Thomas Williams

“ After this first and staggering blow to the power which has forced its guardianship over the nations, the One who smites him seems to disappear for a time; and the nations, seeing their despotic victor stricken down, cry out, "How hath the oppressor ceased, the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth," "How art thou fallen from heaven, O day star: how art thou cut down which didst weaken the nations!" ”

“ This, then, is how the Turkish power is a sign of our times indicating the near approach of Christ. She is declining; she is ready to fall. Her conqueror has the will and is rapidly getting the power to "overflow and pass over," when he will gloat in his universal triumph. Christ, meanwhile, is hidden behind the dark clouds, waiting for the climax of human pride and pomp to be reached, when he will break through with lightning flash and thunder peal which shall clear the foul atmosphere and give health and happiness to a troubled, priest-ridden and oppressed world. ”

“ There is not much trouble in identifying Britain in prophecy, a fact which might naturally be expected, for a nation of such power and fame in all the world, and one whose subjects and rulers have a higher regard for the Bible than any others upon the face of the earth, and have done more to give the world an open Bible, free to poor and rich alike, than all others combined--such a nation surely should be found distinctly marked out in prophecy. ”

“ For the sake of our unborn posterity let this, with God's help, be the final exodus of our race. The land of promise is now subject to a power who can barely struggle against financial difficulties. That power is not unfriendly to Israel; his sovereign rights should be purchased with no niggard hand, and the independence of Israel established under international guarantee. What Israelite worthy of the name would hesitate in giving his quota towards the redemption of the land? ”

“ Should the good queen of England be alive there is no doubt she would rather lay her crown at the feet of Christ as the king of the whole earth than have it placed upon the head of the Prince of Wales. While there is much pomp and aristocratic show in England, her people are the most reverential and Bible-loving of all the earth. ”

“ While there may be convulsions in the literal heavens and earth attending the coming crisis among nations, which will transform the kingdoms of this world into the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, it is not in the literal sun, moon, and stars that we are to look for the signs portending the end of the present order of things. When Moses foretold the end of the Jewish commonwealth he described the great nation that should come into existence, as well as the status of Israel which should provoke the downfall of that ancient and favored people. ”

“ It is at this juncture that the end is reached, when as the prophet Daniel declares, "At that time shall Michael stand up," the unequaled "time of trouble" ensues, "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth awake" and they shine as the brightness of the firmament in the new heaven, or the kingdom of the stone which is to "fill the whole earth." ”

“ The sickle has been thrust in and the harvest of the earth reaped. Armageddon’s war has been fought. God has plead with all nations in the valley of decision. What now? To those that are left the command will go out from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and it will be obeyed, in the nations "beating their swords into plowshares and their spears into scythes, and nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." ”

“ In our day France is continually an uncertain element in the universal unrest among the nations. We hear of "another crisis in Paris" time after time, and any morning and any evening the world is prepared to read blazing headliners, "Another crisis in Paris!" Russia and England are necessarily opposing powers shaping their policies preparatory to the final struggle, which they know must come, the jealousy and envy which will hasten it being for the present hidden behind the thin netting of "diplomatic courtesy." ”

“ Whether the queen personally will have the honor of repeating the historical drama of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon or not, it is evident that the time cannot be far distant when England as a nation will have the honor of playing that noble part of the greatest drama that has ever been acted upon the stage of the world of nations. ”

“ Whatever we may think or say as to the practicability of the new exodus, it is evidently to take place. To all the objections to Palestine colonization that can be pointed out, the Jews of Russia and Roumania have one all-sufficient reply: We cannot be worse off there than here. The movement is irresistible. ”

“ Daniel says his dominion shall be taken away to consume it and to destroy it unto the end.
Paul says the Lord shall consume him with the spirit of his mouth and destroy him with the brightness of his coming.
Now before the Reformation, when Rome was supreme and could dictate what men should believe and teach, it was not to be expected that the papacy would be clearly pointed out as answering to these prophecies. The "consuming" process must first commence so that the hands of the tyrant may be held from torturing and killing those who had the courage of their conviction. ”

“ This again identifies England as the nation of Isa. 18. So we have her as a land of shadowing wings; a land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; an island nation that "sendeth ambassadors by the sea"; a nation to which Egypt is given as wages for helping Israel’s return to its home; a nation remarkable for the possession of "vessels of turning things;" the nation sent to a people terrible from their beginning and forward, but who for a time have been "scattered and peeled" and that takes them to the land of Mount Zion. ”

“ That which tempts the cupidity of Gog to overflow the Holy Land is the fact that part of Israel has returned there--to the "land that is brought back from the sword," "gathered out of many people," "dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates." They "have gotten cattle and goods and dwell in the midst of the land."
Now that this is partially fulfilled, and is rapidly fulfilling nothing is clearer; and the more enlightened among the Jews see that the tide is swiftly turning in the direction of the preadventual return of the Jews as the prophecies require. ”

“ Here are the Jews whom the "swift messengers upon the waters" have taken there and colonized under British guarantee of protection. Russia’s "evil thought" is to plunder them and make conquest of the land; but England must be true to her promises of protection, as well as obey the "first law of nature," that of self-defence; and it is now that the "merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof" are to challenge the Prince of Rosh, Gog, of the land of Magog, the "king of the north," saying, "Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? ”

