All things are working together to bring in that day,
and my part in this blessed plan, though not at first
exactly according to my wishes, is, I beheve, appointed
me by God." " Ask of me, and I will give thee the
heathen for thine inheritance " ; so runs the New



276 THE REDEMPTION OF THE LAND

Covenant. But the Church must sign the deed with
tears and blood, before she enters on possession.
There is another application of this incident which
brings it still nearer home to our hearts. The reader
himself may have had occasion to make his first
purchase of land, under circumstances not whoUy dis-
similar from the prophet's. We have stood by many as
they signed the deed, and laid some dear one in his
quiet resting-place. We have hallowed the spot with
our prayers and tears. Why all this reverence for the
dead ? Why these plots railed o&, and kept with
such care, like the fields at Anathoth — God's Acre at
our city gates ? It is because in a world where Death
reigns, we believe in Life, and look to see its conquest.
It is because Christ lives, and we believe in Him.
" O grave, where is thy victory, O Death, where is
thy sting ? "



THE REORGANIZATION OF THE NATIONAL
LIFE

Chapter XXXIII

FOLLOWING on the Re-union of the Tribes,
the Renewal of the Covenant, and the Restora-
tion of the land, comes the Reorganization of the
national life. The treatment is looser than elsewhere
in the great section ; ^ and the prophetic element is
reduced almost to zero.
Verses 4-9 are probably based on the Memorabilia
of Baruch, and are thus at least indirectly prophetic.
