Text from the Colonial Times

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February 23, 1841

Restoration of the Jews

We copy the following extract from the Great Times, which, we think should be as much known as possible :

[The annexed documents have just appeared in a periodical publication, entitled Memorials concerning God’s Ancient People of Israel, and are probably as yet but little known to the world at large]

Memorandum.

To the Protestant Powers of the North of Europe and America. Victoria by the grace of God, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland; Frederick, (William) III., King of Prussia; William (Frederick (Frederich), King of the Netherlands; Charles (John) XIV ,King of Sweden and Norway; Frederick VI., King of Denmark ; Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover ; William, King of Württemberg; The Sovereign Princes and Electors of Germany; the Cantons of the Swiss Confederation professing the Reformed Religion; and the States of North America, zealous for the glory of God; grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ,

HIGH AND MIGHTY ONES,

The Most High God, who ruleth in the kingdoms of men (Dan. iv. 32), by whom kings reign and princes decree justice (Prov. viii. 15), having in these days granted a season of repose to his witnessing church (Acts ix. 31, Rev. xxi. 16), planted in the lands whereof ye are kings and governors (Isaiah xlix. 23) ; the vine of his planting among the Gentiles (Acts xxviii. 28) hath extended her boughs unto the seas and her branches unto the rivers (Isaiah xlix. 6), that now in nearly all the world the gospel of the kingdom is being lifted up as a witness unto all nations (Matt. xxiv. 14), and in the isles afar off. The days are drawing near (Rev. xxiii. 20) when the dominion, and the glory, and the kingdom, with all people, nations, and languages, shall serve Him who cometh in the clouds of heaven (Dan. vii. 14, Rev. i. 7), whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed (Psalm xlv. 6). Blessed be He! He hath given his waiting people to hear the sound of His approaching footsteps, and to mark the signs of His drawing near (I Thess. v. 4). The fig-tree putteth forth her leaves again (Matt. xxvi. 32). Israel’s sons are asking the way to Zion, by which we know that summer is at hand. Blessed are all they that wait (2 Thess. iii. 5), and held fast (Rev. iii. 11), for quickly He cometh. Amen.

In the prospect of the Christian church, of the speedy appearing of her glorified head, the zeal of the Lord’s servants hath been stirred up (Rev. iii. 2) to a multiplied diligence in those labours of faith and love which were devolved upon her (Matt. xxviii. 19) when the Son of God, as a man taking a journey into a far country, bade his servants occupy until he returned again (Luke xix. 13). With other responsibilities, the circumstances of one peculiar people, , whom the Most High hath separated (Gen. iii. 7, Exod. xxxiv.7),and-which covenant no act of theirs, however iniquitous and rebellious, can repeal or destroy (Mal. iii. 6) whom he hath scattered in all lands as witnesses of his unity and power (Isa. xliii.19) connected with whom the welfare of mankind is bound up, and in the lifting up of whose head the most stupendous consequences are made to depend (Rom. xi. 15) are presented at this eleventh hour  for the repentance and faith of Christendom, that the blood of our brethren of the circumcision which has been unjustly shed maybe atoned for in the blood of the Lamb (Matt. iii. 8) in presenting the children of this people continually at the throne of grace (I Pet. ii. 5., Ps. cxxii. 6) for the atoning sacrifice of Christ to  cover them (Joel. ii. 17) and as the Almighty, in His providential appointments, shall make the way plain to present the children of Israel who may be willing to go up (Ps. ox. 3) as an offering to the Lord of Hosts in Mount Zion (Isa. xviii. 7.)

For 300 years the testimony of the churches, planted in the lands over which Almighty God hath made you rulers, hath been lifted up against that apostasy which hath usurped the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in the earth (Rev. xvii. 5, and xviii. 25) daring presumptuously to assert power over nations (Rev. xviii. 7) and over kingdoms, to root up and to pull down, to build, to plant, and to destroy (Dan. vii. 20, Rev. xiii. 2,7). The millstone which shall sink the Great Babylon in the abyss of an unfathomable perdition (Rev. xviii. 21) when her hour arrives (and it is very near 1) with the judgment under which she hath long lain, for being drunken with the blood of the saints and of the martyrs of Jesus (Rev. xvii., 6) shall include the avenging of the wrongs of God’s ancient people (Isa. li. 22, 23) and a terrible account it is; and the issue shall be joy and gladness to the whole earth, for it is written, “Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people; for He avengeth the blood of His servants, and shall render vengeance unto is adversaries, and will be merciful to His land, and to His people. ” (Deut. xxxii. 43). “Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help and the sword of thy excellency; and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread on their high places.” (Deut. xxxiii. 29.)

