Elder of Israel

“ In these times, when Israel as a people in these mountains are reviewing their past lives, and are taking into consideration so carefully as they now are doing the course of life which they shall hereafter pursue, it should be the diligent study of the Elders, when they rise up to speak to the people, to address them by the dictation of the Holy Ghost upon such subjects and such matters as shall strengthen them in their faith, increase the energy and power of the people, and lead them to do good and that which is well-pleasing in the sight of God. ”

“ In the dark watches of the night, when the waves ran highest and the heavens were obscured as with a pall, he felt that he had that within his soul beckoning him on, more brilliant in its coruscations than the starry cross that illumines the southern hemisphere, as unerring in its guidance as the beacon which of old led the children of Israel through the pathless desert—implicit belief in the sublimity of his mission, and an entire reliance on the mercy of his Creator, in whose hands he felt himself an humble instrument for the accomplishment of noble ends. ”

“ This world is an ante-chamber to the next.
The just of all nations have a portion in the future reward.
Every nation has its special guardian angel, its horoscopes, its ruling planets and stars. But there is no planet for Israel. Israel shall look but to God. There is no mediator between those who are called His children and their Father which is in heaven. ”

“ They shall not be plucked up all the days of heaven: For the portion and the inheritance of God is Israel. But not so are the sinners and transgressors, Who love the brief day spent in companionship with their sin; Their delight is in fleeting corruption, And they remember not God. For the ways of men are known before Him at all times, And He knoweth the secrets of the heart before they come to pass. Therefore their inheritance is Sheol and darkness and destruction And they shall not be found in the day when the righteous obtain mercy; But the pious of the Lord shall inherit life in gladness. ”

“ What is needed is the leaven—what is needed is the seed of fire. The heritage of Israel is beating in the pulses of millions: it lives in their veins as a power without understanding, like the morning exultation of herds; it is the inborn half of memory, moving as in a dream among writings on the walls, which it sees dimly but cannot divide into speech. ”

“ What has been the history of the Bible has been the history of the nation, and we might add that, to some extent, it has been the history of Israel’s King, the man of the Bible, the essence of the Bible, the subject of it from Alpha to Omega, the beginning and end--Christ. The nation has suffered at the hands of every nation, and every attempt possible has been put forth to destroy it, yet it has been providentially preserved. ”

“ Did not God tell Abraham, that He had constituted him a father of many nations? Then these nations are in effect his sons; for a father implies sons. But of this family of nation-sons, which of them is the first-born son? The testimony before us declares that Israel is. The nation of Israel then is the heir, and nearest to the throne in the empire of the world. But it is now, and will be for a few more years, as it was in the days of Pharaoh. Israel, God's first-born, is scattered, oppressed, and destroyed, by the tyrants of the nations, and a subject of reproach among the people. ”

“ In their political and religious creeds the Jews as a nation are put down as dead, and even many true Christians, when reading in the Scriptures the exceeding great and precious promises which God made to Israel, say, " Oh yes, Israel that is a nation that once lived, but died some nineteen centuries ago, when they rejected Christ, and now ' Israel ' means no longer Israel, but the Church which has entered into their inheritance." But Israel, though seriously wounded, is not dead, and refuses to be buried ”

“ Rather a vine, full-flowered, golden-branched, Ambrosial-fruited, creeping on the earth, Trod by the passer's foot, yet chosen to deck Tables of princes. Israel now has fallen Into the depths, he shall be great in time.* Even as we die in honor, from our death Shall bloom a myriad heroic lives, Brave through our bright example, virtuous Lest our great memory fall in disrepute. Is one among us brothers, would exchange His doom against our tyrants,—lot for lot? Let him go forth and live—he is no Jew. ”

“ That the restoration spoken of here is yet future, is proved also by the fact that it is to be followed by Israel's national conversion, which has certainly never yet taken place. "And they shall be My people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness"
The restoration of Israel to their own land after the many centuries of dispersion and wanderings, will, as I have stated elsewhere, " be a great mercy and a wonderful event in the world's history " ”

“ That new relationship would be, like the old one with Israel, characterized not only by His righteousness, but by His redeeming love. His eternal purpose, which had been in contemplation all through the centuries of Israel’s training, would now be unfolded. The childhood of the world was over: its first simple lessons had been learned; the real business of Time could now be begun. The partial unveiling of God’s face which it had been Israel’s privilege to behold would now become a full revelation in the sight of the nations. The King of Israel would be seen to be the Father of men. ”

“ The earth and its inhabitants will be incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading. God, according to His word, will have made "a full end of all nations," except that of Israel; which will be the sole occupant of the globe, and every Israelite, an Israelite indeed," "equal to the Elohim," and crowned with glory and honour throughout all ages. During the thousand years their nation will consist of three classes, Christ and the saints, righteous Israelities in the flesh, and those who die "accursed": but when perfection comes there will be but one class, and all will be immortal. ”

“ We feel younger as we read; they refresh us in the weary pilgrimage of life; we catch the early fragrance of the first dawn of the human race. There had been many great epochs and many great men in Israel since the time of Abraham and Sarah: there had been Jacob, or Israel, from whom they derived their name and some of the chief elements of their character; there had been Moses, under whom they had won their freedom and their laws, and Joshua, by whose prowess they had conquered the Promised Land, and David, with all the line of kings and prophets that followed. ”

“ How great is thy Lord, O Israel! There is no being who can say to Him, 'Do this!' there is no womb which could have given birth to Him. He created the bottomless deeps above which He moves when He wishes. He brings light out of darkness, and from the dust of the earth He creates living things which have voices. ”

