Chapter VI: Part 6

The religious feuds and persecutions of the last days we can but faintly conceive. It was terrible when the beast, two hundred years ago, held sway. The Inquisition, the rack, the stake, and all the horrors of a wise age will be brought to bear. For in these days to come, the beast will be joined by Anti-Christ, who will burn with rage, and vent his displeasure on Christ's followers. Also the barbarism and savage disposition of the Pagans will be let loose. Then will the dragon tear and destroy. This will, indeed, be a day or time of visitation. The political disturbances will be terrible. Nation against nation plotting and deceiving; internal strife and outward dangers. These are of a kind to appal one in reading them. Then come the temporal or physical evils. These are to be a horrible train of ills in the form of pestilence, famine, and earthquakes. The plague of yellow fever is as nought to some of the scourges that will then go forth. Gibbon, the historian, tells of a plague that swept away two-thirds of Europe and Asia. At that time the dead lay unburied by thousands. In Constantinople, for three months, five and even ten thousand persons died daily. The famines in India and China give us some idea of those yet to come. Of the earthquakes, such as have been will be repeated in increasing terror, violence, and destruction. To all these shall be added fire from heaven, hail, whirlwinds, and floods. These are times that will try men's souls. Read the prophets for yourselves, and range yourselves on the Lord's side.

WONDERS OF THE FUTURE. DISCOURSE XIV.

PURPOSE OF THE FLOOD--THE ABRAHAMIC CURRENT--RENDING MOUNT OLIVET--FORMER EARTHQUAKES--BOUNDARIES OF PALESTINE--DAN AND GAD TO GUARD THE "GATES"--GAD THE SCOTCHMAN--THE FUTURE JERUSALEM--THE DEAD SEA AND MEDITERRANEAN TO BE JOINED--MISTAKE OF SPIRITUALISING EVERYTHING.

"And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which
is before Jerusalem on the East: and the Mount of Olives shall cleave
in the midst thereof toward the East and toward the West, and there
shall be a very great valley; and half the mountain shall remove
toward the North, and half of it toward the South."--Zech. xiv. 4.

Some four thousand years ago the earth was washed with the regenerating waters of a terrible flood. Millions were suddenly cut off, with their handiwork and antediluvian civilisation. The swelling floods subsided, and the God-avenging waters retired to their appointed place. The earth again stood forth in virgin strength, lonely, bare, and citiless, but with a potency and promise inviting and grand. Across these swelling floods one craft had been safely borne; in it was stored the seed-stock of a new world of man and beast. The destruction had been complete and terrible. If we credit Dr. Gurney and others who have written on this subject, the population far exceeded the inhabitants of to-day. But whether they did or did not, we know that many must have perished, and civilisation must have been hurled back to a primitive beginning. No doubt the present seas and oceans cover over the ruins of that age. Eliphaz, the Temanite, when addressing Job, said: "Hast thou marked the old way, which wicked men have trodden, which were cut down out of time? _whose foundation was overflown with a flood_?" Now is it not reasonable to suppose that in this and every other great change in nature God has a purpose--a design agreeable with His own exalted character? He is too wise to err, and too good to be unkind. The flood came for the same reason that He only gave Adam one wife. And what was that reason? It was that He might fill the world with a godly seed. "And did not He make one? Yet had He the residue of the Spirit. And wherefore one? That He might seek a godly seed" (Mal. ii. 15). The same Spirit which made one Eve could have made twenty, for the residue of the Spirit was with Him. It was in the interest of morality and godliness that the flood came.

When this design began to fail of being accomplished by the increased wickedness of the post-diluvians, then God called Abram, and through Abraham and his seed designed that this purpose should flow on and be fulfilled. Through this Abrahamic channel flow all the purposes of a Divine Providence in this world. Through his seed all the nations of the earth are to be blessed. The children of Abraham are the appointed and Divinely authorised agents of God. Through them, as primary, he has, and is, and will evangelise the world. Abraham stands to the generations of earth as the Gulf-stream to Europe and the isles of the sea. This Gulf-stream is our largest river; being the longest, broadest, and deepest. Its bottom and banks are cold water. Compressed by the straits of Florida, it rushes forth to warm and replenish the earth and isles of the sea. So the forces of a Divine Providence compressed in Abraham go forth to bless mankind. The Gulf-stream is water in water, and Abraham's seed are men among men. Providence is at once clear and intelligible, and history is at once plain, reasonable, and harmonious, when interpreted in harmony with the Abrahamic covenant. The scattering and returning of Israel and Judah to Palestine, and the intervening history, from the time of dispersion to the Return, is clear as noon-day. Their location, oppression, prosperity, and victories, have long been foretold by prophets inspired of God.

