is a divine purpose fulfilled. Seeing, then, that God will put the land
into Israel's hand, there will run another blessing parallel with
this--namely, a peculiar increase of the seed, or children of Israel, so
that they may occupy and control these lands. These two prophecies are
to be fulfilling on a parallel line at the same time. Are they so
fulfilling? We answer, Yes; and the answer all the world may verify, for
the facts are of such a nature that if they are not so fulfilling it can
be very easily disproved.
The prophet tells us in the text that the children of Israel are to be
numerous--to be numerous in an extraordinary degree--so much so that it
shall appear partly miraculous when such increase is compared to other
people or judged by the common methods of reasoning. Hosea had three
children; the first a son. He called him Jezreel. This son was set for
a witness that God would cause to cease the House of Israel in
Palestine--that Israel should cease to be a nation for a time. This idea
Isaiah points out under the type of an abandoned wife. God styles
Himself the Husband of Israel, and that He had given the wife a bill of
divorcement. Thus the two prophets agree, and history ratifies both.
Hosea's second child he calls Lo-Ruhamah. She was set for a witness that
God would take away His mercy from the House of Israel for a time, and
that God would utterly take them away out of the land. So He did; for a
few years after this we find the children of Israel were carried captive
into Assyria by Shalmaneser, and the Assyrians were brought and put in
their place. And from these Assyrians, who were planted in the cities
and country left by the children of Israel, we get the Samaritans, who
were, as you see, not Jews nor Israelites by generation--they were
manufactured Jews only. "And the Lord removed Israel out of His sight,
as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So was Israel carried
away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day" (2 Kings xvii. 23).
During this captivity, which is even in force till now, barren Israel,
the divorced one, was to have more children than the married one--namely,
Judah.
We find that the third child born to Hosea is called Lo-ammi, meaning,
"Ye are not My people." This child pro-figured the casting out of the
Jews; that they would refuse to accept God in Christ, and He therefore
would reject them. Thus the Jews became wanderers from their own land.
And the land rests in desolation, enjoying her Sabbath of rest, while her
sons and daughters are being chastised and trained for their return.
The time will come when God will call Israel to Him, and have mercy upon
her, when the divorced one shall be restored to her husband. "And it
shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call Me Ishi, and
shalt call me no more Baali" (Hos. ii. 16). Now Ishi means husband, and
Baali stands for Lord. Saxons have been looked upon as being infidels by
the rest of the world. The Mohammedans and Buddhists never reckoned the
Saxons as being the sons of God; and Catholic Europe and Greek Russia
have looked upon England as infidel and heretical. And the Saxons
themselves never went so far in their knowledge as to know who they were,
their origin and work. But the prophet says: "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." And the
time will come when Lo-Ruhamah shall become Ru-hamah, which means to have
obtained mercy. And Lo-Ammi shall become Ammi, which means that this is
My people. And Jezreel, which was a sign of dispersion, shall be the
sign of gathering. "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_."
Then the Jews (Ammi) will call the Saxons their sister, long lost, but
found at last. The Saxons (Ru-hamah) will call the Jews their brother,
those whom in the past they have hated and persecuted; and thought
themselves far removed from Jewish blood. Now they both will acknowledge
a common generation, and Abraham their father. And one with his eyes
half open can see this part of the prophecy fulfilling. The Jews,
England, and United States, from this and henceforth, are one in
interest, policy, and destiny.
These being the latter days, let us look for the signs of the multiplying
of the seed so that they be as the sea sands God promised to Abraham,
saying: "That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will
multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is upon
the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies" (Gen.
xxii. 17). Old Jacob foretold that Joseph would be a fruitful bough,
whose branches would run over the wall--that is, colonise. This increase
is to be seen in two ways. Let me direct your attention to one of these
ways, in a special manner, because it is so singular and unique, so
distinct and discernable. In Jeremiah xxx. 10, 11, we find a remarkable
statement: "Fear not, O Israel, for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to
save thee. Though I make a full end of all nations whither I have
scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee; but I will
correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished."
