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IT will occur to us not unfrequently, in our progress through the sacred writings, to meet with prophecies of so simple and decided a character, and whose nature, bearing, and ultimate fulfilment, have been so constantly kept before the public eye, as to render it altogether useless, and in a certain degree fatiguing to our readers, for us to enter minutely into their par ticulars, or repeat again the circumstances of their fulfilment. Such in an eminent degree, were some of the prophecies vouchsafed to Abraham. In speaking of such, therefore, we shall briefly state the prediction and its fulfilment, and not attempt to enlarge upon points with which all our readers must necessarily be well acquainted.

We propose on the present occasion to advert, very succinctly, to, 1. The prophecies concerning Abraham.

2. The prophecies concerning Ishmael; and, 3dly. The prophecies concerning Esau.

1. THE PROPHECIES CONCERNING ABRAHAM are of that class to which we have already alluded, namely, predictions whose fulfilment has been so clear, so obvious, and of so simple a nature, as to make all comment or explanation appear at the present moment altogether unnecessary.

It was, we apprehend, about the year B. C. 1921, according to the general acceptation,-that Abraham, being then in the 75th year of his age, received that call from God which is narrated in the 12th of Genesis in these words: "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee; and I will make of

thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."

It is further added in the 7th verse, that the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land."

And more specific information was given to the patriarch a few years afterwards, when, in a vision narrated in the 15th chapter, God further deigns to tell him," Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not their's, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

The peculiar blessing to Abraham's "seed" was also repeated in the 22nd chapter, in the following words, "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."

We see then, here, three distinct predictions, and their fulfilment need only be alluded to in the briefest manner; seeing that our readers will be already well acquainted with the particulars of each.

seed of Abraham did possess Canaan; and not only did they come into possession of it, but it was visibly and remarkably "given" to them. After they had occupied the land, Joshua called the tribes of Israel unto him to Shechem, and there rehearsed to them the mercies of the Lord. He there tells them, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not."

And the people answered and said, "The Lord our God, he it is that brought us up, and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed: and the Lord drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the Lord; for he is our God."

Such was the primary fulfilment of this prediction. And although, for their sins, the seed of Abraham have been again driven out of this land which God had specially promised them, and into which he had wondrously led them-still, "the Lord, the God of Israel, saith, that he hateth putting away; "and upon this and many

other manifestations of his character we rest, when we incline to interpret literally those passages of holy writ which speak of Canaan as still the home of the children of Israel, and which promise them another and more permanent restoration to " their own land."

But the second prediction, or the second point adverted to, was this, that the promised settlement of Abraham's seed in Canaan should be preceded by their remaining in a state of pilgrimage, servitude, and estrangement, for a period of above four hundred years. The

fulfilment of this part of the prophecy is equally well known. It is clearly marked in Exodus xii. wherein it is specifically stated that "The sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the self-same day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt."

This passage dates the period of the sojourn of the seed of Abraham, from the call of the patriarch himself. That call was given in

the

year B. C. 1921, and the Exodus (or Departure) of the Israelites took place B. C. 1491.

The third circumstance predicted, was the coming of the expected Saviour, in the line of Abraham's seed. "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." This promise was of that striking and extensive character, that its intent could not be mistaken. The promised "seed of the woman," who should bruise the serpent's head, was the object of expecting faith with all those among Abraham's progenitors, who "called on the name of the Lord." To be the chosen individuals, in whose line the expected Messiah should appear, was of itself the highest privilege; but more especially so, as it seemed to hold out the reasonable hope, that the family so selected would be favoured with the more especial care and protection of God.

And the event justified this expectation. His seed or family became the chosen people of the Lord; and, finally, the prediction was fulfilled in the birth of HIM, on whose appearance the angels sang the joyful hymn of "Peace on earth, good will towards men.'

II. But we have next to speak of THE PROPHECIES CONCERNING ISHMAEL.

Ishmael was the eldest son of Abraham. He was not the child of the promise, but " the son of the

bond-woman." Nevertheless, as the son of Abraham, the "friend of God," a blessing, though of an inferior degree, was reserved for him. God said unto his father, "Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly: twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. Gen. xvii. 20. And again he said, "And also of the son of the bond-woman will I make a nation, BECAUSE HE IS THY SEED." Gen. xxi. 13.

But some particulars are also added. It is said, "He will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." Gen. xvi. 11, 12.

Most exactly and literally was this prediction accomplished. The "sons of Ishmael" were "twelve princes," and Moses describes them with great particularity. Gen. xxv. 16. "These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles ; twelve princes according to their nations." And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, as thou goest towards Assyria."

This

But the more wondrous part of this history remains to be told. The prediction also stated, "He shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him." description would doubtless apply, to a certain extent, to every barbarous and uncivilized people, in the earlier periods of their existence. But every other known nation, in the advancing stages of their history, has been found to lose this character, and to become more or less civilized, settled, and interwoven with its neighbours. The Arabs, on the contrary, after three thousand years, are still found-to use the words of Gibbon-' armed against mankind.' Their friendly alliance has never been obtained, and indeed, scarcely ever been

sought, by any of the nations around them. Their forbearance is all that has been hoped for or solicited. And,' to use the words of Sir R. K. Porter, that an acute and active people, surrounded for ages by polished and luxurious nations, should from their earliest to their latest times, be still found a wild people, dwelling in the presence of all their brethren, unsubdued and unchangeable, is, indeed, a standing miracle; one of those mysterious facts which establish the truth of prophecy.'1

