The kingdom of Israel...

Front matter

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Preface

The first of the two chapters of "The Western Star of Empire" was very hastily written thirteen years ago, and handed to a copyist without revision, and it now appears as first penciled, and is not at all what it should have been from the abundant Bible material at hand. The subiect has not had justice done it by us, and we simply add here that all the Western movements are God-ward in the Empire of Israel, and hence have ever been exalting, or elevating and advancing to the nation, while all of her Eastern movements have been into captivity and degredation. All of her various captivities have been to the nations immediate to the East of her, and hence all of her various deliverances and restorations have been in movements from the East to the West. This first chapter is purely historic. The second chapter, more recently written, is prophetic in its materials and comes down to a verification, in historic fulfillment, up to this hour, with the infant nation hid away in or under a despotism.

We follow "The Western Star of Empire," as seen in its two chap ters, with an exhaustive exposition of the prophecy of Obadiah, as strictly applicable to the same, in chapters I, IV and V. And then the preface and exposition of the seals, trumpets and vials, arranged in chapters to itself, follow as part second of this small volume, No. 2.

CHAPTER II. The Seals, Trumpets and Vials of Revelation, . . 76

The First Seal, 77

The First Trumpet, 79

The Fir>t Vial, 8a

X CONTENTS.

CHAPTER III. p AGE .

The Second Seal, Trumpet and Vial, .... 82

The Second Seal, ......... 82

The Second Trumpet, ........ 82

The Second Vial, . 8$

CHAPTER IV. The Third Seal, Trumpet and Vial, .... 85

The Third Seal, . . . . . . . . 85

The Third Trumpet, ........ 85

The Third Vial, 86

CHAPTER V. The Fourth Seal, Trumpet and Vial, .... 88

The Fourth Seal, 88

The Fourth Trumpet, « 89

The Fourth Vial, . . . . . . . . . 89

CHAPTER VI. The Fifth Seal, Trumpet and Vial, 100

The Fifth Seal, 100

The Fifth Trumpet, 103

The Fifth Vial, 105

The "Beast from the Pit," 106

« CHAPTER VII.

The Sixth Seal, Trumpet and Vial, 108

The Sixth Seal, . 108

Unclosing the Sixth Seal, . . . . . „ . 109

Sealing or Marking of Israel's Tribal Host in Seal Sixth, . 114 The Sixth Trumpet an Exponent of the Seal Six, . . .120

The Little Book Episode, ....... 129

Length of the One Thousand Two Hundred and Sixty Days

of Sackcloth Teaching, . . . . . . . 137

Length of Three and a Half Days, or Death Period of the Witnesses, ■. 138

Sodom and Egypt, and Their Street, 139

Indignity to and Rejoicing of the " Beast From the Pit"

Over the Dead Israel of God, or the Two Witnesses, . . 141

The Rise of the Two Witnesses, etc., 150

Of Whom do the Sealed Israel, Seventh Chapter, Consist ? . 153

The Sixth Vial, 157

CONTENTS. »

CHAPTER VIII. PAGB . The Seventh Seal, Trumpet and Vial, . . • . 163

The Seventh Seal, or Third and Last Woe, • . . .163

The Seventh Trumpet, ,163

The Seventh Vial, . . , ^ . • . , 164

PART I.

THE WESTERN STAR OF EMPIRE.

THE WESTERN STAR OF EMPIRE

Chapter I

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PURELY HISTORIC.

" Westward the course of empire takes its way, The first four acts already passed, The fifth shall close the drama with the day, • Time's noblest offspring is the last."

Bishop Berkeley.

We propose to change Bishop Berkeley's lines above, to make them harmonize with prophetic and historic utterances.

u Westward the star of empire takes its way, The first four acts already passed ; The fifth and sixth will each demand a day, Time's noblest child — the seventh and last."

