Edward Hoare

“ Is it not next to certain that those who have made this treaty will do their utmost to secure through its means an efficient administration for a district of such vast importance? But if they succeed, what will be the effect of such a government? Will it not immediately attract thither both capital and enterprise? As things are now, nothing can prosper, because there is no security. If people grow a crop they cannot be confident that they will ever enjoy the fruit. ”

“ It is the Ottoman power that holds it under foot. It is the Euphratean flood that has overwhelmed it; and if so, is it not an obvious conclusion that the fall of Turkey is likely to be the rise of Jerusalem, and that Turkish decay is the harbinger of the Jew’s prosperity? p. 10When therefore we see the waste of Turkey, and witness the receding of the waters, we see in that waste the budding of the fig tree; and, as believers in God’s word, we are taught by the prophetic Scriptures to look out for the outburst of the summer in all its glory on Palestine. ”

“ What a multitude of overpowering thoughts are presented to us if we trust we see in our own day even though it be nothing more than what we think may prove to be the first budding of the Jewish fig tree! ”

“ Sceptics may doubt, and infidels may scoff; but we see that God’s word is from himself. What he has predicted, that is coming to pass, and, though the time appointed has been long, we see in the great facts of our own day that the word of God’s prophecy is true. ”

“ They hold the title deeds of Palestine, and they are only strangers amongst the people where they are scattered. What then is there to delay their return as soon as a righteous government is established? It is of no use for them to go there now. If they were to take their silver and their gold with them now the probability is that they would soon lose it through either plunder or taxation. But let England put forth her power, and establish with a strong hand a Government that may be trusted, and before many months are passed we may see the fulfilment of the prophecy recorded in Isaiah lx. ”

“ Any powerful nation holding Syria will command both those p. 11communications between Europe and the East. Can we then believe it possible that England, now having the right of interference, will leave that most important country to the miserable maladministration of six Turkish Pashas? Can we doubt for a moment that the first object of this Country will be to secure for Syria a Government so firm, so just, and so trustworthy, that it may give security to life and property? ”

“ We meet to-day under a sense of profound thanksgiving. With the rest of the nation we have been praying for a righteous peace; and now we trust that through God’s great, and abounding, mercy, such a peace has been secured. ”

“ So that one of our Missionaries writes—“The inhabitants of Palestine are becoming poorer every year. This is especially the case with the cultivators of the soil, who mostly suffer the burden of a cruel and grasping system of taxation, now doubled on account of the Russian war.” But if there were a good government all would be changed. Then he that planted the vineyard might eat the fruit thereof, and he that tilled the soil might calculate on the produce of his labour. And this is the change that we may expect to see very quickly brought about by England. ”

“ The treaty was made because there was no power of self defence left in the Ottoman, or in other words, because the Euphratean flood was almost dry.
The very existence of the treaty is therefore a proof that the power of self-support is gone. But that is not all, or nearly so. According to the treaty, England makes itself responsible for a complete reform in Turkish administration. Turkey in Asia is henceforth to be governed, if not as an English protectorate, at all events under English counsel. Is it possible to imagine a greater proof of Turkish decay? ”

“ The result is that any powerful nation holding Syria would have the power of interrupting the greater part of the trade of the world. Then on the East and North East it is bounded by the valley of the Euphrates, which is almost certain before long to become the line of Railroad from Europe to India. ”

“ And see how this title deed was afterwards ratified through Moses; (Deut. xi. 24.) the only difference being that he draws his line from East to West, instead of from North East to South West, and so speaks of the Mediterranean as the Western boundary. “Every place whereon the soles of your foot shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost Sea shall your coast be.” ”

“ I mean the return of the Jews and the ten tribes to Palestine.
If we turn to the prophecy respecting the drying up of the Euphrates in Rev. xvi. 12, we find that it will be dried up in order that “the way of the kings of the East may be prepared.” That expression “the kings of the East” does not mean the kings now reigning in the East, but it does mean the kings who are to come up from the East. So that the full meaning of the text would be given if we were to render it “that the way of the kings might be prepared p. 9from the East!” ”

“ But thanksgiving is not the only duty of the day, for the two treaties now concluded involve consequences of such p. 4great importance that they ought to awaken in all our minds the deepest interest, and the most earnest expectation. To the student of the Prophetic Scriptures they assume an importance altogether unequalled by any event in modern history ”