THE FUTURE PROSPECTS OF SYRIA.

(Continued)

Having thus sketched briefly the prominent points in the past history of Syria, and brought the subject to the days in which we ourselves live, I now proceed to a close, though of necessity very brief, consideration of the marvellous events which must mark its future destinies, and involve the fortunes of the whole human race. I still have no desire but to spread before you strict and sober REALITIES.

My own conviction that the Jewish nation will be restored as a nation to its ancient land, is, as you may have judged from preceding observations, as positive as the conviction of my personal existence, or rather as my conviction of the existence of Him who “rules in the kingdoms of men and gives them to whomsoever he will”—Daniel 4: 25. In addition to that solemn conveyance to Abraham, which if it stood alone would be a sufficient guarantee, there are in the word of Revelation repeated references to it, such as the following.

It is accompanied again with such stupendous declarations as the following, which if an upright man were to make to his fellows no one would presume to disbelieve.

The promise, as in almost every other instance, binds up the land with the nation, for without any interval there follows,

Again, (if one may be permitted to say so), the deepest sympathies of the soul of the Most High are involved in this great consummation, for the land, be it always remembered, as well as for the people. In the same chapter as the preceding unspeakably powerful asseveration, are found in the following outpourings of divine pity.

ARE THE BRITISH ISLANDS MORE THAN ADAMANT DEAF, THAT THEY CANNOT HEAR EVEN THE VOICE OF THEIR GOD?

Every one who has really examined upon this subject the revelation of our invisible Creator, must know that distinct and absolute passages like these, might be brought forward in number sufficient to occupy your attention for the greater part of the night; I will therefore leave this point of the certainty of Israel’s future restoration to Syria to plead its own cause, as “THE WORD OF OUR GOD” which “SHALL STAND FOREVER.”—Isaiah 40: 8 Let those who dare neglect or reject such passages, but let us, if we would, dare not to do either. Knowing the Bible to be God’s word, may we take God AT HIS WORD and actively comply with it.

The restoration will embrace not only the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which were dispersed by Titus and are to be found generally among civilised nations, but also the other ten tribes, which were carried away captive to Media, about seven centuries before the Christian era.

If any should ask where are those ten tribes now? It may be replied, that modern travellers have furnished evidence they should first of all be sought for where they were lost, in the district of ancient Media; and that from that point looking to the north, north-east, and east, abundant traces of them will be found from Daghestan on the western side of the Caspian Sea, along the southern shores of that great inland water, into Bokhara, Afghanistan, the north of India and China. —(“These from the land of Sinim,”—Isaiah 49: 12, pronounced Seenim or Sheanim. La Chine (French) pronounced la Sheen. In Tartarian, Tcheen.) Portions of them may have wandered elsewhere, but in the countries above named they certainly exist in considerable numbers.

2. The restoration is to be accomplished, in a very great degree, through the assisting instrumentality of other nations, and in an especial manner of some of the “Islands,” of the “Daughter of Tyre,” “Tarshish,” the great maritime nation of the day, of the nation which shall “overshadow with wings,” and to which shall be applicable the peculiar title of “Ketseh ha Aretz,” “the End of the earth.”

I beg your close attention to the foregoing summary; the welfare of your sovereign, of your country, of yourselves, and of your children, may be inseparably bound up with it. The worst blight that can fall upon nations or families, JEWS OR GENTILES, flows from the sentence from above, “Because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; . . . . Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, . . . . Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit”—Isaiah 65: 12-15. The whole passage, referring as it does especially to our own days, is most worthy of close attention.

“Listen, O Isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far”—Isaiah 49: 1.

There is need enough with Great Britain at this moment for obedience to this last injunction, and it is a happy augury that the passage soon proceeds to declare,

“SURELY, THE ISLES shall wait for me, and the ships of TARSHISH”—Isaiah 60: 9-13, tin-producing Tarshish—Ezekiel 27: 12, “FIRST to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God . . . to beautify the place of my sanctuary: and I will make the place of my feet glorious . . . . And they shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.”

“THE DAUGHTER OF TYRE shall be there with a gift.”—Psalm 45.

(Daughter of Tyre is doubtless applicable to Britain, the Bath-Tzor of this Psalm; which prophesies of “the latter days” when “the Mighty God” girds his sword upon his thigh in glory and majesty to overthrow the people, and to establish his throne. Names of countries and towns are feminine in Hebrew. Bath-Tzor is feminine. Bath, translated “daughter,” signifies also female descendant. Britain is the commercial descendant of Tyre, and therefore styled Bath-Tzor—descendant, in the sense of the trade and commerce of the east and west once possessed by Tyre being now in the hands of Britannia. Tyre’s commerce has descended to Britain, therefore is she Tyre’s daughter of the latter days. No other Gentile power will inherit the world’s commerce after her: for “the abundance (or commerce) of the sea shall be turned unto Zion, and the wealth of the nations shall come unto her.” Jerusalem is the next heir of Tyre’s Daughter, and not the United States. The trade and commerce of the nations will travel no further west; but pass from Britain to Syria, whence it originally departed. This is the end scripturally revealed of that commercial rivalry now subsisting between Britain and the United States. The people, though not the governments, of these two countries will find increased prosperity in the transfer of the commercial throne from London to Jerusalem, the city of ancient Tyre’s wise, glorious, and powerful ally. —Editor of the Herald of the Kingdom.)

