Israel Discovered In The Anglo Saxon And Kindred Protestant Nations; Joseph And Ephraim In England And Her Colonies by Rev. H. Newton
ISRAEL
DISCOVERED
IN
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND KINDRED
PROTESTANT NATIONS;
JOSEPH
AND EPHRAIM
IN ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES;
Shown
from Old and New
Testament Prophecy
___________
"Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations"
—Jer. xxxi. 7.
___________
By The
Rev.
H. Newton, B.A.,
VICAR
OF ST. MICHAEL'S, BOROUGH, SOUTHWARK.
AUTHOR OF "THE RESURRECTION OF ISRAEL," A POEM; "THE FALL
OF BABYLON," A POEM.
W.
H. GUEST
54 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
DUBLIN STEAM PRINTING COMPANY, DUBLIN AND LONDON
Publisher's
Preface
Special
thanks are extended to the Vancouver British-Israel World Federation
Bookroom, 1307 Kingsway, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V5V 3E3 for
providing the original of this rare book making this reprinting
possible.
Sacred
Truth Ministries
July
1996
PREFACE
The
Author designed at first but a short Prefatory Tract on Israel
Discovered,
&c., to be prefixed to his poem, The
Resurrection of Israel,
printed some twenty years ago. He advertised this accordingly;
but, in making the attempt, he found a mere Tract on such a subject
an impossibility. However some may be disposed to treat our inquiry,
it has been, the Author knows, a subject of years of study and prayer
with men who have the knowledge of the truth, as our Reformers and
Martyrs held it, combined with judgment, and "the spirit of love
and of a sound mind."
41
TRINITY STREET, BORO', SOUTHWARK,
April
1874.
__________________________________________________________
ISRAEL
DISCOVERED IN TIE ANGLO-SAXON
AND KINDRED PROTESTANT NATIONS
CHAPTER
I
WHEN
the poem, named in the preface, was printed some twenty years ago, my
thoughts were directed towards that land,
which is yet to be to all "The Israel of God," over the
whole world a metropolitan region. The thoughts of others, without
any mutual personal acquaintance, were similarly directed. They
thought of Zion, as the time drew nigh when, certainly in a material
fulfilment, some were preparing to "take pleasure in her stones,
and favour the dust thereof." (Psa. cii.) This is a fact worthy
of note, and with other events stirring the question, whether “the
time to favour her" is not at hand. Meanwhile Satan's
counterplot was at work in our "perilous times" (2 Tim.
iii.), in the efforts of the "traitors and the truce-breakers"
amongst us, who with " a form of godliness," would "
creep into houses" to stir the sympathies of England, not
towards Zion, but towards Rome and the Roman Antichrist. When the
Resurrection of Israel was written, I had arrived at no idea beyond
this, that the destinies of the Anglo-Saxon race were bound up with
those of Palestine: that this Scripture, amongst others, "The
isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first . ."
(Isa. lx. 9) can have but one meaning. Not till latterly was my
attention called to the publications, whose titles are) given in. the
notes1
These are designed to indicate, as some affirm, the probability,
others, the certainty, that the ten lost tribes, named in prophecy
the " House of Israel" distinctly from the " House of
Judah," are to be found in the Anglo-Saxons,
or
in the Anglo-Saxon and kindred races, in the Protestant regions of
Europe, America, and else-where. Some of the principal arguments in
the books and tracts referred to, are here very briefly pointed out.
We
have a promise in Gen. xxii. that Abraham's seed should be as
"the stars, and as the sand of the sea," and be a dominant
race, "possess the gate of their enemies." Of Abraham
and Sarah, in the line of Isaac and Jacob, shall come "many
nations and kings . . . kings of people" (Gen. xvii.); "a
nation and a company of nations and kings." ((Ion. xxxv.) Jacob,
in his dying hour, utters a prophecy (Gen xlix.), to be fulfilled in
the last days," which all agree, are the days of Messiah, of the
Gospel dispensation. A destiny is pointed out for Joseph, which, as a
matter of fact, has a striking fulfilment in England and the
career of the Anglo-Saxon race over land and sea: such a career, that
French writers of note have admitted that the world will not be
either French or Russian, but Anglo-Saxon. The blessings foretold are
to be "on the crown of the head of him that was separate from
his brethren;" words referring to an event supposed to be
symbolical in the life of Joseph. His are "blessings of heaven .
. . of the deep that lieth under," and of a race like a
"fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall"
in a hot climate far away beyond assigned limits from the root—a
race prolific "to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills:"
words which cannot mean more; and it is asked, can they point to less
than the progress of a race which has laid its hands on regions
beyond the Rocky Mountains in America, and the Himalayas in Asia.
Joseph, “separate from his brethren,” "sorely grieved,
hated, and shot at by the archers; his bow that abode in strength,
the arms of his hands made strong by the mighty God of Jacob"—all
this has directed our thoughts to the position and destiny of
England, which has stood apart, and singly, ere now, against Popery,
or revolutionary in-fidelity in arms against her. To "the
blessings of the deep" a significance is given in the words of
Jacob, spoken of Joseph's sons, especially Ephraim, "Let them
grow (Heb. as fishes do increase, in shoals, suggesting voyages and
colonies) into a multitude in the midst of the earth." Of
Ephraim it is said distinctly that "his seed shall become a
multitude (Heb. fullness) of nations." (Gen. xlviii.) Moses
also, prophetic before his death, assigns to Joseph, with the
chief things of the ancient mountains," "the precious
things and fullness of the earth," those also which come of"
the deep that coucheth beneath." His power, compared to that of
our national symbol, "the unicorn," also to "the
lion," in common with his brethren (Num. xxiv. 9), is to "push
the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten
thousands of Ephraim, and the thousands of Manasseh."
(Deut. xxxiii.) The "multitude of nations" (Hob. Goiim, the
same word used always for "Gentiles" or " nations")
is rendered in the margin, "fullness" of nations : the
terms are used by St. Paul (Rom. xi.), who says that there will be no
restoration, till the event signified by "fullness of the
Gentiles" or nations is brought about. It is affirmed that this
is appointed especially for Ephraim. "Multitude" or
"fullness" will come to mean much the same thing—e.g., if
the Anglo-Saxons are Ephraim, go to New Zealand, push out the
Maories, and fill the island with their race; this in time becomes,
as North America, the Red Indians being pushed out, becomes one of a
multitude of Ephraimite or Anglo-Saxon nations. There is a Scripture
showing what is meant by "Abraham, heir of the world,"
which is St. Paul's interpretation (Rom. 13) of the prophecy,
"Father of a multitude of nations" (Gen. xvii. 4), and
other prophecies already quoted. That Scripture is: "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 number of the children of Israel: for the Lord's
portion is His people, Jacob is the lot (Heb. cord, or measuring
line) of his inheritance (Deut. xxxii. 9). Compare this with "God
ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth" (Psa.lix.13), and we
have Scripture to guide us in what is meant by Abraham, especially
through an Ephraimite "fullness of nations" becoming "heir
of the world." The conclusion is, that nothing less can answer
the requirements of such a prophecy concerning Abraham and Israel,
than the progress of a race, encompassing the world, occupying lands,
sea-coasts, islands, as if measuring out both hemispheres for itself.
Everywhere
in the pages of prophecy on the future of Abraham's race, till a
certain great event takes place in a union, spiritual and national,
a distinction is made between the "out-casts
of Israel" and the "dispersed of Judah." (Isa. xi.)