That Israel has been punished and corrected no one will deny who is
acquainted with her history and sojourn from the time she was carried
captive to this day. But has the other part of the saying been
fulfilled? We answer, Yes--as the law of colonisation has progressed.
The Ancient Britons are no more; Saxon Israel has entirely supplanted
them, just as Manasseh in the United States is supplanting the aborigines
or Indians. They perish and disappear like snow before the rising sun.
Not all we can do on the line of legislation, philanthropy, and religion,
is sufficient to stay the ravages of this long-ago declared decree of
Heaven. Go to Canada, and you find they are perishing; in Newfoundland
they are entirely gone, and in every other province they are fast
disappearing, save such as are saved by incorporation, by marriage, and
salt stayed by the power of Christianity; but both these remedies are
only temporal--they perish in spite of all in the heated atmosphere of
Israel's civilisation. Some few tribes may hold their own and seem to
increase, but such does not invalidate the evidence of the decree. For
they have perished in such numbers, and so uniformly, when in contact
with Israel, that history proclaims the decree fulfilled.
The native inhabitants of Van Dieman, called Tasmanians, have entirely
become extinct. The Maories of New Zealand are rapidly diminishing.
Fifty years ago they were 200,000 strong; now only about 50,000. In a
few more years they will be gone. The same is true in all the other
Australian provinces. The same is true of many isles of the sea, also of
the African colonies. In these things, so exceptional, we can surely
say, with the magicians of old who contended against Moses, "This is the
finger of God." Thus we see Israel increasing, by the law of diminution
going on among the Gentiles. Israel in the latter day was to be blessed
with plenty in the orchards, stall, and field: "For I will lay no more
famine upon you, saith the Lord." The past year we learn that some
10,000,000 of Chinese perished in famine. India, in one part, has been
greatly reduced in number by the same scourge. This country will be
partly protected from the operation of this law--for no doubt a large
portion are from Abraham. "But unto the sons of the concubines, which
Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son,
while he yet lived, Eastward, unto the East country" (Gen. xxv. 6). This
same scourge does not follow the colonising of other nations. It did not
follow Spain, nor the Dutch, nor France.
If you turn to the prophets, you will soon learn how they are to increase
in the latter days--not by a comparison on the line of diminution only,
but in and from themselves. "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that
I will sow the House of Israel and the House of Judah with the seed of
man and beast" (Jer. xxxi. 27). Have these days come? We again say,
Yes; and these kind of prophecies are being fulfilled in this day in so
special a manner as to make certain the times we live in. Through
Israel, Judah, and Manasseh, the earth is to find the equilibrium of
peace. The Jews will furnish the money, for in the increasing
ascendancy, and multiplying power, and authority of England and America,
the Jews will draw closer to them and invest more and more their money
with them, because of greater security and profit. The balance of power
and even compulsion will be in the hands of England and America, to force
arbitration on disputing nations, and they will do so, having set the
precedents themselves in the Alabama and fish treaties. At present, many
will refuse this idea, and point to the famous Monroe doctrine. Now that
doctrine has had its time, nearly; and it has served a good purpose for
the country. The mercantile growth, and general producing power of this
country, will cause us to abandon our selfish protection policy; for of
all other people on the face of the earth we will want free trade; for we
will have the greatest surplus of mercantile and agricultural
productions, and in a short time our very position and ability will push
away all competitors. Once our mercantile and agricultural interests are
cast in other nations, we will then have an interest in their wars and
peace, and will be led to interfere.