Through all the changes in nature God has a design. He prepared the world for Adam and his seed, and He did so by some wonderful upheaving and overturning; this scientists will admit. This world, in its present shape and condition, indicates fierce and protracted struggles. The outlines of strange and sublime revolutions are imprinted on her rock-ribbed bosom. Look at her cloud-capped mountains, her snow-crowned peaks, her wild and rocky wastes, her barren plains and sandy deserts, her fruitful hills and luxuriant valleys, her mighty oceans and swelling seas, her inland lakes and rolling rivers; these tell us of a time long ago--of the time when the Mighty One went forth to work a work, to build a house and make a home for His creature, man. And as it was necessary in the preparatory stage to tune nature to the coming man, so all along through the history of the centuries we find nature holding a subordinate relation to man. The world is not run on one principle and man on another, but both are permeated by a Divine force and led on to a Divine end. All things are ours, and we are Christ's, and Christ is God's; this is the established order of subordination. Most certainly it cannot be unscientific in the Author of nature to make the same His messenger for good or evil. It is not unscientific to throw a line from the shore to a ship in distress, even though thrown from the mouth of a cannon, nor is it counted unscientific to use that same cannon in war to destroy men.

The earthquake spoken of in the text is, indeed, a small affair in comparison to some that have occurred in this world; and if the same God be living now as then, surely He can rend in twain the little mountain of Olivet. And if we grant to the infidel scientist of to-day the fact that there is no God, still the thing prophesied of is neither unreasonable or impossible, because what has been may be again; and as the demand in this case is small in comparison to what has been, surely this thing may come to pass. In times past Providence and the wants of the Church have been timely aided by convulsions in nature, and if they were only so accidentally, why then accidentally they may all agree again. To the scientist, especially the geologist, there can be no great difficulty in crediting the miracles of the text when we think of the successive revolutions that have taken place. Fires, and floods, and earthquakes, have done sublime service in the past, whether we credit the same to Nature or to God. That an earthquake, or any peculiar expression of nature, should be timed to meet a special condition of the Church or the special purposes of a Providence, is not strange. In such an event there really is no more wonder than that a man should set an alarm on his clock to go off at three minutes past four in the morning. Some men can swallow big things if you will only allow them to make out the author to be Nature. But whether we attribute the things past to Nature or to God, we know that wonderful things have happened.

Seismology, the science of earthquakes, is by no means void of interest. The earthquake catalogue of the British Association takes notice of, and records the occurrence of, over 6,000 that happened between 1606 B.C. and 1842 A.D. Some of these have been terrible in force, destruction, and extent, oftentimes changing the whole face of a country, its climate, and river courses. The great earthquake of 1783 in Calabria, probably caused the death of 100,000 people; it was felt over a great part of Europe. The city of Lisbon was visited on the morning of November 1st, 1755, with an earthquake so severe that in a few minutes 60,000 persons perished, and most of the city was destroyed and buried beneath the water of the bay some 600 feet.

The country given to Abraham embraces all of what we call Syria. It is central, and specially adapted for the future purposes of God through Abraham's seed. Beginning with the North-west corner, the boundaries will be Mount Taurus, river Euphrates, Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Red Sea, River Nile, and Mediterranean, enclosing Syria, Arabia Deserts, Arabia Felix and Arabia Petroea. Thus it will be seen that the Abrahamic inheritance is surrounded by water, except at two points--namely, the North-west land boundary, which is between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean Sea. The entrance is through the mountain range of Taurus, and forms a natural gate or mountain pass from Europe and Asia into Palestine. Here, when the Tribes are resettled in the land of Palestine, this gate will be in the allotment of Dan. Our Irish brethren will again be in the North-west, where they will have to fight and defend the land and the truth, as in days of old, for their brethren. The fact is, "Dan shall judge his people as one of the Tribes of Israel," said old Jacob. The judge in olden times sat in the gate. So will Dan sit. Moses said that Dan was a lion's whelp. Among Israel it is customary to put lions as guards at gateways. The Southwest corner, between the Mediterranean and the Sea of Suez, forms the other land boundary. Through this gate will come the teeming millions of Africa. At this gate will be the Tribe of Gad--that is, a portion of the Scotch, the lowlanders. The Tribes will be hemmed in one by another so that they cannot enlarge their territory; but Gad can, for a vast country opens up beyond the gate. It is barren; still the desert is to blossom as a rose. Of Gad it was said by Moses, "Blessed be He that enlargeth Gad; he dwelleth as a lion and teareth the arm with the crown of the head. And he provided the first part for himself, because there, in a portion of the lawgiver, was he seated." You remember that Sinai is in this portion. What sight and foresight Jacob and Moses had! The land as thus bounded would be 600 miles broad from the Red Sea to the River Euphrates, and 1,390 between the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, and from the Mediterranean to the Arabian Sea, 1,600. These boundaries you will glean by taking note of the several promises to Abraham and his seed, as recorded in Gen. xv. 10, and Exod. xxiii. 31, and Deut. xi. 24. The land so promised and given specially to Abraham and his seed, the descendants of Abraham never yet occupied, no, not half of it, even in the palmy days of King Solomon. Will it ever be? We answer, Yes, as sure as the seasons and night and day. He is faithful that has promised, and will do it.

