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Title: The Lost Ten Tribes, and 1882
Author: Wild, Joseph, 1834-
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Lost Ten Tribes, and 1882" ***
Transcribed from the 1880 Robert Banks edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org
LONDON: PRINTED BY
ROBERT BANKS, RACQUET COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.
[Picture: Book cover]
THE
LOST TEN TRIBES,
AND
1882.
BY
REV. JOSEPH WILD, D.D.,
PASTOR OF UNION CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH,
BROOKLYN, N.Y.
LONDON:
ROBERT BANKS, RACQUET COURT, FLEET STREET. E.C.
1880.
[Picture: Great seal of the United States]
This device of the great Seal was adopted by act of the Continental
Congress, on June 20th, 1782, and re-adopted by the New Congress,
September 15th, 1789. The act provided for an _obverse_ and a _reverse_,
as set forth in this plate; the _reverse_ is not used. This is a plate
of the first and original Seal, which, by use, has been worn out. The
one now in use is the second; it differs from the first that, by an
accident, seven arrows were left out of the eagle’s talon.
_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_.
Price 2s., post free 2s. 3d.,
THE FUTURE OF ISRAEL
AND JUDAH.
WITH A PORTRAIT OF DR. WILD.
PHILO-ISRAEL says:—“We recommend most strongly that all our friends
should obtain the book. Once in their hands, we know they will read it
to the end.”
LONDON: ROBERT BANKS, RACQUET COURT, FLEET STREET.
PREFACE.
The following Discourses are presented to the public in book form,
agreeable to the request of numerous friends. I have selected twenty
from one hundred and thirty which I have given to my own congregation
during the past three years. I have tried to have them lean one against
another, to the end that the argument might be continuous and somewhat
complete. The reader will remember, however, that the vast subject of
which they treat, cannot be fairly and completely presented in such a
volume as this. Also, it should be borne in mind that the language,
style, and structure, are sermonic. Pulpit literature, in these things,
is peculiar and distinctively characteristic.
When I first entered the ministry, I made up my mind that I would try and
thoroughly understand the Scriptures. I soon found that a large portion
was of a prophetic nature. I set to work according to the usual method,
but to my sorrow I soon discovered that the method and rules in general
use for Scripture exegesis, among what they called orthodox authors, were
very defective and unsatisfactory. The fact was forced upon me that the
true method, or key of interpretation, was not in use. I was always
persuaded that the Bible was a unit, and that the principles contained in
such a unit were beautifully related; and because of such a faith, I
wondered more and more as I grew older why we had not a better key of
interpretation. Men spiritualised at random, without any kind of rule,
except their own fancy. In this manner they expounded the material
history of the Old Testament. The whole arrangement was a Babel.
I had faintly discerned that the Scriptures made a distinction between
the House of Israel and the House of Judah, and that the prophecies
belonging to one could not, in fairness, be applied to the other; and
that some prophecies applied to both. It always seemed strange to me,
that the people which God said He had chosen for Himself, should not be
known. The Jews were always known, but where was “Israel, His
inheritance?” Again, I could see no point in the Lord swearing so
positively about David’s seed and throne lasting to the end of time.
Taking them in a typical sense, they were about the poorest types that
could have been selected, because of the shortness of their existence,
according to the general mode of interpretation. Just at this point of
my experience I came across a book, entitled “Our Israelitish Origin,” by
the late John Wilson, the reading of which confirmed me in my
convictions, and aided me to a better knowledge of the good Book of
Providence.
After some twenty years of experience, I began to teach the principles of
interpretation embodied in these discourses. Some three years ago I
began to give a series of sermons on the Ten Lost Tribes. I soon found
my own congregation, as well as the public, were interested and profited
with the same, as was manifest from the large and constant attendance
thereon. By personal interviews and letters, I have been gratified to
learn that many have been savingly and truly converted to God through
these Discourses. Especially has this been the case with those who were
infidel in faith and action towards God and His Word. I have received
hundreds of letters thanking me that the key of interpretation presented
had made the Bible an interesting and easily understood book. The
interest created gave rise to numerous requests for copies of my sermons.
The notice by the public press now and again intensified the interest and
increased the demand. To meet this desire I made arrangements with the
editor and proprietor of a weekly paper called the _Champion_ to publish
my evening Discourses. At once the arrangement was found to be
profitable to him, agreeable to me and admirably suited to the public.
So for more than a year the _Champion_ has been my faithful messenger on
this line, and will continue to be. It is a weekly paper, published at
132, Nassau Street, New York; price one dollar per year. I am not
personally interested more than this. With its politics and other matter
I have nothing to do; but for the sermonic matter I hold myself
responsible. I feel free to express my pleasure in the wonderful
increase of its circulation. I am glad it goes all over the States, the
Dominion of Canada, and is in goodly demand in Great Britain.
After I had been preaching on this subject for some time, I made,
fortunately, the acquaintance of a name-sake of mine, Mr. Joseph Wild, of
Bay Ridge, near Brooklyn. On this subject I found him remarkably well
posted. He had lots of books, pamphlets, papers, and maps on the matter,
any or all of which he gave me liberty to use. Through him my attention
was called to the valuable writings of our English brethren on this
point, Edward Hine, Rev. Mr. Glover, M.A., Rev. Mr. Grimaldi, M.A.,
Philo-Israel, and a host of others, whose writings have helped me very
much. Our English friends have now a vast store of this kind of
literature; while, so far as I know, we have no home production. This is
one reason I feel satisfied in sending forth this volume.
For years I have been greatly interested in Pyramidology, in the
teachings of the Great Pyramid at Gizeh in Egypt. Twenty years ago I had
confidence to lecture frequently on the subject, and a few years since it
was in my mind to publish a small work on it. The necessity of such work
was wisely and competently taken out of my hands, however, by the
appearance of a book entitled, “The Stone Miracle,” by Rev. Dr. Seiss, of
Philadelphia. This is a book admirably suited to beginners on this line
of study. And if one wants to go further and be specially informed on
Pyramidology, why let them get “Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid,” a
work by Professor Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer-Royal of Scotland. To this
man God has given a fine mind and a large heart for a special place and
work. But what pleases me above all, is that this Pyramid, being the
_Lord’s Pillar_, and _His Witness_, should so finely tally with the
Scriptures and Providence; that the teachings of this monument are in
harmony with the principles of interpretation, as applied to the
prophecies in these Discourses.
By several small engravings I have sought to aid the mind of the reader
through the eye. In the Royal Arms of England there is considerable of
history; the position of the lions, unicorn, crown, and indeed all
connected with it is significantly expressive. In these things, the
accidental grouping, so far as man was concerned, were as much under
Divine supervision as the blundering of the Jews in the crucifying of
Jesus. So, Divinely considered, they Divinely reveal. We know not the
mind of our fathers in the matter of selecting and composing the items
that make up the great seal, but we know the mind of Providence.
The plate of the ragged old stone, called Jacob’s pillow, is not very
distinct, but it is the best we could do. As it is, it will aid the
reader in forming a better idea. The stone in shape is an oblong square,
about 32 inches long, 13 broad, and 11 inches deep. At each end is an
iron ring, much worn and rusted. It is a bluish steel-like colour, mixed
with some veins of red. It has been in its present resting place 583
years.
The main idea I wish to convey in this book, is that God is conducting
His Providence through His ancient chosen people, Israel, whom I believe
are found in the Saxon race. And His throne on earth, through which flow
the purposes of Providence, is David’s throne, which I believe to be at
present the English throne. Queen Victoria (and God bless her) I believe
to be of David’s seed. The United States fulfils the _rôle_ of the Tribe
of Manasseh. Therefore, to understand the prophecies, Providence, and
the present movement of nations, as well as the future lot and destiny of
each, we must read the Scriptures in this light. God has made the
children of Israel and throne of David His executive, in time, on earth.
They are His executive for civilisation, evangelisation, order, and
conquest. Through them God will conquer the world to an universal peace.
As Moses was to God, so is Israel. Moses being a Divine executor, was to
the people a god—so is Israel to all mankind. Spiritual Israel will come
through literal Israel.
I have expressed myself freely, and shall cheerfully grant reviewers,
critics, and readers, the same privilege. I send forth this book with a
pure desire that it may do good. Amen, so mote it be.
JOSEPH WILD.
Brooklyn, May 1st, 1879.
KEY DISTINCTIONS.
DISCOURSE I.
“We have a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye
take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the
day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts. Knowing this first,
that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private
interpretation.”—2 Peter i. 19, 20.
I am about to give you a few Discourses on Prophecy, and in doing so I
desire, in the first place, to point out to you a few very important
distinctions included in the prophecies. Suppose the Bible to be a great
palace, with its royalty, royal children, servants, and subjects. You
desire to go through it and view it intelligently, and to understand all
about its inhabitants and laws of government; now to do so, you must have
keys, and you must learn who is who, their place, authority, and work.
If not so qualified, you could not pass from room to room, and you might
confound the King with some servant, and visitors might be mistaken for
the children of the household. Thus your ideas would be considerably
mixed; you would be guilty of talking about the King, when you really
meant some servant, and of prophesying for the royal children in the name
of the visitors. The years would come and go, but events would not
happen as you had prophesied. Each generation would take your report and
follow in your footsteps, thus confusion and disappointment would keep
pace with the passing generations.
What is here made a matter of supposition, has been a solemn fact on the
line of human experience. Men have studied the Bible and Providence in
this ignorant and confused way. Theologians have thrown aside all
restraints, and well-defined limitations and distinctions of the Bible in
their assumed liberty of expounding and spiritualising the same. No
matter to them that there is a God-revealed distinction between Judah and
Israel, Manasseh and Ephraim, Samaritans and Gentiles, and the throne of
David and the throne of the heathen. Writers and speakers are guilty of
using the words Judah and Israel in a synonymous sense, though the words
stand for different people, history, and prophecies, soon after the
descendants of Jacob settled in Palestine. To aid you in seeing this
historical confusion and folly, let me call your attention to them
separately.
JUDAH.
What does this word stand for in the Bible? In the _first_ place it is
the name of the fourth son of Jacob. In the _second_ place it was the
name of his direct descendants or Tribe. In the _third_ place it became
the name of the portion of the country occupied by this Tribe in the
Promised Land. In the _fourth_ place it became the name of a kingdom and
government; this fourth name included the Tribe of Benjamin and their
territory. In the _fifth_ place it became the name of the whole country
of Palestine, and is now often so used. To-day this word stands for
those we call Jews, who, as they allow among themselves, represent and
only include Judah and Levi.
On the death of Solomon the country and Tribes finally separated into two
Houses, kingdoms, and governments. Nine Tribes went with Jeroboam, and
three with Rehoboam—namely, Judah, Levi, and Benjamin. The nine-tribed
House was called Israel, the three-tribed House Judah. This separation
was about 975 B.C. (1 Kings xii.). From that day to this these two
Houses have never been united; but they are to be, as scores of
statements to that effect are in the good Book (Hosea i. 11). About 580
B.C. the House of Judah was taken captive into Babylon, remaining 70
years, then they returned to their own land and remained till the year of
our Lord 70, when Jerusalem was destroyed and they were scattered.
Prophecies referring to the Jews are numerous and in striking contrast to
those that refer to Israel. 1. The Jews were to be a scattered people.
2. A specially persecuted people. 3. To be without a nationality. 4. To
be without government. 5. Not to be owners of landed property, though
they will have money, until toward the latter days. 6. They were to be a
proverb. 7. They were to be few in number. 8. They are to retain a
special type of features. 9. They were to be repeatedly robbed. 10.
They were to reject Christ. 11. To retain the Mosaic service till
returned to their own land. 12. They are to keep their name, and many
such distinctions, none of which should be applied to Israel. All these
things have been and are fulfilled, or fulfilling, and though men are
wonderfully given to spiritualising, few, if any, venture to spiritualise
Judah’s curses. Men and ministers calling themselves Gentiles, are rude
enough to spiritualise the blessings of Judah, and stealing them, apply
them to themselves.
ISRAEL.
1. A name given to Jacob after wrestling with the Angel. 2. A term
applied sometimes to all the descendants of Jacob. 3. In a spiritual
sense, those who believe in Christ. 4. A name that covered and included
the nine Tribes which went with Jeroboam and formed the kingdom of
Israel. They remained a distinct kingdom, and till now a nationality.
From 975 to 725 B.C. they had some 19 kings. They were finally carried
captive into Assyria by Shalmanezer (2 Kings xvii.). From that captivity
they have never returned; as a body they never can, only representatives,
as stated in Jer. iii. 14, “One of a city, and two of a family.”
Now prophecy points out that it was Israel that was to be lost for a
while, and come to light in the latter day. They are known in the
Scriptures in contradistinction from others by such terms as the
following: “_All Israel_,” “_All the House of Israel wholly_,” “_The
House of Israel_,” “_Men of Israel_,” and God calls them His “_Servants_,
_Witnesses_, _Chosen People_, _Inheritance_, and _Seed_.” The lot,
course, and providential portion of this people are very marked from any
other, especially from the Jew, with whom they are so often confounded.
The history of the two peoples have been wide apart and as different as
they well could be.
1. They were to be _lost_. 2. They were to be _divorced_ from the
Mosaic law. 3. They were to lose their _name_. 4. They were to lose
their _language_. 5. They were to _possess_ the isles of the sea, coasts
of the earth, waste and desolate places, to inherit the portion of the
Gentiles, their seed, land, and cities. 6. They are to be great and
successful _colonisers_. 7. Before them other people are to _die out_.
8. They are to be a _head_ nation. 9. To be a _company_ of nations. 10.
To be _great_ in war on land or sea. 11. To be _lenders_ of money. 12.
To have a _monarchy_. 13. To be _keepers_ of the Sabbath. 14. To have
David’s _throne_ and seed ruling over them. 15. They are to _possess_
Palestine, and invite their brethren of Judah to return. And thus I
might repeat some sixty positive marks and distinctions setting forth
Israel; and yet men wilfully persist in confounding them with the Jews,
or looking for this great and favoured people of the Lord among the
lowest of human kind, Indians, Africans, and so on.
SAMARITANS.
The Samaritans were not Jews or Israelites, strictly speaking. They of
course became Jewish in their customs and worship. Originally they were
Assyrians. When the nine Tribes were carried captive, they were brought
and put in their place. “And the King of Assyria brought men from
Babylon and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from
Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria, instead of the
children of Israel” (2 Kings xvii. 24). The Jews and the Samaritans
never wholly mixed; one was always distasteful to the other. They never
were taken captive, and to this day they live in and about Mount Scychar,
numbering between three and four hundreds.
BENJAMIN.
The Tribe of Benjamin has a singular and special place in the history of
Israel and Judah. Neither the Old or New Testament can be well
understood unless one understands the place of this Tribe in Providence.
They were always counted one of the Ten Tribes, and reckoned with them in
the prophetic visions. They were only loaned to Judah about 800 years.
Read 1 Kings xi. They were to be a light for David in Jerusalem. God,
foreseeing that the Jews would reject Christ, kept back this one Tribe to
be in readiness to receive Him, and so they did. At the destruction of
Jerusalem they escaped, and after centuries of wanderings turn up as the
proud and haughty Normans. Finally they unite with the other Tribes
under William the Conqueror. A proper insight into the work and mission
of Benjamin will greatly aid one in interpreting the New Testament. He
was set apart as a missionary Tribe, and at once set to work to spread
the Gospel of Jesus. Most of the disciples were Benjaminites. Then,
after 800 years of fellowship with Judah, they were cut loose and sent
after their brethren of the House of Israel. It was needful that the
Lion and the Unicorn should unite.
MANASSEH AND EPHRAIM.
The history of these two representative characters is worth your careful
study. The whole of the circumstances of Jacob blessing them must be
accepted as Divinely directed. Manasseh was to be a great people, and so
I believe he is. In the United States I find this promise literally
fulfilled. This is the Key to the settlement of this land; to the
agitations of the Pilgrims and Puritans in England. The mission, work,
and place of the United States may be found in the prophecies relating to
this Tribe. Let anyone examine the great seal of the United States, and
study its design, and surprise will fill the mind that facts, Providence,
and prophecies do so wonderfully agree. Take the obverse side. Here you
have an eagle with outstretched wings; the bird is perfect, not double
headed and deformed, as in other cases where the eagle has been or is the
national bird. The striped escutcheon on its breast, in its beak a
scroll, inscribed with a motto, “_E pluribus Unum_”—one out of many, as
Manasseh was, and as the country is building up a grand nationality and
oneness out of all nations nearly. Over the head of the eagle there is a
_glory_—the parting of clouds by light; in the opening appear 13 stars,
forming a constellation argent, on an azure field. In the dexter or
right talon is an olive branch, a symbol of peace; in the sinister or
left talon is a bundle of 13 arrows. But it is on the reverse side of
the great seal that we have a wonder. Here we have an unfinished
Pyramid; a portion of the top is gone, exactly the same as the Great
Pyramid in Egypt is at this day—anticipating this very day (Isa. xix.
19): “In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord. And it shall be
for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of
Egypt.” Now it is somewhat singular that the Congress of 1782 should
have adopted so remarkable a sign, one that would witness to God and tell
of their origin. The reverse side is the under side, and shows from
whence the nation came, and on what it is built. In the zenith—that is,
above the top of the Pyramid—is a triangle surrounded by a glory; and in
the centre is an all-seeing eye. Over the eye we have _Annuit Cœptis_,
which means, “_He prospers our beginning_.” On the base of the Pyramid
we have in letters, 1776, and underneath the following motto—“_Novus ordo
seclorum_,” meaning a “New era in the ages.” The suggestion of the items
upon the great seal was from Sir John Prestwich, Bart., an Englishman.
He gave the suggestions to the American Minister, John Adams, and thus
the same were conveyed to Congress and adopted.
We have in the facts of the great seal a series of coincidents that
connect this country with the Tribe of Manasseh. When the Tribes
marched, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh went together on the West side
of the ark, for their homes were Westward. On their battalion banner was
the figure of a youth, denoting activity, with the motto, “The cloud of
Jehovah rest on them, even when they go forth out of the camp.” Here we
have the origin of the cloud on the seal. And when we remember that
Manasseh was brought up at the foot of the Pyramid, and could see it from
his palace home at Memphis, then we get a cue to the figure of the
Pyramid on the seal. {23}
PYRAMID.
The Pyramid is a wonderful witness for God and His people. This building
in Egypt has stood for 4,000 years; finished and complete, it stood for
about 3,000 before anybody ventured to find a way into it. Then, at a
great cost of men, money, and time, a way was forced in by an Arab chief.
There surely is something remarkable that the only thing found in it
should be a stone trough, and more singular to my mind, that the Ark of
the Covenant and this stone trough should be of equal capacity; and the
laver in which the priest washed his feet in the temple was exactly of
the same size. And Solomon’s molten sea contained just as much water as
would fill the King’s Chamber in which this trough was found. Can any
man know these things and believe them to be accidental? Verily not.
They do most assuredly pledge a God and Providence.
EPHRAIM.
This word is not only the name of Joseph’s son and the Tribe, but it is
used quite frequently in a generic sense, and stands for the Ten Tribes
and Manasseh. To Reuben by birthright was the lead politically, but it
was taken from him and given to Joseph, and so to Ephraim. From Judah
came the Chief Ruler—that is, Christ; but the birthright was Joseph’s (1
Chron. v. 1).
THRONE OF DAVID.
To this throne God pledged under oath a perpetuity. Also He pledged that
some one of David’s seed should always be on it. The throne and seed are
pledged an unconditional existence. This being so, it follows that they
must be now in existence, and that finally all thrones will be swallowed
up by this one. Queen Victoria is of David, and the English throne is
David’s. Hence all the promises and prophecies referring to David’s
throne may be found on this line. For prophecy not being of private
interpretation such facts may be proven.
GENTILES.
The word Gentile generally embraces all those nations and people outside
of the Twelve Tribes. Keeping these few distinctions in mind, you will
be enabled to read the Bible interestingly and with the proper
understanding. Prophetic evidence is a strong kind of proof. Study the
Word on this line and you will find Providence and history lending
glorious confirmation to the same.
ISRAEL AND THE GATES.
DISCOURSE II.
ISRAEL—HOW THE GATES OF HIS ENEMIES ARE TO BE GIVEN HIM—BY THIS SIGN LOST
ISRAEL MAY BE KNOWN—THE GIVING WILL CORRESPOND TO THE MULTIPLYING—THE
PROMISE, IN THIS DAY, IS RAPIDLY FULFILLING—ENGLAND, DISRAELI AND
“TANCRED,” AND RUSSIA.
“That in blessing I will bless thee; and in multiplying, I will
multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is
upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his
enemies.”—Gen. xxii. 17.
Under a Divine oath was this prophetic promise made to Abraham. At the
time it was given Abraham had, by command, offered his only son Isaac,
which offering, to all human appearance, would leave the old patriarch
again childless; but his faith staggered not, for human incompetence does
not circumscribe the bounds of Divine sufficience. The God who commanded
Abraham to offer, recalled the command at a certain stage of the
fulfilment, counting the faith of Abraham for righteousness. In
Abraham’s faith Isaac was really sacrificed; hence the Divine approval:
“By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord; for because thou hast done this
thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I
will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars
of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed
shall possess the gate of his enemies.” An oath with men in this day
does not mean much in the way of confirmation, but not so with God’s
oath. An oath ought to be sacred, and should be the end of doubt and
strife. God made a promise to Abraham, and because He could swear by no
greater, He sware by Himself. And Abraham lived to see the promise begin
to fulfil, and to-day the heirs of Abraham may look and see the same
promise fulfilling, for, as Paul says in Heb. vi. 17: “Wherein God,
willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the
immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath.”
Who are the heirs of promise? For to them belong many and precious
promises, both spiritual and temporal. Spiritually, they are to lead and
be responsible for the evangelisation of the world. Temporally, they are
to be a numerous seed, a powerful people. They are to occupy the ends of
the earth, the uttermost parts of the earth, the coasts of the earth, the
waste and the desolate places of the earth, the isles of the sea, the
heathen, as an inheritance. They are to inherit the Gentiles, and make
the desolate cities to be inhabited; they are to be the chief of nations;
they are to be a company of nations; they are to be a great people; they
are to possess the gates of their enemies. Surely such a people should
be found, for all these things make it impossible for them to be hid in a
corner. One cannot help saying with the Psalmist: “Blessed is the nation
whose God is the Lord; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own
inheritance.”
In the English Court of Chancery are vast sums of money, large fortunes
waiting for heirs. The court frequently advertises for them, and many in
every land respond and are eager to prove their claims; they are anxious
to be known and accepted as the descendants and lawful heirs of certain
testators. It is oftentimes difficult to establish their claims and
prove satisfactorily their identity. The court demands that the
evidences of heirship be very definite. In this they are right. But we
venture to say that even the English Court of Chancery would not turn
away a claimant who had all the distinct marks and abounding evidence of
identity that mark and characterise the children of Abraham, especially
so in the latter day, for then these characteristics are to be clearer
and fuller.
The Jews are known; they have been known all down the centuries; they
have not been able to hide themselves. In keeping with the Word of God
they have fulfilled up to the present time the prophecies attaching to
them. In all the world they are estimated to number some nine millions.
The Jews include the children of Judah and Levi; these Two Tribes only.
The Jews themselves consent to this statement, and allow that the
descendants of Reuben, Simeon, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher,
Naphtali, Joseph, and Benjamin, are lost, but not extinct. They are in
the world, for God has not cast away His people for ever. If the Two
Tribes give us nine millions, how many should we expect the Ten Tribes to
furnish? Most certainly not less than forty-five millions. To the Ten
Tribes the special promises of fruitfulness were given. To the Ten
Tribes belong a greater portion of prophecy; and in the history of the
world more is allotted to Israel than to Judah. Indeed, the world’s
history pivots on the Ten Lost Tribes.
I believe you know the God-revealed distinction between the words Israel
and Judah. You know that they have a distinct history. Their place and
work, promises and blessings, chastisements and rebukes, are as distinct
and different as silver and gold.
The spiritual heirs of Abraham are all who are embraced in the saving and
atoning covenant of grace in Christ. I do not say all who believe, for
there will be more in heaven without faith than those with—namely, all
those who have died before the years of responsibility, with many of the
Pagan world who, never having heard of a Saviour, have therefore never
denied Him. In a spiritual sense, they are children. I believe in this
matter with Paul, who says, when writing to the Romans, chap. ii.: “There
is no respect of persons with God; for as many as have sinned without law
shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law
shall be judged by the law. For when the Gentiles, which have not the
law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the
law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in
their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts
the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing one another.” Thus, under the
law which governs the Pagan, I presume many will be saved and many lost,
just as under the law of the Gospel. In Abraham all nations were to be
blessed, spiritually. In this sense Abraham’s seed embraces persons of
every age, clime, and race.
But who are the seed of Abraham according to the flesh? We answer, the
descendants of the Twelve Tribes. Now to the natural seed the Bible
assigns a distinct work and place. This natural seed is divided in the
Bible, the word Israel standing generally for the Ten Tribes, and Judah
for Two Tribes. These divisions have separate paths appointed them to
walk in through the centuries. “All the House of Israel wholly,” “the
whole House of Israel,” “all the House of Israel,” have a special work.
The Ten Tribes are especially called in the Scriptures the seed of
Abraham. Sometimes “My chosen,” again “Mine inheritance,” and “My
servant.” God, in referring to them in their scattered state, and of His
gathering them together, says (Isa. xli. 8): “But thou, Israel, art My
servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen; the seed of Abraham My friend—thou
whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the
chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art My servant; I have chosen
thee and not cast thee away.” The Ten Tribes are sometimes designated by
the word Jacob. If we once get a clear idea who the seed are, then we
can search among the people of the earth to find them, because in the
latter day they were to be so different from other people, and distinctly
marked, we will have no great difficulty in finding them. Of the special
marks, one was they were to possess the gates of their enemies. The
multitudinous seed and other characteristics we will pass by for the
present.
This seed were to possess the gates of their enemies; of this we are
assured by the oath of God. The word gate here, you will admit, is used
in a generic sense. It means a place of prominence, a position of
strength, a strategetic point, as the entrance into a city. Remembering
that in olden times the cities were walled around, the gate was an
important point of defence; or, as the narrow entrance into a bay, like
the entrance into New York Bay or port, the Narrows we call them. Here
the cities of New York and Brooklyn could best and first be defended.
Again, a gate in the general vernacular means any stronghold: a tower, an
island, a mountain pass. Now, of this seed it is plainly stated that
they shall possess the gates of their enemies.
The text would be very finely illustrated if we supposed that Mexico held
Governor’s Island, in the middle of our bay, and defiantly dictated to us
doctrines of trade, politics, and religion. As arrogant and as impudent
as this would seem, yet such is the case with this seed of Abraham and
other nations. Believing that the Saxon race are the Ten Lost Tribes, it
then follows that the English nation is the chief representative of these
Tribes, and that they should be in possession of the gates of their
enemies. Are they? We answer, yes. And every year confirms and makes
more clear the answer. This you say is a theory. Grant it. You know
that in science a theory is formed and then applied. If you form a
theory about the tides or formation of the planets, or this world, your
theory with others is applied to known facts to see if it will fit them,
to see if it will account for them, and to see if it is in harmony with
the same. Now science accepts that theory which applies best, that which
accounts for facts the most reasonably, and harmonises the most
naturally. Such theory is then the science of the day, and will be so
accepted and so taught until it is supplanted by a better. Try, then,
the theory I have advanced by these rules.
Take the Islands of Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel, between
England and France, nearer to the French shore than England; the
inhabitants, being a majority of them French, speaking French. Yet when
France was England’s greatest and most dangerous enemy, England held
then, as now, the gates of her enemies. Properly speaking, and adjudged
by any human rule, they belong to France—as naturally as the island of
Heligoland, at the month of the Elbe, belongs to Germany. Gibraltar,
Malta, Cyprus, Suez Canal, Island of Perim in the Straits of Babelmandeb
in the Red Sea, and Socotra, in the same sea; also Aden in the Red Sea,
covering Arabia; Peshawur, the very entrance of or from India into
Afghanistan. In and around the vast empire of India you have Bombay,
Calcutta, Madras, with many similar strongholds; Rangoon, on the Irawady
river, commanding and even menacing Burmah. The vast empire of China is
carefully guarded and held in check by such gates as Singapore, Malacca,
Penang, Hong Kong and Cowloon. Sarawak in Borneo, and Labuan off the
coasts, are such gates. Africa is being gradually gobbled up; her
strongholds and vast areas of country are falling into the hands of
England; the coasts are fast coming under British rule. Recently England
has come into possession of three gates—namely, the island of Socotra,
near the Red Sea, the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean, and the
Sublime Porte, the lofty gateway, Constantinople. And it is now rumoured
that England is negotiating with Portugal for Delogoa Bay in
South-eastern Africa; price, three million dollars. But this people are
not satisfied with all these gates. They want—and they will get what
they want in a very short time, thank Heaven; not what they deserve!—they
want the famous Khyber Pass. This pass is a narrow road between mountain
rocks that rise over two thousand feet at the lowest point. It is some
twenty-eight miles long, while for twenty-two miles the average width is
only 150 feet. The Eastern end the English already hold, called the
Peshawur Pass.
Afghanistan is a country in Asia. It is about the size of England, 460
miles from North to South, and 430 from East to West. On the North it is
bounded by Turkestan, East by India, South by Beloochistan, and West by
Persia. The population numbers about 7,000,000. They are as wild as the
country is broken and irregular. They are chiefly agriculturists. The
country is rich in minerals and timber. In time past they have seldom
been at peace, being very generally at war among themselves. Afghan is a
Persian word, and means that which is wrapped around—no doubt having
reference to the mountain chain that hems in the whole land. The people
themselves, however, name their country Vilayet, which means the land of
our ancestors. They claim that in their country lived Adam and his
children, also Noah and his. They say they had in their possession once
the ark of the covenant, but they have lost it. While it was with them,
if they took it into battle, victory was sure to be theirs. At the
present time they have Noah’s ark. It is embedded in the ground, with a
portion protruding out, which pilgrims to the top of Dera Ismael
Khan—that is, the sacred mountain of Israel—are permitted to see and
touch. Many have supposed the Afghans to be the Ten Lost Tribes. It has
been the folly of many of the learned, in time past, to hunt for, and
actually expect to find, the chosen of God in some out-of-the-way place;
to find them few, poor, and deluded—the poorer, the fewer, and the more
wretched, the better. Hence, the wild Indians of the continent, the
bushmen of Africa, the aborigines of Australia, the Laplanders of the
North, and many such have been chosen of men—though not of God.
The Afghan country, no doubt, once had intercourse with Palestine.
During Solomon’s reign many Jews left the land as merchants. Solomon
built store cities in Hamath, Tadmor in the wilderness, and many others.
These store cities were on the great highway which he made through the
desert, so as to bring the trade of Dedan and Sheba to Jerusalem. That
Hebrew names are given to the mountains, places, rivers, and persons, no
one can deny; but such does not prove them to be the Lost Tribes—it shows
away back Jewish influence and intercourse. They do not speak the
Hebrew, but two languages called the Pukhtu and Pushtu. In either
language there are few, if any, traces of the Hebrew. No doubt the Lost
Tribes, after being scattered into Central Asia, when taken captive about
725 B.C., wandered, some of them into Afghan, and probably for a time
settled there, and gave names to the country. The Afghans themselves
went into the country from India, and as the Tribes moved Westward they
left the Afghans in possession.
The Afghan country comes now into great importance because it is on the
highway of the march of Israelitish civilisation and progress. England
wants it; and I predict she shall get it. Russia wants it, and at
present seems to have the upper hand; but Russia or England, or the
world, can avail nothing against the purposes of Jehovah. The gates are
promised to Israel, therefore she will get them. The English have
already an army of 35,000 men in the Peshawur Valley. Russia is
gathering a force, and ere long the two countries will be brought face to
face. The end of the whole muddle will be that England will take charge
of Afghan. Thirty-three years ago Disraeli wrote his novel called
“Tancred.” In this novel he makes the Queen of England the Empress of
India, and one of her favourite officers is made Earl Beaconsfield; so
far fancy has become fact. But in that same novel the future of the
present strife has been set forth. It has been very finely put by the
London _Spectator_:—
“There is a story going about, founded, we believe, on good authority,
that when some one quoted ‘Tancred,’ two or three months ago, in Lord
Beaconsfield’s presence, the Prime Minister remarked: ‘Ah! I perceive
you have been reading “Tancred.” That is a work to which I refer more
and more every year—not for amusement, but for instruction.’ And if
anyone will take the trouble just now to refresh his memory of ‘Tancred,’
he will see how much Lord Beaconsfield has borrowed from it in relation
to his policy. Turn, for instance, to this passage: ‘If I were an Arab
in race as well as in religion,’ said Tancred, ‘I would not pass my life
in schemes to govern mere mountain tribes.’ ‘I’ll tell you,’ said the
Emir, springing from his divan, and flinging the tube of his nargileh to
the other end of the tent, ‘the game is in our own hands if we have
energy. There is a combination which would entirely change the whole
face of the world and bring back empire to the East. Though you are not
the brother to the Queen of the English, you are, nevertheless, a great
English prince, and the Queen will listen to what you say, especially if
you talk to her as you talk to me, and say such fine things in such a
beautiful voice. Nobody ever opened my mind like you. You will
magnetise the Queen as you have magnetised me. Go back to England and
arrange this. You see, gloss over it as they may, one thing is clear, it
is finished with England . . . Let the Queen of the English collect a
great fleet, let her stow away all her treasure, bullion, plate, and
precious arms; be accompanied by all her court and chief people, and
transfer the seat of her empire from London to Delhi. There she will
find an immense empire ready-made, a first-rate army, and a large
revenue. In the meantime I will arrange with Mehemet Ali. He shall have
Bagdad and Mesopotamia, and pour the Bedouin cavalry into Persia. I will
take care of Syria and Asia Minor. The only way to manage the Afghans is
by Persia and by the Arabs. We will acknowledge the Empress of India as
our suzerain, and secure for her the Levantine coast. If she like, she
shall have Alexandria, as she now has Malta. It could be arranged. Your
Queen is young. She has an _avenir_. Aberdeen and Sir Robert Peel will
never give her this advice; their habits are formed. They are too old,
two _ruses_. But you see! the greatest empire that ever existed; besides
which she gets rid of the embarrassment of her chambers! and quite
practicable! For the only difficult part, the conquest of India, which
baffled Alexander, is all done.’ Who can avoid seeing that Lord
Beaconsfield has been quite recently referring to this passage—‘not,’ as
he said, ‘for amusement, but for instruction?’ These are all the ideas
of his recent policy in germ—especially the treatment of the British
Empire as having its centre of gravity in the far East—the use of the
Indian Army for conquest to be made in Western Asia—the acquisition of
the Levantine coast for Great Britain—the active alliance between the
British power and the Mohammedan power—and last, not least, the getting
rid, to a great extent at least, by the help of Indian leverage, of ‘the
embarrassment of the chambers.’ For the last eight months, at least,
English policy has evidently been borrowed from ‘Tancred.’ The monarch,
for anything we know, has been ‘magnetised.’ The Cabinet assuredly have.
Lord Derby and Lord Carnarvon have been treated much as the Emir in
‘Tancred’ would have treated ‘Aberdeen and Sir Robert Peel’—thrown aside
as two ‘ruses.’”
England has indeed adopted an Oriental policy, and forward she must go to
execute Jehovah’s purpose. Russia is preparing on a gigantic scale. In
Prussia the most flourishing branch of trade among the Germans at present
is the manufacturing of arms for Russia. Though the late war be over,
still Russia is buying ships, and fitting them out in this country. She
feels bitterly her defeat through English diplomacy: England taking
Cyprus, assuming protection over Asiatic Turkey, and making Russia yield
back to Turkey 30,700 geographical miles which was contained in the
original Treaty of San Stefano. The following from the Government organ
of Russia will give you some idea of her chagrin.
The St. Petersburg _Golos_ says that the Treaty of Berlin has produced an
almost crushing impression on the Russian public. “It is felt that
Russia has not attained her object; that she has been deceived by her
friends, and that she has foolishly helped her enemies with her victories
. . . What is the reason of our failure? One-half per cent. of our
population have perished in the war, hundreds of millions have been
expended, and yet the Eastern Question is not solved and the Treaty of
Berlin is merely a truce. The last war has clearly shown all our
national peculiarities as well as our moral and material strength . . .
