"There is the strongest reason to believe that, as Judea was chosen for the especial guardianship of the original Revelation, England has been chosen for the especial guardianship of Christianity, i. e. the pure gospel."

Dr Merle D'Aubigne observes in eloquent words :

"England owes everything to the Reformation. The Reformation developed in an admirable manner that Christian spirit, that love of liberty and fear of God, that loyal affection for the sovereign, that patriotism, those generous sacrifices, that genius, that strength, that activity, which constitute the prosperity and glory of England. In the age of the Reformation, Catholic Spain, gorged with the blood of the children of God, fell, overthrown by the arm of the Almighty, and reformed England ascended in her stead the throne of the seas, which has been justly termed the throne of the world. The winds which ingulfed the Armada called up this new power from the depths. The country of Philip II., wounded to the heart because she attacked the people of God, dropped from her hand the sceptre of the ocean, and the country of Elizabeth, fortified by the word of God, found it floating on her shores, seized it by the will and providence of God, and wielded it to bring into subjection to the King of heaven the nations of the earth. It is the gospel that has given to England our antipodes. It is the God of the gospel who has bestowed upon her all she possesses. Should England forsake

the faith of the Bible, the crown would fall from her head, and all the Christians of the Continent and of the world would mourn over her fall."

"The people that do know their God," says Daniel, "shall be strong, and do exploits."

A most interesting proof, though inferential, of the place which our country will continue to occupy to the end of the age is contained in Isaiah. The final prosperity of Britain is not the direct, but the incidental, disclosure in the course of a prophecy relating to the future of the Jew.

In Isaiah xviii. we read, "Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia: that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled! All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers of the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. For so the Lord said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwellingplace like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and take away and cut down the branches. They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and

the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them. In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion."

The horoscope of our fatherland cannot be unfolded by uninspired man. There is no living prophet who can infallibly delineate its future. But there are not wanting on the face of the inspired word of God intimations of its career. In the present exegesis I offer no original criticism; I merely translate into plain language and enforce by additional proofs what Horsley, and Lowth, and Chamberlain have already written. This analysis requires, what I ask, attention -careful attention. If carefully studied, the conclusion will be found as logical as it is encouraging.

I look upon this eighteenth chapter of Isaiah as a fuller and more minute exposition of the 60th chapter. Bishop Horsley wrote on this subject and chapter 70 years ago. A very learned volume, elaborately discussing its application, has been written by a living and able clergyman, the Rev. Mr Chamberlain, of Bolton. His volume may be read with intense interest and profit. Guided by these and other able commentators, I will show, first, that the people referred to are the Jews; and, secondly, that they are one day to be presented to the LORD, in the language of this chapter,

as a present, or an OFFERING; and that this is to be done at the end of this age by a people "shadowing with wings," who "send ambassadors by sea," which people are to bring them in "vessels of bulrushes," and also in swift chariots, and present them a national offering unto the Lord on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Let us take the 18th chapter, as Mr Chamberlain does in reverse; and begin by expounding and unfolding the meaning of the concluding verses, which are to a certain extent repetitions of the first: "In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled." This people thus identified shall be presented unto the Lord. Bishop Horsley justly remarks that the 11th verse of the previous chapter refers to the dispersion of Israel by the Romans; and that the allusion to this dispersion leads, as it almost always does, to a prediction of their final restoration. The 17th chapter is therefore in all respects historically connected with the imagery and substance of the 18th.

Now let us investigate the meaning and application of these expressions: "a people scattered; " "a people peeled;" "a people meted out; " "a people trodden under foot; " "a people terrible from the beginning." Let us carefully analyze each Hebrew word thus translated; and give the result.

The word "scattered" is applied in the Bible to

the sowing of seed, the scattering of corn seed upon the earth; and denotes something sifted and spread over an extended area. It is also used in the sense of “extended” in time as well as spread over space; and therefore the idea conveyed is that of a people scattered over the earth, like the seeds of spring, over its length and breadth, and it is implied that this process has continued over many years; and still they everywhere remain ungathered, and will so remain until a time specified in the sequel.

The word "peeled" is the next feature of this people, the import of which we proceed to investigate. Professor Lee, the ablest Hebrew scholar while he lived, says it means ruined; another critic says it means stripped naked; Mr Chamberlain says it means worn down and galled by affliction; and Bishop Horsley states the Spanish Bible gives the exact meaning of the original Hebrew, "a people dragged about by force, and their hair pulled out by the roots." Combine all these features into one group, and we have the picture of a people who have been long and grossly and far and wide maltreated. In the history of England their teeth have been extracted, that their purses might be emptied for our benefit; their sufferings have become proverbial; their meet symbol, says Sir Walter Scott, is the flying fish, which has no peace either in the sea or in the air, either on the heights or in the depths.

Another feature is "meted out and trodden under foot." The word "meted out" is translated literally