This remarkable peninsula will be the theatre of the future glory of Israel and Judah. As finely described by the Rev. A. B. Grimaldi, it will be found to be most exactly and suitably placed to enable them to fulfil their high destiny to all nations, and become the centre of all lands, the praise and beauty of the whole earth. This land has, in fact, a central position for communication, commerce, and all other advantages of civilisation not enjoyed by any other portion of land in the whole world; while the peculiar geographical formation is such that it has an immense seaboard, and is therefore fitted for vaster commercial and naval operations than have ever yet been seen, commanding, as it does, the three most important seas and the two largest rivers of the whole world.

This land, as laid out by Ezekiel, will be divided into thirteen longitudinal strips, sixty miles long, and twenty broad. In the very centre will be a portion, some fifty miles square, which will be divided and apportioned to what is called the holy oblation--namely, in the very middle will be the temple, a mile square, or larger than ever the whole city of Jerusalem has yet been. Then the city will be ten miles square. On one side will be a portion for the priests; on another, a portion for the Levites; and on the other two sides, the prince's or king's portion. This portion, which will be on the East and West sides, will be sixty miles long by ten broad, or some 600 miles square. But it is clear he will need it, for he will not be supported by taxes. He will have to judge the land. He cannot take any more land. He will have to support his own family. No public grant to his children. He will have to be liberal with the temple. He will have sixty miles of sea coast to defend and sixty miles of land frontier to protect, and thus cover some of the weaker tribes. The city will have 720 square miles as a suburb, in which to raise supplies specially for itself. It will in reality be in two parts--one called by the prophets the profane; here will the commercial business be done. The other part will be sacred. Into it strangers will not enter; it will be holy--a quiet habitation. "There the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no gaily with oars, neither shall gallant ships pass thereby." The city proper will be some thirty miles North of the present city of Jerusalem.

NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVEN. DISCOURSE XVI.

"SIGNS OF THE TIMES"--THE RETURN TO JERUSALEM--FORCES OF RUSSIA AND ENGLAND--PRESENT LOCALITY OF ANCIENT NATIONS--ORIGIN OF AMERICAN REPUBLICANISM--FEDERATION OF THE NATIONS COMING--EVOLUTION AND DEVOLUTION.

"Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred
and five and thirty days."--Daniel xii. 12.

So according to the prophet Daniel there is a time to come in which it will be blessed to live. The prophecies of Daniel are generally of a material character--that is, they have special reference to this world politically, and to this end he had direct and special reference to certain kingdoms in existence at the time of writing, as well as others that were to come into being. Of all the prophets he concerns himself the most with positive data of the rise and fall of nations. The figures of the data used, we freely confess, are difficult to understand and interpret. The Church and times are greatly in need of some man competent on this point. All prophetic students know the diversity and confusion in this department of theology. Of all the difficult departments of theology none exceed the numerical. The numerical symbolism of the Bible is as yet but little understood. True, indeed, we are improving. Aided by Providence, we are enabled to interpret some dates by data--that is, certain events occurring locate us and point out the prophetic period we are in. Like the captain who is unable by his certain and usual modes of calculating to find his whereabouts, does so by currents, the Gulf-stream, islands, colour of waters, &c., did we know the exact quantity of Daniel's two thousand and three hundred days, his times, time, and half a time, his seventy weeks, his thousand two hundred and ninety days, and the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days, then we could deal with the prophecies with a definitiveness to which as yet we are strangers.

The times, however, are peculiarly interesting from the very fact that the Church is waking up to the importance of prophetic study. "Coming events cast their shadows before," is a trite but true saying, and here as true as anywhere. Men feel in their fears and hopes the pressure of prophecy. The Church is remarkably anxious and unrest. Governments are suspicious and confused. The populace are restless and threatening. Indeed, everything conspires in Church, State, and people, to forecast the future. A thunderstorm is felt before it is seen or heard. It shadows the mind, thrills the nerves, and pains the rheumatic limbs. Many in 1858 felt war coming in our own country. Many were at a loss to interpret their fears. Some, however, interpreted the signs of the time and sounded an alarm.

The few years to come are pregnant with angry forces. Men are busy in Russia, Germany, France, England, and America, sowing the winds, and the harvest will surely be whirlwinds. But, beyond all, the sky is clear. War ceases, commerce revives, the nations accept a settled peace, science and religion join hand in hand to prepare the wastes and woes of war. The beast is overcome, Anti-Christ is slain, and the dragon is banished from the earth. Jerusalem again rises in splendour from the grave of desolation. Again Canaan will become the glory of all lands, and Jerusalem the glory of Canaan. Here, again, after centuries of wandering, shall the throne of David find rest, and on it one of David's seed, chosen and anointed of God, accepted of men, and served by the nations. Crowned and imperial Salem shall become the home of her long-captive sons and daughters. Israel and Judah shall meet together, and shall be one stick, one people, having one head, one throne, one city, one Lord, even Jesus. "Therefore, they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd; and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all" (Jeremiah xxxi. 12).