All the military requirements which depended on the inbred qualities of
the Russian soldier were brilliantly carried out; but where knowledge and
preparation were demanded we were not equal to the task. It was probably
for this reason that we felt so much hurt on reading of the boldness of
Lord Beaconsfield, who doubtless reckoned on the superior culture of
Englishmen to that of Russians. All classes of Russian society are
responsible for this. We do not estimate culture and knowledge at their
true value. Most of us say that mental work does not bring money, and
that culture is a means of corruption . . . In Western Europe, on the
other hand, people have arrived by hard experience at the conviction that
intelligence, capacity, culture, and energy, bring men to the front, and
give them peace at home and power abroad. It is the knowledge of how to
make the best possible use of their energy and abilities that has enabled
the English to derive success from our victories and sacrifices. May
this be a lesson to us.”
But enough; one knows the end ere they begin, for the Word of God is
true. We do not argue that the English are so much smarter than other
people; no, but we account for their success because they are the
executive nation of Divine Providence. It falls to the lot of those who
do not believe this theory to account for their success without allowing
them to be smarter.
ISRAEL AND TERRITORY.
DISCOURSE III.
PROMISES TO ISRAEL—MATERIAL NATURE—LOCATION OF THE TRIBES IN CHRIST’S
DAY—GOD’S PROVIDENCE—BRITISH AND AMERICAN RULE—LIFE FROM THE
DEAD—TEACHING THE NATIONS PEACEFUL ARBITRATION—ENGLAND AND
RUSSIA—AFGHANISTAN FALLS TO ANGLO-ISRAEL—GOD’S POLITICAL
GEOGRAPHY—ANGLO-SAXON EVANGELISATION—RUSSIA OPPOSING IT—BRITISH AND
RUSSIAN OUTPOSTS IN CONTACT—WAIL OF JUDAH—EARTH’S GIRDLE.
“Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the
curtains of thine habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and
strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand
and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make
the desolate cities to be inhabited.”—Isa. liv. 2, 3.
In the writings of the prophets the feminine gender is often used when
speaking of the House of Israel, and the masculine when denoting the
House of Judah. Quite frequently Israel is spoken of as a divorced
woman, as being cast off, and as being barren. Judah remaining faithful
to the throne of David and the temple service, and abiding in the land
much longer than Israel, is presented as one married. So you will
understand Jeremiah iii. 8, when he says: “And I saw, when for all the
causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away,
and given her a bill of divorce.” Again, Isaiah l. 1: “Thus saith the
Lord, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement whom I have put
away?” Yet, though Israel was divorced, forsaken, cast off, and
desolate, she was to have more children than married Judah. So the verse
preceding the text says: “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break
forth into singing, and cry aloud thou that didst not travail with child;
for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the
married wife, saith the Lord.” Then come the words of the text bidding
her enlarge the place of her tent, or dwelling-place, to stretch forth
her curtains, so as to cover over the new-gotten habitations. To spare
not—that is, to be not tardy, or slow—in lengthening out her cords—that
is, her influence—and strengthen her stakes—that is, her authority; but
to break forth on every hand where there is an opening, and inherit the
seed of the Gentiles, and make the languishing and poverty-stricken
cities of the nations to be inhabited; in this conquest to go on and fear
not.
These exhortations are given, and promises are made to Israel after she
had left Palestine. No one can say truthfully that they have yet been
fulfilled in no degree or sense, unless they find such fulfilment in the
conquests of the Saxon race. These predictions cannot apply to the Jews,
for they are few, nationless, and without a government. Touching the
past history of both Judah and Israel in Palestine, we shall find it to
be barren of victories, territory, acquisition, and number, in comparison
to other nations. They have never occupied the land given to Abraham in
fulness. In Solomon’s time they bare rule only over a part of it. The
Gentiles and heathens have occupied it more and longer than the sons of
Abraham. But what failed to be accomplished in the past, is held grandly
in reserve for this day, the next few years. God will remember His
promise to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. He will remember it to
fulfil it, in spite of hell or earth.
We have been blind and guilty in the past, unconscious of our origin, and
as a natural consequence, ignorant of our place and special work. In
interpreting the Word of God we have been lavish in spiritualising, and
greedy in materialising, overlooking the fact that nine-tenths of the Old
Testament is a material history about one people, and that through them
God’s special providence was to flow to all other nations; and the New
Testament plants the life and prosperity of the Gentile world upon the
course and progress of Israel. God said to Abraham, “In thee shall all
the families of the earth be blessed:” and more, “and in thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Israel, being scattered and
cast off, became a blessing to the world. They gave to the surrounding
nations the only true idea of God, for in their lowest condition and
idolatry they preserved the name and knowledge of Jehovah, and Christ
sent His disciples after them through one of their own Tribe—namely,
Benjamin—telling them not to go into the way of the Gentiles, nor into
the cities of the Samaritans, “but go rather to the lost sheep of the
House of Israel.” To these sheep Christ declares He was sent. Where
were these sheep? They were scattered about in Central Asia—in
Scriptural language in Cappadocia, Galatia, Pamphylia, Lydia, Bithynia,
and round about Illyricum. From these very regions came the Saxons: from
here they spread abroad North and West, being the most Christian of any
people on the face of the earth then, as well as now. Their reception of
the Gospel gave them power over the surrounding nations, to whom they
were, as it had been foretold, witnesses for Jesus and providence in a
very special manner. What then, we say with Paul, will be the blessing
of Israel—recognized and fully restored to God’s favour? If so much good
was carried and bestowed upon the Gentile nations because Israel was
scattered, how much, and what are the blessings in store for those
nations when Israel and Judah be restored? Paul compares it to a
resurrection—like as when the barrenness and desolation of a Winter is
supplanted by the fruits and beauties of Summer. “If the casting away of
them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them
be, but life from the dead?” (Rom. xi. 15).
It is reasonable to suppose that this world is subject to the providence
of God. Such a supposition is grandly sustained by the laws and
operations of nature without, and the experience and intuitions of the
mind within; and I believe this providence to be all-comprehensive,
bounding, and cognising all things, past, present, and future, both small
and great; claiming the ages for its measure, the universe for the field
of its operations, and the Infinite as the source of power. “The Lord
Jehovah reigns, let the earth rejoice.” Let me persuade you to
thoroughly believe in the precision, the intimacy, and the completeness
of this providence. This doctrine we need to fully learn and accept.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and it is He
“who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out
heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure,
and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance.” Aye,
and more, yet closer still does this providence approach us in our
affairs. “By Him kings reign and princes decree judgment. He bringeth
the princes to nothing; He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.”
Even closer yet, for without His permission a sparrow cannot fall to the
ground; and so intimate is He with us, that He knoweth the number of the
hairs of the head. Now all this kind of Bible instruction is intended to
teach the nearness of God to us, and His interest and intimacy with
nations and nature. Let us not think for a moment that nations can rush
to war and be outside this circle of providence. Let us study to know
God’s mind, His plans and purposes with the nations; for rest satisfied
that His plan will finally be accepted by men and nations, and His
purposes will prevail. Kings may plan, diplomatists may diplomatise,
scientists may analyse, theologians may teach and preach their isms, and
politicians may make platforms and construct rings, yet none, nor all
combined, can stay the hand of God. “He doeth according to His will in
the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.” He can
initiate, permit, modify, and destroy. Once we truly recognise the
sovereignty of God over us, conceit will lie dead at the feet of
humility.
The Church at large has but a slender hold upon this great doctrine.
They look upon the great movement of wars and strife, rising and falling
of nations, as looks the country stranger upon a railway engine the first
time, the whirling wheels, the steam and smoke and burnished boiler rivet
his attention so completely, that he sees not the driver in his car. So
men are dazed with the show of pomp of courts and councils, with the
harangues of legislators and march of regiments, that they discern not
the master hand behind that directs all. “Verily, Thou art a God that
hidest Thyself.” No, no, friends; English bravery, nor American
ingenuity will not account for all that England has done on the line of
victories, and the marvellous and rapid growth of these United States.
As God said long ago through Moses, so He could say to-day—for heavenly
counsel was given to the children of Israel on entering the Promised
Land, with a design of suppressing their pride and enabling them to form
a correct idea of their success in driving the strong and greater nations
of Canaanites and Philistines—“Speak not thou in thine heart, after that
the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee saying: For my
righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land; but for
the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from before
thee. Not for thy righteousness, or the uprightness of thine heart, dost
thou go to possess the land, but for the wickedness of those nations the
Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, that He may perform
the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. Understand, therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this
good land to possess it for thy righteousness, for thou art a
stiff-necked people” (Deut. ix. 4).
By the same rule and for the very same reason that Israel conquered
Palestine, does England go on from conquest to conquest. And because God
remembered to perform His promises made to the patriarchs upon their
seed, America was opened for the Puritans, who are without doubt the
descendants and representatives of Manasseh, of whom God said “he should
be a people, a great people.”
The rule of England and America over other people, is to be as life from
the dead—that is, whatsoever country England conquers and rules, it is
better for the people, and the country, and the world. They give to the
people a liberty that they would not have given to themselves; they
develop the resources of the country as never before, and by trade and
commerce bless the people and cause them to be a blessing unto others.
And better still, they make known to the conquered ones, in due time, the
riches of faith in Christ. So we have no hesitation in saying, a thing
patent to every unprejudiced observer, that the aborigines of the
conquered colonies of Great Britain are treated better by their
conquerors than they ever treated themselves. The Africans, in the
conquered colonies of Africa, are better off under British rule than
those colonies or portions unconquered are. The hosts of India enjoy
more, fare better in every grace and virtue in all that goes to adorn and
develop mankind, under the British government and protection than they
ever did or would under self-government. So the French, Germans,
Italians, Russians, Spaniards, and the numerous progeny of emigrants to
this country, fare better in every way with Manasseh, than they did in
their own lands. Of course, both in England’s rule and America’s, there
are many defects; but taking all in all, the good will out-weigh the bad;
and more so as the years roll on.
True, an arbitrary purpose and an individualism is seen on the surface,
yet under it all there is the hand of God. The farmer is free as to what
he sows, but the Divine, without interfering with his freedom, regulates
the harvest to plenty or famine. The Saxon people, England and America,
stand in a new light to the world by the teachings of the Bible. Being
Israel or the Ten Lost Tribes, they become at once the chosen agents of
God for the glorious purpose of evangelising the whole world, and
finally, by reducing the whole earth to the plane of universal liberty
and peace.
It was necessary that these two nations should first be taught the art of
mediation, for the ends of peace; that they should learn and show to the
world that national disputes and grievances can be settled without an
appeal to the sword. Hence we have, and what is much better, the world
has, Geneva and Alabama and the fish bounty treaty of Canada and the
United States. Not all the press did on either side, nor all the carping
and blustering of individuals, could prevent the happy consummation of
both these treaties. To God be praise, for they are prophetic harbingers
of a better day coming.
No hand nor power, nor combination of powers, can stop the onward march
of Israel to her God-ordained goal. Her future is to spread on the right
hand and on the left. Island after island, colony after colony, will
fall into her hands for mutual benefit. Russia may contest this march,
and will, for she is as much the appointed agent of contest from Heaven
as England is to advance. In a few years she will try to take the place
of England among the nations, as she has just done in Afghan. Russia
promised, no doubt, that she would and could protect the Ameer against
England, but the bargain was outside of the aims of Providence, hence it
could not be sustained. It is ordained of Heaven that Afghan fall into
the hands of England, if England be Israel.
Against this fate-like division of the world Russia is going to contend
and fight whenever she gets a chance. It would pay Russia and many other
countries to read that “When the Most High divided to the nations their
inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the
people according to the children of Israel” (Deut. xxxii. 8). These
bounds God will maintain wherever they run; whatever country they cut in
two, no matter, the earth must finally conform to this Divine geography.
This purpose is strongly set forth by Isaiah xliv. 7: “And who, as I,
shall call and shall declare it, and set it in order for Me, since I
appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming and shall
come.” This same sturdy fact is taught by Paul when speaking to the
Athenians, telling them that God “hath made of one blood all nations of
men to dwell on the face of the earth, _and hath determined the times
before appointed_, _and the bounds of their habitations_.” National
destinies are not so much things of chance, or prizes for the sword, as
many think. God promised to David, when both Israel and Judah were
prosperously settled in Palestine under David’s reign, that He would
appoint a place for His people Israel, and plant them there, and they
should not be moved, neither should the wicked afflict them, as aforetime
(2 Sam. vii. 10.) This promise God has kept. He has given them the
British Isles, where none can afflict them, as they were wont to do when
Israel was scattered in Asia and Europe. God has found Manasseh a home
in this land of blessings and rich acres.
England, by a necessity, was forced to find new countries to provide for
her multiplying population. Then she is forced to enter other nations as
a missionary. She, with Manasseh, is chiefly responsible for the
evangelisation of the world, and of course they are at work all over the
world, for England and the United States send out more missionaries than
all the world beside. Russia needs no land for colonisation, for now her
inhabitants number only thirty-four to the square mile, while England
numbers 889. If we take in all the territory under Russia and England,
even then England has more to the square mile than Russia. Russia
comprises about 8,000,000 square miles, and England, with her late
additions, leaving out the United States, numbers about 9,000,000.
Joining Ephraim and Manasseh together, they own one-fourth of the whole
world—namely, about 13,000,000 square miles; the whole earth numbers
51,340,800 square miles. Besides, Russia is not a missionary country.
She neither sends any, nor accepts any, being at present the only nation
closed to missionary operation and toleration. The past few years Russia
has gained rapidly in territorial power. With the conquest of Bokhara
and portions of Turkestan, or Independent Tartary, she has added some
800,000 square miles.
At the beginning of the last century the Russian advance forts were 2,500
miles distant from those of England. At the close of the century the
distance was 2,000. Then in 1810 it was reduced to 1,000. And since
1855 it has been reduced to 400. And now, of course, they want it
reduced to nothing by getting control of Afghan.
How wonderfully clear are the fulfilling events of the prophecy. This
king of the North is to become a strong king, who, when Israel and Judah
are settled in Palestine, will have spirit and power to attack them. So
he is ripening, growing, and gathering power ready. Russia now comprises
nine crowns, eight of which are crowns of conquest. Russia’s one grand
desire is to possess Palestine, especially Jerusalem. The Crimean war
was waged for rights and extended privileges in this holy city. To-day
Russian pilgrims swarm thither by the thousands every year. A few years
ago she built outside the Jaffa gate what she called an hospice, which
was designed to be nothing more nor less than a fort. It is in a
position commanding the whole city, and is a place of great strength.
Often she has tried to possess the city and land. By-and-bye she will be
permitted by Providence to pour her troops into this “land of unwalled
villages,” and when having nearly achieved the ambitious plan of ages,
and nearly realised her one great national idea, she will perish, to rise
no more, “on the mountains of Israel.” Her history is set forth by
Ezekiel xxxviii. and xxxix. chapters.
Palestine and Jerusalem have borne undeniable evidence for prophecy and
Providence. The whole land and the Book have been wonderfully agreed
during the past eighteen centuries. How significant and telling the
wailings and lamentations of the devout Jews, who crowd under the walls
of the mosque of Omar, the site of the ancient temple. Here, each
returning Sabbath, groups of Jews may be heard dolefully crying: “_Ali
bene_, _Ali bene_; _bene bethka_; _bekarob_, _bimheira_, _bimheira_;
_beyamenue_, _bekarob_,” which, being interpreted, means, “Lord build,
Lord build; build Thy house speedily, in haste, in haste; even in our day
build Thy house speedily.” Yes, mourning brethren of Judah, the time is
coming when the house shall be built and the voice of wailing no more
heard in the streets.
Can any student or inquirer after the truth fail to see that in our day a
prophecy is being fulfilled? Can any one shut their eyes to the
wonderful fact that Israel is breaking forth on the left and on the
right? God has long ago said that Israel were the people of His
inheritance, and that Jacob was the lot of His inheritance, or His
girdle, or cord, as the word lot means. Then, if you turn your attention
to Great Britain and her colonies, including Manasseh, you will see this
girdle or measuring line around the earth. Let me aid you by pointing
the same out for you. Look at the Eastern hemisphere circle, enclosing
the Gentile nations. Begin with Great Britain; pass on to the Channel
Islands, Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, West Coast African Colonies, St.
Helena, Cape Colonies, Mauritius, Seychelles, Perim, Aden, Ceylon, India,
Burmah, Straits Settlements, Labuan, Australian Colonies, Hong Kong, and
the Dominion of Canada. In the Western hemisphere commence the circle
with Canada and United States, Fiji Islands, New Zealand, Falkland
Islands, British Guiana, British Honduras, West India Islands, and
Newfoundland. Do we not plainly see that Israel is possessing “the isles
of the sea,” “coasts of the earth,” “waste and desolate places?” These
things are not hid in a corner; they proclaim the intentions of God, an
over-ruling Providence; and who and where the Lost Tribes are. A miracle
and prophecy are fulfilling before our eyes.
ISRAEL AND POPULATION.
DISCOURSE IV.
PROPHETIC LATTER DAYS—OUR BEARINGS IN THE AGES—UNWISE IMPATIENCE—ISRAEL
TO BE ALWAYS A NATION—HER EMPIRE—HISTORIC CAREER OF AND FUTURE OF
ENGLAND, AMERICA, AND JUDAH—RELATIVE INCREASE OF POPULATION—THE INFIDEL
SAXON—JEWISH, BRITISH, AND AMERICAN INTERESTS ONE—A FULL END OF ALL
NATIONS BUT ISRAEL—FAMINE HENCEFORTH ONLY FOR THE HEATHEN—ARBITRATION TO
BE ENFORCED BY ISRAEL—AMERICAN ABSORBTION—STARTLING FIGURES OF FUTURE
POPULATION—THE BALANCE OF POWER.
“Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the
sea, which cannot be measured or numbered; and it shall come to pass
that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people,
there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living
God.”—Hosea i. 10.
A period of time is frequently referred to in the Scriptures as being the
“latter days.” It is, therefore, very important for the prophetic
student, and the Church of Christ at large, that the time of days spoken
of should be known. For connected with these days are a number of
prophecies waiting fulfilment, and they are of such a nature that their
fulfilment may easily be discerned. In breadth and scope they cover much
territory and include many people. They cannot be hid in a corner, for
the parts are so numerous and the interests so great. The fulfilment of
these prophecies will make a radical and fundamental change in Church and
State.
I take it for granted we are now entering into the time of the latter
days—a time that precedes by a natural consequence the millennium. It
is, therefore, unwise on the part of any person to claim that Christ may
come any day, and that His millennial reign may be begun at any moment.
It is but fair that we should carefully consider our bearings in the
circle of Providence and our position in the ages. The story and work of
redemption are grand, full of interest and thrilling incidents; still we
must take things in their order. Some stories we read are very
fascinating. The plot culminates, the characters and incidents converge
toward and centre in the hero. At such a point we are often carried away
with our sympathy for the hero; we become anxious for him, and desires to
know the issues, and so are tempted to skip a few pages and get at the
end unwisely and unlawfully. Thus I think many are carried away by a
loving desire for the millennium; they become anxious for the return of
the Hero of redemption; they skip a few pages of Providence, and come to
the end too soon.
These days are preparative, and in such a preparative stage we are
warranted to look for the fulfilment of certain prophecies; for
prophecies, indeed, of such a nature and character that no Bible student
need be mistaken as to the time, place, and conditions of fulfilment. We
have called your attention to one of these prophecies, and pointed out to
you how the same was literally fulfilling before the eyes of all. God,
in olden times, made promises to Abraham, the patriarchs, and their seed.
These promises were nothing more nor less than prophecies. He attested
the same by His own oath. He called to witness the sun, moon, stars,
sea, night, day, the seasons, seedtime and harvest. These He called His
ordinances. These ordinances may depart from before Him, but the seed of
Israel should not cease to be a nation. They were not only to be a
nation, but a company of nations. To this end, in the latter days, they
were to come in possession of the isles of the sea, the coasts of the
earth, waste and desolate places; to inherit the seed of the Gentiles,
and cause their desolate cities to be filled. They were to possess and
rule over the heathen. In the latter days they were to possess Edom and
Esau—that is, Turkey—and so come in possession of their own land,
Palestine. Now I call you to witness, and ask you if these things are
so? Before your eyes, before mine, before the eyes of all the world, God
is fulfilling His promises made to the fathers.
The very exceptions to the sweeping and comprehensive possessions of the
seed of Jacob are pyramidal witnesses to the same. The House of Judah
was to become homeless, without a nation and without a government, after
they left Palestine; but to be a people known by the race feature, and by
their unwavering adherence, attachment, and fidelity to the Mosaic
worship. This exception all can see, and none can truthfully deny. They
have had money and men enough to buy and rule a nation, but as yet they
have none. Their talent, their ability, and their money, have been the
chief factor in the rule, prosperity, and greatness of many nations in
the past as well as now. And the second conception is not less grand and
conclusive. Let any one inquire what was to be the portion of the Tribe
of Manasseh, and they will find that Manasseh was to be a distinct
people, a great people; for so said the dying patriarch Jacob. Now such
a people, a great people, we hold Manasseh to be at this day in the
people of the United States. Some sixty colonies England has overrun,
established, or conquered, and she is busy at work yet conquering and
gathering in. But is it not remarkable that she has never lost one of
the many save the United States? Will any one give an earthly reason for
this marvellous exception? I presume no one can. There is, however, a
Divine reason. Moses, when giving his prophetic benediction to the
Tribes of Israel, gives us an insight into this question. Speaking of
Joseph and the wonderful blessing in store for his sons Ephraim and
Manasseh, he says: “His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and
his horns are like the horns of unicorns; and with them he shall push the
people together to the ends of the earth; _and they are the ten thousands
of Ephraim_, _and they are the thousands of Manasseh_” (Deut, xxxiii.
17). And further light is thrown on this subject when we notice what
Isaiah says in the forty-ninth chapter. The children of Israel, when
settled in some Isles, would lose a portion of themselves, and still the
“children which thou shalt have _after thou hast lost the other_, shall
say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me, give place to me
that I may dwell.” The simple and natural interpretation of such a
passage is, that the Isles referred to were the British Isles. The
children lost refer to Manasseh, the Pilgrims, and Puritans who came from
England. And the cry for more room after they have left, shall lead
England to look for lands in which to colonise her surplus population,
all of which she has done and is doing.
Surely in these things there is something more than chance. Yes, there
is a divine purpose fulfilled. Seeing, then, that God will put the land
into Israel’s hand, there will run another blessing parallel with
this—namely, a peculiar increase of the seed, or children of Israel, so
that they may occupy and control these lands. These two prophecies are
to be fulfilling on a parallel line at the same time. Are they so
fulfilling? We answer, Yes; and the answer all the world may verify, for
the facts are of such a nature that if they are not so fulfilling it can
be very easily disproved.
The prophet tells us in the text that the children of Israel are to be
numerous—to be numerous in an extraordinary degree—so much so that it
shall appear partly miraculous when such increase is compared to other
people or judged by the common methods of reasoning. Hosea had three
children; the first a son. He called him Jezreel. This son was set for
a witness that God would cause to cease the House of Israel in
Palestine—that Israel should cease to be a nation for a time. This idea
Isaiah points out under the type of an abandoned wife. God styles
Himself the Husband of Israel, and that He had given the wife a bill of
divorcement. Thus the two prophets agree, and history ratifies both.
Hosea’s second child he calls Lo-Ruhamah. She was set for a witness that
God would take away His mercy from the House of Israel for a time, and
that God would utterly take them away out of the land. So He did; for a
few years after this we find the children of Israel were carried captive
into Assyria by Shalmaneser, and the Assyrians were brought and put in
their place. And from these Assyrians, who were planted in the cities
and country left by the children of Israel, we get the Samaritans, who
were, as you see, not Jews nor Israelites by generation—they were
manufactured Jews only. “And the Lord removed Israel out of His sight,
as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So was Israel carried
away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day” (2 Kings xvii. 23).
During this captivity, which is even in force till now, barren Israel,
the divorced one, was to have more children than the married one—namely,
Judah.
We find that the third child born to Hosea is called Lo-ammi, meaning,
“Ye are not My people.” This child pro-figured the casting out of the
Jews; that they would refuse to accept God in Christ, and He therefore
would reject them. Thus the Jews became wanderers from their own land.
And the land rests in desolation, enjoying her Sabbath of rest, while her
sons and daughters are being chastised and trained for their return.
The time will come when God will call Israel to Him, and have mercy upon
her, when the divorced one shall be restored to her husband. “And it
shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call Me Ishi, and
shalt call me no more Baali” (Hos. ii. 16). Now Ishi means husband, and
Baali stands for Lord. Saxons have been looked upon as being infidels by
the rest of the world. The Mohammedans and Buddhists never reckoned the
Saxons as being the sons of God; and Catholic Europe and Greek Russia
have looked upon England as infidel and heretical. And the Saxons
themselves never went so far in their knowledge as to know who they were,
their origin and work. But the prophet says: “It shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people, there it
shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.” And the
time will come when Lo-Ruhamah shall become Ru-hamah, which means to have
obtained mercy. And Lo-Ammi shall become Ammi, which means that this is
My people. And Jezreel, which was a sign of dispersion, shall be the
sign of gathering. “Then shall the children of Judah and the children of
Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they
shall come up out of the land; _for great shall be the day of Jezreel_.”
Then the Jews (Ammi) will call the Saxons their sister, long lost, but
found at last. The Saxons (Ru-hamah) will call the Jews their brother,
those whom in the past they have hated and persecuted; and thought
themselves far removed from Jewish blood. Now they both will acknowledge
a common generation, and Abraham their father. And one with his eyes
half open can see this part of the prophecy fulfilling. The Jews,
England, and United States, from this and henceforth, are one in
interest, policy, and destiny.
These being the latter days, let us look for the signs of the multiplying
of the seed so that they be as the sea sands God promised to Abraham,
saying: “That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will
multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is upon
the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies” (Gen.
xxii. 17). Old Jacob foretold that Joseph would be a fruitful bough,
whose branches would run over the wall—that is, colonise. This increase
is to be seen in two ways. Let me direct your attention to one of these
ways, in a special manner, because it is so singular and unique, so
distinct and discernable. In Jeremiah xxx. 10, 11, we find a remarkable
statement: “Fear not, O Israel, for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to
save thee. Though I make a full end of all nations whither I have
scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee; but I will
correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.”
That Israel has been punished and corrected no one will deny who is
acquainted with her history and sojourn from the time she was carried
captive to this day. But has the other part of the saying been
fulfilled? We answer, Yes—as the law of colonisation has progressed.
The Ancient Britons are no more; Saxon Israel has entirely supplanted
them, just as Manasseh in the United States is supplanting the aborigines
or Indians. They perish and disappear like snow before the rising sun.
Not all we can do on the line of legislation, philanthropy, and religion,
is sufficient to stay the ravages of this long-ago declared decree of
Heaven. Go to Canada, and you find they are perishing; in Newfoundland
they are entirely gone, and in every other province they are fast
disappearing, save such as are saved by incorporation, by marriage, and
salt stayed by the power of Christianity; but both these remedies are
only temporal—they perish in spite of all in the heated atmosphere of
Israel’s civilisation. Some few tribes may hold their own and seem to
increase, but such does not invalidate the evidence of the decree. For
they have perished in such numbers, and so uniformly, when in contact
with Israel, that history proclaims the decree fulfilled.
The native inhabitants of Van Dieman, called Tasmanians, have entirely
become extinct. The Maories of New Zealand are rapidly diminishing.
Fifty years ago they were 200,000 strong; now only about 50,000. In a
few more years they will be gone. The same is true in all the other
Australian provinces. The same is true of many isles of the sea, also of
the African colonies. In these things, so exceptional, we can surely
say, with the magicians of old who contended against Moses, “This is the
finger of God.” Thus we see Israel increasing, by the law of diminution
going on among the Gentiles. Israel in the latter day was to be blessed
with plenty in the orchards, stall, and field: “For I will lay no more
famine upon you, saith the Lord.” The past year we learn that some
10,000,000 of Chinese perished in famine. India, in one part, has been
greatly reduced in number by the same scourge. This country will be
partly protected from the operation of this law—for no doubt a large
portion are from Abraham. “But unto the sons of the concubines, which
Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son,
while he yet lived, Eastward, unto the East country” (Gen. xxv. 6). This
same scourge does not follow the colonising of other nations. It did not
follow Spain, nor the Dutch, nor France.
If you turn to the prophets, you will soon learn how they are to increase
in the latter days—not by a comparison on the line of diminution only,
but in and from themselves. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that
I will sow the House of Israel and the House of Judah with the seed of
man and beast” (Jer. xxxi. 27). Have these days come? We again say,
Yes; and these kind of prophecies are being fulfilled in this day in so
special a manner as to make certain the times we live in. Through
Israel, Judah, and Manasseh, the earth is to find the equilibrium of
peace. The Jews will furnish the money, for in the increasing
ascendancy, and multiplying power, and authority of England and America,
the Jews will draw closer to them and invest more and more their money
with them, because of greater security and profit. The balance of power
and even compulsion will be in the hands of England and America, to force
arbitration on disputing nations, and they will do so, having set the
precedents themselves in the Alabama and fish treaties. At present, many
will refuse this idea, and point to the famous Monroe doctrine. Now that
doctrine has had its time, nearly; and it has served a good purpose for
the country. The mercantile growth, and general producing power of this
country, will cause us to abandon our selfish protection policy; for of
all other people on the face of the earth we will want free trade; for we
will have the greatest surplus of mercantile and agricultural
productions, and in a short time our very position and ability will push
away all competitors. Once our mercantile and agricultural interests are
cast in other nations, we will then have an interest in their wars and
peace, and will be led to interfere.
The chief way in which the balance of power will fall into English and
American hands is in the fulfilling of the blessings of the text: the
multiplying of this people, first by natural increase, and second by
incorporation and absorption. Look at this law of absorption; how
vigorous and sure! If you turn into a field of grass fowls, pigs,
horses, and cows, you get chicken-meat, pork, horseflesh, and beef. The
individualism in each creature absorbs and converts the same field of
grass into themselves. So into this country are coming people of every
nation and race, but the individualism of Manasseh will in due time make
them all Manassehites. The children of the Russians, Poles, Spanish, and
so on, become American in taste, manners, and sympathies. They are being
grafted into the tree of Manasseh.
But look at the law of increase naturally. Take the population of
several countries as given in the last census, and carefully note the
relative increase, and how long it takes each nation to double its
number. Russia, eighty-six millions, doubles every 100 years; Germany,
forty-two millions, doubles every 100 years; Turkey, forty-seven
millions, doubles every 550 years; Austria, thirty-seven millions,
doubles every 100 years; France, thirty-six millions, doubles every 140
years; Great Britain, thirty-three millions, doubles every 55 years;
United States, forty millions, doubles every 25 years; Italy,
twenty-seven millions, doubles every 125 years; Egypt, seventeen
millions, doubles every 150 years; Spain, sixteen millions, doubles every
112 years; English colonies, ten millions, doubles every 25 years. Now
make a calculation for 100 years, from 1878 to 1978, and see how these
countries stand in population and their relative position. Russia will
have one hundred and seventy-two millions; Germany, eighty-four; Turkey,
fifty-six; Austria, seventy-four; France, fifty-nine; Great Britain, one
hundred and thirty-seven; Italy, forty-one; Egypt, twenty-nine; Spain,
twenty-eight; United States, six hundred and forty; and the English
colonies, one hundred and sixty—and that is not reckoning the natives in
the colonies, only the descendants of the English. Of course, in a
country like India, the natives will be a considerable number, and they
might properly be reckoned in with the colonial items, and so swell the
number of Israel’s power.
Now these figures show a wonderful conclusion. In simple language, we
find that in 1978, the English-speaking race, or Israelites, will number
937 millions, while all of Russia, Germany, Turkey, Austria, France,
Italy, Egypt, and Spain, will only number 543 millions. Where then, we
ask, will be the balance of power? And why should this certain law come
into operation at this time, if it be not the blessing foretold by the
prophets? And can we not see that these are the latter days, and that
God is fulfilling His promises to Israel?
The blood of Abraham and the faith of Abraham have been wonderfully
preserved and projected down through the centuries with telling effect.
And on this line the Darwinian theory of election is very true, for the
survival of the fittest is the proclaimed law of Heaven. There is power
in land possession and there is power in number, and if these two factors
maintain their force for one hundred years, then we infer of certainty
that the sceptre of rule and destiny of the world will be in the hands of
Israel, unless the laws of nature are reversed, and the promises of God
fail. The Word of God cannot fail or return unto Him void; it must
accomplish that whereunto He sent it and prosper in things designed, or
as Jeremiah xxiii. 20 says: “The anger of the Lord shall not return until
He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in
the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.”
ISRAEL AND LANGUAGE.
DISCOURSE V.
LATTER DAY PROPHETIC PROMISES—TIME OF ISRAEL’S REVIVAL—PYRAMID
TESTIMONY—BRITISH ISLAND POPULATION IN 1882—AFFINITY BETWEEN ENGLISH AND
HEBREW—CELL OF THE HONEYBEE—ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE—LION OF LANGUAGES—FOREIGN
TESTIMONY—ALL TONGUES INDIGENOUS BUT ENGLISH—THE PRE-MILLENNIAL TOKENS.
“For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may
all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one
consent.”—Zephaniah iii. 9.
In the last two discourses we called your attention to two prophecies
that are now fulfilling; they are on parallel lines of time and
territory. The first had reference to the rapid accumulation of the
lands of the earth by Israel. Accepting the Anglo-Saxons as being the
children and descendants of Jacob, it naturally follows that the
prophetic blessings and promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their
heirs, should find a fulfilment in these, the latter days, and that such
fulfilment should be found in the English nation, among the Jews, and in
the United States. It is easy to see and believe that the curses
prophetically pronounced on Judah and Israel have been fulfilled,
especially on the House of Judah. The promises to the House of Israel
are now being grandly realised. England is in possession of the isles of
the sea, the coasts of the earth, the waste and desolate places, the
heathen is her inheritance, and she is inheriting the seed of the
Gentiles, and causing their desolate cities to be inhabited. From the
taking of Jamaica, by General Penn, in 1655, to the peaceful cession of
Cyprus, the course of this little island nation has been onward and
upward. And if her conquests and progress are not amenable to prophecy,
for an interpretation, then the wonder is still greater. The facts are
with us, and must be accounted for some way. The second had reference to
the multitudinous seed of Israel in the latter days. Till two hundred
years ago the Anglo-Saxons were not in this respect distinct from other
races; indeed, for centuries they were distinct rather for their weakness
in multiplying power and number. Many other races have exceeded them in
this particular. But no sooner do we come abreast of the latter day time
than we find the laws of centuries changed. In thermal science it is an
axiom that heat expands all bodies, and of course that cold contracts
them. But to this general rule there is one beautiful and benevolent
exception: it is in water; for if we start with water at thirty-two
degrees, we find the remarkable phenomenon of cold expanding all below
thirty-two, and heat expanding all above. If we take water at 212
degrees and withdraw it from the heat, it will continue to contract till
we reach thirty-two; then the law is reversed, and the water expands.
Now the reversion of this law, at this particular point, is wonderfully
expressive of Divine forethought and benevolence. By such a change ice
is made to float in water, and so save our lakes, streams, and wells from
being frozen solid. As this exception is to thermal science, so is the
law of reproduction to Israel in this day. This people, who have been
behind other races, now, at an appointed time, step to the front. The
law seems to be reversed, and that too for a benevolent purpose—for the
very purpose that they might be able to fulfil the mission assigned them
in these last days, to occupy the new lands and evangelise the world.
One prophecy seems to call for the other, for what would be the use of
the lands without the people, or the people without the lands? It is an
amazing fact that Queen Victoria should bear rule over one-third of the
population of the whole earth, and that Israel, including Manasseh,
should own one-fourth of the land.