“Ho! To THE LAND OVERSHADOWING WITH WINGS” or “extremities,” (that is, it seems to me in sober application, “overshadowing a large portion of the earth with her dependencies”) * . . . . . “that sendeth ambassadors . . . .. . to a nation scattered and peeled . . . .. . . . . All ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers of the earth, see ye . . . . and hear ye”—Isaiah 18: 1.

* The Colonel’s idea is doubtless correct. It is a “land” upon whose dominions the sun never sets—a “land widely o’ershadowing with wings from beyond to the rivers of Cush,” as rendered and interpreted in my translation of Isaiah 18. —Editor of the Herald.

And lastly, “Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto ‘Ketseh ha Aretz,’ to ‘THE END OF THE EARTH,’ say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold thy salvation cometh”—Isaiah 62: 11. This command is usually understood to be addressed to all mankind, from one end of the earth to the other end of it. If this were the true meaning it would of course include the British Isles, and still make the duty enjoined imperative upon them. As, however, it is expressly asserted as a general truth, that at the commencement of the restoration of the Jewish nation, “darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people”—Isaiah 9: 2, it is not likely that the nations of the earth, in general, should appreciate such a command, or be the objects of it. Nations in “gross darkness” could not say “to the daughter of Zion, Thy salvation cometh.” This solemn command, therefore, I take to be not general but particular. Not to mankind from one end of the earth to the other end of it, but to that particular nation, which was the western extremity of the great political world, (America ** does not interfere with general politics,) and which was emphatically known of old by the very name used by the prophet, “Ketseh ha Aretz,” “the End of the earth,”—“the end,” sing., not “the ends,” plur. I am the more confirmed in this application from the circumstance that “Tarshish,” of which “tin” producing England certainly formed a part, is declared to be the “first” to engage in Jewish restoration—“the ships of Tarshish first;” and the more still, as certainly, of late years, Great Britain has been particularly chosen to be the great sanctuary of the word of divine revelation, and the great means of circulating the sacred volume throughout the earth.

** America is a “New World,” forming no part of the prophetic earth, which belongs exclusively to the “Old.” The world known to the ancients is the theatre on which is to be displayed the grand and marvellous events of the latter days, which are to ultimate in bringing Europe, Asia, America, &c., into absolute subjection to the King of Israel. The general declaration that “he shall be King over the whole earth,” by implication foretells the conversion of these United States of North America into regal provinces of his Empire; the consequent abolition of Republicanism, which is merely a provisional and temporary element of the Gentile economy. —Editor of the Herald.

Under all these considerations, whether as included in mankind from one end of the earth to the other end of it, or as especially included in Great Britain, “Ketseh ha Aretz,” “the End of the earth,” I, seeing the extraordinary indications of the days in which we live, bow before the divine command, and with the loudest utterance that I can give, I would say to the daughter of Zion, “BEHOLD, THY SALVATION COMETH!” “PREPARE YE THE WAY!” And in the same spirit of responsibility, as a man and as an Englishman, I would invite every prudent heart and voice in this United Kingdom, to join with practical energy in the appeal.

For its literal accomplishment, it is not necessary that we should endeavour to define to the Jewish people, whether that “salvation” is the Saviour they expect, or the Saviour we Christians expect. Both parties look for a mighty Saviour from the God of Israel, and the scriptural and natural signs of our times (as will be presently shown), loudly testify to the nearness of his approach. Let us, therefore, in union, in obedience to the divine command, which clearly implies union in effect, “PREPARE THE WAY” for the manifestation of the goodness of our great Creator, whatever it may be. Let it not be recorded against any of us, “When I called, ye did not answer!”

England will not long remain single-handed in assistance to this great work; for it is expressly declared.

3. The restoration, however, will not be effected without great opposition. When, in this world, was ever any great and good work accomplished without strong opposition?

(The daughter of Zion will not “Arise and thresh” until Messiah appear; for it is written, “Judah shall be as the mighty who tread down in the mire of the streets; and they shall fight because the Lord is with them.” They will, doubtless, contend in battle with Gog, or the Autocrat of Russia, when he invades Syria, but instead of threshing they will be thrashed, notwithstanding Britain’s aid. The Deliverer, however, will be at hand to come with great power to cast the enemy out of their land. —Editor of the Herald.)

I will not enlarge on this painful particular, although the sacred volume contains extensive evidence in regard to it. The trial will be great, but the triumph greater.

