hecy, by altars and sacrifices, he kept before this people the
mysterious promise given in the hour of transgression.

From this family was to descend him who was to be the light of the
Gentiles, and the glory of Israel, him who was at once the Almighty
Saviour, the everlasting Father, the wonderful Counsellor, the man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief, who bore our sickness, and took upon
himself our iniquities. And while from the family of Israel that high
spiritual influence was to emanate, which was to renovate men's moral
nature and change the aspect and condition of the race, restoring the
knowledge of the true God; and again, through the great atoning
sacrifice, opening the gates of eternal life and bringing spiritual
blessings to all mankind,--the character of the children of Israel,
their civil institutions, their legislation, their history, their laws,
their literature, were to leave their impress upon all the nations of
the earth.

The apostle accounts it the chief honour of the Jews that unto them were
committed the oracles of God. They were employed to transcribe and
preserve the inspired books. From them went forth those who first
announced the great truths of a Saviour crucified and a Comforter
promised. For successive ages the nation of Israel stood surrounded by
the heathen world,--stood the witnesses of the faithfulness of Jehovah,
the monuments of his truth and power, the only nation upon the face of
this earth who worshipped the true God.

Thick moral darkness shrouded all other lands--the nation of Israel
alone had light in their dwellings, and the beams of the rising Sun of
righteousness fell upon them and revealed the gross darkness around
them.

And he who had chosen the people of Israel for such a high purpose, in
infinite wisdom devised the means to fit them for their destination, and
he guided and guarded them in each stage of their national existence.
Egypt was one of the first kingdoms founded after the deluge, and it is
probable that those who repeopled it after this event, had retained many
impressions of the former world. Her monuments, yet remaining, attest
the high antiquity of her arts and sciences, and her early advancement
in refinement and civilization.

Her priests and wise men were the instructors of the ancient world, and
the philosophers of Greece resorted to Egypt to study legislation and
philosophy, and Egypt imparted to Greece, and Greece to Rome, the arts
and scienc