That great event, repeatedly foretold in terms both literal and
symbolical, is set forth in Ezekiel xxxvii., under the figure of a
resurrection in a valley of dry bones. Here one division of the
race is indicated by "the stick of Joseph, in the hand of
Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions," "all
the house of Israel," while very remarkably the second division
is indicated by a stick, marked with. "the house of Judah
and the children of Israel, his companions:" not as in the other
case, with "the tribes," "all the house of Israel,"
as represented by Ephraim, often standing for the ten tribes. It is
asked, what has become of the far larger portion which we are here
plainly instructed is equally preserved, and distinct from Judah and
those Israelites who adhered to the tribe of Judah? A reply is
found in many Scriptures, a notable one in Ezekiel xi. 15, 16. We
here read that Judah-Israel—the compound word 'is used for
brevity's sake—who boasted of Jerusalem as their own, bore
themselves contemptuously towards Ephraim-Israel, carried away by the
King of Assyria, B.C. 722, to the north-western provinces of his
empire. They said: "Get you far from the Lord; unto us is this
land given in possession." God orders, by the prophet, an answer
to this vaunting language," Although I have cast them far
off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the
countries, yet will I be to them a little sanctuary in
the countries where they shall come."
They
were then in regions extending to the Caspian and Black
Seas, were to travel thence to other lands, always under covenant
Divine protection, till the day of the great gathering for a
restoration, both spiritual and national. This is all confirmed by
what follows in this same chapter. The "outcasts of Israel,"
Ephraim-Israel, go one appointed way, and Judah-Israel, for we have
learned that to Judah did cleave some companions of Israel,"
go another way. To these our Lord, when amongst them, said: "Your
house is left unto you desolate. . . . Ye shall not see me
henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name
of the Lord." (Matt. xxiii.) Who cometh thus? A Christian
mission; showing, by the way, that such is our duty: but the safest
reply is by a parallel Scripture. In Mic. v. 1-3 we have Judah,
for smiting their judge, given up till a work of the Spirit takes
place, here, as elsewhere, foretold under the symbol of parturition.
"He will give them up, until the time that she that travaileth
hath brought forth, then shall the remnant of his brethren (Judah)
return unto the children of Israel." We have another parallel
passage in Jer. iii. 18, where, for "with," the marginal
reading is "to" or unto, and guided by the parallel
prophecy, and in accordance with the LXX. have every reason to prefer
it. "In those days, the house of Judah shall walk unto the house
of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the
north." Not assuredly the land north of Assyria, long ago
emptied of Ephraim-Israel, but a different north, often
indicated by "the isles," "the sea," "the
coasts of the earth," "the west."
The
"north" in prophecy, like Tarshish, Babylon, &c.,
is adapted from the past to other places in the distant future.
Ephraim-Israel to be "returned unto" must in conversion
have got the start of Judah, in a region to them for a long time a
wilderness of which we thus read:
"The people which were left of the sword found grace in the
wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest."
(Jer. xxxi.) In this chapter, which is one of those most worthy of
note for our inquiry, a precedence in the subject is given to
Ephraim-Israel. We are brought to the times of the restoration,
always coupled in prophecy with the latter-day "whirlwind,"
"the time of trouble," "the great earthquake,"
without a parallel in history,. when the Lord will be "the God
of all the families of Israel" (Jer. xxx. and xxxi. ; Dan. xii.
; Rev. xvi. 18). Ephraim-Israel is dealt with thus: "I will
allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably
unto her. And I will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley
of Achor (trouble) for a door of hope." (Hos. ii.) The comfort
of the Gospel is brought to Ephraim-Israel, after days of long weary
wandering over what for ages was to them a wilderness. There at last
they find grace; there for ages they have been in a "Loammi,"
"not my people," "outcast" state, not known, and
not knowing themselves as Israel, "Abraham ignorant of them, and
Israel not acknowledging them" (Isa.lxiii.16). "Yet,"
says the Prophet Hosea, speaking of them in this condition, "the
number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea,
which cannot be measured nor 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."
The next verse is to be noted in every part, especially the words,
"Come up out of," connected, as we have seen, with "the
north." "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." (nos. i. and ii.) A work has taken place upon.
Ephraim-Israel, here expressly distinguished from Judah: then there
is a union of the two; but precedence in the mighty movement is given
to Ephraim-Israel. It gives a spiritual as well as national
significance to the words in Jer. xxxi., "I am a father to
Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born. There shall be a day that the
watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up
to Zion...." Ephraim-Israel having grown in their exiled state
to a vast multitude, must in this have become great, and constituted
"the chief of the nations." God commands (v. 7), "Sing
with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations"
for that which, while the metropolitan land is in the hands of an
alien, they have not; an Israel-nationality, no matter how great or
high among the nations elsewhere. All the title they have from Israel
is "the remnant of Israel," not saved in the national
sense, but in "the groat day of Jezreel" (the seed of God),
saved in this sense, and also in that of "life from the dead,"
by the covenant work of grace upon the heart (v. 31-34). The
gathering is declared in this chapter, as in other places, to be
"from the north country," from "the coasts of the
earth," and "the isles afar off." There can be no
misunderstanding this. A people must be in a place to be gathered out
of it. The humble title, "the remnant of Israel," while
there is no Israel nationality, is, in this chapter (v. 8), made
to consist with what is said of the multitudinous seed of Ephraim: "I
will bring thorn . . . a great company shall return thither;"
a representative portion from a far greater multitude: "I
will take you, one of a city, and two of a family," or tribal
section, "and bring you to Zion" (Jon iii. 14). This is
proclaimed "toward the north" to Ephraim-Israel, not
to Judah. Let it be carefully noted that the proclamation here is to
Israel distinctively from Judah ; expressly so. The prophet calls to
Ephraim-Israel, at that time exiled far away to the north, cast out
of the land some ninety years before then. Their conversion to
Christ, while yet far away from the land of Israel, seems here also
thus intimated in v. 19-22, "I said, How shall I put thee among
the children, and give thee a pleasant land? . . . And I said, Thou
shalt call me, My father . . . Behold we come unto thee." There
are proofs upon proofs that the ten tribes are distinguished in
prophecy from those now called Jews. In Ezek. xx., for example, we
find the prophet, before Judah was yet cast out, ad-dressing the
outcasts of Ephraim-Israel, in the land of their exile, he being one
of their number. He foretells that they will be brought into "the
wilderness of the people," there pleaded with, made to "pass
under the rod, and brought into the bond of the covenant." The
chapter closes with the restoration of "all the house of Israel"
to their covenanted land.
In
Isa. xxiv. we have a very striking description of all the land
of Israel in a state of utter desolation; its inhabitants "scattered
abroad" out of it. The prophet then turns at once to the
preserved of these inhabitants—that is, to their descendants, in a
very different place (v. 13-15), "They shall sing for the
majesty of the Lord, cry aloud from the sea . . . glorify the Lord
God of Israel in the isles of the sea." This same Israel is
addressed as being converted in these parts, or they would not be
capable of singing there to the glory of the God of Israel; and it
can be elsewhere shown that they greatly multiply there. We
learn (v. 16) that during this state of things there is a professing
world of "treacherous dealers," on which account a final
judgment, of which prophecy often speaks awfully loud and clear, is
visited on the earth, so that "it shall fall and not rise
again." This is an event, in which God will finally settle His
controversy with all antagonist powers; "punish the host of the
high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the
earth: "Satanic powers—"Satan fallen like lightning from
heaven"—deposed in the deposition of their representatives on
earth. This event is in prophecy almost invariably coupled with the
restoration of an Israelite nationality. We give a few instances.
