Israel does not affirm merely that the God of Israel is the only true God, but affirms moreover that the time will come when all the earth will acknowledge Him for the only and universal Lord.  A grand thought, a grand hope, is in the soul of this people, and assures it that all nations shall one day look to Jerusalem.  Its prophets threaten, warn, denounce chastisements, predict terrible catastrophes; but in the midst of their severer utterances breaks forth ever and again the song of future triumph: 

     Uplift, Jerusalem, thy queenly brow: 
     Light of the nations, and their glory, thou![16]

Thus is preserved in the ancient world the knowledge of God amongst an exceptional people, amidst the darkness of idolatry and the glimmerings of an imperfect wisdom.  And not only is it preserved, but it shines with a brightness more and more vivid and pure.  The conception of sovereignty which constitutes its foundation, is crowned as it advances by the conception of love.  At length He appears by whom the universal Father was to be known of all.

Have you not remarked the surprising simplicity with which Jesus speaks of His work?  He speaks of the universe and of the future as a lawful proprietor speaks of his property.  The field in which the Word shall be sown is the world.  He introduces that worship in spirit and in truth before which all barriers shall fall.  He knows that humanity belongs to Him; and when He foretells His peaceful conquest, one knows not which predominates in His words, simplicity or grandeur.  Now this predicted work has been done, is being done, and will be done.  No one entertains any serious doubt of this.  The idea of God, as it exists amongst Christian peoples, bears on its brow the certain sign of victory.

In many respects, we are passing through the world in times which are not extraordinary, and among things little worthy of lasting record.  Still great events are being accomplished before our eyes.  The ancient East is shaken to its foundations.  The work of foreign missions is taken up again with fresh energy.  Ships, as they leave the shores of Europe, carry with them,—­together with those who travel for purposes of commerce, or from curiosity, or as soldiers,—­those new crusaders who exclaim:  God wills it! and are ready to march to their death in order to proclaim the God of life to nations plunged in darkness.  The advances of industry, the developments of commerce, the calculations of ambition, all conspire to diffuse spiritual light over the globe.  These are noble spectacles, revealing clearly the traces of a superior design, which the mighty of this world are accomplishing, even by the craft and violence of their policy:  they are the manifest instruments of a Will to which oftentimes they are insensible.  The knowledge of God is extending; and while it is extending, it is enriching itself with its own conquests.  Just as it absorbed the living sap of the doctrines of the Greeks, so it is