This is not exactly the language of inspiration, but does not inspiration teach us that the " Star of Empire, " under the direction and sanction of God, has ever been from East to West, diverging to the right and left as she advances ? We think so. We learn in the very beginning of the population of the earth, which looked, of course, to a universal civil empire, as population should seem to necessitate organic civil fabrics, that its first settlement was declared to be " Eastward in Eden." Gen. ii, 8. That is, "Eden" was a country, known as such; a section of the earth with definite limits, of East, West, North and South ; for " Eden " was a part only of the earth and stood as severed from all other

4 WESTERN STAR OE EMPIRE.

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parts, or as distinct in its definement with its proper meets and boundaries, and consequently had an eastern border and boundary, and, also, northern, southern and western ones ; and upon this eastern border was planted the " Garden of Eden " in which garden the first pair were placed. Mind you, the la?id or country of Eden was one thing and the garden was another, but within the former. And this garden or first settlement, being located " Eastward in Eden," has also its limits ; has its eastern and western, northern and southern boundaries, and, also, a point of entrance for its settlers to pass in at and take possession. And when God introduces them to their garden home, he does so through an Eastern gate and the only one the garden had, so far as we are informed. This garden being a type of the world^ the world, like it, is defined by the terms, East, West, North and South, and, like it, must have a beginning point for its settlement, from which it moves, not in radiating lines of population to every point of the compass, but in some given direction, radiating to the right and left; and this direction must have been East or West, for North or South it could not have been, since their frozen regions forbid the girdling of the globe with population in either one of these directions. East or West, therefore, it must have been with the liberty and law of radiation, North and South as far as climate would permit, and as to whether East or West the movement was to be made, we think there can be no controversy, since the only entrance to the type, or garden, was from the East, and if so the same is true of the earth. In other words, the eastern entrance, or gate of the garden, was the gate to the whole earth, for while, the garden was a type of the earth, yet was it also a part of the earth, and hence the gate of the type was the gate of her antitype, the world.

As it is not directly asserted that the garden had but one gate, and that this one was in the East, it may be asked why do we so assert? We answer that as " God placed at the East of the garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword to keep or guard the way to the tree of life," that this proves most satisfactorily that there was but one "way" to the tree, and that way was from the East, and hence the East only needed to be guarded. This we deem will suffice to establish the fact that the entrance to the garden was from the East, and that all of the garden was west of the line of the gate, and that God purposed thus to type the settlement of the earth by the sons of Seth, who is called the " Son of God," given in the room of Abel, whom Cain slew. As to Cain's branch of the family, they were never called the " Softs of God."

Now mark ! As the land or country of Eden was the first defined land, as occupied by the human race, we conclude that it was the purpose of heaven to first populate that country, and in the second place, as the settlement began " Eastward in Eden," as it multiplied and advanced it must advance towards the West; for if it moved East it would necessarily pass out of Eden into the land of Nod, or vagabondism, which bounded Eden on the East. Gen. iv, 1 6. This last supposed movement was most evidently not the purpose of Deity, for since He begins his settlement of man in a country designated " Eden," we gather from this that His purpose was to occupy with man that country first. To which land, as a whole, from the "garden " in the East, the population must go West, bearing North and South as it advances. The simple fact of Adam and Eve being thrust out of the garden does not change their locality as to the country, for they evidently settled themselves in the immediate vicinity of the garden. Hence we learn that a flaming sword guarded the gate of the garden to prevent their return to the same. If this sinning pair had dwelt elsewhere, there was no need of guarding the way to the tree of life. And in further evidence of the designs of God, that is His design, that the population out of which His civil empire was to arise and move on should be from East to West, we learn that when Cain, by his civil act of murder, forfeited his civil rights in the household, he was rejected, cursed and sent Eastward into the adjoining land of Nod, thus separating the two households of elected and rejected seed; separating the cursed seed of Cain from the population out of whom God designed civil empire to arise.

The cursed and rejected seed of Cain moves East, in his population, into the land of vagabondism, that could not expect civil empire under God, since none was promised, while " the Sons of God " or elected seed move West. Out of this cursed and rejected seed of vagabonds no civil empire, acknowledging God as their author, was ever to arise in the East, and none such has arisen ; while the uncursed seed of Seth, or " Sons of God,'* who was given a civil seed in the room of Abel, whom Cain slew, populated in their Eastern beginning, and, pressing to the West, approach an empire not to be attained before the flood. Yet the movement West, in opposition to the rejected vagabond Eastward movement, clearly indicates that this Western tending seed was ultimately to take root in the West in empire. We shall see if this be correct. The flood coming in, cuts off the cursed and uncursed races of Cain and Seth, leaving only a reproducing seed in the house of Ham on the one hand, and the houses of Shem and Japheth on the other. The cursed seed of Cain,, in the person of Canaan, found in the house of Ham, was not now territorially separated from the seed of Shem and Japheth, but was cursed with bond-service to the races of Shem and Japheth, and thus joined (not united) to them as an inferior race. They are he?iceforth as servants, inseparable from the other two races. First, as bond-servants to Shem, out of whom civil empire was first to rise, and whom the scepter of empire passes into the hands of Japheth, then

Canaan was to be his servant. The family of man populating after the flood, begins to move from East to West. Gen. ii, i, " And it came to pass as they journeyed from the East that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt, or settled, there."

