ENGLAND AND RUSSIA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5316, 9 April 1878, Page 3

ENGLAND AND RUSSIA.

TO THE EDITOR OB' THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sir, —Willing as X am to comply with “ Bosh's” request and enlarge on the interesting and important Eastern Question in connection with prophecy, I doubt whether you could spare me the space to do the subject justice. I will, however, with yeur permission, as briefly as possible give him and your readers the “clue” with which they will be able with the greatest ease to unravel the apparently tangled gkein of prophecy. Prophecy is unfulfilled history, and above all, true history, which is more than we can say of any history of past events written by an ordinary man. These latter are all invariably written through the medium 0 f the particular colored spectacles worn by the writer—orange, green, blue, and sometimes black. Another thing, “ all Scripture was written for our learning.” We may therefore take it for granted that neither prophecy nor any other portion of the Scriptures was intended' by the Almighty to be a curious enigma; almost impossible of solution. The “ clue” to the whole matter is this,—and it is go simple that one is lost in amazement at the blindness that has hitherto overlooked it,—that

Hid'language used -’by" they prophets -conveys literally their, true meaumg','and does not conceal it. The clergy, to /whom : the people look for spiritual instruction, are wpnt to twist the Old Testament prophecies into all sorts of shapes ; any shape, in fact, but that for which it was literally intended; 1 amt the deeper and more ingenious the subversion of the original text, the more satisfaction it appears to give them, as, for instance, in the case of the clergyman who instructed his congregation that they were not to suppose that when the “ isles," or “isles of the sea," were mentioned in Scripture, land literally surrounded by water was intended ; what was really meant by this figure was the Christian’s heart surrounded by the love of God 1 No one can study the Bible without being wonderfully struck with the glorious temporal and spiritual blessings promised to Israel. The clergy of all denominations make out that by Israel is meant the Church. No doubt there is a spiritual Israel; but there is, and always has been (somewhere) a national Israel, and it is this nation that is to hold Russia in check. AH the blessings promised (prophetically) to Israel have been and are being enjoyed by England. Oh, say the clergy, England is pre-eminently a Christian nation, and these' blessings have been transferred to her ; that is, that God has lied, and that Ho has cast off His chosen people whom He said He never would cast off, and whom St. Paul, by-the-way, said He had not cast off ; and taken in its place a purely Gentile people. God distinctly said that Israel should remain a nation as long as the sun, moon, and stars lasted. These still shine in the heavens, ergo, Israel is still a nation somewhere. Seeing that England fulfils all the conditions by which Israel was to be known, she must be in fact that Power,—that is, the identical nation of Israel which has been lost to political sight for so many centuries. Therefore, ..in studying the. Bible prophecies, Great Britain should be substituted for Israel. Of course it must not be lost sight of that Israel and Judah are two distinct peoples. The prophecies concerning Judah, i.e., the Jews, belong to them and them only, the prophecies concerning Israel belong to Israel and Israel only.—l am, &c., Neutral.