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seem as if previous thereto, there will be a restoration of Israel to the land—even of outcast Israel. They return to the land in expectation of the Lord's speedy appearing in glory, and it is in the glad prospect thereof that the great rejoicing is; as well as because of the wonders He hath already wrought for them.

This Return of the brethren of Judah, even the children of Rachel, who shall specially be honoured with cleansing the land, is more particularly dwelt upon by Ezekiel, as in ch. xi. 14—20. The cherubim, mentioned v. 22, 23, had been spoken of, ch. i. 4, in connection with the whirlwind from the north. For the planting of the Branch upon the mountain, see ch. xvii. 22—24. For the return of All Israel, and thereafter the remnant of Israel, see ch. xx. 40—44. That God himself will be their Sanctuary, in their own land, see ch. xxviii. 24—26. That after the land and mountains of Israel have been made desolate, ch. xxxiii. 27—29, the lost sheep of the house of Israel will be brought back to feed thereon, see ch.

xxxiv. As truly as Edom has been made perpetual desolation, will All the house of Israel—all of it, be given peace on their own mountains, ch. xxxv. xxxvi. 1—15. In the midst of the once-outcast people restored, will the remnant of Israel be given their cleansing, when they will loathe themselves for their sin, in rejecting Him, for whose sake the land is made like Eden, to his returning people, accepted in Him, ch. xxxvi. 16—38. For the raising up of the tribes of Israel as from the dead by the word and Spirit of God, see ch. xxxvii. 1—14. Ephraim joined unto Him who was of Judah, for the lifting up of the ensign, and the subsequent assembling and amalgamation of All Israel and Judah, ch. xxxvii. 15—28. The mighty deliverance which the Lord hath promised to his people, when so restored, and dwelling at peace in the midst of the land, and when there attacked by Gog and all his armies, xxxviii. xxxix. The preparation for the King, and permanent settlement of the kingdom in abundance of blessing, ch. xl.xlviii.

The weeping here referred to, is in Matt. ch. ii. v. 18, applied to the case of the slaughter of the infants by Herod, when he aimed at the destruction of the child Jesus, who had been born king of the Jews. Jesus, however, was safely conducted to Egypt, and there preserved, until he was taken to Galilee, the north of the land of Israel; and there he was brought up. These things, with many others, appear to have happened to Christ as the representative of his people: Israel, after having been called out of Egypt, have turned aside unto the north country, and there they have been brought up. Christ was a minister of the circumcision, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. "He said, surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour. In all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the angel of his

presence saved them. In his love and in his pity He redeemed them, and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old." Is. lxiii. 8, 9. It was thus that the words which seem more strictly applicable to the body of the people, are not unfrequently applied to Christ their head. So was it with the death of Christ, and his resurrection therefrom. He arose on the third day. A day was to him, the Lord, for a thousand years to his people. We are now in the midst of the third thousand years since the political death of Israel took place. And of this time it is said, "After two days he will revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter

and former rain unto the earth."Christ, the head, endured for his people, and for His work they are rewarded.

Ramah was in the tribeship of Benjamin, the brother of Joseph. Both were the sons of Rachel; and Benjamin's portion bordered upon the tribeship of Ephraim, the younger son of Joseph. Ephraim was the chief of the tribes carried captive by the Assyrians. A sympathy might be expected to exist between these families of Israel; not merely children in common of Israel, but also both descended from the same mother—from Rachel, who, whilst her soul was departing, named him in whose tribeship was Ramah, Benoni, Son of my Sorrow. She is here represented as weeping over the loss of her children, for whom there seemed to be no prospect of return, when led away captive by the powerful Assyrian monarch. Out of the hand of the enemy there appeared none able or willing to deliver. And, indeed, till our own day these same children of Rachel, Ephraim and Manasseh, have been called "The lost." They were not, they could not, be found. The Lord, however, interposes his comforting voice; and his words are words of truth. He bids her refrain her voice from weeping. Let it rather rejoice; because of great goodness manifested towards the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Let the eyes, which were dim with tears, look forth in their brightness; and see what wonders God hath accomplished for his people. True, Israel hath of herself done hut little for which she can expect a favourable reward: yet doth he say," Thy work shall be rewarded." This is his own work, which, in the abundance of his lovingkindness, he is pleased to impute to Israel: for, even as he took our sorrows, he gave us his righteousness. His people are justified freely by bis grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He hath magnified the law, and made it honourable; and hath said to us, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he

hath sent;" and the Lord points forward to the great deliverance from death when he says, "They shall come again from the land of the enemy."

All that trust in His work shall have the great reward with which the Conqueror will return. They are

begotten again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." And now, in the time of the end, the sign of that greater return will be given, in the return of the children of Rachel to their own border.

"There is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border:" to the very land of Israel, which had been promised to their fathers, shall they return. The sympathy of the head with the body, and of the several members with each other, could scarcely be more beautifully expressed than in the passage before us. The same recovery of the lost children is spoken of with regard to Jacob, Is. xxix. 22, 23, "Therefore, thus said the Lord, who redeemed Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed; neither shall his face now wax pale; but when he seeth his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and shall sanctify the Holy One of Israel, and shall fear the God of Israel. They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding; and they that murmured shall learn doctrine." The discovery of the children of Joseph shall thus be as gladdening a sight as that of their father was, when discovered by Jacob in Egypt, as having become there the head of the heathen. Joseph's brethren had erred in spirit; but God overruled their evil counsels for good, and gave them an understanding of those prophetic dreams, because of which they had so hated their brother. And Jacob had murmured, and refused to be comforted, and said, "For I will go down unto the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for

him" and afterwards we find him again complaining, "Me ye have bereaved of my children. Joseph is not; and Simeon is not; and ye will take Benjamin: all these things are against me." But he who had thus murmured did learn doctrine, and was enabled to gather his children to him before his death, and teach them what should befall them in the last days. Previously he had particularly blessed the sons of Joseph, and said (Gen. ch. xlviii. 15, 16), "God, before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, did walk; the God which fed me all my life long unto this day; the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth."