No one can read the prophecies that find their fulfilment after the battle of Armageddon--or, as the prophets have it, "after those days"--without being ravished with delight. Israel in her palmy days, and Judah in her glory! A nation called of God, and ruled by God through David or Solomon; how inviting! When Heaven was their Defence and Provider; when the fidelity of men to God was enough of defence, and the morality of a people was a rich manure giving an abundant harvest in field, stall, and orchard; then we see the true position of a nation, its grandeur and prosperity. I am convinced that morality has a more intimate relation with the forces and wealth of nature than we are in the habit of believing. God can give increased measure to the harvest, fruitfulness to the vine, plenty in the orchard, increase in the stall, and addition to the household. Time upon time are these blessings promised by the prophets to Israel and Judah in the latter day.

Take notice of a few statements of the prophets responding to those times--the times that will ensue after the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and the Jews are again possessed of, and settled in, Palestine. Jeremiah, in the 30th chapter and 31st, refers to those times: "For lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of My people, Israel and Judah, saith the Lord; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it"--referring to this time and the battle of Armageddon, in which Israel will be tested as we have before shown. "Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it; it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it." Now, we ask, why will it be specially a time of trouble? We answer, Because of the strength of the combined forces that will be arrayed against Israel--that is, England. The forces, as set forth in the Scriptures, are _thirteen on one side_, _led by Russia_, and _four on the other_, which will be _led by England_. The _thirteen_ are: 1st, Gog; 2nd, Magog; 3rd, Rosh; 4th, Meshech; 5th, Tubal; 6th, Persia; 7th, Ethiopia; 8th, Libya; 9th, Gomer; 10th, Togarmah; 11th, the Beast; 12th, the Dragon; and 13th, Anti-Christ. The _four_ are: 1st, Sheba; 2nd, Dedan; 3rd, Merchants of Tarshish with all their young lions; 4th, the Jews and Israelites settled in Palestine, that will not be led astray by Anti-Christ.

To understand the prophets when forecasting the future, we must keep in mind that in speaking of a nation's destiny in the future, they would speak of it by the name it had at that time, if such a nation had an existence at that time. But in course of time, such nations would change their name, and sometimes locality; in such a case they must be found. For instance, if one desires to know the destiny of Turkey, he will find it set forth by the prophets under the name of Edom and Esau. Moab and Ammon are found in the Poles and Hungarians; they were the sons of Lot. In all parts of the world the children of Abraham have an attachment for each other. Thus India was peopled at first by the descendants of Abraham; hence they will mix with, and accept English rule sooner than any other people. "But unto the sons of the concubines which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, Eastward, unto the East country" (Gen. xxv. 6). If we trace back the origin of a people to their head or founder, we will better understand their peculiarities and national idiosyncrasies. Study Ishmael to understand the Arabs, Esau to understand the Turks, Ammon and Moab to understand the Poles and Hungarians. Study the character and condition of Manasseh in Egypt, as being brought up in a palace, and being the lawful heir, but deprived of his birthright by a Providence which he could not understand, and you have at once a key to the Pilgrim character, and the characteristics of a real American--why he hates titles, kings, and aristocracies. But he forgets not the place of his youth when he had the great seal made; for on the reverse of the great seal of the United States you will have the figure of a Pyramid crowned with the All-seeing eye. No Tribe but the Tribe of Manasseh could say, or did say, "We are a great people." Yet so this Tribe said to Joshua (see Josh. xvii.). So we often say, "We are a great people."

Rachel and Leah, the two wives of Jacob, are the real source of the separation of the Ten Tribes of Israel from Judah. Each wife sought to have her son as a leader. Thus between Judah and Joseph began the spirit of rivalry. Ephraim took up the cause of Rachel. David and Saul's bitterness lies here. David stood for Leah, and Saul for Rachel. The descendants of the North of Ireland, being from the Tribe of Dan, have ever been distinct from the rest of the Irish in features, enterprise, spirit and religion; for the others are the Canaanites of old, the Philistines.

Who do the thirteen enemies stand for to-day? Let me answer you briefly. Gog stands for the Caucasians or mountain tribes of Caucasus. Magog covers the inhabitants and country North of the Caucasian mountains, and they are known as Tartars. Rosh, or Roosh, means the real Russians. Their ruler is called by the Prophet Ezekiel _Nasi Roosh_. We translate it the chief prince of Meshech. This portion, or people of Russia, are the old Babylonians, hence the hate and rivalry between England and that nation. Meshech means the Muscovites, who made Moscow what it is. Tubal is found in the Siberians. Meshech and Tubal are generally mentioned together in the Scriptures, and, strange to say, they are found together in history to-day. Moscow is the capital of Meshech, for though to the world St. Petersburgh seems to be, yet every imperial document is signed and dated Moscow. Tobolski is the capital of Tubal or Siberia. Persia still retains its ancient name, and will be easily recognised. Also the same with Ethiopia. Libya takes in a portion of the African race. Gomer stands for the Germans in part, for those who descended from Gomer. From this word Gomer is Gomeron, Gemren, and the country Germia, hence, Germany and Germans. Togarmah includes the people of Independent Tartary. The Dragon includes China. The Beast, the Jesuits and their followers, which will take in France, Spain, Italy, and South America; and at first divide even England, especially Ireland, and the United States. Anti-Christ will be chiefly sustained by the Jews, who will have been settled in Palestine.

