fulfilled, are as the salts which are necessary component parts of the
sea but not of the cloud; when it rose on high it left them behind.

It is an interesting subject for thought to inquire whether, if
Daniel's weeks had run out in the times of the Maccabees, and the
Messenger of the Covenant had then come suddenly into His Temple,
Christ would not have found adoring worshippers instead of fierce
persecutors--a throne instead of a cross? Would He not then have been
welcomed by the heroes of Emmaus and Bethsura, instead of being
despised and rejected of men? Would he not, humanly speaking, have
escaped the scourge, the nails, and the spear? But how then shall the
Scriptures be fulfilled (Matt. xxvl. 54) that Christ should suffer
these things? (Luke xxiv. 36). The Sacrifice must be slain, that the
sinner may be pardoned and live.

And if--as I would fain hope--some Hebrews peruse these pages, how
earnestly would I desire power to speak to their hearts! Countrymen
and countrywomen of Maccabeus, ye whose fathers fought side by side
with the Asmonean brothers, does the history of their deeds rouse none
of their spirit of patriotism in your breasts? Can ye, amidst the
cares and toils of this working-day world, be indifferent to the state
of your own land, your own city--yours by divine right--yours by a deed
of gift signed and sealed by God Himself! Is it no grief to you that
the mosque stands on the site of your holy Temple; that--under a
corrupt form of so-called Christianity--idolatry is practised at this
day in the city of David? _Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not
silence, and give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make
Jerusalem a praise in the earth!_ (Isa. lxii. 7, 8.)

If Gentile Christians are longing and praying for that time, shall not
Hebrews long, pray, and strive to hasten its coming? Shall they not
search their hearts and ask, "Wherefore is it so long delayed?
Wherefore are the heathen still suffered to prevail; the followers of
the false prophet to hold the holy city in subjection? For what
transgression doth the Lord God of Israel still hide His face from His
people; what hath brought upon them a judgment enduring so much longer
than Egyptian bondage, or Babylonish captivity, or the tyranny of an
Antiochus Epiphanes?" Seek for the answer to this momentous question
in your own Scriptures; read them in the light thrown by your own
history;--that history will in the future flash