lifted up_, _and thou forget the_ LORD THY GOD,—_and thou say in thine heart_, _my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth_. _But thou shalt remember the_ LORD THY GOD, _for it is_ HE THAT GIVETH THEE POWER _to get wealth_. And it shall be if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that _ye shall surely perish_.” {107} Nor were they left in ignorance as to what would be the ministers of Divine vengeance; unfruitful seasons; and deadly pestilence; and foreign invasion, with its fearful attendants, the slaughter of the inhabitants, and the devastation of their land, were all declared to be instruments, in God’s hand, to punish His ungrateful and rebellious people. Nor did the fearful enumeration of judicial inflictions stop there; they were forewarned of lengthened sieges, of the most frightful extremity of famine, of long and weary captivity in distant lands. Still there was reserved for them,—if they would not know their day of visitation,—a heavier, a more lasting and more terrible punishment. “THE LORD _shall scatter thee among all people_, from the one end of the earth even unto the other.” “_And thou shalt become an astonishment_, _a proverb_, _and a by-word among all nations_, _whither the Lord shall lead thee_.” {108} The literal fulfilment of this prediction is matter of history;—nay, more, the accomplishment of the last and most terrible threat is matter of present experience; we have, unto this day, the Jews scattered amongst all people, distinct in religion, polity, and customs; unmingled with the population, unincorporated in the institutions of the nations amongst whom they sojourn: we see them a byword, a proverb, and an astonishment, in every land: and can it be that we do not discover in them a living memorial of the Divine government of the world, and of the Divine justice, which sooner or later overtakes every nation, which does not recognise God’s authority in all things, and study to obey His laws. The condition of the Jew speaks to the Christian the language of warning and admonition: “you possess privileges I once enjoyed: I forfeited them by trusting to my own right arm, by forsaking God, by not knowing the day of my visitation: take heed lest ye come into the same state of condemnation; for it is God who ruleth in Jacob, and unto the end of the world.”