This chapter closes thus: Then the moon shall be confounded, and the
sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion . . .
and before His ancients gloriously." Hosea ii. closes the
restoration of Judah and Israel thus: "I will break the bow, the
sword, and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie
down safely." We have this final conflict, the scene being in
the Holy Land, given in the same words in. Psa. lxxvi., beginning
with Judah and Israel nationally restored. So also in Ezekiel, in the
chapters following that which foretells the union of Ephraim-Israel
with Judah (xxxvii.), the prophecy closes with a description
fearfully graphic of the world's last battle, in which a formidable
power coming from the north to oppose itself to God's gracious design
in Israel, is broken with unparalleled slaughter. So Micah v.,
foretelling Judah's "return unto the children of Israel,"
ends with a "judgment and fury upon the heathen such as they
have not heard." We can be at no loss for clear ideas on what a
war of opposite religious principles comes to, in the remembrance of
the Franco-German war, and the Crimean disaster, which wrung the
heart of England, while being led by Rome-favouring rulers.
Let
it be observed that the same parts, "the sea, the isles of the
sea," and, in Isaiah xlix. 12, "the north and the west,"
are named by Jeremiah as the region of the earth from which
principally the captivity of Israel and Judah are brought (xxx. 3;
xxxi. 8-10). So in a region indicated by "the isles," north
and west of Palestine, must the ten tribes be looked for. Isaiah
says, speaking of the preserved of Israel, "They shall lift up
their voice . . . sing . . . cry aloud from the sea …. glorify the
God of Israel in the isles of the sea." So they are there,
having been far removed from Palestine. Jeremiah (xxxi.) says, in
much the same words, speaking of the preserved of Israel that "found
grace in the wilderness," "Sing with gladness for Jacob,
and shout among the chief of the nations . . . say, O Lord, save Thy
people, the remnant of Israel . . . I will bring them from the north
country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth .. . declare it
in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather
him." From all which it is inferred, first, that a converted
Israel from the tribes, quite distinct from the still unbelieving
Jews, is in that region indicated by "the isles,"
north and west of Palestine.. "The chief of the nations,"
the bulk of the ten, tribes," the wilderness," as it has
once literally been to these, and till we have "the life, from
the dead," is so morally to spiritual believers, to "the
sealed," comparatively few, are to be found in the same quarter
of the earth. It should be noted that, by "the isles,"
commentators do not under-stand merely the sea-girt parts of Europe,
as England, but also the maritime parts contained within the scope of
the prophecy. Thus, there is a distinction in the sentence, "The
isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first"
(Isaiah lx. 9). So also, in Rev. x., the angel, holding in his hand
the "little book open," considered to represent the
Reformation, sets his right foot (the firmer foot) on the sea, and
his left on the earth. A student of many years on our subject has
seen an inchoate fulfillment of the prophecy in the chief of the
nations," England and Germany, having themselves represented by
a Protestant bishop in Palestine. Secondly, it is inferred, from the
plain Scriptures before us, that it is out of the question to wander
off, in our search, to the Nestorians, or Afghans, or the
Beni-Israel, in India, who claim. Reuben for the head of their tribe.
It is true that there are remnants of Ephraim-Israel in other parts
of the world. But if God will "bring from the east," He is
to gather from the west (Isaiah xliii. 5), where they are, in "the
chief of the nations." But, as regards nationality, prophecy
looks over the pre-sent state of things, into a glorious and
permanent future. It treats Israel, no matter how numerous, as being,
till then, in an utterly abnormal condition. Nationalities, in
coming momentous changes, are to merge in the Israelite, and a
theocracy in this. In Jer. xxx. we read, "Though I make a full
end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make
a full end of thee;" and Isaiah xxiv. foretells the same, not
only in the symbolic language already quoted, but, in chap. lx., in
plain words, addressed thus to a nation and polity, which "they
shall call The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel:"
"The nation and kingdom that will not serve Thee shall perish;
those nations shall be utterly wasted." In Zech. xiv. a curse is
denounced on any nation which would disown the affiance, and ignore
the second great restoration, in an established Israel-nationality,
the celebration of which is the anti-type to "the feast of
tabernacles."
In
Isaiah xlix.,
beginning, "Listen, O isles, unto me," we find (verse 3) it
is Israel, God's called servant for a special purpose, that so
addresses "the isles." Is it the "Israel of God"
(Gal. vi. 16), Jew and Gentile, who, being "of faith, are the
children of faithful Abraham," being "all one in Christ,"
that has here to do with the isles? Or is it a people by race
descended from Abraham, in fulfilment of these most explicit
prophecies: "I will sow them among the people: and they shall
remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their
children, and turn again." "I will sow her unto me in the
earth: and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy."
"And I will strengthen the house of Judah, Land I will save the
house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I
have mercy upon them, and they shall be as though I had not cast them
off . ... and they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man" (a
warrior). (Zech. x.; Hos. ii.) The Israel that in Isaiah xlix.
addresses the isles, and is in the isles, or how could an Israel for
the Holy Land be gathered out of them, is by race descended from
Abraham, having a mission for Christ: we are hedged up within certain
particulars that so decide. This Israel is, in verse 14, impersonated
'by Zion. This Zion is described here, as also in chap. liv., as a
woman, once in marriage covenant, but divorced and desolate, to whom
it is promised, "The children which thou shalt have, after thou
hast lost the other." This no way applies to an aboriginally
heathen people, converted to Christ. Such is not the Zion that is to
say, "Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my
children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro."
No converted Japanese or Burmese can ever speak thus. To such, the
words here, and in chap. liv., where we have the "wife of youth"
divorced, and again received, can in no way apply, "Thou shalt
not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For the Lord
hath called thee as a woman forsaken, and grieved in spirit, as a
wife of youth, when thou wast refused. For a small moment have I
forsaken thee," &c. The promise of being so prolific as to
be compelled to colonize, grow into a "multitude of nations,"
so "inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be
inhabited," is, as we have seen, peculiarly distinctive of
the family of. Abraham. "Thy waste, and thy desolate places, and
the land of thy destruction shall even now be too narrow . . ."
This will, no doubt, be true in future ages of the now desolated
Palestine. But Zion, who (verse 12) has a number of children in far
countries, "the north, the west, and the land of Sinim,"
asks, "Who hath begotten me these, seeing I am desolate . . .
these, where had they been?" With all this agrees Hosea 1:10, in
prophecy of the "Lo-ammi." outcast state of Ephraim-Israel
becoming as the sand of the sea, attaining to the title of the
children of God, before the gathering with Judah, and coming up out
of the land in the great Pentecostal day of Jezreel. This is the
Israel that has to do with the isles. A people is set forth, once in
covenant, cast out of their land, for many years paganized, in this
state “barren,”2
incapable
of yielding children to God, compelled to wander, and looking for
rest; they at length "find
grace in the wilderness," are there "spoken
comfortably to," and so multiply, that the waste and desolate
places to which they have travelled, and "the land of their
destruction," in which they dwelt in a lost nationality, has
become "too narrow by reason of the inhabitants." These
must, of necessity, constitute "the chief of the nations,"
"break forth on the right and left," and fulfil the
prophecy, "Thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles," and
"become a multitude of nations." If
an objector should say, "All this is for the Jews
now still unbelieving:
they are to be gathered and
brought to their land. They will, all over the world, take the place
of the Anglo-Saxon and kindred races. These must in comparison so
diminish, they so increase, as to 'push the people together to
the ends of the earth.' There must be a pause in the Anglo-Saxons
occupying and peopling vast continents and islands in the old and new
world, that the Jews of the future may become a 'nation and a
multitude of nations,' as 'the sand of the sea,' constituting Abraham
' heir of the world.' "The objector is asked, are the now
unbelieving Jews, comprising within themselves, as you say, all the
tribes of Israel, to perform
all this in a converted or unconverted state?
If you say,
unconverted, that contradicts the words
of our Lord, in harmony with all that is foretold of the Jews, to be
under a reproach and a curse, and having no favour from Christ, the
governor of the nations, till they shall say, "Blessed is He
that cometh in the name of the Lord." If you say they will
perform all this in a converted state, that is to say, as His spouse,
a married wife, that contradicts the prophecy, "More are the
children of the desolate than the children of the married wife."
