The house of Jacob is the house of Israel, of whom the Jews are a conspicuous part. The text announces a cessation of national trial which did not begin to fulfill until during the late century.

Their troubles have been long standing, beginning as they did in the times of Isaiah when the ten tribes were carried away. Later the Jews were driven into Babylon. They have never been restored to their ancient heritage nor have regained their departed glory. Only in recent years has the first semblance of liberty been accorded them.

Of the trials and sufferings of the Jews since their rejection of the gospel we may briefly summarize.

Routed by the Romans, they were besieged in Jerusalem and passed through such horrors as had not been, "nor ever shall be." Over a million perished in the shambles of that slaughter. Reduced to starvation, they actually ate of their offspring. Overthrown at last, their city was destroyed and their adorable temple burned to the ground. With the perishing of Salem-city of peace, perished also the last vestige of Judaite dominion.

The remnants of that ruined race were banished from the land or else sold as slaves for a foreign mart. Their treatment from this time henceforth was terrible.

The Emperor Constantine, suppressing a revolt among them, cut off their ears and dispersed them as vagabonds to different countries. In the fifth century they were expelled from Alexandría, which had long been one of their safest places of resort. Justinian abolished their synagogues and prohibited them from even entering into caves for the exercise of their worship. He rendered their testimony inadmissible and deprived them of the natural right of bequeathing their property.

Mahomet, whose influence has prevailed over millions, infused within the minds of his followers a spirit of the utmost animosity against the unbelieving Jews. He set an early example of active persecution against them, besieging their castles, banishing them from the country, and parting their property among the Mussul

mans.

Romanism, which with Mohammedanism constituted the upper and nether millstones of persecution, served them no better. Enjoining her subjects to have no dealings with the Jews, she prohibited them from holding public office. She appointed them to be distinguished by a mark, and decreed that their children should be taken from them and brought up in monasteries.

They were expelled from Spain to the extent of one hundred and seventy thousand families. For them it was conversion, imprisonment, or banishment.

In France a similar fate awaited them. Philip Augustus released all Christians in his dominions from their debts toward the Jews, reserving a fifth part to himself; and afterwards drove them from the country. Saint Louis twice banished them and twice recalled them, and Charles VI finally expelled them from the nation. From that country they were seven times banished. It was the custom at

Toulouse to smite them on the face every Easter, to which the people were regularly instigated by a sermon from the bishop.

At Verdun, Treves, Mentz, Spires, and Worms, many thousands were pillaged and massacred.

Christian England treated them as others. In a single instance, at York, fifteen hundred Jews, including women and children, were refused all quarter, could not purchase their lives at any price. Frantic with despair they perished by mutual slaughter, each father becoming the murderer of his family when death was the only deliverance. So universally hated were they that the barons, to become popular, ordered seven hundred of the Jews to be slaughtered, their houses to be plundered, and their synagogues to be burned. This was in Henry the Third's time. Kings Richard, John, and Henry III robbed them right and left; and Edward I, completing their misery, seized all their property and banished them from the country. Nearly four centuries elapsed before their return.

Saracen, Saxon, Norman, Dane, and Briton seemed to vie with each other in their efforts to plunder and persecute this muchabused race.

But their night is over. The reign of terror has passed, and with it the day of deliverance has dawned. No longer lament they in the morning, "Would to God it were even, and in the even, Would to God it were morning."-Deuteronomy 28: 67. Jacob's face does not now wax pale.

All nations accord them the fullest liberty, save possibly wretched Russia; and even there the fetters are breaking.

They have found their way into the foremost positions of the nations and have proved themselves sagacious in statesmanship and dextrous in diplomacy. The arts and sciences they have embellished and none have excelled them in the financial field.

It is said that five of the bishops and over three hundred of the clergy of the Church of England are Jews or are of Jewish descent. The continental press of Europe, and many of the leading journals of science and philosophy, are controlled by the Jews; while the foremost professional chairs of the great universities are occupied by this rising race, no less than seventy in Germany being so held. As linguists, as critics, as philologists, archæologists, political economists, mathematicians, and historians, Jewish names are highly distinguished; while among musicians we have Mendelssohn, Halevy, Meyerbeer, Rossini, Julius Benedict, Grisi, and all the Strauss family. "On a recent occasion no less than twenty-one Jews were decorated with the order of the Legion of Honor in France, though the Jews in that country number only 60,000 in a population of 37,000,000."-Guinness' Light for the Last Days, p. 197.

During the past ten years twenty-five of Hebrew origin have been elected members of the British Parliament, of whom twelve professed the faith of their fathers; and at the recent general election there were twenty Jewish candidates, of whom twelve were elected by large majorities.-Prophetic News, vol. 4, p. 256, 1880.

Well may they sing, then, that beautiful song found in the Jewish book of praise:

Hail, all hail mysterious nation,
Lot of God's inheritance!
Sad though long thy situation,
See a brighter day advance.

Clouds and storms have overspread thee,
Tossed thy bark, disheveled, torn;
But the hand that chastened, led thee-
Sink, thou could'st not, by it borne.

Did God's vengeance overtake thee?
'Twas in sorrow, not in hate;
Still he purposes to make thee
Above all other nations great.

