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SERMON XVI.

ZECH. xii. 10.- -" And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."

THE building of the second temple promoted by Cyrus had been discouraged by Ahasuerus, and prohibited by Artaxerxes. These obstructions, and the lapse of time co-operating with the natural backwardness of man to the Lord's work, so cooled the zeal of the Jews who had returned from the capti. vity, that they totally neglected the temple for the first two years of the reign of Darius Hystaspes. The prohibition was no longer in force; it was buried in forgetfulness with its usurping author; the reigning prince discovered no unfriendly disposition to the Jewish nation or to their once favourite design. Alas! the strong blast of temptation sometimes in a moment hurls headlong the man of God from the pinnacle of his first love, but it requires the chastisement, the grace, the painful exertions of years to enable him to climb again to the towering summit. For two years, the Jews, fallen from their former zeal, casually cast their eyes on Mount Zion ;

the prospect of drawing near unto God in the sanctuary waxeth more faint; no busy workman appears on the temple-wall; the joy of successful effort is not heard; the fall of some ponderous ruin resounds, while the wind unrestrained murmurs through the roofless pile. Some aged captive, as he recalls the departed glory and joy of the former temple, the chains of tedious bondage broken, and the holy ardour of return, gazes on this contempt of God, this reproach of Israel, this sin of a forsaken people, and weeps more bitterly than ever he had done by the rivers of Babylon. The nation eyes it with indifference; they are busied in completing their own abodes, or in cultivating their fields and vineyards. God is angry with them, yet his anger is tempered with mercy. He sends a famine, but he raises up the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to make known his will to them. Zechariah encourages the Israelites to finish the temple; he foretells the glory with which Messiah's presence shall fill it; the miseries of the Jews under the Maccabees; their rejecting of the promised Saviour; their dispersion and return to their native land; and their final conversion, together with some remarkable events in their history during the latter ages.

In the verses preceding the text, Jehovah is represented discomfiting the enemies who shall attack his people after their return to Judea, but before their final conversion; and then, speaking in his wn person, and promising great things to be done

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for them about the time of that temporal deliverance, he says, " and I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born."

It is God who thus speaks. Who but God can pour down on men the spirit of grace and supplications here promised? And though a pure Spirit, he, whose bowels are said to yearn over his people, whose hand is said to be opened to supply their wants, may also be said to be pierced when his majesty is despised, his goodness abused, and his grace turned into wantonness. According to this figure, Simeon said to the mother of Jesus, "a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also ;" and the sacred historian of the Jewish institutions says, "the Israelitish woman's son pierced through the name of the Lord, and cursed." Levit. xxiv. 11. It is more likely that the expression in the text is not figurative, and that he who said long before by the same spirit of prophecy, they pierced my hands and feet," here again alludes to the sufferings of his human nature, to be united to his Deity in the fulness of time. He is "the angel of God's presence," intrusted with the care of the ancient church; he gives the Spirit to convince of sin, righteousness, and judgment; he is "Jehovah," and

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also "the Son of man,"-" taken, and by wicked hands cruified and slain for the sins of his people, and who, being raised from the dead to the right hand of God in heaven, shall come with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also who pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him." Rev. i. 7. It is the Son of God who speaks in the text.

And he speaks to "the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem," to the remaining posterity of his ancient people. In the wilderness of old Christ was tempted, and at Jerusalem was crucified and slain by their forefathers; and the accursed deed was repeated, as it were, by them in their long-continued approbation of it-in their unbelief and hard speeches against him-in opposition to the increasing stream of evidence from prophecy and providence against them. And what shall the receiving of them again be but life from the dead? With God all things are possible; but who could have expected this life, unless he who hath the keys of death, who openeth and no man shutteth, had said, "I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born."

The time of this effusion is obscurely hinted.

After the Jews have borne their shame and all their trespasses, God will bring back their captivity; he will bring them back to their native land; a powerful people from the north will attempt to dispossess or destroy them, but God will preserve them and overthrow their enemies: "Then shall the house of Israel, saith the Lord, know that I am the Lord their God: neither will I hide my face from them any more, for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel." All that we certainly know is, that this effusion shall take place about the time of a remarkable deliverance from a powerful enemy, and this deliverance shall be wrought soon after their final return to Judea. For this effusion God will prepare their minds by striking dispensations of his providence, accompanied by more secret operations of his grace,-by these he will awake them to more serious thought, to a more deep insight into his character and rightful authority, and especially of his goodness and mercy. When they are thus instructed, "He will pour out on them the spirit of grace and supplications." An extraordinary measure of divine influence is necessary to convert the Jews, to bring them from death to life, and such an influence our Lord graciously promises. The Holy Ghost is "the Spirit of grace and supplications"-his divine influences are compared to dew and to plentiful rains, and these Christ dispenseth in measures suited to the occasion. When we reflect that the Holy Ghost is

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