The chief way in which the balance of power will fall into English and
American hands is in the fulfilling of the blessings of the text: the
multiplying of this people, first by natural increase, and second by
incorporation and absorption. Look at this law of absorption; how
vigorous and sure! If you turn into a field of grass fowls, pigs,
horses, and cows, you get chicken-meat, pork, horseflesh, and beef. The
individualism in each creature absorbs and converts the same field of
grass into themselves. So into this country are coming people of every
nation and race, but the individualism of Manasseh will in due time make
them all Manassehites. The children of the Russians, Poles, Spanish, and
so on, become American in taste, manners, and sympathies. They are being
grafted into the tree of Manasseh.
But look at the law of increase naturally. Take the population of
several countries as given in the last census, and carefully note the
relative increase, and how long it takes each nation to double its
number. Russia, eighty-six millions, doubles every 100 years; Germany,
forty-two millions, doubles every 100 years; Turkey, forty-seven
millions, doubles every 550 years; Austria, thirty-seven millions,
doubles every 100 years; France, thirty-six millions, doubles every 140
years; Great Britain, thirty-three millions, doubles every 55 years;
United States, forty millions, doubles every 25 years; Italy,
twenty-seven millions, doubles every 125 years; Egypt, seventeen
millions, doubles every 150 years; Spain, sixteen millions, doubles every
112 years; English colonies, ten millions, doubles every 25 years. Now
make a calculation for 100 years, from 1878 to 1978, and see how these
countries stand in population and their relative position. Russia will
have one hundred and seventy-two millions; Germany, eighty-four; Turkey,
fifty-six; Austria, seventy-four; France, fifty-nine; Great Britain, one
hundred and thirty-seven; Italy, forty-one; Egypt, twenty-nine; Spain,
twenty-eight; United States, six hundred and forty; and the English
colonies, one hundred and sixty--and that is not reckoning the natives in
the colonies, only the descendants of the English. Of course, in a
country like India, the natives will be a considerable number, and they
might properly be reckoned in with the colonial items, and so swell the
number of Israel's power.
Now these figures show a wonderful conclusion. In simple language, we
find that in 1978, the English-speaking race, or Israelites, will number
937 millions, while all of Russia, Germany, Turkey, Austria, France,
Italy, Egypt, and Spain, will only number 543 millions. Where then, we
ask, will be the balance of power? And why should this certain law come
into operation at this time, if it be not the blessing foretold by the
prophets? And can we not see that these are the latter days, and that
God is fulfilling His promises to Israel?
The blood of Abraham and the faith of Abraham have been wonderfully
preserved and projected down through the centuries with telling effect.
And on this line the Darwinian theory of election is very true, for the
survival of the fittest is the proclaimed law of Heaven. There is power
in land possession and there is power in number, and if these two factors
maintain their force for one hundred years, then we infer of certainty
that the sceptre of rule and destiny of the world will be in the hands of
Israel, unless the laws of nature are reversed, and the promises of God
fail. The Word of God cannot fail or return unto Him void; it must
accomplish that whereunto He sent it and prosper in things designed, or
as Jeremiah xxiii. 20 says: "The anger of the Lord shall not return until
He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in
the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly."
ISRAEL AND LANGUAGE.
DISCOURSE V.
LATTER DAY PROPHETIC PROMISES--TIME OF ISRAEL'S REVIVAL--PYRAMID
TESTIMONY--BRITISH ISLAND POPULATION IN 1882--AFFINITY BETWEEN ENGLISH
AND HEBREW--CELL OF THE HONEYBEE--ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE--LION OF
LANGUAGES--FOREIGN TESTIMONY--ALL TONGUES INDIGENOUS BUT ENGLISH--THE
PRE-MILLENNIAL TOKENS.
"For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may
all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one
consent."--Zephaniah iii. 9.
