66 "feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, the old (British) lion walked, and the lion's whelp and none made "them afraid. The lion did tear in pieces enough for his "whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes "with prey, and his dens with plunder. "Behold I am against thee (modern Nineveh) saith the "Lord of Hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, "(gunpowder,) and the sword shall devour the young lions. "I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy 66 messenger shall no more be heard. Woe to the city of "bloodshed, it is all full of lies and robbery, (grasping, greedy, money-grubbing, frauds, and falsehoods,) the prey "departeth not. 66 66 Hark! "The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling "of (artillery) wheels, the prancing horses, and bounding "chariots. The horseman (cavalry) beareth aloft the flaming sword and the glittering spear. Behold a multi"tude of killed and wounded, a great number of carcases, "no end of corpses, they stumble over their corpses: "because of the multitude of whoredoms of this well "favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth "nations through her whoredoms, and families through her "witchcraft. (Idolatry of commercial and manufacturing 66 plutocratic despotism.) Behold I am against thee, (O "Britain,) saith the Lord of hosts. I will discover thy "skirts upon thy face. I will shew the nations thy naked"ness, and the kingdoms thy shame. I will cast abominable "filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and set thee as a "gazing stock. It shall come to pass, that all they that look "upon thee shall flee away from thee, and say, Nineveh "(Britain) is laid waste, who will bemoan her? where shall "I seek comfort for thee? Art thou better than populous "No, (Nineveh your prototype,) that was situated among "the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose ram"part (like yours) was the sea, and her wall (of defence) "was from the sea? All thy strongholds shall be like fig "trees with the first ripe figs, if they be shaken they shall THE TYRUS OF EPHRAIM'S DESCENDANTS. 243 even fall into the mouth of the eater. Behold thy people "in the midst of thee are women. 66 The gates (defences) of thy land shall be set wide open to thine enemies, and fire "shall devour thy bars (fortifications and ships). 66 "Draw thee water for the siege, fortify thy strongholds, go into clay, tread the mortar, make strong the brick kiln, "there (at Portsmouth) shall the fire devour thee, and the "sword shall cut thee off. "Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of "heaven, but the cankerworm extends his ravages and "vanishes (so shall your wealth go). 66 66 Thy shepherds (clergy and overseers of the flocks) are slumbering. O monarch of Assyria, thy noblemen shall "dwell in the dust." Zechariah speaks of Tyrus in the ninth chapter thus :— "Tyrus did build herself a stronghold, and heaped up "silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of her streets. "Behold the Lord will cast her out, he will smite her (naval) power in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire." (gunpowder, &c.) 66 Hosea declares that Tyrus in the last days stands for the great commercial empire of the children of Ephraim, and the affliction of Tyre is to draw the elect through the purging baptism of fire and blood. In the thirteenth verse of the ninth chapter, this seer says: 66 Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place, but "Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer." Again in the seventh and eighth verses of the twelfth chapter, the prophet speaks thus of Ephraim. "He is a merchant, (Gentile trader,) the balances of "deceit are in his hand, he loveth to deceive (cheat, or "overreach). And Ephraim saith, yet I am become rich, "I have found me out substance, all my toil and trouble "does not enrich me fast enough, there is nothing wrong "in this." (grasping cupidity?) The foregoing are sketches of the graphic pictures painted by the Hebrew seers of the fall of modern Tyre, or Babylon, or Nineveh. It has recently been contended, that all idea of prognostication must be eliminated from the study of Hebrew prophecy or poesy; but it is clear from the very term "seer," that a true poet was one who saw or perceived truths that transcended ordinary human consciousness. With respect to the proper interpretation of prophecy, it is evident that the general reception or comprehension of its bearing upon current events must depend upon these events passing from divine into human history, for man's mind has to work up to what exists in itself, but does not exist to human consciousness, being out of all relation to its faculties of comprehension. The human mind cannot perceive anything that exists of itself, that is out of relation to it. It perceives entities only as they are related to its faculties of comprehension, and as they are relatively, conditionally, definitely, or phenomenally revealed. The true interpretation of prophecy, that relates to predestined events, is only possible in conditions of intelligence above the ordinary level of human perception, or where the events themselves have passed into history, for otherwise it would be in man's power to obstruct the free current of predestined events. The doctrine of predestination is only another name for human necessitation, and shews that the human mind has no absolute freedom over the sovereignty of natural processes. There can be no doubt that irregularities occur throughout natural phenomena, just as they are seen to take place in the actions of mankind; but these irregularities, or variations, are as much under the control of the supreme power, as truly and fully as variations in music are under the control, and are purposely inserted by the composer of music. If a discord is permissible in music, why may not analogous variations and discords be equally within the limits of conditioned and regulated phenomena of natural processes? The necessarian does not wish to deny the facts that are evident, demonstrating considerable conditional liberty for the play of human volitions, but the argument is, that they are no more absolutely free than the storms that occur in the atmospheric envelope of this planet, at one time con INTERPRETATION OF ANCIENT HEBREW PROPHECY. 245 ceived to be fortuitous, but now known to obey fixed laws. Service, and service of others, is the only true worship of Deity; but there cannot be any true service, or real worship of Deity, where the human mind makes itself, or its ego sum and its ego cogito sum, the centre of consciousness, and deduces its philosophy and belief from its absolute concepts, begotten of badly regulated imaginations, loose and inadvertant cogitations, superstitions, fears, selfish aims, and slip-slop sentimentalities. 246 CHAPTER XI. ASIATIC MYSTERIES. ASIA remains a mystery, simply because Europe itself is a mystery. Both have a buried history, almost undreamed of. When science brings these traditional facts to the broad sunlight of methodical generalization, great will be the amazement of all men. China! Mot de l'enigme, says M. Huc. Truly a wonderful empire, of such bewildering antiquity as makes it ever bear the gait and speech of a hoary headed patriarch, of such a man as never had a youth, still less an infancy! this country said to be, by one who had travelled across its centre, the "Theatre of some mysterious event," the records of which have been buried, 'till a key to unlock this mystery is found. It is asserted, that at least thirty centuries can be assigned to its records, but this is a hasty and rash estimate, to support foregone conclusions, for the records found point backwards to untold ages in missing chronicles. It may be that the present boundaries and location of this empire are not identical with the ancient kingdom. Indeed, it seems but reasonable to suppose that they are not. But to some country radiating from the Euphratian centre, we must look for the missing evidence that is wanting to clear up the Asiatic mystery that puzzles us. Evidence from oriental chronicles, imperfect as it is, nevertheless furnishes some facts that mark these people “homo"geneous" throughout the ancient limits of their empire, that is, with certain social, political, and philosophical |