ISRAEL AND THE WAR.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 82, 5 April 1916, Page 2

ISRAEL AND THE WAR.

PROPHETIC THEORY OF BRI-

TAIN’S SUPREMACY.

A “Churchman,” writing in the “Daily Graphic” says:- V I have been rereading in a sixpenny edition :1 remarkable little book 011 the Lost Tribes by the late Reader Harris_ K.C. In the light of the worldwar it is wonderfully interesting, and we must bear in mind that to/a vast numberof people the war derives its greatest significance from Biblical _prophecy. = The author began his’ inquiry with a desire simply to know the truth; he closed it convinced that the British race contains the descendants of the Ten Tribes. He cites Old Testament prophecies about Israel,iwhich correspond exactly to the p - .

SUPREMACY OF THE BRITISH race. He shows the identifications in these respects: Israel is to colonise the desolate heritages and cause the deserts to blossom as the rose; Israel is to develop into a company of nations; Israel shall be known in history as a nation, which suppresses slavery and tyranny; Israel is to be a maritime people; Israel is to rule Over many nations and to be ruled by none; Israel is to have a separate political existence and to become a great people; Israel is to become heir to the world. To illustrate this argument, take, for example, Genesis xxii. 17 and xxiv.. 60: “Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.” Great Britain holds Gibraltar, which

OPENS THE MEDITERRANEAN to our navies; Malta, a strategical '.base of the first importance; Singapore, the gate of the East; Malacca, Hcng Kong, Aden, the Khyber Pass; and, in addition stretching right across the Atlantic * ana Pacific Oceans, a string of forty-five coaling stations for British ships. Great Britain holds the gates of her enemies in a very remarkable degree. And the prophecy of our sea-power is in Psalm Ixxxix. 25: “I will set his' hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.”

Thrcughcut the author is puirsuing the literal meaning ;of the words of Scripture. “The same God who gave victory to Israel in ;the Red sea gave victory to Uritain against the Spanish Armada and at the battle of ,Vv'ate'rloc'>. In the Prayer Book, in t‘E3:e- liturgy of the Church of Englend, we‘ daily cohfess: ‘lt is God alone who fighteth for us.’ Is there any other. Ira.t'i'ollt possessing in its national ritual

SUCH A declaration; as this?” Most remarkable of all. the prophecies about Israel which, are; £ulfilled by the British race he holds to be the 'Observance of the Sabbath (Ex. xxxi. 16, 17); and he quotes; Dr. Ryle, the iate Bishop of Liverpool, who asserted “without hesitation that the only countries on the face of the globe in’ which you will find a. true observance the Sabbath are Great Britain and her colonies. When I think of the immensity of the British Empire, which literally encircles the earth (and is to grow, in. spite of ourselves, as a result of the' war), and of

OUR INVINCIBILITY —“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper”—l own to finding this [book beautifully inspiring at present. And I say with Reader Harris: “Let us not, like Esau, despise ( our birthright. The supremacy of the British race is not due to any inherent good in us, but. to the sovereign gift of God, who saves us. ' Let us therefore cry: ‘Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name be the glory, for Thy mercy and for Thy truth’s sake.’ ”