These days are preparative, and in such a preparative stage we are warranted to look for the fulfilment of certain prophecies; for prophecies, indeed, of such a nature and character that no Bible student need be mistaken as to the time, place, and conditions of fulfilment. We have called your attention to one of these prophecies, and pointed out to you how the same was literally fulfilling before the eyes of all. God, in olden times, made promises to Abraham, the patriarchs, and their seed. These promises were nothing more nor less than prophecies. He attested the same by His own oath. He called to witness the sun, moon, stars, sea, night, day, the seasons, seedtime and harvest. These He called His ordinances. These ordinances may depart from before Him, but the seed of Israel should not cease to be a nation. They were not only to be a nation, but a company of nations. To this end, in the latter days, they were to come in possession of the isles of the sea, the coasts of the earth, waste and desolate places; to inherit the seed of the Gentiles, and cause their desolate cities to be filled. They were to possess and rule over the heathen. In the latter days they were to possess Edom and Esau—that is, Turkey—and so come in possession of their own land, Palestine. Now I call you to witness, and ask you if these things are so? Before your eyes, before mine, before the eyes of all the world, God is fulfilling His promises made to the fathers.
The very exceptions to the sweeping and comprehensive possessions of the seed of Jacob are pyramidal witnesses to the same. The House of Judah was to become homeless, without a nation and without a government, after they left Palestine; but to be a people known by the race feature, and by their unwavering adherence, attachment, and fidelity to the Mosaic worship. This exception all can see, and none can truthfully deny. They have had money and men enough to buy and rule a nation, but as yet they have none. Their talent, their ability, and their money, have been the chief factor in the rule, prosperity, and greatness of many nations in the past as well as now. And the second conception is not less grand and conclusive. Let any one inquire what was to be the portion of the Tribe of Manasseh, and they will find that Manasseh was to be a distinct people, a great people; for so said the dying patriarch Jacob. Now such a people, a great people, we hold Manasseh to be at this day in the people of the United States. Some sixty colonies England has overrun, established, or conquered, and she is busy at work yet conquering and gathering in. But is it not remarkable that she has never lost one of the many save the United States? Will any one give an earthly reason for this marvellous exception? I presume no one can. There is, however, a Divine reason. Moses, when giving his prophetic benediction to the Tribes of Israel, gives us an insight into this question. Speaking of Joseph and the wonderful blessing in store for his sons Ephraim and Manasseh, he says: “His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns; and with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth; _and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim_, _and they are the thousands of Manasseh_” (Deut, xxxiii. 17). And further light is thrown on this subject when we notice what Isaiah says in the forty-ninth chapter. The children of Israel, when settled in some Isles, would lose a portion of themselves, and still the “children which thou shalt have _after thou hast lost the other_, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me, give place to me that I may dwell.” The simple and natural interpretation of such a passage is, that the Isles referred to were the British Isles. The children lost refer to Manasseh, the Pilgrims, and Puritans who came from England. And the cry for more room after they have left, shall lead England to look for lands in which to colonise her surplus population, all of which she has done and is doing.