Israel,
in Isaiah xlix., declares to the isles his call
of the Lord, "He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword." As
this is a symbol of the Word of God (Rev. i. and xix.), we may
apprehend that this Israel looks like a people in the isles, who have
translated and who send the Bible to all the nations of the world:
that it is a people that has "come of Jacob to take root,
blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit."
(Isaiah xxvii.) Disappointment is expressed at first as regards
results; but there is an assurance of a call to service, to raise up
the tribes of Jacob, restore the preserved (LXX., dispersed) of
Israel, and to be a bearer of the tidings of "salvation unto the
end of the earth . . . raise up the earth, and cause to inherit the
desolate heritages." If it should be said that all this is
addressed to Christ, that "Israel," in verse 3, is Christ,
the reply is, He works by an agency, in a people here particularly
described.
Some
of the treatises, whose titles have been given in a note, viz., those
by Wilson, Carpenter, "H. L.," supply co-ordinate historic
evidence in support of their theory. The inquirer is referred to
these publications: only some of the heads of his
class of evidence can be here given. The Anglo-Saxons have been
traced by Sharon Turner to the very land in North Media to which the
ten tribes were transferred by the King of Assyria. He can trace them
no further. Where Scripture leaves the ten tribes, there S. Turner
finds the Anglo-Saxons, and at a time which agrees, as to date, with
what we learn from Scripture. The subject of our inquiry on the ten
tribes never occurred to him. Saxon words and names not a few are
derived from the Hebrew; S. Turner gives 247.
The
institutions and polity of the Anglo-Saxons were Israelite, having
their original pattern in what Moses had instituted in the
wilderness. The Saxons had the Israelite divisions of time; they
reckoned their day from the evening, and had their week of seven
[days named after their objects of worship: Sun-day, Moon-day,
Tuosco-day, Wodens-day, Thors-day, Frigga-day, Saturns-day. This
looks like traditional derivation, not accidental coincidence.
The Israelites had "joined them-selves to idols," and to
"worship the host of heaven," and God "gave them up"
to be paganized (Jer v. 19; Acts vii. 42); but we may well presume
they did not wholly give up their national customs. The Saxons had,
like the Israelites, three great festivals: Easter, a word supposed
to be derived from Esther; Whitsuntide, answering to Pentecost; and a
third, held about the same time as the Feast of Tabernacles. Vast
sepulchral heaps or monuments, indicating by the double-cave stone
structure underneath, a work of Israelitish origin, mark, along vast
regions in the north of the Black Sea, a migration westward of a
highly-civilized people. Mr. Carpenter says, "The Russian
Archceological Society has brought to light many interesting
Israelitish relics, many hundreds of epitaphs from tombs, some of
which go back to pre-Christian times, and date from the 'year of our
exile,' no doubt the Assyrian captivity." One of the relics is a
golden serpent, studded with jewels, reminding us of the brazen
serpent, and the superstitious use made of it by "the children
of Israel" (2 Kings xviii. 4). Mr. Carpenter says, the
Beni-Israel in India, who claim, in descent from Reuben, the name of
"Israelites," not "Jews," are said to have silver
serpents as objects of worship. Should further research confirm the
conclusion arrived at that these sepulchral monuments are Israelite,
we would have, not circumstantial, but direct evidence, added to not
a little of the cumulative, that there has been a great migration
westward of "the outcasts of Israel," of whom Josephus says
in his history (Book xi.) that in his day they had increased to "an
immense multitude, not to be estimated by numbers." What became
of this most prolific race? Dr. Abaddie, a learned divine and
historian of the last century, says, "Either they have flown
into the air, or plunged into the earth's centre, or they must be
sought for in that part of the north which, in the time of
Constantino, was converted to the Christian faith." Mr. Rankin
gives an instance of what may be added by antiquarian research to
this class of evidence. The writing on a slab, dug out of the ruins
of Nineveh, is deciphered, and reads: "Sargon came up against
the city of Samaria, and the tribes of Beth Khumri, and carried
captive into Assyria 27,280 families." It is conjectured that
the Israelites were called Khumri, from their idolatrous priests
(Chomarim LXX.) (2 Kings xxiii.
5). The Cimbri, in sound like Cumri, or Cymri,
are always mentioned by
Tacitus with the Teutons,
a part of the great German race. They have occupied North Germany,
Denmark (the modern name for Cimbrica), and Great Britain, where
Cambria and Cumri are names standing for Wales and the Welsh. Let
this be compared with what Herodotus (iv. s. 11) relates of the
Cimmerians, inhabitants of the region called Kimmeriom (the very
region where the Israelites, Khumri, had dwelt), and whence they were
expelled by migrating Scythian tribes. We anticipate a little by
saying that the Apocalyptic language for this is, "water, as a
flood, cast out after" . . . and "the (Roman) earth
helping," . . . becoming a place of refuge (Rev. xii. 15). It is
also noted that the final syllable in Jordan is in the names of
rivers and places in the west, especially in the course taken by the
people, whose progress west-ward is marked by the tumuli mentioned
above. Some of these names are, the Dan-ez, Dan-nipper, Dan-fester,
Dan-ube, or Dan-au (river of Noah, or rest), Dan-merk, as Denmark is
pronounced by the
Danes, whose land, Jutland, or Juteland, is supposed to mean the
Jews' land. In the British isles, the broad Norwegian pronunciation,
which gives Dawn-merk, has altered the syllable Dan in such flames as
Dundee, Dundalk, Don, Doon.
It
is supposed by S. Turner that the Saxons derived their name from the
Sacae, the most celebrated of the Scythians: this is a name for
wandering tribes, under which designation out-cast Israel would come.
We learn from Pliny that a division of these, named Sacassani, gave
to their country, Armenia, the name of Sacasena, in sound nearly the
same as Saxonia. It is also conjectured that "Saxons"
means "sons of Isaac," by which name the Israelites called
themselves (Amos vii. 16). Sunnia being an eastern word for sons,
Sac-suni, sons of Isaac, is the origin of the word "Saxons."
A
most valuable paper by Professor C. Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer-Royal
for Scotland, was read at the conference at Mildmay Park, June 26 and
27, 1872, showing that "our national weights and measures add
signal confirmation to the belief in our national and hereditary
Israelitish descent." The English inch is the exact measure, the
25th part, of the sacred cubit;
and our "quarter," by which the staff of life is measured,
is exactly the fourth part of the Hebrew laver, and of the most
sacred vessel of all, the Ark of the Covenant.
I
am indebted to the writers already named for the arguments given in
this treatise. My reasons are now submitted for concurring with them.
Some
thoughts which occurred to me, and which I imagined to be exclusively
my own, I discovered, in the course of study, to have occurred also
to others. This may be true, more or less, of the reasons now given
for the affirmative side of the question.
CHAPTER
II
WE
find New Testament prophecy to agree with the Old in what has been
affirmed on this question. In Revelations, chap. vii., we have
an angel ascending from the east, and sealing 144,000 out of the
twelve tribes of the children of Israel, 12,000 of each: Joseph being
substituted for Ephraim. This is during an interval of quiet in the
Roman earth, before the signal is given of those storms which are to
burst on the Roman Empire.
It is that very period which Dr. Abbadie, in his Triomphe-de
la Providence,
pointed out, during which we must look for the great body of the
Israelites in the north of Europe. As the movements and
characteristics of people, as they stand related to Christ and
Churches, are in this very book signified by their angels, there is
no imaginable reason for this angel ascending from the east,
that is, travelling westward, but one—namely, that the people of
Israel, out of whom God has elected and marked His servants on their
foreheads, have travelled westward to the Roman earth: that His
witnesses come of these during the long period of the Roman apostasy.
