The Lost Ten Tribes, and 1882 Part 10

Let us look at this building, for it is a special revelation for these times. For this precise and scientific day G.o.d has provided. Science and the Bible are interlocked in this building; they agree, they testify for the same G.o.d, yet they witness to the same Christ, the Providence and history of His chosen people. This stone book could not be read till now; it even takes the most precise scientific men of the day to read it.

For thousands of years there has been no one in the court of the world able to question and interpret this witness of the Lord in Egypt. The scientists have been asking for some other revelation than the Bible, for the supernatural in a scientific form, for something beyond man, for something all could see, for something that would answer to pure science, for something that could be seen, handled, measured, tested, and amenable to mathematics; something superhuman, for something in which the human and the Divine blend. Thank Heaven, all they ask is granted in this stone monument. Here we have science forecast for thousands of years; here we have the grandest of problems in science solved, and the sublimest phenomena of religion and science crystalised, symbolising and teaching the most marvellous facts in religion, sociology, and astronomy.

It is not a tomb, nor granary, nor temple, but a pillar and witness unto the Lord of hosts. Think of a few facts. 1. Its location, the centre of the land surface of the whole earth. Hence the best zero point on earth for meridia.n.a.l and lat.i.tudinal calculations. Central to clime-here is no rust, moss, nor frosts to destroy, nor earthquake-a well-chosen spot for such a pillar. 2. Its form and size-symbolising the earth quant.i.ty in its weight of five millions of tons-the freight of 1,250 of the largest steamers leaving New York. Its shape, or inclination from base to apex, the same as from the pole to the equator. To express this the builder sloped in ten feet for every nine in height. On this building the sun can s.h.i.+ne upon the whole of it twice a year without a shadow. This building is the most correctly orient of any structure on the earth. It is the highest, largest, and oldest building on earth, rising to the height of 486 feet and a fraction, which height if multiplied by ten nine times gives the distance of the earth from the sun; or pile a thousand million pyramids one on the other, and the last would touch the sun. As it stood perfect it was the circle squared; for the height is the radius of a circle, whose circ.u.mference, if divided into four equal parts, each part would equal one of the surface sides of the base-closer in approximation than Walli's Indivisibles, or Newton's Fluxions, or Liebnitz's Calculus. The door of entrance was some forty-nine feet from its base, and 300 inches East of the centre, so as at once to express the tilt of the earth's axis from the plane of its...o...b..t, and by its height from the ground express the Precession of the Equinoxes. What a witness outwardly, when complete, of polished marble, covering some thirteen and a half acres, within and without clean and free from idolatrous marks.

But G.o.d foretold the place and purpose of this huge pile through the prophet Isaiah (xix. 19, 20): "In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt." Here we see the _altar and pillar_ are _one_ and the same, and a scientific fact is expressed when the prophet says it shall be in the midst and on the border. The position of the Pyramid is such, being at the sector point of Upper and Lower Egypt, thus being on the border of both, yet in the midst. The sector point of the arm is where the wrist joins the hand. The spreading hand represents Lower, and the arm Upper Egypt. (See on frontispiece the sector plate.)

May we ask what the pillar and witness-the Pyramid-has to say on the Jewish question, for it has not left this fact unnoticed? At the junction of the first ascending pa.s.sage with the Grand Gallery, on the left-hand side, or East, there is a horizontal pa.s.sage-way leading to what is called the Queen's Chamber. This chamber is on the twenty-fifth course of masonry. Now, it is allowed, the Grand Gallery expresses the time of Christ's advent and fulness of time-enlarged liberty. The ascending pa.s.sage being only four feet high, men were cramped in pa.s.sing up, but on reaching the Grand Gallery they were free, for it is twenty-eight feet high.

The pa.s.sage to the Queen's Chamber is only four feet, and is it not strange that it is altogether Jewish? This low horizontal pa.s.sage terminates in a grand Sabbatic room, which symbolises the Jewish Sabbath-week, feasts, and time periods.