It is true that Israel, of the house of Joseph, have very little for which to be grateful to the unbelieving Jews. It may be said that the ancestors of the Jews conspired with the Assyrians, to accomplish the destruction of our fathers. The inhabitants of Jerusalem rejoiced in the entire expulsion of Ephraim from the land of their possession. They paid those heathen allies for blotting our name from among the nations of the earth; and even after they had procured our expulsion, and had insulted us in our desolate heritages, by pretending to sanctify them from the pollutions of which we had there been guilty:even after thus having declared us utterly profane, they would have kept us so, by preventing the messengers of the King from declaring unto us the pardon, presented in the gospel, that we might be saved. They would have kept us in our state of alienation from the God of bur fathers. They had taken nominal possession of the birthright; and would have prevented the appointed heir from returning to his Father, and to the enjoyment of the promised inheritance. This is one side of the question: But we are to recollect that our fathers were the aggressors: that they had leagued with the Syrians, and with them made

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war upon the house of Judah, previous to the league formed by the latter with the Assyrians. We were not

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contented with having ourselves revolted from under the house of David, of which the appointed Heir to the kingdom of Israel was to come; but we would have set aside that family altogether, by placing upon the throne of David one called the son of Tabeal. We rejected the promises made as to the One Heir of the tribe of Judah; as did the Jews the promises with regard to the multitudinous seed, predicted to come of Ephraim. Yet see the forgiving grace of that One Heir of the tribe of Judah. Towards us He hath manifested peculiar love. All the offers of grace he hath sent to us. To us he hath opened the view of his coming glory. To have us cleansed He hath poured out his very blood. His perfect righteousness, to cover our nakedness, hath this Heir of the throne of David most richly provided. us hath this One Seed of David sent his apostles and prophets, and these also chiefly were of Judah. From a Jew, and through the ministry of Jews, the blessing in measure hath come upon Joseph, whilst separate from his brethren. And shall we not be moved by the sight of this reconciling grace in the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who hath for us become the Lamb slain? Shall we not be moved to manifest the same forgiveness—the same enriching grace, towards those against whom our hearts have so long been hardened? Shall we not meet them, as He hath us, with words of kindness and deeds of benevolence? and become thus the Repairer of the breach, which the Lord hath promised the house of Israel shall be; when the meekness, the love, and the holiness of our Lord shall thus practically shine forth in his people? So being brought into Christ, and given one heart, and being also given an heart of flesh, "There is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border."

Soon unto Shiloh may the gather

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ing of the people be." Their individual standards have been losttheir ranks are confused; they want a rallying point. Let them haste to assemble around the ensign of their King; so shall He lead them into the purchased possession. The Lord on the head of them shall restore the expatriated children of Rachel. "There is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall coшe again to their own border."

The Psalms of David contain a very full expression of the oneness of the Messiah with the people of which He is the Prince. His sympathy in their sufferings, and their justification through his righteousness; and the reward of his work, which through grace they in glory shall obtain, are there frequently and delightfully dwelt upon. Indeed the oneness of Christ with his people is as a key to open this treasure of gospel truth. It may there also be seen that the special objects of the Shepherd of Israel's care are the children of Rachel.

Even that series of twelve songs, Psalm lxxviii. lxxxix., which begins with describing the backslidings of Ephraim, and the Lord's choosing in preference the tribe of Judah, is most strikingly expressive of his peculiar favour for the descendants of Joseph. It is clear from Psalm lxxvii. that these children of promise did not enjoy the promised blessings of their election during the former constitution of the kingdom. So far from attaining, at that time, to what was promised them by Jacob, " The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law, and forgot his works, and his wonders that he had showed them." And then," Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph; and he chose not the tribe of Ephraim; but chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which he loved. He chose David also his servant; and took him from the sheep-folds: from following the

ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance." Of Judah came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph's. Its blessings were still in reserve for the people of the promise.

The subsequent desolation of the temple, the city, and dwelling-places of Jacob, is dwelt upon in Ps. lxxix.: during which desolation there is, as under the fifth seal, the cry of the primitive martyrs for the avenging. When this shall take place, their expectation shall be realized, as in v. 13: "So we thy people, and sheep of thy pasture, will give thee thanks for ever. We will show forth thy praise to all generations."

But previous to then- manifestation thus, as the royal priesthood who shall reign on the earth in the ministration of blessing, they had to rest until their brethren, that should be slain as they were, should be fulfilled; until the harvest of Joseph and his companions was added unto the first-fruits of Judah. And accordingly, Ps. lxxx., proceeds to recognise the fulfilment of the predictions as to the house of Joseph. The good Shepherd has come to seek and to save that which was lost. He hath found, not the one sheep only, but the ninety and nine, in the wilderness and now shall be the cry unto Him of the remnant of his brethren, who shall return unto

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the children of Israel. "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth before Ephraim, and Benjamin, and Manasseh; stir up thy strength, and come and save us." Here Benjamin, the younger son of Rachel, is presented in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh, the children of Jo-' seph. In the midst of Samaria and her daughters shall Jerusalem and her daughters return; and it is to be recollected, that as Samaria lay between the portions of Ephraim and Manasseh, so was Jerusalem in the portion of Benjamin. The prayer shall be answered in the restoration of both