go to execute Jehovah’s purpose.  Russia is preparing on a gigantic scale.  In Prussia the most flourishing branch of trade among the Germans at present is the manufacturing of arms for Russia.  Though the late war be over, still Russia is buying ships, and fitting them out in this country.  She feels bitterly her defeat through English diplomacy: England taking Cyprus, assuming protection over Asiatic Turkey, and making Russia yield back to Turkey 30,700 geographical miles which was contained in the original Treaty of San Stefano.  The following from the Government organ of Russia will give you some idea of her chagrin.

The St. Petersburg Golos says that the Treaty of Berlin has

produced an almost crushing impression on the Russian public.  “It is felt that Russia has not attained her object; that she has been deceived by her friends, and that she has foolishly helped her enemies with her victories . . .  What is the reason of our failure?  One-half per cent. of our population have perished in the war, hundreds of millions have been expended, and yet the Eastern Question is not solved and the Treaty of Berlin is merely a truce.  The last war has clearly shown all our national peculiarities as well as our moral and material strength . . . All the military requirements which depended on the inbred qualities of the Russian soldier were brilliantly carried out; but where knowledge and preparation were demanded we were not equal to the task.  It was probably for this reason that we felt so much hurt on reading of the boldness of Lord Beaconsfield, who doubtless reckoned on the superior culture of Englishmen to that of Russians.  All classes of Russian society are responsible for this.  We do not estimate culture and knowledge at their true value.  Most of us say that mental work does not bring money, and that culture is a means of corruption . . . In Western Europe, on the other hand, people have arrived by hard experience at the conviction that intelligence, capacity, culture, and energy, bring men to the front, and give them peace at home and power abroad.  It is the knowledge of how to make the best possible use of their energy and abilities that has enabled the English to derive success from our victories and sacrifices.  May this be a lesson to us.”

But enough; one knows the end ere they begin, for the Word of God is true.  We do not argue that the English are so much smarter than other people; no, but we account for their success because they are the executive nation of Divine Providence.  It falls to the lot of those who do not believe this theory to account for their success without allowing them to be smarter.

ISRAEL AND TERRITORY.
Discourse III.

PROMISES TO ISRAEL—MATERIAL NATURE—LOCATION OF THE TRIBES IN CHRIST’S DAY—GOD’S PROVIDENCE—BRITISH AND AMERICAN RULE—LIFE FROM THE DEAD—TEACHING THE NATIONS PEACEFUL ARBITRATION—ENGLAND AND RUSSIA—AFGHANISTAN FALLS TO ANGLO-ISRAEL—GOD’S POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY—ANGLO-SAXON EVANGELISATION—RUSSIA OPPOSING IT—BRITISH AND RUSSIAN OUTPOSTS IN CONTACT—WAIL OF JUDAH—EARTH’S GIRDLE.

“Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.”—Isa. liv. 2, 3.

In the writings of the prophets the feminine gender is often used when speaking of the House of Israel, and the masculine when denoting the House of Judah.  Quite frequently Israel is spoken of as a divorced woman, as being cast off, and as being barren.  Judah remaining faithful to the throne of David and the temple service, and abiding in the land much longer than Israel, is presented as one married.  So you will understand Jeremiah iii. 8, when he says: “And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce.”  Again, Isaiah l. 1: “Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement whom I have put away?”  Yet, though Israel was divorced, forsaken, cast off, and desolate, she was to have more children than married Judah.  So the verse preceding the text says: “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud thou that didst not travail with child; for more are the children of the desolate than the

children of the married wife, saith the Lord.”  Then come the words of the text bidding her enlarge the place of her tent, or dwelling-place, to stretch forth her curtains, so as to cover over the new-gotten habitations.  To spare not—that is, to be not tardy, or slow—in lengthening out her cords—that is, her influence—and strengthen her stakes—that is, her authority; but to break forth on every hand where there is an opening, and inherit the seed of the Gentiles, and make the languishing and poverty-stricken cities of the nations to be inhabited; in this conquest to go on and fear not.

These exhortations are given, and promises are made to Israel after she had left Palestine.  No one can say truthfully that they have yet been fulfilled in no degree or sense, unless they find such fulfilment in the conquests of the Saxon race.  These predictions cannot apply to the Jews, for they are few, nationless, and without a government.  Touching the past history of both Judah and Israel in Palestine, we shall find it to be barren of victories, territory, acquisition, and number, in comparison to other nations.  They have never occupied the land given to Abraham in fulness.  In Solomon’s time they bare rule only over a part of it.  The Gentiles and heathens have occupied it more and longer than the sons of Abraham.  But what failed to be accomplished in the past, is held grandly in reserve for this day, the next few years.  God will remember His promise to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David.  He will remember it to fulfil it, in spite of hell or earth.

We have been blind and guilty in the past, unconscious of our origin, and as a natural consequence, ignorant of our place and special work.  In interpreting the Word of God we have been lavish in spiritualising, and greedy in materialising, overlooking the fact that nine-tenths of the Old Testament is a material history about one people, and that through them God’s special providence was to flow to all other nations; and the New Testament plants the life and prosperity of the Gentile

world upon the course and progress of Israel.  God said to Abraham, “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed:” and more, “and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.”  Israel, being scattered and cast off, became a blessing to the world.  They gave to the surrounding nations the only true idea of God, for in their lowest condition and idolatry they preserved the name and knowledge of Jehovah, and Christ sent His disciples after them through one of their own Tribe—namely, Benjamin—telling them not to go into the way of the Gentiles, nor into the cities of the Samaritans, “but go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”  To these sheep Christ declares He was sent.  Where were these sheep?  They were scattered about in Central Asia—in Scriptural language in Cappadocia, Galatia, Pamphylia, Lydia, Bithynia, and round about Illyricum.  From these very regions came the Saxons: from here they spread abroad North and West, being the most Christian of any people on