and destroyed, after which "the kingdom and dominion Dan. vii. 27. "and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the Saints of "the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey ." Him." .66 2. 3. Seeing, then, that already accomplished events point most unmistakeably to the Pope, in his official capacity, as the beast that in the latter days is to be destroyed, it is desirable next to inquire briefly as to who are the saints of the Most High, to whom the kingdom and the dominion is to be afterwards given. The first allusion in the Bible to the saints of God is contained in Deuteronomy, when Moses blessed the children of Israel before his death, "And he said, The Lord came Dent. xxxiii, "from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he "shined forth from Mount Paran, and he came with "ten thousands of saints; from his right hand went a fiery law for them. Yea, he loved his people, all "his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy "feet; every one shall receive of thy words." The saints here referred to are clearly the Israelites, to whom the same term is applied by Hannah in her song of thanksgiving when she exclaimed, "He will keep the feet of 1 Sam, ii. 9. "His saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; "for by strength shall no man prevail." Solomon also, in his prayer of dedication, made a similar reference when he said, "Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into 2 Chron. v thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength; "let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salva"tion, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness. O Lord God, turn not away the face of thine anointed; re"memember the mercies of David thy servant." 66 66 From the foregoing quotations it is clear that the Israelites were, in former days, referred to as the saints of God. It has been shown that in the latter days the Israelites are to be collected from over the face of the whole earth, and gathered together unto their own land, and in the Revelation we find it further 41, 42. 66 stated that at the end of "the thousand years" (which is commonly spoken of as the millennium) Satan shall Rev. xx. 9. gather the hosts of the world together, "And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed "the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; "and fire came down from God out of heaven, and "devoured them." Isaiah lxvi. 19-21. Here, then, we find the redeemed of the Lord, having returned to Zion, according to the promise, still called "the saints." There remains, therefore, no doubt that the power which is to succeed the Papacy upon the earth is none other than Israel, who, according to prophecy, has been commissioned in the latter days to declare God's glory among the nations, as it is written" And I will set a sign among them, and I "will send those that escape of them unto the nations, "to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to "Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not "heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. "And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering "unto the Lord out of all nations, upon horses, and "in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon "swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith "the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering "in a clean vessel unto the house of the Lord. And "I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, "saith the Lord." In the foregoing pages an endeavour has been made to prove, first, that the prophetic writings must be accepted literally and not figuratively, in so far as they refer to the future of Israel; secondly, that the redemption wrought by our Saviour Christ was for Israel alone; and, thirdly, that the days for the fulfilment of prophecy are close at hand when the long-lost "LoHos. i, 10, 11; ammi" shall be recognised, "and 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, ii. 1. 66 66 "Ye are sons of the living God. 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. Say ye unto your "brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah." The speedy accomplishment of God's promises being thus, to all appearances, near at hand, it is only reasonable to believe that evidences for the identification of Israel are even now capable of being found by any who may desire to do so, and it is therefore the object of the second part of this work to endeavour to trace from established facts the identity of that strangely interesting people, the Israelites, whose history we possess from its very earliest period, but its continuity to the present time is broken by a hiatus, such as is to be found in the annals of no other nation in the world. PART II. Gen. xv. 5. Gen. xiii. 16. CHAPTER VIII. THE MARKS OF IDENTIFICATION. In endeavouring to trace the means for identifying Israel at the present day, it will be necessary to refer again to the promises to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to the subsequent prophecies relative to their descendants, classifying them in such manner as may render their proof the more easy. In doing this it will probably be found necessary to repeat quotations that have already been given; but, in the consideration of a subject of so great importance, it seems more desirable to be guilty of some repetitions, than to give the reader the trouble of referring back to previous pages. In the following chapters the means of identification will be considered under the three following principal headings, viz.: I. Numerical importance, geographical position, II. Political, commercial, and military supremacy; Firstly, then, with regard to the numerical greatness of Israel, we have God's promise to Abraham, when He said, "Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if "thou be able to number them; and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be." And again, "I will make "thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man "can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed " also be numbered." This promise was repeated on several occasions to Abraham, and, in order to prove the more conclusively God's purpose in this respect, He changed his name from Abram to Abraham, the a former meaning "a high father," and the latter " father of a great multitude;" for, said God," a father Gen. xvii. 5. "of many nations have I made thee." Had this promise not been confirmed to Isaac it might possibly be held to have been fulfilled through Ishmael. Before Isaac was born, however, God declared to Abraham, "Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a Gen. xvii. 19. "son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac; "and I will establish my covenant with him for an "everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him." When Rebekah left her home with Abraham's servant as the intended wife of Isaac, her friends in bidding her farewell, prophecied, saying, "Thou art our sister, Gen. xxiv. 60. "be thou the mother of thousands of millions." God also, shortly afterwards, promised Isaac that He would make his seed "to multiply as the stars of heaven;" Gen. xxvi. 4 and again, on another occasion, He said, "I am with and 24. "thee and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for 66 my servant Abraham's sake."" 66 4. When Isaac sent his son Jacob to Padan-aram he blessed him, saying, "God Almighty bless thee and Gen. xxviii. 3. "make thee fruitful and multiply thee, that thou may"est be a multitude of people, and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed with thee." This blessing was subsequently confirmed by God to Jacob in a dream as he journeyed towards his destination; and again, as he returned from Padan-aram, God again blessed him and said, "Be fruitful and Gen. xxviii. "multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be "of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins." 14. Gen. xxxv. 11. The blessings promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were, as has been already pointed out, to descend through Joseph, of whose sons Jacob prophecied, "Let Gen. xlviii. "them grow into a multitude in the midst of the "earth." Manasseh truly shall be great, "but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, " and his seed shall become a multitude of nations." After the Israelites had come out of Egypt, God again confirmed his promises on this point to Moses, 16-19. |