In the events, on which the eyes of nations are fixed, taking place around, whilst the continuance and stability of your thrones and sway, O kings, is the earnest prayer of the Christian church (I Tim. ii. 2) she cannot but uphold the witness that the days draw nigh, when, under the hallowed sway of Messiah the Prince, the now despised nation of the Jews shall possess the kingdom (Dan. vii. 27) and she directs, with reverential awe, your eye to that mighty empire in the east which is crumbling to the dust, and drying up in all her streams (Rev. xvi. 12) to make way for the event. Palestine hath been a burdensome stone (Zech. xii. 2) unto the followers of the false Prophet (Rev. xvi. 13) as it was to the ancestors of many of you, O Princes, when, under the banners of the Popish Antichrist, their mistaken zeal sought to recover the Holy City from the Saracen’s grasp. But the fullness of the Gentiles is at hand (Rom. xi. 21) and unto Israel the dominion shall return. (Micah iv. 8.)

The apostate Julian sought to plant the children of this people in the seats of their fathers, in despite of that holy faith, one of the external evidences of whose truth was, that their house was left unto them desolate, until they should say, ” Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matt, xxiii., 38, 9). But is it anywhere declared in the word of our God, that the children of Israel, scattered and peeled, humbled and dispirited, impoverished and broken down, should not be presented as an offering in faith to Jehovah of Hosts in Mount Zion?  that there may be pleaded with face to face by the God of their fathers (Ezekiel  xx., 13) that there the veil may be rent (Isaiah xxv. 7) which is over their hearts (2 Cor. iii. 15) that there they may look on him whom they have pierced? (Zech. Xii. 10). Your attention, high and mighty ones, is directed to the recorded fact that such an offering is expected. And before that full and final gathering which follows the judgments poured out on all the earth (Isaiah lxiii. 15, 16, 20) a power, and that power a northern one. (Jer. iii. 12, xxxi., 6, 9, xxiii,, 7, 8 – Isaiah xliii., 6, xlix.. 12) shall be employed to lead a people wonderful from their beginning hitherto – a nation expecting and trampled underfoot – whose land rivers have spoiled, unto the name of the Lord of Hosts in Mount Zion. (Isaiah xviii). These designs and purposes of the Lord God of Israel, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, are declared unto you, high and mighty ones, his servants (Dan. v. 23) that you may ponder them, and know His will, from the voice with which He is about to speak unto nations and unto men (Haggai ii. 6-Isaiah 10) for the time is at hand (Rev.i. 3.)

Your wisdom hath been exercised to mark the boundaries of Kingdoms, and to define the limits of empires; and has not the aggressor overleaped all barriers, and the strength of treaties snapped asunder as tow?  And why?  Because when the Almighty awarded to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel (Deuteron, xxxii. 7, 8). By an unrepealed covenant, the Lord God declared unto Abraham, concerning the land of Palestine, ” Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates” (Genesis xv. 18). This gift was ratified unto him for an everlasting possession, and to his seed after him, when the Almighty gave him his covenant, and changed his name to Abraham (Genesis xvii. 4, 8)”. For the purposes of infinite wisdom fast hastening to maturity, the Lord God hath scattered his inheritance to the four winds of heaven. But hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off. He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock (Jer, xxxi. 10).

As the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia, was stirred up to build the Lord’s Temple, which was in Jerusalem. (2 Chron. xxxvi. 22,23), who is there among you, high and mighty ones of all the nations, to fulfil the good pleasure of the holy will of the Lord of Heaven, saying to Jerusalem, ” Thou shalt be built” and to the temple ” Thy foundation shall be laid?” (Isaiah xliv. 28). The Lord God of Israel be with such. Great grace, mercy, and peace shall descend upon the people who offer themselves willingly; and the free offerings of their hearts and hands shall be those of a sweet-smelling savour unto Him who hath said, “I will bless them that bless thee (Gen. xii. 3), and contend with him who contendeth with thee” (Isaiah xlix. 25).