But this amazing fact is made reasonable when we accept the Queen as
being of the seed of David, and an heir to the promises attaching to
David’s throne, and when we accept the Anglo-Saxons as being the Ten Lost
Tribes of Israel. Then prophecy, Providence, and facts, are a
trinity—they are one sublime whole. God, speaking through Moses, said He
would punish to reform Israel for seven times—and seven times
prophetically understood, means 2,520 years. If we allow that Israel
were carried captive in the year 725 before Christ, then Israel would
come into freedom, or be reformed, about 1795; because if we add 725 to
1,795, we get 2,520. Up to this point they were to be robbed of their
children and to be few in number (see Lev. xxvi. 22). In the year 1795
Israel were to be relieved from these curses; and about this time this
special law of reproduction came into operation; or, if we take the
lamentations of Hosea vi. 1–3: “Come and let us return unto the Lord, for
He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us
up; after two days will He revive us; in the third day He will raise us
up, and we shall live in His sight. Then shall we know if we follow on
to know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning, and He
shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the
earth.” By this passage, our day and the special providences of this
period are mournfully and graphically referred to. Here a day stands for
a thousand years, “for a day with the Lord is as a thousand years;” so
that when two thousand years should have passed by, Ephraim, who stands
for Israel, was to be revived and blessed with fruitfulness sometime
during the third day, or thousand years. In ancient time a day was
counted when it had a majority—that is, when it had passed the half. The
prophet here says we were to be revived, or raised up, on the third day.
So, if you again take these three thousand-year days, you will find that
two of them are to be completely passed, and during the third we were to
be raised. The number we have given, 2,520, exactly meets the
interpretation—2,000 complete, and 520 make a majority for the third day
by the twenty over the half. These prophetic figures tally well with the
existing state of things. About the beginning of this century England
assumed to lead the world. It is a remarkable coincidence that, in the
last century, the question of how to multiply the population was a
subject of debate and legislation in the British Parliament. But what
legislation failed to do, God in His providence did at the appointed
time.
It is a curious fact, and well worth noticing, that the famous witness of
the Lord of hosts in Egypt, the Great Pyramid, forecasts what the number
of Israel and Judah would be in the year 1882. As Israel is symbolised
in the Grand Gallery, it is found that the cubic contents of the same, in
inches, is about 36,000,000; thus by some this is interpreted to mean
that inches stand for individuals, and if so, then England proper will
have this number in 1880. Whether this is a true interpretation or not,
we all know that these figures will be about right. The Queen’s Chamber
of the Pyramid symbolises the number and condition of the Jews.
From these two prophecies, so sublimely fulfilling, let me invite your
attention to another that is now maturing. It, too, is parallel with the
other two. We refer to the peculiar growth, power, and progress of the
English language. After Israel went into captivity, they were to lose
their language and take or form another. “For with stammering lips and
another tongue will He speak to this people” (Isa. xxviii. 11). We will
all agree that the English language is not the Hebrew; and if we are
Israelites, then indeed God is speaking to us in another tongue, for few
of us read His Word in Hebrew. It is read to the millions in the
English; hence the millions hear God speak to them in another tongue than
that of Hebrew. Between the English and Hebrew languages there is an
intimate relation, especially back a few years, before the English had
grown so much. The Hebrew was a very limited language; not numbering
more than 7,000 words. The English is now said to number about 80,000.
The most lavish writer does not use over 10,000; the common average is
about 3,000. In the English we have not less than 1,000 Hebrew roots.
This, comparing the languages a few years back, is a large percentage.
In names of persons and places the Hebrew is very prominent in England.
I take it for a fact that language is of Divine origin. Men have written
on the origin of language from every standpoint; the majority of them
trying to account for its existence without allowing so noble a source.
The first man, Adam, I believe, could talk as easily and naturally as he
could see, and hear, and taste. Speech was a part of his endowment.
There is nothing more wonderful in a man talking than a bird singing,
save that speech is a higher order of utterance. Dumb nature performs
marvels every day as mighty and wonderful as man’s talking. The
honey-bee builds its cells, ignorant of the fact that such construction
is the solution of a problem which had troubled men for centuries to
solve. At what point shall certain lines meet so as to give the most
room with the least material and have the greatest strength in the
building? This problem is said to have been worked out by a Mr.
McLaughland, a noted Scotch mathematician, who arrived at his conclusion
by laborious and careful fluxionary calculation. To his surprise, and to
the surprise of the world, such lines and such a building were found in
the common bee cell. Now I hold that the same Creator who gave to the
bee the mathematical instinct could endow man with the instinct of
speech. Even to animal instinct we find a certain variation and
permitted latitude in what is called adaptive instinct. So in man we
find this same instinct of adaptation in a higher sense. The instinct
comes into play when we suppose a number of persons separated from
others, each living in different quarters of the globe. In such a
condition, though of the same language when first separated, they would
not remain so long—that is, in the primitive state of society. Thus,
among the tribes of Africa, at this day, languages are widening and
varying from a once common centre. So Israel in captivity would lose the
Hebrew gradually. The language of the people among whom they settled was
the Sanskrit, from which a score of languages have come—the German,
French, and Italian, Saxon and others. The Saxon of to-day, compared
with the Saxon of 2,000 years ago, is very different; so much so that for
us to learn and speak it would be equal to learning a new language. Thus
the English language is a thing of growth. In the year 1362 the Saxon
was made the court language of England. From that time onward its growth
has been wonderful.
The prophetic outlines and Divine place of this language may be seen in
the germal foundations, which give unto it such vigour, tenacity, and
capabilities of expansion. All the features of this language go to show
that it is destined to be the medium of a world’s intercourse, and that
it very suitably belongs to Israel, in whose hand will be the destiny of
the world. It is the lion of languages. It will grow anywhere, and by
reason of its tenacity when once it gets a foothold it abides. It is
peculiarly suited to the humanities of every race, clime, and condition;
there is no limit to its expansive adaptability. It is in a special
manner voracious in the destruction of other languages; wherever it goes,
it sounds the death-knell of all the rest.
Soon as this language entered Britain, it began its work of destruction.
Before it has disappeared the real British, the Cymric or Welsh, Erse or
Irish, the Gaelic of Scotland, and the Manx of the Isle of Man. The
British Keltic is entirely gone; the rest are entirely local. Beside
these it ousted from the island the Norse, the Norman-French, and several
other tongues that tried to transplant themselves on English soil. It is
at work in every part of the globe, planting itself and displacing
others. A few years ago French was the language best suited for a
traveller on the Continent. But this has changed. Now the English is by
far superior. And why is it that the English is supplanting all others?
To answer such a question in a scientific way, one cannot do better than
quote from the great and learned German philologist, Prof. Grimm, of
Berlin. He says of it: “It has a thorough power of expression, such as
no other language ever possessed. It may truly be called a
world-language, for no other can compare with it in richness,
reasonableness, and solidity of texture.” But perhaps the most definite
and distinct testimony given by a foreigner touching the future ubiquity
of the Anglo-Saxon race and language, is that put forward by Provost
Paradol, a learned Frenchman. He says “that neither Russia nor united
Germany, supposing that they should attain the highest fortune, can
pretend to impede that current of things, nor prevent that solution,
relatively near at hand, of the long rivalry of European races for the
ultimate colonisation and domination of the universe. The world will not
be Russian, nor German, nor French, alas! nor Spanish.” He concludes
that it will be Anglo-Saxon.
A British poet has presented in poetry the special features of several of
the European languages, which we give:—
“Greek’s a harp we love to hear;
Latin is a trumpet clear;
Spanish like an organ swells;
Italian rings its bridal bells;
France, with many a frolic mien,
Tunes her sprightly violin;
Loud the German rolls his drum
When Russia’s clashing cymbals come;
But British sons may well rejoice,
For English is the human voice.”
There are eight languages in the bounds of Christian civilisation that
may be accounted powerful, because they are the tongues of vigorous
people; they are the English, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Italian,
Portuguese, and Scandinavian. But of these all are indigenous, except
the English, so that they die if transplanted. Look at this country and
behold what a cemetery it is for languages. Once the French had strong
hold and promised to abide here; but it is now nearly gone, even from the
state of Louisiana and Canada, the last places of retreat.
If we take note of the population according to these several languages,
we shall see the prophetic future of the English. It is spoken by about
ninety millions, Russian seventy-five, German fifty-six, French forty,
Spanish thirty-eight, Italian twenty-nine, Portuguese fourteen, and
Scandinavian nine. Within the control of the governments of these
languages we find England to have rule over 255,000,000 people, who do
not as yet speak English, and we find that the other seven have only
seventy-five millions outside of themselves. Here is an important
difference. If we look at them by territorial limits, leaving out
Russia, we find the English language to own 13,382,686 square miles,
Germany 449,684, French 571,578, Spanish 4,694,811, Italian 114,466,
Portuguese 4,028,311, and Scandinavian 1,308,830. The aggregate number
of square miles possessed by these six languages, is 11,167,620, which
altogether, you see, own 2,215,066 miles square less than the English.
The balance itself is more than Germany, France, and Spain put together.
The English language is divided only into two governments, but the other
six are divided into twenty-six, all of which governments are bitter one
toward the other; each trying to supplant one another, while England and
the United States are at peace, and will ever remain so. In one hundred
years from now the English language will be spoken by a thousand million
people. Thus we need no stretch of fancy to see that what the prophet
speaks of in the text will be accomplished in due time.
This language will soon be universal; by common consent it will become
the language of the world. All the changes going on among nations
forecast its ubiquity. China, by an imperial decree, has just added to
her language 700 English words. Her sons by the thousand are with us,
and by the thousand they are learning our mother tongue. The Japanese,
till a few years ago, carried on their foreign correspondence through the
Dutch, but now they have changed to the English. Besides, in the 50,000
schools in Japan English is being taught. If science has an answer for
this strange phenomenon, so have we. Ours is, that it is the will of
Heaven. Confusion of tongues came at Babel as a punishment. By this
means Heaven scattered the unwilling descendants of Noah. When Noah came
forth from the Ark, God bade him multiply and replenish the earth—that
is, fill it up. Babel, however, was built as a monument of
centralisation, for the builders gave as a reason for building it, “Lest
we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth.” By a confusion of
tongues they were scattered. Since then we have had some 1,500 distinct
languages, and some 3,500 colloquials, or say 5,000 different forms of
speech. At the present time 600 of the primary are dead, so that there
are about 900 languages now spoken on all the earth, with about 2,500
colloquials.
When these means have answered their end—namely, to make us occupy all
parts of the earth—then they will die out. It then follows that as the
world fills, languages must disappear. So they do. The English and
German were the last languages to come into existence. No new ones are
now being made. Alphabets are increasing, because missionaries are
reducing spoken languages among the heathen into a written form. The
Bible is translated into two hundred different tongues. This itself will
only lead the millions back to English. All ship papers are now made out
in English excepting the French, and no doubt they will soon have to
follow in the wake.
The day of Pentecost foreshowed the universality of some language.
Pentecost was a type, and the English is the antitype. The strangers
from Phrygia, Pamphylia, Libya, Pontus, and Cappadocia, mingled with the
Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Cretes, and Arabians. They all heard the
Gospel in their own tongue. The different tongues make a wall of
division, making them strangers one with another; but the Holy Ghost took
away this wall, and they were all face to face, able to understand one
another. The same power that here multiplied the gift of tongues—giving
to some several—surely could give to Adam one. Away with a faith that
cannot give God credit with being the Author of language.
No sooner do we see England in guardian possession of Syria than the idea
enters into the scheme of reform of extending the English language. The
Board of Directors of the Syrian Protestant College at Beyrout have shown
their appreciation of the new era of British influence by a recent vote,
which is to the effect that on January 1, 1879, all instruction in the
college shall be through the English language. The Arabic will only be
taught as any other dead language. This remarkable action shows that
British influence in Syria is hereafter to be more than simply
diplomatic; it is to be an all-pervading and controlling power, affecting
every interest of Society. Truly another Pentecostal day is drawing
nigh—a day when all the world shall hear the Gospel in the language of
Israel. In all these things we see the lively tokens and pre-millennial
agencies hastening on the day of the Lord.
ISRAEL AND GENTILE FULNESS.
DISCOURSE VI.
MEANING OF GENTILE FULNESS—BLESSINGS THROUGH JUDAH AND EPHRAIM—BEST
RELIGION—JEWS OUTWITTED—WHY BENJAMIN WAS KEPT AT JERUSALEM—FRENCH
PROTESTANTISM—GENTILE FULNESS CONTEMPORARY WITH TO-DAY—WHAT IT
IS—EXCEPTIONAL TURKEY.
“Now, if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the
diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their
fulness.”—Rom. ii. 12.
Paul, the author of this epistle to the Romans, tells us that he was an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham and of the Tribe of Benjamin. The fact
so conveyed it is necessary that we keep in mind, if we would interpret
aright this epistle. He introduces to our notice three parties: the
Jews, who include at this time the Tribes of Judah and Levi; the
Israelites, who embraced the Tribe of Benjamin and the other nine Tribes
that had been in captivity for about eight hundred years—the whole
together are generally known as the Ten Lost Tribes. In the third party
we have the Gentiles. This word Gentile usually denotes and includes the
non-Jewish nations and people. The Hebrew word _goyim_, in early Bible
history, was equivalent to our word nation. It finally began to denote
any people who were not of the sacred seed of Abraham. The Greek word so
rendered is _ethnos_, which means a multitude or nation. In the New
Testament another word is sometimes used in a more limited sense—namely,
_hellenes_, which is translated Greeks. Ignorance of these three
parties, their place in Providence, and relation one to the other, has
given rise to much needless controversy and division in the domain of
theology. Men have argued for an election and a reprobation, laying
great stress on the 9th, 10th, and 11th chapters of Romans, that is in no
wise taught. The election Paul deals with is a literal one, having
reference to a distinct people, whom God has elected for a special work
in this world. This people God calls “His people,” “His inheritance,”
“His chosen,” “His witnesses,” “His servants.” “This people have I
formed for Myself; they shall shew forth My praise” (Isa. xliii. 21).
Hence exclaims the Psalmist, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the
Lord; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance.”
It will be evident to any careful Bible reader that God called Abraham
from Ur, in Chaldea, from his own kindred, for a special design. Through
Abraham’s seed Jehovah designed that blessings, temporal and spiritual,
should flow to all nations. He selected this seed for His own training,
instruction, and culture, to the end that they might train, instruct, and
evangelise the rest of mankind. Through Judah was to come spiritual
blessings, because from Him was the Messiah; and through Ephraim, as
representative of the Ten Tribes, was to come temporal blessings. And
this in the past has been the order of providential procedure; it is the
present order, and it is to be the future. Look and verify this
statement and order by an examination of the nations of the earth at this
time, by asking yourselves the question: What form of religion among the
many on earth is best suited to develop man, to conserve his truest
interest, and crown him with the greatest measure of peace, plenty,
liberty, and security? Surely to this question there can be but one
answer—it is the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is evident
that Christ came of the Tribe of Judah. If we seek among the nations for
the best form of civilisation and the best government, we shall find the
same to be in the bounds of Israel and Manasseh—England and America.
Here we shall find individualism the best developed, and liberty the
fullest grown. In this conclusion the intelligent of every other nation
will concur. We assume no risk in making this statement. Thus, without
doubt, the world at large is greatly indebted to the religion of Jesus,
who was of Judah, and to the Anglo-Saxons, for the best and purest forms
of political organisations or governments. The Anglo-Saxons being the
Ten Lost Tribes, it therefore follows that God has carried out the design
included in Abraham’s call, and the promise made that in his seed should
all the nations of the earth be blessed. To us it seems to have been a
roundabout way. Had Israel been obedient to God in Palestine, and had
Judah received Jesus as the true Messiah, the state of the nations most
certainly would have been very different to what it is now. Still,
through all, and for all, the purpose of heaven has been carried forward.
In studying Providence it is always well to remember that God is not
dependent on the harmonious co-operation of His creatures for the
accomplishment of His purpose. He can gain His ends either through our
hate or love, resistance or co-operation. When the Jews had crucified
Christ, they naturally thought they had cut short His career and cut off
His influence; for so it would appear by all human reasoning. Even the
disciples did not see how He could be the Messiah and Deliverer of Israel
when He allowed Himself to be crucified. The hope of Israel was buried
with the dead Christ. They had hoped that it had been He who should have
redeemed Israel; but this hope was then dead. But by His resurrection
they saw through the secret of Providence, and they saw that God was
faithful in devising a way of escape, and able to bring to pass His own
glorious purpose. So Peter voices their experience when he says,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according
to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” The Jews soon found out
they had made a mistake in crucifying Jesus; for the risen Christ was
mightier than the teaching Jesus. They had crushed a seed to the earth
which sprang forth in renewed beauty and grace; whose death was life and
whose loss was gain. In common parlance they had been outwitted. They
slew a man and He rose a God. They in wrath offered a sacrifice once and
for all, even for the very sin in which they were then indulging. They
unknowingly abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light.
The critical and unbelieving Sadducees, who denied another life than
this, gave aid in proving another and a better; for Christ risen
condemned their unbelief. The proud and ritualistic Pharisee, who loved
the temple and its gorgeous ceremony, destroyed one and made the other of
none avail, for in the planted death of Jesus they laid the foundation of
another and grander temple—one composed of living stones—and made the
temple service meaningless; for the anti-type had swallowed up the type;
the real, the ideal. In all this they had reasoned on a human plan,
which is not high enough to wholly overlook and explore the kingdom of
God. Paul, in 1 Cor. ii. 7, makes this matter plain: “But we speak the
wisdom of God in a mystery; even the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world
knew; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory.” Jesus committed His life to the wave-tide of their rage, and was
floated to death and victory. On the man side there was purpose and
hate, and for this they were responsible; and on the Divine side we have
wisdom and love working out the salvation of a lost race.
Jesus came to His own and they did not receive Him. Who were His own?
We answer, the Jews; for He was of Judah. But if His own did not receive
Him, we ask, who did? The answer is, that Israel received Him. The
Israelites in the land at that time were the Tribe of Benjamin. They had
been providentially selected for this work nearly a thousand years
before. This one Tribe of Benjamin has a very peculiar history; and it
you will study it over, it will greatly serve to confirm your faith in
the Divine inspiration of the Bible and the unity and forethought of
Providence. The original theocracy of Israel consisted of Twelve Tribes.
This theocracy was divided under Rehoboam, Solomon’s son and successor.
Ten Tribes seceded, and formed a kingdom, which is ever after called the
kingdom of Israel; their first king was Jeroboam. But it is very
singular to notice, that one of these Ten Tribes is lent to the kingdom
of Judah, and this one Tribe is Benjamin. In this was the Divine
provision for the time of Christ. We find in the first book of Kings,
eleventh chapter, that Solomon displeased the Lord by his wicked ways,
and the Lord said: “Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not
kept My covenant and My statutes which I have commanded thee, I will
surely rend the kingdom from thee, and I will give it to thy servant
(Jeroboam was Solomon’s servant at that time); notwithstanding in thy
days I will not do it, for David thy father’s sake; but I will rend it
out of the hands of thy son. Howbeit I will not rend away all the
kingdom, but will give one Tribe to thy son, for David My servant’s sake,
and for Jerusalem’s sake, which I have chosen.” All the kingdom
evidently meant the Ten Tribes. The same truth Ahijah, the Shilonite,
taught when he rent his new garment into twelve pieces, and gave to
Jeroboam ten. “And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces; for thus
saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of
the hands of Solomon and will give Ten Tribes to thee.” Then comes in
the reserve clause again: “But he shall have one Tribe for My servant
David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out
of all the Tribes of Israel.” And the reason for the reservation of this
Tribe is clearly expressed in verse 36: “And unto his son will I give one
Tribe, that David My servant may always have a light before Me in
Jerusalem.” Now it is plain why this Tribe was an exception. The city
of Jerusalem, God says, He has chosen out of all the cities of Israel,
because to this city would the Messiah come. And beautifully agreeing
with the forethought is the fact that when the Tribes had their lots
assigned them in Palestine, the city of Jerusalem fell in the portion of
Benjamin.
The Tribe then were owners of the city, and they received Christ. The
disciples and first followers and converts were chiefly from this Tribe
of Benjamin. After this Tribe received Christ, then their work was done
in Jerusalem. So they were to separate from the kingdom of Judah, and
seek out their own brethren and unite with them. The time of their
separation had been foretold by the prophet, and pointed out by the
Saviour. The time of their departure would be coincident with the siege
and destruction of their beloved city. So cried Jeremiah down through
the centuries, “Oh, ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee
out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up
a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem, for evil appeareth out of the North and
great destruction “(Jer. vi. 1). If any of you are mindful to examine
history, you will find that war came, that the destruction was terrible,
and more, you will find that the Benjaminites escaped. These points
profane historians thoroughly confirm. Having fulfilled their
God-appointed mission with the kingdom of Judah and in Jerusalem, Heaven
gave them to be light-bearers to the whole world; first to specially find
their own brethren of the House of Israel, and carry them the Gospel, and
they would carry it unto all the earth. Thus the Saviour said, “Go not
in the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye
not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” Peter in
his epistle tells where these lost sheep were scattered. Agreeable to
the Saviour’s command they went forth, and preached as they went, and so
carried the Gospel of Jesus with them. As a Tribe they finally settled
in Normandy, and gave to France her Protestantism, which, from that day
to this, Catholicism has not been able entirely to uproot, though it has
made several desperate attempts. They finally, however, as a Tribe,
under the Norman conquest, entered England and united with the other nine
Tribes. Their advent, and the way they came, is very graphically
symbolised in the unicorn on the royal arms of England. The unicorn is
looking Westward, and is attached to the crown by a chain—showing that it
came from the East.
With these facts in one’s mind, read those difficult passages in Romans,
and all will be plain. Take, for instance, Romans xi. 17: “And if some
of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert
grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of
the olive tree.” Here it is manifest that we have three parties
mentioned. The branches broken off mean Judah and Levi, the wild olive
stands for the Gentiles, the people in among whom they were grafted, or
root of whose fatness they were partakers, mean the Israelites. The hope
of Jewish restoration is nicely set forth in verse 24: “For if thou wert
cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and wert grafted
contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these,
which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree.”
Again, the wild olive stands for the Gentiles, the good olive tree for
Israel, the branches broken off, but which may be grafted in again, for
the Jews. Thus to this theory of interpretation the whole Bible responds
easily and reasonably. With this kind of interpretation one need not
twist and distort the sacred Word in order to understand it. I trust the
day is near when men will expound the sacred Scriptures by the rules of
common sense.
The calamity that happened to the nine Tribes of Israel in been carried
captive has been turned into good by our heavenly Father—into good for
them and all the world. “Therefore the Lord removed Israel out of His
sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So was Israel
carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day” (2 Kings
xvii. 23). Keeping back the Tribe of Benjamin is a marvel of goodness.
And with Paul we may exclaim: “Now if the fall of them be the riches of
the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how
much more their fulness.” If Israel had been able to contribute so much
of Christianity to the world, and evolve in her imperfect state such an
equitable form of government, what will her contribution be when
gathered, restored, and once again put into a theocratic relation to God?
“For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what
shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” This people who
have been scattered among the Gentiles God is collecting out from among
them for His own glorious purpose and work. Thus scattered they have
been a mystery—a mystery among the Gentiles. Paul to the Colossians
says: “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of
this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of
glory.”
When will the fulness of the text take place? We answer. Before long.
The fulness here stands over against the Gentile fulness. In the three
last discourses we called your attention to Israel’s maturing fulness in
land, people, and language. And now, if you will consider the state of
the Gentile nations, it will be apparent to you that the time of Gentile
fulness is now present. These Gentile nations are now overflowing. Take
China with her teeming millions, and ask why she has not peopled the
world? for surely she could have done so long ago. But she barred her
own doors by making it unlawful for any of her subjects to leave the
flowery kingdom—forbidding heaven to such as should die outside. Now,
however, she must permit emigration or perish by famine. Take the
countries of Europe, and is it not strange that Israel’s fulness of land,
people, and language is made the fuller by these nations contributing
towards the same? The fulness of the Gentiles is made to flow into the
fulness of Israel. These countries, outside of Israel-England, have no
colonies to send their overflow to; hence, they are filling up the domain
of Israel and so hastening on her fulness. The French, Germans,
Italians, and Spaniards forsake their land and language, thus adding to
Israel’s fulness; for they chiefly settle down within the bounds of
Israel. To this Gentile fulness there was to be one strange
exception—that was in the Turkish nation. This nation is set forth by
the prophet under the figure of the River Euphrates. In their first
appearance they were to be very numerous. In the eleventh century they
began to invade Europe. The historian Gibbon, speaking of them, says:
“Myriads of Turkish horsemen overspread the whole Greek empire, until at
last Constantinople fell into their hands.” From 1453 till now have they
held this grand capital. John, in Rev. ix., pictures this invasion, and
speaks of the number of horsemen. He speaks of them as having power in
their mouths and tails. This language is very expressive when we
remember the Moslem’s war-cry, which was “The sword of Mahomet and of
God.” And in one of the first of their great battles they lost their
standard; but, not long baffled, the commander-in-chief cut off the tail
of his beautiful steed, and, putting it on the end of a pole, hoisted it
as a standard. This ensign they long used. This kingdom, however, is to
dry up—that is, to disappear gradually, as a river dries up. All this is
taking place. Turkey sends emigrants nowhere. They are literally dying
out. In number they are fewer each year. Turkey will pass away for want
of Turks. Her territory will be taken away from her gradually. How
remarkable the dealings of Providence with men and nations!
Up to the point of Gentile fulness, Israel was to be partly blind, for
God’s plans, through Israel, were to remain a mystery for a time. “For I
would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye
should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened
to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” Our idea is
that the Gentile fulness is now in, and if so, it is natural, then, that
Israel should be found, and about this time have her eyes opened. Up to
this time of fulness, Jerusalem was to be trodden down. “And they shall
fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations;
and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of
the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke xxi. 23). Now, the Jews did fall by the
edge of the sword, as the Saviour foretold; they were carried captive
into all nations; Jerusalem has been trodden under foot. Thus, then, do
we see three parts of His prophecy literally fulfilled; and so surely
will the fourth part be, which is, that in connection with Gentile
fulness this treading shall cease, and proud, imperial Salem shall lift
her head once more free from tyrant hands and heathen tramping, to become
the city of God and His chosen ones.
When Moses was sent to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt, he was
equipped with miraculous power that he might convince Pharaoh and the
Egyptians what was the will of Jehovah; but not more so than are the
prophetic students of this day; for the presence of the Divine gleams
forth all around in the miracles of prophecy now so wonderfully
fulfilling in this our day.
DREAM IMAGE OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR.
DISCOURSE VII.
FUTURE HISTORY OF THE WORLD—THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PAPACY
COMMENCED—IRELAND TO BE FREE AND INDEPENDENT OF ENGLAND AND ROME—FUTURE
GLORY OF BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES.
“Thou, O King, sawest and beheld a great image. This great image
whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form
thereof was terrible.”—Dan. ii. 31.
About 2,500 years ago the kingdom of Babylon was strong, great, and
prosperous. The king of this vast empire is known in history as
Nebuchadnezzar. His reign had been marked with great victories over the
surrounding nations. The mighty Empire of Assyria he had conquered;
Egypt he had wasted and almost destroyed; Palestine he had reduced to
strange and pitiable desolation, having carried the Jewish inhabitants
captive into the region of Babylon. Among these captives we find Daniel,
the prophet of Judah. In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s
consolidated reign, as king over Babylon and Assyria, he dreamed a dream
which gave him much anxiety of mind and troubled him very much. This
dream he could not remember nor explain, save that it had left a terrible
impression on his mind. The wise men were confounded, for they could
neither declare the vision or its meaning. The king, in his rage,
decreed them all to death. At this point appears Daniel, one of the
captives of Judah. Moved of God, he presents himself before the king and
makes known to him the vision and interpretation.
The king had seen a great metallic image, excellent in brightness and
terrible in form. It was a human figure of massive proportions, standing
erect with outstretched arms, and of a mixed and strange composition.
The head was of fine gold. The breast and arms were of silver. The
belly and thighs of brass. The legs of iron, the feet part of iron and
part of clay. While the king was gazing on this monstrous figure with
intense interest, his attention was arrested by the appearance of a small
stone—this stone was alone; there appeared no hands handling it or moving
it. It was cut out of the mountain without hands. In this stone there
appears to be a good deal of the supernatural. At once this little stone
assaults the image, beginning at the feet. The battle is surely unequal;
the battle continues, and during the struggle the stone actually grows;
the image falls to pieces—the feet, thigh, breast, and head—and victory
is with the stone. By the time the image is wholly destroyed the stone
has become a mountain; or, as Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, “Thou sawest
till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon
his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was
the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces
together, and became like the chaff of the Summer threshing-floors; and
the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them; and the
stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole
earth.”
In this vision and interpretation we have a line of history laid bare so
clearly that we need not err. The beginning is the time and kingdom of
Nebuchadnezzar. The image stands for four great earthly monarchies,
extending down through the centuries even to this time and day—and a
little further; for these monarchies are not yet wholly destroyed, and
the stone-kingdom does not yet fill the world. Of this fifth, or stone
kingdom, there is to be no end by conquest, or decay, or succession.
Daniel says that this kingdom shall not be left to other people—that is,
it shall never be succeeded.
The peculiar features of the stone-kingdom make it interesting to
ascertain what kingdom, monarchy, and people stand for it; for such
kingdom, though small at the beginning, is to grow, prosper, and continue
to the end of time. Guided by the Scriptures and history, let us look
for these four earthly monarchies; and the better to accomplish our task,
let us stretch the giant figure on his back; then his head of gold will
rest in Babylon, his silver breast and arms will take in Media and
Persia, his belly and thighs will take in Greece, and his legs and feet
will take in Rome. Thus, then, the gold head stood for Babylon, and is
now in this day represented and found in Russia—for Russia is a
continuation of Babylon. The _Czar_ is on the line of Nebuchadne_zzar_.
This gold-headed kingdom will be the last destroyed—the destruction
begins at the feet. Russia, therefore, has yet a lease of life and
prosperity; but, finally, she too will yield the contests and disappear
before the stone-kingdom. The gold stands for work and endurance, as the
head is significant of supremacy; but the stone will finally destroy it.
The silver, next in value and endurance, of which were the arms and
breast, stands for Persia. Centuries ago Persia was the great Power of
the earth. At one time it would seem as if she never would decay or ever
have a rival; but her day came, and she has dwindled down to the little
kingdom and monarchy—the Persia of to-day. Her power is gone, she is
consumptive, and will soon disappear as a separate kingdom. The present
visit of the King of Persia to the Czar at St. Petersburg is not without
meaning. The gold head of Russia will need the assistance of the arms of
Persia by-and-bye.
The brass parts stand well and appropriately for ancient Greece—an Empire
once so gigantic and powerful, a people so polished and learned, but long
ago their time, and work, and place were marked out. And now the time is
nearly gone and the work done, hence they will soon disappear. The
present little kingdom of Greece is all that is left. Brass is in itself
corrosive, so the Greek Empire has gradually eaten itself away. What
sublime lessons the prophets of old taught us!
The iron and clay, of which were the legs and feet, stand for the great
Roman Empire, which in its day was so solid and grand with its law and
order, its soldiers and statesmen. This Empire that tried the hopeless
experiment of mixing clay and iron—that is, Church and State as
inaugurated by Constantine. This nation that tried to fuse together
Paganism and Christianity. This nation that tried to stand on two equal
feet, and to encompass the whole of man, body and spirit. Well might
Daniel say of this brittle Empire that it should be partly strong and
partly weak. In conscience and the empire of the soul Christ alone is
King. No wonder that the Roman Empire has disappeared. The iron part is
now entirely gone. The Pope and the Church of Rome foolishly arrogate to
themselves to be this kingdom. They still try and believe in mixing the
iron and clay—they yet claim authority in the spirit realm. Obedience to
Christ and the Pope cannot be on the spiritual or clay side. No man can
supremely serve two masters. On the iron side no man can be loyal to his
country and the Pope at the same time. No man can serve two masters at
the same time, both of which claim and demand supremacy. These things
cannot be mixed. “And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay,
they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not
cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.”
How true the prophetic utterances of the prophet! The Catholics and
Protestants do not mix easily, not socially, not politically, nor
educationally. How are we to mix freely with those who think we are
heretics and damnable? How can we socially mix with a people so lordly
in their claims and deficient in character as many are—a people who, when
true to their profession, must be our secret or open enemies—who sink
their manhood and parental claims, so as to depend upon the priest for
forgiveness and on him for instruction? Thus, at the priest’s command,
the coming generations are divided and embittered in the fact of separate
schools for Catholics and Protestants. These men of clay and lordly air,
claim rights superior to the State, despising the State provision for
education. Daniel said, “The dream is certain, and the interpretation
thereof sure.” If so, as sure as the iron part has disappeared, so will
the clay.
Now a clearer view, a purer faith and greater liberty are dawning upon
our Catholic friends, which is making many of them feel too manly and
noble to be longer slaves to priest or Pope. Bereft of temporal power,
they henceforth will have to win and fight their way, as others, on the
purity of their doctrines and practice. In such a strife we can but wish
them, and all who love the Lord Jesus Christ, great success.
Thus in the short outline of these four kingdoms we see enough to show us
that God has kept His word. How marvellous are His ways! how complete
His work!
Let us now look at this stone kingdom. This fifth kingdom is as much
material and political as the other four, and stands for a king, country,
and people. It does not come into existence until the image is perfect.
For it is while Nebuchadnezzar was looking at the image he saw the stone
cut out of the mountain—its growth was gradual. Its work was to destroy
this image and fill the world. As these kingdoms became weaker and
smaller, it would become stronger and larger.
What king, country, and people respond to this kingdom? The answer is as
easy as to find the other, if we keep our minds free from prejudice and
open to truth.
First, this kingdom was of Divine origin. Second, it was small at first.
Third, the more it fights the more it grows. Fourth, it breaks in pieces
this image, beginning at the feet. It is in fact the sworn enemy of all
the four kingdoms. Fifth, it is to fill the world and thus become a
universal kingdom and monarchy. In this latter sense it will be a fit
type of the kingdom of Christ.
Just such a kingdom as this did God repeatedly promise to Abraham and his
descendants. David’s throne and seed royal are to be established before
Him for ever. He promised to David’s throne perpetuity, and that David’s
seed should always be on the throne—not in a spiritual sense as some
think—but naturally and actually in this world.
God promised to Israel, as a people and a kingdom, such pre-eminence in
origin, power, and growth. The answer, then, is simple and
plain—England, as representing the Lost Tribes of Israel, and Queen
Victoria being a direct descendant from David. For she came of James
VI., of Scotland—he from Bruce and Duncan, and Malcolm, and Kenneth, and
Kenneth through the kings of Argyleshire, Alpin, and Donald, and Fergus.
Then through the long line of Irish Kings from Earca to Heremon, of Tara,
and he married Tea Tephi, the daughter of Zedekiah, who, through Jeremiah
the prophet, had been hid from the destroying vengeance of
Nebuchadnezzar. He killed all her brothers and kindred, and put out the
eyes of Zedekiah and took him a captive to Babylon, where he died.
Look also at the British nation, learned as they are, yet no historian
can tell who the English were originally. Sharon Turner, the best and
most trustworthy on the origin of the Saxons, fails to solve the
question. He traces them into Central Asia, but there he stops. They
here form part of the Aryan race, speaking the Sanscrit language, from
which came the Greek and Latin. And from this place and people came
forth the Goths and their language, and also the Saxons and their
language came to view here. The German and Saxon both seem to have come
forth from the Aryan stock.
The very place the Saxons came from is the very place where the Lost
Tribes were carried captive to by the King of Assyria, about 725 years
before Christ, as we read in the second book of Kings, seventeenth
chapter. Take the very word Saxon. This word comes from the Sanscrit:
Saka Suna. Saka means era, epoch, or date, and Suna means void, without.
Hence the word Saxon means a people whose origin is unknown—void of date.
True, Nebuchadnezzar saw no hands cutting the little stone out from the
mountain. The origin of the English nation is hid because God cast away
His people for a time—not for ever. It is this view of the stone kingdom
that corresponds to the prophets, to history, especially to the English
history.
The very island itself is insignificant, and no doubt was once joined to
the continent of Europe. The formation on both sides of the English
Channel—that is, on the French and English coasts, are the same—namely,
chalk. The ocean in time past washed through a passage, and thus
prepared a place for exiled Israel to rest in, and renew their strength.
