Part 5

Thus of the two powers that have trodden down Jerusalem, one is already extinct and the head of the other at its last gasp. The foot of the Sick Man is the only foot now remaining on the neck of Jerusalem, and the Sick Man is dying. Surely it is not unreasonable to ask the question, ‘When he dies, why should not Jerusalem arise and be free’?

The result is that, without dwelling on any minute detail, we are brought by the great, long-continued facts of European history, to the most important conclusion that, in all probability, we are approaching the time when Jerusalem shall no longer be trodden down of the Gentiles, and when therefore, the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled. It is only reasonable to suppose that when the oppressors are taken out of the way the oppression will come to an end; and, therefore, as one of those two oppressors is already fallen, and the other falling so fast that all the powers of Europe seem unable to keep him in his place, there is surely good reason to hope that before long the captive will be free, and that the time may not be far distant when we shall hear the cry, ‘Shake thyself from the dust; arise and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.’

And it certainly is a most remarkable fact that, simultaneously with the consumption of Rome and the decay of Turkey, there has been a wonderful awakening of interest in Jerusalem and the Jews. The explorations in Palestine are very like a fulfilment of the prophecy, ‘Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof’: and if they are, there is good reason to hope that ‘the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.’

But the interest in the people is more remarkable than that in the country. Before the great Evangelical revival at the commencement of this century no one seemed to have any idea that the Jews had any part in their own Messiah. They were treated as an outcast people, and as for their conversion, no one seems to have thought of attempting it until the formation of the Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, in the year 1808. But now there are Christian missionaries labouring amongst them in most of the principal towns of Europe, and, indeed, in almost all the leading centres of their scattered population. The New Testament has been translated into Hebrew, and very nearly twenty-five thousand copies are being annually circulated amongst the Jews. The state of feeling towards them has passed through a complete revolution, so that of England it was said not long since by a learned and influential Italian Jew, ‘God has blessed, and will bless, England; because her great men, both in Church and State, take an interest in the children of Jacob.’ Such facts are most important in themselves; but when it is borne in mind that this interest in Jerusalem has been awakened just at the time of the consumption of the political power of Rome, and has been going on side by side with the decay of Turkey, it certainly ought to lead all students of the Word of God to consider carefully whether the times of the Gentiles may not be drawing to a close, and the day of redemption may not be beginning to dawn on Jerusalem.

But some may be disposed to say, How are we concerned with Jerusalem, and what does it matter to us whether Jerusalem is trodden under foot, or free? I fear this is a very common feeling throughout society, and that there are thousands and tens of thousands of professing Christians who are perfectly indifferent as to the condition of Jerusalem. But it ought not so to be, for if it be a place cared for by the Lord, it ought to be also cared for by His people. Besides which, even on selfish principles, we should take an interest in Jerusalem; for, as our position as Gentiles in Christ Jesus is most intimately connected with the fall of Jerusalem, so our brightest hopes in Him are bound up with its recovery. In proof of this I would ask you to turn to Ps. cii. 16, where you read, ‘When the Lord shall build up Zion he shall appear in glory!’ The return of the Lord is, therefore, connected with the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and, whenever we see His hand restoring the city, we should begin to look out in confident hope for the glorious and happy day when He Himself will come to take the Kingdom. As a student of the Word of God, I should be very much surprised if He were to come before Jerusalem is raised from the dust; but when it is raised, it seems clear from Scripture that there will be nothing in the great prophetic series any longer to delay His appearing. {102}

