GOD’S LOVE TO ISRAEL.

Jerusalem! Jerusalem! I’ve set my love on thee; O! foolish and ungrateful! to wander thus from me. How kindly would I gather thee beneath my shelt’ring wings! Jerusalem! thou knowest not whence all thy safety springs. O! well do I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth; The love of thine espousals, thy faithfulness and truth; When thou thy Lord didst follow in a land that was not sown, In a bleak and howling wilderness—unpeopled, dark, and lone. I led thee through the desert, and through a land of drought, And from Egyptian bondage I brought thee safely out; I placed thee in a fertile land, where milk and honey flow; And now thou lovest strangers, and after them wilt go. Jerusalem! Jerusalem! my bowels yearn for thee; For cisterns, broken cisterns, thou hast forsaken me! I am the living fountain, whose waters gently flow; How couldst thou ever leave me, so far astray to go? O! when wilt thou return again? my arms are open’d wide; Return, backsliding Israel, to thine almighty Guide! I’ll lead thee to the pastures green, and to the waters clear;— Jerusalem! Jerusalem! the friendly warning hear!