inhabit, they shall not plant and another eat, for as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands."

(h). At the time of the Messiah the Shechinah (effulgency of divine presence) shall return to Israel as in former days, and the people of Israel increase in prophecy, wisdom, and knowledge, as may be seen by the following quotations from the prophets. (Ezek. xxxvii.26) "Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will establish and multiply them, and set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore." (Ver. 27) "My residence also shall be among them. Yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (Ver. 28) "And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore. (Ib. xxxix. 29) "Neither will I hide my face any more from them, for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God." (Ib. xliii. 7) " And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever," etc. (Ib. xlviii. 35) "And the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there'" (Joel ii. 27) "And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and there is none else; and my people shall never be ashamed." (Ib. iii. 1; in the English Version ii. 28) "And it shall come to pass afterwards, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." (Ib. iii. 17) "So ye shall know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through it

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any more." (Ib. iii. 21) " For I will avenge their blood that I had not avenged, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion." (Zec. ii. 14; in the English Version, ii. 10) "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for, lo! I come and dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord." (Isa. xi. 9) “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." (Jer. xxxi. 34) " And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall know me, from the lowest of them to the highest, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more."

The above indications pointed out by the prophets as indispensable attributes of the true Messiah, have not been fulfilled in Jesus the Nazarene. Nor have we hitherto seen realised the prophetic assurances already named, or others that we have omitted, to avoid prolixity. And we therefore arrive at the just conclusion, that the true and expected Messiah has not yet come. In him alone all the predicted attributes undoubtedly will be manifested, and through him alone and in no other way, the scriptural promises will be accomplished.

CHAPTER II.

AN argument has been adduced by Christians, to the effect, that the Almighty has rejected the Israelitish nation, because they would not listen to the teachings of the Messiah, his messenger, and because they executed judgment on him. The Lord has, therefore, say they, chosen the Christian nation, and he permitted Christ to suffer martyrdom for their sake and for the salvation of their souls, because they had acknowledged him and put faith in him.

REFUTATION.

This argument is unfounded; for the Christians themselves confess, that before the coming of Jesus, they (as Gentiles) denied the Almighty, and were idolaters. Even after the coming of Jesus, he was not received as a God, nor believed to be such until some hundred years subsequent to his existence. Yea, they (the Gentiles) themselves carried on exterminating persecution against him, his disciples, apostles, and followers. Nero, the emperor of Rome, for instance, caused Peter and Paul to die an unnatural death, on account of their endeavours to persuade and urge the people to believe in Jesus. Decius, the Roman emperor, caused, in a like spirit, Laurentius to be roasted alive in the year 254 of the vulgar era, because he persuaded people to embrace Christianity. So acted all the emperors that followed him; they persecuted the Christians, and killed the popes, and those who followed the religion of Jesus, as may be gathered from their ecclesiastical histories. The first Byzantine emperor who adopted the Christian faith, was Constantine, who established laws for his co-religionists 300 years after the death of Jesus. In his days lived lived Arius who composed a controversial work against the Christian dogmas, but Constantine lent no ear to his opinions. After the death of this monarch, Constantine the Second attached himself to the sect of Arius, and slighted the established doctrines; and his succeeding relative Julian, likewise adhered to the Arian views, and rejected the general principles of the Christian Faith. His example was imitated by several of his successors. There are, even in our times, people who acknowledge the authority of Arius, and who constitute the sect called by his name. This (the original repudiation of Christianity by the Gentiles) is also to be noticed among

the [ancient] inhabitants of Prussia; when bishop Adelbert of Prague came to them to instruct them in his religion in the year 990, of the Christian era, they cut him in pieces. The Prussians and Poles were not converted to the Christian religion before the eleventh century, and the Scandinavians not until after the 1400th year of the vulgar era, as is stated in the Ecclesiastical histories. The majority of the followers of Christianity continue even at the present day to adore in their places of worship images of gold and silver, wood, and stone, and many of them shew divine reverence to the wafer, or sacramental bread by prostrating themselves before it.

These practices they keep up in contradiction to the teachings of Jesus: who rigorously impressed upon his disciples and apostles to abstain from them, as well as from the eating of the sacrifices offered up to idols. We also find in the Gospel, they are forbidden to eat blood, or the flesh of strangled animals; which interdictions are disregarded even by the most scrupulous Christians. They likewise desecrate the true Sabbathday, the stringent commandment of which, was kept by Jesus, and subsequently by his disciples and his followers, during the period of 500 years. From that period, the ancient law was superseded by the Pope enjoining to celebrate the first day of the week, Sunday, as the sacred day. Hence arises the question: How can they boast to be the preferred nation, selected in reward of their homage to Jesus; or how can they assume the name of Christians, since there exists among them, no longer any observer of the Mosaical precepts, which Jesus himself declared inviolable? Besides, they deviate from his statutes by adding to, and diminishing from the dictates of the Gospel, while he pronounced severe maledictions against those who should venture

to add or to diminish from his words, as may be learned from the passages above referred to, and will be set forth more fully in chapter xlix. of this work.

CHAPTER III.

A MEMBER of the Greek Church, once addressed me in the following words :-"Do you know wherefore you have no longer a king of your own people? It is because you have rejected the faith of Jesus Christ and His kingdom, for He was the king of Israel. On this account the empire of Israel has been destroyed."

I replied to him: "It is known, and evident from the words of the prophets, that in consequence of our manifold iniquities, our kingdom was destroyed in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, when this king led Zedekiah, king of Judah, captive to Babylon.

"This event took place more than four hundred years before the existence of Jesus. The Jews were then successively subjects of the Babylonians, Medes, and Greeks. Long before the birth of Jesus we had been kept in servitude by the Romans. You may see that proved in your Gospel of Luke, iii. 1, 'In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea,' etc. See also John xix. 15, 'Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Cæsar.' Now, as to your ascribing to Jesus the government of Israel, we are at a loss to know who made him king, and where he ruled over Israel. You, members of the Greek Church, were the parties who first acknowledged Christianity in the kingdom of your Messiah, and you still continue in your faith in Him; and, nevertheless, your

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