It is said of Ishmael, that "he dwelt in the wilderness and became an archer," and the like has continued to be true of his descendants

for three thousand years. The Itureans, descended from his son Jetur, are famed through all the writers of classic antiquity, for their prowess with the bow; and "the children of Kedar," another of his sons, are alluded to as noted archers in Isaiah xxi. 17. And the general character of the Arabs, the unquestionable descendants of Ishmael, has been in other points equally unchanged. They live, and ever have lived, in a state of constant hostility with all mankind. They are equally plunderers on land and at sea. Commerce and intercourse with the rest of the world they have had, but nothing has modified their fixed national character. During their conquests under Mahomet they overran a great part of the earth, and were for centuries masters of most of the wealth, grandeur, and learning then known, but amidst all, they remained and still remain the same fierce, unruly, and intractable people that all history describes their ancestors in every age to have been. Ishmael lived in tents in the wilderness, shifting from place to place; and so do they, his descendants, to this day. He was an archer of the desert, and so are they. He was the father of twelve 1 Sir R. K. Porter's Travels, p. 304.

princes or chiefs; and they live in clans, under their chiefs, to this day. He was a wild man, his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him; and they live in the same state of war, up to the present moment. • Their skill in horsemanship, and their capacity of bearing the heat of their burning plains, give them also a superiority over their enemies. Hence every petty chief in his own district considers himself as a sovereign prince, and as such exacts customs from all passengers. When they plunder caravans travelling through their territories, they consider it as reprisals on the Turks and Persians, who often make inroads into their country, and carry away their corn and their flocks.'*

Re

Their unchanged and unchangeable national character, then, constitutes one great standing miracle ; and must ever be acknowledged a miracle far beyond the power of man to account for, on any rational principles. Consider the principal nations which figure in history. Look at the Persians, first the hardy and enduring and temperate conquerors; then, in a few centuries, the effeminate slaves. member the wild and savage Greeks, so soon becoming the orators and sculptors and poets Or turn to the Romans, first an assemblage of thieves; then priding themselves on their honour and integrity: now becoming the masters of the world, and then falling a prey to swarms of naked barbarians. Meanwhile the sons of Ishmael-not hidden in some remote corner of the globe, but existing in the very midst of all these changes-are found to this hour, traversing the very same wilds, and following the very same pursuits which their first progenitor, the " son of the bondwoman,' was especially destined to adopt.

of all ages.

But here a second miracle is discernible—namely, in the continued

* Hanway's Travels, vol. iv. p. 221.

national existence and independence of the Arabs, surrounded as they have ever been by powerful enemies, and never knowing or seeking a friend. The promise ran thus, that although "every man's hand should be against him," yet in spite of all attacks, he should continue to "dwell in the presence of all his brethren." The infidel historian, Gibbon, while he aims to escape from the force of this evidence, is compelled to admit its substantial truth. He says,

The perpetual independence of the Arabs has been the theme of praise among strangers and natives; and the arts of controversy transform this singular event into a prophecy and a miracle, in favour of the posterity of Ishmael. Some exceptions that can neither be dissembled nor eluded, do render this mode of reasoning as indiscreet as it is superfluous: the kingdom of Yemen has been successively subdued by the Abyssinians, the Persians, the Sultans of Egypt, and the Turks the holy cities of Mecca and Medina have repeatedly bowed under a Scythian tyrant; and the Roman province of Arabia embraced the peculiar wilderness in which Ishmael and his sons must have pitched their tents in the face of their brethren. Yet these exceptions are temporary or local; the body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the most powerful monarchies : the arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia ; the present sovereign of the Turks may exercise a shadow of jurisdiction, but his pride is reduced to solicit the friendship of a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke and fruitless to attack.'*

tages should be only temporary and local.' Some of their cities' might be captured, one of their provinces might become for a time nominally a part of the Roman empire; but in the midst of all these vicissitudes the nation remained independent; and while the Assyrian empire fell before the Persian, the Persian before the Greek, and the Greek before the Roman, the sons of Ishmael," dwelling in the face of all their brethren,” maintained their independence in despite of each and of all. All the greatest conquerors of ancient and modern days have in their turn failed to subjugate the sons of the "wild man. ." Sesostris and Cyrus, Pompey and Trajan, alike returned without accomplishing their object. No less than five great efforts of the mighty Roman empire are recorded, in which these conquerors of the world bent all their energies to the subjugation of the Arabs; but in every instance without success. And after this we need hardly say that no modern power has had any greater success. Three thousand years have passed away, and it remains as true at this moment as it has been in each successive century,-that "Ishmael is a wild man; his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him;" and yet he "dwells in the presence of all his brethren."

triarchs or heads of tribes, who were their princes or governors. The Arabs as well as the Jews marry among themselves and in their own tribes. The Arabs as well as the Jews are singular in several of their customs, and are standing monuments to all ages of the exactness of the divine predictions, and of the veracity of scripture history. We may with more confidence believe the particulars related of Abraham and Ishmael, when we see them verified in their posterity at this day. This is having as it were' ocular demons stration for our faith. This is proving by plain matter of fact, that "the Most High ruleth in the kingdoms of men," and that his truth, as well as his "mercy, endureth for ever.""

IIIdly, however, we must speak of THE PROPHECIES CONCERNING ESAU. These are of that simple character, and their fulfilment of that general notoriety, to which we have referred at the commencement of this article: and our notice of them will therefore be very succinct.

It was revealed of the Lord to Rebecca, the wife of Isaac, that "two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy towels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger."

And in agreement with this prediction, was the prophetic blessing pronounced by Isaac over Esau.

Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.'

Jews had originally twelve pa

destinies of nations, and the