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

Signed and sealed in London, 8th of January, in the year of our Lord 1839, in the name of the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and of Jacob, on behalf of many who wait for the redemption of Israel.

(Copy 1.)

London, January 22, 1839.

May it please your Majesty – I have the high honor of laying at your Majesty’s feet the accompanying

memorandum relating to the present condition and future pi aspects of God’s ancient people, the Jews.

Your Majesty’s pious feelings, I doubt not, will be excited to give the Scriptural hopes and expectations therein set forth your earnest attention, considering the high station which it hath pleased Almighty God to call this Protestant land to, as the great seat of the Church.

According to the petitions of this peculiar people at a throne of grace, that in your Majesty’s reign “Judah may be saved and Israel dwelt safely,” is the prayer of your Majesty’s dutiful subject and servant.

Her most Gracious Majesty Victoria,

Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.

(Copy 2.)

My Lord

I have the honor of transmitting through your Lordship a document which it is the desire of some of Her Majesty’s subjects should be laid at Her Majesty’s feet, relating to the Scriptural expectations of the church connected with the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, the land of their fathers.

I am induced to solicit your Lordship’s good offices as being the medium of communicating this document to Her Majesty, as the substance of it relates to the present rights of an ally of this country namely, the Sublime Porte.

But I would respectfully press upon your Lordship’s attention, that,  in holding forth the Scriptural hopes of God’s ancient people, those who emanate the accompanying document, never for one moment dream of political force to accomplish the end desired. When the hour comes of Israel’s planting it, doubtless Almighty God will not fail to raise up chosen instruments, who, with willing hands and hearts, shall accomplish the good pleasure of His will.

If we are wrong in the course we have taken to bring this memorandum before Her Majesty, we will be happy to be set right. Should your Lordship on undertake the duty, desiring the glory of God in this matter to be furthered, the Lord God of Israel will not be slack to reward the labour of faith and love proceeding from a desire to honour his name

I have the honour to be, so.

The Rt. Hon. Lord Viscount Palmerston.

LORD PALMERSTON’S ANSWER.

(Copy, No. 3.)

Foreign-office, March 14, 1839.

I have to acknowledge your letter of the 13th of January, enclosing a letter and memorandum from some of Her Majesty’s subjects, who feel deeply interested in the welfare and future prospects of the Jews; and I have to acquaint you, that I have laid those documents before the Queen, and that Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to receive the same.

I am, &c. Palmerston.

(COPY, NO. 4.)

London, January 22, 1839.

[Forwarded from the Hague.]

Sire

At a season at which your Majesty is called upon to assume a defensive attitude against the en-croachments of that system of apostasy which has proved itself hitherto the most determined enemy to the church of our Lord Jesus Christ – having gathered fresh strength from its repose, and audacity from the lawlessness of the age in which we live – it is a privilege, as it is my humble duty, to lay at your Majesty’s feet the accompanying document, which testifies of the approach of Him, who, with the Spirit of His mouth and the brightness of His coming, shall overthrow the Man of Sin, and bring to an issue the  assumption of the church and Court of Rome.

May the Lord God of Heaven strengthen your Majesty’s hands ; may His wisdom and grace richly endow you in the present struggle, and may your Royal house and line be found amongst the number of those who are faithful unto the end, that a crown of life may be your and their joyful exchange for the anxieties and cares which encircle royalty ; in the personal absence of Him upon whose lips grace and truth are poured, and whom the Lord God Almighty hath highly exalted, giving him a name that is above every name – the Prince of the Kings of the Earth.

Sire, with the deepest respect, believe me your Majesty’s dutiful and obedient humble servant.

His Majesty Frederick William, King of Prussia.

The Answer.

(Copy, No. 5.)

La Haye, le 13 Mai, 1839.

