that the oracles of God were committed to them. Rom.3:1,2. It is
not best to scorn the law of God because committed to the Hebrews. It is not
best to despise the new covenant, as Jewish, because, like the old covenant, it is
made with Israel. Nor is it best to reject Jesus as the Messiah because he comes
of that despised race; and, finally, it is not best to have some other god besides
the God of Israel. Our God, indeed, bears that title; because he was for long
ages worshiped by the Hebrews only, and by the Gentiles
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almost not at all. Yet that is not his fault, but ours. And so of all the sacred things
committed to the Israelites. They were not Jewish, or Hebraic, but divine. In fact,
we must have a part in these precious treasures which God gave to this people,
for their preservation through the long period of Gentile darkness. They are of
equal value to us, and we must share in them. "Salvation," said our Lord to the
woman of Samaria, "is of the Jews." John 4:22.
The opening work in the establishment of the new covenant must, at least, be
as early as the closing hours of the life of Christ. In the last memorable evening
of his life, as he was about to be betrayed into the hands of the Jewish rulers, our
Lord gave the cup, representing thereby his own blood, into the hands of his
disciples, saying as he did it: "This cup is the new testament [covenant] in my
blood, which is shed for you." Luke 22:20. Here is the first mention of the new
covenant by our Lord. It is evident that the shedding of his blood, and the pour