So in our Lord’s discourse, as recorded by St. Matthew and St. Luke, we are taught the same thing. The object of the discourse is not, as has been sometimes thought, to confound the taking of Jerusalem with the Second Coming, but to distinguish them, and to warn the disciples against the danger of mistaking the siege of Jerusalem for the coming of the Lord. It is the restoration of Jerusalem, not the fall, which is connected with the Advent. Our Lord, therefore, distinguishes between the fall and the recovery and describes the various signs that shall precede each. So up to Luke xxi. 24, we find the description of the desolation, concluding with the prophecy, ‘Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.’ But in ver. 28 we find the promise of the glorious recovery in those sacred words, ‘When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.’ The 24th verse describes the desolation, the 28th the restoration, and the whole long period described as the times of the Gentiles, with the signs of the latter days, intervenes between the two. Now look at the account of the redemption. It includes clearly a release from the captivity and the rise of Jerusalem, when the time of its treading down shall have come to an end. But that is not all, or nearly so. The redemption there described is identified with the return of the Lord Himself; for in ver. 27 we read, ‘Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.’ Those then who pray for the peace of Jerusalem will rejoice for Jerusalem’s sake in its recovery. Those servants of God who take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof, will have their hearts gladdened when they see her rebuilt. But that is not all, or nearly all, for whenever that happens, the whole Church of God, and every member of it in every nation under heaven, may look up and lift up their heads, for the Lord Himself will soon appear. Once more, then, are we taught our deep interest in the decay of Turkey. When Turkey falls there is every hope that Jerusalem will rise; and when Jerusalem rises, the next thing for us to look out for will be the Advent of the Lord. All Christians, therefore, should rejoice in the decline of the Ottoman Empire, for the fall of the Mussulman is the hope of the Jew, and the return of the Jew will be the blessed harbinger of the triumphant advent of her glorious King. Rome beat down Jerusalem, and Rome, as a political power, is no more. Turkey is now treading her down; but its decay is begun, and its days are numbered: so that we may earnestly hope it will be but a little while, possibly a very little while—within the lives of many present—when the great promise of God shall be fulfilled, and, according to the prophecy, ‘The moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.’ God grant that all the readers of this little book may be found looking for His appearing, and ready to welcome Him with their lamps burning brightly, when the cry is heard, ‘The Bridegroom cometh!’

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Footnotes

{0} In the printed book the “By the same Author” (i.e. Edward Hoare) section is at the start of the book, before the title page. It has been moved to the end for clarity in this Project Gutenberg eText.—DP.

{10} For further developments on this point, the reader is referred to “The Returning King,” pp. 25–29 (Morgan and Scott, 1/- net.)

{19} R.V. “He.”

{26} Hume, ii. 67.

{28} According to the census of 1911, the population of the British Isles was 45,365,599, of which number five millions were Romanists, so that clearly the proportion is still diminishing. But it must be borne in mind that her leading false doctrines and non-Scriptural claims are being increasingly taught in this country.

{37} Thirty-six years have elapsed since these words were penned, and although Turkey has been upheld by the European Powers, and has herself made one or two brave efforts on the battlefield and in the matter of constitutional reform, the process of decay has been rapidly advancing; yet even so who, at the beginning of the year 1912, could have foreseen the catastrophe which in a few short weeks has almost wiped Turkey from the Map of Europe?

{45} And actually the very walls of Vienna.

{47} Now in April, 1913, the four Balkan States and Greece in a brief but bloody campaign have brought Turkey apparently to her last gasp, and it is still a matter of speculation whether she will be allowed to retain possession of Constantinople and with it the merest thread of the littoral of Europe. This has now taken place, and _The Times_ of May 30, in a leader upon the signing of the Treaty of London, uses these epoch-making words—“The Ottoman Empire in Europe has now ceased to exist.” June, 1913.

{48} The word “almost” may be removed, as Turkey in Africa has ceased to exist. The war with Italy in 1912 deprived Turkey of Tripoli, and thus the very last spot in Northern Africa emerged from the once overflowing waters of Mahommedan power by which it had been overwhelmed many centuries ago.

{50} The number is rapidly diminishing, and day by day streams of Turkish refugees are pouring across the Bosphorus to the Asiatic side.

{69} If the faithful preacher whose clear foresight is recorded here were to witness what we now see, would he not say, like St. Paul—“as we also forewarned you and testified?”

When this book was published, Spiritualism, then recently imported from America, was only beginning to make itself felt, the destructive Higher Criticism, whose dry rot has now spread its subtle influence on all sides, had not landed on our coasts from Germany; the very names of Modernism, New Theology, and its offspring the Liberal Christian League, were non-existent; Christian Science had not then been imported to America from its Eastern home; and several other heresies and imitations (2 Timothy iii. 8), which under the guise of deep spiritual teaching are now crippling true spirituality and doing the Devil’s work, were still unborn. But they are with us now, and they have come to stay. Let us recognize their _source_ and their _significance_.

{79} The significance of this clarion note of warning in connection with the events now taking place is of the greatest possible importance.

{102} It would be simply impossible in a brief note even to enumerate all the recent amazing changes in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Since the fulfilment of a prophetic epoch a few years ago, pointed out at the time by the writer as an indication that the “Times of the Gentiles” had virtually ceased, Jerusalem has for the first time in her history been “inhabited as towns without walls” (Zechariah ii. 4), the dwellings having spread outside in rapidly increasing suburbs, which make it more like a modern city than the Jerusalem of old.