Isaiah's Glowing Pictures 131 INFANTILE MORTALITY STAYED: There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days for the child shall die a hundred years old." * SENILE DECAY ARRESTED: They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” † GOOD-BYE TO DEATH: "He will swallow up death in victory." ‡ THE PERSECUTED JEW RESTORED : "For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." § BARREN LANDS RECLAIMED : "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing." || * Isaiah lxv. 20; † xl. 31; ‡ xxv. 8; § liv. 7, 8; NO MORE THORNS AND THISTLES: Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree and it shall be to the Lord a name, and for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." * THE BRUTE CREATION AT REST: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den." † PEACE WITH HONOUR: "The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places."‡ UNIVERSAL BLESSINGS: "In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined." § * Isaiah lv. 13; † xi. 6; ‡ xxxii. 17, 18; § xxv. 6. Isaiah's Glowing Pictures 133 UNBOUNDED HAPPINESS : "The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come unto Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.' WORLD-WIDE REJOICINGS: "For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth: so the Lord God shall cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations." † THE AUTHOR OF IT ALL: "The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts." + HIS GLORY EVERYWHERE THEN: 'The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the deep." § Too GOOD FOR WORDS: For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him." || * Isaiah xxxv. 10; † lxi. 11; ‡ iii. 14, 15; Dr. John Thomas and Egypt. Not only did the late Dr. John Thomas, quoted in the foregoing pages, accurately forecast from the prophetic Scriptures the pre-adventual colonization of Palestine, and the establishment there of thriving colonies by the Jews; but, forty years before the event, he was also able to point out that the same Scriptures taught that Great Britain would simultaneously occupy Egypt. We quote his very words, written nearly seventy years ago, and then published in a work, entitled Elpis Israel, which now lies before us. There, on pages 395 and onwards, we read : I know not whether the men who, at the present (1848), contrive the foreign policy of Britain entertain the idea of assuming the sovereignty of the Holy Land, and of promoting its colonization by the Jews; their present intentions, however, are of no importance one way or the other, because they will be compelled, by events soon to happen, to do what, under existing circumstances, heaven and earth combined could not move them to accomplish The finger of God has indicated a course to be pursued by Britain which cannot be evaded, and which her counsellors will not only be willing, but eager, to adopt when the crisis comes upon them. The decree has long gone forth which calls upon the Lion of Tarshish to protect the Jews. God, who rules the world, and marks out the bounds of habitation for the nations, will make Britain a gainer by the transaction. He will bring her . John Thomas and Egypt 135 to see the desirableness of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba, which she will be induced by the force' of circumstances, probably, to take possession of. The possession or ascendancy of Britain in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba, will naturally lead to the colonization of Palestine by the Jews". Events have fully borne out these expectations, for all the world knows that in January, 1915, Egypt obtained complete independence with her own Sultan, but under the protection of Great Britain. Elpis Israel, by Dr. John Thomas, and from which extracts have been frequently made in this book, is published by, and can be obtained from, MR. C. C. WALKER, 21, HENDON ROAD, SPARKHILL, BIRMINGHAM. It is a masterpiece of prophetical acumen. F. G. J. |