From this pa.s.sage we learn that the Jews rejected Christ, and went off by themselves, refusing the liberty of Christ. So as truly as the coming of Christ had been forecast in this Pyramid, so had His rejection by the Jews.

The very mortar in this chamber is mixed with salt. The chamber is seven-sided. The last seventh of the pa.s.sage-way sinks down, giving more room to move in. Salt was an article used freely with the Jews in sacrificing. Seven was a sacred number. The sinking of the last seventh part of the pa.s.sageway floor may mean the enlarging privilege of the Jews in this latter day. Of the civilised nations, only Russia and Spain forbid them citizens.h.i.+p. Even Turkey admits them now as citizens.

The Jews have been represented as being blind in part. The pa.s.sage-way and chamber have been difficult to explore because of foul air, there being no ventilating tubes as in the King's Chamber.

But, strange to say, a gentleman exploring this chamber a short time ago, found two tubes by an accident in striking the side wall with a hammer.

The tubes had been left entirely closed over with a thin unbroken scale.

These tubes extended inward through the masonry, and into the stones forming the walls of the room, all nicely cut, but for about one inch they were not cut through into the room itself. Thus the whole was designed is evident. This thin scale no doubt symbolises the condition of the Jew. His eyes are now open, the time of his wandering nearly spent, as told by this Pyramid.

The curses foretold upon the Jews have been terribly fulfilled. So shall the blessings foretold now in reserve. It was foretold that he would reject Christ; so he did. But it is also foretold that he will yet look upon Him whom he pierced, and mourn and repent, and accept the true Messiah. Lo-ruhamah represents Lost Israel; Lo-Ammi represents cursed Judah; Ruhamah represents Israel found; Ammi represents the curse removed from the Jews. So now we must say, as the prophet Hosea long ago instructed us-we Saxons-"Say ye unto your brother, Ammi," and you Jews, "say to your sisters, Ruhamah."

We have esteemed the Jews as cursed; we will soon esteem them blest. The Jews have never thought we were their brethren, the descendants of Abraham. But G.o.d is revealing in this latter day His own great plan; and Christ will be the Saviour of both.

"In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely.

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth, which brought up, and which led the seed of the House of Israel out of the North country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land" (Jer.

xxiii. 68).

Glorious times are near at hand for the Church and the world. Great things hath G.o.d promised, all of which He will in His own good time bring to pa.s.s.

The very dimensions of the doorway are of thrilling import, expressing in square inches the time of the Adamic world, which, when added to other figures, forecast the time of the end, or the 6,000 years, and point out the date of the beginning of the Millennium morn, or Sabbath of the earth-the period spoken of by Daniel when he says, "Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days." This period we approximated in our last Discourse, and made it out to be about 1,957. The door-way in square inches is 1,949; take these inches for years, and we have, before the building of the Pyramid, of years 1949 A.M., time of building 2170 B.C., and length of Grand Gallery, 1,882, and we get a total of 6,001. This is indeed a close approximation.

SIGNS AND WONDERS.

DISCOURSE XVIII.

THE STONE PROPHET IS THE WILDERNESS-NO WAR FOR FOUR YEARS-THE GREAT STRUGGLE TO COMMENCE IN 1882-PRUSSIA ANCIENT a.s.sYRIA-ENGLAND, GERMANY, AND EGYPT TO BE ALLIES-THE FUTURE HISTORY OF THE WORLD-THE PHILISTINES THE SOUTHERN IRISH-WHO THEIR GREAT ANCESTOR WAS, ETC.

"The great, the mighty G.o.d, the Lord of hosts, is His name. Great in counsel, and mighty in work; for Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men; to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings; which has set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day."-Jer. x.x.xii. 1820.

