flocks of men; and they shall know that I am Jehovah." And in Jer. 31:27 we read, "Behold the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will sow the house of Judah with the seed of men, and with the seed of beast.' Turn again to Ezek. and we read in the 36th chapter and the 33rd to 36th verses, "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; in the day that I will cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be builded. And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, whereas it was a desolation in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, this land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited. Then the nations that are left round about you shall know that I, Jehovah, have builded the ruined places, and planted that which was desolate. Jehovah have spoken it, and I will do it." Zechariah also has his picture of the glad coming days when judgment shall be followed by blessing. In the 8th chapter, 3rd to 5th verses we read, "Thus saith Jehovah: I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called The city of truth; and the mountain of

I

Jehovah of hosts, The holy mountain. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof." This is not, as it is so often taken to be, a picture of heaven, but a picture of the literal Jerusalem in the glad day that is coming as the outcome of the Return of our Lord to this earth. Israel in that day shall be greatly exalted above the nations. We read in the 23d verse of this same chapter, "Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, they shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you" (Zech. 8:23). This same thought is more fully expressed in Is. 49:22-23, "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my ensign to the peoples; and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down

to thee with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah; and they that wait for me shall not be put to shame." It is very plain to anyone who will carefully read the chapter and note exactly what is said that this cannot refer to “the ample restoration of the Church," as some have interpreted it, but to the future glory of Israel, God's earthly people.

7. Having been restored and exalted above the nations, ISRAEL SHALL GO FORTH AS PREACHERS OF THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH TO ALL NATIONS.

In the last chapter of his prophecy, Isaiah represents Jehovah as saying, "And I will set a sign among them, and I will send such as escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations" (Is. 66:19). Though the great mass of Israelites are today rejecting the Lord Jesus, they are still destined to become the greatest missionaries in the world's history. What one Jew, who had once bitterly opposed the Lord, did, after his conversion when he went out as the Apos

tle to the Gentiles (that is the nations) will give us some hint of what the whole people will do when they have been converted and go forth as missionaries in that great coming day.

IV.

The Results of the Return of our Lord as Regards the Nations and Unregenerate Individuals.

1. The first result of the Return of our Lord as regards the nations, that is to say, the other peoples of the earth except Israel, will be A UNIVERSAL MOURNING OVER HIM. We read in Rev. 1:7 R. V., "Behold He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they that pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him." Our Lord Jesus Himself declared the same fact. He said to His disciples in expounding to them the facts concerning His own coming, "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matt. 24:30, R. V.). The gladdest day of all for His people will be the saddest day of all for those who

are not His people. For His people it will be the consummation of all their hopes and longings, but for those who have rejected Him it will be the shattering of all their hopes and projects.

2. ALL THE NATIONS SHALL BE GATHERED BEFORE HIM FOR JUDGMENT AND HE SHALL SEPARATE THEM ONE FROM ANOTHER AS THE SHEPHERD DIVIDETH HIS SHEEP FROM HIS GOATS. The Lord Jesus says in Matt. 25:31-32, "But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all the nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats." Then shall follow the judgment of those nations then living on the earth-the sheep on His right hand shall go away into eternal life; and the goats on His left hand into eternal punishment. "Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink, I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick and ye visited me; I