Why should this small island and a few and scattered people become so
powerful, so as to sweep the sea, and dictate on land, constantly engaged
in war, and though small, winning victory upon victory, and like the
stone, growing stronger and stronger, after fighting the whole of Europe,
giving liberties in religion that oftentimes imperilled her safety at
home, opening her ports to all the world, and venturing to compete in
trade with all nations?
How came they to take India, a country of so vast an extent, so powerful,
rich, and chivalrous a country, at that time composed of sixteen separate
and powerful nations, speaking thirty-six different languages, and
numbering in population some 200,000,000?
With all her faults, still to her the world owes much. She has stood for
liberty in person and conscience. The world has little to-day which
ennobles men and nations but what she has produced or aided in producing.
The right foot of the image stands for France, while the left signifies
Spain. On these two feet long stood Rome, as all know. When these two
feet were broken, then soon followed the downfall of Rome as an empire,
and as they are conquered for Jesus, so will the empire of Rome, as a
Church, fall.
In the year 1346 took place the battle of Cressey, led by Edward III.
Then the little stone fell on the right foot, and since then it has
fallen on that same foot victoriously 218 times. On the left foot,
Spain, thirty-five times. All this time this stone has been growing. In
1665 the English, under General Penn, took Jamaica, and every four years
since they have added a colony. Now that little stone bears rule over
fifty-five colonies, one empire, namely, India, and one dominion, Canada.
And yet, mighty as England was, she could not subdue the American
provinces, feeble and scattered colonists as they were. Then they sought
to fight against Providence. Old Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph,
Ephraim, and Manasseh, and then predicted their destiny, saying of
Manasseh, “He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but
truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall
become a multitude of nations.” So they are; and so Manasseh is a great
people in the American nation.
This stone cut out of the mountain has much to do and destroy; it is
still watching the head of gold. Israel and Babylon are still face to
face. Greece will first disappear, although England is trying to revive
it. Next, Persia will go, then Babylon, or head of gold. Russia will
have grown to giant-like proportions, and will finally measure swords
with England. The stone will win. England will then move her royal
residence and throne to Jerusalem. Every country and province may then
be independent, like Canada, but federated to the central government.
Ireland will then be free, yes, doubly free—free from Rome and free from
England as a State, but still federated to the central government. It is
thus this stone will fill the earth. America will federate, the central
government will be destroyed. State rights increase. These are some of
the things suggested and taught by this vision.
LITTLE HORN AND TURKEY.
DISCOURSE VIII.
THE TURKS THE ISHMAELITES—ENGLAND AND RUSSIA TO PARTITION THE MAHOMMEDAN
EMPIRE—WHY ENGLAND SYMPATHISES WITH TURKEY.
“And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed
exceeding great, toward the South, and toward the East, and toward
the pleasant land.”—Daniel viii. 9.
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, in which he saw a great metallic image of
human form. The head of gold stood for Babylon; the silver arms and
breast for Persia; the brass belly and thighs for Greece; the iron legs
and feet of iron and clay for Rome. To all this we find history has
faithfully and beautifully responded.
A few years after this we find that Daniel has a dream, which is
interpreted to him by an angel. From it we learn that the ten toes
symbolised ten kingdoms which were to arise out of the Roman Empire.
In the chapter from which we take our text, we are introduced into the
secrets of a vision which Daniel had. The place of the vision is on the
banks of the River Ulai, in the province of Elam, and in the gorgeous
palace of Shushan—a place and palace made famous and familiar to us by
the doings of King Ahasuerus and Queen Esther. In other words, the scene
is changed from the palace of Babylon to the palace of Persia.
In this vision, Pesia is typified by a ram, the two horns of which
represented Persia and Media, for they formed one Empire at this time,
under the powerful rule and reign of Cyrus, who, coming from the East,
pushed his conquests “Westward, and Northward, and Southward.” “The two
horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came
up last.” From history we know that Media conquered Persia, and we know,
also, that finally Persia gained ascendancy, so that the higher came up
last, and is even in existence to-day as the small kingdom of Persia; but
Media has long since disappeared.
While the seer Daniel was considering, behold an he-goat came from the
West. This goat had a notable horn between his eyes. Horn generally
symbolises power; here it symbolises a king of peculiar power, Daniel
tells us. Goat-like, it bounded over the earth rapidly, pushing and
goring its adversaries. Can any one at all acquainted with history fail
to see how fitly and grandly this description of the goat forecasts the
origin and progress of the Greek Empire?
Substitute Alexander the Great for the notable horn, and you at once mate
history and this vision. Surely God has not left Himself without
witnesses. “Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of
God.” So we may freely say unto the historians and students of history,
Truly, in these things we see the finger of God.
Could any historian describe more faithfully and accurately the
invasions, conquests, and victories of Alexander the Great, especially
his assault on the Persians? How marvellous and simple the description
by Daniel: “And he came to the ram that had two horns (Persia), which I
had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his
power; and I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with
choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns; and there
was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the
ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the
ram out of his hand.”
And with the same majestic simplicity we have the downfall of Alexander
and the division of his Empire described. Listen! “Therefore the
he-goat waxed very great; and when he was strong the great horn was
broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of
heaven.”
To fully understand the sacred writer here, you must call to mind a
little of history, more and better, for all knowledge only aids us the
better and better to read the Bible.
What beast save the goat could characterise Alexander and his reign? He
was the son of Philip of Macedon, born 356 B.C., and died in 323. He
began his reign at twenty years of age, and closed it in twelve years and
eight months. No man in the same time ever fought so many battles, won
so many victories, and subdued so many people. No man, before or since,
ever ruled over so many people and such a kingdom. Queen Victoria is in
these things his only rival. But with his sudden death the fruits of his
victories are re-distributed. His Empire was divided into four parts;
the four Diadochi were his successors. What lessons may men and nations
learn by studying the prophecies!
“For prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of
God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost;” and unto this sure word
of prophecy we do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a
dark place. “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of
any private interpretation” (2 Peter i. 20). As naturally as nature
responds to the seasons, so will providence to prophecy. We can discern
Spring-time, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. The garden will reveal to us
Winter as distinct from Summer, so in interpreting prophecy we must
always look for an agreement between providence and the world. As
naturally as the goat symbolises Alexander, so will providence in natural
history respond. Winter, with its winds, storms, and frost; with its
leafless trees and desolate gardens, proclaim, beyond a doubt, which
season of the four is bearing rule. Such a thing cannot be of private
interpretation; and prophecy, when fulfilled, is as easy seen, and is not
of private interpretation. A man is as foolish in forging prophecy as
one would be in trying to forge Winter by putting artificial leaves on
trees, and flowers on bushes. The thing is easily known if we exercise
our reason. In this line of thought we are sorry to note that men have
more faith than reason; hence the blunderings of prophetic writers, and
the leaders of Adventism and Millenarianism. Prophecy unfulfilled
commands and demands our faith—much more faith than reason, for it is
impossible to see how some things can come to pass, but if they are
subjects of prophecy they surely will, whether we understand them or not.
A prophecy fulfilled, however, appeals more to reason than faith, for if
fulfilled, it can readily be demonstrated.
As naturally as the female and male birds know each other and mate
together, so will events and prophecy. This kind of argument Isaiah
uses: “Seek ye out the Book of the Lord and read; no one of these shall
fail, none shall want her mate, for My mouth it hath commanded, and His
Spirit it hath gathered them” (Isa. xxxiv. 16). I charge you to beware
of prophetic dentists who put false teeth in the mouth of prophecy; who
by their haste and impatience forestall prophecy and weaken men’s faith
instead of strengthening it. Prophetic evidence is very strong evidence,
both for the Christian and the infidel.
Some will fail to be convinced when prophecy is fulfilled. Jew-like,
they will blind their eyes and shut their ears to the evidences and voice
of fulfilled prophecy. The entire career of our Lord Jesus Christ was
foretold and mapped out by the Old Testament writers. Moses declared His
family; Micah the place of His birth; Isaiah the virginity of His mother;
Zechariah His triumphant entry into Jerusalem; David His life,
resurrection, and ascension, with many other kinds of evidence of a
detailed and general character; yet the Jews, who claimed to be well
versed in the Old Testament, rejected Christ. Keep these things in mind
while we now consider the text more directly.
You remember that out of the goat kingdom there came up four notable
ones, and out of one them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding
great toward the South, East, and pleasant land, or land of Palestine.
Now this horn is not to be confounded with the little horn of the fourth
kingdom spoken of in chapter vii., for that horn might justly be called
the eleventh toe horn, as it comes into existence after the ten-toe
kingdoms. The little horn of the text is explained in verse 23 to be a
king of fierce countenance. He was to appear in the latter time. It
will be interesting for us to ascertain what king, people, and country
this little horn stands for. Daniel has given us a very vivid picture of
the king. He is to be of fierce countenance, to understand dark
sentences, to stand up in power and might, not however in his own power;
he will claim to be appointed and authorised of God, and will pretend to
rule in God’s name; he will destroy wonderfully even the mighty of the
world and the holy people; he will be very prosperous and practical,
giving a great impetus to trade. By means of his prosperity he will
become proud and strong, and will destroy many. He will actually stand
up in place of Jesus—Prince of princes. But finally he will be broken
without a hand. Thus, you see, Daniel gives us twelve special features
of his person and reign. Without doubt the mate of these descriptions
will be found on the person of Mahommed, and his successors in religion
Mahommedanism, and in people and country the Turks and Turkey.
Mahommed had his religion and himself recognised about the year 622 at
Mecca. From that time and place he went forth to waste and to destroy.
As his religion prevailed, so he subdued the country or territory. He
united in himself the rights and prerogatives of king, priest, and
prophet, making it obligatory upon his followers to prepare a way and
enforce his religion by the sword. He was indeed a king of fierce
countenance. Thus sprang Mahommedanism and the Turkish nation into
existence. As a people, they are chiefly the descendants of Esau and
Ishmael. If one desires to know the history and final destiny of this
people, let him study the prophetic utterances concerning Esau and
Ishmael. They are the descendants of Abraham, and so they very naturally
fall into the prophetic line.
The Hungarians came from this family through Lot. The Poles and Magyars
are from Moab and Ammon. These things being so, it is no wonder the
Hungarians and Turks should sympathise, nor that England should have a
liking for Turks, England being the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Alliance
and sympathy between England and Turkey has a deeper root and meaning
than some are willing to admit. Turkey, however, as a distinct empire,
is nearly at an end. The recognition of the Ten Lost Tribes, and their
restoration with the Jews to Palestine, is connected with the downfall of
Turkey. “Saviours are to come up on Mount Zion to judge the Mount of
Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s” (Obad.).
How clearly speaks Obadiah again when he says, “How are the things of
Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up! All the men of
thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border; the men that were
at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they
that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee; there is none
understanding in him. Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, even
destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the Mount of
Esau?”
These are the latter times of the king of fierce countenance. Hear
Daniel inquiring of the angel in this vision, “How long shall be the
vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of
desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under
foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days.”
These days are generally allowed to stand for years. If so, Jerusalem
was destroyed 70 A.D. The time Daniel saw this vision was about 490
B.C.; take 70 from this leaves 420. From 2,300 take 420, and we have
1,880. “Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” What means this? It
means Jerusalem will recur back again into the hands of the Jews and
Israel. Christ said that the Jews “should fall by the edge of the sword,
and be led away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden
down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke
xxi. 24).
Now we know the Jews did fall by the sword when the Romans took
Jerusalem. Second, we know they were scattered among the nations.
Third, Jerusalem has been trodden under foot—so much so, that Christians
have not been permitted to stand on Mount Zion, where now stands the
Mosque of Omar. And this is the city of the great King. This is Mount
Zion, from which is yet to go forth the law. This is Jerusalem that God
promises to yet again make the chief place of the earth. “Arise, shine,
for the light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.”
When, we ask, will the fulness of the Gentiles come in? We answer, Soon.
Think of what God has taught us in His Word. We, as the Lost Tribes,
have indeed been ignorant of our origin and destiny. “For I would not,
brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be
wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel,
until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Rom. xi. 25). This time
is nicely pointed out by John in Rev. xi. 2: “But the court which is
without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto
the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two
months;” or, as explained in the following verse, a thousand two hundred
and three-score days. Accepting a day for a year again, and we have
1,260 years. Taking Mahommed power to date from 622, or about, then 622
and 1,260 make 1,882. Now just as sure as Jerusalem is now trodden under
foot, as certainly will it be free.
“Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful
garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more
come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the
dust; arise and sit down, O Jerusalem; loose thyself from the bands of
thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion” (Isa. lii. 1, 2).
England is appointed of God to take possession of Palestine and restore
Jerusalem. God has told us through Isaiah that He will lay vengeance
upon Edom by the hand of Israel. The many days of the vision of Daniel
are now gone; the time is nearly up.
“For Zion’s sake will I not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I
will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness,
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth; and the Gentiles shall
see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory.” It is the duty of the
watchmen of Zion to discern the signs of the times and become obedient
unto heavenly instruction. “Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not
silence, and give Him no rest till He establish, and till He make
Jerusalem a praise in the earth” (Isa. lxii. 1, 2, 6, 7).
LITTLE HORN AND ANTI-CHRIST.
DISCOURSE IX.
PROPHETIC WONDERS—TWENTY MARKS OF THE MONSTER—THE BERLIN
CONGRESS—ANTI-CHRISTS MANY—MISTAKES BY WRITERS.
“I considered the horns, and behold! there came up among them another
little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked
up by the roots; and behold! in this horn were eyes like the eyes of
man, and a mouth speaking great things.”—Daniel vii. 8.
In the visions and dream recorded by Daniel in this chapter we have the
same subject matter as that contained in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar of
the metallic image. In this the subject is carried further into the
future, bringing to view some new items of interest, under different
symbols and more of detail. The four kingdoms of the metallic image are
in this dream presented by the symbolism of four beasts. Babylon by a
lion which had eagle’s wings, setting forth the strength and swiftness of
the same. Persia by a bear raised up on one side. Persia at this time
was composed of Media as well, but the one-sided position of the bear
denotes the dying out of Media and the continuance of Persia. The same
idea is conveyed in the eighth chapter and third verse: “The ram had two
horns, and one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.”
Media was a kingdom before Persia, but Persia was to survive Media; all
this history confirms. After the Medo-Persian Empire declined, Persia
surviving, held on to Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt—that is, when the bear
was raised up on one side, it held in its mouth three ribs, and was
strong for a time.
The Macedonian Empire Daniel saw under the type of a leopard, which had
on its back four wings of a fowl; the beast also had four heads. Babylon
was represented by two wings, but it is very fitting that Alexander and
his empire should have four wings, for no conqueror ever flew so fast
over the earth as this same monarch. In the metallic image he is
represented by brass, in this by a leopard, and in the one we noticed in
Discourse VII., by the goat. How wonderfully appropriate are these
symbolisms. The four heads of this leopard stand for the four kingdoms
into which the Macedonian Empire was divided on the death of
Alexander—namely, first, Egypt under Ptolemy; second, Syria under
Antigonus; third, Asia Minor under Lysimachus; fourth, Greece under
Cassandar. These four kings were the four leading generals of Alexander.
The fourth beast of this vision is a nondescript; for among all the
animal creation there could not be found one that could suitably
represent Rome. But one was made for the purpose, combining in itself
all that is fierce and terrible. “And behold a fourth beast, dreadful
and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth; it
devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of
it; and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it
had ten horns.” Its teeth were of iron and its claws of brass. What a
monster! The other beasts faithfully represented their respective
kingdoms, and so did this. What a record! What a counterpart we have in
history of this beast! “Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the
streets of Askelon,” lest the Pagan rejoice, and the heathen mock at us,
and the infidel triumph over us. Blot out from Time’s record the 24th of
August, 1572. Let not our children learn the name of St. Bartholomew,
for fear they should despise Christianity. Quench the flames of
Smithfield, destroy the Inquisition, and divorce Christianity from such a
kingdom, from such a beast. Thank heaven! the beast is dying; its teeth
are worn to the very gum by the gnawings of centuries; its claws are not
now sharp, so it cannot now crush the innocent, as in days gone by, nor
tear with its brass claw the weak. Though the beast is growing old and
weaker, yet let us remember that its death struggle is yet to come. The
beast has been wounded, but this shall only serve to intensify its rage.
To be forewarned is to be forearmed, if we are wise.
This beast, Daniel tells us, had ten horns, and these horns are ten
kings—that is, kingdoms—that shall arise. Just here we may reasonably
ask whether these ten kingdoms are yet in existence, and the answer is,
No. Some of them may be; of course they are in existence, as was General
Grant before the war, but not yet distinct or assigned their special work
and place. The time, however, for them all to appear is near at hand.
Of this we may rest satisfied, when once they are all in existence we
will have no difficulty in knowing them. Prophecy unfulfilled is always
more difficult to interpret than when it is fulfilling or fulfilled. We
have no doubt but some of these horns are in existence, and from what we
can glean from prophecy and history, some are not yet in their proper
place.
The special province of prophecy is to prepare us for what is coming.
Searching into prophecy enables us to forecast the future with tolerable
certainty, just as the scientists can tolerably forecast the weather by
studying the laws, forces, and inclinations of nature. So the Christian
student, by studying prophecy, Providence, and history, and comparing
them, can know much of what is coining. On the Divine side all prophecy
is certain, but on the human it can only be approximated. Prophecy
furnishes the strongest kind of evidence in favour of the existence of
God—inspiration of the Scriptures and Providence. The Lord Himself calls
our attention to this kind of evidence frequently in the Bible. “Produce
your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, said the
King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth and show us what shall happen;
let them show the former things what they be, that we may consider them,
and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come” (Isa.
xli. 21, 22).
Prophecy does not interfere with the coming to pass of an event, or
suppress man’s freedom no more than the man at Washington, who gives us
the weather probabilities, makes the weather or regulates nature. Even
when men know the sequence of a thing they oftentimes persist in doing
it. The soldiers who wrangled at the cross about the dividing of the
garments of the crucified One, thought little and cared less for
prophecy; but when they came to the Saviour’s vest, they fell into the
line of prophecy, for at once they cast lots for that, all of which had
been fore-written for hundreds of years. Run and tell that young man
that the place he is entering is the way of death. Tell him that the air
is foul, that the furniture and painted humanity are all gotten up to
deceive. Tell him that in a few years he will repent ever having seen
such a place. And what is your reward? It is that you are laughed at
and esteemed as one that interferes, and told to mind your own business.
The young man is free and self-confident. Look in a few years for that
same young man and you shall find him a terrible example of fulfilled
prophecy. Diseased, worn, weak, and weary, he cries in the anguish of
soul for his folly. “And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy
body are consumed, and say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart
despised reproof?” (Prov. v. 11, 12).
The famous European Congress which met in Berlin, we foresaw would meet,
near three years ago, and told you the conditions under which it would be
called. In the dark days of the past did we not repeat to you our faith,
as fostered from prophecy, that England could not go to war? Many of
you, and persons in different parts of the country, advised me by letter
when the telegraph despatches came crowding and threatening, that I had
so said. The intention was to break my faith, or at least to remind me
that I had not spoken correctly. What now? who is right? This Congress
completed a prophetic period. After it was over new scenery appeared and
a new act came upon the stage. But more of this by-and-bye.
Among the results of this Congress will be an enlargement of England’s
power over Turkey and Egypt. For England must possess Constantinople,
because to Israel it is promised that he shall possess the gates of his
enemies, and this is one of the finest gates in the world. Palestine
will come into the hands of England, and be opened up for the return of
the Jews, who, when the time comes will go in multitudes, and the Lost
Tribes representatively. “I will take you one of a city, and two of a
family, and I will bring you to Zion” (Jer. iii. 14). In a few years men
will understand why, in this country, as well as in England, people are
hunting up their genealogy, and by tradition, history, and heraldry,
trying to ascertain of what family they are. The re-settlement of
Palestine by God’s chosen people, the Lost Tribes, no one can deny who
reads and believes the Bible. Hanging upon the fulfilment of this great
fact are many other prophecies and events, which are of great interest to
the Church and the world.
1st. The ten-toed kingdom must be formed. These kings are to form an
alliance with the beast, or Church of Rome, as representative of this
beast. “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have
received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the
beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto
the beast” (Rev. xvii. 12). Thus strengthened, the beast will make war
with the saints, or chosen, but it will be her final struggle, for in
struggling she will die. These ten kings will forsake her.
2nd. Anti-Christ has to appear after the settlement of Palestine.
Anti-Christ is represented by the other little horn spoken of in the
text. This little horn is to come forth from one of the ten horns. He,
too, will ally with the beast. The subject of Anti-Christ is a very
interesting one; on it men have written and speculated much and wildly.
In studying a subject of this kind, we should first ascertain the
Scripture teachings on it, then look for the preparative signs in the
Church and world, and finally, for the counterpart, which, once in
existence, no one can fail to recognise. The time, person, and work of
Anti-Christ have been very clearly set forth in the Old and New
Testaments, especially by Isaiah, in the fourteenth chapter and twelfth
to sixteenth verses; by Daniel in the seventh and eleventh chapters,
under the symbolism of this little horn; by Paul in second Thessalonians,
second chapter and first to twelfth verses; also by John in Revelation,
thirteenth chapter and nineteenth chapter and twentieth verse, besides
many other references.
Of Anti-Christ the early Christian fathers had different views. 1st.
Some thought that he would be Satan assuming the appearance of a man.
2nd. Some thought he would be a hybrid, the offspring of Satan by a
harlot; of this opinion were Lactantius and Sulspitius. 3rd. Hilary,
Jerome, and others thought he would be Satan incarnated. 4th.
Chrysostom, Theopolact, and Theodoret thought he would be a real man
under the influence of the devil. This latter view we accept as being
the nearest to the Scripture teaching. In the Scriptures he goes by the
names of Lucifer, man of sin, son of perdition, and that wicked one. Now
all these names are indicative of some special feature of his character.
Man of sin points out the intensity of the person in wickedness. As some
time ago a man was called “the wickedest man in New York,” so Anti-Christ
will be called the man of sin, having been the greatest sinner of human
kind.
From the Scriptures we find that he will be characterised by some twenty
peculiarities. These we will just enumerate: a cunning seducer, a vile
imposter, a bold blasphemer, a great tyrant, a wonderful organiser and
diplomatist; hence he will readily make alliances with other kings and
strengthen himself; a pretentious and hypocritical Communist, dividing
his lands, money, and treasure among the people; he will be very
ambitious and aspiring, doing or being anything so he may gain his point;
he will be very self-willed; he will be very boastful, speaking great
words; he will be very cruel, not heeding the plea of woman; he will be
very sacrilegious, sitting in the temple of God—that is, the new temple,
built by the returned Jews—and actually claim to be God; he will be a
scientific spiritualist, able to work miracles, even to bring fire down
from the clouds; he will be very powerful by his alliance, apparent
generosity, and scientific deception; he will be a great liar, making
treaties and breaking them whenever it suits him; he will be very wicked,
guilty of all manner of crime; his reign will be short as a king, only
about three-and-a-half years. Before this he will have been a man of
power and position. He will suddenly be destroyed in the time of a
fearful uprising of the people; he will remain unburied in the streets of
Jerusalem for a time, then, finally, his remains will be burnt up. These
and many other facts inspiration furnish us beforehand of this most
wonderful character.
Against this person our Saviour warned the Jews and all the Church, but
especially the Jews, and He did so for special reasons, which will appear
hereafter in this discourse. Christ said, “I am come in My Father’s
name, and ye receive Me not; if another shall come in his own name, him
ye shall receive.” At the time of Anti-Christ’s death there will be
raging a fearful war, and coincident with this war there will be another
Saint Bartholomew massacre in several of the ten-toed kingdoms. The
beast and Anti-Christ are to be destroyed about the same time. It will
be the last plot of the Jesuits, who are hounding to death poor Leo.
XIII. A glimpse of that time the Saviour showed to His disciples, when
He said: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the
beginning of the world, to this time, no, nor ever shall be; and except
those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for
the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. Then, if any man shall
say unto you, Lo! here is Christ, or there, believe it not; for there
shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs
and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the
very elect. Behold! I have told you before” (Matt. xxiv. 21–25).
What a warning the Saviour gave the Jews, but how little have they and
the Church heeded it! In the second century appeared the famous Bar
Cochebas, with his thousands of followers, who in his final struggle was
slain with some sixty thousand of his adherents. Also, think of
Antiochus Epiphanes and his terrible delusions, the thousands and tens of
thousands who flocked to his standard. So marvellous was this delusion,
that many have actually made him out to be Anti-Christ, but those who
thus reason take the shadow for the substance, and do violence to all
true Scripture exegesis. Antiochus Epiphanes could not be Anti-Christ,
for he was out of time, and meets but few of the special conditions of
Anti-Christ. History records the appearance of not less than twenty-five
Anti-Christs, or persons who have claimed to be the Messiah of the Jews.
How unbelief exposes a man or a people!
Some have laboured to make it appear that Mahommed was Anti-Christ, but
with all his badness, he is not bad enough to be Anti-Christ. He reviled
not God, he never sat in His temple, he did not die in Jerusalem. He had
an honourable burial.
Some have tried to prove that Romanism and the Pope were Anti-Christ, but
this cannot be, you will see at a glance. The beast has its own
character; that was long ago written out by the prophets, and up to the
present time it has filled in the outlines with a marvellous minuteness.
In these things many good and wise men have erred in making prophecies
fit certain persons, and nations, and times, instead of waiting for these
things to fit on to prophecy. Let us not be prophetic forgers. Let no
one deceive you in these matters. Adventism, Millerism, Shakerism,
Spiritualism, are untimely excesses. As systems they are, as yet, out of
place. This subject of Anti-Christ, as to who he will be, and when he
will appear, I shall be obliged to leave for next Sunday evening, as my
time is up. May the good Lord guide us into the ways of truth and peace.
ANTI-CHRIST AND LITTLE HORN.
DISCOURSE X.
SECOND DISCOURSE OF THE MONSTER—WHO HE WILL BE AND HIS NAME—HOW HE WILL
OBTAIN POWER—TROUBLE FOR GERMANY, FRANCE, AND
RUSSIA—COMMUNISM—ROMANISM—SHAKERS—MATTHIAS, WEST—CHESTER PROPHET.
“Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come,
except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be
revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he, as
God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”—2
Thess. ii. 3, 4.
We may reasonably ask why Paul gave the Thessalonians this caution, and
the answer will appear at once if we read his first epistle to this
people. There you will find Paul writing to them about the second coming
of Christ, which writing the Thessalonians had evidently misunderstood,
and this misunderstanding was working mischief among them. They had
false hopes and expectations. Their faith, instead of exciting them to
holy activity in Church and State, had begun to paralyse all their
efforts. “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that _we_
which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent
them which are asleep; for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God;
and the dead in Christ shall rise first (that is, before Christ
descends); then _we_ which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so
shall _we_ ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. iv. 15–17). It was the
frequent use of the pronoun “we” that had confused them—_we_ who remain,
_we_ who are alive. The Thessalonians had inferred from this that the
second coming of Christ would take place in their day. Hence, to correct
this impression Paul thus writes in his second epistle. The two verses
preceding the text show us Paul’s intent. “Now we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together
unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by
spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ
is at hand.” Then comes in the text, “Let no man deceive you,” &c.
In reasoning on such important subjects as Anti-Christ, resurrection, and
second coming of Christ, we should always be mindful of the Scriptural
order. When we sit down to take dinner, we follow the order that custom
has prescribed, soup, fish, meats, and dessert. Children, however, if
let alone, would reverse this order by beginning with the dessert first.
So with many Christians, they reverse the order of things as laid down in
the Bible. They make Christ to come before Anti-Christ, and Anti-Christ
to come before the Jews and Ten Lost Tribes are gathered together again
and settled after their first estate in Palestine. The Millerites could
neither have deceived themselves nor others had they taken knowledge of
the relation of things. The Jews and Lost Tribes had not been gathered
together then, the temple had not been built in Jerusalem, as described
in the last chapter of Ezekiel, neither had Anti-Christ appeared. But
such was the folly of men then, and not less now than then. Four-fifths
of the prophecies of the Bible refer to the history of Judah and Israel
in their own land, their captivity and return in the latter day. Still
men take one-fifth and confuse themselves and everybody else. They have
brought the prophets and prophecy into bad repute by ignorantly or
wilfully interpreting the same.
We freely avow now that the prophecy fulfilling at present is the finding
of the Lost Ten Tribes, then their union with the Jews, then their
restoration to Palestine, then after being settled there for some time,
the Jews, as Jews, having built their new temple, and having established
the Mosaic temple service again, and the Lost Tribes as Christians, then
and there we may look for Anti-Christ—not before. Not for the sake of
boasting, and yet without fear, we freely invite ministers or laymen
anywhere to disprove these facts, and to such we will respond cheerfully
if asked for farther proof. The Lost Tribes, we believe, are come to
light, and may be found in the Saxon race chiefly as represented in this
country and Great Britain. If this be so, then we may look for the
preparatory signs in Providence and nations, and thank Heaven, these are
at hand and in accord with the Divine Word.
In Nebuchadnezzar’s metallic image we saw Rome symbolised by the legs,
composed of iron and clay. We saw, also, that the little stone cut out
of the mountain began its destructive assault on the image, by striking
the feet; these it would first break, so Rome politically has
disappeared. The ten toes, however, symbolised ten kings or kingdoms
that were to arise in the latter day, or at the time of the end. These
ten kingdoms are also symbolised in Daniel’s dream by ten horns that came
out of the head of the nondescript animal that stood for Rome. It is out
of one of these ten horns that another little horn grows, having eyes
like a man and a mouth speaking great things—that is, Anti-Christ. It is
at once plain, then, that ere Anti-Christ can appear, these ten kingdoms
must be formed. How, when, and where will these ten kingdoms be formed?
The clay part of Rome is still alive, and is designated by Daniel, and by
John in Revelation, under the name of beast; and here you need to be
careful, for the word beast is sometimes given to Anti-Christ, so as not
to confound it with the word beast when it stands for the Romish Church.
They will be formed out of Spain, Italy, France, and part of Austria.
Edom, Moab, and the sons of Ammon in Austria, are to be free—that is, the
Poles, Magyars, and Hungarians. The setting up of these ten kingdoms
will begin in France by a revolution.
By the doctrine of infallibility, these countries are claimed by Rome,
and wedded to her, and this doctrine of infallibility makes a divorce
impossible. Rome waits only her time to reclaim her supposed own. And
this doctrine of infallibility will make it a holy war, hence good and
true Catholics everywhere will be obliged to sustain the same by their
money, or presence, or prayers. This, to many of our Catholic friends,
will sound strange. But this they know, if such an emergency ever does
arise—they cannot well fight against the infallible Church—between
commands and duties, they will readily prefer the Pope and Church to king
and country.
The Jesuits are now, and have long been, preparing for such an event:
they expect it. By their plottings and intrigues they will again, as
many times before, involve the Church in war. They are busy sowing the
seeds of discord. In past time both the Church itself and nations have
banished these crafty fellows from their pale and country. The United
States alone, of the nations of the earth, is the only one that has not
so done. But even among us they are plotting and manœuvring to such an
extent that it will not be long before America will be tested and tried
on this same subject.
Among the preparatory signs of the coming of Anti-Christ we have
Communism, which is destined to spread. In Europe it will unsettle every
throne but one—that is, Israel, England. We fear that neither the Church
nor State comprehend the terrible power that is thus quietly organising
in this and other lands. It is this uprising of the Communists and
intriguing of the Jesuits in our own land, that will call General Grant
once more to the front, as we pointed out to you months ago. The recent
European Congress resulted in patching up a temporary peace between
Russia, England, and Turkey. A place will be provided for the Duke of
Edinburgh, who, having married the Czar’s daughter, will enable the two
Powers to agree. He may not be the first prince, still he and his seed
are to find a kingdom in that place. Russia will be willing for England
to have Constantinople, and exercise a provisional protectorate over
Turkey, with a view of strengthening his daughter’s chances. England
will thus come peaceably in possession of Palestine.
Germany, being tied to both the Russian and English thrones by blood and
marriage, will also freely consent. Besides, Germany is going to pass
through a severe trial. The old Emperor will soon die, and also
Bismarck, then a new prince will advise the new king, new counsel, and
new blood, near and on the throne. Germany will become a prey to
internal strife, fanned by the discontented Catholics of the Empire, that
number some 15,000,000, and weakened by the Communistic elements. Not
much longer can Germany bear the strain of her immense army and enormous
taxes in consequence.
Russia also will have all she can do to stay the desire for reform, and
the claims of the Nihilists or Communists. Thus will Providence prepare
His people’s way back to Palestine.
If God promises once He does so fifty times, that He will restore Israel
and Judah to their own land. To this one thing all Providence is
concentrating, and this is the key that unseals prophecy and Providence.
“And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to
return, and will build them as at the first” (Jer. xxxiii. 7). They will
form a free province, electing their own rulers and governors. They will
be quite democratic, doing away with all titles, being the children of
the Lord. “And the nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor
shall proceed from the midst of them” (Jer. xxx. 21); or, as stated by
Isaiah, chap, i, verse 26, “And I will restore thy judges as at the
first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning; afterward thou shalt be
called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.” Thus they will be
a free province, managing their own affairs under the patronage and
protection of England. Now it is this freedom that will open the door
and prepare the way for Anti-Christ. He will be elected governor because
of his supposed superiority in manners, science, and benevolence. He
will appear as a lamb at first, according to John, but once in power his
true character will appear. He will be a great scientist, and in the
eyes and faith of the multitude He will be able to work miracles—to
bring, scientifically, fire down from heaven. So clever will he be that
he will deceive some of the very elect.
Before his election he will have been a man of great power and influence.
Once in power he will contrive to centre all power and interests in
himself. He will pander to the Communists—to the Romish Church—to the
scientific infidels of the day. In this feature he will draw heavily
upon the Germans, and create quite a sympathy in England and this
country. “For some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and
to purge, and to make them white even to the time of the end” (Dan. xi.
35).
The Scriptures having pointed out the special features of his character,
we see that many of these features are already in the world. This is
Anti-Christ. This is the spirit of Anti-Christ. And when God withdraws
His restraining power, Anti-Christ will embody all these forces and
characteristics in himself. And all men having these features, will
sympathise with him, and aid him. God alone is now keeping back and down
this spirit of Anti-Christ until His own chosen time. “And now ye know
what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time; for the mystery
of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let until he
be taken out of the way (that is, till God withdraws Himself), and then
shall that wicked be revealed.”
Anti-Christ means one opposed to Christ. Also it means one opposed to
Christ, and yet desires to be Christ—who wishes to be received as Christ.
And when the time comes, he will be received by many. The Jews will be
looking for, and expecting the coming of, their Messiah, hence many of
these will be deceived. Many radical Adventists and Millenarians will
accept him, because they are in haste in their expectations: many of
these will follow him. Indeed, the whole world seems ripe to furnish him
a quota. But who will he be? Answer: He will be a French Jew, who will
intermarry into the Bonaparte family. His title will be Napoleon I. of
Palestine. This word Napoleon, resolved into Greek equivalents, is equal
to Apollyon, and as a number stands for 666. “Here is wisdom. Let him
that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the
number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six” (Rev.
viii. 18).
Christ, when warning the Jews of Anti-Christ, said, “I am come in My
Father’s name, and ye receive Me not; if another shall come in his own
name, him ye will receive.” Here, and in other discourses, we have to
content ourselves at many points with mere statements, for to defend
every point would take too long a time, and would not suit our purpose.
It is our desire in all these discourses to incite you to study, to teach
you to examine for yourselves; to prepare you against being unduly led
away by Adventism, Communism, or Infidelity; to give you an interest in
Providence and history. Do you ask if any will be led away by such a
false pretender? We answer, Yes—unless humanity undergoes some radical
change. Take a few instances:—
Our Shaker friends believed in Mother Ann Lee. This woman in 1770, while
living in Manchester, England, pretended to have a special revelation
from Heaven, making known unto her that she was the female side of
Christ—as Jesus was the revelation of the male side. As Eve was taken
out of Adam, the female principle separated from the male, so she was
separated from Christ. This, and much that is curious, do these sincere,
honest, and industrious people believe.