“ But the most valuable heritage of Israel was that continually growing deposit of religious truth which had been the life-blood of its master spirits. From generation to generation the noblest men in the nation, those most sensitive to the touch of the Divine, had been casting soundings into the great deep of the hidden purposes of God. ”

“ Now, she said, "Mine eyes have seen it; and, behold, the one-half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me." 2 Chronicles 9.
After the days of Solomon, Israel was ruled by many kings. Some of them were good, and their rule brought the blessing of God to their people. But many were wicked men who led Israel into sin and idolatry. Then the Lord could not protect them, and their enemies would afflict them.
The history of Israel is a sorrowful story. God wanted to bless them and make them the light of the world. ”

“ They went and returned to their inheritance, built the cities, and lived in them. 24 The children of Israel departed there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from there every man to his inheritance. 25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. ”

“ In solitude, though not obscure, in Israel he lived, till venerable age came on: his flocks increased, and plenty crowned his board: beloved, revered of man! But God hath other joys in store. Is burdened Israel his grief? The son of his old age shall set it free! The venerable sweetener of his life receives the promise first from Heaven. ”

“ When the Elders are on Missions, I want them to let speculation alone. I call trading, begging, and borrowing, and laying plans to come home wealthy, speculation. The Elders of Israel have not magnified their callings as they should have done. Had they known things as they really are, and seen them as they are in the bosom of eternity, they would rather have suffered their right hands to be cut off, or their heads to be severed from their bodies, than do as some have done.
"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." All the gold and silver are in the hands of the Lord. ”

“ I will now bear them upon eagles' wings out of Babylon, as in their infancy I bore them out of Egypt." This promise to aged Israel is applicable to every aged Israelite. God has graciously engaged to support and comfort his faithful servants, even in their old age: " Even to your old age, when you grow unfit for business, when you are compassed with infirmities, and perhaps your relations begin to grow weary of you, yet I am he—he that I am, he that I have been—the very same by whom you have been borne from the belly and carried from the womb. ”

“ Here, "I will be a God to them" stands first, because the restoration and perfection of Israel have their only foundation in the love of God and in the faithfulness with which He keeps His covenant, and it is only through this gracious act that Israel again becomes the people of God. "All the families of Israel" are the families of the whole twelve tribes - of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, separated since the death of Solomon. ”

“ As "a man's reach should exceed his grasp," so also should a nation's; and though it is almost always forgotten, it is precisely Israel's glory that she set up for herself and exhibited to the world an ideal of brotherhood, of love to God and man, to which she could not attain. Great as the practical failure in Israel was, therefore, no fault can be found in the legislation. It moulded the characters of men who were sensitive to the influences coming from God, so that they became fit instruments of inspiration ”

“ Many features of old Hebrew custom, which are reflected in lively form in the Former Prophets, were obsolete long before the time of the Chronicler, and could not be revived except by archseological research. The whole life of the old kingdom was buried and forgotten ; Israel was no longer a nation, but a church. ”

“ Hitherto, in our desire to learn the secrets of the growth of Israel, we have been like men peering over the sides of their tiny boats into the depths of a sea that covers fascinating mysteries; watching the labors of the adepts who ever and anon bring up to the light some fresh fragments of a buried world. In the epoch that we have now reached Israel's growing life lifts itself above the level of tradition, and stands forth as solid history, on whose firm ground we can study for ourselves the making of a nation's religion. ”

“ And this chosen generation will, by right of kindred, administer to all people the word of God, and as saviors will they stand upon Mount Zion, drawing all men unto the great Savior of our race, who will stand in their midst, on the right hand of the Father, crowned and exalted as King of kings, and Lord of lords, the great Apostle and High Priest of our salvation. Truly the Lord is fulfilling His promises, Israel has blossomed and budded and filled the earth with fruit, but in the great future He will do it yet more abundantly and gloriously. ”

“ But it is different with Israel. There is always hope in his end.
Not only shall the sceptre of governmental rule and the kingdom come back to the daughter of Jerusalem, after the long centuries of subjugation and oppression, but her candlestick, too, shall be restored after the long period of Israel's spiritual darkness and blindness, to shine in more resplendent glory than even in the past. ”

“ As Iahvah's bride, as a people chosen to be His own, Israel had every reason to expect a bright and glorious career. Why was this expectation falsified by events? But one answer was possible, in view of the immutable righteousness, the eternal faithfulness of God. The ruin of Israel was Israel's own doing. It is a truth which applies to all nations, and to all individuals capable of moral agency, in all periods and places of their existence. Let no man lay his failure in this world or in the world to come at the door of the Almighty. ”

“ There shall not fail a man of thy race upon the throne of Israel.
6 But if you and your children revolting shall turn away from following me, and will not keep my commandments, and my ceremonies, which I have set before you, but will go and worship strange gods, and adore them:
7 I will take away Israel from the face of the land which I have given them; and the temple which I have sanctified to my name, I will cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb, and a byword among all people. ”

“ This is the immediate prospect after restoration to Palestine of the people who rebelled against the Most High, and rejected His Son, and always resisted the Holy Spirit—a furnace seven times heated, and anguish as acute as are the pangs of a woman in travail. Alas! poor Israel, who desire the day of the Lord, to what end is it for you? Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light, even very dark and no brightness in it? ”

“ And here we might say that there is nothing in the world that is a more powerful proof of the divinity of the Bible than Israel's history and present existence. The Bible is a book of miracles. Israel is a nation of miracles. Its history is a standing miracle before an astonished world. Its survival of all the persecutions and oppressions which have been heaped upon it is a greater miracle still. No great statesman or philosopher will ever attempt to account for Israel’s history and present existence by ordinary natural laws anymore than it is possible to account for the Bible by such laws. ”