OCR Text |
Show 256 CONCLUSION. CONCLUSION. A remnant only of the ten tribes is to return, This ministry of John the Baptist, in the wilderness of Judea, to introduce Christ.. Hence the passige was ap- 1s clearly taught. Tsai xX°20—22 2° And it shall come to-pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and such of the as are escaped of Jacob, house plied tohim. Here the number restored is comparatively the Lord small; as | . . = ° o : 99 is the final Hebrew ‘This proportion may here deed be a small remnant. small be proverbial; but certainly indicates that but a ortion of that nation will in due time be offered, to remay form turn to the land of their fathers, where they t on Chris of a kind of centre or capital to the cause the Relative to many particulars of the event, earth. strongly marholy oracles are not express. They have ration ; and. ked the outlines or leading facts of the resto of Providence the unrevealed particulars, the events return, there will That great numbers must unfold. l But the actua oe. seems not room to doubt. t isl to return, will doubtless be a free~u offermg view is given of some tribes of Isratl: an interesting nearly connected with oe whichich appe ar i passages, prophetic their restoration. ionon of the ancient orat ati rest tor i to this-. res In Isai. x}. 3,7 relative vorce oer eople of God, we read; * The eth in the wilderness ; Prepare ye the y way o! enUNG cats vn make straight in the desert a highwa cal This received a primary and typi a fultumen ceives strengti from sense literally true. the time of their the consideration, that it is in @ ‘The voice, which restores: Israel, 1s heard in the vast wilderness of America, a literal wil- a lhe first oe abe whose hearts God shall incline. Uhris e kingdom o* be to recover them to the visibl all due exertions mus To this our prayers, alms, and the — ths aborigines of America as restoration, after doubly long corrective rejection for their sins shall have expired. The voice in the wilderness then follows, as the great means of this restoration. A wilderness has justly been considered as a symbol ofa region of moral darkness and spiritual death. It has been considered as a symbol of the heathen world and itis a striking emblem of it. And the emblem re- A pro- number compared with the whole will return. shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it to- omon,) and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned ; for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.2?’ Here, One of a family, (tribe) and will bring you to Zion.’”? inwould tribe, a from an Indian village, and two from Y . the Jerusalem, (a name here put for all the Hebrew family, as it was their capital in the days of David and Sol- . Jer. iii. 14, upon the same event; * Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for | am married unto, you; and I will take you one ofa cily (village) and two Bs ory with gether ;”? as the subsequent text decides.. It 1s intimately connected with the restoration of the Hebrews ; as appears in its context. ‘*Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to = « 79 the sand of the sea; yet a remnant of them shallreturn.”’ | eee connected commencement of the Millennium, when * the glory of avain stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay The upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. unto Jacob, of remnant shall return, even the remnant For though the people of Israel be asy But it was to receive its ultimate and most interesting fulfilment at a period shall no more the Mighty God. 257 | derness of thousands of miles, where the dry bones of the outcasts of Israel have for thousands of years been scattered. The voice crying in the wilderness has special appropriation to these Hebrews. As it had a @: kind of literal fulfilment in the preaching of the forerun-ner John, fora short time in the wilderness of so it isto havea kind of litera] fulfilment, upen Judea; a much greater scale, in the: missions, which shall recover theten tribes from the vast wilderness of America.. Of the same period and event, the same evangelical: | prophet says, Isai, xxxv..1,. “The wilderness and the-| _ Solitary place shall. be glad for them: ; and the: deser€: | | — rejoice a ose; it shall -blossonr: undantly and. rejoice even with joy and singing:. The and: blossom as ; the rose: glory. of Lebanon shall be given U nto-it, and the excelécose. — |