Take another example, nearer home, and of which some of you are
cognizant, having known the pretender and many of his duped followers.
We refer to Matthias, the prophet of Westchester County. This pretended
lord began his labours in Albany, N.Y., in 1830. First he taught himself
to be God’s high priest, then the Saviour, then he claimed to be God. On
being asked where he was from, he would answer: “I am a traveller, and my
legal residence is Zion Hill, Westchester County, New York State. I am a
Jewish teacher and priest of the Most High God, saying and doing all that
I do, under oath, by virtue of my having subscribed to all the covenants
that God hath made with man from the beginning up to this time. I am
chief high priest of the Jews of the Order of Melchizedec, being the last
chosen of the twelve apostles, and the first in the resurrection which is
at the end of 2,300 years from the birth of Mahommed, which terminates in
1830. I am now denouncing judgment on the Gentiles, and that judgment is
to be executed in this age.”
He appeared in fine pontifical robes, with a rule six feet long in his
right hand; with this he was to measure off God’s holy city. In his left
hand he had a two-edged sword. Underneath his pontifical robe he had a
rich olive broadcloth cloak, lined and faced with silk and velvet;
besides, he wore a brown frock coat, with several stars on each breast,
with a splendid gold star on the left. His belt was of white cloth,
fastened by a golden clasp, and surmounted with an eagle. He wore a
cocked hat of black beaver, trimmed with green, the rear angle being
surmounted by the golden symbol of glory.
He moved from Albany to New York, and here succeeded most wonderfully,
winning over some of the finest families of Fifth Avenue, and the richest
and best merchants of this city. His followers furnished him with plenty
of money, carriages, a mansion in the city, and one in the country.
Finally he was accused and detected of the worst crimes, and at last was
sent to Sing Sing. While in jail he issued the following proclamation:
“As I live, there shall be no more sowing in the earth until I, the
twelfth and last of the apostles, am delivered out of the house of
bondage.” For fear of this proclamation many of the farmers refused to
sow, and they set to work to deliver him, and succeeded. He left the
jail, and may be living yet to read what we now state to you.
It is really wonderful how easily men are deceived in religious matters.
Let us study the Word, ask God’s guidance in knowing and doing His will.
Time is gone. I have said but little, much more might be said. In my
next discourse I will introduce you to two old men who will visit
Anti-Christ.
THE TWO WITNESSES.
DISCOURSE XI.
TROUBLOUS TIMES—APPEARANCE OF THE WITNESSES—WHO ARE THEY?—HOW THEY CAN BE
IDENTIFIED—THEIR MISSION, WORK, AND SUFFERING—THE TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCES
OF CHRIST’S COMING.
“And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy
a thousand two hundred and three-score days, clothed in
sackcloth.”—Rev. ii. 3.
We will all agree that the person and work of Anti-Christ are yet in the
future. For while Anti-Christ is ruling in Jerusalem, and battling with
the saints of the Most High, having conquered and plucked up by the roots
three of the ten-horned kingdoms by his victories and cunning craft, and
his alliance with the beast or the Church of Rome, he will become proud,
blasphemous, and arrogant, and will at once try to force the people to
worship the beast. He will claim to be the promised Jewish Messiah. He
will enter the new Jewish Temple and actually sit enthroned as God
incarnated, commanding the people to worship him. He will be so received
by the Jews, some of the Israelites and the Romish Church, by the
Communists and scientific infidels, and by “such as do wickedly against
the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries,” men of understanding shall
fall; indeed, Christianity will seem to be about destroyed.
Russia will aid by her influence his pretensions with a secret purpose to
take the spoils and gain her long-desired object, Jerusalem and
Palestine. England will stand aloof for a time, waiting an opportunity
to interfere. Then will be a time to try men’s faith—to test the Church.
England and America will stand alone as representing freedom and
religious liberty. “And then shall many be offended and shall betray one
another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise
and deceive many; and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many
shall wax cold; but he that shall endure unto the end shall be saved.”
This is the time when Communism, infidelity, and Romish Jesuitism will
combine against God and liberty, and, thank heaven, this is the time
appointed when they all will be destroyed. Then the kingdoms of this
world will be given to the saints of the Most High. The struggle will be
fierce, long, and terrible, but victory will be on the Lord’s side.
In the very midst of these awful times there will appear two famous
persons as witnesses for Jesus: one who will specially appear to the
Jews, the other to Israel, and both testify for God and Jesus. These two
witnesses will turn the tide of battle, confront Anti-Christ and his
host, and give to the world new views of God and Providence.
These two old men, or witnesses, will be endowed with miraculous power to
bring fire down from heaven, or turn the water streams into blood, and
smite the earth with all manner of plagues, as often as they will. Their
presence and power will cast a gloom o’er the nations of the earth, and
Anti-Christ and his allies. They will finally be slain in the streets of
Jerusalem. At the time of their death a great feast will be held to
commemorate the victories of Anti-Christ, and to inaugurate the setting
up of an image of him in the temple. So in the city there will be
peoples, kindreds, and tongues of many nations. And they will see the
dead bodies of the two witnesses lying exposed and unburied in the
streets for three days and a-half, for Anti-Christ will not suffer them
to be buried. On the wings of the wind, by the telegraph and by signals,
the news of their death will spread rapidly abroad to all the nations of
the earth. Infidelity, and Communism, and the Jesuits will be
emboldened. Feasting and rejoicing will be the order of the day. “And
they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them and make merry,
and shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented
them that dwelt upon the earth.” That will be the merry wake for you—a
wake that will suddenly end, and that too, before the corpses are buried.
The victories will be cut short and the rejoicing checked.
The spirit of life from God shall enter into the two exposed and
corrupting bodies, and they shall stand upon their feet to defy
Anti-Christ and his host, and laugh at the pains of death. Great fear
will fall upon them who saw the dead so raised. This time the telegraphs
will be muffled, and the news is kept back from the nations as much as
possible; but astonishment ends not here, for over the destroying and now
idolatrous city of Jerusalem hangs a peculiar cloud, and voices peal as
thunder through the air, to call the attention of the multitudes. And
when every eye is skyward, the cloud moves and opens, as a chariot of
fire and glory, and rising in majesty and composure up above roofs,
temples, and pinnacles, will be seen the two witnesses of Christ; they
enter in and are borne heavenward. “And they ascended up to heaven in a
cloud, and their enemies beheld them.” Then, while the multitude are
wrapt in wonder and all amazement, the pinnacles sway to and fro, the
houses rock, the earth trembles, the walls of the city fall, and Olivet
cleaves in twain. Then Anti-Christ is slain with many of his followers,
and the remnant fear unto repentance. “And the same hour there was a
great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city fell, and in the
earthquake were slain of men seven thousand, and the remnant were
affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. And the seventh angel
sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of
this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He
shall reign for ever and ever.”
These are some of the wonders yet to come. Then how say some that
Anti-Christ has already been? The witnesses have not yet appeared: they
have not yet wrought their miracles. The Lost Ten Tribes and the
scattered Jews have not yet been gathered from all countries whither the
Lord God hath scattered them, and placed in their own land, to go out no
more, to be plucked up no more. Jerusalem is yet being trodden under
foot, the land is comparatively desolate, no temple yet adorns the city,
nor priest, nor Levite, attend at the altar. Pshaw! upon the Biblical
interpreters of this day, who wilfully or ignorantly careen through the
line of prophecies, despising the order established by God. They are
like the girl with her novel, who cannot wait to read through the book,
and take events in their order, but she turns to the last leaf to find
the destiny of her hero. So men, borne by passion and choice, skip by
several of the prophecies, and harp everlastingly on the last—the coming
of the blessed Jesus—“He whom the heavens must receive until the times of
restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His
holy prophets since the world began” (Acts iii. 21). The world is not
yet ready for Christ; it is yet too much upside down, too much confused.
But God is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. It does not now
look like God; so God and Christ, Providence and the Church, must work on
till the house is in order for His return. “_Hon dei ouranon men
dexasthai archri chronon apokataseos panton_,” whom, indeed, heaven must
retain until the time of restoration of all things. If things are not
now restored or reconciled, or in order, why, then, Christ cannot come.
He will not come to put them in order; this He has left for and with the
Church to do, and has promised to be with His Church to the end.
A few Sunday evenings ago, a brother kindly asked me where the Church
would be while Anti-Christ was reigning. I simply said anywhere and
everywhere, wherever it happened to be. He thought the Church would be
taken away by Christ; he referred me to several passages. I said, Come
next Sunday evening, as those passages will be partly considered in my
next sermon. He replied that he might be taken up by that time. All
right, I said, then we will excuse you. Now, in the name of common
sense, why have men, and why do men, down through the centuries, and now,
entertain such views? Because every Bible reader must see that there are
many prophecies that must be fulfilled before Christ can come—one of
which is the appearance of the two witnesses of the text. They will be
specially sent and commissioned to testify for Christ, as against
Anti-Christ.
Let us now ascertain who these two witnesses are, or are to be. I find
on examining the subject all manner of views set forth. And, as is often
the case in studying a subject of this kind, I find few that agree—so
much so, that at last I found relief in turning from what men said and
thought to what God in His Holy Word had written and said.
First. They are two men. Second. They are sent to Jerusalem which,
because of the wickedness of the city at the time of their visit, will be
called Sodom and Egypt; but, lest we should mistake the place from these
names, John adds: “Where also our Lord was crucified.” So Isaiah i. 10
says: “Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the
law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.” This fixes safely the place.
Besides, the place is pointed out from the fact that they oppose
Anti-Christ, who at that time we know will be at Jerusalem. Third. They
are sent. You ask where they are sent from? The answer is, From heaven,
from standing before the God of the whole earth. Fourth. Who sends
them? We answer, Jesus—because the Book of the Revelation is “the
Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto John.” Fifth. What were
they sent for? In the first place they were to be special witnesses for
Jesus, for He calls them His two witnesses. In the second place, they
were to prophesy, to be prophets in the fullest sense, to forecast the
future, to interpret past and present; to work miracles; to assume
control in directing State affairs. Sixth. It is worth your careful
notice to note that they are not constituted witnesses by being sent;
they are sent because they are witnesses. They are not then to be
endowed with miraculous power; “these have power” in the present tense.
These facts, if nicely considered, will at once suggest the persons.
Whoever they are, they must have gone from earth to heaven with their
bodies, two persons who have escaped death, for their death takes place
in Jerusalem. They must have been prophets before they left earth for
heaven the first time. And in the third place, they must at some time
and place have been special witnesses for Christ. In fact, they are two
anointed ones, or, in other words, they are two persons who have been set
apart and prepared for the very visit spoken of in the text.
Daniel, when speaking of them, and the visit spoken of in the text, calls
one “the Ancient of Days;” the other one was “like the Son of Man.” He
represents these two persons as sitting in judgment on Anti-Christ, and
the seven horns, or kingdoms. “And the ten horns that were in his head
and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that
horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look
was more stout than his fellows (this is Anti-Christ). I beheld, and the
same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them, until the
Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most
High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom” (Dan. vii.
20).
Many interpret “the Ancient of Days” and the “one like the Son of Man” to
be Christ. They stagger not at the fact that there are two persons, and
that they are introduced one to another, and that the Ancient of Days
seems to be the greatest. It is nothing to such interpreters that there
are two persons; these they make one. The one looking like the Son of
Man they make out to be the Son of God, although Daniel says he only
looked like Him. The judgment spoken of by Daniel they make out to be
the general judgment, when, in fact, Daniel tells on what and where they
sat in judgment—namely, at Jerusalem. About Anti-Christ—and that
Anti-Christ is soon destroyed after this—and “as concerning the rest of
the beasts (that is, the seven horns), they had their dominion taken
away; yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.” The
vision and scene of the whole chapter belongs to this world, and the
kingdom of the saints here spoken of is as much material and political as
the other. The difference is, the rulers and people are Christians, they
are called saints.
Every throne should be double-kinged; that is God’s purpose, that is
Heaven’s plan. Christ wants no earthly throne excepting that way. As
the Creator is Lord of lords and King of kings, so Christ after His
resurrection assumed His Father’s place, and stands to us as God to the
Jews of old. All power was given to Him in heaven and in earth,
therefore, He, Christ, has long since begun His reign, and He must
continue to reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet. When
David was king over Israel and Judah, so was God. We repeat, every
throne should be double-kinged.
To this end will come these two witnesses. Who will they be? We answer,
Moses and Elijah: these are the two brave old men now living and waiting
to fulfil their mission. For hundreds of years they have been anointed.
Moses is “the Ancient of Days;” the “one like the Son of Man” is Elijah
the Tishbite. This interpretation chimes in with the Divine Word,
without twisting and distorting to make both ends meet.
We said these two were to be human: so they are. They being sent from
heaven, we said they must have passed by death with their bodies; so they
did. They were to be prophets; so they are, two of the grandest prophets
of all. They were to have power over fire and water; so they had when
they lived on earth. The bloody stream of the Nile gives witness for
Moses. The parched land and time of drought speaks of Elijah in Ahab’s
time. They both called fire down on them who sought to hurt them. They
were to be special witnesses of Christ; so they were on the Mount of
Transfiguration. These two olive trees stood one on each side of the
golden candlestick, Jesus; Peter, James, and John, testify to having seen
Moses and Elijah. These two old veterans know Christ well, hence they
will be sent to testify for Him against Anti-Christ. Moses is a Jew. He
will appeal unto the Jews, who will be found in the new temple,
performing according to the old Mosaic law. He will change and lead his
people from Anti-Christ to Christ. Elijah is an Israelite. He will
specially bear testimony to the Israelite, his long-lost, but then
restored, brethren.
More next Sunday evening on these two Christian heroes.
MOSES AND ELIJAH.
DISCOURSE XII.
MORE ABOUT THE TWO WITNESSES—MORMONISM—GOD RULING AMONG THE
NATIONS—CAREER OF THE TWO WITNESSES—ANTI-CHRIST—THE THRONE AND HOUSE OF
DAVID.
“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in
heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of
our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and
ever.”—Rev. ii. 15.
Last Sabbath evening we called your attention to two special witnesses
who are at a given time to appear at Jerusalem for a specific purpose.
At the time of their appearance Anti-Christ will be reigning with great
power and pomp. He will have succeeded in persuading the Jews and many
others that he is the promised Jewish Messiah; this claim he will be able
to sustain and confirm in the eyes of the multitude, from the very fact
that he will, to all appearance, work miracles. Nor need we query that
such a thing can take place. Look at some of the facts of our own day,
and see how pliable human nature is. There are millions of people who
sincerely believe that Leo XIII. is God’s vicegerent, and that he is
infallible. Take into account the Mormonism of this day, and see how
terrible a thing in the name of Christianity can be established and
maintained. Aye, in the nineteenth century, and in the United States of
America. Or look in upon the Spiritualists and consider their claims and
pretensions. Thousands upon thousands of them are persuaded that they
are _en rapport_ with heaven and in communication with spirits and
spirit-land. Then you will not be surprised at the pretensions, claims,
and success of Anti-Christ. In our calm and unprejudiced consideration
of these organisations, we are bound to admit that they have done more,
and owe more for their success, to deception and error, than to truth and
openness. Each in its turn has been caught in the act of deceiving, and
has been frequently exposed, but of what avail? Truly but little. We do
not mean that in these systems there is no good, for surely there is, but
that the errors and deceptions are of so glaring a kind, that we wonder
that anybody of common sense can be so easily led astray.
With these facts before us, can we wonder any longer that Anti-Christ
shall be so successful? The very occasion and peculiar times and
incidents of the reign of Anti-Christ will call for some special
manifestations on the part of the Divine One that shall soberly and
clearly confront the hollow and hypocritical pretensions of that age.
Hence the appearance of the two witnesses—Moses the Ancient of Days, and
Elijah the Tishbite, who will look like the Son of God.
Allow us to submit further evidence in proof that the two witnesses of
John in Rev. xi. are none other than Moses and Elijah: for many passages
of Holy Writ are sealed to the understanding till we comprehend who the
two witnesses are, their mission and work. We will notice the
attributive features of these witnesses as they are related by John in
this chapter—that is, Rev. xi.
In the first place, there are two persons or individualities; this
appears plainly from the tenor of the whole record. They are spoken of
as “they, them, their mouth, their feet, as dying and being resurrected.”
But, strange to say, after all this plainness of speech, men have become
so accustomed to spiritualise and generalise that Anti-Christ stood for
Rome, and naturally enough, having generalised Anti-Christ, they must do
the same with the two witnesses; hence they found them in the Churches of
the Waldenses and Albigenses. In such an interpretation nearly all the
attributive features of these witnesses are ignored. Such as that they
had power to work miracles, to lie unburied in the streets of Jerusalem
for three days and a half. Some have laboured to prove that the Old and
New Testaments were these witnesses, others that they were symbolised by
the law and Gospel. Again, some that the two sacraments, baptism and the
Lord’s supper, were these two witnesses, and so on almost without end.
These instances will suffice for our present purpose; for surely any of
you reading God’s own Word need not so blunder.
In the second place, Jesus calls them His two witnesses. Now, in what
sense were they His? for such they are now. Not that they will be His
when they appear, but they will appear to oppose Anti-Christ at Jerusalem
because they are sent. The prophets are all witnesses; for, as Peter
says, “To Him give all the prophets witness.” The apostles were
witnesses, and all believers are witnesses for Jesus; yet these two are
so in a special and pre-eminent sense. Let any one read the account of
the transfiguration of Jesus and the circumstances attendant thereon, and
all will be plain. Moses and Elias (another spelling for Elijah) we find
were present, as well as Peter, James, and John. When Christ was
transfigured, “Behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elias” (Matt,
xvii. 3). These two persons talked with Jesus, “and spake of His decease
which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.” Thus, then, they were special
witnesses for Christ, and so they will come again and witness for Him in
the time appointed.
The number of days we must take in a literal sense; here the 1,260 days
and 3½ days are the days appointed for their work and death. It is well
to remember that many of the prophetic numbers contain a double prophecy.
Thus 1,260 here may be coincident with the treading down of Jerusalem by
Mahommedanism. But whether it is or not, does not vitiate the literal
quantity when applied to these two witnesses. In the third place, they
are called two olive trees and two candlesticks standing before the God
of the whole earth. The figurative meaning will be found by finding some
passage where two trees are mentioned in the interpretation given—such a
passage by Zechariah iv. Here the prophet saw two olive trees and asked
of the angel the meaning; and the angel said, “Knowest thou not what
these be?” And I said, “No, my Lord.” Then said he, “_These are two
anointed ones_ that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” The simple
meaning is, that the two olive trees mean two persons, who are in heaven
at present, but are anointed—that is, set apart, selected for some
distinct work for God.
Moses and Elijah evidently were anointed and specially selected, for it
is probable they both escaped death. The wonder connected with the
disappearance of Moses and the translation of Elijah now finds some
measure of explanation. None doubt the translation of Elijah. John the
Baptist was not Elias, except he was to go before Christ in the spirit
and power of Elias; in this sense John stood for Elias. John the Baptist
prepared the way of Christ the first time, so will Elias for Christ’s
second coming. The record of Moses’s departure from this world is as
mysterious as it is dramatic. But, certainly, neither the mysterious nor
the dramatic have any meaning excepting we allow something Divinely
special. To die as other people, would mean nothing on the line of
specialities; but he did not so die. He went from the people alive; no
one saw him die or dead. He went up into Mount Horeb and never returned.
So, so far as the people were concerned, he was to them a dead man, for
he went from them no more to return. The word death in Hebrew has not
less than six meanings, one of which is simply to disappear. This is the
meaning that we must attach to the death of Moses. Neither his grave nor
body have ever been found.
There is a peculiar passage in the book of Jude where “Michael the
archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of
Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The
Lord rebuke thee.” Now, Satan then had power over death in some way
Divinely permitted. Paul says (Heb. ii. 14), speaking of Christ,
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also
Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might
destroy him _that had the power of death_—that is, the devil.” When God
was translating Moses, passing him by death, Satan fought with Michael,
who was God’s messenger, to inflict the sting of death on Moses, and
although Michael carried Moses on by death into the presence of God,
Satan durst not bring a railing accusation against him.
Jude, in his epistle, probably quoted from one of the now lost books of
Revelation, which was entitled, “The Ascension or Assumption of Moses the
servant of God.” The Church father, Origen, makes mention of this work,
but, like the book and prophecies of Enoch, from which Jude makes a
quotation, it has been lost, they having served their purpose. The
fairest and most generous interpretation, then, is, that Moses did not
die the ordinary death, but disappeared, was, in fact, translated,
anointed, and set apart for a special work in connection with his own
people, the Jews, in the days of the coming Anti-Christ. Thus, without
any trouble, he could appear with Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration.
And it is worthy of note that before he disappeared in Horeb—the sacred
writer is mindful to tell us “Moses was an hundred and twenty years old
when he died—_his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated_” (Deut.
xxiv. 7). But, supposing Moses died naturally, there is nothing
unreasonable or irregular in concluding that God resurrected him as a
mortal for future use. True, he will die again as a witness; so there
are in heaven now eight persons who have died twice in this world—namely:
The child raised by Elijah (1 Kings xvii. 21).
The child of Elisha (2 Kings iv. 35).
The Moabite soldier who came to life on touching the bones of Elisha (2
Kings xiii. 21).
The daughter of Jairus (Luke viii. 55).
The widow’s son at Nain (Luke vii. 15).
Lazarus of Bethany (John xi. 44).
Dorcas or Tabitha by Peter (Acts ix. 40).
Eutychus by Paul (Acts xx. 10).
Anti-Christ will be a great electrician; electricity by that time will be
a fearful power in the hands of science. Edison with his genius and
marvellous discoveries, and others of like gifts, will have perfected the
use of this agent in a wonderful degree. Anti-Christ will make use of
this power to cower his enemies and bring them in fear-subjection. He
will bring fire down from heaven. The two witnesses, however, will be
clothed with Divine power; they will be able to bring fire by a simple
command—this they both understood and used when on earth.
Moses called fire down upon the 250 rebellious Korahthites, as we read in
Numbers xvi. Ahab, the King of Israel, thought to punish and compel the
obedience of Elijah; but God gave fire from heaven in answer to the
prophet’s prayer. So when Ahaziah sent a captain and fifty men to bring
Elijah into the king’s presence, they found him sitting on the top of a
hill and commanded him to come down. “And Elijah answered and said to
the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from
heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from
heaven, and consumed him and his fifty” (2 Kings i. 10). Thus will these
two anointed ones be able to contend with Anti-Christ and all the powers
of scientific infidels. “If any man hurt these two witnesses, by the
very means used so shall they be killed.”
“These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their
prophecy, and have power over waters to turn them to blood.” To whom
would these gifts and attributes apply better than to Elijah, who in the
days of the wicked King Ahab sealed the heavens against rain for three
years and a half? and to Moses, who, when contending with Pharaoh, turned
the sweet flowing Nile into a stream of blood? What two prophets had
such a wide range of prophetic energy and liberty as Moses and Elijah?
None. Well may the Revelator say, then, of them, that they can smite the
earth with all manner of plagues as often as they will.
By awful and sublime manifestations the world shall see that God rules in
the heaven and on the earth. They shall learn that Anti-Christ is a
false Christ. Then shall fear and repentance fall upon the people. The
Jews shall be convinced, and converted, and persuaded by the appearance
of their beloved Moses. They shall know of a truth that the Messiah has
been, and is waiting to come again. Referring to that time the prophet
Zechariah calls it a time of trembling, the time of a terrible siege.
But he tells us that “The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first,
that the glory of the House of David, and the glory of the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, do not magnify themselves against Judah.” Thus we learn that
the Jews, who have been so long despised and bereft of a king, country,
and government, shall see through the great mystery of Providence first.
The House of David is found in the royal family of England. The Jews,
seeing this, will invite, in concert with all the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the English Government to take charge of their affairs.
“Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered
together and appoint themselves one _head_” (Hosea i. 2). The Jews will
then be Christians. “For they shall look upon Him whom they have
pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son.”
At this time the whole world will be amazed and confounded at the
destruction of Anti-Christ and his host. The Jews, the House of David,
and the Lost Tribes, Israel, the Saxons, will hold a council in
Jerusalem. David’s house, which God selected, and throne, both of which
the Almighty promised perpetuity to, shall be found and recognised in the
English throne and royal family. The Saxon race shall distinctively
appear as long-lost Israel. So that the Jews, and David’s House, and
Israel, will unite and acknowledge Christ as Lord and Master. They will
make known to America, who stands for Manasseh, and all the colonies, the
decision of the said council; all parties will see, and accept, and
federate for the world’s conquest and peace.
This federation of the ancient people, the literal seed of Abraham, will
cause jealousies and alliances on the part or rest of the world,
excepting some portions of France, Austria, and Prussia. The beast,
dragon, and Anti-Christ’s force, that will survive the shock of the two
witnesses, will all unite for an onslaught upon England, but especially
Palestine. Russia, though nominally Christian, will join the beast or
Romish Church. The dragon means the Pagan portion of the world. Thus
will be inaugurated the battle of Armageddon, the issues of which we are
permitted to know through Revelation. Then will the kingdoms of this
world become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ.
With many, and to many, these things are but as dreams; they are
chimerical. But one thing is certain: the history of the Church and
Providence in the future are appallingly grand. Providence was grand in
leading forth His people of old from Egypt. But He will be no less grand
when He shall set His hand a second time to recover His people as He has
promised to do.
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a
righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute
judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and
Israel shall dwell safely, and this is His name whereby He shall be
called, The Lord our Righteousness.” (That is, the ruler of God’s
choice—a king, then, in fact, by Divine right.) “Therefore, behold, the
days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth,
which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but,
The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the House of
Israel out of the North country, and from all countries whither I had
driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land” (Jer. xxiii. 68).
God has now one of the seed of David on the throne, and He has a Jew
doing her bidding, executing her decrees over and for Israel. For though
Israel were to be numerous and powerful, yet to David’s seed belongs the
throne.
The recent Congress was but a forerunner of the one yet to come. The
crownless king, Disraeli, who forced the Congress, is, perhaps, an
unconscious instrument in the hands of Providence. But whether he be or
not, he is hastening on the day with lightning speed. Forth from the
recent Congress he goes, having once again linked the destinies of
England to the Continent, which has been so strangely severed, till
Russia, Italy, Austria, France, and Spain might each test the other, and
each find their appointed place. Now, again, England pledges herself a
Continental Power—nay, more—an Asiatic Power. She will come forth from
the Congress the virtual ruler of Turkey, the owner of Palestine.
BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON.
DISCOURSE XIII.
THE COMBATANTS ON BOTH SIDES—WHO “THE KINGS OF THE EAST” ARE—THE GREAT
NAPOLEONIC IDEA—DISRAELI, LINCOLN AND GRANT—ENGLAND’S POLICY IN
TURKEY—FUTURE WARS AND INTRIGUES—THE GREAT BATTLE-FIELD—GATHERING OF THE
NATIONS—EARTHQUAKES—JERUSALEM A SEAPORT.
“And He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew
tongue Armageddon.”—Rev. xvi. 16.
Christian students and prophetic writers are generally agreed on three
things touching this great event. First, that there is to be such a
decisive battle fought. Second, that it will take place in some part of
Palestine. Third, that this great struggle will be final, the end of
war, the beginning of the Millennium morn.
In the Scriptures the contestants are pointed out, as they rally under
the standards of the _dragon_, the beast, and _Anti-Christ_ on one side,
and on the other, under the standard of David, will be the _called_, the
_chosen_, and the _faithful_; or, in other words, the Ten Lost Tribes as
found chiefly in the Saxon race, with all who sincerely believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ.
In another sermon we pointed out to you the plain fact of the existence
of David’s throne and David’s seed as found and seen specially in the
throne of England. We there see how faithfully God has kept His promise
to David and His people. For God frequently told David that his throne
should be established unto all generations, and of David’s seed there
should never be wanting a man to sit thereon. It is the permanence, the
grandeur, and progressive character of this throne and people that make
it a fitting type of Christ and His Church. Nay, more, it is on this
throne that Christ now sits, so far as this world goes; and it is through
this people that He reigns, and He will and must reign until He has
conquered a universal peace. It is a delusion too long entertained by
the Church to think that David’s throne and seed have not now, nor for
centuries had, an existence. It is a delusion that we should not
entertain for a moment to think that the Ten Tribes of Israel are lost
for ever, or that their work or mission is fulfilled. As surely as the
Two Tribes, Judah and Levi, now exist, fulfilling and filling in the
outlines of prophetic history, so surely are Reuben, Simeon, Zebulun,
Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh in
existence, answering the purpose of an all-seeing Providence.
Who are the kings of the East spoken of in the Scriptures? We answer,
They are the royal ones of the House of David. The word king, both in
Hebrew and Greek, means such. This seed God chose, and made them royal
by that very selection. They have been away from their own land,
Palestine, wandering and dwelling in the West. But God in Providence is
preparing a way for their return. In connection with the pouring out of
the sixth vial upon the great river of the Euphrates, or upon Turkey, as
most writers agree, the waters are to dry up—that is, Turkey is to decay,
to be absorbed. And why? “That the way of the kings of the East might
be prepared” (Rev. xvi. 12).
These kings have been away from the East, and their return is assured,
and the preparation for such return is to be seen at this time and in
connection with the decay of Turkey. If Turkey, as symbolised by the
river Euphrates, is drying up, then these kings must be advancing
Eastward; and so they are.
The crownless king, Disraeli, who, like many other men God has raised up,
is for these times an index finger pointing out the way of Providence.
He is a receptive agent of Divine force, to the intent that he may
interpret a Divine purpose. He may know, or he may not know, that he is
so directed of heaven. The prophets of old were seldom permitted to
interpret or understand their own prophecies. If they asked, like
Daniel, the meaning, they were told to “go their way,” for oftentimes the
words were “closed up and sealed until the time of the end.” No wonder
this man, against all England nearly, and to the amazement of all the
world, proclaims the Queen of England the Empress of India, for the way
of the kings of the East must be prepared.
Napoleon Bonoparte’s grand idea was to prepare the way of the kings of
the East and make himself and his descendants these kings. “Conquer
England and the world is ours,” he said. But when his secret and
well-prepared assault on England was revealed and frustrated by a chain
of providential events, he hit upon another plan to get possession of
Palestine. Seventy years ago he invited all the leading Jews of the
world to a secret council in Paris; he wished them to aid him in getting
possession of Palestine. He pretended to want their return. He gave
them certain privileges and laboured to procure more from the other
nations; he did much for the Jews in enlarging their liberties and taking
away from them the curse of society. The one idea that is distinctly
Napoleonic, is to possess Palestine. The late Napoleon had his idea, and
in his day this idea had become a part of France; so much so, that France
thought herself to be then and now the real protector of Palestine. It
was for this idea that she allied with England and Turkey in the Crimean
war. It was to keep Russia back from possessing the holy places. Not
till France was weakened could England advance on her way East rapidly;
so Germany was used to destroy her prestige and cause her to stand aside
till England proceeds on her way homeward.
It was a comely sight, some five years ago, to see two Jews closeted
together making a secret bargain—one had power, the other had money. The
man of power asked the man of money to lend him twenty million dollars;
it was done. At once the man of power purchases with this twenty
millions part of his fatherland back again—the Suez Canal. This very
canal is on the boundary of the land of Palestine as given to Abraham
centuries ago. By this very route the old patriarch entered the Promised
Land. It was fitting, indeed, that this should be the first piece
purchased back. No one knew save those directly interested. England
murmured and France protested, but the thing was done. Poor France,
bleeding and divided, could do but little; for Disraeli and Rothschild
had done the work. The way of the kings of the East must be prepared.
So on they go. A man who executes a Divine purpose is always strong.
Abraham Lincoln, in the history of our country, was so chosen and led of
God. The politicians, and statesmen, and generals, and many of the
people were against him at first; but the Lord was with him, so he
marched on to victory, the country following in the wake. And though
dead, not forgotten, the country and the civilised world are marching on
after him, and now they have nearly overtaken him. Lincoln’s ideas and
the country’s are nearly equal. A man led of God is generally a good
distance behind, and the people led by such a man are equally as far
behind him as he is behind God. But this nation and Abraham Lincoln are
now one, and in those things in which they once were divided they are a
unit, with more than the honoured Lincoln; for they are a unit with God
and providence. Thus follows the English nation in the wake of Disraeli,
and the world is coming on behind, and the day will come when all will be
a unit. It does not shock our idea of human honesty much when we learn
that this crownless king played a double game with Russia and Turkey. It
is intensely Jewish, but if it were only Jewish, then it would be very
detestable; it is more, it is Divine in part. “Had the princes of this
world known, they would not have crucified the Prince of Glory.” Had the
princes of the late Berlin Congress known the double game being played by
one of the quietest of their number, they would not have done as they
did. Turkey in Asia was given over to England’s protection, aye, yes,
that included Palestine. The island of Cyprus is given over
entirely—surely the way of the kings of the East is being grandly
prepared.
Why did not the Congress hand over to England’s protection Turkey in
Europe? For reasons good and sufficient. Turkey in Europe will be the
cause of much strife, of several wars, and of strange alliances; hence it
would not have done for Israel-England to be mixed up with it.
Constantinople alone, of European Turkey, England will keep. Israel is
to be much preserved from war, until the great battle of Armageddon comes
on. Against that time she will have to husband her strength and
resources. It is marvellous now to think that what the Congress settled
as belonging to England, none dispute—all is peace. But Russia’s share
and Austria’s are in arms. Servia, Greece, Roumania, and all the Turkish
provinces rebel and are in a state of disquietude, that portends war and
strife again in a few years. But England will have nothing to do with
it, excepting that Russia and Austria, with the consent of Germany,
Italy, and France, are to set a precedent for England, which in a few
years she will need. It is plain that if Russia and Austria can force by
arms the conditions of the Berlin Congress, England will be at liberty to
do the same without any interference even from France. The Congress
handed over to England’s keeping Turkey. England, then, can make Turkey
do her bidding by force of arms sustained by the very precedent already
set. Thus will Israel-England open up Palestine for Christian
settlement. The Mahommedans will murmur and resist to have the holy
places taken from them, but no matter; England, when the time comes, will
enforce it. It is just here that Turkey and England will dispute, and in
each dispute England will find a reason for drawing the lines a little
tighter around poor Turkey.
The contestants on one side at the great battle of Armageddon, you
remember, are the dragon, the beast, and Anti-Christ. Now what people is
represented by the term dragon? We answer, the Pagan nations and
authorities, just as the Chinese have on their standards to-day a dragon,
as we have the eagle. The Mahommedans, Hindoos, Brahmins, Buddhists, and
all Pagan idolaters, are summed up in the word dragon. At present,
England is tolerant with the subjects and adherents of these different
worshippers and religions; but the time will come when she will no longer
tolerate the same; thus will they arraign themselves against her in the
battle of Armageddon. This will come to pass as the gradual destruction
of Mormonism in our country. This system has been fortified by law; now
laws are being arraigned against it. It is now only tolerated, and in a
short time it will be wiped out of existence.
The final battle referred to in the text is to occur at a place called in
the Hebrew tongue Armageddon, the literal meaning of which is at the
mount of Megido. In olden times there was a city called Megiddon; it
stood in what is now called the great plain of Esdraelon—a plain that
lies midway between the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean. It was
also called Jezreel. The prophet Hosea speaks of this place, battle, and
time, all by this one word. Referring to the time when the children of
Judah and of Israel are gathered together under one head in their own
land, he says, “For great shall be the day of Jezreel” (Hos. i. 11). It
is spoken of in the Scriptures and history as the valley of Jehoshaphat,
because here Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah, gained a great victory; for
here the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel, as He will in the
coming battle. Joel iii. 12 says, referring to this coming struggle,
“Let the heathen be waked up and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for
there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.”
There is one name given to this time and battle that is very significant
and striking. Have you ever noticed it? If not, let me call your
attention to it. It is called “That great day of God Almighty,” by John
in the chapter of the text. The day of the Lord of hosts by Isaiah.
Ezek. xxx. 3: “Howl ye! Woe worth the day! For the day of the Lord is
near: it shall be the time of the heathen.” And Joel says, “Multitudes,
multitudes, in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in
the valley of decision.” By the prophets Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah,
Zechariah, Malachi, and apostles Paul and Peter, it is called the day of
the Lord.
