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nought. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." Or as a pledge of what a later prophet was directed to predict:-"For thus saith the Lord of hosts: As I thought to punish you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord of hosts, and I repented not; so again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah fear ye not. These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts againt his neighbour; and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord. . . . Thus saith the Lord of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you?" The Christian Watchman thinks that Israel's present condition is an important sign of the times, an earnest and pledge that Isaiah, Zechariah, and all the Prophets spoke God's literal truth.

We use the terms "earnest" and "pledge" advisedly. An earnest to the secular nations of what is in store for Israel; a pledge to Israel that THE PROMISES MADE UNTO THE FATHERS, in their behalf, are "yea and amen." But neither earnest nor pledge is real possession. We would particularly insist upon this point, because there are too many optimists amongst our people; our people have often been led astray to mistake the silver lining of a passing cloud for the promised eternal sunshine. In the days of the first three Norman kings in this country, our people began to think it would be good for them to be permanently here; hence the Word of God, the planned arrangement laid down in that word, remained unheeded. We know what happened: fearful tribulation followed. Were it not for the promise, "Though I make a full end of all nations, yet will I not make a full end of thee,"‡ extermination would have been the human record of our kinsmen in this land. In the days of Alphonso the Eighth and his successor Ferdinand, on the throne of Castile, some of our people were so flattered, and felt so complaisant, by reason of the patronage bestowed upon them by those princes, that they who attained the rank of courtiers, in a land of strangers, would not think of their own promised land, in whose behalf their forefathers "shed their blood like water round about Jerusalem." The Spanish Jews of the period—we do not speak of such

Isaiah xli. 8-14.

† Zech. viii. 14-17, 23.

Jeremiah v. 18; xxx. 11; xlvi. 28; Amos ix. 6.

§ Read carefully the chronicles of The Banished Ones Fetched Home, published in our Magazine.

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men as the Ibn Ezras, or Yehoodah Hallaywees-laughed to scorn the possibility of their being riven and driven from Spain. We know the sequel were it not for the oft-repeated promise quoted above, the terrible tribulations, the flood-gates of which were "in measure thrown open upon us, would have swallowed us up; "we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah."* Yet those silver linings in the clouds which occasionally hung over the horizon of our history in Old England and former Spain, were earnests and pledges of the eternal golden sunshine which is in store for our people when the last unprecedentedly great tiibulation shall be over.

We have been led to indite this digressive paragraph because of the tendency there is in the minds of many, when off their watchtower, to mistake a sign for the thing signified, an earnest for possession, a token for reality. We often meet with many of our brethren of the house of Israel who are SO well satisfied with their status in England, and in the English Colonies, in the United States, in Germany, France, and Holland, as well as their dependencies, that not only the thoughts, but the words of our people are, "We will be as the Gentiles, as the families of the countries." Beware! O house of Israel. Recollect our God, and the God of our Fathers, has declared, "that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all.Ӡ

Those earnests and tokens, however, of former days were absolutely insignificant when compared with the signs and pledges afforded unto us in these last days: inasmuch as the predictions respecting ISRAEL'S FUTURE-as vouchsafed to us both in the Old and New Testaments-have reached the close of the penultimate chapter in the series of prophecies with regard to that future. "The Gospel of the Kingdom," we repeat, has well nigh been "preached for a witness to all nations." Men run to and fro, and knowledge increases. At the same time sin abounds.§ Infidelity vaunts itself, and is winked at, if not actually patronised by the Churches and synagogues of the day. Men give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. As diligent students of the Word of God, and faithful WITNESSES for that WORD, we cannot but couple the phenomena which we have just named with the signs of the times, which the Land and People of Israel show, with that CROWNING SIGN of the introduction of Railways into Asia and Africa. Reading thus "the sure word of prophecy," we cannot but cry aloud to Jews and professing Christians, "The last chapter but one of the roll of prophecy is on its close."

Do we look upon the introduction of Railways into Asia and Africa as the crowning sign of the times? Yes; most assuredly. It is the most important adjunct to the events which concern the next and last chapter

Dan. xii. 4.

* Isaiah i. 9. † Ezek. xx. 32.
John v. 44; 2 Tim. iii. 5; Tit. i. 16. ¶ 1 Tim. iv. 1.

§ Matt. xxi. 12.

in the history of Israel's vicissitudes, prior to their national repentance, reconciliation, and restoration. Isaiah tells us very plainly that, amongst the various locomotives by which Israel is to be brought back, is such a conveyance as modern nomenclature has named "Railway":-" And they shall bring all your brethren, from among all nations, a present unto the LORD, on horses, and in chariots, and pavilioned carriages, upon mules, and upon swift rolling conveyances" [not "swift beasts"], upon my holy mountain, saith the LORD: as the children of Israel shall bring the presentation in a purified vessel into the house of the LORD. And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the LORD. For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD." Moreover, Zechariah's descriptive prediction of the future observance of the Feast of Tabernacles-the only typical festival not having had its typical character illustrated by our Saviour when on earth-intimates just such rapidity of locomotion which the production of railways affords. The following prophecy is freighted with material for the contemplation and meditation of mind, heart, and soul:-" And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem, to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain, there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles."†

The present enterprises in Egypt and Palestine, to introduce railway communications in those Scripture lands, is therefore the CROWNING SIGN OF THE TIMES. The present complications in Egypt, in consequence of the Khedive's most arbitrary seizure of some of the property of the English Railway Company, do by no means alter our convictions respecting the latter days of this dispensation drawing to a close. Though the subject of the untoward conduct of the Viceroy of Egypt has been brought before Parliament towards the end of last session, and has been forming the subject of articles and paragraphs in the Times and other English papers, it is probable that many of our readers are not acquainted with the circumstance. We give, therefore, here an extract from a communication on the subject, forwarded to us by an esteemed correspondent:

*Isa. lxvi. 20-23.