Egypt is intimately connected with Palestine in providential history, both past, present, and future. No student can have a proper knowledge of the Jewish and Israelitish nation unless he be familiar with the early civilisation and power of Egypt. From this land went forth the Caphtorim to settle Palestine, led forth by the great and good Melchisedek, after he had built the Pyramid. Under his reign they first settled Palestine, built and made Jerusalem their capital. On the death of Melchisedek they lost their allegiance to G.o.d, they became an idolatrous people, and were rejected by Jehovah as His special agents. They are known in after history under the name of Philistines, which simply means the followers or subjects of Philitis-a name which the early historians of Egypt gave to the builder of the Pyramid, which was none other person than Melchisedek. By the Israelites they were driven out of Palestine, and finally settled in the South of Ireland, as Irish historians allow.

Another member of the family of Shem was called-namely, Abraham, from whom came G.o.d's chosen people-Israel and the Jews. They also had to sojourn in Egypt, and they, too, were sent to Palestine, and graffed on to the purpose of G.o.d, where the Philistines had been broken off.

"Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor?" (Amos ix. 7).

Egypt has played a n.o.ble part in the providence of G.o.d through Melchisedek, Abraham, Joseph, and Moses. Even the blessed Jesus is said to be called from this land. "Out of Egypt have I called My Son." The Egyptians gave to the world the first translation of the Hebrew Bible, and it was for centuries the stronghold of Christianity after the destruction of Jerusalem. The best of the Christian fathers were Egyptians, and in the coming struggle, the great war, which will begin about 1882, again Egypt will become conspicuous with England and Prussia.

For the Prussians are the a.s.syrians as the English art the Lost Tribes of Israel. Bismarck may manuvre as he please, and be as pro-Russian as Dr.

Storrs, yet when the time comes he and his people will fall in with the providential purpose, and become an ally with Israel-England; and timid and bankrupt Egypt will then come forth to take her place once more among the nations of the earth as an independent Power. Hear what the prophet Isaiah says in chap. xix.: "And the Lord shall smite Egypt, He shall smite and heal it, and they shall return even to the Lord, and He shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them. In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to a.s.syria, and the a.s.syrians shall come into Egypt and the Egyptians into a.s.syria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the a.s.syrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with a.s.syria, even a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and a.s.syria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance."

"_In that day_" refers to this day, now at hand. To this the Great Pyramid is witness. For in verses 19 and 20 of this chapter we read: "In _that day_ shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And IT shall be for a SIGN and for a WITNESS unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt."

The word translated pillar is from the Hebrew word Matzaybhah, and means a large structure-some monument that is pre-eminent. The Hebrew word Ammood is translated pillar also, and corresponds to the English word pillar much better.

The word _altar_, in Hebrew, means lion, carrying with it the same meaning as pre-eminence. And is not this Pyramid preeminent? and is it not the lion of monuments, pre-eminent as being the oldest, pre-eminent as being the highest, pre-eminent as being the largest, pre-eminent in location-being _central_ to all the land surface of the earth, pre-eminent in construction, unlike any other buildings, except such as have been modelled after it, pre-eminent in orientation-that is, being exactly East, North, West and South.

Perfect orientation men in past ages and countries have tried to express in temples, churches, observatories, and monuments, yet none have succeeded so well as the Pyramid builders.

The famous Uranibourg Observatory, built by aid of the European Governments, under the skilful supervision of the learned Tycho Brahe, was found to be five minutes of a degree askew in its orientation when finished.

A few years ago our Government determined to have one perfect point of orientation, fixing upon Mount Agamenticus in the State of Maine. They, at a great cost, and time, and labour, concluded their work, and found they were in error somewhere about the four-hundredth part of a second; although they tried to solve the problem by three distinct processes-namely, differences of zenith distance, absolute zenith distances, and by transits in prime vertical.

How then came these ancient architects so early in the world's history and progress to build so skilfully? How were they able some 4,000 years ago to find the poles, and determine the lat.i.tude and longitude so precisely? Answer, ye G.o.dless scientists, and tell us how these monkey-men were so skilled. How did they know without your instruments and instruction which parallel of lat.i.tude to choose so as to be on that line which would mark the half-way of the world's surface between the equator and the poles?