Emanci

All this change has come in the nineteenth century. pation was bestowed upon the sons of Jacob in 1830. The following from Ridpath will signify:

It is difficult for a man of to-day who has the English language as his birthright and the principles of English liberty as his bulwark, to understand the bitter, causeless, unreasoning prejudices of race which still held from the exercise of human rights, at so late a period of British history, so large and influential a class of people as the Jews. It seemed as though a considerable portion of the legislation and jurisprudence had been specially contrived for the oppression and distress of the Jewish race. As late as 1830, almost all the rights of citizenship were positively denied to Jewish suujects. No office, civil, military or corporate could be held by a Jew. The profession of law, whether as barrister or attorney was closed against him. A Jew was forbidden to teach school, and might not even serve as janitor of a school building! He was interdicted from voting, and was, of course, excluded from membership in either House of Parliament. It is almost inconceivable that the mere bar of race descent should have been made the instrument of such degradation and oppression; and the wonder is still greater that the measures which were from time to time brought forward for the removal of the load with which every Jew was encumbered, should have been met with violent opposition even in the House of Commons.

After the year 1830, however, the question of reform would not down. Bills were introduced at every session for Jewish emancipation, and at length public sentiment rallied to the cause.-History of the World, vol. 15, p. 373. Once again the year 1830 looms up in history as a jubilee of liberty to Israel and the church,-"glorious season"!

We are now quite prepared to determine the time intended for the advent of the sealed book. It is nestled among the mountains of latter day events. The several divisions of the grand army of the restoration arrive about the same time. First and foremost we see the "ensign"; it occupies the van. Immediately follows the church, attended by the liberation of the Jews, succeeded by the restoration of Palestine and a return of its outcasts to their long forsaken land.

Surely, then, in the light of such luminous events there are none but what will see the "ensign" of the Lord.

NATURE OF THE BOOK.

Of the nature and character of this sacred book, that will be determined from the results which follow its forthcoming. It appears to be a doctrinal work, one which will correct whatever of religious error exists, supplanting it with a proper understanding. "They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine."-Isaiah 29: 24.

It will appeal to a class of malcontents who, by reason of superior insight, have grown dissatisfied with everything in the shape of religion, "And they that murmured shall learn doctrine."

Indeed, it will appeal unto all classes who stand in need of help:

In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.-Isaiah 29: 18, 19.

Further information concerning its character will be disclosed in Ezekiel :

A RECORD OF THE HOUSE OF JOSEPH.

The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: and join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these? say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. -Ezekiel 37: 15-21.

The performance required of the prophet was certainly singular. It was more than that,-it was symbolical. The mere writing on two sticks and joining them together was in itself meaningless, hence some other fact was suggested. This symbolic style of communication was frequently used by the prophets, particularly when great and important truths were to be revealed.

It was Agabus who took Paul's girdle and, binding himself therewith, dramatically said, "Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles."-Acts 21: 11. Paul had been previously admonished by the Spirit not to go to Jerusalem; and it is but natural that his second admonition partook of increased impressiveness. The great image that stood before Daniel in a dream of a night vision, portrayed prophetic facts of national and world-wide consequence to the remotest end of time. Little wonder, then, that Israel, seeing the performance with these sticks, prayerfully asked, "Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these?"

Their request was granted. An answer was made:

Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.

The people evidently were satisfied, since no further questioning was made and no further explanation was offered. To them it was perfectly clear.

As a matter of fact, this was a very ordinary reference to the

style of book-making in those days. They wrote upon parchments, preserving them rolled upon sticks:

Roll. A book in ancient times consisted of a single long strip of paper or parchment, which was usually kept rolled upon a stick, and was unrolled when a person wished to read it.-Smith's Bible Dictionary, Peloubet ed., p. 566.

The king being impatient to know the contents, the scribe begins to read immediately and as the books of the time were written upon long scrolls, and rolled upon a stick, the latter part of the book would come first.-History of the Holy Bible, John Kitto, D. D., F. S. A., p. 403.

The "stick of Judah" would signify some record of national interest and importance. That record was the Bible. It records the history of Judah's rule in Palestine until Jesus came. The other tribes had long since been dispersed or else swallowed up in Judah's imperial glory: there was none left but the tribe of Judah. (2 Kings 17: 18.)

To them the Lord ministered his word by prophet and priest, for it was decreed, "the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come."-Genesis 49: 10. Through long centuries of trial and tribulation they were the only people to receive and preserve for us the Holy Bible. Of them our Savior was born, and to them he directed his personal preaching. It was from among the Jews he selected the ministry of the New Testament.

Whatever respect, therefore, is owing the mother that gave birth to the Bible, is due to the Jew, who amid much labor and sorrow, brought forth salvation unto the Gentiles.

Understanding the signification of the "stick of Judah," it will be an easy matter to sense the meaning of the "stick of Joseph." It is another record of a similar nature, an inspired book.

Its importance is further evidenced by the fact that it will ultimately be joined to the Bible, uniting with it in the great work of redeeming Israel-"join them together into one stick." It will contain rare treasures of truth, for unto Ephraim were written "the great things of my law" (Hosea 8: 11), and God himself shall bring it forth. The time of its introduction is suggested in the event associated with its forthcoming. (Verse 21.) The gathering of Israel to their own land is alluded to, and this has already begun. It commenced in the last century. How beautifully this blends with the circumstances accompanying the delivery of the sealed book spoken of by Isaiah!

The announcement that God has given other records than the Bible ought not to startle us. He has given many such, but owing to carelessness and other causes they have been lost.

Reference is made in the Bible to the following absent books: Book of Jasher; Book of Nathan, the Prophet; Book of Gad, the Seer, Prophecy of Ahijah; Visions of Iddo, the Seer; Book of Shemaiah, the Prophet; Book of Jehu; Epistle to the Laodiceans; Epistle to the Corinthians; other gospels; Prophecy of Enoch; and many other books. (2 Samuel 1: 18; 1 Chronicles 29: 29; 2 Chronicles 9:29; 13: 22; 12: 15; 20: 34; Colossians 4: 16; Luke 1: 11; 1 Corinthians 5:9; Jude 1-4.)