68
at our command in the work of prepar-
ing the way of the Lord. By giving us
the co-operation of the holy angels, God
has made it possible for our work to be a
glorious success. But success will sel-
dom result from scattered effort. The
united influence of all the members of
the church is required.
The church to-day needs men who, like
Enoch, walk with God, revealing Christ
to the world. Church-members need to
reach a higher standard. Heavenly mes-
sengers are waiting to communicate with
those who have sunk self out of sight,
whose lives are a fulfilling of the words,
THE WATCHMAN
“I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me ; and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Of such men and women must the church
be composed before her light can shine
forth to the world in clear, distinct rays.
Our views of the Sun of Righteousness
are clouded by self-seeking. The church
needs men of devotion to bear to the
world the message of salvation, pointing
sinners to the Lamb of God,— men who,
by their works of righteousness and their
pure, true words, can lift their fellow-
men out of the pit of degradation.
ISRAEL: THE RETURN OF THE JEWS. NO. 5
J. S. WASHBURN
The Land Question
ROM previous articles it is
seen that God’s promises to
Israel (the church) are all
spiritual, are all in Christ
Jesus, are none of them to
the Gentiles, who are utterly
aliens, strangers to the cove-
nants of promise, having no
hope, and without God in the world;
that all the promises to Israel are through
Christ, and through him alone.
There is a very definite promise found
in the fifth chapter of Matthew among
those wonderful beatitudes uttered by the
Saviour in the opening sermon of
ministry: © Blessed are the meek;
they shall inherit the earth.” Here is =
promise of land, and of much land, in
fact, of all the land there is on the eartli.
The earth is one of the planets. Jupiter,
Venus, Saturn, Neptune, are others of
the family of worlds that revolve about
the sun. There is but one earth among
all the worlds, and that is this world in
which we live.
but one earth.
the earth. This entire globe shall be the
inheritance of the meek.
meek are like Jesus. “I am meek and
lowly in heart.” Matt. 11: 20.
This promise, then, is only to Chris-
tians, to those who are true Israelites.
The promise in the garden of Eden was
that the sced of the woman should bruise
the serpent’s head. That seed is Christ.
“Tf ve be Christ's, then are ve Abra-
ham'’s seed, and heirs according to the
promise.” The promise to Abraham was
his
for
There are many worlds,
The meek shall inherit
Those who are
the promise of land, of all the land that
he could see when walking northward,
southward, eastward, and westward. If
he had walked far enough, he would have
seen the world, and that was the promise
to Abraham (Rom. 4:13) that he should
be the heir of the world.
This promise of land, and of all the
Gen. 26:
4: 1 will make thy seed to multiply
as the stars of heaven, and will give unto
thy sced all these countries; and in thy
land, was renewed to Isaac.
seed shall all nations of the earth be
blessed.” That promise was also given
to Jacob. Gen. 28:13: “The land
whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it,
and to thy seed.”
Yet to Abraham God gave “not so
much as to set his foot on.” Acts 7:5.
“Yet he promised that he would give it
to him for a possession, and to his seed
after him, when as yet he had no child.”
But this promise was not to be fulfilled
in this life. Abraham looked for a city
which hath foundations, whose builder
aud maker is God. Speaking of the
great multitude that sprang from him,
we read further: ** Now they desire a
better country, that is, a heavenly ; where-
fore God is not ashamed to be called their
God, for he hath prepared for them a
Heb. 11:10.
This locates the promise definitely after
the resurrection of the righteous dead.
Then summing up all the faithful sons
city.”
and daughters of Israel, their wander-
ings, their sufferings, their conflicts, and
the mighty triumphs of their faith, the
Scripture savs, “ These all, having ob-
tained a good report through faith, re-
ceived not the promise; God having pro-
vided some better thing for us, that they
without us should not be made perfect.”
That is, they did not receive their inherit-
ance in this life. They were but pilgrims.
and strangers seeking a better country, a
heavenly. They did not expect to re-
ceive their inheritance this side of the
resurrection. When it is received, it
will not be any one of those who lived
in the early days before those of us who
may be seed of Israel, that is to say, be-
lievers in Jesus, down to the very last
day. “They without us shall not be
made perfect.” We shall be with them
when they enter into their inheritance,
when they return to the promised land.
Even when David was seated upon
his throne, and God had given him vic-
tory over his enemies — even then he
confessed that he was but a pilgrim and
a stranger in the earth. At that time,
when the fleshly kingdom of the twelve
tribes of the descendants of the Syrian
Abraham were at the height of their
power, God gave this promise to David,
their mighty king, seated upon his throne:
“ Moreover I will appoint a place for
my people Israel, and will plant then.
that they may dwell in a place of their
own, and move no more; neither shall
“the children of wickedness afflict them
any more, as aforetime.” 2 Sam. 7: 10.
Read also 1 Chron. 29:15: “ For we
are strangers before thee, and sojourn-
ers, as were all our fathers. Our days
on the earth are as a shadow, and there
is none abiding.” Also see Ps. 39:12,
the latter part of the verse: “For I am
a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as
all my fathers were.”
Those who had faith saw that the
promises to Abraham through Christ, the
seed, the promises to the true Israel, were
not of an earthly or temporal character.
They were universal as far as this world
The lost do-
minion over this ruined world will be
restored in the earth made new. Micah
4:8: “Thou, O Tower of the flock, the
stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto
thee shall it come, even the first dominion.
The kingdom shall come to the daughter
of Jerusalem.” The first dominion shall
be restored.
is concerned, and eternal.
The earth was
water.
once
destroved by
“The heavens and the earth,
which are now, by the same word are
kept in store, reserved unto fire against