Thus in this second populating of the earth, as in the first, they move from th^ East to the West, as they increase.* The races, not now-separated territorially, as at the time Cain was cursed and sent East into the land of Nod, but kept together as master and servant ; the one as civilly superior and the other as civilly inferior. This is enough to show the natural tendency under the law of God to move from any known center of beginning towards the West, as population demands room for expansion ; and also to show the changed relationship between the cursed seed of Cain, in the house of Ham, and the uncursed seed, in the houses of Shem and Japheth. At first they were cursed as inferiors, and territorially separated by sending one East and the other West. But after the flood the curse of bond-service is fixed on the Cainites, and hence they remain with Shem and Japheth as servants. We notice in the further developed purpose of God to establish a civil empire tending West, that he separates Abraham, a son of Shem, to whom the promise was first made, from the rest of that family, for the express purpose of building up in him his designed, civil, organic body, sending him from Chaldea, due West into the land of Canaan. Gen. xii, 1-5. And Abraham takes with him in his journeyings west, his nephew, Lot, who, however, was not to form any part of the said empire ; and upon a difference between the herdmen or servants of Lot, and those of Abraham, Abraham saw the necessity of separating himself from Lot, and magnanimously gave to Lot the choice of departing to the right-hand or to the left, while he would necessarily take the opposite direction from that chosen by Lot. Abraham was called from the East to the West, and Lot, as was God's purpose in regard to the non-elected seed, " journeyed East," while Abraham, the elected seed, set his face to the West (Gen. xiii, 9-12), each one taking with him his legitimate bond-servants of the house of Ham. Thus again and again the elected seed of empire moves West, while Lot, the father of the Moabites and Ammonites — that ever represents central despotisms — moves East among the corrupt Sodomites. We follow this elected Abrahamic family, and after a time find in it again persons not designed to form a part of God's civil empire. He has twelve sons by Keturah, and also a son by Hagar, while in Sarah's only son, Isaac, did the election stand. Abraham's gentile children of civil bondage — not personal bondage as slaves — must not be heirs with Isaac of civil things. Hence, we learn that a separation in his family was necessary in order that the two seeds, the one superior and the other inferior, civilly considered, should not live together on terms of equality.

Abraham had at this time very many bond-servants in his house; these he does not separate and send away from his son Isaac, for they were known not to be anything else than the servants of Isaac, and in no civil sense his associates or equals. While Isaac's numerous brethren by Keturah and Hagar were not servants, yet they were not Isaac's civil equals ; hence the necessity of separating them from Isaac, while the bond-servants remain in his family. Thus we learn in Gen. xxv, 6, that ''Abraham gave gifts unto his sons by the concubines, and sends them away from Isaac, his son, eastward into the East country" This necessitated Isaac's movement to the West, as his family expanded, showing most clearly that the civilly elected seed of empire, in every ins twee, move to the W T est, while the civilly rejected seed move to the East. Is not this remarkable ? Who sq> blind as not to see design or purpose in these various movements of the rejected seed to the East, and the elected seed to the West ?

We will now pass at once to the long-promised and expected civil empire that arose under the God of heaven in the family of Abraham, a son of Shem. We find that the Israelites came to the borders of their land, promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob on the East, and there, on their eastern border, on the East side of Jordan, "towards sunrising," three tribes, or states, first settle as organic civil fabrics, viz. : Reuben, Gad and Manasseh ; and subsequently, ten tribes or states pass over, from the East to the West, entering the promised land near its center from North to South, and from thence they move westward, conquering and occupying the land to the North and South until all the land of promise is organized into civil fabrics in severalty, as states, but one empire — one nation made up of a company of nations. Thus " the nation " was " a company of nations " as promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

In going from Egypt to Canaan there was a much shorter and a far less difficult route of travel than the one adopted by Moses, who moved as God indicated; and by this shorter route the Red Sea, and the Jordan, both, would have been avoided, and also the hostile nations through which they passed, and would have brought the children of Israel to their southern instead of their eastern border, from which they could have gone on northward instead of westward in conquering and settling their land. .But this would not have served the purpose of God, for He designed that His "Star of Empire " should move from East to West. Hence, the people ; as a people inorganic, not a nation, must be brought by a very circuitous and very difficult route to the center of their eastern border; and here, in the East, to begin the founding and building of their empire, so that in progressing it might press to the West, radiating to the North and South, so as to embrace from the eastern beginning all the land of promise.

