with our arguments as follows: 1. Nationality was promised to the true seed of Abraham in the latter day. 2. The Christians are the true seed of Abraham.

First. Promised restoration to Nationality:-Some persons who oppose the restoration of Israel to Palestine. have taken an extreme position, and have disbelieved in any national restoration whatever.

This position is as absurd as the theory it opposes, because unequivocal prophecies declare a restoration to nationality; and it must, also, transpire from the very nature of things. We shall quote, for the present, but two authoritative and decisive prophecies on the subject, out of a score that now lie open before us. 1. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the SECOND time to recover the remnant of his people, . . and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. * * They shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the WEST."-Isa. xi. 2. "Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish (Spain) first, to bring thy sons from far. * The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall utterly perish. * * Thy people shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land forever."-Isa. lx. As it is utterly impossible to spiritualize these passages, and as they, without the shadow of a doubt, predict the latter day restoration of Israel, the national restoration of the seed of Abraham must be a conceded point on all hands. The terms "WEST," and "SHIPS of TARSHISH," utterly refuse to be accommodated to a mere figurative, or to a spiritual meaning. Let any man undertake to spiritualize them,

* *

and he will very soon make a fool of himself, but of nobody else. Nationality to Israel was, therefore, promised without doubt.

Second. The Christians are the true seed of Abraham, to whom the promises inure.

1. Who are Jews?" He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men but of God."-Rom. ii. 28, 29. "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel; neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed."-Rom. ix. 7-9.

"Know ye therefore that they which are of the faith, the same are the children of Abraham. So then, they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither. male nor female, for you are all ONE in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, ye are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to promise.”—Gal. iii.

In these passages, the Jew who is to be the inheritor of the promises, is plainly stated to be one who is an heir, by faith in Christ, and by that only. It is also as plainly affirmed as language can express it, that there is no difference in equality of right between the Gentile and Hebrew seed of Christ. Those therefore who insist

on the superiority of right to pre-eminent position of Hebrew Christians, are in direct conflict with the text. They affirm there is a difference, while the text affirms that "all are one in Christ," and that "there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek."-Rom. x. 12. That the carnal seed are not received among the heirs of the promises, is further manifest from the affirmation of Christ to the Jews. He said: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." “If Abraham were your father ye would do the works of Abraham.”—John viii.

2. Heirship of the world." The promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith."-Rom. iv. 13.

"For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise."Gal. iii. 18.

Here the inheritance to Abraham is plainly given to all believers in Christ without any distinction between Jewish or Gentile converts. All benefits conferred upon men in the latter day were to spring from the gospel, and the gospel confers equal rights upon all of its beneficiaries throughout the world, irrespective of carnal relation to Abraham, for God is no respector of persons.

3. Promise sure to all the seed.-" To Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ." How differently this sounds from the "twoseed" doctrine of the restorers of carnal Israel. "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise."-Gal. iii and iv. "Therefore, it is of faith that it might

be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all."—Rom. iv. 16.

The theory of the final superiority of the Jewish converts to Christianity, is utterly annihilated by the passages we have quoted. The Jews have always insisted upon it as orthodox, and many Christian divines have taught the same old, absurd assumption of Jewish pre-eminence; but Christ and the apostles denounced all such monopoly of grace, and never countenanced the exclusiveness claimed. It sounds, to us, as absurd as the Dutchman's prayer, who prayed, "Lord, save me and my wife, my son John and his wife; us four and no more." We might argue the case much further, but as we have no patience with the monstrosity of the theory, we forbear. It makes two Israels, differing in heirship, while the gospel says there is but one; it exalts one and neglects the other, and thus makes a mighty difference between them, while the gospel says "there is no difference;” it makes the promise sure to a part of the seed only, while the gospel says it "is sure to all the seed;" it exalts the Israel of Moses and degrades the Israel of Christ, and is therefore false.

SECTION III.

THE UNITED STATES IS ISRAEL RESTORED.

Having shown that the theory of the carnal restoration of Israel is repugnant to both common sense and scripture, and yet having shown that nationality was to be given to the Israel of Christ in the latter day, it follows that no prophecy of scripture can be interpreted as exclusively referring to the restoration of Israel to Palestine. The names of Judah and Jerusalem, Judah and Israel, so often used in prophecies referring to the latter day, have been considered as literal terms by some, and this has given rise to the theory we combat. From the arguments we have presented, they can not be understood as literal terms, but must be understood as typical or metonymic terms, in which the names of types are used for the names of their antitypes. This mode of expression is very common among the predictions of the latter day. Thus, Ezekiel says of Israel restored, after the resurrection: "David, my servant, shall be king over them." Here the term David is the typical name of Christ, the son of David. Again, every thing predicted of a typical person or people, if not realized by them, while standing as types, must be realized by the person or people they typifiy. Thus the promise of Canaan to the fathers was never realized by them, and they understood the promise as having a typical reference to "a city with foundations." Again: "Once have I sworn in my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me; it shall be established