You ask if this battle may not have taken place. We answer, No. Of such
a battle we have no record. Again, it will be the end of the war—the
final overthrow of Paganism, the beast, and Anti-Christ. Malachi says,
“Behold I will send you the prophet Elijah before the coming of that
great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Elijah has not yet been a witness.
At the time of this great battle nature is to take a wonderful part. As
when Christ was on the cross, the sun darkened, the rocks rent, the
mountains shook, so in connection with this battle there shall be some
strange wonders—earthquakes, thundering, lightning, hail and fire. The
Mount of Olives will divide; the valley of the Dead Sea will fill with
water and join to the Mediterranean; Jerusalem will become a seaport; an
appointed centre from which, being central to all the world, will go
forth the ships of the Lord. The city of Jerusalem, between this time
and that, will be considerably enlarged, then it will divide into three
parts. At the time of this dividing John says, “That the cities of the
nations are to fall”—London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, St. Petersburg, and
many others—that all may turn to Jerusalem, the capital appointed of
Heaven.
If you wish to know more of the particulars of this day, read the
prophets, study what John the Revelator says under the sixth vial and
sixth seal. With awful grandeur and with terrible majesty have the
sacred writers set forth this day and time.
That this day will come, who will deny? Look at the world ripening for
this day. Here, in our own land, as well as others, the forces are
maturing, the agents are at work. Many of the events of the past year we
were permitted to forecast by looking into the future through the
prophets, and onward yet we look. And the events coming are neither less
in number, merit, or force, than those passed. Keep the events of
prophecy in their proper order lest they confuse you. The Jews and Ten
Lost Tribes are to be found and possess Palestine before this battle.
Anti-Christ is to appear. The two witnesses, Moses and Elijah, are to
appear. And Jesus, our beloved Master, will not come till the world is
settled long in perpetual peace—till the house is prepared for the bride,
then shall He come. But with lightning speed events are crowding on
along the ages. The accumulative forces of centuries are pressing hard
upon time present. The time of the end is near—not the end of time, but
the time appointed of God in which certain great things are to be
accomplished. Eighteen hundred years ago John cried out, “Loose the four
angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels
were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and
a year” (Rev. ix. 14).
The Turkish Power originated on the banks of the Euphrates. It first was
divided into four Sultanies—namely, Bagdad, Aleppo, Damascus and Cesarea.
These are typified under four angels. Their time was to be 396 years and
a fraction—an hour, day, month, and year. Thus, taking a day for a year,
365 for the year, thirty for the month, one for the day, and we have 396.
So from the taking of Bagdad by the Turks in 1057, which was the
overthrow of the Saracens, until the capture of Constantinople in 1453,
which overthrew the Greek Empire, we have just 396 years. And the time
for the drying up of Turkey is at hand; and so it comes to pass.
Dear friends, how wonderful are the dealings of our God! Can we shut our
eyes to His Divine revelation? Let us be wise in the day of grace,
taking heed to the sure Word of prophecy, as unto a light that shineth in
a dark place. The world indeed is dark, and all confusion. But His Word
shows unto us order in all this confusion, blessed be His name. More
next Sunday evening.
ARMAGEDDON AND THE PYRAMID.
DISCOURSE XIV.
THE FORCES IN THE BATTLE—TIME OF ITS OCCURRENCE—MISTAKES OF ADVENTISTS—A
CHURCH “STRIKE” WANTED—THE HARD TIMES AFTER 1882—HISTORY OF THE WORLD
TILL 1935—HINE’S THEORY.
“These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome
them; for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and they that are
with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.”—Rev. xviii. 14.
Last Sunday evening we considered the subject of the great battle of
Armageddon. This evening we will take up the same subject for further
consideration. This battle, we learn, is to be very terrible, such a one
as the world has not had. Fearful as some of the wars of the past have
been, this will overshadow them all in skill, fierceness, number,
slaughter, devastation, and wide-spread ruin. It will, in some respects,
be like one of the wars of olden times. For in this struggle God is
again to take a direct part, as He did for His people Israel and Judah in
times of old. Again shall the forces of nature do battle for God and His
people; again they shall be full of instinctive revenge. Hear us, and
believe us, Denis Kearney, Providence will then “pool the issues” of the
_called_, the _chosen_, and the _faithful_. The called are the Jews, the
chosen are Israelites, and the faithful embrace all of every nation who
believe in Christ. Then many will wade in pools of blood and perish.
The birds of prey are to hold high carnival on the dead bodies of the
slain. The spirit of Satan, that now worketh in the children of
disobedience, will pool the issues of hell and death in the hosts of the
_dragon_, _beast_, and _false prophet_. For though these three powers
are diverse in their aims, professions, and intents, yet we learn from
many passages of the Divine Book that they will join hands and agree upon
a common policy, federating together that they may contend with the
called, the chosen, and the faithful. “And I saw three unclean spirits
like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of
the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the
spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the
earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great
day of God Almighty” (Rev. xvi. 13, 14). Here indeed will be a pooling
of the issues, a pooling that will divide the whole world into two forces
or parties.
Now the canvass has begun, preparations are going on, party lines are
being drawn, powers are concentrating, and men are rallying under their
respective standards, getting the world ripe and ready for the coming
generations, into whose hands the destinies of that day will be cast.
Few of us now living can personally take part in that final battle,
excepting as we do so by impressing the unborn millions with our ideas.
Like as David prepared the material for the building of the temple, and
his son Solomon carried forward the same, so the work of this generation
is simply preparatory, and that of the coming will be executive.
Several wars will take place before that of Armageddon, which in their
nature will be fierce and terrible. Still these will all be
preparatory—leading on to the day of decision and the battle final. On
this point many err, and their error has a pernicious influence on the
Church and the world. They interpret the preparatory signs as if they
were final; hence the end with such is too near. A sincere anxiety takes
possession of their soul, which utterly unfits them to judge aright the
signs of the times and tokens of Providence. Thus were a portion of the
Advent Church thrown into confusion the 8th of last July because they had
fixed upon the seventh as the time for the ending of the world. And
human folly and haste will repeat itself again on the 10th of April next,
because another portion of the Advent brethren have fixed upon the 9th of
April as the time of the end. It is a wonder the first did not take the
4th of July instead of the seventh, for then a stranger might think the
end was nigh in some of our cities; or why didn’t the other party select
the 1st of April, for no doubt it would have proved a more propitious
day? But thus it is, and will be again before the appointed time of
Heaven comes. Man is a creature of haste and sudden impulse, especially
so in his religious experience. Kings and nations, Churches and sects,
have laboured hard in times past to force the issues of Providence and
give speed and certainty to times and events.
The prophecies affecting our days are clear; so much so, that he who runs
may read, if need be. But an impatient activity urges men on, bedazzling
their eyes, which at once unnerves and unfits them for reading or
judging. “In your patience possess ye your souls,” said the blessed
Master to His disciples of old, and not less through them unto us.
“Order is Heaven’s first law,” it has been said; and surely order
pervades the prophecies. But the pulpits in general over-ride this
order, and are not slow to malign such men as Edward Hine, of London,
England, when the fact is, that his theory of the prophecies and mode of
interpretation are vastly more natural, responsive, and reasonable than
the ill-adjusted, unnatural, and non-responsive system of current
theology. A person is under obligation to use that key for the unlocking
of prophecy which fits the best, and that responds to providential events
the most natural, without regard to the antiquated systems and mode of
Church, sect, or college theology. Hine’s theory, as it is called
sometimes, is as much superior to the old system of interpretation, as
the railway Pullman car is to the ricketty old stage coach.
The Anglo-Saxon Israel theory neither destroys or introduces any new
principle, but discovers and applies that which had been long hidden.
The introduction of steam and electricity did not destroy or produce any
new principle, but simply discovered and applied, in an improved form,
that which had been in the world from Adam down till now.
As men in science, mechanics, and practical life, throw overboard men and
things of the past, so should we in theology, Church life, and
experience, when we can do better. Reverence for persons, and respect
for ideas, should not enslave us. Let us move on, doing better and
better. We do not care to believe all the theology of a Martin Luther.
When we can make an advance on men, or theories, we should do so. Bacon
and Newton are now in part rejected, without intending, or in fact doing
them any dishonour or disrespect. So are Calvin and Wesley, on the same
principle, by every good theologian. If a theory be advanced that opens
up the Scriptures, and especially the prophecies, better than those
before existing, let the pulpit accept it, throwing aside its mawkishness
and age-intrenched stupidity. I have no hesitation to say, after over
twenty-five years of experience with preachers and pulpit, that the
majority of preachers are lazy and indifferent in study. For this reason
many of them are deterred from examining any new theory. Many have said
to me, and written to me, that if they accepted the Lost Tribe theory it
would destroy nearly all their old sermons, and necessitate the making of
new ones—a work they were not willing to undertake. It will, therefore,
be a long time before the pulpit is reformed. In these days there are
many strikes. While in Canada, on my vacation, I agreed to lecture for a
Church choir on the prophet Jeremiah’s visit to Ireland. But some
preachers banded together and stopped it; and, in consequence of it, the
choir struck and refused to sing the following Sunday. Passing by this
strike, I really wish the laymen would strike and call the pulpit to an
account and rouse it from its lethargy, and demand that it should
untrammel itself and be free and equal to the age and demand. I have met
with miserly persons who didn’t believe in beautiful churches, or the
missionary cause, or any cause indeed that wanted money. They would
argue for plainness, and so on. The secret of their peculiar ideas on
these matters was to be found in their stinginess and their love of
money. They advocated such theories because it saved them from
contributing. Like a man I met with on my vacation tour who said that he
saved forty dollars a year by pretending to be angry with the minister or
some of the deacons when they came round collecting money. Some
ministers, no doubt the majority of them, talk about holding on to the
old landmarks and being orthodox for the very reason that to make a move
implies labour, which they are not willing to give, hence they prate
about orthodoxy and landmarks as a pretext to cover over their
indifference. He is the most orthodox who searches after the truth and
keeps up with the age. “Prove all things, hold fast that which is good,”
says Paul. These pretended followers of Paul say: “Prove nothing, hold
fast what you have got.”
It is as plain as A, B, C, that the Bible teaches the return of the Jews
and Ten Lost Tribes of Israel to the land of Palestine. Also, that after
they are settled in this land Anti-Christ appears. The dragon and beast
are already in existence, but Anti-Christ is not; the spirit of
Anti-Christ is. When Israel and Judah are settled and prosperous in the
old fatherland, then is to come on the battle of Armageddon. Thank
Heaven! that though the struggle will be awful, it will be final, and
victory will turn on the Lord’s side. Then will be set up a kingdom that
shall endure in abiding peace and prosperity for at least a thousand
years. The world will nestle in regaling plenty and great assurance.
This kingdom is to be set up in the latter days of the four kingdoms
spoken of by Daniel. By this we understand that these kingdoms will have
their day, and by succession, after a time, run out. These
kingdoms—namely, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome—are now disappearing.
Rome, politically, is gone, Persia will soon be absorbed, also Greece.
Babylon, being continued in the Empire of Russia, has yet a glorious
future before it for the next fifty years or so, then she will disappear
to rise no more. The cry will go forth, “Babylon is fallen.” In
Nebuchadnezzar’s image you will remember that the stone cut out of the
mountain began to destroy the metallic image upward, hence these kingdoms
will disappear in reverse order to their origin. First Rome, which has
gone; next Greece, which is nearly gone; then Persia, and then Russia.
The new kingdom will fill the world. Already it foreshadows the outlines
of possession by its immense territory of to-day. Then a scion of the
House of David shall be enthroned in Jerusalem. All the other great
capitals will have been destroyed. It is surprisingly grand to read of
that day, king and kingdom. Let me read to you a few verses from
Jeremiah, chapter xxiii.: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I
will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a King shall reign and
prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His
days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His
name whereby He shall be called: the Lord our Righteousness. Therefore,
behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The
Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of
Egypt; but, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of
the House of Israel out of the North country, and from all countries
whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.” The
words, “that day,” are often used, and if we desire to know when that day
is, we have data in the great fact that it is the other side of
Armageddon, and Armageddon is the other side of the settlement of Israel
and Judah in Palestine.
I wish, just here, to correct many of you, as well as some of the public
journals. Of late I have frequently seen it stated in the papers that I
predicted the end of the world in 1882. And many persons have actually
asked if I did really think so. The truth of the matter is, in my
sermons on the Great Pyramid I pointed out to you the remarkable fact
that the Grand Gallery was 1,882 inches long. Beginning with the birth
of the Saviour, these inches stand for years. This gallery suddenly
ends, excepting that it is continued in a narrow passage, the narrowest
in the whole building, for fifty-three inches. Then comes the King’s
Chamber, which before you enter, you pass under a portcullis in the form
of an olive leaf. In this chamber all is equal, quiet, and central.
Now, what I believe this pillar of witness in Egypt teaches (see Isa.
xix. 19) is, that in 1882 the whole world will enter upon a time of great
trouble, war, pestilence, and famine, and for fifty-three years these
troubles will continue more or less. Then about 1935 will occur the
battle of Armageddon, which will be the finishing touch, the end of wars.
I arrive at this, when I follow the teachings of the Pyramid, by adding
1882 and 53, which gives me 1935. Even then the world will not end, but
only begin the millennium morn, which will last for a thousand years or
more.
Now corresponding to these facts are the events of Providence. As when
Spring is nigh we know by certain signs, so we know from the Scriptures,
Providence, and Pyramidal teaching, where we stand and the season we are
in. “O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not
discern the signs of the times?” said Jesus to the proud and critical
Pharisees and learned and doubting Sadducees. These parties affected to
be specially wise and discriminating in their knowledge of the times and
seasons, and interpreting the prophets and writings of Moses. Yet their
conduct betrayed their ignorance, for they saw not the end of that grand
old prophetic age, nor the fading symbolism of the temple, nor the
departing glory and decay of their nation. They knew not the fulness of
the time in which they lived, though it bulged out like a mountain. They
did not know that _one time hath ended_, another _time begun_, for they
still dated their documents 4032 of the world, when it was the year of
our Lord and their Lord 32.
The antediluvians stand condemned because they were willingly ignorant of
the Providential tokens and signs of the times. They set at naught the
teachings and warnings of Noah, and in exulting pride they rejected the
idea of a special Providence. Their faith, like many in this day, was
planted and nourished by the laws of nature, and the analogous
continuance of the same, not accepting the doctrine of a Divine
Providence. They cried aloud, “Where is the promise of His coming? For
since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of the creation.”
Do you, like the Jews of old, demand more signs, when those given you are
not understood, or, if understood, they are undervalued? The prophets
have been lavish in portraying the calamities of the _last days_, or the
times into which we are entering. For the words _last days_ are the few
years preceding the battle of Armageddon. The calamities of these days
are of four kinds: First, social disorders; second, religious feuds and
wars; third, wonderful political disturbances; fourth, temporal or
physical disasters. Of the social condition of these last days, Paul
instructs us: “This know, also, that in the last days perilous times
shall come.” Then he groups together nineteen immoral attributes of the
social state of these last days: “Men shall be lovers of their own
selves, covetous, boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient (to parents
especially), unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce
breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce despisers, traitors, heady,
high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than God, formal in religion” (2
Timothy iii.). What, we ask, will be the state of society when the
social condition becomes such?
The religious feuds and persecutions of the last days we can but faintly
conceive. It was terrible when the beast, two hundred years ago, held
sway. The Inquisition, the rack, the stake, and all the horrors of a
wise age will be brought to bear. For in these days to come, the beast
will be joined by Anti-Christ, who will burn with rage, and vent his
displeasure on Christ’s followers. Also the barbarism and savage
disposition of the Pagans will be let loose. Then will the dragon tear
and destroy. This will, indeed, be a day or time of visitation. The
political disturbances will be terrible. Nation against nation plotting
and deceiving; internal strife and outward dangers. These are of a kind
to appal one in reading them. Then come the temporal or physical evils.
These are to be a horrible train of ills in the form of pestilence,
famine, and earthquakes. The plague of yellow fever is as nought to some
of the scourges that will then go forth. Gibbon, the historian, tells of
a plague that swept away two-thirds of Europe and Asia. At that time the
dead lay unburied by thousands. In Constantinople, for three months,
five and even ten thousand persons died daily. The famines in India and
China give us some idea of those yet to come. Of the earthquakes, such
as have been will be repeated in increasing terror, violence, and
destruction. To all these shall be added fire from heaven, hail,
whirlwinds, and floods. These are times that will try men’s souls. Read
the prophets for yourselves, and range yourselves on the Lord’s side.
WONDERS OF THE FUTURE.
DISCOURSE XIV.
PURPOSE OF THE FLOOD—THE ABRAHAMIC CURRENT—RENDING MOUNT OLIVET—FORMER
EARTHQUAKES—BOUNDARIES OF PALESTINE—DAN AND GAD TO GUARD THE “GATES”—GAD
THE SCOTCHMAN—THE FUTURE JERUSALEM—THE DEAD SEA AND MEDITERRANEAN TO BE
JOINED—MISTAKE OF SPIRITUALISING EVERYTHING.
“And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which
is before Jerusalem on the East: and the Mount of Olives shall cleave
in the midst thereof toward the East and toward the West, and there
shall be a very great valley; and half the mountain shall remove
toward the North, and half of it toward the South.”—Zech. xiv. 4.
Some four thousand years ago the earth was washed with the regenerating
waters of a terrible flood. Millions were suddenly cut off, with their
handiwork and antediluvian civilisation. The swelling floods subsided,
and the God-avenging waters retired to their appointed place. The earth
again stood forth in virgin strength, lonely, bare, and citiless, but
with a potency and promise inviting and grand. Across these swelling
floods one craft had been safely borne; in it was stored the seed-stock
of a new world of man and beast. The destruction had been complete and
terrible. If we credit Dr. Gurney and others who have written on this
subject, the population far exceeded the inhabitants of to-day. But
whether they did or did not, we know that many must have perished, and
civilisation must have been hurled back to a primitive beginning. No
doubt the present seas and oceans cover over the ruins of that age.
Eliphaz, the Temanite, when addressing Job, said: “Hast thou marked the
old way, which wicked men have trodden, which were cut down out of time?
_whose foundation was overflown with a flood_?” Now is it not reasonable
to suppose that in this and every other great change in nature God has a
purpose—a design agreeable with His own exalted character? He is too
wise to err, and too good to be unkind. The flood came for the same
reason that He only gave Adam one wife. And what was that reason? It
was that He might fill the world with a godly seed. “And did not He make
one? Yet had He the residue of the Spirit. And wherefore one? That He
might seek a godly seed” (Mal. ii. 15). The same Spirit which made one
Eve could have made twenty, for the residue of the Spirit was with Him.
It was in the interest of morality and godliness that the flood came.
When this design began to fail of being accomplished by the increased
wickedness of the post-diluvians, then God called Abram, and through
Abraham and his seed designed that this purpose should flow on and be
fulfilled. Through this Abrahamic channel flow all the purposes of a
Divine Providence in this world. Through his seed all the nations of the
earth are to be blessed. The children of Abraham are the appointed and
Divinely authorised agents of God. Through them, as primary, he has, and
is, and will evangelise the world. Abraham stands to the generations of
earth as the Gulf-stream to Europe and the isles of the sea. This
Gulf-stream is our largest river; being the longest, broadest, and
deepest. Its bottom and banks are cold water. Compressed by the straits
of Florida, it rushes forth to warm and replenish the earth and isles of
the sea. So the forces of a Divine Providence compressed in Abraham go
forth to bless mankind. The Gulf-stream is water in water, and Abraham’s
seed are men among men. Providence is at once clear and intelligible,
and history is at once plain, reasonable, and harmonious, when
interpreted in harmony with the Abrahamic covenant. The scattering and
returning of Israel and Judah to Palestine, and the intervening history,
from the time of dispersion to the Return, is clear as noon-day. Their
location, oppression, prosperity, and victories, have long been foretold
by prophets inspired of God.
Through all the changes in nature God has a design. He prepared the
world for Adam and his seed, and He did so by some wonderful upheaving
and overturning; this scientists will admit. This world, in its present
shape and condition, indicates fierce and protracted struggles. The
outlines of strange and sublime revolutions are imprinted on her
rock-ribbed bosom. Look at her cloud-capped mountains, her snow-crowned
peaks, her wild and rocky wastes, her barren plains and sandy deserts,
her fruitful hills and luxuriant valleys, her mighty oceans and swelling
seas, her inland lakes and rolling rivers; these tell us of a time long
ago—of the time when the Mighty One went forth to work a work, to build a
house and make a home for His creature, man. And as it was necessary in
the preparatory stage to tune nature to the coming man, so all along
through the history of the centuries we find nature holding a subordinate
relation to man. The world is not run on one principle and man on
another, but both are permeated by a Divine force and led on to a Divine
end. All things are ours, and we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s; this
is the established order of subordination. Most certainly it cannot be
unscientific in the Author of nature to make the same His messenger for
good or evil. It is not unscientific to throw a line from the shore to a
ship in distress, even though thrown from the mouth of a cannon, nor is
it counted unscientific to use that same cannon in war to destroy men.
The earthquake spoken of in the text is, indeed, a small affair in
comparison to some that have occurred in this world; and if the same God
be living now as then, surely He can rend in twain the little mountain of
Olivet. And if we grant to the infidel scientist of to-day the fact that
there is no God, still the thing prophesied of is neither unreasonable or
impossible, because what has been may be again; and as the demand in this
case is small in comparison to what has been, surely this thing may come
to pass. In times past Providence and the wants of the Church have been
timely aided by convulsions in nature, and if they were only so
accidentally, why then accidentally they may all agree again. To the
scientist, especially the geologist, there can be no great difficulty in
crediting the miracles of the text when we think of the successive
revolutions that have taken place. Fires, and floods, and earthquakes,
have done sublime service in the past, whether we credit the same to
Nature or to God. That an earthquake, or any peculiar expression of
nature, should be timed to meet a special condition of the Church or the
special purposes of a Providence, is not strange. In such an event there
really is no more wonder than that a man should set an alarm on his clock
to go off at three minutes past four in the morning. Some men can
swallow big things if you will only allow them to make out the author to
be Nature. But whether we attribute the things past to Nature or to God,
we know that wonderful things have happened.
Seismology, the science of earthquakes, is by no means void of interest.
The earthquake catalogue of the British Association takes notice of, and
records the occurrence of, over 6,000 that happened between 1606 B.C. and
1842 A.D. Some of these have been terrible in force, destruction, and
extent, oftentimes changing the whole face of a country, its climate, and
river courses. The great earthquake of 1783 in Calabria, probably caused
the death of 100,000 people; it was felt over a great part of Europe.
The city of Lisbon was visited on the morning of November 1st, 1755, with
an earthquake so severe that in a few minutes 60,000 persons perished,
and most of the city was destroyed and buried beneath the water of the
bay some 600 feet.
The country given to Abraham embraces all of what we call Syria. It is
central, and specially adapted for the future purposes of God through
Abraham’s seed. Beginning with the North-west corner, the boundaries
will be Mount Taurus, river Euphrates, Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Red
Sea, River Nile, and Mediterranean, enclosing Syria, Arabia Deserts,
Arabia Felix and Arabia Petrœa. Thus it will be seen that the Abrahamic
inheritance is surrounded by water, except at two points—namely, the
North-west land boundary, which is between the Euphrates and the
Mediterranean Sea. The entrance is through the mountain range of Taurus,
and forms a natural gate or mountain pass from Europe and Asia into
Palestine. Here, when the Tribes are resettled in the land of Palestine,
this gate will be in the allotment of Dan. Our Irish brethren will again
be in the North-west, where they will have to fight and defend the land
and the truth, as in days of old, for their brethren. The fact is, “Dan
shall judge his people as one of the Tribes of Israel,” said old Jacob.
The judge in olden times sat in the gate. So will Dan sit. Moses said
that Dan was a lion’s whelp. Among Israel it is customary to put lions
as guards at gateways. The Southwest corner, between the Mediterranean
and the Sea of Suez, forms the other land boundary. Through this gate
will come the teeming millions of Africa. At this gate will be the Tribe
of Gad—that is, a portion of the Scotch, the lowlanders. The Tribes will
be hemmed in one by another so that they cannot enlarge their territory;
but Gad can, for a vast country opens up beyond the gate. It is barren;
still the desert is to blossom as a rose. Of Gad it was said by Moses,
“Blessed be He that enlargeth Gad; he dwelleth as a lion and teareth the
arm with the crown of the head. And he provided the first part for
himself, because there, in a portion of the lawgiver, was he seated.”
You remember that Sinai is in this portion. What sight and foresight
Jacob and Moses had! The land as thus bounded would be 600 miles broad
from the Red Sea to the River Euphrates, and 1,390 between the Red Sea
and Persian Gulf, and from the Mediterranean to the Arabian Sea, 1,600.
These boundaries you will glean by taking note of the several promises to
Abraham and his seed, as recorded in Gen. xv. 10, and Exod. xxiii. 31,
and Deut. xi. 24. The land so promised and given specially to Abraham
and his seed, the descendants of Abraham never yet occupied, no, not half
of it, even in the palmy days of King Solomon. Will it ever be? We
answer, Yes, as sure as the seasons and night and day. He is faithful
that has promised, and will do it.
This remarkable peninsula will be the theatre of the future glory of
Israel and Judah. As finely described by the Rev. A. B. Grimaldi, it
will be found to be most exactly and suitably placed to enable them to
fulfil their high destiny to all nations, and become the centre of all
lands, the praise and beauty of the whole earth. This land has, in fact,
a central position for communication, commerce, and all other advantages
of civilisation not enjoyed by any other portion of land in the whole
world; while the peculiar geographical formation is such that it has an
immense seaboard, and is therefore fitted for vaster commercial and naval
operations than have ever yet been seen, commanding, as it does, the
three most important seas and the two largest rivers of the whole world.
This land, as laid out by Ezekiel, will be divided into thirteen
longitudinal strips, sixty miles long, and twenty broad. In the very
centre will be a portion, some fifty miles square, which will be divided
and apportioned to what is called the holy oblation—namely, in the very
middle will be the temple, a mile square, or larger than ever the whole
city of Jerusalem has yet been. Then the city will be ten miles square.
On one side will be a portion for the priests; on another, a portion for
the Levites; and on the other two sides, the prince’s or king’s portion.
This portion, which will be on the East and West sides, will be sixty
miles long by ten broad, or some 600 miles square. But it is clear he
will need it, for he will not be supported by taxes. He will have to
judge the land. He cannot take any more land. He will have to support
his own family. No public grant to his children. He will have to be
liberal with the temple. He will have sixty miles of sea coast to defend
and sixty miles of land frontier to protect, and thus cover some of the
weaker tribes. The city will have 720 square miles as a suburb, in which
to raise supplies specially for itself. It will in reality be in two
parts—one called by the prophets the profane; here will the commercial
business be done. The other part will be sacred. Into it strangers will
not enter; it will be holy—a quiet habitation. “There the glorious Lord
will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no
gaily with oars, neither shall gallant ships pass thereby.” The city
proper will be some thirty miles North of the present city of Jerusalem.
NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVEN.
DISCOURSE XVI.
“SIGNS OF THE TIMES”—THE RETURN TO JERUSALEM—FORCES OF RUSSIA AND
ENGLAND—PRESENT LOCALITY OF ANCIENT NATIONS—ORIGIN OF AMERICAN
REPUBLICANISM—FEDERATION OF THE NATIONS COMING—EVOLUTION AND DEVOLUTION.
“Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred
and five and thirty days.”—Daniel xii. 12.
So according to the prophet Daniel there is a time to come in which it
will be blessed to live. The prophecies of Daniel are generally of a
material character—that is, they have special reference to this world
politically, and to this end he had direct and special reference to
certain kingdoms in existence at the time of writing, as well as others
that were to come into being. Of all the prophets he concerns himself
the most with positive data of the rise and fall of nations. The figures
of the data used, we freely confess, are difficult to understand and
interpret. The Church and times are greatly in need of some man
competent on this point. All prophetic students know the diversity and
confusion in this department of theology. Of all the difficult
departments of theology none exceed the numerical. The numerical
symbolism of the Bible is as yet but little understood. True, indeed, we
are improving. Aided by Providence, we are enabled to interpret some
dates by data—that is, certain events occurring locate us and point out
the prophetic period we are in. Like the captain who is unable by his
certain and usual modes of calculating to find his whereabouts, does so
by currents, the Gulf-stream, islands, colour of waters, &c., did we know
the exact quantity of Daniel’s two thousand and three hundred days, his
times, time, and half a time, his seventy weeks, his thousand two hundred
and ninety days, and the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days,
then we could deal with the prophecies with a definitiveness to which as
yet we are strangers.
The times, however, are peculiarly interesting from the very fact that
the Church is waking up to the importance of prophetic study. “Coming
events cast their shadows before,” is a trite but true saying, and here
as true as anywhere. Men feel in their fears and hopes the pressure of
prophecy. The Church is remarkably anxious and unrest. Governments are
suspicious and confused. The populace are restless and threatening.
Indeed, everything conspires in Church, State, and people, to forecast
the future. A thunderstorm is felt before it is seen or heard. It
shadows the mind, thrills the nerves, and pains the rheumatic limbs.
Many in 1858 felt war coming in our own country. Many were at a loss to
interpret their fears. Some, however, interpreted the signs of the time
and sounded an alarm.
The few years to come are pregnant with angry forces. Men are busy in
Russia, Germany, France, England, and America, sowing the winds, and the
harvest will surely be whirlwinds. But, beyond all, the sky is clear.
War ceases, commerce revives, the nations accept a settled peace, science
and religion join hand in hand to prepare the wastes and woes of war.
The beast is overcome, Anti-Christ is slain, and the dragon is banished
from the earth. Jerusalem again rises in splendour from the grave of
desolation. Again Canaan will become the glory of all lands, and
Jerusalem the glory of Canaan. Here, again, after centuries of
wandering, shall the throne of David find rest, and on it one of David’s
seed, chosen and anointed of God, accepted of men, and served by the
nations. Crowned and imperial Salem shall become the home of her
long-captive sons and daughters. Israel and Judah shall meet together,
and shall be one stick, one people, having one head, one throne, one
city, one Lord, even Jesus. “Therefore, they shall come and sing in the
height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for
wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of
the herd; and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not
sorrow any more at all” (Jeremiah xxxi. 12).
No one can read the prophecies that find their fulfilment after the
battle of Armageddon—or, as the prophets have it, “after those
days”—without being ravished with delight. Israel in her palmy days, and
Judah in her glory! A nation called of God, and ruled by God through
David or Solomon; how inviting! When Heaven was their Defence and
Provider; when the fidelity of men to God was enough of defence, and the
morality of a people was a rich manure giving an abundant harvest in
field, stall, and orchard; then we see the true position of a nation, its
grandeur and prosperity. I am convinced that morality has a more
intimate relation with the forces and wealth of nature than we are in the
habit of believing. God can give increased measure to the harvest,
fruitfulness to the vine, plenty in the orchard, increase in the stall,
and addition to the household. Time upon time are these blessings
promised by the prophets to Israel and Judah in the latter day.
Take notice of a few statements of the prophets responding to those
times—the times that will ensue after the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and
the Jews are again possessed of, and settled in, Palestine. Jeremiah, in
the 30th chapter and 31st, refers to those times: “For lo, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of My people,
Israel and Judah, saith the Lord; and I will cause them to return to the
land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it”—referring
to this time and the battle of Armageddon, in which Israel will be tested
as we have before shown. “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is
like it; it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved
out of it.” Now, we ask, why will it be specially a time of trouble? We
answer, Because of the strength of the combined forces that will be
arrayed against Israel—that is, England. The forces, as set forth in the
Scriptures, are _thirteen on one side_, _led by Russia_, and _four on the
other_, which will be _led by England_. The _thirteen_ are: 1st, Gog;
2nd, Magog; 3rd, Rosh; 4th, Meshech; 5th, Tubal; 6th, Persia; 7th,
Ethiopia; 8th, Libya; 9th, Gomer; 10th, Togarmah; 11th, the Beast; 12th,
the Dragon; and 13th, Anti-Christ. The _four_ are: 1st, Sheba; 2nd,
Dedan; 3rd, Merchants of Tarshish with all their young lions; 4th, the
Jews and Israelites settled in Palestine, that will not be led astray by
Anti-Christ.
To understand the prophets when forecasting the future, we must keep in
mind that in speaking of a nation’s destiny in the future, they would
speak of it by the name it had at that time, if such a nation had an
existence at that time. But in course of time, such nations would change
their name, and sometimes locality; in such a case they must be found.
For instance, if one desires to know the destiny of Turkey, he will find
it set forth by the prophets under the name of Edom and Esau. Moab and
Ammon are found in the Poles and Hungarians; they were the sons of Lot.
In all parts of the world the children of Abraham have an attachment for
each other. Thus India was peopled at first by the descendants of
Abraham; hence they will mix with, and accept English rule sooner than
any other people. “But unto the sons of the concubines which Abraham
had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he
yet lived, Eastward, unto the East country” (Gen. xxv. 6). If we trace
back the origin of a people to their head or founder, we will better
understand their peculiarities and national idiosyncrasies. Study
Ishmael to understand the Arabs, Esau to understand the Turks, Ammon and
Moab to understand the Poles and Hungarians. Study the character and
condition of Manasseh in Egypt, as being brought up in a palace, and
being the lawful heir, but deprived of his birthright by a Providence
which he could not understand, and you have at once a key to the Pilgrim
character, and the characteristics of a real American—why he hates
titles, kings, and aristocracies. But he forgets not the place of his
youth when he had the great seal made; for on the reverse of the great
seal of the United States you will have the figure of a Pyramid crowned
with the All-seeing eye. No Tribe but the Tribe of Manasseh could say,
or did say, “We are a great people.” Yet so this Tribe said to Joshua
(see Josh. xvii.). So we often say, “We are a great people.”
Rachel and Leah, the two wives of Jacob, are the real source of the
separation of the Ten Tribes of Israel from Judah. Each wife sought to
have her son as a leader. Thus between Judah and Joseph began the spirit
of rivalry. Ephraim took up the cause of Rachel. David and Saul’s
bitterness lies here. David stood for Leah, and Saul for Rachel. The
descendants of the North of Ireland, being from the Tribe of Dan, have
ever been distinct from the rest of the Irish in features, enterprise,
spirit and religion; for the others are the Canaanites of old, the
Philistines.
Who do the thirteen enemies stand for to-day? Let me answer you briefly.
Gog stands for the Caucasians or mountain tribes of Caucasus. Magog
covers the inhabitants and country North of the Caucasian mountains, and
they are known as Tartars. Rosh, or Roosh, means the real Russians.
Their ruler is called by the Prophet Ezekiel _Nasi Roosh_. We translate
it the chief prince of Meshech. This portion, or people of Russia, are
the old Babylonians, hence the hate and rivalry between England and that
nation. Meshech means the Muscovites, who made Moscow what it is. Tubal
is found in the Siberians. Meshech and Tubal are generally mentioned
together in the Scriptures, and, strange to say, they are found together
in history to-day. Moscow is the capital of Meshech, for though to the
world St. Petersburgh seems to be, yet every imperial document is signed
and dated Moscow. Tobolski is the capital of Tubal or Siberia. Persia
still retains its ancient name, and will be easily recognised. Also the
same with Ethiopia. Libya takes in a portion of the African race. Gomer
stands for the Germans in part, for those who descended from Gomer. From
this word Gomer is Gomeron, Gemren, and the country Germia, hence,
Germany and Germans. Togarmah includes the people of Independent
Tartary. The Dragon includes China. The Beast, the Jesuits and their
followers, which will take in France, Spain, Italy, and South America;
and at first divide even England, especially Ireland, and the United
States. Anti-Christ will be chiefly sustained by the Jews, who will have
been settled in Palestine.
The four opposing forces led by England: Sheba represents India, who is
already training for this time of battle. Dedan embraces Arabia,
especially that part occupied by the Sultan of Muscat. Merchants of
Tarshish and all the young lions, means England and her colonies, in
which is embraced the United States. Manasseh will have to stretch out a
helping hand to Jacob in the time of his trouble, for she cannot allow
liberty to be enslaved, and freedom of worship and conscience to be
trampled under foot. The plague will come here sooner than we think, by
a civil and internal division among ourselves, which will force us to
take part. The Jews that are not carried away with Anti-Christ will join
with their brethren of Israel. The called, the chosen, and the faithful,
will be one party, and they will be on the Lord’s side.
