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.