The precision in the numbers, 12,000 of each of the twelve
tribes, which never could be the outcome of aught but Divine
sovereignty in grace, teaches this truth, which is marked on the
foreheads of all God's protesting servants, as against the doctrine
of human meritorious expedients paraded by the false prophet. Joseph
being named for Ephraim is most significant.3
What has paganism converted to Christianity to do with this, or with
the twelve tribes? Not the most self-torturing invention can find out
a reason, save one, for an angel "ascending" (moving,
and progressively rising) from the east, and putting a mark on Joseph
in the west. This directs us to the Scriptures, to the words of
Moses, and the dying and inspired Jacob, giving us clear
distinguishing marks for the finding out of Joseph, with his double
honours of birthright (1 Chron. v. 2) in "the last," in
gospel days. We now look for him in the west, having the wealth of
the earth and "the deep that coucheth beneath," a
population and power "to the utmost bound of the everlasting
hills." Revelation directs, find out Joseph, and you have his
representative, Ephraim, for "the stick of Joseph is in the hand
of Ephraim." Joseph being elsewhere by Manasseh, is by Ephraim,
"the first-born," in England, the parent of a "multitude
of nations," the land signalized by "the morning star of
the Reformation."
The
12,000 from each tribe "redeemed from among men" are called
"the first-fruits," in contrast to what results from
their testimony in happier times: "After this I beheld a great
multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds,
and people, and tongues." (Rev. vii. and xiv.) It should be
observed that a twelfth part of the 144,000 are of the tribe of
Judah, either of those who remained with Ephraim-Israel in Assyria,
or who were converted to the faith by St. James, who addresses
"the twelve tribes scattered abroad," or by St. Peter, who
addresses "the strangers scattered . . . elect, according to the
foreknowledge of God." They represent the truly regenerated, the
true believers, the paucity of whose numbers during ages of false or
idolatrous profession is signified by their being "the
first-fruits unto God and unto the Lamb;" and the words, "were
not defiled" by the company of the profligate idolatress,
Babylon, named and having her character given her in the same
chapter, and the words, "they follow the Lamb whithersoever He
goeth," add to the proofs that they are God's witnesses in the
trying times of Rome's domination, and not to be looked for in Jews
of the future. In chap. xiv. they appear in prophetic view, at a
certain stage of the history of the Church, while the missionary
angel is going over the world, and a warning is sounded of the
impending judgment on Babylon, and of that last terrible battle,
which everywhere appears in connexion with Babylon's fall and
Israel's restoration. At this stage of history they appear on
Mount Sion with the Lamb, having on their fore-heads "his
Father's name." This seems a prophetic contrast to those
who have Babylon's father, the "papa" of Rome, on their
foreheads. There is a fearful warning in this chapter to "any
man who receives the mark of the Beast and his image in his forehead,
or in his hand." In the company of those represented by the
144,000 must be found the martyrs, who have refused the mark of the
Beast; for, as there are not two sorts of spiritual harvests, there
are no other first-fruits. Let it be again especially observed, for
this is much to our point, that the great harvest multitude of the
redeemed are, in prophetic symbol, represented by "four living
creatures," not "beasts," as improperly rendered
from the Greek. These four living creatures present each an Israelite
national aspect, by a lion, a calf, the face of a man, a flying
eagle, the standards of the children of Israel. They, with such an
aspect, represent the Church of Christ all over the world, as they
declare, "Thou hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, out of
every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." (Rev. iv.
and v.) But what has a Christendom of converted paganism, without an
outcast Israel, to do with the national standards of the tribes of
Israel? Have we not here in prophetic symbol, what we had before in
plain words? Israel's "seed shall inherit the Gentiles,"
become "the fullness or multitude of nations," bringing
into one Abrahamic family, by faith, heathen of "every kindred."
We have not here a convert Pagan Christendom first, for 1800 years,
and a Jew Christendom afterwards; what we have is the very reverse.
An outcast Israel going be-fore and becoming "the riches of the
Gentiles," till the unbelieving of Judah "return unto the
children of Israel," in a "life from the dead," in
"the great day of Jezreel." (Hosea ii.; Micah v.) The four
living creatures say, "We shall reign on the earth;" but it
is with Israel at their head.
In
Rev. xiv., as we draw near the time of the fall of Babylon, we have
the pre-figuring symbol of the 144,000, representing the elect of the
twelve tribes of Israel, on Mount Sion with
the Lamb, singing there a "new song." It is a song which
the redeemed all over the world cannot sing. In their presence (in
the presence of the four living creatures) a new song is sung "
which no man could learn," has it not as his own proper subject
of thanks-giving, but those who now appear on Mount Sion, who "
were redeemed from the earth."
As
regards redemption by the blood of Christ, the four living creatures
are all, by this, similarly redeemed. What can this song be—not a
song of redemption common to all—but proper to the former, and not
to the latter, who are
redeemed out of "every kindred and nation"? The former, the
elect from the twelve tribes, singing on Mount Sion, in the Holy
Land, is suggestive of the reply. Only to one people, of Abraham's
race, is there a promise of national restoration, and theocratic
rule from head-quarters, Mount Sion. If the subject of this new song,
peculiar to the elect of the twelve tribes, so indicating a peculiar
race, be not found in such Scriptures as the following, where is it
to be found? "The days come . . . that it shall no more be said
. . brought up out of Egypt; but, the Lord liveth, that brought up
the children of Israel from the land of the north and all the lands .
. . into their land that I gave unto their fathers" (Jer. xvi.
14). "In those days they shall say no more the ark of the
covenant of the Lord . . . At that time they shall call
Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be
gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem. In those
days the house of Judah shall walk unto the house of Israel, and they
shall come together out of the land of the north to the land . . .
given for an inheritance unto your fathers" (Jer. iii. 16-18).
It is worthy of note that in this passage on the throne of the Lord,
"the north" is pre-eminent: it alone is specially named. In
the song that is exclusive for the elect representatives of the
twelve tribes of Israel, we have a proof that seems unanswerable,
that they who have been in Europe, the west and north, the sphere of
Rome's domination, "not defiled" by Rome, and who have
"followed the lamb," are literally of Israel's race.
In
the chapter (Rev. xv.) following after the exclusive song, the
victors over Antichrist, " over
the Beast, his image, and mark," sing "the song of Moses
and the song of the Lamb." Here also there is something
peculiar. All believers, in the act of singing the song of the Lamb,
sing that of which Moses, in deliverance of Israel, was a type. They
sing the type in the anti-type: but who are they who, victors over
the Beast with seven heads and ten horns, the Roman Antichrist, sing
both songs, that of the literal national deliverer, and the soul
deliverer? We shall still further inquire who they are.
In
Rev. xii. the prophet has a vision of a woman crowned with twelve
stars and clothed with the sun. She is in severe labour-pains,
watched by a dragon with seven crowned heads and ten
horns. She brings forth a "man-child," destined "to
rule all nations with a rod of iron." The child is "caught
up" from the jaws of the dragon "unto God, and to His
throne." The woman, persecuted by the dragon, flees, by the aid
of "two wings of a great eagle, into the wilderness, a place
prepared of God," and is nourished there during the period,
often repeated, of the life of the Roman Antichrist, 1260 years
(prophetic days). To refer to what Bishop Newton, Elliott, Keith, and
other expositors have written on this vision would be to write a
book, net a treatise. We will keep to our question: Dees the
woman crowned with twelve stars represent, in her wilderness abode, a
Church, whose members are of outcast Israel, according to such
Scriptures as, "I will bring her into the wilderness." "I
will sow her unto me in the earth." "Sow them among the
people: and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall
live with their children, and turn again The daughter of my dispersed
shall bring an offering," &c. (Hos. ii.; Zech x.; Zeph.
iii.), or are such members aboriginally heathen, converts to the
faith?
