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 Petroea. 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.