Was there no purpose or design of Deity in all this ? Some one may undertake to say there was a good and sufficient reason why the Children of Israel should have been brought the difficult and indirect route of travel to the Jordan that they were, and not the one we have assigned, either. They will say that it was for the purpose of training and educating them under Moses for the forty years in the wilderness, so that they should be thoroughly disciplined and in every way ready to be organized into the national form promised to Abraham. They forget that after the short halt at Sinai, and the giving of the law, they move on directly and with some degree of celerity to the eastern border of their future home, and send out twelve men as spies to view out the land and make necessary observations preparatory to a formal and safe movement across the Jordan to take possession of the same; and the only reason why they did not then do so was rebellion on their part against their God, for which he then turned them back into the wilderness to wander and be wasted for forty years. God's purpose was to have put them in possession of their land at once, but they would not yield obedience to him, and hence the forty years, so-called " training in the wilderness," was a forty years wasting away of rebels.

But again : since this Abrahamic, Shemitic empire, that arose on the Jordan, has passed away without accomplishing that which we have every reason to believe was God-designed, by organizing civil fabrics in His economy of governing earth, may we not be — nay, are we not — compelled to receive this Shemitic empire as only a type or forerunner of the empire that was to arise under the enlarged Japheth, when or after Japheth took possession of or " dwelt in the tents of Shem ?" — ever remembering that Shem must cease in empire when Japheth was in possession of ShenCs tents, and also bearing in mind that when Canaan became the servant of Japheth, he was no longer the servant of Shem ? And if the Shemitic empire that arose on the Jordan, was but a type of Japheth's superior empire, then the land of Palestine was as much a type as the nation that there arose and passed away. If so, Palestine was typical of nothing less than North America.

I believe there is no diversity of opinion among prominent expositors as to the typical character of the Hebrew or Shemitic economy, and hence of the typical character of the land of Canaan. If the government was but a type, then her land was but a type; for land types land, as government types government; office types office, as kingdom types kingdom ; and priest types priest, and prophet types prophet. This is a rule from which there is vio departing, for we find that blood types blood, and sacrifice types sacrifice, and so on, typing ever in kind of the after antitype, and never deviating from it. Then, are we not warranted in looking for a Japhetic confederate empire to arise in modern times, corresponding to its type in *he ancient Shemitic house ? To arise in the West — that is, west of her type in the Shemitic or Hebrew house ; and to arise in thirteen States, as the type arose in thirteen States ? And to arise or take root on the eastern border of her empire, as she did ? And taking root in the East, to press — as did her type — to the West, bearing North and South until she touches " the uttermost sea ? " We are not only warranted in looking for a Japhetic empire to arise in the West in modern times, marked as above indicated, but we are compelled to do so ! or else never to expect the blessing pronounced by Noah upon Japheth to be realized, as no one will claim that Japheth's blessing as the successor of Shem was or could have been met under the Shemitic economy. And have we not in modern times, in answer to the major demands of prophecy, the history " known and read of all men " of a confederate empire of thirteen States, arising under God, of Japhetic blood, in the west, senttout from the east? And arising first — in point of time — as did the ancient type on the eastern border of her territory, she has gone out westward, bearing North and South, a " Star of Empire" from her thirteenth beginning, to a number now not definitely known to the writer, in her disrupted condition.