If during the late Turkish war we could have had our despatches agreeable
to ancient names of people and country, they would have sounded queer.
Instead of reading of the Russians passing the Caucasus, and moving upon
Erzeroum by way of Kars, we should have read: Rapid advance of the
Babylonians under the chief prince of Meshech. Successful passage of the
Pison. The whole land of Havilah occupied. The men of Togarmah rally at
Gihon. Fierce fighting in Eden. The invaders defeated in the mountains
of Ararat. For according to ancient names of people and country, such
was the fact. It is comforting to all God’s people to know from His Word
that there is a time of peace; that there is a golden age in the near
future. Dr. McKay has the Christian idea in his poem:
“There is a good time coming, boys,
Wait a little longer;
Let us aid it all we can,
Every woman, every man,
The good time coming.”
When will the 1,335 days of years, spoken of in the text, end? We
answer, About the year 1957. And why that year? Because these days
evidently date there, beginning from the time the daily sacrifice is
taken away and the city trodden under foot. The little goat horn of
Daniel viii. 9 stands, we have before shown you, for Turkey. “And out of
one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great toward
the South, and toward the East, and toward the pleasant land.” It stands
for Mahommedanism, which was to overturn Christianity for a given period,
a time, times, and a half time, or in figures, 1260. Now Mahommed was
accepted and crowned at Mecca in the year 622. If we add 1260 and 622,
we have 1882—a time that is very plainly pointed out in the Pyramid.
Daniel says, “Seventy weeks are determined upon Thy people and upon Thy
holy city,” Jerusalem. These weeks put into prophetic years make 490,
which, of course, brings us to the time when Jerusalem was destroyed by
Titus. Daniel asked how long the vision concerning the daily sacrifice
and transgression of desolation to give the sanctuary and people to be
trodden down? The answer was, Unto 2,300 days, taking a day for a year.
Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70. Take this from 490 and we have
420. Now these 420 years taken from 2,300 will bring 1880. Then the
sanctuary is to be cleansed—that is, Jerusalem will be in the possession
of England. She now is.
From about 1880, or 1882, England will possess Jerusalem. In the twelfth
chapter of Daniel, eleventh verse, we find thirty days added to the
1,200, making 1,290; these added thirty years denote the time England
will have to contend for her right to Palestine. It will finally be
acknowledged, however, by all nations. In 1935 the battle of Armageddon
will end, but Palestine will not be fully settled down to a peaceful
possession till 1957. Then the government will be fully established and
acknowledged all over the world. The kings and Gentile nations will have
gone up to Jerusalem and given in their adherence. Then all the world
will be federated to David’s throne. The year 1957 I arrive at by the
same rule as the other—1,335 when added to 622, makes 1,957. “Blessed,”
says Daniel, “are they who see that time.”
The world is to undergo some marvellous changes these next few
years—mechanically, politically, socially, and morally; the telephone,
the phonograph, the microphone, the telemachole and coming improvements
will transform our modes of labour and learning beyond our present
conception. God times inventions and improvements to the advancement of
His kingdom.
I do not regard inventions as mere accidents, but as the outcoming of a
Divine intent through human agencies. Watts and Wesley both did good
service for the Church and the world. Edison and others of kindred minds
are scientific prophets. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness
thereof.” All is made subservient to the progress of the kingdom of
heaven. The doctrine of the evolution of man as taught by Darwin is
neither complimentary to man or God; but the doctrine of devolution is.
Man is a developing creature; a creature who takes centuries to grow in.
The devolution of God is through man by means of all the increasing
facilities and agencies that make man stronger, wiser, and better. The
secret powers and forces of nature are revealed to man in the ratio of
his ability to apply them, on the same scale as we instruct our children.
In the latter days, or the period spoken of by Daniel, nature will be
Divinely prompted with an impulse of generosity not now known, for then
men will be wise enough, strong enough, and good enough, to use the same
and not abuse. The prophetic teachings glow with promises of regaling
plenty, peace and good will in those days. “I will multiply upon you man
and beasts; and they shall increase and bring fruit; and I will settle
you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your
beginnings; and ye shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezek. xxxvi. 11).
Again: “I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the
field, that ye receive no more reproach of famine, among the heathen.” I
submit and believe that all this God will do by what men are pleased to
call natural law. The Divine will not rudely break in upon His own
established laws.
Sin impairs the energy and growth of man, and so infringes upon Nature.
As man frees himself from the bondage and sequences of sin, he will rise
higher and higher in his command and authority over Nature’s forces.
Three several times the earth has been cursed, which curse is gradually
removed as man returns unto his God in loving and obedient service. “And
now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to
receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground,
it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength” (Gen. iv. 11). The
secret of a world’s wealth and peace lies here, and it were well if
reformers and agitators understood this. For they work best who work in
harmony with God and His laws.
[Picture: Pyramid picture]
“In that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the
land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord; and it
shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the
land of Egypt.”—Isaiah xix. 19.
THE STONE WITNESS. {159}
DISCOURSE XVII.
THE GREAT PYRAMID—WHO JOB WAS—WHO BUILT THE PYRAMID—WHAT IT WAS BUILT
FOR—AN EPITOME OF THE EARTH—THE HISTORY OF MAN CONTAINED IN IT, PAST AND
FUTURE—SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE, ETC., ETC.
The wonderful discourses of the Rev. Dr. Wild, of Brooklyn, were
continued last Sunday evening, before a thronged congregation in Elm
Place Church. Under the organ gallery, behind the pulpit, was a
representation of the Pyramid, or as the learned doctor terms it, “the
stone Bible,” its massive rectangular dark stone foundation and some of
the most interesting of its interior passages, chambers, and mysteries.
All eyes were fastened in scrutiny upon it, well knowing that some
revelation of unusual Christian interest would be made by the Doctor from
it as soon as his lecture commenced. The preliminary exercises of
singing by a well-trained choir and prayer were therefore impatiently
listened to by many whose thoughts were concentrated on the wonders of
the Pyramid and its astounding confirmation of the prophetic Scriptures.
Dr. Wild read a lesson from Job xxxviii., remarking that the author of
that book was also the engineering director or architectural author of
the Pyramid and identical with Shem and Melchisedec. The book of Job is
the oldest book in the world by 200 or 300 years. Shem, or Job, was
ninety-eight years old when he entered the ark, and he lived thirty years
after Abraham, with whom therefore he shook hands, as well as with
Methuselah, who shook hands with Adam. Only one man, therefore, stood
between Adam and Shem, and only two, or not quite two, between Adam and
Abraham. The book of Berosus, of Babylon, is the only one that compares
with Job in antiquity. This was the age of tradition before Moses
compiled the first portions of it. In the days of Abraham, Shem was the
patriarch, or oldest, of his family; and it was therefore to him he did
homage, according to the patriarchal custom, under the name of
Melchisedec, when returning from the slaughter of the kings. Shem had
brought with him from the days before the flood much of the knowledge and
wisdom which had been accumulated in the earth during the 2,000 years
previous to that event, and which was swept away when only eight persons
were saved in the ark. We have been told that the human race has
gradually improved, and that our ancestors in far off ages were monkeys,
or something of that sort, but the remains of the ruins and knowledge of
antiquity show everything the reverse of this to be the truth. Look at
that Pyramid. We could not build it to-day, with all our boasted
science. It will bear in every respect the closest scientific scrutiny.
Our greatest scientists are only beginning to comprehend the depths of
its mysteries, yet it is over 4,000 years old. The capstone on top of it
is a Pyramid in itself, in miniature, unlike anything of the kind or any
other building on the earth. The reverend gentleman then continued to
read from Job xxxviii., and shew that the writer of it was master of
astronomical and geographical science and the builder of the Pyramid,
which is a miniature of the measurement of the earth and indicates the
history of the human race. After this preliminary dissertation he took
for his text Isaiah xxviii. 29: “This also cometh forth from the Lord of
hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.”
The Bible is a growing book, being more read and better understood as the
years pass by; and as men shall increase in knowledge and power, so the
Bible will gain in influence and authority. Opposition to its teaching,
and vaunting denial of its authority, shall be made subservient to its
interests by goading on the Church to a wiser and more noble defence and
exposition of the same. No theology can levy upon the well-defined facts
of science in confirmation of the sublime teachings of inspiration. The
Christian student need not hold himself in timid dread for fear the
scientist will discover aught in the realms of nature that will
contradict the Word of God: for as sure as God is the Author of both, so
surely shall we find an agreement between revelation and science at every
point truly understood—increased light means increased evidence. Nations
and men, nature and Providence, are united witnesses for God, and the
Scriptures, and the more we know of the past, the better shall we
understand the present and forecast the future. Let us recognise the
future. Let us recognise the important difference between the Bible
subjectively and objectively—that is, between what the Bible really is
and what men think it is. Let us be free enough, bold enough, and wise
enough, to claim the Bible itself. Let us unyoke it from tradition,
which claims to be superior, or even equal. Let us divorce it from
councils, from creeds, from sects and denominations; let us lift it up
out of the ecclesiastical rut of ages. Let us with a commendable pride
count ourselves worthy and able to formulate our own creeds, make our own
prayers and confessions, accounting that the liberties of our fathers
have been bequeathed to their children, and that the same God who gave
them liberty and power is no less gracious to us, their offsprings.
Traditions, councils, creeds, and degrees are worth much unto us as aids
to a higher life, and a nobler civilisation. The Christian fathers, the
Luthers, Calvins, Knoxes, Wesleys, and others, were our servants, as we
will be the servants of coming generations. They worked grandly, they
wrought well, they procured for us a goodly heritage; to them we are
indebted. Yet it was not their purpose nor the design of Providence to
enslave us, or to stereotype the Church for the ages to come. Increased
light is increased evidence, enabling us the better to understand the
Word of God. When a publisher has stereotyped a book, he is naturally
loath to make any change or correction; so Churches who have stereotyped
the Bible are very unwilling to change, to receive light. Hence, they
are sometimes found opposing the march of a better civilisation, proving
and sustaining all manner of institutions and tyrannies: the torturing
and terrible Inquisition of Spain, the punishment and hanging of supposed
witches by England and New England, the bondage and slavery of the South.
So, to prove their creeds and systems correct, they each have a mode of
their own, Catholic, Episcopalian, Baptist, Congregational, Methodist,
&c. _So also_, theologians have often been impatient to reconcile the
Scriptures with history, even to suggest mistakes in the sacred record.
Instance Daniel being made the THIRD RULER. _They supposed it meant
second_, but later researches show that Babylon had two rulers at that
time—namely, Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar—so Daniel was made a third.
See the remains of Borsippia, near Babylon (Dan. v. 29). Now we know
that both Daniel and Berosus, the old Babylonian historians, were right,
and the Bible was right in using the word third. God in His revelation
has always been equal to man’s need. Tradition—Abraham saw Shem, for
Shem lived some thirty years after Abraham’s death. Shem, and
Melchisedek, and Job, are likely the same person. Certainly, Shem and
Melchisedek are the same, and by Egyptian historians called Philitis.
This Philitis was the builder of the Great Pyramid. Now Shem saw
Methuselah and Methuselah Adam. Thus, then, tradition would be
sufficient. As tradition failed, the written Word began. There is
little doubt now but that _Shem_, called also Melchisedek, was the
builder of the Pyramid, being instructed of God, as his father Noah had
been in building the ark, and as Moses with the tabernacle, and Solomon
with the temple, as the prophet in the text and context shows that the
wisdom of the man is often the gift of God. _See Moses also_. “And the
Lord spake unto Moses, saying: See, I have called by name Bezaleel, the
son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the Tribe of Judah; and I have filled him
with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in
knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship: to devise cunning works, to
work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to
set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.
And, behold, I have given him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the Tribe
of Dan; and in the hearts of all that are wise-hearted I have put wisdom
that they may make all that I have commanded thee” (Exodus xxxi. 1–6).
Let us look at this building, for it is a special revelation for these
times. For this precise and scientific day God has provided. Science
and the Bible are interlocked in this building; they agree, they testify
for the same God, yet they witness to the same Christ, the Providence and
history of His chosen people. This stone book could not be read till
now; it even takes the most precise scientific men of the day to read it.
For thousands of years there has been no one in the court of the world
able to question and interpret this witness of the Lord in Egypt. The
scientists have been asking for some other revelation than the Bible, for
the supernatural in a scientific form, for something beyond man, for
something all could see, for something that would answer to pure science,
for something that could be seen, handled, measured, tested, and amenable
to mathematics; something superhuman, for something in which the human
and the Divine blend. Thank Heaven, all they ask is granted in this
stone monument. Here we have science forecast for thousands of years;
here we have the grandest of problems in science solved, and the
sublimest phenomena of religion and science crystalised, symbolising and
teaching the most marvellous facts in religion, sociology, and astronomy.
It is not a tomb, nor granary, nor temple, but a pillar and witness unto
the Lord of hosts. Think of a few facts. 1. Its location, the centre of
the land surface of the whole earth. Hence the best zero point on earth
for meridianal and latitudinal calculations. Central to clime—here is no
rust, moss, nor frosts to destroy, nor earthquake—a well-chosen spot for
such a pillar. 2. Its form and size—symbolising the earth quantity in
its weight of five millions of tons—the freight of 1,250 of the largest
steamers leaving New York. Its shape, or inclination from base to apex,
the same as from the pole to the equator. To express this the builder
sloped in ten feet for every nine in height. On this building the sun
can shine upon the whole of it twice a year without a shadow. This
building is the most correctly orient of any structure on the earth. It
is the highest, largest, and oldest building on earth, rising to the
height of 486 feet and a fraction, which height if multiplied by ten nine
times gives the distance of the earth from the sun; or pile a thousand
million pyramids one on the other, and the last would touch the sun. As
it stood perfect it was the circle squared; for the height is the radius
of a circle, whose circumference, if divided into four equal parts, each
part would equal one of the surface sides of the base—closer in
approximation than Walli’s Indivisibles, or Newton’s Fluxions, or
Liebnitz’s Calculus. The door of entrance was some forty-nine feet from
its base, and 300 inches East of the centre, so as at once to express the
tilt of the earth’s axis from the plane of its orbit, and by its height
from the ground express the Precession of the Equinoxes. What a witness
outwardly, when complete, of polished marble, covering some thirteen and
a half acres, within and without clean and free from idolatrous marks.
But God foretold the place and purpose of this huge pile through the
prophet Isaiah (xix. 19, 20): “In that day shall there be an altar to the
Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border
thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto
the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.” Here we see the _altar and
pillar_ are _one_ and the same, and a scientific fact is expressed when
the prophet says it shall be in the midst and on the border. The
position of the Pyramid is such, being at the sector point of Upper and
Lower Egypt, thus being on the border of both, yet in the midst. The
sector point of the arm is where the wrist joins the hand. The spreading
hand represents Lower, and the arm Upper Egypt. (See on frontispiece the
sector plate.)
May we ask what the pillar and witness—the Pyramid—has to say on the
Jewish question, for it has not left this fact unnoticed? At the
junction of the first ascending passage with the Grand Gallery, on the
left-hand side, or East, there is a horizontal passage-way leading to
what is called the Queen’s Chamber. This chamber is on the twenty-fifth
course of masonry. Now, it is allowed, the Grand Gallery expresses the
time of Christ’s advent and fulness of time—enlarged liberty. The
ascending passage being only four feet high, men were cramped in passing
up, but on reaching the Grand Gallery they were free, for it is
twenty-eight feet high.
The passage to the Queen’s Chamber is only four feet, and is it not
strange that it is altogether Jewish? This low horizontal passage
terminates in a grand Sabbatic room, which symbolises the Jewish
Sabbath-week, feasts, and time periods.
From this passage we learn that the Jews rejected Christ, and went off by
themselves, refusing the liberty of Christ. So as truly as the coming of
Christ had been forecast in this Pyramid, so had His rejection by the
Jews.
The very mortar in this chamber is mixed with salt. The chamber is
seven-sided. The last seventh of the passage-way sinks down, giving more
room to move in. Salt was an article used freely with the Jews in
sacrificing. Seven was a sacred number. The sinking of the last seventh
part of the passageway floor may mean the enlarging privilege of the Jews
in this latter day. Of the civilised nations, only Russia and Spain
forbid them citizenship. Even Turkey admits them now as citizens.
The Jews have been represented as being blind in part. The passage-way
and chamber have been difficult to explore because of foul air, there
being no ventilating tubes as in the King’s Chamber.
But, strange to say, a gentleman exploring this chamber a short time ago,
found two tubes by an accident in striking the side wall with a hammer.
The tubes had been left entirely closed over with a thin unbroken scale.
These tubes extended inward through the masonry, and into the stones
forming the walls of the room, all nicely cut, but for about one inch
they were not cut through into the room itself. Thus the whole was
designed is evident. This thin scale no doubt symbolises the condition
of the Jew. His eyes are now open, the time of his wandering nearly
spent, as told by this Pyramid.
The curses foretold upon the Jews have been terribly fulfilled. So shall
the blessings foretold now in reserve. It was foretold that he would
reject Christ; so he did. But it is also foretold that he will yet look
upon Him whom he pierced, and mourn and repent, and accept the true
Messiah. Lo-ruhamah represents Lost Israel; Lo-Ammi represents cursed
Judah; Ruhamah represents Israel found; Ammi represents the curse removed
from the Jews. So now we must say, as the prophet Hosea long ago
instructed us—we Saxons—“Say ye unto your brother, Ammi,” and you Jews,
“say to your sisters, Ruhamah.”
We have esteemed the Jews as cursed; we will soon esteem them blest. The
Jews have never thought we were their brethren, the descendants of
Abraham. But God is revealing in this latter day His own great plan; and
Christ will be the Saviour of both.
“In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely.
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more
say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of
Egypt; but, The Lord liveth, which brought up, and which led the seed of
the House of Israel out of the North country, and from all countries
whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land” (Jer.
xxiii. 6–8).
Glorious times are near at hand for the Church and the world. Great
things hath God promised, all of which He will in His own good time bring
to pass.
The very dimensions of the doorway are of thrilling import, expressing in
square inches the time of the Adamic world, which, when added to other
figures, forecast the time of the end, or the 6,000 years, and point out
the date of the beginning of the Millennium morn, or Sabbath of the
earth—the period spoken of by Daniel when he says, “Blessed is he that
waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty
days.” This period we approximated in our last Discourse, and made it
out to be about 1,957. The door-way in square inches is 1,949; take
these inches for years, and we have, before the building of the Pyramid,
of years 1949 A.M., time of building 2170 B.C., and length of Grand
Gallery, 1,882, and we get a total of 6,001. This is indeed a close
approximation.
SIGNS AND WONDERS.
DISCOURSE XVIII.
THE STONE PROPHET IS THE WILDERNESS—NO WAR FOR FOUR YEARS—THE GREAT
STRUGGLE TO COMMENCE IN 1882—PRUSSIA ANCIENT ASSYRIA—ENGLAND, GERMANY,
AND EGYPT TO BE ALLIES—THE FUTURE HISTORY OF THE WORLD—THE PHILISTINES
THE SOUTHERN IRISH—WHO THEIR GREAT ANCESTOR WAS, ETC.
“The great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts, is His name. Great in
counsel, and mighty in work; for Thine eyes are open upon all the
ways of the sons of men; to give every one according to his ways, and
according to the fruit of his doings; which has set signs and wonders
in the land of Egypt, even unto this day.”—Jer. xxxii. 18–20.
Egypt is intimately connected with Palestine in providential history,
both past, present, and future. No student can have a proper knowledge
of the Jewish and Israelitish nation unless he be familiar with the early
civilisation and power of Egypt. From this land went forth the Caphtorim
to settle Palestine, led forth by the great and good Melchisedek, after
he had built the Pyramid. Under his reign they first settled Palestine,
built and made Jerusalem their capital. On the death of Melchisedek they
lost their allegiance to God, they became an idolatrous people, and were
rejected by Jehovah as His special agents. They are known in after
history under the name of Philistines, which simply means the followers
or subjects of Philitis—a name which the early historians of Egypt gave
to the builder of the Pyramid, which was none other person than
Melchisedek. By the Israelites they were driven out of Palestine, and
finally settled in the South of Ireland, as Irish historians allow.
Another member of the family of Shem was called—namely, Abraham, from
whom came God’s chosen people—Israel and the Jews. They also had to
sojourn in Egypt, and they, too, were sent to Palestine, and graffed on
to the purpose of God, where the Philistines had been broken off.
“Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the
Philistines from Caphtor?” (Amos ix. 7).
Egypt has played a noble part in the providence of God through
Melchisedek, Abraham, Joseph, and Moses. Even the blessed Jesus is said
to be called from this land. “Out of Egypt have I called My Son.” The
Egyptians gave to the world the first translation of the Hebrew Bible,
and it was for centuries the stronghold of Christianity after the
destruction of Jerusalem. The best of the Christian fathers were
Egyptians, and in the coming struggle, the great war, which will begin
about 1882, again Egypt will become conspicuous with England and Prussia.
For the Prussians are the Assyrians as the English art the Lost Tribes of
Israel. Bismarck may manœuvre as he please, and be as pro-Russian as Dr.
Storrs, yet when the time comes he and his people will fall in with the
providential purpose, and become an ally with Israel-England; and timid
and bankrupt Egypt will then come forth to take her place once more among
the nations of the earth as an independent Power. Hear what the prophet
Isaiah says in chap. xix.: “And the Lord shall smite Egypt, He shall
smite and heal it, and they shall return even to the Lord, and He shall
be entreated of them, and shall heal them. In that day shall there be a
highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians shall come into Egypt
and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the
Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with
Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts
shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of
My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance.”
“_In that day_” refers to this day, now at hand. To this the Great
Pyramid is witness. For in verses 19 and 20 of this chapter we read: “In
_that day_ shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land
of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And IT shall
be for a SIGN and for a WITNESS unto the Lord of hosts in the land of
Egypt.”
The word translated pillar is from the Hebrew word Matzaybhah, and means
a large structure—some monument that is pre-eminent. The Hebrew word
Ammood is translated pillar also, and corresponds to the English word
pillar much better.
The word _altar_, in Hebrew, means lion, carrying with it the same
meaning as pre-eminence. And is not this Pyramid preeminent? and is it
not the lion of monuments, pre-eminent as being the oldest, pre-eminent
as being the highest, pre-eminent as being the largest, pre-eminent in
location—being _central_ to all the land surface of the earth,
pre-eminent in construction, unlike any other buildings, except such as
have been modelled after it, pre-eminent in orientation—that is, being
exactly East, North, West and South.
Perfect orientation men in past ages and countries have tried to express
in temples, churches, observatories, and monuments, yet none have
succeeded so well as the Pyramid builders.
The famous Uranibourg Observatory, built by aid of the European
Governments, under the skilful supervision of the learned Tycho Brahe,
was found to be five minutes of a degree askew in its orientation when
finished.
A few years ago our Government determined to have one perfect point of
orientation, fixing upon Mount Agamenticus in the State of Maine. They,
at a great cost, and time, and labour, concluded their work, and found
they were in error somewhere about the four-hundredth part of a second;
although they tried to solve the problem by three distinct
processes—namely, differences of zenith distance, absolute zenith
distances, and by transits in prime vertical.
How then came these ancient architects so early in the world’s history
and progress to build so skilfully? How were they able some 4,000 years
ago to find the poles, and determine the latitude and longitude so
precisely? Answer, ye godless scientists, and tell us how these
monkey-men were so skilled. How did they know without your instruments
and instruction which parallel of latitude to choose so as to be on that
line which would mark the half-way of the world’s surface between the
equator and the poles?
And why did they lay bare and make smooth the lime-stone table rock on
which they built close to its Northern edge? Why press so closely to the
brink of the hill on the North side when there was plenty of room on the
South side?
Truly this witness of God is against you. In this building are “signs
and wonders” even to this day, and as surely also are the eyes of Jehovah
open upon all the ways of the children of men.
Know ye not that the accumulated forces and results of centuries have
been bequeathed to the present generation as a legal heritage for culture
and profit?
Happily for us God has not left Himself without witnesses. Long before
God made bare His arm through Moses, and wrought miracles to convince
Pharaoh and the Egyptians, He had wrought one miracle, a miracle which
would cover the ages; not to be seen by a few only, or last for a day,
but to be seen by the millions and last for centuries.
In this Pyramid we have a valuable inheritance. Its finish, its beauty,
its magnitude provokes our criticism, and yet must command our
admiration. This watchman on the walls of time, this sentinel in charge
of the secrets and treasures of the sires of long ago, this prophet in
the wilderness in rugged garb, proclaiming the will of Heaven, as then
made known, and now manifest, this Daniel who can interpret for us the
future, this mile-stone of the ages, we do revere.
By it we are enabled to adjust our chronological dates, rectify history
in some of its most important points, and judge more correctly of the
attainments of our ancestors; nay, more and better, to form a truer
estimate of ourselves and discern the finger of God in the manipulations
of men, and an overruling Providence in the rise and fall of nations.
These signs and wonders confirm God’s Word, for they prove inspiration a
fact; inspiration of a kind and in the very manner demanded by the
unbelieving scientists. Here is a building superhuman, and of course in
part supernatural, like the Bible. In this building the human and the
Divine blend.
If any deny this, it remains with them to account for it, and show how a
people so far back in the world’s history could be so wise and learned;
how they could embody so much of the sciences. One thing is certain, if
the Divine had nothing to do with this building, then we are left to the
conclusion that man was much superior to what the Darwinian theory
admits. If void of the Divine, then the development theory is destroyed.
If we admit the Divine, then it follows that inspiration is a fact.
The building is there, and it was there in the day of Egypt’s oldest
historians. It has been counted as one of the seven wonders of the
world.
It did not embody the ideas of the Egyptians in science, astronomy,
meteorology, or religion. As their historians allow, it was built by
foreigners which they hated.
Nothing idolatrous was carved on it, within or without. It was a witness
pure and clean. The Egyptians proclaimed and believed the earth to be
square—this building proclaimed the earth round. The builders bevelled
the face of the rock in a ratio of eight inches to the mile—the very
quantity that science to-day admits to be the curviture of the earth—and
accepts in surveying. It was their knowledge of this fact that kept the
building sound, without the cracking of a joint, through centuries,
though so high. The Egyptians did not use the sacred amma, or cubit,
which is about twenty-five of our inches. They used a profane cubit, as
Sir Isaac Newton shows.
This sacred cubit was a well and easily established proportion of the
earth’s diameter—the very standard now used by the English Government in
surveying.
The stones of the Pyramid were twelve feet long, eight feet broad, and
five deep, making twenty-five total. The building itself was a
five-faced figure. The Egyptians hated five. No wonder that Moses
harnessed the Israelites in fives as they left Egypt, or that he should
divide his book into five parts.
No wonder that the Queen’s Chamber should be on the twenty-fifth course
of masonry, and the King’s Chamber on the fiftieth course, which is the
year of jubilee, or deliverance—which year, as indicated in the Pyramid,
is the year 1935.
The Egyptians calculated from the moon in their chronology. But this
building takes its calculations from the sun circle. The Egyptian year
was 354 days, with an intercalary month of thirty-three days added every
three years.
The year embodied in the Pyramid was 365 days, five hours, forty-eight
minutes, forty-seven and seven-tenths seconds. If a person took a rod of
a cubit length, and measured one of the base sides of the Pyramid, he
would find this twenty-five inch measure to be contained as often as
there are days in the year, with the same fraction in inches as the
hours, minutes, and seconds.
Is it impious to ask how these builders knew the solar year so
completely? They knew the sun’s circle of 448 years, which completes a
circle of time without any excess or deficiency. This they ran into
weights and measures as God’s religion does.
The Pyramid, having four sides, would divide this circle into four parts,
which make 112 pounds, or a hundred-weight; or, if multiplied by five,
the faces of the Pyramid, 448 would give 2,240, or a ton.
In the descending and ascending passages a person must stoop to pass
through them, but when the Grand Gallery is reached, they can stand
upright, for this gallery enlarges seven times the proportions of the
others. The first passages are only four feet high; this is
twenty-eight.
The first ascending passage is 1,542 inches in length—the time, taking
inches for years, from the exodus of Israel from Egypt to Christ.
Christ brings enlarged liberty. He was symbolised by the ton—the end of
weight scale. “When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His
Son.”
Again, thirty-three inches in this gallery is an open sepulchre with
fifty-six empty graves in miniature, carved out, telling, again, by a
strange coincident, the life years of the Saviour and His resurrection;
also the number of those who rose immediately after. For “the graves
were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out
of the graves after His resurrection” (Matt. xxvii. 52).
Another remarkable feature is, that at the end of this gallery, the wall
bulges forward about four inches, as if it were going to fall in. This
gallery, on the floor is 1,882 inches; on the roof, 1,878 inches. This
explains to us our very times. The shadow of war—Russia and England
appearing as if they would fight every day. But they know not the
counsels of God, nor His sublime purpose. Surely, as the text declares,
“Our God is great in counsel and mighty in work; and His eyes are open
upon all the ways of the sons of men.” More next Sunday evening, God
willing, about His own marvellous witnesses. Let us praise and adore
Him.
“_And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles_, _in the
midst of many people as a_ LION _among the beasts of the forest_, _as
a_ YOUNG LION _among the flocks of sheep_: _who_, _if he go through_,
_both treadeth down and teareth in pieces_, _and none can
deliver_.”—Micah v. 7.
[Picture: Coat of Arms with Lion and Unicorn]
“_His glory is like the firstling of his bullock_, _and his horns
like the_ HORNS OF UNICORNS: _with them he shall push the people
together to the_ ENDS _of the_ EARTH.”—Deut. xxxiii. 17.
THE THRONE OF DAVID.
DISCOURSE XIX.
ENGLAND’S PROPHECY FULFILLED IN THE BERLIN CONGRESS—THE HARP OF TARA THE
HARP OF ISRAEL—THE FUTURE EUROPEAN ALLIANCES—ROYAL SUCCESSION OF THE
HOUSE OF ISRAEL.
“I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more,
until He comes whose right it is; and I will give it Him.”—Ezekiel
xxi. 27.
The closing of the famous European Congress will now freely permit us to
canvass the work and results of the same, and to compare the sequences
with the teachings of the prophets and intentions of Providence. The
results of the Congress have taken the world by surprise. The very fact
that one should have been held under the enforced conditions of the
crownless king, Disraeli, was a wonder in itself. But the wonder is not
confined to the meeting and work of the Congress, for outside of, and in
spite of the Congress, a treaty has been made which converts wonder into
amazement. Back in the middle of last May (1878), England and Turkey
formed an alliance, offensive and defensive. Nay, more, for Turkey cedes
to England the fruitful and strategic island of Cyprus. What a triangle
of strongholds—Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar! Shades of Bonaparte! Where
is France in these days? She is renewing her strength, and is wisely
standing aside so as not to oppose Providence. In all this there is
nothing new or strange to the prophetic student. For long ago it was
written of Israel that she should be a company of nations, and possess
the gates of her enemies.
It is not by might, nor power of human origin, that these events must be
judged, or that they come to pass. But surely by the Spirit of God.
“There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth it
understanding.” Here Job gives us the key to unlock the mysteries of the
crownless king and his success. The apothegm of Bonaparte is as false as
he was unsuccessful—namely, that Providence is always on the side of the
strongest battalions. In Israel, in time of old, this was seldom true.
In fact, it was not true in the experience and campaigns of Bonaparte.
The logic of such a faith has been the ruin of lovely France more than
once, and will be again. For it must needs be that France break her
alliance with England, though now they are friends. France in a few
years will ally with the Beast, the Roman Church, in its last struggle
for rule and supremacy; and she will join hands with Anti-Christ. France
will repeat the follies of ’93. She will again seek to dethrone
Religion, and enthrone Reason. Her Marats, Desmoulens, Herberts,
Clootzes, and Robespierres are at hand ready to overturn. And the Church
of her choice is patiently waiting to re-enact the scenes of blood and
terror of St. Bartholomew. Her time of opportunity will appear to have
come in a few years. Bismarck and Kaiser William will be out of the way,
and Germany will languish for want of two equal successors. And France
will not forget to pay back the debt of revenge she owes to Germany, and
seek to reclaim her prestige in councils, and especially to restore her
lost influence over Egypt, Turkey, and the Mediterranean.
Last year it would not have been so easy to see how France and England
were to become once again enemies. This Cyprus wedge has cleft open a
little farther the dark and mysterious way.
Last Monday we received the astounding telegram of the treaty between
England and Turkey. It evidently was a surprise, we have no doubt, even
to Rev. Dr. Storrs, and the _New York Herald_, as well as to many others
who could see nothing but defeat and shame for Israel-England. From Dr.
Storrs we have not heard what he now thinks of his child of promise,
Russia. From the _Herald_ we did hear, for, by the way, the _Herald_ is
one of our morning papers. By an editorial of a column and a half the
_Herald_ struggled nobly to wriggle out of the tight corner in which its
sympathies for Russia had crowded it. We like and admire the _Herald_,
because of its tact and ingenuity in getting news first from any part of
the world. Still this time she was behind time. Two years ago, from
this pulpit, we announced the exciting facts of the past week. Last
Sunday evening we closed our discourse in these words: “Now, again,
England pledges herself a Continental Power, nay, more, an Asiatic Power.
She will come forth from the Congress the virtual ruler of Turkey, the
owner of Palestine.”
If the Saxons be the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel—and most certainly they
respond to all the features that were to distinctly mark them when found,
as written in the Bible—then the English throne is a continuation of
David’s throne, and the seed on it must be the seed of David, and the
inference is clear—namely, that all the blessings attaching by holy
promise to David’s throne must belong to England. This is the key that
unravels and makes plain the marvellous and sublime history of the
English nation and throne. We know many scout the idea of the Lost
Tribes ever being found, although over thirty times God declares by the
prophets that they must return; surely before they return they must be
found. God has not cast away His people for ever. No, no. He declares
Israel to be His inheritance, and that this people He had formed for
Himself.
The Two Tribes forming the Jews of to-day are said by the best
calculation to number about nine millions. If, then, the Two Tribes
number nine millions, how many ought we to expect the Ten Tribes to
number? If the Two Tribes have stood and survived the shock and
persecution of centuries when known, and therefore open to assault, is it
not reasonable to suppose that the Ten Tribes will be in existence, a
numerous and powerful people, for they have been hid, and thus have they
evaded the persecution that a knowledge of their nationality would have
entailed upon them from the Gentile and Pagan nations?
Some, indeed, persist in looking for God’s chosen seed—His people, His
inheritance—among the bushmen of Africa, the Indians of America; indeed
wherever they can find a people mean, and few, and very low in the scale
of civilisation. They overlook the fact that Israel, not the Jews, were
to be the most powerful and prolific people on the face of the earth, to
be as sands of the sea, as the stars of heaven. Especially were these
promises to be true in the latter day—for then God promises to multiply
them, men, beasts, and the fruits of the field. This is one of the signs
of the times, and it is a remarkable one. See our harvest, see our
cattle, and see the Saxon race—doubling, at least, every forty years. No
other nation is doubling at that rate. Germany comes the nearest, and
both in Prussia and Austria they only double every one hundred years. In
one hundred years from to-day the Saxons will control the world for peace
and Christ.
To this end God is overturning, and will overturn until the whole world
shall be federated around one throne, and that throne is David’s—the only
throne God ever directly established, and the only one He has promised
perpetuity to. God has a land—Palestine. He has a people—Israel. He
has a throne—David’s, and for that throne He has a seed, just as the seed
of Levi was selected for Temple service.
This kingdom is the fifth kingdom, to be set up in the latter days of
those kings, says Daniel. The kingdom was never to be left unto other
people. It is typified by the stone cut out of the mountain that is to
fill the world. Why then stand amazed at the cession of Cyprus to
England, if she be Israel. To her was promised the isles of the sea, the
coasts of the earth, the waste and desolate places—the heathen and
uttermost parts of the earth, as a possession. Already out of the
fifty-one million square miles which composes the earth, England,
including the United States, now owns about fourteen millions, or say
one-fourth. She bears rule over one-third of the people of the earth;
she adds a colony every four years on an average. At the present rate it
will not be long before the kingdoms of this world will be given to the
saints of the Most High. It is no marvel in the light and instruction of
prophecy that this throne and people should be so stable and prosperous.
