seems to have thought of attempting it until the
formation of the Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, in
the year 1808.  But now there are Christian missionaries labouring
amongst them in most of the principal towns of Europe, and, indeed, in
almost all the leading centres of their scattered population.  The New
Testament has been translated into Hebrew, and very nearly twenty-five
thousand copies are being annually circulated amongst the Jews.  The
state of feeling towards them has passed through a complete revolution,
so that of England it was said not long since by a learned and
influential Italian Jew, ‘God has blessed, and will bless, England;
because her great men, both in Church and State, take an interest in the
children of Jacob.’  Such facts are most important in themselves; but
when it is borne in mind that this interest in Jerusalem has been
awakened just at the time of the consumption of the political power of
Rome, and has been going on side by side with the decay of Turkey, it
certainly ought to lead all students of the Word of God to consider
carefully whether the times of the Gentiles may not be drawing to a
close, and the day of redemption may not be beginning to dawn on
Jerusalem.

But some may be disposed to say, How are we concerned with Jerusalem, and
what does it matter to us whether Jerusalem is trodden under foot, or
free?  I fear this is a very common feeling throughout society, and that
there are thousands and tens of thousands of professing Christians who
are perfectly indifferent as to the condition of Jerusalem.  But it ought
not so to be, for if it be a place cared for by the Lord, it ought to be
also cared for by His people.  Besides which, even on selfish principles,
we should take an interest in Jerusalem; for, as our position as Gentiles
in Christ Jesus is most intimately connected with the fall of Jerusalem,
so our brightest hopes in Him are bound up with its recovery.  In proof
of this I would ask you to turn to Ps. cii. 16, where you read, ‘When the
Lord 