September, 1935
332
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
She saw Jewish settlers producing with ease four crops a year where but one, and that with great difficulty, had grown before. She saw the afforestation of the land (in Balfouria alon.e, 500,000 trees having been planted) until the songs of the birds arise in everincreasing chorus, and the rain falls in everincreasing volume. She saw desert wastes give way to great orchards of apples, plums, apri cots, pomegranates, pears, quinces, oranges, lemons, and olives. She saw the discovery that the potash and mineral salts of the Dead Sea are of far greater value than all the gold and silver in all the banks of the earth. She saw the rail ways that will finally connect India with Europe, and the Cape-Cairo African storehouses with the factories of Europe. She saw the Haifa Harbor grow into the second finest harbor of the Mediterranean, with incalculable prob abilities—all during a depression that has kept a pall of gloom resting upon all the other harbors of the world. (It is predicted that Haifa Harbor will soon be one of the greatest trade centers in the world.) She saw the begin ning and the completion of the Haifa pipe line—an engi neering feat so vast that it is sometimes referred to as the eighth wonder of the world—ten thousand men working upon it for ten years. Through this pipe line four million tons of oil [thirty million barrels] will flow twelve hundred miles annually from the wells of Kirkuk in the heart of Iraq to the great harbor of Haifa. Mary Leighton Floyd saw Palestine standing alone among all the countries of the earth during these years of depression—a land without unem ployment, without the dole, and, for a wonder, without an income ta x ! As a matter of fact, there is not only no unemployment, but rather a serious labor shortage. Authorities have instituted a twenty-four-hour workday, using three shifts of men. All other nations are troubled exceedingly with national debts—defaulters in most cases. Pal estine alone must deal with the question as to what she will do with her surplus of over five million dollars! (The Palestine Government officially re ported a surplus for 1932 amounting to ¿247,000. In 1933, it increased to ¿593,000. It again increased in 1934, but we do not possess the exact figures.) W h a t D oes I t A ll M ean ? What does it all mean? Can it be that, in the face of the facts, we shall be blind to scores of prophecies that two and three thousand years ago foretold just such a renaissance as this for the ancient land of Israel? Can it be that the great prophecy of Ezekiel is to mean nothing to us (Ezek. 36:24, 28-30, 32-36) ? Moreover,;are. we going to continue to be willfully blind to the meaning of world events', especially as those events are touching the scattered sons of Jacob? Are we failing to see that the God of heaven continues to make the wrath of man to serve His eternal purposes, and that Hitler and all the other beasts that prowl about the foreign roosts upon which the doves of Israel have settled down, are but stirring them off those roosts for the homeward flight fore told by all the prophets of God ? By the rivers of Babylon the Jews can only sit and weep as they remember Zion (Psa. 137). “Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations . . . He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock . . . , and they shall not sorrow any more at all” (Jer. 31:10-12). And in the peace of Jeru salem shall our shell-shocked world find peace! Verily, the hour is at hand when God shall “cause them that come of Jacob to take root: [and] Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit” (Isa. 27 :6).
pulse of Mary Leighton Floyd when she saw Lord Balfour issue his famous “Declaration,” which, in effect, restored to the Jew his homeland! Imagine the tears of gladness that ran down the furrows of her cheeks when she saw General Allenby, at the head of his British fighting-lads, march into the city as the Turk stampeded ou t! What heart-throbs were hers as she saw Sir Herbert Samuel made Governor of Palestine—the first Jewish governor since Nebuchad nezzar put out the eyes of Zedekiah and carried him away in chains to Babylon ! What music in the ears of this ardent Christian Zionist must have been the chatter of little children as they prattled on the streets of Jerusalem, in the “pure language” (Hebrew) of Abraham once more —the first time in rnany centuries! She knew the mean ing of the brief but intensely significant prophecy of Zeph- aniah 3 :9: “Then will I turn to the people a pure lan guage.” She knew that Hebrew is the only “pure lan guage” in the sight of God which could be restored. And she knew that its restoration meant that the day is close at hand when Almighty God shall carry out His “determina tion . . . to gather the nations” to Armageddon.
Mary Leighton Floyd saw the sons of Ishmael perse cuting the sons of Isaac, and, with the prophecy of Oba- diah in her hand, understood! She saw the modern Haman, Adolf Hitler, arise in Germany. She heard his “hiss,” and knew his brood! But the serpent’s “hiss” only fright ened the doves that had settled down on that foreign roost, and sent them flocking back to the nest where they belong. Mary Leighton Floyd saw Jewish money flowing into the land, constructing harbors, building cities, irrigating wastes —making deserts “blossom as the rose,” and causing rock- strewn fields to vie with the glory of Southern California! She saw the pity of Tel Aviv spring up within a few short years from a desert to a modern city of 45,000 —all Jews. She saw the corner-stone laying of the Hebrew tJhiversity on Mount Scopus and lived to see that great school well established. She saw the completion of three hydroelectric power stations on the Jprdan, flashing forth a 48,000 horse-power output—^-the first step for the com plete electrification of the whole of Abraham’s land. She saw the ribbing of the sides of the valley of the Jordan with concrete canals, and the utilization of the Sea of Galilee for a great, storage reservoir, to hold 5,000,000 tons of water. Courtesy, Palestinian Exhibition, Edendale, Calif. Gathered in Palestine, modern Jews from many lands have in recent years looked for leadership to Rabbi Abraham Isaac Ben Solomo Salman Ha-Kohen Kook, who until the time of his death, September I, 1935, held the position of Chief Rabbi of the Holy Land. Rabbi Kook is shown in the center of this group. it'i'Y :) ' '
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker