Cush, and from Elam, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."-Isa. xi. Many similar passages might be quoted, but this is clear, positive, and sufficient. The names of the ancient countries into which carnal Israel was dispersed, are used metonymically by the prophet to designate similar countries in which Christians were to be found scattered, at the rise of the great Christian nationality of modern times. With this great gathering, the United States coincides, and therefore fulfills the prophecy. "This Tenth. It was to rise in thirteen distinct states, on the borders of a great sea, and between two seas: shall be the border, whereby ye shall inherit the land according to the twelve tribes of Israel; Joseph shall have two portions. And ye shall inherit it one as well And the east side ye shall measure as another. * * * * from the border unto the east sea. This is the east side. sea. * * * * The west side shall also be the great Ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance. anto you, and to the strangers that sojourn among you, which shall beget children among you. * * They shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel."-Ezek. xlvii. In the forty-eighth chapter, the several divisions of tribes are represented as located side by side upon the borders of the sea. A map of these divisions is found in Clarke's Commentary. The passages quoted are taken from Ezekiel's last + It would seem from this that naturalization would at first be allowed to foreigners, but afterward be confined to their children. vision. That vision coincides evidently with Daniel's vision of the stone kingdom, and with the mountain kingdom into which the stone expanded. It also coincides with St. John's view of the man child, the Millennium, and new heavens and earth, and is, therefore, but a vision of the rise and progress of Christian Israel's nationality. The obscurity attending it, arises from the fact that the earth, under the gospel's triumphs and Messiah's reign, is presented to us in a gorgeous typical dress; it is Christianity in Hebrew costume. The terms, figures, and symbols are from the Mosaic ritual, and must not be understood, as far as they are Mosaic, in a literal sense. Divesting the vision of its ceremonial and typical robes, and translating it into gospel simplicity, there is no great difficulty attending it. This can be done by comparing it with other visions embracing the very same subjects, and conforming our expositions to the plain doctrines of the gospel. The twelve divisions of the land coincide with the twelve stars on the head of the woman in the vision of St. John; they are in all thirteen, because Joseph was to have two portions. These thirteen were to be common property to Israel or the Christians, and were to lie side by side of each other, and to be upon a sea coast. Old Canaan is thus introduced as the type of the new. This description plainly coincides with the old thirteen States of America, which were common property, and side by side on the sea. Eleventh. It was to be at a distance from its enemies." They that swallowed thee up shall be far away."-Isa. xlviii. "Thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near thee."-Isa. liv. How true this is of our country every one knows. Twelfth. The great immigration to Israel.-"Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold; all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride doeth. For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even be too narrow by reason of inhabitants. The children which thou shalt have after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell."-Isa. xlix. This passage may, to a certain extent, refer to the church, but it embraces both the church and its country. The cry of the inhabitants for more territory to dwell in, finds a most emphatic realization in our country at present, where the universal cry is for more elbow room. "Expansion" is the universal desire of our people; and since the old thirteen were crowded, eighteen new states, and several new territories, have not satisfied our demand for place in which to dwell. All North America will soon be too narrow for us. "The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come, * * all the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee; the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee. * * Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves to their windows? The sons of strangers shall build thy walls; and their kings shall minister unto thee. Therefore, thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish, yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. The sons of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet, and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord." How closely does this agree with the emigration of millions to our open gates from year to year, and from those kingdoms that oppressed the true people of God. "Many people shall go and say, come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob."-Isa. ii. Here the mountain and the house are used for the dual nationality of Israel; and many people are now daily fulfilling this prophecy. Thirteenth. Christian Education." All thy children shall be taught in the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children."-Isa. liv. In Israel restored, the children were to receive a Christian education. The United States is emphatically a land of Christian schools; and intelligence and morals are considered, both by the states and the churches, as the foundation of our permanency and prosperity. The Bible is the great text book in all the denominational schools, and, indeed, of the great public school system, and its presence is endorsed by the people, and by consequence all are taught of the Lord. In addition to this, each week, on Sabbath, tens of thousands meet to learn the Bible only; and the press, with its countless millions of pages, sends healing leaves from Paradise, to every secluded nook in all our mighty territory. Truly the prophecy is realized with us, for "all our children are taught of the Lord." Wars, rapine, and pillage disturb the peace of other lands, and armies are marshaled to suppress the minions of vice and ignorance; but here "Are towns, and villages, and farms, And cities, free from clashing arms. The land of FREEDOM, happy land! Thus, in every great prediction of Christian Israel restored, do we find the United States coinciding with prophecy, and that, too, with the most astounding accuracy. Now these various coincidences, so perfectly in harmony with each other, and with the doctrines of scripture, can not be accidental; and as perfect coincidence between facts and prophecy is infallibly a perfect fulfillment, it is infallibly true that the United States is the promised restoration of nationality to Christian Israel. Understand our position then: we hold that the seed of Abraham, according to the flesh, will be Christianized, and many of them will return and settle in Palestine; and that they will form a commonwealth, which will be an integral state in the great Millennial confederacy, and it will not have any rights which other states do not. They will return to Palestine at the Millennium, because that portion of the earth was given to them as an inheritance, at "the division of the inheritance to the nations;" and as at the Jubilee every man returned to his own possessions, so the Jubilee of the world will occur at the Millennium, and all races will be seized of their own original inheritance. |