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lem, to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished: and half the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city" (Zech. xiv. 1, 2).

Why Britain will Fail.

Not only will Britain be defeated in the region of the Holy Places, as we see from the foregoing testimony, but she will also be defeated by the same King of the North in Egypt, in spite of all she may accomplish as the result of the great European war. Although at first, under the Gladstonian administration, Britain was unwillingly drawn into Egypt, and, finally, willingly and inextricably identified with her, yet beyond doubt Egypt will be wrested from her protector, for Israel's prophet tells us that

'At the time of the end shall the King of the South (that is south of the Holy Land, namely, Egypt) push at him, and the King of the North (Russia, the latter day Assyrian, now in possession of Constantinople and all it represents) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships, and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over." And the prophet then goes on tọ say :

"He shall enter also into the glorious land (and to Israel's prophets there was only one land glorious-the Land) and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the

chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape" (Dan. xi. 40-42).

Palestine Protectorate.

Britain, in assuming a protectorate over Palestine,* must of necessity, in safeguarding her Suez Canal interests, possess Ammon, Moab, and Edom, and these latter lands will remain in her possession when she is driven out of Judea † (at the fall of Jerusalem), and when she is dispossessed, as we have seen, of Egypt. God has a unique reason for allowing the land of Moab and its adjoining vicinity to remain in Britain's occupation, and that reason is unmistakably manifest in the prophecies of Isaiah. That prophet predicts :

"

That, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon" (Isa. xvi. 2).

Arnon, where is that river? In Moab. And who are the daughters of Moab? The people who possess that country. Those we have seen in the

I time of the end" are the British. And the prophet goes on to tell us why God will not allow the British to lose Moab. When, as we have seen,

* Again we quote the German Nachrichten: "We must therefore be prepared to see England constituting Palestine a Zionistic Jewish State. Thereby she will at the same time achieve another object. She will assure the Suez Canal for herself by using a neutral State as a protection for it and declaring it international, neutral, and inviolable."

"

+ This also Germany anticipated in saying: Provisionally, we still cling to the hope that should Jerusalem have to be evacuated its possession by the English will be but a passing episode" (Nachrichten).

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as the result of defeat in Egypt and Judea, the British fall back to Moab, Edom, and Ammon, and, as a consequence, the Jews are at the mercy of the invaders from the north, then God issues His decree :

Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab ; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler" (Isa. xvi. 4).

But why is it that the God of Israel will permit all this to happen? How is it that Great Britain, when she goes to the aid of Jerusalem as against the greedy and grasping invaders, will be allowed to suffer defeat, when the Scriptures so emphatically declare that "They shall prosper that love thee" (Psa. cxxii. 6); and, on the other hand, that "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper (Isa. liv. 17)? The reason why God will not allow the British to deliver Jerusalem is because He is determined to do the work Himself, and thus cause Himself to be sanctified and magnified in the eyes of the whole world. That declaration is contained in the same chapter as that in which Ezekiel details the Russian invasion of the "unwalled villages of Palestine, chapter xxxviii., verse 23:

Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord."

God Glorified-Not Man.

That end, the glory of God, would not be attained were He to allow Britain to do the work, and come

off victorious. We all very well know what happens at the termination of a victorious war. It happened at the end of the South African war. It was a case of British flags and bunting; the Royal Standard and the Union Jack. The inscriptions and mottoes were, Bravo, Bobs", and "Well Done, Kitchener. And that is just what the God of Israel has determined shall not be. His decree on the matter is thus vividly expressed by His prophet, Isaiah (ii. 2, II) :

"It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto The loftly looks of man shall

it.

be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day."

Jerusalem Delivered.

That "That Day" is yet future is evident from verse 4, where we read that the Lord

Will judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

But let us return to prostrate Jerusalem; let us enquire further about Russia, the victor, and Britain, the defeated. What will be the end of it

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all? Again, we are not left to speculate, for God's prophet tells us :

"Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle" (Zech. xiv. 3).

And the same prophet gives further details in chapter xii. There we read:

The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications (verses 7-10).

Jacob's Trouble.

Yes, Britain's unpreparedness,* and the Jews' extremity, or " Jacob's trouble", as Jeremiah terms it (xxx. 7), will be God's opportunity. "He will send Jesus" (Acts iii. 20), and the besieged inhabitants of Jerusalem, relieved by Him, will then do as Christ predicted, exclaim :

"Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest" (Mark xi. 9).

* Psalm xlviii. 7; Isaiah ii. 16.