The four opposing forces led by England: Sheba represents India, who is already training for this time of battle. Dedan embraces Arabia, especially that part occupied by the Sultan of Muscat. Merchants of Tarshish and all the young lions, means England and her colonies, in which is embraced the United States. Manasseh will have to stretch out a helping hand to Jacob in the time of his trouble, for she cannot allow liberty to be enslaved, and freedom of worship and conscience to be trampled under foot. The plague will come here sooner than we think, by a civil and internal division among ourselves, which will force us to take part. The Jews that are not carried away with Anti-Christ will join with their brethren of Israel. The called, the chosen, and the faithful, will be one party, and they will be on the Lord's side.

If during the late Turkish war we could have had our despatches agreeable to ancient names of people and country, they would have sounded queer. Instead of reading of the Russians passing the Caucasus, and moving upon Erzeroum by way of Kars, we should have read: Rapid advance of the Babylonians under the chief prince of Meshech. Successful passage of the Pison. The whole land of Havilah occupied. The men of Togarmah rally at Gihon. Fierce fighting in Eden. The invaders defeated in the mountains of Ararat. For according to ancient names of people and country, such was the fact. It is comforting to all God's people to know from His Word that there is a time of peace; that there is a golden age in the near future. Dr. McKay has the Christian idea in his poem:

"There is a good time coming, boys,
Wait a little longer;
Let us aid it all we can,
Every woman, every man,
The good time coming."

When will the 1,335 days of years, spoken of in the text, end? We answer, About the year 1957. And why that year? Because these days evidently date there, beginning from the time the daily sacrifice is taken away and the city trodden under foot. The little goat horn of Daniel viii. 9 stands, we have before shown you, for Turkey. "And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great toward the South, and toward the East, and toward the pleasant land." It stands for Mahommedanism, which was to overturn Christianity for a given period, a time, times, and a half time, or in figures, 1260. Now Mahommed was accepted and crowned at Mecca in the year 622. If we add 1260 and 622, we have 1882--a time that is very plainly pointed out in the Pyramid. Daniel says, "Seventy weeks are determined upon Thy people and upon Thy holy city," Jerusalem. These weeks put into prophetic years make 490, which, of course, brings us to the time when Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus. Daniel asked how long the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and transgression of desolation to give the sanctuary and people to be trodden down? The answer was, Unto 2,300 days, taking a day for a year. Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70. Take this from 490 and we have 420. Now these 420 years taken from 2,300 will bring 1880. Then the sanctuary is to be cleansed--that is, Jerusalem will be in the possession of England. She now is.

From about 1880, or 1882, England will possess Jerusalem. In the twelfth chapter of Daniel, eleventh verse, we find thirty days added to the 1,200, making 1,290; these added thirty years denote the time England will have to contend for her right to Palestine. It will finally be acknowledged, however, by all nations. In 1935 the battle of Armageddon will end, but Palestine will not be fully settled down to a peaceful possession till 1957. Then the government will be fully established and acknowledged all over the world. The kings and Gentile nations will have gone up to Jerusalem and given in their adherence. Then all the world will be federated to David's throne. The year 1957 I arrive at by the same rule as the other--1,335 when added to 622, makes 1,957. "Blessed," says Daniel, "are they who see that time."

The world is to undergo some marvellous changes these next few years--mechanically, politically, socially, and morally; the telephone, the phonograph, the microphone, the telemachole and coming improvements will transform our modes of labour and learning beyond our present conception. God times inventions and improvements to the advancement of His kingdom.

I do not regard inventions as mere accidents, but as the outcoming of a Divine intent through human agencies. Watts and Wesley both did good service for the Church and the world. Edison and others of kindred minds are scientific prophets. "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof." All is made subservient to the progress of the kingdom of heaven. The doctrine of the evolution of man as taught by Darwin is neither complimentary to man or God; but the doctrine of devolution is. Man is a developing creature; a creature who takes centuries to grow in. The devolution of God is through man by means of all the increasing facilities and agencies that make man stronger, wiser, and better. The secret powers and forces of nature are revealed to man in the ratio of his ability to apply them, on the same scale as we instruct our children.

In the latter days, or the period spoken of by Daniel, nature will be Divinely prompted with an impulse of generosity not now known, for then men will be wise enough, strong enough, and good enough, to use the same and not abuse. The prophetic teachings glow with promises of regaling plenty, peace and good will in those days. "I will multiply upon you man and beasts; and they shall increase and bring fruit; and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings; and ye shall know that I am the Lord" (Ezek. xxxvi. 11). Again: "I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye receive no more reproach of famine, among the heathen." I submit and believe that all this God will do by what men are pleased to call natural law. The Divine will not rudely break in upon His own established laws.

Sin impairs the energy and growth of man, and so infringes upon Nature. As man frees himself from the bondage and sequences of sin, he will rise higher and higher in his command and authority over Nature's forces. Three several times the earth has been cursed, which curse is gradually removed as man returns unto his God in loving and obedient service. "And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength" (Gen. iv. 11). The secret of a world's wealth and peace lies here, and it were well if reformers and agitators understood this. For they work best who work in harmony with God and His laws.

