies he has collated concerning the literal restoration of the Jews. It is a controverted point. But as the subject has been elaborated by him in a way to place the evidence on which he rests his conclusion in a clear light, the reader has the advantage of his labor to assist him in forming his own judgment.—EDS.

For the Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review.

TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF PRESIDENT FISK,

BY PROFESSOR WHEDON, OF THE WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY.

Delivered before the Young Men's Missionary and Bible Societies, at the Johnstreet Methodist E. Church, New. York, May 17, 1839.

Published by request of these societies.

WE are assembled this evening, my friends, to pay a tribute to the character of one dear to the hearts of many, and revered by the memories of all. And if here, in this sacred temple, peculiarly consecrated to the pure worship of the alone Jehovah, the congregation be convoked in memory of a dear, yet human object; if through these vaults the anthem roll its peals, and even from this sacred desk the voice of eulogy pronounce its periods; let not a scrupulous piety tremble, lest we repeat the ancient error of those who deified the departed hero, or who canonized the ascended saint. Rightly and truly blessed be, and are the memories of those whose living persons were virtue's noblest models, whose deaths were piety's loftiest triumphs, and whose tombs are vocal with syllables of the purest monition that the breezes of earth ever wafted, and registered with the most sacred mementos that the sun of heaven ever illumined. And surely, surely, if the intense but painful interest of the world has often been concentrated upon the morbid development of all the splendid infirmities and brilliant madnesses that have ever fermented in the brain of wayward and misanthropic genius-if a depraved curiosity has been wickedly attracted and disgustingly satiated with the open publication of the private registries of talented profligacy-if even history has drawn the world's eye, in raptured fascination upon the triumphant footsteps of giant ambition and stupendous crime-then, indeed, piety may pause in contemplation of one of her purest models; science may pay her tribute to one of her noblest champions; humanity may drop a tear upon the grave of one of her most sympathizing sons; and all may unite in consecrating an affectionate memento, and wreathing a sacred laurel for the memory and name of Wilbur FISK.

To give an extended detail of the events of Dr. Fisk's life forms no part of my design. His biography, assigned by himself as it has been to an official and amply competent hand, will, we trust, give justice to the subject, and satisfaction to the public. Rich, as such a character must be in beautiful religious example, and fertile in moral lesson, it would not be very easy, as surely it would not be very desirable, to omit those higher and holier bearings of our subject; yet as the Christian and ministerial character of Dr. Fisk have been made subjects of eloquent discourse, from the pulpit and through the press, by some of his ministerial brethren, who, from their intimate association with him, were well qualified to make his tomb preach through their voice, we may be permitted this evening to dwell more at large upon the intellectual, scholastic, and literary departments of his character.

Not unfrequent is the remark, that the life of the scholar and the savan is necessarily and uniformly barren of spirit-stirring incident. Cloistered and confined within the dozy seclusion of his four-walled dormitory, the bold adventure and the blood-curdling encounter, the reversing vicissitude, and the hair-breadth escape, all the sen sible forms of physical power and material action, that strike the eye and thrill the imagination, enter not into their life's drama.

No; the scholar who consecrates himself to the classic bower and the academic halls, qualified though he may have been for the loftiest triumphs in life's most giant battles, must bid an unsighing adieu to the thrilling peals of national applause that pour their rapture upon the statesman's ear, or the stately processions that lead the conqueror's triumph, as he marches home, to hang his blood-stained trophies in the capitol. His victories are the unostentatious victories of mind; and so unostentatious and destitute of objective pomp are these, that it requires not only a chastened spirit to aspire to their acquirement, but a purified and ennobled taste to appreciate their innate yet infinite superiority. They have no dazzle for the vulgar eye. They are no idols for the reeking incense of the multitude's breath. Apart and consecrate-their dignity is their worth intrinsic and essential-the dignity of holiness, which none but the pure in heart can see-t -the dignity of knowledge, which none but the endowed mind can realize the dignity of truth immutable, and right eternal. Hence, he who writes the biography of the intellectual hero, chronicles not a series of eventful adventures, but delineates a train of mental progressions; he maps not the movements of a body, but pictures the marches of a mind. To trace the faculties' development-to contemplate the character's formation-to mark how some electric idea, at some instant's crisis, thrilling across the thought, possesses at once the soul, impregnates the whole being, and constitutes for ever the life's great purpose,-these are the elements which constitute what is the history of in the loftiest sense the man; for it is the history of the mind. And what worth are the historic details of sieges and assaults, of battles lost and won, nay of empires' rise and fall, but as they are the tracings of onward marching idea, and the developings of master principle?

Of Wilbur Fisk may it be said both that his life was the exemplification of a principle, and his history a history of mind. His life was the exemplification of a principle. From the hour after the youthful exordium of his life was closed, and its real action commenced-from the moment that, purifying himself from every worldly purpose, he dedicated his soul to his life's great work, his course was onward, and upward, in an ever ascending and never retrograding series; rising in continuous and climactic unity, to its final, culminating acme. He identified himself with a cause which, feeble indeed at the commencement, by a beautiful synchronism, strengthened with his strength, rose as he mounted, and triumphed in his triumph. That cause-if I may pronounce it unequivocally was New-England Methodism. Yet, while he was the advocate of a cause, he was not the bigot of a dogma. Just the reverse ;the very nature of his creed served to foster the original liberalities of his mind. Of that creed, unlike many others, we think that it VOL. X.-Oct., 1839.

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may be fearlessly affirmed, that it is not usually merely assented to as a cold speculation of the head, but that it is embraced as a loved sentiment by the affections. Both believing and feeling that Methodism was the purest existent identity with New Testament Christianity, he enshrined it in his heart's core; and from that central source it flung out the impulses of that heart into the widest expansions of charity most sweet, of liberalities most generous, philanthropy most unlimited. Thus inspired, his character was shaped and his onward course before him. He had his missionhis life's great responsibility-and he pursued his calling as if he had a part to perform, which to be well done, must be quick done; and if in its beautiful and rapid continuity, it seems to be broken with a strange abruptness ere its full completion-it was not because he was not in the full and high career of his commission's great performance; but because so it seemed good to his omnipotent Commissioner. Struck down, alas! with his harness on, in the open field of conflict, we might sigh," How are the mighty fallen!" but we exult as we remember, that thus to fall is most triumphantly to conquer.

His history, we have said, is emphatically the history of a mind. All that we have loved or revered in the departed had their substratum in the native original essence of his mind. True, that substratum may have been polished by education, and sanctified by religion; but neither science nor piety annihilate the original, and substitute a factitious man. Religion no more recreates the substance of the soul, than it reconstructs the fabric of the body. In Dr. Fisk's nature there was a genuine simplicity, an unaffected charm, which no affectation can reach-which effectually divested him of all artificial assuming, and preserved in him, in every exigency, a centred propriety, and a well poised self-possession. Hence the meaning remark," Dr. Fisk is always himself." This lucid SIMPLICITY formed the BASIS of his whole character; it was at the bottom of his acquirements as a scholar, his manners as a gentleman, his intellect as a thinker, of his eloquence as an orator, and of his style as an author; and we hesitate not to say, that, from this as the centre and starting point, we might deduce the great pervading outlines of his character, through all its varieties. He stood before you his simple, unpretending self: and if you could have fancied something greater, he offered no help for it; but then you found quite good reason to be satisfied, just because it was selfevident that he never assumed to be any thing more. You never were pained at the discrepancy between the pretended and the actual-between the attempt and the performance. Hence the secret of his unfailing, yet unostentatious self-dependence; and of that ever-wakeful readiness that made him capable of a master effort, at a minute's warning; and hence, too, the confidence of his friends in him. If in this sober self-poise there ever appeared to be any thing like reserve and inapproachableness, it arose not, certainly, from coldness of sympathy. If there were about him a constant personality that ever made you feel his presence, it was not because he imperiously demanded deference, but because you spontaneously paid it. His nearest associates we know, and his undoubted equals in talent and in station, we are sure, were at no

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