34 
ISRAEL. 
Christianity is the representative of Mercy. It came after Judaism; for justice must 
condemn, before mercy can forgive. It was solemnly proclaimed by angels, the minister¬ 
ing spirits of the Old Covenant, as the establishment of a New Covenant; in which a new 
mediatorship was to exist, in which the glory was to belong exclusively to “ God in the 
highest,” and “ peace ” was to be given to man. 
All its features express a principle totally distinct from that of its predecessor. Its Law 
was delivered, not in thunders, but in the voice of man. Among the first declarations of 
that law was, “ Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy; ” the name of its 
Lord was Jesus (“the Saviour ”). He announced, that He came, “ not to condemn , but to 
saved'’ The ancient “yoke” of ceremonial was broken away; and blood was seen no more 
upon the altar. Finally, as an unanswerable evidence to both the Christian and the Jew, 
that the ancient dispensation had finished its course, the Temple, in which alone its cere¬ 
monial could exist, was destroyed. And that Temple, which had been three times built, 
and by hands so different as those of the Jewish king, the Persian conqueror, and the 
Roman tributary; no impulse of ambition or zeal, no policy of monarchs, not even the 
undying attachment of the people, has ever been able to raise again. After eighteen 
centuries, a mosque stands on the summit of Mount Moriah. 
The necessary limits of these pages preclude the inquiry into various circumstances of 
remarkable interest; for the principal events of the national history are also prophetic 
emblems, while the whole forms the material of the most striking analogies. The sending 
of the raven and the dove from the ark; the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon; the three 
festivals of the Passover, the Pentecost, and the Tabernacles; and the sacrifice of the 
Atonement, are all both emblematic and prophetic: the career of the nation, from its com¬ 
mencement to its close, will be found to bear a distinct analogy to the career of human life; 
the succession of Judaism and Christianity, to paternal discipline; and the history of the 
world itself, to the progress of crime and conversion in the soul of man. 
Christianity has yet to complete its course. It has been hitherto but a struggling and 
obscure mover on the great highway of nations; like the patriarchs, “ a pilgrim and a 
sojourner,” waiting for the promise of a “ better country, that is a heavenly.” In half the 
globe it is almost wholly unknown. In the more intellectual portions it is deeply enfeebled 
by public vice, and insulted by philosophic infidelity. Thus its native character is 
thwarted, and it is compelled to stand among mankind rather as the rebuker than the 
reconciler; rather as the prophet uttering the indignation of offended virtue, than as the 
angel pouring out those redundant and exulting promises, which it has brought from the 
Divine throne. 
But Inspiration declares the triumphs of the future, with a voice as firm and as distinct 
as that in which it ever pronounced the calamities of fallen Israel. The dawn of its 
unending day will be the restoration of the exiles of Judah. 
“ If any of thine be driven out into the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the 
Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will He fetch thee: and the Lord thy God 
will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it. And he 
will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.” 1 
1 Deuteronomy, xxx. 4, 5. 
