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universals and particulars, was spoken from Sinai? You see them in the Talmud, disputing and bring their proofs and reasons for their interpretations." "

There are, then, five classes of interpretations, and it is said, that from the time that the disciples of Shammæus and Hillel were multiplied, dissensions in Israel were multiplied, of which curious specimens are given.

Numerous disquisitions are manifestly alien from the idea of God's giving them to Moses, as an oral interpretation of the law. For how could this apply to the Megillah, or Roll, including the Canticles and Esther? yet the Mishnah treats of these.

This Mishnah is so exceedingly oriental, idiomatic and abrupt, at the same time so sprinkled with a kind of Hebrew Greek, that its obscurity has given occasion for a commentary called the Gemara, or completion. One composed at Babylon forms, with the text, the Babylonish Talmud; and another in Palestine, constitutes the Jerusalem Talmud. Thus, God's interpretation has demanded interpretations from men, till the whole has swelled into twelve ponderous folios.

These are the body of Jewish learning, which has thrust out the written law; so that that is considered "but water, and Talmud is wine."

We are cheered by one ray of light and hope. The rejection of the oral law, and the exclusive attention to the written Word of God, which has long prevailed among some foreign Jews has lately appeared in our own country [Britain]. A new synagogue has been formed in Burton crescent, where the oral law is abandoned, as destitute of all evidence of a Divine origin; and worship of a more instructive and spiritual character meets the eye of the spectator, filling him, on the one hand, with respect for the reformation that has been achieved amidst opposition and the reproach of excommunication; and on the other, inspiring hopes that the true import of the Scriptures, thus instructively read, may lead, by a Divine influence, to the saving knowledge of their contents.

Of the ancient Karaites, or Scripturists, who have long cast off the Talmud, I know nothing but by travellers' reports; which I own have filled me with mingled hopes and doubts. But there is another class of Jews on the Continent, termed the Reformed, whom the celebrated German, Mendelssohn, has induced to cast off the Talmud, to read the Scriptures, and offer their worship, not in Hebrew, but in the vernacular language of the country in which they dwell. Our satisfaction in this change is diminished by detecting the marks of German Neology, which is but a masked Deism. But that this long dispersion should have shaken their faith we cannot wonder. "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." “Our eyes fail while we wait for our God," was the complaint of their

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ancients, and they now cry, "We see no more our signs, neither is there any one that knoweth how long." We often hear of movements among them; some that are ominous and alarming; others that are pregnant with hope, though alas, these hopes often have ended in bitter disappointment. For "the Hope of Israel, the Savior thereof in time of trouble," they know not. The law of Moses made nothing perfect, since it left some sins without expiation, none being provided for murder, adultery, disobedience to parents, blasphemy and idolatry. But this was to teach their need of a better hope in the Messiah. The Talmud, however, made bad worse. What it requires few of them know; and how can they tell that they are safe? Those who know most of it are aware that no mortal can say he has fulfilled the law. Hence, they are said to kill a fowl, not for sacrifice, but to intimate they need one. Death is surrounded with horrors, the dread of being beaten by the evil one, in the grave, and of enduring a purgatory, they know not where or how.

They have no definite, certain avowed knowledge of the time for Messiah's appearance. That there was a general expectation of Him, and a strong persuasion that the time for His coming had arrived, when Jesus of Nazareth appeared, is plain from the conduct of the multitudes who received Him as the Messiah. The heathen historians, Tacitus and Suetonius, who wrote of this era, not only declare the fact, but showed that the Jews shared in that expectation; while Josephus, their own historian, proves that it deeply influenced them to desperate resistance to the Roman power, in hopes of deliverance by the Messiah. That the time is past they have often confessed, but have attempted to escape from the consequence by saying that His coming is put off on account of their sins. But at that rate, He may never come; for their sins may always put Him off, as it is supposed they have for many hundreds of years. If they said that God will turn them from their sins, then why did He not do this at the very time originally fixed for Messiah's coming? Why was any time fixed if the event depended on their state of mind? The deliverances from Egypt and Babylon, fixed to a certain time, happened at the exact year, though their sins might then have put off the fulfilment.

It is said that they have now abandoned all pretence to a knowledge of the time, and to guard against disappointment, have pronounced an anathema, saying, "Cursed be he that shall calculate the time."

But they do not even pretend to know who or what He is to be when He does come; so they cannot tell whom they should receive or reject.

Even if one should come and work miracles, He must be tested by Scripture. This they acknowledge, so far as to admit that He

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must prove Himself the son of Abraham, and Judah and David. Here, then, are scriptural definitions. But who could prove his genealogy now? No one of the Jews knows how to prove his family or tribe. They say the genealogies will be restored, when Messiah comes, by miracle. What sense is there in this theory? Genealogies are records. If they mean that the genealogies are to be created, this is contrary to the very nature of such documentary proofs. A register of ages, created at one time, is a forgery committed.

In one point, however, I must admit that they declare themselves certain that Messiah was to be a temporal deliverer, one who should give deliverance from temporal ills, and reverse the present afflicted state of the Jews, by conferring temporal dominion, honor, and prosperity; especially by giving them the triumphant possession of their own land. But they say, "Jesus was no temporal deliverer." If the Jewish nation had embraced Him, there might have been more show of reason in reproaching Him for not granting them the temporal deliverance they expected.