Turn your attention to the founding of this throne of David. You will
find the throne and seed unconditionally federated, the place and measure
of prosperity conditioned on the obedience of the people and throne to
God. “The Lord has sworn in truth unto David; He will not turn from it;
of _the fruit of thy body_ will I set upon thy throne” (Psalm cxxxii.
11). Again, “I have sworn unto David, thy seed I will _establish for
ever_, and build up thy throne to _all_ generations” (Psalm lxxxix. 3,
4). This promise is to all generations—not a part, nor simply for sixty
years. For the kingdom was rent in twain when Rehoboam, the grandson of
David, began to reign. The throne of David would be about the poorest
type of Christ’s throne and rule, and reign, if we can only see it in
Palestine. There it was soon divided, very corrupt. “If ye can break My
covenant of the day and night in their season, then may also My covenant
be broken with David My servant, that he should not have a son to reign
upon his throne . . . Thus saith the Lord: If My covenant be not with day
and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and
earth, then will I cast away the seed of Jacob and David My servant, so
that I will not take any of _his seed_ to be rulers over the seed of
Abraham” (Jer. xxxiii. 25, 26). Let anybody of the same mind read the
seventh chapter of the second book of Samuel, and they will see that God
promised to David that his house and kingdom should be established for
ever, and that God would set up the seed of David after him. Well might
David exclaim when he sat before the Lord, “Who am I, O Lord God, and
what is my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto? And this was yet a
small thing in Thy sight, O Lord God; but Thou hast spoken also of Thy
_servant’s house for a great while yet to come_.” It is a pity men will
not take and interpret the Bible by the rules of common sense.
David at this time was king over all the Tribes and was at peace, and
settled and prospered. But God told him that “He would appoint a place
for _My people Israel_, and will plant them that they may dwell in a
place of their own and move no more.” This promise was to Israel. If
the promises of the multitudinous seed were to be fulfilled to Israel,
then it would be necessary to find them another place, for Palestine
wouldn’t hold them. So God has planted them. God never promised to find
the Jews another country; Palestine is specially reserved for them. They
have been without country, king, or government. In the year 725 B.C. the
Jews and Israelites were separated, and since that time they have never
been united. But the day is coming, says the prophet, when they shall
dwell together and appoint one head over them. The Israelites are only
to return to Palestine representatively (Jer. iii. 14).
When Nebuchadnezzar carried the Jews captive, he took the king, Zedekiah,
with him, and destroyed all his family, and all the real royal seed of
David. Zedekiah died in Babylon. He placed upon the throne of David,
Gedaliah. Now Gedaliah was not of the seed royal: but God was displeased
and permitted the crown to go to others. Ezekiel was taken captive to
Babylon in the reign of Jehoiachim, the father of Zedekiah. The prophecy
of the text was written in Babylon, and refers to Zedekiah, whom Ezekiel
calls the “wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, iniquity shall
have an end. Thus saith the Lord God, Remove the diadem and take off the
crown, this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him
that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no
more until He comes whose right it is; and I will give it to Him.”
Now all this is plain if we keep in mind that Zedekiah was the last
prince of the House of David that ever reigned in Palestine. God removed
the diadem. But in the course of time a lawful heir of the seed of David
shall appear, and the throne and the seed will be established again in
Jerusalem. It is to this end Providence is overturning Turkey to make
way for this seed royal. But where is this seed royal? Answer: It is on
the English throne. Listen carefully to the following:
Jeremiah tells us that with him he had the daughters of Zedekiah, who had
by some means escaped the destroying edicts of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer.
xliii. 6). And from Jer. xliv. 14, we learn that they visited Egypt, and
from Jer. xliv. 28, we learn that a small number escaped. Now Jeremiah,
being the only prophet in Judah at that time, had a right to take charge
of the royal seed. He could not stay in Egypt, nor in Palestine, nor
would he go to Babylon. Where, then, did the prophet go? He no doubt
took ship with the Danites, and sailed for Cornwall, in England, for this
place was called Tarshish. We learn from Ezekiel the ships of Dan traded
in tin, and other things. History and tradition both agree that there
landed on the coast of Ireland in the North, a divine man and a princess.
God had promised to Jeremiah his life wherever he went. “But thy life
will I give thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest” (Jer. xlv.
5).
[Picture: Jacob’s Stone]
The North of Ireland had been settled with the Tribe of Dan; they at once
understood who their visitor was. They called him Olam Folla, meaning a
Divine man or teacher. The princess was called Tea Tephi, the beautiful
one from the East. This princess was married to Heremon, of Ulster, the
king of Lothair Croffin, for such was the name of the city of Tara. This
word Tara is Arat spelled backward. The Hebrew reads from right to left;
English left to right. Lothair Croffin was changed into Tara at the time
of the wedding. Tara means law. Thus began the seed of David to take
root, and from there it spread over all Ireland, then to Scotland, thence
to England, and Jacob’s Stone in Westminster Abbey marks the journey of
David’s throne, and has always kept with the seed, and they have been
always crowned on it. Ezekiel’s riddle is at once solved. The tender
twigs were Zedekiah’s daughters. One of these twigs was planted by the
great waters in a land of traffic. Our Episcopalian friends intended by
their beautiful service to aid the members of their communion to read in
order, and through the Bible, or a given portion of each chapter, once
per year. But strange to say, this 17th chapter of Ezekiel, they have
left out both of the Old and New Lectionary. It is itself a riddle, why
this should so happen, that the only two chapters of the Bible left out
or proscribed are the 17th and 21st of Ezekiel. Surely blindness in part
has happened to Israel, and what we esteemed as accidental in the
increased light of Revelation, stands to view as the ordered purposes of
an all-seeing God.
The royal standard of England has nine lions on it and a unicorn. Let
anyone set this standard before him as a map, the right hand will
represent East, the top North, left West, the bottom South. The unicorn
comes from the East, it has a chain round its neck. So the Tribe of
Benjamin came that way, and, as Normans, were finally attached to the
throne. The big lion comes from the West, so it did from Ireland to
Scotland and London. On the top we have a crown, and on the top of this
we have a lion. On the first quarter are three lions, second quarter
one, on the third a stringed harp with an angel’s head, and on the fourth
three lions, the total of lions nine, and an unicorn. The fact is, this
standard, had we time, teaches a world of history, and with the Psalmist
we may say: “Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee; that it may
be displayed because of the truth” (Psalm lx. 4). The genealogy and
descent of Queen Victoria from Zedekiah we will furnish you. This
genealogy has been got up by the faithful and very persevering labours of
Rev. F. R. A. Glover, M.A., and Rev. A. B. Grimaldi, M.A., two
Episcopalian clergymen of England. The chart is supposed to be as near
perfect as any such thing can be. If any of you find any defect be kind
enough and let me know. In the following genealogy those who reigned
have K. prefixed—the dates after private names refer to their birth and
death, those after Sovereign’s names to their accession and death.
ADAM TO VICTORIA.
GENERATIONS.
1. Adam (B.C. 4000–3070), Eve.
2. Seth (B.C. 3873–2978).
3. Enos (B.C. 3765–2860).
4. Cainan (B.C. 3675–2765).
5. Mahalaleel (B.C. 3605–2710).
6. Jared (B.C. 3540–2578).
7. Enoch (B.C. 3378–3013).
8. Methuselah (B.C. 3313–2344).
9. Lamech (B.C. 3126–2344).
10. Noah (B.C. 2944–2006), Naamah.
11. Shem (B.C. 2442–2158).
12. Arphaxad (B.C. 2342–1904).
13. Salah (B.C. 2307–2126).
14.. Heber (B.C. 2277–2187).
15. Peleg (B.C. 2243–2004).
16. Reu (B.C. 2213–2026).
17. Serug (B.C. 2181–2049).
18. Nahor (B.C. 2052–2003).
19. Terah (B.C. 2122–2083), Amtheta.
20. Abraham (B.C. 1992–1817), Sarah.
21. Isaac (B.C. 1896–1716), Rebekah.
22. Jacob (B.C. 1837–1690), Leah.
23. Judah (b. B.C. 1753), Tamar.
24. Hezron.
25. Aram.
26. Aminadab.
27. Naashon.
28. Salmon.
29. Boaz (B.C. 1312), Ruth.
30. Obed.
31. Jesse.
KINGS OF ISRAEL.
32. K. David (B.C. 1085–1015), Bathsheba.
33. K. Solomon (B.C. 1033–975), Naamah.
34. K. Rehoboam (B.C. b. 1016, d. 958), Maacah.
35. K. Abijam (B.C. 958–955).
36. K. Asa (B.C. 955–914), Azubah.
37. K. Jehoshaphat (B.C. 914–889).
38. K. Jehoram (B.C. 889–885), Athaliah.
39. K. Ahaziah (B.C. 906–884), Zibiah.
40. K. Joash (B.C. 885–839), Jehoaddan.
41. K. Amaziah (B.C. b. 864, d. 810), Jecholiah.
42. K. Uzziah (B.C. b. 826, d. 758), Jerushah.
43. K. Jotham (B.C. b. 783, d. 742).
44. K. Ahaz (B.C. b. 787, d. 726), Abi.
45. K. Hezekiah (B.C. b. 751, d. 698), Hephzibah.
46. K. Manasseh (B.C. b. 710, d. 643), Meshullemeth.
47. K. Amon (B.C. b. 621, d. 641), Jedediah.
48. K. Josiah (B.C. b. 649, d. 610), Hamutah.
49. K. Zedekiah (B.C. 599–578).
KINGS OF IRELAND.
50. K. Heremon fl. (B.C. 580), Q. T. Tephi. She was Zedekiah’s
daughter. Reigned 15 years.
51. K. Irial Faidh (reigned 10 years).
52. K. Eithriall (reigned 20 years).
53. Follian.
54. K. Tighernmas (reigned 50 years).
55. Eanbotha.
56. Smoirguil.
57. K. Fiachadh Labhriane (reigned 24 years).
58. K. Aongus Ollmuchaidh (reigned 27 years).
59. Maoin.
60. K. Rotheachta (reigned 25 years).
61. Dein.
62. K. Siorna Saoghalach (reigned 21 years).
63. Oliolla Olchaoin.
64. K. Giallchadh (reigned 9 years).
65. K. Aodhain Glas (reigned 20 years).
66. K. Simeon Breac (reigned 6 years).
67. K. Muireadach Bolgrach (reigned 4 years).
68. K. Fiachadh Tolgrach (reigned 7 years).
69. K. Duach Laidhrach (reigned 10 years).
70. Eochaidh Buaigllcry.
71. K. Ugaine More the Great (reigned 30 years).
72. R. Cobhthach Coalbreag (reigned 30 years).
73. Meilage.
74. K. Jaran Gleofathach (reigned 7 years).
75. K. Conla Cruaidh Cealgach (reigned 4 years).
76. K. Oiloilla Caisfhiaclach (reigned 25 years).
77. K. Eochaidh Foltlenthan (reigned 11 years).
78. K. Aongus Tuirmheach Teamharch (reigned 30 years).
79. K. Eana Aighneach (reigned 28 years).
80. Labhra Luirc.
81. Blathuchta.
82. Easamhuin Eamhna.
83. Roighnein Ruadh.
84. Finlogha.
85. Fian.
86. K. Eodchaidh Feidhlioch (reigned 12 years).
87. Fineamhnas.
88. K. Lughaidh Raidhdearg.
89. K. Criomhthan Niadhnar (reigned 16 years).
90. Fearaidhach Fion Feachtnuigh.
91. K. Fiachadh Fionoluidh (reigned 20 years).
92. K. Tuathal Teachtmar (reigned 30 years).
93. K. Conn Ceadchathach (reigned 20 years).
94. K. Art Aonfhir (reigned 30 years).
95. K. Cormc Usada (reigned 40 years).
96. K. Caibre Liffeachair (reigned 27 years).
97. K. Fiachadh Sreabthuine (reigned 30 years).
98. K. Muireadhach Tireach (reigned 30 years).
99. K. Eochaidh Moigmeodhin (reigned 7 years).
100. K. Nail of the Nine Hostages.
101. Eogan.
102. K. Murireadhach.
103. Earca.
KINGS OF ARGYLESHIRE.
104. K. Feargus More Mac Earca (A.D. 487).
105. K. Dongard (d. 457).
106. K. Conrad (d. 535).
107. K. Aidan (d. 604).
108. K. Eugene IV. (d. 622).
109. K. Donald IV. (d. 650).
110. Dongard.
111. K. Eugene V. (d. A.D. 692).
112. Findan.
113. K. Eugene VII. (d. A.D. 721), Spondan.
114. K. Etfinus (d. A.D. 761), Fergina.
115. K. Achaius (d. A.D. 819), Fergusia.
116. K. Alpin (d. A.D. 834).
SOVEREIGNS OF SCOTLAND.
117. K. Kenneth II. (d. A.D. 854).
118. K. Constantin II. (d. A.D. 774).
119. K. Donald VI. (d. A.D. 903).
120. K. Malcolm I. (d. A.D. 958).
121. K. Kenneth III. (d. A.D. 994).
122. K. Malcolm II. (d. A.D. 1003).
123. Beatrix m. Thane Albanach.
124. K. Dunkan I. (d. A.D. 1040).
125. K. Malcolm III. Canmore (A.D. 1055–1093), Margaret of England.
126. K. David I. (d. A.D. 1153), Maud of Northumberland.
127. Prince Henry (d. A.D. 1152), Adama of Surrey.
128. Earl David (d. A.D. 1219), Maud of Chester.
129. Isobel m. Robert Bruce III.
130. Robert Bruce IV. m. Isobel of Gloucester.
131. Robert Bruce V. m. Martha of Carrick.
132. King Robert I. Bruce (A.D. 1305–1329), Mary of Burke.
133. Margery Bruce m. Walter Stewart (I.).
134. K. Robert II. (d. A.D. 1390), Euphemia of Ross (d. A.D. 1376).
135. K. Robert III. (d. A.D. 1406), Arabella Drummond (d. A.D. 1401).
136. K. James I. (A.D. 1424–1437), Joan Beaufort.
137. K. James II. (d. A.D. 1360), Margaret of Gueldres (d. A.D. 1463).
138. K. James III. (d. A.D. 1488), Margaret of Denmark (d. A.D. 1484).
139. K. James IV. (d. A.D. 1543), Margaret of England (d. A.D. 1539).
140. K. James V. (d. A.D. 1542), Mary of Lorraine (d. A.D. 1560).
141. Q. Mary (d. A.D. 1587), Lord Henry Darnley.
SOVEREIGNS OF GREAT BRITAIN.
142. K. James VI. and I. (A.D. 1603–1625), Ann of Denmark.
143. Princess Elizabeth (1596–1613), K. Frederick of Bohemia.
144. Princess Sophia m. Duke Ernest of Brunswick.
145. K. George I. (1698–1727), Sophia Dorothea Zelle (1667–1726).
146. K. George II. (1727–1760), Princess Caroline of Auspach
(1683–1737).
147. Prince Frederick of Wales (1707–1751), Princess Augusta of
Saxe-Gotha.
148. K. George III. (1760–1830), Princess Sophia of Mecklenburgh
Strelitz (1744–1818).
149. Duke Edward of Kent (1767–1820), Princess Victoria of Leiningen.
150. Q. Victoria (b. 1819, cr. 1838), Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg.
Thus do we see how God has kept His word to David, and with this view,
English and American history are at once understandable. The future is
assuring and grand. God will assuredly overturn till His throne once
more is planted in Jerusalem.
JEREMIAH AND ST. PATRICK.
Discourse XX.
THE PROPHET’S COMMISSION—HIS LIFE—THE TRIBES IN HIS DAY—LANDING OF
JEREMIAH IN IRELAND—WHAT HE BROUGHT WITH HIM—COLONISATION OF
IRELAND—JEREMIAH THE FOUNDER OF THE ANCIENT IRISH GOVERNMENT AND
RELIGION—TEA TEPHI AND HEREMON—THE ANCIENT IRISH FLAG—THE HARP AND
LION—SEASON OF IRELAND’S HISTORICAL PRESTIGE—CAUSES OF HER DECLINE—ST.
PATRICK A BENJAMITE—HOW ROME DESTROYED JEREMIAH’S MEMORY AMONG THE
IRISH—DESTRUCTION OF TARA—ULSTER NEVER CONQUERED—IRISH INDEPENDENCE—ARK
OF THE COVENANT—RUINS OF TARA.
“See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the
kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw
down, to build, and to plant.”—Jer. i. 10.
In these words we have set forth the Divine commission given to the
prophet Jeremiah. Never before, or since, was such a commission given to
mortal man. It is not that Jeremiah is constituted a prophet for his own
people, or over his own nation, and country, but he was Divinely
appointed and set over the nations and kingdoms of the earth, with an
authority “to root out, pull down, destroy, and throw down.” Surely he
was rightly named, for the word Jeremiah means the exalted, or appointed
one of the Lord. By common consent, the Jews gave him the first place
and name among the prophets. Up to the time of the Babylonian captivity
he was second, Isaiah being first. But after the captivity, on the
re-arrangement of the holy canon, his name was put first, and ever after
he was regarded and accepted as the patron saint of Judea. He was born
of a priestly family, about 641 B.C., in the priestly town of Anathoth,
which was situated a few miles North of Jerusalem, in the territory of
Benjamin. His work and commission awaited him, because they antedated
his birth, for he says (chap. i. 4), “Then the word of the Lord came unto
me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before
thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee
a _prophet unto the nations_.” Jeremiah’s life-work, extent, and
devotion, can only find a parallel in the majesty and compass of his
commission. It is the extent of this commission that I wish you would
specially notice, for it is neither tribal nor national in its
limitations. He was ordained a prophet unto the nations. Hear the voice
of his wailing (chapter xv. 10), “Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast
borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the _whole earth_.”
Consistent with the vastness of this commission is the recorded fact that
he was forbidden to marry in his own land, for “the Word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have
sons and daughters in this place” (Jeremiah xvi. 2). The claims of a
wife and cares of a family could only have been harshly fitted on to such
a work and commission. Indeed, every peculiar fact in the life of
Jeremiah may be best accounted for by taking into consideration the
greatness of his commission. To discard this is simply to invite
confusion, and yet, strange to say, many prefer confusion rather than
admit that he performed the _rôle_ assigned him of Heaven. For this very
reason writers, even Jewish historians, are at a loss to account for the
latter half of the prophet’s life. They do not seem to know where he
spent his last days; they know not the time, manner, nor place of his
death. And why, you ask? We answer, Because they selfishly and
persistently limited his life and labours to his own land. They have not
been willing to allow that he was set as a prophet over nations and
kingdoms. Then again, they have been willing to allow him to be a puller
down and destroyer, but not a builder and planter. To grant that he was
a builder and planter, would have obliged them to have found the place of
his building and the objects of his planting. These they well knew could
not be found in Palestine, and they were as loath as many are unwilling
to-day to permit Jeremiah to leave his own land. A man who would be
equal to the Bible must be large-hearted, generous, and free, not
fettered and bound by the errors of youthful training, the selfishness of
sectarianism, the bigotry of orthodoxy, or the indifference of
infidelity, but seek the truth, no matter from whence, or what it upsets
or overturns of preconceived ideas. The command is, “Prove all things,
and hold fast that which is good.” To hear some people talk and lament,
you would think that the command was, Prove nothing, but hold hard on to
what you have got.
Try now, and reasonably and patiently follow me while I trace the
wanderings of Jeremiah to Old Ireland. You will be surprised to find how
intimate Irishology and theology are.
Ireland and the Tribe of Dan have a peculiar history, which history only
can be made plain by reference to the Bible. Ireland has had much to
undergo, yet of it God says, “To the islands He will repay recompense: so
shall they fear the name of the Lord from the West.”
Ireland’s first name was Scuite’s Land, or the Island of the Wanderers.
Her second name was Scotia Major, and Scotland was Scotia Minor, and
England was Tarshish, and Dannoii and Baratamac, or Land of Tin. Yar in
Eirin means the land of the setting sun. Hibernia is an Hebrew word, and
means from beyond the river of waters.
Two colonies settled in Ireland; the first, the Phœnicians, who were the
Philistines or ancient Canaanites; the second settlers were the Tuath de
Danan, meaning the Tribe of Dan. The words are Hebrew, yet in Irish.
For further information let any one read “Pinnock’s Catechism on
Ireland.” The Phœnicians were a sea-faring people; pressed by Israel,
Egypt, and Assyria, they finally left Canaan, and settled in Ireland. We
find nine-tenths of Irish historians agreeing on this. Then the
monuments teach the same—ancient inscriptions, one of which written was,
“We are Canaanites who have fled from Joshua, the son of Nun, the
robber.” The people who show tourists the seven churches of
Glendenlough, say they are Hittites and Hivites. Again, ruins of Baal
temples, Cromlechs, round towers, go to confirm the same. Customs—Baal
fires, on May eve, in Irish Ninna-baal-tinne; funeral wakes, or cup of
consolation, forbidden to Israel when they sought to copy after the
Philistines. “Neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to
drink for father or mother” (Jer. xvi. 7). The Irish language came from
the Phœnician, the alphabet of both being composed of sixteen letters
originally, the only alphabet in the world so agreeing. From the Irish
came the Gaelic, Welsh, Cornwall, and the Manx from them all.
The second settlement of Ireland is what puzzles historians of to-day—not
the old historians, for they, nine out of ten, admit that the Formorians,
Firbolgs, and Tuath de Danans, were one and the same people. They were a
divine folk. The Tribe of Dan was a sea-faring Tribe, trading from Tyre
to Tarshish for tin, and so became acquainted with the British Isles, and
during Ahab’s persecution many of them fled; so of the Simeonites who
settled in Wales. This shows us why the North and South of Ireland
should be so distinct to this day in religion, enterprise, and general
characteristics. When the Tribe of Dan finally left Palestine, they with
the other Nine Tribes went North, settling in Denmark, as in the North of
Ireland, leaving their names on rivers, hills, cities, and things.
It is this that accounts for so many words of an Hebrew origin being
found in the Irish language. General Vallancy has compared thousands and
finds them thus related to the Hebrew. Instance: Jobhan-Moran, Chief
Justice; Rectaire, Judge; Mur-Ollam, School of the Prophets; Ollam-Folla,
Divine Teacher; Mergech, a Depository; Tara, Law; Tephi, Prince of the
East; Lia-Fail, Stone of Destiny; Eden Gedoulah, Precious Stone.
If to Irish history we join Bible history, all is plain. God promised
David repeatedly that he should always have his throne and on it his
seed. The permanence of David’s throne makes it a fit type of Christ’s.
Now, Jeremiah took charge of Zedekiah’s daughter when Nebuchadnezzar took
the Jews captive. He went to Egypt, then escaped, God promising to keep
him whithersoever he went. So he disappears. No account of his death in
the Bible. He had charge of the ark of the covenant, royal seed and
Jacob’s pillow—the stone of Israel. Irish histories, some twenty of
which we find agree, say that about 585 B.C., a divine man landed in
Ulster, having with him the king’s daughter, stone of destiny, and ark,
and many other wonderful things. The people of Ulster, of Dan,
understood the old adventurer. Jeremiah married Tephi, Zedekiah’s
daughter, to Eoiacaid, who agreed to abandon Baal worship and build a
school for the prophets. So he did. He then assumed the title of
Heremon of Tara. From Tara, which was changed from Lothair Croffin into
Tara. From Tephi comes our goddess of Liberty, on old coins, sitting on
a lion. Now, at Tara, Jeremiah buried the ark of the covenant, tables of
law, &c., and instituted the nine-arch degree of Masonry, to keep in mind
its hiding-place,—so all may understand Jer. iii. 16: “And it shall come
to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days,
saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the
Lord; neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it;
neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.” This
means that when the ark is found the ceremony will end; for the ark has
to be found and go before the Jews when they return to their own land.
Jeremiah was the first Grand Master. He, too, is the real St.
Patrick—simply the Patriarchal Saint, which became St. Patriarch, then
St. Patrick. The Roman Church introduced St. Patrick to offset the St.
Patriarch.
Jeremiah well knew where the Tribes of Israel were in his day. He knew
that Judah, Levi, and Benjamin, were in Babylon, filling in the seventy
years of captivity, and the small remnant that Nebuchadnezzar left of
them in Judah were scattered hither and thither. The Nine Tribes, or
Israel, were settled in Central Asia, and were spreading Northward and
Westward. This he knew, as easily as Peter did centuries after, when he
wrote his epistle to the brethren, scattered abroad in Pontus, Galatia,
Cappadocia, and Asia; or as James, who dedicated his epistle to the
Twelve Tribes which were scattered abroad; or as the Blessed Master who
commissioned and sent His disciples after the lost sheep of the House of
Israel. The place and locality of the Nine Tribes were known to the
Jewish nation in the time of Josephus, the historian, for he speaks of
them, and gives them a fraternal letter which the House of Judah sent
unto the House of Israel. You are to keep in mind that it is after this
the Tribes of Israel are to be lost. All prophecies after 700 B.C., up
to this, our day, and till about 1882 A.D., that had reference to Israel,
plainly mark out the dwelling-place of these Tribes, and yet these
prophecies not being understood, till these latter days, Israel was as
actually lost as if there had been no such prophecies. These prophecies
were first sent North, then West, and then to the “isles of the sea.”
The law of the Gospel of Jesus would be sent to these Tribes; till then
the “isles had to wait for the law.” In due time this law was carried to
them by the missionary Tribe of Benjamin. This very thing and time the
prophet had foretold, for he says: “Wherefore glorify ye the Lord by the
Urim; the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the Western
sea.” How true, indeed “the isles of the sea saw it and feared.”
Jeremiah knew that the Tribe of Dan were a seafaring people, and in their
trading they had become acquainted with Northern Europe and the British
Isles. During the persecutions of Ahab thousands of them had left
Palestine, settling in Denmark—this word Denmark means the circle of Dan.
In course of time they crossed the sea and took possession of the North
of Ireland, settling in the province of Ulster. The Tribe of Simeon,
that had ever cast its lot with Dan, left Palestine and settled in Wales.
Read the prophetic benedictions of the patriarch Jacob in the light of
these historical facts, and they will stand out in sunlight brightness.
“Dan shall judge his people as _one_ of the Tribes of Israel.” In his
_oneness_, all alone he shall go out first, mark out and prepare the way
of the other Tribes; and the royal seed, the ruling power, shall hide
itself in him. “Dan shall be a serpent by the way; an adder in the path
that biteth the horses’ heels so that his rider shall fall backward.”
Yes, Dan will be hid among the Gentiles. He will bite them, sting them,
frustrating their purposes. Then exclaims Jacob: “I have waited for Thy
salvation, O Lord.” Dan did wait, until the prophet Jeremiah landed in
his midst with Tea Tephi, the daughter of Zedekiah, the royal seed, with
the ark of the covenant, the tables of the law, the Urim and Thummim,
which would enable Dan to judge his people, with the stone of Jacob, the
pillar witness, which is now in the royal chair in Westminster Abbey; and
also with the standard of Judah. Thus the prophet, who was the rightful
custodian of all these things, carefully cared for the same, leaving them
in charge of Dan. All but the stone have been concealed till the latter
day. For on this stone have been crowned all the kings and queens of
David’s line.
Now just here we must take up history—especially Irish history—for in
this matter and at this very point, you will find profane and sacred
histories agreeing. One will beautifully explain the other; nor can
anybody understand Irish history unless they get the key from sacred
history. To take this key later writers have been unwilling, and,
therefore, they have been unable to solve the problem embodied in this
race and nation. No people on the face of the earth have been less
understood and more misrepresented. The real allophyllians of
Ireland—that is, the first native settlers—are unknown. The present
inhabitants are not autochthonal, no more than we are the first settlers
of this country. On one point all old historians are agreed—namely, that
Ireland has been settled by two distinct colonies of people; and from
these two colonies came the present Irish race. These two colonies were
distinct in features, manners, customs, enterprise, and religion, and
after all these centuries have passed away, these differences are
discernable in some degree, especially so in enterprise and religion.
And though, of course, in these latter years, they have become
considerably mixed, yet an appeal on either of these points will mark out
the Danite from the Phœnician. From the loud boasting of the Phœnician
Irishman in Ireland, when speaking of America, you would think that he
would pluck out his eyes and give them for a gift if need be. Well, a
few years ago, Chicago was bitterly scourged with a fire. The need and
distress thus caused appealed to the nations of the earth for help. The
response was grand and glorious. Even hateful old John Bull did well.
But what did Ireland do? Take two of her leading cities as an example;
one in the North, the other in the South. Belfast in the North, of the
Tribe of Dan; Dublin in the South, of the Phœnicians. Belfast sent
36,000 dols.; Dublin, 2,000 dols. Why this difference? We answer,
Forsooth, the people of Belfast are Danites; they of Dublin are
Phœnicians.
The Phœnicians, or Philistines, were the ancient Canaanites. They took
early possession of Ireland. On this point the old as well as the new
historians generally agree. But there was another early settlement in
the North of Ireland whom the historians called _Tuath de Danan_, which
simply means the folks of the Tribe of Dan. They introduced into the
Irish language hundreds of Hebrew words, with many customs and legends of
the Hebrews. They were very distinct in their enterprise and religion
from the other settlers. About the year 580 B.C. there appeared before
this people a strange man, whom the historians call _Ollam-Folla_, which
means a divine teacher; the name or title is in Hebrew. This man,
whoever he was, soon wielded great power in their midst. What he
commanded they seemed ready to do. He very soon inaugurated wonderful
reforms. He gave them a parliament, made them give up their idolatrous
customs. He founded a college to train students to teach and preach his
religion. It was called _Mur-Ollam_, school of the Divine. Here again
the name is Hebrew, although in Irish. This wonderful man had with him a
fair young princess, whose name in Hebrew-Irish was _Tea Tephi_, which
means the beautiful one from the East. This lovely princess was married
to the governor of Ulster, Heremon. He resided in the City of Lothair
Croffin. In the agreement of the marriage, among many things, he was to
accept her religion, give her joint authority, and build the Mur-Ollam,
or college, and sustain it. Also to change the name of his city from
_Lothair Croffin_ to _Tara_, which means law; to adopt her standard or
banner emblem, the harp and lion, and to be crowned on the wonderful
stone called in Irish-Hebrew, _Lia-Fail_, which means stone of destiny,
sometimes called _Eben Gedoulah_, the precious stone. From this Tea
Tephi we get our female goddess of liberty, who on old coins is seated
upon a lion with the Davidian harp in her hand.
Our text tells us that Jeremiah was to plant and build up. Here he
planted, and here he did build. He planted and built a throne, a
college, and a religion. Turn to Ezekiel, chapter xvi., and read the
famous riddle. Tea Tephi is the tender twig that was cropped off from
the high cedar, King Zedekiah, and planted among the merchants by great
waters on the mountain of Israel. She was the tender one that was to
take root downward. To Jeremiah, the Lord said, “Verily it shall be well
with thy remnant.” Nay, more, He told him that He would give him his
life for a prey whithersoever he went. And in 2 Kings xix. 30, we read:
“And the remnant that is escaped of the House of Judah shall yet again
take root downward, and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go
forth a remnant and they that escape out of Mount Zion; the zeal of the
Lord of hosts shall do this.” And Ezekiel, in his captivity, sent forth
a prophecy referring to the wicked prince, Zedekiah, saying of his throne
in the name of Jehovah: “I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it
shall be no more until He comes whose right it is, and I will give it
Him.” So was this throne overturned, and was never after established in
Jerusalem. You will notice that there are three overturnings, and as
Scriptural language is emphatic and not superfluous or tautological,
these overturnings mean something. Turn to history, and you will find
this throne has been turned over just three times—first, from Jerusalem
to Ireland; second, through King Fergus to Scotland, and, third, through
King James, from Scotland to England. This throne can never be turned
over again, for Jerusalem will be incorporated into the British Empire.
The throne has turned over till it got home again; hence, as surely as we
live, Palestine will go into the hands of England. The throne, religion,
and education established by the prophet have ever kept together. This
is the secret of Ireland’s prestige and marvellous pre-eminence in
centuries past. The college of Armach could boast of 7,000 students at a
time. Missionaries went forth from Ireland through all Europe, teaching
Christianity, and founding schools. Few men can compare to Virgilus,
Eregina, Columbanus, and Columba. In olden times she was known as the
“Isle of the Saints.” The day of Ireland’s weakness and distress came to
her when she permitted her religion to be corrupted and controlled by
foreigners; and by these same Italian intriguers she is now impoverished
and enslaved. But for this the throne might have remained with her
to-day, and England and Scotland have been under her. But when a nation
loses her religion, she loses the right arm of power, and the ability to
preserve freedom.
Jeremiah was the patron-saint for Ireland for a long time. Simeon (the
Welsh) had and have David; and as surely as the Welsh have kept their
saint, so surely ought Ireland. St. Patrick is looked upon by many as a
mythical person. I believe, however, that he was a veritable man. The
best authorities make out that he was born at Bonavena, in ancient Gaul,
near what is now called Boulogne, some time about 387 A.D. He is
reported as having died March 17th, 465, in the county Down. His
father’s name was Calpurnius. Young Calpurnius, or St. Patrick, as he
was afterwards called, had a hard life of it in youth. I believe him to
have been a Benjamite, a Christian; for the Benjamites began to fill in
that part of France about that period. This Tribe were by nature
missionaries. This prompted him to desire to redeem his brethren in
Ireland. In Ulster he began his labours. From this same Tribe others
had visited Ireland. History mentions four who preceded St. Patrick.
The name of St. Paul, by many, is connected with a visit to Ireland. It
is very easy to see how Jeremiah, the patron-saint of Judah, would be
installed in such a relation with the Danites after his death. He was
the real sainted patriarch of Ireland. And by a crafty design of Rome,
young Calpurnius was created sainted patriarch, or St. Patrick, and by
this means Rome linked the greater part of the Irish nation on to
herself. Anybody honest and familiar with history knows that St. Patrick
was a Christian, and in no sense of the word a Roman Catholic. The fact
is, Rome began early to covet Ireland. Once they got possession, it was
necessary for them to destroy the influence of Jeremiah. This they did,
in part, by substituting the name of St. Patrick in the place of the
prophet’s; and more, they then set to work to destroy even the old and
famous capital city of Tara. In 565 St. Ruadham, along with a _posse_ of
bishops and chiefs of the South of Ireland, cursed the city, so that
neither King nor Queen might ever rule or reign therein again. They
forced the government, monarchy and people to abandon the place. From
thence Tara was deserted, and the harp sounded no more through Tara’s
halls. The city thus cursed crumbled to ruins, and remains to this day
buried, awaiting a glorious resurrection. Rome caught her prize at last;
but neither Rome nor any other power ever enslaved or conquered Ulster.
Beyond the pale—that is, the dividing line, running from the Boyne to the
Shannon—Rome never got, nor never will. Irishmen clamour for
independence, to be free from England, and wonder why they are not. The
reason is that God cannot trust liberty to them; for a people that yoke
themselves to a foreigner, and give themselves over to be governed in
spiritual matters, would make a poor effort if trusted with their
temporal government. We all know that if Ireland had been free, she
would not long have remained so, for body, as well as soul, she would
have committed to the Italians. Why Irish Catholics should ask for
freedom when they so voluntarily bind themselves to a foreigner, I fail
to see. As the Protestants of the North have asked, and had granted,
spiritual freedom in the severance of Church and State, so let the men of
the South ask and demand, and stop not short of freedom from Rome. A
free religion is the parent of a free State, and a free State of free
school. A people who are not wise enough to take care of their own
religion, are very poorly prepared to be the guardians of liberty. My
belief is that Ireland ought to be free. She ought to be an independent
province, with responsible government, as other English provinces. And
once she becomes free religiously, it will not be long before she will be
free politically. Substitute Jeremiah for St. Patrick, and the Lord
Jesus for the Pope, then the day of freedom will not long tarry.
LONDON: PRINTED BY ROBERT BANKS, RACQUET COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.
Footnotes:
{23} Essay on “Manasseh and the United States,” by the author, published
by Robert Banks, price 2d.
{159} This Discourse we give to the reader as reported. In all the
others we have excluded the reporter’s introduction and personal
references.
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