The Hope of Israel:

"The Redeemer shall come to Zion."

ADDRESSES BY

THE EARL OF CAVAN. REV. J. GOSSET TANNER, M.A. REVS. CLARMONT SKRINE, M.A., AND JOHN WILKINSON.

Wednesday Afternoon, 25th June, 1884.

N the large hall a numerous audience assembled of those interested in the well-being of Israel. The proceedings were commenced by singing hymn No. 43

"Oh, that the Lord's salvation

Were out of Zion come."

Dr. MACKINNON presented prayer, the burden of which was, Lord, remember Israel! When will come Thy set time to favour Zion? A portion of Scripture was read from Isaiah lix.

The Earl of CAVAN, who presided, then said :-There must have been a thrill pass through every one of us who listened to the first request made for prayer this morning, "that Israel should be remembered before the Lord," and also when we were reminded that Israel is more ready to receive the revelation of God's grace in Christ than ever before. To many of us it has seemed that in the increasing readiness of the Jews to listen we have one of the signs of the approaching

fulfilment by God of His promises with regard to Israel; and another sign is no doubt the increasing interest taken by the Lord's people in the Jews and in truth concerning the Jew. Now we are gathered this afternoon to listen to the great and precious promises God has made in reference to His ancient people; and we rejoice to know there are many among them who are beginning to inquire as to Jesus of Nazareth, and that many have received Him, and many others, while not yet ready to receive Him, are very willing to hear about Him.

Our subject this afternoon is, The Hope of Israel: “The Redeemer shall come to Zion (Isa. lix. 20). In relation to the land-Restoration; in relation to the Messiah-Salvation; in relation to the nations-A blessing.

I am sure there cannot be a more interesting and more deeply important study in the Word of God than the study of God's purposes and dealings as regards that wonderful nation Israel that nation "chosen," as we read in Deut. xiv. 2, "to be a peculiar people unto Himself, above all the nations." The same expression is twice repeated in that book. The nation is now rejected on account of sin and on account of their rejection of the Messiah. This is plainly stated in Matt. xxi. and Rom. xi., where we see they are rejected and dispersed until the fulness of the Gentiles be brought in, and then, in Ezek. xxxvii. and many other passages, we see their restoration when they shall be no more two nations but one, and "David My servant shall be king over them." God has wonderful purposes of grace for them which shall be carried out literally, to the very letter. We shall hear more this afternoon of God's promises with regard to the land, which is now keeping its Sabbaths, but is theirs by unconditional gift. By-and-by they shall return and possess the land, and the Lord Jesus Christ shall be King over them. Then we have that important passage in Rom. xi. 25, "Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written [in Isaiah], "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob."

Now I am led first to refer to the passage quoted-Isa. lix. 19, 20, "So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the

west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood [that enemy may be the great Antichrist], the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. As for Me, this is My covenant with them." Look at Isa. liv. and Jer. xxxi., and read Psa. cxxxv. 4, "The Lord hath chosen Jacob for Himself, and Israel for a peculiar treasure."

Surely then we see we should have them on our heart, and if we are indeed bearing them on our soul before God we have a right to expect He will graciously hear and answer our prayer. Let us remember what He says in Isa. lxii. 6, "I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence. And give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." Neither in our prayers nor our testimony are we to keep silence, but plead continually before the Lord for His chosen nation. And it is one of the blessed indications of the close approach of our blessed Lord's return that there never was a time when so much interest was taken in the restoration of Israel. And do not forget God has promised a blessing to those who remember Israel, "they shall prosper that love thee."

It is intensely solemn as regards that advent to remember that those who hate Israel shall be judged. In Obadiah we read of the terrible judgments that shall befall the enemies of Israel in the day "when upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness, and the house of Jacob shall possess their possession." So also in Amos we have solemn judgments threatened against those that have oppressed and afflicted Israel.

May God make each one of us to be consumed with a deeper interest in Israel, and may we each one strive to stir all with whom we come in contact! God grant we may enter more and more into His purposes concerning Israel, knowing that when Israel is restored to her land she shall become a blessing to all nations of the earth. And how blessed to know that at that time we shall be with Him, for He comes to receive us to Himself, that where He is there may His people be also.

Prayer was now presented by the Rev. JAMES H. BROOKES, D.D., after which the following address delivered-IN RELATION TO THE LAND-RESTORATION,

BY REV. J. GOSSET TANNER, M. A.

If a stranger visits that country which was once the glory of all lands for beauty and fertility, a land of brooks of water, a land flowing with milk and honey, he is amazed and disappointed as he passes over rocky terraces and hills scantily covered with loose, friable soil, and apparently possessing no capacity for supporting a large and flourishing population. And some even of the Lord's people are prone to exclaim in unbelief: "The days of the Holy Land are past: its sun has set for ever: Ichabod is written on its desert rocks as well as upon the fortunes of its people. Israel has lost God's favour for ever. The nation will never be restored."

But you and I firmly believe God's promise in Amos ix. 14, 15, "And I will bring again the captivity of My people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards! and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God." We are persuaded that every jot and tittle which God has spoken shall surely come to pass.

With reference to the abundant supply of living water, so necessary for the fertilization of the soil, there are three prophecies which singularly agree. Joel iii. 18, "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim."* Then the explicit and full passage in Exek. xlvii. 1-12, “Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward; for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about Shittim, a valley of Acacias, near Jericho.

*

the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side." Then follows a description of the waters-how they increase in depth and volume until they become "waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over." The eighth verse shows us whither they run "out toward the east." And the ninth verse informs us that it is a river of life.

The third passage-for at the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established—is Zech. xiv. 4, which gives us a hint of the way in which these great physical changes shall be brought about, viz., by an earthquake to take place as soon as the feet of the Lord Jesus shall touch Mount Zion: "His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south." Also v. 8: "And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea : in summer and in winter it shall be."

Now I firmly believe that all these portions of Scripture will be literally and exactly fulfilled when the Redeemer comes to Zion; that a great river will run from Jerusalem towards the Dead Sea, and another branch towards the Mediterranean. Hitherto Jerusalem has been almost the only great city of the world not built on a river. But that deficiency will be supplied by an exercise of God's almighty power. In what is at present the dry and desolate bed of the Kedron shall flow an abundant river right to the Dead Sea; no more dead then, but a living sea, abounding in fish as the fish of the Great Sea, exceeding many.

Now the means the Lord will use are illustrated by recent discoveries. A little book, lately issued, on" Recent Discoveries under the Temple Hill," states—and it is a fact which has been fully confirmed—that vast reservoirs exist under the Temple Hill, which seem to be completely honeycombed by underground aqueducts and cisterns. It has been computed that thirty-five of these excavations could hold ten million gallons of water. One of the largest and best known of these excavations is called the Great Sea. In the third century a large subterranean fountain sent forth a never-failing stream from

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