I believe you know the God-revealed distinction between the words Israel and Judah. You know that they have a distinct history. Their place and work, promises and blessings, chastisements and rebukes, are as distinct and different as silver and gold.
The spiritual heirs of Abraham are all who are embraced in the saving and atoning covenant of grace in Christ. I do not say all who believe, for there will be more in heaven without faith than those with—namely, all those who have died before the years of responsibility, with many of the Pagan world who, never having heard of a Saviour, have therefore never denied Him. In a spiritual sense, they are children. I believe in this matter with Paul, who says, when writing to the Romans, chap. ii.: “There is no respect of persons with God; for as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing one another.” Thus, under the law which governs the Pagan, I presume many will be saved and many lost, just as under the law of the Gospel. In Abraham all nations were to be blessed, spiritually. In this sense Abraham’s seed embraces persons of every age, clime, and race.
But who are the seed of Abraham according to the flesh? We answer, the descendants of the Twelve Tribes. Now to the natural seed the Bible assigns a distinct work and place. This natural seed is divided in the Bible, the word Israel standing generally for the Ten Tribes, and Judah for Two Tribes. These divisions have separate paths appointed them to walk in through the centuries. “All the House of Israel wholly,” “the whole House of Israel,” “all the House of Israel,” have a special work. The Ten Tribes are especially called in the Scriptures the seed of Abraham. Sometimes “My chosen,” again “Mine inheritance,” and “My servant.” God, in referring to them in their scattered state, and of His gathering them together, says (Isa. xli. 8): “But thou, Israel, art My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen; the seed of Abraham My friend—thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art My servant; I have chosen thee and not cast thee away.” The Ten Tribes are sometimes designated by the word Jacob. If we once get a clear idea who the seed are, then we can search among the people of the earth to find them, because in the latter day they were to be so different from other people, and distinctly marked, we will have no great difficulty in finding them. Of the special marks, one was they were to possess the gates of their enemies. The multitudinous seed and other characteristics we will pass by for the present.
This seed were to possess the gates of their enemies; of this we are assured by the oath of God. The word gate here, you will admit, is used in a generic sense. It means a place of prominence, a position of strength, a strategetic point, as the entrance into a city. Remembering that in olden times the cities were walled around, the gate was an important point of defence; or, as the narrow entrance into a bay, like the entrance into New York Bay or port, the Narrows we call them. Here the cities of New York and Brooklyn could best and first be defended. Again, a gate in the general vernacular means any stronghold: a tower, an island, a mountain pass. Now, of this seed it is plainly stated that they shall possess the gates of their enemies.
The text would be very finely illustrated if we supposed that Mexico held Governor’s Island, in the middle of our bay, and defiantly dictated to us doctrines of trade, politics, and religion. As arrogant and as impudent as this would seem, yet such is the case with this seed of Abraham and other nations. Believing that the Saxon race are the Ten Lost Tribes, it then follows that the English nation is the chief representative of these Tribes, and that they should be in possession of the gates of their enemies. Are they? We answer, yes. And every year confirms and makes more clear the answer. This you say is a theory. Grant it. You know that in science a theory is formed and then applied. If you form a theory about the tides or formation of the planets, or this world, your theory with others is applied to known facts to see if it will fit them, to see if it will account for them, and to see if it is in harmony with the same. Now science accepts that theory which applies best, that which accounts for facts the most reasonably, and harmonises the most naturally. Such theory is then the science of the day, and will be so accepted and so taught until it is supplanted by a better. Try, then, the theory I have advanced by these rules.
Take the Islands of Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel, between England and France, nearer to the French shore than England; the inhabitants, being a majority of them French, speaking French. Yet when France was England’s greatest and most dangerous enemy, England held then, as now, the gates of her enemies. Properly speaking, and adjudged by any human rule, they belong to France—as naturally as the island of Heligoland, at the month of the Elbe, belongs to Germany. Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Suez Canal, Island of Perim in the Straits of Babelmandeb in the Red Sea, and Socotra, in the same sea; also Aden in the Red Sea, covering Arabia; Peshawur, the very entrance of or from India into Afghanistan. In and around the vast empire of India you have Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, with many similar strongholds; Rangoon, on the Irawady river, commanding and even menacing Burmah. The vast empire of China is carefully guarded and held in check by such gates as Singapore, Malacca, Penang, Hong Kong and Cowloon. Sarawak in Borneo, and Labuan off the coasts, are such gates. Africa is being gradually gobbled up; her strongholds and vast areas of country are falling into the hands of England; the coasts are fast coming under British rule. Recently England has come into possession of three gates—namely, the island of Socotra, near the Red Sea, the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean, and the Sublime Porte, the lofty gateway, Constantinople. And it is now rumoured that England is negotiating with Portugal for Delogoa Bay in South-eastern Africa; price, three million dollars. But this people are not satisfied with all these gates. They want—and they will get what they want in a very short time, thank Heaven; not what they deserve!—they want the famous Khyber Pass. This pass is a narrow road between mountain rocks that rise over two thousand feet at the lowest point. It is some twenty-eight miles long, while for twenty-two miles the average width is only 150 feet. The Eastern end the English already hold, called the Peshawur Pass.
Afghanistan is a country in Asia. It is about the size of England, 460 miles from North to South, and 430 from East to West. On the North it is bounded by Turkestan, East by India, South by Beloochistan, and West by Persia. The population numbers about 7,000,000. They are as wild as the country is broken and irregular. They are chiefly agriculturists. The country is rich in minerals and timber. In time past they have seldom been at peace, being very generally at war among themselves. Afghan is a Persian word, and means that which is wrapped around—no doubt having reference to the mountain chain that hems in the whole land. The people themselves, however, name their country Vilayet, which means the land of our ancestors. They claim that in their country lived Adam and his children, also Noah and his. They say they had in their possession once the ark of the covenant, but they have lost it. While it was with them, if they took it into battle, victory was sure to be theirs. At the present time they have Noah’s ark. It is embedded in the ground, with a portion protruding out, which pilgrims to the top of Dera Ismael Khan—that is, the sacred mountain of Israel—are permitted to see and touch. Many have supposed the Afghans to be the Ten Lost Tribes. It has been the folly of many of the learned, in time past, to hunt for, and actually expect to find, the chosen of God in some out-of-the-way place; to find them few, poor, and deluded—the poorer, the fewer, and the more wretched, the better. Hence, the wild Indians of the continent, the bushmen of Africa, the aborigines of Australia, the Laplanders of the North, and many such have been chosen of men—though not of God.
The Afghan country, no doubt, once had intercourse with Palestine. During Solomon’s reign many Jews left the land as merchants. Solomon built store cities in Hamath, Tadmor in the wilderness, and many others. These store cities were on the great highway which he made through the desert, so as to bring the trade of Dedan and Sheba to Jerusalem. That Hebrew names are given to the