صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt: because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they hall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest: for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."

When these things take place, we shall discern a part of God's designs in creating this world, and in keeping Israel a distinct people, and declaring he "shall not be reckoned among the nations." It is because the "service of God belongs to them in the dispensation that is past, and the service of the Tabernacle in that which is to come. The whole design and end of this old creation is to subserve and minister to the new creation that is coming :-it is that this lower order of creation shall subserve the higher, and the lesser life the greater ;-and not merely as Morgan has

said, that the great law of animal life is "to eat and be eaten." If this was the only object and end, such a creation and world as this would be inglorious indeed; it would present this world as one vast, murderous, and destructive slaughterhouse, where innocent and harmless animals were to suffer, bleed, and die, only to glut other animal bodies with higher faculties abused. It has often, very often, caused my heart to bleed, to see the many thousands and tens of thousand of peaceable oxen and harmless sheep and calves daily driven along our streets and through our cities; and to think that they have to be slaughtered for us. Can it be possible that all this suffering and death is designed to serve no higher order of things than just such animals as themselves? Would there be any display of the wisdom, mercy, and benevolence of God, in a world of death and suffering like this, "only to eat and be eaten?" for so it appears to the superficial observer, when viewed no further-when viewed as having no connection with that glorious and transcendently excellent life that overcomes the world, higher 'than the life of angels; for never had angels the sin-embodied earth to overcome as we have, therefore we have "obtained a more excellent name than they." (Hebrews i. 4.) Ah! here is the secret of this world's suffering for nearly six

thousand years - here is the secret of divine providence permitting the death and suffering of the myriads of peaceable cattle, harmless sheep, lambs, and calves, besides countless numbers of fish and fowl-it is that God should take out of this world a people for his name; it is that the lower and inferior life may subserve a higher and superior, and that he may finally present to "himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing." (Eph. v. 27.) That this world might be a seminary to train and educate thousands and myriads of rational and immortal souls-that this world might produce that innumerable company which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues; redeemed from amongst men, who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb-it is that this innumerable and glorious company of sons and daughters should people the redeemed earth ; clothed in beautiful habiliments, prepared to associate with God himself, and all the holy and redeemed patriarchs, prophets, and apostles; when we shall hear a great voice out of heaven saying, "Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God." (See Rev. xxi. 3.)

INTRODUCTION.

THERE has been a deep impression and conviction made upon the mind of the author of this little book, by the plain written testimony and predictions of the Prophets, corroborated by events evidently fulfilling these predictions before our eyes-and the writer would feel condemned if he were to withhold this light from the world, and "lay up his talent in a napkin."

The signs of the times announce extraordinary events about to take place in regard to the Jews, or the literal Israel of God. It is evidently the Day of Preparation; and it is firmly believed that before long this same Israel, who have been driven out, dispersed, and scattered to the four winds among the nations of the earth in mourning and affliction, by their enemies, shall be brought back, when "kings shall become their nursing fathers, and their queens their nursing mothers;" for they shall see them exalted, with the glory of the Everlasting (the Shechinah) resting upon them as children of the coming kingdom. Then "they shall bow down to them with their faces toward the earth, and shall lick up the dust of their feet,”

B

(see Isaiah xlix. 23); and this shall take place because of the visible Glory of God that will rest upon their heads.

I shall mention some of these remarkable events in proof of the time being about to come for the restoration of the Jews to their own land.

1st. The evident decline of the Ottoman (or Turkish) power, and the universal acknowledgment of all the best chronologists, that the time allotted that empire is about closing.

2nd. That "his servants both among Jews and. Christians are taking pleasure in her (Jerusalem's) stones, and favouring the dust thereof;" and their God declares he will" arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time to favour her, yea, the set time is come." (Psalms cii. 13, 14.) This is God's own word and declaration.

3rd. Sir Moses Montefore is building an hospital and public school-house at Jerusalem. This is a wise provision, as the Jews, on their return, will not be acclimated.

Queen Victoria and the King of Prussia have also taken pleasure in her stones, so far as to establish an Episcopal church upon Mount Zion, the only true centre, as to place, and consequently the only wise movement in establishing a true church agreeably to his word; and the Rev. Michael Solomon Alexander, a Jew of the tribe of Judah, is the appointed Bishop of it.

4th. The Emperor of Russia has oppressed, like Pharaoh. thousands and tens of thousands of the

« السابقةمتابعة »