The
scene in Rev. xii. is laid in Europe,
as signified by the "seven heads and ton horns," and "the
third part of the stars," drawn by the tail of the dragon. The
man-child no more represents a single individual than the woman or
the dragon: they, as well as the scarlet-dressed woman, the Beast,
the false prophet, &c., represent corporate bodies and
powers. The Roman pagan dragon, who had not, while pagan, so many as
seven crowned heads, nor as yet ten horns, is presented in his full
aspect, both pagan and papal. It is in this latter that, during 1260
years, he persecutes the woman, the Church of Christ.. In pagan
ascendancy, he strove to extinguish the hope given her in God's
sure Word, to be fulfilled in due time, of Christianity exalted in a
Christian polity, on "the throne of the Lord," in "the
city of righteousness, the faithful city," "the beloved
city." (Jer. iii.; Isa. i.; Rev. xx.) I need not refer farther
to the fearful effort made by that impersonation of pagan enmity in
Constantine's day, Galerius, to quench this hope, than to say,
that the man-child, caught up unto God and to His throne, for a rule
over all nations, is reserved for the set time in full-grown manhood.
The prophecy comprises a long period, including the long life of the
Roman Antichrist. It is not in infancy, or boyhood, or early youth,
that he is fit or manifested for this Theocratic rule. This book
directs our thoughts on the subject, in chap. ii. v. 2G, "He
that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give
power over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as
the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers." Here
"the nations" and the "rod of iron" show the
identity of the throne for the man-child, with the ruling power
raised up by our Lord, on the total breaking up of antichristian
powers. The "rod of iron" is again named in chap. xix., in
the prophecy of the last effort, and the utter ruin of "the
Beast and the false prophet." This event, finally decisive for
"the kingdom given to the saints of the Most High," marks
what is called "the end." It is a terrible event, not only
in the West, but in the East. In the latter, a power "from the
north," Gog, the prince of Rosh,4
Meshech, and Tubal, is destroyed in his attempt to take possession of
the Holy Land. The same words designate "the end" in both
the East and the West: "that great day of God Almighty,"
"It is done" (Rev. xvi. 14-17). "Behold, it is done,
saith the Lord God; this is the day whereof I have spoken." "So
the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that
day and forward. Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and
have mercy upon the whole house of Israel" (Ezek. xxxix. 8, 22,
25).
We
return to the question: Is the "man-child," born in Europe,
the offspring of the star-crowned parent, long resident in Europe,
warred upon to the last in "the remnant of her seed" by the
Papacy, literally of the house of Israel, or only spiritually so? If
Abraham's blood flows in the veins of the child, it must also in that
of the parent; it cannot flow in one and not in the other; the
impossible in nature is the impossible in prophecy. They are the same
people who are represented in the allegory, in two aspects: the
spiritual, in the star-crowned woman clothed with the sun, and the
regnant in due time in a holy polity, in the man-child, caught up at
his birth for divine keeping "unto God's throne." If the
man-child, the destined ruling Christian power for all nations, be
literally Israelite, the question is settled. In that case, the house
of Israel must have migrated to Europe, to "the isles," to
"the north" and "west" of the Holy Land, and is
to be found in the various branches of the great Teutonic family, the
Angles, Saxons, Danes, Normans, and others who have received the
Bible, as men lay hold of long-lost title-deeds, in Protestant
contrast to the Latin races, who in standing out against the Bible,
have shown "the mark of the Beast."
All
the Scriptures already quoted, and more not quoted, teach that the
man-child in future rulers in a ruling nation for the world is
literally Israelite. To suppose otherwise is to set aside all the
promises made to Abraham of the future, in a world-wide glory to
which his race is destined. We have, in confirmation of' our
argument, the same allegory in Mic. iv., with the same result in a
literal Israel. This is a chapter on the triumph of the Gospel in
"the last days"
when "the mountain of the Lord's house is established in the top
of the mountains." Here Israel, impersonated by Zion, once
"driven out . . . cast far off, gathered, made a strong nation,"
has "the kingdom come to the daughter of Jerusalem." How
this is brought about answers exactly to Rev. xii., Why dost thou cry
aloud? is there no king in thee? Pangs have taken thee as a woman in
travail. Be in pain and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion ;
for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, shalt dwell in the
field, go even to Babylon ; there shalt thou be delivered." The
Babylonish captivity suits neither the context, nor the subject, nor
the time, nor the nature of this deliverance. In a few verses
following (chap. v.) the allegory is again taken up, and directs us:
after that "she that travaileth hath brought forth," Judah,
the "given up" portion, returns unto the children of'
Israel. We have also what answers, in effect, to "the rod of
iron," "I will make thine horn iron, thy hoofs brass: thou
shalt beat in pieces many people, and I will consecrate their gain
unto the Lord of the whole earth."5
Israel has gone forth out of the city" and the Holy Land, has
been a nomadic people "in the field," has travelled to the
domain of the Babylon of the Tiber, to "the north" and "the
isles," to "the wilderness" of both Old and New
Testament prophecy, has "found grace" there (Jer. xxxi. 2;
Hos. ii. 14), has been rendered capable of yielding a masculine
Protestantism, which coming to a full-grown manhood, will, as with "a
rod of iron," break Popery to shivers.
We
pass over Zeph. iii.,
in which with the promise to "gather her that was driven out,"
after the breaking up of worldly powers, it is said to Israel and
Jerusalem, "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty,"
&c.; we pass over the same prophecy in Zech. xiv. and Joel iii.
to notice how Haggai closes his prophecy in chap. ii. This answers to
what we have in Revelation about the man-child, and the breaking up
of antagonist world-powers, to clear the way for his rule. Zerubbabel
(stranger of Babylon), governor of Judah, is addressed as an official
representative for a very distant future: " I will shake the
heavens and the earth; overthrow the throne of kingdoms, destroy the
strength of the kingdoms of the heathen. . . . In that day I will
take thee . . . and make thee as a signet : for I have chosen thee."
On the same subject Jeremiah says, "Their nobles shall be
of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of
them." "The seed of Jacob and David . . rulers over the
seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity
to return" (Jer. xxx. 21, and xxxiii.. 26).
The
man-child of Revelation,
the divinely chosen to "rule all nations," an outcome of
the same people in Europe, represented by the star-crowned woman, who
is a Christian, not of the unbelieving Jews, who as a Christian is
persecuted for 1260 years by the Roman Antichrist, who in the palmy
days of that Man of Sin, has but "a remnant of seed, which have
the testimony of Jesus Christ"—this man-child is, on the sure
warrant of Scripture, of the seed of Abraham. So then is the
parent: both symbolically represent the same people in different
aspects. This man-child has been and is in Europe, "the isles"
of prophecy; a Christian of the race of Israel, not an unbelieving
Jew. If so, we look for his appearance in a people in Europe, at once
Protestant and Israelite, especially in "the chief of the
nations."
The
crown of twelve stars shows prima facie an Israelite, having the
moon—Judaism, whose is a borrowed light—under the feet. A heathen
convert Church never had anything to do with Judaism. As the dragon
is exhibited by all the symbols in his full development, so the
star-crowned woman, clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, is
symbolized for all that she is to be. The twelve stars direct our
thoughts to those twelve ruling heads of the twelve tribes to whom
our Lord said, "Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the
twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt. xix. 28). The "two wings of
a great eagle” have been taken to signify the Alps, which in their
northern and southern slopes harboured some and only some of those
who sought a refuge from Rome's persecution. As it is open to
question that eagles should symbolize mountains, we would make
another effort at interpretation, guided by Scripture usage. This
points people by their national arms or standards; as the Macedonians
by the he-goat (Dan. Viii.) &c., and the Roman and some other
nations by eagles—thus, "Where the carcass is, there will the
eagles be gathered together." The eagle is the national standard
of more than one of the great Teutonic powers. Is there not here an
intimation of "nourished"?
In
"the remnant of her seed" are to be found that spiritual
order of persons, designated in Rev. xi. by the "Two Witnesses,
clothed in sackcloth" during the 1260 years of Papal power. If
it be conceded that the Protestant of Europe are of Israelite origin,
that the sealed of the twelve tribes, the spiritual witnesses, are in
these nations, a reason occurs for the number "two." The
people, Jacob or Israel, to whom God has said, "Ye are my
witnesses," in special contrast to those "who trust in
graven images" (Isa. xlii. and xliii.), are all through prophecy
presented in a dual form, "The house of Israel and the house of
Judah," "The two families which the Lord hath chosen."
(Jer. xxxiii.) It should be observed that in the chapter
referred to (Isa. xliii.) the people addressed as witnesses of God,
are promised that He "will do a new thing," by reason of
which they are "not to consider the things of old." He will
make for them a way in the wilderness;" there the water of life
is given to His chosen : it accords with all that has been said on
the destined way for exiled Israel. The Two Witnesses are a spiritual
order of persons, signified by "the two olive trees" which
are the two "anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole
earth." (Zech. iv.; Rev. xi.) We infer, from Jer. xi. 16, 17,
that those of God's planting in Israel and Judah are represented by
the olive tree, having the oil that 'never fails "by grace
through faith." The Two Witnesses are set forth in Rev. xi. as
long in existence, and given power, &e., during the reign of
Antichrist. Something definite must be meant by the number "two."
This has been explained by the Waldenses and Albigenses. But
according to the testimony cited by Bishop Newton from Ebrard of
Bethune and Thuanus, the Vallenses, called also Valdenses from Valdo
of Lyons, Leonists and Albigenses, were one people under different
names. They stood for centuries in the van of testimony against the
Papacy. They were the same as the Paulicians who, according to
Gibbon, "came from Armenia and the adjacent provinces."
They came from those very regions already referred to, inhabited, and
according to Josephus,, swarmed over by the ten tribes, who travelled
and multiplied westward with a remnant of "Judah and his
companions," and were ad-dressed as the exiled of the twelve
tribes by Peter and James. The Paulicians persecuted with all the
malice of the old murderer for their testimony against idolatry in
the east, were driven westward, and became the Protestants of the
west, especially in the south of France. There Papal Rome did her
work, as even Pagan Roman Emperors might shrink to do it. To use the
words of Gibbon, "the visible assemblies of the Paulicians or
Albigeois extirpated thence by fire and sword" had a remnant
left, which were scattered through various parts of Europe. The
historian in his narrative unconsciously paraphrases the words of
Scripture. They, in their testimony, were "sown among' the
people," and through them the God for whom they witnessed, was
"remembered in far countries." They may be taken for a
co-ordinate evidence of Protestants in the west being of that Israel
which came from the land of their exile in the east. Representing in
the west the "two families" assured by the prophet that God
would not cast them off (Israel being " blinded in part"
only), standing in front of the army of martyrs against Rome, they
have well merited the application of the title, "Two Witnesses,"
if not from the two names of one people, for what is submitted to be
a more solid reason. Two "stood by the Lord" on great
occasions in Israel; Moses and Aaron, Elijah and Elisha, Joshua and
Zerubbabel.
THOUGHTS,
HINTS, AND QUERIES
All expositors are agreed that some prophetic symbols are allusive, being taken from what is characteristic of the time pointed to in a prophecy. Thus, in Dan, xii., "the time of the end" is pointed to by "many shall run to and fro," which all now understand, May not the "rod of iron" and the "great chain" in the hand of the millennial angel (Rev. xx.), be also allusive? Who are the people who have led the way in uniting the nations by the rod of iron and the wire?
As a whole generation in the presence of Christ asked, where is Christ? As whole generations in the presence of "the Man of Sin" on the seven-hilled city, pointed to by St. John, asked, where is Antichrist? may not the question be asked, in similar want of power to discern the present, where is Ephraim and his multitudinous seed? where the "stick of Joseph in the hand of Ephraim," quite distinct from the "stick of Judah"?
As we are taught to look for great events in the "great day of Jezreel," the born of God, when "a nation is born in a day," may we not hope for a time when a title mutilated from "The 'United Church of England and Ireland" by the allies of the Pope in Ritualism and political dissent, may be amended. May we not hope that "the Church of England, and of the British empire," may yet repay the enemy with interest in his own coin? Will the Anglo-Saxon -United States, becoming as a nation subject to the "King of kings," come to the help of the. whole Anglo-Saxon race to "open the gates that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in?" (Isa. xxvi.)
Is not
a false position in respect of the unbelieving Jew avoided by
our saying to him, believing in Jesus of Nazareth, you "return
unto the children of Israel," and, according to His word,
to a restored nationality. (Mic. v. 3, Matt. xxiii.) Intermarriage
with other nations, which has been common to all Israelites, does
not set aside Abrahamic pedigree. "They are mine," Jacob
said of the sons of Joseph, who in. blood were half Egyptian. The
same is true of the half Ethiopian children of Moses.
The
symbolical Euphrates (Rev. xvi. 12), the Turkish power, is dried up,
that "the way of the kings of the east might be prepared."
What people may be here indicated, who ruling a vast empire in the
east, are singly interested in keeping open from east to west,
that short highway through Turkish territory, the covenanted land
between the sea and the Euphrates, Syria, promised to Abraham?6
As "Rosh" (Ezek. xxxviii. and xxxix.) comes from " the north parts" right across that way, as young lions" are the arms of India, as "Tarshish" stands for the great maritime power of the day, as Rosh coming across "the way of the kings of the east" is opposed by "the merchants of Tarshish with all the young lions there-of " (chap. xxxviii. 13), what may we be prepared for, with some reason, as we look on the prophetic page, and the historical page of our time?
In Zech. ix. 13, on an event in Gospel times, the last war (verse. 10) followed by "peace to the heathen," and Christ's "dominion . . . to the end of the earth," we have "Zion" as a religion and a power, and "Greece" the same set in contrast. This latter could only be in Graeco-Russian "orthodoxy."7 Who can Ephraim be, the war-power distinct from Judah? "When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, 0 Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man." It will be known when that event in providence takes place, "an ensign set up for the nations" to "assemble the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah" (Isa. xi. 12). For this, it is certain, Tarshish leads the way (Isa. lx. 9).
EXTRACT
FROM "THE RESURRECTION OP ISRAEL."
ZION
PERSONIFIED
Oh,
the sweet bowers of balsam and of palm,
And
orange groves along a sea-beat shore!
For
Israel's region all, through ether calm,
I
in clear sight miraculous looked o'er.
And
I could view each city's busy throng,
And see
the interior of each happy home.
Hear now a light harp tuned to
sacred song;
Now
organ peals through marble-vaulted dome.
Then
Gilead's rural music wins mine ear;
The
bleating flock, the shepherd pipe's sweet lays
I
realized in sounds and prospects near,
The
dreamy pastorals of youthful days.
But
youthful Fancy with her colouring warm,
Imaging
all the beautiful, did ne'er
Conceive
the beauty of that kneeling form.
For
suppliant as she upward look'd in prayer,
Her
aspect mirror'd, as it gazed on Him
Who
such a glory in one smile displays;
Compared
with it the sun new-ris'n is dim,
And
fades the beauty of his morning rays.
"Beneath
the glory of thy beaming brow,
Dwelling
in light and bliss ecstatic here,
And
gazing on thy look of love, as now
Oh,
let me far from darkness, sorrow, fear,
Sojourn
in Israel, with thy presence nigh.
