ear; break
forth into singing, and cry aloud thou that didst not travail with child;
for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the
married wife, saith the Lord." Then come the words of the text bidding
her enlarge the place of her tent, or dwelling-place, to stretch forth
her curtains, so as to cover over the new-gotten habitations. To spare
not--that is, to be not tardy, or slow--in lengthening out her
cords--that is, her influence--and strengthen her stakes--that is, her
authority; but to break forth on every hand where there is an opening,
and inherit the seed of the Gentiles, and make the languishing and
poverty-stricken cities of the nations to be inhabited; in this conquest
to go on and fear not.

These exhortations are given, and promises are made to Israel after she
had left Palestine. No one can say truthfully that they have yet been
fulfilled in no degree or sense, unless they find such fulfilment in the
conquests of the Saxon race. These predictions cannot apply to the Jews,
for they are few, nationless, and without a government. Touching the
past history of both Judah and Israel in Palestine, we shall find it to
be barren of victories, territory, acquisition, and number, in comparison
to other nations. They have never occupied the land given to Abraham in
fulness. In Solomon's time they bare rule only over a part of it. The
Gentiles and heathens have occupied it more and longer than the sons of
Abraham. But what failed to be accomplished in the past, is held grandly
in reserve for this day, the next few years. God will remember His
promise to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. He will remember it to
fulfil it, in spite of hell or earth.

We have been blind and guilty in the past, unconscious of our origin, and
as a natural consequence, ignorant of our place and special work. In
interpreting the Word of God we have been lavish in spiritualising, and
greedy in materialising, overlooking the fact that nine-tenths of the Old
Testament is a material history about one people, and that through them
God's special providence was to flow to all other nations; and the New
Testament plants the life and prosperity of the Gentile world upon the
course and progress of Israel. God said to Abraham, "In thee shall all
the families of the earth be blessed:" and more, "and in thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed." Israel, being scattered and
cast off, became a blessing to the