A singular feature in its commencement will be, the general dullness of perception of the Jewish people, and the determined opposition of a portion even of them; though divine mercy will supply remedies for the first, and give to the second a signal rebuke and overthrow.

Those who have been brought, as I have been brought, to the full confidence that the words of the Most High God are never uttered with lightness, will bend in reverence before the power of language with which the last declaration is enforced.

4. All difficulties will be finally overcome and removed by the especial, visible and audible interference of the Great God himself.

5. I now request your most particular attention to the effects of Jewish national restoration upon the whole human race and upon the condition of our globe. They are truly worthy of your consideration, for you will perceive that they are the very effects which statesmen, philosophers, philanthropists, and religious persons have been labouring for centuries to produce in whole or in part, but without success.

All have been sensible that the human race, as a body, is degraded, disorganised, afflicted and unhappy: all have striven to lessen or remove these evils, and yet, after labours indescribable, the success of all and every class has been extremely limited. The mass of human degradation and misery remains unchanged.

This picture represents strict and sober realities. Why are they realities? Is it not because these persons, eager though they have been for great and glorious ends, yet have they not grasped the further reality of the rigid jealousy of the God they have to deal with, for his own appointed means—the placing of the Nation He has chosen, in the land he has chosen to be the focus and centre of his goodness and glory?

The effects of Jewish restoration must be—for the Most High God has said it must be.

(Mayim tehorim, pure waters, or waters of pureness, that is, of heart. The word rendered sprinkle in Isaiah 52: 15, is nahzah, and in the future yazzeh, not zahrak, and in the future zahrakti, as in Ezekiel—khain yazzeh goyim ravbim ahlahv is rendered by Gesenius so shall he cause many nations to rejoice in himself, the verb nahzah signifying to leap, to exult, to spring: leaping is the natural action expression of joyousness; hence when spoken of nations, nahzah, signifies to rejoice; but when spoken of liquids, to leap forth, spirt, or spatter. In Isaiah it is used of many nations, not of liquids; it therefore in that place means to leap for joy, to exult. The Seventy have translated the Hebrew by, so many nations shall be filled with admiration because of him. But not so their kings! They will not exult: for it is so written in the next sentence, yikpetzu melahkhim, the kings shall contract; i.e. as one gathers himself up in death. They shall be dumb, they shall die, they shall not rejoice when the world exults in the king whom Jehovah gives. This is the sense of this passage, which was not, however, perceived by the baby sprinkling translators of the common version. —Editor of the Herald.)

O you who are ice-hearted and infatuated among Christians and Jews, bend your eyes to read the last paragraph flowing from the mouth of Him that formed you, and who even now searches you out; and say if human language can express more powerfully the glory and happiness of the land and of the people, and, through their union, of the whole race of man! What words from God would you have, if the preceding are not sufficient to move you? I know of none that voice can utter or pen can write: fit preludes are they to the marvellous reality that comes next for consideration.

What a most effectual and indispensable element for human happiness is here! Religious doubts and difficulties which fill men’s hearts with anxieties, and theological enmities which have blotted the whole volume of the history of our species with frauds, contentions, and blood, will universally cease, and the Most High God be worshipped in his true essence, name and character. To take the lawful preparatory measures for such a great end as this; should not Jews and Gentiles, setting aside in abeyance the differences which make union in effort impossible, heartily and honourably labour in concert, as the word of their God commands them? If they labour not together, the required preparatory work cannot be done.

Here is a motive for all political reformers. They cannot have spotless supreme government, or completely peaceful and just subordinate management, until Syria and Israel be united. Then, they will soon realise the brightest vision of political perfection.

Here is an inducement and a warning for the most ardent promoters of “Peace Societies.” So long as the nation of Israel remains dispersed, and the land of Syria depopulated and desolate, Peace Societies are engaged in the labours of “Sysiphus.” They may tug and sweat to roll back the mountain avalanche of war as they will; their labour will be in vain; it must return upon them with tenfold impetus, until “Jerusalem be the throne of the Lord,” and He shall say to it, “Stand thou still.” They cannot make straight what He has made crooked, * but through the means alone which He has appointed to straighten it; and let them remember, that for such means He is most jealous; crossing sometimes in anger every other even though the end in view be good and desirable.

* The Colonel speaks truly. The Peace society is an empty bubble, the idiotic bantling of maudlin avarice and infidelity. Jesus says, he came to send a sword upon the earth; yet in spite of this, they dream of substituting peace for the benefit of merchant princes and millionaires! “There is no peace for the wicked, saith God,” who would never be able to avenge the blood of his saints shed upon the earth, if the Peace Society’s crotchet were to become a fact. War is inevitable, and cannot be staved off by the cupidity of merchants and traders who are heaping up their rusty gold for the spoiler. The day of Christ is at hand, when his poor shall be covered and filled with good things, and the peacemongering rich sent empty away. —Editor of the Herald.

This portion of our subject may be well and appropriately concluded, with the most energetic invitation and command of the God of Heaven to universal nature to rejoice.

(To be continued.)

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