And why did they lay bare and make smooth the lime-stone table rock on which they built close to its Northern edge? Why press so closely to the brink of the hill on the North side when there was plenty of room on the South side?

Truly this witness of G.o.d is against you. In this building are "signs and wonders" even to this day, and as surely also are the eyes of Jehovah open upon all the ways of the children of men.

Know ye not that the acc.u.mulated forces and results of centuries have been bequeathed to the present generation as a legal heritage for culture and profit?

Happily for us G.o.d has not left Himself without witnesses. Long before G.o.d made bare His arm through Moses, and wrought miracles to convince Pharaoh and the Egyptians, He had wrought one miracle, a miracle which would cover the ages; not to be seen by a few only, or last for a day, but to be seen by the millions and last for centuries.

In this Pyramid we have a valuable inheritance. Its finish, its beauty, its magnitude provokes our criticism, and yet must command our admiration. This watchman on the walls of time, this sentinel in charge of the secrets and treasures of the sires of long ago, this prophet in the wilderness in rugged garb, proclaiming the will of Heaven, as then made known, and now manifest, this Daniel who can interpret for us the future, this mile-stone of the ages, we do revere.

By it we are enabled to adjust our chronological dates, rectify history in some of its most important points, and judge more correctly of the attainments of our ancestors; nay, more and better, to form a truer estimate of ourselves and discern the finger of G.o.d in the manipulations of men, and an overruling Providence in the rise and fall of nations.

These signs and wonders confirm G.o.d's Word, for they prove inspiration a fact; inspiration of a kind and in the very manner demanded by the unbelieving scientists. Here is a building superhuman, and of course in part supernatural, like the Bible. In this building the human and the Divine blend.

If any deny this, it remains with them to account for it, and show how a people so far back in the world's history could be so wise and learned; how they could embody so much of the sciences. One thing is certain, if the Divine had nothing to do with this building, then we are left to the conclusion that man was much superior to what the Darwinian theory admits. If void of the Divine, then the development theory is destroyed.

If we admit the Divine, then it follows that inspiration is a fact.

The building is there, and it was there in the day of Egypt's oldest historians. It has been counted as one of the seven wonders of the world.

It did not embody the ideas of the Egyptians in science, astronomy, meteorology, or religion. As their historians allow, it was built by foreigners which they hated.

Nothing idolatrous was carved on it, within or without. It was a witness pure and clean. The Egyptians proclaimed and believed the earth to be square-this building proclaimed the earth round. The builders bevelled the face of the rock in a ratio of eight inches to the mile-the very quant.i.ty that science to-day admits to be the curviture of the earth-and accepts in surveying. It was their knowledge of this fact that kept the building sound, without the cracking of a joint, through centuries, though so high. The Egyptians did not use the sacred amma, or cubit, which is about twenty-five of our inches. They used a profane cubit, as Sir Isaac Newton shows.

This sacred cubit was a well and easily established proportion of the earth's diameter-the very standard now used by the English Government in surveying.

The stones of the Pyramid were twelve feet long, eight feet broad, and five deep, making twenty-five total. The building itself was a five-faced figure. The Egyptians hated five. No wonder that Moses harnessed the Israelites in fives as they left Egypt, or that he should divide his book into five parts.

No wonder that the Queen's Chamber should be on the twenty-fifth course of masonry, and the King's Chamber on the fiftieth course, which is the year of jubilee, or deliverance-which year, as indicated in the Pyramid, is the year 1935.

The Egyptians calculated from the moon in their chronology. But this building takes its calculations from the sun circle. The Egyptian year was 354 days, with an intercalary month of thirty-three days added every three years.

The year embodied in the Pyramid was 365 days, five hours, forty-eight minutes, forty-seven and seven-tenths seconds. If a person took a rod of a cubit length, and measured one of the base sides of the Pyramid, he would find this twenty-five inch measure to be contained as often as there are days in the year, with the same fraction in inches as the hours, minutes, and seconds.