By the same rule and for the very same reason that Israel conquered Palestine, does England go on from conquest to conquest. And because God remembered to perform His promises made to the patriarchs upon their seed, America was
opened for the Puritans, who are without doubt the descendants and representatives of Manasseh, of whom God said “he should be a people, a great people.”
The rule of England and America over other people, is to be as life from the dead—that is, whatsoever country England conquers and rules, it is better for the people, and the country, and the world. They give to the people a liberty that they would not have given to themselves; they develop the resources of the country as never before, and by trade and commerce bless the people and cause them to be a blessing unto others. And better still, they make known to the conquered ones, in due time, the riches of faith in Christ. So we have no hesitation in saying, a thing patent to every unprejudiced observer, that the aborigines of the conquered colonies of Great Britain are treated better by their conquerors than they ever treated themselves. The Africans, in the conquered colonies of Africa, are better off under British rule than those colonies or portions unconquered are. The hosts of India enjoy more, fare better in every grace and virtue in all that goes to adorn and develop mankind, under the British government and protection than they ever did or would under self-government. So the French, Germans, Italians, Russians, Spaniards, and the numerous progeny of emigrants to this country, fare better in every way with Manasseh, than they did in their own lands. Of course, both in England’s rule and America’s, there are many defects; but taking all in all, the good will out-weigh the bad; and more so as the years roll on.
True, an arbitrary purpose and an individualism is seen on the surface, yet under it all there is the hand of God. The farmer is free as to what he sows, but the Divine, without interfering with his freedom, regulates the harvest to plenty or famine. The Saxon people, England and America, stand in a new light to the world by the teachings of the Bible. Being Israel or the Ten Lost Tribes, they become at once the chosen
agents of God for the glorious purpose of evangelising the whole world, and finally, by reducing the whole earth to the plane of universal liberty and peace.
It was necessary that these two nations should first be taught the art of mediation, for the ends of peace; that they should learn and show to the world that national disputes and grievances can be settled without an appeal to the sword. Hence we have, and what is much better, the world has, Geneva and Alabama and the fish bounty treaty of Canada and the United States. Not all the press did on either side, nor all the carping and blustering of individuals, could prevent the happy consummation of both these treaties. To God be praise, for they are prophetic harbingers of a better day coming.
No hand nor power, nor combination of powers, can stop the onward march of Israel to her God-ordained goal. Her future is to spread on the right hand and on the left. Island after island, colony after colony, will fall into her hands for mutual benefit. Russia may contest this march, and will, for she is as much the appointed agent of contest from Heaven as England is to advance. In a few years she will try to take the place of England among the nations, as she has just done in Afghan. Russia promised, no doubt, that she would and could protect the Ameer against England, but the bargain was outside of the aims of Providence, hence it could not be sustained. It is ordained of Heaven that Afghan fall into the hands of England, if England be Israel.
Against this fate-like division of the world Russia is going to contend and fight whenever she gets a chance. It would pay Russia and many other countries to read that “When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the children of Israel” (Deut. xxxii. 8). These bounds God will maintain wherever they run; whatever country they cut in two, no matter, the earth must finally conform to
this Divine geography. This purpose is strongly set forth by Isaiah xliv. 7: “And who, as I, shall call and shall declare it, and set it in order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming and shall come.” This same sturdy fact is taught by Paul when speaking to the Athenians, telling them that God “hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitations.” National destinies are not so much things of chance, or prizes for the sword, as many think. God promised to David, when both Israel and Judah were prosperously settled in Palestine under David’s reign, that He would appoint a place for His people Israel, and plant them there, and they should not be moved, neither should the wicked afflict them, as aforetime (2 Sam. vii. 10.) This promise God has kept. He has given them the British Isles, where none can afflict them, as they were wont to do when Israel was scattered in Asia and Europe. God has found Manasseh a home in this land of blessings and rich acres.
England, by a necessity, was forced to find new countries to provide for her multiplying population. Then she is forced to enter other nations as a missionary. She, with Manasseh, is chiefly responsible for the evangelisation of the world, and of course they are at work all over the world, for England and the United States send out more missionaries than all the world beside. Russia needs no land for colonisation, for now her inhabitants number only thirty-four to the square mile, while England numbers 889. If we take in all the territory under Russia and England, even then England has more to the square mile than Russia. Russia comprises about 8,000,000 square miles, and England, with her late additions, leaving out the United States, numbers about 9,000,000. Joining Ephraim and Manasseh together, they own one-fourth of the whole world—namely, about 13,000,000 square miles;