God's
Witness
7 7 i e J e u ; s ,
From an "Address
on the Bible" by
Hon. John H.
Stiness
Among the things told in the Bible are many prophecies. I will only men- tion one, the truth of which is plainly before our eyes. Read these passages about the Jewish nation: Deut. 38:64, 65: "The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the soje of thy foot have rest; but the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind. And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night and shalt have none assurance of thy life." Deut. 38:37: "And thou shalt be- come an astonishment, a proverb and a byword among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee." Lev. 26:44: "And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their ene- mies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly." Jer. 30:11: "Though I will make a full end of all t he nations whither I have driven thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee." Hos. 3:4: "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king and without a prince and without a sacrifice." Ezek. 11:16, 1'7: "Although I have scattered them among the countries, . . . I will even gather you from the people and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scat- tered and I will give you the land of Israel." In reading these words the history of the Jews has come to your minds. But, passing that by, look at them as they are today. "Scattered among all peo- ple," from one end of the earth to the other. Finding no ease, nor rest for their feet. In most countries despised, oppressed, persecuted, banished. As a people—with trembling hearts and fail- ing eyes and sorrow of mind. Remem- ber that these causes have brought them in swarms to our land, and that but recently France has been shaken to its center by reason of hatred to a Jew. Israel sahll be brought in." It seems to me that no Christian should ever look with disdain upon a Jew, for in him he may see a proof of t h e prophetic words of revelation.
Have they not been and are they not now, "an astonishment, a proverb and a byword among all nations?" Has there not been a full end of the nations to which they were driven? Assyrians and Chaldeans, who took them captive, have . utterly perished and are known only to history. Egyptians, who held them in bondage, have passed away, leaving no trace of that great and an- cient people. Romans who took and destroyed Jerusalem, in a way that ful- filled many prophecies, in minute detail, • are gone and no man can be pointed to as of the posterity of imperial Rome. All these were great and powerful nations, rulers of the world, which have died and left no living sign. But the small and peaceful nation of Palestine, which men would have looked upon as the first to be blotted out, still lives "without a king and without a prince and without a sacrifice," it is true, but still a separate people everywhere. There has been no assimilation wher- ever they have lived,;"and today you can tell the Jew, whether he comes from Russia or Poland, Germany or England, Italy or Spain, or from the islands of the sea. A recent article in The Interior says: "For eighteen cen- turies he has had no country, .no scep- ter, no home. And yet behind every throne he stands, a figure silent, immo- bile, supreme. He is girded with no sword; yet his word makes war or es- tablishes peace, for he holds the key of the money chest of Czar or Kaiser or Queen. . . . There is not a department in which he fails to excel. He is not merely some deathless shade; he is a living personality, virile, aggressive triumphant. Yet with all these won- derful qualities he still remains in each land an exile; in every place an alien. All this strangely contradictory life is foretold in the Bible. Whenever that word was written, by whomsoever it was penned, it foretells this imperish- able, this invincible, this unsatisfying life. It foretells at once his pre- eminence and captivity. He is at once 'chosen and rejected.' Without a throne, or a temple, or a home, he rules and worships and dwells. He is a living witness to the truth of the sacred Scrip- .tures, the inspiration of the prophets, the purposes yet to be wrought but. He is the miracle of history.
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