In the last two discourses we called your attention to two prophecies
that are now fulfilling; they are on parallel lines of time and
territory. The first had reference to the rapid accumulation of the
lands of the earth by Israel. Accepting the Anglo-Saxons as being the
children and descendants of Jacob, it naturally follows that the
prophetic blessings and promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their
heirs, should find a fulfilment in these, the latter days, and that such
fulfilment should be found in the English nation, among the Jews, and in
the United States. It is easy to see and believe that the curses
prophetically pronounced on Judah and Israel have been fulfilled,
especially on the House of Judah. The promises to the House of Israel
are now being grandly realised. England is in possession of the isles of
the sea, the coasts of the earth, the waste and desolate places, the
heathen is her inheritance, and she is inheriting the seed of the
Gentiles, and causing their desolate cities to be inhabited. From the
taking of Jamaica, by General Penn, in 1655, to the peaceful cession of
Cyprus, the course of this little island nation has been onward and
upward. And if her conquests and progress are not amenable to prophecy,
for an interpretation, then the wonder is still greater. The facts are
with us, and must be accounted for some way. The second had reference to
the multitudinous seed of Israel in the latter days. Till two hundred
years ago the Anglo-Saxons were not in this respect distinct from other
races; indeed, for centuries they were distinct rather for their weakness
in multiplying power and number. Many other races have exceeded them in
this particular. But no sooner do we come abreast of the latter day time
than we find the laws of centuries changed. In thermal science it is an
axiom that heat expands all bodies, and of course that cold contracts
them. But to this general rule there is one beautiful and benevolent
exception: it is in water; for if we start with water at thirty-two
degrees, we find the remarkable phenomenon of cold expanding all below
thirty-two, and heat expanding all above. If we take water at 212
degrees and withdraw it from the heat, it will continue to contract till
we reach thirty-two; then the law is reversed, and the water expands.
Now the reversion of this law, at this particular point, is wonderfully
expressive of Divine forethought and benevolence. By such a change ice
is made to float in water, and so save our lakes, streams, and wells from
being frozen solid. As this exception is to thermal science, so is the
law of reproduction to Israel in this day. This people, who have been
behind other races, now, at an appointed time, step to the front. The
law seems to be reversed, and that too for a benevolent purpose--for the
very purpose that they might be able to fulfil the mission assigned them
in these last days, to occupy the new lands and evangelise the world.
One prophecy seems to call for the other, for what would be the use of
the lands without the people, or the people without the lands? It is an
amazing fact that Queen Victoria should bear rule over one-third of the
population of the whole earth, and that Israel, including Manasseh,
should own one-fourth of the land.
But this amazing fact is made reasonable when we accept the Queen as
being of the seed of David, and an heir to the promises attaching to
David's throne, and when we accept the Anglo-Saxons as being the Ten Lost
Tribes of Israel. Then prophecy, Providence, and facts, are a
trinity--they are one sublime whole. God, speaking through Moses, said
He would punish to reform Israel for seven times--and seven times
prophetically understood, means 2,520 years. If we allow that Israel
were carried captive in the year 725 before Christ, then Israel would
come into freedom, or be reformed, about 1795; because if we add 725 to
1,795, we get 2,520. Up to this point they were to be robbed of their
children and to be few in number (see Lev. xxvi. 22). In the year 1795
Israel were to be relieved from these curses; and about this time this
special law of reproduction came into operation; or, if we take the
lamentations of Hosea vi. 1-3: "Come and let us return unto the Lord, for
He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us
up; after two days will He revive us; in the third day He will raise us
up, and we shall live in His sight. Then shall we know if we follow on
to know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning, and He
shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the
earth." By this passage, our day and the special providences of this
period are mournfully and graphically referred to. Here a day stands for
a thousand years, "for a day with the Lord is as a thousand years;" so
that when two thousand years should have passed by, Ephraim, who stands
for Israel, was to be revived and blessed with fruitfulness sometime
during the third day, or thousand years. In ancient time a day was
counted when it had a majority--that is, when it had passed the half.
