figures tally well with the existing state of things. About the beginning of this century England assumed to lead the world. It is a remarkable coincidence that, in the last century, the question of how to multiply the population was a subject of debate and legislation in the British Parliament. But what legislation failed to do, God in His providence did at the appointed time.
It is a curious fact, and well worth noticing, that the famous witness of the Lord of hosts in Egypt, the Great Pyramid, forecasts what the number of Israel and Judah would be in the year 1882. As Israel is symbolised in the Grand Gallery, it is found that the cubic contents of the same, in inches, is about 36,000,000; thus by some this is interpreted to mean that inches stand for individuals, and if so, then England proper will have this number in 1880. Whether this is a true interpretation or not, we all know that these figures will be about right. The Queen’s Chamber of the Pyramid symbolises the number and condition of the Jews.
From these two prophecies, so sublimely fulfilling, let me invite your attention to another that is now maturing. It, too, is parallel with the other two. We refer to the peculiar growth, power, and progress of the English language. After Israel went into captivity, they were to lose their language and take or form another. “For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people” (Isa. xxviii. 11). We will all agree that the English language is not the Hebrew; and if we are Israelites, then indeed God is speaking to us in another tongue, for few of us read His Word in Hebrew. It is read to the millions in the English; hence the millions hear God speak to them in another tongue than that of Hebrew. Between the English and Hebrew languages there is an intimate relation, especially back a few years, before the English had grown so much. The Hebrew was a very limited language; not numbering more than 7,000 words. The English is now said
to number about 80,000. The most lavish writer does not use over 10,000; the common average is about 3,000. In the English we have not less than 1,000 Hebrew roots. This, comparing the languages a few years back, is a large percentage. In names of persons and places the Hebrew is very prominent in England.
I take it for a fact that language is of Divine origin. Men have written on the origin of language from every standpoint; the majority of them trying to account for its existence without allowing so noble a source. The first man, Adam, I believe, could talk as easily and naturally as he could see, and hear, and taste. Speech was a part of his endowment. There is nothing more wonderful in a man talking than a bird singing, save that speech is a higher order of utterance. Dumb nature performs marvels every day as mighty and wonderful as man’s talking. The honey-bee builds its cells, ignorant of the fact that such construction is the solution of a problem which had troubled men for centuries to solve. At what point shall certain lines meet so as to give the most room with the least material and have the greatest strength in the building? This problem is said to have been worked out by a Mr. McLaughland, a noted Scotch mathematician, who arrived at his conclusion by laborious and careful fluxionary calculation. To his surprise, and to the surprise of the world, such lines and such a building were found in the common bee cell. Now I hold that the same Creator who gave to the bee the mathematical instinct could endow man with the instinct of speech. Even to animal instinct we find a certain variation and permitted latitude in what is called adaptive instinct. So in man we find this same instinct of adaptation in a higher sense. The instinct comes into play when we suppose a number of persons separated from others, each living in different quarters of the globe. In such a condition, though of the same language when first separated, they would not remain so long—that is, in the
primitive state of society. Thus, among the tribes of Africa, at this day, languages are widening and varying from a once common centre. So Israel in captivity would lose the Hebrew gradually. The language of the people among whom they settled was the Sanskrit, from which a score of languages have come—the German, French, and Italian, Saxon and others. The Saxon of to-day, compared with the Saxon of 2,000 years ago, is very different; so much so that for us to learn and speak it would be equal to learning a new language. Thus the English language is a thing of growth. In the year 1362 the Saxon was made the court language of England. From that time onward its growth has been wonderful.
The prophetic outlines and Divine place of this language may be seen in the germal foundations, which give unto it such vigour, tenacity, and capabilities of expansion. All the features of this language go to show that it is destined to be the medium of a world’s intercourse, and that it very suitably belongs to Israel, in whose hand will be the destiny of the world. It is the lion of languages. It will grow anywhere, and by reason of its tenacity when once it gets a foothold it abides. It is peculiarly suited to the humanities of every race, clime, and condition; there is no limit to its expansive adaptability. It is in a special manner voracious in the destruction of other languages; wherever it goes, it sounds the death-knell of all the rest.
Soon as this language entered Britain, it began its work of destruction. Before it has disappeared the real British, the Cymric or Welsh, Erse or Irish, the Gaelic of Scotland, and the Manx of the Isle of Man. The British Keltic is entirely gone; the rest are entirely local. Beside these it ousted from the island the Norse, the Norman-French, and several other tongues that tried to transplant themselves on English soil. It is at work in every part of the globe, planting itself and displacing others. A few years ago French was the language best suited
for a traveller on the Continent. But this has changed. Now the English is by far superior. And why is it that the English is supplanting all others? To answer such a question in a scientific way, one cannot do better than quote from the great and learned German philologist, Prof. Grimm, of Berlin. He says of it: “It has a thorough power of expression, such as no other language ever possessed. It may truly be called a world-language, for no other can compare with it in richness, reasonableness, and solidity of texture.” But perhaps the most definite and distinct testimony given by a foreigner touching the future ubiquity of the Anglo-Saxon race and language, is that put forward by Provost Paradol, a learned Frenchman. He says “that neither Russia nor united Germany, supposing that they should attain the highest fortune, can pretend to impede that current of things, nor prevent that solution, relatively near at hand, of the long rivalry of European races for the ultimate colonisation and domination of the universe. The world will not be Russian, nor German, nor French, alas! nor Spanish.” He concludes that it will be Anglo-Saxon.
A British poet has presented in poetry the special features of several of the European languages, which we give:—