For
let such look its loneliest scene illume-
Yon
Tempter has no power to terrify;
Death
has no terror, and his grave no gloom."
Voices
from starry depths of ether float
And
"we shall reign" their anthem—Train on train
Of
cherubim, with. note succeeding note
Far
worlds to near worlds echoing, "we shall reign."
Onward
to clearer view their choirs unfold
Near-echoed
"we shall reign" more sweetly clears,
And
"we shall reign " afar in torrents roll'd,
Of
sounds like thunders in heaven's distant spheres.
He
who the AEgean island beach stood o'er--
In
sounds of " waters," such as stormy wave
Sends
not when surging on the Patmos shore ;
In
"lightnings," such as ne'er on Athos rave;
In
"mighty thunderings," as never roll
O'er
the vast Alps; then in heav'n's scenes sublime,
And
heav'nly " harpings " rapturing the soul,
Descried
the war—the triumph of our time;
Advanced
with form all brightening to mine eye
But
in the lines of a poetic page,
Ye
may not that form, brow, and mien descry;
Beauty
of youth, and dignity of age.
"Oh,
Thou who in eternity supreme,
High-throned
and hid above created ken,
Didst
veil on earth Thy untreated beam,
In
human form—to live—to die for men.
Thy
wonders wrought in Zion we survey
Her
days of mourning number'd; doom'd above
To
end in bliss—the death, the life, thy way
Of
mystery that ends in endless love.
Here
once we traced Thy earthly lowliness;
And
knew not whither led by steps divine—
Led
to that agony of soul-distress,
We
left Thee—to a sorrow, only Thine.
That
sorrow's growth, till ceased the mortal breath,
Wrought
Israel's solace—dawn'd our hope in gloom
Of
Thy dark hour—our life was in Thy death,
And
resurrection in Thy lowly tomb.
And
now in Zion's doom, her every line
Of
written destiny for heav'n we trace.
And
by Thee written, seal'd with blood divine
Hell
cannot blot, nor hand of death efface."
He
spoke. Loud voices as if torrents sweep
From
the near hills, from Lebanon afar,
Mingle
with notes that roll in ether deep,
As
if a voice pours forth from every star.
I
felt not, in that moment, as from dream
Waken'd
with streams of music round me pour'd,
Exhausted
in a zephyr: I did seem
Like
one from a third heav'n to earth restored.
I
gazed on the ivy-mantled arch, look'd round,
Where
dazzling noon of late had lit the scene—
Through
rustling leaves the moonbeams strew'd the ground,
As
night-winds swept the arch of ivy green.
FROM
MOSES ON MOUNT NEBO.
Meanwhile
before the seer
Sudden
illumined all Judea's scene,
Reveal'd
a day of her millenial year.
The sun
blazed forth, and rainbow hues serene,
Beneath
whose arc shone Galilee's blue sea,
A
smiling Eden, vale, grove, river spann'd;
Whence
floated tones of bliss and harmony,
Around Moriah's
marble-pillar'd land.
The
Hebrew prophet saw—his last hour nigh—
And
spoke rejoicing, "Let in peace depart
Thy
favour'd with this glory: let mine eye,
Blest
with the scene, now see thee as thou art.
And
though I reach not Hermon's cedar groves,
Nor on
thy goodly Lebanon repose ;
Nor
cross this vale of palms, where Jordan roves
Through
wilds now blossoming like Sharon's rose;
Foretasting
o'er this scene thine Israel's bliss,
I would
here enter Israel's happier rest,
In
holier land, and fairer ev'n than this."
Our Israelitish Origin. By J. Wilson. London: Nisbet. The Israelites Found in the Anglo-Saxons. By W. Carpenter. Macintosh & Co., Paternoster Row. The Conference on Israel. Four papers read at Mildmay Park, 26th and 27th June 1872, the Right Rev. the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem in the chair. Nisbet & Co., Macintosh & Co. The Identity of Israel with the English and Kindred Races. By Protheroe Smith, M.D. Nisbet. Lost Israel: where are they to be found? By II. L. Edinburgh: Maclaren. London: Nisbet. The Anglo-Cimbri and Teutonic Races proved to be the Lost Tribes of Israel. By James Rankin. Macintosh. There are the Ten Tribes? By "Israel," with Preface, by Henry Innes. Macintosh. The English, the Descendants of the Ten Tribes. By the Rev. R. Polwhele. Partridge, Paternoster Row. Israelitish Origin of the Anglo-Saxons. By the Rev. T. G. Tipper. Hatchard, Piccadilly. Twenty-seven Identifications of the English Nation with the Lost House of Israel. By Edward Hine. W. H. Guest, 64 Paternoster Row. Also by the same Author, Flashes of Light. The Coming Glories: containing The Great Pyramid. By Professor Piazzi Smyth, F.R.S.S. Oxford Wrong: The Anglo-Saxon Riddle. By Antiquary; and its Solution. By Edward Hine.
St. Paul, in Galatians iv. 27, spiritually applies to converts, both Israelite and heathen, the words, "More are the children of the desolate," &c., for a reason common to both, in the subject of which he treats, viz., both divorced from the law. But the words are primarily addressed to a people once in a marriage covenant, divorced, and received again
To say that Ephraim is omitted in disgrace for his idolatry is utterly at variance with Scripture, which, on the contrary, names him repeatedly in God's covenant mercy for a glorious future, and pre-eminence in this. His sin was as much that of the other tribes, for whom his name stands as representative. All commentators, from Irenaeus to our own time, express themselves as being at a loss to account for the substitution of Joseph for Ephraim. See Harmony of History with Prophecy, By Josiah Conder.
'Pws (Ross) appears in the LXX. and also in the modern Greek Bible, translated from the Hebrew, published by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Rosh, Meshech, Tubal have been supposed to stand for Russia, Moscow, Tobolsk; "All the Russias."
Let those who, at the dictation of the Pope and his minions, robbed the Protestant Church of Ireland, compare this and other Scriptures with their conduct. Honesty requires restitution.
The Land of Israel, according to the Covenant. By the Rev. Dr. Keith.
The Author brought up in the Ionian Islands, and having returned for some years to the east, has made him-self fully acquainted with the creed and character of the Greek Church, self-styled "Orthodox." He is prepared to prove that Greek "orthodoxy" and Papal "infallibility" are equally antichristian. Both equally dishonour Christ. Both deny the doctrine of Justification in Christ by faith only. Both Churches hold fast by transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the Mass, sacordotalism and Masses for the dead, idolatrous worship of the idolatrous Blessed Virgin and saints, creature intercession by these, idolatrous use of relics, of images or pictures, as the case may be. Three preserved carcases, to which are respectively given the names of St. Spiridion, Gerasimo, and Dionysius, are in in all reality the gods of Corfu, Cefalonia, and Zante. A carved wooden image of the Virgin, said to have been executed by St. Luke, is the supreme object of worship, as the "Mother of God," in the Monastery of Megaspeloeon in the Morea. Two more such are elsewhere. The annual, holy fire jugglery, played off in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, is as old as the sixth century. It was first started, about A.D. 669 in France, at Poietiers. It was exhibited at Jerusalem from A.D. 870 to A.D. 1187, when. Saladin transferred the Church, with the "doing of the great wonder," from the Latins to the Greeks. A Romish invention, synchronous. with the life of Popery western and oriental; it seems pointed to, as a mark of the false prophet, "He maketh fire come down from heaven" (Rev. xiii. 13). The scene is one of frantic fanaticism and profaneness, doing the work of Satan, in holding up his representation of Christianity to the scorn and ridicule of Turks and infidels. And this is the "Catholicism" and the "Orthodoxy" with which pro-papist Ritualists would unite and identify the Church of England. .