The prophet here says we were to be revived, or raised up, on the third
day. So, if you again take these three thousand-year days, you will find
that two of them are to be completely passed, and during the third we
were to be raised. The number we have given, 2,520, exactly meets the
interpretation--2,000 complete, and 520 make a majority for the third day
by the twenty over the half. These prophetic figures tally well with the
existing state of things. About the beginning of this century England
assumed to lead the world. It is a remarkable coincidence that, in the
last century, the question of how to multiply the population was a
subject of debate and legislation in the British Parliament. But what
legislation failed to do, God in His providence did at the appointed
time.
It is a curious fact, and well worth noticing, that the famous witness of
the Lord of hosts in Egypt, the Great Pyramid, forecasts what the number
of Israel and Judah would be in the year 1882. As Israel is symbolised
in the Grand Gallery, it is found that the cubic contents of the same, in
inches, is about 36,000,000; thus by some this is interpreted to mean
that inches stand for individuals, and if so, then England proper will
have this number in 1880. Whether this is a true interpretation or not,
we all know that these figures will be about right. The Queen's Chamber
of the Pyramid symbolises the number and condition of the Jews.
From these two prophecies, so sublimely fulfilling, let me invite your
attention to another that is now maturing. It, too, is parallel with the
other two. We refer to the peculiar growth, power, and progress of the
English language. After Israel went into captivity, they were to lose
their language and take or form another. "For with stammering lips and
another tongue will He speak to this people" (Isa. xxviii. 11). We will
all agree that the English language is not the Hebrew; and if we are
Israelites, then indeed God is speaking to us in another tongue, for few
of us read His Word in Hebrew. It is read to the millions in the
English; hence the millions hear God speak to them in another tongue than
that of Hebrew. Between the English and Hebrew languages there is an
intimate relation, especially back a few years, before the English had
grown so much. The Hebrew was a very limited language; not numbering
more than 7,000 words. The English is now said to number about 80,000.
The most lavish writer does not use over 10,000; the common average is
about 3,000. In the English we have not less than 1,000 Hebrew roots.
This, comparing the languages a few years back, is a large percentage.
In names of persons and places the Hebrew is very prominent in England.
I take it for a fact that language is of Divine origin. Men have written
on the origin of language from every standpoint; the majority of them
trying to account for its existence without allowing so noble a source.
The first man, Adam, I believe, could talk as easily and naturally as he
could see, and hear, and taste. Speech was a part of his endowment.
There is nothing more wonderful in a man talking than a bird singing,
save that speech is a higher order of utterance. Dumb nature performs
marvels every day as mighty and wonderful as man's talking. The
honey-bee builds its cells, ignorant of the fact that such construction
is the solution of a problem which had troubled men for centuries to
solve. At what point shall certain lines meet so as to give the most
room with the least material and have the greatest strength in the
building? This problem is said to have been worked out by a Mr.
McLaughland, a noted Scotch mathematician, who arrived at his conclusion
by laborious and careful fluxionary calculation. To his surprise, and to
the surprise of the world, such lines and such a building were found in
the common bee cell. Now I hold that the same Creator who gave to the
bee the mathematical instinct could endow man with the instinct of
speech. Even to animal instinct we find a certain variation and
permitted latitude in what is called adaptive instinct. So in man we
find this same instinct of adaptation in a higher sense. The instinct
comes into play when we suppose a number of persons separated from
others, each living in different quarters of the globe. In such a
condition, though of the same language when first separated, they would
not remain so long--that is, in the primitive state of society. Thus,
among the tribes of Africa, at this day, languages are widening and
varying from a once common centre. So Israel in captivity would lose the
Hebrew gradually. The language of the people among whom they settled was
the Sanskrit, from which a score of languages have come--the German,
French, and Italian, Saxon and others. The Saxon of to-day, compared
with the Saxon of 2,000 years ago, is very different; so much so that for
us to learn and speak it would be equal to learning a new language. Thus
the English language is a thing of growth. In the year 1362 the Saxon
was made the court language of England. From that time onward its growth
has been wonderful.