[Picture: Pyramid picture]

"In that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the
land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord; and it
shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the
land of Egypt."--Isaiah xix. 19.

THE STONE WITNESS. {159} DISCOURSE XVII.

THE GREAT PYRAMID--WHO JOB WAS--WHO BUILT THE PYRAMID--WHAT IT WAS BUILT FOR--AN EPITOME OF THE EARTH--THE HISTORY OF MAN CONTAINED IN IT, PAST AND FUTURE--SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE, ETC., ETC.

The wonderful discourses of the Rev. Dr. Wild, of Brooklyn, were continued last Sunday evening, before a thronged congregation in Elm Place Church. Under the organ gallery, behind the pulpit, was a representation of the Pyramid, or as the learned doctor terms it, "the stone Bible," its massive rectangular dark stone foundation and some of the most interesting of its interior passages, chambers, and mysteries. All eyes were fastened in scrutiny upon it, well knowing that some revelation of unusual Christian interest would be made by the Doctor from it as soon as his lecture commenced. The preliminary exercises of singing by a well-trained choir and prayer were therefore impatiently listened to by many whose thoughts were concentrated on the wonders of the Pyramid and its astounding confirmation of the prophetic Scriptures. Dr. Wild read a lesson from Job xxxviii., remarking that the author of that book was also the engineering director or architectural author of the Pyramid and identical with Shem and Melchisedec. The book of Job is the oldest book in the world by 200 or 300 years. Shem, or Job, was ninety-eight years old when he entered the ark, and he lived thirty years after Abraham, with whom therefore he shook hands, as well as with Methuselah, who shook hands with Adam. Only one man, therefore, stood between Adam and Shem, and only two, or not quite two, between Adam and Abraham. The book of Berosus, of Babylon, is the only one that compares with Job in antiquity. This was the age of tradition before Moses compiled the first portions of it. In the days of Abraham, Shem was the patriarch, or oldest, of his family; and it was therefore to him he did homage, according to the patriarchal custom, under the name of Melchisedec, when returning from the slaughter of the kings. Shem had brought with him from the days before the flood much of the knowledge and wisdom which had been accumulated in the earth during the 2,000 years previous to that event, and which was swept away when only eight persons were saved in the ark. We have been told that the human race has gradually improved, and that our ancestors in far off ages were monkeys, or something of that sort, but the remains of the ruins and knowledge of antiquity show everything the reverse of this to be the truth. Look at that Pyramid. We could not build it to-day, with all our boasted science. It will bear in every respect the closest scientific scrutiny. Our greatest scientists are only beginning to comprehend the depths of its mysteries, yet it is over 4,000 years old. The capstone on top of it is a Pyramid in itself, in miniature, unlike anything of the kind or any other building on the earth. The reverend gentleman then continued to read from Job xxxviii., and shew that the writer of it was master of astronomical and geographical science and the builder of the Pyramid, which is a miniature of the measurement of the earth and indicates the history of the human race. After this preliminary dissertation he took for his text Isaiah xxviii. 29: "This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working."

The Bible is a growing book, being more read and better understood as the years pass by; and as men shall increase in knowledge and power, so the Bible will gain in influence and authority. Opposition to its teaching, and vaunting denial of its authority, shall be made subservient to its interests by goading on the Church to a wiser and more noble defence and exposition of the same. No theology can levy upon the well-defined facts of science in confirmation of the sublime teachings of inspiration. The Christian student need not hold himself in timid dread for fear the scientist will discover aught in the realms of nature that will contradict the Word of God: for as sure as God is the Author of both, so surely shall we find an agreement between revelation and science at every point truly understood--increased light means increased evidence. Nations and men, nature and Providence, are united witnesses for God, and the Scriptures, and the more we know of the past, the better shall we understand the present and forecast the future. Let us recognise the future. Let us recognise the important difference between the Bible subjectively and objectively--that is, between what the Bible really is and what men think it is. Let us be free enough, bold enough, and wise enough, to claim the Bible itself. Let us unyoke it from tradition, which claims to be superior, or even equal. Let us divorce it from councils, from creeds, from sects and denominations; let us lift it up out of the ecclesiastical rut of ages. Let us with a commendable pride count ourselves worthy and able to formulate our own creeds, make our own prayers and confessions, accounting that the liberties of our fathers have been bequeathed to their children, and that the same God who gave them liberty and power is no less gracious to us, their offsprings. Traditions, councils, creeds, and degrees are worth much unto us as aids to a higher life, and a nobler civilisation. The Christian fathers, the Luthers, Calvins, Knoxes, Wesleys, and others, were our servants, as we will be the servants of coming generations. They worked grandly, they wrought well, they procured for us a goodly heritage; to them we are indebted. Yet it was not their purpose nor the design of Providence to enslave us, or to stereotype the Church for the ages to come. Increased light is increased evidence, enabling us the better to understand the Word of God. When a publisher has stereotyped a book, he is naturally loath to make any change or correction; so Churches who have stereotyped the Bible are very unwilling to change, to receive light. Hence, they are sometimes found opposing the march of a better civilisation, proving and sustaining all manner of institutions and tyrannies: the torturing and terrible Inquisition of Spain, the punishment and hanging of supposed witches by England and New England, the bondage and slavery of the South. So, to prove their creeds and systems correct, they each have a mode of their own, Catholic, Episcopalian, Baptist, Congregational, Methodist, &c. _So also_, theologians have often been impatient to reconcile the Scriptures with history, even to suggest mistakes in the sacred record. Instance Daniel being made the THIRD RULER. _They supposed it meant second_, but later researches show that Babylon had two rulers at that time--namely, Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar--so Daniel was made a third. See the remains of Borsippia, near Babylon (Dan. v. 29). Now we know that both Daniel and Berosus, the old Babylonian historians, were right, and the Bible was right in using the word third. God in His revelation has always been equal to man's need. Tradition--Abraham saw Shem, for Shem lived some thirty years after Abraham's death. Shem, and Melchisedek, and Job, are likely the same person. Certainly, Shem and Melchisedek are the same, and by Egyptian historians called Philitis. This Philitis was the builder of the Great Pyramid. Now Shem saw Methuselah and Methuselah Adam. Thus, then, tradition would be sufficient. As tradition failed, the written Word began. There is little doubt now but that _Shem_, called also Melchisedek, was the builder of the Pyramid, being instructed of God, as his father Noah had been in building the ark, and as Moses with the tabernacle, and Solomon with the temple, as the prophet in the text and context shows that the wisdom of the man is often the gift of God. _See Moses also_. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: See, I have called by name Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the Tribe of Judah; and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship: to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship. And, behold, I have given him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the Tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all that are wise-hearted I have put wisdom that they may make all that I have commanded thee" (Exodus xxxi. 1-6).