“ Let the wealthy men, the monarchs of commerce, the learned in all knowledge, the skillful in all arts, the political councillors, who carry in their veins the Hebrew blood which has maintained its vigor in all climates, and the pliancy of the Hebrew genius for which difficulty means new device--let them say, "We will lift up a standard, we will unite in a labor hard and glorious, like that of Moses and Ezra, a labor which shall be a worthy fruit of the long anguish whereby our father’s maintained their separateness, refusing the ease of falsehood." ”

“ In the development of the papacy, the religious element worked first, and afterward the civil power. The former worked upon the ignorance and superstition of the people till it had them awed into submission, and then all was ready for a union of church and state, and temporal power as well as spiritual became the possession of the pope.
In the decline of the papacy, also, the religious element did the first work, and receiving an impetus from the Reformation it gained power till the claims of the pope to temporal dominion were denied him, and the power wrested from his blood-stained hands. ”

“ And the careful watcher would finally see that these signs would really culminate in the exact fulfillment of the dreadful words of the prophet, in the downfall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans, and the captivity and scattering of her children to the four winds.
It is in this way that we must watch the signs of our times. We have now a broader world of nations to look out over, and in proportion to the magnitude of the coming revolution so is the number of unmistakable signs portending the near approach of the greatest event the world has ever witnessed. ”

“ By the jurisdiction of which key the fullness of my power is so great that, whereas all others are subjects--yea, and emperors themselves, ought to subdue their executions to me: only I am a subject to no creature, no, not to myself; so that my papal majesty ever remaineth undiminished; superior to all men; whom all persons ought to obey, and follow, whom no man must judge or accuse of any crime, no man depose but I myself. ”

“ Thus the Turkish power became a terror to all nations and grew to such proportions in a territorial and military sense that writers who saw from prophecy that the empire was destined to decline and fall and who could apply the prophecy to no other power, were at a loss to see how such a thing could come to pass. ”

“ Russia, its gradual development and present ascendancy among the nations, looking towards its ultimate victory, when it will drive out the Turks and take possession of the land of Israel. This is a sign because it indicates the readiness to form that situation which will hasten the great war of Armageddon, wherein Christ will appear as the victor over and vanquisher of all kings and rulers, sweeping every form of human government off the earth and inaugurating the heavenly reign of peace on earth, good will toward men and glory to God in the highest. ”

“ The gently descending rain comes down upon the mown grass, which springs up in beautiful verdure. There is a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains, the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon; and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth. ”

“ During the dark ages the papacy thrived, for then it was in its native element; but, as prophecy had ages before declared, men began to "run to and fro and knowledge increased," and Protestantism became a welcome fact which allowed men to read the Bible wrested from the monopolizing priestcraft of Rome and opened to be read and studied by old and young, rich and poor. ”

“ The fact that Israel still exists is proof that the Bible is true, as is to be seen in the hitherto fulfillment of its prophecies concerning that people. Great and wonderful things are promised for this people, the fulfillment of which depended upon their preservation throughout the vicissitudes of their fickle and fearful history. ”

“ Notwithstanding the fame and renown of this wonderful land, its commanding geographical position, its fertile soil, and its healthful climate, no nation, except Israel while obedient, has ever been able to prosper there. ”

“ The celebrated Bochart has observed that Ros is the most ancient form under which history makes mention of the name of Russia; and he contended that the two first of those names properly denote the nations of Russia and Muscovy. "It is credible," says he, "that from Rhos and Mesech, that is the Rhossi and Moschi, of whom Ezekiel speaks, descended the Russians and Muscovites, nations of the greatest celebrity in European Scythia." We have, indeed, ample and positive testimony that the Russian nation was called Ros by the Greeks, in the earliest period in which we find it mentioned. ”

“ Once under a stable and just government the land would again flow with milk and honey, and Jewish enterprise, capital and industry combined with the geographical situation of the country, would cause prosperity once more to shine upon it. Rome, Greece, and Egypt are once more numbered among the nations and the shaphar (trumpet) which announces the resurrection of Israel, the eldest born of the nations, should soon wake the echoes in the mountains of Judah. To Israel this restoration should prove an unmixed blessing ”

“ It is well known that large tracts of land in Palestine have been purchased by rich Jews during this year, and that colonization there is quite a success, proving that the fertility of the soil is abundantly sufficient to sustain a great population. The return of the "early and latter rains," too, is another sign of the providential dawn of prosperity. "Westward ho!" has been the cry for ages; but now it is "Eastward ho!" The East is the attraction which draws the attention of men and nations. Railroads are built and more are projected ”

“ They are always croaking to the annoyance and disturbance of the other nations, allowing of no political rest. According to the prophecy, they are to breathe out their unclean spirits of disturbance and political mischief through the mouth of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet. ”

“ For heathen heart that puts her trust In reeking tube and iron shard-- All valiant dust that builds on dust, And guarding, calls not Thee to guard-- For frantic boast and foolish word, Thy mercy on thy people, Lord! ”

“ Since 1821 Turkey has lost Greece and Servia, Moldavia and Walachia, Morocco, Algeria, and Egypt; and now in the recent war, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria. The once mighty Ottoman Empire is in Europe practically extinct. Its power in Asia is also seriously diminished, and notably so in Syria. Aliens, or non-Mussulmans, are now allowed to hold landed property in Palestine, and the number of Jews resident in their own land is every year on the increase. ”