† Zech, xiv. 16-19.

ANTICHRISTIAN AUTOCRACY IN THE EAST!!

DESPOTIC SEIZURE OF BRITISH PROPERTY IN EGYPT.

We are involved in a little war in the Gulf of Guinea; we are drifting towards a difficulty near Cleopatra's Needle; the British flag in Africa seems at a discount, and the rights of Englishmen a matter of small moment.

The Khedive, the ally of England so far as it will help him in a scheme for judicial reform, and a change in the Moslem law of succession to get his eldest son recognised as heir-apparent, is a reformer of the class which "compounds for sins they are inclined to," in the usual manner of such reformers.

The Khedive has recently laid violent hands on some property belonging to the Alexandria and Ramleh Railway, which has, almost since 1864, been running trains through land granted to the Company, a British undertaking, by Mustapha Fazyl Pasha, the late brother of the Khedive.

Mr. Lane, judge of the British Consular Court, accompanied by English employés, scaled the barricade, set up by orders of the Khedive, and erected a staff, on which the British flag was hoisted. The flag was pulled down by Egyptian soldiers, trampled in the mud, and subjected, it is said, to indignities which it is not convenient to mention on paper. Her Majesty's Consul General, Colonel Stanton, obtained from the Khedive a promise that the barricade should be taken down, and the flag rehoisted for twelve hours, but the question of possession was to be referred to arbitration.

Arbitration, however, has no place where a violent seizure of property, duly conveyed to owners, has been committed; and the insult to our flag cannot be said to be wiped out by an undignified compromise, which stipulated only for the rehoisting of it for twelve hours.

Mr. John Miller, M.P. for Edinburgh, has given notice for next session that he will bring the matter before the House of Commons.

It is remarkable that French and American property is always respected in Egypt, although the latter has been despotically threatened by the present Khedive, because he wanted to obtain an American building in Cairo (occupied by Christian women for religious purposes), for his own use. And it is also remarkable, that when, as in this case, violent hands are laid on land the property of Englishmen, because it was inconveniently near to a palace of the Khedive's, our flag is insulted, and the interests of our countrymen referred to arbitration.

We are pretty positive that, had a Prussian, Russian, or French flag been insulted so gratuitously or wantonly, the shifty Moslem would not have been borne with so long as he has been by our long-suffering government. In all probability, foreign legions would already have been at Alexandria, demanding reparation for the injury to the property of subjects of a professedly friendly state, and for insult to the flag of a friendly and powerful ally. Some people may think us visionary, but we are not abashed by reason of men's thoughts; we think it not impossible that some apparently slight circumstance of the kind-an Oriental prince persistently coveting his neighbours' goods,

and trampling under foot their proud flags-may eventually lead to the predicted confederacy of nations round about Jerusalem. When the prediction shall be realised:-" And the LORD shall smite Egypt: He shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and He shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them. In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work my hand, and Israel mine inheritance."* Be the immediate cause what it may, the signs of the times are everywhere sufficiently significant. They must not be disregarded. There is tremendous woe denounced against those who give no heed to them. In a future impression, we purpose, D. V., to give a digest, according to the written word, of the sequel to this chapter.

UNGRATEFUL CHRISTENDOM.

OTH hemispheres have, in the course of last month, made no small display of their Christianity. In this country, the Church of England held an imposing Congress at Bath. In America, the Evangelical Alliance held a most enthusiastic Conference at New York. Both had our heartfelt sympathy; but both have utterly disappointed our most sanguine expectations. We are utterly at a loss how to estimate either at its right value. It is a matter of grave doubt to us whether the promoters, speakers, and habitués at the Congress or Conference put any value themselves on their meetings. We generally prove our estimation of a boon conferred upon us by the gratitude which we feel and express in acknowledgment of the boon. But the Congress and Conference which have recently taken place, and glory in the grandiloquent designations of Church and Evangelical Alliance, have evinced an amount of ingratitude, for which even professedly worldly-minded assemblies would have been scouted. We have scanned in vain the Bath and New York programmes for an item of plan, prayer, or intercession, either in behalf of believing Israel or in behalf of those who have not yet submitted to the righteousness of God. Ye, Promoters of the Congress!-Whence have ye that Church which is justly your glory! Can you forget your own very beautiful and comprehensive prayer, in the form of the following Collect :-" O ALMIGHTY God, who hast built Thy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the head corner-stone; Grant us so to be joined together in unity of

* Isa. xix. 22-25.

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