Let us look at this building, for it is a special revelation for these times. For this precise and scientific day God has provided. Science and the Bible are interlocked in this building; they agree, they testify for the same God, yet they witness to the same Christ, the Providence and history of His chosen people. This stone book could not be read till now; it even takes the most precise scientific men of the day to read it. For thousands of years there has been no one in the court of the world able to question and interpret this witness of the Lord in Egypt. The scientists have been asking for some other revelation than the Bible, for the supernatural in a scientific form, for something beyond man, for something all could see, for something that would answer to pure science, for something that could be seen, handled, measured, tested, and amenable to mathematics; something superhuman, for something in which the human and the Divine blend. Thank Heaven, all they ask is granted in this stone monument. Here we have science forecast for thousands of years; here we have the grandest of problems in science solved, and the sublimest phenomena of religion and science crystalised, symbolising and teaching the most marvellous facts in religion, sociology, and astronomy. It is not a tomb, nor granary, nor temple, but a pillar and witness unto the Lord of hosts. Think of a few facts. 1. Its location, the centre of the land surface of the whole earth. Hence the best zero point on earth for meridianal and latitudinal calculations. Central to clime--here is no rust, moss, nor frosts to destroy, nor earthquake--a well-chosen spot for such a pillar. 2. Its form and size--symbolising the earth quantity in its weight of five millions of tons--the freight of 1,250 of the largest steamers leaving New York. Its shape, or inclination from base to apex, the same as from the pole to the equator. To express this the builder sloped in ten feet for every nine in height. On this building the sun can shine upon the whole of it twice a year without a shadow. This building is the most correctly orient of any structure on the earth. It is the highest, largest, and oldest building on earth, rising to the height of 486 feet and a fraction, which height if multiplied by ten nine times gives the distance of the earth from the sun; or pile a thousand million pyramids one on the other, and the last would touch the sun. As it stood perfect it was the circle squared; for the height is the radius of a circle, whose circumference, if divided into four equal parts, each part would equal one of the surface sides of the base--closer in approximation than Walli's Indivisibles, or Newton's Fluxions, or Liebnitz's Calculus. The door of entrance was some forty-nine feet from its base, and 300 inches East of the centre, so as at once to express the tilt of the earth's axis from the plane of its orbit, and by its height from the ground express the Precession of the Equinoxes. What a witness outwardly, when complete, of polished marble, covering some thirteen and a half acres, within and without clean and free from idolatrous marks. But God foretold the place and purpose of this huge pile through the prophet Isaiah (xix. 19, 20): "In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt." Here we see the _altar and pillar_ are _one_ and the same, and a scientific fact is expressed when the prophet says it shall be in the midst and on the border. The position of the Pyramid is such, being at the sector point of Upper and Lower Egypt, thus being on the border of both, yet in the midst. The sector point of the arm is where the wrist joins the hand. The spreading hand represents Lower, and the arm Upper Egypt. (See on frontispiece the sector plate.)

May we ask what the pillar and witness--the Pyramid--has to say on the Jewish question, for it has not left this fact unnoticed? At the junction of the first ascending passage with the Grand Gallery, on the left-hand side, or East, there is a horizontal passage-way leading to what is called the Queen's Chamber. This chamber is on the twenty-fifth course of masonry. Now, it is allowed, the Grand Gallery expresses the time of Christ's advent and fulness of time--enlarged liberty. The ascending passage being only four feet high, men were cramped in passing up, but on reaching the Grand Gallery they were free, for it is twenty-eight feet high.

