the

of the purest government government which was first on earth and will be for ever in heaven, God's blessings fell upon them in showers, like the manna that lighted on the tents of Israel, ministering abundance to all as well as indicating its source. But, on the other hand, God revealed to Moses this other fact, "It shall come to pass if thou shalt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses I which are then enumerated-"shall come upon thee and overtake thee." We find the Jews, as a nation, thus sinned; they did not perform the commandments of their God; for the Lord of glory -the author of their mercies-came to his own, asking of them, in the

world He had made, a welcome in the hearts He came to redeem, and his own received him not; and that terrible rejection has inflicted upon the Jews a perpetual curse, as at this day. The Jews at this moment are depressed in the capital and degraded in every city of Russia; they are oppressed alike in the steppes of Tartary, on the sands of Senegal, in the wilds of Asia. The Jew who thought he had finally burst from his bondage the moment that Pio Nono was removed-as if the day were arrived when Babylon's ruin shall be Jerusalem's resurrectionhas been recently driven again to his ghetto, and is still treated by those who profess to be the servants of Christ, in a way in which Christ did not treat his enemies-in a way in which He has commanded

us not to treat ours; for He has taught us, both by example and precept, "to pray for those that despitefully use us." But while man incurs guilt and judgment too for thus persecuting the Jew, the Jew fulfils the prediction of God; and it is thus proved to all mankind by that people—the people of destiny- a people without a country— a family without a home-a nation without a temple, that God revealed truly his ways unto Moses, and has made known as truly his acts unto the children of Israel.

THE

CHAPTER X.

CHARACTER OF GOD.

"The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in goodness and mercy." --Psalm ciii. 8.

THIS is our God! Many persons mistake, misapprehend, and grievously misrepresent, what the Christian's God is. They open the Bible and select its curses, pass by its blessings, and then they say, "This is your God;" they deal treacherously with Scripture-they handle the word of God deceitfully, and, from a partial view of God's holy word, they form a partial and therefore false estimate of God's holy character. They surely do so from a perverted heart, and for pervert

ing purposes. Were theirs a single eye, theirs would be an impartial study. The God of the Bible is pronounced to be love, "God is love;" the syllables of the name of that God are, "mercy and grace." Were the great Legislator all mercy, men would presume to tread upon his laws and fling defiance at his will; if He were a legislator all wrath, men would be plunged into despair, and would not dare to hope from him. But He is a legislator whose mercy draws the guiltiest to his bosom for forgiveness, but whose demand for the deepest and the purest piety makes the guilty, the moment that they find shelter in his bosom, become the subjects of his will, holy as He is holy, and happy as He is happy. It is in the Gospel alone that there is forgiveness for