SCARCITY OF GOLD IN TURKEY AND THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.
However abundant gold may be in other parts of the world, it appears to be remarkably scarce in Turkey. Accounts to June state that the premium on gold is rising alarmingly at Constantinople; new coins of 100 piasters being current at 115. The king of Egypt, however, has proved a friend in need to the Sultan, having voluntarily contributed £275,000 towards his financial relief.
This scarcity of gold in the Turkish treasury may be the predisposing cause of the proposed solution of the question concerning “the Holy Places” referred to in the following extract, taken from the Ladies own Journal. The Suisse, published at Berne, dated April 18th, says, “A correspondent writes from Constantinople, on April 1st, that the Divan had hit upon a very original plan for settling the question of the Holy Places. The four pachalics of Syria are to be granted to M. Rothschild for the sum of £20,000,000 to be paid into the treasury of the Sultan; and upon the sum of £2,000,000 being paid to France, she will renounce her pretensions. Russia and England will each receive £1,000,000. It is not yet settled whether M. Rothschild will take the title of king, emir, or bey. It is certain that he intends to restore the ruins of Jerusalem and Antioch, and to rebuild Solomon’s temple.”
Whether this bargain and sale will be consummated remains to be seen. It may; although it is written in the prophet,
“Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money”—Isaiah 52: 3.
This, however, relates to the Twelve Tribes, and to their redemption. The buying up the claims of Russia, France, and England, to the Holy Places in Jerusalem, is not purchasing the redemption of the tribes. There is no man, society, or power upon earth can redeem Israel either with or without money. There is but ONE that can do it, and he is “the Man at Jehovah’s right hand, whom he hath made strong”—Psalm 80: 15, 17—for that very purpose—Isaiah 49: 5-6. The restoration of Israel will not take place until after the appearing of Messiah in power. There will, however, be A lifting up of an ensign upon the mountains of the Holy Land. I say a lifting up; for it is not the lifting up referred to in the text following—
“All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers upon the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign upon the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye”—Isaiah 18: 3.
The ensign here indicated is, the “Root of Jesse, who shall stand for an ensign off the peoples; to it shall the nations seek: and His Rest shall be glorious”—Isaiah 11: 10, 12. This ensign is Jehovah’s servant, whose mission is to restore the peoples or tribes, of Israel. But Israel, reduced to a feeble few, is also styled “an ensign;” thus,
“One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee; till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill”—Isaiah 30: 17.
In this sense it is, I use the word when I say that before Messiah returns there must be a lifting up of an ensign upon the mountains of Judea. Testimony and reason thereupon show, that there must be a re-settlement of the land by the Jews to a limited extent before the battle of Armageddon; for it is the prosperity of the Jewish Colony that whets the avarice of the Autocrat, and stimulates him to invade the country, that he may spoil them of their goods, cattle, and liberty—Ezekiel 38: 9, 11-12.
It is probable that this financial scheme of the Turkish government may be the initiative of the pre-adventual colonisation of the Holy Land. After paying off the claims of the three powers the Sultan will be gainer of £16,000,000, to say nothing of the advantage to the revenue to be derived from an industrious people in a province so well situated for agriculture and commerce. If the proposal become an accomplished fact, that fact will speak in unmistakable, and infallible terms to the believer. It will be a sure and certain sign of the speedy appearing of the Son of Man in power and glory. No one need expect that appearing to be manifested until a Jewish Colony be lifted up “as an ensign upon a hill;” for to snatch that ensign out of the hand of Gog, is the proximate cause of the Lord God’s appearance on Mount Olivet again. The reason of the present calm, which broods over the surface of things in the old world like sultriness before lightning, and the dewy cloud in harvest-heat, is for the blossoming forth of Judah’s plant that this bud, which is afterwards to become a swelling grape, may become manifest in Jehovah’s vineyard—Isaiah 18: 4; 5: 7. When this grape-producing process is sufficiently advanced, things will have ripened into a crisis among the powers. The Napoleonic empire (a meteor of the air,) will have been fully prepared for the performance of the mission assigned to it—the division of the Great City into three parts will be complete; and the Crisis of the End at the very doors. The sickles will then come into play, and the sprigs and branches will be reaped.
It matters not what title M. Rothschild may assume. If he proclaim himself “King of the Jews” his glory will be but transient, and his royalty brief. There is one at God’s right hand to whom that title exclusively belongs. Still we should like to see him adorn his brows with the diadem of Judah’s kings. It would be to the believer an earnest, that the crown of David, now profaned in the dust—Psalm 89: 39, 44, would ere long illustrate the majesty of his son and lord, bearing Jehovah’s glory upon his throne.
The idea, however, of king Rothschild rebuilding Solomon’s temple is quite out of the record. A temple, more magnificent than Solomon’s, is certainly to be built; but the honour of building it is to devolve upon the “Greater than Solomon”—
“THE BRANCH shall build the temple of Jehovah; even He shall build the temple; and He shall bear the glory; and shall sit and rule upon his throne, as a priest upon his throne”—Zechariah 6: 12-13.
This can be Rothschild by no possibility. It can only be Jesus, the Lord and Christ. Rothschild can’t build this temple; he does not know the plan. It is to be differently arranged to Solomon’s, because the service is to be different—a difference necessitated by the dedication of the New Covenant, and the introduction of a new order of priesthood under it. Rothschild is ignorant of this matter. Besides he does not know on what spot to place it, whether on Moriah or to the north of the city. If he begin a temple after the model of Solomon’s, it will either never be finished, or demolished in the siege when Jerusalem shall be beleaguered just prior to the battle of Armageddon. But if the Sultan’s proposal become a fact, he will doubtless do all that is possible for vast wealth to accomplish. Should it come to this, the design of Providence in conferring upon the Jews great riches will be manifested. It is very significant to the believer of the prophets; as also is the present marvellous discovery of gold in California, Australia, and even in England. The prediction of an overflowing abundance of the metals in the Holy Land, contemporary with Israel’s future prosperity, could not have been verified out of the amount of bullion existing before that discovery. But the current accumulation demonstrates the approach of the time, when—
“For brass, the Lord of Israel, will bring gold, and for iron silver, and for wood brass, and for stone iron: and will also make their officers peace, and their exactors righteousness: so that violence shall no more be heard in their land, wasting nor destruction within their frontiers”—Isaiah 60: 17.
The value of gold, depending upon its scarcity, will doubtless be greatly diminished in Israel’s land. Its abundance will correct, to some extent, that love of money which is the root of all evil. The power of the millionaire will enfeeble as the dust his contemporaries placing them in easy circumstances, and making them proportionably independent of his possession; for it is truth and righteousness, not gold, the bowelless, oppressive, and accursed thing, that will command the worship and admiration of mankind in the Age to Come. But for the present we forbear.
EDITOR.
June 1st., 1852.
