Tke Ckosen People,Tke Land anddie Book
Kfotes Concerning tke Jev?s and Prophecr?
The signs amid the Jews are of an astounding and prophetic accent. There are more Jews in Palestine now than when they returned from Babylon to rebuilt Jerusalem. Zionism has passed from sentimental theory to dynamic reality. The cry is “On to Jerusalem!” “Jerusalem for the Jews!” “The Jewish State.” After nearly four centuries of treading down Jerusalem has been delivered from the Turk. England as one of the future ten king doms drove out the Turk and has prom ised to use all her power to enable the Jews to set up the “State of Judah.” Where not so long ago the proposition that the Jews according to page after page of Scripture and the covenant faithfulness of God must return to their own land was either openly mocked, treated with contempt, or at best with complacent indifference, now that idea is in every mind, every tongue is busy with it and the whole world is looking forward expectantly to the national re turn of the Jews to their own land. The Jewish State is publicly advocated as the necessary link between the West and the East. Editorial writers declare it will be the harmonious political center of the world; that it will put an end to the ambition of nations to over-reach each other for the possession of Asia Minor, Palestine and Mesopotamia or Persia. Thousands of Jews have enrolled themselves in the “legion of Judah” and have already gone forth under the blue and white flag of DAvid to fight for the Jewish State. Five millions of dollars have been subscribed, the ground bought, surveyed and the corner-stone laid for a great Jewish university upon the mount of Olives. The purpose is to turn to the
people “a pure language,” no longer Yiddish and Spanish mixtures, but orig inal Hebrew; so that Jews henceforth in their own land may speak to each other in the old Hebraic tongue. They do not realize they are moving steadily forward to fulfil the prophecy of Zeph- aniah; as it is written: “For then I will turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord”; a name which they have forgot ten and like Jacob when he returned from Padan-Aram cannot pronounce without stuttering. They are getting ready to proclaim the law and expound their own Scriptures; getting ready and all unconsciously for the fulfillment of that Scripture wherein it is said: “The law shall go forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” And they are doing all S this even as their own Scriptures foretold in a state, of unbelief more marked than ever, re pudiating the hand of the Lord in it and giving the credit to science, to philos ophy and the nature of th in g s.il. M. Haldeman, D.D. Many persons use the words Hebrew and Jew interchangeably. Joseph Sil verman, pastor the Temple Emanu-El, thus gives the present Jewish feeling in regard to the matter as quoted by the Christian Advocate: “Hebrew, Israelite and Jew are used interchangeably today, and they desig nate the same person—that is, a devotee of the Mosaic faith. Originally ‘He brew’ was applied to Abraham and his immediate descendants, because they came from the ‘region beyond,’ which the word ‘Eber’—not of Hebron—sig nifies. From the fact that twelve tribes descended from the twelve sons of Is rael, the name ‘Israelite’ became more popular than ‘Hebrew.’ Later, how-
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