The passage to the Queen's Chamber is only four feet, and is it not strange that it is altogether Jewish? This low horizontal passage terminates in a grand Sabbatic room, which symbolises the Jewish Sabbath-week, feasts, and time periods.

From this passage we learn that the Jews rejected Christ, and went off by themselves, refusing the liberty of Christ. So as truly as the coming of Christ had been forecast in this Pyramid, so had His rejection by the Jews.

The very mortar in this chamber is mixed with salt. The chamber is seven-sided. The last seventh of the passage-way sinks down, giving more room to move in. Salt was an article used freely with the Jews in sacrificing. Seven was a sacred number. The sinking of the last seventh part of the passageway floor may mean the enlarging privilege of the Jews in this latter day. Of the civilised nations, only Russia and Spain forbid them citizenship. Even Turkey admits them now as citizens.

The Jews have been represented as being blind in part. The passage-way and chamber have been difficult to explore because of foul air, there being no ventilating tubes as in the King's Chamber.

But, strange to say, a gentleman exploring this chamber a short time ago, found two tubes by an accident in striking the side wall with a hammer. The tubes had been left entirely closed over with a thin unbroken scale. These tubes extended inward through the masonry, and into the stones forming the walls of the room, all nicely cut, but for about one inch they were not cut through into the room itself. Thus the whole was designed is evident. This thin scale no doubt symbolises the condition of the Jew. His eyes are now open, the time of his wandering nearly spent, as told by this Pyramid.

The curses foretold upon the Jews have been terribly fulfilled. So shall the blessings foretold now in reserve. It was foretold that he would reject Christ; so he did. But it is also foretold that he will yet look upon Him whom he pierced, and mourn and repent, and accept the true Messiah. Lo-ruhamah represents Lost Israel; Lo-Ammi represents cursed Judah; Ruhamah represents Israel found; Ammi represents the curse removed from the Jews. So now we must say, as the prophet Hosea long ago instructed us--we Saxons--"Say ye unto your brother, Ammi," and you Jews, "say to your sisters, Ruhamah."

We have esteemed the Jews as cursed; we will soon esteem them blest. The Jews have never thought we were their brethren, the descendants of Abraham. But God is revealing in this latter day His own great plan; and Christ will be the Saviour of both.

"In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth, which brought up, and which led the seed of the House of Israel out of the North country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land" (Jer. xxiii. 6-8).

Glorious times are near at hand for the Church and the world. Great things hath God promised, all of which He will in His own good time bring to pass.

The very dimensions of the doorway are of thrilling import, expressing in square inches the time of the Adamic world, which, when added to other figures, forecast the time of the end, or the 6,000 years, and point out the date of the beginning of the Millennium morn, or Sabbath of the earth--the period spoken of by Daniel when he says, "Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days." This period we approximated in our last Discourse, and made it out to be about 1,957. The door-way in square inches is 1,949; take these inches for years, and we have, before the building of the Pyramid, of years 1949 A.M., time of building 2170 B.C., and length of Grand Gallery, 1,882, and we get a total of 6,001. This is indeed a close approximation.

SIGNS AND WONDERS. DISCOURSE XVIII.

THE STONE PROPHET IS THE WILDERNESS--NO WAR FOR FOUR YEARS--THE GREAT STRUGGLE TO COMMENCE IN 1882--PRUSSIA ANCIENT ASSYRIA--ENGLAND, GERMANY, AND EGYPT TO BE ALLIES--THE FUTURE HISTORY OF THE WORLD--THE PHILISTINES THE SOUTHERN IRISH--WHO THEIR GREAT ANCESTOR WAS, ETC.

"The great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts, is His name. Great in
counsel, and mighty in work; for Thine eyes are open upon all the
ways of the sons of men; to give every one according to his ways, and
according to the fruit of his doings; which has set signs and wonders
in the land of Egypt, even unto this day."--Jer. xxxii. 18-20.

Egypt is intimately connected with Palestine in providential history, both past, present, and future. No student can have a proper knowledge of the Jewish and Israelitish nation unless he be familiar with the early civilisation and power of Egypt. From this land went forth the Caphtorim to settle Palestine, led forth by the great and good Melchisedek, after he had built the Pyramid. Under his reign they first settled Palestine, built and made Jerusalem their capital. On the death of Melchisedek they lost their allegiance to God, they became an idolatrous people, and were rejected by Jehovah as His special agents. They are known in after history under the name of Philistines, which simply means the followers or subjects of Philitis--a name which the early historians of Egypt gave to the builder of the Pyramid, which was none other person than Melchisedek. By the Israelites they were driven out of Palestine, and finally settled in the South of Ireland, as Irish historians allow.

Another member of the family of Shem was called--namely, Abraham, from whom came God's chosen people--Israel and the Jews. They also had to sojourn in Egypt, and they, too, were sent to Palestine, and graffed on to the purpose of God, where the Philistines had been broken off.

"Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor?" (Amos ix. 7).