forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven." Here is a positive promise of the perpetuity of David's throne, and yet, in four hundred years afterward, David's throne ceased to exist, and has never yet been restored. But as "the word of God can not be broken," the prophecy must use David's name as a metonymic for Christ. So also the "seed of Abraham," and "the seed of David," are typical terms, expressing the seed of Christ.

By keeping these things in view, there is no difficulty in understanding the prophecies of Israel's restoration.

We shall now quote the prophecies declaring the restoration of Israel's nationality in the latter day, and shall quote none that can possibly be considered as having been realized in the restoration from Ancient Babylon. The prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel will be those which. we shall principally quote, because they contain very ample accounts of the restoration. The following things will be found predicted by them: 1. The restoration. 2. The ships of Tarshish, or Spain, opening the way. 3. The wilderness country that was to be occupied. 4. The land that had been always waste. 5. The direction to it westward. 6. It was to be a place of broad rivers and streams. 7. Its towns and cities were to be without walls, bars, or gates. 8. It was to be far from molestation. 9. It was to be a land of great wealth. 10. It was to be peopled by Christians from various nations. 11. Kings and queens were to assist its early establishment. 12. Its children were all to be instructed of God. 13. A vast immigration was constantly to set toward it. 14. It was to rise with thirteen states, on the borders of a great sea. 15. It was to be invaded by all the great monarchies, and was to triumph.

If we make out these points in prophecy, it will not, and can not, be denied that we shall have discovered our country to be foretold by the prophets.

First. The restoration to nationality.—This we have already shown, and shall let its truth be further evinced, incidentally, from the prophecies we shall quote.

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Second. The ships of Tarshish first. This passage is in that elaborate view of the restoration, found in the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah: "Surely the Isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them." Europe was called the "Isles of the Gentiles," and the certain delay or waiting of the Isles for God's people, may well apply to the concealing of America from the world, till the Christians were about ready to break their chains at the Reformation, and settle it, and lift the great ensign of civil and religious liberty. The ships of Tarshish brought gold and silver in ancient times to Solomon, and these ships of Tarshish are also represented as bearing gold and silver, as in other days. The word Tarshish was certainly indicative of several countries, as of Tarsus in Cilicia, the Tarshish of Solomon, and the Tarshish or Tartessus of Spain. Spain certainly bore this name very anciently.-(Brown.) The ships of Tarshish first to the Isles, were, therefore, properly the ships of Spain. Now who does not know that the ships of Spain were first to open the way to the great Isles of the West; that they discovered America; and that they brought the first immigrants, and prepared the way for all others.

Third. The country in which Israel was to be restored was to be a wilderness.

"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing, the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, and they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God." This passage is often spiritualized, yet as it has had a literal realization by the Christians of America, on a mighty scale, to claim a purely spiritual signification for it is improper, because fulfillment itself is the true interpreter of prophecy, and a literal fulfillment takes rank above a figurative one, in true exposition.

"Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation and in sure dwelling places, and in quiet resting places." This is literally and sublimely true of the church in vast America, and of America itself. .

"I will make them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land, and they shall dwell in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods."— Ezek. xxxiv. This passage is taken from a prediction of Israel restored in the latter day, and has been, and still is, literally true of America.

Fourth. An old and unsettled country.—" In the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been ALWAYS WASTE; but is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them."Ezek. xxxviii.

The land of Palestine by no means coincides with the country here described, as having been always waste,

or a wilderness. No country coincides with it, except North America, and it exactly meets the case; not on this point only, but on every other point in the text quoted.

Fifth. A land of broad rivers.-"A tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious Lord shall be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams."Isa. xxxiii. The church is here represented as permanently settled in a place of broad rivers and streams. There is a majestic coincidence with the state of things on this continent of great rivers and waters.

Sixth. A country whose towns were without defenses. "Thou shalt say, (Gog shall say) I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates. * * To turn thy hand upon the desolate places, that are now inhabited, upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, that have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land."-Ezek. xxxviii. No great people gathered out of the nations exists except our own; and no other such nation exists in villages without walls, bars, or gates; and no other exists "in the desolate places now inhabited." So that our coincidence with prophecy is clear in this case also.

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Seventh. The direction westward.-"They shall fly upon the shoulders of Philistines toward the WEST. Isaiah xi.

The term west, here plainly shows the direction Christian Israel was to take to reach the country of restoration.

None but a fool can dispute this, and do himself justice. The Philistines lived on the west of old Canaan, and they are all dead, and their cities and countries are desolations, and unless they are resurrected, they can not bear the Jews to Palestine; and if they lived in their old homes, yet still they would be obliged to remove to the east of Judea in order to bear the Jews westward. The truth of the matter is, that the term Philistines is used figuratively for people in the Christian age who hold a relation to the Christians similar to that held by the ancient Philistines to the Jews. It must, therefore, represent the maritime powers of western Europe. Now, as these western powers have been the great transporters of immigrants to America, the prediction is realized in them. All of the great immigration to the United States has been to the west.

Eighth. Kings and queens were to be nursing fathers and mothers of Christian Israel restored."Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy mothers."—Isa. xlix. The nursing applies to the infant stages of the country. In the founding of the United States, kings and queens and princes took an active and conspicuous part, and the names of many of our towns, rivers, counties, and states, bear their fostering names. Thus the two Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland, bear the names of queens; and Louisiana and Georgia bear the names of kings; and Delaware, New York, and New Jersey, bear the names of princes.

Ninth. It was to be peopled by Christians from various nations.-"The Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria and Pathro, and from