But the interest in the people is more remarkable than that in the country. Before the great Evangelical revival at the commencement of this century no one seemed to have any idea that the Jews had any part in their own Messiah. They were treated as an outcast people, and as for their conversion, no one 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 shall build up Zion he shall appear in glory!’ The return of the Lord is, therefore, connected with the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and, whenever we see His hand restoring the city, we should begin to look out in confident hope for the glorious and happy day when He Himself will come to take the Kingdom. As a student of the Word of God, I should be very much surprised if He were to come before Jerusalem is raised from the dust; but when it is raised, it seems clear from Scripture that there will be nothing in the great prophetic series any longer to delay His appearing. { 102}