From her eastern origin and her later eastern beginning in " 76," she has necessarily tended Westward, until the shores of " the uttermost sea " is populated with her sons of progress. And from the Pacific shores she is stretching out her sounding lines to the "isles of the sea," and will eventually, on and on to the West, till the wilds of Asia are subdued and brought in, and on to her ancient starting place as a type on the Jordan, and thence westward to her own eastern border and beginning in 1776, as the grand antitype and realization of ail that was promised of civil empire to Abraham and his seed, or the " sons of faith." But to arrive at this grand major, held out by the hand of ancient prophecy, we shall have to consider a sequel to the whole prior and minor fulfillment of prophecy. That is, there is a minor and major fulfillment in the Japhetic empire of 1776, while the Japhetic empire is the antitype or major of Shem's, who was minor. There must be a grand successor or major and final step that leads to a culmination " of all that was promised of civil empire to the seed of faithful Abraham." To this grand finale we shall now address our consideration, for since the Japhetic empire that arose in 1776 has been sadly disturbed and *" divided against herself " we are compelled to look for another point in the realization of the promises to the ancient fathers. i( Divided she has faVen! f She is not zvhat she was, and has been, since her beginning in " 76." So to " reconstruct " or re-confederate, as we first confederated under the starting out in " 76," we must have a starting place in time and in locality. And as " the Western Star of Empire" has ever been from eastern beginnings to western culminations, we are warranted in looking for an eastern beginning of the empire of Japheth in its sequence or major final. For this we shall not look in vain, for true to her established law of ever beginning on the eastern border of her territory to found an empire, we find her in 1861 laying the first foundation stone near the center of her extreme Eastern border — "extreme Eastern border" of the territory out of which the confederate compact in building. West was to arise. It began in South Carolina and ran west until Texas, the extreme western or 7th stone, was built in. And this formed, the "seven-stoned," or "seven-horned" empire stood forth as the sequel in its beginning of the Japhetic antitypical " Western Star of Empire." This necessary new beginning of the Japhetic antitypical; empire of God, and its ultimate triumphs over all previous empires, is given us in various prophecies in a more or less complex form, some short and concise, and others prolix and intricate, and to the uninitiated unintelligible; but perhaps in no place more plainly and forcibly set forth or in fewer words than in the prophecy of Obadiah.

But before we take up the prophecy of Obadiah we will consider one of the most thrilling and eloquent utterances, taken as a whole, that is to be found in the Bible,, and having direct reference — in its last division — to our " latter-day" Israel, last above noticed. By consulting chapters xxii, xxiii and xxiv of Numbers, the whole history. of the prophecy will be found.

Chapter II. Prophetic And Historic

Balak, the King of Moab, in this prophecy, is evidently a representative character as a king of despotisms or centralized governments, and stands as at war with the Israelitish theory of government, hence his opposition to the founding of the Israelitish empire. Such a form of government had not as yet been known on earth. None, save such as Nimrod had founded at Babylon, as the father of all subsequent centralized governments, had existed ; and now that God is about to found an anti-centralized nation, Balak, as a representative character, becomes alarmed for centralized governments. " He had seen all that Israel had done to the Amorites, and similar nations to that of Moab, and he was sore afraid of the people of Israel, because they were many, and he was distressed because of the Children of Israel. And he said unto his elders, now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field." — Numbers, chapter xxii. Here this representative of centralism is shown to be greatly *' distressed and sore afraid " for his form of government. Not only for his own government of Moab, but for all similar governments, for he says : " Now shall this company lick up all the nations that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field." He saw in the establishment of this non-centralized government, the inevitable overthrow of king's dominion over the people. He trembled at the idea of a government, whose people, as individuals, were the sovereigns, and as such would order the government so as to result in the greatest good to the greatest numbers, and whose executive officers were the servants of the people and not the people the servants of despots, as in the case of Moab and all similar governments. In alarm and great haste, with rewards of divination in their hands, he sends messengers to the prophet, Balaam, to come and curse this dreaded people of Israel, for he said he knew that whomsoever Balaam would bless was blessed, and that whomsoever he should curse would be cursed. Balaam comes and Balak took him up to a high place, that from thence he might see the utmost of Israel. And seeing them he says: " How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed ; or, how shall I defy whom God hath not defied ? For from the top of the rocks I see Him and from the hills 1 behold Him. Lo ! the people shall dwell alone and shall 11 t be reckoned among the nations"

And why not " reckoned among the nations ? " Because all other nations are centralized nations, and are by the representative nations of centralism in Daniel numbered one, two, three and four, and being sub-divided at different times are numbered from one to ten variously. And commentators and expositors have erroneously numbered the stone kingdom of Daniel, " cut out of the mountain without hands," as number five, following Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom, number four, as if the stone kingdom set up by the God of heaven, should be numbered or " reckoned " among the centralized nations of Balak. Balaam says above, that Israel shall not be reckoned among the nations of whom Moab was a type. This vision of prophecy, as cited above, we hold as referring directly to the Israel then and there about to arise under Joshua as its first president, but as that Israel was typical, and as such passed away after a five hundred years' reign, a new organization takes place under David as Judah's head. Now to this second