Monsieur,

Le Roi, mon auguste maitre, ayant recu la lettre et le memoire que vous avez bien voulu lui addresser, en date du 22 Janviers dernier, et qui lui ete remis par son Ministre Plenipotentiairs pres la Cour Néerlandaise, a daigne charger sa mission á Ja Haye de vous exprimer sa haut reconnaissance.

En m’acquittant de cet ordre, j’ai l’honneur de vous prier Monsieur, de vouloir bien agreer l’assurance de ma consideration distinguee.

Le Chargé d’Affaires de Prusse,

Comte De Westphalen.

Monsieur (Left Blank), Londre.

Letters of similar tenour follow, addressed to the Kings of Sweden, Hanover, Denmark, the Netherlands, Wurtemberg, and the President of the United States, to which no answers are appended.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

SIR,

Every right-minded person must feel gratified at the general expression of interest in the Jewish nation which has been elicited by the recent sufferings of their brethren at Damascus. It is to be hoped that the public feeling will not be allowed to evaporate in the mere expression of sympathy, but that some effectual measures may be adopted to prevent a recurrence of these atrocities, not merely in our own times, but in generations yet to come. We must not forget, when giving utterance to our indignation at the late transactions in the east, that but few centuries have passed since our country was the scene of similar enormities on a far larger scale. What reader of English history does not recall with shame and sorrow the wholesale tortures, executions, and massacres of the Jews who had sought shelter here, or who can estimate the amount of property seized and confiscated, or the number of hearts wrung by the endless repetition of cruelty and injustice? If in England they have till lately been thus treated, how can they look for more security elsewhere?  Instead of wondering that they should become sordid and debased, the only cause for surprise is that any should rise to intelligence and respectability. Subject to the caprice and cruelty of any nation among whom they may dwell, fleeing from the persecutions of one only to meet with like treatment from another, having no city of refuge where they can be in safeguard, no single spot to call their own, they are in a more pitiable condition than the Indian of the forest, or the Arab of the desert.

“The wild bird hath her nest, the fox his cave, Mankind their country, Israel but the grave.”

Is this state of things always to continue? They think not. Though many hundreds of years of hope deferred might have been enough to quench the anticipations of the most sanguine, they still hope on, and turn with constant and earnest longing to the land of their forefathers. Their little children are taught to expect that they shall one day see Jerusalem. They purchase no landed property, and hold themselves in readiness at a few hours’ notice to revisit what they and we tacitly agree to call ” their own land.” It is theirs by a right which no other nation can boast, for God gave it to them, and though dispossessed of it for so many ages, it is still but partially peopled, and held with a loose hand and a disputed title by a hostile power, as if in readiness for their return.

There are political reasons arising from the present aspect of affairs in Russia, Turkey, and Egypt, which would make it to the interest not only of England but of other European nations, either by purchase or by treaty, to procure the restoration of Judea to its rightful claimants. About a year since, I heard it said by a German Jew, that a proposal had some time before been made by our (then) Government to the late Baron Rothschild, that he should enter into a negociation for this purpose, and that he declined, assigning as a reason, “Judea is our own; we will not buy it, we wait till God shall restore it to us.”  The desirableness as well as the possibility of such a step seems daily to become more evident, but England has lately proved that she needs no selfish motives to induce her to discharge a debt of national honour and justice, or to perform an act of pure benevolence.

The one now suggested would not, judging, from appearances, cost 20,000,000 of money, or be unaccomplished after 50 years of exertion, or be so vast and so laborious an undertaking as the extinction of slavery throughout the world. It would be a noble thing for a Christian nation to restore these wanderers to their homes again. It would be a crowning point in the glory of England to bring about such an event. The special blessings promised in the Scriptures to those who befriend the Jews would rest upon her, and her sons and daughters would sit down with purer enjoyment to their domestic comforts when they thought that the persecuted outcasts of so many ages had, through their agency, been replaced in homes as happy and secure as theirs.

Hoping that some master mind may be led to take up this subject in all its bearings, and to form some tangible plan for its accomplishment, and that some Wilberforce may be raised up to plead for it by all the powerful and heart-stirring arguments of which it is capable,

I am, Sir, your obedient servant.

An English Christian