Last year it would not have been so easy to see how France and England were to become once again enemies. This Cyprus wedge has cleft open a little farther the dark and mysterious way.
Last Monday we received the astounding telegram of the treaty between England and Turkey. It evidently was a surprise, we have no doubt, even to Rev. Dr. Storrs, and the New York Herald, as well as to many others who could see nothing but defeat and shame for Israel-England. From Dr. Storrs we have not heard what he now thinks of his child of promise, Russia. From the Herald we did hear, for, by the way, the Herald is one of our morning papers. By an editorial of a column and a half the Herald struggled nobly to wriggle out of the tight corner in which its sympathies for Russia had crowded it. We like and admire the Herald, because of its tact and ingenuity in getting news first from any part of the world. Still this time she was behind time. Two years ago, from this pulpit, we announced the exciting facts of the past week. Last Sunday evening we closed our discourse in these words: “Now, again, England pledges herself a Continental Power, nay, more, an Asiatic Power. She will come forth from the Congress the virtual ruler of Turkey, the owner of Palestine.”
If the Saxons be the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel—and most certainly they respond to all the features that were to distinctly mark them when found, as written in the Bible—then the English throne is a continuation of David’s throne, and the seed on it must be the seed of David, and the inference is clear—namely, that all the blessings attaching by holy promise to
David’s throne must belong to England. This is the key that unravels and makes plain the marvellous and sublime history of the English nation and throne. We know many scout the idea of the Lost Tribes ever being found, although over thirty times God declares by the prophets that they must return; surely before they return they must be found. God has not cast away His people for ever. No, no. He declares Israel to be His inheritance, and that this people He had formed for Himself.
The Two Tribes forming the Jews of to-day are said by the best calculation to number about nine millions. If, then, the Two Tribes number nine millions, how many ought we to expect the Ten Tribes to number? If the Two Tribes have stood and survived the shock and persecution of centuries when known, and therefore open to assault, is it not reasonable to suppose that the Ten Tribes will be in existence, a numerous and powerful people, for they have been hid, and thus have they evaded the persecution that a knowledge of their nationality would have entailed upon them from the Gentile and Pagan nations?
Some, indeed, persist in looking for God’s chosen seed—His people, His inheritance—among the bushmen of Africa, the Indians of America; indeed wherever they can find a people mean, and few, and very low in the scale of civilisation. They overlook the fact that Israel, not the Jews, were to be the most powerful and prolific people on the face of the earth, to be as sands of the sea, as the stars of heaven. Especially were these promises to be true in the latter day—for then God promises to multiply them, men, beasts, and the fruits of the field. This is one of the signs of the times, and it is a remarkable one. See our harvest, see our cattle, and see the Saxon race—doubling, at least, every forty years. No other nation is doubling at that rate. Germany comes the nearest, and both in Prussia and Austria they only double every one hundred years. In one hundred years from to-day the Saxons will control the world for peace and Christ.
To this end God is overturning, and will overturn until the whole world shall be federated around one throne, and that throne is David’s—the only throne God ever directly established, and the only one He has promised perpetuity to. God has a land—Palestine. He has a people—Israel. He has a throne—David’s, and for that throne He has a seed, just as the seed of Levi was selected for Temple service.
This kingdom is the fifth kingdom, to be set up in the latter days of those kings, says Daniel. The kingdom was never to be left unto other people. It is typified by the stone cut out of the mountain that is to fill the world. Why then stand amazed at the cession of Cyprus to England, if she be Israel. To her was promised the isles of the sea, the coasts of the earth, the waste and desolate places—the heathen and uttermost parts of the earth, as a possession. Already out of the fifty-one million square miles which composes the earth, England, including the United States, now owns about fourteen millions, or say one-fourth. She bears rule over one-third of the people of the earth; she adds a colony every four years on an average. At the present rate it will not be long before the kingdoms of this world will be given to the saints of the Most High. It is no marvel in the light and instruction of prophecy that this throne and people should be so stable and prosperous.
Turn your attention to the founding of this throne of David. You will find the throne and seed unconditionally federated, the place and measure of prosperity conditioned on the obedience of the people and throne to God. “The Lord has sworn in truth unto David; He will not turn from it; of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne” (Psalm cxxxii. 11). Again, “I have sworn unto David, thy seed I will establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations” (Psalm lxxxix. 3, 4). This promise is to all generations—not a part, nor simply for sixty years. For the kingdom was rent in twain when Rehoboam, the grandson of David, began to reign. The throne
of David would be about the poorest type of Christ’s throne and rule, and reign, if we can only see it in Palestine. There it was soon divided, very corrupt. “If ye can break My covenant of the day and night in their season, then may also My covenant be broken with David My servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne . . . Thus saith the Lord: If My covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then will I cast away the seed of Jacob and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham” (Jer. xxxiii. 25, 26). Let anybody of the same mind read the seventh chapter of the second book of Samuel, and they will see that God promised to David that his house and kingdom should be established for ever, and that God would set up the seed of David after him. Well might David exclaim when he sat before the Lord, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto? And this was yet a small thing in Thy sight, O Lord God; but Thou hast spoken also of Thy servant’s house for a great while yet to come.” It is a pity men will not take and interpret the Bible by the rules of common sense.