But has Jesus wrought no temporal deliverance for His friends? When the Romans fought against us, as the Jews had done, Jesus broke that iron empire and planted the banner of the cross on the Capitol. A Christian Church was enjoying prosperity in Jerusalem and Judæa, when no Jew could approach the spot. Christendom now rules the world, from pole to pole, from the rising to the setting sun. Were I to say to them. "What think ye of Christ: whose Son is He?" They would reply, "The Son of David." But if I ask again, "Why, then, does David call Him Lord? saying, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?" They would say, "Ah, you call Him Son of God! Nashku bar, which you render 'Kiss the Son;' means kiss, purely." When, however, I replied, "I do not appeal to that, but to the former verse, which admits of no dispute, 'I will declare the decree, the Lord said unto me, Thou art My Son," it seemed to create surprise, as if they had never noticed the expression. This "Son given" is described by Isaiah in as lofty terms as the New Testament ascribes to Him, and the Targum of Jonathan applies to Messiah the words, "Unto us a Child is born."

Their present faith is far different from that of the better times of their nation. The Targums are ancient versions of the Scriptures, from the pure Biblical Hebrew, into a Chaldaic dialect, which, after the Babylonish captivity, became the national tongue. Some of them, as more ancient and more strictly literal translations, are entitled to more credit; others, more paraphrastic, are rather commentaries, and are interlarded with fables. But they are testimonies to the faith of Israel at the time they were written. That

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of Onkelos is the most esteemed for antiquity and purity. Here we find Genesis xlix:10, to which Christians appeal, thus rendered, "There shall not pass away one exercising dominion from the house of Judah, nor a scribe from his son's sons for ever, until Messiah shall come; and His is the kingdom, and to Him the people shall hearken;" which proves that Messiah, who is in Hebrew called Shiloh, is come; for dominion has passed away from the house of Judah.

The Targum on the Psalms, of which it is uncertain whether it is by Joseph the Blind, or not, makes the same application of the second and fortieth Psalms to Christ, as our Apostle Paul has given. The Targum on the prophets ascribed to Jonathan introduces the theme of the fifty-third of Isaiah, from the preceding chapter, thus, "Behold, My Servant the Messiah shall prosper and be exalted;" and the whole of the celebrated prophecy is applied to Christ, nearly as it would be by a Christian. The later writers, while laboring to refute the interpretations of Christians, are compelled to admit that they contradict their predecessors. David Kimchi applies the second Psalm to David alone; but he confesses that certain words should be translated "Kiss the son," and that the Psalm had been applied to Messiah by their masters of pious memory, observing, "if the Psalm be interpreted thus, the meaning will be clear."

Concerning Messiah we find the following Rabbinical sentence: "What is the name of the King Messiah? Rabbi Aba, the son of Cananah, said, 'Adonai is his name,' because Jeremiah xxiii:6, says, "This is his name by which he shall call him, Jehovah [which the Jews exchange for Adonai] or righteousness.' For Rabbi Levi said, 'Oh, happy city whose name is as the name of its king, and the name of its king is as the name of its God.'"

THE PEOPLE'S PROSPECTS.

The Jews are witnesses for God against idols; and when this was once urged as a proof that they were under dispersion, not for idolatry, but for their treatment of Christ, it was denied by a very distinguished Jew. For there is a Latin work entitled, "Amica Collatio," a friendly conference between a Christian, Limborch, and Orobio, a learned Jew. The Jew affirms that his brethren extensively practice idolatry in Catholic countries, and says, "the Lord forgive me, that I have myself bowed the knee in the house of Baal." Under the terrors of the Inquisition he had professed to be a Christian, in Portugal; but, haunted by conscience, he made his escape to Holland, where he maintained the disputation, which was published, not altogether to his disgrace. Certainly, as a body, the Jews have been preserved from idolatry, have maintained a reverence for the Scriptures, and kept themselves distinct, as reserved for mercy.-From "The People, the Land, and the Book,"

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"THE DISPENSATION OF THE FULLNESS OF THE TIMES" AND WHAT FOLLOWS:

Having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to His good pleasure which He put forth in him (Jesus) unto a DISPENSATION OF THE FULLNESS OF THE TIMES [when] all [are] to be headed-up in THE CHRIST, both those upon the heavens and those upon the earth. -Ephesians 1:9, 10.

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By him [Jesus] to reconcile all things to him [self] ther things on the earth or things in the heavens.-Col. i: 20. Then cometh the end, when he delivereth up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall bring to nought all rule and all authority and power (for he must reign until he put all the enemies under his feet: the last enemy, Death, is brought to nought, for He put all things under his feet): But it is manifest that he is excepted who did subject all things unto him. And when all things were subjected unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto Him that subjected all things unto him; so that God may be all in all.-1 Corinthians xv:24-28.

These post-eschatological Divine mysteries-especially the latter and forever last-have remained to the Church as mysterious as if they had never been 'made known.' Efforts to interpret them have been most unsatisfactory.

The first, however, is plainly the revelation of a stupendous design to unite all the holy, and all the saved, whether heavenly or earthly, in One Blessed Head, even the God Man Christ Jesus, as one Divine Family, pervaded, throughout every member, with one being and one spirit, even the Being and Spirit of the Eternal Father in the Son. This is the final solution of the mystery of Evil; or the liability of moral beings (therefore free moral agents) to turn their freedom against God; with the greater question to be solved for the satisfaction and security of the moral universe-how it is possible to secure forever the free and unforced allegiance of orders of being which had once proved capable as they are by the very virtue of a moral nature of defying God and turning a great section of His universe into a hell of horrors such as we see on earth and hear infinitely worse of below. Many have been led to inquire anxiously, Why may not another fall sometime overtake both angels and men? Where shall be the security of the moral universe against its ever possible rebel, its universal and inextinguishable Free Will? The union of angels and men to God himself, in the person of His own impeccable Son even as Himself, is the answer of God to this question. Until God can revolt against Himself, God's children all, forever united with Him in His Son, must hold in